Chapter 2
Talon emerged from the portal in the same place he left. It was a bit disorienting to him as, for a brief second, he wondered if he had set the portal's destination wrong. As he stepped out and looked around, however, he found that he hadn't miscalculated after all. There, with a look of surprise on her face, was a very elderly woman with silver hair worn in a long braid, wearing a very similar robe to himself, holding a cup of tea in her hand.
"Your grace." Talon addressed her.
The Sage of Time looked at him, sizing him up while sipping from her cup. He felt a brief but powerful brush against his mind as she searched it. He did not resist. She needed to know what he knew in order for him to justify his presence in this time to her.
"Your grace," Impa finally returned the greeting. "You take an awful risk coming here."
"I understand. I had no other option." Talon returned nervously.
"Have no fear from me, Talon son of Link. I agree that you were left with no other options. Foolhardy as this one was, it was the only choice to make." Impa told him. "Your father would have done the same."
Talon nodded uncertainly. "You understand why I have come. Will you help me?" He asked.
"Like you, I have no other option if we are to ensure Hyrule's continued survival in the future. Yes, I know what, and whom you seek. Follow me." She told him.
As they walked the halls of the temple towards the library where he knew the book he needed was kept, he asked her, "Do you know what threat might face us in my time?"
"No." She returned. "It is disturbing information you bring me. I have seen our future in your mind. Nothing in or from Hyrule that I am aware of could have brought their rebirth. As you know, we have always had our share of monsters and threats throughout our history."
Their footfalls echoed through the hallways as they walked the marble floors. She continued, "But it was only the Demon King's threat that causes them to remain with us now."
Talon considered that, then asked, "Could there be another Demon King?"
"Not from Hyrule." She pronounced. "Or from any world connected to her. We would have seen it coming, you and I. No, this threat is not from our world, and it has had eighteen years to take root in your time."
"Eighteen years, your grace?" Talon asked, not having really considered the implications before. He had been so shocked to see his father's face he hadn't stopped to think.
"Yes." She said, a little impatiently. "Think, boy! You're two hundred and twenty five years old, have your wits gone dull? Link and Zelda have both reached seventeen years old, so what would have caused them to be reborn must have entered Hyrule around eighteen years ago. It takes nine or ten months for a baby to form before the child is born."
He held his tongue. At two hundred and twenty five years, he could hardly be considered a boy to anyone, except to the ancient lady next to him. How old had she lived before she was cut down? Thousands of years?
"This new evil has been lying in wait for eighteen years." He said. "And no one has noticed it."
Impa remained silent so as to let him understand what he may be facing. She then said, "You must be careful, young Talon. This enemy has had eighteen years to plan and strategize and put his pieces into place. You are only now realizing that there is a game to be played and you don't know all of the rules yet. Fortunately," she chuckled, "neither, apparently, does your opponent. If he did, this temple would have fallen long before your coming to see me. Perhaps he does not know about it. If so, that advantage will only serve you for so long."
"I understand." Talon replied. He then asked, "Do you believe these other heroes will help us? Do I make the journey in vain?"
She didn't hesitate when she said, "They are all good men in their hearts. Even Rodney McKay. But they are under the authorities of their own world. Even if they wanted to help, they may not be permitted."
"Who else could I enlist, then?" Talon asked.
"I do not know for certain. But consider this, this new enemy has entered Hyrule, where no one knows him or of him, from the outside for a reason. You must find out what that reason is. And if he is an evil presence, as the lady Hylia and the Hero believed him to be, then there are those from the outside who would fight against him as they would. You can be certain of that. You must try to locate them and enlist their aid as well if you can. In eighteen years, is it inconceivable that one or more of them might have also found their way here?" Impa reasoned. "If they have, then you must find a way to make contact with them."
They reached the library where Impa went to a particular shelf and retrieved a well used leather bound book. "Remember, if they choose to return with you, they may not set foot into Hyrule in this time any more than you can. You must take them straight back through the portal into the future."
She opened the book to the back panel, where they could both see a moving picture of a library, not unlike the one they were standing in. "Good luck, your grace." She told him. He placed his hand on the panel, and his body became swirling energy as it was sucked into the panel of the linking book to Earth.
