A/n: Man this one took a long time, but there is a lot of it, and there are A LOT of dynamics going on. Not to mention we are finished with this complicated temple.

Yes, crimson-88, you definitely caught us on a plot hole. Lol, I don't know why I thought that would be okay, but we (us two writers) talked and found a way to fix it in this chapter that goes along with Naomi's personality and history. Thanks for pointing that out, we do like our fantasy to be as realistic as possible, it just makes it more fun to read.

Well, here's the next chapter, I hope we didn't lose anyone in that excruciatingly long wait. I'll try to be better about writing and posting in the future, but I don't promise anything. All I can say is that the end is near (and by near I mean approximately 15 chapters away).

The three surfaced in a shallow pool. Silver balls of spikes, weighted down by chains, were floatingin the waters about them. As soon as Arian caught his breath he asked about the strange objects. Naomi, who recognized them from the Pirate's fortress explained that they were bombs that were touch sensitive, detonating on impact; a fact that immediately caught his interest. While he was wrapped up in contemplating the mysteries of the new bomb, Gangor and Naomi were trying to figure out how they could fix the waterwheel and keep Gaft from assailing them. It was then that the young boy had a sudden idea.

"Naomi, take us under one of these bombs." Arian called out. His voice was breathy from treading water.

"What, why?"

"Just do it. Put us in another one of those air things. It shouldn't blow up underneath, I'm pretty sure that's where I can adjust it." Arian said, becoming quieter while he tried to hide his plan. Naomi swam over to his side when she understood his ploy. Arian grabbed her arm and let her drag him under, Gangor followed behind.

When the air was around him, Arian took a breath and began his explanation as he looked up at the bomb hovering above them. Gangor and Naomi peered nervously at it as Arian took to fidgeting with the bottom.

"I've worked with explosives before, and I think I can rig these up to blow up from a distant detonator. We'll set them up over in the corner of the room, near the wheel. Then when Gaft attacks, we'll lure him to the spot and…" Arian popped the bottom off with a grunt.

"And Gaft will get a little surprise of his own." Naomi wrinkled her nose with delight.

"Yep. Now that should have taken off the touch-detonation, but I'm not exactly sure, so we'll have to be careful about it when we start moving it." Arian said. Naomi nodded and told Gangor to take Arian out of the air bubble. There was a bit of protest, Arian thinking that he should handle the dangerous part instead of Naomi, but she insisted that she was the better swimmer, which won her the argument.

Arian and Gangor watched from a stone platform beneath the waterwheel and another elevator, when the spiked ball began moving across the water, Naomi's blurred form swimming underneath it. She surfaced next to him.

"It was perfect." Naomi said. She grinned mischievously and began speaking as if she knew another distant party were listening. "I'm sure this will really help us in fixing the wheel."

Arian smiled too, but he was smiling at Naomi's inability to act inconspicuously, but hopefully Gaft wouldn't notice.

"Yeah." Arian said loudly, mocking Naomi's voice. "It will work great." Naomi didn't catch on and nodded with a smile as the two went to work in unhooking several other bombs that Arian soon got to work on.

All the bombs they needed were now grouped near the platform with Gangor and Arian working on them while Naomi used her hookshot to jump on top of the wheel. She knew that there was something wrong with the inner workings of it, where the wheel generated and collected the electrical current that powered the temple.

Several stressful hours passed as the three were working. Each strange noise brought a hesitation that Gaft might arrive unexpectedly, but most were false alarms and merely noises made by the temple walls or its inner workings.

Using a couple of barrels, Arian was able to pack the corner with an intricate and meticulously crafted super-bomb. He pulled a few copper wires from his concoction and began to twist them together.

"Hey Naomi, let me up." He called to the girl working vigorously above him. She pulled herself away from her work long enough to tie a rope around the beam she sat on and threw it down to him. Arian climbed up, the wires in his mouth while his arms hoisted his body to the top. He sat next to Naomi and said very loudly, "I finished making the other parts for the wheel."

Naomi smirked. She had been given plenty of time to think about what had previously happened, and soon after had realized he was making fun of her.

"Good… so how is it going to work again… since I'm so moronic." She asked with a deep, sardonic tone. Arian reached down and brought her hand to his lips.

