As Princess Zelda raised the scissors up to her golden locks she looked down at her bound breasts as if they were a foreign growth attached to her chest. This time it was forever. She had been the Crown Princess of Hyrule when her kingdom needed her most. She and the faerie boy had repelled the sorcerer Gannon and trapped him outside of their world. Once the Master Sword was safe, Navi and her almost silent charge had returned to the Kokiri Wood to help the Deku Sapling protect the border of Hyrule from outside invaders. Zelda heard sometime later that the Hero of Time went out into the Lost Woods one day and never returned. She had remained the people's princess for seven years after just to make sure the future that she and Link had stopped would not come to pass. It hadn't, and now she would be their princess no longer. The scissors made a swishing sound as a flood of ringlets fell to the floor.
Sheik watched in the mirror as the pink silk dress fell from him. He went to the hidden space in his closet and pulled out his Sheikah warrior garb. He donned it slowly feeling the enchantment of the fabric increase his strength and reflexes. When he looked into the mirror his stomach rippled under the skin tight suit. His biceps and forearms flexed pleasingly as he tested each muscle group in turn before triumphantly doing a back flip to catch a fleeting glance of his equally impressive back in the mirror. Sheik walked over to the jewelry box and pulled out an ordinary looking hemp choker with a tiny sapphire adornment shaped like a nautilus shell that marked the front. He began to hum the ancient lullaby of the Hyrule royal family. His voice started out a soft but clear soprano. As he draped the necklace around the neck it fell to a cool alto and as the clasp clicked fell to a perfect tenor. Sheik smiled. It had taken his entire adolescence to procure the artifacts required and yet another seven years to prepare the kingdom for the disappearance of their beloved Princess Zelda. Fortunately, time was the one thing Sheik could always count on. He walked to the window opened the shutters and slipped out onto the rooftop of the castle. From there he made his way to the rooftops of the sleeping town and to the foreboding Temple of Time. It was the Storm Moon, and at midnight, Gannon would escape into a new world and it was up to Sheik to awaken a new hero in a new land.
How did he know? He couldn't say for sure but... he looked down at the faint golden triangle on his left backhand. It looked like an aging tattoo but was actually a piece of the most powerful artifact in all of Hyrule. The pieces called to one another, weaved stories for each other that used mortals as characters choosing their roles outside of time and without their consent. Sheik clenched his fists as he dropped down from the roof in front of the temple entrance.
'Not this time' he thought. 'I will strut upon your stage but I will do so as I am, not as you cast me to be'.
The temple interior was made of a special blue stone that reacted to sound magic. Huge windows as wide as a man and twice as tall streamed moonlight in. The pale glow filled the cavernous room and sparkled off the mystical stone. In the next room was the resting place of the sword that evil could never touch. That was likely to be where the doorway would appear. Moving lightly, Sheik was like a shadow as he entered the sacred chamber. The sword gave off a pale blue aura that seemed to be growing as the seconds ticked by. At precisely midnight, the sword shuddered as though a chill passed through it. The aura expanded and grew into a moving portrait. Inside Sheik saw a striking face. The girl's eyes were a swirl of sea green and black that looked like to perfect whirlpools that drained into infinity. Her corn blond hair was long and wild. It seemed spiked at impossible angles. All around her head she wore it in tight braids adorned with beads and tied off on little pony tails at the ends. Her clothing was sparse consisting of a yellow brassier and short shorts whose function seemed only to provide a place for her pouch belt. For a moment, Sheik was transfixed, but a sharp pain in his left hand returned him to the moment.
"COURAGE!" The word seemed to shake through his whole body. Sheik pulled the royal family's greatest treasure from his pouch and lifted the ocarina to his mouth. The Master Sword's aura opened even louder as Sheik began to play a strange song. He had never heard it, but its haunting beauty seemed to excite the blade. The pale light of the sword grew around the Sheikah like a bubble. Just outside the field a chasm of burning orange light opened and the blue pearl descended into chaos. For a moment Sheik felt fear. This was the very prison that Gannon had been banished too. He looked below and saw that he was falling into a sort of funnel of burnt orange light. At the bottom was a gash in the eternal web of film and gauzy light that made up limbo. Sheik nodded to himself.
'This must be where Gannon forced his way out. Somehow this song and The Sword of Evil's Bane has brought me right to it.' Sheik smiled. 'I wonder who that girl was? Could she be the next vessel for the Triforce of Courage?' As the pedestal slipped through the gap and back into reality Sheik lowered the ocarina and looked around. He appeared to be in an impossibly large room. It stretched out and up into darkness illuminated only by curious bubbles of light that danced about like fire flies leaving a fading trail of multicolored brilliance behind them. Ancient stone walk ways broken and cracked snaked out in every direction. Worst of all though was the smell.
