Chapter 7

The gathering in the Temple of Time was grim and solemn. Two weeks had passed since the events on the beach. All the present Sages of Hyrule had been called together to render a decision on the fate of the young, crippled man who stood silently before them in the timeless sacred place. Chief among them were the Sage of Wind and the Sage of Earth whom he had personally targeted. The only others allowed to be present were his brother, the crown prince, and Queen Malon herself, recently recovered from the poison which had nearly killed her. In the background, the Master Sword rested once again in its pedestal, its own mission accomplished. The last time he had stood in a great temple of Hyrule, the throne had been denied him. Today, he would learn if his life would be as well.

"Talon, former prince regent of Eastern Hyrule," Aurina, the Sage of Light emphasized the word former, began to say, "You have been judged guilty of atrocious crimes against the Sages of Hyrule, and against the gods themselves in the destruction of their temples."

The Queen and the Crown Prince stood by in stony silence as witnesses only. Malon's son was not the cause of her poisoning, as they had come to learn, and there was good reason to believe he had been under the sorcerous influence of his former adviser in those crimes against her person and her government, which adviser had already been judged and publicly executed by the Crown Prince. But she had no authority to pardon his crimes against the divine, nor would she claim any right to it.

"You have accused us of manipulating the royal succession for our own personal gain, and in your ignorance of who we are and what our role in this world is, sought to subject us to your 'justice.'" Aurina continued.

"The future of Hyrule's monarchy shouldn't be determined by her Sages! What right do the Sages have to shape Hyrule for their own purposes!" Talon said bitterly.

The feminine, silver haired Sage of Spirit spoke. "You show your ignorance with every word you speak. For millennia, the Sages were unknown and largely forgotten by the people of this world. As our brothers and sisters from ages past would testify were they brought here by the Sage of Time, our only purpose has been our devotion to the gods we serve and to guard the Sacred Realm. We did not ask to be made widely known to the people. This was the decision of the royal family. We did not ask to intervene in the selection of the royal heir. We did so at the request of her majesty, inquiring of Hyrule's divinities to let us know their choice. All people in Hyrule must be free to make their own choice to follow the pathways of our ancestral gods or not. We do not interfere with that decision."

"So, then who are you to pass judgment on me? Isn't that interfering as well?" Talon asked, mocking.

"We have only told you the verdict. We are not your judges." The Sage of Wind informed him gravely.

"Who then?" Talon asked, confused and looking to his mother and brother. They sadly shook their heads.

"We are." A familiar, resonating voice filled the great hall of the temple. It was a voice Talon had not heard in a very long time. Two swirling clouds of light materialized within the great hall and took forms he had never thought to see again. One was a young Hylian woman in a pink dress with long flowing blond hair and blue eyes. The other was a young man, almost identical to himself, dressed in a green tunic and chain mail. They both were radiant with a celestial light.

At their appearance all of the sages dropped to one knee. Queen Malon, and Prince John followed suit. "Lady Hylia." Aurina said, addressing the glowing lady, and then to the man, "Lord Hero."

"Father?" Talon asked, his mocking tone and flippancy melting away.

The Hero looked at his son sternly with disapproval. Talon flinched and dropped his eyes, sinking to his knees in despair. "I... I... I didn't..." He began to stammer, tears forming in his eyes.

"You didn't listen to me." The Hero spoke, his voice echoing hard around the chamber. "You could not recognize me when I spoke to you though you were right in front of me."

"You have been judged guilty of crimes worthy of death." The Lady Hylia affirmed for him again, her own voice striking like musical daggers through his heart. "The dark poison of ambition, arrogance, and pride still runs through your heart, your prince. We cannot allow you to continue to walk freely in this world until it dies of its own accord, or else we risk restarting the same cycle of destruction which had only recently ended."

"Let me die then." Talon said in despair, his will broken under his father's gaze.

