Chapter 1

"Well, let's see what's on the news today, shall we?" The seemingly young man announced to no one in particular as he flicked his one good hand towards the television monitor in front of him He then went to prepare his lunch of spiced pumpkin soup and a ham sandwich, all the while keeping both ears open for anything of note.

He lived alone, that much was clear, as his private living space within the expansive, gilded structure was about as disorganized as any bachelor could make it, and he received few visitors. There was a bed meant for a single person, a table and a few chairs, a kitchen area which had recently been updated with all the "modern" conveniences, and a few other furnishings which made it just livable. There was also the addition of the television monitor which he had received as a gift from the royal family some two or three decades ago when he discovered the outside world now used it extensively for news and entertainment.

Every so often, about once a month, a representative from Hyrule's royal family would visit to deliver supplies and keep him personally informed of the goings on in the outside world. These visits had been begun by his mother and brother, and they continued with his brother's children, and then grandchildren with the unusual surname of "Johnson" (that is, "John's son") which had been adopted by his brother's son after he succeeded his father. Now, they were made by distant relatives of the current royal family who had been "honored" with the inherited task of seeing to his well being. He had not yet met the current king, or his traditionally named daughter, Zelda Johnson, though he had watched them on the television. Nevertheless, the visits were a kindness that he still appreciated, even after two hundred years of being unable to leave the confines of his "home." His most recent visitor had been a ginger haired, elder Lady with kind eyes and a compassionate nature who reminded him very much of his queen mother in her later years. Lady Malona Johnson was her name, and she was his great-great-great-great-grand-neice.

As prisons went, he knew there were certainly worse. He could go anywhere inside the expansive temple, and he had. He had learned its secrets well, and over the years had learned to appreciate his penance serving as the Lady Hylia's Sage and temple guardian. But he could not leave it. That was the price for his foolishness and offenses against Hyrule's Sages and their gods centuries ago. He could never set foot in the rest of Hyrule again.

When it was necessary, the other Sages would visit him from time to time as well, though that had not happened in several decades. They were wary and distrustful of him to begin with, and a few openly questioned the Lady Hylia's judgment. He didn't blame them. He knew he would have reacted the same way for what he had done.

"The Princess Zelda has made a new proposal today to parliament..." The news broadcast began to say, and Talon turned his head to see the image on the screen of an attractive teenage girl with blue eyes and long blond hair. She was the spitting image of his long dead aunt, so much so that as he watched the girl grow up in front of the cameras he began to grow concerned.

But she was, after all, a descendant of Hyrule's royal family and it shouldn't have surprised him that someone in the line of descent would eventually resemble her. And the name Zelda was a traditional name for the crown princess. Since his brother, there had been no less than three Zeldas born to the Royal family, though admittedly none of them resembled the Zelda like this one did. So far though, it was just this one girl who resembled his aunt. In two hundred years he had seen no trace of anyone who resembled his father, the Hero.

He listened to the anchor ramble on about her equality proposals for non-Hylian citizens of the United Kingdoms of Hyrule. "It shouldn't even be necessary, now should it?" He told the television.

He remembered a time when no one would have questioned whether or not Gorons or Ordonians had the same level of intelligence or the same basic rights as Hylians. But things had changed. New and foolish ideas were spread far and wide. There was an explosion of thought and education around the time of his imprisonment with the development of the printing press. Some of those thoughts were worth teaching and sharing with the whole world, but there were many that would have been better left unprinted in his opinion.

The Princess Zelda was something of a champion against these poor and damaging ideas, and she was a staunch supporter of equal rights for all of Hyrule's people, not just those with high cheekbones and pointed ears. And she had a way with words that made people want to listen to her and consider them. So far, she had managed to keep the racist, extremist political parties where they belonged, on the fringes and in the minority. As her "too-many-greats-to-remember" grand uncle, he was proud of her and what she had been able to accomplish.

