There was a sudden silence, like a radio had been turned off in the other room and you only realized it was playing when it was gone. Jen's tongue felt gummy with mind magic. Ice water shot through her veins, and she whirled around to see Link scrabbling at the air, Zant's hand around his neck.
With a grunt that was more anger than exertion, he pinned the wolf against the wall. He stretched his free hand out and his magic gripped Jen around the arms. She yelped as the invisible grip crushed her arms against her sides and lifted her feet off the ground. Her arm pushed painfully into her ribs.
"You two…" Zant growled, "Have been a thorn in my side for far, far too long. I can see now that no matter what my Lord sees in you… cannot come to pass. You're too… stubborn."
"… I've known you a week," Jen almost complained. Actually, yes, she complained. Very much so, she complained.
She kicked at him, trying to reach even the stupid red sash hanging between his shoulders. He held her too far away, and too tightly. With a growl, he smashed her into the wall behind her. Jen grit her teeth as stars flashed in her eyes.
"Die!" he shrieked, charging up a blast of magic that set the lab rattling. Jen, pinned down, knew she had no chance of dodging. She sent out a mental prayer that even if she died, Midna and Link would escape and defeat Ganon somehow.
Right before the spell was ready to fire, a gleaming bolt struck the volatile magic. Light and Dark combined, creating Shadow, and Zant lost control of the spell. The resulting blast shook the lab, and a cloud settled on everything. Her ears rang, and she slumped down the wall below Midna.
Someone was screaming.
Link melted out of the haze, ripping at the tubes clinging to Midna's crystal, then grabbing Jen by the pants leg gently until she staggered to her feet. A second figure, in blue and grey, grabbed the crystal encasing Midna, tearing off the last few tubes. Link pulled her up the stairs three at a time as the screaming sharpened into words. Cursing, probably. They exited the secret passage with alarms blaring around them. Sharp cries of monsters around the castle echoed around them.
Jen felt like everything was a little tilted on its axis. She was present, and yet distant as the Sheikah, a real one and not some trick, pulled them down a passageway leading out and down, to a dark tunnel. They carried Midna's crystal under their arm like a football, making Jen giggle. From her angle, it almost looked like Midna was grinning with her…
Jennifer blinked, and suddenly she was facing a yellow barrier. The Sheikah pounded at it fruitlessly, yelling. Their voice faded in and out of focus.
"… break it!"
Jen blinked slowly, trying to keep conscious of her surroundings.
"…don't… power… too much!"
Jen shook her head, sharpening her focus.
"What?" she asked, tilting her head to get the meaning across. The Sheikah gestured.
"The barrier, we can't break it. Which, frankly, bullshit, since we've got two Pieces between us."
Jen considered this.
"I know magic… Powerful stuff, too… I just don't have… hmmmmmmmmmm."
"Can you do something? Now or never," they hustled, glancing behind them.
"C….aaaaan. Knowwww…. Spellllsssss. Bu'… no po'errrr…" she slurred, forcing the Hylian to break past her teeth. The Sheikah gestured between themselves and Link.
"Here, we have the power you need. Can you break this or not?" they demanded. Jen nodded. She placed a hand on the barrier and focused.
"Ffffeelllssss… liiiiike… ah sst-orrrrrmmm… Pppunccch hholllle. Nnnott shhhhaaaa'errr…"
"We just need an exit. Anything you can give us, just please hurry," they affirmed. Jen reached out her other hand, now long and sharp.
"Hhhaannnddsssss…"
They each gave her their right hand and left paw. She focused on them. If she were to mess this up it would hurt Link the worst, since his Triforce piece was supporting him. She slapped herself once with her good hand for clarity, and began to channel their power to counter the other Triforce. They were the same power, and wanted to simply mix and meld with the barrier, but Jen couldn't let it.
"Urua mialtas, uq'ain ruaal…"
The spell Counter. She didn't have time to think of anything more complicated than that, forcing the swirl of power from the two Triforce pieces (wait, two?) to move in a disruptive pattern against the surface of the barrier.
