Angela
It took no time at all for the golden wolf to appear out of the corner of Sheik's eye, bounding fast by the magical pull of the song— on top of the emotional turmoil within Shade.

The offer of comfort, the offer of Sheik to see him. The— reassurance that she would not fear him (and he believed her, because why would she lie to him?). And after the conversation that occurred, how futile it felt, crushing and reminding him endlessly of the year where he was barely able to move from his house in the Kokiri Woods... 

It was no wonder how fast he arrives. Standing before Sheik with his ears back and tail lowered...

... And then the cracking of bones, and standing before her in his full form. The same height as he was as an adult, slightly taller from the lift he was given by moss-covered boots. The echoing sound, repetitive, of breathing. Inhale... Inhale... Inhale...

And the singular eye light, red and glowing from the Stalfos's skull. Ghostly, spectral tears dripping from the socket. 

It felt like home, standing in front of Sheik.
Elbert
They shouldn't have come.

There's a tumultuous feeling that was difficult to describe, all encompassing and suffocating. He had no lungs, no voice, yet it all had been too much and it made them want to scream. The frustration that welled within, the pleas, the complete and utter helplessness- it was painful. Genuinely painful, in a way that was becoming far too common. Her emotions running high, and then running from them.

Maybe that's why he was here in the first place. Where he first thought to run to, even knowing they wouldn't be expected. *He shouldn't have come without asking first-*

Yet there she was. Laying low in the shadow of their other once more, no matter the shape of it. Listening to the muffled outside through the steady drip of water, watching from behind mist. Despite knowing, somehow she simply could not leave.

Maybe it was because they didn't know where else to go, right now. Not when they feel like this.
John
As the melody died, she caught the flash of gold out of the corner of her eyes. There, a golden wolf, which she knew must be him.

Link. The Hero's Shade. 

She lowered her harp just as the wolf transformed, becoming a creature she had seen (and fought) many times during Ganondorf's rule. A Stalfos. Yet she had expected this from what he had told her, and true to her word, there was no fear in her eyes as they settled on the form of her old friend. 

He was crying.

Sheik stepped forward, reaching out a gloved hand for him to grasp, if he should wish to. As much as she yearned to hug her oldest and dearest friend, she did not know if he would welcome the touch. The Link she had known had hugged easily, but he had still been the child of the forest... She knew, from the parchment, how much he had changed. And the last thing she would wish was to make him uncomfortable. 

"My friend," She said, voice soft. "Now I see you at last... How I have missed you."
Angela
Stuck standing still, waiting for Zelda to move first— not wanting to truly make her afraid of him... It was horrid for Shade. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her, but knowing that she would feel nothing but cold metal, bones, and a shivering feeling from the more spectral parts of his form was enough to keep him still.

Distantly, he is immediately aware of something clicking. Rather, someone returning. A feeling of wholeness sits resolute in the center of being. It settles, the feeling of its shadow returned releasing an unnatural sigh. *Relief, understanding*. 

And— a hand, was offered. Two slow, careful gauntlets reach out to clasp around the hand. Shade finds it easy to listen to the voice that he had followed as easily as his own breath in the years of his knighthood. The years he spent chasing after her, back and forth through time. Following her instructions. 

But his very bones shake, legs giving out as he drops to his knees and his head tilts down. Shade's entire body rattles, tears fast and dropping to the ground. 

"*I—...* Have missed you, too, Zelda..." A voice that shook just as much as its own body did. *I am too old to be crying in such a way...*

Yet it does.
Elbert
They're intruding.

He would peel his eyes away if he could, cover his ears so that the two could have a moment of peace. That's not how it worked though, it's not how a shadow functions. A detached observer through a lens obscured, they saw and they heard in what was all too distant yet all too close. Dread settled in as she observed the body drop, and she kept still.

There was nothing else she could do.

He could feel the sorrow though. Stronger than ever before that pain made itself known. It's loss, they think. Or it was loss. The loss of something more than just yourself, and finding it once more. It carves a neat hole deep within.

The Shade's shadow shifts just ever so slightly, ever so uncomfortably.
John
She did not care that her friend was no longer flesh. Slender yet strong arms wrapped around bones, pulling Shade close. He was cold to the touch, no longer holding the warmth of the living, but it did not matter.

Link. Her friend. Her hero. The boy whom she had guided from the shadows. She would never fear him, never recoil. 

"My dearest friend," She whispered. "I feel your sorrow as keenly as if it were my own. You have lost so much. Yet you still endure, caring so, *So* Much. How deeply you have always cared. I could not be there for you... But I am now. Oh, my friend, I am here now."

She understood how it was to have suffered through so much and yet there was no one who could truly understand you. Even in a world where the Hero of Time was remembered, there was no one who truly understood what it was to be entangled in a never-ending cycle the Goddesses had ordained. 

Just as Link... Just as Shade had found no one who truly remembered *Him*.
Angela
The gauntlets that held Sheik's hand released when she pulled away, and for a temporary moment fear settled in. But just as easily, it was washed away from the comfort that flooded as familiar arms wrapped about Shade's frame. 

This was Zelda. His princess. His queen. This was one of his dearest friends. Though it may be impossible for her to be her forever friend as Saria would, just by nature of Saria's being, Zelda was as forever as the two of them persisted. Throughout time and cycles, they came together. He sees it now, in this era. Though different a relationship than the kind himself and Sheik had— the love held there was a strong a flame. Familial, almost. A friendship that burned darkness. 

After long moments, hesitant and still terrified of recoil, Shade finally embraced Sheik back. Embraced Zelda. 

