Chapter 3
The passenger car of the train they rode in away from Nabooru Town wasn't as smooth as the one they had taken to it. It didn't necessarily help that the car was packed full of uniformed guardsmen heading towards the seaside town of Westport. Talking freely didn't seem to be an option for them, and so they sat mostly in silence for the two hour trip.
Their last day in Nabooru had been spent walking around the town and casually trying to learn as much as they could about the world they were now traveling through. Daniel's academic curiosity was fascinated at the sights and the people. "I could write whole books about just this town." He had told Rodney as he was trying to take it all in.
"Check out the local Game Stop store in Vancouver. It's been done." Rodney had quipped, reminding Daniel of the unique nature of the world they were journeying through. "Okay, I've seen enough of this place, anyway." He said, thinking in disgust of the other day's newspaper. "We should start thinking about how to get to the Temple of Time from here, on the other side of Hyrule."
"Well, what's the chance of there being a train to the coast?" Daniel asked.
"Probably pretty good. Westport used to be a pretty major seaport between Western and Eastern Hyrule, I don't see why that would have changed. The trick is going to be hiring a boat to take us across."
"One problem at a time. Let's check out the trains." Daniel said.
"Right." Rodney answered.
When they arrived at the train station, that was when things began to not look so good. It was jammed with blue uniformed, armed Hylian Guardsmen. "Officers." Rodney noted from their rank insignias, "and a lot of them going to Westport."
"If these are the officers, where are the enlisted troops?" Daniel asked before they boarded the silver and blue colored train.
As they rode the train and watched the countryside out through the windows, they got their answer. The train had flown by thousands of troops marching in formation on the road in the same direction they were heading. Daniel and Rodney had looked at each other, eyebrows raised in alarm. Along with the marching troops were cannons and artillery pieces being drawn on wagons by horses.
"What is going on?" Rodney whispered to Daniel. "Are they at war with someone? Why didn't we hear anything about it?"
One the guardsmen, a lieutenant by his rank overheard Rodney's question, and answered it in a quiet voice so that he wouldn't be overheard. "War indeed, sir. It's a dark day for Hyrule, that's for sure. Goddesses forgive us."
"What's happened?" Daniel asked in a whisper.
"Prince Regent Talon is sending us to Western Hyrule. He says the queen's been poisoned, and his brother and the Sages have been blamed. He wants to raze all the temples and 'bring the Sages to justice.'" The officer answered, shuddering. "I knew John when I was a raw recruit. He's a good man. Loves his queen mother just as much as Talon. Doesn't care a whit about ruling though, not like his brother. It doesn't make any sense." He shook his head. "It's not right, sir. A lot of us don't think it's right, but we've got our orders. He'll bring down the wrath of the goddesses on us all before he's through." He pulled out a triangle pendant from under his shirt and held it tight in his left hand before quickly returning it to its cover.
"Oh god." Rodney said quietly. None of them spoke the rest of the trip.
John sat by his mother's bed as the healer changed the bottle for the next dose of red water of life. He hadn't moved from her side since the previous morning. His appetite had left him, and his eyes were red and bloodshot. He tried to force them open every time they tried to close on him, but several times throughout the day and night he found himself dreaming of a silver haired man laughing at him from the darkness.
Oliver stopped in at her room to check on her, and John, every hour. Every time he asked the healers about her condition, and every time he left the room with a dark, anguished look in his eyes which he could not and did not give voice to.
The queen had been carefully moved to her private chambers and laid on her bed where the healers had given her constant attention. Her lips were stained red from the medicine being dripped into her mouth. The healers had set up a simple machine that fed the red liquid through a tube to where it dripped into her mouth. She remained sleeping peacefully, but no better.
Another minister, who had been accidentally overlooked, missed a dose and had succumbed to the convulsions hours before. Efforts were redoubled by the healers to keep the medicine flowing to the afflicted. Water of life supplies were dwindling in the castle, and more had to be taken from Castle Town's hospital to keep the treatments going. Hospital alchemists worked round the clock to prepare more. The healers had never seen anything like it. A legacy concoction from their ancient past distilled from a certain mushroom, the water of life cured any disease, poison, or illness, normally. It had been known to mend broken bones, and bring those on the verge of death back from the brink. Right now, it was the only thing that stood between the queen and a convulsive death.
