Chapter 3: Pirate Princess

Waiting had never been one of her strong suits and after everything that had transpired it was the one thing that had not changed. Princess or not, she loathed waiting. It was filled with every emotion she wished to discard. Doubt. Apprehension. Worry. They were all present along with many more. Tetra barely glanced up at the Princess of Hyrule as she re-entered her grand bedroom, this time with a pile of books of all varying thickness stacked precariously in her arms. She had hoped that her counterpart would return with breakfast, not only because she was hungry, but because she wished to persuade Kid to eat something. Her best friend was notorious for having somewhat of a bottomless pit for a stomach, so his lack of appetite concerned her.

She allowed her gaze to briefly rest on Kid. She'd been stealing glances at him ever since Link and Midna left, and she was almost positive that he had noticed on a few occasions. She desperately wanted to say something to break down the invisible walls Kid had erected to keep them all away, but every time she was sure that she'd found the correct words to use, they turned to dust when she looked at him. Whatever she said wouldn't be strong enough. However, this time was different. Her words didn't vanish, they simply never made it out of her mouth because she knew he wouldn't hear them.

It wasn't uncommon for Kid to be caught napping at home, especially when he shouldn't have been, but finding him doing it here, slumped in one of the princess's plush arm chairs, was very different. It wasn't laziness. He was truly exhausted, and she wondered if he had slept at all last night.

"Hopefully I can find something helpful among all of these," Princess Zelda let out a breath as she allowed the stack of books to unceremoniously slip out of her arms and scatter across her perfectly made bed.

"If you were going to bring back all of these then wouldn't it be easier for us to go to the library instead of hauling them here?" Tetra wondered, turning around on the trunk she sat atop at the foot of the bed and reaching over to grab a thin book with no visible title.

"It would be easier, yes," Princess Zelda admitted, brushing loose strands of her hair out of her face, "However, Link and I promised my father yesterday that we would have you change back to how you normally look as soon as possible so as not to draw too much attention from the staff."

"But you know I can't do that, right? Why would you promise that?" Tetra wanted to know, nearly dropping the book in astonishment. This was the first time she was hearing of this promise. Shouldn't it have been mentioned earlier? Then again, they'd all been worried about Kid yesterday. There hadn't been much time for anything else.

"I know that now," Princess Zelda sighed, "I just realized last night that you probably do not know how to change back depending on what you said the other day about your Triforce of Wisdom and its fragmentation."

"So what are these?" Tetra waved the thin volume she was holding in the air.

"Some are spell books, some are journals," the princess answered sitting down on the edge of the bed and sifting through the pile.

"Journals? Whose journals?" Tetra inquired as she curiously opened the book she held. The pages were slightly yellowed at the edges, its age beginning to show. From the looks of it, she was holding one of the journals if the scrawling black ink was any indication. To her disappointment, she couldn't read any of it. She'd been half hoping that she could, as if being Princess Zelda would grant her some unattainable knowledge.

"My ancestor's, or…ours, I suppose. They must have used the Triforce at some point." Princess Zelda pointed out.

"Yeah…but I don't think anyone has ever split it up before," Tetra said, carefully shutting the journal and placing it in her lap, "I mean, the old king in my world obviously did, but that was only because he had to."

"Right, but he had to know how to do it somehow," the princess replied, picking up a rather thick volume and beginning to thumb through it, "It must have been recorded somewhere in the past."

"So…this is the plan?" Tetra asked after a pregnant pause. "Scour a bunch of old books for an answer?"

"Do you have a better one?" Princess Zelda invited, glancing up from the pages she was skimming. The question was genuine, open, not at all condescending or rude.

Tetra reluctantly shook her head. "No. I mean…I want to help, but I can't read any of it."

"Not all of them are in modern Hylian. Some are written in ancient Hylian," Princess Zelda informed her as if that changed anything.

"I can't read ancient Hylian either," Tetra confided, "That's Medli's job." It figures that the one time the Rito girl could actually be helpful, she wasn't here.

"Then there really is nothing you can do with the books," Princess Zelda stated, turning back to her own volume, "You are welcome to find something else to occupy yourself with. I will tell you if I find anything."

Tetra nodded, feeling useless yet again. Seeing as she was confined to the princess's bedchambers there wasn't much she could do. Tetra wandered around the room anyway, hating the thought of staying still almost as much as she despised waiting for any length of time. Those two activities walked hand in hand, it seemed.

There was only so much fascination she could take from the décor of the room. It was very large for one, but not uncomfortably so. There was an entire area dedicated to seating in front of the light grey brick fireplace which currently had a modest fire crackling within it. The baby blue carpet was soft beneath her bare feet, and Tetra thought it was probably the most unremarkable feature of the room.

The most remarkable was probably the princess's bed which was far larger than it needed to be, lavender silk draped like curtains across the white bed posts that were practically pillars themselves. The bed itself was overflowing with more decorative pillows than was necessary or could have passed as comfortable. There was a point where soft fabrics and feathers became a nuisance, after all.