Slowly, the area around where her hand rested on the barrier began to ripple, and draw back. It started hesitantly at first, but continued with growing confidence. Her breath started to come in ragged gasps as the magic around her wrist faded and the pain redoubled. She didn't stop.
Eventually, the hole was large enough to slip through. The exertion caused her limbs to shake. Magical power burned through her energy faster and faster. Something deeper in her being than her bones physically burned.
"Hhhuuurrrryyyy…" she warbled. The Sheikah, who Jen was starting to think was a bit more than that, slipped Midna's crystal through as soon as the hole was big enough, then they followed with a graceful forward leap. Link followed with a slightly less graceful leap. They pulled Jen in last, barely avoiding cutting her in half as the barrier snapped shut behind her. They ran, half-dragging Jen behind her as she stumbled between them. The yellowish gleam of the barrier faded behind them, taking with it the angry howls of the monsters.
Exhaustion dragged her eyelids shut and she drifted.
Jen woke up lying on a makeshift nest, though frankly she hadn't expected to wake up at all. Her body certainly didn't expect to, either, and her eyelids felt like weights. Her head pounded.
"Gah…" she moaned as she tried to get up. She hissed as her wrist screamed again, louder for all the time she spent ignoring it, and fell back against the pillows. Or, well, one pillow with a blanket under and around her. She still forced her eyes open, to figure out where she was.
She lay in a slightly enclosed space, unable to see the rest of the room except for the ceiling, which was stone. To her left was a shelf stacked with different types of cured meats. To her right, a counter with a few bottles of an unidentified substance. At her feet was an open space, probably so someone could access the space she was currently using as a bed. She tried to sit up, but her limbs could barely support her. She fell back onto the pillow with a grunt.
Jen recognized the sound of nails on stone, looking up to see Link.
"Hey, are you okay?" she croaked, suddenly realizing how dry her mouth was. Link's ears came forward in concern, but he nodded, and trotted off.
He returned a minute later, his claws-on-stone accompanied by light-but-tired footsteps. When he reappeared, the Sheikah stood behind him, holding a bottle. Their eyes widened a moment, but they stepped forward, offering it. Jen tried to reach for it, but her arm shook.
They knelt next to her. "Here, let me." They held the bottle to Jen's lips as she drank. Something about her mouth felt wrong wrong wrong, but she still gulped down the liquid gratefully. A slight bitter, medicinal taste informed her that it was a Hylian potion of healing. She grimaced as the aftertaste flooded her newly sensitive nose.
Despite her instinctive revulsion, the healing potion did its job, and the throbbing in her wrist and head faded. The Sheikah pulled back the bottle, checking to see how much was left in it. The size of the container greatly exceeded a single serving size, and Jen expected there to be plenty left. She flexed her hand to ensure that yes, her wrist wasn't fractured anymore, and shook her head to check for any lingering dizziness.
'Sleeping with a concussion… such a stupid idea,' she thought to herself ruefully.
The Sheikah, who was probably the princess, Jen realized as the clouds in their brain faded, switched the half-empty bottle of healing potion for a bottle of something else. Jen drank that on her own. Plain water, but just what she needed desperately. She almost regretted it, as without thirst, her hunger made itself apparent. Her stomach felt hollow. They passed her some of the meats from the shelf, which she accepted gratefully. She looked around, trying to understand this place.
"My name is Sheik. I'm a friend," they introduced, "We're at a bar belonging to a woman named Telma, in the castle town. Link caught the scent of a friend of his, and led us here. It's been a good hiding place, for now at least. But we need to keep moving. And Midna…"
Jen shot to her feet, using the countertop as support. Sheik drew back in shock, and Jen looked around the room wildly until she spotted the crystal, lying on a table not far from a collection of wisps. She made a low whine, the closest thing she could to apologizing to the imp.
Sheik placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort. "She's… fading. Something Zant did… it's still dragging magic out of her, and it's resisting even Twilight. The stasis of the crystal isn't helping. I know how to save her, but I can't… We need to break the crystal."
Jen nodded.
