Chapter 7

Bill didn't get the luxury of unconsciousness that his companions did. His head felt like someone had taken two hammers to it and mistaken it for a drum after the Humvee landed on its right side. He had been violently jerked around in the safety straps only coming to rest halfway hanging from them and resting on Daniel Jackson's unconscious form. He saw the green creatures approaching their truck through the front windows too. "Bulblins." He said in a whisper, recognizing them from the video game. "Wow, they're even uglier in reality than they are in the game." He said, holding his head from the pain.

The Bulblin that approached first had a crossbow in his hands, and kept his eyes warily on the passengers of his prize, watching for any movements from them. When he was satisfied they weren't going to be a threat to him, he went to the rear of the vehicle for the extra water tanks they were carrying on the rear storage rack.

Bill didn't move a muscle. If these creatures were anything like they were in the game, they weren't too bright, but they would shoot anything moving. If it thought they were dead, then so much the better. He listened as the creature worked to free the water cans, and then watched as other Bulblins emerged from behind rocks and dunes to come and help, chattering in their own strange and guttural language.

They want the water, Bill thought to himself. I guess that makes sense, they're living in a desert. It must be harder to come by than anything else. More Bulblins came up riding huge, muscular red and brown boars with wicked looking tusks. Just like in the game, he observed. I wonder if the slight humps on their backs are like a camel's, he thought.

He heard them opening the water cans and liquid being sloshed on the ground. Not very careful, are they? He thought. What is going on? Are they trying to drink it? I wonder if they know about the additives Link told Daniel about. Maybe they have some way of filtering it.

After about half an hour, he started hearing moans of pain coming from outside the truck, and the thuds of individuals hitting the ground with their knees, buttocks, or heads. "I guess not." He whispered. After a few more minutes, all was mostly silent outside, and he chose to risk unbuckling himself from the straps, being careful not to hurt Daniel who was laying below him, and opening the rear door he had been sitting next to.

The scene outside was almost comical, if it hadn't been so serious. About ten or fifteen Bulblins lay on the ground in their own vomit clutching their stomachs. Their weapons, a collection of crude clubs, crossbows, and a few antique looking rifles, lay scattered around them. None of them were moving any more. About ten feet to the front of the truck were several of those riding boars, each one riderless. "Well, that was easier than it could have been." He said.

He pulled himself out of the truck and got a better grasp of their situation. He knew the other men in the truck were still alive because they were still breathing. Colonel Shepherd had some blood on his forehead, as did Rodney who was laying against the rear door that was now against the ground. There was no gasoline in the truck as far as he knew, but he didn't know if the heating element for the boiler could explode. Water had left a dark brown stain where it had seeped into the sand all around the truck.

In the distance, the huge structure of the arbiter's grounds rose up from the rocks like an ancient fortress. The sun was still high in the sky. "What do I do now? I'm not trained to deal with this kind of thing." Bill said to no one in particular. "And Twilight Princess doesn't count!" He yelled in frustration, shaking his fist at the sand dunes.

"What's that about the princess?" Someone below him mumbled. He looked down to find Daniel blinking his eyes open.

"Daniel, you're awake!" He said gladly. "I thought I'd have to deal with all of this on my own."

"No, no, I'm awake now. My head is throbbing. What happened?" He asked.

Bill filled him in on the last forty five minutes. "Wow." Daniel said as he unbuckled himself and began to move around, trying to be careful of the injured and unconscious Rodney beneath him. "They all really poisoned themselves?"

"Yeah. Go figure." Bill replied. "So now what do we do?"

"Well, it's the heat of the day in a desert. We're going to need the gallons of drinking water we got from the guard barracks." Daniel said as he began to check on the three other men between the front and rear seats. "They're all still alive, just out cold. Rodney hit his head pretty hard, but I think he'll be okay. Everybody's still got all of their arms and legs. I've seen what a roadside bomb can do to one of our Humvee and the men inside. This truck must be armored pretty heavily on the underside for us to have survived it, much less just knock us out."

"Well, I don't think it's going any farther though." Bill observed.

"No, I don't think it is either." Daniel agreed. "And we aren't either until the others wake up. Here, let's start getting them out of these straps. We have small tents in the supplies we brought from Atlantis, so we could wait out the heat, and start walking closer to sundown, but we don't know how safe it's going to be to stay with the vehicle either."

