A/N: I will mention this one more time (I will try not to annoy you guys with it anymore).

**Cody is from an alternate Earth where the Legend of Zelda series DOES NOT EXIST**

It is important to remember that fact, otherwise some of what Cody says or thinks will not make complete sense.

And now, Cody finally gets to meet Link.

Chapter 7: Heroes Clash

Cody:

I had barely enough time to realize that I was in a smaller version of the room I was just in before a green blur charged me.

I threw up my new sword to fend off an attack from a green clad, sword-wielding maniac. I instinctively charged energy into my blade and unleashed it, forcing him back. He twirled his blade in one hand as he eyed me, probably sizing me up.

While we had our standoff, I was able to get a better look at him. He seemed to be the same race as Rauru (had pointed ears and everything). Besides the sword and shield he was wielding, he wore a green outfit as well as a strange green cap. He was wearing skin tight white pants and a shirt underneath the green tunic. He had on brown leather boots as well as brown leather gloves that were fingerless. I noticed that he was not only left-handed, but that his sword looked like a purple hilted version of the sword I was now wielding.

My new knowledge of combat led me to believe that he was going to attack soon. So I wracked my brain to come up with the perfect way to defend against him…

And found that the knowledge I had absorbed was all jumbled up. I may have had all sorts of knowledge of combat, and my slightly stronger body was more than capable of performing all those moves, but I had not the faintest idea which ones would be most useful against this new adversary…

Aw, crud…

The green warrior charged at me and I was barely able to defend against him. The bracers and the magic barriers were very useful now that I knew how to actually use them, but I was not able to effectively attack the maniac. I was able to fight the lizard thing so easily after touching the sword, but now…

Did the knowledge I absorbed after defeating the lizard cluttered my brain too much to effectively fight?

The green man unleashed a flurry of sword thrusts that I was just barely able to knock off course. If this kept up, I was going to be skewered…

Then a bright flash of light appeared between the two of us and we were both forcibly thrown back. We sprung to our feet quickly to face each other down, and noticed that a familiar robed figure was between us…

"That's enough!" Rauru said angrily, looking first from me to the green-clad warrior.

"Rauru?" the green man said with surprise, "I've never seen you outside of the Chamber of Sages before."

"Whoa! Whoa! Wait!" I exclaimed, gaining Rauru's attention, "You know this maniac!" I said as I gestured at the green man with my sword.

"Move aside," the green man told Rauru, "I must destroy him."

"Oh! You want a piece of me!" I said, more confidently than I felt, "Well bring it on!"

"I said that was enough!" Rauru exclaimed angrily.

"He holds the Sword of Darkness Rauru. I must…"

"That is not the Sword of Darkness that he wields, young Link."

That brought the green man (Link?) up short. I saw him inspect me again before he turned back to Rauru, "Are you positive?"

"I was the one who sent him into the Temple of Light. The sword he has is the Dimensional Blade," Rauru then looked at me before looking back at Link and added, "He is the Hero of Dimensions. He is going to help you on your quest."

It was hard to tell who looked more surprised: me or Link. I am reasonably sure that my jaw dropped all the way to the floor.

"You can't be serious," I said.

"I would never jest about something like this."

"Maybe you didn't notice," I hissed through my teeth, "but psycho Billy over there tried to kill me!"

"Psycho Billy?" asked a very confused Link.

"You'll get used to it," Rauru told Link quickly before turning back to me, "and yes, you don't have any choice in the matter."

I felt my temper flare up suddenly, and I just about spouted off an angry retort but thought better of it.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, and then I said, "What exactly are we supposed to be doing?"

Rauru looked at me for a few seconds (probably to see if I was going to make another outburst), before he continued, "There are forces in motion. The fact that the sages have reawakened and both the Master Sword and the Dimensional Sword are now active, suggests that someone is getting close to the Sword of Darkness…"

He paused for a second before dropping the bombshell, "And I believe that the one who brought Cody to our world is the culprit."

I could not believe what I had just heard.

"We're going after the first person who tried to kill me!"

Yeah, that's right. I'm making a list. Robed man, giant lizard, green psycho…

"Not yet," Rauru interrupted my thoughts, "I doubt even Link could find him. He has a nasty habit of disappearing instantaneously. In fact, I'm reasonably sure he was the one that broke into the Gerudo Fortress."

Link seemed to perk up at this information, "If you think it was him, do you have any idea what he was after?"

"He stole some of Twinrova's research. I surmise that he used what he found to bring Cody here."

"So, does Psychopath Number One have a name?" I asked.

Rauru sighed, "Unfortunately, he seems to have appeared out of nowhere. It was as if he did not exist until the Gerudo incident."

