"Kitchen," Ghirahim said, gesturing to the room he and Link were standing in. It was just a little smaller than the room Link had just been in- Ghirahim referred to it as their meeting room. It had another table in the middle of the room, with a few plates stacked up on it. Ghirahim glared at the plates for a moment. He picked them up and walked over to a sink, next to a line of cabinets. He tossed them in, cursing under his breath. "I shouldn't be mad," he sighed. "I left those. I often forget to clean up after myself as Linebeck is rambling... he was talking about you a few hours ago, and it distracted me."

"Oh, does he do that a lot?" Link walked over to the other side of the room. It was mostly a long table with marble on the top, a few ice boxes and a large metal box. With a curious tilt of his head, Link pulled open the metal box and was greeted with a cold breeze. And the view of some food. "What's this? It's really cold..." A small blue box was tucked in the top right corner of the box. Link bent down and reached for it.

"Don't touch that," Ghirahim sharply snapped. "You'll mess it up." He cleared the room with a few long strides and tugged Link's hand away from it. "Linebeck spent forever creating that and, I am not exaggerating, he will kill you if you mess with it. Last time one of us screwed up something he was working on, he threw a knife at us. And his aim is all but dead-on."

"Is he a bad person?" Link timidly whispered.

Ghirahim laughed, closing the door to the metal box. "Oh, no. He's just an eccentric kid. He's got problems, more so than Midna or I. He cares about his work and can be selfish at times. Midna's little 'pranks' sometimes get out of hand, but I haven't seen any in a while. I'm the truly mean one, and they tell me I'm arrogant and headstrong. You just seem naive. By the way, that little device cools down the box and maintains a temperature to preserve our food without having to freeze it."

Link blinked, stepping back a little. "Wow. That's... impressive."

Ghirahim snorted, walking off to the meeting room. "I guess. His little projects and creations fetch a tidy price in the city and help us out around here, but... he's a workaholic. He spends too much time locked in that damn workshop, forgetting to eat, forgetting to sleep... To be fair, we've sometimes tried to see if he can help us with our own memories, but none of the three of us are even sure where to start."

The robot hurried after him. "What do you mean 'help us with our own memories'? Are they faulty or something?"

"You could say that," Ghirahim muttered. They headed upstairs, the wooden staircase proving to be much sturdier than it looked. The stairs led them in a tiny circular room with three doors. "These are our bedrooms. Linebeck doesn't use his very often, so he won't care too much if we look, but I dunno about Midna." He crossed his arms, and Link made a mental note that one door had a unique symbol on it. Link peered up at Ghirahim's face in time to see a devious grin tug at the corners of his mouth. "Let's check out Linebeck's room first."

They pushed open the door, and Link inspected the symbol quickly. It simply looked to be a little hourglass shape with a small symbol engraved in the middle; it looked like a water drop above a slightly curved line. Ghirahim walked into the cramped space first and threw out his arms in a theatrical gesture. "Linebeck's tiny little area! He never actually sleeps in here. My room is much nicer." He took on a more relaxed posture and placed a hand on his chest and a hand on his hip. "Of course, I have the best taste in our little group. A much more intellectual aesthetic, if you get what I mean. I must match my outward appearance with my potential, after all." He let his arms drop and added, "I act as a guard and do most of the non-robotic related hands-on work."

"I take it you're strong, then," Link murmured. He took in the small room as he walked in. It was dim. A lantern on a bedside table offered a warm glow. The room was mostly bare save for a wardrobe and tidy bed. "There's nothing in here."

"Exactly!" Ghirahim shouted with disgust. "It irritates me. The man goes out of his way to assert that this is his room, and then doesn't do anything with it." He whipped around with a flourish and left the room. "I'll show you Midna's next."

