Archive of Our Own

-Somewhere not in Termina-

Link slowly opened his eyes, rubbing them as he stands up.

“Where am I?” He wondered. He observed his surroundings.

The entire environment was similar to Kokiri forest, albeit different in some details.

The waters are clearly deeper than he could swim for hours before reaching the bottom. There are more Deku flowers around the maze area, the tunnels that usually connect to the Great Deku Tree, the lost woods, and the outside world all lead to a giant Goron racetrack instead, and lastly, all the other Kokiri houses are gone, the only one left was his childhood treehouse with the addition of a second floor.

The last thing he remembered was defeating Majora with the help of The Fierce Deity mask it gave him.

Everything went black after that, so what exactly is this place? How did he even arrive here?

“Am I dead?” He wondered, perhaps this is some sort of purgatory.

He does not fear death as he faced them head-on multiple times in his adventures, but he doubts the Goddesses will let him kick the bucket especially when he is still young and strong.

“Nevermind, even if I were dead, Malon would bring me back to life just to scold me for leaving Epona alone” Link attempted to humor himself.

Since he is no longer restricted with the impending end of the world, he is going to take his time and recount what happened during these seemingly endless cycles, to make sense of his current situation.

When he first entered Termina, he remembered thinking that it was all just a dream.

A dream that took advantage of his desire to be a hero like he was once more.

Helping familiar faces yet different people in similar yet unfamiliar places.

It made sense at first, during his younger days, he would often indulge himself in fantasies of adventures in distant lands.

Dreaming of a strange place like Termina wouldn’t be so far-fetched.

But that thought was quickly shattered after he remembered the monsters he encountered, the bosses he fought, they all left all sorts of marks over his body.

Getting your life energy sucked from a Gibdo was just as painful as it was back in Hyrule with a Redead, so Termina can’t be merely a dream.

But what about his current situation?

He looked around his surroundings yet again, since this couldn’t be a dream, the other option would be a hallucination.

Perhaps he’s become insane, he’s probably outside of Clocktown doing who-knows-what, yet his mind is in whatever this place is.

He recalled that aside from not being in touch with reality, crazy people hear voices inside their heads, so he wondered if he passed that line some time ago.

The first voice appeared as soon as he stepped into the world of Termina, he tends to make shivering whimpers whenever he hears loud noises, like regular bombs, the happy mask salesman’s giant organ, and other huge explosions like the ‘sky bombs’ that are present on the final day in clocktower, and powder kegs.

Link had lost count of the times where this voice’s shrill shrieking would give him mild headaches and instinctively avoid using explosions as much as he could since then.

This voice is also the most playful out of all the ones he had, urging Link to play the carnival games or repeatedly asked him to play hide and seek with the bombers. Link admits that the games around Clock town seem fun, it reminds him of simpler times back in Kokiri forest. However, at the time, there are far more important matters at hand, so he ignored the pleas of the first voice.

He found the second voice in Snowhead. He talks sparingly, but whenever he opens his mouth, Link could feel that this voice is a strong warrior with a gentle spirit, but his brotherly affection is shown the most out of all those qualities. This brotherly voice would also regularly soothe the shy voice, which helped a great deal for Link since he squealed less often than usual, leaving fewer headaches to deal with.

He couldn’t remember the time where the second voice wouldn’t constantly bombard his thoughts with words of advice or encouragement as soon as he had negative thoughts of himself, it honestly can get quite repetitive.  

“That’s because you kept saying bad things to yourself over and over again!”, Link bet that’s what the voice would’ve said in response.

The third voice appeared right after he played the song of healing to Mikau.

He remembered how useless he felt, constantly rewinding time, finding ways to save him.

He tried taking Mikau to the professor but he couldn’t save him, he tried giving him a fairy, shoved a dozen bottles of red potions, and even dragged him all the way to the Great Fairy fountain and his body still wouldn’t move an inch.

He remembered wanting to cry but stopped himself from doing so, thinking it was pointless to release it all, and bottled up his feelings instead. He needed to focus at the time and couldn’t afford any distraction from his ever-fluctuating emotions.

As for the voice, he was cheery, overly energetic, and full of life, a very sharp contrast in a depressing and lifeless place like Great Bay.

However, Link could tell that this voice was quick to act before he thinks. His default volume was almost as loud, if not even louder than the shy voice’s shrill screaming.

