"They what?" Dark Link growled.

"Who's here?" Kanto asked.

"Link," a soldier clarified. "He's out towards the left. In the blue." The soldier squinted. "And he's... he's with the princess!"

Dark couldn't believe his ears. He quickly ran to where the soldier had said.

"Out of my way!" he grunted while shoving a smaller footsoldier to the side. He looked out into the battlefield.

"You mean they're not at the village?" Kanto asked.

To Dark's astonishment, there stood the Hero and the princess, weapons in hand, on the desert floor.

"They're here... They're actually here!" Dark couldn't contain his excitement. "This is perfect!"

"Then it's time," Kanto said. "Round up!"

The Yiga knew exactly what this meant. Each soldier began vanishing and reappearing all over the battlefield. With each teleport, more smoke was made, making it impossible to see. The Yiga continued this for a while, not fighting or shooting at the Gerudo... just making chaos.

One by one, the Yiga began to form a circle around the confused Gerudo warriors. Without the ability to see and utterly confused, they all began to cower together in the middle. The Yiga continued teleporting, making the circle smaller and smaller.

"Link," Zelda began. "Link," she repeated, hitting his shoulder. "What are they doing?" Her head darted back and forth at each new Yiga that appeared just feet away. She finally looked over to Link. "What are y-"

He was staring out towards the canyon. Through all the smoke he could see, standing on the top of a sand dune, Dark Link and Master Kanto, looking straight at the two of them.

"He's seen us," he said desperately.

The Yiga began to slow down. One by one they began to stand still, forming a solid circle of soldiers around the Gerudo army as well as Link and Zelda.

"What are they doing?" Riju asked. "Why aren't they attacking?"

Link walked towards the front of the circle and pointed to Dark and Kanto. "That's why."

The two began to walk down the dune. Master Kanto put his hands behind his back and held his head high. He looked down on the crowd in front of him.

They both slipped through the wall of blademasters and footsoldiers and stood in the circle. Zelda walked up behind Link. She scowled at the evil in front of her.

"Nice to see you again," Dark finally said. "I would've preferred it to be on a much smaller scale than a full fledged army, but I'll take what I can get."

"What do you want?" Zelda snapped.

"Oh, come now, Zelda. Why are you asking such a stupid question? Aren't you supposed to be educated? Don't you have years of studies in that head of yours? Or did that just amount to nothing?"

The comment pierced Zelda's heart. Memories of her studies flooded to her mind.

"Save your breath," Kanto cut in. "We'll make this short for you." He began to pace the sand in front of them.

"What we were trying to do, before we were so rudely stopped by your army, was go to Kakariko."

"Paya was right," Zelda said to Link.

"We were to meet you two with our army there, quickly end both of your lives, then move onto the rest of the village, and maybe even Hateno if we had the time. Now, having you two in the desert messes with our plans a bit, but it could actually make them better."

Dark took over. "Yesterday, we sent a group to Kakariko."

Link and Zelda's hearts dropped.

"They were going to scout out the area and report back to us, but..." he began to laugh. "But with both of you here there's no threat. Who'd protect the village? That fossil Impa? Her cowardly granddaughter?" He cackled. "There is no doubt in my mind that they've burned the place to the ground along with everyone there."

Zelda's eyes began to water. "No," she shook her head. "Sheik is there. He could've defended the village, right?" She turned to Link with hopeful eyes. "He's strong."

"I..." his voice was hoarse. "I don't know."

"With the village gone, all we need is you," Dark said.

"Yiga ready!" Kanto shouted.

The Yiga soldiers drew their weapons and prepared to strike the army inside. The Gerudo held up their shields in response.

"I'd have thought you would put up more of a fight, Link," Dark taunted. "I know I certainly would have." He stood face to face with Link like he had during their first encounter.

"Guess the world only allows one hero at a time," he sneered, pointing to himself. He turned away and walked to Kanto.

"No," Link said shortly.

Dark turned back.

Link took Zelda's hand in his. "There's two standing right here."

Dark Link chuckled. "Do you really want that to be your last words?"

All of a sudden, one of the blademasters in the circle clutched his chest, staggered back, and collapsed onto the sand. Everyone turned to the fallen soldier. The Yiga next to him kneeled down and checked his body. On the ground next to him was a slender piece of metal, almost like a needle.

