Author Note: I was playing Hyrule Warrior and this story idea came to mind. I hope you all enjoy it, as much as I enjoyed writing it. Anyone who wants to be a pre-reader or Editor are more then welcome to contact me.
Chapter 1: Truth and a Choice
Link and his group were about halfway to the Temple of Souls when they stopped for camp. The young knight couldn't get the thought of having the Master Sword out of his head, or what they had learned about Lana and Cia being the same person.
As they set up for the night Link was on his own, his hand running through the mane of his horse Epona. "Can we trust her?" Link asks softly. "I mean if they are the same person, could the same reason Cia have fallen, cause Lana to as well? What if even she is a bomb waiting to blow up?" Epona nays and nuzzles Link in reply. "Maybe your right girl. If I talk to her I can figure it out, she may even tell me why Cia fell."
Epona nods her head and nuzzles the knights cheek, causing the man to giggle and scratch the back of her head. Link pulls away from Epona and starts walking towards the camp, looking around. After a few minutes of searching he smiles seeing the bright blue locks of hair, and heads towards Lana.
"Lana!" Link calls out as he get close. "Do you think we could talk? I wanna ask you a couple things alone."
"Sure." Lana says with a smile, as she turns to Link.
Link nods and starts walking away, Lana close behind him.
"So what did you need to talk to me about Link?" Lana asks curiously.
Link turns around to Lana and crosses his arms as he looked at her. "I want you to tell me more about Cia, or yourself as the case may be. I wanna understand how she fell and how we may be able to stop her."
"Cia is the sorceress of time. She was tasked with the quest to watch over the triforce, by watching the legendary hero's soul through the ages. She was only give one restriction. She could not interfere with how the timeline would fall." Lana explained looking at Link, understanding why he wished to know.
Link nodded. "And how did she fall Lana? What could cause her to fall to darkness like she has?"
"I'm sorry Link. I can't explain that to you. She and in turn me, are both bound by our law. I am already breaking it as we speak by helping you and even telling you what I have about her." Lana says looking down.
"If we kill Cia, that would mean you would take her place right?" Link asked, almost able to guess the answer. Seeing Lana nod her head, Link continued to speak. "Then what about you? You said you and her were the same person, if she could fall to darkness for one reason, wouldn't that also apply to you? Whatever caused her to fall, could cause you to. I'm just trying to figure it out so maybe we can stop it."
"You might not like what you hear if I tell you the truth Link. It may be a tough pill to swallow." Lana says, looking up at Link, hoping the knight would back down.
Link raises his eyebrow at the sorceress, staying silent as he waits for her to answer his question.
The woman sighs and nods. "Okay Link. You win. The reason she fell is because of who she had to watch over. The Legendary Warrior spirit. She has watched him for centuries, and slowly fell in love with him, but each time he would return she would be forced to watch him fall in love with someone else." Lana explained, looking downcast. "At first she was content knowing he had happiness, but as time went on, watching the one you love fall for someone else again and again…. It slowly killed her on the inside."
"Legendary Warrior spirit?" Link asked dropping his arms to his sides, as he stared at the blue haired woman.
Lana nodded before speaking again. "Yes, the one man whom has always held the master sword, and the only one who can." She said, looking at the sword hilt that shone over the man's shoulder.
"Your talking about me. She fell in love with me." Link stated now knowing the truth. Seeing the woman nod he sighed and turned around. "Thank you for answering me Lana." he said, walking away back towards where he left his horse.
As he walked up next to where Epona was grazing he ran his hand through her mane. "Hey girl." He said softly, causing the mare to turn her head towards him and nuzzle his face.
Link smiled and lead the mare away from the camp so he could think. Once they got far enough so that the camp was still in sight, but far enough so no one would bother him he sat down on a patch of grass.
Epona came up behind the knight and laid down behind him so he could lean back and be comfortable. Feeling her master pat her side as a way of saying thank you before leaning back into her, the horse let out a happy nay.
Link leaned back against his horse with a smile, knowing the mare would always stick by his side like she always had. "So girl, what do you think we should do? Continue on with this fight and let Lana take over for Cia, and have her maybe fall just like Cia did. Or should we try and stop it here." Link asked out loud knowing it was only him and Epona.