"In other news, there was a house fire in a local neighborhood in Ordonville today." Talon brought his lunch over and placed it on the table and sat down to watch. Ordonville wasn't far from where the Temple of Time existed in space and time in its Sacred Grove in Hyrule. He watched the screen as flames leapt out of the upstairs window of what had been a nice, two story home in a rural neighborhood. He had just taken a spoonful of his soup when the news continued. "The local volunteer fire department was called out to put out the fire which nearly destroyed the home and almost cost the lives of the Finniels, a local family of five. They were miraculously saved by a courageous local teenager who, taking no thought for himself, plunged into the burning home and brought all of them out of the house safely." An image of a dark blond, sixteen or seventeen year old Hylian boy carrying a two year old Ordonian girl out of a burning building came on the screen, his forest green shirt burned and blackened in several places. His face was displayed clearly and plainly on the screen as the report continued.

The hot soup which had been in his mouth blew across the table in a messy orange spray. On the television, a reporter quickly interviewed the "hero-boy." "So, what made you just rush into the burning home?"

"I don't know. I didn't really think about it. I saw the smoke coming from the house as I was going to meet my uncle. I ran over to see what was happening and I heard Elsie screaming for help. The next thing I knew I was busting into the house and running through it grabbing everyone I could and getting them outside." The boy said. "I just knew I had to help them. I was the only one who could."

"No." Talon said. "No, that's not possible. The cycle was finished. The legend is over."

"What's your name, son?" The reporter asked.

"Don't say it." Talon pleaded with the television. "Don't say it. Please don't say it."

"Link Faroson." The teenage boy told him.

"Great goddesses..." Talon whispered. "That can't be. That just can't be." His food forgotten, he sat back in his chair and just stared at the boy who looked so much like himself he could have been his twin brother come back from the dead. Except that wouldn't have been nearly as horrifying to him as this. There on the television screen, fresh from an act of courageous heroism was the teenage face of his father, the Hero of Hyrule, dressed in a burned, long sleeve, green shirt, brown denim pants, and scuffed brown ranch boots.

What was the term he had once heard his father's friends from the other reality say? Oh crap. Yes, that was it. "Oh crap." He said.

Link's uncle Russel rushed to Ordonville's hospital clinic from his goat ranch in his beat up old work steam-truck when he received the telephone call. He was a veteran of the border wars with the Bulblin tribes and walked with a limp, but but he never let either stop him from working his ranch or taking care of his family; his "nephew" Link included.

Anyone who looked at the kid could tell right off the bat Link wasn't related to him by blood. He was without question Hylian, and Russel was without question a born and raised Ordonian. Link was so Hylian, he even bore a passing resemblance to the royal family, though no one in Ordonville would have accused him of high birth. People talked in a small town, and everyone knew everyone's business.

No one actually knew who Link's father was. That, in and of itself started the gossip mill going. His mother came to Ordonville pregnant and single and looking to start over, and not wanting to talk much about her past. She was as sweet of a Hylian woman as Russel and his wife Tara had ever met. They had known the boy since he was in diapers. His mother had been a neighbor of theirs down the road from the ranch and had worked in the clinic as a nurse for a long time. When she had taken sick and had to be hospitalized, Russel and Tara promised to look after him. When she died, he just never left their care. That was just fine with Russel. Link had been a great older brother for their own boy Colin, who in turn idolized the Hylian youth.

When he got to the emergency room, Link was already up and ready to be going. What burns he had received on his back, arms, hands, and face in the fire had already healed thanks to the doctor's red healing medicine, and new pink skin had already mended them.

"What were you thinking, Link?!" Russel asked him when they got to the truck, his nerves at their end.

"They were going to die, uncle Russel! What else could I have done? What would you have done?" Link responded to him.

"Never mind what I would have done," Russel said, a little less loudly. He knew exactly what he would have done had he been there with his foster son. He would have charged in there right alongside him if he could have, his gimpy leg be damned. "You almost got yourself killed."

"But I'm okay! Really, I'm fine. It was just a few minor burns, and the red potions took care of them like..." His uncle didn't let him finish.

