A/N:

We're close to a specific chapter that I'm very excited to get to.

As for this one, we've got an f-bomb around the middle of this one, for those who are sensitive to that stuff.

Enjoy!

The inside of the temple was freezing cold. Link's body was having a hard time warming him up, and he could hear his friends' teeth chattering as they shuffled after him.

Linebeck's small flashlight did almost nothing, but it illuminated small parts of the wall as they walked along it. The walls were made of Sheikah material- smooth and unblemished. Since they were all pressed against the wall, they had no idea of how large the room was. Occasionally, Link let Linebeck go ahead of him in order to shine the light on the ground and make sure they were still along a safe path.

Midna kept her spear out, squinting in the dark. None of them had perfect dark vision, but Link doubted that anyone's dark vision would help in this room. Even he couldn't see anything but darkness.

The moment all four of them walked into the room, the gates slammed closed behind them. There had been a few moments of panic- Link whipping out his weapons and walking right into an oddly calm Midna, Ghirahim almost immediately running into a wall, and Linebeck screaming in a rather unflattering way. Linebeck was the only person they could see with his flashlight, so they began by crowding around him to gather their bearings.

As they walked through the shadows, Link was dimly aware of Bellum and Linebeck muttering to each other. From what he could gather, the AI could faintly see the edges of the room, and only that. Link was grateful that his and Midna's weapons' blades glowed, but it was only enough to illuminate a few inches away from it. Linebeck's flashlight was their best source of light.

Like a line of schoolchildren, all four of them were holding hands to the best of their ability, meaning that Link was in front and Midna in back so that they had an open hand for weapons, and Linebeck frequently jerked his hand out of Link's to shine his light around. Even without being able to clearly see him, Link could tell that the engineer was trembling. It was cold in the room, but he was certain that it wasn't because of the cold.

"...Linebeck. Try shining your light towards the middle of the room," Midna suddenly murmured. "We're not getting anything done like this." The thin beam of light swung around, first illuminating Midna's face, then lit up a spot of the floor in the middle of the room. That little flashlight had much more range than Link would've expected.

The floor wasn't much different, but as Linebeck flashed the light around a bit more, they all caught sight of what almost looked like a path. They all quickly pushed off the wall and shuffled over to it. Linebeck illuminated the path further up, the slightly raised section of the floor leading deeper into the room. Still in a line like a bunch of kids, the four of them ventured down the path, now with Linebeck in the lead.

"Nothing so far," Link muttered, glaring around at the darkness. "How would we get out if we need?"

"I assume you get the sword, or you die," Ghirahim said. "A good idea on paper, but the problem right know is that we don't know how to navigate this place."

The same uncomfortable silence fell over the group once again. They walked further down the path, not getting very far before they stopped. In front of them, spaced out evenly, four lamps suddenly lit up. They gave off a surprising amount of light, allowing the four of them to see that they were now standing in a new room, having walked through a doorway. Link turned back as everyone else dispersed, exploring the new room.

The light from the lamps reached far enough for Link to get a good idea of the prior room. It was simply a long, empty hallway.

Link turned back, peering at the four lamps. Nothing interesting about them. They were mounted high on the opposite wall, each over one of four large doors. Each door was made of different materials, with something written in an odd language across that material. To the logical side of him, Link couldn't figure out any kind of rhyme or reason to the strange language. It wasn't anything he had a name for, and he'd never seen it before.

And yet, he understood it perfectly.

With a trembling hand, Link began to point at the words, but Midna beat him to it. "What the hell- Can you guys read that stuff, too?!" She pointed a finger in a near-accusatory manner at one of the doors. Link lowered his hand and peered at that door's writing- it was the door farthest to the right. "I-I've never seen this before," Midna snapped. "What the hell is this?"

Link whipped his head around, searching for Ghirahim and Linebeck's reactions. Ghirahim's eyes were wide as well, and he even brushed aside the curtain of hair that hid his left eye. Linebeck's goggles kept his eyes hidden, but he was rooted to the spot. He said something quietly enough that Link didn't hear it, and Bellum appeared in response.