Besides the balcony doors and the doors that led to the hallway, the princess's bedchambers contained two smaller doors, both wooden. Tetra didn't know what lay behind them but she had to guess that one led to a closet since she couldn't imagine her counterpart stuffing her many ornate dresses inside the drawers of the painted dresser that was pushed up against one of the walls. The room also held a desk which Tetra thought was much bigger than the one she owned at home. It was also far more cluttered than hers, and she would have taken the time to look through the mess of papers if she had any hope of reading a single word. Seeing as she didn't, Tetra could nothing but continue to circle the room in search of something that could capture her attention and hold it for however long it took the princess to find an answer.

Her wandering quickly transformed into pacing as the minutes ticked by and stretched into the better part of an hour. Tetra stopped where she was, adjusting the square neckline of the cream colored nightgown she wore. The lace sewn to the hem and neckline irritated her despite the way the dress hung a little too limply on her form. Zelda claimed it was the smallest she could find from when she was younger since the rest of her childhood clothes had been stashed away long ago and just digging out this article of clothing had been difficult enough. Tetra was beginning to wish for her fancy dress back and wondered if it had been cleaned up yet like her counterpart promised it would be yesterday.

After asking, Tetra discovered that her dress was now spotless. She was allowed to change behind a room divider that her counterpart had used earlier in order to don her own regal attire in private. Putting the dress back on wasn't as challenging as Tetra imagined it would be, considering that she wasn't used to royal garb. Glancing at herself in the full length mirror provided, Tetra was convinced that the glass reflected a stranger back at her. Until now, she'd never had the opportunity to view herself in a mirror while in her princess form. Seeing herself like this, made it worse somehow, but she couldn't look away. Was this the way everyone else had felt when they'd first seen her like this?

Stepping closer to the mirror, Tetra placed the golden tiara on her head. A sparkling, hot pink jewel dominated its center. No matter how real it looked or felt, Tetra decided that it was fake. The girl looking back at her with wide, innocent eyes wasn't her, no matter how many people tried to tell her otherwise. She wasn't as innocent as her eyes foretold. She was simply in disguise right now, pretending to be something she was not. As soon as she figured out how to take it off, she would, but for now she had to pretend a little longer.

Tearing her eyes away from her reflection, Tetra smoothed out her dress and forced herself to slip her feet into her discarded pink heels. If she was going to pretend, she might as well do it right. Besides, they made her feel taller, which, in turn, made her feel more important.

Almost as soon as Tetra emerged from behind the divider, she resumed her pacing. Her thoughts drifted to yesterday's events without her consent. The warm hum of the Triforce under her fingertips, the horrible realization that she'd been too late, the Imprisoned…that one stuck with her the most out of all of it. Losing…she knew that was real. It was possible, but The Imprisoned? She had no idea what it was or why she had even seen it. Maybe the princess knew? There was only one way to find out.

After glancing at the chair Kid was resting in to confirm that he was still in the grasp of sleep, she made her way over to the princess and reclaimed her seat on the smooth wooden trunk. It reminded her vaguely of a treasure chest.

"Zelda, I have a question," Tetra announced to get the princess's attention. Princess Zelda looked up from the leather bound book she held, waiting for Tetra to speak.

"You didn't see anything strange yesterday? I mean, when you were unconscious?" Tetra asked timidly, picking at the detailed embroidery on the banner hanging from her waist.

"No, I don't think so. I wasn't dreaming if that is what you are asking. It's just a blank space of nothing between the time Ghirahim showed up and when I awoke after everything was over. Why do you ask?" Princess Zelda wondered.

"Just because…I saw something yesterday that no one else seemed to see. Maybe I was tired or something, but it was still pretty strange," Tetra explained, not quite wanting to spit out the truth for fear of her counterpart thinking her inane.

"What did you see?" Princess Zelda prompted.

"I…" 'I don't know,' she wanted to say, but then she realized that wasn't true. She did, in fact, know what she saw, or at least, she could name it. That had to count for something. "It was a huge monster I've never seen before that seemed to be covered in black scales. Its entire head was practically a mouth with sharp white teeth, and I don't think it had arms, just legs, but it was easily as tall as a building. For some reason I knew that it was called The Imprisoned, but I don't know what that means. I was hoping you might."

"How did you know what it was called if you've never seen it before?" Zelda queried.

"I honestly have no idea," Tetra replied, "I just knew somehow."

"That is definitely peculiar..." Princess Zelda trailed off in thought, "Especially since that name is beginning to sound familiar to me now."

"Familiar in what way?" Tetra pressed.

Zelda only shook her head and turned her attention back to the spell book in her hands. "We'll talk about it later. One mystery at a time please, Tetra."

Tetra then leaned her head on her hand as she sat cross-legged, which probably wasn't the appropriate way to sit in a floor length dress, and stared at the many books her counterpart had yet to delve through. This was going to take forever.


A few hours later the princess did request breakfast to be sent to her room, and though it was meant to be only enough for two, the chef's version of portion size made sure that it was enough for four. Kid had awakened since then, but to Tetra's annoyance, his aloofness persisted.

"You can't tell me you're not hungry," Tetra admonished, waving a piece of toast tantalizingly in her best friend's face. "You haven't had a bite to eat since breakfast yesterday morning, and even then I distinctly remember you not eating all that much because you claimed you were too nervous."

A shrug was the only reward she received for her fifth effort of the morning. If she'd felt like her normal feisty self she would have long ago thrown the toast in his face and ordered him to eat it. However, her more reserved side simply set the food back on the edge of her plate as her eyes scanned its contents for something more tempting.

