The Legend of Zelda: Dark Renewal

The Legend of Zelda:

Dark Renewal

Kingdom's Heart

Part 1

by

Allen Martin Bair

2014

Chapter 1

"Well, let's see what's on the news today, shall we?" The seemingly young man announced to no one in particular as he flicked his one good hand towards the television monitor in front of him He then went to prepare his lunch of spiced pumpkin soup and a ham sandwich, all the while keeping both ears open for anything of note.

He lived alone, that much was clear, as his private living space within the expansive, gilded structure was about as disorganized as any bachelor could make it, and he received few visitors. There was a bed meant for a single person, a table and a few chairs, a kitchen area which had recently been updated with all the "modern" conveniences, and a few other furnishings which made it just livable. There was also the addition of the television monitor which he had received as a gift from the royal family some two or three decades ago when he discovered the outside world now used it extensively for news and entertainment.

Every so often, about once a month, a representative from Hyrule's royal family would visit to deliver supplies and keep him personally informed of the goings on in the outside world. These visits had been begun by his mother and brother, and they continued with his brother's children, and then grandchildren with the unusual surname of "Johnson" (that is, "John's son") which had been adopted by his brother's son after he succeeded his father. Now, they were made by distant relatives of the current royal family who had been "honored" with the inherited task of seeing to his well being. He had not yet met the current king, or his traditionally named daughter, Zelda Johnson, though he had watched them on the television. Nevertheless, the visits were a kindness that he still appreciated, even after two hundred years of being unable to leave the confines of his "home." His most recent visitor had been a ginger haired, elder Lady with kind eyes and a compassionate nature who reminded him very much of his queen mother in her later years. Lady Malona Johnson was her name, and she was his great-great-great-great-grand-neice.

As prisons went, he knew there were certainly worse. He could go anywhere inside the expansive temple, and he had. He had learned its secrets well, and over the years had learned to appreciate his penance serving as the Lady Hylia's Sage and temple guardian. But he could not leave it. That was the price for his foolishness and offenses against Hyrule's Sages and their gods centuries ago. He could never set foot in the rest of Hyrule again.

When it was necessary, the other Sages would visit him from time to time as well, though that had not happened in several decades. They were wary and distrustful of him to begin with, and a few openly questioned the Lady Hylia's judgment. He didn't blame them. He knew he would have reacted the same way for what he had done.

"The Princess Zelda has made a new proposal today to parliament..." The news broadcast began to say, and Talon turned his head to see the image on the screen of an attractive teenage girl with blue eyes and long blond hair. She was the spitting image of his long dead aunt, so much so that as he watched the girl grow up in front of the cameras he began to grow concerned.

But she was, after all, a descendant of Hyrule's royal family and it shouldn't have surprised him that someone in the line of descent would eventually resemble her. And the name Zelda was a traditional name for the crown princess. Since his brother, there had been no less than three Zeldas born to the Royal family, though admittedly none of them resembled _the_ Zelda like this one did. So far though, it was just this one girl who resembled his aunt. In two hundred years he had seen no trace of anyone who resembled his father, _the_ Hero.

He listened to the anchor ramble on about her equality proposals for non-Hylian citizens of the United Kingdoms of Hyrule. "It shouldn't even be necessary, now should it?" He told the television.

He remembered a time when no one would have questioned whether or not gorons or ordonians had the same level of intelligence or the same basic rights as Hylians. But things had changed. New and foolish ideas were spread far and wide. There was an explosion of thought and education around the time of his imprisonment with the development of the printing press. Some of those thoughts were worth teaching and sharing with the whole world, but there were many that would have been better left unprinted in his opinion.

The Princess Zelda was something of a champion against these poor and damaging ideas, and she was a staunch supporter of equal rights for all of Hyrule's people, not just those with high cheekbones and pointed ears. And she had a way with words that made people want to listen to her and consider them. So far, she had managed to keep the racist, extremist political parties where they belonged, on the fringes and in the minority. As her "too-many-greats-to-remember" grand uncle, he was proud of her and what she had been able to accomplish.

"In other news, there was a house fire in a local neighborhood in Ordonville today." Talon brought his lunch over and placed it on the table and sat down to watch. Ordonville wasn't far from where the Temple of Time existed in space and time in its Sacred Grove in Hyrule. He watched the screen as flames leapt out of the upstairs window of what had been a nice, two story home in a rural neighborhood. He had just taken a spoonful of his soup when the news continued. "The local volunteer fire department was called out to put out the fire which nearly destroyed the home and almost cost the lives of the Finniels, a local family of five. They were miraculously saved by a courageous local teenager who, taking no thought for himself, plunged into the burning home and brought all of them out of the house safely." An image of a dark blond, sixteen or seventeen year old Hylian boy carrying a two year old Ordonian girl out of a burning building came on the screen, his forest green shirt burned and blackened in several places. His face was displayed clearly and plainly on the screen as the report continued.

The hot soup which had been in his mouth blew across the table in a messy orange spray. On the television, a reporter quickly interviewed the "hero-boy." "So, what made you just rush into the burning home?"

"I don't know. I didn't really think about it. I saw the smoke coming from the house as I was going to meet my uncle. I ran over to see what was happening and I heard Elsie screaming for help. The next thing I knew I was busting into the house and running through it grabbing everyone I could and getting them outside." The boy said. "I just knew I had to help them. I was the only one who could."

"No." Talon said. "No, that's not possible. The cycle was finished. The legend is over."

"What's your name, son?" The reporter asked.

"Don't say it." Talon pleaded with the television. "Don't say it. Please don't say it."

"Link Faroson." The teenage boy told him.

"Great goddesses..." Talon whispered. "That can't be. That just can't be." His food forgotten, he sat back in his chair and just stared at the boy who looked so much like himself he could have been his twin brother come back from the dead. Except that wouldn't have been nearly as horrifying to him as this. There on the television screen, fresh from an act of courageous heroism was the teenage face of his father, the Hero of Hyrule, dressed in a burned, long sleeve, green shirt, brown denim pants, and scuffed brown ranch boots.

What was the term he had once heard his father's friends from the other reality say? Oh crap. Yes, that was it. "Oh crap." He said.

Link's uncle Russel rushed to Ordonville's hospital clinic from his goat ranch in his beat up old work steam-truck when he received the telephone call. He was a veteran of the border wars with the bulblin tribes and walked with a limp, but but he never let either stop him from working his ranch or taking care of his family; his "nephew" Link included.

Anyone who looked at the kid could tell right off the bat Link wasn't related to him by blood. He was without question Hylian, and Russel was without question a born and raised Ordonian. Link was so Hylian, he even bore a passing resemblance to the royal family, though no one in Ordonville would have accused him of high birth. People talked in a small town, and everyone knew everyone's business.

No one actually knew who Link's father was. That, in and of itself started the gossip mill going. His mother came to Ordonville pregnant and single and looking to start over, and not wanting to talk much about her past. She was as sweet of a Hylian woman as Russel and his wife Tara had ever met. They had known the boy since he was in diapers. His mother had been a neighbor of theirs down the road from the ranch and had worked in the clinic as a nurse for a long time. When she had taken sick and had to be hospitalized, Russel and Tara promised to look after him. When she died, he just never left their care. That was just fine with Russel. Link had been a great older brother for their own boy Colin, who in turn idolized the Hylian youth.

When he got to the emergency room, Link was already up and ready to be going. What burns he had received on his back, arms, hands, and face in the fire had already healed thanks to the doctor's red healing medicine, and new pink skin had already mended them.

"What were you thinking, Link?!" Russel asked him when they got to the truck, his nerves at their end.

"They were going to die, uncle Russel! What else could I have done? What would you have done?" Link responded to him.

"Never mind what I would have done," Russel said, a little less loudly. He knew exactly what he would have done had he been there with his foster son. He would have charged in there right alongside him if he could have, his gimpy leg be damned. "You almost got yourself killed."

"But I'm okay! Really, I'm fine. It was just a few minor burns, and the red potions took care of them like..." His uncle didn't let him finish.

"Like they always do. Yeah, where have I heard that before?" Russel retorted as they drove along the dirt roads back to the small ranch house just outside of the other side of the small town. Ever since the boy was ten years old, after his mother had died, he was a source of constant terror in some ways for his foster parents. The vivid memory of a wild blue troll's battle cry in the back forty acres had brought Russel galloping at full speed on his old gelding, rifle in hand, only to find the most amazing sight he had ever laid eyes on of this little ten year old blond kid in a torn green shirt, one arm bloodied, holding a toy wooden sword on a blue troll twice his size. Russel's own four year old son, Colin, had been on the ground behind Link with a twisted ankle. Before Russel could take the shot with his rifle, he watched as the boy carefully, and with reflexes he had only ever seen in the battle hardened veterans of his old guardsman unit, took the troll's legs out from under him and brought the hard wooden toy sword down on the beast's head with such force that it split its skull open. Russel had never been more scared, or more proud that day, with the exception perhaps of today.

"I'm just glad you're okay, Link." Russel told him, the wind taken out of his fear induced anger by the memory. "Every time this happens, I wonder if you've gotten yourself in over your head. One of the goddesses must love you for you to keep surviving half the stuff you get yourself into."

"I don't know why this stuff always happens to me. I just... I see someone in trouble and I feel like I have to protect them. It's like... it's like it's what I was born to do." Link told him. He was then silent for a minute, and then said, "I talked to the royal guardsman recruiter at ."

"Oh?" Russel asked in surprise. Why he should have been surprised at it he didn't know. The goddesses only knew that it would be the most natural path for the boy, but still, it was the first time he had heard of it.

"I turn seventeen tomorrow. I'll be eligible for basic training." He told him.

"What about high school?" Russel asked calmly, trying to get him to be patient. "You need to finish school first before you join. That's a whole 'nother year. Besides, what about your fencing teammates? You know they can't win the championships this year without you. You going to leave them high and dry?"

"I know, I just... I feel like I was meant for more than that. Like I was born to make a difference in this world." Link explained.

"And you want to get started right away. I understand that." Russel said. "Let me let you in on a little secret, Link. Remember Colin when you were ten years old? Remember how bad Malo got bullied when you both were in middle school until he met you? And remember Elsie Finniel and her family earlier today? You're already making a difference in this world, boy, and I couldn't be prouder. When it's the right time, I'll drive you up to Castleton's training camp myself and introduce you to your instructors. But don't get in so much of a hurry to save the world out there, that you forget the world that needs you right here, okay?"

"Okay." Link said, seeing the wisdom of his uncle's argument.

They pulled into the stretch of dirt driveway and drove up to the one story house. In the horse pasture, Russel's gelding and Link's mare, Epona, stood grazing in the sunshine of the late spring afternoon.

The telephone rang in Princess Zelda's personal office in Hyrule Castle and her secretary, an older, portly, balding gentleman named "Mr. Impaz," picked it up. "Princess Zelda's personal office, may I help you?" He asked.

"I need to speak to her highness right away. It is quite urgent." The voice of a younger man told him.

"I see," Mr. Impaz responded patiently. He received many such calls several times a day from young men who "needed" to speak with her highness. "Her royal highness is not in her office right now. May I take your name, telephone number and a short message?"

"My name is Talon, Sage of Time, and it is urgent that I speak with her!" The young man said impatiently.

Oh boy, here we go, Mr. Impaz thought. "Young man, I happen to know that the Sage of Time is over two hundred years old, and if he needed to contact her highness, he wouldn't need to use the telephone." Really, did these self-deluded "suitors" seriously think he hadn't heard something like this before?

"My telephone number is three-three-zero-one-six-nine, Mr. Impaz," the young man told him. "Check it with the numbers you have on file and try calling it back if you don't believe me, but I need to speak with the princess now. There is disturbing news that she must hear. The Hero had been reborn."

"Yes, I'm very impressed you know my name, whoever you are." The princess's secretary said, extremely unimpressed. "I will pass on your message to the princess when she returns to her office after the weekend."

"What!" The young "Sage of Time" practically yelled over the receiver. Mr. Impaz then decided this conversation was over and hung up the phone. True to his word, he dutifully wrote down the number and every word of the message on a piece of notepaper and left it along with the other hundred or so for the Princess to read Monday morning. "Sage of Time indeed." He snorted.

Talon practically screamed at his archaic telephone device in frustration when the line went dead. That had been his last resort, and Zelda's secretary didn't even know who he was.

No one. No one had responded to him. He had tried using his own mental means as a Sage to contact his fellow Sages, but all he received in return was silence. Granted, none of them had attempted to contact him for decades, but that wasn't unusual.

A Sage's life was one of solitude no matter to which deity that Sage was devoted. As it stood, even the Sage of Light, whose temple was in the middle of Castle Town... "Castleton now," he reminded himself; even he had not made a public appearance for twenty years, since before the Princess had been born. None of the Sages had. He thought back, the last time Raulo had made an appearance was the coronation of Zelda's father, King Daphnes, oh, what was it? Twenty five years ago? Thirty? Time was such a difficult thing to keep track of in that place.

Still, someone should have picked up on his mental call. The Sage of Forest was the closest, her temple only in the Kokiri forest on the other side of Faron Province. She had, in the past, been the first to respond to his call and the least likely to ignore him when the others continued to distrust him. Among the Sages, she had been something of a real friend in his solitude. But Saral was silent to him now.

Unable to raise them by normal means, Talon had resorted to using the telephone device. It was not something he used on a normal basis, but the royal family, before Zelda had been born, had seen fit to install one, with his help, in his private residence to be able to make contact with them. He had been told that one had been given to all the Sages and lines had been run to make sure the Palace could keep in contact with all of them without having to make the often dangerous journeys to the temples where they resided, and vice-versa. He tried dialing each one of them, but again no one answered. Finally, in desperation, he had called Princess Zelda herself. Surely he would be able to speak with her, he had reasoned. They were after all family, and, now he knew for certain, he was her Sage.

No one. And his goddess herself, whose face he now watched on the nightly news, had ensured that he could not leave to take the message himself. What was happening in the world? At least now he knew for certain, at least he thought he knew, why his goddess had been silent to him for so many years. She had been busy growing up.

No one. He was alone, isolated, and powerless to warn anyone of the doom he knew was coming just by the appearance of... of the Hero. Nothing would be the same again. Nothing could. Hyrule would fall into chaos again, even if the Hero managed to save it.

"I can't stop it." He said to himself. "Din, Nayru, Farore, great goddesses of creation help me!" he cried out. "What do I do? Grandmother! Speak to me!" He shouted to the goddess Farore, his father's true mother in the distant past.

He was trapped in the Temple of Time. He couldn't set foot out of it to warn them in person, if he crossed the threshold of the doorway into normal time, it would rip him to pieces. Even if he could, no one apart from certain members of the royal family even knew what he looked like, not even the guardsmen in the Sacred Grove.

Why had they been reborn? He turned the question over and over in his mind as he paced his chamber. The Demon King was long since destroyed, the Triforce had been made whole and was now safely secured in the Sacred Realm. Hyrule had moved on from its long dark age.

The news had long since been over, and several entertainment dramas which he never cared about had already played. The one on now was a historical drama about his father and those men he had known from the other reality. It was the episode where his father had fought the Demon King in the shadow of Minas Tirith in Middle Earth. They always got the details wrong, Talon knew. As the Sage of Time, he could see the whole sweep of Hyrule's history which had preceded him, though not its future. The actor playing his father looked nothing like him, and he wasn't much of an actor either.

The part of the program that was on now showed those men returning through the portal of time to their own world. Talon knew that hadn't been so simple either. It required a linking book to get them into their own reality, but, as the actress Impa on the program said, "Travel through time is easy for this place." He repeated the words as she spoke them.

Colonel John Shepherd, Doctor Rodney McKay, and four other guardsmen from the mysterious world called "Earth." That was two hundred and thirty years ago. They were long since dead, but... A plan began to form in his mind. "Travel through time is easy for this place." He said again.

He then hurriedly dressed himself more appropriately for travel. If it worked, he had a long journey, a very long journey, ahead of him. He pulled on the pair of leather knee high boots he used when entertaining his monthly guest over his red trousers. He tucked in his white shirt and laced up the collar. Finally he pulled his red Sage's robe over his ensemble, the left arm of it hanging half empty where his hand had been burned away as a rebuke for the insane arrogance of a time long ago. Finally, he checked the tight braid of his long ginger hair which his grand niece had been so kind to do for him a few days before. It was still relatively presentable. This was the one part of his appearance he had difficulty with. It took two hands to braid one's hair. Satisfied he didn't look like a mongrel, he hurried from his residence to the great hall of the temple.

Would _she_ help him, though? That was the question. He would be bringing them back to her own time too early, so he had to calibrate the portal just right to a time he knew they wouldn't be there, and when she would be sufficiently aware of the events she needed to be. If the goddess was willing, she would recognize him as one of her own. Travel through time, easy though it may be, was full of infinite twists and turns of things one never expected.

He waved his hand at the pedestal controls and activated the great ring of the portal, raising it up from its dormant chamber in the hall's marble floor. It began to spin, the symbols on its face lighting up. He thought through his plan again, and then one more time. It wasn't one of many options left to him, he concluded. It was his only option.

With one last prayer for guidance to his grandmother, he stepped through the shimmering blue field of energy into Hyrule's past.

Princess Zelda Johnson entered her office in the palace late that night, well past the time that Mr. Impaz had closed up and gone home. She hadn't planned on returning to it until the following Monday, but there was always so much work to do, especially after her address to Hyrule's Parliament earlier that day. Her father supported her equality rights legislation proposal, but it wasn't her father she had to convince. It would take weeks of campaigning in the parliament ministers' districts and provinces to ensure their votes in the final tally.

She flicked on the lights and walked past her secretary's desk, absentmindedly grabbing the list of telephone messages he had compiled from his desk and taking them into the back office where her own desk lie.

On her antique desk photographs of goron children she had gotten to know in her last trip to Eldin were fixed on the desktop by tape. She kept them there so that she wouldn't forget why she was doing this. The governor of Eldin was a slippery Hylian man who had won his election by rigging the vote. She was certain of that, though she couldn't prove it. It was because of that man, and others in Eldin like him that those kids' schools didn't have enough funding to stay open, and it was too long of a journey for most gorons to attend school in Kakariko City every day. It was also because of that man that many gorons had been denied the right to vote by ridiculous laws targeting them specifically. Some days, not all the time, but there were some days she wished it was two hundred years ago when the royal family had absolute power, and just her word could remove him and others like him from office.

She sat down at her desk and began going through the messages. Most of them could wait until Monday. Well wishers, donors to the equality campaign, detractors... Mr. Impaz had dutifully recorded each message for her, no matter how irrelevant it seemed. She appreciated him for that, letting her decide which message was important and which wasn't.

As she worked her way through the list she saw one that stood out.

"Talon, the Sage of Time..." Was that even possible? She looked at the number he left and went to her computer organizer to look it up. "Why would he need to call my office?" She asked herself. Why would he call anyone's office? It had to be someone impersonating him, or... or something like that, didn't it?

The number came up as a restricted contact. Royal family's eyes only. "Oh dear." She said. She pulled the receiver from the phone and dialed the number, reading the rest of the message. "The Hero... What!?" She said out loud in surprise as the number dialed. "This has to be a prank." She said. It wouldn't have been the first time. She entered her own password into her organizer to recover the contact information on the number. "Temple of Time. Sage of Time's personal phone line." The information told her. She then said something distinctly un-princess-like as she swore.

The number continued to dial until she received a message that her party wasn't answering. She checked the time on the message. Mr. Impaz had taken it in the late afternoon, about six hours before.

She couldn't just ignore it. It was the Sage of Time trying to personally contact her. The message said that he said it was urgent, and now he wasn't picking up his telephone. "He can't leave the temple, so where is he?" She asked.

What she she do? She put her palms to her eyes trying to think. "I wish I had my ancestor's wisdom." She said. Finally she made up her mind. Checking her watch, she called for her private driver. The entry point for the Sacred Grove was only two hours away by electric car, from there it took more time to traverse the elevators and bridges down into the grove, as well as the security checkpoints. She had never been there herself, but she knew the details of it well, having learned it from the time she was very young. The administration of the Sages' temples was, ultimately, her responsibility as Hyrule's crown princess, and she always spoke with her cousin Malona after her visits. She had just been there recently to visit him in fact, and nothing seemed amiss, she thought.

"Looks like another late night, but if you've tried to get my attention, Talon, you've got it. I'm on my way." She said as she quickly left her office, turning out the lights and locking the door, heading immediately for the palace garage to meet her driver.

The trans-kingdom highway was clear that night with only the occasional other car passing them as her white and silver electric luxury cruiser sped along at top speed towards Faron Province. The moon was full and bright overhead and the lights of Castleton were far behind it. Normally, the car would be flying the winged triforce flags of the royal family, but she had chosen to forego them this time so as not to attract unwanted attention from news reporters about where she was going. The exact location of this temple in particular was still a closely guarded secret that didn't need to be made known to the wider world.

In the front seat next to the driver rode a guardsman whom Zelda had trusted for a long time. In the back seat where she rode, sat her personal bodyguard. Both would give their lives for her without hesitation. Both were well trained in both pistol and sword play; the latter antique martial art still very much a part of their practice as much in honor of her ancestors as it was practical. Swords couldn't run out of bullets.

Zelda had called her father on the cruiser's personal phone to let him know what was happening.

"I don't know, father, that's why I'm going to find out." She told the king. None of the men in the car would ever reveal a word of what she said so she had no fear of discussing the situation with him.

There were some muffled questions from the other end, and she responded. "No, I don't know how long I will be. Williams and Johnson are here with me, and there's the Grove security detail as well. I'll be fine."

More muffled talking, and then she replied, "yes, I'll call you from the Sage's private line once I get there and let you know what's happening. It's concerning to me too."

There was some silence, and then it seemed like his majesty's tone became quiet and serious. "I know, father. If the Hero really has been reborn, then what does that say about me?" On that issue, she knew what it meant. It was her duty and responsibility to know what it meant, but she never thought it possible in her lifetime. Not in their day and age. "I thought this was supposed to over and done with too."

