Chapter 4
The sea breeze was warm and salty as it brushed along Talon's face. The ocean in front of him was so expansive it seemed to stretch on forever. "How I have missed this." He said aloud, ostensibly to Daniel who stood at the railing of the east pier near him. Two Special Forces soldiers stood only a few feet away, weapons in hand. One of them carried the black disk of the anti-prior device which blocked his Sage's abilities in a backpack. Talon was never permitted to be outside of the device's range. "For two hundred years, I have only been able to travel so far as the walls of the Temple, and my duty, will allow me. This," He gestured to the peaceful scene in front of him with his good hand, "is a breath of fresh air."
"Yeah, I'll bet." Daniel responded. "So this is your first time out of the Temple of Time in two hundred years?"
"Yes. Since the invention of the television device, I have been able to see many places again through the monitor, but I have been forbidden to travel to them." Talon responded.
"That must be rough." Daniel told him.
"Don't misunderstand me," Talon said. "The Lady Hylia took mercy on me in allowing me to live, and since my imprisonment I understand how foolish my actions were. I am thankful for her kindness in that regard, and I have been grateful for the chance I was given to make restitution through my service. But I am also thankful for this one chance to breath the fresh sea air again. Thank you for that, Daniel Jackson. It is a kindness I will not forget when I return home."
It had been two days since his appearance in the cavern city of D'ni and his arrival at Atlantis. True to their word, the people from Earth had been hospitable and had allowed him freedom of movement with an escort throughout the city, except in their restricted areas which held no interest for Talon anyway. He spent those two days listening to the conversations of those around him. Enjoying the sight of so many people, his favorite place to be was out on Atlantis' piers where off duty personnel spent time with the families many had been able to bring to the city since it had returned to Earth from the Pegasus Galaxy years prior. He heard genuine laughter in the background noise of the pier, and the sounds of life all around him. His twenty-five year old face seemed to have a permanent smile etched into it as he took in the activity around him. His nights had been spent out there as well, laying on the pier and watching the stars and constellations in the heavens. They weren't his stars or constellations, but they would do.
Daniel pressed his hand to his earpiece communicator and said into it, "Okay, we'll be right there." He then told Talon, "We need to get going. They're ready for us."
"I don't suppose a few more minutes would be possible?" Talon asked, knowing what the answer would be.
"I'm afraid not." Daniel responded, empathetically. "They want us right away."
They left the pier and took the transport system back to the central tower and almost all the way to the top where sat the conference room that he had materialized within two days before. As before, the other three men, Rodney McKay, Mr. Woolsey, and Colonel Shepherd were waiting for them, as well as another balding man with a beard and spectacles whom Talon had met in passing. All but Mr. Woolsey were wearing some kind of black military suit of the kind he had seen Hyrule's royal guardsmen wear when they had to go into combat. They all carried backpacks, weapons, and other gear, obviously packed for a long journey not knowing what they might encounter.
Mr. Woolsey addressed Daniel, and Talon's escort quickly left the room. Noticing his questioning look, Colonel Shepherd told him, "He needs to get suited up. The Hammond's standing by waiting for us to be ready for transport. He'll be back in a few minutes."
"Are all of you coming with me?" Talon asked.
"Myself, Rodney, Daniel, and I think you've met Dr. Lee." Colonel Shepherd motioned to the heavyset man with the spectacles who didn't appear to be fully comfortable in the mission attire. "He's the closest thing to a Hyrule and 'alternate reality' expert we've got, so he's coming with us this time. Maybe he can help us figure out who the new bad guy is, and how to deal with him."
"You mean video game expert." Rodney quipped in Hylian.
Dr. Lee said something, and Rodney appeared to shrug it off, saying to the other two, "Doesn't understand a word of Hylian."
"I'm sorry, video game expert?" Talon asked, confused.
"Computer games? Haven't they invented...uh?" Rodney began to try and explain.
"I've seen such games advertised and talked about on the television, Doctor McKay. They are relatively recent to us, but not unheard of. I just don't understand why such an expert would be necessary." Talon replied.
"That's going to be a long conversation best left for another time." Colonel Shepherd said as he saw Rodney gearing up for just that long explanation. "But I promise it will be an interesting one."
"Indeed it must be." Talon replied.
Daniel came back in a few minutes after that with his own gear and supplies, and their team was fully assembled. Mr. Woolsey gave his people last minute instructions in their own language, and then he spoke into his own communicator. The next thing Talon knew was that feeling of nausea and light-headedness as the five men were consumed rapidly into a blue flash of light.
Five forms materialized out of thin air and light in the great hall of the Temple of Time. It had been two days since the old woman had seen her future successor, but just over a year since she had sent two of the four strangers home to their own world with the warning not to return.
