Note: The Legend of Zelda belongs to Nintendo. Shadow Echo and Emerald Moon belong to me, GlassSuicune. I quoted The Alan Parsons Project's 'The Raven' in here, BTW. I wrote the parts of the dungeon I used while playing through them on Phantom Hourglass. I did my best to put the dungeon into words ( which isn't easy). I'm really sorry about the late update, but hey, at least I've updated now. As always, I hope you like this chapter.

Chapter 6: The Phantom Realm.

'All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.'

-Edgar Allen Poe

'Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong!' went the old clock in the center of Hyrule City, declaring to all sleeping souls that midnight had come in all her glory. The time for dreams to come, for new worlds to be explored, and a message of the coming dawn.

'Tap! Tap! Tap!'

Emerald stirred in her bed.

Tap! Tap! Tap!'

Shadow groaned and stretched.

'Tap! Tap! Tap!'

Emerald jumped from the top bunk bed while Shadow slipped out of the bottom bunk bed.

'Tap! Tap! Tap!'

The tapping got their undivided attention.

The clock struck midnight,

And through my sleeping,

I heard a tapping at my door....

Shadow opened the door, half-expecting Johnson to be outside it, but he saw no one.

I looked but nothing lay in the darkness,

And so I turned inside once more....

Suddenly, a strange sensation came over Shadow and Emerald. A burst of cold hit their blood, but their skin was hit with a burst of heat, and don't ask me how that's possible. Their vision became clouded and they felt heavier.

"I said I would summon you. And here I am."

The room then began spinning and the teens felt themselves being pulled out of the room.

Or out of reality?

When the spinning stopped, Shadow and Emerald were standing in front of a large temple in the middle of a thick forest.

"The Phantom Hourglass is in the deepest depths of the temple. It is guarded by Bellum, the ruler of the Phantom Realm."

Shadow and Emerald walked into the temple cautiously, not sure what to expect. There were numerous skeletons laying on the floor, and much of the room looked like it would fall apart. There was a large purple sword on a pedestal above the only doorway.

"That is the Phantom Sword. It is the only thing that can defeat Bellum and his minions. Take it from its pedestal, Shadow."

Shadow carefully walked up the crumbling stairs and walked to the sword. He gripped the hilt and pulled it out of the stone structure. He lost his balance and accidentally threw the sword backwards, towards poor Emerald. It landed right in front of her.

Emerald stared at how close the sword's tip was to her and then screamed, "Shadow you klutz! What are you trying to do?! Kill me?!" Shadow jumped from the balcony and gently pulled the sword out of the floor.

They then walked into the doorway and were now standing on glowing pink carpets. "I....hate....glowing....things....freaks....me....out...." Shadow groaned ever-so-slowly.

"This temple is cursed. Every second you are not on these carpets, the temple sucks your life right out of you. It is a slow and painful way to go...."

"Lovely. Just lovely." Emerald complained. Shadow's sapphire eyes seemed to shrink.

"Hmm....maybe I can use what little power I have to shield you...."

Shadow and Emerald walked off the carpet and ran down the hallway, feeling the dark magic start attacking their hearts. The pain slowly died away and the teens had a silver glow emitting from them.

"My power is weak. The deeper you get, the less protection I can give."

Shadow and Emerald ran to the left and came to a treasure chest on a glowing carpet. They walked on it and the voice's shield flickered off. Shadow opened the chest and found a key. "I wonder where that goes?" Emerald asked. "We'll find out soon enough, I'm sure." Shadow replied.

They left the carpet and the voice's shield came again. The teens zigzagged around the room and came to a locked door. "I'm guessing this is where the key goes..." Shadow muttered. He took the key out of his jacket's pouch and unlocked the door.

Shadow then backed into the wall. Emerald caught what he was doing and backed up as well. The teens then rammed into the large, heavy door.

'Boom!'

"Owowowowowowow........" Shadow groaned as the door moved, making him fall face-first into the room. "Got that right Jackson...." Emerald grumbled, falling forwards herself.

"Note to self: Never try to ram into a door without a battering ram."

