Chapter 5
Hyrule field began to wilt, as did the Faron woods. With every hour past noon everywhere Hylia looked as she flew from Hyrule Castle to the Temple of Time she could see the black rot of the blight affecting every living plant, and even the smallest animals were now being affected. And there was nothing she could do about it. The corruption from the Sacred Realm was spilling out everywhere and into everything. Soon, there would be nothing left but a barren, lifeless rock. And then that too would be gone in time, dissolved by the blight. Hyrule was rotting from the inside out. By sundown, there would be nothing left to save.
She had sent her message to Link through the portal of time ahead of her. He would be devastated at Zelda's death, she knew, but there was little to comfort him except to let him know of her continued survival in this form. She hoped that would be enough for now.
Below her, on a stolen horse, rode the orc mage in a black hooded cloak across the plains of the field. They were heading in the same direction, she knew. There was something unnatural about the horse's gait and manner she saw deeply. The mage had used some magic to make the black horse run faster.
She resisted the temptation, again, to strike down the mage. That was a battle not meant for her, she knew. She had more pressing business in the temple before the creature arrived there as well. She sped on and far outpaced the mortal demon and his bewitched mount, leaving them behind.
The being of pure energy swept past her faithful, gray uniformed guards of the Sacred Grove, who had been oblivious to anything that had just occurred that day. Instead they were growing more and more concerned about the black rot which was spreading in the woods around them at an ever increasing rate. She had known all of them by name as they rotated in and out of the castle, watching over Impa and her mortal form by turns. They noticed only a passing warm breeze through the dying trees, and a sparkle of light they took for the sunlight dappling through the leaves.
She opened the portal into the temple and flew inside to find her faithful guardian. Assuming a more familiar, Hylian form she called out to her from the hallway, "Impa!"
"I am here, my Lady." Came Impa's response, but not from the form she was expecting as another being of pure light coalesced into the Impa she had known thousands of years ago, a much younger, strong female Sheikah warrior.
"Oh, Impa..." Hylia said. "How did this happen?"
"It would have happened sooner or later, my Lady, as it does with all things. Another Sage of Time will be awakened and come to take my place. No, we have a greater problem." The warrior said, and pointed to the blackened triangle which lay dark and cracked on the marble.
"Oh no." Hylia responded. "Then everything is truly lost, isn't it? Without Din's piece?"
"I don't know my Lady. We might be able to repair it, you and I, but not with the amount of time we now have. The blight is seeping through the time stream as well, no matter where in time we went, the clock would run out in about five hours." Impa said. "There is another way."
"Yes, I know." Hylia said sadly. "But will he understand what needs to be done in time?"
"That remains to be seen, my Lady." The Sheikah replied.
"My dear Hero..." Hylia said sadly. "I must ask one last task of you."
"I give you the lamna clavia. Otherwise known as the newly reforged Master Sword." Rodney McKay declared with a dramatic flourish as he gestured like a magician towards the sapphire hilted, gleeming sword which lay on the red and silver replication table in front of them.
"Is it truly the Master Sword?" Link said with hopefulness, unwilling to believe his eyes.
"Fully restored to factory specs!" McKay said. "Only thing is we haven't been able to test the A.I. or any of the sword's uh... unique capabilities. We think we were able to salvage most of Fi's memory core, but we can't check it."
"Why not?" Shepherd asked.
"We can't touch it." Bill Lee piped up disappointedly.
"You can't touch it?" Shepherd repeated.
"The specifications for the sword came up with a big warning in the fine print. It's got a security function built into the hilt like a DNA scanner, similar to the other Ancient tech we've got laying around here." McKay told him.
"So you have to have the Ancient gene. What's the big deal?" Shepherd asked. Over half the people on the base, including himself had the Ancient gene. So, for that matter, did Rodney.
"Oh no, no, no my friend. No this I.D. scanner is way more specific than that. In fact, there's only two sets of very, very specific gene markers which the sword will recognize and accept. Anyone else, it fries." McKay explained. "Anyone else that's mortal, I should add. An ascended being could use it no problem."
"What do you mean it fries?" Shepherd withdrew his hand from the near the sword quickly after it drifted of it's own accord to the shiny, sharp blade.
"It's better not to dwell." Dr. Lee said.
"You said there were two sets that it would recognize?" Shepherd asked.
