Author's note: well, this story takes place a while after Twilight Princess, long enough for the Link from TP to be at least a great-grandpa and long dead. I'll admit now, the basic idea of this might be kind of stupid. Basically the Link in this story can remember everything that's happened to any other Link in the past. Link's mother (who is actually alive for most of this story, I'm breaking new ground!! I think…) fears for her son's life, and takes him to the Queen who locks those memories in the depths of his subconscious at a large cost. He is now destined to save Hyrule, and can't use the Master Sword to do so. (This is actually covered in the prologue, but I thought it was actually kind of unclear.) This entire story is basically about Sheik and Zelda (two different people by the way) trying to help Link find something to replace the Master Sword so he can defeat whatever evil might come to Hyrule.

-Prologue-

Deep in Kakariko, a young Hylian mother was woken up by crying. She went into her son's room. He was still asleep.

"Nightmares," the mother whispered, picking up the baby to comfort it. As soon as the baby was in her arms she was taken aback by a rush of images that flooded her mind.

A shining green stone, then a face of a beautiful young girl, a hooded figure, followed by a musical instrument, the sound of music, then the clashing of swords, a sword sitting in a stone, forests rushing by, a laughing face. She couldn't keep track of anymore, but they did eventually stop.

"Oh no," she gasped, putting the baby down and running to find a cloak. She found one, put it on, and then picked the baby up again. She left the house, and darted through the village. All she could hear over the rain was her footsteps and terrible laughter.

"It's too soon" she whispered to herself "too soon." She ran through the field, unable to shake the feeling she was being followed. Evil was settling in Hyrule, and that Evil wanted her son.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the castle.

"Finally" she muttered, dashing up the front steps. She navigated her way to the throne room, and ran in. She sunk to one knee upon reaching the throne, where a figure stared out the window.

"My Queen" she gasped, cradling her son to her.

"Alice," the figure said, not turning around "what brings you here at this late hour?"

"Please, my Queen, forgive me. But my son, he's having nightmares, filled with memories not his own."

"What is his name?" the Queen asked

"Link…" the mother said, and lightning flashed again, illuminating the whole room and the Queen as she turned around.

"Memories not his own?" she asked, urgency in her voice.

The mother nodded, gasping deeply from her run.

The Queen bent down next to the mother and her son. "Can I see him?" she asked. The mother nodded and handed over her son to the Queen. The Queen had a blank look on her face for a minute before getting even more worried. "This is serious" she said, standing up.

"Can you help him?" the mother asked, standing up herself.

"Yes, I can" The Queen said and handed over the child to his mother. She placed two fingers on the young boy's forehead and spoke softly "Young Link" she whispered "you're mind has been contaminated by the memories of your ancestors. It is not your fault, nor theirs. So now young child, I will lock away these memories behind you in the back of your mind where they will sleep until your death." There was a small flash of light, and the child stopped his fussing.

The mother looked up at the Queen, who had a grave expression on her face.

"There is a problem to this though" the Queen said "Link will have to protect Hyrule from unspeakable evil when he is older, and it will be nearly impossible to do without the Master Sword. But the Master Sword will banish the magic I used to keep these memories back if he pulls it from its resting place. He must not do this, but that leaves him with the task of finding another way to destroy this Evil."

"Is it possible?" the mother asked

"Possible? Yes, it is possible. But easy? No, it will not be easy."

The Queen turned away "I will tell my daughter all of this when she is older so she can make sure that he doesn't do it. She can help him find a way to destroy this evil."

The mother said nothing.

"Alice" the Queen said "it is time for you to go."

The mother nodded, and headed back to her house.

-Chapter 1-

"Yah!!" the young Sheikah boy said as he threw a dagger at a nearby tree.

"Sheik…" his trainer said in disappointment "you're not trying hard enough. You've missed the mark again."

Sheik looked at the tree, noting that he had only missed the mark by a less than a centimeter. "But,"

"No buts"

"I am sorry master Hiru" Sheik said

"Try it again"

Sheik pulled out another dagger, and was ready to throw it when-

"Sheik!!"