"Hey Link, get in here!" Colin called his older foster brother from the living room. It was noon and the news was just coming on their old television. "There's something about your sister on the news again. Or is she your girlfriend, I forget." That had been a running tease of Colin's lately after hearing Link's fencing teammates tease him about the resemblance.
The truth was that there was some kind of a connection he felt every time he saw a picture of the crown princess, whether it was a report about her on the news, her picture in the newspaper, or even seeing her face on the green colored one rupee note. He always felt something for her in a way that didn't make sense to him, and did his best to keep others from seeing. Regardless of his efforts, those who knew him best picked up on his "crush" early on.
Link tried to be casual as he entered the living room and sat down on the couch next to Colin. He then casually hit his eleven year old foster brother in the back of his blond head with his palm, and then pretended not to know what had happened. "Hey!" Colin exclaimed. "What was that for?"
Link didn't answer him as he stared at the news, instead he moved to turn it up as the pictures in front of him grew increasingly disturbing. "Coming to you live from the southbound trans-highway one where Princess Zelda's armored car has been found torn to shreds, burn marks like some kind of huge flamethrower surround the area, and great, humongous claw marks are everywhere." The shot then went to a picture of three, seriously burned and injured men being loaded into royal ambulances for the run back to Castleton. "There is no sign of her royal highness, and the men who were in the vehicle are not saying anything to the news media at this time. Was the princess in the vehicle? Was she kidnapped?" An old stock photo of her royal highness flashed up onto the screen, and Link felt the shock of recognition he always felt, her name coming to his mind unbidden, though he never understood why. He had never met the princess, never even seen her in public, yet somehow he had always known that he knew her from somewhere. "We'll keep you updated all day on the developing crisis." The shot went back to the anchor at the desk in the news studio.
"Zelda..." Link said, almost involuntarily. "She's been taken." Images like memories came to his mind, almost unbidden. "I have to go." He said, his voice wavering.
"Go, go where? Mom wanted to have your birthday party once dad got done in the back forty." Colin said in confusion. "And then you said you'd practice fencing with me later so I could be ready for the Middle School tryouts in a couple of months."
"What?" Link said as though waking up from a daze. "Oh, right, uh..." He didn't know how to respond to him. What was he thinking? That he, a seventeen year old high school student go run off and save the princess from whatever monstrosity had made those marks on the ground?
Dragon. The word came without warning to his mind. A dragon made those marks, a massive one by the look of them too. "Whoa!" Link said out loud. "Where did that come from?"
"Where did what come from?" Colin asked. "Link, what's going on?"
"I need to, uh..." He had to come up with an excuse. "I need to go and uh... talk to Epona." He then walked out of the room, not paying attention to Colin's confused "Huh?"
He ran upstairs to his bedroom almost involuntarily and grabbed his fencing sword. It was a good strong, broad bladed weapon that his foster father had given him when he made the varsity team at Ordonville High. He didn't know why, but he pulled off the denim shirt he was wearing and pulled on a forest green hooded sweatshirt with the words "Ordonville High School Fencing Team Provincial Champions" in gold letters across the chest, and his old brown leather jacket, as well as his brown leather riding boots. Looking around his room he couldn't find his competition chain-mail, then he remembered it was at school in his gym locker, and it was the weekend. Taking one more look for... for something, he wasn't sure what... there, on his dresser was a small wooden flute that Colin had carved for him. "Why do I need this?" He asked himself, but stuffed it into his jacket's front zippered pocket anyways. He then grabbed his brown and green rucksack, emptied his school books out of it, and went back downstairs.
As he almost ran out the door to the barn. he also didn't see Colin go to the telephone and dial a number.
"Why am I doing this?" He asked himself. "This is insane. It doesn't make any sense." The barn wasn't a far distance from the house. Epona was there instead of out in the pasture, he knew.
He opened the barn door and made his way to Epona's stall, grabbing her saddle and tack along the way. He went in and began to saddle her.
"Going somewhere, son?" Russel's voice came to him from behind his back as he buckled the saddle into place.
