Author's Note: I did something similar to this in my FMA 100 Themes fic Till I'm a Hundred, You Idiot, and I found it a really interesting exercise to explore the inner workings of a character. I've been wanting to try my hand at the same thing for this fic, and I finally found an appropriate prompt. It was a little difficult for me to figure out exactly how to go about this endeavor, especially since Link's personality is much less distinct than most characters'. But I'm reasonably pleased with the results. Yes, there are many more facets to his personality than what I showed here, but I think these are some of the most essential pieces to who he is.

Timeline: Adult; right after the seven-year gap

Theme 52: Deep in thought

Navi woke first. As soon as she'd listened to Rauru's explanation for why they'd been put in an enchanted slumber for seven years, and voiced her frustration that none of this had been explained before the deed was done, she hastened to Link's side. Rauru assured her that he would soon wake, so she fluttered eagerly over his sleeping face, waiting impatiently for his eyes to open. She was ready to face whatever Ganondorf had in store for them.

But long minutes passed, and Link didn't stir—not even to flutter an eyelash. Finally, when she thought she would explode from impatience, Navi rounded on the Sage who stood gravely before the stone pedestal where Link lay. "Well?" she demanded. "When is he going to wake up? Couldn't you have woken us up a little closer together?"

To her annoyance and alarm, Rauru looked worried. The old man bent over Link's body, a frown crinkling his forehead and making his luxurious white mustache droop to his chin. "He should have woken by now..." he murmured, laying a leathery hand on Link's forehead. Closing his eyes, Rauru became utterly still, as if reaching out with arcane senses to see to the core of the problem.

Navi kept as still and quiet as she could, hovering in place and watching them both intently. She didn't want to disturb the powerful Sage in his examination, no matter that her heart fluttered as rapidly as her wings. She forced herself not to think about what would happen if he never woke up at all...

After what felt like years, Rauru finally opened his eyes and straightened up, letting his hand fall back to his side. His eyes, when he raised them to meet Navi's, were troubled. "He has lost himself. The shock of touching the Triforce was too great, its power too strong for a child's mind to handle. I cast the spell on the two of you as soon as I could, but it seems I was too late to protect him fully. In order to protect himself, he has retreated into his own mind."

Navi flew closer to Link's face, as if she could see his troubled dreams just by staring at his closed eyelids. "What do you mean?" she asked in a choked voice. "Is he...do you mean that he's never...going to...?"

It was too terrible to contemplate. Losing Link now, after all this time, after everything they'd done together... There was so much they had left to do! Where would Hyrule be without its hero? Where would Princess Zelda be? And...would Navi be all alone...forever?

"I think," Rauru said slowly, "there might be a way to recall Link's spirit back to his body. It will be difficult...and there may only be a small chance of success..."

"I'll do it!" Navi immediately said, popping up to Rauru's eye level. "Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it!"

She half expected him to protest—it seemed like the noble, sagely thing to do, protesting against impetuous decisions made on the spur of the moment—but Rauru merely nodded gravely. "Indeed, I believe that, without the Sage of Spirit, you may be his only hope. His spirit is fractured, split in order to protect itself just as the Triforce did. You will need to find what he has forgotten, the missing force that binds them all together. Only then will he awaken."

"Okay," Navi said, though she barely understood what he was talking about. "I know Link better than anyone else in the world. This should be easy!"


Navi soon discovered how difficult the whole task promised to be. It took Rauru a long time to prepare the complex spell that would send the fairy directly into Link's mind, and the process itself felt like hours of hurtling through a nauseating miasma of colors and sounds.

Though Navi hadn't really understood Rauru's explanation for how this whole thing worked, she was relieved to discover that when everything died down, she looked and felt just like her old self. She was still a glowing blue fairy, not some amorphous phantasm flitting through Link's mind.

Link's mind, she discovered, looked an awful lot like Hyrule Castle. She hadn't stopped to wonder what his mind would look like on the inside, but somehow, when she gazed up at the turrets and battlements, it felt exactly right. She felt the same familiarity to look upon the castle as she did when she looked at her friend on the outside.

Still, that didn't exactly make her feel any better. The air was unearthly silent, and everything surrounding the castle and the mound of earth it sat upon fell away into utter blackness. Not the darkness of night, not even under a new moon. No, this blackness was complete and unyielding. It made Navi shiver and hurry through the bars of the portcullis, which had been lowered.

She didn't know where to look for Link in an entire castle, but when she poked her head into the guardhouse, she discovered that her search was off to an easy start. A little blond-haired boy dressed all in green huddled in the darkest corner of the room, hugging his knees to his chest and peeking over them with wide blue eyes.

