The Legend of Zelda: The Missing Link

Chapter 10: The Perils of Traveling Through Time

(Rin- I AM HEREBY TAKING YOUR IDEA OF TIME TRAVEL! And putting my own unique spin on it.)

Wayne landed in an open field. To his shock, other people were in the area, and they wore similar clothing.

And they had noticed him.

Not to alarm then, the Spartan lowered Derek to the ground as gently as he could, reached up, and removed his helmet.

"I mean you no harm. Put away those weapons."

"...How can we trust you...?"

"Because I saved his life."

A young woman then pushed her way to the front of the growing crowd and sprinted the short distance to Wayne.

The 6 foot armored man looked down at her.

"What...Happened?"

"We were attacked. You wouldn't understand by what, though. You'd have to be there...the question is, can you heal him?"

The woman nodded. "Yes. But not here."

She then turned to a adolescent that seemed to take interest in his armor. "Samuel-is there any place...?"

"Yes, in fact. The Temple of Time."

"Is it close?"

"Yes, just over that ridge."

"Great."

She turned back to Wayne.

"I didn't catch your name?"

"Oh, right. Wayne."

Wayne shook the woman's hand.

"Lauren."

Lauren then turned to the others.

"Pack up. We're leaving."

A few hours later...

The Temple of Time

(Era of Time)

To say that Derek had been healed was an understatement.

In fact, he had even gone as far as to suggest a sword fighting tournament.

Now, the sound of metal striking metal resounded through the Temple of Time.

The Heroes had decided to rest up before heading off to defeat the Ganondorf of this Era. If you can call sword fighting "resting up".

"No! Not like that! I thought that these were documented!"

Jason and Derek had been fighting for some time and Jason was attempting to teach Derek some of the techniques he had learned. It wasn't going too well.

Fiend had overheard the conversation. "Don't even bother trying to teach him, Jason! He's doing those techniques a different way!"

"And how would you know this?"

Fiend stopped leaning against a marble pillar and sauntered over to the two Heroes. "Because I've fought him before. Show him, Derek."

Derek was happy to comply.

At the other side of the temple, the younger Heroes were placing bets on who would win in a sword-fight.

Right now, the most bets had been placed on Lauren. Not that because she was the only girl in the group besides companions, it was because of how good she was.

"...And he's down...again..." Samuel looked down at the stone tablet he had found and made another "X" next to Lauren's name.

"How many is that now? Six?"

"No, it's eight. I'm positive that she's knocked him down eight times or more."

Vio held out a hand and Samuel handed over the stone tablet. "...Yes. Austin has been defeated by her at least ten times, if you have been keeping score correctly..."

Then Blue's annoyed voice came from somewhere behind them. "Why can't we fight? We've proven ourselves!"

Several other younger Heroes nodded.

"Well, if you want to fight, then be my guest."

All of them spun around.

A few of the older Heroes, Lauren included, had stopped fighting. Lauren then threw her sword in the air and caught it perfectly. "Well? Are we going to fight you or not? You guys need training too."

Several of the younger Heroes looked at each other.

Blue decided for them. "We'll fight you."

After some time, Derek was fighting Nate.

The two glanced at each other, then crossed swords. "I challenge thee to a duel."

Derek grinned back at Nate behind his sword. "Challenge accepted."

The two stepped back and then began to fight.

"Well...he seems to know what he's doing now."

Jason nodded in Fiend's direction. "Perhaps..."

The two had begun to move backwards as the fight progressed and Derek and Nate moved up the left ramp and into the room beyond.

Then Derek just so happened to trip on something.

Derek felt himself falling backwards. In desperation, the Hero of Magic thrust his sword behind him to steady himself, but was shocked when he felt as if the weapon had been thrust into the ground.*

Derek then found himself sitting up against something. He was on a raised marble circular platform, with a slightly larger marble ring around the layer he was sitting on.

From the direction he was facing, past Nate, were two huge marble doors that had been pushed inwards.

...Waitasec...isn't this where... Steeling himself, Derek slowly turned his head and looked over his shoulder, then up.

His sword had been thrust into the Pedestal of Time.

...Welp. We're all screwed now. Nice going.

The Hero of Magic got to his feet and quickly realized that there was this...barrier around his sword. He couldn't get to it, and he had a feeling that if he did try to retrieve it, he would get hurt.

...Looks like some sort of shield...don't want to mess with it...might go away after a bit.

Derek then turned and quickly walked down the...whatever it was over to Nate.

"Nate. Listen very closely, okay? I need you to go and get everyone and bring them in here."

The slightly older Hero took a few paces back and tried to look past Derek. "Wherefore?"