I sighed, and then stated, "You know, I have absolutely no idea what's going on here."

"Sorry about that," said Rauru, sounding sincere, "Unfortunately I don't have much time left. I'll leave it up to Link to fill you in."

"And don't forget us."

I had been so distracted by the green-clad maniac that I never noticed that we were not alone. I abruptly turned to face the entrance to the chamber and saw three women. One was a red haired girl wearing a white blouse and a purple skirt. She also seemed to have a brown apron over the skirt, which had strange symbols I did not recognize. There was also a blond woman who was wearing a dress that was various shades of pink. She even had pink gloves that extended past her elbows. Judging by the crown on her head, she was probably royalty. She was being supported by the third woman. The last woman looked older, but she seemed to be in pretty good shape. She had silver hair and red eyes. She had on mostly purple, but she also wore what looked like a form-fitting steel breast plate. Unlike the other two women, she had sword sheathe on her back (reminded me of the ones ninja's carry), but it was currently empty.

I noticed that the red-haired girl looked about as confused as I felt. At least I was not the only one.

The one who had spoken before, the blonde, spoke again, "I'll personally make sure that the Hero of Dimensions will get the knowledge he needs."

Rauru bowed his head in acknowledgement, and then turned back to Link, "Before I go, I must tell you what you need."

Rauru reached into his robe and pulled something out that I could not see (I was surprised that he did not just summon it like he did everything else). He held out his fist to Link and opened up his hand. In his hand was a round orb not much bigger than a marble. The orb pulsed with an inner white light.

"This is the Orb of Light. It is one of six elemental orbs. These orbs can be used to give elemental attributes to the sacred blades or any piece of your equipment."

Rauru stopped for a second, and I noticed that he seemed to fade for a second, before returning to normal and continuing, "If you can collect all six, you will be able to combine the power of the sacred blades."

"Combine the power?" Link asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"The man who is going after the Sword of Darkness has formidable powers. Once he gets the sword, he will be unstoppable, even with your power combined," he looked back at me before looking back at Link and continuing, "If you use the orbs, however, then you can…"

"Steal his power from him," Link finished for him, grinning.

Rauru returned the smile, and seemed to fade out again, longer this time.

When he came back, he had some final words, "Remember, you must find the orbs. They are the only guaranteed way to save Hyrule. The sages will be your guide."

Rauru started to fade out of existence as he turned to look at me, "And the orbs are the only way for you to return home."

With that, the first person I met on this world (that was not psycho) disappeared. Silence reigned in the chamber. It seemed kind of awkward to me (Link did try to kill me a few minutes ago). Just when it carried on to the point that I wanted to scream, the red-haired girl cleared her throat.

"So, is anybody going to explain to me what the hell is going on!"

The room we were in was pretty ornate. Certainly fancier than any room that I normally go into. After the red-head's comment, the ninja woman insisted that we head back to the castle so that the princess could rest (I knew she was royalty). After a brief altercation with some guards outside (they were not expecting another person to walk out of the Temple), we finally made it all the way to the sitting room of the princess.

It was the first time I had ever been in an actual castle. It was massive. Hard to believe that something like this could have been built without the construction equipment back on Earth.

I was not the only one to admire the large architecture. The red-haired girl openly admired it all the way to the sitting room.

The ninja woman helped the princess onto the couch. After she was situated, she finally looked up at me and said, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Princess Zelda, and I am also the Sage of Time."

She gestured to the ninja woman, "This is my caretaker, guardian, and the Sage of Shadows, Impa," then she gestured at the red-head, "And this is Malon, a friend of Link's."

Impa bowed to me. Malon, who seemed a bit flustered, curtsied.

I nodded, "My name is Cody Williams," because I was not entirely sure what I was supposed to do in a situation like this, I bowed to them, "and I am a human from Earth."

"And you already met Link, the Hero of Time."

We took a moment to glare at each other before looking back at the princess. This is going to be a pure form of hell travelling with this guy.

"How much do you know of Hyrule, Mr. Williams?" Zelda asked me.

"Well," I said, pondering, "I know your race is Hylian, magic exists, and… not much else. The rest of my knowledge you were pretty much present for when I got it."

Zelda nodded, "This may take a while then. You see…"

She explained a lot to me. Turns out that the world I was on was pretty vast and mysterious. In the country I was currently in, there were six different races that were radically different from each other. A race of immortal children that could never leave the woods they were born in, a race of fish people (land-bound mermaids?), a race of rock people (I have no idea how to respond to that), a race of only women (how is that physically even possible!), the red-eyed Sheikah (I guess they were ninja warriors or something), and, of course, the hylians.

