Generations
Part 4 of 'The Hero's Many Faces'

Usual applies here. I don't own the Zelda games (like that's not totally obvious) - however, some of the characters here are mine. Hands off them - got it? You'll see who when they come up.

--

Introduction: Counterpoints

--

Funny thing, life. It's a cliche, yeah, but it's true.

One day, you're just some normal kid, trying your best to avoid flunking class and still have some form of existence outside the dreaded halls of school. A normal, everyday life, filled with normal, everyday things. Enough said.
The next, you're fighting for your life every time you leave your home, dreaming you're a Fierce Deity - what do I mean, dreaming? - searching for some sword that isn't even supposed to exist. In other words, you're a hero. No, scratch that. Put a capital letter on it.
Sound stupid? Man, you haven't heard the last of it.
Wait. None of this sounds familiar? Where have you been? Never heard of it. This is Hyrule.
Okay, let me try and recap world history for you. Doubt I'll have much luck. I nearly failed History class. But still...

I'll start, oh, two thousand years ago. That's when this all started (though someone I know would no doubt disagree, he's not here). An Evil King tried to take over the world... so you know his name! (Or should I say 'its...') Heck, even now I can't say it.
Still, he/it was eventually beaten - the calendar starts at the date of these Imprisoning Wars, so you can tell how important they were - only to return every few hundred years. And to be defeated again. In that time, this country changed a lot - races were driven into hiding, geography and rule shifted - but it still remained technologically the same.
About 500 years ago, that changed. The boffins, like one of my best friends, call it the Renaissance. (Hope I spelt that right). Things really began to change then. Science took over from magic. No-one really cared about random wand waving any more, when they could put numbers and results onto things... (Hah! Serves 'em right...)
Four hundred years back was the end of the Hyrulian royal family. (They say.) A revolution wiped all traces of the king of the time away. Can't help wonder what he did - or what idea came up that would make him seem so evil... worse than the real Evil King of the past?
250 years ago - someone came up with the idea of Industry. The books call it the Technological Revolution. And the world never looked back. Wars became less and less common - they still occurred occasionally, but that's just people. Nation grew closer to nation; the other peoples, other than 'homo something' I mean, came out of hiding. They even established permanent contact with other worlds - my mother remembers when they set up the Termina-Hyrule Expressway. But somehow, I can't see anything so strange in it, for all the boffins talk about it being theoretically impossible... It's no different than going for a plane ride.
(Sorry, Dad. I didn't mean to be rude...)

So. This is the world we live in - lived in. One where a plane flight from Kakariko to Horon takes three hours; one where I can chat to my friend in Calatia without worrying that it's something like 8pm there and 11am here. One that seemed to work perfectly.
Note the 'seemed to'.
And this is where my story begins.

Oh - wait! I didn't tell you my name, did I? It's Link Hunter.

Yeah. You heard me. Link.

-

Life's a strange thing. Two thousand years, and I've never changed my mind about that much.

One day, you're a normal child. You don't think you're anyone special. But the next - you're a hero... beyond that. You discover the truth about yourself. And see that you were never normal.
That you were never, indeed, truly human. I am not. I am known as the Fierce Deity - the guardian of Time itself. (Even if today, those names mean nothing but a myth.) I protect the course of history - and the lives of those who must live in it.

This all starts - as far as I am concerned - two thousand years ago. My birth - or rebirth into a mortal form, the physical body I have borne for virtually two millennia and will as long as I exist. The battles of the Hero of Time - as I was known then. And the first ascension of the Evil King, Ganon. The beginning of a cycle that would blight Hyrule for centuries to come. That monster - my oldest enemy - has made his return on four separate occasions following that. And to fight him... I could not. I am as much a creature of darkness as he is. If I were to combat Ganon, it would do no good. To that end, the Heroes of legend were born - created by fate itself, it seems, the force that moves even ones such as myself. Only now, after so long, do I realise the truth that lay behind every link in the chain, and will do so into eternity...
Yet - this world I protect - is not the one I was born to. Worlds are like bubbles in a river. Sometimes they merge, flow apart - and pop. My home, my timeline, was swallowed by the one that now exists. No records remain of what I remember as happening two millennia ago. (Virtually none, anyway - the influence of my actions remains. You may have heard of Labrynna and Holodrum's Oracles. But I know who they really were.) And my memory is one of those that was lost. My history no longer exists. They remember the Hero of Time, it is true - but never now its Guardian, except in the sketchiest of legends.
I have hidden myself in the course of history. You see me now? I take a lot of hiding, it's true. Over the course of the centuries, I have acquired abilities that not even my natural powers - considerable in their own right - granted me. A warrior with many faces, I have learnt to assume forms more fitting to mortal kind - even if I cannot shake every trace of my true nature. A mirror will always reflect my true face, even if the human eye refuses to. I can never ignore who I am. Yet why should I? I have always been there, the silent protector of the infinities. Two worlds are only connected now, the twin worlds Termina and Hyrule, because I have left that one portal open between them. Not even the scientists of this age understand it. Nor the magical technologists.

Sorry. I must have forgotten to give you my name. Oni'kara. To most people, just Oni.
But the historians would be happier to call me Link.

--

A/N: Part four?! I can't believe it myself...
Anyway - I'm back! Miss me? :p I'm sorry it's been so long. It's been hard to get going on this story. I'll apologise in advance in case the updates are a bit irregular.