"Great thinking Sherlock!"

"My name is neither Jackson nor Sherlock, Emerald."

"Have I told you I hate you right now?"

Shadow ignored her and got up, very dazed. When his vision returned to normal, he helped Emerald up, or at least tried to. She tried to punch him. Shadow grabbed her wrists, keeping her from doing so. She then tried to kick him, go figure.

When Emerald stopped trying to hurt him -for whatever reason- they walked around the room. The voice's shield was gone and they felt no pain, so the room must've been safe. Looking around they found a boomerang. Whatever it was doing in a temple they had no idea.

Emerald noticed an unlocked door not that far away and ran to it. Shadow followed, when he realized Emerald had taken off like a rocket. When they made it down the stairs, they were standing on a glowing carpet. They could see bulky knights patrolling the area.

"Those are Phantom Knights. They are vulnerable only to the Phantom Sword. But, they must be hit in the eye on their back with an arrow for it to have any affect."

The Phantom came walking by the glowing carpet again, not noticing the teens standing on it. Just to try what the voice had said, Emerald pulled out an arrow and fired it at the Phantom. The minute it hit the eye, the Phantom was stunned.

Emerald turned to Shadow, "Well, what're you waiting for?! Attack it!" Shadow sighed and ran behind the Phantom, then slashed it in the back with the Phantom Sword. The Phantom didn't even shriek, it just fell to the ground and went 'poof'.

"Hey, it works." Emerald muttered when Shadow walked back to the glowing carpet. "Okay, what do we do now?" Shadow asked, "There are two ways to go, and obviously we need each other to survive here."

"I seem to remember something about this temple. There are three golden triangles called Force Gems in treasure chests on certain floors. Bring them to the three pedestals and they will open the door to the next floor."

The voice said this almost in a quiet tone, as if it wanted the teens to hear, but felt too...shy to really bring it to their attention. "What does that have to do with anything?" Shadow asked the voice.

"These Force Gems are imbued with magical power. I may be able to tap into their energy. If I can, then I will use that power to send you into the depths of the temple, so you don't have to waste energy getting there."

"How many do you need to restore your power?"

"I can't be sure. It all depends on how strong I feel."

"Are there any on this floor?"

"I'm not sure. I did not build this temple, Sha..........no. I can't call you that."

Shadow was surprised at the voice's behavior, but shrugged it off. He and Emerald then ran down the right hallway and turned to the left, ran down that hallway and found a locked door. Beside it was a glowing purple ball. Emerald immediately thwacked it with her bow, making it glow green.

"Emerald, why'd you do that?" Shadow asked. "I don't know, I just had to hit it." Emerald replied. A ticking noise could faintly be heard. The two teens ran back down the hallway, hoping to find the source of the noise.

The ticking began to get faster and the two realized whatever the ball did was about to go away. They ran down the rest of the hallway and turned to the right, finding two torches. One was lit and the other wasn't. Without thinking, Emerald pulled the boomerang from her bag and threw it at the lit one, setting it on fire. The boomerang turned back and passed over the other torch, lighting it.

"Sorry I had to seize control of you for a minute. Now since I did that, I should probably tell you that whatever course you envision before you throw it is where it will go. Example, think of it going in circles, it'll do just that when you throw it."

Shadow and Emerald finally noticed the silver glow around them was dimmer then usual, indicating the voice's power was losing its grip slightly. They ran to the left, finding another carpet. Ignoring it, they ran over unlit floor torches. Emerald guessed the other torches had something to do with that.

Halfway through the hallway they found yet another carpet, which they quickly took refuge in when a Phantom noticed them. "STOP RIGHT THERE!" it cried, then realized the teens weren't anywhere in sight. It started walking down the hallway.

Shadow and Emerald ran to the left and found a stone door. Hoping to find a way to open it, they ran to the right, finding a switch. Shadow stepped on it and his eyes widened when the ground shook slightly, as the door sank into the floor.

Unfortunately, it attracted the Phantom's attention as well.

"I HAVE YOU NOW!" it cried, running to the immobilized teens. The Phantom slashed them with its sword and they blacked out.