Sheik turned his head in the direction his name had come from and when he saw who had said it he fell to a knee.

"Princess…" he said

"Ah come on Sheik!" the princess laughed "enough with the formalities! Come on, I have something to tell you!!" she ran off, Sheik following after her.

"Zelda" he said "what is it?"

"I'll tell you in a minute!" Zelda called as she ran deeper into the woods "come on"

Sheik rolled his eyes and ran after the princess, though at a slightly slower pace. He finally caught up to her at a pond in the middle of the woods, where she was skipping stones. Sheik picked up a smooth stone and tossed it across the pond. It skipped all the way across to the other side.

"Impressive!" Zelda laughed.

"What did you want to tell me?" Sheik asked

Zelda stopped mid-toss, and the stone she was going to throw went plop! in the water. "About that…" she said, sitting down.

"What?" Sheik said, starting to worry

"My mother has, well, given me a, uh,"

"A what?" Sheik urged

"A task" Zelda said finally

"A task?" Sheik asked, starting to wonder why the princess was worrying about it so much "what do you have to do?"

"Well, apparently" Zelda said "somewhere in Kakariko there's a boy named Link. And apparently he'll have to fight evil when he's older. My mom told me that I would need to, help him in his quest."

"What's the problem with that? All he'll need is a little training and the Master Sword" Sheik said, but Zelda just seemed to get more uncomfortable.

"What?" Sheik asked

"Well, that's the problem. He can't get the Master Sword"

"What?!" Sheik dropped the stone he was holding "How can he not be able to get the Master Sword?"

"Apparently, when he was little, he was, as my mother said, 'plagued with nightmares filled with memories not his own'. She had to lock away these memories in the back of his mind, so he wouldn't be damaged by them. But they would be released even if he were to lay a hand on the Master Sword."

"That's…." Sheik began, but stopped for he was at a loss for words.

"I know" Zelda said "My mother told me that I would have to help him find something that will defeat evil that isn't the Master Sword"

"Why are you telling me this?" Sheik asked finally after a moment of silence.

"I don't know" Zelda said "I just kind of figured that maybe Link would respond better to a boy about his age instead of a girl that's a few years younger than him."

"So you want my help, don't you?" Sheik asked. Zelda nodded.

"It would be nice" she said.

"Alright, I'll go find him. Do you need help getting back to the Castle?"

Zelda shook her head "I should be fine."

Sheik nodded and headed off "Bye, princess"

"Bye Sheik!"

A young Hylian boy walked around in Kakariko, trying to decide what to buy with his recently acquired twenty rupees. He knew that there was little he could buy with just twenty rupees, but was willing to try.

Though the farther he went through the village the more he felt like he was being watched. Every shadow seemed to have something hidden in it.

"Odd…" he said, shaking the feeling away. He ran into a nearby shop, where he was planning on buying a slingshot. "Sweet!" he said, seeing the price tag on the slingshot "It is twenty rupees!!"

"Hi Link!" the shopkeeper said "what can I do for you today?"

"Can I have the slingshot?" the boy asked

"You sure can!" the shopkeeper handed him the slingshot, and Link gave the shopkeeper twenty rupees.

Link did a little dance in his excitement. "I got a slingshot, I got a slingshot!" he sang "oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!" and he ran out of the shop. He aimed at something random with his slingshot, and the door slammed behind him.

"Hello there" someone said, causing Link to jump about three feet in the air.

"Holy cow!" he said "who are you!!"

A boy a little older than him stepped out of the shadows. "I am Sheik, youngest of the Sheikahs."

"Is that a title or a name?" Link asked.

"You know, I've wondered that myself sometimes" Sheik replied "so who are you?"

"I'm Link, and I just got a new slingshot" Link aimed again and shot a nearby tree "you know. I don't think I've seen you around town before."

"You probably haven't, I don't visit often."

"Really? How far away do you live?"

"Not far, but I never have a chance to visit."