"Not moronic," he corrected, "just a little bit slow." She laughed at his joking attempt to make her feel better and blushed at his charming regard. Gangor, who had been watching the two of them, turned his head down to the bomb he and Arian had made. His heart sank a little when he saw how Arian's affection was so accepted by her, but he knew that she ought to have whomsoever she chose.

Gangor examined Arian's work and reviewed the boy's character based on the time he had spent with him. There seemed nothing unworthy of him that Gangor could see, despite him wanting to see it otherwise. A grin crept on his face. All this time he had wanted Naomi to find happiness with him through a loving relationship when she had been perfectly happy with their friendship for all those years. Gangor shook his head when he realized that all of his attempts to be closer to her had only pushed the girl away, and his greater desire now shined before him, overshadowing his previous wish. Naomi was happy, he had never seen her happier, and he had never known anyone else who showed so much concern for her other than himself and Lulu. Therefore, Gangor realized that his greatest wish had been fulfilled in a different way than what he had anticipated.

The Zora looked back up to see Arian readying the wires around the wheel. He remembered what the boy's plan had been, and vaguely understood the concepts that would trigger the detonation. Apparently the wheel held some leftover electrical current, which ought to be just enough to make their bomb explode. Gangor didn't understand exactly how this would occur, but he had faith that Arian knew what he was doing.

Naomi looked over the side at her friend and jumped into the water near where he was. She surfaced, and reached to give him an excited hug just as she had done when they were children. This was what Gangor wanted, to keep this kind of friendship. So Gangor returned her hug, not in the attempt at romanticism as he had once tried, but as a friend.

Arian smiled down upon them, he knew that they were just friends now. It was a sudden, omniscient understanding among all of them, one observer, however, had a different and absurd understanding of the current situation.

"Must you try to obtain every man you come across?" Came Gaft's booming voice. He was disgusted by the whole ordeal, and even though he had intended to catch them by surprise, his observations had irked him into speaking. Still, he had nothing to worry about, for the echo of his voice made the three confused as to where he was, and he was still able to make the first blow. Once more he headed for Arian first, knowing what the beast-man was capable of, and he considered him the strongest.

Naomi shrieked when she saw Arian flying across the wheel above them. The boy was barely able to hold on to the edge, and the cord had fallen into the water below him, seeing how he had to let it go in order to keep himself from falling. He suspected that Gaft would once more try to drown him in the same fashion as before, since it had worked so well. If it hadn't been for Naomi, Gaft would have succeeded in killing him.

Now Arian struggled to pull himself back onto the main part of the wheel, but his weight on the outer end of the paddle turned it. The boy hung helplessly above the water, his arms locked above his head and quickly tiring hands gripping the wood.

Gaft stepped out of his hiding place, admiring his handy-work. Naomi could now see where he stood and realized that their plan was in action, despite its rocky start.

"Gangor, get ready to pull Arian out of the water when he falls. I'll take care of Gaft and then we can try to continue with our plan." The Zora nodded and dove into the water. Naomi used her hookshot to pull herself where Gaft was. Her ancient staff was drawn and ready for battle before she had even landed. Gaft looked her up and down, a pause Naomi had not anticipated as she had braced herself for his first assault.

"Such a pity." Was all the man said. Naomi slackened her guard in confusion. A mistake she soon regretted when another blast from the empowered being blew her from where she stood. She ripped her hookshot from her belt and did the best aim she could while flying through the air, shooting a second later, luck helped her hook onto the barrels of gunpowder without activating them and she was quickly pulled to them.

Arian had dropped when Gaft had blasted her and Gangor had been there to pull him to safety. The two met Naomi on the bomb site. Gaft peered down on all three.

"Where's the cord?" Naomi asked. Arian looked in the water.

"There," It was far out in the pool, and what was worse, it had broken in two and was no longer long enough to reach its intended destination. Naomi frowned deeply and glanced back to where Gaft had been. He had disappeared from sight when they had been looking for the cord.

"Is there any other way to activate it?" Naomi asked.

"It would have to be pierced in the middle, here and then have the sides gouged to continue the reaction through both barrels and all the powder." Arian indicated the spot. Naomi looked to Gangor.