"Your highness," the healer, his white coat stained with red from droplets of the medicine, addressed John gently. He was an older, gray haired gentleman who had cared for the royal family for years, and John since he was a small boy.
The prince looked up at him, not responding otherwise.
"Your highness, you need to get rest yourself. You have not slept for over a day. Hyrule needs her crown prince to be strong for all of us right now. Please, we will watch your mother. Go, get some rest." The healer said.
"Has there been any message from my brother? Do you know when he will be here?" John asked him.
"I have heard nothing your highness. But if there had been a message for you from the Prince Regent it would have been brought to you immediately." He then repeated more firmly. "Go and get some sleep, your highness. Please. Healer's orders if need be."
"I thought I was the sovereign while my mother was ill." John retorted.
"Not when it comes to your health, your highness." The healer replied. "I swear to you we will use all the knowledge and power we have to help her majesty. I will send for you if anything changes."
John nodded, and finally relented. He stood up, his legs, cramped and stiff, complained as he started moving towards the doorway and out of the room. He took one last look at his mother's sleeping form and left the room into the stone halls of the royal residence.
He looked down the hall towards the door to his own bedchamber. It was the one he had shared for most of his life with his twin brother. Next to it was the sealed door of the Hero's private chamber, his father's room. No one had entered it since his mother had moved out of it. No one could. Because of it, Supreme Commander Oliver had taken a chamber in a separate part of the palace, closer to the training grounds. Like the sacred sword of legend, the door responded to one master alone. It would no longer even open for his mother after she had it sealed. John knew this because there were times through his life he had secretly observed her attempting to enter it, or just quietly talking to the closed door.
"Sleep." He said sarcastically. "Right. That's going to happen."
He turned away from the door to his bedchamber and went to leave the royal residence for the royal family's private chapel at the end of the hall. As far as he knew, it would be empty of anyone else at that time of the day.
"If ever there was a time we needed your help, grandmother, it is now." He whispered the prayer as he walked with purpose through the halls and down flights of stone steps. The palace seemed emptier than normal to him as he walked it. The walls seemed grayer than normal.
The paintings of past monarchs, many princesses and queens named Zelda, as well as paintings of the Hero throughout many, many lifetimes seemed less colorful, less joyful. He had never noticed before, but it seemed to him that they were all of the same man. He stopped and really looked at them. It was true. Each one of them could have been his father, or even himself or his brother as much as they resembled their father. The portraits of the Zeldas also seemed to be of the same woman, the aunt he had known when he was very young. Other monarchs, his ancestors, graced the walls as well, including his grandfather, King Gaepora. But between Zelda the twentieth, and Zelda the hundredth, there seemed to be no difference. The same wise, blue eyes, high cheekbones, and blond hair stared back at him from all of them. "How could that be possible?" He asked no one in particular.
"The goddess returned to lead us again and again." A female voice answered. It was one he knew well, though he had not thought to see her in that place in that moment. Like the others of her order, she rarely left her rightful place except the most urgent of times.
"The Sage of Light ventures from her temple." John said. "You go to see my mother?"
"I am aware of her condition. I will do all that I can for her as you ask." Aurina told him sincerely. "But that is not why I have come to the palace."
"What then?" He asked, forgetting her proper address as "your grace." His temper had grown short from his lack of sleep, and concern for his mother. His manners were beginning to be forgotten.
Aurina took no notice of the slight. "The unthinkable had happened, your highness."
"This is not news, your grace." John told her, facing her. "I have just spent all night watching the unthinkable happen."
"There is worse than the unthinkable then, your highness." The Sage said.
"What could be worse, your grace, than the monarch of Hyrule near death?" John let out a sigh of exasperation. He rubbed his face with his hands. His mood became increasingly more foul.
"The temples of Hyrule being destroyed and her Sages being imprisoned by the Prince Regent." Aurina answered.
"What are you talking about?" John asked, confused.
