Chapter 6: Legends of Zeldas (And Heroes and Sheikah)

Before Purah could utter a single word, Princess Zelda was already moving, marching across the lab towards one of the many 'scrap piles' dotted throughout, barking over her shoulder, "Link, put her on a clear table, gently."

"Right." Without so much as a glance, Link lifted the statue in his arms and made a beeline for the nearest table… shouldering Purah and Robbie out of the way to do so.

"Wha- hey!" Purah cried irately as she stumbled back, glaring as Link placed the statue down right over where she had been sitting the last several hours, lowering the stony form with a carefulness more befitting something made of glass.

"What now?"

"Gemstones," Zelda replied. "And a Star Fragment."

Robbie's eyes bugged out as Link started moving towards the lab's resource vault, jumping in to block the knight's way. "Whoa, hold up there, Highness. We only have two Star Fragments, and I can't just let you-"

Robbie cut off as he got a proper view of Link's expression. Every time he'd seen the knight prior the boy had been stoic and calm, little more than a silent shadow trailing the princess. Now, though the Knight's face was blank, there was a burning force in his blue eyes that made a chill run down the scientist's spine.

"...take more than one?" Robbie squeaked, cringing away from the knight's intensity. Link stared at him for a moment, then nodded sharply and moved swiftly around him without a backward glance. Robbie turned to Purah with a frantic look, as if she knew what the heck was going on.

Purah could only watch in shock, mouth agape as the princess and her knight moved about her lab with practiced ease. The princess she could understand, given the hours upon hours she'd spent learning and inventing with the Sheikah scientists. But the few times Link had entered the lab, he had always stayed by the door, glancing about the ancient technology and scientific charts with an almost intimidated stare. Now he moved about with complete confidence, as if he knew exactly what each tool and component Zelda called out was and where to find it.

And the longer Purah watched the two bob and weave around each other, the larger a small mountain of, what she quickly realized, were the rarest and most valuable parts and components they had salvaged started to form at the foot of the strange statue. Her shock was quickly boiling away into fury as she watched months, in some cases years worth of work start getting buried under each other the longer the pair continued to flit about the lab like they owned it. "Now, just hold on one godsdamned-!"

"It's best to stay out of their way when they get laser-focused like that."

Purah's voice caught mid-word. She whirled around at the sound of her sister's voice. Impa clung to the edge of a different lab table with her head bowed, her face slowly losing its green tint. "Trust me, you don't want to get in either of their ways when they get set on a mis-"

Impa finally looked up, her words fading when she locked eyes with her older sister. Purah felt a bit of a chill at the wide-eyed look she received.

Since becoming the princess's personal advisor, Impa had made an effective effort on clamping down on her outward emotions, only brief bouts of annoyance breaking through. Given that Purah was rather flippant with showing her own emotions and noting those of others, this led to the two butting heads on the regular.

Which is why the open look of awe and loss showing on her sister's face put a sense of dread in Pyrah's chest. She'd seen similar looks before… on the faces of old grizzled war veterans telling tales of friends long since lost. It had no right being on her little sister's face. "Impa?" she found herself asking, trying to keep her tone upbeat. "H-hey, why the long face?"

This drew Robbie's attention, finally tearing his eyes away from the wreck Link was making of the lab as he searched for each item Zelda called out. "Whoa. Seriously, little miss." He lifted his visors a bit to squint at her. "You look like you saw a ghost."

Impa's eyes darted between them. "I… I-I…" she trailed off, Purah's concern mounting as she watched Impa struggle for words, her eyes… was… was she about to…?

"Do you want me to tell them?"

Purah and Robbie jolted at the unfamiliar voice, Robbie snatching a nearby wrench up in defense. They spun around in fright… finding Link behind them, a tangle of wires over his shoulder as he looked past them.

It took an embarrassingly long moment for Purah to put two and two together.

"You can talk?" Robbie blurted out, now holding the wrench in a loose grip.

Link shot Robbie an annoyed look, then turned back to Impa, concern (shockingly) plain on his face. "Do you?" he asked again, his voice soft.

At his question, Zelda looked up from her fiddling as she placed components around the statue. Purah's heart leaped to her throat. If the Knight's concern was plain, the princess's was positively naked.

