Hooo boy... This chapter took forever! But a lot of unique things that makes it diferentiate a bit from the original game will show up in here!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 11: Those Guided by Destiny
"Ohhh… Owwww…" Tetra groaned, slowly opening her eyes.
"Hey, you're up!" Link smiled as he and his friends watched Tetra sit up before locking eyes with them.
"Link! And you guys too! You're all right?" it was then that Tetra took notice of her surroundings, "What is this place…? Hey! And Ganondorf! What happened to him?"
"Well, he just-… AAH!" Link jumped in startle when the sound of the Pirate's Charm suddenly came as he pulled it out of his pocket.
"Everyone! What are you doing?" to everyone's surprise, the King of Red Lions' voice came from it, despite that they were all boarding him just now. "You must come now to the room where Link got the Master Sword!"
"Who is using that stone…?" Link murmured.
"And why is the King's voice coming out of it…?" the Mario cast thought, while Luka was just looking at everyone with the widest mischievous grin possible as she knew exactly what was coming up.
"Just who are you?" Tetra questioned. "Link and I are the only ones who can speak through this stone! How dare you use what's not yours?!"
"…Your name is Tetra, correct?" the King spoke. "You must come with the others to see me at once!" he then ends the call.
"That was… odd." Link blinked.
"Hmph! Well, don't you sound important!" Tetra scoffed at the charm. "…Fine. We're on our way. Just hold your horses, whoever you are." She then hops out of the boat, landing on the water with a splash. "So, what are you waiting for? You heard the stone. You're all supposed to show me how to get to where that voice is!"
"Well, alright." Link replied before hopping out as well. "Come on, you guys."
The Mario cast and Luka nodded as they and Link made their way back inside Hyrule Castle with Tetra following behind. Tetra looked around in awe as they emerged in the castle's grand hall and reached the secret entrance leading to the chamber where the Master Sword was as they went down.
However, once they arrived at the chamber's dais, there was someone standing there facing the windows: a large old man wearing red robes reminiscent of a king with a white collar, white trousers and brown boots. Link and the Mario cast looked at the man in awe.
"Strange… That man wasn't here before…" they thought.
"Are you him? Are you the one who was speaking through my stone without my permission? Answer me!" Tetra demanded.
"That stone is an enhanced version of the Gossip Stones long spoken of in the legends of the Hyrulean Royal Family. I am the one who made it." The man spoke, his voice being heard for the first time… but it sounded quite familiar to Link and his friends.
"You made it? The royal family's Gossip Stone?" Tetra sassed. "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Aside from Link's friends, have neither of you heard the tales? Tales of the kingdom spoken of in the legend of the great hero… The place where the power of the gods lies hidden…"
"Wait, are you talking about… of the tale of The Legendary Hero?" Link asked.
"You heard of that tale too?" Tetra asked as she glanced at Link before turning her attention back to the man, "Are you telling me that… that tale wasn't only a myth?"
"Exactly. All of that was indeed real." The man nodded. "This place, where all of you now stand, is that kingdom. Link, your friends have told you that before, haven't they?"
"You mean… this really is…?" Link couldn't finish due to his shock.
"Yes… This is Hyrule…" the man then turns around, revealing his face. "And I am its king: Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule."
"…You're the king?!" the Mario cast exclaimed in unison before immediately bowing to him.
"There's no need to do that. You can raise your heads." King Daphnes said as the Mario cast did just that. "Now… you five and Link, do you not recognize my voice?"
Link and the Mario cast's eyes grew wide in shock. "…King?! Is that really you?!" Link asked.
"Indeed, I am the one who guided you all here. I am the King of Red Lions."
"To tell you guys the truth, I already knew about his real identity from the very beginning!" Luka winked at Link and the Mario cast. "The only reason I didn't tell you all was due to spoilers!" the group could understand that, since Luka was a gamer and knew everything about this world, but even that, it was still a very shocking reveal for them.
"Anyways…" King Daphnes resumed. "There was no need for me to reveal my true identity to you so long as that blade, the Master Sword, could defeat Ganondorf… But now…all of you must listen to me. And that includes you too, even if you all were in that previous adventure." He points to the Mario cast.
"Huh? How did you know…?" Mario blinked.
"Let's just say that a certain sorceress told me about you." The Mario cast's eyebrows perked up, knowing exactly whom he was talking about. King Daphnes then turned to Luka and addressed, "I know that you probably have heard the story already, Luka, but you don't mind listening to it again?"
"Of course not!" Luka chimed. "I enjoy the game's storyline anyways!"