The king said something else, and she responded, "I love you too, father. I will see you when I return in the morning. Get some sleep, I'll be fine." And then she hung up the phone.

Just then the car slammed on its brakes and she and everyone else in the car was thrown forward, the only thing saving her from breaking her delicate neck being her seatbelt as the car skidded sideways on the empty stretch of highway. "Ughh," she yelped involuntarily as she was tossed back into her seat by the inertial forces.

"Gavin! What happened?!" She shouted at the driver, but then she saw out the window, as did her bodyguards who drew their side arms.

In front of the car stood a lone hulking figure who seemed to merge with the surrounding shadows and darkness. It's eyes were glowing red embers.

"Your highness, stay in the car!" Williams shouted from the front as he opened the bullet-proof passenger side door and crouched down behind it. John remained by her side, his own weapon drawn as a precaution. The driver, Gavin, also produced a pistol, but made no move to go anywhere, keeping his eyes on the creature in front of them.

"Like I'm going to challenge that to a duel!" She retorted.

The creature moved toward them. As it did so, it seemed to absorb the moonlight, leaving a great black hole where it stood. It opened its mouth, drew in a deep breath and a pale green fire shot in front of them as it exhaled, lighting up the scene to reveal enormous demonic wings, black scales, and wickedly sharp teeth. It's massive head was crowned by two enormous black horns.

"Why is the dragon attacking us?" Zelda asked. The dragons of Hyrule were almost never seen anymore, and those that she knew of from Hyrule's legendary past were, like the Sages, guardians not mindless monsters with only a few notable exceptions.

Williams opened fire, and Zelda screamed as the beast leaped for the seemingly armored car. The last thing she remembered was a huge black claw peeling back the roof of the vehicle like a metal meat can, and then all was darkness and shadow.

Chapter 2

Talon emerged from the portal in the same place he left. It was a bit disorienting to him as, for a brief second, he wondered if he had set the portal's destination wrong. As he stepped out and looked around, however, he found that he hadn't miscalcualted after all. There, with a look of surprise on her face, was a very elderly woman with silver hair worn in a long braid, wearing a very similar robe to himself, holding a cup of tea in her hand.

"Your grace." Talon addressed her.

The Sage of Time looked at him, sizing him up while sipping from her cup. He felt a brief but powerful brush against his mind as she searched it. He did not resist. She needed to know what he knew in order for him to justify his presence in this time to her.

"Your grace," Impa finally returned the greeting. "You take an awful risk coming here."

"I understand. I had no other option." Talon returned nervously.

"Have no fear from me, Talon son of Link. I agree that you were left with no other options. Foolhardy as this one was, it was the only choice to make." Impa told him. "Your father would have done the same."

Talon nodded uncertainly. "You understand why I have come. Will you help me?" He asked.

"Like you, I have no other option if we are to ensure Hyrule's continued survival in the future. Yes, I know what, and whom you seek. Follow me." She told him.

As they walked the halls of the temple towards the library where he knew the book he needed was kept, he asked her, "Do you know what threat might face us in my time?"

"No." She returned. "It is disturbing information you bring me. I have seen our future in your mind. Nothing in or from Hyrule that I am aware of could have brought their rebirth. As you know, we have always had our share of monsters and threats throughout our history."

Their footfalls echoed through the hallways as they walked the marble floors. She continued, "But it was only the Demon King's threat that causes them to remain with us now."

Talon considered that, then asked, "Could there be another Demon King?"

"Not from Hyrule." She pronounced. "Or from any world connected to her. We would have seen it coming, you and I. No, this threat is not from our world, and it has had eighteen years to take root in your time."

"Eighteen years, your grace?" Talon asked, not having really considered the implications before. He had been so shocked to see his father's face he hadn't stopped to think.

"Yes." She said, a little impatiently. "Think, boy! You're two hundred and twenty five years old, have your wits gone dull? Link and Zelda have both reached seventeen years old, so what would have caused them to be reborn must have entered Hyrule around eighteen years ago. It takes nine or ten months for a baby to form before the child is born."

He held his tongue. At two hundred and twenty five years, he could hardly be considered a boy to anyone, except to the ancient lady next to him. How old had she lived before she was cut down? Thousands of years?

"This new evil has been lying in wait for eighteen years." He said. "And no one has noticed it."

Impa remained silent so as to let him understand what he may be facing. She then said, "You must be careful, young Talon. This enemy has had eighteen years to plan and strategize and put his pieces into place. You are only now realizing that there is a game to be played and you don't know all of the rules yet. Fortunately," she chuckled, "neither, apparently, does your opponent. If he did, this temple would have fallen long before your coming to see me. Perhaps he does not know about it. If so, that advantage will only serve you for so long."

"I understand." Talon replied. He then asked, "Do you believe these other heroes will help us? Do I make the journey in vain?"

She didn't hesitate when she said, "They are all good men in their hearts. Even Rodney McKay. But they are under the authorities of their own world. Even if they wanted to help, they may not be permitted."

"Who else could I enlist, then?" Talon asked.

"I do not know for certain. But consider this, this new enemy has entered Hyrule, where no one knows him or of him, from the outside for a reason. You must find out what that reason is. And if he is an evil presence, as the lady Hylia and the Hero believed him to be, then there are those from the outside who would fight against him as they would. You can be certain of that. You must try to locate them and enlist their aid as well if you can. In eighteen years, is it inconceivable that one or more of them might have also found their way here?" Impa reasoned. "If they have, then you must find a way to make contact with them."

They reached the library where Impa went to a particular shelf and retrieved a well used leather bound book. "Remember, if they choose to return with you, they may not set foot into Hyrule in this time any more than you can. You must take them straight back through the portal into the future."

She opened the book to the back panel, where they could both see a moving picture of a library, not unlike the one they were standing in. "Good luck, your grace." She told him. He placed his hand on the panel, and his body became swirling energy as it was sucked into the panel of the linking book to Earth.

"Hey Link, get in here!" Colin called his older foster brother from the living room. It was noon and the news was just coming on their old television. "There's something about your _sister_ on the news again. Or is she your girlfriend, I forget." That had been a running tease of Colin's lately after hearing Link's fencing teammates tease him about the resemblance.

The truth was that there _was_ some kind of a connection he felt every time he saw a picture of the crown princess, whether it was a report about her on the news, her picture in the newspaper, or even seeing her face on the green colored one rupee note. He always felt something for her in a way that didn't make sense to him, and did his best to keep others from seeing. Regardless of his efforts, those who knew him best picked up on his "crush" early on.

Link tried to be casual as he entered the living room and sat down on the couch next to Colin. He then casually hit his eleven year old foster brother in the back of his blond head with his palm, and then pretended not to know what had happened. "Hey!" Colin exclaimed. "What was that for?"

Link didn't answer him as he stared at the news, instead he moved to turn it up as the pictures in front of him grew increasingly disturbing. "Coming to you live from the southbound trans-highway one where Princess Zelda's armored car has been found torn to shreds, burn marks like some kind of huge flamethrower surround the area, and great, humongous clawmarks are everywhere." The shot then went to a picture of three, seriously burned and injured men being loaded into royal ambulances for the run back to Castleton. "There is no sign of her royal highness, and the men who were in the vehicle are not saying anything to the news media at this time. Was the princess in the vehicle? Was she kidnapped?" An old stock photo of her royal highness flashed up onto the screen, and Link felt the shock of recognition he always felt, her name coming to his mind unbidden, though he never understood why. He had never met the princess, never even seen her in public, yet somehow he had always known that he _knew_ her from somewhere. "We'll keep you updated all day on the developing crisis." The shot went back to the anchor at the desk in the news studio.

"Zelda..." Link said, almost involuntarily. "She's been taken." Images like memories came to his mind, almost unbidden. "I have to go." He said, his voice wavering.

"Go, go where? Mom wanted to have your birthday party once dad got done in the back forty." Colin said in confusion. "And then you said you'd practice fencing with me later so I could be ready for the Middle School tryouts in a couple of months."

"What?" Link said as though waking up from a daze. "Oh, right, uh..." He didn't know how to respond to him. What was he thinking? That he, a seventeen year old high school student go run off and save the princess from whatever monstrosity had made those marks on the ground?

Dragon. The word came without warning to his mind. A dragon made those marks, a massive one by the look of them too. "Whoa!" Link said out loud. "Where did that come from?"

"Where did what come from?" Colin asked. "Link, what's going on?"

"I need to, uh..." He had to come up with an excuse. "I need to go and uh... talk to Epona." He then walked out of the room, not paying attention to Colin's confused "Huh?"

He ran upstairs to his bedroom almost involuntarily and grabbed his fencing sword. It was a good strong, broad bladed weapon that his foster father had given him when he made the varsity team at Ordonville High. He didn't know why, but he pulled off the denim shirt he was wearing and pulled on a forest green hooded sweatshirt with the words "Ordonville High School Fencing Team Provincial Champions" in gold letters across the chest, and his old brown leather jacket, as well as his brown leather riding boots. Looking around his room he couldn't find his competition chain-mail, then he remembered it was at school in his gym locker, and it was the weekend. Taking one more look for... for something, he wasn't sure what... there, on his dresser was a small wooden flute that Colin had carved for him. "Why do I need this?" He asked himself, but stuffed it into his jacket's front zippered pocket anyways. He then grabbed his brown and green rucksack, emptied his school books out of it, and went back downstairs.

As he almost ran out the door to the barn. he also didn't see Colin go to the telephone and dial a number.

"Why am I doing this?" He asked himself. "This is insane. It doesn't make any sense." The barn wasn't a far distance from the house. Epona was there instead of out in the pasture, he knew.

He opened the barn door and made his way to Epona's stall, grabbing her saddle and tack along the way. He went in and began to saddle her.

"Going somewhere, son?" Russel's voice came to him from behind his back as he buckled the saddle into place.

"I don't know." Link said in confusion. "I don't understand it. I was watching a news broadcast. The Princess is in trouble." Just the thought of it began to harden his determination. "I have to get to her. I have to find her. I don't know why." He stood up and turned to face his uncle.

The old man had a sad smile on his face, and an antique royal shield bearing the winged triforce crest as its standard. "I do, son." He said. "You may not think it, but I've read all the old stories in the Sacred Texts. When I first met you, I thought, 'hey that kid looks like the Hero, would you look at that?' But then I watched you grow up, I watched your natural skill with a blade, and your absolutely reckless courage whenever anyone's in trouble. I may be an old, broken down rancher, but I'm not stupid, son. I knew..." Tears filled his eyes. "I've known for a long time this day would come, that's why I kept this."

Russel gave over the shield to Link. "It's my old shield from my days in the guard. It'll keep you safe like it kept me." He showed him how to wear it on his back. "I'd run you up there myself in the old truck to get you started, but something tells me I need to stay out of it."

"The Hero..." Link tried to process everything Russel had said, and as confusing and frightening as it was, it felt... it felt... _right_. "I don't have a choice, do I?" Link asked.

"We all have a choice, Link." Russel told him. "We either obey the will of the gods or we don't, and we reap the consequences of those choices we make for good or for bad. Be sure to make the right one. And whatever choice you make right now, just know that I could never be prouder of the man you've become. And I think your mom would be too."

Link nodded. He could choose, he thought. He could choose to stay and be a normal teenager, or he could throw himself into danger to save someone he didn't know. It didn't take long for him to make the decision as he hugged his uncle fiercely, and then went to Epona's left side, put his foot in the stirrup, and mounted her.

"Good luck, son. You'll need to go north through Faron province to get to the part of the highway in Hyrule field that was on the news. That's a pretty long journey on horseback, it's going to take a few days." Then as if something just occurred to him, he said, "Let me grab some food for the journey for you from the kitchen real fast. It'll only take a minute." Russel went as quickly as he could while Link waited in Epona's saddle. When he returned a few minutes later, Russel packed the quickly gathered rations into Epona's saddlebags, and then fastened them back up. "Thanks, Uncle Russel." Link told him.

They said their final goodbyes, and then Link rode Epona out of the barn, up the driveway, and down the road, and then they were gone and out of sight. As Russel watched him go out of sight, he turned to go back into the house, trying to find a way to explain to his family why Link might not be coming back.

"They'll think I've lost my mind for letting him go." He said to himself. "But, goddesses forgive me, what else could I have done?" He reached into his shirt and drew out a worn gold pendant which he had worn on a silver chain since he was in the military years before. He gripped it tightly and pressed it to his lips briefly. "I don't often ask for much, but if that boy really is your son, Farore, then go with him and protect him, and bring him back to us whole and safe when it's time."

As he replaced the pendant back into his shirt, a warm breeze rustled through the nearby trees and gently wrapped around the older man before moving on. He smiled and nodded, hoping that meant someone had heard him.

Zelda's eyes opened up to shadows all around her. It was dark in the room where she had been left, with only a pale blue light emanating from a lantern set into a wall. She found herself lying on top of a bed, her head resting on a pillow. For a few seconds, she wondered if she had merely dreamed the attack on the car.

"Good, you're awake, dear. I was beginning to wonder how much longer it would be. Not that I'm in any hurry, mind you." A strange woman's voice spoke to her from the shadows.

Zelda sat straight up. She didn't recognize the room at all. It was all stone, and almost looked like a prison cell, except the door to the cell had either been removed from its hinges or it had rotted off of them. "Where am I?" She demanded to know.

"Oh dear, that's right, how rude of me. You were unconscious and I hadn't properly introduced myself. Well then," she said as she stepped out of the shadows and into the pale light of the blue flame, "you may call me Maleficent. And as for where you are, well, I found this nice former little prison of yours that you don't seem to use anymore. I believe your people call it the 'Arbiter's Grounds.' I hope you don't mind if I borrow it for a little while. I promise I'll give it back once I'm done with it." She said as though they were new friends having a girl chat, though there was wicked malice hiding behind every word, and Zelda could sense it.

"Why did you have your beast kidnap me?" Zelda her 'host' calmly, controlling her tone of voice.

"Kidnap? Oh no, dear. No, that wasn't kidnapping." Maleficent told her, drawing closer to the bed. "That was, how shall we say, bringing you under my protection for the time being."

Zelda could see her more clearly now. She seemed an attractive woman with an almost otherworldly beauty to her. Two great black horns protruded from the top of her head, and the rest of her head and body was concealed by a black leather suit of some kind and a black cloak. Maleficent carried a staff as she walked. She had seen someone like her before, but she couldn't remember where.

"What do you mean?" Zelda tried to keep her talking. She knew nothing about this woman, and her name was unknown to the Princess. "Protect me from whom?" She asked.

"Someone to whom you are far more valuable than to me, I assure you." The black dressed woman said. "Would you like some tea?" She made a motion with her hand and a small table appeared to form out of the shadows. On the top of the table had been set a teapot, and two cups with saucers. Steam issued lazily from the pot's spout. Seeing Zelda's wary expression, Maleficent said, "Oh don't worry dear, if I had wanted you dead, I wouldn't have taken the trouble to bring you here and let you sleep for a while only to poison you. Actually, I was in such a good mood last night, I even let your little man-toys live." She then rolled her eyes up, smiled and said, "a little banged up for shooting those nasty weapons at me, true, but they're still alive nonetheless." She poured some tea into a cup and took a sip. "I'm afraid your carriage didn't fare as well, though. What it pity that. You have such good taste."

Zelda then took Maleficent's offer of tea and poured herself a cup and took a sip, digesting the information that she just gave her. Maleficent hadn't enlisted a dragon's aid. Maleficent _had been_ the dragon. That meant she was a being of great magical power, more so than any Hylian wizard or witch. Zelda had no doubts now that Maleficent could have dispatched her with a flick of her finger.

"Believe me my dear, if I hadn't taken you when I did, he would have done so shortly after, and then you wouldn't be having nearly as pleasant of a time as you are now." Maleficent continued. "So, I have introduced myself properly, but I'm afraid I don't actually know your name."

That took the Princess by surprise. She had never met anyone who didn't know who she was on sight. "You really don't know who I am?" She asked.

"As much as it may shock you dear, you aren't the center of everyone's universe." Maleficent said dryly.

"That's not what I..." Zelda began to say a little flustered. She then caught herself. If only she knew who I may be, Zelda thought to herself. But out loud she said, "I am Zelda, Crown Princess of the United Kingdom of Hyrule. If you didn't know who I was, then why did you... protect me?"

"Well, I knew you were a princess of heart. The light in your heart was shining like a beacon that any idiot could track halfway across time and space. You weren't hard to locate dear. He's been here much longer than I have. I'm just surprised he hasn't taken you himself yet." Maleficent said.

"Who is 'he?'" Zelda asked.

"No one you would know, I'm sure." She replied, setting her teacup down. Then she looked at her with a certain malevolence in her eyes and said, "But believe me when I say that when his plan comes to fruition, he will cover your world in darkness the likes of which you have never seen before."

"What do you want with him?" Zelda asked.

"Why, I want to kill him of course, which is why I need you. You will draw him like a moth to the flame." Maleficent told her.

"So, I'm your bait." Zelda said.

"I hoped you would be a smart one. I have met so few smart princesses in my time, I'm glad to see that hope was not misplaced. Who knows, you might even survive this. Won't that be fun?" She grinned a wide, toothy, evil grin.

Talon materialized in a great vaulted library, which was filled from floor to ceiling with books on shelves set into the walls. Great marble columns held up the roof, and box-like symbols which he did not recognize were etched into the columns. He was standing next to a pedestal whereupon lay a large book, its own yellowed, vellum pages open to the back panel where he could see a moving picture of the great hall of the Temple of Time. Around the room were other pedestals, whereupon lay other books, some of the them open, and others closed.

"Hello?" Came a man's voice from behind him. It was somewhat familiar, though he hadn't heard it for two hundred years, and then only in passing while he lay in pain in a healer's tent, recovering from the loss of his hand. He turned around to find an Ordonian man with light brown or sandy blond hair (Talon couldn't decide which in the dim light of the library) who appeared maybe ten or fifteen years older than himself. He wore spectacles and a black suit of some kind which looked to be of a military nature.

"Greetings." Talon said cautiously, but politely as he faced him. He extended his good hand, but the other man didn't seem interested in taking it, so he drew it back. "I have heard your voice before, but I don't think we were properly introduced." He said, unsure of how the man had received his entry into their world.

"No, no we weren't," The other man said in the language of Hyrule. "The last time I saw you, you were lying on a cot."

"Yes, those were... unfortunate circumstances." Talon said awkwardly.

"To say the least." The other man agreed. "What are you doing here?" He asked, in confusion. "I mean, after what happened, when you weren't returned to the Castle after John and Malon took you off to be judged, we just assumed that..."

"That I was to be executed." Talon finished for him. His face became serious. "I suppose I deserved it. No, I know I deserved it. In a way, I suppose the result was the same. I was forbidden from ever setting foot in Hyrule's normal time again."

"So they imprisoned you in the Temple of Time?" The other man asked.

"In a manner of speaking. Hylia made me her Sage as punishment, then forbid me to ever set through the gateway into Hyrule. If I do, I will die." Talon explained further. "Though there was no prohibition against me traveling through the linking books, or the portal of time."

"So, what brings you to our reality?" He asked, "just stopping in for a vacation, some time away?" It was a little sarcastic.

"I know you have no reason to trust me." Talon said.

"No. No, you're right. I don't. The last time I saw you was a month ago, and you had just tried to destroy the Sages and usurp your mother and brother's throne, so, no." The other man asked.

"And the last time I heard your voice, Daniel Jackson, was two hundred years ago." Talon returned. "I've had a lot of time to reflect on my crimes. I am here, because there has been a terrible development in my time, and I can contact no one in my time for help." His voice fell and he sounded tired, and every bit his age in spite of his only appearing in his mid-twenties. "I don't know why. My fellow Sages are silent to my mental calls, and the royal family... Things have become more complicated in the last two hundred years."

"What development?" Daniel asked, trying to wrap his mind around the situation.

"The Princess and the Hero have been reborn." Talon said, with as much gravity as he could muster. "The Princess Zelda I have known about since she was born. I have watched her grow up on the television device, but I had thought it was only a family resemblance and a traditional name. But, for me, six hours ago I saw my father's face on a news broadcast in a teenage boy with the same name, from the same village he has been from time and again."

"Television?" Daniel questioned. They had progressed, he thought to himself, in two hundred years. He shook his head trying to get back on task. "That wasn't supposed to happen. I mean, they being reborn wasn't supposed to happen again. The cycle was finished. Copulus and Hylia were supposed to be able to rest and remain ascended."

"Yes, they were supposed to. Instead, they descended to mortal form again seventeen years ago." Talon said.

"So what changed that caused them to make that decision?" Daniel was following his train of thought.

"What indeed?" Talon repeated his question. "Hyrule has had its wars and evil people since you left, and they have had to fight through it themselves and suffered the consequences of it. In all that time, we have still progressed, and the Hero and Princess have remained away. So what kind of threat to our people would bring them back? I have observed nothing in those seventeen years, nothing different, nothing obvious." Talon brought his hand to his face to rub his forehead. "My fellow Sages have not contacted me either, but that is not unusual, even in the best of times we rarely speak to one another. There is no reason that I know of that would bring them back except one, and my father destroyed him with your people's help."

"So you think there might be another Demon King? Another evil god has entered Hyrule?" Daniel jumped ahead of him.

"It has crossed my mind, and he has had seventeen years to plan." Talon confirmed for him.

"And you couldn't leave the Temple to go and warn them personally." Daniel put the pieces together.

"No." Talon responded.

"So you came here, back in time, to find help?" He finished. "You must have been desperate to come to us."

"Very much so, Daniel Jackson." He admitted. "Please, you have no reason to trust me, and I understand that. But, for my father's and aunt's sake, for the sake of my world, will you help me?"

Chapter 3

It was later in the evening, and Link and Epona had been riding for the better part of a day before he came to the steel and concrete bridge of Ordon, which connected the province to the rest of the Kingdom. He stared down the deep, deep gorge which seemed like a great violent tear in the earth and wondered how people in times past managed to stir up their courage to cross it when it was only a rope and wood construction. It looked like one would fall forever into the void if they crossed the safety barriers. He had never been out of his province before to see the wider world, and he wondered if he had the courage to do so this time.