Linebeck asked the AI something, getting a quick answer. He then glanced over at everyone else. "...Bellum says that this language doesn't have a name or history, but he also says that it's familiar. He can read it too, and despite it having no name or history, he can come up with a decoder for it. It's less of a language and more of a code."

"The one on the far right one reads 'magician of twilight', correct?" Midna asked, still pointing at it. "And the one to the left... pretty sure that says 'spirit demon fighter' or something... Why the hell can we read this...?"

"Must be something having to do with our missing memories," Ghirahim mused. "But it's still weird that we still understand this." He paused, then frowned at Link. "You can read it too, right?"

Link nodded. "Of course. The next one reads 'hero of Hyrule'. That one's pretty simple. And that last one is just 'melancholy engineer'. I assume they mean that group from 200 years ago."

Ghirahim waved his hands. "Yeah, yeah, I assumed that. What I'm more curious about is how all four- five, counting Bellum, I guess- how all of us can understand it. Link. We've agreed you're from 200 years ago. What about us? How come we have this same knowledge? We're all missing our memories, too..."

A stunned silence fell over the group. Taking his goggles off, Linebeck surveyed the room. "Good point. We all seem to be connected or something. We've got more important things to do, then. I want to get out of here as quickly as possible- now what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"Looks like we have to split up," Link decided. "Midna goes through that magician door, Ghirahim through the fighter one, I obviously get the hero one, and Linebeck gets the last one."

"W-why should I have to go alone?" Lineback shouted, turning on Link. "We barely even know what we're supposed to do! I bet it doesn't matter which door we go through! We could probably all just go through one door and find the sword that way."

"What if that's not it? We don't have the time to try and cheat the system," Midna snapped. "You brought your bow, and you're fast enough when it comes to running away from a fight. You should be fine."

"If I die, it's all your guys' fault, then," Linebeck mumbled. He took his bow out, letting it unfold from its more compact form. He idly tugged on the bowstring once it appeared. "...I guess I don't have a choice, though..."

"You'll be fine. I'm sure Bellum will make sure to warn you of any danger before anything happens." Link gave the AI a thin smile, painfully aware of the animosity the little creature practically radiated. Still, no matter how mean that thing could be, Link knew that Bellum's existence was directly tied to Linebeck being alive, so he wasn't about to let the engineer die.

The four gates turned out to be heavy, so it took the four of them working together to get one of them open. "This feels like a damn waste of time," Linebeck hissed, kicking at the gate door once it was open. "At least this hallway has light in it."

It took a few more minutes to get the rest of the gates open, and the four of them stood in front of their respective doors, frozen for different reasons. Ghirahim let out a loud breath and placed his hands on his hips. "Well, see you guys later."

"Good luck," Linebeck mumbled, the only one to speak while Ghirahim disappeared through his doorway.

They waited until they could no longer hear his footsteps. Midna left next, giving almost no hint that she was leaving. Link only realized she was gone when he looked over and found her gone, silent despite the metal on the bottom of her boots. Link peered over at Linebeck, and held his own breath. He could hear Linebeck's shallow, rapid breathing. "You okay?" Link quietly asked, smiling faintly.

"I-I'm fine. Shut up and get going."

"You first," Link mused. "I can't go with you or anything. Midna gave you a few potions, right? I didn't get any, but I know she gave Ghirahim a few."

"...I got stealth potions and health potions and stamina potions and speed potions. I can tell she doesn't expect me to get into a fight. What did she give Ghirahim?"

"Strength, stamina, speed. He got, like, one health potion." Link laughed abruptly. "They don't work on me, you know, and there would be no point." He softened his smile again. "You'll be okay-"

"Don't give me that bullshit," Linebeck snarled, venom dripping from every syllable. "Your words won't do shit to help me, so don't waste your breath. Just get going and get the damn sword. I can afford to stall; you have no excuse to do the same."