"My brother and sister Sages in Eastern Hyrule have communicated with me. The Temples of Earth and Wind have been destroyed, and what is left has been buried under mounds of rubble. Your brother has ordered their destruction. What's more, he has ordered the arrest of the Sages, and appears to be massing the Eastern legions at Westport. They do not know why."
"Why would he do that, Aurina?" John asked, his civilities just about gone. Aurina wasn't much older than himself. At one time when they were younger, before she had been awakened as a Sage, he had even had a crush on her. "What do you think he intends to do? Invade the West?"
"He is under the influence of an evil man." She said gravely. "They do not know what he intends to do next, but his blasphemies will bring down the divine wrath on all of us if he is not stopped." The bronze skinned Sage told him.
The world spun around John as he tried to comprehend this new information. "My brother has turned against the Sages? Has he lost his mind?" Was it possible? John asked himself.
"Or someone has stolen it from him, your highness. In either event, the result is the same." She said wearily. "I will go to your queen mother and use all the power the god of light has given me. But you must stop your brother, or it may be for nothing if the gods retaliate against us for his evil." She then put her hand on his shoulder in a more familiar way, "Hyrule needs you, John. She needs you like never before."
"What can I do about it?" John asked her, frustrated. "If he's truly been throwing Sages in chains, what makes you think he'll listen to me?"
"When Hyrule fell into darkness before, there was always a Hero who rose from obscurity to deliver us through it." Aurina said, gesturing to the portraits of Heroes past, all seemingly the same man. "If your brother continues down this path, Hyrule will fall into darkness from which it cannot recover."
"Hyrule doesn't need me." John said looking at the portrait in front of him. "It needs my father. And I am not him."
"She needs a Hero, John." Aurina said, then she lightly kissed him on the cheek, and left for the royal residence, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
"Guardsmen! Where is Supreme Commander Oliver?" He called out, though he knew he would not be far from his mother's bedchamber.
It was late afternoon, the day after he had received the message that had turned his world upside down. The Prince Regent stood just outside of his command tent outside the walls of Westport Town. Next to him was a young officer who had given him the afternoon reports he had requested, and he wasn't pleased. His orders had been carried out, but he felt no victory in them.
Talon read the reports on the destruction of the offending temples, but took no satisfaction in them. "What a waste." He said as he handed the papers back to the lieutenant who had given them to him. Did the Sages disrespect their own sacred charges, glories of Hylian art, science, and faith, so cavalierly that they forced him to move against them? He snorted in disgust.
He turned his attention to the ranks upon ranks of Eastern soldiers that had been massing since the day before at Westport. There had been too many to send them all by train, and the cavalry could not ride the rails so easily, so he had to resign himself to waiting for them to arrive the "old fashioned way." It would take two more days before they would be all in place. It mattered little. The transport ships were having to sail from the shipyards at Eastport around the north of the huge island that was Eastern Hyrule, they wouldn't be here until the day after tomorrow.
Talon himself was dressed in the blue uniform of his men, distinguished only by the crown insignia on his collar. But his face was so well known among them, his bearing so crisp and stately, no one mistook him for a common soldier. Grima, who rarely seemed to leave his prince's side, was nowhere to be seen at the moment.
"How has it come to this so quickly?" He asked out loud to no one in particular. "What evil power has so possessed you my brother that you would poison our own mother?" The anger rose up within him again at the thought of his brother's horrific betrayal. "I will bring you to justice. I swear it on our father's grave."
In the shadows of the tent behind him, a dark figure, seemingly made of shadow, watched the prince intently, listening to every word he said. A cold intensity radiated from his very presence as his red eyes glowed. The prince felt a cold presence touch his shoulder. He turned to see who might have been behind him, but he saw nothing. There was no one there. He returned his attention to overseeing the mass of troops before him.
"Okay, now what?" Daniel asked as they stood in the market square of Mido Town. It was just past sunrise when the passenger ferry came into port in Western Hyrule and they had stepped off onto the wooden docks. The trip by sea had cost them almost all of the rest of their rupees.