"I... I cannot place words... But my heart is open for you to read as easily as a book. I cannot understand..."

Shade can't comprehend why his kindness is scorned. Why all of his attempts, his *Shadow's* Attempts, had been thrown aside for this person to jump into his own potential doom. It cannot piece together reason. And so Shade cannot help but mourn someone who is still alive. For the same reason it mourns its own shadow, if he were to ever need to return to that time. And the same reason it mourns all of those lost— in the time loops, in the erased timeline. 

It mourns, and weeps, for things that no longer are. Its gauntlet reaches up to remove its helm, setting it aside... And there is the faintest flicker of a face, and hair, and ears, that flickers. Just for a moment.
Elbert
That- that stung more than they thought it would.

He'd already grown used to seeing his own face on the other side of things. Yet there was a certain level of shock that doesn't go away each and every time, like it's a mistake. She'd thought she'd never see it again, for she has no reflection nor shadow herself. There it was though, just for a moment on something that once more becomes skeletal and lifeless. Their face. *Their face*.

And they cannot stand to see themself cry for someone that scorns them, no matter the form.

Sight and sound becomes clearer as they claw their way through the shadow, one unsteady limb at a time. Like a wraith raising from a ground, transparent form growing clearer and clearer until it's solid. His hands shake, body set in an unfamiliar tremble that makes them want to recoil. To sink back down, to keep themself in check, to allow time for that whirlwind of hurt to lessen. They don't. They don't want to be scared anymore.

There's a careful step forward as the shadow moves from behind the Shade, and a hand that once was poised to kill now moves to rest on the other's shoulder in reassurance.

They don't want to be scared.
John
Her heart broke. Though her hero was older, though he had stood the test of time for so very long, there still lay within him the heart of the child who had come from the forest. The boy who had wished only to help others, to see their happiness. The boy who had once smiled so brightly at her, pleased and proud when he'd mastered a song she had taught him. 

The cycle was cruel. To take an innocent and force him to grow up far too quickly in the name of destiny. Why, of all people, had the Goddesses placed such a burden on his shoulders?

The weight of the Triforce, even only a part of it, was often too much to bear. 

And there... The shadow. She had guessed what they were by reading the parchment, though she had never voiced her thoughts. She knew the purpose of the shadow, but the shadow had clearly begun to grow a life of their own. This had been something Sheik had not wanted to take from her. 

"Often," She said, "There will be those who scorn our kindness. We cannot always know the reason why. Quite often, these people themselves are afraid. They have not been dealt a kind hand, a soft word, or the touch of someone who cares for them. So they react to those who reach out to them with fear and anger, for they believe they are protecting themselves. They are hurt, and therefore, they believe they must protect themselves at all costs."

She pulled back just slightly, not enough to leave Shade's embrace, but simply so he could see her face. One hand freed to pull down her cowl, for she had no desire to hide her face from him. 

"You are so kind, my dear friend. You have always wanted to help, to reach out even to those who would scorn you. And it hurts you when that kindness does not reach them. Oh, my friend, for all who can be saved, there will be those who do not wish for such salvation, no matter how hard one tries."
Angela
Time was, in all senses, cruel. Cruel to Shade, to Sheik. Cruel to those left behind, cruel to his past souls and those of the future. 

Shade sees it now, in each of the other heroes that have taken up the mantle. Some after his failure in other times, others after his disappearance that led to the sea. More still, further within the depths of their endless cycle of children bearing arms up to defend their lives. The former knight had kept it all together, pushing forward. He had followed the order that Sheik had given him first— to patrol the river and defend those who were in danger along it.

Then still when Fierce, his counterpart— himself, yet not, had asked of it to follow their shared enemy...

Cruelty, in when he felt more than saw Ruby grip and claw themselves out of the ground. Shivering, as if terrified... Only to lay a hand on its shoulder. It cracked the mask that was in shambles around him further. Cruelty in that the goddesses had not allowed Ruby courage in spades, as Shade had himself. But instead must make their own. 

That skeletal face (something squirms in him, knowing it was *His* Skull that stared, stripped of everything that was visibly *Him*) tilts up, listening to Sheik speak. Watching her reveal her face to him, as she had all those years ago. 

"A ghost... Of my past. I can try, and try, to make him understand... But it is inevitable, much that destiny is." Shade's voice is quiet, wafer thin. That red eye light turns with a tilt of his head, to meet the reds of Ruby's own eyes. "I... Do not want to give up. If I... Give up... If I *Fail*... There may still be a chance, to change destiny once more." 

The tears slowed, dripping like morning rain off his moss-covered cheek. It is a strange thing to see a Stalfos cry, Shade must imagine.
Elbert
Ruby remained ever quiet, but the slight squeeze of their hand on Shade's shoulder spoke enough.

They didn't think that he would. If there's one they always were, it was *Stubborn*... Even if they'd probably put it in a nicer way. That there was a way to save everyone, or at least do their part to make their suffering much less. That change can be brute forced, that things must be changed for the better.

That anything that resists is not a fault of others. It's a fault of the self. That if only you try harder, things can be changed... They cannot.

He can't blame it for trying. He can't blame it for wanting things to be different, no matter how easy it was before. If they tried they're sure they could. She could find a way to hate, to hate the naivety, to hate that their nature was inclined to want the best at often the detriment of themself. Yet she doesn't want to. He wants that hope sometimes, too.

Maybe it was strange, yet it was still them.

The shadow moves to kneel down beside their other, hand kept on his shoulder.