"Like they always do. Yeah, where have I heard that before?" Russel retorted as they drove along the dirt roads back to the small ranch house just outside of the other side of the small town. Ever since the boy was ten years old, after his mother had died, he was a source of constant terror in some ways for his foster parents. The vivid memory of a wild blue troll's battle cry in the back forty acres had brought Russel galloping at full speed on his old gelding, rifle in hand, only to find the most amazing sight he had ever laid eyes on of this little ten year old blond kid in a torn green shirt, one arm bloodied, holding a toy wooden sword on a blue troll twice his size. Russel's own four year old son, Colin, had been on the ground behind Link with a twisted ankle. Before Russel could take the shot with his rifle, he watched as the boy carefully, and with reflexes he had only ever seen in the battle hardened veterans of his old guardsman unit, took the troll's legs out from under him and brought the hard wooden toy sword down on the beast's head with such force that it split its skull open. Russel had never been more scared, or more proud that day, with the exception perhaps of today.

"I'm just glad you're okay, Link." Russel told him, the wind taken out of his fear induced anger by the memory. "Every time this happens, I wonder if you've gotten yourself in over your head. One of the goddesses must love you for you to keep surviving half the stuff you get yourself into."

"I don't know why this stuff always happens to me. I just... I see someone in trouble and I feel like I have to protect them. It's like... it's like it's what I was born to do." Link told him. He was then silent for a minute, and then said, "I talked to the royal guardsman recruiter at school yesterday."

"Oh?" Russel asked in surprise. Why he should have been surprised at it he didn't know. The goddesses only knew that it would be the most natural path for the boy, but still, it was the first time he had heard of it.

"I turn seventeen tomorrow. I'll be eligible for basic training." He told him.

"What about high school?" Russel asked calmly, trying to get him to be patient. "You need to finish school first before you join. That's a whole 'nother year. Besides, what about your fencing teammates? You know they can't win the championships this year without you. You going to leave them high and dry?"

"I know, I just... I feel like I was meant for more than that. Like I was born to make a difference in this world." Link explained.

"And you want to get started right away. I understand that." Russel said. "Let me let you in on a little secret, Link. Remember Colin when you were ten years old? Remember how bad Malo got bullied when you both were in middle school until he met you? And remember Elsie Finniel and her family earlier today? You're already making a difference in this world, boy, and I couldn't be prouder. When it's the right time, I'll drive you up to Castleton's training camp myself and introduce you to your instructors. But don't get in so much of a hurry to save the world out there, that you forget the world that needs you right here, okay?"

"Okay." Link said, seeing the wisdom of his uncle's argument.

They pulled into the stretch of dirt driveway and drove up to the one story house. In the horse pasture, Russel's gelding and Link's mare, Epona, stood grazing in the sunshine of the late spring afternoon.

The telephone rang in Princess Zelda's personal office in Hyrule Castle and her secretary, an older, portly, balding gentleman named "Mr. Impaz," picked it up. "Princess Zelda's personal office, may I help you?" He asked.

"I need to speak to her highness right away. It is quite urgent." The voice of a younger man told him.

"I see," Mr. Impaz responded patiently. He received many such calls several times a day from young men who "needed" to speak with her highness. "Her royal highness is not in her office right now. May I take your name, telephone number and a short message?"

"My name is Talon, Sage of Time, and it is urgent that I speak with her!" The young man said impatiently.

Oh boy, here we go, Mr. Impaz thought. "Young man, I happen to know that the Sage of Time is over two hundred years old, and if he needed to contact her highness, he wouldn't need to use the telephone." Really, did these self-deluded "suitors" seriously think he hadn't heard something like this before?

"My telephone number is three-three-zero-one-six-nine, Mr. Impaz," the young man told him. "Check it with the numbers you have on file and try calling it back if you don't believe me, but I need to speak with the princess now. There is disturbing news that she must hear. The Hero had been reborn."

"Yes, I'm very impressed you know my name, whoever you are." The princess's secretary said, extremely unimpressed. "I will pass on your message to the princess when she returns to her office after the weekend."

"What!" The young "Sage of Time" practically yelled over the receiver. Mr. Impaz then decided this conversation was over and hung up the phone. True to his word, he dutifully wrote down the number and every word of the message on a piece of notepaper and left it along with the other hundred or so for the Princess to read Monday morning. "Sage of Time indeed." He snorted.

