The stone walls of the Temple of Time crumbled, splinters of rock were chipped away as Yiga Assassins broke away at the right Tower's wall.
Their effort was rewarded greatly as the wall crumbled away to reveal a hidden passage.
The assassin's carefully entered the catacombs, the crypts of various royals and nobles carefully built into the walls and center of the room,
darkness swallowing all except for the faint glow of the Yiga's lanterns.
Carefully, they searched the room, finding what they were looking for in the form of a bronze urn on a stone pedestal.
The Triforce clearly etched into the stone, the top one painted gold.
"This is it."
A blademaster boomed, holding up the urn to the others.
"Soon, Our Master will rule Hyrule!"
When Link awoke, it was to a intense argument between Zelda and Twilight, which ended with his ancestor growling like an animal and leaving in a huff. He barely got a moment of rest before Zelda came to him, dressed in her Champion tunic, declaring that they would leave in an hour.
Naturally, he responded with silence. Mentally coping with the memory that had waylaid him so suddenly. Gathering some food and ingredients at the General Store, they left as soon as the storm clouds parted. They hiked quite a ways away, going down the mountain and across the bridge to the Ash Swamp and Dueling Peak's Stable, the latter's namesake peaks looming over them.
Link had been mostly lost in his thoughts, but was quickly drawn out of them when he noticed Zelda had stopped ahead of him, just a bit aways from the Stables. She was looking to the left, towards the swamp.
It took him a second to look, and another second to remember what had transpired there.
Namely, his death.
A knot seized his stomach, one of sorrow and guilt. He wasn't sure if he had failed or kept his oath that day. It didn't matter now, Zelda was safe, and he was alive.
Yet he wasn't complete, but that could wait.
"He shouldn't have forced a memory on you." Zelda had told him before they left. She looked at him and was met with silence. "Link, please say something..."
He should have said something, but...he honestly didn't know what to think right now. But he knew Twilight didn't go far, out of the corner of his eye he could see him. A grey wolf with blue eyes running through trees or sitting on a clifftop. Always watching.
Zelda had remained angry until now, all that shone on her face was grief and regret. She quickly turned around and walked to the Stables. Link followed her, stopping outside when she went in and sat on one of the beds, looking at the Sheikah Slate.
He went around to the front, quietly telling the Innkeeper to bring Epona and the White Stallion around. When Zelda walked back out, her jaw dropped in awe at the sight of the latter.
"Link...Is that?" She murmured, slowly reaching up and petting the Horse's mane. "Is this truly my horse?"
Link shook his head. "...Descendant."
She cocked her head at his sudden word, but nodded nevertheless. "Have you named him?"
He nodded, shuffling a bit on his feet. "Rhoam."
Her eyes narrowed, looking at the Stallion. After a bit, she smiled.
"It suits him well." She climbed up into the saddle and took the reins. "Shall we be off?"
He nodded, mounting Epona and following Zelda as she galloped past him. Together they through the Twin Peak pass and along the Squabble river.
"We have so much to do." Zelda said as they passed the Deya Village ruins, long flooded by Deya Lake.
They continued on, across Proxim bridge and through the Outpost ruins. Link stopped every now and again to grab a rusted sword, shield, or spear.
"They weren't prepared." The Princess ran her hand along the shattered walls. "We had expected Ganon to attack from outside the Kingdom, not from within the Castle itself."
Link nodded in reply, strapping the recovered weapons onto Epona's a shortcut through the Forest of Time and over Whistling Hill, they soon passed by the Ranch Ruins and were trotting into Castle Town just before Noon. The entire town was nearly leveled, much by Calamity Ganon's invasion, but now it was deliberately cleared. Everything but a single stone outline to mark buildings was cleared away by Guardians.
"Janitor Work." Zelda grinned back to Link. "More like housekeeping, if you ask me."