"Link!" she cried, zipping over to him. She thought it was a little odd that he still looked like his ten-year-old self in his mind, but maybe she ought to have expected it. After all, the last time he'd been conscious, this was what he'd looked like.

At her hasty approach, Link jerked backward, cowering against the wall. His eyes widened even further, and he pressed his hands against his mouth so only a frightened squeak emerged.

Navi, expecting a happy reunion after all this time, drew up short in surprise. "Link? Don't you recognize me?"

Link glanced around carefully as if checking that the coast was clear, then whispered hoarsely, "Hi, Navi..."

A wave of relief poured through her. "I've missed you so much!" she cried, fluttering up closer. "Come on, we have to find the rest of you and get out of here."

"Please..." Link whispered frantically, gathering Navi into his cupped hands and holding her close to his chest. "Not so loud. They might hear you."

Alarmed, Navi lowered her voice to a whisper too. "Who?"

But Link shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. "I...I don't know. But...But something's coming to get me, I just know it... I-I can't leave, or it might find me!"

Navi peered up at Link in surprise. He wasn't acting anything like the Link she remembered. Even in the darkest dungeons, beset by hideous monsters of all descriptions, he always stood his ground. She'd seen him afraid before, but never had they encountered anything that had made him want to give up like this.

"Come on, Link," she coaxed gently, "You can't just stay here forever. Hyrule needs their hero."

Link's face fell, and he let her slip through his fingers. "Then they'll have to find someone else."

Navi fluttered a short distance away from him and looked him up and down. Nope, he still looked the same as the Link she'd known for so long. "Come on, Link. I know you can do this. You've always been so brave. Where did all that courage go?"

Link looked up at her despairingly. "I don't have any courage anymore. How can I face everything out there? I...I'm too scared."

"Courage isn't about not being scared," Navi said, echoing something she'd told him right before he'd gone to fight the enormous Dodongo terrorizing the Gorons. "It's about doing what's right even when you are scared. So come on. All you have to do is follow me, okay? I'll warn you if anything dangerous comes close."

Link looked up at her for a long moment. She thought she could see in his eyes echoes of all the times she'd shouted warnings to him in battle, telling him when to duck or evade, when and where to strike. She had never steered him wrong, and she had never abandoned him in the thick of the fighting.

Slowly, Link raised himself on shaking legs and stepped away from the meager protection of the wall. He looked like a leaf, trembling on the very end of a bough and waiting for a gust of wind to rip him away. But he was still standing.

"Okay," Navi said gently, fluttering towards the door of the guardhouse. "Follow me. Don't worry, everything's going to be fine."

Link followed her on tiptoe out into the courtyard. Once they were out in the open, his head whipped around in all directions, seeking attackers that simply weren't there. His whole body tensed in anticipation of some intangible fear. Navi had to admit, it was a little creepy to walk through a completely deserted castle courtyard, without feeling a single breath of air or hearing a single sound other than the beat of her wings and the tap of his feet against the cobblestones.

Once they'd made it across the open space and entered the doors to the main keep, Link relaxed slightly—that is to say, he hastened to put his back to one wall and sidled along it, glancing often over his shoulder back the way they'd come. Because of Link's caution, their progress was slow, and Navi kept on having to double back and wait for him to catch up.

The castle was strange. Everything was made of blocks of white stone that seemed ancient, but there was not a speck of grime in the place. It reminded Navi of the Temple of Time, only even more pristine, if that were possible. The layout of the castle roughly followed Hyrule Castle, but it was still disorienting to move around it, because of how deserted it was. Not only were there no people walking through the corridors, there weren't any pieces of furniture or even tapestries on the walls. It was like someone had built this entire place and then left without furnishing it at all.

What did that say about Link's current mental state?

They encountered no one else for the longest time, until they had scoured most of the ground floor of the keep and emerged into a small courtyard that, in its counterpart in the waking world, comprised a small garden belonging to Princess Zelda. The layout was a little different, and there were no flowers or other plants growing in the flower beds, but the place was still recognizable.

Link and Navi paused on the edge of the courtyard, drawn up short by the first living person they had encountered. This young man, still in adolescence by the looks of it, was obviously another Link. He looked just like the sleeping body Navi had seen before she'd been sent here—sharp, handsome features still smooth and unblemished with youth; strong, capable hands and tight muscles that bulged beneath his clothing even though he'd been lying asleep for seven years.

