The Repeating Cycle… Ends
Chapter 1: Flashed Back, Flashed Forward
Thunder rolled in the distance, warning of an oncoming storm. Link paused in his pace, blue eyes turning upward to peer through the thick foliage, listening carefully. The rumble quickly faded, leaving only the forest ambiance of trickling water and wind-rustled leaves. He lowered his gaze after a moment, dismissing the sound as natural thunder and not the attack of an approaching threat. He adjusted his collar, trying to ward off the cold of a sudden breeze.
As soon as the thought of cold came to mind, Link felt his eyes dart to the left. He felt a twinge in his chest at the unfortunately familiar site. At the center of a large spring, amongst the lily pads and moss-covered ruins, a figure stood in the knee-deep water, so still the water no longer rippled. Clad only in her thin ceremonial robes, Princess Zelda stood silently with her eyes closed, head bowed and hands clasped. It would almost be a peaceful sight if not for the constant shivers shaking her frame, and the shuddering hitch in her every breath.
Link suddenly felt foolish for being bothered by a light breeze.
Letting out a silent sigh, he continued his circuit around the spring, armor clanking lightly with each step.
As he neared the proper entrance to the spring, two figures came into view, staring out over the water at the Princess. One was the little Guardian that had- somehow- traveled back in time to warn them about the rapidly approaching Calamity.
(He remembered Robbie and Purah explaining the mechanics on how it did such an amazing feat, about how incredible it was and why they could not replicate it. The Princess seemed to understand them with perfect clarity, but to Link, the scientific jargon and technical terms may as well have been a foreign language.)
The other was a young white-haired girl in Sheika garb, the clan's eye painted across her forehead. Impa, the Princess' loyal advisor.
The two stood resolute as they watched over the Princess, Impa's face set in a concerned frown.
At Link's approach, the little Guardian turned its body to look at him, letting out a low note. Impa looked up at the sound, tensing until she saw who it was. The two faced back towards the spring as Link joined them.
"Should I make camp?" He asked softly.
Impa gave a long sigh, nodding. "She'll probably be at this for a while longer."
Link kept his face carefully blank, sympathizing with her tired tone. This was a routine they had both grown distressingly familiar with.
As Link bustled about as quietly as he could, setting up tents and building a fire, Impa took a seat on a small boulder by the water's edge, eyes never leaving the Princess. Link just pulled out his flint, started lighting the fire, and waited.
"...this is pointless."
Link let out a grunt, eyes on the burgeoning flames. This, too, was familiar.
Impa took his grunts for agreement, face morphing into a scowl. "She forces herself to stand there for hours, just... waiting. And why? Because his Highness thinks she's not trying hard enough? What does he expect her to do, pray harder? But no, no, he just ignores every good thing she does and berates her for not doing this one impossible task, and just expect her to stand out there and freeze her-"
Thunk!
"Ow!" Impa rubbed the back of her head as an acorn clattered against the stonework below her. She rounded on Link, mouth half-open to yell at him, only to freeze the stern look on his face.
He put a finger to his lips, then pointed towards the spring.
Impa's cheeks tinted in embarrassment, Link's message clear. Her voice had been raising during her building tirade, and she'd disturb the Princess if she got any louder. Shoulders slumping, she went back on guard duty, the little Guardian cooing at her heels in worry. "It's just not fair…" she muttered quietly to herself.
Link nodded anyway, bringing out a pot and some rations to get a stew going. The Princess was going to need something warm after she was done.
In the back of his mind, Link could practically hear his father chiding him for openly agreeing with what was borderline treasonous talk. Heck, a few months ago, when he was just another knight in Hyrule's army, he'd have had to fight against his duty not to report Impa's words to his superiors. But after he was assigned to Princess Zelda's personal guard, seeing just what the Princess did daily in honor of her "duty"...
Well, there was a reason Impa felt it was safe to vent her grievances around him.
"She's trying to make the king proud," he murmured, stirring the boiling pot. It wasn't said in defense, just a statement of fact.
Because that's what this had become, he'd quickly realized. While Zelda truly loved her people and wanted to protect them, it wasn't for them that she tried so desperately to unlock her godly powers. For while the King desired the Princess to fulfill her destiny, Zelda just wanted her father's approval.
Never mind that she managed to discover and awaken the four Divine Beasts, and find them suitable champions. Or that she could take scrap pieces from 10 millennia ago and make them work again. Or that she balanced her researching, academics, and royal duties with a skill that sometimes made Link balk. No, the only thing that mattered was that she make her blasted hands glow-
Snap!