Link immediately felt anger well up inside of him, and he tightly clenched his fists to keep it from boiling over. "Just- Be safe. We'll still need you after this."

"Yeah."

Link unclenched his fists, feeling the anger slowly seep away. He turned his gaze back to his hallway and stepped into it. Dimly, as he got further down the hall, he thought he heard Linebeck start to say something, only to cut himself off.

Ghirahim drew his sword once he got far enough down the hall. The familiar feel of the sword's smooth grip against his gloved hand slowed his frantic heart rate and helped slow his breathing. He was calm. Why wouldn't he be?

He swung the black-bladed saber around a few times, admiring how the red gem set into the guard glinted in the torchlight. It didn't matter what this damned temple threw at him- no monster stood a chance against Ghirahim. His mind conjured up a picture of the Hinox from Death Mountain. He doubted a beast of that size would fit in the temple.

Bokoblins were simple, stupid animals who went down with a flick of his wrist. Moblins, larger and stronger, were just as clumsy and easy to trick. Lizalfos were tricky and speedy bastards, and Ghirahim recalled how one had nearly killed Linebeck at Zora's domain. A wolfos came to mind next, and he recalled how one had nearly killed the same man in the snowy mountains. Goddesses, he'd gotten hurt by monsters more times than the people who actually fought against those monsters.

Ghirahim's initial thought was that Linebeck was pathetic, but he quickly shook his head, casting the thought aside. No, he wasn't. He just wasn't suited to battle. Not like the others.

But, still, this time he didn't have anyone to look out for him.

Ghirahim slapped himself across the face. Linebeck wasn't some child, he had a bow and arrows and a knife and had probably killed a city mugger at some point.

He rid his mind of those thoughts once he entered into a large room. Curious, Ghirahim frowned, slowly stepping into the bright room. It was plain, but looked oddly high-tech. The floor was sleek, and the walls were meaninglessly engraved. The ceiling was dotted with bright lights, shining down on the flat ground. Across the room appeared to be an indention in the wall, shaped like a doorway.

Easy enough.

Ghirahim took one more step into the room, then another, and then broke out into a full sprint. He had no time to stand around and wonder how such a large room didn't interfere with the others' paths.

About halfway through the room, a loud clanging echoed throughout the space, and the floor beneath Ghirahim's feet began to surge and shift like it was water. He nearly tripped, and came to a stop, fighting to keep standing as the floor rose and fell, shaping into something new. He'd seen platforms rise and fall and appear out of nowhere, but he'd never seen a seamless floor flow like liquid.

Fear was what jerked a shocked yelp out of Ghirahim's mouth as part of the floor near him fell and gave way to a bottomless pit. He stumbled away and fought to keep from falling into more and more pits as they appeared around him. At one point, the floor beneath him lurched so violently that it almost threw him into a pit, and Ghirahim rapidly teleported onto solid ground, fervently thanking Midna for teaching him how to do so.

The frantic dance that initially kept Ghirahim from falling over turned into a calculated sway of sorts, and he waited for the floor to settle down as he hopped to safe spots when he saw them. Once the floor finally stopped moving, Ghirahim let out a heavy sigh and got to climbing up one of the larger mounds that had been created. He slid his sword into its scabbard as he sat down on the highest hill, catching his breath and surveying the landscape that the floor had been sculpted into. It looked like some kind of twisted miniature mountain range. The doorway that had caught Ghirahim's attention was still closed.

He was stuck, then. Amid the chaos of the shifting floor, Ghirahim had seen that his way in had been closed off. He had a small jar of blueberries, a bottle of water, and a few of Midna's potions. Linebeck and Midna were similarly equipped, while Link had no potions.

Ghirahim hopped off the mound, careful not to fall in one of the pits. He walked around the 'landscape', getting an idea of what had been laid out before him. A scraping noise from the other side of the room caught his attention. He froze. More scraping followed the first, and he whipped his sword out one again. He didn't hear any noises that sounded like what a Bokoblin, Moblin, Lizalfos, or anything Ghirahim had come up against before. As he paid attention to the scratching, he decided that it sounded almost like scraping a rock against the ground. Or a hoof.

