Beyond the highest peaks of the Hylainian mountains and the safety of the Sages-protected land of Hyrule, a small shriveled woman moved cautiously through the forest towards the entrance to a long-forgotten and now overgrown clearing.

"We've found it my leader" she said to another woman who stood overlooking the top of the clearing. "How can you be so sure?" the other replied as she stared out into the circle. There was a series of stones surrounding a deep pit in the middle.

"The girl" the woman replied. They both turned to see the rest of their group approaching cautiously. Two of the guards dragged with them a red haired girl who was slumped against them. One of them stepped forward to drop her on the ground, causing her to roll slightly forward into the moonlit clearing. "Where did you find such a docile Gerudo?" the now stated leader asked.

The old woman grinned as she pointed back into the clearing, "She's related to him."

"Well," the leader said as she indicated towards the center of the circle, "Don't be scared."

For some reason the night seemed darker here, more ominous. The group began to assemble like they'd been trained around the circle. There were small stone chairs but none seemed comfortable with sitting down.

"It smells like death here" one of the others commented as they cautiously tip-toed forward.

"Not death" the leader replied, "The dark realm." She shivered as a strange blast went through the trees and rattled the small group.

"We shouldn't be here" the older woman commented as she stepped back to the edge of the circle, "This has been abandoned for a reason."

"If it was abandoned for the right reason, She will be pleased" the leader replied. They all looked forward as a glowing light appeared in the center of the circle, causing the Gerudo to sputter back to life as well.

"Where am I?" she asked as she stood and looked around at the group who had bowed their heads. "Wha…What?" she asked as they all saw the dark figurine descend from the sky.

"Concentrate" the leader said as the figure descended upon all of them and seemed to run through them.

The Gerudo started choking as she felt herself lose control of her body once again, she bowed her head as her arms went limp.

The glowing light in the center of the circle grew brighter as a circle of fiery light began to shine. They could all hear the loud cracking noise as the door to the other side was sprung open. "It is here" the older woman commented, "We're opening it already?" A dark figurine appeared on the other side of the lighted door, the sounds of his boots echoing through the group.

The older woman trembled as the rest of the group seemed to go dark, "I can't do this anymore. This is too much, I need to go!" She ran through the group to take off into the forest, causing the circle to break and the dark figurine to lift up his fists in rage.

"No!" the leader yelled, "You'll send him to the main portal!"

But it was too late, the dark thing that had connected them reached out to choke the older woman as the entire circle started to glow. The circular door evaporated with a large blast, sending the group crashing into the trees.

The Gerudo gasped as she felt her own body and regained the ability to see through her own eyes once more, "He's back."

Chapter 1

Hiding her eyes from the many Hylain's that buzzed about the castle marketplace, Nabooru tried to keep from being recognized as a Gerudo as she made her way to the Temple of Time.

She had been called for another sages meeting, which wouldn't have been so bad if the marketers around her weren't so keen on yelling things like "Gerudo" or "Thief" every time they saw her face and ended up getting her kicked out of the marketplace. This made her have to resort to more desperate measures to make it to the meeting.

Nabooru grimaced as she turned to see Saria, the forest sage, so easily slip through the crowds while she had to wear a cloak to keep from being mobbed. Saria seemed to know the cloaked figure was her as she immediately recognized Nabooru and pulled her into the entrance while whispering "come on, were late".

Inside the temple the sages assembled like they normally did, sitting in mysterious magic chairs that would only appear if the correct sage tried to sit around the long table where Rauru conducted his many meetings.

King Darunia, the fire sage, liked to position his chair by Saria as with Link's help the two had become close friends. Zelda, if sitting in her correct position would normally be by Rauru as she was the seventh sage though instead she tended to linger between her guardian Impa and Ruto who was a fellow princess.

Nabooru wasn't partial to who she was sitting between and she tended to end up by Rauru or Impa. But no matter where she sat she seemed to find the same problem, anything about Ganondorf was linked to her, the Gerudo. The worst meetings always seemed to be the ones that Rauru had only called to have Nabooru end whatever trouble her people seemed to be causing.

Still Nabooru attended faithfully and didn't falter in her duties at the Spirit temple as well as here, but it did seem to be becoming an annoyance to her.

Nabooru sat down between Impa and Rauru as the only other free space was by the annoying Ruto. Rauru nodded his head to his six other colleagues and then he sat down and stated his normal speech about the current states of the triforce and such while the rest of the sages nodded their heads along and waited for the real business of this meeting to start.

When Rauru was finished, the rest of the sages broke into little conversations of their own and Nabooru sat and patiently waited for Rauru to address what had made him call forth this random meeting.