"I don't know." Link said in confusion. "I don't understand it. I was watching a news broadcast. The Princess is in trouble." Just the thought of it began to harden his determination. "I have to get to her. I have to find her. I don't know why." He stood up and turned to face his uncle.
The old man had a sad smile on his face, and an antique royal shield bearing the winged Triforce crest as its standard. "I do, son." He said. "You may not think it, but I've read all the old stories in the Sacred Texts. When I first met you, I thought, 'hey that kid looks like the Hero, would you look at that?' But then I watched you grow up, I watched your natural skill with a blade, and your absolutely reckless courage whenever anyone's in trouble. I may be an old, broken down rancher, but I'm not stupid, son. I knew..." Tears filled his eyes. "I've known for a long time this day would come, that's why I kept this."
Russel gave over the shield to Link. "It's my old shield from my days in the guard. It'll keep you safe like it kept me." He showed him how to wear it on his back. "I'd run you up there myself in the old truck to get you started, but something tells me I need to stay out of it."
"The Hero..." Link tried to process everything Russel had said, and as confusing and frightening as it was, it felt... it felt... right. "I don't have a choice, do I?" Link asked.
"We all have a choice, Link." Russel told him. "We either obey the will of the gods or we don't, and we reap the consequences of those choices we make for good or for bad. Be sure to make the right one. And whatever choice you make right now, just know that I could never be prouder of the man you've become. And I think your mom would be too."
Link nodded. He could choose, he thought. He could choose to stay and be a normal teenager, or he could throw himself into danger to save someone he didn't know. It didn't take long for him to make the decision as he hugged his uncle fiercely, and then went to Epona's left side, put his foot in the stirrup, and mounted her.
"Good luck, son. You'll need to go north through Faron province to get to the part of the highway in Hyrule field that was on the news. That's a pretty long journey on horseback, it's going to take a few days." Then as if something just occurred to him, he said, "Let me grab some food for the journey for you from the kitchen real fast. It'll only take a minute." Russel went as quickly as he could while Link waited in Epona's saddle. When he returned a few minutes later, Russel packed the quickly gathered rations into Epona's saddlebags, and then fastened them back up. "Thanks, Uncle Russel." Link told him.
They said their final goodbyes, and then Link rode Epona out of the barn, up the driveway, and down the road, and then they were gone and out of sight. As Russel watched him go out of sight, he turned to go back into the house, trying to find a way to explain to his family why Link might not be coming back.
"They'll think I've lost my mind for letting him go." He said to himself. "But, goddesses forgive me, what else could I have done?" He reached into his shirt and drew out a worn gold pendant which he had worn on a silver chain since he was in the military years before. He gripped it tightly and pressed it to his lips briefly. "I don't often ask for much, but if that boy really is your son, Farore, then go with him and protect him, and bring him back to us whole and safe when it's time."
As he replaced the pendant back into his shirt, a warm breeze rustled through the nearby trees and gently wrapped around the older man before moving on. He smiled and nodded, hoping that meant someone had heard him.
Zelda's eyes opened up to shadows all around her. It was dark in the room where she had been left, with only a pale blue light emanating from a lantern set into a wall. She found herself lying on top of a bed, her head resting on a pillow. For a few seconds, she wondered if she had merely dreamed the attack on the car.
"Good, you're awake, dear. I was beginning to wonder how much longer it would be. Not that I'm in any hurry, mind you." A strange woman's voice spoke to her from the shadows.
Zelda sat straight up. She didn't recognize the room at all. It was all stone, and almost looked like a prison cell, except the door to the cell had either been removed from its hinges or it had rotted off of them. "Where am I?" She demanded to know.
"Oh dear, that's right, how rude of me. You were unconscious and I hadn't properly introduced myself. Well then," she said as she stepped out of the shadows and into the pale light of the blue flame, "you may call me Maleficent. And as for where you are, well, I found this nice former little prison of yours that you don't seem to use anymore. I believe your people call it the 'Arbiter's Grounds.' I hope you don't mind if I borrow it for a little while. I promise I'll give it back once I'm done with it." She said as though they were new friends having a girl chat, though there was wicked malice hiding behind every word, and Zelda could sense it.