Link found this a bit odd, but didn't really care at the moment. "You want to have a look around?" he asked. Sheik shook his head.

"That's alright, I've been here enough to know my way around."

"Oh." Link started walking, Sheik following. And Link did notice he did seem to know where he was going more than Link did himself.

"Are you planning on doing anything to do today?" Sheik asked.

"No, I just wanted to get this slingshot and then figured I might go shoot some stuff."

"Fun…" Sheik said, but he didn't seem too impressed.

"Hey," Link said "this might be an odd question, but… what's a Sheikah?"

Sheik stopped at this. "Hang on, you live in Kakariko and you don't know who the Sheikah are?"

Link nodded.

"Wow…" Sheik said, stunned "wow. I'll let you know later, I have to go."

"Oh, alright!" Link said, running off to find something to practice his slingshot on.

Sheik sat on the roof of some random house. He wasn't really doing anything, because there really wasn't anything to do.

"Hey Sheik!!" someone called, and he looked down at the ground, where Link stood, holding a sword.

"I got a sword!!" Link said

"That's great!" Sheik said, jumping off the roof and landing lightly on the ground. Maybe now he could see how good of a hero Link was going to be. Teaching him how to aim a slingshot was enough work, and he almost dreaded the next few weeks if Link didn't know how to use a sword.

"Have you ever used a sword before?" Sheik asked.

"Not a real one, but I have used wooden ones before" Link said "you know any good places I can practice?"

Sheik did know a few good places, but wasn't sure what the Sheikah would think if he brought a foreigner into their midst. He could just say Link was a hero and needed training, but that would make Link feel weird, and he was trying to avoid that. Then he thought of somewhere they could go without much trouble.

"Yeah, I do" Sheik said "as long as you don't mind going to Castle Town"

"Castle Town!! Oh boy!! I haven't been there in a while, let alone by myself. Or without my mom at least… I should probably go ask her if it's okay"

"You go ahead, I'll wait for you."

"Okay!" Link said, running off.

Sheik started walking in the direction of Link's house, thinking of the exact way for them to get where they were going to go. The guards might get suspicious if they saw them, but he did have slight authority. Not a lot but probably enough to get by.

"I can go!" Link said, running up to Sheik. They were right outside Link's house, and Link's mother stood in the doorway. She looked tired, but was otherwise a beautiful woman.

"Ah!" she said "so this is the Sheik I've heard so much about."

Sheik inclined his head, a slight show of respect.

"I'm Link's mom, as you can probably tell" Link's mom said

"Hello" Sheik said

"You can just call me Link's mom, or Mrs. Link's mom, or Alice if you really want."

At hearing Link's mom mention her name, Sheik's eyes lit up in realization of who she was. He had seen her around the castle when he was little, quite a bit actually. He smiled. "Alright, we're going to go now."

"Be safe!" she called as they left.

"You're mother seems nice" Sheik said

"I know! She's the best mother in the world!" Link said, as they left the village and headed into Hyrule field.

"Be ready to fight some monsters" Sheik said

"Monsters!?"

Sheik just laughed and walked on. It didn't take long for them to reach Castle Town, and as soon as they were in Link asked "so where can we train in Castle Town?"

"You'll see" Sheik said

"Okay" and Link was quiet for the rest of their walk. They went through a path at the back end of Castle Town, the path that led to the Castle.

"Isn't the way to the Castle?" Link asked. Sheik nodded "Are we allowed back here?"

"Well, yes, I am, not sure if you are. I bet you'll be fine though." Sheik said, but then realized how right Link was. He might not be able to get past the guards with the little authority that Sheik had. "Tell you what" he said "I'll distract the guards, and you can run past them. It's like stealth training"

"That sounds like fun!" Link said

"Alright, there are some vines over there that you can climb to get over the gate up ahead. Just head towards the Castle and try not to get thrown out"

"Got it!" Link said, running off.

Sheik waited a bit until he could see Link up on the ledge above him, and then went to go talk to the guard.