Rauru once again stood from his chair and cleared his throat to speak, "The reason I have called for this meeting to commence" he said with much gusto, "is that once again another group of assassins has attempted to bring one of those we long ago banished from his sealed prison".

Six small groans were heard and Nabooru was almost ready to bring her head down on to the table, this meeting was soon to be linked to her and she could feel it.

Rauru took a breath before continuing, "Nabooru" he started as Nabooru folded her hands and tried not to show her annoyance, "have you been aware of the meetings the castle has heard of taking place under your fortress?" Nabooru shook her head, she suspected there might still be as there where a few Gerudos that would try something like that while she was at the Spirit temple but she had never seen who. The rest of the sages were looking at her expectantly, Nabooru hated the feeling that they were suspecting her of being a bad leader.

Rauru stared at her also, "Are you positive?" Nabooru nodded, Rauru stared and the rest of the sages sensed something was not right.

Rauru sat back down, "Nabooru if you haven't been aware of the fact that there are seventeen Gerudos who have been slinking in and out of the cliffs of Hyrule that you did not send them on any business for yourself", Nabooru wasn't sure what to say as Rauru continued, "a group of assassins have opened the door to the Spirit Realm outside of Hyrule, we suspected they had help from Hyrule. Nabooru that group has been helping something that might lead to our demise!"

Nabooru lowered her head as thoughts rushed through her head.

Mika, her old king Ganondorf's cousin had started a group of seventeen members who wanted her out of power and tried to secretly rile the rest of the band against her. Nabooru had caught the group in time and disbanded it but the seventeen still remained in the fortress. Nabooru knew Mika had been acting odd recently but Mika was smart enough not to help outsiders when they tried something like Rauru had been saying.

As Nabooru thought about this she suddenly realized that Mika might be controlled by a magician on the outside. Which would explain a lot of things Nabooru's second in command had reported to her. Nabooru grimaced, she would simply play dumb until the meeting was over, for once she cared more about her valley's interactions with the outside than her own internal politics.

For the rest of the meeting the sages debated over what to do about this problem while Nabooru silently mulled it over. Nabooru did not want the seventeen banished to the outside like Ruto wanted or a spy from outside Gerudo Valley trying to stop them. Nabooru watched as Rauru actively involved the other sages as she tried to exclude herself from his conversation.

For some reason she got the sense that everyone else there was oddly tense with her there as well, almost as if they were waiting for her to leave.

She couldn't have been more thrilled for the opportunity when the meeting finally paused and Rauru averted his eyes from hers to go do his usual gossip session with the Princess Zelda. Nabooru was the first to leave.

After Nabooru had exited the market she pulled off the cloak and tossed it into the moat, she didn't care if anyone saw her now and she was tired of hiding. She put her fingers in her mouth and whistled. A tan horse with a red mane ran towards her and flashed off its colorful saddle in the sunlight. Nabooru patted its neck before mounting and galloping towards Gerudo Valley.

Nabooru arrived at the entrance to find her usual assigned guard at the foot of the bridge. Nabooru smiled and talked to her for a second before dismounting and letting her horse amble away. She chose to enter the fortress instead of going back to the Spirit Temple and found her Second in command, Isle, talking to a guard in a back room.

As Nabooru entered Isle and the guard immediately stopped talking and snapped to attention.

"Isle" Nabooru stated, "Check on Mika, I would like to speak to her about something. If she is not in the fort I want a message sent to me immediately and the entrance guards questioned about when she left".

Isle nodded her head, when Nabooru thought something was wrong it was best to check on the issue immediately because she tended to be right about her suspicions.

Nabooru walked to the Haunted Wastelands gate, she wanted to report to the Spirit Temple but something held her back this time, she felt the urge to stay behind. Nabooru walked to a wooden crate and sat on it letting her head hang on her hands. A guard from the gate climbed down from her post as she went to make sure Nabooru was okay. Nabooru smiled at the guard who continued with switching posts with another guard. A few minutes later Isle returned with Mika who had a blank look in her eyes but looked as if she had been crying earlier.

Nabooru stood as Mika slowly trudged towards her.

Nabooru looked to Isle, "Was she crying?" Isle nodded.

Nabooru looked back to Mika, "have you been involved with…."she started as Mika burst into sobs and covered her hands with her eyes. Several surrounding Gerudos stared at the sight of her crying as Nabooru stepped closer and Mika started to mumble.

"I didn't know what I was doing" she said, "I would wake up and I would be on the outside or at the gate".

Mika lifted her arm and brushed some of the tears away. "They released him, they used us to find the information on how".