"Well, this is it, girl. Do we go on, or do we turn back?" He asked Epona, who snorted and shook her head. "Yeah, it's a big decision for me too." He responded.

An image of the beautiful, blue eyed blond princess being carried off by a black dragon came into his mind. "I have to get to her, girl. She's in trouble, and I've got to help her." The feeling of urgency was insistent inside of him.

He summoned everything within him and urged his nine year old mare onwards onto the lightly traveled structure, the shoes of her hooves clacking loudly against the pavement. Neither horse nor rider had stopped to rest or eat until they had gotten to this point, and both were exhausted as they crossed.

Throughout the day, other people in cars or trucks on the road had passed them both, either waving or ignoring them as the case had been. A few who knew Link and Epona had waved and called out greetings as they passed by. Link waved back at these and smiled, but kept going. Ordon was still a very rural province, and no one had been surprised to see a man on horseback along the road on the weekend, though the shield and sword he carried on his back might have raised a few eyebrows.

Link and Epona warily reached the other side, and, guiding Epona over to the side of the road he dismounted and led her to a patch of grass while he looked around for a place to camp. Down the road he could see some lights from a business, but he had only brought a few rupees worth of banknotes, and a couple of hard green ones. He had been in such a hurry to get moving that he hadn't actually planned it out and gotten the rest of his savings out of the bank. And now he was committed, and whatever was inside him driving him wouldn't turn back.

He went to the saddlebag where his uncle had packed the rations for him to see what he had to eat for the night before he made camp in the cold night air. Opening the saddlebag, he reached his hand in and found some fruit, and a wrapped piece of his birthday cake that his aunt Tara had been baking for him earlier in the day. He smiled and fought back a tear at the man's thoughtfulness. They had both been so good to him over the years, he could never repay them. There were even a few cans of his favorite pumpkin soda.

As he rummaged through the bag, his hand brushed up against a wad of paper which had been bound together by rubber bands. Knowing that he hadn't put anything like that in Epona's saddlebag, he brought it out and looked out it. It looked like royal banknotes. He undid the rubber band to see a face which looked startlingly like his own on orange colored, hundred rupee banknotes, and a hand written note. He opened the note and read it, "These are coupons which are good for anything anywhere in Hyrule I happened to just have laying around. Make good use of them. If I'm right, all of Hyrule is depending on you, son."

He stared at the sizable roll of money which his uncle had given him, unable to hold back the tears at the man's generosity. "I won't let you down. I promise." He said as he stuffed the money into his pants' pocket. He patted Epona on the side of the neck and said, "Just a little farther, girl, there might be an inn down the road where we can both get some proper rest." He then climbed back into the saddle and rode on.

A dark man with flames for hair laughed at Link in the distance. He could hear his deep voice taunting him, "Come to me little Hero! I'm waiting for you!" He could feel his sword... No it wasn't his sword, it was a different sword with a blue hilt. But he felt it as he pushed the blade into the dark man's chest and then the whole world exploded around him.

Link woke up with a yell, breathing heavily. His sheets were wet from his sweat. The first rays of dawn were just beginning to peak through the glass windows of the roadside inn's room. But there was no dark man, no threat that he could see in the single room. His clothes and armaments lay exactly where he had put them the night before. He pulled himself out of bed, and went to shower off the sweat in the tiny bathroom.

As luck would have it, the business had in fact been an inn, as well as a service station for travelers. The owner of the place, when he had found out Link was Russel's foster son, had refused to take his money, and made sure to stable Epona with the horses he normally kept for tourists and vacationers to rent out, giving her a good portion of oats.

"Russel's an old buddy of mine from the guard," he had told Link. "He saved my life during a Bulblin raid on our position, and took one of the bastard's blades in his own leg as a result. Nope, your money's no good here, son. I owe him at least that much. Let me fix you something before you hit the sack, okay?" It was yet another reminder of the family that cared about him back home. The family he had been driven to leave to accomplish something that still seemed insane to him.

The nightmare wasn't new. It had visited him time and again as he grew up, along with others. Many of his dreams involved Zelda, some of them embarrassingly so. Others were of a different, pretty flame haired girl whose name was always out of reach. Most of them ended fighting some kind of hell-spawned creature. The images were always fuzzy, but his mind kept forcing him to relive horrors that he knew he had never faced, at least not in this lifetime. Would he have to face them again? It was a question he knew the answer to, and wished he didn't. He hadn't asked anyone to be "the Hero," and he wasn't really convinced that he was. He just knew that someone he cared about, even though he had never met her, was in trouble and she needed him.

He dressed himself, donning his sword and shield over the back of his leather jacket again, and went to see if there was any breakfast to be had. Sure enough, the man already had cucco eggs, bacon, and milk waiting for him with a strong cup of black tea to boot. "Just enough to get you going for the day, lad." The innkeeper had told him. "And when you see your uncle again, let him know Claude from the 3rd Cavalry still remembers what he did for us that day, okay?"

Link promised to tell him as soon as he saw him again. He and Epona left the inn shortly after that, heading ever north deeper into Faron Province.

King Daphnes Johnson sat at his antique deku wood desk by the telephone and computer device in his expansive, wood lined office waiting for any news about his daughter. His eyes were red from a lack of sleep, but nothing could seem to get him to close his eyes and rest. Several cups of strong tea had come and gone on his desk, and a fresh one now sat in front of him. He had held this vigil now for the thirty six hours or so since he learned of his daughter's abduction. Holding vigil with him were his minister of defense and the head of palace security, both men having come in and out of the office several times since the crisis had begun as they oversaw all efforts to track down the creature that had absconded with the Princess. But the king himself would not, could not find any rest.

The men assigned to protect her were still in the hospital, their wounds strangely resistant to the traditional red water of life. The head of palace security interviewed all three of them several times while they lay in their hospital beds, though there wasn't much more they could add except to verify what the creature that took her was. They had all confirmed it.

For the last thirty six hours the king had been talking with anyone and everyone who could or might know anything about what had happened. Everyone agreed that it had been a dragon attack from the forensic evidence on top of the eyewitness testimony, but no one could say more than that. "Why would a dragon abduct the Princess?" He kept asking these "experts." No one had any answers for him.

The dragons of Hyrule were, as a rule, guardians in a similar way that Sages were guardians. They were intelligent, self aware, and, with a few notable exceptions, almost entirely benevolent. But according to the men who survived the attack, this dragon had been black as the night. No one knew anything about a black dragon anywhere in Hyrule.

King Daphnes had called back the Sage of Time, his great-great-great-great-great-grand-uncle. He had tried calling him many times in the last day and a half with no answer. He had also tried personally calling every Sage in the other seven Sacred Temples to find out what the Sages might know about the Sage of Time's phone call. No one responded to him. The telephone was just left ringing. The Sages were silent. Even the Sage of Light, Rauro, in the Temple there in Castleton would not answer. The King had sent a representative there, but the doors to the Temple would open for no one.

Out of desperation, he began to make plans to travel to the Sacred Grove himself to speak with his relative and find out what was going on, but his own bodyguards and ministers refused to allow it with the Crown Princess missing and no other royal successor. He became a prisoner in his own palace.

He took another sip of the tea, though he had ceased to be able to taste it long, long before that, and once more started to try and think through his options. "The Hero has been reborn." He said out loud.

"What was that, your majesty?" The minister of defense, a retired old veteran of the military whom Daphnes had trusted, asked.

"The Sage's original message to my daughter, the reason why he tried to get a hold of her. It was that the Hero had been reborn." The king told him again. "Zelda tried calling him back and couldn't get an answer, so she set out to go see him immediately. It's not every day a Sage calls you with earth shattering news, and then doesn't pick up when you call. It merited her personal attention."

"Indeed, your majesty. That is troubling news for all of us then." The minister said.

"Where would he go?" The king asked, a light coming on in his eyes.

"I don't know where the Sages go or why." The minister responded.

"Not the Sage, the Hero." The king said. "If the Hero's truly been reborn, he's seen that my daughter has been kidnapped. It's been broadcast all over the news for the last day and a half. Would it be reasonable to think that this would somehow 'awaken' him?" He reasoned.

"If I read the Sacred texts correctly, maybe sir. Hypothetically speaking." The minister responded, seeing where the king was going with it. "At some point in time he would have to pay a visit to the Sacred Grove to retrieve the Master Sword. We still have the temple ruins under strict guard there. No one enters the Sacred Grove without authorization from the royal family."

"Yes, the standing orders are to shoot trespassers on sight." The king remembered. He then said, "Get me the guard captain for the Sacred Grove command post on the line."

"Your majesty?" The minister asked.

"If this is happening again, we may not be able to stop it, but we might at least be able to make it easier for the one who can." The king said. "If the Hero really is reborn, he'll be drawn to the Master Sword. Do you really want our guardsmen standing in his way?"

The minister responded quickly, "I'll place the call right now, your majesty."

A few minutes later, the king was having a conversation with a very nervous guard captain over the telephone. "Captain," he began the conversation, "I am sending you by fax a portrait of a certain individual that the minister of defense and I believe may try and enter the Sacred Grove as deep as the Master Sword sanctuary."

"Of course, your majesty, he won't get by us." The guard captain responded confidently.

"You misunderstand, Captain." The king corrected him. "You are to allow him entry to wherever he wants to go. Do not, I repeat, do not try and stop him. If he requests an escort down into the Grove, give it to him. Under no circumstances are you or your men to engage him in combat, is that clear? If he is the man I believe him to be, you will be doing so at the risk of your own lives. I am sending the portrait now." The king looked to the minister of defense who had scanned the portrait into the facsimile machine and sent it.

"Okay, your majesty it looks like we've got it." The guard captain paused for a minute. "Uh, your majesty, is this some kind of mistake? I think you sent us a religious image instead of the individual's photograph."

"No captain, this is no mistake, and I assure you it is no joke. I am deadly, deadly serious. This individual will most likely be a teenage young man about the same age as my daughter. He will answer to the name of 'Link.' If I am correct, he will attempt to draw the sword from its resting place in the sanctuary." The king explained.

"I... I understand sir. And if he is unable to pull the sword from its pedestal? Do we arrest him then?" The captain asked.

"Unless I am grossly mistaken, that won't be necessary. If he is an imposter, then the sword may not let him leave the Grove alive." The king said. It was a cold, harsh reality. But this was a cold, harsh game which had been begun, and the rules were set down eons ago.

"Yes, your majesty. We'll take that under advisement." The Guard Captain replied, understanding the serious nature now of what he was being asked to do. He then asked with a little trepidation in his voice, "Is this really happening, your majesty? Could it really be possible?" The guard captain had never been a very religious man. He had doubted if the old stories were even true, or just made up fairy tales.

"I'm not sure myself, Captain. But if it is, we need to do everything we can to help him for my daughter's sake, and for all our sakes." King Daphnes told him. "See to it my orders are followed, Captain."

"As you command, your majesty. I'll send the orders to all the men right now. We won't do anything to stop him. I just hope he realizes we're friendlies." The Captain replied.

"As do I, Captain." The King responded. "As do I."

Talon had been brought with armed escort out of the great library and up into the underground city's higher levels which opened into a great cavern with an expansive underground lake. There was a strange twilight lighting to the city caused by an orange glow coming from the lake. When Talon had inquired of Daniel what was causing it, he replied that they thought it was some kind of phosphorescent algae that gave the underground world its own thirty-five hour day and night cycle.

"Is this Atlantis?" Talon asked him as he surveyed the buildings of the once great city around him.

"No." Daniel responded. "This city was abandoned due to what we think was a plague about two hundred years ago. We're just here studying it, trying to learn about its inhabitants, and how they connect with the Ancients, your ancestors in fact. We think the first inhabitants of Hyrule originally came from this city actually. That would explain the presence of the descriptive and linking books joining the two worlds." He said, slipping into his teaching mode. "Our government sealed it off from the general public about twenty or thirty years ago when we made the connection with it and the people we call the Ancients. Atlantis is several thousand miles away, on the opposite side of the planet, in fact."

"I see. So, will I then be able to make my case to those who must make the decision?" Talon asked. "Have I traveled so far only to find I have not come far enough?"

"No, I've already made contact with Stargate Command at Atlantis. We'll be picked up and taken there any time now." Daniel said.

"But I thought you said it was several thousand miles away? Won't that take days to travel, even by aircraft? And we are deep underground." Talon questioned in confusion.

Daniel said nothing but just moved closer to him, folded his hand together in front of him and nodded, saying, "you might want to brace yourself for this."

"For what?" Talon asked. Then a sudden wave of nausea and disorientation overtook him as he and Daniel were quickly consumed by a blue flash of light and were gone.

When Talon came to himself again he was standing in a circular conference room. A circular table ran around the room, and several men sat at the table, one of which he recognized immediately. On the table was a small round black device with a glowing light that rotated around its circumference.

"What... what just happened?" Talon said as he tried to catch his breath. His head felt light and he had difficulty concentrating. "My head..." He said, blinking several times.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I should have warned you about our transportation. The _General Hammond_ happened to be in orbit around Earth at the moment. What you just experienced was an Asgard transport beam. It'll pass." Daniel said.

"In orbit?" Talon said. "You mean spaceflight? My people have made some successful experiments with it in our recent past as well, though your Asgard spell casters could learn to to balance out their transport magic a little better."

"Yep." Was all Daniel could say to that, turning to the other men seated around the table.

A balding man with black rimmed glasses stood up and motioned to Talon with his hand towards a chair around the table, saying something in a polite tone in an unfamiliar language. Talon looked to Daniel who said, "Talon, this is Mr. Woolsey. He's in charge of this city. He said, 'Welcome to Atlantis, please take a seat.'"

Talon nodded to the balding man and moved to sit down. Mr. Woolsey then said something else, and Daniel translated again, "Mr. Woolsey also wants you to know that this device neutralizes your abilities as a Sage for the time being. The effect is only temporary, but it's for our protection."

"I understand. I would do the same in your place." Talon responded. Daniel relayed that to Mr. Woolsey, who smiled.

"You I recognize, Colonel Shepherd, from my childhood." Talon said to the dark haired man sitting across from him who wore an olive green uniform of some sort. "That day you first told my mother of my father's passing."

Colonel Shepherd nodded, "That wasn't a really a good memory for me." He said, keeping his eyes on him.

"Nor for me. I loved my father dearly, Colonel." Talon responded. "Imagine my shock at seeing his face again on the television."

Mr. Woolsey said something, and this time Colonel Shepherd translated, "He says why don't you tell us about it, and about what brought you here?"

So Talon spent the next several minutes relating everything he knew, and the reason for his desperate action of traveling back in time and coming to them. They listened patiently, every once in a while stopping and asking questions. One man in particular, Doctor McKay, asked questions relating to Hyrule's level of technology when that came into play. He answered everyone's questions as honestly and completely as he could. He didn't need his abilities as a Sage to know these men didn't trust him any more than Daniel Jackson had when he first made contact with him. He would gain nothing by hiding anything from them.

They then talked among themselves in their own language as though he wasn't there. It was a bit rude, but he said nothing, instead paying attention to their body language and facial expressions. Doctor McKay clearly didn't trust him, and seemed to be arguing against him. Strangely, Daniel Jackson seemed to be rebutting Doctor McKay's arguments with calm reason. Colonel Shepherd asked Doctor McKay several questions which must have been of a scientific or technical nature because the man's whole demeanor changed as he began thinking about what was asked of him. Mr. Woolsey seemed to value Colonel Shepherd's and Daniel Jackson's opinions most of all. Finally, they turned their attention back to Talon.

"Can we assume that the amount of time that passes here shouldn't matter because of the portal of time there?" Mr. Woolsey asked through Daniel Jackson.

"Yes. The portal's connection isn't calibrated so finely that it is down to the minute, but upon my return I shouldn't have been gone for more than a few hours no matter how much time I spend here." Talon responded.

"So we can afford a couple of days to make proper preparations?" Mr. Woolsey pressed.

"Then you will help me?" Talon asked hopefully.

"Yeah. If something bad's going down in Hyrule it could eventually bleed back to us." Colonel Shepherd said. "Especially if it's another 'Demon King' person like the last one."

Daniel quickly translated the brief exchange for Mr. Woolsey and the balding man added, "To put it bluntly, your grace, we have no way of cutting off the passage between our worlds without reducing yours to smoking ash. That means anything bad enough to cause two very powerful ascended beings to return to mortal form to fight it becomes our problem as well. But we have tools and technology to deal with such threats that you may not."

"Thank you, sirs." Talon said gratefully.

"Give us a couple of days to get everything together and then we'll send a team back with you. Until then, you may enjoy our hospitality under escort." Colonel Shepherd told him. "Doctor Jackson here will show you around until we're ready to go."

"Thank you again." Talon said.

Link had taken Epona off the main paved road arounf mid-morning and was now following a strange dirt path through the Faron woods. The forest trees around him were somewhat comforting and familiar as he road the brown and white horse along them.

Epona whinnied at him questioningly when he left the pavement with her several hours before. "I don't know girl," he responded, "I just feel like this is the way we need to go."

The hard packed path looked like it was originally made by horses coming to and from somewhere at the other end, though Link couldn't imagine what would be back in that part of the woods that anyone would want to see. "What am I doing going through this when I need to get up into Hyrule Field?" He questioned himself.

The horse trail passed by a crystal clear pond fed by a spring that was partially enclosed by a rock and stone barrier. He dismounted from Epona there to let her drink and get some water himself. There was something familiar about this spring, he thought. Looking around, there was something familiar about this whole place like he had been there before. Though he knew he had never traveled this far north in his life. "What is going on with me, girl?" He asked the horse. Not wanting to comment, she pretended not to hear the question and continued to drink. "Yeah, thanks to you too." He said to her silence sarcastically.

Shadows began to fall on the spring and Link looked up through the trees to see if clouds had come in. It would be miserable to be caught in the rain for both horse and rider. But the sky was clear and sunny through the branches. Link began to get a bad feeling, and unstrapping his shield from his back, he slipped it over his right arm, drawing his trusted sword with his left. In a brief moment he remembered that the edges of his sword was intentionally left blunt for competition. He would have to remedy that with a good stone as soon as he got the chance. If he got the chance.

The shadows moved like living things towards the center of the spring from which he heard a young girl's scream, "HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME!" He couldn't see anyone, but he jumped into the water towards the cry for help.

As soon as his riding boots hit the water the scene exploded and changed as the three shadows materialized into dark, bulbous dog like creatures with gleaming, cruel yellow eyes. They were snapping and terrorizing what looked to be a young, barefoot teenage girl with flowing bright pink and blond hair in a swimsuit that covered very little of her. Link wanted to cover his eyes for the sight out of modesty except for the enormous, luminescent gossimer wings that protruded from her back. He had never seen one of these creatures before either, but he had heard about them from his uncle. They were rarely seen in modern Hyrule. They were supposed to be creatures of great magical power, but this Great Fairy looked terrified at the monster shadow dogs snapping and growling at her.

"Help me!" She screamed in terror again, and that was enough to get Link's legs pumping further into the water. His mind went blank as the muscles and tendons of his body seemed to take on a life and memory of their own. He gave a great yell as he launched himself into a spin into the air bringing his sword around to plunge it into the first shadow beast he aimed for. It's body went down as Link's blade severed the beast's head and sent it a distance into the water.

The other two dogs wasted no time in attempting to avenge their fallen comrade and Link met the first with the point of his sword running into the beast's mouth and down its throat, the second attacked from the other side and Link's right arm instinctively reacted with th shield bashing it in the head and sending it rebounding from its attempted strike. The first beast went slack on Link's sword while he drew it out and quickly met the second's next attack with a quick thrust up through its chest as it leaped upon him. The third beast quit struggling after a minute.

All was quiet, and then the bodies of the three monsters vanished with a puff of black smoke. "You don't see that every day." He commented on their disappearance. Though he had seen it before, he mind told him. Many, many times before.

"Are they gone?" The Fairy asked, opening up her eyes, which had been filled with tears.

"Yes, lady, they're gone. Are you hurt?" He asked, not even sure if a Great Fairy could be hurt, but she looked so frail and helpless.

"No," she sniffed once, "I don't think so." She was trembling still as she said, "You saved me."

"Well, uh... yeah, I guess I did, but..." Link began to say as he replaced his sword and shield. The truth was, he didn't know what to say to that. He had just heard someone in trouble and he reacted, like he always did. "Well, I'm just glad you're okay. I was passing by along the trail and I heard you scream."

The Great Fairy looked at his face then, and she stared as if in awe. Link began to feel self-conscious as she said nothing for what seemed like an eternity, then she said, "It's you isn't it? It's been so long since I've seen you, but I should have known you would be the one to rescue me like you did before." Her whole tone of voice became one of almost worshipful admiration. "Thank you for finding me again when I needed it."

Link was taken aback, "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met before. My name's Link, and I..." He didn't get the chance to finish as she held up one finger to his lips. "Shhh, my Hero." She said. "We have met at many times in the past, and in many places you and I. Your memories may be buried, but believe that mine are not. I am surprised to see you have returned to us, but I am glad of it." She giggled, and the whole spring radiated with her laughter.

She turned her hand over and produced a delicate glass vial with a stopper. She put the vial to her eyes and let the tears from her eyes flow into them. The liquid which was collected glowed with a pink light all of its own. She replaced the stopper and pressed the vial into his hands. "Take these tears of mine Hero, for in them are contained all of my heart, and in them can be found healing from any wound. Use them wisely for all our sakes." He handled the glass vial carefully, as though it was a fragile egg. She laughed again and said, "Have not fear for the delicacy of the vessal. Fairy glass cannot break even if your horse were to balance on it with all four hooves." He then slipped the vial into his front jacket pocket, realizing the value of the gift he had been given. "Thank you, lady." He said, bowing his head slightly because it seemed the thing to do. "You would bow to me?" She said in disbelief. "You have not changed, humble Hero. For that again, I am glad. Now go, fulfill your quest."

