Chapter 3

Phase One

Zant sat back on his heels as he inspected the long bundle of wires that ran up the graffiti covered stall and disappeared into the ceiling through a loose tile, holding his breath so as to not breathe in too much residual toilet stank. Those wires, and others like it stemming from various locations throughout the school, connected to a series of homemade pipe bombs and other incendiary devices that had been strategically placed around the school's exits on the ground and second floor. Zant glanced at his watch impatiently. There was still sixty-three minutes left until the fun started. Ganondorf had insisted that they wait for fifteen minutes after the second bell rang to be sure that as many students as possible would be in the school. In made sense, but the excitement was getting the better of him. He couldn't stay still.

Rising to his feet on aching knees, he did his best to stretch despite the cramped space. He was alone in the grungy stall, but three other guys were in the bathroom with him to help with the preparations and to hide the evidence. On top of that, they had another guy outside for 'security'. It seemed a bit much for Zant's tastes, but Ganondorf had enlisted all of the help he could get find for today's big event, even people from other school districts. Turns out there were a surprising number of hate-driven, emotionally stunted or otherwise plain psychotic students in and around Hyrule.

In total, there were between thirty and forty members of the group here, including himself and Ganondorf. It was gearing up to be the largest school-based massacre in modern history. Zant couldn't wait.

Murmuring voices in the direction of the bathroom entrance drew his attention. He quickly exited the stall and placed his hand on the handle of the gun he had stuffed in the back of his pants. He didn't know who was doing the talking, but if whomever it was managed to get past the guy they had watching the door, Zant was prepared to do what was necessary to protect their cause. If worse came to worse and a bomb had to go off early, Ganondorf would just have to deal with it.

The voices eventually faded into silence and muffled footsteps announced that the stranger was leaving. Zant relaxed his grip on the handle of his weapon, but his anxiety didn't diminish in the slightest.

"Gorman!" Zant hissed, enraged. "Gorman, get over here! Carlov, you go take over watch for a minute!"

Carlov, a husky boy from some place beyond Snow Peak, gave Zant a bitter glare and trudged over to where Gorman, a dark-haired grease ball from Termina, was now emerging from behind a wall that obscured the bathroom entrance. He smiled oily at Zant who bared his teeth in return.

"Who were you talking to?" Zant snarled, trying and failing to keep his voice low. "Don't you realize that if some whiny freshman goes off and tells a teacher that we won't let him pee, we're-"

"Relax," Gorman cut in, sounding overly calm and in control. Zant's eye twitched in irritation. What he wouldn't give to put a bullet between this imbecile's eyes right now... "It was the weasel. He was just reporting in."

"Well, what did he have to say?"

"He says that those kids you asked him to spy on are all here, except for the gothic girl. He's gone to see if she's showed up yet, and then he'll make sure they're where they're s'posed to be."

"It doesn't matter that one's missing," Zant interrupted, turning away and examining his reflection in the filthy bathroom mirror. Despite Gorman's incivility, Zant's mood had taken a sporadic turn for the better. Their plans were finally coming to fruition. "All but one is good enough. We'll get the girl some other time. You just get back to watching your door so Carlov doesn't have a conniption."

Gorman smirked as if sharing some private joke and walked back behind the wall. Carlov returned with an offended glower.

Zant let his long lanky legs carry him back into his stall so he didn't have to stare at his moronic accomplices any longer. All but one, huh… Ganondorf would have to accept that. And if he didn't, he would pin the blame on Gorman. He really didn't like that boy; he was too smug for his own good. In truth, Zant had no idea why Ganondorf had wanted to make certain that certain specific students were in attendance, but then again, he didn't really care either. Be it personal vendetta or whatever, Ganondorf's intentions could be his own- Zant as getting what he wanted and that was all that mattered. His thoughts drifted to the others in the remaining bathrooms. He wondered if Vaati and Sheik had managed to set their explosives up correctly. Somehow, he doubted it. Vaati had his uses every now and then, though he lacked gumption, but Sheik was useless no matter which way you looked at him.

The walkie he'd placed on the tank of the toilet suddenly emitted a wave of static, followed by a message from their great leader. A slow smile blossomed on Zant's face.

"Well boys," he said ominously as he reemerged from the stall. "Get your toys ready, looks like we're starting this party a little early."

"Alright class, settle down." Mr. Auru called out as he leaned casually back against his desk. "This is officially your discussion time. Your test will be on Friday and I want to make sure that you're all good and ready. I want to see A's from everyone. Feel free to ask any questions you want to, as long as they're appropriate," he sent a meaningful glance towards the few guys in the back row, "and have to do with history." He sent another meaningful glance towards Ruto, the only junior in a room full of sophomores.