Midna's room was the same size but looked smaller due to the amount of stuff. Her bed was messy, the pillows and blankets shoved aside. A spear was propped up against a wardrobe with a mirror on one of the doors, and a bright lantern hung from the ceiling. A raggedy rug covered the ground, a few books stacked up by one of the bed frame's legs. "A mess," Ghirahim mused, "But not a waste of space."

"I thought she'd be much more... organized," Link muttered.

"Oh, we all thought that when we first met her. She had an almost 'queenly' aura about her, and then you realize it's only in looks. She's much more easy-going that you'd expect. My room's next!" The excitement in his voice sounded fake, like it was more for show than for genuine expression. Link regarded him closely. The hair covering his left eye was eccentric on its own and paired with his clothing... he looked to be a fan of the dramatic. Even his smooth, deep voice added to his over-the-top demeanor.

"Why does she have a spear?" he asked, pointing at the weapon.

"Oh, that," Ghirahim drawled. "There are monsters out in the wasteland. She's got two spears; she took the weaker one today." He slammed the door just as Link pulled his head out of the doorway. "She and I are fighters. Linebeck is all bark and no bite; keep that in mind. The biggest threats from him are his aim and his colorful vocabulary."

Ghirahim's room was the cleanest, and Link actually entered it on his own. The bed was tidy, a small pile of swords in their scabbards piled up on the blanket. "It's nice," Link muttered. He walked over to the window, pushing aside the drapes. His breath caught in his chest. He hadn't seen the outside since first waking up.

The sky was a pale orange, a few spots of faint blue. The ground was covered in dying grass as far as he could see. Trees dotted the landscape, a few with small, brown leaves. Link squinted through the glass and spotted small collection of buildings in the distance. Link backed away from the window. His mind had initially conjured up pictures of healthy trees and patches of vibrant, green grass, of blue skies and fluffy clouds. "...This is Hyrule?"

A hand clasped over his shoulder and Link whipped around the face Ghirahim. He frowned down at him. "You know the name of this land?"

"It came to mind when I woke up," Link softly whispered. "It was already in my mind. Is this Hyrule? It looks... dead."

Ghirahim smiled grimly. "That's because the world ended."

"W-what?"

Ghirahim closed the drapes. "The rumor is that, two-hundred years ago, something happened and wiped out the old kingdom of Hyrule. People on the outskirts were the only ones who survived, and they worked on rebuilding, but were unable to use the old technology. Since then, the world's been all hot and dead. The city is the capitol of this new Hyrule. Let's head outside. I need to show you the outside of the house and I can show you what the world's like up close. C'mon, c'mon." He backed out of the room, the robot following swiftly. He shut the door behind him.

Once back downstairs, Link glanced over at Linebeck, sitting at the table. He had removed his coat and had both sleeves of his white shirt rolled up. Small screwdrivers and tweezers were lined up in front of him, and he held one of the screwdrivers above his right arm, laid palm-up on the table. Ghirahim walked right past him, airily asking, "Recalibrating?" but Link stopped and stared.

Linebeck's left arm didn't match up with his right. His right was normal, human and alive. His left looked like bones at first glance. It was made of a bronze-colored metal, in the shape of a skeletal Hylian's arm, the hand with long, thin fingers. Wires connected up and down the arm, trailing into his sleeve. Linebeck was unscrewing a part in the joint connecting his upper and forearm. He didn't notice Link staring for a few moments. "...You need something?"

"Are you a robot, too?" Link blurted.

Lineebck rolled his eyes. "Obviously not." He leaned back in his chair and propped his right leg up on the table, pulling the pants leg up to his knee. A skeletal leg made of the same material as his arm. "I've just got some prosthetics. Quite honestly none of your business." He waved for Link and Ghirahim to leave.

Bellum appeared by his ear from out of nowhere and peered at Link. His voice was higher than Link expected. "Get out if you have nothing to do in here."

Link glared at the little AI. "I forgot that you can talk." He sighed and jogged after Ghirahim, who was shooting skeptical glares at both Linebeck and Link. "Sorry," he mumbled, passing by Ghirahim and pushing open the metal door. Warm air blew past him, and Ghirahim shoved him outside.

