Lianne POV

I sit on a boulder with my back facing the spring, granting a small measure of privacy to the ancient hero as well as keeping watch while he cleans up for the first time in what I can guess to be quite a while.

"Sheik?" he calls, water splashing slightly.

I nod slowly. "Yes," I answer verbally, just in case he too has his back turned to me.

He clears his throat. "I am a little curious about just what has led to you finding me in the woods, and why you seem to be keeping your distance."

I hang my head sadly. "I… I would have had a family, once," I begin slowly after a moment of a lingering silence between us. "But a servant of the Demon King attempted to alter fate by sending a tornado after my mother, causing her to fall from the sky. An old woman living in the Sealed Temple found her when she reached the Surface, and took her in. Soon after, they realized I had fallen with her from the sky. She died shortly after having me, and the old woman raised me as her own, casting spells and binding my powers so I would be able to grow up. She trained me in the warrior arts. Seventeen years after my mother's death, and on my sixteenth birthday a month ago, the servant launched another attack upon Skyloft to alter fate yet again." He splashes through the water loudly before I hear his footsteps lightly crunching the grass by his, now clean and mended, clothes. "A girl fell through the cloud barrier, almost falling victim to enemy forces that I took care of before bringing her back to the Temple. The following day, soon after she had departed for the temple deep within these woods, a young man, clad in green, descended into the Sealed Grounds, overlooking the Demon's prison."

He moves closer to me, the rustle of fabric and clink of chain mail filtering quietly into my ears. "The Spirit Maiden and the Hero of the Goddess," he states quietly, taking a seat beside me.

"Yes," I murmur, taking a deep breath. "He knew of the possibility of what he would find down here on the Surface, but could never have imagined what the inhabitants had been dealing with for millennia, things which I grew up around. Before he arrived, he didn't know of pain, or anything beyond minor schoolyard bullies. He was trained in the way of the sword, but had hardly any practical experience in the use of this weapon. Things he took for granted were found mostly in dreams for me." I look into his eyes, finding understanding I would never find in my brother's eyes, in which I would find regret, pity, and I am certain there would be jealousy. I turn away before I continue. "I was tortured many times by the servant of the Demon, which he hardly knew until recently, and only then did he find out by chance. I knew the weapon maintenance of the Bokoblins roaming these lands only because they had captured me and I watched as they poisoned their blades as they polished them."

He gasps lightly, and I raise my eyes to see shock in his eyes. "Anyone would know that their blades are poisoned! If not, they would easily cause infections from lack of being cleaned between battles!"

I smile humorlessly, though he can't really see it. "He thought, after I informed him of this after learning he had been injured, that I was a traitor. He had been relying on me a lot after I saved his life, taking a sword to the chest for him, and believed the worst of me." I feel the tears filling my eyes again as my vision blurs with the burning in the back of my eyes.

"He's your brother, isn't he?" he asks quietly, rage in his shaking voice.

I nod. "Yes. He never would have thought that he would have a sister living in his mother's place when he arrived in this violent land."

"I ought to track him down and knock some sense into him," he grumbles, and I turn sharply to him. He chuckles darkly. "Not many know this, but I actually did have a family before, and I was privy to the contents of the prophecy. I had a sister before we were orphaned in a house fire at a rather young age. We were separated and lost to each other in the aftermath, and I was brought up a warrior. I met her soon again soon after my release from prison, and I made sure she survived to be one of those sent to what you now know to be Skyloft." I blink slowly as he looks deeply into my eyes. "She had the same eyes as you, and was named in honor of the goddess, who favored her with the gift of healing. Lianne, though she insisted on being called Lia. I also know that the Hero of this era is my reincarnation, and thus his sister, you, are my sister's reincarnation."

I shake my head slowly. "And here Impa thought that you had no family after being orphaned."

"Well, for a long time we both thought the other to be dead after the fire," he mutters to clarify where Impa would have been confused. "Neither of us ever said much to others when it came to family, other than being orphaned and not knowing if any others might have survived the fire." He then sighs. "You didn't tell me what happened to have you come searching for me."

I close my eyes. "Ever since I discovered his injury, Link became distant, even though he knew of my loyalty to the Goddess. When the Spirit Maiden, Zelda, went into her enchanted sleep, he overheard Impa telling me to come back wearing my uniform so that I could look for answers that I could never find in my own time. He… reacted badly, and said things I knew he's been bottling up for weeks."

"What… did he say?" he inquires slowly.

I let out a long breath. "He said I was abandoning him, when I didn't really want to. Said I was just leaving him after everything, especially after forcing him to see his best friend fall asleep encased in crystal. That he didn't need me, and that he… he doesn't care anymore," I whisper at the end, tears falling from my eyes once more. "He wouldn't even listen to me. He didn't let me explain!"

I can hear him moving slowly, before a warm, callused hand rests gently on my shoulder. "He is blinded by his own pain, and thus cannot see that he has caused you even greater pain," he starts slowly. "Link is unable to see that his friend is safe as she is, whereas she was unsafe before she went to sleep. He doesn't see that you have done all you could, and he doesn't appreciate how valuable family truly is. I do not blame him for his feelings, but I do not condone his lashing out at you." The hand moves to lift my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. "You are just as much a victim in all of this as Zelda, as he himself. He just has yet to either see or accept it." I nod in understanding, but it doesn't make it hurt any less, and I can tell he knows it. "It will always hurt, no matter what. It's what you do over time to dull the pain, and how you move on that will tell you what you must do next," he whispers, pulling me into a warm embrace, allowing me to cry into his shoulder.

Ancient Era Link POV

I just hold my many-times over niece, and reincarnated sister, cry herself out in my arms. Were it up to me, I would hunt down my reincarnation and challenge him to a duel for doing this to his own family, but I know it would be most unwise. For now, I have to help put together the pieces of the little sister he's thoroughly broken where the Demon's servant was unable to do so. It makes my blood boil at the thought that she's been so obviously hurt and it took so long for anyone to take notice, where I could tell almost instantly, and had it confirmed so quickly. How far that torture went… I'm not sure I even want to know, for it must have been bad in comparison to what was done to the traitors and spies in the past.

Her sobs ease, and her breathes even out, and I sigh in relief, glad she's cried herself to sleep. It makes it easier to get her back to the temple, and out of the open where we could be attacked at any given time. I just hope she's able to let go of the pain of betrayal, and better than I was able to after my own imprisonment.

I lift her carefully in my arms, and begin the slow trek along the winding path back to the temple, marveling all the way at how similar, yet different this world is compared to the ruins of my own. I just wonder how such a beautiful world could be so tainted with greed, and evil such as the Demon King and his servants. How they could be so cruel to such an open-hearted, pure being as the one I hold.

How could a family tear itself apart so easily?

By not caring, and I wish it weren't so.