Unsurprisingly, at least to Aryll, Shad's hand was the first and only in the air.

"Yes, Shad?" Auru asked. Mr. Auru was one of Aryll's favorite teachers because he never got in your face. He was very calm and laid back, kind to a fault, and very passionate about Hyrule's history. Though he was getting on in age, he always seemed to be able to connect to his students in such a down-to-earth way that he was easily one of the most popular teachers in the school.

"Ah yes, I had a question pertaining to the Age of the Hero of Winds." Shad replied. Shad was a very quiet boy who shied away from most people. He was also something of a nerd, boasting an enormous brain and a mother who seemed to believe that comb-over's were somehow still in style. In spite of his social awkwardness and official status as Ordon High's premier punching back, Shad was one of Mr. Auru's favorite students because he shared his passion for history.

"Yes?" Mr. Auru prompted gently.

"Well, you said that during this time all of Hyrule was covered in water? I don't understand how that could be."

Auru nodded curtly and said, "Well, remember that we're dealing with a lot of legends, not all of which are completely factual, strictly speaking. Regardless, if you remember back to a few weeks ago when we were studying the Hero of Time, you'd remember that after defeating the King of Evil, the Hero left Hyrule behind."

Aryll felt herself sit up a little straighter. She was hardly the sort of person who paid rapt attention during class, particularly history, but the Hero of Time was one of her favorite stories from when she was little. Magic and princesses and heroes with swords… It was silly, sure, but so what? Let a girl dream a little.

Shad nodded hastily, then frowned, "Er, yes, of course, but I mean to say… why did the Hero leave again? I mean, hadn't he just saved Hyrule from a terrible fate? Certainly he would have been honored and revered for the rest of his life, maybe even elevated to lordship or something. Instead he leaves his country behind to be tormented by the dark one all over again? I mean, how does that makes sense? It doesn't seem very heroic." Aryll nodded in fervent agreement with Shad. She had always wondered why the Hero had left his home and friends behind. Why rescue them if you were just going to leave them to be killed? Movies and story books left a lot of gaps in the popular legends of old.

Auru gave a sad sigh and said, "Well, try not to judge the Hero too hard here, guys. I mean, let's look at things from his point of view. He left behind everything and everyone he knew as a child, all of his friends, in order to do what the Royal Family asked of him. Then, he ended up losing seven years of his life only to awaken to find all of Hyrule a mess, his friends had either been killed or had forgotten about him, and his only hope, the Princess, was in hiding. He then went on, braving terrible dangers and threats to rescue his friends and the Princess with absolutely no help beside an enigmatic Sheikah warrior and a sacred sword, and when he finally manages to defeat the dark one and imprison him in the Sacred Realm, the Princess sends him back to his childhood. Yet again, everyone forgets who he is, and he's banned from his home because he's of Hylian decent and not Kokiri- basically, most scholars have agreed that the most logical reason behind him leaving was the pain of isolation."

"So, he left because he was lonely?" Shad asked dully.

"He wasn't alone!" cut in a tough looking tomboy to his left; Aryll thought her name was Ashei. "He still had the Princess! Why'd he leave her then?"

Auru chuckled. "Well, I imagine that the Hero wasn't too happy with the Princess at the time. She had basically rewarded his rescue of her and her kingdom by ruining his life. I guess the Hero pretty much hated her, and left Hyrule in order to escape her. Which leads into Shad's question about-"

"Whoa, wait, that's all wrong!" Aryll blurted out before realizing that she was speaking out loud.

Auru gave her a startled look, clearly as taken aback by her outburst as she was. "It's wrong? What's wrong?"

"Well, the Hero couldn't have hated the Princess. They were in love." Aryll said meekly, feeling her face go red.

Auru stared at her in consternation. "In love?"

Aryll quickly realized that the entire class was looking at her, and she felt her face flush an even darker shade of crimson. "Well, yeah." She stammered quickly. "Of course, I mean, look at all the stuff he did for her. No guy would risk his life for a girl if there wasn't something going on between them."

Auru nodded thoughtfully. "So, you believe that the Hero's actions were motivated by his deep love for the Princess." Aryll nodded emphatically, eager to be done speaking. "…His deep love for the Princess who ruined his life and drove him to flee the country?"

Aryll blinked, then shook her head vigorously and quickly said; "No! I think that the Princess sent him back in time because she wanted to give him his life back. I think she felt awful for what she put him through and was trying to pay him back somehow."

It was Auru's turn to shake his head. "If that were true, then when the Hero came to see her before leaving, she would have convinced him to stay."

