The rhythmic hum of the jet's engines filled the cabin as the heroes made their way back to the Smash Bros. Mansion from the Temple of Worlds. The tension from the temple still hung over the group, though the vast blue skies and calm atmosphere outside helped ease their minds. Link, his mind exhausted from the stresses and frustrations of the day, had slumped back in his seat, deciding to close his eyes for what he thought would be a brief nap.

As he drifted off, his dreams quickly took a dark and disturbing turn. His body tensed as his consciousness plunged into a vivid, unsettling vision.

Link blinked rapidly. He found himself standing in a dimly lit cavern, illuminated by flickering torches that cast long, wavering shadows on the stone walls that were covered in cryptic figures that he can't read, the air was somehow too hot and too cold, and he felt himself both drowning and gasping for water at the same time.

He could hear the low murmur of chanting in a language he didn't understand, a guttural, ancient sound that made his skin crawl. In the center of the cavern was a stone altar, and on it lay...Link felt his heart jump into his mouth as he looked down to see himself—or rather, his lifeless body.

Link patted himself down to make sure he was still there, still alive and even though he felt himself, it still didn't do any good as he felt his heart transform into a jack hammer, it's beating shaking his body, his bones had turned completely into jelly.

He felt his eyes concentrated on looking down at the dead body of himself, cold and motionless. The Link he was looking at was naked as if it was the day he was born, it had scars all over his body and his face was frozen in a state of a strange look of joy, exhaustion and euphoria.

The eerie glow of the torches highlighted the dark stains of blood seeping from wounds he didn't remember receiving. Surrounding the altar were hooded figures, their faces obscured by shadows, but the unmistakable symbol of Ganondorf was emblazoned on their robes. A cult of worshipers of Ganondorf.

Link's breath caught as he watched the scene unfold. The cultists raised their arms in reverence, holding up artifacts adorned with Gerudo symbols, and began to chant louder. Their voices reverberated off the stone walls, creating an oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere. The air felt thick with dark magic.

The chanting reached a fever pitch, and suddenly, one of the figures stepped forward, holding up a golden crown that Link recognized to be one he seen Ganondorf wear countless times, except this one had one too many spikes on it. With a solemn, deliberate movement, the figure lowered the crown onto the dead Link's head. As it made contact, the entire cavern seemed to tremble, as if some god was playing with the earth itself. The body on the altar jerked, twitching unnaturally as if some malevolent force was being funneled into it.

Link watched in horror as his own body twisted and contorted, muscles shifting and reforming. His features remained, but his eyes, his eyes glowed with a cruel, malevolent red. The body sat up slowly, the once familiar form of Link now radiating with Ganondorf's dark energy.

"I…have…returned" The body of Link rasped, not in Link's voice. But in Ganondorf's

Link opened his mouth to let out a scream when he felt himself pulled down deep down down down into darkness.

Link blinked. He found himself standing in the middle of a village, a sense of confusion and disorientation overwhelming him. The town was familiar, yet distorted, like a memory warped by time. Twilight had fallen and it seemed to be smothering the village. He turned around and froze on the spot, unable to comprehend what he was looking at.

A mob of villagers had gathered in the square, their faces twisted in anger and fear. Their voices were raised in shouts and accusations, and for a fraction of a second he thought that it was directed at him, but he whirled around and saw a lone figure standing before them wearing a large green cloak.

At first, Link couldn't make out who the figure was, but as he stepped closer, his heart seemed to have skipped a beat. It was an anthropomorphic wolf, standing tall, with a mix of both human and wolf-like features. His fur was dark, streaked with twilight blue, grey fir, muscles that would make a body builder blush, and his eyes though filled with sorrow glowed with an inner, feral strength. His ears lay flat against his head as he endured the villagers' rage, but he didn't flinch. Underneath the cloak he wore what looked like a carbon copy of the green clothes that Link was wearing right now, right down to what looks like…Link blinked rapidly as if trying to comprehend what he was seeing, but it looked like the wolf had the master sword.

The angry mob threw rocks and shouted curses, their fear of the wolf-man palpable. Link could feel the weight of their hatred, though he didn't understand why. The wolf-man stood silent and alone, his gaze downcast as if resigned to his fate.

