Dawn of the Third Movement: Secrets

Hello all, and welcome to part three: Secrets! It was fun af to write, and I think y'all are gonna enjoy it!

Getting closer--

Bring them home, please

I will find you.

Hazen shot awake with a gasp, lurching upright. Mother?

His chest heaved; swallowing, he slowly ran his hands over himself, feeling for his injuries. He didn't hurt, and as he remembered his broken hip, he felt gingerly at it, but . . . there was no pain. All that remained was some dried blood from his scrapes, flaking from his side and head.

"Gods," he groaned, holding his face in his hands. Everything--everything was so fucked up. Majora--Skull Kid had pushed them, and then they'd fallen down the hole, and . . . the Moon had fallen.

He remembered Link, and hoped he'd been able to play the Inverted Song of Time. Hoped he wasn't going out of his mind trying to find them.

A face flashed through his mind, and he looked around wildly. "Irene?"

She wasn't there. Panic surged, and he fought to shove it down. But if she wasn't here, then where was she? And what about Tessen and Saval? Had they seen that glowing light too? The Doors?

He stood up on shaking legs, turning this way and that, but--but where he was, it . . . it looked like nothing he'd ever seen.

His studies resurfaced, as reliable as ever, and he searched the pale golden surroundings, hearing a faint tinkling from somewhere. There didn't seem to be a sky, but he wouldn't describe anything as walls or a ceiling, either. And there was utterly nothing there.

Could it be the Sacred Realm? He'd read descriptions of it, speculations, but none of them were conclusive. They differed too much.

His mind automatically began speculating about why that might be, and as he heard something like a door opening, it faded away. He turned to see what the noise was--

Hazen's hand went for his sword, but--but it wasn't there, and--

And it wasn't attacking.

Majora simply hovered there, watching Hazen's chest heave, his blue eyes darting here and there, but always coming back to Majora. The mask seemed to . . . look at him, seemed to almost gain a light of disdain in its yellow eyes.

Majora stared at the boy, watching him try to see a way out while still keeping wary.

The boy looked like him. Vaguely, and he did not share the same build, but the face, the fighting stance, the eyes--even with color, they were the same.

Those eyes stared at Majora, their owner trying to beat down the fear that rose up in its presence. What was it doing? Waiting for Hazen to attack? Trying to lure him into a false sense of security? Possibilities ran through his mind, and yet none of them were what actually happened.

It spoke.

"Well, you are different."

Again, he went for his sword. "Bloody Goddesses," Hazen cursed, his breath stolen. "You--you can talk?"

Majora never moved, but Hazen felt like it drifted closer. "Stop," he shouted, fear making his voice higher. And though it was a mask, Hazen swore Majora scowled.

"A child," it spat. "This is what he sends me?"

He? Hazen felt around his belt, desperate for something, anything to defend himself with, and found his dagger. He drew it and held it before him, but Majora paid it no mind. A sound like a groan of disgust and contempt came from it.

"A child with nothing but a stick," it sneered, and Hazen screwed his face into a snarl.

"I beat you with one before."

A sound like trembling earth rose up, and Hazen scanned the strange surroundings before realizing it was from Majora. "What are you doing?"

"Can you?" it challenged, drifting forward. Hazen lifted the dagger, but Majora simply said, "Can you beat me? Well, boy?"

It drifted closer until Hazen's nose was an inch from its smooth, carved surface. He narrowed his eyes, staring into Majora's nightmare eyes.

"You don't scare me," he said quietly.

What a lie. And Majora knew it, because it spun away, laughing a horrible, wretched laugh. "You fear me, and you should," it said, shooting back towards him. Hazen swung his arm, but Majora shot past, spinning around to face him. It constantly moved, forcing Hazen to keep turning to keep him within his vision. "Why, you even fear what you seek."

This bloody mask . . . "What are you talking about?" Hazen snarled, taking a step forward.

That was a mistake.

Majora let out a screech, and suddenly the bright, pale gold light disappeared, blanketing everything in darkness. Hazen turned wildly, trying to find Majora's bright yellow eyes, but as he whirled around, he stopped short, eyes catching on what played behind him.