Link then remembered where he was and what he was doing, and so he asked, "I am not sure of my quest, lady. I felt like I should take this trail with my horse, but I don't know where it leads to. Our princess has been taken by a dragon. I don't even know how I know it was a dragon, but I do. That was up in Hyrule Field, but I feel like I need to follow this road, and I am so confused right now. Can you tell me at least where I am going?" Some of his emotions from the previous day spilled into his voice, and he became embarassed at how much he said. He certainly didn't sound like the confident Hero to himself.

The fairy listened patiently to him, and then looked at him with an almost maternal compassion and said, "It is disturbing news you bring me, my Hero. Disturbing news indeed. But I assure you that you are indeed on the right trail, for this path leads to the Sacred Grove of the Temple of Time. There you will find an old friend, perhaps more than one, who will aid you in your search for our beloved Princess." She told him. "And now I have detained you for too long. Go with my blessing, my Hero, and if you should ever need my help or the help of my sisters, find our fountains and we will give you all the aid within our power." And with that, she quickly pressed her lips to his, giggled girlishly, and then vanished into a thousand points of light, and all was quiet again in the natural fountain.

Link just stood there motionless for some time before he waded back out of the water. Strangely he felt strong and powerful and full of energy in spite of his hours of riding, and the monsters he had just fought. "Let's go." He told Epona, and then mounted her, practically leaping into her saddle. Taking one last look at the fountain, he then urged Epona down the trail again.

Hours later, Link and Epona emerged from the forgotten horse trail into a clearing in the woods. At one end of the clearing stood a great, massive deku tree that appeared to have been growing for centuries if not longer. A wooden path carved out of roots and dirt led up to the base of it, though from that distance he couldn't see why there might be. To the left of him looked to be the ruins of an old wooden structure, though it was so old, he couldn't tell what it might have been at one time. It was mostly quiet in the clearing as he took in the whole sight in front of him until he nudged Epona forward slowly.

It's off to the left. The thought passed through his mind. The pathway is off to the left. Not knowing what that meant he rode Epona towards to his left, what he believed was slightly north or northwest. A few minutes later he came upon a chain link fence with signs posted every few feet, "NO ENTRY BY ORDER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY – USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED – AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY." Razor wire ran along the top of the fence all the way across the considerable distance as far as he could see.

"They're really serious about this aren't they girl?" He asked his horse. "I wonder what they've got back there they don't want anyone to see." He said.

You need to go down there, again his thoughts were bidding him onwards. "You've got to be kidding me." He said in response, arguing with his own mind. But he urged his mount on along the fence, trying to see if there was a way through. Not far down he came upon a guard tower which had been erected behid the fence, and some kind of a gate had been set into it. He rode up to the gate, but didn't make any attempt to cross it. "As long as we stay on the right side of it, we should be fine, eh girl?

"Halt!" A grey suited guardsmen called out, and Link turned his head to look at him. The guardsmen came out from behind the gate. He was carrying what Link knew was the kind of rifle that only Hyrule's military forces were permitted to use, the kind which could reduce a man to shredded meat in a matter of seconds. He wondered if his shield could stop the rounds.

"You aren't permitted to be here, sir. This is a restricted area. I'm going to have to ask you to..." The guardsmen looked directly up into Link's face. "I'll be damned." He said instead of the speech he was going to give about turning his horse around and going back the way he came.

"I'm sorry?" Link said.

"What's your name, sir?" The guardsman asked.

"Link." Link responded. "Link Faroson." He had thought to offer to just ride off, but something within him refused to do anything of the sort. Stand your ground against these men, it kept telling him.

"Can you dismount and come with me, sir?" The guardsman framed it as a request, but Link knew it wasn't. He quickly dismounted, but didn't offer up anything else. "Epona comes with me." He told the guardsman.

"That isn't a problem, sir. There's a place inside the gate for you to tie her up. Don't worry, we'll take good care of her." The guardsman replied in a professional manner. "Please follow me inside the gate."

Link took Epona's reins and followed the guardsman to the other side where there was an entire command post for the Kingdom Guardsmen set up, including a building for sleeping quarters.

"What is this place?" Link asked.

"This is the entry point for the Sacred Grove, sir. I was under the impression that you were informed of that." The guardsman responded as he showed where Link could tie Epona up next to other horses used by the guard to navigate the uneven terrain.

"You seem to know who I am and what I'm doing here." Link observed after he had seen to Epona.

"We received orders earlier today to expect you, and to give you unimpeded access to the Grove. We are not to molest you or stop you in any way, and to render whatever assistance we can give." The guardsman replied. "My name is Guard Captain Jovani."

Link was completely taken by surprise. They were expecting me? The military was expecting me to come to a restricted area that no one knows is here? What is going on? He wondered. "Who gave those orders?" Link asked.

"Our orders come directly from King Daphnes Johnson himself, sir. I will escort you personally anywhere you want to go or see as if you were his majesty himself."

Towards the canyon, the inner voice urged Link. "I need to go towards the canyon." He said.

"Right this way, sir, follow me. Will you be needing to go into the Grove?" Captain Jovani asked.

Yes. "Yes." Link responded.

They came to the edge of a great canyon where a system of bridges, checkpoints, and elevators had been set up. Heavily armed gray uniformed guards patrolled every checkpoint and every bridge. Large gun emplacements were placed at key points to cover the entry through the canyon completely. Good, the thought came unbidden to Link's mind. This is good. But Link said nothing. He just took in the entire sight. The other guardsmen who saw him stared at him as though in awe. He caught the sight of one man passing a wad of banknotes to another who had reached out his hand, mouthing the words, "pay up."

"So, you're on a fencing team?" The guard captain asked him.

"Huh?" Link said, having been focusing on all of the security measures around him. His sense brought in all the information he needed instinctively to avoid, circumvent, or neutralize every threat around him he realized. He had been thinking it through without meaning to.

"Your sweatshirt." The guard captain pointed out.

Link looked down, he was still wearing his green fencing sweatshirt. "Yeah, Ordon Provincial Champions two years in a row."

"I was on my High School team in Eldin." The Captain went on. "As I recall, we kicked your collective butts in the inter-provincial semi-finals."

"Not when I was on the team." Link said matter of factly. "Not in the last two years." In fact he had personally trounced Kakariko's best varsity swordsman when they came to town for competition.

"That was held at Sariaton in Lanayru this past year wasn't it?" The Captain asked.

"No. It was held at Ordonville the last two years. I've never been out of Ordon before now." Link responded.

"Is that a fact?" The captain replied, though it was more of a statement than a question. He became pensive and quiet after that, not offering up much more conversation. They came to the caged elevators that led them down into the long descent to the grove.

Chapter 4

The sea breeze was warm and salty as it brushed along Talon's face. The ocean in front of him was so expansive it seemed to stretch on forever. "How I have missed this." He said aloud, ostensibly to Daniel who stood at the railing of the east pier near him. Two Special Forces soldiers stood only a few feet away, weapons in hand. One of them carried the black disk of the anti-prior device which blocked his Sage's abilities in a backpack. Talon was never permitted to be outside of the device's range. "For two hundred years, I have only been able to travel so far as the walls of the Temple, and my duty, will allow me. This," He gestured to the peaceful scene in front of him with his good hand, "is a breath of fresh air."

"Yeah, I'll bet." Daniel responded. "So this is your first time out of the Temple of Time in two hundred years?"

"Yes. Since the invention of the television device, I have been able to see many places again through the monitor, but I have been forbidden to travel to them." Talon responded.

"That must be rough." Daniel told him.

"Don't misunderstand me," Talon said. "The Lady Hylia took mercy on me in allowing me to live, and since my imprisonment I understand how foolish my actions were. I am thankful for her kindness in that regard, and I have been grateful for the chance I was given to make restitution through my service. But I am also thankful for this one chance to breath the fresh sea air again. Thank you for that, Daniel Jackson. It is a kindness I will not forget when I return home."

It had been two days since his appearance in the cavern city of D'ni and his arrival at Atlantis. True to their word, the people from Earth had been hospitable and had allowed him freedom of movement with an escort throughout the city, except in their restricted areas which held no interest for Talon anyway. He spent those two days listening to the conversations of those around him. Enjoying the sight of so many people, his favorite place to be was out on Atlantis' piers where off duty personnel spent time with the families many had been able to bring to the city since it had returned to Earth from the Pegasus Galaxy years prior. He heard genuine laughter in the background noise of the pier, and the sounds of life all around him. His twenty-five year old face seemed to have a permanent smile etched into it as he took in the activity around him. His nights had been spent out there as well, laying on the pier and watching the stars and constellations in the heavens. They weren't his stars or constellations, but they would do.

Daniel pressed his hand to his earpiece communicator and said into it, "Okay, we'll be right there." He then told Talon, "We need to get going. They're ready for us."

"I don't suppose a few more minutes would be possible?" Talon asked, knowing what the answer would be.

"I'm afraid not." Daniel responded, empathetically. "They want us right away."

They left the pier and took the transport system back to the central tower and almost all the way to the top where sat the conference room that he had materialized within two days before. As before, the other three men, Rodney McKay, Mr. Woolsey, and Colonel Shepherd were waiting for them, as well as another balding man with a beard and spectacles whom Talon had met in passing. All but Mr. Woolsey were wearing some kind of black military suit of the kind he had seen Hyrule's royal guardsmen wear when they had to go into combat. They all carried backpacks, weapons, and other gear, obviously packed for a long journey not knowing what they might encounter.

Mr. Woolsey addressed Daniel, and Talon's escort quickly left the room. Noticing his questioning look, Colonel Shepherd told him, "He needs to get suited up. The _Hammond's _standing by waiting for us to be ready for transport. He'll be back in a few minutes."

"Are all of you coming with me?" Talon asked.

"Myself, Rodney, Daniel, and I think you've met Dr. Lee." Colonel Shepherd motioned to the heavyset man with the spectacles who didn't appear to be fully comfortable in the mission attire. "He's the closest thing to a Hyrule and 'alternate reality' expert we've got, so he's coming with us this time. Maybe he can help us figure out who the new bad guy is, and how to deal with him."

"You mean video game expert." Rodney quipped in Hylian.

Dr. Lee said something, and Rodney appeared to shrug it off, saying to the other two, "Doesn't understand a word of Hylian."

"I'm sorry, video game expert?" Talon asked, confused.

"Computer games? Haven't they invented...uh?" Rodney began to try and explain.

"I've seen such games advertised and talked about on the television, Doctor McKay. They are relatively recent to us, but not unheard of. I just don't understand why such an expert would be necessary." Talon replied.

"That's going to be a long conversation best left for another time." Colonel Shepherd said as he saw Rodney gearing up for just that long explanation. "But I promise it will be an interesting one."

"Indeed it must be." Talon replied.

Daniel came back in a few minutes after that with his own gear and supplies, and their team was fully assembled. Mr. Woolsey gave his people last minute instructions in their own language, and then he spoke into his own communicator. The next thing Talon knew was that feeling of nausea and light-headedness as the five men were consumed rapidly into a blue flash of light.

Five forms materialized out of thin air and light in the great hall of the Temple of Time. It had been two days since the old woman had seen her future successor, but just over a year since she had sent two of the four strangers home to their own world with the warning not to return.

"Impa?" Doctor McKay asked in surprise, he then looked as if he was going to continue the conversation, and Impa stopped him immediately.

"Tell me nothing, Rodney McKay. The time line must not be tampered with. I am only acting as a point of passage for you into our future. You must not linger here." She told all of them.

One of the men, a man strange to her, leaned over to the man she knew as Colonel John Shepherd and, by the tone of his voice, asked him something, to which he responded in his own language. He then stared at her and the interior of the temple as he looked around in a kind of worshipful awe, mouthing the word, "wow," several times.

She could not, would not, look into their minds at this juncture to discover what they knew that she did not. If she did, it might change what would happen because it would change her response to what would happen. So she left their mysteries to remain mysteries.

She gestured towards the pedestal where the Master Sword remained firmly embedded in this timeless place as well as in the ruins outside of the interior of the true temple, and the floor of the hall opened up to reveal the portal of time assembling itself into position and spinning, the symbols on its face lighting up as it did so.

"Good luck, gentlemen. If all goes well, I will see you again upon your return." She told the men. Daniel leaned over and translated for the heavyset stranger when he gave a quizzical look. Impa smiled at him, and he smiled back and waved. She couldn't repress a slight laugh. The man seemed like a child in a confectionary and she didn't know why.

Her successor Talon led the other men into the portal, and then they were gone, and Impa was alone once more. She wondered how long it would be before the portal would come to life on its own again.

"Who is this?" The secretary who answered the phone asked. "Wait just one minute, I'll transfer you immediately!"

"Well, that's a better reception than my first." Talon told Colonel Shepherd who had come to his apartment with him. After they arrived back into Talon's own time he attempted to contact the palace one last time, hoping that the Princess might finally be in. They arrived back later than he had hoped. It had been almost two days since he left according to the wooden clock which hung on the wall of his private residence, and a lot could happen in two days.

"Hello?" An older, masculine voice had picked up the phone. "Is this Talon?"

"Yes," Talon responded irritated. "I've been trying to reach the Princess Zelda since Saturday. To whom am I speaking?"

"I'm sorry, you grace. This is King Daphnes, and we've been trying to reach you since Saturday night. I hope you will forgive my daughter's secretary." The masculine voice said. "Where have you been?"

Talon's irritation dissipated, "When I could raise no one through any means, I..." he searched for the words to try and explain, "went for help in the only means I had available to me. The Hero has been reborn, and he is the same age as your daughter, I am certain of it. Where is the princess, your majesty? I believe it is a sign that she and all of Hyrule may be in terrible danger."

The king let out a sad, troubled sigh, his voice became filled with emotion, "My daughter was... she was abducted Saturday night from her car as she was driving to speak with you personally. We've been trying to contact you, and every other Sage for two days now. No one has responded."

"Abducted?" Talon said with alarm. "By who?"

"All the signs say it was a dragon, as do the witnesses who survived the attack. It happened in Hyrule Field not far from Castleton on the Trans-Hyrule one." The king said sadly.

"Great goddesses have mercy." Talon exclaimed. "I was too late."

"We all were, grand-uncle." The king said, using a more familiar term of address including Talon as a part of what was a family crisis. It moved Talon in a way he hadn't been for a long time. "You said you went for help?"

"Yes, I brought men from the past. Men who helped to destroy the Demon King with my father." Talon told him. "Colonel John Shepherd, Doctor Rodney McKay, and two of their companions, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and a Doctor Bill Lee."

"Your grace, I have to add to that list of heroes. About an hour ago, I received a call from the Sacred Grove command post. The Hero showed up on horseback wearing a green hooded sweatshirt and leather jacket." The king told him.

"So it's true then. They were certain it was him?" Talon asked.

"It was a positive identification. They're escorting him to the Grove on my orders." The king replied.

"I understand." Talon responded, filled with conflicting feelings about his new visitor. "He need not enter the temple to pull the Sacred Blade, and it may be better if he does not. I will send these men out to meet him. Please notify the command post not to shoot them the minute they set foot out of the Temple doorway."

"You have my word. My soldiers will give any aid they need or there will be hell to pay." The king replied. "Please, tell them to save my daughter. She's all I have left of her mother."

Shepherd had been listening to the entire conversation since the speaker on the phone receiver was so loud. He motioned to Talon to let him take the phone and speak with him. Surprised, Talon nevertheless gave him the handset. "Your majesty this is Colonel John Shepherd, at one time the Supreme Commander of your military."

"Colonel Shepherd?" The king asked in amazement.

"I just want you to know that we _are_ getting Zelda back. That's a promise." He then added in an undertone, "We failed her once. Never again."

"Thank you, Colonel." The king responded.

He handed the telephone back to Talon, who had little else to say, and then it was hung up. Colonel Shepherd then turned to leave the residence to rejoin his men in the great hall, when Talon put his hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Wait for a minute, would you Colonel?"

Shepherd looked at him in confusion. Talon walked calmly over to a chest which sat in the corner of the room and opened it. He reached inside with his one good hand and pulled out what looked to be a medium sized package, handing it to him. The package was heaver than Shepherd expected it to be.

"What is this?" He asked the Sage.

"When you see my father, give this to him as a gift from me. The Hero needs to be properly suited for the task ahead of him." Talon told him.

Shepherd nodded at the cryptic explanation and put the package under his arm, as the two left the room.

"Say again?" Guard Captain Jovani asked over the two way radio. "You're kidding." He then replied to whatever he was hearing. "Alright, I'll tell him. Be sure to radio the men at the doorway." Then there was a response, and he said, "Good, we don't need to be cutting down friendlies. Jovani out."

Link paid no attention to his conversation as he stepped into the Sacred Grove, and immediately felt as though he had come home. "I know this place." He said out loud. "I don't know how, but I know this place. I've been here so many times, it's like coming home."

"Oh? When was that?" Jovani asked him, curious, never having seen the teenager before. Jovani had been stationed guard at the grove for ten years.

"I... I can't remember." Link admitted. "But I _know_ this place. Over there," Link pointed, "was where the skull kid used to play his games with me. And over there," Link pointed, and then became silent for a minute, "over there was where we found him dead." He said quietly, grasping for a conscious memory that refused to come.

"Well, I just got word to expect some friendly company near the Temple in a few minutes. People you may recognize." Jovani said.

Link nodded, not sure of what to do with his memories. They seemed so jumbled and confused, but the closer he came to the center of the Grove, the stronger they fought to the surface. He was just a farm kid from Ordon who happened to be good with a sword, but his memories refused to let it go at that. I am more than that. His mind kept insisting, no matter how much he argued.

"I need to go in there." Link said, pointing to an archway that led deeper into the complex of ruins.

"Of course you do, sir." Jovani responded, at this point refusing to be surprised by anything that happened that day.

Link led the way as they came out into the ruins of an enormous ancient building. The roof and sidewalls were almost completely gone. Some of the only features that had been left standing were some staircases, the outline of where the walls had been, and, curiously, the archway of the main doors seemed completely unravaged by time. Link made to reach those when Jovani told him, "I think what you'll be wanting to see, sir, can be gotten to around this way." The guard captain steered him around down a flight of ruined steps and into what had been an immense great hall of marble, obsidian and gold.

Follow him. The voice within him said, and Link acquiesced, but he didn't feel done with the archway, not yet as the memory of his wooden flute in his pocket came to him. For what reason, he didn't know.

Link then took over as he left the guard captain's side and when forward through the ruined structure up a flight of stairs and through another set of massive doors that had long lain off their hinges. At the back of the structure was a sight he recognized immediately.

In a stone pedestal up on a dais was a sword embedded vertically almost up to its sapphire blue hilt. The sword gleamed with its own inner light it seemed. Link was drawn to it without thought and without will.

"I should warn you sir." Jovani called out. "I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't warn you. That sword's only supposed to recognize one master. It'll kill anyone else that touches it." He was genuinely concerned for the kid. If he wasn't the Hero, he was at the least likable enough.

Link looked back at him and nodded in acknowledgment. So then what do I do? He asked himself. If I grip the sword, there's no going back. I'm committed. Either I'm the Hero, or I'm not and I'm dead, either way, nothing will ever be the same again. He then said a prayer to Farore. He had always felt close to that goddess for some reason, and he prayed for the courage to do what needed to be done.

He gripped the hilt with both hands, and began to pull upwards. Immediately there was a feminine, slightly computerized voice which called out, "Recognition accepted." And the sword began to slide free. "Master Link accepted." The voice called out as the sword came free of its pedestal.

The guard captain couldn't believe his eyes. He would have sworn the young man would have been dead by now, or had at least been unable to pull the sword. "Great goddesses," he exclaimed, "the legends were true." Involuntarily, he fell to his knees, not sure of what else he could or should do. He traced a series of triangles around his chest and head, something he hadn't done since he was a child.

A blue and silver young woman materialized out of thin air and addressed the young Hero. "Master Link, it has been a long time. It is good to see you. I calculated a ninety-nine point nine percent chance that we would never meet again. It appears I was in error."

"I guess so." Link agreed, not sure of what to say. Her name came to his mind, "Fi. Your name is Fi."

"Indeed it is, Master Link, and I am at your service until the very end." Fi responded.

Shepherd almost couldn't believe what his eyes were telling him. He still had the package Talon had given him under his arm, and he knew from the phone call (boy that was weird, a phone call in Hyrule), that Link had shown up, but the last time he had seen the young man who had been one of his best friends was when he voluntarily went to his own death. He had opened the gateway to a poisonous Sacred Realm and sacrificed himself to redeem his whole world. It had been a bad day for Shepherd.

"Link?!" He called out to the young man holding a very familiar Sword up in the ruins of the temple he had just been in. The young man was talking to another familiar figure, a blue an silver young lady that he knew to be a hologram of the sentient artificial antelligence of the Master Sword, scene was eerily familiar to another one he had experienced three years, and what seemed like several lifetimes ago.

The young man's head shot to face him, and even from that distance, and in the dim light Shepherd could tell it was him, though what he was wearing was more modern (again, weird).

"Wow, it's really him, isn't it?" Rodney said, also viewing the scene. "It looks exactly like him. But what's with the clothes?"

"I don't know, let's go and talk to him and find out." Shepherd said going up the ruined stairs to approach his old friend. "Hey, buddy," He said in Hylian. "Long time no see!"

The hologram disappeared back into the sword, and the young man in front of him stared at him curiously, and then a faint glimmer of recognition came into his eyes. "I know you, I think." Link said, as he removed one sword from the scabbard on his back and replaced it with the one he had just drawn.

"Yeah, you do, don't you remember?" Shepherd asked, a little concerned.

"No." Link said honestly. "At least, I don't think I do. But your face looks really familiar to me. It's like this place. I have never been here before, and yet I know every inch of it as though I've spent a good part of my life here. If you know me, can you tell me what's happening to me? Please?" The boy almost begged him.

"Yeah, sure, I can try." Shepherd told him, a little confused himself, but it was Link. He would do anything that needed to be done for him. "Why don't you come down with my friends and I and we'll try and piece things together for you." Shepherd gestured towards the other three men with him.

"Alright." Link responded, and then he stopped and looked at Shepherd again and said, "John. Your first name is John."

"See, you do know me." Shepherd nodded. "And there's at least one other person over there that you know too."

