Zelda had been to the Zora's Domain only a few times before this momentous meeting. They were ancient allies and the agreement to help build the Divine Beasts had been nearly immediate. Queen Elabeta had been queen since Zelda's great great great grandparents had ruled. Even still, while Zelda had known the Zora queen was so old, now that she stood in front of her, she saw how old she was.
Her pink coloring had faded to a mauve, and when out of the water there was a weight that stooped her down. Even with her physical weakness, her eyes were as sharp as ever.
Her court was full of her family, the largest royal family they'd had in a while. Even with the size of the family, the death of the third princess and forth prince still was a tragedy felt strong. Though the plague that had taken them was over 100 years ago.
"So you come, Princess," The crown princess said. She resembled her mother to a t. "You look remarkably like your grandmother, well, save the hair."
It was true, Zelda had inherited her father's looks and coloring. Her mother's dark curls had given her her curly hair. Now was not the time to waste on such trivialities.
"What do you need from us exactly?" the Zora princess continued. "Your Sheikah scientist sent a list, but…" she shared confused looks with the others present. "It was unclear."
Zelda inwardly cursed no one double checking that. Link had been sending in material at an incredible rate, so much so she told him to slow down and take his time, as the printing machines couldn't work fast enough and the hanger was filling up. He'd, begrudgingly, agreed. But due to the influx of material no one had thought to make sure Impa's list made sense to people that weren't her or Kashia. Seriously, she knew married couples were usually good at reading each other, but sometimes it felt like Impa and Kashia shared a brain.
"Ah, yes," she answered flustered, "I can translate that. We've been busy at the castle with the building of the parts."
"...Yes, well, do you have another purpose for being here?"
Zelda felt quite young and small under the eyes of the Zora royal family. They weren't being rude, but they weren't wasting words.
"We've brought the terminal of the Zora's Divine beast, it houses the… soul you could say of it. We were hoping to find someone who can bond with it before we give it a body. The bonded person will be the pilot.
The Zora princess whispered something to her mother, who after a moment spoke slowly.
"I remember the last time Ganon strained at his chains. I was young then, barely older than my great grandson." Her great grandson was only 20 years old, and as such still quite young by Zora standards. "But I remember it. There was a Princess Zelda back then, as there always is, and she sealed the darkness on her own, well, with the help of a Hero, as there also always is. While I will not turn away such a grand weapon, I can't help but wonder why you are so set on using machines to fight Ganon."
Because she wasn't strong enough. Her raw power was nothing compared to her ancestors, but she couldn't exactly tell them that.
"As you said, it's only right now that we have the means, to give them to you to protect the Zora Domain." She thought back to the time the queen referred to. "The time you mentioned there was an influx of monsters more than in living memory. Already we're seeing this again. There was a Hinox killed two years ago. The faster Ganon is defeated, the faster those monsters will stop spawning.
The queen nodded. "Find your pilot. We can discuss more after you rest."
The room erupted into discussion, and Zelda felt herself getting overwhelmed. She was ushered out, but before that, she caught the queen's eye, who winked conspiratorially.
A grey Zora guard led her out to the small suite set up for Hylian dignitaries. The guard was covered in scars and tall, even for a Zora.
Suddenly, he spoke, "Forgive me if I'm speaking out of turn, but I have a question about these "Divine Beasts'."
"Please, ask away."
"You mentioned fighting monsters in the Zora Domain, which I can understand, but how could we fight monster attacks and Ganon?"
"Well, there is a cannon on it. It's based off of the light arrows I can produce, though not quite as powerful. Still, it uses this synthetic–"
He held up a hand. "You don't need to go into the technicalities, I'm sure they will be lost on me." He smiled a shark toothed smile. "I'm intrigued as to how this will all go. The battle of a lifetime."
She laughed to cover her nerves. "Yes. It will be."
They arrived at her rooms and the guard bowed in goodbye. The moment the door was shut and she was alone she took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
She'd done it. She'd faced the Zora royal court, a monarchy nearly as old as her own and been successful. Out of all of the races, she had been most nervous about the Zora. There were other monarchies, like the Gerudo, but the Gerudo were much less formal than either the Zora or Hyrule.
She had a small meal and went to bed, emotionally exhausted.
…
The next day she went to the Divine Beast terminal to find a message on it.
Large monster horde in the south of Hebra. Unsure how to proceed.
It was from Link. Along with it was a picture and a rough count. Her blood went icy. She checked the map to see a marker where it was at.
You haven't engaged, have you? We could send Guardians to assist you.
Almost immediately she got a response.
Send the Guardians. We got a plan though.
That filled Zelda with worry. Link wasn't great at planning, and what did he mean by 'we,' who was he with?
She made the appropriate messages and then returned her attention to what she was supposed to help with. Zelda primed the terminal for the compatibility tests that were to happen later in the day. After that she moved on to the list Impa had sent ahead. Sure enough, it was written in a shorthand that Impa had invented. Zelda wasn't fluent in the shorthand, but she knew the gist of what was supposed to be on it.