"Why didn't you break the red vases? I figured since Em...can't call her that...likes to break things, you would've found the glowing carpets. Do I have to explain EVERYTHING?"

When Shadow and Emerald woke up, they were outside the temple, not feeling very swift. "Ow, I feel like my head got crushed..." Emerald muttered. Shadow looked at her and said, "It looks fine to me."

Emerald roughly grabbed Shadow and ran so fast she literally dragged him into the temple. Once inside, they did the exact same things they did before, minus getting caught. They destroyed the particular Phantom that attacked them.

Shadow stepped on the switch again and Emerald ran over to the tiny room, and grabbed the key. She ran back, grabbed a Shadow who had zoned out, and dragged him to the locked door. "Seriously Shadow. It's almost like you need me around just to survive. You get so oblivious sometimes..." Emerald grumbled, unlocking the door.

They ran down the stairs and were standing on another glowing carpet. "Oh sweet pineapples, they're everywhere." Emerald muttered. "Hey, are there any of those Force Gems here?" Shadow asked.

"I sense no such presence. Pity."

Shadow and Emerald sighed. Emerald held onto the wall and took a peek to the right, noticing a Phantom. It was guarding a lever and seemed adamant about staying where it was. All it did was look in different directions.

When it was facing the right, Emerald fired an arrow at it, stunning it. Shadow jumped at it and sliced it with the Phantom Sword. Then he grabbed the lever and pulled back. The sound of fire being abruptly stopped filled his ears.

"I feel weaker now."

When the voice said that, Shadow noticed the silver shield had dimmed again. He could feel an annoying pain nagging at him now. "Oh dear..." he muttered.

Emerald zoomed by him and and thwacked another purple ball, making it turn green. The ticking noise started again. The two teens ran to the left and then turned to the right, running over the now unlit floor torches.

They couldn't follow the ticking noise because red blocks, well, blocked the way. They ran to the right and found another set of floor torches. Emerald looked beyond the flames and saw another purple ball. She pulled out the boomerang and thought out a course, then threw it, hitting the crystal ball.

The flames died down and the teens ran down the hallway and turned to the right, hiding on a glowing carpet, just in case a Phantom was nearby. Sure enough, one was walking towards them. Emerald seemed to be getting 'trigger happy', as she already had an arrow ready. When the Phantom turned around, the same cycle occurred again and the teens were on their way.

They ran down the hallway, turned to the left and found another switch. Shadow stepped on it, and nearby spikes sank into the floor. Curious, Shadow got off. They quickly rose back up. "Hey Shady, mind following me for a moment?" Emerald suddenly said. Shadow nodded.

They ran back down the hallway and turned to the right, nearly tripping over blue blocks that had sunk into the floor. Emerald looked to the right and saw a blue ball. She immediately thwacked it, turning it red. "And the red blocks just sank and the blue ones rose, ladies and gentlemen." Shadow said sourly.

Emerald ran back to him and they ran over the red blocks. Shadow noticed another purple ball to the right and ran to it, while Emerald ran to the one they had previously hit. She didn't seem to notice Shadow was absent.

Emerald thwacked the ball and the ticking started, then abruptly stopped when Shadow hit the other ball. Shadow could faintly hear through the wall near him the sound of a key dropping to the floor. He started running back to where the switch was. Emerald followed.

Emerald hit the red ball allowing them to pass. Once there, Shadow stepped on the switch. Emerald then ran over the empty holes and retrieved the key. Then they ran all the way to the locked door. They unlocked it and ran down that set of stairs.

"Yes! I sense Force Gems on this floor!"

Note: Well, there's Chapter 6. Review please? Sorry to end it like that, but I felt the chapter was getting too long. Anyways, for those of you who are playing Phantom Hourglass, I kinda gave you a bit of a walkthrough for those parts of the Temple of the Ocean King, only I had two characters working together -and it was told in their point of view-, so some things might not be exact. I think this chapter was a little better then 5, thankfully. I'm getting psyched about 8. I can't wait to see your reaction to that one. Any who, expect Chapter 7 next week! To da loo!