A/N: I asked this question the first time around, but seeing as I've gone and fixed the story up a little, I'm gonna ask again;

Do you think Rose is a Mary Sue? You can be completely honest, I won't be angry. I want to make my characters better in any way I can. If there's something specific you believe I should improve upon with my characters, let me know.

Revised as of 14/04/14

Chapter 29: If You Were In My Shoes

"That spiral is clearly not in good condition." I observed as I looked to the eastern spiral room. There was still the issue of a lack of door, but that was easily fixed now that Link had a clawshot. And that he'd agreed to let me warp. Unfortunately, I undershot my positioning a little bit and fell right into the freezing cold water again.

"I don't think the water was this cold before." I called to Link in a high-pitched voice. I swam as quickly as I could to climb the vines and get out of the water, and Link was quick to meet me there.

"Shall we?" he suggested, gesturing to the path before us. I nodded, and we started the climb up. I frowned when we reached the first broken point in the bridge. I wasn't sure if my range was far enough to get me to the other side. I looked to Link apologetically, and he just laughed quietly. Doing the same thing we'd done earlier, I grabbed onto him tightly and he used his clawshot to get us across when the geyser settled. Thankfully the next gap was small enough for me to cross on my own confidently, and then there was the sluice gate and pulley-lever. And the compass, which I quickly retrieved.

Once returning to the bottom, Link was the one to open the sluice gate that connected with the other rooms in the dungeon, while I waited at the door. We entered the door to our left, which had a Shellblade and two Bari, as well as a treasure chest that probably just held some rupees, which we needed.

"Can I use the Iron Boots?" I asked, pointing to the chest. Link opened his mouth to object, and I saw his eyes flickering to the monsters in the water. "I'll be fine, Link." I assured him, though I wasn't sure how watertight -pardon the pun- my assurances would be to him, after all the times I'd gotten hurt before.

I watched him deliberate on it for several seconds, before reluctantly nodding his head. He dug the iron boots from his bag and handed them to me one by one. I put my feet in them, and I felt the inside somewhat adapting to the size of my own foot. Dang, these things were heavy! But I couldn't have expected any less, really. I slipped into the water, and avoided the creatures in the water as much as I could as I walked to the treasure chest. It was a lot to do for twenty rupees, but every little bit counts, right?

As I pulled the lid to the chest open, and a burst of bubbles escaped, I found my vision flickering. Between somewhere dark, and scary, and what was actually in front of me.

"And have you three located Rosalie?" an icy cold female voice demanded. Ardea, I knew. Hael, Edriel, and Cariel were knelt before her.

"No." They responded in unison.

I shook my head, coming out of the vision as I grabbed the rupee from the chest. I tucked it into my wallet and went to turn around, and I would have jumped back were it not for the weight of the Iron Boots holding me down. The shellblade was right there! I drew my sword without thinking, and I slashed at the exposed inner flesh of the monster, just as it took a snap at me. I drew up Nayru's love, just as it would have closed around my left hand. It caught my ring, though, and that left me stuck. I glowered at the annoying thing, and continued my assault with the sword.

I managed just as it clamped down on my ring, and even in the water there was a loud noise as the metal broke. I gasped. My ring! The ring that my mother had given me to protect me, the ring that had kept me alive on several occasions already, was broken! I removed the boots before something else could catch me off guard, and I quickly put them in my pouch before swimming to the surface.

"My lady, though we do not know of Rosalie's location, we could try to take Arynn and Carma. Our spy has been observing them for some time. While there are Gorons acting as defense, they're nothing the Lycra and a few Hunters could not get passed."

"Hm... excellent idea, Edriel. Perhaps is her friends are missing, Rose will come to us herself."

"No! Ardea, please! Leave Arynn and Carma out of this!"

"Silence, Hael!"

"Rose, snap out of it!"

My vision refocused on Link, who had pulled me out of the water when I was pulled into the vision. We were by the moving waterwheel now, and I didn't register the fact that I was struggling against Link's hold, trying to get back to the water. It was like I wasn't speaking, but I was. "You have to let me get it! I need that ring!"

"It's broken, Rose! You can't get it back." he said, and his words registered in my mind. I stopped trying to go back, instead just sitting there for a moment. My ring...the ring that I'd had for twenty-four years, that my mom had given me to protect me from dark magic, was gone. For good. I sighed. What else could go wrong?

"Alright, let's go.." I said sullenly, standing up.

