"Son!"

Link stopped mid-swing. A tall, broad man hurried toward him. "What?" Link asked, annoyed.

"Don't use that tree! Use the apple tree by the back fence."

"Why? It's just a tree."

The man pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I suppose you're not going to listen to me unless I tell you, are you?"

Link just stared at him.

Sadness crept into the man's expression. He walked up to the tree and placed a thick hand, gently, on its bark. "This tree… is where—"

The Champion blinked. Was he looking in a mirror? He blinked again. No, his scars were gone, and his hair was shorter. Then where—

"Dad!"

"Huh? Junior! What— uh, um…"

"Yeah," said the Veteran. "I can imagine staring at your doppelganger's gotta be a trip."

"Tell me about it," the Smith muttered.

The Veteran shot him a look. "What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Who— Who are you?"

The face in front of him—his face—grimaced in pain. "Please— food—"

"Oh! Right, yes, um, here." The Champion dug around in his bag and pulled out a leftover meat skewer from the night before. "Here. Glad I made extra."

The stranger mowed through his meal in a blink.

"Do you want more? I've got tons of apples in here."

At first the stranger shook his head, but perked up and nodded at the mention of apples.

The Champion smiled in spite of himself. "How many do you want?"

The stranger thought. "Do you have three?"

"Way more than three," the Champion chuckled. "Here." He tossed the stranger three apples.

Another blink and the apples were gone. The stranger wiped his mouth and gave the Champion a grateful nod. "Thank you."

"So… who are you?"

The stranger eyed him. "I could ask the same." He looked at the others. "Where is this? Who are you all? What's going on here?"

"You got here through one of those dark, triangular portals, I take it?" the Veteran asked.

The stranger nodded.

"We're all Heroes from different eras of Hyrule's history," explained the Smith. "We haven't quite figured out why we were brought here. We've been to several different eras together, but none of us recognize this one."

"There were more of us too," said the Traveler, "but then…" He looked up at the dark mist wafting over the hole.

The stranger frowned. "That looks like malice."

"Not quite," said the Champion. "Malice typically has some reddish-purple in it. It does look very similar though."

"Did it do something to the others?"

The Smith shot a piercing glare at Junior. "Yeah. It did."

"I think it's time we all heard what happened from your perspective," said the Veteran, his expression revealing nothing as he gazed at the young Hero. "You weren't at that cliff for very long before we found you, were you?"

The Traveler looked aghast at the Veteran's bluntness as Junior hugged himself and stared at the ground. The Champion placed a hand on his son's back. "You're alright," he said gently. "Just pretend I'm the only one here. Tell me what happened, as well as you can."

The stranger's gaze was transfixed on the Champion while he spoke. Then his gaze shifted, settling on Junior expectantly.

Junior took a few slow, deep breaths. "Everything's blurry," he began. "I remember falling asleep. After that… it was strange, it was like—" He glanced at the Veteran before averting his eyes. "You all remember what happened, when I held the Master Sword?"

"Your whole body lit up," said the Champion, filling the stranger in. "And the sword lit up too."

"There's a reason for that. Have any of you heard of the Light Force?"

"I have!" The Smith snapped to attention. "I've seen it work! That— but, how? Even if you're from that line, only the women were supposed to inherit it—"

"The hell are you talking about?" asked Legend. "Anyone can use the Triforce as long as they possess those qualities—"

"It's not the Triforce," said the Smith almost angrily. "The Light Force is completely different. It was given by the Minish to the Hero of— Men… oh."

Junior nodded. "My mom is Princess Zelda. And… I know it doesn't always or, even typically work this way, but, for some reason, my dad and I… we share the Spirit of the Hero."

"That would be me, by the way," said the Champion quietly. He blushed suddenly. "I-In the future, to be clear. That, hasn't happened yet."

The stranger stared at him with wide eyes.

"You're actually his dad‽" asked the Smith.

"Can't say I'm surprised," said the Veteran. "How long have you known?"

"I— I accidentally told him, yesterday," said Junior. "I would have said something right away, but I've heard about how fickle time travel can be, and I— I didn't want to, you know. Ruin anything."

"That's smart," said the Veteran.

"So, you have this, Light Force?" said the Traveler.

Junior nodded. "On my journey, I— well, I had to deal with something a lot like this mist. It was like malice, only much, much stronger. Strong enough to—" He shook his head. "Anyway, my point is, somehow the Light Force activated on its own yesterday. I remember feeling really groggy—like, really groggy, like everything felt like I was in a dream—but, I… I really wanted to protect all you guys, so…" He paused. "I think the Light Force responded to that, and repelled the mist while I was still half-asleep." He hugged himself a little tighter. "There's… been a lot on my mind, lately, and… I guess that all came rushing back while I was so out of it. Using the Light Force without the aid of the Master Sword makes me really vulnerable, like really susceptible to suggestion and all that, which is… probably why I left. Everything that was on my mind, just, came rushing in full force, and—" His voice began to tremble as he crumpled to the ground. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you guys, especially when— when you needed me so badly—" He hid his face in his knees and cried. "The one time you guys actually need me is the one time I— Goddess I'm such a—"

"Stop that." The Champion knelt next to the boy and pulled him into a hug. "You protected all of us from that mist while we were asleep. None of us would have made it out if it wasn't for you."