"Impa?" Doctor McKay asked in surprise, he then looked as if he was going to continue the conversation, and Impa stopped him immediately.
"Tell me nothing, Rodney McKay. The time line must not be tampered with. I am only acting as a point of passage for you into our future. You must not linger here." She told all of them.
One of the men, a man strange to her, leaned over to the man she knew as Colonel John Shepherd and, by the tone of his voice, asked him something, to which he responded in his own language. He then stared at her and the interior of the temple as he looked around in a kind of worshipful awe, mouthing the word, "wow," several times.
She could not, would not, look into their minds at this juncture to discover what they knew that she did not. If she did, it might change what would happen because it would change her response to what would happen. So she left their mysteries to remain mysteries.
She gestured towards the pedestal where the Master Sword remained firmly embedded in this timeless place as well as in the ruins outside of the interior of the true temple, and the floor of the hall opened up to reveal the portal of time assembling itself into position and spinning, the symbols on its face lighting up as it did so.
"Good luck, gentlemen. If all goes well, I will see you again upon your return." She told the men. Daniel leaned over and translated for the heavyset stranger when he gave a quizzical look. Impa smiled at him, and he smiled back and waved. She couldn't repress a slight laugh. The man seemed like a child in a confectionery and she didn't know why.
Her successor Talon led the other men into the portal, and then they were gone, and Impa was alone once more. She wondered how long it would be before the portal would come to life on its own again.
"Who is this?" The secretary who answered the phone asked. "Wait just one minute, I'll transfer you immediately!"
"Well, that's a better reception than my first." Talon told Colonel Shepherd who had come to his apartment with him. After they arrived back into Talon's own time he attempted to contact the palace one last time, hoping that the Princess might finally be in. They arrived back later than he had hoped. It had been almost two days since he left according to the wooden clock which hung on the wall of his private residence, and a lot could happen in two days.
"Hello?" An older, masculine voice had picked up the phone. "Is this Talon?"
"Yes," Talon responded irritated. "I've been trying to reach the Princess Zelda since Saturday. To whom am I speaking?"
"I'm sorry, you grace. This is King Daphnes, and we've been trying to reach you since Saturday night. I hope you will forgive my daughter's secretary." The masculine voice said. "Where have you been?"
Talon's irritation dissipated, "When I could raise no one through any means, I..." he searched for the words to try and explain, "went for help in the only means I had available to me. The Hero has been reborn, and he is the same age as your daughter, I am certain of it. Where is the princess, your majesty? I believe it is a sign that she and all of Hyrule may be in terrible danger."
The king let out a sad, troubled sigh, his voice became filled with emotion, "My daughter was... she was abducted Saturday night from her car as she was driving to speak with you personally. We've been trying to contact you, and every other Sage for two days now. No one has responded."
"Abducted?" Talon said with alarm. "By who?"
"All the signs say it was a dragon, as do the witnesses who survived the attack. It happened in Hyrule Field not far from Castleton on the Trans-Hyrule one." The king said sadly.
"Great goddesses have mercy." Talon exclaimed. "I was too late."
"We all were, grand-uncle." The king said, using a more familiar term of address including Talon as a part of what was a family crisis. It moved Talon in a way he hadn't been for a long time. "You said you went for help?"
"Yes, I brought men from the past. Men who helped to destroy the Demon King with my father." Talon told him. "Colonel John Shepherd, Doctor Rodney McKay, and two of their companions, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and a Doctor Bill Lee."
"Your grace, I have to add to that list of heroes. About an hour ago, I received a call from the Sacred Grove command post. The Hero showed up on horseback wearing a green hooded sweatshirt and leather jacket." The king told him.
"So it's true then. They were certain it was him?" Talon asked.
"It was a positive identification. They're escorting him to the Grove on my orders." The king replied.
"I understand." Talon responded, filled with conflicting feelings about his new visitor. "He need not enter the temple to pull the Sacred Blade, and it may be better if he does not. I will send these men out to meet him. Please notify the command post not to shoot them the minute they set foot out of the Temple doorway."
"You have my word. My soldiers will give any aid they need or there will be hell to pay." The king replied. "Please, tell them to save my daughter. She's all I have left of her mother."
Shepherd had been listening to the entire conversation since the speaker on the phone receiver was so loud. He motioned to Talon to let him take the phone and speak with him. Surprised, Talon nevertheless gave him the handset. "Your majesty this is Colonel John Shepherd, at one time the Supreme Commander of your military."
"Colonel Shepherd?" The king asked in amazement.
"I just want you to know that we are getting Zelda back. That's a promise." He then added in an undertone, "We failed her once. Never again."