"There's a quicker way to get down there." I called to Link, pointing to where we had to go. We were on the upper half of the room with the spinning gears, with the chained platforms on the lower side.

"You expect us to jump?" he asked, a little incredulously. I shrugged.

"Or I could warp us down there." I replied. After doing so, we were at the entrance to the lower half of the room, instead of taking the long way around. From there we jumped onto the moving platforms, and I held the chain tightly with one arm when it wobbled. I didn't like standing on unstable surfaces all that much.

Using his slingshot -I'd forgotten we even had that- Link took out the keese that were flying around the room, before clawshotting us to the clawshot-handle on the other spinning gear. I squeezed my eyes shut, tightening my hold on Link as we spun. 'Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down..' I thought, not following my own advice. I looked down, and saw a possibly-endless abyss beneath us. I let out a low noise in the back of my throat. Jumping off the bridge was fine, because I could see where I was going to land. Bottomless pits of doom, not so much.

"Who made this place?" I muttered to myself, closing my eyes again until we were on safer ground. When we opened the next door, I made a face. My second-least favourite place; the water maze.

"We should stick together down here. No telling what else might be in here." Link said as we approached the water.

"Right." I agreed. I wasn't entirely enthusiastic about going back into the water, but we didn't really have a lot of options left. So, even with being able to breathe underwater, I took in a breath as I dove into the cold water. Unfortunately, the armor didn't do much for actually seeing under the water, so everything was a bit blurry. I swam down with Link to the sandy bottom, and assisted in taking out a shellblade that had tried to sneak up on us and failed miserably at doing so. Afterwards we continued along, until the path branched off in several different places. I looked to Link, asking silently which way he wanted to go, but he just shrugged. So, we took the path to the upper right, avoiding a Bari as we went.

I borrowed Link's clawshot when we reached the end of the path, and shot it at an incoming bombfish, which I quickly dropped down beside a breakable-looking rock that blocked where we were supposed to go. The rock collapsed from the explosion, and we continued on our way.

"Ugh, y'know now I'm really curious as to how all these monsters even live down here, and how they survive." I said as we killed another Chu-Worm. We were right above where the Big Key was, and I wasn't very happy. I also didn't like the grating that was beneath the clawshot panel, because it closed the second you let go. How to solve the problem? Lower us down on the chain until we're past it. Right, easy.

"Now, let's get out here." I said, relief hovering in my voice as Link pocketed the big key.

"Agreed."

And then we jumped into the water once again, going through the door to the tunnel that would bring us back to the maze. Link kept the iron boots on so that he could walk, but I began to see how that could be a problem when I saw the Bari up ahead. If one of those things zapped him...

I looked to the Iron boots. Iron was metal, and metal conducted electricity. If he got zapped while wearing those, the current would just continue going through his body. That was a very bad thing. I tried to signal this to Link as he prepared to dispatch the Bari in front of him with his clawshot, just as he pulled the trigger.

And, as it turned out, the buggers were getting smarter, because just as the Clawshot reached the jellyfish, it started generating an electric current over itself. There was no stopping the clawshot now, either. I was helpless once again as Link was electrocuted, but I still tried anyways. Intending to use Farore's Wind to get us away from the Bari, I grabbed Link's hand, and the current coursed through me as well.

I'd say it hurt, but that would be the understatement of the millenia. My muscles clenched and jerked of their own volition, and I heard myself screaming, even as I tried to disengage myself from Link. The charge ceased, but I still felt the excess rolling through my body, making my muscles quiver. I knew he had it worse, though, and the second the charge ceased I was killing the stupid Bari. My vision was already blurry and unfocused because of the fact that my eyes were open underwater, but with my disorientation from the shock, it was just worse.

Nonetheless, I got Link's Iron Boots off and started swimming one-handed with him towards the exit. I all but crawled along the ground when we came across another Bari, but that was the last one in the tunnel. Then we were back in the maze, and I was swimming us as quickly as was possible to the nearest dry land. It was a slow-going process with Link's added weight and only the use of one arm. Thus, it took quite a few minutes to get to the land.

Out of reflex, I took in a deep breath then I surfaced, getting Link up first. He was unconscious, probably from the electric shock. I hated the Bari even more now. After making sure Link wouldn't just fall back into the water, I hauled myself up with him. Then I noticed something that made my blood run cold; he wasn't breathing, and the Zora headdress was gone.

"Oh no...oh no, oh no, oh no... no no no no no..." I whispered, more panic setting in. I put my head next to his, listening for the sound of his breathing, and confirmed my fear. "He's not breathing, Midna!" I screamed, my breaths short as fear spiked. She came out from my shadow, and saw I was right.

