A/N:I hope you liked what I did with the last chapter. This one might be a bit...angstier than the original version, if things play out right. Either way, I give you chapter 10.

Rewritten as of 10/11/13, completed as of 10/17/13

Chapter 10: Memory Lane

"Right, you said you'd explain after we killed Diababa." Bethany whispered from beside me. I wanted to groan, wishing this could wait til later. But, I'd already put it off once, and I owed my friend an explanation.

"Well, I told you most of the important details already..." I hedged. She gave me a withering look, and I added, "But, knowing you as well as I do, you want the full story." She nodded at me. I could tell Link was listening too, where he was ahead of us and leading us towards Hyrule Field.

"Alright, I was born almost a century ago in Castle Town. My mom was a sorceress, and my dad was a soldier. I grew up in Castle Town, but it's... a lot smaller than it was when I was there. My parents were in sort of a... team, a resistance, against a powerful demon called Astaroth."

The name made me want to shudder, remembering my nightmare back in Ordon.

"I don't remember all that happened, but my mother, Lilliandil, sent me into another world when Astaroth attacked. She turned me into a baby again, and my memories of Hyrule were basically put behind a wall. Then, I grew up on Earth with you, Carmen, and Scott. Lilliandil set a time limit, or something like it, I guess, because almost a week ago I came back, showed up in Ordon Spring." I finished. Then I remembered something else, holding up my right hand. I pointed to the ring on my third finger.

"My mom gave this to me the day I was born. She used some kind of charm to protect me from dark magic of any kind." I explained. Bethany opened her mouth to say something, and I could see her speaking, but her voice had faded out like someone was turning the volume down. And, I noticed that the colours were fading away in the corners of my vision, bleeding away into black and white.

"Flashback." I realized, and then I blinked and the world was different around me. I was somewhere else entirely, now; Castle Town. There were people crowding the streets, and a light rain was pattering on the ground as the sound faded in. I noticed my younger self holding Lilliandil's hand as they made their way past many shops and people. Everything seemed peaceful.

Then a noise, like an explosion, sounded off. A second. A third. All three entrances to Castle Town had been blown open. That was no small feat, as the doors had been locked tight.

Now there was a flurry of motion around me, and while my legs were unmoving, the vision followed Lilliandil through the panic as she ran with little-me in her arms. Everything fast-forwarded with no warning, and suddenly we were in my childhood home. I could hear fighting some distance away, and Lilliandil's order for little-me to hide. Seconds after my younger self did so, the door burst open, and in ran Jethro. Dirt and sweat covered his bow, his sword and shield in his hands. My mother opened her mouth to ask as she rushed up to him, but he beat her to the punch.

"Astaroth is attacking." I picked up the undertones of fear in his voice. "the generals are not with him, but this is the largest force he has amassed."

Would it be an understatement to say that was bad? It probably was, but it was the truth.

"…More than the guard can handle?" my mom's voice was grave. Jethro nodded. There was a shared look of mournful understanding between the two.

"You know what you have to do. It's the only way to keep her safe." Jethro murmured. Lilliandil nodded, and I saw Little-me come running down the stairs and straight to our father with open arms.

Lilliandil gave another shaky nod while I was still left confused as to what my parents were talking about. What was the only way to keep me safe? Was this the part where they sent me to Earth? It certainly looked like it. I also briefly registered that the current… dialogue, was different than the voices I heard in my head right before I was brought back to Hyrule.

Jethro lifted little-me into his arms for a brief but affectionate hug, until a voice from outside shouted, "Jethro, we need you!" My father gave Lilliandil a somewhat helpless look as he hugged little-me closer, kissing her on the side of the head before setting her down. He hugged my mother as well, and then he was gone.

"Momma, what's happening?" Little-me asked fearfully as the sounds of fighting grew louder. Lilliandil simply knelt and held her close, and I saw her eyes shining with unshed tears.

"It has to be done…" Lilliandil whispered to herself. Little-Me seemed to understand that something big was happening. She saw her mother's tears, and her own began to fall down her face.

"I don't wanna go…" she cried softly. Lilliandil put her hands on either side of her head, carding her fingers through my nine year-old self's hair.

"I love you, my little Rose. Never forget that…" she whispered. And then came some kind of incantation. Little-me's eyes fluttered closed even as she fought to stay awake, and some kind of… cocoon of light appeared around her. When it dissipated, a young infant was in her place. That was me! Meaning, this had to be right before Alexis and Shane found me, as well.

Lilliandil kissed the baby's forehead before speaking another spell. A bright circle of swirling light formed, maybe three feet long and wide. As my mother sent Little-Me through the portal-looking circle, the world began spinning around me. Warm walls dulled away to the cold, wet, gray walls around the central plaza, wooden floors were replaced by wet cobblestones.

It seemed like this vision was continuing where my nightmare left off. Jethro was on the ground, bleeding out from his chest beneath Astaroth.

The castle guard was slowly losing against the demon's troops when a new-but-familiar ally charged in. This new soldier easily had a foot in height on the other soldiers, but he was still a bit shorter than Astaroth.

Everyone, even his troops, came to a halt to watch the battle that ensued. This fight seemed more on equal grounds than Jethro's had been.

It was when I took a closer look at the new soldier that I figured out why he was familiar. The helmet with broken horns, the large shield probably bigger than I, the shining golden armor, I recognized it all. It was the Hero's Shade! Only, this was him before he died.