"Ugh, give me a second." Rodney's face was still a bit greenish from the crossing the night before as he bent over, still trying to get his stomach under control.
"You know, I still can't believe you got sea-sick all night, Rodney," Daniel said. "You've lived in a floating city now for more than eight years."
"Yeah, well Atlantis doesn't start bouncing up and down every time it encounters a miniscule wave, now does it?" Rodney retorted. He took a deep breath and stood up. Well, at least the ground's stopped moving underneath me, he thought. "Not everyone can just cozy up in a hammock during a storm now can they? I think I'm going to have nightmares about that toilet for the rest of my life."
Rodney looked around the town. Like the rest of Hyrule, it seemed to have grown and matured since the last time he was there. "I wonder what they're using to generate their electricity?" He asked out loud. "They don't really have any fossil fuels that I know of, and I don't smell any pollution like from a coal plant anywhere nearby. Come to think of it, the trains and the steamer didn't put off any noticeable pollution either."
"Didn't you design their steam engine plans?" Daniel asked.
"Well, yeah, I built a few engines, but I always had to use wood or some kind of a magical gizmo to heat the water to make it work. I didn't think they could really put them into mass usage though." Rodney said.
"Time-shift crystals, sir." An older voice said out loud.
"Huh?" Rodney turned around to find an older, white haired Hylian gentleman with spectacles in a brown waistcoat and trousers, with a white shirt and black tie. "Time-shift crystals? Where did you get...?"
"We used time-shift crystals to energize the water and create the steam. An ancient mine was discovered twenty-five years ago in Lanayru province and we started working it again." The old man said proudly. "They power all of our steam turbines and engines."
"How do you keep them from shifting people into the past? That was the whole reason I avoided using them in the first..." Rodney started in. He had considered the blue crystals far too unstable on many levels to use for a power source.
The old man cut him off. "By the goddesses!" He said, lowering his spectacles to get a better look at Rodney. "It can't be. That was thirty years ago. Doctor McKay, is that really you?"
Daniel's eyebrows went up as he asked, "You know him?" To which Rodney also added, "You know me?"
"I knew Doctor Rodney McKay, the wizard scientist from another reality thirty years ago. He was my mentor, or rather I was his assistant." The older man said, still trying to believe his own eyes.
Rodney studied his face, and thought long and hard, he then snapped his fingers and asked, "Oran? From Saria Town, right? You worked with me developing the steam engine designs."
"And the rifles, and the aircraft which we still haven't fully been able to implement." The older man moved to shake Rodney's hand vigorously, "Oh, it's good to see you, sir. I had heard rumors of Colonel Shepherd's short return to us twenty years ago during those troubled days, but I always wondered what had happened to you."
"Well, I got sent home with the rest of the band at the Temple of Time." Rodney said.
"Speaking of which," Daniel chimed in, "that's kind of where we need to get to. We uh, got here by accident and are trying to get home. You wouldn't by any chance know how we might be able to get there from here, would you?"
"The Temple of Time?" Oran asked, rubbing his chin thinking. "I don't know exactly where it is except that it's in Faron Province, and that it's under heavy guard. You would need permission from the Royal Family to venture there, or else the Guardsmen would arrest you before you got close, if they didn't just shoot you on sight. Security's pretty tight at all the Temples now."
"The Royal Family?" Daniel asked. "How might we gain an audience with them?"
"Well, Queen Malon's a reasonable, and generous woman," Oran said. "I'm sure if you two told her who you were and why you needed to get there, she'd be willing to see that you make it. Either her or Prince John. I'm going there myself come the noon train if you two gentleman want to join me. I have to deliver a report to the minister of technology at the palace."
"Wait, so the queen's okay?" Rodney asked.
"As far as I know. Why wouldn't she be?" Oran asked. "Of course I've been here in Mido for the last week, so I haven't heard any news from the palace."
Daniel quickly spoke up, "We had just heard that her majesty had become ill recently."
"Well, if she's under the weather than it's Prince John or Supreme Commander Oliver that you'll be wanting to talk to then. Come to think of it, Oliver might even remember you, Doctor McKay." Oran told him.