His arm lowered, brows furrowing, as he watched the scenes play out like memories. Caste Town under attack--houses being burned, the guards slaughtered--as he watched, a family ran, screaming, from a black shadow, slithering like dark lightning, a spiked, angled weapon raised high. The creature stood up on its back feet, and Hazen couldn't stop a strangled breath.

A Lizalfos.

Dark laughter sounded behind him, and Hazen found he couldn't turn away. The scene changed, again and again, every time showing more destruction, more death, and as it shifted once more, his eyes caught on two golden haired figures fighting back to back, and suddenly, aggressively, he knew what he was seeing.

Hazen sucked in a hitching breath. He swallowed. "You think this scares me?"

"I know it does," Majora whispered in his ear. Hazen whirled, swiping blindly, but Majora was gone, its laughter echoing. "You wanted to know about the war, you wanted to know the truth, but, you see . . ."

Its voice faded again, and Hazen was acutely aware of the visions still playing behind him. He listened hard, a bead of sweat falling down the back of his neck, leaving a trail of cold heat.

Air rushed in from his side, and he turned, tripping over his own feet and falling, as Majora flew by, shouting, "You are not ready for it!"

Hazen scrambled to his feet, his heart slamming into his ribs. "I'm not afraid of the truth!"

The truth--the reality of the shadows he'd lived in for his whole life--he wanted to know. He needed to know. He panted through his teeth, spinning in circles. "Where are you?!"

Majora laughed again, and this time Hazen could hear it approaching--slowly, from the front. It was dark, even more than before, and malevolent, and Hazen stood up straight as Majora came within a few feet of him.

There was silence, then, silence in the darkness. Hazen quieted his breaths, waiting, waiting, waiting for that black voice to speak up.

"If you say so."

White light flashed, searing his eyes, and Hazen shouted as everything disappeared in it. He stumbled back as it faded, leaving his surroundings the same as when he'd woken, except now--

"Hazen!"

A small blue-haired girl slammed into him, her heart pounding so hard he could feel it against his own chest. A noise left her, and Hazen felt his arms go around Irene's frame, holding her as tightly as he could without hurting her.

She pulled back, already yelling at him. "Where did you go?! What happened? Why is--"

She broke off as two others reached them. "Gods," Saval whispered, tears in her eyes. "Oh gods." She took his face in her hands. "Wh--what is going on?"

"Hazen," Tessen breathed, and Hazen gripped his arm, yanking him in. He crushed Saval close to him as well, and when they broke apart, all four turned to the mask that had simply watched.

Hazen met its gaze, standing tall, and it was all he had time for before a groaning sound echoed right behind them, and they were sucked backwards into searing light.

Cool air on his face.

Hazen breathed in, his eyes closed, and a voice spoke.

"He's alive. Bring him in."

Hands grabbed him, gentle but firm, and hefted him up.

Hazen lurched up with a gasp, and those hands seized him, holding him still. "Woah there, son. Slow down," a male voice said, and Hazen's eyes cracked open to see a pale-haired man watching him with wary eyes.

Hazen squinted. "Uncle?"

The man raised a brow, then turned contemplative. "I suppose it's not so outlandish," he mused, and a slender hand smacked him. "Oh, stop."

A woman came into view, scrutinizing amber eyes so familiar that Hazen almost blurted Saval's name. But as his memories began to come back, it was a real effort not to either panic or fly into a rage. Even so, he trembled with the restraint, and the woman noticed.

She pushed him back down gently, bidding the others to take him away. Hazen tried to resist, but the pair walked alongside him, talking quietly amongst themselves. The words "Domain" and "attack" registered in his hazy mind, and Hazen had enough wherewithal to stop struggling, and listen instead.

"Where are they coming from?" the man murmured.

"I don't know," the woman answered. "But Zel will know what to do, even if it's just temporary."

Zel?

They continued talking, and by the time they reached their destination, Hazen had realized where, exactly, the Doors had dropped them off this time. When they'd dropped him. He was just having trouble accepting it.

"Is this him?"

Goddesses. That voice--it couldn't be . . .

"Fourth one in the last six hours," the man answered, whom Hazen now suspected to be Dark. He opened his eyes, desperate to see the newcomer, and was rewarded with his father's face staring down at him.

Link was the picture of health. His uniform fit him like a glove, and the purple hilt of a sword stuck up over his shoulder. His hair was short, but not military short like some of the others, who had trickled in to see the 'fourth one in six hours'.