"Why not?" Bill asked.

"Well, the Bulblins outside might have friends who will wonder why they aren't coming back yet." Daniel told him. "We need to get out of here."

"Right." Bill said.

The two men with splitting headaches worked to gently move their friends out of the overturned Humvee, and then went back to grab anything useful they might have left, including their weapons, water, tools, the map they had, and their mission backpacks.

As Bill climbed back into the truck for one last look, he spied a small vial of shimmering, glowing pink liquid that he hadn't seen before, but recognized from his video game experience. "Wow, that's really valuable. I wonder who had this?" He asked, and then he shoved it into one of his pants' pockets. "Can't just leave that here in this wreck."

"What happened?!" Rodney's voice cried out in pain from outside. "My head feels like it's been used as a heavy metal drum set!"

Bill climbed back out of the truck and landed back on the dirt. Daniel had been looking after their friends. They were all now awake and holding their heads, with Daniel going around with a first aid kit, doing the best he could administering the red vials of water of life that the kit held to the men who were bleeding before handing one to Bill and taking one himself.

"Alright, the truck is toast, but at least it didn't explode." Shepherd said, once he was able to think clearly from the medicine. Seriously, he wondered, what is in that stuff? "We've got about twenty miles to cross before midnight, and we have no idea what we're up against once we get there."

"Well, unless we're walking through the desert in the middle of the day, I have no idea how we're going to get there." Rodney said.

Link spoke up in his own language, and Rodney answered, sounding like he was explaining the situation in his own pessimistic way. Link then pointed to the boars with a grin on his face, asking a question, at which Rodney started gesturing and saying something that sounded suspiciously like a vehement "no."

"Hey, what's going on?" Bill asked. "What'd Link say?"

"He asked Rodney if he knew how to ride one of those boars over there." Shepherd replied. "Actually, it's not a bad idea. It'd beat walking if they'll let us."

"Oh come on! You're not serious are you? Horses are bad enough!" Rodney protested.

"Unless you really want to walk twenty miles, Rodney, it's probably our best shot at getting there in time." Daniel agreed with Shepherd. "Of course, you could always stay here and wait for their friends to show up." He said, motioning towards the dead Bulblins on the ground.

"Yeah, right." Rodney said. "Just what I wanted to add to my resume: huge ugly pig riding."

Bill looked again at the boars that were standing there looking at them. "We're going to ride on those things?" He asked, pointing at the boars in disbelief. "Seriously? I mean, I've ridden a horse before, but how different is this?"

Shepherd asked Link the question. Link responded with a shrug, telling Shepherd something that left his expression less than thrilled. "He said he doesn't know. He'll tell you when he finds out."

"Oh." Bill said, completely forgetting about his previous discovery.

The sun was setting as the five men came up to the beginnings of the ruins, and the heat was finally dissipating. The huge pigs were panting and exhausted, complaining and whining loudly. Link almost felt sorry for them. They were just riding animals. It wasn't their fault the Bulblins captured and bred them for their own mounts.

In addition to his sword and shield, Link now also carried one of the assault rifles supplied to them from Lake Hylia's R.H.M.G. armory strapped around his shoulder. He had used his uncle's rifles from Epona's back before, back on the ranch, to keep the red octoroks away from the goats, and he was a pretty decent shot with one of those. After looking it over himself, Shepherd showed him the basics of it and, except for the full auto setting and the ammunition magazine on it, it wasn't that much different. At the time Shepherd gave him the weapon, Doctor Lee had made a comment, and then hummed a weird melody. Shepherd laughed, translating it for him, "He says we'll call this the 'Fairy Machine Gun.'" Link smiled politely, but had no idea what he was talking about.

As Shepherd had been showing him the weapon, he whispered to Link, "You know, you went a little harder on the guy then I expected you. You looked like you were really going to take out his throat."

"I could hear your conversation with him," Link replied tapping his sharpened ears, "I heard how he said the word Ordonian. My foster family and all of my friends are Ordonians. I don't care who he thinks he is, he had no right to talk that way about you because of the shape of your ears or face. There's too many Hylians now that seem to think they're better than everyone else just because they're Hylian." He explained with a deadly seriousness.

"I'm glad you're not one of them." Shepherd replied.