Talon practically screamed at his archaic telephone device in frustration when the line went dead. That had been his last resort, and Zelda's secretary didn't even know who he was.

No one. No one had responded to him. He had tried using his own mental means as a Sage to contact his fellow Sages, but all he received in return was silence. Granted, none of them had attempted to contact him for decades, but that wasn't unusual.

A Sage's life was one of solitude no matter to which deity that Sage was devoted. As it stood, even the Sage of Light, whose temple was in the middle of Castle Town... "Castleton now," he reminded himself; even he had not made a public appearance for twenty years, since before the Princess had been born. None of the Sages had. He thought back, the last time Raulo had made an appearance was the coronation of Zelda's father, King Daphnes, oh, what was it? Twenty five years ago? Thirty? Time was such a difficult thing to keep track of in that place.

Still, someone should have picked up on his mental call. The Sage of Forest was the closest, her temple only in the Kokiri forest on the other side of Faron Province. She had, in the past, been the first to respond to his call and the least likely to ignore him when the others continued to distrust him. Among the Sages, she had been something of a real friend in his solitude. But Saral was silent to him now.

Unable to raise them by normal means, Talon had resorted to using the telephone device. It was not something he used on a normal basis, but the royal family, before Zelda had been born, had seen fit to install one, with his help, in his private residence to be able to make contact with them. He had been told that one had been given to all the Sages and lines had been run to make sure the Palace could keep in contact with all of them without having to make the often dangerous journeys to the temples where they resided, and vice-versa. He tried dialing each one of them, but again no one answered. Finally, in desperation, he had called Princess Zelda herself. Surely he would be able to speak with her, he had reasoned. They were after all family, and, now he knew for certain, he was her Sage.

No one. And his goddess herself, whose face he now watched on the nightly news, had ensured that he could not leave to take the message himself. What was happening in the world? At least now he knew for certain, at least he thought he knew, why his goddess had been silent to him for so many years. She had been busy growing up.

No one. He was alone, isolated, and powerless to warn anyone of the doom he knew was coming just by the appearance of... of the Hero. Nothing would be the same again. Nothing could. Hyrule would fall into chaos again, even if the Hero managed to save it.

"I can't stop it." He said to himself. "Din, Nayru, Farore, great goddesses of creation help me!" he cried out. "What do I do? Grandmother! Speak to me!" He shouted to the goddess Farore, his father's true mother in the distant past.

He was trapped in the Temple of Time. He couldn't set foot out of it to warn them in person, if he crossed the threshold of the doorway into normal time, it would rip him to pieces. Even if he could, no one apart from certain members of the royal family even knew what he looked like, not even the guardsmen in the Sacred Grove.

Why had they been reborn? He turned the question over and over in his mind as he paced his chamber. The Demon King was long since destroyed, the Triforce had been made whole and was now safely secured in the Sacred Realm. Hyrule had moved on from its long dark age.

The news had long since been over, and several entertainment dramas which he never cared about had already played. The one on now was a historical drama about his father and those men he had known from the other reality. It was the episode where his father had fought the Demon King in the shadow of Minas Tirith in Middle Earth. They always got the details wrong, Talon knew. As the Sage of Time, he could see the whole sweep of Hyrule's history which had preceded him, though not its future. The actor playing his father looked nothing like him, and he wasn't much of an actor either.

The part of the program that was on now showed those men returning through the portal of time to their own world. Talon knew that hadn't been so simple either. It required a linking book to get them into their own reality, but, as the actress Impa on the program said, "Travel through time is easy for this place." He repeated the words as she spoke them.

Colonel John Shepherd, Doctor Rodney McKay, and four other guardsmen from the mysterious world called "Earth." That was two hundred and thirty years ago. They were long since dead, but... A plan began to form in his mind. "Travel through time is easy for this place." He said again.