That phrase nearly sent Hazen into a panic. He sat up, ignoring the people in white coats telling him to calm down, and faced his father. "Where are the others?"

Link raised a brow. "Calm down," was all he said. "We need to get you to the healers' room and assess you."

"I'm fine," Hazen insisted. He gestured at himself. "See? No injuries." He hopped off the pallet they'd carried him in on, determined to get to the door before anyone could stop him, but he only got a few steps before a hand latched onto his arm.

Swallowing, Hazen looked up at Link. He opened his mouth, but before his father could speak, voices filled the hallway, and two more faces he'd know anywhere appeared.

"P--" Hazen almost blurted her name, stopping himself just in time. The doctor gave him a strange look before turning to Link. "This is him?"

"Yes. Apparently," and here Link crooked a brow at Hazen, the way he'd done a million times before, "he's fine. No need for a doctor's visit."

Purah, young like Hazen had never seen her, harrumphed. "We'll just see about that. You," she pointed at Hazen. "Sit."

Dumb shock had him obeying her. As Purah rolled his sleeve up, wrapped some thick band around it and started squeezing a small pump--a blood pressure tool, he realized numbly--his mind raced. At what point in time had he been dropped off? How long until the Battle of Hyrule Field? Had Ganondorf even attacked, and they were all just there by coincidence?

Somehow he didn't find that very likely.

Hazen tried not to fidget as Purah went through her checkup; as it was, she'd barely finished before he leapt from the table and rolled his sleeve back down. He straightened his rumpled tunic as Purah huffed, putting her things away.

"Well, as you can see, I'm fine, so--" Hazen tried once again to leave, but Link's exasperated voice cut him off. "Will you calm down? What's the hurry?"

"I just--" Hazen tried, but then Link's eyes sharpened. Oh no. "What's that?"

The mood in the room instantly changed. Even twenty years younger, Hazen's father had the same commanding aura, and the others responded. Dark straightened from where he'd slouched, Midna murmured for the servants to leave, and Purah and the other doctor--Robbie?--closed the door behind them.

"What's what?" Hazen asked, shifting nervously.

"That, on your tunic."

Bloody, bloody Goddesses, Hazen thought. I'm dead.

His tunic--the same one he'd gone out in that morning. For the ride. It had been washed not enough times and it was ripped in some places, and it was absolutely ruined, but it was the same--and it had a very obvious Hylian Empire signia on the collar. The signia of the royal family.

"Uhh," he said stupidly, to Link's sharp expression. "This is, um, mine."

He closed his eyes, feeling embarrassment wash over him. Link had raised a brow, and now he said, "Well yes, I had assumed so. But why does it have that signia on it? As far as I know, you're not a royal."

If only you knew, Hazen thought. "Uh, right. I--I'm not from here, actually. I'm, um--"

"Well?"

Hazen cast his gaze about the room, searching his mind for anything, literally anything, that would help. His gaze landed on a map, and he said, in what he hoped wasn't a really obvious lie, "From . . . across the Necluda Sea."

That threw them off, at least a little. Link stared at him curiously. "The Necluda Sea. There's another Hylian Empire, with the exact same signia as ours, from across the water?"

Hazen blinked. "Yes? Ye--uh, yes--th-there is. Yes."

Purah scoffed. Obviously, she wasn't fooled. Hazen swallowed as Link spoke.

"Get Zelda."

Shit. "Ahh, uh, actually that's not necessary!" Hazen shouted, cursing himself. "You--you're right, you're right, aha," he laughed nervously. "You got me! I lied, I'm not-uh--"

Link stomped forward, anger darkening his face. "Enough lies. If you're not from Necluda, then where are you from? I want the truth, and I want it now."

His approach had sent Hazen stumbling backwards, and he pressed himself against the pallet, staring up at his father, afraid of him for the first time in his life.

"I--" he started, but nothing else came out, and before long, Midna took Link's arm. "Enough, Link. You're scaring him."

His father sighed, stepping away, and unexpectedly Hazen felt tears burning at his eyes. He stared at where Link had been standing, unable to move. It was all catching up, now, as he was frozen. Everything--Majora's confrontation, flying through the portals, having to explain away his sudden appearance time and time again. His father yelling at him. He sucked in a shaking breath, face crumpling, and lowered his head, not even hearing the others speaking.