"In spite of your crimes," Hylia continued, "we understand that had the sorcerer from Middle Earth not influenced you, none of this would have happened." She then looked at the Hero, who nodded in unspoken agreement with her. "We therefore banish you from setting foot in Hyrule ever again until you understand the foolishness of your accusations against the Sages, and the gravity of your actions."

"To where am I to be banished, my Lady?" Talon asked, wondering if he was to leave Hyrule with the two men from Earth he had heard of.

"Right here." The Hero responded for her. "My son, you will not re-enter normal time outside of this temple until you have proved yourself worthy. If you attempt it, you will die."

"The Temple is to be my prison?" Talon asked, confused. "For eternity?"

"It is to be your refuge, and your penance." Hylia replied. She then moved towards him and touched his forehead with her finger, "Awaken, Sage of Time!" There was a brilliant flash of light, and then it was done. With him Talon felt his awareness expanding as he saw the past, present, and future come together as one. In his mind's eye he could see all the Sages that ever lived. He could see the many lifetimes that his father and aunt had lived, and all the trials and dangers they had suffered through. He could see the Demon King in the distant past and the recent present, and he was ashamed of how badly mistaken he had been.

"Since you have shown such ignorance of the Sages, my nephew, you will now spend eternity learning what it means to be my Sage. You will answer directly to me." The Lady Hylia declared.

Talon was overwhelmed with shame and grief, and couldn't speak for several minutes. When he finally could, he bowed his head, and with a gravelly voice he said, "Yes, my lady."

"Take your place among your brethren." Hylia commanded, directing him to join the other Sages. "You have much to learn from them."

Talon meekly moved to join them. They did not welcome him among their ranks, but neither would they deny him his new found place. "I have much to atone for." He said. No one argued.

Hylia then turned to the Hero and said gently, "Speak with her." The Hero nodded and then motioned for Malon to join him a distance away from the ears of the others. She rose and followed him, leaving John by himself.

Hylia then turned to John and spoke to him privately. "You have done well, my nephew."

"Thank you, my Lady." John responded with his head bowed, not daring to look into her eyes.

"You must now forgive and leave your anger behind you." She told him, seeing into his heart. "Your brother has suffered the consequences of his actions, and now pays the price for his betrayal. It may not seem like punishment to you, but through the lens of time he is already finding the burden almost more than he can bear. Justice can never be without compassion, Crown Prince. Justice without Compassion is not justice, but vengeance. You must understand this if you are to sit on the throne when your mother is passed."

John nodded. "I understand." He told her.

While Hylia spoke with John, the Hero spoke with the prince's mother.

"It seems you are continually saying goodbye to me." Malon told him. "Perhaps you should just return with me, and we would not have to say goodbye." She said playfully, but there was a glimmer of hopefulness in her eyes.

The Hero looked at her sadly and said, "My time in mortal form has been done for some time now. I cannot stay with you. You must live your life, Malon. Mine in this world is over."

"I have no one else. I miss you terribly." She told him, her own eyes welling with tears. "Please don't leave me again."

"Oliver is a good man." The Hero told her. "He has forsaken all others for twenty years to be by your side, and to be a father where I could not. But for this crisis, he wouldn't have left your side when you had fallen to the poison."

"He's not the man I need." She told him angrily.

"Only because you won't let him be." He replied gently.

"I don't want to." She responded. "I can't." She almost pleaded with him. "I can't let you go."

"You must. You are the Queen. John, Oliver, and all of Hyrule cannot move forward until you do." He said.

"I didn't want this. I didn't want to be the Queen. I have only done what I could to keep you with me." She told him.

"I am always watching over you, my love, but I am already gone. I cannot love you in the way you need. But there is one who can. Allow yourself to return his love. Allow yourself to heal."

She wept. "I really couldn't keep you, could I? No matter how hard I tried fate was always against me, wasn't it?"

"My fate was written millennia before you were born. Your fate is what you choose it to be." The Hero said. "Choose well, my love. You will not see me again."

He then left her there and moved to join Hylia and faced his son, John, still dropped to one knee in homage.

"Rise, my son." The Hero told him.