"Thank you, Colonel." The king responded.
He handed the telephone back to Talon, who had little else to say, and then it was hung up. Colonel Shepherd then turned to leave the residence to rejoin his men in the great hall, when Talon put his hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Wait for a minute, would you Colonel?"
Shepherd looked at him in confusion. Talon walked calmly over to a chest which sat in the corner of the room and opened it. He reached inside with his one good hand and pulled out what looked to be a medium sized package, handing it to him. The package was heaver than Shepherd expected it to be.
"What is this?" He asked the Sage.
"When you see my father, give this to him as a gift from me. The Hero needs to be properly suited for the task ahead of him." Talon told him.
Shepherd nodded at the cryptic explanation and put the package under his arm, as the two left the room.
"Say again?" Guard Captain Jovani asked over the two way radio. "You're kidding." He then replied to whatever he was hearing. "Alright, I'll tell him. Be sure to radio the men at the doorway." Then there was a response, and he said, "Good, we don't need to be cutting down friendlies. Jovani out."
Link paid no attention to his conversation as he stepped into the Sacred Grove, and immediately felt as though he had come home. "I know this place." He said out loud. "I don't know how, but I know this place. I've been here so many times, it's like coming home."
"Oh? When was that?" Jovani asked him, curious, never having seen the teenager before. Jovani had been stationed guard at the grove for ten years.
"I... I can't remember." Link admitted. "But I know this place. Over there," Link pointed, "was where the skull kid used to play his games with me. And over there," Link pointed, and then became silent for a minute, "over there was where we found him dead." He said quietly, grasping for a conscious memory that refused to come.
"Well, I just got word to expect some friendly company near the Temple in a few minutes. People you may recognize." Jovani said.
Link nodded, not sure of what to do with his memories. They seemed so jumbled and confused, but the closer he came to the center of the Grove, the stronger they fought to the surface. He was just a farm kid from Ordon who happened to be good with a sword, but his memories refused to let it go at that. I am more than that. His mind kept insisting, no matter how much he argued.
"I need to go in there." Link said, pointing to an archway that led deeper into the complex of ruins.
"Of course you do, sir." Jovani responded, at this point refusing to be surprised by anything that happened that day.
Link led the way as they came out into the ruins of an enormous ancient building. The roof and sidewalls were almost completely gone. Some of the only features that had been left standing were some staircases, the outline of where the walls had been, and, curiously, the archway of the main doors seemed completely unravaged by time. Link made to reach those when Jovani told him, "I think what you'll be wanting to see, sir, can be gotten to around this way." The guard captain steered him around down a flight of ruined steps and into what had been an immense great hall of marble, obsidian and gold.
Follow him. The voice within him said, and Link acquiesced, but he didn't feel done with the archway, not yet as the memory of his wooden flute in his pocket came to him. For what reason, he didn't know.
Link then took over as he left the guard captain's side and when forward through the ruined structure up a flight of stairs and through another set of massive doors that had long lain off their hinges. At the back of the structure was a sight he recognized immediately.
In a stone pedestal up on a dais was a sword embedded vertically almost up to its sapphire blue hilt. The sword gleamed with its own inner light it seemed. Link was drawn to it without thought and without will.
"I should warn you sir." Jovani called out. "I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't warn you. That sword's only supposed to recognize one master. It'll kill anyone else that touches it." He was genuinely concerned for the kid. If he wasn't the Hero, he was at the least likable enough.
Link looked back at him and nodded in acknowledgment. So then what do I do? He asked himself. If I grip the sword, there's no going back. I'm committed. Either I'm the Hero, or I'm not and I'm dead, either way, nothing will ever be the same again. He then said a prayer to Farore. He had always felt close to that goddess for some reason, and he prayed for the courage to do what needed to be done.
He gripped the hilt with both hands, and began to pull upwards. Immediately there was a feminine, slightly computerized voice which called out, "Recognition accepted." And the sword began to slide free. "Master Link accepted." The voice called out as the sword came free of its pedestal.
The guard captain couldn't believe his eyes. He would have sworn the young man would have been dead by now, or had at least been unable to pull the sword. "Great goddesses," he exclaimed, "the legends were true." Involuntarily, he fell to his knees, not sure of what else he could or should do. He traced a series of triangles around his chest and head, something he hadn't done since he was a child.
A blue and silver young woman materialized out of thin air and addressed the young Hero. "Master Link, it has been a long time. It is good to see you. I calculated a ninety-nine point nine percent chance that we would never meet again. It appears I was in error."
"I guess so." Link agreed, not sure of what to say. Her name came to his mind, "Fi. Your name is Fi."