"Lllllii'k?" she asked. Then she patted her mouth, surprised at how hard it was to talk. Sheik winced.
"Your… condition has gotten worse. The darkness is…" Sheik didn't even bother to explain, but gestured to all of her.
Jen leveled the princess with a deadpan glare, or at least the best one she could give. She mimicked the gesture, up and down.
"You look like a werewolf," Sheik offered, "Or, at least, for now. It's not that bad!"
Jen growled quietly in reply, unable to speak. She stumbled out of the barkeep's space, disliking how her spine curved as she walked unaided.
Link sat across the bar next to a trio of wisps. Jen looked a little more closely, briefly thankful that at least her senses had gotten sharper. Link sat next to a girl his age, with button features and short blonde hair. A medley of unreadable expressions lined his face, but longing was clear.
"Hey," she greeted, kneeling next to him. He barely glanced at her, unwilling to tear his eyes from the wisp. She frowned when she noticed the golden chain still present around his neck.
"How long was I out? One tail-thump is an hour." Link thought a moment, then his tail slapped the ground three times. Jen cursed.
"Dammit."
They sat together in quiet for another moment, simply watching the Wisp's last moments. She, and another, older woman, stood above a Zora youth, talking about trying to save him. The bleached scales certainly suggested there was something wrong with the child. Jen noticed the cut and color of the fabric didn't match the other wisps around her. In fact, it reminded her strongly of Uli.
"Is she from your village?"
A nod. Jen took another glance at the lonesome expression, and allowed an impish smile to cross her face.
"… do you like her?"
Link tensed like a startled rabbit, the sad expression vanishing entirely. He noticed her grin and shoved her in mock play. She rolled onto the ground laughing.
"You do! You totally do!" she giggled as he barked soundlessly and jumped on her to make her stop.
Someone cleared their throat above them. Jen looked up sheepishly to see Sheik with an unamused expression layered around their red eyes. Jen rolled to her feet as Link looked contrite. Sheik said nothing, but led them to Midna's crystal, still resting on the table.
Jen's teasing mood slid right onto the floor.
"What you did with the barrier, I need you to do now," Sheik demanded, holding out their arm. Link offered his paw.
Jen accepted it, carefully examining the matrix of the magic. The low whine of the magic filled her ears, crackling energy under her skin. She tracked the electric, feather-soft jolts under her fingers. The surface of the spell was unyielding, but the inside… She frowned.
"It's… different. Layered. I can counter the stasis, but the crystal itself… that's tough. And… Midna might not have the strength to break out of the crystal," she mused, half to herself.
Link looked at her flatly, gesturing to Sheik, who raised an eyebrow. Jen gestured helplessly with her free arm.
"I can't exactly speak perfect Hylian right now, Link!"
Link gave her an impressively scathing raised eyebrow, gesturing at the chain.
She sighed. "LLllllaayyyerrrrrsssss… Aaaarrrrd…. S'aaasssissss…"
Sheik looked at her uncomprehendingly. Jen rubbed the bridge of her nose with the joints in her thumbs and growled, gripping the table. Her nails sank into the wood like butter, and Sheik winced, putting their hands up placatingly.
The softness of the wood gave her an idea, and Jen pantomimed drawing with her pointer finger on her other palm. Sheik glanced around.
"Can you use a pen and paper? I don't think your claws will-"
Jen snarled in frustration and stabbed into the wood, roughly carving out a shape. She made a diamond with a circle inside, then colored that in with a few slashes, and deliberately drew a second diamond around the first one. She wrote the words "Stasis" and "Barrier".
"The spell has two parts? The barrier and stasis?" Sheik affirmed. Jen nodded.
"Can you break them?"
Jen shook her head, banging her fist against the unyielding surface of the crystal, sending a wordless apology to Midna in case she disturbed her. Then she put up a hand, as if to say "but", and drew another diamond, with several arrows inside and outside it, facing away from and into the circle. She pointedly drew a few more arrows from the circle to the outside of the diamond. She wrote 'halt stasis, can help free herself.' Then she grimaced, and added 'weakened, can suffocate.'
"Oh."