"Never." Link had told him. Zelda was the same way, Link was sure. He had followed her on the news from the first time he saw her. She was always speaking out for the rights of non-Hylians and equality among the races. It was one of the things among many about her that drew him to her, the thought ran through his mind. He quickly tried to squash it. "Can't think like that now." He said to himself.

"Can't think like what?" Rodney asked.

"Nothing." Link lied. "It's just a little bit farther and then we'll have to leave the boars behind and go in on foot."

"Yeah, I remember." Rodney said.

"You do?"Link asked, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"We were here some five years ago now. Five years ago for me, anyways, looking for something. It's probably the second creepiest place I've ever been to. And let me tell you, that's saying something because I have been to a lot of creepy places." Rodney started.

"Yeah, I've seen your apartment back home, Rodney." Shepherd quipped.

"Hey!" Rodney exclaimed.

"Oh." Was all Link said in response. It was another reminder of the lives he had lived that he couldn't remember.

They came to the place where they had to dismount and proceeded in on foot, leaving the boars behind to graze on whatever patches of desert plants they could find. The last time Link looked back at them, they were feasting madly on some cactus, the juices from the plant running down the sides of it.

"Weapons out, eyes open." Shepherd said as he unslung his rifle and had it ready. "We don't know what little surprises our host may have waiting for us." The other men followed suit. Even Doctor Lee had a gun this time, though he seemed to be nervous about it as he looked around.

They carefully picked their way through an abandoned Bulblin camp and came up and through the front gates of the ancient prison. The camp looked like it hadn't been used in centuries. "I guess they don't come around here much anymore." Bill had said in English, and Daniel translated when Link asked.

"No, it was abandoned when we were here too, actually." Rodney said, looking around. "I don't think they like this place much. Truth be told, I don't blame them. I don't like it much either."

The sun started to dip below the western mountains and all became almost too dark to see in the shadows of the ruins. "Lights on." Shepherd said, turning on the flashlight mounted to his rifle. The others did the same.

They came to the first small gate room of the prison. The gate itself was a small portcullis that was raised into the open position and left there. Torches were burning brightly to either side of the room. The floor of the room looked to be somewhat of a problem as the stone floor had been partially consumed by three swirling vortexes of sand that seemed to be constantly emptying into the earth.

"Watch yourself. Don't get swallowed up." Shepherd called out. "Follow Link through." He nodded to Link.

Why me? Link was about to ask, but then he saw the path through. He had a flash of memory about a device with a claw on a chain and flying up towards one of the torch holders. I wish I had that now, he thought. "Give me a second." He told them, and then went back out to the abandoned camp.

There was all sorts of wood and boards laying around that he had seen coming through. Some of it still sturdy enough to use as makeshift bridges. He picked two and dragged them back into the room. Shepherd got the idea and helped him put them across to bridge the gaps. They did this a few more times, and their walkways were complete. They took them one at a time and carefully cross through the room.

As the last man made it to the solid stone floor on the other side, something shot out of the sand towards them. Before anyone else could react, Link drew his sword and sliced the creature in two.

"What was that?!" Daniel asked, startled.

"Something nasty." Link responded, using his sword to point out the razor sharp teeth on what looked like a fish from hell.

"You're telling me." Daniel replied.

They passed under the portcullis into another stone hallways that was also brightly lit by torches. "Hey, does it seem to anyone else like someone's expecting us?" Daniel asked.

"Well, she is, isn't she?" Rodney responded.

"Yeah, but she can't have known when we arrived, can she? These torches look pretty fresh." He said.

"Well, I guess we're going to find out any minute now." Shepherd responded, hearing the conversation.

They moved through the ground floor of the prison carefully, but all they encountered was silence and lit torches guiding their way. "The main hall of the prison is up ahead." Link told the rest of them. He knew it was the same way he had known all the other things he shouldn't have been able to know.

"If there's no one waiting for us there, it could be a long search. These ruins are huge." Rodney added.

They crossed the doorway and entered a huge vaulted hall. At the opposite end was a grand series of steps leading up to another, massive doorway that looked to have been originally designed to be guarded. Torches blazed brightly all around the room, and up in a massive set of circular chandeliers giving light to the massive empty space. On the steps stood a black robed female figure with black horns protruding from the top of her head. In her right hand she held a staff with a raven perched on its top. With her left hand she stroked the top of the raven's head.

"Somehow I don't think that's going to be a problem, Rodney." Shepherd observed.