Zelda also told me the story of Link, the Hero of Time. Apparently, when he was 10 years old, he traveled through time and helped stop an evil man from ruling Hyrule and gaining access to a powerful relic (turns out that the triangular symbol that I was seeing everywhere was the sacred artifact and it was called the Triforce). The thing I found really funny about the story was that from what I gathered, Link was a 10 year old trapped in a 17 year old body. That had to be all sorts of awkward.

I was not the only one who was getting an unexpected history lesson. While it seemed that the events of what happened in the alternate timeline (time paradoxes…yay) were remembered by Link and, as of now, the sages, Malon did not know anything about what happened. For some reason, I felt really happy that I was not the only one who was completely lost (though she had the advantage of actually living in this wacked out world).

Zelda also told us about the legend involving the three blades. Apparently, my sword was the "unaltered" blade while Link held the Sword of Evil's Bane. And including what I found out from Rauru, the power of the three blades could be combined to form the ultimate weapon. A true Master Sword, so to speak.

"And don't forget the legend of the Dimensional Sword," Impa added. I was surprised to hear her voice. She had not spoken since I first saw her.

"Ah, yes," Zelda said, "It is said that there can only be one wielder of the Dimensional Sword at a time. While you live, nobody else can use the true power of your sword."

I am not sure if that is something I really needed to know. All psychopath number one has to do to make sure my sword is no longer a threat is to kill me…comforting…

"So," I said, trying to shake the new feelings of dread that I now had, "where do we start."

"From what Impa told me, the first orb is located somewhere in Lost Woods. The Sage of the Forest should have instinctual knowledge of its location. For the other locations…"

Zelda turned to Impa, and Impa said, "I only know the location of one of the orbs. Hopefully, you will find clues as to the locations of the other orbs, but I do have a hunch I would like to follow."

Zelda nodded, and then turned to Link once again, "Link, I have a favor to ask."

Link bowed, "Anything."

Zelda took a deep breath, then blurted out, "Let me come with you."

Link's eyes widened with surprise, "Whoa… Wait… What!"

Not that I wanted to agree with one of the guys who tried to kill me, but I had to admit that Princess Zelda did not look like someone who would go gallivanting around the world on an adventure.

Even Impa seemed shocked, "But princess…"

Zelda held up her hand to forestall any more argument, "I know the risks, but I think that I could be of real use," she smiled, "With the memories that came back, I have knowledge of the Sheikah combat arts. Combine that with my magic…"

"But princess," Impa protested, "just because you have knowledge, does not mean that your body remembers. Besides, you had years to develop those abilities…"

"I think I can attest to that," I interrupted, "The Dimensional Sword gave me knowledge of combat, but it did not give me…" I paused, trying to think of the right word, "the wisdom of what kind of… fighting style… to use. I'm not sure how I was even able to hold Link off"

I was kind of floundering, starting to feel that I spoke out of turn (a bad habit of mine).

But Zelda just nodded thoughtfully and smiled, more impishly this time, "That may be true, but I have the perfect practice partner."

She stared pointedly at me before I realized what she was talking about, "No, wait! You can't be serious!"

Impa looked thoughtful, "Actually, it might work. It is rumored that a Sheikah was one of the first ones to wield the Dimensional Blade, and the sword absorbs the combat knowledge of those who wield it…"

"Did you guys already forget what I said? I don't really know how to fight! I don't know how to use the knowledge that I gained."

"True," Impa said, "but Zelda should be able to perform the stances, and from that you can figure out the rest of the Sheikah forms. As for your swordplay…"

Impa looked over at Link with a small smile, "Link can help. Isn't that right, Link."

Link just grunted, completely non-committal.

Great, he is going to use it as an excuse to kick my ass, I just know it.

"Then it's settled," Zelda said, standing up on her own this time.

"You realize that the guards won't let you leave right?" Link tried one last time to dissuade her.

"I seem to recall that someone was pretty good at sneaking in and out of the castle," Zelda teased, "I'm sure you can sneak me out as well."

Link just sighed, looking resigned.

Zelda then turned to me, "I'm terribly sorry Mr. Williams, but would you and Malon meet us outside of Castle Town? Impa will escort you."

I shrugged, "Yeah sure. And if you don't mind, could you call me Cody?"

Zelda smiled, "If you so wish, Cody Williams."

I guess that is the best I can hope for.

Impa walked over to us and motioned for us to follow. Malon and I followed Impa to the door, but Impa stopped and turned around to face the princess.

"Before you leave the castle, there are some things that I would like to give you. I will lead them from the castle and return."

With that Impa left the room, and Malon and I followed her.

A/N: Please, please, please review!