notes 1: I'M SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG. I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.

notes 2: I didn't proofread this because I want to go to bed. Hopefully there aren't too many spelling errors.

disclaimer: Zelda isn't mine, blah blah blah


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"Her Highness Princess Zelda Nohansen, heir to the throne of Hyrule, accompanied by Link of Kokiri Forest and Lady Impa of the Sheikah Tribe."

The great doors to the council chambers swung open, hinges creaking. Link followed two paces behind Zelda, with Impa on his left side. The princess looked regal and beautiful in a gown of robin egg's blue silk, a snowy white cape gathered around her shoulders. Her tiara rested on her head, gold adorned with a single ruby in the center of her forehead.

Link's gaze darted around the council chamber. It was a large round room with stained glass windows high on the walls. A fountain adorned with a stone statue of the royal family crest trickled in the corner. There were representatives from almost every major settlement in Hyrule gathered at a table shaped like a crescent moon, with the king in the center. Link nodded to Darunia, chief of the Goron, who grinned in response. Princess Ruto, who represented the Zora in her lazy father's stead, gave him a flirtatious wink. Nabooru, standing for the Gerudo, waved at him. Impa was the ambassador from Kakariko. The rest of the council were strangers to Link, four Hylians who were the authority figures in their cities. The only race absent was the Kokiri, since they could not leave the forest and remained isolated from politics.

The king glowered as he watched his daughter proceed to the open area in the middle of the room, where all the council could see her. His eyebrows were furrowed, and he had a disapproving set to his mouth. He had not been happy with the council meeting, but it was Zelda's right as princess to call a meeting.

"My friends and allies," Zelda began, her voice ringing around the chamber. "I have called you here today to discuss a new threat that has risen before Hyrule. Both of my companions have witnessed events that we previously thought impossible. We have reason to believe that these events bode evil circumstances have come to our doorstep."

The council members shifted, glancing at one another and murmuring apprehensively. "Link," Zelda continued, "please tell the council what you saw."

Link swallowed nervously and faced the council. He spoke very little on a daily basis, and facing down a crowd of politicians intimidated him. Instead of looking at the king, he met his brother Darunia's ever friendly eyes and found his courage. "Over a fortnight ago I was investigating claims of monster activity in the northwestern Kokiri Forest," he said. His voice began quietly, then strengthened with the same resolve Zelda often showed. Perhaps it was a will shared by bearers of the Triforce. "I discovered a cave deep within the woods. Inside, I found monsters, thousands of them, gathered in one cavern. They were forging weapons and armor as if preparing for war. I have much experience in fighting monsters, and I know that they don't possess the intelligence needed to gather an army. Someone or something is controlling them, and it bears Hyrule no good intentions."

Link let out a breath and stepped back, ignoring the sweat beading on the back of his neck. "Thank you, Link," Zelda said, looking back at him. Her crystal blue eyes shone with some emotion Link couldn't quite place. There was gratitude, but also…awe? Pride? Before he could decipher it, she turned her head back to the council. "Impa, please recount your side of the story," Zelda said.

As Impa stepped forward brusquely and described what had happened to her and her soldiers, Link looked at the council. The king looked as grim and unreadable as ever. Link already knew that the king didn't believe his story, but Impa had served the royal family for years—surely her word meant something to him. The unfamiliar Hylian ambassadors looked doubtful and unconvinced; that was no surprise. The council members who knew and trusted Link—Darunia, Ruto, and Nabooru—looked concerned.

Impa's story was no less disturbing the second time he heard it. The army was composed of people forced to change forms and fight as monsters. The creatures he fought when he came across the army had been human once, and he had killed them. He clenched his fingers into fists and imagined (for the hundredth time) their blood coating his hands, soaking through his gloves, caking his skin. He had killed those he was sworn to protect.

A tense silence followed after Impa finished. The council whispered amongst themselves, casting sideways glances at Link and Impa. "Now that you have heard of these threats, I would hear what the council has to say," Zelda said.

Before anyone could speak, the ground suddenly lurched under their feet. Link stumbled, his hand going to the hilt of his sword instinctively. The walls of the palace rumbled and shook, causing the council members to cry out. "Everyone remain calm," the king called. "It is but a small earthquake; it will pass."

But it was not just an earthquake. The windows shattered, colorful bits of stained glass raining down on the room. Out of the corner of his eye Link saw Impa pulling out a dagger for each hand; he did the same for his sword. Shapes crashed through the windows with weapons in their hands and landed before the council with a grace and precision that no monster should have.