A growl sounded from across the room, and Ghirahim felt nausea all throughout his body. He'd only heard a growl like that once before, back when he'd decided to take a solo trip across the wasteland and had almost gotten brutalized by a lynel.

A lynel was the last thing he wanted to fight, but it appeared that he had no choice when that very beast appeared over one of the distant hills, roaming the sculpted room. Ghirahim's mood soured even further as he realized it was a sliver lynel.

"Oh, fuck this."

Midna was getting tired of wandering around in the dark. It seemed to be a trend with this temple. Out of caution, she decided to traverse her hall via shadow walking, melded with the shadows until sudden light would force her out. So far, no light. Her spear didn't give off much light, either. If only there were night vision potions to be made. As far as she knew, those didn't exist.

She should've asked Linebeck to make them some kind of goggles to see in the dark. Then again, none of them could've known how dark the temple was. Being within the shadows didn't help with the darkness, but Midna preferred it, just so that she could avoid being jumped. Still, she wondered if it was possible for monsters to live within the temple.

Midna doubted it, hopping out of the shadows as she reached the end of the hallway. The hallway had led to a dim room, and Midna apprehensively readied her spear as she walked in. Hanging torches with strange black-and-blue fire lit the room, only providing dim light. The doors to the hallway slammed practically only a few seconds after she walked into the room. Wonderful. She was practically trapped. Stuck in a room with discolored fire. With no indication of what she was supposed to do.

So, Midna explored the room.

It turned out that it was merely the beginning of a maze- she found the entrance to it on the far wall. It was just as dimly lit as the rest of the room, with more blue-black fire lighting up the corridors that she could see.

A little more wandering, and Midna figured that there was nothing worthwhile to do aside from heading into that maze. She kept her spear brandished out in front of her while she traversed it, finding pitfalls and spike traps. Nothing especially complicated or magical.

The walls were extremely high but didn't appear to reach the ceiling. Midna found a part of the wall that was untouched by the light and melded into the shadows. She shimmied up the wall and on top of it, slipping back out of them to survey the maze from above. She walked around for a good bit, hopping any gaps, squinting at the dark passageways in the maze. Those strange, magical flames didn't give off nearly enough light.

The longer Midna wandered, the more she became confused by the design of the maze. The spike pits became larger and had less of a reload time- to the point where it would be impossible for even the fastest horse in the land would be able to pass over it without injury. There were spots in the wall where arrows would be launched at anything unlucky enough to walk in front of it. At first, they only launched normal arrows when Midna kneeled and let her spear hang into the danger zone.

Midna almost fell off the maze walls when one of the arrow traps launched explosive arrows. She suffered a few small burns on her forearms and decided not to mess with the increasingly dangerous traps. The pitfalls became larger, some became filled with lava, but the most interesting traps made Midna pause and stare.

A humanoid robot wandered about in a large open area, multiple arms wielding multiple weapons. It almost looked Sheikah made, but it was far too chaotically designed. None of the professionalism that the Sheikah held so dear. This robot looked like it was made in one day and by a manic madman with fast hands and brief flashes of energy.

Now that Midna thought about it, that was exactly how Linebeck worked and created things.

Midna stalked along the wall closer to it, watching it jerkily patrol the area. Its legs moved more smoothly than anything above them, and the armor-like plating covering its inner circuitry made it look almost like a muscular human. That illusion would be complete if its face weren't completely blank.

Something about it was eerily familiar as Midna crouched and stared at it. It walked beneath one of the magical torches, it's tarnished, bronze weapons somehow gleaming. The exoskeleton that covered the wiring was pure white, with grayish spots. It brought to mind images of Ghirahim in his pure-white bodysuit and the nearly gray tone of his skin.

Again, Linebeck came to mind. He always modeled his more humanoid robots after Ghirahim. It was always a constant sign that he harbored a certain degree of trust or admiration towards the demon. Sometimes, his more agile robots were modeled more after Midna, with longer, thinner limbs.