"Yep, one male and one female. Anyone else, and they're toast." McKay confirmed.
"One male, the Hero," Link said, comprehending. "Only the Hero may touch it. And one female... Zelda, Hylia's incarnate form. It was Hylia who first forged the blade."
"So, you going to check it out?" McKay asked Link with anticipation.
Link reach out his hand to touch the cross guard gently. The two men had seen to it to remove the jewel which had caused the damage. He then let his fingers drift down to the handle and grasped it with his left hand, his sword hand. Under his gauntlet, he could feel the golden triangle embedded there respond energetically.
The sword glowed and seemed to come to life at his touch. "Recognition accepted," a very familiar voice which he hadn't heard for far too long reassured him. "Master Link, accepted." And the dear image of his oldest friend next to Zelda herself, a surreal looking blue and silver image of a young woman emerged into the small, Ancient laboratory.
"Master Link? What has happened? I seem to be missing part of my memory." Fi asked Link in confusion.
"There was an explosion, Fi. You were damaged, but these men restored you." Link replied happily. He wished he could hug the image tightly, but he knew it wasn't possible.
"I see. My gratitude then, dear sirs." Fi said, addressing the two scientists who watched her with rapt fascination.
"Are you fully functional Fi?" Dr. Lee asked, fulfilling a secret fantasy of his.
"Systems check..." She said, then paused for a brief moment. "Yes, I am one hundred percent operational, and I am at full power." She resumed. "What has happened since my convalescence?"
McKay and Shepherd were a little taken aback by what they knew was a computer program talking about its "convalescence." "Uh... well..." Dr. Lee tried to answer her.
"The Princess is dead." Link told her directly. "Zelda has been murdered."
"What?" Rodney said, hearing the news for the first time. "You didn't tell me that!" He accused Shepherd. "Oh, that sweet kid..."
"We just found out about it ourselves right before we came down here, Rodney." Shepherd said, keeping his tone even. Rodney truly looked upset by the news. Of course, Shepherd reminded himself, he had known her too.
"Well, what are we going to do about it?" McKay pressed. There was an anger in his eyes Shepherd rarely saw, except when one of his friends was hurt or in trouble.
"You're going to stay here. Link and I are going to return to Hyrule and hunt the bastard down after we fix the Sacred Realm." Shepherd said.
"Princess Zelda has been terminated?" Fi asked. "Then I project a one hundred percent chance that Hylia has resumed her divine form."
"Yeah, that's what we figured too." Shepherd told her.
"Resumed her divine form, what does she mean?" McKay asked in confusion, then comprehending he said, "Oh... She ascended, didn't she?"
"Yeah, we think so. Link got a transmission through the gate while we were gone signed by Hylia." Shepherd told him
"So she's not dead then? She's alive, just ascended right?" McKay stated. "Well, that's great news, it means she can retake human form whenever she wants!"
"She won't." Link said flatly. "She's not coming back as Zelda."
"Master Link, as long as the Demon King still exists..." Fi began to correct him.
Link stopped her, "He doesn't Fi. We destroyed him and stopped him from coming back permanently."
"Oh. Recalculating." She said. "Then I concur. There is a very low probability that she would choose to return to mortal form."
"Oh, wow. Bummer." Dr. Lee said. "I mean, it's great she's not actually dead, but what a bummer that there's no more Zelda."
McKay looked at him, for a minute wondering what world he was actually from, and then said, "Yeah... Listen there's one more thing we wanted to show you."
"What's that?" Link asked, removing his borrowed blade from the scabbard at his back and sliding the Master Sword back into its rightful home, Fi disappearing into thin air, waiting to be called on again.
"I took the liberty of digging a little deeper into Atlantis's database, and I came up with something I thought you'd like to see." McKay pointed to a wall mounted screen where lines of Ancient text began to cross the screen and a very familiar image of three triangles was displayed.
"The Triforce?" Link asked.
"Yes, and also in Ancient the Trevirti, or the 'three virtues.' It was designed and manufactured originally right here. I couldn't believe it when Bill and I found it... Well, actually Bill went digging, but anyways..." McKay said.
"You're kidding." Shepherd said.