Link stared dumbly at the broken halves of a wooden ladle floating on top of the stew, his closed fist hovering above the pot.
Impa looked over at the sound, letting out a snort. "At least I'm not the only one who's angry."
Link shot her an exasperated look, pulling a spare spoon from his pack and fishing out the broken ladle. Leaving the stew to simmer, he took a seat next to her to wait for Zelda, the little Guardian's eyes darting between them fretfully. The Princess still hadn't moved, but as much as he wanted to call her in, they knew from experience Zelda wouldn't leave the water until she called it quits herself.
After a few minutes, Impa broke the silence. "You know she started researching the old Legends again?"
Link grimaced. He remembered the last time he stood guard while Zelda poured over ancient tomes and crumbling scrolls telling the tales of the other Princess Zeldas throughout history in a desperate bid to learn how they unlocked their powers. The materials were aged and degraded to the point of being unreadable, and what little was legible merely stated what the ancient princess' did with their powers, not how they gained them. Not helped with how the Legends mostly focused on the various "Knight's Who Sealed the Darkness", rather than the princess' the Legends were supposedly about.
Link's brow furrowed to the thought of said knight, the other piece of this puzzle they would need to fend off the Calamity. At least they knew that Zelda was the one who had the power to seal the Calamity, even if she hadn't unlocked it. The Knight could be anywhere, could be anyone, and there was no way to find them until they showed themselves, assuming they even knew that they were the Knight of legend.
They'd better not know, Link thought fiercely to himself. Because the lack of the Knight was just one more stressor the Princess did not need, and if their missing status was just due to them being a coward and running from their duty, Link had more than words to give them.
"Did she find something new?" He asked. Because if there was some new tome that had been dug out of the archives, then there was actually a chance she might find some new information.
That flicker of hope burnt out when Impa shook her head. "No… just the same old stories. It makes me wish one of the former princesses had kept a diary or something."
Link shrugged, unsheathing his sword and pulling a whetstone from his pocket. Might as well do something useful if they're taking a break. "Might have. Probably just lost to time."
Impa huffed, nodding.
At their despondent tones, the little Guardian let out two low notes, wilting slightly towards the ground.
At the sound, Impa dipped her head towards it. She slowly reached a hand towards it, only for it to skitter back out of reach, much to her annoyance. She put her elbows on her knees, resting her chin on her hands as she glared at it. Then she smirked. "You've traveled through time, haven't you little guy? Maybe you can just go and ask another Princess Zelda what we need to do."
The Little Guardian stared at her, long enough that Link almost thought it was considering her joke as a possibility. Then it let out a two-tone beep, tilting its body to the side much like a dog tilting its head.
Impa chuckled. "Yeah, didn't think so." But the way her form slumped made Link think she'd accidentally gotten her hopes up just like he had.
The two went back to watching their princess, waiting for her to finally call it quits. It was best if she did so on her own, but she more often than not stayed out of sheer stubbornness until one of them dragged her back to shore. Link would do it himself today if he had to. There was no way he was leaving her there much longer with a storm on the way.
Neither of them noticed the little Guardian looking between them both rapidly. It then twisted to follow their gaze, blue optic falling on the freezing Princess. It looked back between the three, before staring out at nothing. Its body dipped forward, almost like a nod.
Link and Impa turned sharply as the Guardian started to make noise again, but this time the sounds it made were structured. Different pegs and knobs raised and lowered across its body as it swayed side to side. Link quickly realize the sounds were notes, and the Guardian was playing a tune.
"Huh." Impa blinked at it in surprise. "I didn't know it could play music."
A splash of water drew their attention. They found Zelda staring back at them with wide eyes, which quickly fell on the singing Guardian.
"L-Little One?" She asked. (Link winced at the shake in her voice, the unnatural blue tint in her lips.) The Princess took a step towards the shore, wonder on her face as she watched The Guardian. "That song… how do you know-"
She cut off with a gasp as a beam of light shot out from the Guardian's eye. The beam widened, then detonated just a few feet away, forming a spiraling, pulsing disc of white light.
Link and Impa we're on their feet in an instant, bringing their weapons up defensively on reflex. Impa's mouth fell open, looking rapidly between the Guardian and what Link quickly realized was a portal. "I was joking! Are you really going to bring-"
"BEEP!"
The Guardian gave a cheerful beep, looking between them all excitedly. Then it suddenly froze.
Link tensed with it. The portal, which started out spinning steadily and evenly, was picking up speed, blurring at the edges. Colors were starting to bleed into the light, green, red, and yellow swirling in its depths.