"So be it." The wolf man said, and Link felt his blood turn to ice as he heard his own voice come out of the wolf.

Then, in one swift motion, the villagers surged forward, banishing him from the town. The wolf-man turned, casting one last sorrowful glance back at the place that had once been his home, before running away into the dark forest beyond the village. Link's chest tightened as he felt the wolf-man's pain, though he didn't know who he was or why this was happening.

And just as the wolf-man vanished into the twilight, the vision flickered and began to collapse in on itself.

Link jolted awake, his heart racing. The sound of the jet's engines returned to him, and he blinked, disoriented by the sharp contrast between the quiet cabin and the intense visions he had just witnessed. He sat up quickly, his breathing uneven, and ran a hand through his hair, trying to process what he had just seen.

The rest of the heroes, sensing his distress, turned to him. Zelda, sitting beside him, placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Link? What's wrong? You looked... disturbed."

Link frowned, rubbing his temples as he tried to grasp the fading fragments of his dream. "I... I had a vision," he said slowly, his voice rough from the sudden shock. "It was... it was like I was there. I saw a cult—Ganondorf's cult—they... they used my body and…and…and…"

He shook his head, struggling to hold on to the details, but they were slipping through his fingers like water leaking out of a bottle that had too many holes. "Then... then I saw a wolf-man. He was being exiled by a group of villagers, but... I don't know who he was. He looked like... me, but... not."

Zelda furrowed her brow, concern etched across her face. "A wolf-man? Like the Twilight Realm?"

Link nodded slowly, but frustration flashed across his face as the images continued to fade from his mind. "Yeah... maybe. But the details... they're already fading. I can't remember everything clearly."

Sonic leaned over from his seat, trying to lighten the mood. "Sounds like a pretty messed-up vision, man. You sure it wasn't just something you ate?"

But Link wasn't in the mood for jokes. He clenched his fists, frustrated by the vagueness of his recollection. "No. It wasn't just a dream. It felt... real. Too real."

Toon Link, sitting nearby, looked concerned. "You saw something important, didn't you?"

Link nodded. "I did. I know I did. But... it's like it's already disappearing from my memory." He let out a frustrated sigh, leaning back in his seat. "I don't know what it means, but I think it's connected. To everything."

Zelda exchanged a worried glance with the others. "We'll figure it out," she said softly, her voice steady. "Whatever it was... we'll find out what it means."

"We could turn round and feed that thing to that machine we saw." Peach said "But something tells me that it wont work."

Link nodded, though the frustration remained heavy in his chest. The vision—those fragmented moments—felt like a crucial piece of a larger puzzle, but without the details, it was just out of reach. The only thing he knew for certain was that something dark was coming, and it was tied to both the Ganondorf cult and the wolf-man.

And he had to be ready for whatever came next. Whatever the hell that might be.

Link sat at one of the long tables in the Smash Bros. Mansion's food court, pushing his food around his plate more than eating it. The mansion, usually full of lively chatter and the sounds of heroes sharing stories, felt quieter today even though Link knew that it was still the same old smash mansion. Maybe it was because he was still on edge after the journey to the Temple of Worlds. Maybe it was because his thoughts were still clouded by the strange visions and unsettling silence from the temple. Either way, he needed time alone to process everything.

He stabbed at a piece of fruit on his plate, sighing softly as he leaned back in his chair. His mind kept circling back to the strange machine in the temple, the haunting images they saw through the binoculars, and that eerie warning about the Dark Multiverse. No matter how hard he tried to make sense of it, none of it seemed to add up.

As Link quietly ate, the sound of footsteps approached, and a familiar voice broke the silence.

"Mind if I join you?"

Link looked up to see Cloud standing beside the table, tray in hand. His usually stoic expression was soft, perhaps sensing that Link could use some company. Link nodded, gesturing to the seat across from him.

Link nodded "Sure. Go ahead."

Cloud sat down, setting his tray on the table, and for a moment, the two ate in silence. There wasn't any awkwardness between them, just the quiet understanding that neither had to fill the space with words unless they wanted to. But after a while, Cloud noticed how distracted Link seemed, his food barely touched.