There was a moment of silence. Then Sheik's expression steeled, and they gave her their hand again.
"It's our only hope."
Jen picked up the crystal, placing it on the floor. Link trotted over to the bar, coming back with the blanket, and waited until they picked up the crystal before putting it underneath Midna. Zelda and Link sat around her in a triangular pattern with Midna in the center. Jen held one hand above the crystal, and the other resting on its surface. A better position for a give-and-take sort of spell. She put Sheik's hand and Link's paw in her raised hand.
Jen stretched her magic into the swirling well of Light of the Triforce, directing it down, down into the crystal. She breathed.
The chant started slow, a gentle pull to get the untamable force to move as she wanted. The Triforce of Wisdom led the melody, helping Courage feel a path for itself. Slowly, like a ball rolling unstoppably down a hill, the chant picked up speed and force, attacking the matrix created by Power.
The Crystal glowed in warning, swirls of light appearing in correspondence with the spell's weave. Jen resolutely ignored the boxy swirls of Crystallize, which was too firm in its course and direction of Never Break, and moved on to Stasis, letting the Pieces' similar magic melt past the barrier. Green and blue bled through the gold, clashing with red lines painted up and down Midna's body.
Like the barrier around the castle, a hole appeared in the spell and grew as she focused. Slivers of consciousness returned to Midna. The silvered glow of the crystal waned, becoming more like the gold of the barrier around Hyrule.
Midna's eyes opened slowly, and her chest heaved in a deep breath. She looked up at them, and almost smiled.
Jen's hand shook, gripping Link's paw and Sheik's hand tightly. It took all her energy to hold off the Stasis spell.
"Fight it, Midna," Sheik whispered, "Please, fight it."
Midna blinked up at them and seemed to realize, suddenly, that she was being smothered. She reached up, tapping the glass, then hitting it with more force. Color returned to her skin as her eye narrowed in rage. She grunted, hitting the barrier harder. Black light lingered where she hit the barrier, though faded when she pulled back her fist.
She quickly started thrashing, pummeling at every part of the barrier she could reach, leaving little black spots everywhere. Eventually, she seemed to wear herself out, pulling back again to breathe. The black spots faded and the golden glow redoubled. Link, agitated to the point of restlessness, barked soundlessly at her.
Midna's visible eye widened, then narrowed, and she emitted a muffled roar. A hazy orange glow seemed to flash under her skin, and she braced her arms and legs against the barrier, using her hand-hair to push against the other side. Her teeth gritted against the strain she put herself through, and the black spot began to grow.
Jen's strength flagged, and Sheik found themselves holding her hand and Link's as she slumped against the wall behind her, still forcing herself to hold back the stasis. Jen's everything burned with exhaustion, but she continued to sprint through her own personal marathon.
Sheik put their free hand on top of the growing black spot, and began to focus. While the power of the Triforce pieces may be holding the Stasis at bay, they had their own separate reserves to draw from. Like a knife chipping at ice, they added their strength to Midna's. The black spot spread, blocking Midna from view as it engulfed the crystal entirely.
A glowing white crack appeared in the crystal silently. The crack spread like breaking ice, straining against the pressure exerted from outside and in. Sheik's face screwed up in concentration as they continued to push, as if physically pressuring the barrier would break it faster.
With a final yell, Midna broke through the crystal, letting it shatter around her. She collapsed in exhaustion on the blanket, panting heavily. Around her, the others released the tension they held from maintaining the spell. Jen fell back against the wall behind her, trying not to think too hard about the coppery tang in her throat.
"Princess…" Midna murmured, and huffed a weak laugh, "Did you see that? We make… a pretty good team."
Sheik shushed her gently, one thumb stroking Midna's hand. Link's tail thumped heavily against the floor. Jen pulled together enough energy to twitch her lips upward.
"…She's the rightful Queen, isn't she?" Sheik asked Jen, "Zant… the Usurper King… he is nothing but a puppet."