It was not a hot as it had been when Link first woke. He glanced around, walking out a few steps and turning around. The inside of the building had been wood, but it was plated with metal on the outside. It was built in the middle of a dip in the ground, a sign above the door that read in crude letters: 'Rain Keep'. Link frowned and pointed at it. "Is the building called Rain Keep?"

"It's a pun," Ghirahim said, sounding tired. "Linebeck came up with it. We do our own farming, which we figured out in the early days. We had a hard time collecting water since the nearest lake, Lake Hylia, is in the inner circle, a few miles away. Whenever it rained, which is rare, it evaporated quickly. One of Linebeck's first projects was a type of container in the roof that would collect and keep rainwater cold enough to keep from evaporating. If we needed water for farming, we could climb up and collect it. We called the place 'Rain Keep' after a few months of using it."

"Inner circle?" Link asked, glancing over his shoulder. In the distance was a large cluster of buildings, a few being very tall. There were no trees around it, though. He walked in its direction a few times, the dead grass poking his bare feet. In the back of his mind, a small voice chimed that it was 81 degrees. "What's the inner circle?"

"That's where Linebeck found you; it's also the area that was wiped out 200 years ago. Just a huge junkyard with Hyrule City in the middle. Midna's on her way there. She does a lot of business there, buying seeds, selling Linebeck's little contraptions, picking up jobs for us." Ghirahim beckoned for Link to follow him. "Anyways, I've got to teach you how to farm with us. Since you know about Hyrule, it's safe to assume that you have normal knowledge, just no memory logs."

Link reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "Pretty sure. Like, I know about animals and stuff. Nothing about myself. I know how to farm. I was pretty disoriented when I woke up, but I'm doing better now." He followed Ghirahim around the side of the building and found an expanse of dry dirt, a few green sprouts sticking out. A grid of metal was built above it, with strange machines similar to what he'd seen in that metal box. Link gestured towards them. "Another contraption of Linebeck's?"

"Yeah, but Midna is the one who set up the grid." Ghirahim strode over to a pile of tools at the edge of the dirt and picked up a hoe. He tossed it to Link, who just barely caught it. It was surprisingly heavy. Ghirahim rustled around in a small box nearby and held up a tiny packet. "We're gonna plant blueberries. We picked some up at Linebeck's request and Midna gave him the idea of making you plant them." He tossed the packet at Link, but the robot allowed it to land on the ground in front of him.

Ghirahim smirked and leaned against the wall. "Get started. We've got all day. Tomorrow is when Midna gets you, and then Linebeck gets you after that." He continued to speak as Link found an empty column of dirt and began tilling it. "After your day with Linebeck, you're free to stick around with us. He's treating you as another person since you might as well be. You're the most complex thing we've seen in a while- no tech from recent years could've created you."

Link only nodded, dragging the hoe through the dirt. He'd managed to hold the seeds against the wood of the tool in his palm, planning to start planting them once done. "Are you the one who does a lot of the farming?"

"Ah, unfortunately. I hate getting my hands dirty, but I do it the best. I do the work around here, Midna works in the city, and Linebeck is all but a hermit. Ah... I don't know what they would do without me." He ran a hand through his hair with a dramatic sigh. Link set his jaw. This guy was beginning to get annoying.

"Why do you think I can feel emotion, heat... all that stuff?" Link asked, finished with the column. "Do other robots feel that?"

Ghirahim grunted. "No idea. Linebeck's all about that stuff, remember? Ask him when you get to stick with him." He hesitated, and added, "Just don't touch him."

Link frowned. He ripped a hole in the corner of the seed packet. "Don't touch him?"

"You heard me," Ghirahim drawled. "I'll go get some water..." He walked off, and explained, "There's a ladder up onto the roof in the back. When you farm by yourself, you'll need to know where it is." He disappeared around the corner and Link scowled to himself.