"Welcome to my new humble abode!" The black robed woman called out. Link looked at her with scrutiny. He felt like he recognized her, but not necessarily from his other memories. No, he had seen her face, or the face of someone similar very recently. Then it hit him, "She's a Great Fairy." He whispered. "But that doesn't make any sense. Great Fairies are creatures of light."

"Apparently not this one." Daniel said, hearing him.

"We want to see Zelda!" Shepherd called out to her. "Alive and unharmed before we talk about anything else."

"Well, how rude. No introductions? No tea? Men. Always business first." Maleficent said impatiently. "Well, very well then." She gestured widely, motioning her hands in a circle and there was a flash of green light. Behind her appeared one of the prison's beds, and on it lay a sleeping princess Zelda. "There, she's alive and unharmed. Just enjoying a nice deep sleep. Now, shall we talk or not?"

"Bring her out of it first." Link shouted, fear for her bleeding into his facial features.

"Now, now, don't be rude. I need her alive, not awake. I can bring her out of it whenever I choose. If I choose, that is." Maleficent smiled with malice, obviously believing in her total control over the situation..

"You'll bring her out of it now." Link demanded, his voice taking on a steely hardness to it, like the edge of a sword.

Shepherd knew that tone of Link's voice. It meant these "negotiations" were about to be cut short. He hadn't planned on trusting the sorceress to begin with, but he needed to keep her talking at least long enough to confirm what Bill told them about what the bigger threat might be.

"What is it that you want, Maleficent?" Shepherd called out. "You offered an alliance. Against who?"

"Ah yes." She said, not taking her eyes off of Link. "I tracked him to this world with my magic. I truly have no real fight with any of you. He's an old business associate of mine. In our last 'association' he murdered a dear friend of mine, and I want him dead. It's as simple as that really. I've spent the last several years tracking down his remaining hosts through time and space. It was only recently that I found that his spirit fled to this world and he took a host here. It's in your best interests I assure you that you work with me. He may be weakened, but you are still no match for him."

"What's his name?" Shepherd asked.

"Xehanort." Maleficent said.

Dammit. Shepherd thought. Bill was right.

"Alright, release Zelda, and we'll help you find and kill him. Everybody wins." Shepherd said.

"You misunderstand, my dear little man. I need Zelda alive to draw him here. The light in her heart will draw him like a moth to a flame." Maleficent said.

"So you don't know where in Hyrule he is then?" Shepherd asked.

"Regrettably no. I don't know what his new host looks like, and he's been remarkably silent as to his normal activities as far as I can tell. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was hiding from me." She told him.

"And how long have you been in Hyrule?" He asked her.

"Oh dear, I only just arrived about a week or two ago. You should have seen the place before I came. Ghastly." She said with a grin.

Okay, important questions answered, Shepherd thought. He then looked towards Link. Nope, there was no way the kid was going to agree to anything as long as Zelda was comatose, and Shepherd remembered the story of Sleeping Beauty. No matter how it went down, as long as Maleficent was still standing, they were going to lose in some way. Link's eyes were hard and fixed. The rage was building inside of him, Shepherd could tell. Nope, this wasn't going to end well for the witch.

"Let Zelda go, and we'll find another way to find him." Shepherd said one last time.

"There is no other way. I don't think you understand your situation. You don't have a choice in the matter." Maleficent told him with an evil grin.

Behind the five men hundreds of skeletal warriors rose up out of the stone floor. Their eye sockets glowed a pale sickly green. They carried swords and axes. Nope, this wasn't going to end well at all.

Your funeral, Mal, Shepherd thought. "No deal!" He shouted. "Light her up!"

The five men opened up their weapons on her, spraying her with a hale of bullets, all of which were stopped by a pale green field of energy surrounding her. Her face became livid with anger.

"Stupid fools! You have no idea who you're dealing with! My powers have increased tenfold since I have entered this world!" Maleficent shouted. "Light me up?!" She cackled. "What a wonderful suggestion! I will light the whole room up in flames!" And with that she enveloped herself in a green mist and began to grow and change shape into something black, scaly, and monstrous. A great roar filled the hall as it erupted in green flames.