"Not in the slightest." McKay responded. "No, this sacred relic was originally designed as a defensive weapon against ascended beings. Remember how the Ori could channel the belief of their mortal followers to give them more power? Well this thing was designed to do something similar in order to affect the fabric of reality. It focused and amplified the belief of a single mortal to alter their reality. It's designed in such a way so that only mortals such as you and I can use it, and only those mortals the designers, three Ancients named Din, Nayru, and Farore, found worthy to wield it. Each piece was meant to amplify the belief in a single virtue and thus amplify the virtue within the mortal using it. Taken together, the three pieces could shape reality on any plane in any way they needed to. What's more interesting is that it is only an amplifier. The person has to have the power, wisdom, and courage already within themselves to make it work."
Link was silent at this new information. He then asked, "It's not the Triforce itself then that gives the bearer those abilities?"
"No." McKay responded. "The bearer has to have them in the first place or it doesn't work."
Link remained silent and pensive after that.
"Okay, so are we good to go then?" Shepherd asked to all present.
"Yeah," Link replied quietly, "We're good to go.
It had taken about an hour after that for Rodney to figure out how to enter the gate coordinates Impa had given them, or even if the "Dial Home Device," as they named the coordinate entry computer, would even accept them. "Ten symbols! Man! We can't do this every day." He kept complaining to anyone in particular in the control room who would listen. "I mean, with the three zed 'p.m.'s we can do it, but it's going to cost us some and change." It amazed him at all that the city's computer even accepted the extended address. "Wow, that's complex." He would mutter on occasion, but in the end, it was all set up.
"The city's computer, remarkably, was already set up for these kinds of addresses. We had just never conceived of trying it." McKay would later explain. "And I wouldn't dare to try and calculate one myself without knowing the actual target reality. And for me, that's saying something."
"Well that only makes sense doesn't it?" Woolsey added as he listened to Rodney's report in the conference room.
"How so?" McKay asked.
"Well, Link's people came from here, didn't they?" He explained.
"Well, yeah... but... Okay, anyways, the point was that it's enormously complex, even for the Ancients." McKay tried to recover.
Shepherd, listening, had suited up with his own standard, black tactical gear, P-90, grenades, pistol, C-4, and the sword Link had borrowed previously as an afterthought. Upon remembering that they were chasing a "sorcerer," he also added an extra special package to his backpack just for him.
Link was back in his own mail and green tunic, the Master Sword strapped to his back once more. He didn't really understand all of what McKay was saying, but then he never had to begin with, and that was just fine. He might use magic, and magical objects when the need arose, but he would never consider himself a magician of any kind, nor had he any desire to. Like Shepherd, whom he understood very well, he was a soldier, a warrior, and always would be.
"So, we'll be gating back to the Temple of Time, right?" Shepherd asked Link.
"Yes. Impa was to set up a clock to let me know how much time I had left." Link responded.
"Okay, so we know you're carrying the Triforce of Courage already, Hylia said Nayru's piece was safe, right?" Shepherd asked. "And we can presume that she already knows the score, and will have brought it to the temple?"
"Right." Link responded.
"Just to be clear, what about the third piece, Power?" Shepherd asked.
"Impa has it." Link responded. "Also in the temple."
"So we just need to get you back, grab the other two pieces, open the portal to the Sacred Realm and take the completed Triforce in, right?" Shepherd wanted to be clear. "Simple enough. I like simple."
"Should be." Link agreed.
"And after that, we go orc hunting." Shepherd said.
"Absolutely." Link said, a cold steely look in his eyes.
"Anything else?" Shepherd asked the other three men at the table.
No one said anything.
"Okay, that's settled then. McKay, dial it up." Shepherd said.
The last thing Woolsey said to Colonel Shepherd and Link before they stepped through the gate was "Good hunting. To the both of you."
They both nodded, and then walked through the blue shimmering field and were gone.
Within the hour, the two gray, pointed ear, grotesque heads had been brought before Malon in her secured sitting room on a wooden plank and set before her on a table, just as Sir William had promised. Her two five year old boys, brought immediately to their mother by the guards who had shielded them with their own bodies, stood looking without emotion on the remains of the creatures that had murdered their beloved aunt and Princess in cold blood. What innocence they might have still had was being stripped away from them. The expression on her children's faces reminded her so much of her husband that she wanted to let the tears flow that threatened to overwhelm her, but she wouldn't.
The creatures looked to her surprisingly like Hylians, but Hylians twisted and disfigured in some dark nightmare of torture. She had not see the bodies, riddled with the shots fired at them by the uniformed Castle Guard. Those were to be dragged out of the castle and burned. Link had told her about this filth before, and about his adventure into their world. The world of the king and queen who now sat with her and her two sons.