"Now look what you've done," Midna scolded. "You made him cry."

A sigh. "I didn't mean to."

"We know that, Link, it's all right."

"My brother, the man who makes children cry."

"Shut up."

Hazen sniffed one last time and raised his head, wiping his face clean. They were all still arguing: Midna and Dark making fun of him, Purah laughing along, and Link in the middle, complaining.

"Goddesses forbid if you ever have a son--" Dark was saying.

Hazen snorted.

The four stopped and looked at him. Suddenly self-conscious, Hazen shifted on his feet. "I'm sorry. I know--I know you deserve answers."

He paused, and they all turned to him fully, waiting. Hazen cleared his throat. "I am from across the Necluda Sea," he said. "My connection to the royal family is because a mutual relative, um, crossed the Sea from here and married into the native tribes there. I wanted to know what the empire was like, and she told stories a lot, so . . . I came here."

"Mutual relative?" Link murmured.

"The late queen's cousin," Purah supplied. Link made a noise of understanding. He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I scared you," he said quietly, and abruptly Hazen saw his father: kind, caring, and always soft when it came to his children. The thought brought tears to Hazen's eyes once again, and he blinked quickly.

"It's okay," he said, and Link straightened.

"Now, I want you to listen," Link said. "It's not safe to go outside without a guard. The Domain is mostly secured, but monsters have been seen lingering. So if you have to go outside, make sure someone's with you."

"I will," Hazen said, filing that information away for later. His hand drifted to his swords, which had conveniently reappeared. "I can handle myself, though."

Link wasn't impressed. "These monsters aren't to be trifled with," he said, a hint of his darker side appearing briefly. "They won't take pity on a child."

"With all due respect, sir," Hazen said, "I've had dealings with monsters before. Believe me, I know what they're like."

The room darkened a bit; Link himself looked stricken but hid it well. Dark, beside him, muttered a curse under his breath. Midna took both their hands, and even the doctors' faces grew shadowed.

"Well, then," Link said, only a little choked, "welcome to Zora's Domain."

"And the end of all days," Dark added. Midna stepped on his foot.

Hazen managed a laugh before heading for the door. This time, no one stopped him.

He made it down the hall, making sure no one was watching him, and then slumped against the wall. His heart pounded in his chest. Servants and others gave him strange looks, but no one questioned it. Some wore simple farmers clothes and finer city-wear, and some wore makeshift, patchwork clothes. Still others walked around in fresh military garb, and there were even a few castle guards here and there.

Hazen marveled at the variety, not quite focusing on why they were in the Domain, but fascinated by it anyway. He didn't know what life was like now, but in his time he knew some of these people wouldn't be caught dead in the company of others.

Then again, they all shared the same reason for being there in the first place.

The knowledge had been in the back of Hazen's mind for a while, but only now did he get to pull it out and actually think. The war was happening right now--and he was smack in the middle of it. Right in the heart of the resistance.

Goddesses, he'd just been interrogated by his father. His uncle and aunt, even his doctors--all twenty years younger. There was so much--so much here that he could study and watch and learn about--Tessen would be so jealous--

Hazen's heart stopped. Tessen.

Bloody balls, Hazen thought, cursing. Where would they be held, he wondered? He'd been cornered by Link almost immediately, and Dark and Midna were also there. Link had said to fetch Zelda, so his mother was still hanging around the Domain somewhere. Perhaps she had found the others? He hadn't heard anything about Tetra or Ilayen either, so they were also an option.

"Okay," he muttered to himself, looking around. The hall he was in was lined with wall sconces, and servants, soldiers and Domain residents walked up and down, talking amiably. Hazen was a little lost; he wasn't sure where he was, exactly. He knew he must be underground, because there were no windows, and he doubted the war effort would be just in the open, above-ground Domain proper.

He scrubbed his face. Should he ask for directions? He needed to find Irene, Tessen and Saval--but if he asked for them specifically, would it be seen as suspicious? It seemed the whole Domain knew about their strange appearances--and he definitely didn't need his family sniffing about them, now of all times.