"We'd love to, but our rupees have run a little short." Rodney said. "I don't suppose you know where we could hitch a ride?"
"That's not a problem, doctor. No, not for you, sir. You can travel with me. I have a royal pass that allows me to ride the trains with a small number of guests. I'm the chief technologist for steam power development." Oran said proudly. "Please, be my guests for a drink at the inn while we wait for our train." He invited them. "Mido's pumpkin whiskey is second to none!"
"We'd be happy to." Daniel said for the both of them, planning on something with a little less bite. Rodney nodded in agreement. As the three of them walked across the market square towards the Stranded Sailor Inn, Rodney asked, "So, how did you solve the time-shift problem?"
"When we uncovered the mines, we found ancient blueprints giving us the insights we needed to make it possible. It was an interesting series of accidents actually, involving a timeshift bubble thousands of years in the past and a very helpful talking machine called a 'robot'!." Oran said.
"Did you just say a 'robot'?" Daniel asked in disbelief.
"Yes, a funny, but very helpful little fellow!" Oran then began to regale them the entire story of how the time-shift steam engine was born with the help of an ancient mining robot's knowledge.
"Goddesses have mercy on us." John whispered as he observed the ranks of gray uniformed soldiers in front of him. He wore a gray officer's uniform with the royal Triforce crest and a crown on the collar. "How could it have come to needing this? Is my brother insane?" Two legions of guardsmen had been called up and assembled within the last twenty-four hours. Most of those in front of him had already been present at Castle Town and the surrounding villages and farms, about a thousand men, including Cavalry. The rest were being assembled at Rauru Town to wait for the legion from Castle Town to head on towards Mido Town and confront Talon's forces, if that's where he intended to land them; if he intended to land them in Western Hyrule..
John, Oliver and the other generals of Hyrule's forces discussed, and planned, and discussed again for an hour the day before, until they felt this was their only option. If his twin brother had truly lost his mind and planned an invasion of the mainland, then they had to meet him in kind. The beach near Mido Town was determined to be the most likely site for a strategic landing, the northern routes through the desert being infested with the huge razor bladed peahats and other demons of the wastelands. The danger from them was the reason why there was no shipping port on the north coast. Talon knew as well as they did that he'd lose half his forces if he brought them through the north.
Messages had gone out by telegraph to the nearby towns, and by rider to the surrounding farms and small villages. Those soldiers who had not already been in Castle Town began pouring in by nightfall, answering the royal call to arms. Temple guards had been doubled with what remaining forces could be spared due to Aurina's warning. They would be marching the next day, and John and Oliver would be leading them.
Oliver had protested at the crown prince's decision at the war meeting, "Your highness, with your mother ill, you are Hyrule's monarch right now, I cannot allow you to..."
"You cannot allow me?" John had said interrupting him, taking a tone of authority Oliver had never heard from him before. "I am the crown prince. You cannot forbid me, Supreme Commander! I will not ask our guardsmen to fight and die without being willing to do so myself." He then softened his tone, and said, "He is my brother, Oliver. And the task of guarding the Sages and their temples has always fallen to the royal family. If this is anyone's responsibility it is mine. And I will not sit back here in a fortified castle like a coward while thousands of Hyrule's sons shed blood in my or my mother's name. Would she have me remain? Would my father? What about the goddess of courage herself, Farore, my grandmother? How would my remaining honor her?" John had countered. "I'm going, and if need be I will shed blood and die with them as one of them. I can't do any less for them or for Hyrule." He was resolute, and Oliver's protests were silenced.
John had hated that meeting the day before. He hated even the thought of it, because of the decisions which had to be made. It was a bad dream made real in the daylight, as was the mass of troops mustered in front of him on the training field. The troops he knew he would have to lead into combat against their own people; against his own brother.
"Your highness!" A soldier's voice called out to him. It was a young man he didn't know personally. There were a lot of soldiers here he didn't know personally. That bothered him too. "When will I wake up from this nightmare?" He silently asked himself. "Over here!" He called out.
"Your highness, Supreme Commander Oliver requests your presence in the Council Chamber. It appears there's been a development. Something about 'unexpected guests.'" The young man said.