He knelt in the dirt and sprinkled the little seeds in the tilled earth, spacing them out the way he knew they should be. He doubted farming would be too successful, considering how long it took for something to grow. However... Link glanced up at the little machines on the grid. Based on the way they looked, they were for the dispersion of some solution. He couldn't detect what the solution was, but he figured it was probably a type of potion.

Link finished scooping dirt over the seeds just as Ghirahim returned with a bucket of water. "Oh, good, you're done. Move so I can water these seeds."

It was a haphazard method, but Ghirahim was successful by splashing about of water on the seeds. The remaining water was tossed over some of the other plants. "And that should do it!" he announced. Any more questions? I'm done doing what I had to do."

"I have a question," Link declared, returning the hoe to the tool pile. "What's the potion in those little machines? When is it dispensed?"

"It's a potion mixture that Midna mixed up. It accelerates plant growth. If you'd like, I could show it to you. There's a way to force dispersion and reset the cooldown. Get out of way and I can show you. It's dispersed every three days, since the potion is easy to make and refill."

Link waited by Ghirahim's side as he pressed a button on the metal grid. A beep followed suit, and a fine green mist sprayed from the machines. The effect was instantaneous; a few of the green shoots grew more and a few bloomed, and the recently planted seeds grew small shoot poking out of the dirt. "That's cool," Link murmured. "The three of you seem to be a good team. I hope I can be helpful, too."

Ghirahim shrugged. "Let's head back in. At the very least, you'll be able to help us make more money. Linebeck is also pleased to have a new project to work on." He turned, Link following at his heels. "I hope it rains soon."

"How often does it rain? And, uh... one of my little message things indicate that it should rain in a few hours."

With an exasperated sigh, Ghirahim ran both hands through his hair. "Oh, I dunno... twice a month is a safe bet for rain. It's useful for you to predict the weather, though. Go find Linebeck. It doesn't take him long to recalibrate his prosthetics, so he's either in the room he told you not to enter or the workshop. Might be in his room. He found a lizard in you and decided to keep it, like the child he is."

Link chuckled to himself.

They returned to the surprisingly cooler interior of the building and Ghirahim immediately headed upstairs. Link considered following but remembered that he had no reason to. He instead walked down the hallway and knocked on the metal door. Silence followed, and Link pursed his lips. He turned and opened the door to the workshop. Linebeck was cleaning off tools inside and glanced up at him. "What do you want?"

"Is there anything I can do for the rest of the day?" Link glanced around the room, a blue flash catching his eye as Bellum zoomed around the room. The AI phased right through the lantern and slowed around Linebeck. "Ghirahim showed me around the house and showed me how to farm."

"Cool," Linebeck muttered.

"He's in the middle of something," Bellum interjected.

Linebeck smiled and waved Bellum away. "Hush. I'd like if you would sleep for the rest of the day. It's much easier to check you for further damage if you're asleep, not moving. You're more like a machine when asleep. You seem so humanlike while awake." He set down a small hammer next to a line of screwdrivers. "Please," he muttered, pointing to the table with his right hand. He wasn't wearing the glove, so his cybernetic hand was visible. Link stared at it and sat on the table.

"Can you show me more about your robotic limbs soon?"

Linebeck shrugged. "I probably will when you get me for a day. Go to sleep or something. I have work to do, so I can afford to wait."

Link watched him collect a few of the tools. Quietly, he asked, "Is Ghirahim human?"

"Technically, he's a demon. We're not sure what kind. Midna's not human, either, but we've never seen anything like her. I'm probably the only human. Shut up and doze off so I can do some more repairs, or don't."

He left the room before Link could ask him anymore questions. Bellum lingered, clearly able to remain a good distance from Linebeck. "You should really just go to sleep," the AI muttered. "You don't have anything to help with." Bellum turned and floated through the door.

"Fine," Link muttered to himself, frustration worming into his mind.