Impa looked between the two of them, then swallowed thickly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, managing a small smile for them. "No. I can do it. Thank you, Link," she said to the knight, her voice quickly growing steady. "You two focus on helping Fi."

Link stared at her for a long moment, then gave a sharp "Hmph!" in agreement before shuffling back to help Zelda construct… whatever the heck they were building.

Zelda didn't look as convinced but still gave a firm nod. "We're here if you need us, love." She immediately went back to work, completely missing how Robbie and Purah stood agape at the term of endearment.

Impa just shook her head fondly as the two rounded back to her. "Long story," she sighed tiredly, gaining a faraway look in her eye. "Very long."

Purah crossed her arms, cocking a brow as she shoved down her irritation of her lab being torn apart in favor of listening to her sister. "Well, this should be good."

Surprisingly, rather than being annoyed by her sister's blasé attitude, Impa's grin returned. "Well, in summary: while the princess was 'communing with the Goddesses'-"

Purah stiffened as Impa heavily rolled her eyes. While it would normally be amusing to hear the young Sheikah speak as such, she knew her sister would normally never be so blatantly disrespectful in front of the princess. Yet glancing back at the royal, Zelda gave no reaction, save a further furrowing of her brow. Shockingly, she heard Link snorting in amusement across the lab, a reaction that made Impa's smirk grow.

A chill ran down Purah's spine as she realized she had missed something drastic.

"-Link and I were talking and I made an offhand comment about asking a former princess Zelda how her powers worked. A comment which this little guy-" she gestured to the Little Guardian curiously poking around the lab, following Link around like a lost puppy. "-apparently took literally. It opened some kind of time portal, but instead of a person coming through, these… beams of light shot out of it." While her tone had started light-hearted, the mirth had quickly drained out of Impa's voice. A far too tired sigh slipped from her lips. "They struck me, Link, and Zelda, and after a rather… painful few minutes, we… remembered."

A question was at the tip of Purah's tongue, but she found her throat too thick to speak. There it was again, that far-too-old look, only now it was paired with a weight visibly pressing down on Impa's shoulders. The longer her sister spoke, the more Purah realized that something was very, very wrong.

Robbie, ever the intellectual, had quickly shoved down whatever oddities he may have noticed and jumped straight back to pursuing knowledge. "Remembered… what, exactly?"

Impa hesitated, her eyes darting towards Link and Zelda, who, while not pausing in their construction (was Zelda integrating all those random parts into the table itself?), kept shooting her concerned glances in between placing parts. Closing her eyes briefly, Impa took a deep, calming breath. When her eyes reopened, though the tiredness lingered, it was tempered with purpose. "You know all the old legends about the Princesses Zelda? How whenever darkness and strife arose, the Zelda of the time would be gifted the powers of the Goddesses to combat it? How a destined Hero would appear to fight either in her stead or at her side?"

Confusion mounting, a pit forming in her stomach, Purah gave a nervous chuckle. "Uh, yeah? They're kinda the whole reason we have this lab in the first place, to try to figure out how much of them is true and if anything in those legends could help stop the Calamity." She swallowed thickly as Impa just nodded expectantly. "You already knew that, Sis."

Impa clinked her tongue, leaning back against a different lab table, resting her hands on its edge. "Yep. Except now I… we," she gestured to the princess and knight before her. "Learned the hard way that while all those legends are true, they left out a rather significant omission."

"Oh?" To Purah's distant annoyance, it seemed Robbie hadn't noticed any oddity with how Impa was acting, given how he had already produced a notebook and pen, hunger for knowledge glinting behind his goggles as he leaned forward. "We've been over those legends dozens of times, picked them apart word by word to glean any useful information. I thought we had gotten all we could, but learning something lost from them would be spectacular." He paused in his scribbling, meeting Impa's eyes. "So what is this world-shattering piece of lost legend?"

Impa, to Purah's bemusement, grinned back at Robbie's bluntness with… fondness? "Simple. Every time a Princess Zelda and her Hero arise to face the latest world-ending foe… it's always been the same Princess and Hero."

Robbie stiffened, staring at Impa in confusion. Purah wasn't much better, blinking rapidly. She couldn't help but look back at the princess behind her. Zelda seemed fully invested in her work, either not hearing… or maybe just not responding to Impa's words. "Uh, Sis?" Purah took a step closer to her sister, giving her a detailed scan up and down. She lowered her voice to a not-so-subtle whisper. "Are you feeling okay? Those Legends are so old we don't even have proper dates for them, and last I checked our princess isn't even old enough to drink yet."