Despite this, they followed the road and went to the Castle gate, on the way they watched as a Guardian used a low-power laser to clear away rubble from within the fountain. They would have to fix the mechanism that let water flow later. They crossed the bridge and entered the courtyard. Dismounting, they made they the small walk up to the Castle Sanctum. The stairs, walls, and ground had chunks and bricks missing, but all rubble had been carefully swept away. Guardian Drones flew by carry large bags of stone to either dump into the Moat or stack elsewhere.
The Sanctum was still damaged, almost the entire floor except for a narrow path around. Link often related it to a fighting arena. On one side was the entrance, on the other was stairs along the rounded walls going up to the box where the thrones were.
Zelda placed her hands on her hips, looking around the sanctum, her former prison. A line formed on her lips, one of annoyance rather than of fear.
"We shall get to work immediately." She announced, turning to him. "I'm going to my Father's study to see if there are any books or scrolls that can help. I need you to survey the Castle itself, see where it needs the most improvement." She looked at the Sheikah Slate. "It should only take a moment."
Link nodded, walking out of the room. Secretly, he felt uneasy about living within these old walls again, but he didn't share these thoughts.
Zelda sighed as he left. "This will be difficult."
Twilight huffed, a low growl forming in his throat as he sat in the Lost Woods. The eerie fog surrounded him, a echoing laugh taunted him from a distance.
None of it quelled his anger. He probably held the title for the more Rogue-like Chosen Hero, more of an Anti-Hero than anything else.
His fur bristled as he huffed once more. "I know you are there." He said. "I can still summon you, even now, Shade."
Slowly his eyes opened as the echoing howl of another Wolf rebounded across the trees, in front of him sat a Golden Wolf. He blinked once, instead of the Wolf, it was a skeletal warrior. He noticed that, for a split moment, faces of familiar knights from a previous time flashed in his place, copying his pose and demeanor.
One with a fierce, deity-like appearance with glowing white eyes and hair, red markings streaked his face. With a grey tunic and cap, and silver armor. His double-helix sword tall and imposing like himself, strapped and hefted effortlessly on his back.
The other was a younger version of himself, sixteen at the very least. With a simpler green tunic, like it was woven from the leaves of a forest, his hair golden and fairer than his dirty-blonde style. He bore the Master Sword and Hylian shield on his back, not of this Era or Twilight's, but of one long past.
But when their apparitions faded, replacing them was the man, or former man, that Twilight called Master, Friend, and Ancestor.
A skeletal knight in bronze armor with ancient Hylian markings, without a doubt from his own era.
"Well...Might as well cut to the chase, then." Twilight said casually, suddenly aware that he had returned to Human Form as well. "I need to ask you something."
The skeletal figure stared at him, silent. "This world has changed again." He noted finally.
"You could say that, given all the Sheikah came up with..." Twilight said, hands behind his head. "An autonomous army, teleportation, even the ability revive the dead and dying. It was damn foolish to think it couldn't all be turned against them."
"Ignorance is bliss, yet tragedy often befalls the unaware." Shade said wistfully. "But either way, one does not simply trade nothing for Knowledge, Link."
"You should keep calling me Twilight." The younger said idly, running a hand through his hair. "Another goes by that name, remember? I have been mentoring him, as you once did with me."
"I see...How he is still alive baffles me, but the fact that the cycle continues through you...interesting." He looked around, single eye narrowed, searching. "I do not sense the Calamity Ganon's presence here, is this his or your doing?"
"His, I just helped."
"I see, what did you wish to know?"
Twilight leaned forward. "The princess of your time...did you feel anything towards her? Love? Friendship?"
Shade said nothing for a moment, then spoke carefully. "The first affection I felt to the Princess Zelda of my time was a kiss on the cheek for luck on my journey, being so young I took it in stride..." He looked down. "I guess you could say I did feel something, especially once I found out she was the Sheikah that had aided me on my quest."
"A Sheikah, really? You never told me this."
"Indeed, I did not. A male sheikah helped me, and I later found out it was Zelda in disguise. She was a good actor then, certainly fooled me."
Twilight blinked, thinking. "Huh...Interesting."
