Chapter 4: Princess Crystal

Yesterday afternoon

Crystal's POV

My feet hit the ground as we emerged out the other side of the portal that Impa had led me through. A strange sight met my eyes; we were now inside of a large castle. A large hallway stretched out in front and behind us as we stood in the middle of it, with thick blue carpet beneath our feet.

"Wh-where are we...?" I asked curiously, looking around.

The portal immediately closed behind us, and the woman who had brought me through the portal transformed before my very eyes into Impa from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

"This is Hyrule Castle." she stated simply in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"...Hyrule Castle...?" I questioned, backing away slightly and shaking my head in disbelief as I looked around. No, it couldn't be; that would be ridiculous. Hyrule didn't really exist, did it...? "The one where Princess Zelda lives?"

Impa seemed hesitant for a moment to answer. "Yes," she said after a moment, "that is where we are."

Still, in disbelief, I pinched my arm - hard. "OW!" I shrieked; this was definitely real.

"What are you doing...?" Impa asked, an eyebrow raised in curiosity and confusion.

"Nothing." I sweetly laughed it off, "Just never mind."

She shrugged and shook her head after a moment. "Alright, come on. There's something I need to discuss with you."

Curious about what she had wanted to discuss, I quickly followed her down the hall.

"Here we are, Crystal." Impa said, stopping as we reached the throne room.

Expecting to see Princess Zelda there, I walked in and looked around, but was surprised when I didn't see Zelda at all; she wasn't there. The throne room was completely empty. This was not at all how I had pictured the room to be.

I stopped walking completely, suspicious of what was going on. "Wait a minute! Where is Zelda?!" I asked the Sheikah, "And how do you know my name?!"

Impa sighed, half in frustration and half in sorrow. She put her hand on my back, guiding me over to a mirror.

"You haven't even seen yourself yet, have you?" she asked, then motioned to the mirror with her hand, "Go take a look."

I shook my head in frustration. "I think I already know what I look like! What does that have to do with anything?!" I questioned her.

Impa sighed again. "Crystal, please. Just go look first."

Not seeing any other way out of this, I sighed angrily, walking over to the mirror. "Fine... But I still don't understand what this is supposed to - " I trailed off midsentence, in absolute shock over what I saw.

The girl I saw in the mirror, looking back at me, was not the same young woman that I had come to recognize as myself - at least, not in appearance. In her place stood the thin, beautiful young lady that I had been sketching on paper only just this morning. I brought my hand to my mouth in shock as I gasped, somewhat stunned when the girl that I saw in the reflection did the same. I reached back to feel my own ears, finding them to be Hylian, just like the girl in the mirror's reflection. I quickly felt my face, discovering that like all people of the world - true to my new reflection - my eyes were much larger than they had been back in the world that I had come from.

"Do you understand now, Crystal...?" I heard Impa ask, seeing her behind me in the reflection of the ornate and elegant mirror that I had been staring into.

When I didn't answer, she continued on; "You are Princess Zelda's long lost sister. When you were born, just a few years before her, Rauru came to me and to your parents and warned us that you would be in danger, were you to remain in this world. So we took you away, to another dimension, and left you there with a kind family we met, to be raised completely unaware of your origins. It pained us to do this, but we were told that it was the best thing we could possibly do - and now I know why."

Impa paused for a moment before putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder as she broke the rest of the news to me gently. "Crystal, last night, your sister was killed by an unknown evil. I'm sorry to have to drag you into all this, but you are the only remaining heir to the Throne. Hyrule needs you now."

Present Day

Link's POV

"What are you talking about, Impa?" I questioned, "Zelda doesn't have a sister."

Impa shook her head. "I'm sorry, Link. We should have told you. But we were afraid that somehow someone else might find out about her. We had to keep her safe."

"Where is she...?" I asked, concerned, "Is she alright...?"

Impa nodded, then walked over to side door and knocked on it. "Crystal," she spoke, "it's alright. Come out; there's someone here you need to meet."

After I heard the lock click, the door opened, and I saw a beautiful young lady walk out towards me. For a moment, I almost mistook her for Zelda, but this girl was different somehow. Despite looking a little older than Zelda, she had a more youthful and carefree look in her eyes - a girl who clearly had a far more adventurous heart. She wore a long fancy dress much like Zelda had, but this time her outfit was a lovely soft baby blue.

"Link, this is Crystal, Zelda's sister. Without Zelda, it would prove difficult to get into the Temple of Time, but...Crystal is Zelda's sister. Now that Zelda is gone, Crystal will have to take over as the Sage of Time. That means that she has inherited all of her powers...including the Triforce of Wisdom." Impa told me, then told the girl, "Crystal, this is Link, the Hero of Time."

The girl seemed to look at me for a moment in disbelief.

"Hi..." she said shyly, approaching me slowly.

"Hi," I said, waving slightly, still fighting back tears. She reminded me so much of Zelda that I wanted to cry, just thinking about the fact that my dear friend was gone.

Impa sighed. "We really should get going now, Link. You and I had better start our journey."

"Hey, wait!" Crystal called out, "You always do so much alone, Link...this time...I want to help."

"But, Crystal, you've never fought before... You'd be in danger." Impa started.

"No," Crystal interrupted, "but I've played enough Zelda games to know that even the Princess can fight for her people. Zelda masqueraded as Sheik and did quite well. I can do the same. I'll just mimic her moves."

"Just because you remember, doesn't mean your body can remember," Impa sighed, looking at me and shaking her head before turning her attention back to Crystal; we both could tell by the look in her eyes that she would not be swayed from this decision. "I'm sure you will want these then." the Sheikah said, holding out an average-sized box.

Smiling, Crystal opened the box to find Zelda's Sheik clothing, a pair of kunai knives, a chain, and some throwing needles in the box. "Thank you, Impa." she said, running off to her dressing room. Once she had gotten dressed and returned to us, we snuck to the Temple of Time.