John lifted his head and obeyed, facing his father he looked into his eyes and saw pride written in them.

"You have proven yourself worthy of the title Hero, and have justified our decision to name you heir to the throne with your actions and willingness to sacrifice yourself to prevent the slaughter of thousands of our people." The Hero said. "You have combined wisdom and courage within yourself and have shown the power to act on them. You have also demonstrated your great humility in returning the Master Sword to its resting place. If you should ever have need of her again, Fi will be at your disposal. The Lady Hylia and I have seen to it. From henceforth, in times of great crisis, she will answer only to you and your descendants whom we deem worthy. Do not abuse this gift of ours."

"I won't, father." John responded solemnly.

"Rule well and protect our people, my son." The Hero said. "We now take our leave. We are always watching, but your choices will always be yours to make along with their consequences. Remember that well, my son." And then their radiant forms collapsed again into balls of pure light, and they were gone.

Daniel wandered by himself around Castle Town's marketplace. He wanted some time by himself to just study and make notes of Hyrule's culture and people without the fate of a world hanging in the balance. He decided it wasn't as different from other descendants of Ancient settlements as he had first thought it would be.

As he passed by the fountain of the central square, he noticed a small sign hanging over the entryway of a storefront tucked away off into the corner of a building. The sign held a worn symbol of the Triforce, but no wording that he could discern. Thinking this was odd, he meandered over to investigate. No one else seemed to notice the shop was there as he turned the doorknob, found it unlocked, opened the door and walked inside.

Inside, the old decrepit shop held displays of jewelry on its wooden shelves, most notably gold Triforce pendants as he looked around. "Hello?" He called out.

A handsome, middle aged woman with long blond hair flecked with silver streaks in a blue dress came walking out from a back room. Near her right shoulder was pinned a simple brooch shaped like a golden triangle.

"Hi, I saw your sign outside, and I was just curious..." Daniel started to try to explain, then he looked into the woman's deep blue eyes. They were blue like the vast ocean. "I know you." He said.

"Yes, you do." She said, smiling. "You have done well, brother."

"Thanks, I think." Daniel responded.

"It is almost time for you and your friend to return home, to your own time and place. You have had the power to do so since we first met in Nabooru Town." The woman said.

"Yeah, I was wondering about that. If Rodney and I go home, what's to stop us from using the Triforce to repair Hyrule's?" He asked.

"Nothing." She answered with a smile.

"And then there will be three complete Triforces in our world." Daniel continued.

"Yes, there will." She confirmed for him. "Do you believe your people to be capable of handling the responsibility such power brings?"

Daniel didn't have to hesitate. "Not all of them. No. In fact it would be best if there wasn't a Triforce at all on Earth. The Others in our world are more than capable of policing there own and enforcing non-interference. We don't need to defend ourselves like that now. I know that first hand."

"Yes," She said. "When we first came to this reality, there were so very few of us, not really enough for a colony. We had only intended to conduct our research on the connections between faith and reality away from less approving eyes. We were already pre-ascendant then, though. This world was beautiful when we arrived." Her eyes sparkled at the memory. "Our children think we created it, but of course we didn't. We only tweaked it here and there."

"Why do you keep calling them your children?" Daniel asked.

"Because they are!" She said happily. "All the inhabitants of Hyrule are our children! I told you, there weren't enough of us to form a sustainable colony. There was myself, Din, Farore, Demise, my daughter Hylia, Farore's son Copulus and only a handful of others. We completed our research, but then found Atlantis under bombardment by the wraith. There was little point in all of us returning home permanently now was there? We eventually ascended here, but the world seemed so empty and so ripe for civilization and sentient beings. We engineered these people, especially the Hylians, but also the Zoras, the Gorons, the Gerudos, the Ordonians, the Minish, and all the rest to fill it with intelligent life."