"Tetra, he'll eat when he eats. Just worry about yourself," Princess Zelda interjected, barely raising her head from the dusty journal it was currently buried in.

"But-" Tetra attempted to argue. Her counterpart beat her to it.

"But nothing. Kid will have to eat eventually. Until then, we can't force feed him, so just leave him be," Zelda advised. Tetra turned her attention back to Kid who had now averted his gaze to the floor. As much as she didn't want to accept it, Princess Zelda was correct. If he didn't want to eat, they couldn't force him. He had obviously sunk into a depression, and, without a way home, there was nothing she could do to improve his mood.

Tetra resigned to that fact and began to consume the food she had piled on her plate, reflecting on exactly how many problems they currently had at the moment. She was stuck as a princess, their friends had been whisked back home without them, and now they were trapped here while Ghirahim did whatever he pleased to the Great Sea. On top of all that, Zant was causing trouble being his infamous villain self, and Kid was lamenting his little sister, friends, and their home as if they were already dead, thus neglecting pretty much everything one needed to survive. That last one may just have scared her the most, for if she must be stuck here for the rest of her life, she didn't want to be alone.

Tetra finished eating far too quickly in her opinion, for it left her with absolutely nothing to do. Trying to engage Kid in any way was a lost cause, but Tetra endeavored to try it, while being quiet of course, since her counterpart seemed to get peeved any time a loud noise from the hallway bashed its way through her bedroom's wide double doors.

"Hey, Kid," Tetra said, a small surge of elation flowing through her when he made eye contact with her, "Want to play a card game?" Cards were a favorite pastime of pirates, and when Kid had come to live with her and her crew, they had made it a priority to teach him the art of playing cards. The truth was, he wasn't half bad, and had almost beat her on a few occasions. In fact, he would have won a couple games if she hadn't cheated. This time she would play fair though, even let him win. Perhaps it would give him a little much needed confidence.

"Do you even have cards to play with?" he asked her, causing Tetra to realize that she, in fact, did not.

"Hmm…no…" Tetra admitted. "Hey, Zelda. Do you have a deck of cards in here?"

"No," the princess replied distractedly, flipping faster through the journal in her hands as if that would yield swifter results.

'Well, there goes that idea,' Tetra thought, exasperated.

"What are you looking for exactly?" Kid asked. Tetra was a surprised that Kid had actually posed a question at all but turned to her counterpart for her answer.

"At the moment, I'm searching for a means to change Tetra back to the way she normally is, but…it's proving futile so far," Princess Zelda sighed, snapping shut the book a bit harder than necessary.

"You've been reading for a while now. Haven't you found anything?" Tetra pressed.

"Oh, I've found plenty, but none of it will aid our cause, I'm afraid," the Princess of Hyrule said, picking up another decrepit book.

"Have you found anything about returning us to our world?" Tetra ventured.

"I have looked for that too," the princess assured her, "Unfortunately, nothing about your world existing is even recorded." Tetra thought that was a given. Obviously no one in this world knew about the Great Sea at any point in time. Neither world was supposed to be aware of the other. Ever.

The three of them settled into a tense silence as the princess flipped pages turned delicate by time's eternal march. After a few more minutes ticked by with no breakthroughs, Tetra rose from her seat on the floor and made her way over to the princess's bed. Tetra had come to a conclusion, and she would like her counterpart to listen to her with her full attention instead of only half of it.

Tetra hopped onto the bed, disturbing the books scattered across the colorful bedspread. On her knees, she placed her hands over the book Princess Zelda was currently holding, effectively blocking her counterpart's view of the symbols scratched meticulously onto the parchment.

Princess Zelda immediately snapped her head up to look at Tetra, a more than slightly irritated expression on her face which Tetra barely registered.

"Look, you're smart enough. Face it, these books can't help us," Tetra declared.

"One of them must be able to. Intelligence vastly differs from knowledge," Princess Zelda responded.

"Yes, I know," Tetra nodded, refraining from rolling her eyes, "but our histories are different. The people involved in them are different. I'm not saying that the king didn't get the know-how from another source, but I think that that source didn't exist in this world. It couldn't have. Think about it. Who would know more about the Triforce of Wisdom than the bearer of it? A past princess probably knew a lot more than we do about it."

"I've already looked through the journals and diaries of past princesses. None of them mention anything about fragmenting it," Princess Zelda argued, "The princess during the Hero of Time's time was a child. She didn't go on an adventure. She had no experience in using the Triforce of Wisdom."

"She didn't, but her counterpart did. Her counterpart that lived in my world was an adult. She had fought alongside the hero to defeat Ganon, so the person whose diary you need to read is hers, only you can't because it's sunk miles under the sea in my world," Tetra explained, "Do you understand now? We really can't rely on these books. No matter how hard you search, the information won't be here. What you're looking for originated in my world and was destroyed long ago."

Princess Zelda broke eye contact and looked away in thought. Finally she shook her head and brushed Tetra's hands aside, so she could close the book. The brief contact between them caused Tetra to gasp in surprise when heat surged to life on the back of her right hand as if she'd held it out in the sun's rays too long. Upon investigating, she realized that the Triforce symbol was standing out through the pristine white of her glove, burning fiercely. Glancing up, she noted that the princess was examining her own hand which seemed to be having a similar reaction.