"Why did you have your beast kidnap me?" Zelda her 'host' calmly, controlling her tone of voice.
"Kidnap? Oh no, dear. No, that wasn't kidnapping." Maleficent told her, drawing closer to the bed. "That was, how shall we say, bringing you under my protection for the time being."
Zelda could see her more clearly now. She seemed an attractive woman with an almost otherworldly beauty to her. Two great black horns protruded from the top of her head, and the rest of her head and body was concealed by a black leather suit of some kind and a black cloak. Maleficent carried a staff as she walked. She had seen someone like her before, but she couldn't remember where.
"What do you mean?" Zelda tried to keep her talking. She knew nothing about this woman, and her name was unknown to the Princess. "Protect me from whom?" She asked.
"Someone to whom you are far more valuable than to me, I assure you." The black dressed woman said. "Would you like some tea?" She made a motion with her hand and a small table appeared to form out of the shadows. On the top of the table had been set a teapot, and two cups with saucers. Steam issued lazily from the pot's spout. Seeing Zelda's wary expression, Maleficent said, "Oh don't worry dear, if I had wanted you dead, I wouldn't have taken the trouble to bring you here and let you sleep for a while only to poison you. Actually, I was in such a good mood last night, I even let your little man-toys live." She then rolled her eyes up, smiled and said, "a little banged up for shooting those nasty weapons at me, true, but they're still alive nonetheless." She poured some tea into a cup and took a sip. "I'm afraid your carriage didn't fare as well, though. What it pity that. You have such good taste."
Zelda then took Maleficent's offer of tea and poured herself a cup and took a sip, digesting the information that she just gave her. Maleficent hadn't enlisted a dragon's aid. Maleficent had been the dragon. That meant she was a being of great magical power, more so than any Hylian wizard or witch. Zelda had no doubts now that Maleficent could have dispatched her with a flick of her finger.
"Believe me my dear, if I hadn't taken you when I did, he would have done so shortly after, and then you wouldn't be having nearly as pleasant of a time as you are now." Maleficent continued. "So, I have introduced myself properly, but I'm afraid I don't actually know your name."
That took the Princess by surprise. She had never met anyone who didn't know who she was on sight. "You really don't know who I am?" She asked.
"As much as it may shock you dear, you aren't the center of everyone's universe." Maleficent said dryly.
"That's not what I..." Zelda began to say a little flustered. She then caught herself. If only she knew who I may be, Zelda thought to herself. But out loud she said, "I am Zelda, Crown Princess of the United Kingdom of Hyrule. If you didn't know who I was, then why did you... protect me?"
"Well, I knew you were a princess of heart. The light in your heart was shining like a beacon that any idiot could track halfway across time and space. You weren't hard to locate dear. He's been here much longer than I have. I'm just surprised he hasn't taken you himself yet." Maleficent said.
"Who is 'he?'" Zelda asked.
"No one you would know, I'm sure." She replied, setting her teacup down. Then she looked at her with a certain malevolence in her eyes and said, "But believe me when I say that when his plan comes to fruition, he will cover your world in darkness the likes of which you have never seen before."
"What do you want with him?" Zelda asked.
"Why, I want to kill him of course, which is why I need you. You will draw him like a moth to the flame." Maleficent told her.
"So, I'm your bait." Zelda said.
"I hoped you would be a smart one. I have met so few smart princesses in my time, I'm glad to see that hope was not misplaced. Who knows, you might even survive this. Won't that be fun?" She grinned a wide, toothy, evil grin.
Talon materialized in a great vaulted library, which was filled from floor to ceiling with books on shelves set into the walls. Great marble columns held up the roof, and box-like symbols which he did not recognize were etched into the columns. He was standing next to a pedestal whereupon lay a large book, its own yellowed, vellum pages open to the back panel where he could see a moving picture of the great hall of the Temple of Time. Around the room were other pedestals, whereupon lay other books, some of the them open, and others closed.