The other things in his mind--Majora's meeting, its words, the possibility of causing a paradox by even being here, and, of course, the ever-looming destruction of the timestream as he knew it--all crowded forward, and he tried to shove them back. He couldn't afford to look at any one of them right now. Once he had his group back, then they could start examining. But--

A soldier brushed by him, talking with a girl around Hazen's age, maybe a bit older. She had long, curly brown hair tied back, bright green eyes, and she wore a blue apron, the castle wingcrest sewn into it. "The fifth division's uniforms are almost done," she was saying. "As soon as Laruto and Zelda check them over, we'll have them sent down to you for the fittings. If there are any problems, make sure you get them to us quickly, all right?"

"Yes, ma'am," the soldier said, smiling. He saluted her, and she laughed, waving goodbye as the soldier stepped down a different hall.

Hazen stared at Alana as she continued on her way, a weird sort of feeling creeping in. How strange it was, to see people he knew, like his mother's best friend, just . . . living. In wartime, with everything they did bent towards defeating Ganondorf, but . . .

He shook his head at himself, and moved on. He had to find his friends.

An hour later, though, he was no better off than when he'd started. He sighed loudly, staring up and down the halls. There was a door a few feet away, but other than that, people were scarcer than before, and it seemed to him that he was near the back of the Domain.

A breeze drifted from the door, brushing Hazen's face with cool fingers, and with the realization that being outside might help him get his bearings, despite Link's warning, Hazen opened it and climbed the long, upward slope.

At the top, he exited the Domain and ended up in a vast field. The Waker Sea sat a few hundred feet to his right, to his left the fields extended far out till they brushed the dark walls of Nol and Ordon Village's forests, and ahead of him, they reached out to the edge of Hyrule. Across the Zora River, Termina began.

Hazen wandered out to the fields, turning over what he'd heard in the halls as he'd wandered. The Lunar Scale he'd heard stories about was almost over. Just two weeks more, maybe less. The Domain was buzzing with the news: the Empress is planning a strike against Ganondorf, out in Waker.

The Gerudo Fortress. Hazen ran through what he knew of it as he walked, the overgrown grass brushing his boots.

The destruction of the Fortress. The capture of Ganondorf's childhood matrons--Twinrova. The Battle on the Water. Urbosa's death.

Something in Hazen's chest caved a bit. His mother had no idea what was going to happen, no idea that she would lose her grandmother in just one day. No idea that she would then triumph against the bomb ship army, enraging Ganondorf even further. Not for the first time, he wished he knew more details about the war itself. It had been told to him, and all the other children, in scarce detail, saying only that several battles were fought, and some people died, and that after the Battle of Hyrule Field, the Alliance won the war. He didn't know how Urbosa died, just that she did. Neither did he know how the Champions died, either, beyond fighting in the last battle. It was one of the reasons he'd been so obsessed with the war in the first place. No one ever told him anything.

Abruptly he wondered if he should tell Zelda about Urbosa, despite the holes in his knowledge. Then he realized how insane that was, how much damage it would do to his own future, and he sighed, shaking his head.

But the knowledge remained, turning his mind inside out. The knowledge that he could save Urbosa, that he could spare his mother that pain. He knew he shouldn't, that it would probably break the timestream, but what if it didn't? What if they won anyway, and Urbosa survived? Did he dare take that chance--did he dare risk his existence, his parents' survival, just so one person would live?

Hazen felt his face crumple in frustration. Was this what Majora had meant? When it had shouted that Hazen wasn't ready for the truth? Did it know he would struggle with what he knew of the future?

Hazen sighed again, once again feeling everything that depended on him come to rest on his shoulders, and as he raised his head, he noticed he wasn't alone.

Someone sat in the grass, their legs pulled up to their chest. Her golden hair was tied into a knot on her head, glittering in the sun, and she didn't take her eyes from what she stared at. Hazen felt nerves bubble up as he realized who it was, and swallowed.

He joined her quietly, sitting beside her on the warm grass. One of the last days of warmth, before winter sets in, someone had muttered in the halls. Hazen followed her gaze to where it rested, across the Zora River. A hulking ruin sat over the distance, the dome shattered, blackened and burned--so different from the light and music that had always illuminated it.

Zelda stared at Great Bay's ruins, her face not shadowed in pain, or anger, or even sadness. It was contemplative, relaxed. And though Hazen knew she must have been reliving the memories of the last time she was there, she let none of that show on her face. Not that I know anything about it, Hazen thought.