A needle.

Link quickly snapped his head to where the needle had come from. It was a cliff on the right that stood at about 30 feet high. Zelda followed his eyes. Soon, everyone was staring at the cliff.

Looking down from the cliff was Sheik. He stood tall wearing his signature outfit, scarf and all. Walking up behind him was Paya. She wore only her blue tank top that was usually under her robe. Sheik wrapped his arm around her bare shoulder and teleported down to the sand.

The ground began to shake. They could all feel a rumbling in their body. It grew louder and louder until from around the other side of the cliff emerged a gigantic Goron. He turned into a ball and rolled up to where Sheik and Paya stood. He popped up, showing his gigantic arms, extremely small legs and a boulder breaker slung across his back. He wore a blue cape around his neck and a small tuft of white hair on his head. He seemed slightly nervous, but kept a strong face.

Yunobo

———————

Goron Youth

There was then a rustling in the sky above them. A gigantic white bird circled the silent battlefield and appeared to have someone riding on his back. It eventually landed with a gust of wind next to Paya. The bird had magnificent white feathers and wore a gray chest piece with dark armor around it. In his right wing was a great eagle bow.

Teba

———————

Rito Warrior

The person riding on him hopped off his feathery back. The red Zora stood proud with a puffed chest and all teeth on display. He whipped around a shiny lightscale trident.

Sidon

_____________

Zora Prince

Link squeezed Zelda's hand and she squeezed right back. Their fighting spirit had been rekindled. Seeing Sheik, Paya, and the descendants of the Champions was enough to relight the fire of the Gerudo army as well.

"What is this?" Kanto yelled.

Paya stepped forward. "Your little army did, in fact, attack our village." Her voice echoed across the sands. "They attempted to come from the south, just like the last time you invaded us. But our people were prepared. The princess of Hyrule received a divine message and foretold of your attack. Because of this, we requested the help of the descendants of the Champions of old. With our combined power your people didn't stand a chance."

Dark began to grow impatient. "Who in Hyrule are you?" he growled across the desert.

"I am Lady Paya: Leader of the Sheikah. And I will not allow you to take over the Kingdom."

Teba quickly drew his bow and launched 3 bomb arrows at the circle of Yiga. They all exploded on impact, causing many of the Yiga to fly away.

The battle was back on.

Like a wildfire, the Gerudo spread out from the circle and blazed the Yiga. Swords and shields clashed again and battle cries were raised once more.

Yunobo quickly started rolling towards the action. He popped up and swung his gigantic boulder breaker around him, picking multiple Yiga off of the ground. He slammed it into the ground sending sand and bodies flying everywhere.

"Sorry!" he said. "I really don't want to hurt you... but I kind of have to."

He swung his hammer around and caught two more soldiers before throwing them against three other ones. Their bodies collided and fell to the sand.

"Sorry!"

Teba took to the skies and rained down arrows from above. His eagle eyes spotted Link across the war zone. He dive bombed in his direction, swiftly taking out several soldiers on the way down.

"Been a while," Teba said when he landed.

"Good to see you again, Teba," Link responded with a smile.

A speedy footsoldier approached from behind Link.

"Link! Watch your back!" warned Teba.

Link hastily whipped his bow around and shot his five arrows in the direction of the soldier. He puffed into smoke, missing the arrow's path, and reappeared aways from Teba. He quickly shot at it, too, landing an arrow in his shoulder. The Yiga stumbled back, and finally fell to the ground after Link shot a beam of light from the master sword.

Teba looked back at Link's bow in awe.

"Did that thing just shoot five arrows?"

Link nodded. "Savage Lynel Bow. Five at a time."

"That's amazing!"

"Here," Link threw it over to him. "Give it a whirl."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Go for it."

Teba threw Link his other bow. "Thanks, Link. I'll take good care of it," he said before taking to the skies again.

"Link!"

He turned around to see Sidon running up to him. He was panting from the extreme heat he was being exposed to.

"Link," he said between breaths. "How are you not burning in this weather?"

Link chuckled. A Zora wouldn't be used to high temperatures after living in the cool air of the Lanayru Region. He reached into his bag and threw him a fireproof elixir.

"That should help, Sidon."

Sidon quickly downed the elixir, wiped his mouth, and took out his lightscale trident, the same weapon the Zora champion and his sister, Mipha, had used.