Purah's stomach continued to sink when Impa just gave her a rueful, almost sad smile. "Her body might not be."

Never mind. Her stomach was done sinking. It had now hit bottom and started digging. Purah gave her head an involuntary shake. Something… a possibility jumped to her mind, but… no. No, that would be… "What… what do-"

"The Legends are right that whenever Hyrule is in danger, Princess Zelda and her Hero fight to save it." Impa crossed her arms. "What they get wrong is the how. It's not that the Zelda of the time inherits any lost powers. The Hero does not just appear out of thin air at random. Since day one, the first time these lands came under fire, it's always been the same two people having to put those fires out. And ever since they have kept saving it. Time and again, fight after fight, horror after horror…"

Purah faintly heard Zelda take a shuddering breath.

"...life after life."

"...reincarnation." Robbie's pen clattered to the floor, his notepad hanging loose in his hand. He turned back to look at Princess Zelda, who pointedly stayed focused on her work as she murmured for Link to lift the statue lady off the table. "You're claiming that they… wait." His head snapped back to Impa, brow furrowed and face pale. "The Guardian, the portal, the lights… you said they…" He slowly reached a hand up to his goggles, pushing them up his forehead to reveal his eyes. "You said you remembered."

Purah's eyes shot wide, her pupils narrowing to pinpricks.

"...No," She took a step back from Impa, shaking her head with a breathless laugh. "No. No, no, that's impossible. You… okay, the princess and hero reincarnating is… it's an interesting theory, I'll give you that, Sis. I-I can even see an argument for it, sure, maybe even the princess remembering past lives through the Guardian's time-travel powers, but…" Purah was distantly aware that she was starting to ramble, but the rather unprofessional bout of panic rushing through her made her not care, because it was sounding like her baby sister… "You said you and Linky also remember… something, which makes no sense because for that to work in your theory that means one of you would have to be-"

"Done."

Purah and Robbie jolted as Zelda's voice rang out through the lab, finality and… power echoing from that single word. There was a click, and a bright light engulfed the lab. The scientists whipped around, mouths open as they squinted against the glare.

In a shockingly short amount of time, Zelda had taken the lab table and practically disassembled and reassembled the top of it into something vaguely pod-looking, Sheikah tech making up a raised bowl-like rim around the edges of the former table. Wires ran from one end of the table to the other, all coming together and connecting to a Sheikah furnace humming merrily across the lab. Link cradled the statue lady protectively in his arms, eyes firmly on the action going on before him.

At the head of the table, Zelda held a glass container containing a Star Fragment and a large handful of gemstones, firmly pressing it into the top of the contraption as her eyes and body glowed gold, her hair drifting faintly upwards at the ends. Before their very eyes, the fragment and the gems began to glow, first with power then from heat, soon losing their form as they became a molten slurry of rainbow colors. The fluid drained from the container to fill up the human-shaped bowl the table had become, the swirled lines of the Sheikah tech glowing in the same shifting colors.

Zelda let out a sigh, the glow from her body fading, though her eyes remained gold. "Okay, that should do it. Now…" She moved to Link's side, kneeling slightly to face the statue. She gently placed her hand on its head, flashing Link a tense smile. "Fi?" Her voice was so uncharacteristically gentle, it briefly shook Purah from her shock. "Dearheart, can you wake up for me?"

It took a moment, but there was soon a faint sound like rubbing crystals and the evidently-not-just-a-statue woman squirmed slightly in Link's hold, blearily opening featureless eyes. "My… Lady?"

Purah inwardly cringed. Whoever or whatever this woman was, no healthy being could produce such a fatalistically exhausted voice.

Zelda's smile looked almost pained as she brushed the woman's hair(?) out of her face. "We've found a way to give you some of your strength back, Fi. But I need you to change back for a moment to do so. Can you do that?"

The woman (Fi, apparently) blinked slowly at the princess. Then her brow furrowed, her features turning faintly determined. "Understood." A bright blue glow engulfed Fi, so bright the researchers had no choice but to close their eyes.