"If you insist." King Daphnes nodded. "Once, long ago, this land of Hyrule was turned into a world of shadows by Ganondorf, who sought to obtain the power of the gods for his own evil ends."
Recalling back to the events of their previous adventure in Hyrule, the Mario cast still got chills from when Ganondorf managed to take control of Hyrule during the seven-year time skip. Strangely enough, Ganondorf didn't appear to possess the exact same lust for power in this era as he did so previously as they noticed how he behaved back upon confronting him at the Forsaken Fortress.
"My power alone could not stop the fiend, and our only choice was to leave the fate of the kingdom in the hands of the gods… When the gods heard our pleas, they chose to seal away not only Ganondorf but Hyrule itself…and so, with a torrential downpour of rains from the heavens… Our fair kingdom was soon buried beneath the waves, forgotten at the bottom of the ocean."
"So that's what happened…" the Mario cast thought.
"Yet all was not lost. For the gods knew that to seal the people away with the kingdom would be to grant Ganondorf's wish for the destruction of the land. So, before the sealing of the kingdom, the gods chose those who would build a new country and commanded them to take refuge on the mountaintops. Those people were your ancestors." He pointed at Link and Tetra.
"Our ancestors…?" Link and Tetra awed as the Mario cast glanced at them in surprise.
"Hundreds of years have passed since then… So long as Ganondorf was not revived, Hyrule would remain below, never waking from its slumber." He next motioned to Tetra, Luka and the Mario cast. "Tetra, and all of you, come to me."
The seven called were taken aback by a bit as Link looked at them in surprise, but they didn't hesitate and slowly walked to King Daphnes, who held out his right hand as a golden, green, red, blue, purple, orange and yellow glows materialized on it. The glows formed into, respectively, the golden-colored pendant Tetra held, the Green, Red, and Blue Star Piece that Toad, Mario and Yoshi held, and surprisingly, Star Pieces colored purple, orange and yellow each.
"Let's start this first with Tetra. This necklace you wear is part of a sacred treasure called the Triforce of Wisdom, which has been passed down for many ages within the royal family of Hyrule. Your mother passed this down to you and instructed you to treasure it…and to guard it with your life. Am I not correct?"
"Y-Yes…" Tetra nodded, eyes open wide. "But I never knew what that was, and my mother passed away, so I never got to know about it…"
"She didn't want to tell you about it because she wanted to keep Hyrule's existence a secret to you and that you also wouldn't understand."
"Oh…"
King Daphnes next addresses Luka and the Mario cast. "Now for the rest of you. The Star Pieces we've been collecting along with the Pearls are from three of the Six Grand Stars that belonged to the original Six Sages. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad, you still remember about these Grand Stars and what were their purpose, right?"
"Yes, we do." Mario answered for them.
"Do you know what happened to them after we sent Bowser back to our world?" Peach asked.
"I do. Once you used these Grand Stars to send the villain of your world back home, they were shattered into five pieces and scattered across the land. I managed to recover one piece each when I was in my boat form, but the others are either sunk under the seas or underneath different islands."
"Hmm, we see it now…" Toad mused. "But hold on, I still don't get something; why did Ganondorf address me, Mario and Yoshi as Sages?"
"Ah, yes… I am aware of that. The original Six Sages are long gone, as you might know. The gods knew that one day, the Grand Stars would come into play again, but, of course, they first had to choose six individuals with great potential to become the new Sages. And these new ones were… you all." Upon hearing this, Luka and the Mario cast's eyes grew wide again, surprised that they were specifically handpicked as the new Sages of this era.
Finally, he addresses all of them, "You see, the Triforce of Wisdom is none other than the sacred power of the gods that we have kept from Ganondorf's clutches for so many long years. The gods placed upon Tetra's ancestors the task of protecting it from evil's grasp. However, it is required the power of the Seven Sages, the seventh one being the owner of the Triforce of Wisdom, for the power of the gods to remain stable, and these powers were what Ganondorf was after all the time."
The king then held out his other hand, materializing a smaller golden triangle that would fit perfectly with the piece Tetra had, and another Green, Red, and Blue Star Piece on it.
"You all, too, must abide by the laws of the past…" he first hands the Star Pieces to Luka and the Mario cast. "But for you to completely achieve the power of the Sages, you must gather all of the Star Pieces and complete the Grand Stars." They nodded as they took the Pieces, and then King Daphnes glances at Tetra. "And now, Tetra, the time has come for me to teach you the fate into which you were born – the very reason that you live."
Tetra remained motionless in shock as she watched the golden pieces dancing towards each other with a spin before perfectly slotting into place. The completed Triforce of Wisdom then shone out beams of light that nearly blinded Link as he shielded his face from them.