Aryll had nothing to say, but to her surprise, Shad did. "Excuse me, Mr. Auru, but you're wrong." Auru looked at him with raised eyebrows and gestured for him to expound.

"The princess can't have asked for him to stay if she was a child. The memories of what had happened in their ruined future would have been retained only by the Hero, the one who was sent back in time. She likely didn't know him when he came back to visit her."

Auru blinked and Aryll turned around to give Shad a confused look.

"It's the only logical explanation." He continued, "Even if she didn't have feelings for him, she would have still asked him to stay if only to keep her safe. I think that Aryll is right, that they were in love," he glanced at Aryll, "and that the Princess was sacrificing her feelings and the feelings of her Hero for the good of the country."

Auru leaned back against the desk with a thoughtful look. "Well, in that case," he said, "Why didn't the hero choose to stay for himself when he came to see her?"

"I don't think that the Hero knew why she had reversed time." Shad said. "I think that he was mad at her, like you said. Or maybe he had another reason for leaving. Though there's little to support it, I've read that children of the Kokiri, where the Hero grew up, had fairy friends. Maybe when he was banned from the forests, the fairy left him, and he went to find it."

"He left behind the love of his life to chase a fairy?" Ashei cut in incredulously.

Shad gave her a longsuffering look. "He left his love to find his friend."

"And then what? Why didn't he ever come back?" Aryll turned her head and was surprised to see that the voice belonged to her best friend, Malon.

"I don't…know..." Shad turned his head to address Malon and his voice faded away. He was apparently stunned to find that he was having a conversation with three different females. His face turned as red as his hair as he sunk lower into his chair and fixed his eyes on the desktop.

"Actually," said Mr. Auru with an excited smile towards Malon; it was rare that this many students participated in classroom discussions, "Not many of you would know this, since you've only been taught Hyrulian history, but the hero went off to be a hero somewhere else, though not much is known about what happened."

"Hold up," cut in Ashei, "you're saying that he ditched his country, his girlfriend, and his fairy-thing, and ran away to be famous somewhere else?"

"Well, essentially, yes."

"Douchebag!" Ashei mouthed harshly, much to Aryll's amusement.

"Where did he go?" Malon asked, leaning forward as Ashei snorted in disgust. To Aryll's surprise, Malon actually seemed interested in the conversation. Malon was never interested in anything that wasn't boys, horses, or clothing. Letting her gaze sweep the classroom, she discovered that a majority of the class was actually paying attention. The only exceptions were the small cluster of jocks and cheerleaders in the corner. From across the room, Aryll watched Ruto attempt to hold back laughter at something that apparently Aryll had just missed. For some reason, Shad's face was growing redder.

"Termina," replied Auru simply, and Ashei burst out laughing.

"Termina? You've got to be kidding me! Why'd he go there?"

"No one really knows." Auru said with a shrug. "Maybe he was trying to avoid the Princess. Maybe he was banished by the Goddesses. Or, maybe Termina was one of his favorite vacations spots." Auru grinned at his own wit, but the class only let out a few half-hearted chuckles.

Rolling his eyes, Mr. Auru said, "Anyway, back to what we were talking about. Now, Shad, when the Hero was sent back in time, we need to remember what Mr. Write said in his controversial theory about split timelines-"

Mr. Auru broke off as Ruto let out an earsplitting shriek of laughter. The basketball player sat up quickly, but not before Aryll saw him performing an incredibly cruel interpretation of Shad for Ruto's amusement. If Shad's face was red before, now it was scarlet.

Mr. Auru turned his head towards the little knot of popular kids, but before he could open his mouth, the bell rang.

Rising to their feet, the class hurriedly stampeded from the room amidst a cacophony of noise. Sliding in her chair beneath the desk, Aryll turned to Malon and said, teasingly, "Wow, Malon. I was surprised to see you paying attention today."

Malon punched her playfully as she swung her backpack over her shoulder. "Shut up. I'm always paying attention."

Aryll snorted.

As they turned to leave, Aryll watched Mr. Auru cross the room towards Ruto. Aryll put out her hand to stop Malon and nodded her head towards the two. Ever since grade school, Aryll and Malon had shared the sort of relationship with Ruto that only hate driven, spiteful, and vindictive young girls could. Any opportunity to see her get in trouble was a golden one in Aryll's opinion.

Over the clamor of departing students what they said was difficult to understand, but in the end Ruto ended up handing her cell phone over to Mr. Auru along with an incredibly frosty glare. As Mr. Auru slid the overly bedazzled phone into the top drawer of his desk, Ruto turned on her heel and stomped out of the room, brushing past an oblivious Shad and knocking his books from his arms in the process.