The Guardian slowly turned towards the shifting portal. Link jumped as it let out a loud bleat, deep and short. It repeated the same note over and over, its frame shaking. It almost sounded panicked.
Zelda stepped closer, hands brought up to her chest in confusion as she took in the scene. "What in the world… Impa!"
Link turned back to the portal just in time to see a streak of red light shoot past his head. Impa let out a scream as the light burst against her forehead, right in the center of her Sheikah eye. Link's heart stopped as Impa's eyes glowed red and she clutched at her head, a sustained screech of agony tearing from her throat. He reached out to her in a panic-
"Link! Look out!"
-only for his vision to vanish in an explosion of green.
"My hate… never perishes."
"Thank you, Master... May we meet again in another life."
"It's dangerous to go alone! Take this."
"The history of light and shadow will be written in blood!"
"You are the light. OUR light... that must shine upon Hyrule once again."
"Hey, Listen!"
"Link… I… See you later…"
"Heh... Heh... The wind... It is blowing."
"I'm still your Zelda."
"You've met a terrible fate, haven't you?"
Link gasped as he came back to his senses, a cacophony of voices still echoing in his head. His legs gave out under him instantly, leaving him to fall like a puppet with its strings cut. He barely got his arms under him before his head hit the dirt. Huddled on his knees, he raised a hand to his head, feeling as if his skull were about to split open from the pressure within. But when he pulled his hand back, he couldn't help but stare at what he was seeing.
His vision was dark around the edges, constantly wavering, but looking at his hand it almost seemed… layered. He could feel his soldier's gauntlet, but what he saw was constantly shifting. From steel to brown leather to bare-handed. From the hands of an adult to a teen, to a child. From flesh and blood to skeletal to… a wolf's paw?
It was all wrong. And yet… no matter what his vision showed him second to second, he knew they were all right. They were all him.
He remembered… all of him.
Including...
Shaking horridly, feeling like his insides were trying desperately to escape, Link turned his hand over.
The Triforce stared back at him, a single point glowing brightly.
"Bwoop-Bwoop?"
Link tore his gaze away from the Triforce. It was the little Guardian, looking at him and skittering back and forth nervously. Having gained his attention, the Guardian let out a beep of triumph and spun around, racing away towards Impa.
Impa…
Link's chest lurched as he tried to focus on Impa as she pushed herself to her knees. Try because, just like when looking at himself, Impa seemed to have an ever-changing cascade of forms hovering over her, a mirage acting like a second skin. An adult Sheika with red markings in blue battle clothes. A larger woman in nursemaid's clothes. An old crone in tattered robes. And even older woman in the guise of a Sheika elder. A shockingly tall woman in a black and gold shawl.
All vastly different. And somehow he knew they were all correct.
Impa cracked an eye open, thankfully back to its normal non-glowing red color. She met Link's gaze, and her eyes flew open in shock. Link could imagine that she was seeing him in a similar light.
Seeing that they were both awake and responding, the Guardian chirped and turned towards the spring. It took a few steps forward… then came slowly to a stop, whirring lowly.
Link and Impa forced their eyes from each other, each dreading what they were about to see. Link felt his very soul go cold.
Zelda remained standing in the spring, hands clutching at her head as her mouth open in a silent scream. Her eyes were impossibly wide, glowing with an almost golden light as they darted chaotically at nothing. Like Impa, her form was constantly changing, but it was so fast Link only caught snippets. Jittering between adult and child forms. Her blonde (brown?) hair flashing from long to short, freely fallen to intricately braided. Dresses of countless styles and colors intercut with sailor's breeches and ancient Sheika garb. They flew by so fast Link couldn't hope the process all of them.
He didn't need to. He already knew every one.
Then Zelda started flickering.
Link scrambled to his feet, hearing Impa do the same as he fought down unbearable nausea. They staggered forward as Zelda's body started to flicker with the same golden glow coming from her eyes. The flickering soon grew steady, becoming a pulse almost like a heartbeat, the water at her knees starting to ebb away from her as if pushed by great winds. Link quickly learned this was exactly the case as he stepped into the waters of the spring, feeling like he was fighting against a gale just to try and get near her. "Zelda!" He called out, reaching towards her.
The glow only grew, Zelda giving no indication she'd heard him.
Just as Link got within arm's reach of the Princess, she suddenly threw her arms down as the glow reached its zenith. Zelda let out an ungodly shriek as she was engulfed in golden light, so intense Link had to shield his eyes. There was a clap like thunder, a shockwave nearly took Link off his feet. He could barely hear the Guardian let out a panicked whistle as it was thrown back, clattering as it bounced across the stonework.