The faint sound of humming reached their ears as they stood watching him. It took Navi a little while to recognize the soft notes, but it seemed he was humming Zelda's Lullaby. Navi ventured out into the courtyard, leaving the little, frightened Link cowering at the edge.

The teenage Link seemed at first glance just like the Link she expected would awake and greet her in reality. He lounged against the stairs leading up to the dais on which Zelda had stood when they'd first met her. He was holding a white flower of some kind, though where he'd found it was anyone's guess, since nothing seemed to grow anywhere in this castle. As Navi approached, she realized that he was methodically pulling off one flower petal after another, muttering between snatches of Zelda's Lullaby, "She loves me...she loves me not..." The strangest thing was that he never seemed to run out of petals to pluck. They seemed to have grown back as soon as he had gotten all the way around, so he could start all over again.

He glanced up when she drew near, and smiled placidly at her. "Hey, Navi," he said, then continued plucking away the petals. "She loves me...she loves me not..."

"Um...Link?" she said uncertainly, eyeing the magically-replenishing flower. "Are...you okay?"

He smiled up at her somewhat sleepily, then suddenly his face fell. "No," he said, as though realizing it for the first time. His eyes widened, his mouth drawing downward in a mournful expression. "No, Navi, I'm...I'm languishing!"

There was something in his expression that bothered her, though she couldn't put her finger on what exactly. "Really? Why?"

Slowly, Link got to his feet and took a few steps towards the center of the courtyard, staring into space as if he could see past the empty stones to something in the far distance. He reached out a hand, and murmured, "Zelda...my heart pines for thee...it pines like a tree..."

Navi fluttered around his head, looking at the soppy expression on his face in alarm. Not only was he lounging around picking at flowers and staring off into the distance, now he was making terrible poetry...

"You're in love with Zelda!" she realized. She didn't know why the knowledge surprised her so much—his partiality to the pretty princess had been obvious from the first time they'd met. But...well, Navi was used to Link being a child, with a child's affections and desires. She supposed she would have to get used to him as an adult now.

"Zelda..." he gurgled, clasping the flower to his heart and smiling up at the darkness above the courtyard. "My beautiful princess..."

"Okay," Navi said firmly, flying up to intercept his line of vision. "We can think about this later. For now, we just need to get the others and get you all out of here, all right?"

With a sigh, Link plopped down to sit on the flagstones again. "No thanks," he said dreamily, starting to pluck at the flower petals again. "I just want to sit quietly and think about Zelda for a while."

Navi put her hands on her hips and used her sternest, bossiest tone. "Link, stop being stupid. You know there are more important things at stake here, right?"

"Nothing is more important than Zelda," Link whispered, caressing the flower like it was Zelda's hand.

Navi let out an irritated groan and threw her hands up in the air. "Fine! But if you don't come along, you'll never wake up, and then you'll never see Zelda again!"

Slowly, Link looked up, his face ashen. That thought seemed to break through the fog of infatuation in his mind, and he hastily got to his feet. "Can you take me to her?" he asked eagerly. "Oh, please take me to see her, Navi!"

"Right," Navi said, eyeing him warily. His preoccupation with Zelda seemed to have removed every trace of discernment and wisdom from him, until he was willing to simply go along with anything he heard. "Yeah, just...follow me, and I'll get you where you need to go."

"Lead the way!" Link crowed happily, skipping along behind her as she rejoined the timid Link lurking in the doorway. He shied back as the teenage Link approached, but the teenage Link seemed so preoccupied with thoughts of Zelda that he barely even noticed his childish counterpart.

As the little group continued on their way, ascending a broad staircase to the second level, Navi felt like an overworked sheepdog attempting to herd two very reluctant sheep. The child Link cowered and shrank back from every corner and doorway they passed, and required gentle encouragement at almost every step of the way. The teenage Link, on the other hand, would often wander off in the wrong direction or stop walking entirely, staring off dreamily into space or resuming his favorite pastime of shredding the replenishing flower in his hands. Navi had to kick him in the forehead or tug on his pointed ear more than once to get him moving again.

By the time they finally found the next Link, Navi was thoroughly frustrated and wished only that they would reach their goal soon. They peeked into a long, narrow hall that looked like it might have been a gallery of some sort, or maybe an eating hall, in the real Hyrule Castle. Standing at the far end, gazing out a window with his back to them, stood another version of Link as an adult. When he heard the shuffle of feet, he turned to face them, his left hand drifting to his shoulder as if to unsheathe a sword that wasn't there.