He then hurriedly dressed himself more appropriately for travel. If it worked, he had a long journey, a very long journey, ahead of him. He pulled on the pair of leather knee high boots he used when entertaining his monthly guest over his red trousers. He tucked in his white shirt and laced up the collar. Finally he pulled his red Sage's robe over his ensemble, the left arm of it hanging half empty where his hand had been burned away as a rebuke for the insane arrogance of a time long ago. Finally, he checked the tight braid of his long ginger hair which his grand niece had been so kind to do for him a few days before. It was still relatively presentable. This was the one part of his appearance he had difficulty with. It took two hands to braid one's hair. Satisfied he didn't look like a mongrel, he hurried from his residence to the great hall of the temple.

Would she help him, though? That was the question. He would be bringing them back to her own time too early, so he had to calibrate the portal just right to a time he knew they wouldn't be there, and when she would be sufficiently aware of the events she needed to be. If the goddess was willing, she would recognize him as one of her own. Travel through time, easy though it may be, was full of infinite twists and turns of things one never expected.

He waved his hand at the pedestal controls and activated the great ring of the portal, raising it up from its dormant chamber in the hall's marble floor. It began to spin, the symbols on its face lighting up. He thought through his plan again, and then one more time. It wasn't one of many options left to him, he concluded. It was his only option.

With one last prayer for guidance to his grandmother, he stepped through the shimmering blue field of energy into Hyrule's past.

Princess Zelda Johnson entered her office in the palace late that night, well past the time that Mr. Impaz had closed up and gone home. She hadn't planned on returning to it until the following Monday, but there was always so much work to do, especially after her address to Hyrule's Parliament earlier that day. Her father supported her equality rights legislation proposal, but it wasn't her father she had to convince. It would take weeks of campaigning in the parliament ministers' districts and provinces to ensure their votes in the final tally.

She flicked on the lights and walked past her secretary's desk, absentmindedly grabbing the list of telephone messages he had compiled from his desk and taking them into the back office where her own desk lie.

On her antique desk photographs of Goron children she had gotten to know in her last trip to Eldin were fixed on the desktop by tape. She kept them there so that she wouldn't forget why she was doing this. The governor of Eldin was a slippery Hylian man who had won his election by rigging the vote. She was certain of that, though she couldn't prove it. It was because of that man, and others in Eldin like him that those kids' schools didn't have enough funding to stay open, and it was too long of a journey for most Gorons to attend school in Kakariko City every day. It was also because of that man that many Gorons had been denied the right to vote by ridiculous laws targeting them specifically. Some days, not all the time, but there were some days she wished it was two hundred years ago when the royal family had absolute power, and just her word could remove him and others like him from office.

She sat down at her desk and began going through the messages. Most of them could wait until Monday. Well wishers, donors to the equality campaign, detractors... Mr. Impaz had dutifully recorded each message for her, no matter how irrelevant it seemed. She appreciated him for that, letting her decide which message was important and which wasn't.

As she worked her way through the list she saw one that stood out.

"Talon, the Sage of Time..." Was that even possible? She looked at the number he left and went to her computer organizer to look it up. "Why would he need to call my office?" She asked herself. Why would he call anyone's office? It had to be someone impersonating him, or... or something like that, didn't it?

The number came up as a restricted contact. Royal family's eyes only. "Oh dear." She said. She pulled the receiver from the phone and dialed the number, reading the rest of the message. "The Hero... What!?" She said out loud in surprise as the number dialed. "This has to be a prank." She said. It wouldn't have been the first time. She entered her own password into her organizer to recover the contact information on the number. "Temple of Time. Sage of Time's personal phone line." The information told her. She then said something distinctly un-princess-like as she swore.

The number continued to dial until she received a message that her party wasn't answering. She checked the time on the message. Mr. Impaz had taken it in the late afternoon, about six hours before.

She couldn't just ignore it. It was the Sage of Time trying to personally contact her. The message said that he said it was urgent, and now he wasn't picking up his telephone. "He can't leave the temple, so where is he?" She asked.