As Link descended the steps with Shepherd he said, "All of these things, your name, this place, what to do and where to go, they're all coming to my mind when they seem to be needed, but I swear to you I have no idea where they're coming from. I'm just a high school junior from Ordonville. My uncle has a goat ranch just outside of town. I'm on the fencing team at school. But when I saw that the princess had been kidnapped on the news it was like someone had flipped a switch inside of me that I don't understand."

"Okay," Shepherd said in response, "well, we can try and fill in what details we know. But you're going to have to trust us on some of them. I don't think I'd even believe me, and I was there."

They rejoined Daniel, Rodney and Bill. They had been speaking with a gray suited guardsman who seemed to be a little shaken up from the day's events. The guardsman stood at attention and crisply saluted Shepherd when he saw him, "Colonel Shepherd, sir!"

"At ease, Captain." Shepherd said, noting the rank insignia on his collar.

"Sir, I've been given orders to facilitate anything you and your companions need." The guardsman said, not relaxing in the slightest.

"We're probably going to need transportation soon, once we reach the top of the canyon again. You got anything like a groundcar we can use?" Shepherd asked.

"Yes, sir. I'll order one prepped and ready for once we reach the top. Anything else, sir?" The captain said.

"Yeah, we may need maps, some supplies, and some of whatever you guys are using for currency right now for mission expenses." Shepherd told him.

"Consider it done, sir. His majesty has ordered to give you whatever you require." The captain said.

"A short history lesson might be useful too," Daniel offered. "From what Talon said, it's been two hundred years since the last time any of us were here. We really need to get the lay of the land, so to speak."

"Agreed. You want to fill us in on some details as we head back up, Captain?" Shepherd asked him.

"Of course. I'm not much of a history buff, but I'll do what I can. If I may speak frankly, after today, I'm definitely studying my history more, sir." The Captain said.

"Noted." Shepherd said, as the six men began to walk back up the long path to the Grove's entry point.

Shepherd then remembered the package under his arm. "Oh, by the way, Link." He addressed the armed teenager next to him. "This is for you." He handed him the bundle.

"It's kind of heavy. What is it?" Link asked, turning the wrapped bundle over in his hands.

"It's a present." Shepherd said.

"From who?" Link asked.

"It's from your son." Shepherd responded.

"Huh?!" Was Link's reply.

"We've got a lot of details to fill in, Link." Shepherd responded. "A lot of details."

Chapter 5

Zelda sat on the bed in her cell. There were no windows, and Maleficent had not visited her again. In the last two days, food had been brought to her by the sorceress's "servants;" ghastly, long dead skeletons of former inmates or their guards that had been re-animated with a sickly green light in their empty eye sockets. They made no move to threaten her, but neither would they allow her to leave the open door of her cell, standing in the damaged doorway to block her exit.

The truth was she had no idea how long it had been, but she had involuntarily fallen asleep twice since Maleficent's visit, so she was working on the assumption that it had been two days. Her waking hours had been spent memorizing every detail of the dimly lit stone cell.

She knew from her studies of ancient lore, that many of these ancient structures from Hyrule's past had secret passageways and rooms, and the arbiter's grounds were no exception. She had hoped to find some gust of air, some crack in the wall where one shouldn't be, something which could point her in the right direction, but there was nothing; at least not in this particular cell.

From her only conversation with the black clad woman, Zelda had gleaned some useful bits of information. The witch had no interest in killing her herself, only to use her as bait for someone much worse than herself, and as such she needed her alive. Not necessarily comfortable, but alive. She also learned that neither her captor nor her captor's prey was from their world. That disturbed her.

As the person in charge of the administration of Hyrule's temples for the royal family, Zelda had been privy to secrets held by the royal family which were shared with no one, absolutely no one else but the most trusted of their agents. One of those was the knowledge of the portal of time, and the linking books. In Hyrule's past, these were used by friends and at times foes alike to travel to and from their world from other worlds and realities.

Up until the secession of Eastern Hyrule from the United Kingdom of Hyrule, she knew, there had even been a substantial relationship with the Kingdom of Gondor in a world called "Middle-Earth." But that public relationship had to be curtailed during the violent uprising which led to the formation of the eastern republic. Contacts were still maintained with Minas Tirith, but as with the Temple of Time itself, only by the royal family or their official representatives, and out of the public's knowledge.

But outside of these two entry points, unless the new threat came from outside their planet from space, she had no idea how either Maleficent or her target got there. And if they came from space, that presented another set of problems she didn't even want to think about. The kingdom's own space program was still very much in its infancy. They had yet to actually put anything more than artificial satellites into orbit, and this had been hailed as a great accomplishment.

Zelda then considered Maleficent herself. There was something familiar in her face and voice that she struggled to remembered. She wasn't Hylian, of that Zelda was certain, but she wasn't Ordonian either, and certainly not any of the other sentient species she encountered on a regular basis. But she reminded her strongly of one she had met a long, a very long time ago, almost as if in another lifetime.

"Oh good, you're awake again!" The witch's voice called out in the overly friendly manner she had chosen to adopt with Zelda. Zelda still didn't understand why she chose this particular pretense of familiarity, but the princess chose to partly play along to keep the sorceress talking. She needed more information from her, and the best way she could think to get it was to play nice.

"That makes things so much more convenient. I have some news, and some questions for you." Maleficent told her.

"News?" Zelda asked.

"Yes," she said as she entered the cell. "My raven has been flying to and fro in your little kingdom." Maleficent told her, stroking the black bird which sat on her staff. "He tells me an interesting tale. It appears a green clad boy has appeared in some heavily guarded ruins and has pulled a sword from some stone."

So it's true! The Hero has come and he's already drawn the Master Sword! She thought inwardly, trying to keep her face impassive. It didn't work as well as she had hoped, because Maleficent next said, "So you know who he is, and what that means. Please, enlighten me."

How much should I say? Zelda quickly reasoned whether to tell her the truth, or to come up with something more believable to someone from outside their world.

"Please, dear; while I enjoy a good fiction as much as the next person, don't presume to lie to me. I will know." An edge of seriousness and malice tinged Maleficent's words.

Okay, so a lie is out. Zelda thought, well, maybe she won't believe the truth. "I think he might be the legendary Hero of Hyrule coming to rescue me." She said flatly. It was, after all the truth she asked for.

"I see." Maleficent turned this information over in her mind, watching every expression on Zelda's face. "And what is the significance of the sword in the stone?"

Zelda paused. How much could she reveal to this person? "It's a Sacred Sword held in trust by the Royal Family for the Hero alone to use." She said. Again, it was the truth, though not necessarily all of it.

"Let's say I believe you." Maleficent said, her own face betraying nothing of what was going through her mind. "He is only one teenage boy, accompanied by four or five other men that seemed to appear out of nowhere in the ruins."

That surprised Zelda, and it must have shown on her face, because Maleficent then said, "So that means something to you to, I see. I meant what I said dear, I have no interest in killing you myself, but I can't have your hero and his friends interfere with my own plans. How much of a threat to me are they?"

The Princess couldn't keep her "poker face." Zelda just looked at her, her eyes shining hopefully, the rest of her face fighting hard not to smile.

"I see." Maleficent said, understanding perfectly. "Well, I can't have that, now can I? Perhaps I will invite them here, myself, and explain the situation to them personally."

The princess didn't reply, but instead tried to look as sincerely worried about that possibility as she could. Perhaps, she thought, the witch can bring my rescuers to me herself.

"I do so enjoy these little chats of ours, perhaps I will visit again very soon." Maleficent said, as she turned to leave the cell, apparently satisfied that she had given Zelda cause to fear for them.

"You're a Great Fairy, aren't you?" Zelda asked to her back. Her mind had been turning it over the entire time they talked, and Zelda had been trying to place her face. "Only, where are your wings?"

Maleficent stopped abruptly, her hand tightening on her staff. She turned once more to face the princess, her unnaturally pale green eyes flashing with an anger she hadn't exposed before now.

I touched a nerve, Zelda observed. But with which observation?

Maleficent's smile returned, but the anger didn't fully dissipate, the princess could see. "That is a more complementary way of putting it than I have been called before, but yes, I suppose I am." She didn't answer the question about her wings.

So it's her wings then, Zelda realized, and filed that information away. "In Hyrule, the Great Fairies preside over springs and natural fountains. Do you?"

Zelda could see a memory of a place forming behind Maleficent's eyes, one she longed to go home to, she could tell. "I did, once. It was a great enchanted moor where I was born and grew up, and filled with wondrous creatures and people; not unlike your Hyrule, actually. It was beautiful." She said.

"You make it sound wonderful. Why would you want to leave?" Zelda asked.

"It was wonderful, dear, until I made the mistake of permitting a human to enter it." Maleficent told her. "Do you truly want to know how I lost my wings, dear?" She said, her voice tinged with a sad anger born of a very personal pain. Zelda nodded, and the wingless dark fairy continued, "That human professed to love me and I believed him. Then when I was asleep, he cut my wings off so he could be a king in a nearby castle."

Zelda was horrified. There was now no wonder what had turned this natural creature of light so very dark. "How could anyone be so cruel?" She asked in a near whisper, compassion filling her heart for her captor. She knew there were villains like that in the world, but she had never personally met one, at least not yet. "Is this the man you're pursuing?"

"What? Him? No! Not that pathetic wretch! Oh, don't you worry I've already taken care of him and his pathetic family." She said with an evil grin. "No, the man I'm chasing has done something that merits my special attentions."

"What could be worse than that kind of betrayal?" Zelda asked, fearing the answer.

"Killing someone who was dear to me, my dear." Maleficent told her as she stroked her raven, and her whole demeanor became very serious and malicious, "And I will chase him to and into the gates of hell if I must, but he will not escape me. That is why I can't have your little friends interfering."

"What if we could help?" Zelda then offered. "If this man is as evil as you say, then he is a threat to our world as well, and we would want him gone as well. The means notwithstanding. We don't have to be enemies. If you want him, perhaps we could help you get him."

"A charming offer, dear." Maleficent said, thoughtfully. "I will think on it." And then she left Zelda's cell. And Zelda was alone again, turning the conversations she had held with the dark fairy over and over again in her mind, trying to understand the important clues that had just been handed to her.

Doctor Bill Lee was riding in the back seat of a gray, steam-powered, Hylian military vehicle that looked suspiciously like a U.S. military humvee, as it traveled north late at night on the Trans-Hyrule One highway. The royal winged Triforce insignia was emblazoned in black on the two sides of the vehicle as well as the hood. He still couldn't believe he was actually there, in Hyrule. His second favorite video game world, ever.

I mean, okay, so it was a more modern, industrialized Hyrule, and of course he wasn't playing the game, although an argument could be made for that, but come on! It was Hyrule! He couldn't help but smile from the sheer geektasticness of the whole thing ever since he arrived. He couldn't believe that Colonel Shepherd and Mr. Woolsey actually asked him to join the mission this time!

"But, I'm not a field man," he had told them modestly, though his eyes had been practically begging them. "And I don't speak the language. I don't know how much use I'd be."

"We need someone on the team this time who can make certain 'connections' that may be outside of Doctor McKay's area of expertise." Mr. Woolsey had tried to put it delicately. "We're facing an unknown threat, and we need to identify it quickly."

"Huh?" Bill had said.

"What Mr. Woolsey's trying to say, Bill, is that we need an expert in video game lore, and you're the one who's come up with all the useful ideas relating to Hyrule in the past. We want to take you along so you can put together for us who might be threatening them now." Colonel Shepherd translated.

Who knew his hours of combing Azeroth on his computer and dungeon crawling on his Wii would be the exact skills that would be needed on a mission? It was a dream come true for him.

He felt bad for the young man who sat in the front seat next to Colonel Shepherd. It had been necessary for him to leave his horse stabled back at the Sacred Grove command post. It just wasn't practical for him to try and keep up with the humvee on horseback.

Bill grinned again when he thought of Link's reaction to what was in the package. It was a complete set of "Hero's clothes," including chain mail and gauntlets that looked straight out of one of his games back home. "You've got to be kidding me." He had said out loud, picking up the very renaissance looking tunic and breaches and looking at them. "The Sage of Time really wanted me to wear these?"

"It's traditional." Colonel Shepherd had told him. "And the chain mail isn't so bad."

"It's not the chain mail that'll get me laughed at." He said unfolding the long green cap. "At least the chain mail will offer me some protection in a fight. What exactly is the hat for again?"

"It's all part of the whole "Hero of Hyrule" thing." Shepherd told him. "It's a great honor, really."

"If you say so." Link had responded. "But I'm keeping my jacket."

"Fair enough." Shepherd had conceded.

Then it had been the rest of their team's turn to change their own U.S. military issued clothes for something a little more local. "It'll draw less attention and fewer questions, sir." Captain Jovani had explained. And so Colonel Shepherd, Rodney, Daniel, and himself had all changed into gray tactical suits from the black ones they had worn from Atlantis, although Shepherd had insisted on keeping their own weapons and equipment. The three scientists' rank insignias were left blank while Jovani had found a general's insignia for Shepherd. "So no one questions you at all, sir." He had also supplied them with military identification papers which had been hastily delivered from the palace.

"When did they have the time to come up with these?" Daniel had questioned. "We've only been here a few hours."

"The royal magicians are adept at what they do, sir." Jovani answered.

"Oh, right." Daniel replied. "Magic."

"The rules of the game, Danny-boy. The rules of the game." Rodney had said smugly.

Of course, Daniel had been good to translate everything that had been going on for Bill. He couldn't make heads or tails out of the tongue twisting language that sounded like some weird combination of Japanese and Latin. He was just glad that the others translated everything for him so he didn't miss anything that might be important.

And speaking of important, "Hey guys, I've been think about who it might be that we're after." he announced to the others in the vehicle.

"Oh, who?" Shepherd asked in English, keeping his eyes on the road. Like in both England and Japan, Hylians drove on the left side of the road, and the steering wheel was on the right. Fortunately, the controls were about the same as on an Earth vehicle, so Shepherd drove as Link didn't have a license yet.

"Well, there's only two ways anyone knows about to get into this world from the outside, right?" Bill said, trying to lay out his reasoning.

"Yeah, the stargate and the linking books." Rodney offered. "We know this Bill, no one came through either, or else Talon would have known about it."

"Exactly!" Bill continued, "So it only makes sense that they used another means that no one else from this world would have considered before. Remember how I thought of the Master Sword as a key blade, a _lamna clavia_?"

"Yeah." Shepherd said. "That had something to do with another video game, right?"

"Precisely. It's from another game I've played a little of, _Kingdom Hearts_. In it there are these special swords shaped like keys that can open up doorways between worlds allowing passage between them. I'm just thinking maybe, if one key blade exists, maybe there are more."

"And maybe someone used one to get into Hyrule?" Shepherd asked.

"Wait, isn't that the Mickey Mouse game?" Daniel asked.

"Oh boy." Rodney said, "Just what we needed. 'Hi Mickey, how's Goofy these days? Seen Donald lately?' No thanks." The sarcasm was palpable.

"Hey, I didn't write the game." Bill said in his defense. "You brought me along to make connections, so I'm making one. If Hyrule and _The Legend of Zelda_ is real, maybe the stuff from _Kingdom Hearts_ is too. I mean, it would make sense actually if there was a dragon involved in the princess's kidnapping."

"And why is that, Bill?" Daniel asked, trying to keep a straight face in the face of the unbelievability of his line of thought.

"Well, one of the main bad guys in _Kingdom Hearts_ is Maleficent. Well, she's not _the_ main bad guy, but she's way up there." Bill said.

"Maleficent? _Sleeping Beauty's_ Maleficent? The witch that cursed the princess to sleep for a hundred years and turned herself into a huge black fire-breathing dragon, that Maleficent?" Shepherd asked, his voice rising.

"Well, yeah." Bill said.

"Oh crap." Rodney said. "Didn't the report from the men who were with the princess say it was a black dragon that breathed green fire?"

"Yep." Daniel replied, folding his arms, feeling like he was in a bad dream after too much pizza and Disney movies.

"Well, yeah, that's what why I was thinking it was her. It also might explain why she kidnapped Zelda. You see, in the game, she was trying to collect princesses who had no darkness in them to open a portal to a realm called 'Kingdom Hearts' which was the core or source of all other worlds so that the main bad guy, Xehanort could go in and cover all the worlds in darkness." Bill explained. "It's just a theory, but so far, it fits the facts."

"Yeah, in a weird way it does." Daniel agreed, in spite of the absurdity of it all.

Colonel Shepherd translated everything for Link, who said something back to him, and he relayed it to the rest of the men. "Link says that the princess Zelda he knows, at least from watching her on TV, would probably fit the bill of a 'princess of heart.' She's a real sweetheart who works a lot for equal rights and kids' education; that sort of thing. Sounds a lot like the Zelda we knew."

"Okay, so we work under the assumption that we're up against an extremely powerful wingless dark fairy who can turn herself into a huge, fire breathing dragon. No big deal, right?" Rodney quipped.

"No big deal." Shepherd repeated, sounding about as sure of the statement as the rest of them felt.

"So, how long until we get to the abduction site?" Bill asked.

Shepherd asked Link, who responded, and then Shepherd said, "Link said it should be soon. She was taken about a half hour south of Castle Town, and we've been on the road for about an hour."

"Out of curiosity, just what do we hope to find there?" Daniel asked. "Hyrule's guard will have been all over the site with a fine tooth comb. Isn't there some better way of figuring out where Zelda was taken to?"

"We've got to start somewhere." Shepherd said. "And the abduction site is as good of a place as any."

Flashlights out they went over the stretch of highway where the princess was taken looking for anything they could find. The twilight glow of a major metropolis in the distance could be seen off to the north of them as they checked the grassy field near the highway. This stretch of road had been blocked off by flares and barriers, the traffic having been diverted to share space with the northbound lane until construction crews could come in and repair the damage the dragon's claws and immense weight had done to the road.

"Wow, she really tore this road up." Rodney said, impressed.

Link looked up and nodded. "It seems so." He agreed. There were no streetlamps this far away from Castleton, and the only lights were their flashlights and the full moon above them. The dark didn't bother him, but something didn't feel right as he turned off his flashlight and used his more sensitive hearing than his human companions to try and figure out why.

"Hey, buddy, what's wrong?" Shepherd asked.

"Something's doesn't feel right." Link told him. The shadows seemed to be shifting in the distance around him almost as if they had a life of their own. "Turn off your flashlights for a minute."

"Do it." Shepherd said, trusting Link's instincts, pulling his assault rifle around, taking the safety off. Daniel and Rodney did the same. "Bill, get back to the vehicle." He told the scientist in English, who had no combat experience. "Keep your sidearm in hand." The balding man didn't question it, he went straightaway.

Their eyes adjusted to the bright moonlight, and Shepherd then noticed what Link had. The shadows from the moonlight were moving, it seemed, of their own accord across the grassy expanse of Hyrule Field. And they were moving all around their position towards them.

"What're we looking at here, Link?" Shepherd asked, his rifle up and ready to shoot, but not sure of what he was shooting at yet.

The Master Sword and his uncle's shield in his hands, Link shouted back, "Nothing good! If it's what I encountered before, you've got to wait until they solidify!"

"When does that happen?!" McKay shouted.

The first group of shadows reached them and rose out of the darkness on the ground to form dark, humanoid shapes armed with swords and glowing pale green eyes. "Me and my big mouth." Rodney said.

"Get a quick count, how many are we looking at?" Shepherd asked.

Link didn't hesitate as he charged into the first group and took off the head of the first one with a spinning slash, "One less!" He called back.

"Right! Light 'em up!" Shepherd called out as the shadow creatures charged them, swords held high. Rapid gunfire rang out across the previously quiet landscape, and the shadow creatures began going down and disappearing into black puffs of smoke.

Link thrust the Sacred Blade into the middle of the next, and then immediately pulled it out and thrust it behind him, both creatures rendered motionless disappeared. He didn't wait as three more came up to him bringing their own swords down on him in a vicious attack. He took the blows on his shield and then spun with the blade extended. His attackers fell, halved in two.

The creatures kept coming as more shadows descended on them and solidifying into the dark warriors. "This could be a long night." Rodney said. "A very long night."

Maleficent watched the whole affair through the eyes of her raven who flew in the night sky over the whole . "How interesting." She said aloud as she sat in her makeshift, stone throne at the top of the Arbiter's tower, her eyes closed. The ruins of a great, etched metal mirror lay shattered around her, a relic from another age of that mysterious world. "I wonder how fast I can wear them out before they collapse. Hmm, should I see?" She asked to no one in particular.

She watched the one dressed in green with particular interest. "Yes, I do believe that one could be a significant threat to my plans, or perhaps a useful tool?" She queried. "The others appear to rely on their little pellet weapons. They're easy to dispose of aren't they? But still, I suppose if the green one would be useful to me, it wouldn't do to kill his friends. It would make him much less cooperative. Pity. Alright then. We must make some little sacrifices, musn't we. I can always kill them later, or something more entertaining." She made a quick gesture with her hand and the shadows surrounding the men disappeared completely.

"Now, my pet," she said, "should we invite them for tea?"

"Where'd they go?!" Shepherd called out. "Jackson, you see anything?!"

"No, nothing! You Rodney?!" Daniel called out.

"Nothing. They just disappeared!" Rodney said.

"No, something's still here." Link said. "Can't you feel it?"

The darkness around them became palpable and cold as the four men looked this way and that trying to determine what new threat surrounded them. Overhead, a raven announced its presence, "caww, caww," and Link went for a bow and arrow on his back, only to find he wasn't carrying them.

The raven circled and then landed in front of them. It then grew and enlongated into a human form. "Greetings." Said a young looking, dark haired man in black robes. "I bring greetings from my mistress, the Great Fairy Queen Maleficent." He then looked down to find three tiny red dots lined up on his chest as the three men with rifles had them pointed at him. "I assure you that won't be necessary, if you will allow me to speak."

"Go ahead, speak." Daniel said, "We're listening. Right guys?"

"All ears." Rodney said, his weapon's laser sight not leaving the man's chest.