"Do something! I'm just a shadow in your world, there's nothing I can do!" she snapped, sounding panicked as well. I focused on taking deep breaths, and running through everything I'd learned about water safety and CPR back on Earth.

"Fifteen compressions, two breaths." I whispered to myself. Wait, no... thirty! Yes, that was how it worked. But the armor was in my way! I shook my head and started the chest compressions anyways, glad that Alexis and Shane had paid money for me to learn how to do basic first aid, which included CPR. After the compressions I gave him two breaths, hoping in some small corner of my mind that Midna wouldn't tell him about it later, and this continued for another minute or two. I was starting to lose hope, fighting back the sobs trying to escape.

"Please... breathe, wake up..." I begged, my voice thick.

I almost collapsed in relief when Link began coughing out water, and I sat him up so that he wouldn't just get it in his mouth again, holding him tightly as I shook from residual fear and relief. It was a while, even after he started breathing normally, that either of us spoke.

"You... you saved me..."

I just nodded my head at him, before shakily standing up.

"You need this, and yours is down there somewhere." I whispered hoarsely, tapping the golden Zora headpiece on my hat, the one Link didn't have on his head. "That's what lets us breathe under the water, and we've still got to fight the morpheel. I'm gonna go get it, and you," I pointed to him as I spoke. "Are going to stay there."

I didn't give him a chance to argue before diving back into the water and swimming toward the tunnel again.

I found the headpiece quickly, but there was a problem; the second Bari was holding it. Great. Knowing that these things had gotten at least a little bit smarter, I thought about how to go about doing this. Then I got it. I put the clawshot on my hand, and twitched it as though I was about to pull the trigger, and the electricity flared up.

So it was smart. More or less. The exact second that the electricity died down, I pulled down the trigger. The claw shot out and grabbed the Bari's innards and pulled it out, killing it. The headpiece was now sitting in the sand. I quickly grabbed it, wanting to get back to Link as soon as possible.

When I came back to where I'd left him, I noticed that the only movement he'd made was backwards so he could lean against the wall.

"I got it." I said, climbing up beside him and handing him the headpiece. He nodded in thanks, and I slumped against the wall beside him. My muscles were still shaking, and the cold was setting in.

"We should stay here a little while, rest." I suggested, seeing Link was shivering too.

Link, obviously knowing the suggestion was made for his benefit, went to protest. Before he could say anything I put my hand over his mouth.

"Don't start, you almost died." I said sternly. Then I frowned at the familiarity of the words. Then I let out a weak laugh, letting my hand drop. "Now I know how you feel when something happens to me." I said, feeling a light blush come onto my face. I heard Link huff out a laugh beside me.

"I guess you do."

"But really, Link. You drowned, and my internal clock is telling me that we've been going down here all day. We need to rest to fight whatever it is that has the fused shadow." I continued with the initial issue. "Not only that, but we both got electrocuted. Things like that aren't a five-second recovery, even if we had a fairy with us."

"...Alright, we'll rest up before we get the fused shadow." Link finally agreed. Just as I closed my eyes, I got one more fraction of a vision.

"My lady, the Skari are ready."

"Good. Send them to Kakariko Village, immediately."

I shivered. Ardea's voice was more chilling than it had been in the frozen Zora village. I had to warn Bethany and Carmen. How, though?

"Oocoo." I whispered, opening my pouch. She fluttered out, shaking a few drops of water from her feathers. "I need your help." I said to her.

"What do you need, dearie?" she asked, her voice concerned.

"I need you to go to Kakariko Village, as quickly as you can, and warn the Shaman Renado that something dangerous is coming for Carmen as Bethany." I answered urgently. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"What is it? What's coming for them?" she questioned. I hesitated before answering.

"...If either of these words mean anything to you... Skari, and Lycra."

"What?"

"Quiet!" I hissed, gesturing to Link, who was already drifting off. "Just- pass on my message. Something's coming for Carmen and Bethany." I urged. Oocoo opened her mouth, then closed it again before nodding her head. Then she did that teleporting spin-thing like she does in the game, and she was gone. I sighed. I just hoped she'd get there before the monsters -Skari, I was pretty sure- did.

A/N: To clear any confusion, the Lycra are the wolf monsters from chapters 19 and 24, Skari is another name for the Demons Astaroth made, Hunters are a part of the Skari ranks. There's more information on my blog, or there will be soon.