"They are called 'Uruks,' your highness. 'Orcs' in our common tongue." King Eldarion told her as he stood by. He had also been offered a chair, but politely declined and his wife sat opposite the princess instead. "They are a degenerate race, an ancient, twisted offshoot of the race of elves who first populated Middle Earth."
Malon knew all of that. Link had told her of it, but she politely held her tongue in patience as she hoped her sister would do, and let him speak.
"I was led to believe that our forces, yours and mine had hunted the last of them down all the way into Mordor and slaughtered them all." Eldarion told her apologetically. "I had no idea that any still remained."
Malon digested this information, and then asked Sir William, who was also standing by, "Are these the only ones?"
"As far as we know. Our men are searching the Castle as we speak." Sir William told her.
King Eldarion added, "My own company of guards are at your disposal as well. Anything you need, you have but to ask."
Sir William looked to Malon for confirmation, and Malon nodded her assent. He then went to employ the dark blue uniformed men of Gondor to the task as well.
"Do we have any idea how they entered our world from yours, your majesty?" Malon asked. She fought to keep any tone of accusation from her voice.
"Our linking book is under heavy guard in the Citadel of Minas Tirith. The only ones who were permitted through it were vetted by my steward himself. Although we could not all come through at once, that is true." King Eldarion replied. "My retinue's servers, and porters came through first."
"The filthy creatures were wearing black, hooded cloaks of a type that seemed to shimmer and move with some kind of magic." Sir Portant added, thinking it might be relevant. "I've taken the liberty of having our own mages investigate them."
"Well done, Sir knight." Malon approved.
"Your highness, we have another situation developing as well." Sir Portant told her. "A hawk was sent from Captain Oliver at the Sacred Grove yesterday morning for your husband. He left the castle before he could receive the message. I apologize for not giving it to you before now." He then handed her the piece of paper which he had been holding for his Supreme Commander.
She took the paper and read it, then she re-read it. Without a word, she rose from her chair and went to a window to look out on the castle gardens.
"Your highness, what is it?" Sir Portant asked, concerned.
She didn't answer but looked intently at the colorful flowers, and verdant leaves of the foliage she and Zelda had often walked through together as friends. They didn't seem quite as colorful as they did. The harder she looked, the more she found. Black streaks and spots dotted the foliage and the longer she stared, she realized, the more it was growing.
Do I tell them? She wondered. Do I tell them Hyrule may not survive this day? Was this what called my husband away? She had happened upon the council chamber looking for Zelda yesterday morning, and by chance had overheard the desperate plan to reforge the Master Sword, but not the reason why.
"I believe we have taken too much advantage of his majesty, Sir Portant." She said turning around. "I think, with great respect for your majesties, King Eldarion and Queen Elrissa, that it would be best for you are your people to return to your kingdom before sundown."
"It has been no trouble, your highness. We would not dream of leaving you and yours until we are sure you are well in hand." Eldarion protested.
"Nevertheless, your majesty. As we love you and your people, so I insist you and yours return through the linking book as quickly as possible. What Hyrule must face now must be our burden to bear alone." Malon told him with as much grace as she could. "And let us all pray to the divinities we hold dear that my husband found what he was looking for."
Link and Shepherd emerged through the portal and back into the main hall of the Temple of Time. In front of them the wooden clock still stood where Impa had promised it would be, on a stool.
"No, that can't be right." Link said, looking at the clock. "It says there's only a few hours until sundown, the day of the coronation. We need to find Impa. She should have been right here."
"Okay, she's not here, let's go find her. She wouldn't have gone far." Shepherd said. "If she said she'd be waiting for you, then she will be."
The two moved down the hallway and deeper into the temple where they encountered an empty, ancient, bloodstained red robe pinned to the floor with a crudely forged sword. Around it were smashed jars, scorch marks, and burned stone.
"This doesn't look good, Link." Shepherd said. "That looks like Impa's robe, but no Impa."
"There's blood on it." Link said, kneeling down to inspect it. "And the sword is orcish."
Shepherd turned around to search the floor around the scene. It was then that his eye spotted the cracked, dark triangle. "Uh, Link." He said, calling him over. "Is that what I think it looks like?"