"Hmm..." Shade grumbled. "When my quest to find Navi failed, I returned to Hyrule to be with my Zelda. I joined the Castle Guard, I had an intimate relationship with her...But I never married her, nor did we have children. It was to a Ranch Hand did that occur."
"You've told me that already..." Twilight frowned. "But...Goddesses, does our family history consist only of Knights and Ranchers?"
"Indeed." Shade chuckled. "Why do you want to know of my feelings for Zelda?"
"The Link of this time, he feels something for the Princess-"
"We all did. You did as well, and we both know it was-"
"Please, listen." He stopped that sentence right there. "The ones he felt for are long dead, he only has the Princess, and yet he doesn't take his chance. I know she feels something too...But neither act on it."
Shade grumbled something. "Let it play out, Twilight. They may not be ready to accept it. This Link was apart of the Royal Guard, right? We know the protocol and silence are affecting these feelings as well, he's never not had them hanging over him."
"That's the problem, though His memories have left him, and while he is recovering them, he still doesn't do anything with his newfound emotional freedom from the protocol-"
"Ah!" Shade leaned forward, a skeletal finger raised. "Then you do not see the true problem."
"Huh?" Twilight blinked.
"When your memories are erased, your body's memory isn't. The habits, urges, and instincts are still there, and will affect you regardless of whatever freedom you think you have. But you will not realize it." A invisible smile appeared on his lips. "He may very well be trying to reciprocate, but his old instincts prevent anything further from happening."
Twilight frowned. "And...I can't speed it up?"
"No." Shade shook his head. "That's not how memories work. If his they are truly gone, his mental state will be very fragile. Just making him recall his memories could traumatize or even force him into permanent stoicism from the shock and trauma."
Twilight placed his hand to his temple. "So what can I do?"
"Wait, like always."
"But that...With their progress, that would take too much patience for a person to have."
"Didn't you once tell me, Twilight?" Shade began to fade into the mist. "'We're more ghosts than people'?"
Link's final verdict was a mix between Good and Bad. The barracks were completely demolished, but the training grounds, forge, and mines were almost completely intact. The dining hall was cleaned up a bit, but needs new chairs and windows. Same with the Cathedral, Library, and the Gatehouses. He knew exactly who to get for the job, but that could wait until a Stable was set up in Castle Town.
When he went up to the King's Former quarters, Zelda was buried in some books at her father's desk. Link set a roll of parchment, with the names of the Castle's rooms and areas, with which ones that needed extreme repairs circled.
She said a quiet thank you, and scanned through the list quickly.
"Link...This is a bit extreme, we'll either need to build a Inn and Stable in Castle town or refurnish some of the rooms in the Castle." She looked up at him. "Which do you prefer?"
Deciding to speak, he thought for a second. "Stables and an Inn. I know the right people to build it too."
Zelda blinked, then nodded. She turned back to her studies. "You can use the Sheikah Slate, I will be here."
Link nodded, turning around and nearly running into Twilight.
"Hey." He greeted, eyes narrowed in disinterest. Zelda turned and glared at him, before turning back to the books.
He looked at her, then to Link, then to the Sheikah Slate. He nodded his head back. "Go ahead, I'll keep an eye on her."
Link nodded gratefully, grabbing the Slate and warping away to Hateno Village.
He looked over to the Princess. "Zelda." He sighed. "I want to apologize..."
I just listened to DA Games' Breath of the Wild song, it is sooo good! I kinda want to write a chapter based on it. It would be really awesome!
Shade...Yep, I've run outta ideas. ?_?
The Yiga...Trouble's afoot.
I have EOCs (End Of Course exams) Monday and Tuesday. So expect a bit of a Delay as I work myself to the bone doing those. But It should be all good. :D
You may notice the -Reconstruction Saga- chapter. Oh don't mind that. ;)
I've also changed the Chapter titles, if you prefer the good old "Chapter 1" and "Chapter 2" By all means, tell me and I'll switch it back.