Navi came up short several feet from him, leaving the other Links bunched up in the doorway. From behind, this new Link had looked much like the other grown-up Link, or like the one who was currently asleep under Rauru's watchful eye. He wore a green tunic like always, with sturdy boots and white hose just as she'd expected. But when he turned to face her, she saw that this Link was much older than any other she'd seen yet. He looked to be in the middle of his life, his face beginning to grow lined and a tuft of silver hair mingling with the golden locks poking out from under his green hat. His shoulders were broader, his chest fuller, than she was used to seeing—he wasn't fat, but bulky with well-toned muscles that had seen many years of use. The left hand he slowly lowered to his side was rough and callused, and a faint scar ran down one side of his face, tracing a white line through one of his eyebrows.

"Navi," he grunted, his voice lower even than the teenage Link. There was something unbearably weary about the way he looked at her—a sadness darkening his blue gaze. "I should have known you'd come."

Navi shook off her momentary hesitation at this Link's unexpected appearance and tried to sound chipper. "Of course I came! I couldn't just leave you all strung out like this, right? You've got to wake up, Link. We've been asleep for seven years. There's so much for us to do!"

To her surprise, instead of nodding with determination or following along behind the others, Link let out a weary sigh and leaned against the wall, crossing his muscular arms. "I know," he said with a grimace. "So much to do. There's always so much for me to do."

Navi wasn't used to hearing such a defeated, exhausted tone in his voice. "Well...it's because you're the right man for the job, I guess. You're the only one who can save Hyrule, when all is said and done."

"Right." His jaw worked silently for a moment, then he spat out, "It's all up to me, isn't it? I've been working so hard, for so long, because I was the only one who could. The weight of the whole world rests on my shoulders, but do I get any thanks for it? Do I get a moment's rest? No, of course not."

"You've had seven years of rest," Navi said flatly. "Don't you think that's enough? Come on, Link, you're not like this. Didn't you tell me once that it felt good to save the helpless and fight the battles they never could?"

Link closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing in deeply. When he opened them again, his whole face seemed to sag with weariness. "I don't think I can do that anymore, Navi. I just...I don't have the strength to keep going. Not when there's so much stacked up against us. Zelda gone...Ganondorf after our very lives... I've been stuck here for a long time, Navi. I've had time to think it all over. There's simply no way I can hope to defeat that much evil all by myself. I would need to be as powerful as Ganondorf, if not more so, but I'm just one man. One man who hardly knows what he's doing half the time."

Navi's wings wilted slightly. The hopeless tone of his voice was starting to prey on her and make her wonder if this struggle was futile too. After all, there were no guarantees that she could even get Link to wake up again, let alone actually defeat any of their enemies or bring light and peace back to the land.

But no. She couldn't give in to despair like this. There was something special about Link, and there always had been—even back when he was nobody, just another Kokiri. There was indefatigable strength hidden deep inside his heart, and that was exactly what Hyrule needed in its time of distress.

"You do have the strength," she said, quietly but firmly. "I know you better than just about anyone, Link, and I know that you're strong enough for this. Hyrule needs you. Zelda needs you. I need you. And I know you well enough to know that, whenever someone needs your help, you will always find the strength to help them. Because that's who you are."

The old, tired Link gazed at her for several long, drawn-out moments. Then slowly, unexpectedly, he smiled. The effect made him look much younger than before—almost the same age as he was on the outside. "You always know the perfect thing to say, don't you, old friend? All right, let's go."

When the old Link passed his two counterparts, the others reacted just as they had to each other: the child cowered back, and the love-struck teenager was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to pay him any mind. The older Link glanced over the other two and grunted, clearly unimpressed with the other portions of his mind.

"You're nearly there," he told Navi. "I've paced over every inch of this castle, and I know there's just one place left to go: the tower."

"Really?" Navi sped after him as he started down the hallway, the others shuffling along in their wake. "And once we get that last Link, you'll wake up?"

"Maybe. Can't say I've tried it before."

Now that they had someone who knew their way, their progress was much swifter, notwithstanding the inevitable delays as the child Link grew frozen with fear or the teenage Link became sidetracked. Before long, they reached a door that led to a steep, narrow staircase spiraling upwards. The old Link started up, and Navi took the rear, chivvying the other two Links up the stairs ahead of her.

So when they reached the top of the tower, Navi was the last to emerge from the staircase. For a moment, she was so awestruck she didn't even notice the last Link. The tower room was round, and not very large, with a window that opened out on the pitch darkness that encompassed the whole castle. When she fluttered further into the room, she could see the whole castle stretching out below them through the window. She could plainly see the courtyard where the teenage Link had been lounging, and beyond it, the guardhouse where she'd found the child Link. She even thought she spotted the window the old Link had been looking out of, though it was hard to tell when every window looked alike.