Once again steeling himself, Derek lowered his head a bit, pinched the bridge of his nose, and removed his hand and looked up at Nate with chagrin. "You've heard of the Hero of Time, right? Samuel? And what he did?"

"Aye. Whereat?"

Derek moved off to the side a bit and Nate noticed what had happened immediately.

"...You attercop!"

Derek simply stared at the now irate Scot. "What?"

"...Attercop...means...spider..."

"Oh...why did you call me a Skeutula**?"

"...Never you mind about that! Look yonder." Nate gestured to the pedestal. "That tracery*** that surrounded your blade is gone."

"So it is. But I think that I should leave it for now-I don't know what'll happen if I try to pull it out."

"A Hero is less without his blade."

Derek turned from Nate and left the small room. "I know. But I have a plan."

"You dwimmer-crafty folk always have something."

Several minutes later, everyone was in the smaller room and Derek was standing in front of his sword.

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

Derek nodded in Wayne's direction.

"Well...Can't really delay this any longer..."

The Hero of Magic placed his left hand on the hilt of his sword and tried to pull it out.

The weapon began to slide out, then was stopped. Right after, the doors slammed shut, trapping the group inside.

Then something pulsed. Pulsed again. Then Derek noticed that there was a light glow coming from below him.

There was a Triforce symbol embedded in the circle of marble he was standing in, it was glowing blue. In the middle triangle was the Pedestal of Time, which was trapping his sword.

Derek quickly let go of the hilt and slowly backed away from the pedestal.

He was then aware of a humming noise, and the fact that the glow was brighter than before.

"...Sam...?"

The younger Hero's voice was somewhere close. "Yes?"

"...Is this what...?"

"...I'm afraid so..."

Then someone else joined in. "Will the age still be the same?"

"Seven years is a long time..."

Then another person joined in. "You know...if we go back seven years...I'll still be older than all of you."

"Of course you will, Wayne."

Then they couldn't say anything, because suddenly, everything turned white.

...Ow...my head...what...what happened...what is...okay...that's my sword...the doors are open now...and...No. He slowly realized that he felt smaller. A lot smaller. He felt tired as well. Fortunately, this had happened to him before, but he had only gone back about two years, not seven. ...Seven years...Wait...that means that I'm...twelve...well then. This drastically changes everything.

The Hero of Magic pulled himself up to a sitting position and looked to his right. ...Yep. Thought so. I should try to see if the others are okay...maybe some didn't go through the aging pro...proc...process...I can't talk like I did? He was standing now and he once again tried to pull his sword out. Failing that, Derek wandered out of the room and leaned against a pillar. ...I'm tired from that?

Then he heard something yelp. Very loudly, and it was close by.

Seconds later, Derek was on the ground and something furry was trying its hardest to lick his face raw.

Then the thing got off of him and was running around in circles.

Derek slowly realized who it was.

"...Jason?"

He heard himself speak in a higher pitched voice, one that he hadn't used in years.

"...Great. If my voice changed then I guess all of ours did."

"Jason" had stopped running around and circles and was now sitting beside him.

"...You're acting like your 'other self'...wonder why that is..."

Then he heard someone call for him. Someone that sounded familiar.

"...Derek?"

Then Jason yipped and moved away from Derek to somewhere else.

"Hi! You seem to be okay with this...maybe too much...alright, alright! Get off!"

Derek then heard footsteps behind him and he turned.

"Hi."

"...You...You didn't...change...?"

Lauren shook her head and knelt down to grab Jason as the wolf puppy attempted to run past her.

"Hold still!"

Lauren then stood with a struggling wolf puppy in her arms.

"No. I didn't change. Only one that didn't."

"...Well. Uh...there...could be a slight problem...?"

Several Minutes later

Outside the Temple of Time

As Lauren unfortunately found out, the effects of what had happened didn't just change the ages of the Heroes and them smaller, it also made everything smaller. Which, put the Tergeo spell to good use.

Now, she was currently lying against one of the standing pillars, silently staring up into the sky.

"All of this is taking its toll on you, huh?"

Wayne was sitting beside her now.

The Witch got up and paced back and forth a bit.

"It isn't their fault-they're the victims of Time-Travel-no one knew that was going to happen."

"True. How many times have you used that spell?"

"Too much."

Then she stopped pacing and simply stared off into the distance when they both heard a commotion off to the right.

Lauren buried her face in her hands and muttered something unprintable.

"I'll take care of it. Maybe it's a one-night thing, you know?"

"I really hope so..."

As the Spartan turned teenager walked past Lauren, he nodded towards her. "Go and get some sleep. You look like you need it."

She was all too happy to comply.

The Next Morning

Kakariko Village

What Wayne had said was true.