Nabooru's eyes widened, she realized automatically that by him Mika could have meant HIM, and through her sobs she was saying he had already been let out of his prison in the spirit realm. Mika looked up to met Nabooru's eyes, "they were speaking to him, they told him they wanted his help. They wanted to join with him and regain Hyrule ".

Mika stopped crying and started to sniffle, "He told her, the leader of the assassins that he didn't want that – something else instead but there was that dark shadow….". Mika trailed off as she let out a few more sobs while Isle tried to pat her back.

Nabooru stepped back to sink down to her seat on the crate as she took in the shock of what she had said, something had been controlling Mika. And she knew the He in question wanted to come back, but it was a feat that would be nearly impossible. Both Isle and Nabooru knew that Mika was crying about something else, the rest of the story would be harder to come by though.

Isle left Mika to talk to Nabooru, "she keeps saying it took him, Nabooru what took who?"

Nabooru looked up to Isle and spoke softly "I'm guessing whatever she meant by the dark shadow would be what took him".

"Who?" Isle asked, "Could it be…?"

Mika who had obviously been listening to them whisper shook her head, "the shadow took the assassins but it was Hylain's that took him" Mika replied, "They say the sages will decide what to do with him".

Nabooru looked up and frowned, "when did this happen."

Mika shrugged a little, "Not sure, a few hours ago, sometime before you left."

Nabooru stood in shock, "we just had a sages meeting, I was the first to leave, I didn't see any others leaving."

"Oh no" Mika said as she grabbed her face with her hands, "Oh no oh no." Nabooru tried to contain herself as she stood and started walking to the gate.

"If it's who I think it is they are probably going to banish him back, or try to" Nabooru said, "without me," she added. It was hard not to hear a twinge of regret in her voice.

"Don't send him back" Mika said, "he had been pleading with the shadow he had wanted to change, he told me and the others and he didn't want to help the assassins, and they offered him a lot more then just their help". This made Nabooru slow down her pace and turn to Mika.

"So you say he wants to change," Nabooru said. "The one they released, yes" Mika replied, "But it doesn't matter, they will close the portal before we can reach him at all." Nabooru thought about this while she continued to walk and then run, if the he was who she thought it was, he could just as easily be playing a trick.

Nabooru considered the two sides before mounting her horse and setting off, she knew she would have to go pretty fast to make it before they sealed the portal.

As Nabooru dismounted near the castle gate the gate slowly began to close for the night as Nabooru realized she wouldn't have time to search for her cloak's hiding place in the moat. She rushed to the waters edge and leaped up grabbing the end of the bridge.

She pulled herself over the to the other side and used the wood to slide down to the cobblestone floor of the marketplace. Nabooru ran threw the crowds of people who where starting to head to their houses and ignored the cries that came out of a few of the people.

Nabooru rushed to the Temple of Time and threw open the gates. But when she stepped in the great hall was quiet and empty leaving the only sound her panting in the entrance.

Nabooru burst out the doors and ran towards the castle, she entered the pathway to the gate only to find it surrounded by villagers all wanting to watch something. A man was guarding the one lonely vine that lead up to where the villagers could have jumped and gotten through the gate.

The castle was set up at the top of a tall cliff that overlooked the temple and the village. It was relatively impenetrable due to the natural rocky walls and guards that manned the entire area. It had been built long before any of Nabooru's known ancestors were even born, but fortunately enough Gerudos had still found ways of figuring out the tunnels and weaknesses of the underbelly of it that she did know of a few other tricks to get inside.

Nabooru slipped to the front of the crowd covering her face halfway by her arm and staying to the side so she wouldn't be crushed. She reached the front and found that villagers were already bargaining prices for admittance.

She was surprised to see the nearby tree was already being climbed by some villagers. There was a series of guards at the top already trying to pull them down.

"Well there's my distraction" she said to herself as she veered from the entrance to the brick wall that ran along the side of the castle.

She hoisted herself over the wall using some vines and slid down behind it. Nabooru pushed herself flat against the edge of the small cliff that the castle was hosted on as she noticed two guards below chattering at their posts.

"I guess old Rauru is planning on making a show of that bastard to the peasants and nobles alike" the closer one said to the other.

The other nodded as his helmet bounced, "I can't imagine what the sages are doing back there with him though" he said, "the wait is killing both me and the villagers".

The closer one laughed before looking to the sky which was slowly getting darker, "wonder why they are doing this so late" he said as he continued to look up.

Nabooru also looked as the sky slowly shifted to night, the portal near the castle had been sealed at night, so of course it would only work at night. That could only mean to Nabooru that the show they were putting on would be sealing someone in the Spirit Realm with a more permanent mark.