The horse looked at the man and snickered and nayed at him in response. "I'm not sure. The only way we might be able to bring Cia back is to give her what she has longed for for centuries, but I don't know anything about her. I just can't love her." Link replied back, having understood his lifelong companion. Epona leaned her head over and nuzzled the knights arm, and just looked at him with her large eyes. "That is possible. Just giving her a chance might make her return to how she was. I don't know her, but that doesn't mean that I won't ever love her." He says, smiling at the mare. Epona nodded her large head and nayed. "Yeah, it could end up that I fall in love with her just by getting to know her." He says bring his hands up to run his hand through the horses mane. "Thanks girl. Your always here for me, no matter how I need it."
Link and Epona just stayed laying in the grass for nearly an hour before Link slowly stood up. "Alright girl. Let's go. I'm sure the princess and general will think i'm crazy if I tell them what i'm gonna do, so we are just gonna leave. I might be able to get Cia to talk to me."
Epona looked up from her spot on the ground and slowly got to her hooves, nuzzling Link's arm. "Thanks girl. Your support means everything to me." He said sweetly, with a smile on his face. He moved to Epona's side and swung himself up into her saddle. "Lets go." He sat patting the side of the horse's neck instead of snapping the reins, causing the mare to turn and start galloping towards the Temple of Soul.
According to Zelda and Impa, Link had been told that the temple was two days march away, but with Epona's speed and stamina, he should be able to make it in half the time.
The next morning, Impa went to get Link so he could prepare to march with everyone else. "Link it's time to get up. We need to be marching in no more than an hour." Impa called out, from outside of Link's tent.
"General!" A foot soldier called out as he approached Impa. "Ma'am." He said saluting the woman in front of him. "I went to retrieve Epona for Sir Link like I have been doing, and she is nowhere to be found."
"Epona is gone?" Impa said surprised. That horse was more stubborn than even the princess, refusing to let anyone ride her except Link. "But how... She would never..." She started to say, her eyes widen as she turned and burst into Link's tent. The tent was in perfect shape as if no one had used it at all during the night. Impa rushed out of the tent and sprinted towards where Zelda would be. "Princess!" She called out seeing Zelda exiting her tent in her war garb.
"Impa? What is the matter, you look frantic." Zelda asked, looking concerned at her bodyguard.
"It... It's Link. He's gone princess. Both Epona and Link are missing. He wasn't in his tent this morning when I went to wake him, and the knight who normally brings him Epona, said the mare was gone."
Zelda's eyes widen. "Captain!" She cries out, causing the captain to rush over and salute her. "Captain I need you to..."
"There is no need to search for him." Lana said, as she walked up to the two women and knight. "He left on his own and wasn't taken. When I woke up I looked for him myself, and I saw Epona's tracks leading away from camp in the direction of the Temple of Souls. I believe he is going to try and convince Cia to stop this." She says as she stopped in front of them.
Zelda just stared at the sorceress as she spoke, as Impa said, "And why would he do that Lana? For what reason would he have to go and confront her alone?"
"I don't know Impa, but I believe it's about what I told him last night." Lana explained.
"And what did you tell him last night?" Zelda asked.
Lana sighed and recounted the majority of what she had told Link, leaving out the part about Cia loving the knight being the reason she fell.
"So Link is worried you will fall as well, and thinks if he can convince Cia to stop this, that it won't happen again, but if you just take her spot that it could happen since you are one in the same person." Zelda says, lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Why didn't Link come to us."
"Maybe he was worried that we would believe his worries are unfounded." Impa said, looking over to the princess.
"Whatever the case we move now. Epona is the faster than any other horse we have and has the stamina to match. I'm sure they have a large head start, depending on how late Link left." Zelda said, turning to the captain. "We march in ten minutes, get everyone into formation and lets go."
The captain salutes and rushes off calling out orders as he runs.
Zelda looks out in the direction they were gonna march and sighs. "Stay safe Link. If you fall, all of Hyrule may fall with you." she whispers out as she turned around to get her horse ready for a long march.