But this robot that Midna was faced with in the maze made her think more of the robots based off of Ghirahim. Minus the six arms with blades at the end.

Actually, what was a robot that looked like it had been created by Linebeck doing here?

She walked a bit further, choosing to bypass it. Then the maze wall beneath her collapsed under her feet. All of the maze around the robot's arena fell, slipping into a formerly hidden pit of lava. Midna reacted without thought, leaping off the rapidly falling wall and onto the robot's arena. She quickly straightened her back and readied her spear as the robot swung around to face her.

Link was sick and tired of hallways at this point. He just wanted the sword, not to walk a few miles and prove that it's impossible for his synthetic lungs to give out.

For a brief moment, he wondered if it was possible for his heart to burst. It was organic, like his brain, and somehow beat in an organic way.

Link had taken a peek at Linebeck's notes on him and made sure to keep the images of them in the back of his mind for later. Now, he brought them to the forefront of his focus. It took a few moments to decode Linebeck's atrocious handwriting, but it was worth it to pass the time.

There were mentions of Link's lack of blood, and how the same blue light that squirmed in the robot's Sheikah material took on a liquid form in a few small tubes around Link's body, and his heart was used to pump it around and power him. Linebeck apparently had no clue why Link had a human brain, but his heart at least had some explanation. How it remained alive and healthy, however, was also beyond Linebeck.

Linebeck apparently didn't like the topic of chemistry too much, so he didn't want to try and see if there were any chemicals involved. There had been a little rant scribbled on the corner of one of the notes, detailing Linebeck's rabid hatred of chemistry.

He'd also written song lyrics in the margins- it was something that Link had also seen Midna do. Songs from the city, where bands played in gambling dens or bars. Link hadn't been to the city for very long, but he'd heard a fair amount of lyrical music when passing by social spots. One that popped up the most and seemed to have captivated Linebeck and Midna, based off their scribblings of its lyrics, seemed to be about the court of some kind of king.

Link dismissed the notes from his mind's eye as he found a small room at the end of the hall. It was the size of a bedroom for one person, with papers and posters plastered on the walls. With a suspicious frown, Link tightly gripped his sword, ready to activate it and face off whatever wanted to see him destroyed.

But nothing came as Link wandered the tiny room. He glanced back at the hall, surprised to find that a door had silently slid over it and locked him in. Feeling oddly safe in the room, however, Link slid his sword belt off and set it on the small desk and inspected the posters.

Panic. Panic. Panic.

"You're going to give yourself a heart attack," Bellum spat, the only thing that Linebeck could clearly see in the dark. He tried to wave him away, his hands shaking. "Seriously. There's nothing in the shadows."

"If something attacks me, I'm dead," Linebeck snapped. He tightened his grip on his bow. "Bah, I should've brought more of those ancient arrows..."

"You don't need ten of them," muttered Bellum, rolling his eye. "Just one wiped a hinox from existence. You've got fire arrows and ice arrows and shock arrows, too. You'll be fine."

"What if I miss?" Linebeck mumbled. "I only managed to hit the hinox because it wasn't moving very much. I still can't hit moving things very well. Revali only got as far as teaching me to hit stationary targets."

"If you get all anxious, then your aim will only be worse," Bellum snarled. "So quit it. I'll go ahead and let you know if there's anything dangerous, go it? And quit whining. I don't care as much as the others might." He zipped away before Linebeck could even take a breath to respond, leaving him to wallow in his worsening anxiety.

He idly tugged at the bowstring, finding that the small, repeated action was good enough for him to focus on. He considered what he would do if a monster attacked him.

He could handle the touch of monster flesh better than he could human flesh, the issue was just that touching a monster was always immediately followed up with pain. Still, most monsters were simple creatures, and never had any deeper tactics behind their meanings. Linebeck tugged on the bowstring, listening to the quiet noise it made. The bigger issue was the fact that they were monsters and didn't have deeper tactics. That made them unpredictable, and Linebeck had never been able to figure out how to know what they were going to do.