"Oh! Hi Sheik" the guard said "first friendly face I've seen all day! You want through don't you?" Sheik nodded "alright then!" the guard continued, opening the gate "don't bother to stay around and chat! I'll just stand here being bored!"

Sheik smiled and walked up to the next pair of guards. "Hello" he said, watching Link run by out of the corner of his eye, and then headed on himself. To the next guard he said "Lovely day isn't it?" The guard only nodded, and Sheik watched Link trying figure out what to do and had to try not to laugh "how are things looking?" Sheik asked, trying hard to keep the conversation going long enough for Link to get by.

"Fine. Now get going before I have you thrown out." Sheik frowned at this comment and headed on seeing that Link had gotten past okay. But because the guard had ticked him off slightly he pulled out a dagger and threw it over his shoulder.

"Hey!!" the guard said

"Sorry!" Sheik called back "it slipped" and he grinned slightly. The two met at the entrance to the Castle.

"Alright" Sheik said "you could have done that on your own if you had known where to go. Now this time it's going to be harder, and thank goodness we don't have a lot of Castle to get through before reaching the training grounds. And no one should be there except maybe a few new recruits, but even that's unlikely. I'll distract the guards just long enough for you to run past, but that might not be long."

"Don't worry, I've got this" Link said enthusiastically.

"You better" Sheik muttered, heading over to the first guard.

The process was long and tiring, and many of the guards didn't seem to like the fact that he was talking to them. Link seemed to be doing alright, but soon enough there was a cry of "INTRUDER!!" And Sheik smacked himself in the forehead and then headed off to make sure none of the guards outside noticed that some random kid had just been thrown out of the Castle.

They did finally get past all the guards and into the training grounds. And after a while of random training, Sheik decided it was probably time to be done. And it wasn't just because Link had been complaining for the past hour either.

"We're done now aren't we?" Link asked, and Sheik nodded.

"You head on home, I have an errand to run here at the Castle" he said "you can sneak past the guards if you want, or you could just let them catch you and throw you out, it would probably be faster"

"I'll figure something out" Link said, leaving. Sheik headed back into the Castle, and navigated his way to the Princess's quarters. He knocked on her door in a special code that they had come up with when they were kids.

"Come in!" she called, and Sheik opened the door.

"Hello princess" he said, shutting the door behind him. She was lying on her bed, looking through a book.

"Hey Sheik" Zelda said, turning the page.

"What are you doing?" Sheik asked, sitting down in a chair and doing something to make himself look occupied.

"Reading."

"Reading what? You hardly ever read."

"Researching, trying to figure out if anything besides the Master Sword can defeat evil."

"Find anything?"

Zelda shook her head and turned the page. "Light Arrows did a lot, but it was always a finishing blow from the Master Sword that did the trick."

Sheik sighed

"He's not ready to be a hero though" he said "none of us are actually, but he needs a lot more training."

"You were down at the training grounds earlier, and need me to make sure you can get there okay."

"No… actually, I just wanted to let you know. Getting past the guards is part of the training"

"Alright then…" the princess turned another page in the book "That it?"

Sheik nodded and stood up "I'll see you later Zelda." He said, heading out the door.

"Bye…"

"Home already?" Link's mom asked as she opened the door for her son. He nodded. "Where'd you go?"

"We went to the Castle!!" Link said. A small smiled played across his mother's face as she remembered her time's back at the Castle.

"How'd you get past the guards?" she asked

"Sheik distracted them while I ran past" he replied, laughing slightly. He had watched Sheik the entire time, and remembered one of his conversations with the guards. The guard had ticked him off, and Link learned then and there that he shouldn't mess with Sheik. Sheik had "accidently" tossed a dagger at the guard.

"Did you have fun?" his mother asked, and Link nodded enthusiastically.

"I don't see why people have so many problems with swords. They're the greatest thing in the world and so easy to use!!" Link said, flexing his tired arms.

The words pierced through his mother's heart, for they were some of the very words she had dreaded her son saying.