Jen couldn't reply verbally or physically, but the question was mostly rhetorical. Link looked like he was understanding something for the first time, and Jen could have hit herself. She'd forgotten to tell him. She sent an apologetic glance to Link, then her neck protested. She winced. If her bones were screaming at her, too, then that meant she had moments left before she collapsed entirely.
Sheik bowed low over the imp. "Midna… I'm so sorry. This is my fault. The mistakes of my people centuries ago have sown the misery you now reap." Midna grimaced, still breathing heavily.
"Hm. Don't be … so poetic about it. It's not… not your fault. Don't pretend it… don't believe it is," she almost-scolded. Sheik said nothing, but their eyes flickered to the stone below them. Midna's glance slid to Link and she grinned.
"There you are… fur-ball. I'm glad …to see you." She reached up, placing a hand on his muzzle. He obligingly leaned down, allowing her to run a hand through the soft fur on his cheek, though his eyes were shadowed. The glint of gold around his neck made her snarl.
"I'll get him for that," she promised, "I'll rip out his throat for cutting off your voice."
Jen snorted and found the strength to scootch back against the wall into a more upright position. She found it funny that, despite being a threat of graphic murder, it was the most heartfelt thing she'd ever said to him.
She heard Midna pull herself to her feet and wave off Link's over-attentive concern. There was a half-second pause.
"Yarie."
Jen opened one eye to see Midna standing on the ground, one hand supporting herself on the table.
"… You're not that bad. Still annoying, though."
"Don't hurt yourself," Jen grumbled. Link's chest briefly shook in silent laughter. She flashed Midna a quick positive gesture, but didn't get up.
Sheik eventually got up and retrieved the health potion, forcing Jen to drink some more. When she could lift her limbs on her own, they put down the bottle.
"We need to move, and find help," they said firmly, "The monsters are still looking for us, and it's only a matter of time before a squadron finds this place."
Midna jumped onto the table. "The situation's pretty bleak, Princess. What does your fancy triangle tell you to do?"
Sheik thought for a moment, resting their fingers on their lips. Their eyes flicked back and forth as if reading through a list, considering and dismissing each option.
Jen stood and grabbed more food, suddenly ravenous once again. She sent a mental apology to the owner of the bar, watching from the safety of the countertop as Link returned to his lady-love's side. Jen packed a few slices of ham into her bag for later, then began to rifle through her bag for her phone to check her social media.
She realized what she was doing, stopped, and felt absolutely stupid. Firstly, her phone was Earthen technology and she doubted she'd have service on Hyrule. Secondly, and much more importantly, Ganondorf hadn't taken over Earth yet. He barely had a slice of the US's coast.
And, a small, guilty part of her whispered, she could go home.
She rapped her knuckles sharply on the counter to get everyone's attention and slid off the countertop. She crossed the room in four steps and leaned over the scratched table, drawing a new sentence.
'Home = E-A-R-T-H.' She wrote the name of her planet as phonetically as she could, though realized that the sound "erth" was a suffix, with the same meaning as the prefix "inter". She paused.
'Call it G-A-I-A.' With a Hylian pronunciation, it would come out as "Gai-ee-yah", which was a perfectly respectable mysterious-sounding name, and fit with Hyrule's preference of being named after a goddess.
Midna immediately protested.
"No, absolutely not, I went there once and I'm not going back again!"
"What is Gaia?" Sheik asked at the same time, then rounded on Midna with the same question. Midna sneered.
"Nowhere you'd want to be. They attack strangers there."
Jen made a series of gestures in an attempt to explain how much she wanted her to shut up, it was one time and they were scared, and to please listen to her plan. It didn't work. Fortunately, with the failure of her charades, she discovered that it could all summed up in a rather rude gesture that having long fingers exaggerated nicely.
Zelda sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"We don't have time to fight. Midna, I need to know."
Jen knew she'd do a great job describing how terrible it was while still giving an outline Zelda could work with, and went to draw a scratched-out map and brief description. She started with a round globe centered on the Americas, putting a square around the States. Then she made a second map made entirely of a rough America, making a small circle around New York with a dug-in dot in the middle. She drew an arrow to emphasize the city, then labeled America as 'The Land of the United Provinces: A-M-E-R-I-C-A'. More than a little pretentious, but the word "state" did not translate easily into Hylian, and the table was running out of space.