Up to that moment, all Link could see was the sleeping body of Zelda on the stone bed behind the cackling witch. He had stopped listening to anything the witch had to say. He couldn't hear it anymore. His heart wouldn't let him hear her taunts or excuses. He knew only two things at that moment. Zelda needed him, and the witch was in his way. The idea that the witch could have hurt her caused an anger to boil within him like it never had before. Deep in his heart, he couldn't, wouldn't let anyone harm his princess. Not now. Not ever.

Then his enemy changed right in front of his eyes. The monstrous dragon that rose up in front of Link was the biggest, deadliest, and most beautiful creature he had ever seen. It was terrifying and stunning like being caught out in a powerful lightning storm where all you wanted to do was run and hide, but all you could do was watch in awe. He almost regretted having to fight her because he knew he would mar the wondrous majesty of the beast. But then he spotted Zelda again behind the black monstrosity, and his resolve hardened again.

When the jet of green flame came towards him, he instinctively threw up his shield, and rolled out of the way. He could feel the intense heat parting and swirling around him to the sides, but the metal shield on his arm remained cool to the touch, bending the flames around him. With only a brief moment's relief, he quickly glanced to his companions, who had thankfully gotten clear of the flames as well which Maleficent tried to spread broadly around the room.

The four men opened fire again on the dragon, and Link brought his weapon up too, but the shells hit her scales and just bounced off. A deep throated gurgling sound came from Maleficent's snout like laughter. "New plan!" Shepherd said as he looked Link in the eye, silently communicating with him in the way they used to long ago. Link just nodded slowly. Shepherd nodded back. "Link takes the dragon! We keep the grateful dead off his back!" Shepherd then started shooting at the skeletons and the other men followed suit, blowing apart and splintering bone from one grisly warrior after another.

Link turned his attention to the dragon. The bullets had been bouncing off the scales, but what about...? He raised his weapon, and the dragon just stood there daring him to shoot and waste his ammunition. Link took aim and fire a single shot. The shell flew through the air at the speed of sound, and before she knew it, the dragon's right eye exploded, and she screamed. He meant to take another shot, but quicker than he could react, she whipped the gun out of his hand with her tail. Behind the dragon, Zelda remained asleep, cocooned in a green mist of energy protecting her from the violence.

He leaped away from the swinging tail and drew his sword, approaching the dragon's side, shield up, sword down low and behind him. Maleficent eyed his movement with her remaining good eye, and then snorted derisively, jets of green flame shooting out from her nostrils. She swiped at him back handed with a forward claw, intending to swat him out of the way but he vaulted over the claw, raking her "hand" with the Master Sword as he sailed over it, inflicting a deep cut. The Master Sword carved through her armored scales like a hot knife through butter, actually seeming to glow when it came near her. She screamed again in pain, and looked at him again with murder in her eye. She inhaled again ready to spew flames at him but he launched himself quickly towards her and under her snout, bringing the sword up high and making another deep cut across her throat. She was forced to swallow the flames in pain, then she tried grabbing him with her uninjured claw, but he quickly dashed to the side and out of its way. She roared in frustration and pain.

Across from him, Shepherd, Rodney, Daniel, and Bill continued to shoot skeletons apart, the dead warriors' weapons lying where they fell from shattered bony hands. "Keep shooting, they're not coming back once you tear them apart enough!" Rodney yelled. They were keeping them at a good distance from themselves and Link.

"She must not be able to focus on us and Link at the same time." Daniel said.

"Good to know!" Shepherd called out as he ejected a spent clip, and loaded a new one. "I just hope we don't run out of ammo before he takes her down!"

The dragon snapped at Link with her razor sharp teeth, but there was no more fire to come. He steadied himself right in front of her snout as she struck with her fangs, but he quickly hit her snout with his shield and then somersaulted up onto her head to drive the point of his blade down through her snout and into her mouth. Maleficent screamed again in pain, and she grabbed him with her good claw and flung him and his sword off of her, but Link landed on his feet.

"Yield!" He shouted at her. "Yield, and I will let you live!" He needed her alive now to wake his princess.

She lunged at him again, and he spun out of the way, slashing her right flank with his sword as he came around. Blood flowed from several deep cuts on the dragon's face, claws, side, and neck. "Yield!" He shouted at her. "You have no choice! Yield or be destroyed!"

She screamed in rage at him, and then, sniffing the air, she barreled past him, grabbed Doctor Lee with her claw, and then took off deeper into the ruined prison. The green mist around the princess failed, and behind him, the remaining skeleton warriors fell apart and vanished of their own accord.