"Your fins, do you think you could shoot them off like Mikau did…" Naomi asked, recalling the legendary Zoran warrior Lulu had told her about. She continued, "only, from under the water and then try your very best to quickly swim away?" She asked her friend hesitantly. She did not want to leave it to Gangor to fulfill this dangerous mission, but she did not have anything that could penetrate the barrels from a long range, Gangor was the only one. The Zora nodded, happy to have a duty.

"How far would I have to be… to get away and hit it?" Gangor asked nervously, but he gulped down his fears and gained a strong expression on his face.

"I don't know… The blast radius I know will be at least ten feet larger than what it was, but besides that, it's hard to tell."

"Show me where that marker is… I'll do my best to get away." Gangor said sternly. Naomi had never seen him so brave, but now Gangor was filled with purpose, and with that came courage.

"Arian, you and I will fight Gaft up there. Gangor, watch where Arian goes above you, then swim underneath him, I'm sure I can distract Gaft for that long." Naomi said. "We'll try to throw Gaft down near here, when you see him falling, shoot, then swim away as fast as you can." Gangor nodded. Naomi sighed as worry filled her heart and she gave him a tight hug.

"Good luck." She said, a few tears threatened to fill her eyes. She truly did not want Gangor to do this, but she knew that there was no other way. "Come on Arian. Keep a look out when we get up there, our 'friend' seems to have disappeared again." Arian patted Gangor on the shoulder before gripping Naomi's waist. She pulled them both up with the hookshot.

Gaft was no where to be seen as they landed. Arian and Naomi quickly looked separate ways for their attacker. When it was observed that Gaft was no where in sight, Naomi initiated the second plan.

"Okay, Arian." Naomi whispered. "Go now." Arian took off to the spot he estimated to be a safe distance away, but he took Gangor just a few more feet away, as a precaution.

"Do you think you can hit it from here?" Arian asked. Gangor sighed and shook his head.

"No, but I'll try to be here before my fins hit it." Gangor muttered. Arian's hearing was still quite acute. He knew what Gangor had said and bit his lip, looking anxiously back to Naomi.

"I don't think Gangor will make it out in time. We'll barely have enough time to make it to our safe-spot as it is." The safe-spot was where Naomi had originally intended her, Arian, and Gangor to go. It was a small stone room built high into the wall that had one wooden torch burning in it. She was going to hookshot them all into that room just after detonating the bomb, but now that Gangor was too far beneath them, there was no way to get him, get back up, and then hookshot into the hidden room before the bomb went off.

Naomi shuddered, but there was still hope left in her.

"Giant of the west, lend Gangor your strength." She whispered under her breath.

"You ought to be praying for yourself." The overly confident Gaft blurted out, once more blowing his cover.

Arian and Naomi were quick to ready themselves for battle as Gangor looked intently above, watching for the moment when he would risk his life to save them all.

Gaft advanced upon Naomi as Arian sat back for a moment. Relief flooded his mind as he felt the night set in. Even without the moon's light, his body would morph once night fell upon the land, and he could feel the change begin to take place. With a howl he turned back to face Gaft.

"I was wondering when you were going to do that." Gaft said slyly. "It'll be just like old times."

Once more he came for the heavy blow, but Arian and Naomi were ready this time. They were both able to dodge the attack and keep balancing on the unsteady wheel. The general quickly turned to attack Arian once he found that they had both dodged his attack. With this movement the wheel began to revolve with the shifting weight. All three found themselves in constant motion to stay on top.

Arian jumped from the paddle where he stood as he realized it was sinking. He gripped the rod extending from the paddled wheel to either side of the wall and swung around, back onto his feet in time to be hit in the head by Gaft. He fell, but was able to keep hold of the turning rod. Naomi came upon Gaft from behind to aid poor Arian and was able to occupy the general long enough for Arian to be pulled back to the top by the wheel's revolution.

Gangor continued to watch from below. He gasped when he saw the black substance fly from Gaft as the general once more tried to make it encompass Naomi, but she was ready this time and Arian was also able to aid her.

Their teamwork quickly overwhelmed Gaft, much to Gangor's relief, and the Zora soon heard Arian yell down to him.

"Get ready Gangor!"