When they opened them, the woman was gone… and in her place was an unmistakable sword.

One Link had no problem holding reverently, the hand he gripped it with showing a shining triforce on its back.

In a blink, the Princess and Knight changed. Link's outfit turned a paler shade of green, his face turning slightly rounder, reverting roughly two years younger. Zelda de-aged similarly, her hair long and flat with blue ribbons twirled in her bangs, her travel clothes replaced with a billowing pink and white dress.

In the next second, the vision was gone and the two looked normal again… but Purah had seen it.

"...oh." Purah wasn't sure if that small squeak came from her or Robbie, but it sounded like a cannon blast in the now silent lab.

Link shot them both a brief, knowing grin, then turned to Zelda. "Now what?"

Zelda breathed deeply. "Just lower her carefully into the bath. It won't strengthen her much, but it will support her life force until we can devise a more permanent way to restore her."

The Sheikah watched as Link slowly dipped the sword into the molten bath tip-first, letting it float on the surface as he released the hilt, until it sank completely, a faint outline of its form visible through the kaleidoscope of shifting color.

Purah took a breath, her voice faint with disbelief. "H-he's the Hero." She took another breath, barely easier than the last. She felt cold as she turned to her little sister, meeting those too-old eyes again, the dread making her numb. "But… but then why would you…?"

Impa held her stare for a moment, then closed her eyes. "The legends always tell of The Princess and the Hero. Sometimes they mention friends and allies the two meet along their journeys. But they rarely mention how, in nearly every life, there is always a Sheikah filling whatever role is needed for them, be it a friend, a mentor, a protector, or…"

She opened her eyes, and Purah's heart stopped.

For just a moment, the Impa she knew disappeared. In her place was a towering, alien woman in a black and gold shawl, her dark skin making her pale blond hair shine, a single braid falling over her right shoulder. Her lips were painted blue, the Sheikah symbol on her forehead a dark orange. But her eyes, red and intense, were the same as…

Purah blinked.

…we're the same as her sister's, now staring back at her sadly.

"...an advisor." Impa finished needlessly, her point made.

"...damn." Robbie took his goggles off fully, setting them down on a nearby table and taking a step away, rubbing his hands against his face as he began pacing.

"Impa…" Purah took a step towards her sister, reaching as if to touch her but holding back as if she'd break. "How…how long… how old-?"

"Don't!" Purah flinched back at the intense shout, Impa's face screwing up in a pained scowl. It faded almost immediately, Impa's cheeks reddening in embarrassment. "Sorry. I shouldn't have snapped. But…" She looked back at Zelda and Link, an action that suddenly had a horrifying new context. Impa swallowed thickly. "I know we're going to have to talk about it soon, but… Purah, we've lived so many lives, they're not just ancient history, they're forgotten history. But right now, up here?" She tapped the side of her head with more force than necessary. "Every day of every life I've ever lived? I quite literally remember it like it was yesterday. All of it." She looked off the side, ashamed. "It's just… too much right now."

Purah stood there, frozen. A million things were flying through her scientific mind, dozens of thoughts warring with each other, all trying to decide on what the proper course of action to move forward with was. Years, centuries, millennia of history staring her in the face. There were so many questions… so many answers at her fingertips…

And not a damn one mattered, because she saw Impa's eyes glisten, and she was already moving forward.

Impa grunted in surprise as Purah wrapped her arms around her little(?) sister. She felt a slight tremble in the ninja's form, making her squeeze tightly.

"I'll help you," Purah blurted out. She looked back in horror when she realized she was blubbering. "Wha-whatever you need to help, for me to help you, with whatever you need, I'll… I'm there. I'm here. I…"

She was cut off when Impa gently hugged her back, chuckling softly. "Careful, Big Sister. You're starting to sound very uncool."

Purah blinked, a bark of startled laughter catching in her throat. "S-shut up. I'm trying to be sisterly here."

Impa just continued to laugh (too soft, too understanding, too knowing) and hugged her tighter.

Across the room, Zelda and Link watched the Sheikah sister's embrace. Zelda took a long soothing breath, trying to keep her feelings from bubbling over. She quickly found Link's hand in hers, the knight giving her an understanding, sympathetic smile. She returned it, letting him pull her closer and resting her head on his shoulder.