When the lights faded, Link looked back… and gasped in shock as he saw that Tetra looked completely different as the Mario cast were just as shocked as well.
Tetra was no longer the fearsome pirate captain anymore; instead, she was now a beautiful and delicate princess. Her skin tone had lost its tan as it was now a pale peach, her blond hair was down as it reached all the way down her back, and makeup was added to her face that consisted of sky-blue eyeshadow and pink lipstick. Her new outfit consisted of an elegant pink dress, the top being a hot pink with a white sleeveless undershirt and golden accents on her chest holding a light pink scarf-like around her neck, and the skirt under the golden belt around her waist was light pink with a dark violet lining its edge. Long silky white gloves that reached past her elbows were adorning her hands, there was a dark violet tabard in front of the skirt that extended down to its bottom, pink heels were donning her feet, a golden necklace made out of three hot pink jewels was around her neck, and finally, on her head was a golden tiara with a hot pink shield-shaped jewel in the middle, and over her ears, there appeared to be white wing-shaped accents.
"No way… She really is Zelda…" the Mario cast thought.
Tetra, now Zelda, looked down at the back of her right hand and saw the mark of the Triforce of Wisdom appearing on it, causing her to let out a shocked yelp as she looked down at her new self.
"My…fate…" she whispered.
"You are the true heir of the royal family of Hyrule…the last link in the bloodline." King Daphnes said. "You are Princess Zelda."
Princess Zelda… That's the same name Link and the others heard from Ganondorf back at the Fortress! With this reveal, Link now knew that he wasn't lying.
"…Zelda? I'm…a princess?" Zelda asked.
"You are confused, aren't you? I suppose such is to be expected." The King then turns back to Link, "Link! I am terribly sorry that you have been caught up in these events. But now that it is known that Tetra is indeed Princess Zelda… Ganondorf will be searching frantically for this child in an attempt to get the power of the gods that she possesses. He will not rest until he has found her."
"What about my friends… or should I say Sages?" Link asked.
"They still haven't unlocked their Sage powers yet, so there's no need to worry for them. Remember, if Ganondorf succeeds in finding Zelda, my ancient kingdom under the sea will be turned into a land of shadows and despair…and so will the world you know above the waves."
By hearing this, Link felt a slight chill down his spine, but also determination; there's no way he was going to let Ganondorf take over both lands. Somehow, he also felt an instinct about protecting Zelda at all costs… but he didn't know why. For now, he ignored this and focused on what's important right now.
"Link, I need you to lend me your strength in this dark hour." King Daphnes requested. "I have a suspicion about what has caused the Master Sword to lose its power. I need for you and your friends to come with me back to the lands above the water and return the power to repeal evil to the Master Sword!"
"Will do, King!" Link nodded.
"That's what I wanted to hear from you!" King Daphnes next addresses Zelda. "Zelda… It is far too dangerous for you to join us in this task. Fortunately, this sacred chamber is not yet known to Ganondorf. It is my wish that you wait here in hiding until we return."
"Y-Yes…" Zelda nodded… aaaand then King Daphnes suddenly vanishes. "Huh?!"
"What…the…?" Yoshi blinked.
"King…?" Link asked.
"Everyone! We must go!" King Daphnes' voice came from behind them as they turned around to see him magically teleporting up one of the walkways until he vanished completely at the exit.
"That was… weird." Toad summed up what just happened perfectly.
"Tell me about it." Luigi threw in.
"Well… that happened." Link broke the awkwardness. "Come on, guys."
"Everyone…" Zelda called out to the heroes, causing them to stop and turn around.
"Yes, Tet-… Uh, Zelda?" Link replied. "Sorry, I don't know how I should call you anymore…"
"It's fine… Anyway, I don't know how to say this… Everything that's happened to you and your poor sister… It's all been my fault."
She wasn't wrong about that; it was due to her and her crew coming to Link's home island that Aryll was kidnapped in the first place, and so Link was forced to let himself get dragged on to a journey across the seas despite being only 12 years old. On the bright side, though, it eventually led to this moment where he and Tetra would discover their true identities and their destiny as the Hero with a courageous spirit and the Princess who carries the blood of the Goddess Hylia.
"…I'm so sorry." Zelda apologized solemnly, looking slightly away and placing a hand on her chest similar to how the previous Zelda did, and thus the Mario cast started to have flashbacks about them along with the other Link meeting Zelda again at the Temple of Time from their previous adventure. Needless to say, it sure brought them back good memories.