In an instant, Gaft was thrown over the side and Gangor released his fins. Naomi and Arian ran to the edge of the wheel while she pulled out the hookshot, but the fins fell short just as Gaft landed on the platform.

Gangor quickly swam back to catch the fins and try again, but now Gaft was on to them. He swam towards Gangor in a fury, but the Zora was set on completing the mission despite Naomi's pleas to run away. She shouted and cried at him to go and Arian had to keep her from falling off, he knew that she would be too late.

The fins were once more released, this time from a closer range. Then, in blind bravery, Gangor swam straight for Gaft with all his might. The Zoran speed pushed the surprised general back. Naomi cried out in anguish while Arian ripped the hookshot from her limp hand and pulled them both to safety just before the force and fire of the explosion filled the room.

Despite Arian's quick attempt to get them both to safety, they felt their arms, legs, and faces being scorched by the blast as they were pulled across the room. The two landed in their safe-spot, Arian covering Naomi in a protective manner. Wind picked up in their little cove, but the debris and destructive force from the bomb was obstructed by the stone surrounding them… they were safe.

As quickly as the blast had begun, it ended. Naomi's tear streaked face looked up into Arian's tearing eyes. Even though they both suspected, Naomi still had a tinge of far-reaching hope. She quickly broke from his protesting grip and ran to the edge. Her eyes gleaned the wreckage, expecting to see her friend swimming up underneath them with that goofy smile on his face, like he would normally get after doing something he hoped would please her.

Naomi clutched the wall, but neither the strength of her arms nor legs could hold her up. She dropped in a pathetic state, weeping incessantly. Her friend was gone.

Arian's arms wrapped around her. He looked down, not wishing to see. He wiped the tears from his eyes and tried to make himself strong to console Naomi, but only time could stop her from weeping.

"Gaft is now destroyed." Arian said, once more biting back tears. "Gangor is a hero." Naomi accepted his comforting embrace. She tried to slow her breathing, the tears continued to stream from her eyes.

"I will make sure that everyone knows that…" She could barely say the words. Arian tensed.

"If only I hadn't taken him back so far… He could have hit it the first time and maybe escaped."

"Don't waste this time blaming yourself. Sometimes fate is a devilish thing… no one is happy with what has happened… but Gangor would not want us sitting here blaming ourselves for something he did for us." Naomi suddenly became strong, though she was still shaking from her collapse. A smile crossed her teary face as she laughed, suddenly remembering something from the past.

"Now I remember." She whispered. Arian loosened his grip on her.

"Remember what?"

"Where I saw that writing… it was so long ago." Naomi reminisced. "The pirates, they found me when I was about seven… something terrible had happened, but for some reason I could never remember what, all I knew was that I had this book with me. It was a children's book, written in that language… my language… The pirates, they had banned reading from the fortress, so they were going to take it, but I got out before they could, I just really wanted to protect that book. It really meant something to me…"

"I made it outside the walls, I can't remember how. I may have climbed over them. That's when I first met Gangor. We were both so young, and he had strayed from his parents during a fishing trip. He promised me he would take the book and hide it until I could get it back… I wonder where he put it, or if he even remembered. It was so long ago. The pirates had tried to make me forget everything about my past, so they could train me as a pirate… I can't believe I almost forgot who I was."

Arian smiled. "So that's why you know how to read… you were taught before."

"That's also why it's so hard to read." Naomi laughed. "I have the literary training of a seven year old and can barely even remember that much." a musing silence ensued, allowing for the reality of the situation to set back in.

"Where to now?" Arian asked, trying to get back to business. The momentary smiles had fallen from both their faces.

"We must get the temple working again. The wheel didn't appear to be damaged, but I can check at the main control center."

"The main one?" Arian asked when he noted her emphasis on the word. He stood and slowly helped her up.

"Yes, it is deeper inside the temple, where the sea is pulled in to be purified."

"How do we get there from here?"

"We go out the way we came and then… through one of the…" Naomi tried to pull the map back from memory. "Then through one of the lowest tunnels."

"Will we know which one?" Arian asked worriedly. Naomi nodded.

"Whichever one isn't red."

"Then let's finish this, for Gangor." Arian ended. Naomi smiled through some renewed tears.

"Yes, for Gangor… who has just saved all of Great Bay and anything else Gaft would have destroyed."