Now my vision was flickering, jumping between present-day Faron Woods, Castle Town a hundred years ago, and my childhood home in the same time. Bethany and Link were trying to talk to me, the hero was battling Astaroth, and my mother was crying. I squeezed my eyes shut, my hands going to my temples as my brain tried to cope with the constant flickering, and the overload.

I opened my eyes again when Astaroth let out some kind of demonic scream, and I saw that not only had the Hero beaten him, but Lilliandil was there, along with a hooded figure that I couldn't quite make out. Bother were speaking another spell, but to do what? Astaroth's reaction to the spell was a furious cry, before with a burst of light, the demon was encased in some kind of…crystal, which faded away into nothing moments later. The demons he'd brought to wreak havoc on the town practically disintegrated into dust with agonized shrieks.

The battle had been won, but there were no celebratory cheers. Instead there were mournful cries of families who'd lost a father, a brother, a son. When the spell was completed Lilliandil had gone, knelt by Jethro's now-still body. His face was cold and gray, his once-bright green eyes having dulled. My mother cradled his head to her chest, and she wept. Every fiber of my being ached to comfort her, but I knew I couldn't. It was just a vision, a flash of the past.

Then I was back in the present, my hands still on either side of my head. My knees buckled as my brain tried - and failed - to process everything I'd just seen, and cope with the fact that I'd just seen my father - my dead father. I'd never seen a dead human body before, and it was...to say the least, a huge shock.

I felt Bethany catch me as I sank to my knees, heard her asking if I was okay. I nodded when I regained control of myself, realized I was breathing short and fast, tried to calm myself down. I saw concern on both Bethany's and Link's faces when I stood back up, scrubbing the heels of my hands over my face.

"We should stop for the night once we get to Hyrule Field. We won't make it to Eldin's province before sundown, and there's more monsters after dark." I said with a heavy exhale. My friends both nodded, but I could still see their concern.

"Hey, um.. Rose?" I heard Bethany whisper. It was hours later, the sun had set and we had built a fire. I was pretty sure Link had fallen asleep. We were right along the border of Hyrule Field, and I was laying down right alongside it. I rolled from my side to my stomach when I heard her, propping myself up on my elbows as I looked over at her.

"Yeah? What is it, Bethany?" I asked. There was silence for a few moments.

"...What do you think's happening on Earth right now?" she asked.

I wasn't sure how to answer her. Would they have forgotten us, some part of the spell? No, Bethany had still remembered me. Maybe it was like in Chronicles of Narnia, and time had paused there while we were here. But that implied that we would be going back, and I didn't think that would be the case. Hyrule was home. For me, at least.

"Maybe we'll be declared missing, like Scott was." I decided. I saw my friend shrug.

"Maybe." she conceded. "Hey...what was it like in Ordon?" she added. Another thought-provoking question.

"It was... basically the same as we knew it. Small, comfortable. Everyone was very kind to me. Uli showed me the prophecy that helped me figure out why I was here. I helped rescue Talo from the Bokoblins. Sort of."

I heard a quiet snicker. She'd seen my barely-passable skills with a sword. I knew, because she said, "I can imagine how much you helped," with a teasing tone in her voice. I flicked a twig in her direction, and heard a muffled giggle. There was another minute of quiet.

"So Link's teaching you how to use a sword," Bethany started again. I anticipated another teasing comment, and Bethany certainly delivered. "Have you two done anything else during those... lessons?"

"Bethany!" I hissed, and I was glad for the dark because Bethany would have laughed even harder if she'd seen how red my face was. "It's not like that, and you know it too." I muttered

"Fine, fine. If you say so." Somehow, she managed to make that sound teasing. Then she suddenly became serious, and in any other situation the quick mood change would have been funny. "What did you see in that flashback earlier?"

The affectionate teasing atmosphere dissipated quickly, and I rolled onto my back to look at the stars as I tried to find a way to sum it up.

"...Home, Castle Town." I answered. "My dad died fighting Astaroth, protecting me, and Astaroth was sealed away with a spell. A lot of people died..." I sighed. "That was also why Castle Town is so small in Twilight Princess. That attack leveled a lot of the outer city. And Zant's attack just the other day, that took out the defensive walls." I explained. Then I frowned. "Gosh, Hyrule's gone through so much. Not to mention what happens later. I don't think that that'll be an easy-fix." I mused, thinking about the third part of the battle with Ganon.

"Right, I forgot about that. Hey, I'm gonna go to sleep now. Kakariko's coming up fast. So... goodnight, Rose.." And seemingly just like that, Bethany was asleep. She must have been pretty tired.

I lied away for a few more minutes, listening to the sounds around me, the tiny fire crackling, crickets and nocturnal creatures, owls, before I allowed myself to drift off into a semi-easy rest.

As Celia- or Rose, rather- and her friend finally slept, Link frowned minutely while he thought about the conversation he'd just heard. That had been the second time the title Twilight Princess had been mentioned, only the last time had been Midna calling the princess that. But they seemed to be referring to something else. But aside from that, it wasn't the flashback that worried him, it was what they mentioned after.

About, whoever Zant was. Was that the man or thing that had attacked Hyrule Castle? If so, how did they know his name? And... what did Rose mean by "what happens later"? Did they know something about the future? And if they did, did that mean Rose knew that the village would be attacked? And she didn't try to stop it?i

'Maybe she couldn't. How much could one person do, after all, to stop something like that?' a part of him thought.

She could have warned them, though, they could have prepared, hidden, left.

When Link fell asleep that night, he was surprised to find himself questioning his trust in the younger teen, Rose.

A/N: That went much faster than I thought it would! I hope you guys enjoyed it!