"We wouldn't have been able to grab our weapons," the Veteran added. "All of us would have…" He fell silent.

"I'm sorry I doubted your intentions," said the Smith. "We're supposed to be working together. We can't do that if we don't trust each other."

The stranger nodded at that.

"How exactly does the Master Sword help?" asked the Veteran.

The Champion helped Junior to his feet. The boy took a moment to settle his nerves. "The Master Sword contains a piece of the Light Force," he said. "That's why the light changes color when I hold it. Why it turns to pure white. When the two pieces are together—so, whenever I'm holding the Master Sword—the effect is much, much stronger than when I try to use the Light Force on my own. The two pieces sustain each other."

"The sealing power and the sword that seals the darkness," the Champion muttered. "That's why you need both of them to…"

"To defeat Ganon."

The Champion stared at the stranger, then looked away. "Yeah. That."

"So, how does that work exactly?" asked the Traveler. "Does it take magic energy for you to sustain that light? Like a spell?"

Junior shook his head. "Not when I have the Master Sword, no. Like I said, they sustain each other."

"The Light Force is essentially a limitless source of magical power," said the Smith. "I had no idea there was more than one piece."

"I mean, if the Triforce can be split into multiple pieces then it makes sense that this Light Force could be split up as well," said the Traveler.

The Veteran pulled the sword from his back. "Here," he said, holding it out to Junior. "This is the Master Sword, just tempered a bit. See if it works."

Junior took the blade in his hands. Sure enough, his body began to glow with a soft golden light, and the Veteran's red blade began to glow a cool light blue. Quickly the colors merged, combining to form the same pure white light most of them had seen before.

The stranger stared at the boy in awe. His gaze shifted from the boy to the Champion and back.

"It works…" Junior's tears bounced off the cold metal of the tempered blade. "It actually works!" He wiped his eyes, smiling in relief. "When I heard the Master Sword—Sky's Master Sword—was missing, I thought—!"

A kind expression lighted on the Veteran's face for just a moment, then fled. "Here," he said, removing the sheath from his back and handing it to the boy. "You carry that with you. Right now our biggest priority is making sure none of us turn."

Everyone nodded.

"Looks like I'll be the only one who can fight enemies in the mist then," said the Smith.

"Yeah," said the Traveler sheepishly. "Once I cast this spell I can stay like this pretty much indefinitely, but I'd rather not risk going back to normal until we know we can get rid of this darkness."

"That light," said the stranger to Junior. "How big of an area can you cover with it? If you can surround the three of us—" he gestured to the Champion and the Veteran "—then we should be safe to walk around."

"That should be doable," said Junior thoughtfully. "What we really need to do is figure out its source. If we can take care of that, we'll be able to move about more freely, and then—" He stopped. "Then…"

"We can start looking for the others," said the Veteran. "That sounds like a plan to me."

"I don't think we should try to fight any of the other Heroes if we can help it," said the Champion. "If we happen to run into them, I mean. With three of us unarmed and— well, considering who we'd be going up against…"

"That'd be too much of a risk," finished the Traveler. "Monsters we can take out no problem, but… they're other Heroes, like us. They're in our league."

"And they're counting on us to not make any stupid mistakes," added the Veteran.

"What are your names?"

Everyone looked at the stranger.

"If we're going to be fighting together we need to be able to coordinate. I'm—"

"Link?"

The stranger stared at the Veteran in surprise.

"We're all named 'Link'," said the Champion with a small smile. "Apparently that's just what the Hero's always been named."

"We go by nicknames," said the Smith, "for exactly the reason you brought up. They're not defined or anything, but as a group we've been fairly consistent with them. I'm a blacksmith, so for example, they tend to call me 'Smith'."

"I've gone on more 'save the land from certain doom' adventures than I care to count—a 'Veteran' of the hero business, if you will."

"I'm just a Traveler."

"Oh, you guys can call me Junior now, since, you know."

The stranger squared up to the Champion. His eyes were intense, searching. "What do they call you?" he asked.

The Hero of the Wild couldn't hold the stranger's gaze. The bite of shame made him hesitate. "The Champion," he said quietly.

The stranger stared at him a little longer. "Excuse us." He turned and walked out to the cave.

The Champion winced, then followed.