For a long time they simply sat there together, each remembering that place the way they knew it. Then she spoke.

"Whenever I grow tired, when I wonder if it's all worth it . . . I come out here to remind myself."

Hazen watched her brows lower slightly, adding a hint of melancholy to her expression. Her words tumbled around in his mind, knocking loose things he'd thought about often. Saval's burns, scarring his cousin for life. Tearing Irene from her life, her home, the only family she had left. Tessen whenever he looked at Saval, conflict in every bone in his body.

And himself. The overwhelming feeling that Majora was right, he wasn't ready for this. He wasn't ready for any of this. And how unfair it was, that he was stuck in a battle for every world when he couldn't even handle his brothers' pranks. The fear that he'd lead his friends to their deaths, knowing it would be his fault.

Hazen didn't know where to look. He went from his mother's face to the ruin across the water and back, and felt tears crawling up his throat. He asked quietly, "Do you? Wonder if it's worth it?"

If Zelda heard the tears in his voice, she didn't mention it. She even smiled a little, just a tiny twitch of her lips. "It becomes more worth it every day."

It wasn't outwardly obvious, the fact that she waited. That was something that had never changed with his mother. She always gave him the time to say what he needed to say. Hazen looked down, feeling control slip away, and when he blinked, his face was wet.

He raised it, eyes inevitably straying to Great Bay.

"I don't know if I can do this."

Zelda looked at him then. Looked at how he tried to shut down the fear, how he wrestled for control back, even just a little. And though she couldn't possibly know what he had to do, couldn't know about Majora, her blue eyes lightened with understanding.

She looked back at the ruins. "I feel like that a lot."

Hazen glanced at her, surprised. His mother, unsure of herself? He wiped his face as she saw his expression, her lips raising in a rueful smile. "Midna jokes so often about how "perfect" I am, how "put together" I act. But the truth is further than people think," she admitted. "Sometimes I don't know if I can do this, either."

"But . . . you have to," Hazen said, not thinking. What would happen if she failed? If she gave up?

Zelda's smile widened. "Indeed," she said. "I have to."

She was quiet for a while, then reached out and wiped a tear from Hazen's face. "Thinking of them helps," she murmured, and stood. She brushed out her uniform, pulled the Sage's sash tight, and straightened her crown. When she met his eyes, she found not conflict and confusion, but an inner light shining from within, lighting his blue eyes bright in the sun.

Not for the first time, Zelda felt a confused sort of smile pull at her lips. He reminded her so much of Link, and even looked almost eerily similar to him, but . . . he'd never made mention of another relative besides Dark.

It was past noon. Link would be looking for her. Zelda said, "I hope I don't see someone as young as you on the battlefield."

The boy stood slowly, breathing deep. He met her gaze unflinchingly, so like Link that she blinked, and he said, "I have to be."

Zelda's lips parted--then split in a smile. She laughed ruefully. "Then I pray you survive," she said earnestly. "Sir . . . ?"

Hazen blinked. "Oh, Hazen," he said, then had to wonder if even that would cause a paradox.

Zelda inclined her head, still smiling that smile that made his eyes water again, and strode away. Hazen watched her go before sinking down to the grass, thinking long and hard about her words.

Saval walked quickly down the hall, cursing her life with every breath. She just had to run into the one person who happened to look almost exactly like her, the one person--

"Hey! I'm not done talking to you!"

Just this once, mom, for the love of the goddesses, Saval thought, turning down a hall. She broke into a run, dodging soldiers and Domain residents until she rounded another corner. Shr turned as she walked, slipping between people, ignoring their comments, and as she turned another corner, she smacked right into a hard chest.

Saval raised her head. Ohhh no.

Red eyes stared down at her, but not the pair she'd been hoping for. This is really bad. Slowly Saval stepped back, instantly becoming aware of how dirty she was, how her hair was a disaster, and worst of all, her burns.

They'd scarred over by now, as Irene had said they would. And they weren't as bad as she'd thought they might be, but now, with her father's gaze appraising her, Saval felt acutely aware of the scars' path across her left cheek, a curl of burned skin trailing up into her hairline, and a narrow stretch of her jaw and neck covered in puckered skin.

Dark was a good father. He adored her and Zhen, even coddled them, to Midna's vast annoyance. But she had a soft spot for her children as well, and she had the same fierce desire to protect them.