"Of course." The raven turned man replied. "My mistress invites you to join her. She has a proposal to discuss with you."

"Oh?" Shepherd asked. "What kind of proposal?"

"She invites you to join her at the place your people call the 'arbiter's grounds.' This is where the princess called Zelda is her guest. If you wish to see her, you will meet my mistress there to discuss an alliance with her. That is my message. You have until midnight tomorrow night to meet her there," the man said, "or the princess will die."

"Tell your mistress we'll be there." Link said flatly.

"Of course." The raven man said, then he jumped into the air and his form quickly collapsed back into the raven and he flew off.

"Are you kidding me?!" Rodney said. "We aren't seriously going to walk into what is most definitely a trap, are we?"

Shepherd was quiet, thinking it through.

"Well, if she had wanted us dead, why did she stop the shadows?" Daniel reasoned. "There were hundreds of them coming at us. We would have run out of ammo and it wouldn't have stopped them all."

"I agree." Shepherd said. "She had us dead to rights, and chose not to shoot. I agree with Link. Let's get in the truck and check the map. The last time I was in the Lanayru desert was a long time ago, but even by truck it'll take a while to get there. We'll take turns driving and sleeping."

Link nodded, still eyeing the darkness around him as he replaced the sword and shield on his back. "They're still out there, watching us." He said as he walked back to the humvee, Shepherd had already started the steam engine warming up.

"I don't doubt it." Shepherd said. "Anyone that powerful could have squished us any time she wanted to. She'll probably have eyes on us the whole way there."

"The question is, what does she really want from Zelda or us?" Daniel asked.

"What do you mean?" Rodney asked.

"Well, Zelda's probably still alive, and Maleficent, assuming that's who it really is, just invited us to discuss an alliance with her, which she wouldn't even consider unless it was in her best interests to do so, and she has to know we wouldn't either. So, what would be in our interests to even consider such an alliance?" Daniel explained.

"Hey guys?" Bill, who had been in the truck the whole time, spoke up. "What just happened? Can you let me in on what's going on?"

Daniel then quickly explained what had happened and what was said in English, adding, "So, what do you think, Bill?"

Bill thought for a few minutes, until he realized everyone's eyes were on him. "What?" He said. "I'm thinking. Why is everyone looking at me?"

"Because you happen to have been right, Bill, and seem to have all the good ideas." Daniel said.

"Well, give me a few minutes. Let me think." He said. "Shouldn't we start driving or something?" He said, flustered.

Shepherd released the brakes and put the engine into gear and the truck began rolling on the road back southbound. "Okay, we're going to need to head west towards Lake Hylia." He said. "Look for the, uh..." He checked the map in his lap, "Highway 2a, I think."

Daniel relayed what he said to Bill, who seemed confused. "But in the game, Lake Hylia is to the east of Hyrule Field." He said.

"Yeah, weird, huh?" Shepherd said in response in English. "Link's right handed in the Wii game, too, but I've always known him as left handed. Lake Hylia has always been to the west of Hyrule Castle though, at least in this reality."

"Strange." Bill agreed. "Nintendo should get so many details right, but mess up on basic directions between east and west, or whether or not Link's right or left handed."

They drove on a bit, until Bill spoke up again. "You know, I was thinking. If Maleficent wants an alliance, maybe someone else came into Hyrule that she needs help against. Maybe that's why she's here, because of the other guy."

"Who would Maleficent need help in taking down?" Rodney asked. "I'd think she could do just fine herself against just about anyone."

"Yeah, I'd normally agree, but there was this one guy in _Kingdom Hearts_. Oh, oh that's bad if it's him." Bill said, trying to think through the implications. "He's actually the main bad guy of the whole series who wanted to enter the Kingdom Hearts and shroud the entire universe in darkness."

Link asked what Bill had said, and Daniel told him. He then said something in response, and Daniel relayed it. He asked, "Can he be killed?"

"I don't know. He never dies in any of the games, he only runs away to plot and plan something else after he's defeated." Bill said.

"Well, we've taken down one undying Demon King before. How hard can this one be?" Shepherd observed.

Chapter 6

The early morning darkness gave way to the sunrise in the east as the gray, military humvee reached the resort town of Lake Hylia, and Daniel switched off the vehicle's headlights, heading down the stretch of road which led off into the great bowl shaped depression formed by the surrounding cliffs. The morning sun glinted off the crystal clear the lake. Link rode to his left asleep in the passenger seat while the other three men had been trying to catch naps in the backseat.

"Hey guys, I think we're here." He called out, waking up Shepherd, though Rodney, Bill, and Link still slept soundly.

Shepherd blinked the sleep out of his eyes a few times and looked around through the vehicle's windows at the still sleeping town. "Wow, it's really been built up since the last time I was here. It was barely a village before."

As they reached the bottom, the road took them onto a main street on the edge of the lake, lined with storefronts and brick row houses backed up against the rock cliffs. Towards the lake they could see a line of docks with, presumably, recreational fishing boats moored there. The town extended a bit out into the lake with walkways connecting houses and buildings built on floating foundations. "I can't believe the Zoras permitted all this to be built here." Shepherd said. "Not with their own sacred temple sitting at the bottom of the lake. We had to get their permission for me to just take recruits into the lake for dive and swim survival training. It took a week of negotiating. How'd anyone manage to get permission for all this?"

Link opened his eyes, yawned and looked around at the small town. He'd heard of the Lake Hylia resort before, of course, but he had never been there. A couple of his friends from the fencing team had spent the previous summer here with their parents. Link had been invited and wanted to go, but his uncle needed his help on the ranch, so he stayed behind. Now he finally got to see it. "It's smaller than I imagined it would be." He said. "It always looks so big in the advertisements on TV."

"You can't believe everything you see on TV, buddy." Shepherd said. "I used to have a cabin here. Well, not right here. It was up the Zora river near a great little fishing spot. You and I used to go fishing up there when we got some time off."

"You and I?" Link asked, trying to understand what the older man was saying. Shepherd and the other men had done their best to explain things to him, but he still found the whole thing hard to grasp. "Up the river?" He questioned.

"Yeah. I remember this one time you got a bite on the line, and fought and fought to reel this thing in thinking you had gotten some huge coral fish or something only to pull in an old log. The look on your face was priceless." Shepherd told him. He had been trying to encourage Link's other memories to surface, but it had been slow going at best. They were going to need all of Link's experience and knowledge, Shepherd had a feeling, and not just the teenage fencing champ that rode with them now.

"Yeah... I wish I could remember it." Link said, struggling with somethng that seemed just out of his reach.

"It must be tough." Daniel said. "I know it was tough when I took mortal form again. I had all the knowledge of an ascended being, as well as my own memories, locked up in my head and I couldn't use any of it except for bare snippets when the need for them surfaced."

"You walked among the gods, Daniel?" Link asked in awe.

"You could say that. The 'gods' of our reality didn't like that I actively tried to help my people, and so they 'cast me out of heaven,' so to speak." Daniel said. "It took me weeks to regain just the memories I had as a mortal before I ascended. The other memories I never fully recovered."

"If I truly am the Hero like everyone seems to think, why would I have been cast out of heaven?" Link asked. It was a question that had troubled him. What had he done that was so wrong that he would have been forced to be mortal and suffer horribly again?

"From what I was told by a very reliable source, no one forced you back down here again." Daniel told him. "You and Zelda have always had the choice to be reborn or not."

"Whatever caused you to take mortal form again must have been something really bad, or else you wouldn't have come back." Shepherd added. "That's why Talon went to go get us."

Link nodded, considering that new information. "So whoever I was in the heavens chose to come back because Hyrule needed me again."

"Yeah, that's how it seems to go." Shepherd said. "I don't know why your other memories haven't come back yet. When I first met you, you were ten years old going on ten thousand. But even if they don't, I've seen you in action, and you already got to the Sacred Grove on your own instincts. You're the same man I got to know before. I have no doubt of that."

"Just be patient, and don't try to think too much about it. You got as far as you did because your subconscious mind has been leading you, right?" Daniel said as he drove through the town.

"Yeah, I guess I did." Link said.

"So trust that. Trust your instincts. The Hero's in there, inside of you. Try and listen to him, and don't fight him." Shepherd said, picking up on Daniel's train of thought.

"Yeah. Trust my instincts, like in my fencing matches." Link understood that; those times when his mind would be 'in the zone,' and would go blank while his reflexes and instincts took over. No one could touch him in a duel as long as he didn't over-think it.

"There you go. Just like in your fencing matches." Shepherd agreed. "Whatever works for you."

A red indicator light came on in front of Daniel that he didn't recognize as he drove. "Hey guys, what does this red light here mean?"

Shepherd leaned over the seat and looked at it. "I'm not sure. It looks like a symbol for a tank of liquid. Maybe we're out of gas."

"I thought it was a steam engine. It doesn't use gas." Daniel replied.

"Right." Shepherd said back to him, and then he began to somewhat roughly shake Rodney awake. "Rodney, wake up!" He shouted at him. After about a minute he began to react. "What?! I'm up, I'm up. Wow, are we there already?"

"Yeah, we're in Lake Hylia. We have a red indicator light on the dash that looks like a tank of liquid of some kind. Any ideas?" Shepherd asked him.

"It's not gas, if that's what you're thinking. It's a steam engine. If they kept going with their previous time-shift crystal heating system, it won't need fuel in that sense, so I'm guessing the boiler is low on water, maybe?" Rodney reasoned out. "We've been running it for about eight hours now since we left Faron."

"Alright, Jackson, pull over into anything that looks like a service station so we can refill the boiler." Shepherd said.

"Yeah, I'll just keep my eyes open for one; assuming it looks like anything I'd recognize." Daniel said, looking from one side of the street to the other.

"It look's like there's a water-fill down on the next corner to the right." Link said, looking down the street a ways. "My uncle's got a steam work truck. He usually fills it at this one particular water-fill in town back in Ordonville because the water's cleaner, and mixed with some additives to make it last longer in the boiler. That's the same company as the one coming up it looks like. "

"Okay, good call, Link." Shepherd said. "Pull it in there. We need to figure out how to get up into the desert from here. The map Jovani gave us doesn't show any roads west after Lake Hylia."

Daniel pulled the humvee into the water-fill station and parked it where Link said should be good for refilling the boiler in the vehicle's engine. All in all, it didn't look that different from the gas stations in his own world, except for the huge water tank that stood next to the small building where the attendant watched them pull in. There were various labels in Hyrule's written language placed on it, some of them with a skull and cross-bones in red directly above them. "So, I guess that means don't drink the water?" Daniel asked.

"I wouldn't." Link confirmed for him. "The additives maximize the efficiency of the steam output, but they make the water poisonous to drink."

"Good to know." Daniel said as he and Link got out of the vehicle to hook up the water hose.

Shepherd also got out of the truck and went to go talk to the attendant, who came out of the building to meet them. "Hey there, how's your morning going?" He asked him.

The man smiled, and said, "It's going pretty good, there general." He offered his hand to Shepherd who took it. He was an Ordonian man, maybe in his mid forties or so, clean shaven with dark hair. He looked at the gray humvee and said, "Hoo, you don't see too many of those around here much any more, especially not the old steam engine ones. Not since the raids a few years back. Too bad really. Steam always gives you more power than electric, but all the folks around here seem to be buying lately are the new electric cars. I've had to install two new chargers just to keep up with them."

"Yeah, it's gotten us where we needed to go." Shepherd said. "Say listen, we need to get up into the desert, and it's been a long time since I've been out this way. Can you point us in the right direction?"

The man looked at Shepherd's uniform in confusion, "Well, shoot general, you should know there aren't any roads that go up into the desert. You've got to go see the guard captain at the barracks for him to take you and your guys up there. Where are you from?"

"Ordon." Shepherd lied quickly. "Where'd you say the barracks were?"

"Follow this road all the way up to those cliffs there. The barracks are just at the base of the ascent there." He told him.

"Thanks." He turned around to see Link unhooking the water hose. "How much for the water?" He asked, pulling out the roll of rupee notes, Jovani had procured for him before they left the Grove.

"Let's see," The attendant looked over his shoulder at the mechanical guage, "Thirty gallons of boiler water? Shoot, you must have been almost bone dry. I'm surprised you made it this far. Where'd you drive from?"

"Faron Province, last night." Shepherd said. "How much?"

"That's about sixty rupees." The attendant said. Shepherd pulled out three twenty rupee notes, and handed them to him. The attendant paused for a minute, as though he was thinking about something. "You know, if you're really going into the desert, you may want to take some water with you. There aren't any water-fills out there. I don't know how far you're going, but it's a big desert."

"Good idea. Thanks. Uh, you got any extra water cans for sale?" Shepherd asked.

"Yeah, tell you what. You buy the water, and I'll throw the cans in for free." The attendant told him. "I've got a brother in the guard. Anything I can do to help." An idea then occurred to him, "Hey does this have anything to do with the princess having gone missing? Is that where they think she is, out there?" He asked, pointing in the direction of the far cliffs.

"I couldn't tell you if it was." Shepherd said.

"Yeah, I get it. Well, I don't know if it means anything, but the other night I was out watching the stars with my wife and we saw this huge black bird or something flying out that way. I mean this was the biggest, weirdest looking bird I have ever seen." The man said. "My wife swears she saw something pink and silver in its claws."

"Thanks for the intel." Shepherd told him.

The man then went to get their extra water cans for the trip. "Well, at least we know we're going in the right direction." Shepherd thought out loud, remembering Zelda's favorite colors of dress.

"You might want to know, my dear," Maleficent began as she entered the little cell in which she kept the princess, "that your rescuers are nothing if not prompt. At this rate, they should be here before nightfall."

"How did they know to come here?" The princess asked.

"Why I invited them of course." Maleficent told her. Zelda looked pensive at this new information. "Oh, don't worry, I gave them plenty of incentive to be here quickly. I told them to be here before midnight, or you would die."

"I thought you needed me alive." Zelda asked, nervously.

"They don't know that, now do they? I don't like to be kept waiting." Maleficent returned.

"So then, you've considered my offer? We could be allies." Zelda said.

"Indeed." Maleficent said thoughtfully. "I have considered it _very_ carefully."

"And?" Zelda asked.

"And, after our little chats, I've been thinking on things that I put out of my mind a long time ago. It has led me to come to a very important decision in my life." Maleficent said.

"And what is that?" Zelda asked hopefully.

"Why, my dear, I need you alive, but not awake trying to fill me with soft ideas of alliances and memories of home." Maleficent said. "So, I shall tell you to _sleep_." She gestured towards the princess's forehead and Zelda's eyes grew heavy, and just as they were about to close, Maleficent leaned forward and said, "you will _sleep_ dear, but you will not awaken. Not without true love's kiss." She laughed evilly. Pale green energy flowed from Maleficent's hand and wrapped itself around Zelda's body as the princess fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. It then lifted her up off of her feet, and gently placed her on the bed in the cell, where she remained.

When the princess was situated, Maleficent turned to one of the skeleton guards and said, " That's one of my favorite conditions for a spell to be broken. Do you know why? Because it doesn't exist." That was a lesson she had learned at great personal cost, and she had learned it well.

"I don't know of any Ordonians who've made it all the way to general, _sir_." The Guard Captain said suspiciously as he eyed Shepherd in his gray tactical uniform. "Especially not a man as young as you. And I'm not impressed by the kid in the green costume in the front seat." He pointed through the windshield to where Link sat. "I don't know who you people think you are, or what you think you can get away with, but we don't go for that kind of thing around here. And I'm certainly not letting you or anyone else past the safety walls into a no man's land so you can go stirring up the bulblins because you want to play hero or some stupid crap like that."

They stood outside the gray brick barracks where the guard captain had come out to meet him after receiving a telephone call from the water-fill attendant down the road. He was a middle-aged Hylian man with a thick white mustache and a once muscular build. He had met Shepherd under a winged triforce sign with the words in Hylian which read "ROYAL HYRULE MILITARY GUARD – LAKE HYLIA DIVISION."

"Look, I don't really have a lot of time to argue this, _captain_." He said, pulling out his royal credentials, as well as a letter with the king's personal seal in wax. "We need to get up in the desert right now, and I need you to take us up there."

The guard captain took the letter and put on a set of spectacles to see it properly. "Hmm," he said. His tone of voice changing little. "Looks like you've got the right papers to show me, but I've still never heard of an Ordonian being promoted to general. And I'll be damned before I allow a civilian into the desert. I won't take responsibility for that." He said firmly.

"Oh really?" Shepherd said testily. He had never encountered any prejudice between Hylians and "normal" humans before in any of his encounters in that world. He briefly considered just knocking the man on his butt and throwing him into his own jail cell for insubordination, but then he had a better idea. "Tell you what. Let me introduce you to this _kid_. You can tell him you won't let him go in." He then turned back to the vehicle and called out, "Hey Link! Come here for a minute. This guy has something to say to you."

Link got out of the humvee and came up to stand in front of the guard captain. "Yes?" He asked.

"I'm sorry son, but the desert is military personnel only on _authorized_ missions. I can't let you..." The guard captain didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before he had the point of Link's sword held to his throat. It was beginning to make red scratches in the man's skin. Sweat began to pour off of the man's face as terror filled his eyes, "you can't... you can't..." He stammered.

"Let me explain to you who this is, _captain_." Shepherd told him, speaking slowly so he would understand every word. "To which rank you can be sure to say goodbye once we leave here and I am able to contact the palace upon our return. This is the Hero of legend reborn. His one and only mission in life is to rescue Princess Zelda. Now, Princess Zelda has been abducted and she is being held in the old arbiter's grounds by a nasty piece of work of a fairy. Our _mission_ has been authorized by King Daphnes himself and you have been ordered by him to provide every assistance to us possible. Do I make myself clear? Or do you need Link here to explain it to you his way?"

"N-n-n-no, s-s-sir!" The man responded, his adam's apple grazing the razor sharp point of the Master Sword, the rest of his throat in Link's right hand.

"Good. Now that we understand each other, I presume we can get going. We have a long journey ahead of us, and we have to be there before midnight." Shepherd addressed Link, "Let him go." And Link withdrew, replacing the sword in his scabbard. "And in the future, captain, if I ever hear of you disparaging anyone because of their race, whether they're Hylian, Zora, Goron, or Ordonian I'll have you scrubbing floors in the palace dungeon with your mustache for the rest of your natural life."

"Yes, sir." The captain said meekly. "I'll go and open the gates and lead you up there." His tone of voice sounded his defeat. "I'll need to radio the gun emplacements before we go up. They'll need to know not to fire on you. The bulblins have gotten inventive recently. They've started cobbling together trucks to try to ram the gates and break through."

"So noted, is there anything else we should know?" Shepherd asked.

"Uh... Watch out for bombs and explosives. They've mined the desert with stuff they took from us during their raids. It gets worse the farther west you go, towards their camps, but it shouldn't be too bad north towards the ruins. Not the last time we went in and did a sweep anyways." The older man told him.

"And how long ago was that?" Shepherd asked.

"About a month ago. We do it every three months, sir. The flat land towards the Grounds was pretty open then. Of course it could have changed. They're more clever than people give them credit for." He said.

"I'll take that under advisement." Shepherd told him. "Now let's get moving. The sun is getting higher in the sky. We'll also need a few extra rifles and magazines for them from your armory. We ran into some trouble last night and spent a lot of our own ammo."

"I'll get them right away, sir." He said, and then hurried to carry out his orders.

"That's better." Shepherd said as the man scurried away.

The noon sun burned bright overhead as the vehicle drove off road north towards the ancient prison. The five men inside felt the jolt of every uneven surface in spite of the suspension's best efforts to absorb them. They had been driving for a couple of hours, and the massive ruined structure rose up in front of them. "It looks about what, twenty miles away or so now?" Rodney asked.

"Give or take." Shepherd agreed as he drove. "How're you doing, Bill?"

Doctor Lee was a sickly pale shade of green as the constant bouncing, jerking motion of the vehicle sent his stomach into conniptions. With the absence of paper bags, he had been forced to roll down the back window several times, causing a disgusting spray to collect along the left side of the vehicle.

"I'll be better once we stop. Ugh, this is why I don't do a lot of real world off-roading." He said. "I'm more of a living room adventurer type."

"Well, we're almost there, and we're making good time. And we haven't seen or heard from a single Bulblin yet." Shepherd said.

There was a deafening sound like a bomb going off, and the whole vehicle suddenly launched high into the air. The humvee landed hard and skidded, rolling over onto one side before it came to a halt. The last thing Shepherd saw was a tall, lanky green skinned creature with a bulbous head wrapped in the protective clothes of the desert approaching the felled vehicle, a makeshift crossbow in his hands pointed at him. Then, all was dark.

Chapter 7

Bill didn't get the luxury of unconsciousness that his companions did. His head felt like someone had taken two hammers to it and mistaken it for a drum after the humvee landed on its right side. He had been violently jerked around in the safety straps only coming to rest halfway hanging from them and resting on Daniel Jackson's unconscious form. He saw the green creatures approaching their truck through the front windows too. "Bulblins." He said in a whisper, recognizing them from the video game. "Wow, they're even uglier in reality than they are in the game." He said, holding his head from the pain.

The Bulblin that approached first had a crossbow in his hands, and kept his eyes warily on the passengers of his prize, watching for any movements from them. When he was satisfied they weren't going to be a threat to him, he went to the rear of the vehicle for the extra water tanks they were carrying on the rear storage rack.

Bill didn't move a muscle. If these creatures were anything like they were in the game, they weren't too bright, but they would shoot anything moving. If it thought they were dead, then so much the better. He listened as the creature worked to free the water cans, and then watched as other bulblins emerged from behind rocks and dunes to come and help, chattering in their own strange and gutteral language.

They want the water, Bill thought to himself. I guess that makes sense, they're living in a desert. It must be harder to come by than anything else. More Bulblins came up riding huge, muscular red and brown boars with wicked looking tusks. Just like in th game, he observed. I wonder if the slight humps on their backs are like a camel's, he thought.

He heard them opening the water cans and liquid being sloshed on the ground. Not very careful, are they? He thought. What is going on? Are they trying to drink it? I wonder if they know about the additives Link told Daniel about. Maybe they have some way of filtering it.