"Hmm…I wonder…" Princess Zelda said, tracing the symbol on the back of her hand as it began to fade.

"Wonder what?" Tetra urged her counterpart to continue.

"You felt that too, right?" Princess Zelda queried, looking at Tetra now.

"Of course. Our Triforce pieces were reacting to each other since there technically aren't supposed to be two existing at once, right?" Tetra predicted.

"Yes, that's exactly it," Princess Zelda confirmed, excitement creeping into her voice, "And I think I have an idea of how to get you back to normal."

"Really?" Tetra wondered, not being able to prevent herself from sounding hopeful. What if it was true? What if the princess had figured it out based on that one touch?

"Yes. Give me your hand," Zelda held out her own hand, inviting Tetra to take it. A bit nervously, Tetra extended her arm and gingerly placed her right hand in Zelda's. The Triforce symbol that had nearly faded enough to blend into the white of her glove suddenly burst into a bright shade of yellow that quickly deepened to gold. She felt heat on her hand once again. This time the temperature intensified to the point where it felt like she was too close to an invisible flame. She would have been able to endure it if it didn't feel like hot wax was dripping off of that same unseen candle and onto her hand, seeping through her glove and onto her fair skin.

Tetra quickly snatched her hand away, despite Princess Zelda's protests for her to wait. She wanted to get back to looking, and feeling, normal again, but she wasn't willing to lose a limb to do so.

"What were you trying to do?" she asked, blowing lightly on the back of her hand even though the burning sensation had already begun to subside.

Princess Zelda shook out her own hand saying, "I was trying to force out your Triforce of Wisdom with my own. I think it was working."

"It was burning!" Tetra informed her.

"It's magic," came Princess Zelda's unsympathetic reply. Tetra simply gaped at her.

"Is that even safe to be doing?" Kid wondered, venturing a little closer to the bed.

"Magic is never 'safe'," Princess Zelda answered him, "A better question would be if it will actually do what I am hoping it will, but again, with all magic, you can never be one hundred percent sure."

"I hate magic," Tetra muttered. Honestly, it had only caused trouble for her. Never had it been a relatively good force. If magic didn't exist, then monsters wouldn't, and if monsters didn't exist then everyone could live in peace. However, because magic did exist, in many forms, she was stuck in another world with her best friend. She appeared to be someone else because of magic. Evil could do what it pleased because of magic. Overall, it was a force that only benefited itself and backfired too often to be of much use to anyone.

"Tetra, I'm going to try it again, but I need you to do something for me this time," Princess Zelda announced.

Almost too scared to ask for fear of what cold-hearted answer she'd receive, Tetra asked softly, "What is it you want me to do?"

"When I take your hand I want you to close your eyes and imagine yourself releasing the Triforce of Wisdom-" Princess Zelda requested.

"Releasing it where?" Tetra interrupted.

"Anywhere will do. The point is that you surrender all ties to it. That way it will make it easier for me to separate it from you. After you do that, imagine it breaking into its two pieces," Zelda instructed.

"Okay, but I don't see how imagining it is going to make it come true," Tetra agreed, doubt hinting in her tone.

"You'd be surprised. The mind is a powerful thing," Princess Zelda replied, "Are you ready?"

"No, but go ahead," Tetra answered honestly, holding out her hand. The princess interlocked her fingers with hers, and Tetra instantly knew that backing out wasn't an option this time.

"Close your eyes," Princess Zelda reminded her as the back of her hand began to grow hot once again. Tetra did as she was told, attempting to picture herself physically holding the Triforce of Wisdom in her hands. The heat emanating from it nearly burned her open palms as she presented the small triangle to the cloudless blue sky above her. It rose up and away into the sky like a kite pulled by the wind. She imagined herself waving a hand, severing the thin thread that bound the Triforce piece to her. The breeze transformed into a fierce gust of wind and spirited the golden triangle higher. Despite the chill of the imaginary wind, her thoughts were instantly pulled back to reality as pain registered in her mind, and she involuntarily cried out, opening her eyes, and startling her counterpart into losing her concentration as well. Princess Zelda didn't mean to loosen her grip, but for Tetra a mere second was all she needed to retract her hand from the hot coals it felt like she had thrust it into.

"Ouch…that hurts," Tetra hissed as she cradled her hand to her chest.

"I'm sorry," Princess Zelda apologized, "Are you alright?"

"Mmhmm," Tetra hummed, examining her dominant hand and expecting to discover her glove in a charred state. Of course, the Triforce symbol was the only mark to speak of.

"It looked like it was working," Kid spoke up, "The Triforce of Wisdom was floating above your hands, and as soon as you opened your eyes it disappeared. If you tried it again, you could probably do it."

"I can't concentrate long enough for it to work," Tetra said, dejected, "It gets to the point where it feels like my hand is on fire. Ignoring that isn't easy."

"I think I have an idea. Stay here. I'll be back in a moment," Princess Zelda interjected, sliding off the bed and swiftly leaving the room. Tetra exchanged a look with Kid born of the same kind of curiosity.