"Oh, for the love of Farore! Hurry up, you idiot!" Ashei demanded loudly as Shad scrambled around on the floor, frantically trying to gather up his things. "I need to go see Coach Naburoo and you're making me late!" Ashei was on the school volleyball team and had single-handedly won the championship for the past 3 years. However, because of her coarse attitude and undeniable toughness, she was mostly overlooked by the popular kids who normally would have been all over a girl with legs as nice as hers.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean t-to drop my books! I'm hurrying, really!" Shad pleaded from the ground as Ashei let out a violent hiss and stomped over them, storming out the door. Aryll and Malon exchanged a brief glance before stooping down and gathering the remainder of Shad's books in their arms.

"Thank you. Really. I'm such a klutz." He said in self deprecation, taking back his books with a grateful smile.

"You shouldn't let Ruto push you around like that." Aryll advised gently as they stood up, talking loudly over the clamoring students in the hallway.

"Really, I don't mind so much. It's not worth getting beaten up by the jocks over." he replied with a small smile. With another quick thank you, Shad vanished into the hallway.

"You know, for a know-it-all geek, he's really not a bad guy." Malon said as they headed off towards their lockers. Along the way they squeezed passed Linebeck the janitor as he emptied a waste bin, glaring evilly at students as they attempted to lob papers and other bits of trash into the bag before he could tie it. In trying to dodge out of his way, Aryll accidentally bumped into Ralph Ambi who was walking in the other direction. She apologized hastily and he replied with an odd, "Fear not, Madame, I am unscathed," before vanishing down the hallway.

Well that was weird… what was she talking about again? Oh, Shad…

"Yeah. He's kinda cute, too. Maybe you should go after him…" Aryll trailed off with a grin and Malon frowned.

"Ew. Definitely not my type." They arrived at their lockers and Malon quickly twirled the dial, putting in her combination before opening her locker with a click and studying her reflection in the mirror she had attached to the door.

"Who's not your type, oh fair and beauteous one?" came a voice directly behind them.

"Wouldn't you like to know, Mido?" Malon said absently as she pulled her makeup bag from her purse and began touching up her face. Aryll, however, whirled around and grinned at the boy standing on Mido's left.

"Hey, Colin!" She said happily as her boyfriend pulled her into his arms. Mido rolled his eyes and Malon smiled. Mmm, Colin gave the best hugs… And he smelled great today, too. What was that, a vanilla latte?

"So," Mido began casually, "where's Saria? I didn't see her this morning."

"She's got some art assignment to make up or something." Malon replied as she shut her locker, apparently finished with her touch ups. Malon was far more into makeup than Aryll was, but then again, Malon was a lot more attractive than Aryll considered herself to be. Which also didn't make sense; if she was so much prettier, why did Malon need all that makeup? Malon always said it was more about fun than fashion, but Aryll had her doubts. It did manage to bring out the blue in her eyes and her long flowing red hair could turn heads in any hallway.

Aryll's own hair was light blonde, the same shade as her brother's, and was pulled back in two pigtails. She mainly wore her hair like that because it was simple, but also because Colin had once said that he liked it that way and that was all the confirmation she'd ever needed. Colin himself had blonde hair, but it was darker than hers, like straw, and much shorter. Where Aryll's eyes were light blue, like the sky on a sunny day, Colin's were almost gray, like the ocean early in the morning.

Mido was the oddball. His hair was a bright shade of orange that sat in messy curls on his head and contrasted heavily with his dark green eyes. Mido and Colin were the best of friends, for reasons that Aryll didn't quite understand. Colin was quiet and sincere, where Mido was loud and obnoxious. He was also something of a flirt, and had been seeking Saria's attention since middle school, though wasn't above putting the moves on Malon or any other female in the vicinity if he thought he had a chance.

Aryll finally deigned to pull away from her boyfriend and look up at him. "Speaking of missing people, where did you go this morning?"

"Ask Mido." He said with a sheepish grin. "We were headed down to see you when he suddenly had to take off for something. Where'd you go?"

Three heads turned towards Mido whose face went pale. "I, uh…had something to…take care of…" he cleared his throat roughly and said, "Never mind where I went, let's go find Saria. Besides, class starts in like, five minutes."

"Ugh, don't remind me… I totally didn't study for Maggie's geometry test, I'm so gonna bomb it…"

As their little group headed down the hallway, Aryll glanced down at her phone and groaned.

Colin shot her an odd look, and she beamed back up at him and explained, somewhat embarrassed, "Sorry, I just can't believe school only started like, fifty minutes ago. I swear, this day's never going to end!"

Mido snorted from up ahead of them. "Ah, it'll be over before you know it."