After about half an hour, he started hearing moans of pain coming from outside the truck, and the thuds of individuals hitting the ground with their knees, buttocks, or heads. "I guess not." He whispered. After a few more minutes, all was mostly silent outside, and he chose to risk unbuckling himself from the straps, being careful not to hurt Daniel who was laying below him, and opening the rear door he had been sitting next to.

The scene outside was almost comical, if it hadn't been so serious. About ten or fifteen bulblins lay on the ground in their own vomit clutching their stomachs. Their weapons, a collection of crude clubs, crossbows, and a few antique looking rifles, lay scattered around them. None of them were moving any more. About ten feet to the front of the truck were several of those riding boars, each one riderless. "Well, that was easier than it could have been." He said.

He pulled himself out of the truck and got a better grasp of their situation. He knew the other men in the truck were still alive because they were still breathing. Colonel Shepherd had some blood on his forehead, as did Rodney who was laying against the rear door that was now against the ground. There was no gasoline in the truck as far as he knew, but he didn't know if the heating element for the boiler could explode. Water had left a dark brown stain where it had seeped into the sand all around the truck.

In the distance, the huge structure of the arbiter's grounds rose up from the rocks like an ancient fortress. The sun was still high in the sky. "What do I do now? I'm not trained to deal with this kind of thing." Bill said to no one in particular. "And _Twilight Princess_ doesn't count!" He yelled in frustration, shaking his fist at the sand dunes.

"What's that about the princess?" Someone below him mumbled. He looked down to find Daniel blinking his eyes open.

"Daniel, you're awake!" He said gladly. "I thought I'd have to deal with all of this on my own."

"No, no, I'm awake now. My head is throbbing. What happened?" He asked.

Bill filled him in on the last forty five minutes. "Wow." Daniel said as he unbuckled himself and began to move around, trying to be careful of the injured and unconscious Rodney beneath him. "They all really poisoned themselves?"

"Yeah. Go figure." Bill replied. "So now what do we do?"

"Well, it's the heat of the day in a desert. We're going to need the gallons of drinking water we got from the guard barracks." Daniel said as he began to check on the three other men between the front and rear seats. "They're all still alive, just out cold. Rodney hit his head pretty hard, but I think he'll be okay. Everybody's still got all of their arms and legs. I've seen what a roadside bomb can do to one of our humvees and the men inside. This truck must be armored pretty heavily on the underside for us to have survived it, much less just knock us out."

"Well, I don't think it's going any farther though." Bill observed.

"No, I don't think it is either." Daniel agreed. "And we aren't either until the others wake up. Here, let's start getting them out of these straps. We have small tents in the supplies we brought from Atlantis, so we could wait out the heat, and start walking closer to sundown, but we don't know how safe it's going to be to stay with the vehicle either."

"Why not?" Bill asked.

"Well, the bulblins outside might have friends who will wonder why they aren't coming back yet." Daniel told him. "We need to get out of here."

"Right." Bill said.

The two men with splitting headaches worked to gently move their friends out of the overturned humvee, and then went back to grab anything useful they might have left, including their weapons, water, tools, the map they had, and their mission backpacks.

As Bill climbed back into the truck for one last look, he spied a small vial of shimmering, glowing pink liquid that he hadn't seen before, but recognized from his video game experience. "Wow, that's really valuable. I wonder who had this?" He asked, and then he shoved it into one of his pants' pockets. "Can't just leave that here in this wreck."

"What happened?!" Rodney's voice cried out in pain from outside. "My head feels like it's been used as a heavy metal drum set!"

Bill climbed back out of the truck and landed back on the dirt. Daniel had been looking after their friends. They were all now awake and holding their heads, with Daniel going around with a first aid kit, doing the best he could administering the red vials of water of life that the kit held to the men who were bleeding before handing one to Bill and taking one himself.

"Alright, the truck is toast, but at least it didn't explode." Shepherd said, once he was able to think clearly from the medicine. Seriously, he wondered, what is in that stuff? "We've got about twenty miles to cross before midnight, and we have no idea what we're up against once we get there."

"Well, unless we're walking through the desert in the middle of the day, I have no idea how we're going to get there." Rodney said.

Link spoke up in his own language, and Rodney answered, sounding like he was explaining the situation in his own pessimistic way. Link then pointed to the boars with a grin on his face, asking a question, at which Rodney started gesturing and saying something that sounded suspiciously like a vehement "no."

"Hey, what's going on?" Bill asked. "What'd Link say?"

"He asked Rodney if he knew how to ride one of those boars over there." Shepherd replied. "Actually, it's not a bad idea. It'd beat walking if they'll let us."

"Oh come on! You're not serious are you? Horses are bad enough!" Rodney protested.

"Unless you really want to walk twenty miles, Rodney, it's probably our best shot at getting there in time." Daniel agreed with Shepherd. "Of course, you could always stay here and wait for their friends to show up." He said, motioning towards the dead bulblins on the ground.

"Yeah, right." Rodney said. "Just what I wanted to add to my resume: huge ugly pig riding."

Bill looked again at the boars that were standing there looking at them. "We're going to ride on those things?" He asked, pointing at the boars in disbelief. "Seriously? I mean, I've ridden a horse before, but how different is this?"

Shepherd asked Link the question. Link responded with a shrug, telling Shepherd something that left his expression less than thrilled. "He said he doesn't know. He'll tell you when he finds out."

"Oh." Bill said, completely forgetting about his previous discovery.

The sun was setting as the five men came up to the beginnings of the ruins, and the heat was finally dissipating. The huge pigs were panting and exhausted, complaining and whining loudly. Link almost felt sorry for them. They were just riding animals. It wasn't their fault the bulblins captured and bred them for their own mounts.

In addition to his sword and shield, Link now also carried one of the assault rifles supplied to them from Lake Hylia's R.H.M.G. armory strapped around his shoulder. He had used his uncle's rifles from Epona's back before, back on the ranch, to keep the red octoroks away from the goats, and he was a pretty decent shot with one of those. After looking it over himself, Shepherd showed him the basics of it and, except for the full auto setting and the ammunition magazine on it, it wasn't that much different. At the time Shepherd gave him the weapon, Doctor Lee had made a comment, and then hummed a weird melody. Shepherd laughed, translating it for him, "He says we'll call this the 'Fairy Machine Gun.'" Link smiled politely, but had no idea what he was talking about.

As Shepherd had been showing him the weapon, he whispered to Link, "You know, you went a little harder on the guy then I expected you. You looked like you were really going to take out his throat."

"I could hear your conversation with him," Link replied tapping his sharpened ears, "I heard how he said the word _Ordonian_. My foster family and all of my friends are Ordonians. I don't care who he thinks he is, he had no right to talk that way about you because of the shape of your ears or face. There's too many Hylians now that seem to think they're better than everyone else just because they're Hylian." He explained with a deadly seriousness.

"I'm glad you're not one of them." Shepherd replied.

"Never." Link had told him. Zelda was the same way, Link was sure. He had followed her on the news from the first time he saw her. She was always speaking out for the rights of non-Hylians and equality among the races. It was one of the things among many about her that drew him to her, the thought ran through his mind. He quickly tried to squash it. "Can't think like that now." He said to himself.

"Can't think like what?" Rodney asked.

"Nothing." Link lied. "It's just a little bit farther and then we'll have to leave the boars behind and go in on foot."

"Yeah, I remember." Rodney said.

"You do?"Link asked, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"We were here some five years ago now. Five years ago for me, anyways, looking for something. It's probably the second creepiest place I've ever been to. And let me tell you, that's saying something because I have been to a lot of creepy places." Rodney started.

"Yeah, I've seen your apartment back home, Rodney." Shepherd quipped.

"Hey!" Rodney exclaimed.

"Oh." Was all Link said in response. It was another reminder of the lives he had lived that he couldn't remember.

They came to the place where they had to dismount and proceeded in on foot, leaving the boars behind to graze on whatever patches of desert plants they could find. The last time Link looked back at them, they were feasting madly on some cactus, the juices from the plant running down the sides of it.

"Weapons out, eyes open." Shepherd said as he unslung his rifle and had it ready. "We don't know what little surprises our host may have waiting for us." The other men followed suit. Even Doctor Lee had a gun this time, though he seemed to be nervous about it as he looked around.

They carefully picked their way through an abandoned bulblin camp and came up and through the front gates of the ancient prison. The camp looked like it hadn't been used in centuries. "I guess they don't come around here much anymore." Bill had said in English, and Daniel translated when Link asked.

"No, it was abandoned when we were here too, actually." Rodney said, looking around. "I don't think they like this place much. Truth be told, I don't blame them. I don't like it much either."

The sun started to dip below the western mountains and all became almost too dark to see in the shadows of the ruins. "Lights on." Shepherd said, turning on the flashlight mounted to his rifle. The others did the same.

They came to the first small gate room of the prison. The gate itself was a small portcullis that was raised into the open position and left there. Torches were burning brightly to either side of the room. The floor of the room looked to be somewhat of a problem as the stone floor had been partially consumed by three swirling vortexes of sand that seemed to be constantly emptying into the earth.

"Watch yourself. Don't get swallowed up." Shepherd called out. "Follow Link through." He nodded to Link.

Why me? Link was about to ask, but then he saw the path through. He had a flash of memory about a device with a claw on a chain and flying up towards one of the torch holders. I wish I had that now, he thought. "Give me a second." He told them, and then went back out to the abandoned camp.

There was all sorts of wood and boards laying around that he had seen coming through. Some of it still sturdy enough to use as makeshift bridges. He picked two and dragged them back into the room. Shepherd got the idea and helped him put them across to bridge the gaps. They did this a few more times, and their walkways were complete. They took them one at a time and carefully cross through the room.

As the last man made it to the solid stone floor on the other side, something shot out of the sand towards them. Before anyone else could react, Link drew his sword and sliced the creature in two.

"What was that?!" Daniel asked, startled.

"Something nasty." Link responded, using his sword to point out the razor sharp teeth on what looked like a fish from hell.

"You're telling me." Daniel replied.

They passed under the portcullis into another stone hallways that was also brightly lit by torches. "Hey, does it seem to anyone else like someone's expecting us?" Daniel asked.

"Well, she is, isn't she?" Rodney responded.

"Yeah, but she can't have known when we arrived, can she? These torches look pretty fresh." He said.

"Well, I guess we're going to find out any minute now." Shepherd responded, hearing the conversation.

They moved through the ground floor of the prison carefully, but all they encountered was silence and lit torches guiding their way. "The main hall of the prison is up ahead." Link told the rest of them. He knew it was the same way he had known all the other things he shouldn't have been able to know.

"If there's no one waiting for us there, it could be a long search. These ruins are huge." Rodney added.

They crossed the doorway and entered a huge vaulted hall. At the opposite end was a grand series of steps leading up to another, massive doorway that looked to have been originally designed to be guarded. Torches blazed brightly all around the room, and up in a massive set of circular chandeliers giving light to the massive empty space. On the steps stood a black robed female figure with black horns protruding from the top of her head. In her right hand she held a staff with a raven perched on its top. With her left hand she stroked the top of the raven's head.

"Somehow I don't think that's going to be a problem, Rodney." Shepherd observed.

"Welcome to my new humble abode!" The black robed woman called out. Link looked at her with scrutiny. He felt like he recognized her, but not necessarily from his other memories. No, he had seen her face, or the face of someone similar very recently. Then it hit him, "She's a Great Fairy." He whispered. "But that doesn't make any sense. Great Fairies are creatures of light."

"Apparently not this one." Daniel said, hearing him.

"We want to see Zelda!" Shepherd called out to her. "Alive and unharmed before we talk about anything else."

"Well, how rude. No introductions? No tea? Men. Always business first." Maleficent said impatiently. "Well, very well then." She gestured widely, motioning her hands in a circle and there was a flash of green light. Behind her appeared one of the prison's beds, and on it lay a sleeping princess Zelda. "There, she's alive and unharmed. Just enjoying a nice deep sleep. Now, shall we talk or not?"

"Bring her out of it first." Link shouted, fear for her bleeding into his facial features.

"Now, now, don't be rude. I need her alive, not awake. I can bring her out of it whenever I choose. If I choose, that is." Maleficent smiled with malice, obviously believing in her total control over the situation..

"You'll bring her out of it now." Link demanded, his voice taking on a steely hardness to it, like the edge of a sword.

Shepherd knew that tone of Link's voice. It meant these "negotiations" were about to be cut short. He hadn't planned on trusting the sorceress to begin with, but he needed to keep her talking at least long enough to confirm what Bill told them about what the bigger threat might be.

"What is it that you want, Maleficent?" Shepherd called out. "You offered an alliance. Against who?"

"Ah yes." She said, not taking her eyes off of Link. "I tracked him to this world with my magic. I truly have no real fight with any of you. He's an old business associate of mine. In our last 'association' he murdered a dear friend of mine, and I want him dead. It's as simple as that really. I've spent the last several years tracking down his remaining hosts through time and space. It was only recently that I found that his spirit fled to this world and he took a host here. It's in your best interests I assure you that you work with me. He may be weakened, but you are still no match for him."

"What's his name?" Shepherd asked.

"Xehanort." Maleficent said.

Dammit. Shepherd thought. Bill was right.

"Alright, release Zelda, and we'll help you find and kill him. Everybody wins." Shepherd said.

"You misunderstand, my dear little man. I need Zelda alive to draw him here. The light in her heart will draw him like a moth to a flame." Maleficent said.

"So you don't know where in Hyrule he is then?" Shepherd asked.

"Regretably no. I don't know what his new host looks like, and he's been remarkably silent as to his normal activities as far as I can tell. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was hiding from me." She told him.

"And how long have you been in Hyrule?" He asked her.

"Oh dear, I only just arrived about a week or two ago. You should have seen the place before I came. Ghastly." She said with a grin.

Okay, important questions answered, Shepherd thought. He then looked towards Link. Nope, there was no way the kid was going to agree to anything as long as Zelda was comatose, and Shepherd remembered the story of Sleeping Beauty. No matter how it went down, as long as Maleficent was still standing, they were going to lose in some way. Link's eyes were hard and fixed. The rage was building inside of him, Shepherd could tell. Nope, this wasn't going to end well for the witch.

"Let Zelda go, and we'll find another way to find him." Shepherd said one last time.

"There is no other way. I don't think you understand your situation. You don't have a choice in the matter." Maleficent told him with an evil grin.

Behind the five men hundreds of skeletal warriors rose up out of the stone floor. Their eye sockets glowed a pale sickly green. They carried swords and axes. Nope, this wasn't going to end well at all.

Your funeral, Mal, Shepherd thought. "No deal!" He shouted. "Light her up!"

The five men opened up their weapons on her, spraying her with a hale of bullets, all of which were stopped by a pale green field of energy surrounding her. Her face became livid with anger.

"Stupid fools! You have no idea who you're dealing with! My powers have increased tenfold since I have entered this world!" Maleficent shouted. "Light me up?!" She cackled. "What a wonderful suggestion! I will light the whole room up in flames!" And with that she enveloped herself in a green mist and began to grow and change shape into something black, scaly, and monstrous. A great roar filled the hall as it erupted in green flames.

Up to that moment, all Link could see was the sleeping body of Zelda on the stone bed behind the cackling witch. He had stopped listening to anything the witch had to say. He _couldn't_ hear it anymore. His heart wouldn't let him hear her taunts or excuses. He knew only two things at that moment. Zelda needed him, and the witch was in his way. The idea that the witch could have hurt her caused an anger to boil within him like it never had before. Deep in his heart, he couldn't, wouldn't let anyone harm his princess. Not now. Not ever.

Then his enemy changed right in front of his eyes. The monstrous dragon that rose up in front of Link was the biggest, deadliest, and most beautiful creature he had ever seen. It was terrifying and stunning like being caught out in a powerful lightning storm where all you wanted to do was run and hide, but all you could do was watch in awe. He almost regretted having to fight her because he knew he would mar the wondrous majesty of the beast. But then he spotted Zelda again behind the black monstrosity, and his resolve hardened again.

When the jet of green flame came towards him, he instinctively threw up his shield, and rolled out of the way. He could feel the intense heat parting and swirling around him to the sides, but the metal shield on his arm remained cool to the touch, bending the flames around him. With only a brief moment's relief, he quickly glanced to his companions, who had thankfully gotten clear of the flames as well which Maleficent tried to spread broadly around the room.

The four men opened fire again on the dragon, and Link brought his weapon up too, but the shells hit her scales and just bounced off. A deep throated gurgling sound came from Maleficent's snout like laughter. "New plan!" Shepherd said as he looked Link in the eye, silently communicating with him in the way they used to long ago. Link just nodded slowly. Shepherd nodded back. "Link takes the dragon! We keep the grateful dead off his back!" Shepherd then started shooting at the skeletons and the other men followed suit, blowing apart and splintering bone from one grisly warrior after another.

Link turned his attention to the dragon. The bullets had been bouncing off the scales, but what about...? He raised his weapon, and the dragon just stood there daring him to shoot and waste his ammunition. Link took aim and fire a single shot. The shell flew through the air at the speed of sound, and before she knew it, the dragon's right eye exploded, and she screamed. He meant to take another shot, but quicker than he could react, she whipped the gun out of his hand with her tail. Behind the dragon, Zelda remained asleep, cocooned in a green mist of energy protecting her from the violence.

He leaped away from the swinging tail and drew his sword, approaching the dragon's side, shield up, sword down low and behind him. Maleficent eyed his movement with her remaining good eye, and then snorted derisively, jets of green flame shooting out from her nostrils. She swiped at him back handed with a forward claw, intending to swat him out of the way but he vaulted over the claw, raking her "hand" with the Master Sword as he sailed over it, inflicting a deep cut. The Master Sword carved through her armored scales like a hot knife through butter, actually seeming to glow when it came near her. She screamed again in pain, and looked at him again with murder in her eye. She inhaled again ready to spew flames at him but he launched himself quickly towards her and under her snout, bringing the sword up high and making another deep cut across her throat. She was forced to swallow the flames in pain, then she tried grabbing him with her uninjured claw, but he quickly dashed to the side and out of its way. She roared in frustration and pain.

Across from him, Shepherd, Rodney, Daniel, and Bill continued to shoot skeletons apart, the dead warriors' weapons lying where they fell from shattered bony hands. "Keep shooting, they're not coming back once you tear them apart enough!" Rodney yelled. They were keeping them at a good distance from themselves and Link.

"She must not be able to focus on us and Link at the same time." Daniel said.

"Good to know!" Shepherd called out as he ejected a spent clip, and loaded a new one. "I just hope we don't run out of ammo before he takes her down!"

The dragon snapped at Link with her razor sharp teeth, but there was no more fire to come. He steadied himself right in front of her snout as she struck with her fangs, but he quickly hit her snout with his shield and then sommersaulted up onto her head to drive the point of his blade down through her snout and into her mouth. Maleficent screamed again in pain, and she grabbed him with her good claw and flung him and his sword off of her, but Link landed on his feet.

"Yield!" He shouted at her. "Yield, and I will let you live!" He needed her alive now to wake his princess.

She lunged at him again, and he spun out of the way, slashing her right flank with his sword as he came around. Blood flowed from several deep cuts on the dragon's face, claws, side, and neck. "Yield!" He shouted at her. "You have no choice! Yield or be destroyed!"

She screamed in rage at him, and then, sniffing the air, she barreled past him, grabbed Doctor Lee with her claw, and then took off deeper into the ruined prison. The green mist around the princess failed, and behind him, the remaining skeleton warriors fell apart and vanished of their own accord.

"What happened? Where'd they go?" Rodney asked. "Hey, Where's Bill?"

"Bill!" Daniel shouted, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"She took him!" Link shouted back. "She took him deeper into the prison! She's pretty badly wounded, I think she's pulling all of her power back to try and heal herself!"

"How do you know that?!" Daniel asked.

Link didn't have a good answer for it, so he shrugged his shoulders.

It took Shepherd a second to process the new info. "Alright, Link, stay with Zelda, she's safest with you and the Master Sword next to her." Shepherd told him. "We're going after Doctor Lee and the dragon. With all that blood on the ground she shouldn't be too hard to track, and we'll have a better chance now that she's already injured."

"What if you can't get Maleficent to wake her up?" Link asked. Or what if I carved her up so badly that she dies before you get to her? He thought.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it!" Shepherd shouted at him.

"You could always try kissing her!" Rodney offered. "Maleficent's known for that one!"

"Huh?" Link responded. "What do you mean?"

"Long story. We'll tell it later if we have time!" Daniel said. And then the three men took off through the gateway deeper into the arbiter's grounds, leaving Link alone with the sleeping princess. He went up the stairs to stand guard over her.

She was beautiful, his princess. He couldn't help but think of her that way; his princess. There were feelings deep within him that stirred as he stared at her face. It was a face he instantly recognized and connected with, like a twin he had known in the womb. No, their relationship went deeper than that. He felt it.

He couldn't stand it, seeing her under the witch's spell. "How do I wake you up?" He asked her. "I've known you all of my life, seen you, thought about you no matter how hard I've tried not to. I came to save you, and now..." The words that came out of his mouth hit him forcefully. They were a deeper truth than just his seventeen years could explain. He came to save her, and he knew within himself that it was the whole reason for his existence. _She_ was the whole reason for his existence in this world. And in that moment, he let go and stopped fighting his feelings for her. "I will always come for you." He said in a whisper, remembering those words from some other time and place.

They were words that he had spoken to her long, long ago, he remembered. Long before either of them had been born into this life, he had told her those words. "I will always come for you." He understood now. He loved her, this young woman he had never met before. It wasn't just a crush on a celebrity he had never met. It was a deep and abiding love that refused to die no matter how many times he did. He had loved her in every lifetime he had lived, and he knew he always would. Her true name came to him, and he knew it was right. "Because I love you, Hylia."

"Try kissing her." Doctor McKay had told him. Just a few hours ago, it would have seemed grossly inappropriate and forward. But now, it just felt... right. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world. He stood over her, stroking her soft blond hair. Then he leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers.