When the Princess of Hyrule returned, she was holding a bucket which appeared to be filled with some type of liquid. Being careful not to spill any of the bucket's contents, the princess slowly made her way over to the cushion filled sitting area of her room. She motioned them both over when she finally managed to safely set the bucket on the floor.

Tetra beat Kid there, though it was debatable whether it had ever been a race to being with, and peered down into the metal container. It looked like water with a bunch of clear pebbles floating on the top. She dipped a finger into the liquid and immediately withdrew it. It was the coldest thing she'd ever touched!

"That's freezing cold!" Tetra exclaimed, deducing that the "pebbles" must be pieces of ice. How the princess was able to retrieve ice, Tetra wasn't sure. Maybe the mountains?

"That's the idea," Princess Zelda smiled. "It'll be harder to feel fire if your hand feels like ice."

"Yes, but this is like the water from around Ice Ring Isle!" Tetra insisted, "No one can step foot on that island without being turned into an ice sculpture!"

"Really? There's an island like that?" Princess Zelda wondered, intrigued.

"Of course. There's also an island called Fire Mountain. It's basically a volcano that erupts without cease. Since it's always spewing lava, no one can get very close to it, but there's not much of a reason to step foot on it anyway," Tetra informed her counterpart.

"Interesting…" Princess Zelda trailed off in thought, but quickly snapped back to attention. "Tetra, let's try this once more, shall we?" Tetra nodded, sitting down so the skirt of her dress blossomed around her. Princess Zelda sat in front of her, the bucket of ice water between them.

"You know that in order to hold my hand, you'll have to submerge yours in the water too, right?" Tetra asked.

"I'm fully aware of that," Princess Zelda responded as she removed her glove and set it aside. Tetra plunged her hand into the frigid water first, a chill instantly running down her spine and making her shiver. The glove covering her hand offered no warmth when it was sopping wet, but Tetra hadn't expected it to. Princess Zelda joined her, submerging her hand in the water and finding Tetra's. Clasped tightly under the ice water, both of their hands glowed with the power of the Triforce of Wisdom, and Tetra shut her eyes, barely registering the heat through the biting cold of the liquid.

Once again, she imagined herself releasing the Triforce of Wisdom to the open arms of the sky and watched as it was carried away by the wind which quickly grew violent. In her mind, she etched an outline of a small triangle at the bottom of the Triforce of Wisdom, and as the wind battered the golden treasure, it began to split. At first a mere sliver of space separated the fragment from its original place, and Tetra started to doubt it would work, beginning to feel the ice and heat of the Triforce collaborating to burn her hand into oblivion that was nonexistent.

'Nonexistent, exactly,' she told herself, quickly reigning in control and pushing the sensation to the back of her mind, 'It doesn't exist,' The pain wasn't a being, it wasn't something she could hold. The Triforce of Wisdom could be touched and felt, but not when it was without its two companions. Not when it was whole, only when it was separated. The sliver of space turned into a fraction, which transformed into a noticeable gap between the two. They were still too close together, and no matter how much the wind battered them, they refused to part.

She felt perspiration on her brow now, but she couldn't tell if she was imagining it or if it was real. Before she could wonder about it too much she pushed the thought away because it didn't matter. The only thing that matters is the wind and the two pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom. They would part, if not for her then for the wind because the wind was persistent. And because she willed it to be, because she imagined it was as stubborn as her, it simply was. The wind blew much harder than before, pulling at her now, but at the Triforce of Wisdom too, and with another rough tug, the pieces were wrenched apart.

A bright light, akin to the intensity of the sun, appeared without warning and Tetra's concentration faltered as her attention was drawn to the dramatic alteration in the room's lighting. Almost immediately she felt a tugging at her clothes as they transformed themselves into her pirate attire. Her hair was swept up into its usual swirling bun atop her head, and her bandana was replaced around her neck.

The sense of familiarity that enveloped her practically made her dizzy with elation as she opened her eyes. Her happiness didn't last quite as long as she'd expected since she realized that she could barely feel her hand and yanked it out of the frigid water, flexing her fingers to make sure she still could. All traces of her royal linage was gone. Her skin had regained its usual tanned tone and the absence of hair brushing her back was a welcome feeling.

"Well?" Princess Zelda prompted.

"Well, we're back in business," Tetra winked and rose to her feet, stretching. Then she frowned. There was still something missing. "Where'd my Triforce of Wisdom go?"

"Both pieces flew apart and you changed back," Kid informed her.

"Which way did they go?" Princess Zelda inquired, slipping her glove back on after drying her hand with a small towel that Tetra had failed to notice before.

"I think one went that way and the other went over there," Kid reported, pointing in two completely opposite directions.

"Great. Help me search over here," Tetra ordered, motioning to her best friend who reluctantly got to his feet and started towards her. Once he was close enough she placed her still freezing cold hand on the back of his neck, and he jumped, quickly wriggling away from her.

"Augh! Tetra that's cold!" Kid complained, making a face as she smirked at his discomfort.

"Duh. I had it in ice water forever. Now at least pretend that you want to help or I'll dump the entire bucket on you," Tetra threatened. Kid practically ran all the way to the other side of the room to search while Princess Zelda simply shook her head and wandered towards the opposite side to look.

"Find it yet?" Tetra asked as soon as she caught up to Kid.

"Does it look like I found it yet?" Kid answered cheekily.