Her smile faded as she continued her story, "That was just before Demise began to crave their worship. My daughter Hylia fought him on our own plane, and then the fight came into this mortal world and nearly destroyed it. He had grown so powerful from the faith of his followers that it took all of us to seal him away, but the seal would not last forever, and we knew it. That was when we put our research to use here and created the Triforce so that the unascended would have a way to defend themselves against him and any others like him. But Hylia, my daughter, was afraid that wouldn't be enough once he broke free, so she surrendered herself to mortal Hylian form to watch over the seal, and be ready to use the Triforce herself if it became a necessity. As a Hylian, she could ascend again once her body died."

"What about the Hero?" Daniel asked her.

"Copulus, Farore's son, watched over Hylia in her mortal form for centuries. She seemed so fragile, he feared that she wouldn't be strong enough on her own. After a time, he chose to be born as a Hylian as well to defend her and keep Demise restrained. He became our back-up plan, if you will. As often as they came close to death and ascended, they continued to take mortal Hylian form on their own so that Demise could never fully return."

"Copulus." Daniel said, thinking. Then it clicked. "Copulus is the Ancient word for 'Link.'"

Nayru nodded. "That boy lived many, many lifetimes, being born, dying, ascending, and then returning to protect my daughter and this world. After so many times, I shudder to think at what the horrors he has had to face over the millennia have done to him. He was free to not return. It was always his choice, as it was my daughter's. Thanks to your people, they have finally been set free from their vigil."

Daniel stood silent, contemplating the great sacrifices that the two had made to protect this world over its ten thousand year history. It was unimaginable to him, and yet Link had never left Zelda behind. Not once. "Wow." Was all he could say at the thought.

"And now we must go, and so must you, Daniel Jackson. I meant what I said about your returning to walk among us once again when the time was right. If the Others in your reality do not welcome you home, know that you will always be welcome here with us." She said.

"Thank you. That means something to me." He said in response. He then took off his glasses to clean them, and when he put them back on the shop was empty. Its dusty shelves hadn't been used for a long, long time.

"Good-bye then." He said with a half smile.

The sun had set in Hyrule, and once again, Oliver sat quietly in the pew of the chapel, watching over his queen as she prayed. They had not spoken the entire day since she had returned from the Sacred Grove. He had spoken with John, but the crown prince would not discuss what had transpired in the Temple of Time. Oliver only knew that John's brother Talon had not returned with them. To be honest, he had not expected the prince to.

"I know you are there, Oliver." The queen said, not getting up or turning to see him.

Uncomfortable and apologetic, "I'm sorry for disturbing you, your majesty, I'll go." Oliver said, getting up.

"No, don't go." She said, rising and turning to face him. She walked up to him and took his hands in hers. "I knew you were there, because you're always there. You've always been there, never far from my side."

"I am your servant, my queen." Oliver said, humbly.

"You have been much, much more than that, my friend." She said. She looked into his eyes in a way she had never allowed herself to do before, smiled and asked him, "Do you love me, Oliver?"

Oliver took a step back, unsure of himself and dizzy from the question. "I... I..." He stammered. "You will always be my queen, your majesty."

"That is not an answer, Oliver. I am asking you, not as your queen, but as a woman, and your friend. Do you love me?" She pressed him.

"I cannot... Your husband..." He didn't know how to answer her. His heart and mind warred against each other as the portrait of the Hero stared at him from its alcove. "I made a promise to him, to care for you and the boys." He managed to say.

"I spoke to him, Oliver, in the Temple of Time, or rather he spoke to me. The Hero is always with us, but my husband has been gone for twenty years. Perhaps it is time that we both stopped confusing the two." Malon told him, squeezing his hands. "We both must let go of the past in order to gain a future that is our own. Oliver, I ask you again, do you love me?"

There was a hopefulness in her eyes as he lost himself in them. It was a hopefulness he hadn't seen in a long time. And there was something else, something he himself had never allowed himself to hope for, an affection meant only for him. He wrestled with himself and two decades of careful, practiced restraint. She waited for his answer.

He took her hands in his, and brought them both to his lips and kissed her fingers, "My queen, do you even have to ask?" He finally replied.