Robbie, mid-stride in his pacing, saw this and nearly face-planted. He caught himself on the edge of a lab table as he stumbled, suddenly finding himself eye to optic with the Little Guardian. It beeped curiously at him, tilting its body. On a whim, he found himself scooping it up in one hand as he stood up. His eyes went from the hugging sisters to the… apparently mythical couple. Then he looked down at the Guardian tucked in the crook of his elbow, snatching his goggles off the table.

"Well," he said, pulling his goggles back on with a tired sigh. "Looks like this day ain't done yet."

"So… it was really about to break?"

Link folded his arms on the table, looking troubled. "I'm not sure but… I think so. If not in this life then soon after."

Robbie gave a slight nod, writing out a note with one hand as he took a bite of roasted cucoo with the other. Once emotions had calmed down and Robbie and Purah realized the trio had been on the road for the better part of a week, the group quickly decided to have a meal before anything else. The other researchers would throw a fit when they found out their lab had been temporarily converted into a dining room, but Link and Zelda had insisted, not wanting to let the Master Sword out of their sight any longer than necessary. Purah understood, but it didn't make having a full meal at a lab table any stranger.

Despite bursting with questions, Robbie and Purah managed to restrain themselves. They asked the trio if there were any safe topics they'd be willing to talk about, and the three had graciously supplied; while most of their reincarnations were currently off limits, they were willing to speak on their first life, if only so the two researchers knew the context and history of Fi and the Master Sword.

And what a history. An entire City in the Sky, risen there by the goddess Hylia herself in a desperate bid to protect the Triforce from a being called Demise. The Link and Zelda of the time, both just normal citizens training to be knights, being taken on an adventure to the lands below, Zelda kidnapped by a violent sword-spirit in a bid to bring back his lost master, Link fighting through an unfamiliar land to rescue his childhood friend. The reveal of The Master Sword having not always been the Master Sword, forged by Hylia as the Goddess Sword and slowly becoming the blade of legend through Link's efforts, guided by both the spirit of the Blade, Fi, and the protector and lady-in-waiting of the departed Goddess Hylia, Impa. A goddess, by the way, that Zelda originally was, and now remembers being once again.

One of her research partners was a goddess. There was no scientific precedent for processing that.

And that was just the broad strokes. Purah could tell there were details the three were holding back, especially given how none of them had yet spoken of what happened to each of them after Demise was defeated. But despite them saying they were willing to talk, Purah did not push when one of them faltered mid-word or suddenly shifted to a different aspect of the story. There would be time for all later when they were more settled. Besides, what little they had spoken of had already completely outstripped what very little existed on that time period.

…though, how the three of them had outright refused to state exactly how long ago the events of Skyloft were, freezing up the moment Robbie had tentatively asked, filled Purah with a dread she could not put words to.

She glanced to her side at her sister, watching as Impa slowly chewed on a mouthful of glazed mushroom, nodding along as Link described how the Master Sword's power compared to how it did now. Purah wracked her brain, trying to remember what her sister's mannerisms were like normally and if she was acting any differently. Had she always sat with that stiffness in her spine but looseness in her shoulders? Did she usually twirl whatever was on her fork, inspecting every bite before eating?

Purah tried to stomp down her frustration at her inattentiveness. This was her little sister, it felt like she should know these things, know if they were different. But try as she might… she just couldn't.

An elbow in her side forced her from her spiraling thoughts. She jolted in surprise, turning startled eyes on her sister.

Impa rose a brow at her, a knowing look in her eyes. She leaned into Purah's personal space.

"I'm still your sister, Purah," Impa whispered, low enough that the others wouldn't hear her. "There's just… more of me now."

Purah's eyes shot wide, pink dusting her cheeks. "H-how…?"

"Reading people has been a necessary skill in almost all my lives, this one included. Also," Impa's lips quirked up in a small smirk. "You're an expert on a lot of things, Purah. Subtlety isn't one of them."

Purah's mouth fell open at her audacity. A huff of disbelief escaped her lips as she crossed her arms. "Since when did you get a sense of humor?"

Impa's smile dimmed but stayed, an odd twinkle in her eye. "I had a good teacher." She bumped Purah's elbow.

Despite everything, Purah felt a smile creep over her face, bumping back against her sister. She shook her head, turning her attention back to the conversation. Zelda was in the middle of explaining the problems in trying to heal Fi.