"I don't need your sass," Tetra informed him, placing her hands on her hips in a form of reassurance to herself that she could fire the same amount of impudence at him in return if need be.

"And I could do without yours," Kid shot right back causing Tetra to glare at him. He didn't respond, so she assumed that he hadn't noticed. Regardless, she refused to be outdone by him. Although the lingering remnants of Zelda's personality urged her to be the one to end the argument before it could manifest into something they'd both regret, she didn't. She ignored it, because that little voice at the back of her head was just a nuisance. She never asked for its advice and there it was giving her things she didn't want or need.

"When did you get so testy?" Tetra asked, kneeling down near the wall, her eyes scanning the area for a glint of gold.

"Oh, I don't know, let me see, when you started acting like a jerk," Kid shot back turning to glare at her now.

Tetra made a surprised sound that almost passed as a laugh. "Me? A jerk? Have you been listening to yourself lately?"

"Just…be quiet," Kid ordered her, directing his gaze back to the floor where they both knew he wasn't really looking for anything.

"Why? Because I'm right? Because you're chewing me out for no reason?" Tetra pressed, smirking.

"Can you just stop picking on me for once?! Is that too much to ask?" Kid exclaimed in exasperation. His tone of voice startled her into looking directly at him. In all honesty, he looked even more upset than before, almost like he did before he started crying yesterday. Tetra couldn't understand why. She hadn't done anything wrong.

'Yes, you did,' a small part of her insisted. 'You kept talking.' She realized that the tiny voice inside her head that she hardly ever listened to was, for once, right. She had persisted to bother Kid when he made it quite apparent he didn't want to be bothered. That was her own fault, so his being upset was her fault now too.

Wordlessly, she stood and wandered closer to the balcony doors which were slightly ajar. Maybe she could make it right if she gave him some space. She doubted it even as she thought it. Sure, he wouldn't be mad at her all that much anymore, but what did that really accomplish? He was sad all the time now, and no amount of space would fix that.

Tetra pushed open the glass doors all the way and stepped out onto the balcony. It was just as cold as it was earlier, and she clenched her right hand into a fist in an attempt to conserve what little warmth it had regained since she had removed it from the water.

A glimmer of gold alighted in her peripheral vision, and she turned to investigate. Sure enough, there was her necklace, just shy of falling off. If it had been launched with any more force, Tetra was sure that it would have fallen to the ground below.

"I found my necklace," Tetra called over her shoulder as she kneeled down to retrieve the pendant. Just as she reached out to grab it, a strong gust of wind snatched the necklace from the edge of the balcony. Annoyed, Tetra peered between the break in the railing in an attempt to discern where it had been swept off to. Her current position provided her a limited view, so she hastily got to her feet and leaned over the expertly sculpted marble railing.

"Where's your necklace?" Kid wondered, coming up behind her. He didn't sound as mad as before, but she could tell he wasn't happy either.

"Over there," Tetra indicated her possession's location with a nod of her head as soon as she caught sight of it. Fortunately, her treasured necklace hadn't plummeted to the gardens below, but Tetra hardly classified landing on the roof as any better.

"Wait," Kid objected, catching her arm as she hopped onto the railing.

"Calm down. I won't fall," Tetra said, shaking off his concern. Looking down, she had to admit that the ground was farther away than she'd anticipated, but that wouldn't deter her. Instead, it gave her more incentive. She had to do this. This was something that her old self wouldn't think twice about doing. If she did this, she'd officially be herself again. Besides, that necklace was the most important thing she owned. Not because it was part of a sacred relic, but because her mother gave it to her.

Using two hands to balance herself, she crouched down on the rounded beam of marble and carefully turned so she was facing Kid, her feet hanging over the open air.

"You're insane," Kid informed her as he watched with an uneasy expression on his face. At least he was actually worrying for her like usual, which was more than she had expected given his attitude as of late.

"Never forget that," she smirked playfully. Tetra lowered herself until she was able to place her feet between the gaps in the balusters. Hooking an arm around the curved guardrail, she leaned out a little farther, bringing herself closer to the roof. However, she wasn't close enough to step onto it which meant that she'd have to drop a little. She could only hope that the slope in the roof wouldn't jeopardize her mission and send her sliding off into the manicured gardens below.

"Tetra! What are you doing?" Princess Zelda exclaimed, hurrying over to the railing.

"Getting my necklace. It's right there," Tetra said, indicating her necklace with a wave of her free hand.

"I'll get someone to fetch it for you," Princess Zelda offered. However, Tetra had other plans. Ignoring her counterpart's protests, Tetra quickly calculated the distance and adjusted herself accordingly before making a tiny leap and landing on the small section of blue shingled roof. She slid a little at first, and sucked in a breath as she adjusted her stance so she could stand perfectly still. Adrenaline pumped in her veins as she allowed herself to half walk, half slide down the roof until she was closer to her necklace. Reaching down, she yanked the chain free of the tile that had caught it for her. After she had replaced it around her neck, she began to climb back up.

Scaling the roof was much more difficult than slipping down it, but Tetra embraced the challenge. She didn't dare to look up at her counterpart. She already knew that Zelda was shooting her a disapproving glare. She could feel it. Yet, she didn't care. Let the princess be angry at her. It was the perfect time to push boundaries just so she could prove that there were none to tie her down.