What she she do? She put her palms to her eyes trying to think. "I wish I had my ancestor's wisdom." She said. Finally she made up her mind. Checking her watch, she called for her private driver. The entry point for the Sacred Grove was only two hours away by electric car, from there it took more time to traverse the elevators and bridges down into the grove, as well as the security checkpoints. She had never been there herself, but she knew the details of it well, having learned it from the time she was very young. The administration of the Sages' temples was, ultimately, her responsibility as Hyrule's crown princess, and she always spoke with her cousin Malona after her visits. She had just been there recently to visit him in fact, and nothing seemed amiss, she thought.

"Looks like another late night, but if you've tried to get my attention, Talon, you've got it. I'm on my way." She said as she quickly left her office, turning out the lights and locking the door, heading immediately for the palace garage to meet her driver.

The trans-kingdom highway was clear that night with only the occasional other car passing them as her white and silver electric luxury cruiser sped along at top speed towards Faron Province. The moon was full and bright overhead and the lights of Castleton were far behind it. Normally, the car would be flying the winged Triforce flags of the royal family, but she had chosen to forego them this time so as not to attract unwanted attention from news reporters about where she was going. The exact location of this temple in particular was still a closely guarded secret that didn't need to be made known to the wider world.

In the front seat next to the driver rode a guardsman whom Zelda had trusted for a long time. In the back seat where she rode, sat her personal bodyguard. Both would give their lives for her without hesitation. Both were well trained in both pistol and sword play; the latter antique martial art still very much a part of their practice as much in honor of her ancestors as it was practical. Swords couldn't run out of bullets.

Zelda had called her father on the cruiser's personal phone to let him know what was happening.

"I don't know, father, that's why I'm going to find out." She told the king. None of the men in the car would ever reveal a word of what she said so she had no fear of discussing the situation with him.

There were some muffled questions from the other end, and she responded. "No, I don't know how long I will be. Williams and Johnson are here with me, and there's the Grove security detail as well. I'll be fine."

More muffled talking, and then she replied, "yes, I'll call you from the Sage's private line once I get there and let you know what's happening. It's concerning to me too."

There was some silence, and then it seemed like his majesty's tone became quiet and serious. "I know, father. If the Hero really has been reborn, then what does that say about me?" On that issue, she knew what it meant. It was her duty and responsibility to know what it meant, but she never thought it possible in her lifetime. Not in their day and age. "I thought this was supposed to over and done with too."

The king said something else, and she responded, "I love you too, father. I will see you when I return in the morning. Get some sleep, I'll be fine." And then she hung up the phone.

Just then the car slammed on its brakes and she and everyone else in the car was thrown forward, the only thing saving her from breaking her delicate neck being her seat belt as the car skidded sideways on the empty stretch of highway. "Ughh," she yelped involuntarily as she was tossed back into her seat by the inertial forces.

"Gavin! What happened?!" She shouted at the driver, but then she saw out the window, as did her bodyguards who drew their side arms.

In front of the car stood a lone hulking figure who seemed to merge with the surrounding shadows and darkness. It's eyes were glowing red embers.

"Your highness, stay in the car!" Williams shouted from the front as he opened the bullet-proof passenger side door and crouched down behind it. John remained by her side, his own weapon drawn as a precaution. The driver, Gavin, also produced a pistol, but made no move to go anywhere, keeping his eyes on the creature in front of them.

"Like I'm going to challenge that to a duel!" She retorted.

The creature moved toward them. As it did so, it seemed to absorb the moonlight, leaving a great black hole where it stood. It opened its mouth, drew in a deep breath and a pale green fire shot in front of them as it exhaled, lighting up the scene to reveal enormous demonic wings, black scales, and wickedly sharp teeth. It's massive head was crowned by two enormous black horns.

"Why is the dragon attacking us?" Zelda asked. The dragons of Hyrule were almost never seen anymore, and those that she knew of from Hyrule's legendary past were, like the Sages, guardians not mindless monsters with only a few notable exceptions.

Williams opened fire, and Zelda screamed as the beast leaped for the seemingly armored car. The last thing she remembered was a huge black claw peeling back the roof of the vehicle like a metal meat can, and then all was darkness and shadow.