It was like an explosion went off in his head as memory after memory came rushing into his mind like a flood. There was a childhood on a city floating on a great ocean, a gigantic underground cavern with libraries of special books, the face of his mother, Farore, as she worked in her lab, and the face of his Lantean martial arts instructor, an old veteran named Gladius who was unsurpassed in his ancient sword skills. There was an island in the sky, and a great statue of a goddess, and there was Zelda with him. There was an evil man that continued to haunt him, and he was reborn again, and again, and again because his love, his wife Hylia daughter of Nayru had chosen to go back and fight him. "Hyrule had to be protected", she would tell him, "it's our responsibility to make it right.". And he would always be there to protect her. He remembered. He remembered everything, from every lifetime he had lived, and from before all of his lifetimes as Link. He knew who he was, and who he had been. He remembered the fishing trips with Colonel Shepherd in detail, as well as his trips out to the far corners of this world with Doctor McKay. He finally understood Doctor Lee's joke about the fairy machine gun. In his mind's eye he saw twin boys born to him from his flame haired mortal wife from his previous life, Malon, and the tear in his heart as he struggled with his emotions for her and Zelda. He remembered his name, his real Lantean name from before his ascension and constant rebirths.

He drew back and studied the princess's, his wife's, face. In ten thousand years, it had never changed. Her bright blue eyes began to blink open and she looked into his face and smiled. "Copulus?" She asked, her eyes filled with love. "You came for me." She said with relief.

"I will always come for you, my love." Link told her, savoring the knowledge of who he and she were to each other.

And then, the force of the memories waned, and his recent teenage self, the high school kid who grew up on a ranch in Ordon, began to emerge once more, though the memories remained and nothing would be the same for him ever again. "Zelda?" he asked, clearing his throat..

"Link?" She asked in return, the recognition in her eyes fading slightly, but not disappearing entirely.

Once again, he nodded. "You know my name?" He asked. It was a stupid thing to ask, he thought, of course she knows my name.

"The Hero is always named 'Link.'" She said, smiling, she tried to sit up, and he helped her, carefully supporting her back with his hand. "It's tradition." She then turned her head to face him again, looking him in the eyes. "How much did you remember?" She asked him.

"Everything." He said.

"I see." She responded.

"And you?" He asked.

"Everything also." She responded. "I know who we both are." Tears then began to well up in her eyes. "And I know that we have to stay apart again because of the way this world, my station in it as the crown princess, works."

It was like a physical punch to his gut. Now, knowing everything and finally accepting how he really felt? They had to stay apart? "No." He said firmly. "We'll find a way, but I'm not giving you up again."

"They won't give us a choice." She said, a tear running down her cheek.

"Then I won't give them one. I'm not letting you go again, not for them, not for Hyrule, not for anything. Once this is over, they can find another crown princess if they have to, or become a republic like the East. I don't care." He was insistent.

"But I do, my love." Zelda told him. "They need us to guide them. You've seen what has happened, what is happening with them. We still have so much work to do."

"We can't coddle them forever. We only chose this because of the dark one. Once he's dealt with, they can continue on without us. We can return to Ordon, far away from Castleton, or go somewhere else in this world where they can't find us and live out the rest of these lives in peace."

"Do you really believe we will ever have peace in this world? Do you really think they will let us?" Zelda replied, looking into his eyes.

"I don't intend to give them one." Link told her.

"What was it you told me Colonel Shepherd once told you? That there will always be bad guys to face. Our work will never be done." She said with some despair.

"They need to learn to stand up and face them on their own, or else we really will never be free, and they will never learn to move on to the next plane." He reasoned with her, taking her in his arms.

"Someone may be watching," she said in protest, though she welcomed his embrace.

"Let them." Link replied.

She then remembered her captor and asked, "What about Maleficent?"

Link pointed to the bloody trail the dragon had left on the ground. "She took Doctor Lee and ran. The others went after her."

"She's not dying is she?" Zelda asked, a strange concern creeping into her voice. "She's not wholly evil. There are reasons why she is what she has become."

"You were in trouble, and she had threatened you." Link said in his defense. "It was nothing a good potion can't cure. She's probably healing herself with a spell as we speak."

The dragon had brought Bill into a stone chamber deeper in the prison. Blood pooled on the stone floor where the beast stopped and released the terrified scientist. His gun had slipped from his hands and lay back in the graeat hall they had just come from. Dragon's blood stained his gray jacket and pants from the cuts inflicted by the teenage swordsman Bill had been coming to know.

The dragon was surrounded with green energy, and began to shrink back down to the form of a tall woman, badly injured and bleeding from many, many cuts. One of her eye sockets was horrifying to look at as she quickly covered it, crying in pain. "Give it to me!" She demanded.

"Give what?!" Bill asked in terror.

A green ball of energy formed in her left hand and she threw it at Bill's feet where it exploded in crackling heat and light. "Give it to me now, little man, and I will let you live!"

"Look, I don't know what you're talking about!" Bill threw his hands up in terrified protest. "Just tell me what you're looking for, really! I'll give it to you!"

"The potion!" She screamed at him. "I smelled it on you! You have a vial of healing potion! Give it to me now!"

"The... what?" Bill said in confusion, trying to remember. "Oh!" he realized. The pink vial he had found in the humvee, but he was pretty sure it was more than just healing potion... He dug it out of his bloodied jacket pocket. "You mean this?" He pulled it out and showed it to her.

"Yes, you fool! Give it to me or you will never see your princess awake again! If I die, she remains asleep forever!" She yelled at him.

"Okay! Okay!" He said, tossing the vial to her. He knew it was more than she thought it was. He also knew from the cartoon movie that Maleficent wasn't a human but a fairy, and in Hyrule fairies were supposed to be creatures of light, but, at least according to the most recent movie, Maleficent had turned dark and bitter because of the man who betrayed her for a crown. He hoped this was the same woman, and he was right about the fairy's tears.

She uncorked the vial and downed the pink liquid inside of it. Instantly she began to glow with an inner golden light that overpowered and fought the pale, sickly green energy that had surrounded her as her wounds healed.

"I feel... I feel powerful again!" She said. "I feel..." Tears came to her eyes, "Oh god, I feel..." The darkness started bleeding out of her, flowing faster and faster as though it was fleeing something deadly to it, and the green energy that had surrounded her vanished to be replaced by the golden light.

She started sobbing as the light within her finally broke through the darkness that had enshrouded it and flushed it from her being. Great wailing sobs racked her entire body and echoed through the halls. "What have I become?" She cried. "What have I done to that poor defenseless baby? All those poor girls?"

Bill felt pity and compassion for the young, sorrowful woman he now saw in front of him. The fairy's tears had taken away the years of bitterness and pain from her, and unleashed the compassion that had always been there. The woman's remorse was deep and cleansing. "I'm... I'm sorry." he said as he stepped towards her, not knowing how else to help. He put his arms around her, and she sobbed into his shoulder. He stood there with her awkwardly as she cried and cried.

"I have to go back and make it right." She finally said, drawing away from Bill, sniffling as she did so. "Of course." He said, not knowing what else to say.

"I have to set all of it right and change the events I set into motion." She said. "You knew that, didn't you, little man? You knew what it would do to me?"

"I knew it would heal you." Bill said honestly.

"Thank you." She said sincerely. "I have never trusted human men since... Since, he took my wings. I suppose it's fitting that a human man heals me from it."

"I'm sorry I couldn't give them back to you, but I think they're waiting for you if you try and make things right with Aurora." Bill told her, remembering the movie he had seen.

"You know, you remind me of someone, a dear friend whom I lost recently." Maleficent told him. "Please, bring the creature who murdered him to justice for me. I see now that I can't be the one to do it."

"We will." Bill told her with certainty. "What about Zelda?" He remembered.

Maleficent paused as though listening for something, and then smiled. "I suppose true love's kiss does exist after all." She said. "Your princess will be just fine. And now, I must go. But before I do, allow me this small gift to you." She reach out a finger and touched his forehead, whispering a few words. Then she said, "Farewell, fairy friend."

And with that, a great field of golden light surrounded her, engulfing her body until it shone like the sun. And then she was gone.

"Good bye, Great Fairy Queen." Bill said in a whisper.

The three men heard the screams and cries echoing through the halls and started running. "What was that?!" Rodney yelled. "Was that Maleficent?"

"Oh god, I hope she didn't die! We still need her alive." Shepherd yelled back as he ran.

Then they heard the sobbing and slowed down as they neared the source. "What is going on?" Rodney asked. "Who's crying?"

"It sounds like a young woman." Daniel observed. "Could it be her?" He asked.

Shepherd shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know." He said, not knowing what to expect. As they entered the hall, he knew he didn't expect it when he saw Bill trying to comfort the golden glowing horned sorceress while she cried on his shoulder.

"What the...?" Shepherd started to say, then Daniel put his hand on Shepherd's shoulder to stop him, pointing to his ear and mouthing, "Listen."

They heard the whole exchange between the two. When Maleficent finally disappeared, Rodney exclaimed, "I don't believe it."

Bill turned his gaze to their direction and started walking towards them. "Hey guys. What's up?" He said nonchalantly.

The three men said nothing but just stared at him. Shepherd then wordlessly gestured towards him with both hands and said, "Okay, spill it."

"What? Oh, that. Right, well I found a vial of fairy's tears in the truck after the wreck. In the game it fills the Hero with a fairy's light and energy to heal him completely. So, I figured if a dark fairy like Maleficent took it, it wouldn't just heal her body, but it might heal her heart as well. It looks like I was right." Bill told them.

"Okay Bill, now I'm impressed." Daniel told him.

"Thanks. It only took sixteen years." Bill retorted.

"Mmm-hmm." Daniel agreed, nodding.

"So Zelda's going to be okay?" Rodney asked, trying to keep up.

"Yeah, she said true love's kiss does exist after all." Bill told them.

"True love's..." Rodney looked confused, and then understanding broke over his features. "Oh..." He said. "Oh, we've got to get back to Link and Zelda."

"Let's walk slowly. It's been a long day, and we've got a long journey back." Shepherd suggested, slowing Rodney down.

Chapter 8

It was hot and dusty that midmorning up on the machine gun emplacements on the border fence between Lake Hyia and the desert. The Hylian corporal on duty tried to wipe the muddy sweat from his face and only succeeded in smearing it around. There were days he wondered what they were really doing up here because nothing ever happened. It seemed to him like the bulblins had finally wised up and stopped trying to raid the town a long time ago.

A fly buzzed around his head and he swatted at it, missing the fly and hitting himself in the face instead. Across the way, the other guardsman on duty at the opposing emplacement saw it and laughed.

"Keep your eyes on the desert, private!" He yelled in embarassment at the lower ranking man. He raised his own binoculars to his face to do a quick sweep.

"Nope, nothing, as usual." He said as he turned his head slowly from south to north. "Wait a second, what's that?" He trained his binoculars on the slow moving specks and raised the magnification. "Private, we've got hostiles to the north! Rotate your guns..." He started to say. Then the "hostiles" came into better focus. "Hold!" He shouted. "Hold your fire!" There were six people riding on bulblin boars. Four of them, wearing gray guard uniforms, rode alone. The fifth boar had one person in green riding with one in pink and silver in front of him. "Well, I'll be damned." He said, lowering his binoculars.

He picked up his two way radio to call to his guard captain. "Sir, you know those lunatics that came through yesterday wanting to run off into the desert?"

"Yes." Came the terse reply. Of course you do, the corporal thought, smiling at the memory. How could anyone forget?

"It looks like they've returned, and they've got someone else with them. It looks like someone dressed in pink and silver," he took another look with the binoculars, "I think it's the missing princess."

"I'll be right there." The guard captain said hastily.

"Yes, sir." The corporal replied.

"Well, they're not shooting at us, I guess that's a good sign." Daniel said hopefully.

"Yeah, nothing says 'welcome back!' like not getting riddled with bullets." Rodney retorted.

They had spent the night in outside the ruined prison in the abandoned bulblin camp, each of the men taking watch. Zelda had sat up watching the stars with Link on his watch.

"How long has it been since we just watched the stars together like this?" She asked as she sat next to him.

"Too long." He said, holding her hand.

The desert night was cool, and she began to shiver. Link took off his leather jacket which he had still been wearing and put it around her shoulders.

"Thank you." She had said. Her mind had been thoughtful for a while. "You'll have to come back to the palace with me. You know that don't you? Your life will never be the same again."

"It never is." He agreed. "I'm not leaving you again."He had said.

She had put her head against his shoulder, and they just sat like that undisturbed while the other men slept.

And now it begins, Link thought as they came up to the border fence. "Open the gate!" he called out.

"On whose authority?" Came the guardsman's response.

Shepherd then called out, "On the authority of her royal highness, Princess Zelda, guardsman." Motioning to Zelda, who also looked up at the guardsman.

Zelda picked up her cue, "Open the gate guardsman!" She shouted, "Now!" Her tone of authority brooking no room for argument.

"Yes, ma'am!" The guardsman called back, and they could hear the sounds of people rushing back and forth in a hurry. Finally, the gate rolled back on its small wheels, and they were allowed to pass through the fence with their mounts.

"It's best to turn them back loose into the desert," the guard corporal told them, pointing at the boars. "We don't have anywhere to keep them."

Zelda looked at the men she was with and said, "Do it." And they all dismounted and pulled the saddles off of the creatures before hitting them on their backsides and turning them back loose into the desert. She then turned to the guardsman in front of her, "Where is your commanding officer?" She demanded.

"I'm right here, your highness." Came the voice of a white mustached Hylian captain. "And I speak for all of us when I say that we are so glad you are safe."

"I'm glad to hear it." She said. "If it wasn't for the Hero and these brave _Ordonian_ men, I might not have come back at all." Shepherd had told her of their encounter with the prejudiced guard captain, and she noticed the red scratches from the man's encounter with Link. Good, she thought. If only the other racists in Hyrule could be dealt with so easily. "You will provide us with transport and escort to Hyrule Castle." She ordered.

"Y... Yes, your highness." He stammered out, looking in terror at the men he had harassed the previous day. "If you wish, you can take my personal vehicle. It's more comfortable than a guardsman's unit. And I'll send two units to escort you."

"That will be satisfactory." She told him.

"We'll need to make a couple of telephone calls too. We have to notify the palace of the Princess's successful rescue." Shepherd joined in.

"Of course, general." The guard captain said. No trace of disrespect appeared in his voice. "Right this way."

Overhearing the conversation, Daniel couldn't help but smirk. "Remind me not to get on her bad side." He whispered to Rodney in the background.

"You haven't seen her bad side yet." Rodney replied. "Believe me, you don't want to."

"Personal experience?" Daniel asked.

"Long story." Rodney told him.

"I'd love to hear it." Bill said, still overjoyed at his new found ability to understand the language of Hyrule.

"We all would." Link chimed in.

Rodney threw him a dirty look, "Later, okay?" He said, annoyed.

Twenty minutes later they were riding in a blue, luxury electric car down Hyrule's Highway 2a escorted by two gray R.H.M.G. units with red and blue flashing lights in front of their car and behind it. Cars that had been on the road pulled over to let them pass as they sped on by towards Castleton. The people that had pulled over to the side watched the small parade wondering who was in the blue car that merited such attention.

It was a seven hour drive from the Lake Hylia barracks to Castleton under escort, but they only stopped once at a traveler's rest area for a rest and food, and then to recharge the car and get more water for the guard units. For her own protection, Zelda was kept away from the rest of the people stopped there, though many tried to come close to see what all the commotion was about while Daniel and Bill took what funds they had to get dinner for all of them from the diner that was there and bring it back in to go bags. Link never left Zelda's side. The four additional guardsmen from Lake Hylia kept watch to either side of them when they were out of the car to stretch their legs.

They finally arrived in Castleton later in the evening, though they could see the glow of the lights of the city from much farther away.

"That looks like New York!" Bill said.

"Yeah, or London." Daniel agreed. "It's grown a lot since we were last here."

The city itself began about ten or twenty miles from the ancient castle walls. It started with simple brick buildings and outlying business and homes, and the graduated into row houses, and then metal and glass skyscrapers until they crossed the drawbridge of the ancient fortress wall of Old Castle Town. Inside the wall, it looked as though a great deal of effort went in to preserving the original look of Hyrule's ancient capital, though there were some obvious "upgrades."

"Are those satellite dishes?" Rodney asked. "And power and telephone lines?"

"Yes, of course. Did you think we were still in the dark ages, Doctor McKay?" Zelda asked him.

"Well, no, it's just... It's been a long time since I've been back here." Rodney said. "I hadn't expected all of... this." He said.

Over head, the whine of a dirigible airship's engines could be heard. "Wow." Rodney said again, seeing the source of the noise.

The crowds of many different kinds of people in the mostly pedestrian streets parted for the procession of vehicles as they continued across the cobblestone streets. They reached the fountain in the middle of town, and circled the roundabout before proceeding north and into the palace grounds.

"We're home." Zelda said with relief.

King Daphnes had been pacing the ancient room for hours ever since he had received news that his daughter's escort had almost arrived. The old council table, worn from centuries of use, stood empty in the middle of the room. He stopped pacing and pressed his hands on the back of his own, high backed seat at the table, gripping the carved deku wood back until his knuckles turned white.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his salt and pepper hair and beard were much less combed and cared for than they should have been. He had reacted with pure joy when he received his "general's" telephone call.

"You have no idea how grateful I am to you and your men, Colonel Shepherd." He had told him earlier that day. "I look forward to meeting you and your men in person. You have my deepest, and sincerest thanks."

And now they were almost here. He could hear footfalls on the stone floor outside the chamber and the wooden door opened on the chamber. Four men entered wearing the gray of Hyrule's military guard. One entered wearing the traditional green clothes of the Hero the King had seen in the pictures and portraits adorning the castle walls all of his life, and then finally, in the pink, white and silver business suit she had been taken in entered the young woman who had been the joy of his life. He couldn't contain himself any longer as he rushed over her to hold his daughter in his muscular arms, tears flowing freely. "Oh my little girl!" He said to her. "Oh my dear sweet little one. I thought I had lost you!" He kissed her the top of her hair, pressing her firmly to his chest, sniffling with tears as he did so. "I thought I'd lost you." He said again.

"I'm okay, father," she said calmly, "really." but she didn't push away from him. After several minutes he finally let go of her, turning to see and address her rescuers. Four seemingly Ordonian men, and of course, the Hylian Hero.

"You have no idea, gentlemen... You have no idea how grateful I am to see you here and meet each one of you. Two of you... I mean of course three of you," He said acknowldeging Link as well, "I know of from my history books, and of course you will receive every consideration from me and my family. My family, my palace, and my fortune are at your disposal. Ask anything you need or want and I promise you, it will be yours."

"Thank you, your majesty. We didn't really do this for any reward, and we eventually need to return to our own world." Daniel said.

"Of course, of course. And so you will, but don't think this king's gratitude is miserly. While you are here, you will want for nothing. I will see to it... uh?" He then searched for the man's name.

"Doctor Daniel Jackson, your majesty." Daniel said.

"Doctor Jackson, then." The king snapped his fingers, "I have heard of you too! From my ancestor, King John's journals! From the trouble with his brother Talon! I was just reading them last night as a matter of fact."

"Thank you your majesty, but our job isn't over yet." Shepherd told him. "The sorceress who kidnapped your daughter is gone, but not the bigger threat that brought her," and then gestured to Link and Zelda, "and them here to this world. We can't go anywhere until that bad guy has been neutralized."

"Of course, and I wouldn't want you to." The king replied. "Again, I am very grateful for your continued service to my kingdom. Your rank in the Royal Hyrule Military Guard, General Shepherd, will be made absolutely official as of today. In all of Hyrule's military, there will be only myself and one other man higher than you for as long as you are here." The king said, glancing at Link.

And then he turned to the green and brown leather clad teenager who refused to leave his daughter's side. "Great goddesses, you look exactly like the portraits in the palace halls," the king said. My own ancestor, here, in the flesh, he thought. "I welcome you home, Hero of Hyrule." He said reverently, tracing a series of three triangles over his head, and then his right and left shoulders.

The teenager knelt awkwardly in front of the king as he had seen other people do all of his life, and the older man would have none of it. "It is I who should be bowing to you, Hero." The king told him. "You have saved our world, and our princess, countless times and once again you have returned to deliver us again. No, you will never need to bow to me. I won't have it. Not from my own ancestor reborn. Not now, not ever." He said, standing Link up again. "I have already given orders for you, my son. You will have your ancient rooms again here in the Castle across from my daughter's. I have no doubts now that the seal will open for you. And you will retake your ancient place as Hyrule's supreme military commander. Only I will supercede your authority where Hyrule's military is concerned."

Zelda then took Links hand and squeezed it reassuringly in front of her father. It was a gesture he couldn't fail to miss. Of course, he thought. What better man could be found for her? Who else could be more appropriate? The king nodded slightly in approval. "Who am I to oppose destiny?" He asked out loud, and his not so secret message was understood perfectly by both of them.

"Your majesty," Link began, overwhelmed, but needing to ask, "I need to make a telephone call to my foster family back in Ordon. I want to let them know I'm okay. We didn't know if I would be coming back."

The king was surprised by such a simple, honest request. Yes, he certainly approved of the young man. "Of course, my son. And we will do better than that for them as soon as we can."

"I'll take him to a telephone, father." Zelda offered.

"Of course, dear one." The king told her.

As the two teenagers left the room, he turned back to the four men from another reality. "I am overjoyed at what you have done for us, and for my family personally. I can't honestly ask any more of you than you have already done." He told them.

"It sounds like there's a 'but' in there somewhere." Rodney said.

"But," he continued, "you have come at a time when we may need your military and scientific expertise most desperately. Just this morning, the Republic of Hyrule has declared war on our United Kingdom." The King explained. "Their new president has been pushing his propaganda teams for months since his election last fall to rally the eastern people against us, and he's finally gotten enough support for it with the politicians of his government."

"New president?" Shepherd asked. "What's his name?"

"Xehanort." The King replied. "Ansem Xehanort."

(To be continued in Part 2, The Legend of Zelda: Dark Redemption)


End file.