"Hello?" Came a man's voice from behind him. It was somewhat familiar, though he hadn't heard it for two hundred years, and then only in passing while he lay in pain in a healer's tent, recovering from the loss of his hand. He turned around to find an Ordonian man with light brown or sandy blond hair (Talon couldn't decide which in the dim light of the library) who appeared maybe ten or fifteen years older than himself. He wore spectacles and a black suit of some kind which looked to be of a military nature.
"Greetings." Talon said cautiously, but politely as he faced him. He extended his good hand, but the other man didn't seem interested in taking it, so he drew it back. "I have heard your voice before, but I don't think we were properly introduced." He said, unsure of how the man had received his entry into their world.
"No, no we weren't," The other man said in the language of Hyrule. "The last time I saw you, you were lying on a cot."
"Yes, those were... unfortunate circumstances." Talon said awkwardly.
"To say the least." The other man agreed. "What are you doing here?" He asked, in confusion. "I mean, after what happened, when you weren't returned to the Castle after John and Malon took you off to be judged, we just assumed that..."
"That I was to be executed." Talon finished for him. His face became serious. "I suppose I deserved it. No, I know I deserved it. In a way, I suppose the result was the same. I was forbidden from ever setting foot in Hyrule's normal time again."
"So they imprisoned you in the Temple of Time?" The other man asked.
"In a manner of speaking. Hylia made me her Sage as punishment, then forbid me to ever set through the gateway into Hyrule. If I do, I will die." Talon explained further. "Though there was no prohibition against me traveling through the linking books, or the portal of time."
"So, what brings you to our reality?" He asked, "just stopping in for a vacation, some time away?" It was a little sarcastic.
"I know you have no reason to trust me." Talon said.
"No. No, you're right. I don't. The last time I saw you was a month ago, and you had just tried to destroy the Sages and usurp your mother and brother's throne, so, no." The other man asked.
"And the last time I heard your voice, Daniel Jackson, was two hundred years ago." Talon returned. "I've had a lot of time to reflect on my crimes. I am here, because there has been a terrible development in my time, and I can contact no one in my time for help." His voice fell and he sounded tired, and every bit his age in spite of his only appearing in his mid-twenties. "I don't know why. My fellow Sages are silent to my mental calls, and the royal family... Things have become more complicated in the last two hundred years."
"What development?" Daniel asked, trying to wrap his mind around the situation.
"The Princess and the Hero have been reborn." Talon said, with as much gravity as he could muster. "The Princess Zelda I have known about since she was born. I have watched her grow up on the television device, but I had thought it was only a family resemblance and a traditional name. But, for me, six hours ago I saw my father's face on a news broadcast in a teenage boy with the same name, from the same village he has been from time and again."
"Television?" Daniel questioned. They had progressed, he thought to himself, in two hundred years. He shook his head trying to get back on task. "That wasn't supposed to happen. I mean, they being reborn wasn't supposed to happen again. The cycle was finished. Copulus and Hylia were supposed to be able to rest and remain ascended."
"Yes, they were supposed to. Instead, they descended to mortal form again seventeen years ago." Talon said.
"So what changed that caused them to make that decision?" Daniel was following his train of thought.
"What indeed?" Talon repeated his question. "Hyrule has had its wars and evil people since you left, and they have had to fight through it themselves and suffered the consequences of it. In all that time, we have still progressed, and the Hero and Princess have remained away. So what kind of threat to our people would bring them back? I have observed nothing in those seventeen years, nothing different, nothing obvious." Talon brought his hand to his face to rub his forehead. "My fellow Sages have not contacted me either, but that is not unusual, even in the best of times we rarely speak to one another. There is no reason that I know of that would bring them back except one, and my father destroyed him with your people's help."
"So you think there might be another Demon King? Another evil god has entered Hyrule?" Daniel jumped ahead of him.
"It has crossed my mind, and he has had seventeen years to plan." Talon confirmed for him.
"And you couldn't leave the Temple to go and warn them personally." Daniel put the pieces together.
"No." Talon responded.
"So you came here, back in time, to find help?" He finished. "You must have been desperate to come to us."
"Very much so, Daniel Jackson." He admitted. "Please, you have no reason to trust me, and I understand that. But, for my father's and aunt's sake, for the sake of my world, will you help me?"