Link remembered that one incident where he swims in a ‘peculiar’ way in his Zora form and was immediately scolded by the voice.

“SERIOUSLY KID, HAVE YOU EVEN SEEN A ZORA SWIM BEFORE!? YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE SWIMMING LIKE A DOLPHIN! AND YOU DON’T EVEN NEED TO USE MAGIC TO DO THAT SHI-“

“Language!” one of them interjected before covering his mouth from further speaking.

And since then, Link just kept swimming that way to spite him even more.

 …but it got worse, especially during boss battles.

Whenever Link fights the bosses, the third voice would keep echoing around his mind,

“YEAH! HIT ‘EM EVEN HARDER!”

“NOT OVER THERE YOU DUMBASS!”

“AW COME ON IT WAS SO CLOSE!!”

“WHY ARE YOU STILL SWIMMING LIKE THAT!?”

He does this as if he was cheering on a sports game.

Fortunately, he was silenced (presumably) by the two earlier voices mid-fight but unfortunately instead of mild headaches, Link had even painful headaches to deal with for the next few cycles.

Link remembered a conversation his delusions had after this,

“I told you to tone down your voice!” the brotherly voice scolded him

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? THIS IS AS LOW AS I CAN-“

“SHHHHH!”

“Just imagine yourself in a library” The timid voice suggested

“WHAT’S A LIBRARY!?”

“Just imagine yourself surrounded by sleeping Zora babies!” The timid voice responded

Since then, the third voice would significantly lower down his volume, but at times, his previous habit would slip up.

He thought the third one would be the last of them, but then came the fourth one from Majora’s Moon.

He feels off... for some reason, Link could barely feel anything from the fourth voice whereas the other three had some characteristics to them like shyness, brotherly affection, and impulsiveness. This fourth one is just nothing as if he’s stripped away of something that made him human.

Coincidentally, he appeared right after Majora gave him The Fierce Deity mask.

He wondered, maybe the reason why he kept hearing all these voices is that he missed Navi so badly that he internalized multiple friends to make him feel less lonely throughout his entire adventure.

Not that Tatl isn’t doing a good job assisting him, it just feels nice to have someone else know what you’ve been through throughout these endless cycles.

But it’s dangerous to rely on figments of imagination for emotional stability. Link knew that, so he ignored them throughout the entire adventure.

Then he heard something from the treehouse.

“Looks like I’m not the only one in here.” He thought to himself before climbing up the ladder.

---

Mikau was uncertain on what to do with this situation, something unexpected happened to Link after he defeated that heart container reject and that led the four of them unable to connect with him anymore, and Darmani’s big brother instinct went nuts.

The big guy’s first reaction was to throw Fierce Deity to a wall.

With Darmani like this, the poor little scrub started running towards Mikau in panic.

“What did you do to him!?” The Darmani demanded

Mikau came between the man in white and the Goron, “Calm down big guy, I’m sure we can sort this out-” but he was pushed aside.

“YOU KILLED HIM DIDN’T YOU!” Darmani roared

The Deku scrub trembled at the booming roar and hugged Mikau tightly.

Fierce Deity didn’t say anything, his usual neutral face is replaced with ferocity.

Mikau and Deku Scrub shuddered heavily at his soul-piercing glare and they’re not even the ones being stared at!

Darmani remained unfazed, “YOU KNEW LINK WAS TOO TIRED TO WIELD YOUR POWER” he punched him only to miss.

Fierce Deity pulled the Goron’s punch, using his body weight to throw him off to the same wall, leaving a bigger crack behind it.

The Goron got up, tackling him with a goron roll as he rolled the pale man all over the treehouse like a giant pinball machine before finally ground-pounding him to the floor.

“YOU WERE WORKING ALONGSIDE MAJORA ALL ALONG WEREN’T YOU?! TO TRICK HIM INTO WEARING YOU AND LEAD HIM TO HIS DEATH!”

The fiery tension doubled as Fierce Deity slowly got up and unsheathes his double helix blade. “If that is the case, then it’s foolish of him to plan for his death!” Fierce Deity snarled.

Darmani merely yelled a battle cry before fighting him once more.

“Mr.Mikau! how do we stop this!?”

Mikau panicked, he had to do something before both of them wreck this place!

A metaphorical lightbulb appeared on top of his head.