She moved even closer to him, and in the shadows of the candlelight, under the blessing of Hyrule's guardian deities, they kissed, truly kissed for the first time. Unseen and unnoticed, a dark figure in the shadows, seemingly made of shadow, watched with approval, and smiled before fading away to join the Others who were waiting for him.

Epilogue

Rodney was almost singing the day after he and Daniel returned to their own time and place as he made his way back to the lab which had started their whole recent adventure. They had spent a total of about two weeks in Hyrule and had returned only minutes after they had left.

He was in such a good mood as he strolled down the corridors, he hadn't even criticized Zelenka for anything that morning. He now had not only the broken Triforce to work with, but also two, count them, two complete Triforces capable of doing anything he sincerely wished for.

He rounded a corner and waved his hand in front of the lab's door to open it and enter the room. As he almost danced into the room, his mood immediately changed.

"Where is it?" He asked the air, because there was no one else there to ask. Much to his dismay, the Triforce emblem which had been embedded into the wall was gone. He immediately went to work feeling all over the wall with his hands, even wishing fervently to find the Triforce as he touched the spot where he knew it should have been. Nothing.

"Where's Jackson?" He asked, beginning to grow suspicious. He touched his earpiece, "McKay to Jackson, where are you at?"

"Good morning, Rodney. I'm eating breakfast in the cafeteria." Came Daniel's reply. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the Triforce lab, and there's something very important missing from the wall." Rodney said, his ire growing.

"Are you sure you're in the right lab?" Daniel asked. "There's a lot of labs and rooms in this city. Are you sure you didn't get turned around?"

"What?! Of course I'm in the right lab, I mean, I... yeah, I'm positive..." Rodney then began to doubt himself. "I'll get back to you on that." He said. Well, it could be possible, he thought. I could have gotten turned around maybe. He then went to retrace his steps and make certain.

"You know, he's going to eventually figure it out." Colonel Shepherd told Daniel as he sipped his coffee across the table from him. They had agreed to meet for breakfast late last night to talk over the mutual responsibility they held.

"Maybe, but I made a very specific wish." Daniel responded. "Speaking of which, are you sure you're okay with this. It was entrusted to you."

"I never wanted it. It's too much power to be given to any one person. That's the reason why Hyrule had all the wars it did, even without Demise's influence. Can you imagine what would happen here on Earth. We've got enough of our own problems. No, just fix it and send it back to where it belongs." Shepherd told him. "Lock it away in the Sacred Realm where no one will be able to touch it."

Daniel reached into his shirt with his left hand to touch his gold pendant. There was a quick flash of light all around him which no one else seemed to notice. Then the triangle "tattoo" which had been imprinted on Shepherd's hand changed as he watched it. The three triangles, the topmost of which had been black for the last year, the two which formed the base gold, began to shine with light. And then the black one changed slowly until it shone bright gold. Then, the tattoo faded and disappeared. Shepherd looked at his hand until it was gone completely, and then nodded at Daniel. "Now, what about the necklace?"

Daniel took the gold chain and triangle pendant off from around his neck and, holding it in his hand, closed his eyes. There was another flash of light, and the pendant disappeared completely as though it was never there.

"That's done then." Shepherd said. "Where'd you send that one?" He asked.

"Back to the nice old lady who gave it to me." Daniel responded, taking a sip of his own coffee. "It was only a loaner anyway."

"So, back to business as usual then?" Shepherd asked.

"Yep. Just as it should be." Daniel replied. "Nothing unusual ever going on here."

"Nope." Shepherd agreed. "How long is Rodney going to search for that lab?"

"Oh, just for a few more hours until he completely forgets where it was. He won't find any reference to it in the database again either." Daniel said.

"Nice." Shepherd nodded approvingly. "So, was Malon doing okay by the time you left?"

"Yeah, I think they're all going to be just fine, now." Daniel replied.

"So, tell me about how Link's family is doing. I've got all the time in the world today." Shepherd said.