Link stood up and turned around, directing his attention to what Shepherd was pointing to with his rifle. He reached out and picked up the cold relic, running his finger along the crack in its surface. "No... It can't be. That's impossible." He said holding it up reverently. Under the gauntlet of his left hand, he could feel his birthmark respond to the presence of the dead Triforce, if only weakly. There was no question.
"That's what I didn't want to hear." Shepherd said. "Now what do we do?"
"You must do what you came to do." A familiar, yet younger voice addressed them.
Both Shepherd and Link spun around to find a tall, silver haired, well muscled woman. Shepherd raised his rifle as Link drew the Master Sword from his back. "And who are you?" Shepherd said.
"Someone who knows you well enough to know you are not so foolish as to try and use that on me, Colonel." The woman said.
"Impa?" Link asked her, as the familiar face emerged from his memory. "What happened to you?"
The woman pointed at the robe on the ground, "That happened, and I have shed my mortal shell."
Shepherd lowered his weapon. "Both you and Zelda."
"We have both moved on. Our time in this world is done yes. But now, Hero, you must do what you came to do. You must restore the Master Sword to its proper place and enter the Sacred Realm."
"How? The Triforce is broken and dark. It won't work!" Link protested.
"Power, Wisdom, and Courage. You must find within yourself the one thing that binds them all and bring them into the Sacred Realm. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, Hero, it remains alone. But if it dies, it gives new birth to countless others." Impa said. "Do you understand, Hero of Hyrule?"
"There's subtle, and then there's just encrypted! What is she talking about Link?" Shepherd asked in confusion.
Link did understand. "Unless the three virtues are already within me, the sacred relics can do nothing." He said. He understood it now in a way that he never had before.
Impa nodded. "Go, Hero. Fulfill your destiny."
"Link, what's going on? What is she talking about?" Shepherd demanded.
But Link remained silent, and became resolute in his purpose, chanting quietly under his breath, "Power, wisdom, and courage..." Again and again trying to summon all of them within himself for the final task he knew he was always meant to do. He took off back to the entry hall of the temple, and Shepherd ran after him.
"Link wait, stop!" He shouted, but Link wouldn't.
The younger man only stopped in front of steps to the pedestal that had once housed the sword which now lay on his back, summoning all the courage he had been blessed with. He drew the sword from his back. As he did so, the triangular birthmark on the back of his left hand glowed, faded, and then disappeared altogether. In front of him appeared a radiant golden triangle, shining like the sun.
"Link...?!" Shepherd caught up to him. "What just happened? Why did it just do that?"
"Because I don't need it anymore, Colonel." Link responded, as the faces of all the people he had loved, the land he had fought for, and especially his beloved wife and sons flowed through his mind and heart giving him an internal power he had never encountered before and couldn't describe.
"What do you mean? Dammit, Link, talk to me!" Shepherd began to get angry with panic. He didn't need his friend going off the deep end now.
"I know what I have to do. I have one last thing to give for my world, my Princess, and my family." Link said as he ascended the steps to the pedestal, which began to glow with ancient writing upon the approach of the Sword.
"Link you can't go in there without the Triforce! It will rip you apart!" Shepherd shouted at him, arguing.
"Power, wisdom, courage," Link said firmly, solemnly, and peacefully, "and the virtue which unites and empowers all of them, love." He then turned one more time to the man who had been a kind of mentor, and great friend, "John, tell my wife and boys I love them very much." And then he thrust the Master Sword, the Hylian key blade into the pedestal where it slid down and stopped.
"Portal access granted." Fi's voice rang out. "Sacred Realm opened."
And as Shepherd watched, a sudden vortex of blue energy surrounded his young, green clad friend, the kid brother he never had, and then he was gone. And all was silent in the timeless glowing chamber.
Link found himself inside writhing darkness. It felt alive, and he sensed the echo of an old and familiar presence in it. It was a presence that hated him with a venom and a fury that seemed endless. And it knew that the object of its hate was now within its grasp as it began to pummel him, and eat away at him painfully like acid to his skin.
Link forced himself, as he hung suspended in the inky black void, to focus only on his love for his wife and sons. He used that love to fuel his faith as he began to wish. He wished with all of his being for a new world, a new Hyrule, free of the corruption, hatred, and darkness of the Demon King's curse; free of the rot which blackened and defiled the Sacred Realm. It became the core of his one thought which he refused to let go of; a new creation founded on his love.