Though how they would manage without her eluded her.

Nabooru crawled farther behind the guards where she let herself down and sprinted to the fields. She heard some shouts and grimaced as she realized some of the guards must have spotted her sprinting figure.

She felt a sign of relief as she recognized it as a platform her long-term friend Link had mentioned in her in a story about his childhood when he had zigzag-ed around guards to try and get close to the princess, Zelda. Behind her she could spot the guards sprinting to keep up.

"Almost there" she muttered.

Nabooru climbed this and peered over the edge at a huge ancient looking gate that stood at the edge of the moat and from the noises coming from the outside of the wall. She knew that the sages would be there.

After three attempts at jumping the wall the separated her from what was beyond the locked gate, Nabooru succeeded in vaulting over.

She looked up to see her king in chains surrounded by the other sages who were performing a spell that had them locked deep in concentration.

For a minute Nabooru couldn't breathe, "Ganondorf" she muttered as she stared at him.

Nabooru now walked with a hurried pace as Ganondorf locked his eyes on hers. She nearly forgot what she was doing as a flood of memories of looking at those eyes hit her.

She looked to see all of the sages looking towards the sky with their respective colors glowing about them.

Ganondorf looked more annoyed than frightened as he stood locked behind the sage's circle with his fists clenched and face in a grimace. Chains ran from his wrists to the ground and heavier irons clamped on his ankles locked his feet to the ground, he was pulling on these but to no avail.

There was an extra large space open between Impa and Rauru that Nabooru recognized as the place she was supposed to be.

Suddenly, Nabooru found two heavy arms around her and a rough voice whispered in her ear "do not disturb the sages".

Nabooru knew some guards must have spotted her. She stopped moving long enough for them to loosen their grip before breaking into a harsh twist from one guard into another where she flailed herself out.

Nabooru turned and ran to the circle of sages. The guards gave a shout of surprise and started to chase her down into the circle, they were not supposed to let anyone break the sages' concentration. Nabooru stopped to keep herself from falling into King Darunia as one of the guards leapt for a tackle and missed instead sending Nabooru flying and crashing into Saria.

Saria faltered and the sealing spell she had been chanting had immediately ended. The sages where immediately thrown from their concentration on the powerful sealing spell as Saria fell to the ground while Nabooru rolled to her feet. The sages now had confused looks on their faces as they rubbed their eyes and tried to figure out what happened. The guards now stood looking shocked at the blinking sages.

Using a thief's reactions, Nabooru rushed to the chained Ganondorf. Even though Ganondorf was well over 6 feet and Nabooru much shorter she still managed to look somewhat intimidating standing in front of him.

Ganondorf looked to Nabooru, he knew that if anyone could help him it would be her. Although he also still sort of hated her. After all she had been one of the sages that had locked him up originally.

Nabooru narrowed her eyes as she stared at him "are you really trying to change?" she asked quietly.

Ganondorf was expecting a question session from Nabooru and he nodded his head as politely as he could, there was no way he was messing this up. She still looked at him with disbelief, "prove it," she said as she folded her arms.

Ganondorf didn't give this another second's thought, "I'm tired of the groups wanting my help" he started in a slow serious tone, "I'm tired of having to defend myself, I'm tired of wasting tons of black magic, my time, and my energy away at things that never last long and I wish for once I didn't have to defend myself every step I take near villages of people biased against me".

Ganondorf felt satisfied with these comments, he indeed truly wanted right now to be left in peace but he knew that with Nabooru he couldn't simply say that.

She turned as last minute thoughts crept through her head, politically for the Gerudos it would be a good decision to plead his case but she knew both the sages and her own feelings right now only wanted to finish locking him up.

Pushing away her feelings of doubt Nabooru walked towards the startled sages. The guards had also regained sense of where they where and both ran opposite sides of the circle to grab both of Nabooru's arms. This time farther away and more wary of her.

Rauru regained his posture and glared at Nabooru. His eyes appeared as though they were about to pop out of his head. Darunia and Ruto helped Saria stand as Zelda walked towards Rauru with a cold look in her eyes.

"You said you had a perfectly good reason for making us all do this without the help of Nabooru, right now would be the perfect time to tell us what" Zelda growled.

"I" Rauru started before puffing his chest a little, "did not want to associate Nabooru with this as she might be deeply offended by the message he gives off about her race".

Rauru's answer infuriated Zelda even more and Impa folded her arms in deep annoyance. Still held by the guards Nabooru did her best to keep still and quiet.