As quickly as it began, it was over. The light cut off abruptly, and Zelda's shriek with it, leaving only an echo to fade into the distance. The resulting silence was deafening as Link slowly lowered his arm. Zelda stood in an empty spring, its waters blasted away by whatever force she'd let loose. Her head remained tilted up, staring at the sky with glazed eyes, her breaths coming out in short choppy huffs.
"Zelda?" He asked tentatively, his boots echoing in the silent forest as he stepped closer, Impa right at his side. His vision had thankfully seemed to settle, the three of them now looking… accurate, to what they should.
"L-Link?" Her voice came out so quiet, so small.
"I'm… I'm here," he finally said, his own voice sounding odd to his ears. "Are… are you okay?"
Zelda was silent for an uncomfortable moment, staring into space. "I remember," she breathed.
Link swallowed, sharing a distressed look with Impa. "Remember what?" She asked, despite both of them already knowing the answer.
Zelda's mouth worked soundlessly, like she was fighting not to say the words. "The Darkness… the endless ocean… the Twilight, the Chaos, the… The City in The Sky…" A deep shuddering gasp escaped her, shaking her whole body. "The Calamity."
With every word, Link felt more and more weight land on his shoulders, as images arose from his mind to match every name. Cities and landscapes he'd never seen, yet knew every twist and turn of. Monsters and forces he couldn't fathom, yet knew exactly how to take them down. People… friends, enemies he'd never met, yet remembered perfectly. And a malicious evil that, through its many forms and iterations, was always there. Always waiting, always destroying, always there for him to fight, over and over and...
Link suddenly felt very, very tired.
Twin trails of tears tracked down Zelda's cheeks, her face screwing up with such pain. "I remember… everything."
Zelda fell to her knees, hands covering her face as she broke down into vicious sobs.
At a loss, Link and Impa slowly knelt next to her. Impa gave Link a questioning, knowing look, her eyes far sharper than they've been before. Link slowly nodded back, raising his hand to show the still shining Triforce. Impa snapped her eyes shut with a grimace. When she opened them, wetness sprung up at the corner of her eyes as she gave an accepting nod. They turned back to Zelda.
Both ignored a similar Triforce on the back of the Princess' hand.
"So do we, Zelda," Impa murmured in a kind, tired tone.
Zelda looked up sharply, and Link felt something in him shatter at the wild, broken look in her eyes. She stared at them, eyes darting frantically between them' searching, analyzing, longing. Whatever she was looking for she found, if her shocked hiccuping gasp was anything to go by. "Impa? Link?" She asked, eyes roving over them as if seeing them for the first time.
Link gave her a smile, brittle but genuine. "It's us, Zel. All… all of us."
He moved to put his hand on her shoulder, but Zelda was already launching herself forward. He and Impa yelped as they were suddenly pulled in together, Zelda locked between them as she wrapped her arms around their middles, burying her head against their chests. Her tears began anew as she curled into them, her sobs echoing throughout the forest.
"It won't end," Zelda gasped out, hands bunching up in their clothes as she clung to them. "We always stop him… but he always comes back. And we have to fight him again. And again, and again, and…"
Her words finally failed, and she broke down into meaningless sobs, her body going limp against them.
Link and Impa hesitated for only a moment, glancing briefly at each other. The two wrapped their free arms around her, the other going around each other's backs for stability. Impa rested her chin on top of the Princess' head, letting her face burrow into the curve of the ninja's neck as Impa ran a hand through her hair. Link leaned over them protectively, closing his eyes and bowing his head.
Thunder rumbled above them, and the rain finally fell.
As the three huddled in an empty spring, the little Guardian slowly waddled up to them, its claws clinking against the damp stonework. As it took them in, a broken Princess held in the arms of her two lifelong protectors, it let out a mournful coo, trying to parse out just what it had done so wrong.
A/n: So… here's a thing.
I know I have other works I need to be working on, but… I started playing Age of Calamity, and ideas started hopping around in my head and…
Yeah. I got no excuse. I sat down to write and this is what came out.
I started with just my curiosity that Impa keeps reincarnation along with Link and Zelda, despite not a Triforce. Then I had the thought of how cool it would be if the three of them in Age of Calamity suddenly remembered the events of every other game. Except… then I overthought it and realized, "These kids have been fighting the same crap over and over again for literal millennia, with no real end in sight. If they actually remembered all the pain and trama they'd gone through a dozen times over, they'd be nervous wrecks."
…so, I made them nervous wrecks. I have no idea where this is going or when I'll come back to it, but, what the heck, maybe some of you will get some enjoyment out of it. Let me know if you do!
See ya next time!
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