"What happened? Where'd they go?" Rodney asked. "Hey, Where's Bill?"

"Bill!" Daniel shouted, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"She took him!" Link shouted back. "She took him deeper into the prison! She's pretty badly wounded, I think she's pulling all of her power back to try and heal herself!"

"How do you know that?!" Daniel asked.

Link didn't have a good answer for it, so he shrugged his shoulders.

It took Shepherd a second to process the new info. "Alright, Link, stay with Zelda, she's safest with you and the Master Sword next to her." Shepherd told him. "We're going after Doctor Lee and the dragon. With all that blood on the ground she shouldn't be too hard to track, and we'll have a better chance now that she's already injured."

"What if you can't get Maleficent to wake her up?" Link asked. Or what if I carved her up so badly that she dies before you get to her? He thought.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it!" Shepherd shouted at him.

"You could always try kissing her!" Rodney offered. "Maleficent's known for that one!"

"Huh?" Link responded. "What do you mean?"

"Long story. We'll tell it later if we have time!" Daniel said. And then the three men took off through the gateway deeper into the arbiter's grounds, leaving Link alone with the sleeping princess. He went up the stairs to stand guard over her.

She was beautiful, his princess. He couldn't help but think of her that way; his princess. There were feelings deep within him that stirred as he stared at her face. It was a face he instantly recognized and connected with, like a twin he had known in the womb. No, their relationship went deeper than that. He felt it.

He couldn't stand it, seeing her under the witch's spell. "How do I wake you up?" He asked her. "I've known you all of my life, seen you, thought about you no matter how hard I've tried not to. I came to save you, and now..." The words that came out of his mouth hit him forcefully. They were a deeper truth than just his seventeen years could explain. He came to save her, and he knew within himself that it was the whole reason for his existence. She was the whole reason for his existence in this world. And in that moment, he let go and stopped fighting his feelings for her. "I will always come for you." He said in a whisper, remembering those words from some other time and place.

They were words that he had spoken to her long, long ago, he remembered. Long before either of them had been born into this life, he had told her those words. "I will always come for you." He understood now. He loved her, this young woman he had never met before. It wasn't just a crush on a celebrity he had never met. It was a deep and abiding love that refused to die no matter how many times he did. He had loved her in every lifetime he had lived, and he knew he always would. Her true name came to him, and he knew it was right. "Because I love you, Hylia."

"Try kissing her." Doctor McKay had told him. Just a few hours ago, it would have seemed grossly inappropriate and forward. But now, it just felt... right. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world. He stood over her, stroking her soft blond hair. Then he leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers.

It was like an explosion went off in his head as memory after memory came rushing into his mind like a flood. There was a childhood on a city floating on a great ocean, a gigantic underground cavern with libraries of special books, the face of his mother, Farore, as she worked in her lab, and the face of his Lantean martial arts instructor, an old veteran named Gladius who was unsurpassed in his ancient sword skills. There was an island in the sky, and a great statue of a goddess, and there was Zelda with him. There was an evil man that continued to haunt him, and he was reborn again, and again, and again because his love, his wife Hylia daughter of Nayru had chosen to go back and fight him. "Hyrule had to be protected", she would tell him, "it's our responsibility to make it right.". And he would always be there to protect her. He remembered. He remembered everything, from every lifetime he had lived, and from before all of his lifetimes as Link. He knew who he was, and who he had been. He remembered the fishing trips with Colonel Shepherd in detail, as well as his trips out to the far corners of this world with Doctor McKay. He finally understood Doctor Lee's joke about the fairy machine gun. In his mind's eye he saw twin boys born to him from his flame haired mortal wife from his previous life, Malon, and the tear in his heart as he struggled with his emotions for her and Zelda. He remembered his name, his real Lantean name from before his ascension and constant rebirths.

He drew back and studied the princess's, his wife's, face. In ten thousand years, it had never changed. Her bright blue eyes began to blink open and she looked into his face and smiled. "Copulus?" She asked, her eyes filled with love. "You came for me." She said with relief.

"I will always come for you, my love." Link told her, savoring the knowledge of who he and she were to each other.

And then, the force of the memories waned, and his recent teenage self, the high school kid who grew up on a ranch in Ordon, began to emerge once more, though the memories remained and nothing would be the same for him ever again. "Zelda?" he asked, clearing his throat..

