Link woke up, his head aching. He sat up on the hard marble floor, and looked around. He was in the Temple of Time, but he couldn't remember how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered, was fighting Dark Link in the Lost Woods. He slowly stood up, his head spinning and his legs shaking. "So, the hero awakens." Link turned to face the voice behind him. Dark Link's red eyes locked with Link's. Link reached for his sword, but all his hand grabbed was air, the sword was gone. "Looking for this?" Dark Link held Link's sword out. "It's too bad you left the Master Sword in its pedestal, I wouldn't have been able to touch that, but this normal sword..." The Dark Link's voice trailed off, but Link no longer cared about the sword, his eyes were drawn to what his clone had in its other hand. Navi! Her glow had faded considerably, but there was still a slight shimmer. Dark Link threw the sword at Link's feet, and held Navi out. "She can be such a bother some times, you know? Always flying around your opponent's head, it's really distracting."
Link looked at the unconscious fairy in his clones hand. "You bastard!" He spat. The Dark Link laughed. "If you want it, you can just take it. I've no need for a fairy to guide me." It held Navi out, she was laying in its palm. Link reached out, he knew it was trap, but as he was now, he wouldn't be able to fight anyways, so he might as well take the bait willingly. "Link! Don't!" Link looked over his clones shoulder, Saria was sitting against the altar, where the three Spiritual Stones lay, clutching her right arm tightly. The Dark Link closed its hand around Navi, and smiled sadistically. "I'm going to kill one of them." It remained silent for a second, to give Link time to understand what it had said, before it continued. "You may choose. I can either crush the last bit of life out of your little fairy, or rip the head off your green haired friend." Link looked at the sword at his feet. "Don't even think about taking the sword." The Dark Link smirked. "If you do that, both of them will die." Link hesitated, he was too weak to fight his dark clone, and he wouldn't be able to save both Navi and Saria. One of them had to die. "So then, great Hero of Time, who shall I kill?"
"How about you start with yourself?" Both Links turned to face the female voice, and saw Ruto standing with her arms crossed, leaning against the wall. "In case you didn't already know, that man is my husband, and nobody may lay a finger on him without my leave." She waved her hand, and a blue circle appeared on the floor in front of her, she dived into the circle, which had turned into water, and it closed behind her. "W-what?" The Dark Link looked around in confusion, having all but forgotten about Navi and Saria. Another blue circle of water appeared behind the Dark Link, and Ruto leapt out of it and planted a well placed kick between the Dark Link's shoulder blades. It stumbled forwards, dropping the unconscious Navi. Ruto quickly stepped forward to catch her, and tossed her to Saria, who caught the fairy and hid behind the altar. "Link! Heads up!" Ruto tossed a bottle to her husband, who caught it and saw the small fairy in it.
Ruto mercilessly pummeled the Dark Link, not giving it a chance to counterattack. It was forced backwards against the wall, and Ruto made a portal behind it and another behind herself. The Dark Link stumbled into the portal behind it, shooting out of the portal behind Ruto. The Zora Queen was prepared for this, she quickly formed an orb of water in the palm of her hand, and threw it at her foe. Upon hitting its target, the orb immediately expanded to the size of a small tidal wave and came crashing down on the Dark Link. "Is this all you've got?" Ruto stepped forward, a smug grin playing across her face. "I have no idea how you've managed to fight my husband to a stand-still, but I'll have to congratulate you for that." The Dark Link was breathing heavily, it struggled to get back up from its beating. "You fool." It laughed as it slowly stood up. "I don't know whether it's your royal pride or just plain idiocy that leaves you thinking you've won. But I can tell you, Zora, that when my master returns, he will-" It was silenced by another small tidal wave crashing down upon it. "How dare you call the Queen of the Zoras a fool!" She hit it with another wave before it had a chance to get up from the first. Ruto sent another wave crashing down on it, and then another, and then another. Link was almost terrified by the fury in her eyes, he'd never seen her this angry before. As the last wave disappeared, the Dark Link was gone. Ruto looked around, but didn't have time to react, as it reappeared right behind her.
As Link released the fairy and it flew around him, sprinkling it's dust over him, he felt his strength return. He picked up his sword, and charged in to help his wife. Ruto was sent tumbling to the ground when the Dark Link's shield hit the side of her head. Link leapt over her and struck his clone, who only barely managed to block the attack, sending it stumbling backwards. He followed up his attack with a barrage of slashes, most of which were blocked or deflected, every attack that went through his opponents defense let a trail of black liquid follow the sword. Link was surprised to see the Dark Link bleed, but didn't think further of it. As the Dark Link blocked the last attack in Link's flurry, Ruto appeared behind it, grappled it and wrestled it into a choke hold. Link immediately reacted, stepped forwards, and plunged his sword deep in the Dark Link's chest. It coughed up more black blood, and then vanished at the blink of an eye. Link and Ruto looked at each other, both breathing heavily, before they embraced each other. "I was getting worried." Ruto said. "I knew that you and Alela were headed for the Kokiri Forest village, but when I got there, I couldn't find either of you." Link broke the hug, and stared at her. "Alela wasn't there? What about Toko?" Ruto shook her head. "Neither of them were in the village... Then I saw that... Thing carrying you off towards the city..."
Ruto didn't get time to say anything else, Link had already set off toward the exit. "Link, wait!" She was about to go after him, but was stopped by Saria. "You should go too, rather than trying to stop him." Ruto turned to look at her. "But he doesn't know where she is, and neither do I. It would be better if we thought it through first, before we-" "She's in the forest, wounded, but her Goron friend is keeping her safe." Saria cut her off. "She'll need to be in the water if she could even hope to recover, the fastest way to get to her would be through the well connecting Zora's Domain and the Lost Woods." Ruto realized what Saria was saying just a few seconds after she'd said it. "Of course, I'll go that way. Be sure to let Link know where she is." Saria nodded. "Of course I will." Ruto created a water portal leading to the well, and dived in it, swimming as fast as she could.
Link played Epona's Song, and shortly after, his loyal horse stood by his side. "To the forest! Quickly!" Link seated up, and the horse sped off across the Hyrule Field. After a few minutes, a voice spoke from behind him. "She's wounded, her Goron friend will need to take her to the well." Link looked over his shoulder, Saria was sitting behind the saddle. How long had she been there? And how did she get on without him noticing? This vaguely reminded Link of the first time he'd left the Forest, she seemed to just teleport up behind him. "Sadly, he doesn't know where it is. You will need to find them, and guide them there, I'll be playing my song." With that, she disappeared. Link kicked Epona's flanks to speed her up, and they reached the forest shortly before sunset.
He let Epona run off, when they'd reached the entrance to the forest, and sprinted towards the woods. "Link! Thank Farore that you're here!" One of the Know-It-All Brothers came sprinting towards him. "Your daughter, Alela, and her Goron friend, Toko... They ran into the woods, Satu went after them... I tried to stop them, but-" "It's alright, I know. I'm going to find them and bring them back in one piece." After calming the Kokiri child down, he ran into the Lost Woods. He could hear Saria's Song being played through each of the correct pathways, now that he knew which way he had to go, he just needed to find his daughter. "Alela!" He ran through the woods, calling out to his daughter, but he didn't get an answer. "Toko!" He called out to the Goron, but once again, noone responded. "Damn it!" He cursed, and sprinted further into the woods, not hearing the heavy footsteps and the deep breathing following him.