Closer to hand, the stones of the tower room were almost invisible. For the first time since she had arrived in this strange place, she saw greenery. Thick vines, like the ones that graced the trees in the Sacred Forest Meadow, curled over the windowsill and sprawled across the floor and the curved wall. Leaves and fronds of many different plants spiderwebbed across the ceiling, turning the whole room into a lush, green haven of life.

In the center of all this foliage sat the last Link of all. Navi realized that she hadn't immediately spotted him, because of course his green garb blended in perfectly with the plants. He sat on a tree stump that inexplicably sprouted from the stones in the very center of the floor, chin resting on his knees, hands clasped about his ankles. He stared at the floor as if deep in thought, and didn't acknowledge their presence.

This Link was a child, and at first glance reminded Navi a lot of the child she had first found, but since that boy was currently trying to hide behind a leaf jutting out of the wall, the resemblance stopped at their apparent age. Navi flew closer to the Link sitting on the stump, alighting on one of his knees so she could look him in the eye. "Hey," she said softly when his eyes focused on her. "I've come to find you, Link."

His big blue eyes filled with tears, and he shook his head, dropping his eyes back to the floor.

"What's the matter?" Navi asked, stroking the skin of the knee she sat on. "Come on, tell me why you're crying."

"Kid won't talk." The old Link had wandered over to the window, so he could gaze over the castle that comprised their entire world. "I tried it, you know. At first. Don't think he can say anything."

The teenage Link was mumbling to himself and absently picking apart a leaf. The frightened child seemed to be trying to blend in with the wall, and the older man just stood looking out the window. None of them were going to be any help.

Navi looked back up at the child in front of her. Somehow, she felt that this Link was the one who needed her most. He reminded her, more than any of the others, of the Link she had first met in Kokiri Forest. He looked just as he had when she had encountered him in the forest, all alone. He'd always been an outcast, set apart from every other creature in the forest, as though everyone could tell there was something different about him.

"Something special," she murmured aloud. "There's something special about you, Link. I know it, deep down in my heart. That's what makes you a hero. That's what the Great Deku Tree saw in you from the beginning. That's why I know you won't let this stop you."

Link just shook his head morosely, as if he didn't have a single thing left to hope for. He patted his chest with both hands, then made a gesture like he was tearing something away, and flung it away from himself. His fingers came to a stop, pointing at the other Links in the tower.

Even though he spoke no words, Navi thought she understood what he was trying to say. "I know," she said soothingly. "You were ripped apart. Touching the Triforce made you like this, stuck in separate pieces. It's okay, Link. I know you did this for your own protection. It was the only way you could withstand such power."

A silent sob shook Link's shoulders, and tears rolled down his face.

"Shhhh," Navi whispered, rubbing circles into the skin of his knee. "You were just a boy, you poor thing. I know you shouldn't have to shoulder this burden all alone. But you can do it, Link. I know you can."

Link shook his head, sniffling, and moved to cover his face with his hands.

But Navi fluttered up to him and pulled his hands back down. "No, Link," she said firmly. "I know sometimes it seems like you don't have what it takes to be the hero everyone needs you to be. I know you thought you could handle the Triforce, and this setback makes you feel like you don't have the pure heart the true master of the Triforce needs. But you know what? Being brave doesn't mean you have no fear."

The boy peeked out from behind the vines.

"Being wise doesn't mean you can't be foolish sometimes."

The teenager looked up from his flower, cocking his head to the side and really listening for the first time.

"And being strong doesn't mean that you never grow weary."

The old Link turned around, watching silently.

"It just means that you try," Navi said. She was looking up at the Link sitting on the stump, but her words were meant for all four of them. "And you keep trying. And you never give up, no matter what. And when you're afraid, I'll be there for you. When you don't know what to do, I'll help you figure it out. When you feel like you don't have the strength to carry on, just tell me, Link. I'll do everything I can to help you. I promise."

Link looked at her with shining eyes, and reached out a hand to cup around her glowing warmth. "Maybe...we can do it...together?"

For the first time, hope bloomed in his eyes, and warmth flooded her chest. She flew up to his face and tried to wipe away his tears. "Of course we can," she said with utmost gentleness. "But only if you wake up, silly. Can Hyrule's destiny really depend on such a lazy boy?"

Link closed his eyes and pressed her close against his cheek. When he opened them again and let her pull back, she saw that they were again in the Chamber of the Sages, and Link was lying on the stone pedestal. He blinked at her, and then he smiled. "Five more minutes?"

Navi slapped him.