"Link?" She asked in return, the recognition in her eyes fading slightly, but not disappearing entirely.

Once again, he nodded. "You know my name?" He asked. It was a stupid thing to ask, he thought, of course she knows my name.

"The Hero is always named 'Link.'" She said, smiling, she tried to sit up, and he helped her, carefully supporting her back with his hand. "It's tradition." She then turned her head to face him again, looking him in the eyes. "How much did you remember?" She asked him.

"Everything." He said.

"I see." She responded.

"And you?" He asked.

"Everything also." She responded. "I know who we both are." Tears then began to well up in her eyes. "And I know that we have to stay apart again because of the way this world, my station in it as the crown princess, works."

It was like a physical punch to his gut. Now, knowing everything and finally accepting how he really felt? They had to stay apart? "No." He said firmly. "We'll find a way, but I'm not giving you up again."

"They won't give us a choice." She said, a tear running down her cheek.

"Then I won't give them one. I'm not letting you go again, not for them, not for Hyrule, not for anything. Once this is over, they can find another crown princess if they have to, or become a republic like the East. I don't care." He was insistent.

"But I do, my love." Zelda told him. "They need us to guide them. You've seen what has happened, what is happening with them. We still have so much work to do."

"We can't coddle them forever. We only chose this because of the dark one. Once he's dealt with, they can continue on without us. We can return to Ordon, far away from Castleton, or go somewhere else in this world where they can't find us and live out the rest of these lives in peace."

"Do you really believe we will ever have peace in this world? Do you really think they will let us?" Zelda replied, looking into his eyes.

"I don't intend to give them one." Link told her.

"What was it you told me Colonel Shepherd once told you? That there will always be bad guys to face. Our work will never be done." She said with some despair.

"They need to learn to stand up and face them on their own, or else we really will never be free, and they will never learn to move on to the next plane." He reasoned with her, taking her in his arms.

"Someone may be watching," she said in protest, though she welcomed his embrace.

"Let them." Link replied.

She then remembered her captor and asked, "What about Maleficent?"

Link pointed to the bloody trail the dragon had left on the ground. "She took Doctor Lee and ran. The others went after her."

"She's not dying is she?" Zelda asked, a strange concern creeping into her voice. "She's not wholly evil. There are reasons why she is what she has become."

"You were in trouble, and she had threatened you." Link said in his defense. "It was nothing a good potion can't cure. She's probably healing herself with a spell as we speak."

The dragon had brought Bill into a stone chamber deeper in the prison. Blood pooled on the stone floor where the beast stopped and released the terrified scientist. His gun had slipped from his hands and lay back in the great hall they had just come from. Dragon's blood stained his gray jacket and pants from the cuts inflicted by the teenage swordsman Bill had been coming to know.

The dragon was surrounded with green energy, and began to shrink back down to the form of a tall woman, badly injured and bleeding from many, many cuts. One of her eye sockets was horrifying to look at as she quickly covered it, crying in pain. "Give it to me!" She demanded.

"Give what?!" Bill asked in terror.

A green ball of energy formed in her left hand and she threw it at Bill's feet where it exploded in crackling heat and light. "Give it to me now, little man, and I will let you live!"

"Look, I don't know what you're talking about!" Bill threw his hands up in terrified protest. "Just tell me what you're looking for, really! I'll give it to you!"

"The potion!" She screamed at him. "I smelled it on you! You have a vial of healing potion! Give it to me now!"

"The... what?" Bill said in confusion, trying to remember. "Oh!" he realized. The pink vial he had found in the Humvee, but he was pretty sure it was more than just healing potion... He dug it out of his bloodied jacket pocket. "You mean this?" He pulled it out and showed it to her.

"Yes, you fool! Give it to me or you will never see your princess awake again! If I die, she remains asleep forever!" She yelled at him.

"Okay! Okay!" He said, tossing the vial to her. He knew it was more than she thought it was. He also knew from the cartoon movie that Maleficent wasn't a human but a fairy, and in Hyrule fairies were supposed to be creatures of light, but, at least according to the most recent movie, Maleficent had turned dark and bitter because of the man who betrayed her for a crown. He hoped this was the same woman, and he was right about the fairy's tears.