If he somehow got pinned against a human however, he could handle that. Linebeck had actually won fights against other people before. He hated the feeling of his skin against theirs, and that only spurred him to get it over as quickly as possible. Most of the time, he helped Damien fight off muggers or hold his own in a barfight, and brawls sometimes broke out in the gambling dens he occasionally visited in the city.

Linebeck smiled grimly. He recalled one night after a poker game, in which he'd lost pretty badly to some pretentious asshole who just happened to be a bit extra rude just became he happened to be gambling at the same table as a man with a robotic arm. If only he'd know that Linebeck was using Bellum to cheat.

He's followed the bastard home, waiting outside the window the inn room he was staying in, then knocked him out before he had a chance to see who was attacking him. Linebeck stole his winnings and slashed his feet open and left without making any unnecessary sounds. The next morning, that attack had been on the front page of the news, and no one had figured out that he was guilty.

Not that Linebeck felt any remorse about that night. He'd taken a sick pleasure in tearing deep gashes in the man's feet while Bellum egged him on. Not to mention, after a bit of rummaging around in his things, he found a bit of evidence that the man had assaulted a few people. It was a fluke, really. Linebeck's greed had driven him to check the man's drawers for extra valuables and found something darker. The only person he'd told had been Damien, and barely a few days later, that man turned up missing.

Linebeck was pretty sure that Damien had set a group of Yiga on him.

For some reason, that old story of Ghirahim getting drunk and accidentally causing Linebeck to fall into a panic came to mind. It was heavily exaggerated, as all stories were. The truest part of it was how drunk Ghirahim had been- it was after he'd won the tournament he'd gotten his saber from, and they'd stopped at a bar on the way home to celebrate. Ghirahim wasn't too much of a drinker, but that night they'd let him have his fun, and he ended up leaning against Linebeck with an arm around his thin waist. It took Midna a few moments to pry Ghirahim off, and a few minutes for Linebeck to feel his heartbeat calm while he huddled in a bathroom stall.

The next morning, Ghirahim made coffee for him as an apology. It wasn't a fantastic apology, but it was appreciated. It wasn't even bad coffee. Ghirahim apparently took notes on how everyone liked their coffee.

The three of them were always comfortable around each other. Linebeck secretly appreciated their feedback on his current projects, and greatly appreciated when they brought him food, especially if he'd forgotten to eat for a few hours.

Linebeck nocked a fire arrow and shot it down the hall. It illuminated the blank walls with a bright red flare and shattered in a moderate burst of fire some length away. Much to his delight, the light illuminated a pair of doors. He set off running, his footsteps echoing through the shadows.

The doors were made of wood, and all it took was a second fire arrow to turn them to cinders. He hopped over the still-hot pile of embers, waving at a rather bewildered Bellum. "You didn't need my help at all."

"You're no help in material world, so it's not like you would've been any help anyways. Anyone could've burned up those doors. I bet the others probably would've broken it down with their weapons."

"Good point," Bellum muttered, returning to Linebeck, hovering above his ear. "Well, there's not much interesting in this room," he began. "Just those tables with the junk on 'em. And the big door with the stupid-looking keyhole. Wanna take a guess at what you have to do?"

Linebeck swatted Bellum away, frowning at the keyhole. It was shaped like an eye, a circular pupil in the middle and lines sprouting out from it, forming a horizonal oval-shaped eye. This wasn't a lock that he could pick in five minutes. He turned his attention to the scrap heaps on the tables, spotting tools to create something with. "Go check out the keyhole," Linebeck ordered, gesturing towards Bellum. "And help me make a key for this."

Here's a dumb little fact about this chapter: It was initially going to be one larger chapter, the second part of it being the chapter that will come after this one. The problem was that, a bit before deciding to split them up, I realized it was already over 10k words and I wasn't done with it. So you guys get a two-parter. Yay.