Tuesday. Another day in the week, yet also another day closer to the end of the year. Link was counting down the days; just five weeks left. Twenty-four school days. The closer he got, the longer the days started to feel. He wasn't sure if he would make it to the end alive. Quite literally, in fact. As each day passed, he found himself growing more and more anxious about the coming war, with no clue as to when Ganondorf would make his appearance, and if he would even be able to stop the evil destruction that would surely follow.

Link stared down at the pages on his desk. Unfinished equations stared back. Although, this time, they didn't seem quite as daunting. In fact, he was sure he knew the answer to at least some of them. It seemed his studying was actually starting to pay off. If he kept on like that, he was certain he'd make it through to senior year. That is, if he managed to stay alive until then.

"Link."

Link jumped light in his seat, but no one in the room had seemed to notice, too occupied with their noses in their tests. He glanced around quickly, then met Zelda's gaze. It was apparent to him that she had heard it, too, her brows knit together in confusion. But it had been over a month since they had heard the voice of the sword. Why was it calling for him now?

"Link?" This time it was Mipha who spoke, whispering to him. Her brows knit together. "Did you fall asleep again?"

He jumped once more at the sound of Mipha's voice. He looked around once more, this time catching Paya's gaze from the back of the room. Her brows furrowed together as she tried to read Link's expression.

"Yeah," Link muttered, turning back to Mipha. "I guess so."

"Link."

Something was wrong. He turned his gaze out the window, and that's when he noticed the strange dark patch in the sky. He squinted his eyes in an attempt to understand what he was seeing. The patch was a darkness unlike anything he had seen before. Blacker than any shade of black he could imagine. It seemed to split the sky, just slightly at first. It pulsed for a moment, then flashed erratically like static on a tv. The flashing grew more erratic for another moment before the hole in the sky disappeared completely.

If It weren't for Zelda's squeak of fear, Link would have sworn his mind was playing tricks on him. He twisted around in his seat to see Zelda. She had her hand over her mouth in an attempt to keep herself from screaming, but her face was pale, her eyes wide with horror.

Ms. Muller looked up from her desk and peered at Zelda. "Are you alright?"

Zelda moved her horrified gaze from the teacher, to Link, then back to the teacher. She started to stutter and babble incoherently. The teacher furrowed her brows together.

"Are you going to be sick?"

Zelda nodded quickly and hurried out of the room, the door slamming behind her.

Link turned his gaze back out the window, noticing then the dark split had returned to the sky. But this time, it seemed to be closer, somewhere in the city, and it grew larger, spreading sharply. It opened and grew for a few moments before it finally stopped. Link watched as three dark figures seemed to fall from the portal, disappearing behind the tree line at the edge of the city.

"Link!"

Link stood abruptly, his heart racing. He met the teacher's gaze for a brief moment but gave up trying to think of an excuse. Instead, he hurried out of the room, ignoring her shouts behind him.

"Link!"

He turned to his right and saw Zelda peering from around the corner, her face pale. He trotted to her side as she began to panic.

"What the hell is happening? How has no one else noticed that?"

Link pulled her wrist and they sprinted down the empty hallway, following it until they reached his locker.

"What are we doing?" she asked, her voice shaking. "We can't go out there!"

"I'm getting the sword," Link said. He worked to steady his shaking hands as he tried and failed to spin the correct code on his locker. "Something fell out of the sky. I have a feeling it has to do with Ganondorf."

"The sword?" Zelda straightened and narrowed her eyes at him. She threw her arms in the air. "Are you insane? Call the cops! Get a gun! Blow that shit up! What are you gonna do with that damn sword?"

"No one else can see it but us," Link hissed at her. "Impa wouldn't have wasted her time with us if this was something that could just be blown to bits by the army. The Master Sword is here for a reason."

Zelda's mouth opened, but no words came out. She stared blankly at Link, still trying to process everything that was happening. But Link grew impatient with her.

There was a faint glow from behind the locker door. His brows knit together as he tried once more to unlock the door. He forced his breathing, his mind, and his hands, to slow, working steadily until the lock clicked. He yanked up, then threw the door open, revealing the Master Sword. He pulled it out, slamming the door behind him, and grabbed Zelda's wrist once more.