He quickly pulled out his fins and hit them with just enough force to get their attention.

“For the love of the goddess of time! Can you two calm down and think this through?!” He shouted.

There was silence.

Mikau gulped, had he made a mistake? Were those two going to beat him up instead? Oh well…

The silent atmosphere was broken by a sniffle.

Darmani wept,

Fierce Deity squinted, he looks unsure of what to do in this situation.

Mikau approached Darmani and gave him a soft rub in the back in a sad attempt to comfort him.

“I-I just couldn’t believe it”

“….I shouldn’t have blamed you” he broke down crying

Fierce Deity dropped his blade, his neutral expression remains unchanged.

Then someone came into the room.

“Excuse me, can anyone tell me where this is-“ The kid in green widened his eyes as he looks at all of them.

Mikau’s jaw dropped.

---

Link knew these faces

“Oh, my Din” link muttered, all eyes focusing on him with a shocking look on their faces.

There was the Deku Scrub, the first mask Link received after playing the song of healing to himself.

Then there was Darmani, the proud Goron Warrior, the second mask before he reached Snowhead.

Then there was Mikau, the Zora guitarist from Great Bay, the third mask.

And then there was The Fierce Deity, Link was unsure how to describe him other than he was in the process of beating the crap out of someone in this room, after looking at the mess in here.

But he knows that at least three of them had one thing in common, they are dead.

So that must mean…

“am I dea-?”

“Mr. Hero! You’re alive!” The Deku scrub happily squealed

Darmani immediately gave Link the biggest Goron hug that rivaled Darunia’s.

“Young warrior, you’re alive!” the Goron hugged tighter as he wept

“ack!” Link choked

“Mr.Darmani, you’re going to suffocate him!” Deku Scrub shouted

Darmani quickly let his grip down and sniffled, “I apologize, we were so worried about you”

Link regained his breath.

“hey lil’ guy, it’s nice to see you doing fine after your last battle” Mikau pats his back and smiled.

Link was unsure how to respond to this.

“Where am I exactly?” he wanted to make sure if he was in some type of purgatory.

“Well, we’re either in your mind or conscience, but we don’t know for sure since you passed out and we’re still here.” Mikau responded

“But we know it’s somewhere in your head, that’s for sure” Deku scrub squeaked happily.

“So being dead is out of the question.” Link thought to himself

“If this is my head then how are all of you here?” Link questioned the three

“I don’t know” Deku scrub shrugged, “after you healed all of us, POOF” he made a flashy hand gesture

“-we’re suddenly here” the scrub continued.

“except for him over there” Mikau pointed at The Fierce Deity, “He appeared out of the blue”

“In here, we’ve been watching your adventures young warrior” The Goron calmly spoke

“we’ve also been assisting you, Mr. Hero! Like that one time I told you how to not lose momentum as you hop on a lily pad?”

“Or the part where I had reminded you many times to STOP SWIMMING LIKE THAT! IN MY FORM!?” Link swear he could see a vein nearly popped out from Mikau.

“Yup! we sort of made ourselves cheerleaders for a lack of a better term” Deku scrub laughed.

“I see..” He stares at the three in disbelief. So these people were the ones he kept hearing.

“I know it sounds crazy but you understand what we’re saying, right Mr.Hero?” the Deku scrub inquired.

“…I understand now”

All this time, he’s truly never alone, these people have been cheering him, urging him to keep on going, comfort him in hard times.

He wanted to believe that

He truly wanted to

But it seems too good to be true, it’s not healthy to believe in delusions, he has to snap out of this somehow.

 “I understand that I have gone mad” He stated blankly

They widened their eyes in shock.

“KID! YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!”  Mikau was in disbelief

“young warrior, what made you draw this conclusion” Darmani was heartbroken

Link ignored them as he talked to himself “On top of that, I was basing my delusions off from people who have passed, Unbelievable!”

“Delusions!-“Mikau complained

“The real them are probably up there somewhere, playing cards together, drawing pictures of each other, play music together, or doing other happy things, they are definitely NOT stuck in my head in this entire journey” he assured himself.  

“Actually, we did all of those things in here” Deku scrub remarked, “except for Mr. Kamaro, he was pretty fine dancing on his own, so we leave him alone on the top floor.”

Link pinched the bridge of his nose “Oh my Din, I should really follow Zelda’s advice for booking a Psychiatrist, this is getting worse.”