Around him the corruption ate away greedily at his clothing, digging into him with pure malice, and then through his chain mail underneath, until it began to dissolve the skin underneath sending waves of pain. His skin, blood and bone began to rot away into the unholy blackness.
He stubbornly held on to his loving wish, letting go of his need for survival, letting go of his mortal remains as they burned away from him, letting go of his past lives and adventures as the Hero, and then in his love for them he said goodbye to his family and gave everything up for his one radiant, burning goal: a new world.
The last of Link's mortal flesh dissolved and in it's place remained a being of pure light and that light exploded and expanded, consuming the darkness around him, reaching into every corner, and every dark place of the Sacred Realm, cleansing it, restoring it, reviving it, and filling it with a beauty it had no known for eons of normal time. It was a beauty born of sacrificial love.
On the mortal plane, as Captain Oliver and his men had watched in despair as the grove around them withered and died, so they now watched in wonder at its rebirth. The black smears which had been foliage disappeared altogether and new growth rapidly shot forth from the ground. The withered, blackened trees surged with new life as verdant, lively green leaves exploded from their branches. New mushrooms popped out the ground where just the morning before Impa had bemoaned their loss. All around them it seemed if the grove and the surrounding forest awakened like it had never done before and sang its praises to the divine beings that had created it.
"Your highness, you need to see this." One of Malon's guards called her back to her window. The contingent from Middle Earth had not yet left, and their majesties were still in the sitting room. Malon rushed over to the window to see the withering and blackening castle gardens jump to life again as the flowers grew and exploded into a dazzling array of colors.
"Oh, my..." She said.
"Your highness, what's happening?" King Eldarion asked.
"Link... was successful." She said haltingly, trying to control the surge of emotions within her.
"Should we still go then?" His majesty asked.
"No, I don't think there's any need any longer," she said, struggling to remain in control. "I think we're all perfectly safe now."
The new creation of Hyrule that began in her Sacred Realm spread like an all consuming, fast moving wildfire that purged and cleansed the land, and reached out to all the worlds connected to it, and the corruption of the Demon King's darkness was no more.
Link's light remained in the Sacred Realm spreading and diffusing through all it touched with the power, wisdom, and courage his love brought to it.
Then in the peaceful silence of that realm, a familiar loving voice spoke out to him, "Well done, my son. I am so proud of you, my dear sweet boy." The sweet song of Saria's voice, Farore's voice, filled Link's being with music.
"Is Hyrule safe?" Link asked.
"Yes, my son. Now, and forever." His mother's voice sang joyously. "Because of your sacrificial love and faith, Hyrule now has a future and a hope that can't ever be taken away from her."
Then another familiar voice sang out, "Yes, Hero. Your labors are finally done. We can both rest now."
"Hylia?" Link asked. "We can rest?"
"Yes." She said again. "Our work is done."
"What about Hyrule? Who will watch over them?" Link asked.
"We will always watch over our world, as we have since the beginning. But your story is finished. Now, it's time for others to begin their stories." Farore told him.
"I have one more thing I must do before I can rest." Link said, resolutely.
"Go to her my son, but we cannot permit you to remain. Your time, the time of the legend of Zelda, is finished." She said.
"I understand." Link said sadly. "But I must tell her myself."
Shepherd stood for what seemed like an eternity staring at the pedestal, unaware of anything else around him. "Dammit Link, why do you always have to just rush headlong into trouble!" He swore more than once.
"His work is done." The woman's voice spoke behind him. "But your work yet remains, Colonel."
Shepherd turned around to see the young, warrior woman standing behind him. She was glowing with an inner light that he had only seen a few times before with people whom he had been very close to. People who had since passed to another plane of existence.
"Impa. What's happened to him?" Shepherd asked.
"He has fulfilled his calling as he was always meant to and given Hyrule new life. His time in this plane of existence is done. But yours still continues, Colonel, and there are those who have need of your help." Impa told him solemnly.
Shepherd looked back to the sword in the pedestal and watched as the symbols on the pedestal which had remained lit for some time, finally faded until they could no longer be seen. "He's not coming back." Shepherd finally admitted to himself.
"And you still have work to do, do you not, Colonel?" Impa challenged him.
"Yes, I do." Shepherd responded.