"Oh, don't be!" Link replied with a cheerful smile before assuring her, "I am not going to let you fall into Ganondorf's hands again. That is a promise. Just stay here, and you'll be fine. Besides, if my sister didn't get captured in the first place, we would never be here where we are now."
"Yeah, maybe you're right… Okay, I'll stay here and wait for you all."
Link and his friends did one last farewell to Zelda before proceeding to leave the chamber, with Zelda sorrowfully waving at them.
"Everyone… Be careful…"
Once everyone made it back outside the castle, they saw the King in his boat form again.
"Everyone, listen well…" he began. "The fact that the Master Sword lost the power to repeal evil suggests to me that something has happened to the sages who infused the blade with the gods' power."
"Sages? What Sages?" Peach asked. "It's not us, right?"
"No. I'm talking about the Sages of Earth and Wind. They should be here in Hyrule…in the Wind Temple to the north and the Earth Temple to the south, praying to the gods. You must head for these two temples to see what has happened to the sages and attempt to find a way to recover the power to repeal evil."
"Right." Link nodded firmly.
"Unfortunately, Ganondorf seems to have erected some sort of magical barrier down here in Hyrule, blocking our path to the temples. But…each temple should have another entrance high upon Hyrule's mountaintops, which are now islands above the sea."
"Huh… so my friends were right about the islands being mountains…" Link thought.
"As always, I shall mark these places on your Sea Chart. Now then… If we stay here much longer, we shall draw our enemy's attention to Princess Zelda's whereabouts. We must return to the surface immediately!"
The heroes didn't hesitate to nod back and hopped into the boat, steering it towards the light to take them back to the land above.
As soon as they did, however, the circle of light vanishes, cutting off their path back to Hyrule. Well, for now at least.
"Welp, there goes the passage back to Hyrule." Toad said. "But I guess that's necessary so that Ganondorf wouldn't find it."
"You're right." the King of Red Lions nodded. "I can guess that your friends already know it, Link, but do you know the legend of the Hero of Time?" he addressed Link.
"Well, not very much…" Link replied while rubbing the back of his head. "The tale my grandma told me didn't have much information about him."
"Then I shall tell you what I know about him, and your friends can tell you more as we sail." the King of Red Lions cleans his throat and begins, "Once, long ago, he defeated Ganondorf and brough peace to the Kingdom of Hyrule… A piece of the Triforce was given to the Hero of Time, and he kept it safe, much as the previous Zelda kept hers. That sacred piece is known as the Triforce of Courage, the last of the three pieces that correspond to the power of the gods, along with Power, held by Ganondorf, and Wisdom, held by Zelda. When the Hero of Time was called to embark on another journey and left the land of Hyrule, he was separated from the elements that made him a hero."
"Oh! He must be talking about the events of Majora's Mask now that I think about it!" Luka thought. "I should've known that by now after finishing the game many times!"
"It is said that at that time, the Triforce of Courage was split into eight shards and hidden throughout the land. Even I do not know where they rest, but this much I do know: they lie hidden somewhere in this Great Sea."
"I see…" Link mused. "But for now, we should focus about the two sages first, right?"
"Exactly. Go forth, Link!"
The hero set the sail and everyone took off. During the travel, the Mario cast told Link a summed up version of their journey with the Hero of Time, and Link, of course, was amazed at the story.
"Wow… I never knew he was just as young as I am and was forced to grow up earlier by time traveling…" Link awed.
"It must be tough to experience that, isn't it?" Mario frowned. "At that point, the Hero of Time must have lost his innocence…"
"At least you guys were lucky that you didn't age."
"True." Peach replied. "But now, after we just witnessed down there in Hyrule… I never knew we would be destined to become the new Sages of this era…"
"While I did find this shocking, at the same time I found it exciting!" Luka chimed. "I never knew we would play such a big role by coming here!"
"You can say that again!" Toad threw in.
"Hey, guys…" Yoshi trailed as he saw something at the distance. "Am I seeing things or is that cyclone heading right towards us?"
"Huh?" Link's eyes widened in alarm as he and the rest looked at the direction Yoshi was looking at, and they indeed saw a large cyclone slowly creeping towards them.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" Luka exclaimed. "Link, head towards that cyclone!"
"WHAT?!" Luigi yelled. "Are you crazy, Luka!? It's going to blow us away!"
"No, we won't get blown away, trust me! Just do as I say and follow my steps, Link!"
"Well, okay…" Link shrugged and then drove the boat right towards the cyclone, where a laugh coming from a red-colored frog sitting on a pink cloud appeared inside.