"W-wait," she stuttered out as she fell into a sprint behind him. "I can't do this! I don't have any power!"

Link stopped abruptly, turning to her, but his expression was softer than she had expected. "Right," he said. "You should stay here then. I'll take care of it."

Zelda's brows knit together angrily. "I don't think so! This is just as much my problem as it is yours!"

"But you have no power. You'll be useless out there."

Zelda's hands balled into fists at her side. "I'm not useless," she sneered at him. "We can stop at the shrine first. I'll take one of the swords there."

Link raised a skeptical brow at her. "Yeah, okay."

"We're wasting time," she hissed. "You're not going without me."

"Fine," he muttered. He turned and sprinted down the hall way with Zelda on his heels. They burst through the front doors of the school and across the street, narrowly avoiding the cars as they came to a screeching halt. They ignored the drivers as they leaned to shout out their windows, only a few brows raised at the boy with the sword in his hand.

They cut across backyards and skipped crosswalks as they took the fastest, most direct path to the shrine. To their surprise, Impa was nowhere to be found when they reached the shrine. But Zelda helped herself to one of the better swords in the shrine, hung with care on the wall. She snagged one that seemed light enough to hold, bounced in her hand for a moment to test its weight, then nodded to Link.

"You don't have to do this," Link said once more.

"Yes, I do," she said fiercely. "This is my destiny, just as it is yours."

"I really wish it wasn't," he muttered, then sighed. "Besides. We don't even know what we're going up against. What if this is Ganondorf's big entrance?"

"That's unlikely," she said. "If I learned anything from the Sheikah, it's that Ganondorf always has a plan, and he never does anything alone. He has an entire army of monsters to cause havoc for him. And most of the time, they're just a distraction."

"That seems like a pretty important item to consider," Link said.

"A distraction? Maybe." Zelda hesitated. "Either way, whatever those things are that you saw – they need to be stopped. They will kill. The less reinforcements Ganondorf has, the better."

Link still felt uneasy. If it was a distraction, what could Ganondorf be going after? Who was in danger? His father? Aryll? Mipha? His stomach knotted. "I don't like this."

Zelda shifted her weight to her back forth, a hand on her hip. "Then what do you propose we do?"

"I don't know," he admitted, turning his gaze out the window. "To be honest, I didn't think any of this would actually happen."

"Well, it's happening," Zelda snapped. "And we're the only ones who can stop it."

She was right, of course, but it didn't make him feel any better. In that moment, he felt very underprepared and inadequate, all of his earlier confidence completely gone. It was real now; he couldn't pretend otherwise. He couldn't swing a sword around haphazardly and brace himself when Impa hit his knees with the bokken. If he misstepped, his life would end in the blink of an eye, and all of Hyrule – and the world – would fall to Ganondorf. This was what he was practicing for; his destiny. Hyrule was doomed.

"We're fucked," he muttered.

Zelda stepped closer to him, taking his hand in hers. She smiled warmly at him. "I believe in you," she said.

"Really?"

Zelda's brows furrowed, her warm smile dissolving into an angry snarl. "No. We're fucked, and its all thanks to you."

Link sighed. "Thanks," he grunted.

"What do you want?" she said. "A speech? Because I got nothing."

"No, no," Link said, waving her off. "Its cool. You'll make a great queen someday. You'll inspire the whole world."

"You're the hero, here," she retorted. "You're supposed to be the inspiration. Millions of little children will look up to you and wish to be just like you when they grow up, okay? So just fight the fucking monsters!"

Link grinned and let the Master Sword rest on his shoulder. "Yeah?"

Zelda rolled her eyes. "Yeah."

"Alright," he said, sucking in a breath. "For all my little idols. We'll fight the monsters."

"That's the spirit," Zelda grunted, pulling him by his wrist. They hurried out of the shrine and made their way through the city, towards where the monsters had dropped from the sky, onward to their first battle in their war against Ganondorf.