Once she was close enough to the railing, Tetra straightened to her full height and grabbed the handrail, hoisting herself up onto it. Once she was balanced, she stood and hopped down onto the balcony only to be taken by the arm and shoved inside by her counterpart.

"Never do that again," Princess Zelda ordered her in the sternest voice she had ever heard her counterpart use. It didn't scare her even though that was probably the princess's intention.

"If nothing I want is over there again then I won't have to," Tetra replied smartly, spinning around on her heel to face the princess and Kid, who was now sporting an aloof expression on his face. Princess Zelda said nothing in response, perhaps because she had nothing to counter with.

The three of them spent the next ten minutes searching for the second piece as far away from the balcony as possible. Princess Zelda eventually discovered it trapped underneath her dresser.

"Who do you want to hold onto this for you?" Zelda inquired once the second piece of the Triforce of Wisdom was retrieved.

"I will," Kid volunteered, stepping forward to take the Triforce shard from the princess. However, Tetra held out an arm to block his advance.

"Hold on a minute. She asked me, not you," Tetra reminded him.

"You're not letting me hold onto it anymore because I accidentally lost it one time?" Kid wondered incredulously.

"I never said that," Tetra pointed out.

"But that's what you're implying, isn't it?" Kid pressed.

"Nope, you're just jumping to conclusions," Tetra announced, lowering her arm, "I was actually going to say something else, but…oh well." She then turned to the princess. "Let him hold onto it." Tetra then made her way to the seating area near the fireplace and sat down on the arm of one of the princess's cushiony chairs.

"What were you going to say?" Kid wondered, approaching her once the fragment was in his possession.

Tetra shrugged. "Just that you can hold onto it as long as you promise to take better care of it."

"But it wasn't my fault that I lost it in the first place!" Kid argued, "I-"

Tetra abruptly cut him off. All she had needed was a simple, "Yes," a simple, "I promise," and instead Kid was choosing to make it an argument. Well, two could play at that game. Maybe a heated argument was exactly what he needed to fix him, and who better to deliver it than herself? Everyone else was tip toeing around the issue like it could be nurtured into something productive, like they could kill it with kindness, but that wasn't working. It wasn't going to, and she was the only one that realized that.

"See, there's the first sign that you have a problem," Tetra said, knowing fully well that anything she said would set him off at this point, "You're arguing more than usual."

"Only because you're annoying me, and I don't have a problem," Kid countered.

"You're right," Tetra agreed, "You have problems. One of them is denial."

"One of them is you," Kid retorted.

"Ooh! That one actually hurt a bit," Tetra taunted him as she got warmed up. These types of exchanges between the two of them at home were common, and Tetra found that she sort of missed them. They essentially held no real meaning. In truth, they were squabbles created from sheer boredom and restlessness that no one cared enough to stop. Usually Tetra instigated them, and Kid went along with them, firing half-hearted insults right back at her.

However, this one was different. It was a necessary argument in her mind and one that Kid was participating in with more seriousness than he ever displayed before. He wasn't playing this time, and neither was she.

"You know," Tetra mused, falling back so the chair supported her, "lots of people have problems."

"I'm not one of those people," Kid returned, plopping down into a different chair, his arms crossed defensively over his chest.

"I think you are," Tetra replied, absentmindedly playing with the scarlet cloth of her beloved bandana. It felt good to be wearing it again.

"No one cares what you think," Kid retaliated, his tone more heated than she'd expected so early in their quarrel.

That caught her off guard, but she didn't let it show and fired back immediately. "Did I say think? I meant know." She sat up and looked directly at him. "I know for a fact that you have problems because you and I share at least one. We're both trapped here. You think that I'm enjoying it any more than you are? Because I'm not. I understand exactly how much you want to get home, but-"

"You don't understand at all," Kid interjected, glowering at her.

Tetra narrowed her eyes at him to refrain from smirking. He was falling right into her perfectly laid trap. "I do," she insisted, raising her voice. This was it.

"No, you don't!" Kid shouted, "It's not like you actually had any family taken away from you and can't do a thing about it!"

Her hard gaze softened, but only a little. "I did. My mom, remember? But of course, you wouldn't remember that because you're too caught up feeling sorry for yourself to think about anyone else."

"That's not true," Kid rejected her words, shaking his head as if that would make them disappear.

"It is. You're lucky you still have a family," Tetra shot back, a sudden longing for her deceased mother clogging her throat and preventing her from saying anything more. Sure, her crew were like family in the sense that she'd known them her entire life, but they weren't related by blood.

"I might not anymore," Kid whispered, the heat of his earlier words cooling down considerably.

"Right, like Ghirahim could work that fast," Tetra rolled her eyes. "He probably got dumped in the ocean somewhere and is flailing around like a cucco as we speak."

"Or Aryll and Medli and Makar got dumped in the ocean," Kid countered.

"Do you have to be so pessimistic? You're not helping yourself by doing that you know," Tetra informed him.

"I'm not trying to help myself," Kid interrupted her.

She continued as if he hadn't said a word, "Besides, if you actually listened to Ghirahim's wish, he said something like 'whisk the sages back to their abodes'. Since he was specific, the Triforce probably did exactly that, which means that Medli and Makar are on their own islands, and you're sister only got taken because she was too close to one of them. That means she's either on Dragon Roost Island or Forest Haven."