And Saval knew that protectiveness came from a place of pain. She didn't know much of her father's past due to his tight-lippedness about it, but she knew something had happened to make him sensitive, more so than other parents, to Saval's injuries. And not just hers--the thought of any child being hurt enraged her parents.

So when his eyes caught on her burns and lingered, narrowing, Saval swallowed. What do I even say? She wondered frantically. If I tell him the mask did this, he might leave the Domain or do something crazy, like order a search. Or he might keep me here, with a guard. If I tell him a person did this, he'd tear the place apart.

"Are you going to tell me what happened, or do I have to guess?"

His voice was dry--a bad sign. He was always dry when he was angry. "I--" Saval started. "I, um--this was from, uh . . ."

His eyes narrowed further. Saval grasped at something to help, some small thing, and a memory floated up. She latched onto it. "It's from a fire," she said, and breathed a silent sigh of relief when Dark straightened a bit, his brows furrowing slightly.

"A fire?"

Technically it was true. Saval nodded. "Yes, I was . . . running from--from the monsters, in Termina," she said quickly. There, that should do it, she thought. Those monsters were far away, and it wasn't like he could ride off to Termina, especially now.

But her words hadn't had the intended effect. Dark's face shuttered with sudden pain, and he looked at her, swallowing. Saval felt her heart fall into her stomach.

Dark took a small breath. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't realize . . . I shouldn't have asked."

He bowed at the waist, and as he straightened, he took a look at the clock on the wall. "It's time for the council meeting," he said, almost to himself. He glanced at Saval, who was still trying to work out what had happened in Termina to make him look like that, and seemed to come to a decision.

But just as he opened his mouth, Midna rounded the corner. Saval just held in her groan.

Midna strode up to them, her eyes narrowed at Saval. "So you found her," she said to Dark, who raised a brow.

"Is she in trouble?"

"Well, she ran from me when I asked her what she was lingering by my room for, so I admit I'm rather curious," Midna answered, dry as a bone in the desert. She turned her amber eyes, eyes that Saval herself had inherited, onto the girl in front of her. "So? What are you doing here?"

Dark took Midna's arm before Saval could answer. "Don't," he said softly, to the Twilight Queen's raised brow. "She's from Termina."

Midna's lips parted. "Oh," she murmured, and turned to Saval. "Oh, you poor thing."

Without warning, Midna took Saval into her arms, stroking her hair. Saval blinked over her shoulder, and suddenly felt tears burning. She was hugging her mother again, after what felt like an eternity, whether Midna knew it or not. Saval let a sob break loose and buried her face into her mother's shoulder, hands clenching the uniform she wore.

Midna murmured soothing nonsense into her ear, and before long she felt Dark's hand on her shoulder. It was almost overwhelming, being held by them again, and she wished she didn't have to let go.

Would it be so bad? To stay here, in a time that wasn't hers, but safe from Majora? Surely, if anyone could protect her from it, the people in this building could do it. But as much as she didn't want to leave her parents, she had to. She had to find Hazen and Tessen and Irene. They had to find a way to stop Majora.

So she pulled back with a hiccup, wiping her face. "I'm sorry," she whispered, trying to hold it all in, and stepped away from her parents. "Thank you."

They looked bewildered, but didn't stop her as she walked down the hall, biting her lip until it bled.

MMMMM SPICY CHAPTER.

Have water and tissues on standby.

Review replies!

To thelinkmaster001: hmmm. I knew it! Thanks for the input--I've worked out an edit that should work much better. I'll post it in there...at some point lmfao. Today maybe...probably. Thank you! Those sections were really fun to write. I had a playlist of Audiomachine's most epic songs playing while I wrote it lmfao. And yes, that's what I'm going with. Their memories at this point aren't catching up since it's currently happening, so like, when the adventure is over then they'll remember everything...is what I'm going with lmfao. I know next to nothing about this kind of brain-memory-time stuff, so I'm winging it hard, hahaha!To StJames1: *nods sagely, like I don't have more pain planned* mhmm, yeah, super sad. Whocould hurt them like this?? Just awful-*breaks into a giggle fit*

Well, that's it for today! I hope you all enjoy the chapter, and as always, leave a review if you so please. *winks unsubtly* love y'all! See ya next Monday!