.
Though this is not the end. My hate never perishes. It is born anew in a cycle with no end! I will rise again. Those like you are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!"
—The Spirit of Demise
.
By the time the hero of Skyloft returned to his Era, the scars of his fight still marring his figure, Groose had already carried Zelda to the other side of the Gate of Time.
When Link eventually crossed it himself, finally returning to the period of time where they all belonged, she was the first thing he noticed.
A relief he had not thought possible overflowed him at the sight of his most treasured friend on her feet and about again.
He smiled and felt his body relax, his feet carrying him onward on their own. It was only then that he realized something was off.
Demise slain, Zelda was supposed to be fine. (Why maybe a little happy to see him too. With chance.)
However, the girl in front of him greeted him in silence, with a look of guilt and urgency. Before Link could decide what to say, she stepped forth.
...To find the energy to reach the portal, he had distracted himself from the pain of moving broken bones. He had tied to imagine her first action upon seeing him. Would she gape and touch her heart like a maiden? No seriously... Perhaps he would have found himself in her arms (a hug seemed sweet —painful but sweet). Perhaps he would have gotten one of her gentle scolding as she would have checked him for wounds?
Not recognizing her had not been among his guesses.
The girl helped him sit on the stone altar and handed him a life potion. When he gave her the empty bottle back, her shoulders sagged.
"Link!" As soon as she spoke, despite of the relief that lidded her voice, Link decided that he didn't like its gravity.
"That sword-spirit was not supposed to succeed..." she softly phrased, her voice low, studying him. "The-the Spirit of Demise absorbed a part of my soul! And somehow, somehow..."
She paused and looked to the huge stone doors of the temple.
"I can feel this: the wish you did upon the Triforce to destroy his master, Demise," (she shook her head, shaded by despair) "it has never occurred in this present..."
When she began to speak, guilt and confusion stormed his mind. But her urgency, her unvoiced request for him to hurry and ask question later quickly cut through all cumbersome feelings.
He listened more closely, and innumerable tiny differences in her behavior progressively rose his defenses, compelling him to resist the pressure.
She seemed to struggle hard not to fidget while he silently set to untangle the situation, waiting for her to tell more...
"It seems that he overcame your wish even as you vanquished him again," she pursued, almost whispering, her stance the very picture of worry; "The seal is still there, under the land; under the statute. I can feel it."
Her eyes meet his with a deep weariness. "In a form or another, He will be back."
"What!?" Groose shouted?
"All we did may have to be repeated again, sooner or later..."
"Why didn't you say it earlier? You're not going back to sleep in the backyard for thousand years, again, Zelda!"
The girl shook her head as she turned to answer the large red-head standing aside of them.
"The seal is strong. It will last some time. Decades maybe, or more. Besides, we still have a quicker way to put things back as they were before Demise had awakened."
Determination set her eyes ablaze when she looked up on him again and Link would have found it mesmerizing if she wasn't currently implying that everything he had done had been for naught.
"We can use the same door that allowed Ghirahim to cancel your wish!"
She went to touch the Gate of Time; a white glow enveloped the huge cylinder as the gear framing it began working counterclockwise.
"It will lead you to the moment right before Ghirahim crossed the portal with me. You only have to destroy him there, before he passes through! Then, the events that happened here will be reestablished in our present reality."
"I don't think I understand half of this, but..." Groose frowned and took a few steps toward her. "As long as the door will be there, anything can happen, right? I should go with Link to guard the door until White Mushroom is down, then!"
"Time is a fragile web." Her voice weakened and she blushed. "It is very unwise to send one backward. But it would be foolish to think of sending two..." She slowly shook her head, edgy, nervous; determined.
"I give you my word; this time, the door will close as soon as you come back," she promised with a quivering voice she managed to still. "We can still end this ordeal for good. To prevent it from happening all over again!"
Gushes of cold wind swiped under the huge frame of the front doors, rousing old dust and the girl covered her nose with her sleeves.
While the biggest teen looked too confused to make his mind, Link finally stepped up, stern and set. Face blank, he solemnly nodded toward Groose, waiting to catch his new friend's attention.
"Groose... Without you, neither of us would be here," Link said gravely. "I can't thank you enough for...for everything." He paused and breathed before separating his words methodically. "Please, now I would like to be alone with Zelda for a while."
The redhead frowned and looked Zelda over one last time before he nodded and exit the temple.
As soon as the door closed, Link faced her, his eyes cold, weary, but unwavering.
"You may want to close this Gate of Time now. Before something new could come and worsen the situation..." he said patiently but with a firmness that she couldn't miss.
Zelda frowned. "Link, you don't understand—"
"I can only understand what you are willing to tell me, can't I?"
Never having heard him speak with a wicked vibe before, she froze. But he wasn't finished and this time, nothing could interrupt him before he was done.
His voice lost its sweet deceit and turned plainly sour: "Why should I listen to you when I don't even know who you are?" His throat constricted.
Her face sobered and he felt a sick satisfaction when her lips quivered. She fought with words before closing her eyes.
"I only want this to end," she gulped down on what sounded like a sob. A shudder shook her petite frame and he scolded himself for feeling the urge to shield her from the winds. "I promise I will tell you everything afterward."
"I will listen," he stated with gravity, focusing on the distant shape of the tree of Life behind her, "But I cannot blindly follow orders without understanding who gives them." He decided. Then he sighed profoundly. "I don't think crossing time again sounds reasonable either. So I won't."
For all the determination he wanted to display, he felt his claim a little pathetic when the only idea of Zelda sealing herself away from him again could rush him through the Gate of Time as many times as she wanted. She could easily blackmail him into anything without consequence. But for sure if the benevolent Goddess every Skyloft child had been taught to revere existed, it would be the moment or never for her to show some goodwill of fairness, right? He only had legends and some basic faith to treat with her soul and spirit, but he wasn't going to back down. He threw her a glance.
She looked close of panic when he added, as casually as he could: "You said we had decades before the seal could weaken again. Why the hurry then? Surely your explanations cannot stretch that long."
Her face drew in a frown and she sat down on the stone degrees. He steeled himself.
"These memories you speak of," he pursued, "cannot simply be such. I know the girl I called Zelda, and I am no blind to the differences that mark you. You have done a new kind of magic before my eyes...you made a lyre float on thin air!" He crossed his arms. "Something happened along the centuries you spend in that..." He clenched a fist. "Crystal."
"The memories took root," she admitted. Before he could react, she took another breath and pursued; "They became more and more detailed in my sleep. Some tactile; all followed with urgency." Without material distractions, the holly water of the temples had worked much faster than before on her...
"And you reassessed your priorities according to them."
"I did," she whispered. "I..." She trembled again and her gaze went to the distant wall on her left. "I understood the responsibilities that where mine; how many things and how many people could be forsaken if I didn't honor them."
She fidgeted a little then slowly stood and walked up to the Gate of Time. One hand on its frame was all it took for it to begin glowing, and flashing closed once again as she sighed resignedly.
Link finally heaved a sigh; only now realizing that he had been holding it in since his final fight.