Tetra had no idea if that was actually true, but from her experience with the holy Triforce, and the wishes it granted, it took everything quite literally. King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule had wished for Ganondorf to drown with Hyrule, and what had happened? He'd been turned to stone by the Master Sword and drowned along with the kingdom, and its king, but that was beside the point.

"You don't know that," Kid argued, his voice betraying the optimism he was still trying so hard to hide.

"You don't know that they're not okay," Tetra pointed out, "And the only way we'll get to see who's right is to figure out how to get home."

"But we can't. There's no way home," Kid said, the faint hint of optimism in his tone vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

"Well, we got here, didn't we?" Tetra wondered.

"How did you get here exactly?" Princess Zelda cut in. Up until now she had been silently observing their squabble.

"If I remember correctly, we walked back to the castle," Tetra replied slyly.

"That is not what I mean," Princess Zelda said, frowning at Tetra's sarcastic remark, "How did you arrive in Hyrule?"

"Medli and Makar played a song, why?" Tetra answered, deciding to be serious so she could continue arguing with Kid until he didn't have any rage left in him.

"That was it? They played a song and you were all transported here?" Princess Zelda checked.

"That's what I said," Tetra confirmed.

"Hmm…I'm trying to make sense of this," Princess Zelda claimed a chair of her own to sit in. "I just don't understand Ghirahim's motive. Why go to your world? Why take your friends?"

"Maybe because they're sages?" Kid suggested.

"And how would he know that?" Tetra inquired, "It's not like we ever told him."

"Ghirahim seems to know more than he should. I wouldn't put it past him to have placed spies around Hyrule to gather this information for him," Princess Zelda commented, "Perhaps he knew how close you all were, and he simply wanted to take them away to distract us?"

"No," Tetra shook her head. She knew that wasn't the reason. Ghirahim was sadistic. If he'd wanted to distract them, to immobilize them and make them feel helpless, then he wouldn't have taken away their friends. He would have tortured their friends and forced them to watch. Tetra was about to voice this but thought better of it with how fragile Kid's mind was at the moment and said instead, "If he really had spies, then he knew how we got here. I think he wanted to take away our means of getting home."

"What do you mean?" Kid wanted to know, "The whole point of following the riddle was because we didn't have a way home."

"Right, but there was another way. Sort of," Tetra admitted, recalling her first discussion with the light spirit, Faron, "The other option was to play the song that we used to get here, backwards. Doing that would reverse the spell, at least according to Faron, but we have no idea what song we played, and even if we did, it won't work now because we don't have Medli and Makar to play their special instruments for us. If we had them here then we could resort to that since the riddle was a false lead but-"

"Wait a moment. Resort…as in last resort…" Princess Zelda trailed off. Tetra exchanged a puzzled glance with Kid before turning back to the princess. Before Tetra could form an inquiry, Princess Zelda wordlessly hurried over to her bed and kneeled down, reaching underneath. She withdrew her hand and stood, holding the Goddess Harp with great care, almost as if she expected it to explode and take her grand idea along with it.

Tetra regarded Princess Zelda with suspicion as she drew closer. The princess reclaimed her seat and placed the harp gingerly in her lap.

"When we were given this, we were told it was a last resort, correct?" Princess Zelda verified.

Searching her memory, Tetra nodded after a brief pause and her counterpart continued, eager now, "And this is a sacred instrument, which should have the same effect as the ones that sages carry, correct?"

"Yes! You're right!" Tetra exclaimed, jumping up from her seat in excitement as she understood where the princess was leading with the idea.

"So we should be able to use this to get to your world. All we have to do is find the right song," Princess Zelda said.

"You say that like its simple," Kid interjected, "I don't even remember the song, and I was conducting them. If we don't know what it was forwards, how are we supposed to play it backwards?"

"Really, Kid? You have to bring that up now? We finally have a breakthrough and you're ruining it with your mood," Tetra chastised him.

"He's being realistic," Princess Zelda defended Kid, although Tetra wasn't so sure that pessimism qualified as "realistic." "It's true. If we do not know what song was played to bring you here, then having the instrument is useless."

"But we can figure out the song. I don't remember exactly how it goes because I only heard it once, but I'm sure if I heard it I would recognize it," Tetra insisted. She was going to get home one way or another, and if this was the only way to do it then she'd listen to a million songs until she found the right one.

"How do you suggest going about that?" Princess Zelda wondered.

"I don't know," Tetra sighed, taking a minute to think. "How about you start playing any song that comes to mind, and I'll tell you if it sounds familiar."

"On the harp? I can barely play," Princess Zelda reluctantly reminded her.

"What if the song we played is a song we know backwards? How would we know the difference?" Kid asked.

"Ugh, we play each song we know forwards and back," Tetra explained, exasperated. Turning to her counterpart she said, "And just so we're clear, by 'we' I mean 'you'."

"I figured. I am the one with the instrument," Princess Zelda replied. "Not that I have any more knowledge than you do about playing it," she added as an afterthought.

"I hope you're a quick learner then, because you're going to be playing a bunch of songs for us," Tetra informed her, sitting down once again. Then she leaned back so the plush chair practically embraced her and waited for the concerto to begin.