"I believe you will find the one you seek just beyond the entry where the guards have been trying to stop him. If you hurry, you may save their lives." She said.
"Can I expect any help?" He questioned her as he moved towards the entry portal.
"I can no longer interfere." She said.
"Where have I heard that before?" Shepherd snorted, and then plunged through the doorway into the outside world, as time seemed to speed up around him and resume its normal flow.
Outside the doorway, the air was fresh and clean, and the colors around him so vibrant and stunning it was almost disorienting. "Whoa." He exclaimed. "That's some makeover." As his senses were filled with the fragrant yet delicate scents of the flowers, and forest, and sights and sounds of the colors and music of Hyrule's natural world.
And then, nearby, he heard gunshots ring out and men yelled and screamed in pain, and he broke into a dead run towards them.
"Hey ugly!" Shepherd called out, firing off a round that took the big orc by surprise in the shoulder. He had emerged into the clearing of the grove where two years before he remembered seeing the broken body of the skull kid, the previous guardian of the grove, lying motionless. Around the clearing lay the stunned and twisted, but living bodies of the guardsmen who had attempted to stop the creature. Near them lay their Hylian rifles, tossed about the clearing like twigs fallen from a tree. The orc had one of the guardsmen up in the air, and Shepherd had fired to get the monstrosity to drop him.
Without turning, or looking at him, the orc reached out with his left hand and Shepherd's P-90 flew out of his own hands and far away across the clearing. Okay, Shepherd thought, I've played this game before too. Thinking quickly he pulled his backpack to the ground while the orc remained distracted, opened it, and flipped a switch on the special package inside.
The effect was instantaneous, as the gray uniformed guardsman fell to the ground, and the orc yelled, "What sorcery is this?!"
"What's wrong big and ugly?!" Shepherd called out, "someone shut off the power?"
The orc turned his full attention to Shepherd then and drew a huge sword from under the back of his black cloak. "You will pay for that, puny human!" The orc yelled as he stalked towards Shepherd.
Shepherd drew his own sword from its makeshift scabbard on his back and, with an eagerness he seldom experienced in combat, ran to meet him. He knew this would have to be quick, the anti-prior device wouldn't last forever.
The orc swung hard at him, but Shepherd met the blow and danced around him. "What's wrong, you can kill old women and little girls, but you can't stand up in a real fight without your powers?" He taunted him.
"Do you know, puny human, how many old women and little girls of my people your race has slaughtered in my world? I am one of the only ones of the Uruk race left." The orc raged at him.
"I've had a really bad day, and somehow you're part of the cause of it, so I don't really care at the moment!" Shepherd yelled back then made to strike the orc from behind, but the creature moved quickly and parried the strike.
"Your people are guilty of genocide! And you judge me for seeking justice, filthy man spawn!" The orc yelled as his blade sliced through the air, narrowly missing Shepherd's head by inches.
Shepherd jumped back as far as he could, quickly drew the pistol from it's holster on his waist, found the creature's unarmored head, and took the shot. "I've got your justice right here." He said as he fired.
The bullet found its mark between the creature's mishappen black eyes. A second and third struck the creature in the chest, and then Shepherd just kept firing until the clip was empty. An old habit he had developed from dealing with unfriendly wraith. The orc mage dropped to his knees and fell over to the side lifeless and unmoving.
Then, in a fit of barbarism uncharacteristic of him but which just felt right that one time, he took his sword and severed the orc's head from his lifeless body. "Court's adjourned." He said decisively.
"Colonel Shepherd?" One of the men on the ground sat up, and called out weakly.
"Yeah!" He returned, adrenaline still coursing through his veins. After one last look at his handiwork, he ran to the side of the man who called out to him.
"I know you." Shepherd said as he tended to him. "Lieutenant Oliver, right? Fourth infantry division?"
"Actually," the mustachioed man said, trying to regain his voice, "It's Captain of the Sacred Grove Guard now, sir."
"You must have really impressed Link, Captain." Shepherd told him. "Congratulations."
"My men..." Oliver said, looking around, taking in the scene around him.
They were all moaning, that Shepherd could hear, and that was a good sign. A few twisted limbs, and some cuts, but he knew from experience they would pull through. "Alive, Captain. They're all alive."
"What is happening? Who was that? What was that?" Oliver asked, his voice getting stronger.
Shepherd just looked at him, not sure of where to begin, or even how.