Arian also allowed some happiness to shine on his face and he leaned in to kiss Naomi for love of her optimism.

"Come now." She said after the kiss which made her face glow. "We ought to get this done and get back out to the others… to tell them of our dearest friend's heroism."

The two jumped into the water. Naomi's strength threatened to leave her again as she left the room without the third member of their party, but she carried on, knowing that Arian could not breath for very long underwater and couldn't handle a stall in her speed.

As the two tracked back, something in the blackened debris stirred. Gaft and Gangor were gone without a doubt, neither bodies were to be found, but Gaft's body was inhabited by something more. When he drank the cup of Fear, a spawn of that dark creature had infested his body, slowly growing and waiting to take over him completely. That dark, fluid, creature stirred from it's spot, and though it was very weak, it was vengeful. The creature moved while keeping in tact in an ever changing form. It left through cracks in the stone wall, following the essence of the two that left.

There was what appeared to be the roots of a strange tree growing within the room where the green pipeline led from the water at an angle to the wall where it trailed to the final outlet. Naomi swam to the pipe and let Arian take his footing on it so he could begin walking up. She followed behind him.

"This must be the test water room they were talking about. They take the sea water and the purified water and pour it through the green tubes into this room. When that tree buds green, it means the poison is fully gone from the bay." Naomi explained. Arian stared with interest at what appeared to be a brown stump rising above the water.

"Are you sure it's not dead?" He asked nervously. "Should we even be swimming in this water?" Naomi laughed.

"Don't worry, a little bit of exposure to the poison doesn't hurt you. You just might feel a little nauseous once we leave, but if too much poison escapes from here, the prolonged exposure within the Great Bay could be devastating." Naomi made her way onto the large platform where the key to unlock it had already been turned, but no water came out of the green expiry. "We'll have to somehow use the rope to get across because there doesn't seem to be anything I can hookshot onto."

"Or I could do this." Arian said in his beastly form. He jumped to the small outlet and bent far down, the muscles in his legs were all flexed as he jumped with all his might. The jump was just far enough for Arian to grip the side of the platform and pull himself up.

"Throw me the rope and jump down, I'll pull you up." He called from the other side. Naomi did as he said and soon they both were running through the large doors to greet a large hole in the floor.

"Where is the control center?" Arian asked. Naomi groaned.

"I think it's down there."

Arian rolled his eyes and grabbed her hookshot. He pulled the end out, and reaching around to the underside of the hole, he used mere strength to force the point into the stone.

"Now hold on to me." He ordered. Naomi laughed and did as she was told once more. He let the hookshot chain extend so they could let themselves drop down to where they were only a few feet from the stone platform where the five white squares were in the same order as they were in the other control room. The only difference was that this control center was above the water on a circular platform while the other had been in a square chasm underneath the water.

"Now how are you going to get my hookshot out of that?"

"Easy," Arian replied with a laugh. "You get to work on starting this thing back up and I'll work on this hookshot." Naomi shook her head with a laugh.

"Okay, hopefully it won't take as long this time. I've remembered most of my seven year old education and learned some new words using context clues."

"Good, now get to work." Arian smiled back at her. Naomi wordlessly walked to the center square, Arian watched as the stones lit up around her, a white light surrounded her and he could barely see her form with her hand raised in front, touching small blue symbols which reacted to her contact and either brought more small blue symbols or disappeared.

He watched in awe for a moment but then decided to get back to work on reclaiming her hookshot. He decided that there really was only one way to do this. Setting off the hookshot once more began to pull the chain in. Arian was hoisted into the air and to the spot the chain was embedded. He threw his legs up and pushed off the ceiling, his hands pulling the part of the metal that was stuck inside the rock. His force broke it free and he fell, this time into the water surrounding the platform, just as he had intended. He surfaced the water with the hookshot in one hand, using the other to pull his hair from his eyes before he began swimming back.

He didn't look at Naomi's still shining form long before he began his way to the platform. He didn't see the black creature crawling it's way around the light, and Naomi didn't notice it until it had almost completely surrounded her and by then it was too late for her to do much of anything, but she did have a plan.