Rauru looked clearly uncomfortable; he was always against Ganondorf and hadn't trusted Ganondorf's assertions of peace. Now that Nabooru was here, it would be harder to make excuses of why not to listen to Ganondorf or why not to complete the sealing. He didn't want to listen to Zelda's lectures and instead turned his attention to the guards. "Please release the Spirit Sage."

The two immediately dropped both of Nabooru's arms and let her walk towards the rest of the sages.

"Ganondorf says he wants to change" Nabooru said to the group but mainly aimed at Rauru.

Zelda met Nabooru's eyes, "I'm sure we can reach some agreement" Zelda started, "Maybe in a more suitable area. Zelda motioned to the guards, "bring Ganondorf to the conference room around the back way and tell the posts at the gate to send the crowd away".

Nabooru smiled a little on the inside at the way Zelda gave out orders, Zelda had a much better political sense then Rauru and had a way of keeping her wits about her even in stressful situations. Nabooru then followed the rest of the sages as they went to Zelda's conference room.

Zelda's conference room was a long room with a vaulted ceiling and a large wooden table in the center. Ganondorf was standing against a wall where guards could obviously see him from all sides of the room. Nabooru didn't look to see if they had kept him chained, as she was instead concentrating on the long tapestries that fell from the tall ceiling all bearing the triforce. Nabooru took her seat at the table and watched as the rest of the sages followed. A few official looking Hylain's also joined them along with the king himself. Nabooru sneaked a glance back at Ganondorf who was looking at her intently. Zelda clapped her hands; the king was here only to watch so Zelda had naturally assumed the responsibilities of calling the meeting together.

She was a great princess, and the fact that she had the air of an adult at even such a young age was really coming in handy right now..

Pulled out of her slight daydream Nabooru began to pay attention to the meeting. The conversation at the table was focused entirely on what to do about Ganondorf who stood quietly and didn't say a word. Nabooru listened as she herself tried to help the decision but did not know herself.

She excused herself from the table for a moment and was surprised to see Impa follow her into the hallway. "You don't trust him" Impa said as Nabooru stopped to look at her more senior friend.

"I don't" Nabooru replied.

"But he has a lot of faith in you" Impa replied.

"He's still in love with me" Nabooru answered, "there's a difference."

"Do you want to give him another chance?" Impa asked.

"He's my king" Nabooru replied, "He belongs back in the Gerudo Valley. No matter what I want."

"Do you think he would listen to you?" Impa said.

"He'd probably follow me off a cliff if I asked him to" Nabooru answered, "That was true then, and it's true now."

She stopped before touching Impa's arm, "And the others, they still don't know about this." "I would never tell" Impa replied.

As the meeting wore on it seemed as though the table was divided equally between those who wanted Ganondorf locked up or him left in Hyrule. Still not all opinions had been expressed at the table as neither Impa nor Nabooru had contributed a strong point to either side and Impa hadn't said anything at all.

When the question was left just as undecided about an hour later Impa finally unfolded her hands where she had been resting her chin and looked up around the faces at the table before resting her eyes on Nabooru.

"Nabooru" she said as the rest of the table became immediately silent. "Would you be willing to watch Ganondorf very closely for a period of time to make sure he really wants peace."

Impa said this as she moved her eyes to Ganondorf who was still acting very polite and leaning against the wall. Nabooru nodded her head, "yes."

The rest of the table mumbled about the idea and after a few more minutes of confirmation the meeting was finally called to a close. The officials from the castle and the king stood to leave as Rauru and Zelda stated specifications for Nabooru to follow.

Then the sages warily stood. Although most looked like they wanted to run, they didn't leave and Nabooru knew it was because they were waiting to see what would happen when they removed Ganondorf's chains. She sighed a deep breath as she stood herself and walked to stand next to Ganondorf.

He seemed somewhat amused as the two guards attempting to remove his chains began to shake.

"If the only catch to my freedom is that I have to be around you, this is going to be easy" he said.

She rolled her eyes as she turned to leave, "Don't think you can start doing any funny business now" she replied, "I'm going to be watching you like a hawk".

He followed her out of the castle grounds and to the closed gate. The guards opened the bridge faster than Nabooru had ever seen them to do so before, causing her to grin. They themselves were clearly glad to be rid of Ganondorf. Before they could exit in a surprise move he pulled her to him to give her a large hug, causing her to shudder in surprise. "Thank you" he mumbled as they both looked across the field, she could feel he wanted to ask the same question she had

"What now?"

Author's Note:

Hey there! Thanks so much for reading. This is an old story I've decided to recently redo again after cleaning up the grammar and learning to talk good-er (if you know what I mean). I'll do my best to publish a new chapter every week. Please let me know if you have any feedback!