"-it's basically reverted to being just the Goddess Sword in terms of power. The best thing to do would be to just reforge the blade in the Sacred Flames, but I can't recall seeing them or anything like them since that first life."

"Hmm… it's certainly a pickle." Robbie tapped his pen against his lips in thought. "What exactly did you do with that star fragment?" He jabbed the pen toward the lab table Zelda had rebuilt. "What exactly is happening to the blade right now?"

"It's a similar process to how you'd use star fragments to strengthen armor, except with the addition of the gemstones. I infused the stones with a portion of my power so that the process will use that as an additional strengthening agent. Hopefully, it will strengthen the blade's spiritual power as well as its durability." Zelda let out a sigh. "Still, even if it brings Fi back to a healthy state, she'll be nowhere near full power. And frankly… I have no idea how to get her there."

Purah hummed to herself. She had a few burgeoning ideas, but she lacked too much information to say anything definitively. She glanced at her timepiece, then did a double take. "Yikes, really?" She sighed heavily, standing up from the table. "Well, I hate to say it, but I don't think that problem is getting solved tonight, especially with us all running on fumes."

Zelda's shoulders slumped disheartenedly but nodded. "I'm afraid you're right. It'll take the night for Fi to finish the process, anyway. Still, I need to send a message to the Champions before we bed down for the night."

Link nodded as he and Impa collected the dirty dishware. "Write them out while I clean these. Then I'll go see if any of the messenger hawks are awake."

Zelda hummed in agreement, flipping to a blank page in Robbie's notebook. She paused before looking up at Robbie and Purah. "Do you mind if we have the Champions meet us here?"

Robbie shared a brief look with Purah, one which put the female researcher on edge. It was his brace-yourself look. "Sure, but can I ask a question first?"

Zelda's brow rose a little. "Of course. You can ask me anything."

"Okay, then. Just to clarify, you're absolutely sure we shouldn't tell the King about this whole reincarnation thing?"

Zelda's eyes went wide, and Purah winced. Frankly, she thought asking Zelda this right now was a very stupid thing to do… even if she'd been mentally preparing to do it herself. In the trio's retelling of events, Zelda had brushed off the idea of contacting the King with such cold dismissive ease that Purah could practically hear alarm bells ringing. Given the grimaces now on Link and Impa's faces, they thought the same.

Zelda's face soured, and her eyes slowly started to glow gold. She closed them quickly and took a long, slow breath through her nose. When her eyes opened she was calm, but her expression was closed off as she went back to writing. "No, Robbie. At some point, I know I must, but currently… I have no need nor want to speak with my father."

…ouch. Purah ducked her head reflexively at Zelda's tone. If that was any colder it would burn.

Robbie just nodded, no doubt hiding his wide eyes behind his goggles. "Okay, just wanted to make sure. Well, I'm heading to bed. Good night everybody!" He turned on his heel and walked quickly out of the room, muttering under his breath. "Yikes."

Impa shared a look with Link, who wordlessly nodded and handed her the rest of the dirty dishes. He then took a seat next to Zelda at the table, wordlessly watching her write. Within seconds of him coming near, the tension in Zelda's shoulder started to ebb away.

Purah's brow rose. She caught Impa waving at her out of the corner of her eye, gesturing for her to follow out of the lab. Once they were safely in the kitchen, Impa dumped the dishware in the sink and said, "Zelda's got a lot of complicated feelings about her father right now. She'll cool off and think clearly eventually, but right now…" She tapped her temple like she had earlier. "Too fresh."

Purah crossed her arms and leaned back against the counter. "You said it." She let out a laugh at an absurd thought. "With how mad she is and her gathering the Champions, I'm almost afraid she's going to try and start a coup."

Five seconds later she realized Impa was not laughing with her. Her head snapped towards her sister, wide-eyed. "Uh… this is the part where you laugh and call me childish, Sis."

Impa just kept scrubbing at the plates, her expression… exasperated. "Don't go giving her ideas."

Cold dread found its way back in Purah's stomach. "She… she wouldn't really…?"