She pulled out her phone, checking to see if it had power. It did, miraculously, which probably had something to do with the spare batteries she had hooked up to it. She laid it on the table, scratching out a tic-tac-toe board to represent the password screen and drawing out the pattern her passcode was in. If it resembled the first letter of the Hylian alphabet, well, some things just weren't coincidences. Under the phone, she wrote 'Gaia Communication Device: P-H-O-N-E.'
Next to the arrow pointing to New York, she wrote 'City of Many Heroes: N-E-W Y-O-R-K'.
Two-thirds of the table was now covered with her artwork. Sheik was still listening to Midna describe a terrible place of metal and glass, with traps promising food and resulting in capture; where flying golems kidnapped her and put her in a bright case for weeks before a person finally came to ask her her name.
Jen felt a pang of guilt. She wasn't technically wrong; they had done that, just … in less dramatic terms.
Sheik, for their part, seemed almost enraptured. It was strange to watch the princess's expression; part shock, but a majority childish awe and delight hidden behind a crumbling façade of calm. Link must have been listening with half an ear, because when Midna described a flying machine that used swords to lift and made a heavy noise as it flew through the air, a surprisingly accurate, if bizarre, description of a helicopter, he glanced at her incredulously. He caught Jen's eye, but before she could nod to say yes, this existed, he huffed irritably and turned back to the wisp.
He definitely held a grudge against her. So stupid… how could she forget?
Well, nothing to do but move forward.
Jen slammed her hand against the table with a resonant bang to get Sheik's attention. Midna jumped, cutting off her story of how tall the buildings were, and glared. Jen tapped the table.
"What's this?" Sheik inquired, looking at the mess she'd made of the table. Jen tapped where she'd written "Gaia". Then she tapped "Heroes" and the mark she'd made to represent New York. Looking back on it, she grimaced at how rough the shape of America was. And Earth. Actually, she wasn't sure if she'd really accurately pointed out where New York City was at all…
"This is Gaia?" Sheik asked. Something about their tone suggested that their usual cool was becoming a difficult mask to keep up. Jen felt a little vindicated when their excitement turned to her, instead of focusing on Midna. She nodded, then pointed to her phone.
It took a minute to guide Zelda through how to unlock the phone, and longer still to explain that she could navigate it by swiping through it, please stop tapping it. Finally, at long last and with great effort, she got them to the photos app.
"This is New York, your city?" Sheik gasped, or at least close to it, stumbling momentarily over the pronunciation. Jen nodded. "It's a marvel! How did your people do this? Where did the trees go? Do you have trees like ours on your planet? Oh! You do!"
Midna, behind her, stuck out her tongue.
Jen scrawled 'Less impressive up close, noisier, makes you feel small.'
Sheik flipped through another few pictures of the new world before finally settling.
"Your heroes?"
Jen nodded. 'The Avengers, and many vigilantes. Strong army.'
She was really running out of space. Sheik considered this.
"We need to request their aid. Hyrule is in dire need of it."
Midna spluttered. "Hey! I said I wouldn't go back, and I meant it!"
The two began to argue in haste. Jen sighed. This might take a while, and she couldn't really add anything, seeing as she couldn't speak. She began scratching out a much longer note onto a second table. She had to explain as much as she could to Link's friend, to at least ensure that, when she returned to her normal form, she wouldn't be so scared for him.
The truth about Midna weighed heavily on Link. How had they both forgotten to tell him? This was major, massive, earth-shattering, and it just skipped their minds. Not only that, but Zant, the Usurper King, was just usurped by a legendary threat. Ganondorf.
Sheik, who was apparently the princess's alter-ego and not just an "ally of the crown", continued to argue with Midna, who was apparently the rightful ruler of Twilight. All the while, the Twilight-poisoned form of an actual alien (though she had told him that part, right away too, but she still didn't tell him a lot more) put away a device which apparently held pictures of the amazing world she lived in and slouched at the table. He desperately missed the life he'd led just the month before. Ignorant, sure, but simple.