'This place smells like the Shadow Temple' Sheik thought. He reached down into his boots and pulled out his twin knives, Thorn and Nail. Even in the dim light the blades flashed. They had been forged by the Biggoron and blessed by The Great Fairy of Power. Sheik considered the three paths before him. Each one seemed equally untrustworthy. His deliberation was cut short by a gravely roar followed by an echoing crash from the path to the left. Sheik was already silently sprinting down the path before he heard the excited voice.
"Whoa! I hate rock fiends, and zombies are even worse." The voice belonged to the girl The Master Sword had shown him. She was hastily dodging the assaults of four lurching corpses and a stone giant bearing an all too familiar mark. It was banner that flew above Gannon's armies. It was the flag that flew above Hyrule Castle before Gannon was defeated. Sheik coiled in on herself and exploded blades first into the back of the nearest undead.
"Huh?" The corn haired girl exclaimed as the zombie hit the ground and evaporated into a cloud of light bubbles. She looked at Sheik slyly like it . She moved to get back to back with Sheik.
"Um, if you get the little ones I have just the thing to take care of the boulder fiend." The girl didn't wait for an answer. Using Sheik's back as a launched she tucked and rolled at the rock monster. At the last moment she flicked her wrist blade just barely chipping the creatures boulder fiends knee joint. It tried to shift and turn to keep up but by the time but by the time it completed it rotation she had mixed the two liquids which were beginning to froth. Sheik felled the last zombie with a scissor motion which cleanly liberated the head from the neck. He turned to check on the girl who took a moment to wink before tossing the mixture into the small wound she had inflicted. The explosion shook the stone walkway they had been fighting on and made dust fall from the dome above. As the remains of the creature fell to dust the girl walked up confidently.
"So yeah that was a Defender Z. Zanarkand is way outside of its territory. I'm Rikku pleased to meet you." She flashed a peace sign. "Glad you showed up, it is getting dangerous around here." Rikku laughed nervously and chewed on a piece of hair. "See the fiends are getting organized. They used to just sort of attack people and stuff you know?"
"Hey, who are you anyway?" Rikku moved closed and leaned over Sheik as though she were examining a melon at the market. For the second time in an hour Sheik found himself overwhelmed by the girls beauty. For a moment he allowed Rikku to examine him unaware that Sheik was doing the same to her.
"I am Sheik of the Sheikah, founders of Kakariko village and loyal servants to the House of Hyrule." He bowed stiffly in the manner of court and kissed her hand. "I am charmed to make your acquiescence Rikku."
"I think I may know why these monsters, I believe you were calling them fiends, are acting more intelligently. Most of them disappear into those clouds of lights when they are vanquished." Rikku interrupted.
"They're called pyre flies. If you don't know what pyre flies are and there is no Sin to have given you the toxin that must mean your not from Spira. Where is this Kakariko village?"
Sheik shook his head. "Your right, I'm not. Our worlds are separated by a barrier where there is no time or space. We call it limbo. Please, I have something to show you. I believe you will understand better if you see it." Sheik told Rikku the legends of the Triforce how they had imprisoned Gannon only for him to escape to this world. Finally he swore to stay in Spira until Gannon was defeated.
"I won't be able to stop him by myself though. I need to find the third bearer of the Triforce. Gannon has always had some power to control monsters even create them out of thin air. It seems to me that his presence and a behavior change in the fiends cannot be coincidental. That means we have to hurry and awaken Courage. It is Spira's only hope."
"Okay then" Rikku said "Lets find the bearer of Courage and" Rikku was cut off as they reached the pedestal Sheik had rode to this world. The gleaming swords aura turned from pale blue to a brilliant golden illuminating the whole area. Rikku felt a surge of energy passing through her. It was like activating a dress sphere but so much more powerful. The sword pulsed and Rikku's hand began to burn. She looked down as a golden triangle blazed itself onto her back hand. Rikku looked at Sheik who nodded with understanding and allowed the energy to guide her. She grasped the sword and removed it from its resting place. The knowledge of the blade poured into her. It was too much. She cried out. Sheik caught her as she fainted. He carried her gently to the exit of the dome where a strange creature that looked a bit like a Zora with a hammer head was waiting. He introduced himself as Barkeep and told her he was a Hypello.
"We mush getsche her to bed" Barkeep said in a thick accent. Sheik helped the Hypello tuck Rikku in and then sat watch waiting for her to awaken. The flying ship was amazing but such marvels could wait. Sheik had come here to stop Gannon but now he knew there was something more. He and Rikku would stop Gannon together. As he watched her sleep he swore to protect her and care for her. Last time he had done his duty to his people as their princess this time he would do it for himself and for the woman that would be fighting next to him.