For some of the Heroes, the effects lasted for only a short period of time.

The ones that had returned to normal age were Jason, Will, Blue, Vio, Green, Red, Chris, and Andrew.

The rest were still seven years younger.

Which had it's share of problems.

One was that Derek was trying to turn all of them into some form of animal.

Lauren eventually had to take his wand from him, which was very serious.

"Stop acting so irresponsible! You weren't like this when you were twelve naturally, so stop acting like it."

"...Ah...you're no fun..."

A few minutes, later, Lauren had relented and had given Derek back his wand.

She had been talking with Jason about the finer art of Magic when she heard an explosion.

"...WHAT are you doing?!"
Derek turned to see an exasperated Lauren striding towards him, wand out and at her side.
"Uh...Trying to see what spells I can still do, why?"
The 19 year old hung her head and sighed. "...I'm just trying to deal with all of this."
The Witch raised her head and smiled weakly at him. "How are you doing? It's gotta be hard, going back that far."
"...Please don't remind me..."

Derek wandered over to a wooden bench and sat down on the bench. A few seconds later, Lauren joined him.
"So...when do you think this'll get back to normal?"
"...Really have no idea..."
Derek had begin to drift off to sleep but then sat up quickly. Lauren turned and stared at him.
"What?"
"...Is that a chicken?"
"Where?"
Derek gently took her right arm and showed her where the lone bird was.
"...It looks like a chicken..."
Then Lauren had a look on her face that she hadn't wore in a long time.
"Hey...can you still use Aguamenti?"
Derek felt a grin split his face. "I think so."
"Wanna use it on that chicken?"

"I thought you'd never ask..."
Derek reached into his jacket and pulled out his wand, which was bigger than he remembered, of course. The Hero of Magic then took a few faltering steps towards the bird, raised the wand, and yelled "AGUAMENTI!"
Or tried to.
A bolt of light green light shot from the tip and to the horror of the Witch and Wizard, the bolt struck the chicken and it shrieked.
Then it fell over. It wasn't breathing.
Derek brought his wand up to his face and stared at it.

Lauren's shocked voice came from his right. "...WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! I SWEAR!"

The yelling had gotten the attention of the other Heroes, who were more of less below the age of 13, save Wayne, who was 19.
The younger ones were staying in a barn for now, they couldn't exactly complain about it, either.
"Derek?"
The young Wizard spun around and lost his balance. The boy flailed around to try and catch himself, and he felt a rough hand steady him.
"Next time, watch the ground."
Derek muttered something about Wayne that wasn't very nice, and unprintable.
"Technically, you shouldn't know that."
"Does it look like I care? No, I don't."

Any further conversation was cut short by a deafening screech.

"...Uhhhhhhh...Does anyone want to tell me why there's an army of chickens staring at us?"

"...They're not Chickens...they're Cuccos..."

Then, as if the situation couldn't grow more confusing, every single Hero that had not changed back to normal did so.

Of course, they were extremely conscious of some of the things that happened, but when the group rounded the corner and saw a normal-aged Derek staring at a dead Cucco, they simply stopped where they were.

"...What's the deal with these...Cuccos?"

Lauren had gotten a hold of The Book of Texts, which was a spell and history book all and one. It was huge, too.

"...Says here that Cuccos are benevolent...and that if one is hurt or killed, they will rally and throw themselves at the offender or nearby persons..."

Then she looked up at the now gathering flock and back down again.

Her eyes narrowed. "...Wait..."

Then one of the birds cawed and literally threw itself in Derek's direction.

Others soon followed.

" I REGRET WHAT I DID!"

"All who vote in favor of running away?!"

The vote was 100% yes.

Somehow, the Cuccos had chased the group all the way inside Ganon's Castle.

Derek had read some history, and he was certain that there was supposed to be a bridge of some sort...

But there wasn't one.

So, how the heck had they gotten across?

He didn't want to think about it, because he was having an already tough time believing that Chickens COULD KILL YOU.

Needless to say, getting past the Trial Rooms was easy.

It only took Derek around ten minutes to figure everything out.

It then only took around twenty minutes to make it to the second to last floor of the tower.

"...Wow...he is good."

Ganondorf, if that was who was up there at the moment, had deiced to play a very elaborate organ piece.

Derek agreed with Lauren's statement, ducked to slash at a advancing Dark Nut, then came back up.

"I think that does it, ready?"

The assorted group of Heroes nodded.

"Just this last flight of stairs. Lets go."

*-Yep. That happened.

**- Still the same monster but spelled differently.

***- Literally means barrier.

Next chapter is the Ganondorf/Ganon fight. Prepare for a character death...

I'm so EVVVVVVIIIILLLLLL...