Eventually, Midna finally relented with a final word of caution. Whatever she had experienced in that world wasn't enough to stand up against their desperate need for allies and Sheik's endless curiosity. Was that just a trait of the Triforce of Wisdom? Jen might know, since she apparently knew everything and only deigned to share what would help her situation or make others sympathetic to her.
So, their best plan to save the kingdom was to leave Hyrule, and find help from Jennifer's people. Link, realistically, knew it was their best shot, but he hated this plan. He hated it with a passion he couldn't express outside of glaring, because fucking Ganondorf had just cut him off from his voice using only a little chain.
He had just found Ilia. He could keep searching for the other children. Why would he leave? Ganondorf or no, he would protect them fiercely. He wouldn't be caught off guard by a few Bulblins. He would defend them tooth and nail, literally. The girls plus Sheik were beginning to a few preparations for their departure. In the meantime, he would keep his vigil by her side, listening to her last words with a heavy heart. Even in her desperate hour, she looked out for others.
Jennifer tried to get him to move, to prepare for what was to come, but what did he have to do? Everything he had was right in front of him, and he was about to abandon it.
"Link, Midna's ready," Jen said, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. Link barely reacted. His emotions felt muddled into a stew, and he could barely bring himself to feel anything but frustration.
"She'll be safe here, safer than we will be," she consoled, "And when we get back, with the others, you can focus on saving her. You're not abandoning her."
Certainly felt like he was. He couldn't tell her that, of course. Link couldn't even tell her Ilia's name. No sound made it past his throat. Not panting, not a whisper, and certainly not a word.
He slowly turned away, walking to the portal Midna opened in the bar. Like the one in the Temple, it swirled black and green on the floor, whirling into the void.
"This should open up to your home, Yarie," Midna panted, exhausted from the effort of creating this portal in a way that had never happened before. Sheik reached out to give her support, but she waved them off.
Jennifer walked up to the imp. The two stared at each other for a moment, and Jen threw her arms around her. Midna squawked in surprise, wriggling a moment, before finally accepting the contact. Jen released her, and Midna brushed off imaginary dust.
"Yeah, yeah, don't push it," she grumbled, "Your planet still sucks."
Link quirked an eyebrow. Had they talked about this before? Truthfully, while he wasn't looking forward to leaving the kingdom to Darkness, he was a little excited to see this mythical place. Jen hadn't talked about it much, only in the broadest descriptions.
'Of course they talked about it. Probably at the same time they decided not to tell you Midna was the actually Princess of Twilight,' something bitter in him hissed. He looked down, away from the two.
Midna looked away. "It's open, come on. Before I change my mind."
Link joined the girls on the warp, and tried to focus on the future.
Author's note:
A Triforce piece isn't anything to sneeze at, and I think they're a bit underused in terms of actual use, and not just a plot device. I headcanon them as being unending wells of power, and if you can tap into it, the only limit is your own magical burnout. Which, incidentally, Jen skirts twice. Not healthy. The differences between Courage, Power, and Wisdom is that Power is designed to be accessed, and Courage and Wisdom are passively powerful.
You know how in Breath of the Wild, how the Gerudo will just let you in if you change clothes? I think that Hylians are naturally somewhat ambiguously gendered, and so culture revolves strongly about how one would present themselves. It's a major faux pas to question a stranger's gender depending on how they're presenting. Even in Hylian, there are a lot of ways to say "I/me/myself" to match gender. So, masculine person, maybe someone you think looks vaguely familiar, dressed in feminine clothes? A lady, thank you very much. If someone was really, really unsure, they would use they/them. So, Sheik, being a mysterious person who looks dramatically different from Zelda? They/them. Even when they know that it's Zelda, they're still Sheik while in those clothes, and so they use they/them.
Also, this story is gonna take a left turn away from canon but I'm really happy with it. It's definitely not gonna be everyone's favorite thing. And last but not least, I'm open to all comments! Keyboard smash into the comments box if you want, it'll make my day! Just please don't be too mean, okay?