She made a more understandable list and gave it to the Zora.
After that, she went back to the terminal and saw a few more messages from Impa to Link. The Guardians were on their way, though they weren't going to get there fast enough to stop Link from doing whatever it was he was wanting to do.
She sighed. Was she always going to worry about him like this?
There wasn't any time to dwell on things that she couldn't affect, and the first of the pilot candidates were lining up at the door. It wasn't a hard test, they just had to place their hands on the terminal and see if they heard a voice. That was how Kashia described it, and he'd always been a bit of a mystic. Zelda could hear a little something, but it wasn't very clear. But simply hearing it, and telling it what to do were two different things, and if someone could do both, they could build the body.
The first five who came to the test heard nothing and were sent away. The guard who had escorted her back to her rooms the previous day was among the second batch. She couldn't say she was surprised to see him. The others gave him a great deal of respect.
After a few seconds on his touching the terminal, it lit up brilliantly. They were all silent, and then he spoke aloud.
"A name?" he asked, "You want me to name you?" He seemed horribly confused, but slowly answered the unintelligible question. "Vah Ruta, does that fit?"
A resounding 'yes' emanated from the terminal and cheers erupted. They had found their first pilot. Zelda quickly checked his name. Amphritus. She squinted at the name. It seemed awfully familiar. She tried to remember where she'd heard the name before. She glanced back at the guard.
It then struck her. The battle against invading pirates 150 years prior! A plague had been ravaging the Zora at the same time, leaving their usual fierce defenses lower than normal. Only through Amphritus' cool leadership and battle prowess had they been victorious.
Zelda felt embarrassed that she hadn't said anything, and then she kicked herself for that. How was she possibly supposed to know?
"It asked for a name?" she asked him.
He looked down at her. "Yes. The Vah bit was the part it wanted, but the Ruta bit… I was just thinking about our queen that was a sage."
"Queen Ruto."
"Yes." He smiled.
"It's a fitting name. We will build Vah Ruta to be fitting of it," Zelda promised.
HEBRA
"Okay, so you have the plan straight," the Goron affirmed, "You use that Sheikah tech thing to make bombs to set off an avalanche. We ride behind the avalanche and take out any remaining bogies, the Guardians come in and clean up the rest."
Link nodded. He double checked his arrows and axe.
They'd stayed the night in the meadow, the Goron taking too many pictures, and Link deciding for a fact he was bringing Zelda up there to see it in person. At night, it was a vision. When he'd gotten the message from her in the morning his heart had skipped a beat. The news of Guardians really changed very little of what they were wanting to do.
The Goron, while unfamiliar with ice and snow, did have a good eye for structure and was able to help show Link where the best spots might be to trigger an avalanche. Link quickly scouted to make sure the monsters were still in the same place, and they were. He knew the ice lizofoles had the best chance of surviving and cursed them. He hated those things. When he was 12 he'd nearly lost a hand to frostbite because of one of them.
He ran back up and placed the bombs.
They went off with a BOOM. For a second the mountain was still, and then there was a crack, and then another. And then the entire mountain was coming down.
The Goron let out a hollar, and LInk couldn't help but join it. It was a terrible thing they'd just sent down on their enemies. It took a few minutes, but eventually most of the snow had come down, and Link slid on his shield behind it. The Goron started rolling alongside him, and they saw first hand how the monsters were demolished by the wall of snow and ice.
A few of the weaker monsters died instantly, and none escaped unscathed. When the snow had settled, and the survivors started picking themselves out of it, that's when the Goron and Link started doing the real work. Link fired off his bow at the ones he could get clear shots at. Unfortunately, he could only carry so many arrows. A few weak ones he took out with his axe. It was more tool than weapon, but it got the job done.
The Goron was like a force of nature in and of himself. He was deadly accurate with his chained mace, and if surrounded could spin like a top. He hadn't been exaggerating. Together, they hacked and bashed until they were both exhausted. Still more monsters came. Even as many as the avalanche had taken out, there were still more. Worst of all, Link was starting to get hungry.
He'd picked up a short sword and a new shield after his axe had gotten stuck in a moblin's skull, and a lizofole had charged him with no time for the skull to dissipate.
It was when he was at his last wind, and fading fast that he heard a high pitched whirling. He fell to a knee just as the first beam went off.
A flash of blue light lit up the valley as the Guardians started their open fire. Link grabbed the Goron by the arm and pulled him out of the way. He knew the Guardians were programmed to not hurt Hylians or any of the peoples of Hyrule, but he just couldn't trust it quite yet.
"Are those the Guardians?" the Goron asked him.
He nodded.
"And something even more powerful than that is what the princess promised each race," Link said, feeling immensely grateful to Zelda. The Divine Beasts would be forces of nature.
As they watched the carnage, Link finally realized the merit of it all. Not that he thought it was a waste, but he'd definitely thought he and Zelda would be able to handle it. They'd done it before, hadn't they? And while Ganon was one thing, how would they stop these armies without help? How many lives would these Guardians save?