Cloud looked up at Link concern was all over his face. "You look like you've got something on your mind. What's up?" He said calmly.

Link sighed, setting down his fork. He had been trying to figure out how to explain what had happened at the Temple of Worlds, but even now, it felt... frustratingly pointless. Still, if anyone could understand the weight of uncertainty, it was Cloud.

Link sighed as he looked down at his drink more interested in the bubbles than his friends face "The trip to the temple didn't go the way we expected. We thought we'd find answers, but... instead, it just raised more questions."

Cloud raised an eyebrow, his blue eyes narrowing slightly with curiosity. "More questions?" He asked.

Link nodded, running a hand through his hair as he tried to find the right words. He sighed. "Yeah. We spent all that time getting to Thunderous Mountains, getting to the temple, thinking we'd be able to use the machine there to find out why we've been having those nightmares. But when we got there... it didn't work. There were no traps, no guardians... just a massive room filled with books and some giant machine that showed us multiple worlds. However, when we tried to feed it the things we saw it gave us nothing. Then we found a secret room almost identical to the one above save for the machine that did nothing and books we couldn't open and a machine that also wouldn't give us any answers. Hell it didn't even work."

Cloud frowned, his brow furrowing. Link's frustration was evident, and Cloud could relate to the feeling of chasing after answers only to come up empty-handed. Still, he was curious about one thing. "So, what did you get out of it?" Cloud said trying to inject optimism into his voice.

Link leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms as he stared down at his plate, thinking back to the haunting moment when they'd been warned.

"A warning." Link said, as if unsure on what to say "That's about it. The machine downstairs, the one in the darker part of the temple it kept showing us... chaos. Fire. Nothing we could make sense of. And then, we heard this voice. It told us... that…that the Dark Multiverse was coming."

Cloud blinked rapidly, setting down his fork and leaning forward slightly. "The Dark Multiverse?"

Link nodded, but even he sounded unsure.

"Yeah. The thing is... none of us know what that even means. It was just... a warning. Nothing we could grab onto, nothing concrete. Just that something's coming, and it's from this... Dark Multiverse."

Cloud let the words sink in, but the term didn't hold much meaning for him either. He could sense the weight behind it, though. He had faced enough threats across worlds to know when something was serious, even if he didn't fully understand it. And yet this is something else altogether.

"And that's it?" Cloud said slightly disappointed "No clues, no direction... just a warning?"

Link let out a frustrated breath, nodding.

"Pretty much." Link sighed "All we've got are nightmares on the same night, that keep showing us twisted versions of our worlds... and now this 'Dark Multiverse'..."

Cloud drummed his fingers against the table, his expression thoughtful.

"So... you're being warned about something that you don't even know exists."

Link scoffed, shaking his head.

"Exactly. And to make it worse, we don't even know what we're supposed to do next. We left the temple with... nothing. It feels like we're fighting blind. We don't even know when or what we are supposed to be up against."

Cloud sat back, letting out a low sigh. He knew that feeling all too well—being caught in a storm with no clear path forward, forced to fight through shadows without knowing the enemy. He picked up his fork again, though he barely touched his food.

"Sounds familiar." Cloud said grimly.

Link glanced up at him, offering a small, humorless smile.

"Yeah, I figured you'd get it."

Cloud nodded, taking a bite of his meal as he considered their next steps.

"You've got a warning, at least. That's something. And whatever this…Dark Multiverse is, we'll deal with it. I've seen a lot of things that didn't make sense at first... but we have got a good team here. We'll figure it out."

Link sighed, his shoulders relaxing slightly at Cloud's words. He appreciated Cloud's calm, measured approach to things, even when everything seemed to be spiraling out of control.

"Thanks. I just... don't know how long we have. It feels like it could hit us at any moment."

Cloud's expression grew more serious, and he gave a small nod.

"Then we'll be ready. Whenever it happens."

They sat in silence for a moment, the distant sounds of the mansion's food court filling the room. It wasn't much, but for now, it was enough. They would prepare as best they could, even if they didn't fully understand what was coming. Together, they'd face whatever threat the Dark Multiverse brought with it.

As they continued their lunch, there was a shared, silent determination between them. Answers would come in time. But for now, they had each other. And that was something they could rely on.