"Of course not," Impa was quick to say. "At least, she'd never consider the possibility on her own. But, when she's given an idea, Zelda looks at it from every angle. And frankly, throughout all of our lives, she's spent more time as a Queen than not. If she somehow thought it was a good idea, she'd do it." She stopped her cleaning, turning to point a soapy finger at Purah's face. "So don't give her the idea."

Purah couldn't help but stare. "You're so sure of that."

Impa went back to scrubbing with a tired huff, almost a laugh. "Purah, in more than one life, I've raised that girl."

Purah jolted like she'd been struck by lightning.

Impa took no notice, continuing without interruption. There was pride in her voice. "I know how she thinks, and what she's capable of. She's unstoppable on her worst day. And with Link at her side?" Impa looked skyward with a wide smile. "Ganon's as good as beaten."

Purah didn't say anything in response. She had no response. There was so much unshakable trust and faith in Impa's voice, like the Calamity winning wasn't even a possibility. And given what little she heard and all that had been implied about the Princess, her Hero, and even her little sister… Purah found herself starting to feel some of that faith.

She was also starting to feel very, very small.

Impa finished rinsing the dishes and laid them out to dry. She started walking back to the lab, Purah following her out of habit. They met Link and Zelda walking their way.

"The messages have been sent," Zelda said when she saw them, her voice thick with exhaustion. "With any luck, we should hear back by tomm-" She was cut off by a large yawn escaping her. "Oh, excuse me."

"And that's the sign that we're done for the day." Impa smiled at Zelda's reddening cheeks. She turned to the knight. "Link, you remember where the guest rooms are? Make sure she actually goes to bed."

Link nodded, ignoring Zelda's muttering about how she was not a child. "Yep. Um, could you…?"

Impa put a hand up. "I'll camp out in the lab and watch Fi while you get some shut-eye. Besides, someone will have to explain to the other researchers tomorrow why their lab is so trashed."

Link smiled. "Thanks, Impa." He took Zelda by the arm and led her down the hall, the princess offering no resistance.

Purah watched the interaction with a sense of awe. The last time she'd seen this trio interact, Impa spent the whole time trying to build up Zelda's confidence while Link just hung in the back silently. Now the three spoke and moved with familiarity as easy as breathing.

It wasn't until the Hylian pair had nearly reached the end of the hall that Purah realized that Impa had yet to move. In fact, she was watching them walk with an odd grin on her face.

Just as Link put his hand on the doorknob, Impa called out. "Oh, and Link? Zelda?"

The two turned back to her, curiously.

"Try to behave, please? I don't want to have to be a nanny anytime soon."

Purah choked on her own spit.

Zelda's eyes bugged out, her face blazing "I-Impa! I…! You…! W-we weren't even considering-!"

Link just rolled his eyes, pulling a flustered Zelda with him out the door and calling back over his shoulder a sarcastic, "Good night, Impa!"

"Good night, Linky!"

As the door swung shut, Impa burst out in light giggles. Purah looked at her like she was a madwoman.

"Is… is that just a thing you do now?" she asked faintly.

Impa stifled her giggles, wiping a tear from her eye. "Kinda. Once I hit a certain age during the Calamity, I found some fun in embarrassing the younger generation. Kept them on their toes and gave some entertainment to a little old woman." She then shook her head with a smile. "Course, there's not a whole lot that can get under Link's skin, but Zelda freaks out enough for the both of them. And, I was serious. As cute as their kids always are, we don't need a baby toddling about with the Calamity going on."

Purah could only nod, her brain struggling to make sense of anything her sister had just said. However, one thing stood out like a blazing flare. Once she registered it, Purah's face went white. "Wait… during the Calamity?"

Impa blinked at her. Then her shoulders slumped, that too-old look coming back to her eyes. "We… didn't mention that part yet, did we?"

Purah slowly shook her head.

Impa stifled the groan, leading her sister back into the lab. "You're going to need another notebook."

By the time Purah had finally fallen asleep in the early hours of the morning, she'd needed three.

A/n: I worry that I wrote Purah a bit too out of character, but I figure finding out your little sister is actually some multi-millenia old mystic warrior is enough to throw anyone off their game.

She and Robbie are fascinating to me. People of science that successfully break down the workings of magic through technology. So of course the best way to flummox them is to throw reincarnation and literal gods at them!

Hope you're all doing okay. Keep smiling and moving forward, and I'll see ya at the next one!