"Indeed it is, Master Link, and I am at your service until the very end." Fi responded.
Shepherd almost couldn't believe what his eyes were telling him. He still had the package Talon had given him under his arm, and he knew from the phone call (boy that was weird, a phone call in Hyrule), that Link had shown up, but the last time he had seen the young man who had been one of his best friends was when he voluntarily went to his own death. He had opened the gateway to a poisonous Sacred Realm and sacrificed himself to redeem his whole world. It had been a bad day for Shepherd.
"Link?!" He called out to the young man holding a very familiar Sword up in the ruins of the temple he had just been in. The young man was talking to another familiar figure, a blue an silver young lady that he knew to be a hologram of the sentient artificial intelligence of the Master Sword, Fi. These scene was eerily familiar to another one he had experienced three years, and what seemed like several lifetimes ago.
The young man's head shot to face him, and even from that distance, and in the dim light Shepherd could tell it was him, though what he was wearing was more modern (again, weird).
"Wow, it's really him, isn't it?" Rodney said, also viewing the scene. "It looks exactly like him. But what's with the clothes?"
"I don't know, let's go and talk to him and find out." Shepherd said going up the ruined stairs to approach his old friend. "Hey, buddy," He said in Hylian. "Long time no see!"
The hologram disappeared back into the sword, and the young man in front of him stared at him curiously, and then a faint glimmer of recognition came into his eyes. "I know you, I think." Link said, as he removed one sword from the scabbard on his back and replaced it with the one he had just drawn.
"Yeah, you do, don't you remember?" Shepherd asked, a little concerned.
"No." Link said honestly. "At least, I don't think I do. But your face looks really familiar to me. It's like this place. I have never been here before, and yet I know every inch of it as though I've spent a good part of my life here. If you know me, can you tell me what's happening to me? Please?" The boy almost begged him.
"Yeah, sure, I can try." Shepherd told him, a little confused himself, but it was Link. He would do anything that needed to be done for him. "Why don't you come down with my friends and I and we'll try and piece things together for you." Shepherd gestured towards the other three men with him.
"Alright." Link responded, and then he stopped and looked at Shepherd again and said, "John. Your first name is John."
"See, you do know me." Shepherd nodded. "And there's at least one other person over there that you know too."
As Link descended the steps with Shepherd he said, "All of these things, your name, this place, what to do and where to go, they're all coming to my mind when they seem to be needed, but I swear to you I have no idea where they're coming from. I'm just a high school junior from Ordonville. My uncle has a goat ranch just outside of town. I'm on the fencing team at school. But when I saw that the princess had been kidnapped on the news it was like someone had flipped a switch inside of me that I don't understand."
"Okay," Shepherd said in response, "well, we can try and fill in what details we know. But you're going to have to trust us on some of them. I don't think I'd even believe me, and I was there."
They rejoined Daniel, Rodney and Bill. They had been speaking with a gray suited guardsman who seemed to be a little shaken up from the day's events. The guardsman stood at attention and crisply saluted Shepherd when he saw him, "Colonel Shepherd, sir!"
"At ease, Captain." Shepherd said, noting the rank insignia on his collar.
"Sir, I've been given orders to facilitate anything you and your companions need." The guardsman said, not relaxing in the slightest.
"We're probably going to need transportation soon, once we reach the top of the canyon again. You got anything like a ground car we can use?" Shepherd asked.
"Yes, sir. I'll order one prepped and ready for once we reach the top. Anything else, sir?" The captain said.
"Yeah, we may need maps, some supplies, and some of whatever you guys are using for currency right now for mission expenses." Shepherd told him.
"Consider it done, sir. His majesty has ordered to give you whatever you require." The captain said.
"A short history lesson might be useful too," Daniel offered. "From what Talon said, it's been two hundred years since the last time any of us were here. We really need to get the lay of the land, so to speak."
"Agreed. You want to fill us in on some details as we head back up, Captain?" Shepherd asked him.
"Of course. I'm not much of a history buff, but I'll do what I can. If I may speak frankly, after today, I'm definitely studying my history more, sir." The Captain said.
"Noted." Shepherd said, as the six men began to walk back up the long path to the Grove's entry point.
Shepherd then remembered the package under his arm. "Oh, by the way, Link." He addressed the armed teenager next to him. "This is for you." He handed him the bundle.
"It's kind of heavy. What is it?" Link asked, turning the wrapped bundle over in his hands.
"It's a present." Shepherd said.
"From who?" Link asked.
"It's from your son." Shepherd responded.
"Huh?!" Was Link's reply.
"We've got a lot of details to fill in, Link." Shepherd responded. "A lot of details."