Arian climbed back onto the platform to find that the translucent orb of white was now a solid orb of black. He called out Naomi's name, dropped the hookshot to run near the thing. Arian had no idea what he was up against, but when he didn't hear Naomi respond, he became convinced that it was something bad. He pulled out the bone dagger he had been working on back at Zora Hall, though it was incomplete it was still sharp enough to do some damage.

"Naomi, I'm going to try to pierce this side." He yelled, there was still no response so without any hesitation, Arian forced the dagger into the black substance. It delved into it easily so he continued to force it downwards, trying to rip a hole, but after any opening was made it was immediately resealed and soon the creature reached out, using tentacle-like arms it formed from its mass, and gripped the dagger, slowly climbing up it until Arian was forced to let go to protect his own arm.

"Naomi!" He screamed again. He didn't know what to do, giving time for his desperation to kick in. The beast dug into the black substance, not caring what it was capable of. He let it wrap around his hands and tried to pull it back, forcefully ripping as many gaps as possible, but it was beginning to overwhelm him. The hopeful rays of light that made it through were once again resealed, as had happened before, and now Arian's arms were being overtaken.

The platform shook and Arian fell to his knees; the black substance was now creeping its way past his elbows. A large wave over took the platform from all sides. Arian gasped in a breath and ducked his head into the remainder of his free arm. In the second instant his captured hands turned unbelievably cold. He opened his eyes and shook his hair from his face.

His hand was covered in black ice; the creature was no longer liquid, but a fragile solid form. Arian pulled his hands back, the ice around them broke with his force. The pieces fell to the ground and unfroze, boiling into nothingness. The white light behind the gaping hole disappeared and Arian heard Naomi's voice.

"Start breaking it apart now. It should die without the majority of its body." Naomi's eye peaked through the hole. "I'll step back, just keep hitting it." Her bright little eye disappeared and now it was Arian's turn to laugh in astonishment. He did as she said and quickly shattered every part of the creature. The two watched as the pieces fell into the water and boiled into oblivion.

"How did you do that?" Arian asked as he gave her a hug. "Did you figure out how to jumpstart this temple?" Naomi laughed joyfully at his reaction.

"Yes, I did, and as it turns out, my people were more powerful than I thought."

"You mean you can… I don't even know how to describe that?" Arian suddenly remembered his hands as a cold pain ran through them. He rubbed his wrists. "Frostbite." Naomi brought him to the side and lowered his arms into the warm water.

"I can control the tides and turn water to ice if I wish… apparently, my staff can collect water and I can turn that to ice, making it any shape or form, and shoot ice shards from it if I wish."

"Where did you learn that?"

"After I checked the maintenance of our wheel and read through the manual of how the entire temple works, which was incredibly hard because I didn't know half the words, but I was able to pull a basic understanding… anyway, after that, I found that I had to learn how to control the tides in order to begin the reaction again, so I went to the warrior's archives where there was inscribed all of our offensive secrets. It was at about that time that I noticed the large black creature surrounding me." The two laughed.

"You amaze me."

"I'm not done yet." Naomi laughed. Her eyes sparkled with delight. "Do you remember that plant that Link needed from here?" Arian nodded in reply. Naomi then pointed to the water. "It's in there. All we have to do is swim down and pull out one of those large plants. And then." She looked to the center where a blue light rose from the center block.

"What's that?"

"It's the quickest way out. It ought to warp us straight to the entrance of Zora Hall."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Arian said. Naomi smiled and dove into the water, returning a second later with a large plant. She handed it to Arian and then stood near the shining exit. Another quake rocked the area and Arian could see the water around them stirring. In the distance he could hear many mechanisms turning on, the temple was working once more.

Naomi settled herself as Arian stood and came to her side. One hand held the large plant and the other wrapped around her waist.

"I suppose we should go now…" Arian looked down. "And prepare the proper rites for Gangor… he deserves an extravagant farewell."

Naomi nodded and the two walked together into the blue light, exiting the temple that had been the death of Gangor but the saving grace of Great Bay.

A/n: Yes, this one didn't have as much… or any humor in it, and was actually quite sad. I almost cried while writing it but that's because I based Naomi's character off my own (and I tend to put myself in her place to make her a believable character.) I hope it was still good writing and good reading, and I promise you, this is not the last of Gangor!