Zelda was unarmed but for the small knife she always kept strapped to her thigh. Without hesitation Link pulled the bow and quiver off his back and threw them to her. She caught them with a grateful nod. Even though she had not learned the ways of the Sheikah in this life, she could hit a target better than he could, though she had not been tested in combat.

Once again, the earth bucked underneath them. Link looked to the council and saw that the three Sages stood before the defenseless Hylian ambassadors. Nabooru had her dual swords drawn; all Darunia needed was his fists. Link was not surprised to see the water burst from the fountain in the corner to crash into an enemy; Ruto, Sage of Water, smiled with a vicious sort of excitement.

Hearing a cry, Link turned to see the king topple out of his chair, trying to get away from the armored mass approaching him. Link darted forward and vaulted over the table, landing between the Iron Knuckle and the king. Link met the monster's huge double-bladed axe with his sword, steel clashing against steel with a noise that sounded disturbingly like a scream. He gritted his teeth as his unhealed shoulder ached in protest, but he kept pressing his blade against the Iron Knuckle's. Was he fighting one of his own people?

Behind him, the king watched the boy. He watched the strength and grace in his movements as the monster broke off, pulling its axe away and swinging it around for a second blow. The Kokiri danced away, letting the axe slam into the floor and jumping in to slash at the gaps in the creature's armor. He did not seem to notice the blood that was beginning to seep through the back of his tunic, or the tremors of the ground. His face was determined and focused, and the king could see that he took no pleasure in what he was doing. He looked very young.

But more than anything, the king watched the warm glow that the boy's hand emitted, even through his gloves: three triangles interlocked, the right one solid. Sixteen years disappeared in the blink of an eye, and the king was not in the council chambers but standing at his wife's bedside. Her eyes were closed and a smile lit her lips, but her chest did not rise. The bedsheets were soaked with blood. The queen's handmaidens sobbed into each other's shoulders. His grief was not pain or rage—it was only emptiness, stabbing at a void in his middle. The midwife handed him a bundle, and a shock of blond hair and blue eyes gazed up at him—the baby had taken after her mother. A tiny, chubby hand wrapped around his finger, and he saw the mark of the Triforce of Wisdom upon his daughter's soft skin.

Sixteen years. What had changed? The king turned away from the boy, and his eyes fell on Zelda. She was nocking another arrow to her bowstring and taking aim at a Redead; the arrow struck its skull. She was so strong, just like her mother.

She had always been so strong.

The moment Link thrust his sword through the Iron Knuckle and watched it blow away as smoke, laughter boomed around him—raucous, screeching, impossibly loud. The earth trembled. Terror filled him. Link knew that laughter. He knew.

There was a shape floating above all the rest of them—a very small shape, and yet the monsters in the room dropped their weapons and fell to their knees. It was heart-shaped, with cruel sharp spikes jutting out of the edges, and a dark purple deep as twilight. But it was the eyes that frightened him the most: they glared red and yellow and green like acid, and they hated.

No, Link thought. No, no, no, no.

Majora's Mask laughed and laughed, and the earth shook, and castle began to give out. The plaster cracked, and rubble began to rain down on them. Link turned, sword in hand, just in time to see part of the ceiling crash down on the king.

"Father!" Zelda screamed, and the sound cut into Link's heart like a knife. She was running towards him, her dress a torn and ruined mess. The bow was still clenched tight in her hand. Half the ceiling had given way to reveal a cloudless blue sky; dust choked the air. Zelda threw herself at the rubble, fingers scrabbling to pull away the stones in an attempt to free the king.

But Link saw the blood pooling under the wreckage and felt very cold. No one could lose that much blood and live. Above them, Majora's Mask was laughing.

Link went to Zelda and pulled her away gently, taking her hands in his, though she struggled against him. Her eyes were shining, wild, and furious. "I'm sorry," he whispered, and he was: there was horror and guilt clashing together in his mind. "He's gone."

She shook her head, and the tears spilled over. She reached a hand back and grasped an arrow, nocked it to her bowstring, and drew. Her aim was perfect—the arrow flew and struck Majora's Mask, but it merely laughed. Then shadows like tentacles twisted and spun around it until it was encapsulated, and then it was gone along with the rest of the monsters.

Zelda's legs gave out. Link caught her and lowered her to the ground carefully; she was trembling, and he didn't know how to stop it. All he could do was pull her against him and rock her as she began to sob.

And even though the mask was gone, its laughter still echoed in his head.

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