She uncorked the vial and downed the pink liquid inside of it. Instantly she began to glow with an inner golden light that overpowered and fought the pale, sickly green energy that had surrounded her as her wounds healed.

"I feel... I feel powerful again!" She said. "I feel..." Tears came to her eyes, "Oh god, I feel..." The darkness started bleeding out of her, flowing faster and faster as though it was fleeing something deadly to it, and the green energy that had surrounded her vanished to be replaced by the golden light.

She started sobbing as the light within her finally broke through the darkness that had enshrouded it and flushed it from her being. Great wailing sobs racked her entire body and echoed through the halls. "What have I become?" She cried. "What have I done to that poor defenseless baby? All those poor girls?"

Bill felt pity and compassion for the young, sorrowful woman he now saw in front of him. The fairy's tears had taken away the years of bitterness and pain from her, and unleashed the compassion that had always been there. The woman's remorse was deep and cleansing. "I'm... I'm sorry." he said as he stepped towards her, not knowing how else to help. He put his arms around her, and she sobbed into his shoulder. He stood there with her awkwardly as she cried and cried.

"I have to go back and make it right." She finally said, drawing away from Bill, sniffling as she did so. "Of course." He said, not knowing what else to say.

"I have to set all of it right and change the events I set into motion." She said. "You knew that, didn't you, little man? You knew what it would do to me?"

"I knew it would heal you." Bill said honestly.

"Thank you." She said sincerely. "I have never trusted human men since... Since, he took my wings. I suppose it's fitting that a human man heals me from it."

"I'm sorry I couldn't give them back to you, but I think they're waiting for you if you try and make things right with Aurora." Bill told her, remembering the movie he had seen.

"You know, you remind me of someone, a dear friend whom I lost recently." Maleficent told him. "Please, bring the creature who murdered him to justice for me. I see now that I can't be the one to do it."

"We will." Bill told her with certainty. "What about Zelda?" He remembered.

Maleficent paused as though listening for something, and then smiled. "I suppose true love's kiss does exist after all." She said. "Your princess will be just fine. And now, I must go. But before I do, allow me this small gift to you." She reach out a finger and touched his forehead, whispering a few words. Then she said, "Farewell, fairy friend."

And with that, a great field of golden light surrounded her, engulfing her body until it shone like the sun. And then she was gone.

"Good bye, Great Fairy Queen." Bill said in a whisper.

The three men heard the screams and cries echoing through the halls and started running. "What was that?!" Rodney yelled. "Was that Maleficent?"

"Oh god, I hope she didn't die! We still need her alive." Shepherd yelled back as he ran.

Then they heard the sobbing and slowed down as they neared the source. "What is going on?" Rodney asked. "Who's crying?"

"It sounds like a young woman." Daniel observed. "Could it be her?" He asked.

Shepherd shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know." He said, not knowing what to expect. As they entered the hall, he knew he didn't expect it when he saw Bill trying to comfort the golden glowing horned sorceress while she cried on his shoulder.

"What the...?" Shepherd started to say, then Daniel put his hand on Shepherd's shoulder to stop him, pointing to his ear and mouthing, "Listen."

They heard the whole exchange between the two. When Maleficent finally disappeared, Rodney exclaimed, "I don't believe it."

Bill turned his gaze to their direction and started walking towards them. "Hey guys. What's up?" He said nonchalantly.

The three men said nothing but just stared at him. Shepherd then wordlessly gestured towards him with both hands and said, "Okay, spill it."

"What? Oh, that. Right, well I found a vial of fairy's tears in the truck after the wreck. In the game it fills the Hero with a fairy's light and energy to heal him completely. So, I figured if a dark fairy like Maleficent took it, it wouldn't just heal her body, but it might heal her heart as well. It looks like I was right." Bill told them.

"Okay Bill, now I'm impressed." Daniel told him.

"Thanks. It only took sixteen years." Bill retorted.

"Mm-hmm." Daniel agreed, nodding.

"So Zelda's going to be okay?" Rodney asked, trying to keep up.

"Yeah, she said true love's kiss does exist after all." Bill told them.

"True love's..." Rodney looked confused, and then understanding broke over his features. "Oh..." He said. "Oh, we've got to get back to Link and Zelda."

"Let's walk slowly. It's been a long day, and we've got a long journey back." Shepherd suggested, slowing Rodney down.