Before the masks could say anything further, he blacked out

--Somewhere outside Clock Town--

“He’s awake!” Tael exclaimed

“Are you alright Link?” Tatl circled him

“Yeah, you’ve been out cold for a while...” Tael continued

Link groaned, he opened his eyes and look around his surroundings, he’s no longer in his childhood home but outside of Clock Town instead. He saw Skull kid conversing with the four giants, it seems like they’re sorting out problems of their own.

Link sighed in relief, “back to reality…”

 “Was I doing something Tatl?” he asked the fairy

“No, you’ve been sleeping this entire time” She replied

“So that has been a dream then..” He thought to himself

“OH, COME ON! WHAT WILL MAKE YOU CONVINCED!?” a familiar impulsive voice responded.

Link grimaced, “nevermind, there’s still something wrong in my head”

He saw Skullkid approached him and ignored the complaints of his other voices.

“Did you save me?” Skull kid examined Link in scrutiny

Link nodded

“I thought they didn’t want to be friends with me” He looked towards the distance before continuing

“But..They haven’t forgotten about me”

“Friends are nice things to have”

Link agreed with the sentiment, “which is why I should continue looking for her” he thought to himself, he needs to know why she left him.  

“Could you be my friend too?”

“of course,” Link smiled softly as skull kid observed him

Both chuckled “ehe-he.. you have the same smell as the fairy kid who taught me that song in the woods”

Link noticed the happy mask salesman in the distance, holding the heart-shaped mask.

“Well now..I finally have it back” he quickly switched to a humbling position, “though I am in the midst of my travels, I couldn’t help but notice the immense happiness I feel from your masks”

“Happiness?”

“It seems that they have become so happy that they have grown attached to you, their spirits are currently residing in your mind.” He gave a confirmation

Link widened his eyes, So he wasn’t crazy after all…

Thank the goddesses for that! Link sighed in relief.

But then again, he was really mean towards them, after all they did, he dismissed their existence just because of sheer pessimism.

“I really need to owe them an apology,” he thought to himself

“DAMN RIGHT YOU DO KID!” Mikau’s voice echoed throughout his mind

“SHHH”

“be quiet! he’s having an important conversation!” Darmani scold him

“Shouldn’t you return home as well?” the mask salesman inquired

Link was unsure, his home is in Hyrule, but he still needs to find Navi.

He shrugged

The happy masked salesman simply smiles “Whenever there is a meeting, a parting is sure to follow. However, that parting need not last forever” he started walking away.

He stopped “Whether a parting be forever or merely for a short time…. That is up to you” he bowed down.

“With that, I bid you farewell” he walked away from both of them.

Link took that words to heart and waved goodbye to the happy mask salesman.

He turned his face towards his yellow companion, “Well, both of us have gotten what we were after..”

“So this is where we part ways, isn’t it?” Tatl asked

Link nodded as he wiped the tiny tears in his eye

“It’s almost time for the carnival to begin, so why don’t you just leave and do your business? The rest of us have a carnival to go to”

He nodded as he hopped onto Epona, he smiled at them one last time as he rides away.

“Everyone...I’m sorry” he muttered

“Apology accepted Mr.Hero!” Deku scrub chirped

“Is there anything I can do to make up-?” He asked his friends

“Yes!” Mikau interjected quickly

”If the carnival is today then the Indigo-gos are going to perform tomorrow!” The Zora warrior panicked “You’ll have to practice quickly and play in my place!”

“Alright, calm down, I’ll do the best I can, what else do I need to do before I leave here?”

Darmani recalled, “The Gorons wanted you as their new chief after beating Goht, I’m afraid you will need to elaborate my future absence.”

The Deku Scrub raised his hand, “I heard the Deku princess and her father are going to the Carnival a couple of days from now, I’m not worried about the princess, but you’ll have to make sure his highness the Deku King to not be.. how to say it?” the deku scrub scratched his chin.

“A jackass?” Mikau suggested

“No, I was thinking of overprotective and overbearing to the princess” he replied before shooting the fish’s cheek with a bubble “Also watch your language please”

Mikau rubbed his cheek “THAT HURT YOU LITTLE SHI-“

Another bubble hits his face, “I said LANGUAGE” he stressed it further

the voices from his head overlapped each other as Mikau chased the deku scrub in link’s Mind

Link sighed before urging Epona to head west to Great Bay.