"Yes, of course. I'll go at once. Lead the way." John responded. Anything to get away from this sight. He thought.
"Link?!" Rodney blurted out the first time he saw the crown prince. He actually rubbed his eyes to confirm that it wasn't who he thought it was.
"I'm sorry?" The younger Hylian man said in response.
"No, I'm sorry your, uh, highness, but holy moly you look just like him." Rodney replied. "Except for the hair. Link was always more of a darker blond."
"And you would be?" The gray uniformed crown prince asked in confusion.
Oliver interceded for the two of them, "Your highness, this is Doctor Rodney McKay. He is the..."
"Rodney McKay? My father used to tell us stories about you when I was a child! I am John." John said enthusiastically, moving to shake Rodney's hand. His mood then turned more somber, "Your arrival is ill timed I am afraid. I would have liked to have had your company for a time and exchange stories of my father. As it stands we may be on the brink of a war we do not want."
"Yes, your highness. Doctor McKay and his friend, Doctor Daniel Jackson have just confirmed our worst fears. Your brother sails for Mido Town within days, and he brings at least a legion of men with him, including cavalry and artillery." Oliver told him gravely.
"Then it's true. My brother has lost his mind." John said, feeling like he had been physically struck. "We have no more options then, do we Oliver?"
"I don't see any." Oliver said. "We will have to face them on the field of battle. I'm sorry your highness."
Daniel then spoke up, "Uh, look, I know I'm the new guy here, but isn't there any way you can talk to your brother? Or at least his troops? From what we heard on the train, it didn't sound like they really wanted to be risking the wrath of the goddesses by carrying out his orders."
"If only there was a way to make them listen." Oliver agreed. "The best way to win a battle is to keep it from happening in the first place. But they are trained to be loyal to their prince regent. As you yourself saw, Doctor Jackson, they have mustered under his banner even knowing the consequences."
"They would have listened to my father." John said, pensively. "They would have listened to the Hero of Hyrule in his green tunic and wielding the Master Sword of legend." He put his hand to his chin deep in thought and moved off by himself in the room.
Oliver turned to face the two weary men again with empathy. "Thank you for your news, dire as it is. I am sorry we cannot show you more hospitality after such a long trip doctors, but please feel free to avail yourself of anything the castle may offer at this time. Maybe once this is over..."
"Actually, what we really need is to get to the Temple of Time." Rodney said bluntly. "It's the main reason why we came to the castle."
"The Temple of Time? Why on earth would you need to go there?" Oliver said, taken aback. "Only the royal family and their representatives may pass into the Sacred Grove, and then not lightly. You don't know what you're asking."
"Uh, yeah, I think I do. I've been there a couple of times." Rodney responded roughly.
Seeing the potential for the conversation to degrade rapidly from their, Daniel spoke up again, "We need to go there because it's the only way we know of to go back to the reality we came from. We're just trying to get home, and the Temple of Time has the only working portal that we know of." He then turned to Rodney and asked "portal, right?" To which Rodney nodded grumpily. "We're here in Hyrule by accident. We're just trying to get home."
"Be that as it may, Doctor Jackson," Oliver said, trying to be understanding of their predicament, "especially with the threat made against the temples, I don't think we can permit anyone other than the royal family access to any of the temples, especially not the Temple of Time. Not right now at least." He said firmly. "It is the oldest and most important of the Temples of Hyrule."
"I understand. But it's also our only chance right now. Perhaps there's some kind of agreement or compromise we could come to." Daniel asked.
"I'm sorry, I really am. But I don't see how it might even be possible for you to enter if we permitted it. Only a Sage, the Hero, or a member of the royal family may enter the sacred place." Oliver said.
"I will go with them. We will leave on the train for Faron woods tonight. This hour if possible." John spoke up rejoining them.
"Your highness, you know that's not possible. The men are to move out tomorrow morning." Oliver said, not understanding.
"That is why I must go. They may travel with me. But I must stand in the place of my father if we have any hope of stopping this battle before it starts." John said, he then began to tell them his plan.