"I had Dento make one of these before I went to the village. It feels like I'm fighting right alongside her."

Link smiled and nodded.

"Good luck, Link!" Sidon shouted while running away. "I believe in you!"

Back at the edge of the cliff, Sheik surveyed the area. His eyes scanned the red Yiga uniforms through his hair hanging in front of his face. Then, he spotted him.

Sheik quickly turned to Paya and gave her one of his daggers.

"Stay safe," he said. "If you need help I'm sure Link will be able to provide some."

He began to run off but Paya snatched his hand before he could get too far.

"Where are you going?"

"There's someone I need to face," he said. "Just me."

Paya looked at him with concerned eyes.

"Ok," she stated. "If that's what you need." She then pulled him close and reached up for a small kiss on his cheek.

"Good luck."

Slightly red-faced, Sheik teleported away and and ran towards the man he wished to face:

Vallail Kanto.

Kanto fought alongside Dark, who spewed malice from his sword left and right.

Sheik hunched down and sprinted. He was so low and quick that no one even saw him coming.

He came around Kanto's back, needles in hand. He quickly flicked his wrist and landed three in his left calf. He yelped in pain as Sheik came up behind him and grabbed his back. He threw him backwards and quickly teleported away. Kanto angrily pulled the needles out of his leg and whipped his head around, looking for where they came from. Sheik flung more needles his way, but nearly missed his leg. Kanto traced those needles back to where Sheik crouched.

"A Sheikah warrior..." Kanto grumbled.

Kanto stood and charged Sheik, despite the searing pain in his leg. He ran with both hands gripping his sword. Sheik took out his dagger and stayed still, waiting for Kanto to reach him. Kanto raised his sword and cut towards Sheik. Sheik instantly vanished and reappeared behind Kanto, and quickly cut his lower back.

"Gah!" Kanto clutched his back and swiped at Sheik from behind.

"How do you know our ways?" he growled. "A Sheikah shouldn't have the ability to teleport as the Yiga do!"

Kanto looked through the boy's hair and into his red eyes. They looked back at him with a mix of sorrow and hatred. Kanto then remembered a young boy he had found during his first few days on his own. In a stable hiding from the rain.

"You?" he questioned.

He then flashed to a boy he had seen walking around in the hideout before. It was a quiet boy who never really showed his face. He tended to wear the mask and avoided confrontation. He was the one who had taken Link and dumped his body.

Or, at least, he was supposed to have dumped his body.

Kanto remembered this boy, and was now looking at him once again. It all clicked.

"Traitor!" he shouted.

"I am no traitor," Sheik said through his scarf. "I am a Sheikah who will protect our people from evil like you."

He stared into Kanto's soul. "I have found myself," Sheik stated. "Have you?"

Kanto stood awestruck. His sword hung by his side, limp in his hand. Vallail became lost in thought.

Just then, an arrow from a footsoldier sped through the air and landed deep in Sheik's shoulder. He grimaced and fell to the sand. Dark ran up to Kanto, noticing his leg and back.

"Kanto. Come with me." Dark began to run back into the canyon and towards the Yiga Clan Hideout.

"Where are you going?" Kanto asked as he limped behind him.

"Back. We have one more thing we need to do."

Sheik pulled the arrow from his shoulder. He took some wrapping from his pouch and tied it around the wound. He then ran to the Hero and Princess.

"Link!"

Link flipped his head to Sheik.

"Dark and Kanto are going back to the hideout. They're trying to get away."

"That can't happen," Zelda said. "We have to follow them."

Link nodded. He looked around for Riju. He wanted to make sure they were going to be alright.

Yunobo swung his hammer around, catching a Yiga. He flung him towards Riju, who raised her spear and caught the body with it. She then threw it on the ground. She smiled and looked up at the Goron.

"Nice swing, Yunobo!"

"Oh," Yunobo laughed. "Thanks, Riju. I really don't like doing this."

"Riju!"

They both looked to Link.

"You think you can handle it from here?"

She looked around. "Yes. We will be just fine. Now finish your mission."

Link gave an agreeing nod. He then returned to Zelda, Sheik, and Paya.

"You guys don't have to come," Link said. "You can stay and help."

"All due respect, hero," Zelda said, "but we're staying by your side."

Link nodded and looked to the group.

"Let's finish this."