A milk wagon passed him and a red-haired girl popped out from its end

“Boo!”

“!” Link flinched, almost falling off his horse.

The girl chuckled “Hiya Grasshopper” she waved “did I scared you?” she flashed a mischievous grin.

“Ro-Romani? What are you doing here?” he rode along with the cart

“Oh, my sister and I just saw the moon disappeared, so we decided to visit her friend for her wedding ceremony tomorrow, she said we are also there to stock up the wedding ceremony with bundles of Chateau Romani for the guests!”

“Oh, that’s great!” Link smiled  

“I know right? I get to visit the town! But the part that sucks is where I’ll be the flower girl” she pouted.

“it can’t be that bad, can it?” Link was unsure what that meant.

“you’re forced to wear itchy ugly dresses just to throw flowers everywhere.”

“oh”

She sighed “it can’t be helped, see you later grasshopper!” Romani waved frantically as the wagon pick up the speed, leaving Link behind.

If Chateau Romani is going to be provided for the guests in Anju’s wedding, Link can’t simply pass up the opportunity to taste the mouthwatering creamy beverage once more.

“Looks like there’s going to be a lot of things to do in here….” He smiled as he jots them all in his bomber’s notebook.

1. Go to Band Practice
2. Visit Kafei and Anju’s wedding
3. Steal all the Chateau Romani Buy some Chateau Romani before leaving
4. Accompany Deku princess and her overbearing Father in the carnival
5. Explain Darmani’s absence to the Gorons..somehow

“COME OVER HERE SO I CAN SMACK YOU!”

Oh right, Mikau is still chasing the poor Deku Scrub.

“Never! Not until you apologize!”

He groaned before urging Epona to change direction again to the Great Bay, he needs to attend band practice after all.

---

Bonus

-warning: idiotic author-

“How is it that you never tell me directly that all of you were the ones I healed before?” Link asked

“Well, we tried everything we could think of, but you keep ignoring us” Deku Scrub replied

“We tried playing annoyingly catchy music, we tried mimicking a giant horde of cuccos, we even tried imitating that cute farm girl you like back in your home but none of us have a high pitch girly voice “the Zora recalled as he counted his fingers, “you kept thinking we were a bunch of delusions, so it’s pointless”

Link kept himself from mentally screaming, “how did you know about Malon?“

“C’mon Kid, it’s obvious, I’ve seen the memories, you stammered a lot in front of her, you take your horse for a ‘checkup’ and you ask for a milk refill as an excuse to see her often, you even had a dedicated memory book of her in here” Mikau smirked

“That’s an invasion of privacy right there!” Link was about to scream in embarrassment, but fortunately, the Deku Scrub switched the topic.

“Isn’t that similar to what you do whenever you see LuLu?”.

Mikau’s pale blue skin turned crimson red immediately.

“You smile and got lost in your own thoughts whenever you see her face in posters, you stuttered even when she’s talking to Mr. Hero in your form, and-“

“WAS IT THAT OBVIOUS!?”

“I don’t see what the problem is, you are Lulu’s husband after all” Deku Scrub shrugged

“Yeah but I’m supposed to be a Zora Warrior! I can’t be seen doing embarrassing things like that!”

“Mikau and lulu swimming in the sea, K-I-S-S-I-N-“ Link grinned

“SHUT YOUR YAP KID!” Mikau covered his flustered face “YOU’RE NO BETTER EITHER!”

“…” Fierce Deity frowned in confusion at this chaos

“I don’t quite understand what they’re talking about either” Darmani added, turning towards the tall man. “Do you want to try Goron wrestling?”

Fierce Deity didn’t respond, his face remains unchanged. Darmani couldn’t tell if he was still mad at him.

“…I’m sorry about that earlier” he sighed, “I was mad at you for something you didn’t do..” he faced the floor in shame.

Fierce Deity looked at him, he stayed silent for a while. “I was thinking the last time we fought, it wasn’t big enough…and if I’m not mistaken, the remaining room was taken by the dancer.”  He blankly stated.

Darmani smiled softly, It looks like he got over it quickly,” There’s extra space outside, but if you want to stay inside, you can try arm wrestling.”

He could feel a faint twinkle from Fierce’s pale eyes, “that would be amusing”

As they both walked away from the bickering between Link and Mikau towards a nearby table