"Foolish creatures who do not fear the gods! To the end of the sea with you! Let the winds of Cyclos's wrath blow you away!" the frog, named Cyclos, declared, and then he made the boat move slowly into his cyclone.
"Quick, Link! Shoot an arrow at him!" Luka ordered.
"Got it!" Link takes out his bow and shoots an arrow right at Cyclos, causing him to cry in pain as the cyclone disappears. The large god flies down to their level and looked down at them.
"That's a heck of an arm you've got there!" he laughed before shrinking himself down to their size and approached them. "And what an eye! No one's ever been able to spot me in there before now! You obviously have mastery of the air. And now that we've established that you're quite the Wind Waker… Let's see if you can handle this!"
Cyclos then floated back into the air and did a down, right, left and up movement. Link got what he meant just by the mention of the words 'Wind Waker' and takes out the baton itself and waved it in the same directions as Cyclos did. The hero thus learns a new melody: The Ballad of Gales.
"Waaaaa-hoooooooooooooo!" Cyclos cheered. "In the hands of a Wind Waker like you, my adorable little cyclones will be as happy as can be! If you need to move like the wind over the ocean deeps, just call on my cyclones! Well, I guess I'll head for home now! See you on down the road!" he flies away into the distance.
"That was… something." Toad remarked.
"So, now what?" Link asked.
"Just conduct the new melody you just learned, and then think 'Mother & Child Isles'!" Luka instructed. "It will take us to a place where we'll get two certain important items!"
After a shrug, Link conducts the Ballad of Gales and does what Luka instructed him to do. Eventually, a cyclone suddenly surrounded the boat as it spun rapidly before taking off to the skies as the heroes held on tight.
The cyclone took all of them into a circular pond surrounded by vegetation located at the top of Mother Isle. There were small Fairies fluttering around the pond, so the Mario cast figured that it was a Fairy Fountain. And shortly after, a stream of sparkles shot out of the altar in the middle, becoming thinner until it dispersed, revealing a childlike female figure with a pale body and hollow eyes and holding a doll on her hand. That was the Fairy Queen.
"Tee hee hee!" she giggled. "Tell me, little boy… Can you control the wind?"
"Um, yes." Link replied.
"Hee hee! So young, to have such power… How did you know to find me here?"
"One of my friends here told me. Who are you?"
"I am the queen of the fairy world! What is the matter, my child? Does that not surprise you? Young one…"
"But… You're a child…I think."
The Fairy Queen smiled sweetly at Link. "I like you. And so, I shall give new power to the bow that you wield."
With that, she brings her doll in front of her and then smashed it with both hands, creating two fairies in the process. Interestingly, one of the fairies had a blue trail while the other had a red trail as they danced in the air right above Link as he and the others watched in awe. The two fairies then stopped right in front of the young hero… and then the fairy with the blue trail flew right into Link, causing him to yelp as he felt a shiver throughout his body. The fairy with the red trail followed up, and Link felt his body warm this time.
"What… was that?" he breathed, and then suddenly, arrows of fire and ice materialized right in front of him as he looked at them in surprise. "Whoa…"
"Ice Arrows can freeze the hottest flames, and Fire Arrows can melt the coldest ice." the Fairy Queen said. "The fairies in this fountain will ease your weariness. Use them as you need to." she then let out another giggle and spoke up, "Child… I must tell you… You are just my type. Tee hee hee!"
Hearing this, Link was at first shocked, but soon began to blush as he chuckled to himself while his friends glanced at him in surprise… and then the King of Red Lions looked back at him, and whatever emotion he was trying to decipher couldn't be expressed.
After more laughs and giggles, the Fairy Queen disappears. With everything done in here, Link was about to conduct the Ballad of Gales again, until a mysterious voice suddenly spoke to him and his friends:
"Link… Mario… Luigi… Peach… Yoshi… Toad… Luka…" the voice sounded feminine, and somehow quite familiar to Luka and the Mario cast. "If you can hear me, then I want you all to meet me at Headstone Island… In case you don't know its location, it's just east of Outset. I'll wait for you there…"
"…You all heard that too, right?" Link asked everyone else.
"We did." Mario nodded, along with the others. "What's odd is that this voice sounded familiar to us… but we're not sure yet."
"You think so? Well, then let's head for said island and find out."
Link takes out the Wind Waker and conducts the Ballad of Gales. This time, he had his mind set on Outset Island, and the cyclone immediately did its work.
To be continued…
Hmm, I wonder who could this mysterious voice belong to? And also, I have something... very different planned for the Earth and Wind Temples. You'll just have to find that out by yourselves! ;D