Thanks for taking the time to read this story! I've read quite a few linked universe stories, but they often follow a rigid pattern, so I figured I could try something completely different for this one. It is rated T, but there will be no profanity whatsoever (barring some random word that is considered to be in another culture), but the story will be quite dark (more than Majora's Mask probably), so read at your own risk if you are on the younger side. Hope you enjoy!
Note: Chapter one was rewritten as of 3/9/20, adding in the region of four thousand words
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Timelines
"Hey, Link, did you hear the news?" The shout yanked the Hero of Twilight out of his reverie and back into the present. He had always found the back alleys of Castle Town a good place to be alone with his thoughts, but now, the man had interrupted. Link sighed. "What news would that be, Egon?" Egon was clearly disturbed, the hero thought. The man's breath was heavy, and his clothing drenched in sweat. Something unfortunate had happened. "A man was found dead outside the West Gate. Nobody knows who he is."
The messenger had arrived shortly before noon, his horses hoofbeats echoing through the air mid-morning air. Link had heard the man approach, and was sitting in front of his house by the time the messenger reached the clearing. "Message from Princess Zelda, sir!" The man announced grandly, handing Link a letter. The hero exhaled slowly. Zelda had promised to let him live his life in Ordon village in peace, unless something extremely unfortunate happened. But then again, it could just be an invitation to her coronation, due in the next few weeks. Link stared at the letter for a moment or two, before the messenger spoke up. "Has the message been delivered, sir?" He asked with an edge in his voice. Link looked up, annoyance evident on his face. "Are couriers usually this rude? I can't say I've experienced it before." The man looked haughtily at him. "Of course we are, sir," he retorted, before riding off. Muttering angrily to himself, Link climbed the ladder to his house. However, all thought of the messenger was banished as he read the letter. It was no more than two sentences, but his eyebrows shot up as he read.
Link, I have reason to believe an unknown individual is hatching some sort of nefarious plot within the castle. Please hurry, I don't know how much time we have left.
The hero stood completely still for a good ten seconds before leaping into action. He kept the Master Sword on his back for all his waking hours, and his Hylian Shield hung just a few feet away. He had a brief mental debate as to which items he would bring. "I'd like to bring them all, but if I show up equipped for a battle, it might tip our hand," he told himself. Accordingly, he grabbed his bow, Clawshots, lantern (you never know when you might need it), and a bag of bombs. Anything else would look suspicious, given his reputation. Link quickly saddled Epona, and rode off quickly to the castle.
Link arrived just one hour later. Normally, he would have paused at the top of the last ridge, just to admire the castle. But alas, this was definitely not normal times. Thankfully the guards let him through quickly, almost without looking. He frowned. What if he had been the King Bulblin, riding a giant boar, come to burn, rob, and kill the townspeople? They would have been completely unprepared.
The Hero of Twilight hurried through the vast halls and narrow corridors of Hyrule Castle. A few servants had glanced up at him, but quickly looked back to whatever they were doing before. That was odd. He always met Zelda in the same place, but now he realized how irresponsible that decision had been. What if that threat knew of the place, and set up an ambush? He sighed at the thought. The reason they had chosen this obscure hallway, so far from anywhere, was because you couldn't tell if there were people inside it unless you walked all the way in, thanks to the shadows, but also because a person entering was silhouetted against the bright corridor. Link would have to commit without any knowledge of what lies ahed. "There's no reason to suspect that the plotter knows anything about this area," he said aloud. "I guess all this talk about scheming has made me jumpy." With that thought, he set off i to the dark hallway.
The passage was gloomy, indeed sinister, thanks to the complete lack of windows, or even torches, there. After all, nobody ever went in, so why bother wasting resources lighting it? The silence was deafening, the only sound that of his heart pounding nervously. The meeting place itself was marked by a massive statue of some long-forgotten monarch of days past. Anything could lurk behind it, waiting to- "There's nothing there, Link. Stop letting the atmosphere get to you," he told himself out loud, in annoyance. He finally reached the statue, and looking behind it, saw... nothing. No monsters, no Zelda, nothing. He chuckled at that. However, that drowned out the sound of somebody walking incredibly quietly behind him, and he heard nothing until a quiet voice behind him, definitely not Zelda's, spoke a single word. "Link."
As soon as he heard that... whatever it was... Link rolled forward quickly, to get out of reach of a possible blow, and drew his sword in the same movement. He spun around, preparing for absolutely anything to stand where he had been. However, what he saw was definitely not what he expected. A dark shape, slightly built, and several inches shorter than Link himself, who was not exactly famous for hight. The figure lit a lantern as he watched, and the hero recognized the uniform of the royal family's personal attendants, worn by a boy around the age of twelve. Link frowned. "Is that you, Colin?" He asked. The boy nodded. "I'm sorry for sneaking up on you like that," Colin said, "but Princess Zelda was insistent that I had to deliver this letter to you." The hero raised an eyebrow. His initial sense of alarm had long faded by now, and he had to imagine Colin had it worse, waiting in the dark for goodness knows how long, unsure if Link would even come. "She didn't just meet me in person?" Link asked. "I'm surprised, knowing her." Colin sighed. "Her majesty is... perhaps it would be better if she explained it herself," he trailed off sadly. A wave of concern washed over Link, replacing the all too short-lived happiness from meeting an old friend. "The letter should at least give you an opportunity to find out what's going on here. There's more than meets the eye." With that, Colin handed the letter over. Link scanned through it quickly. "Zelda wants to meet me in her quarters as soon as possible, to explain." Colin nodded. "That is correct. Good luck, Link. If anyone can get to the bottom of this, you can." The hero smiled faintly. "Thank you. It was nice seeing you again, although I wish the circumstances were a bit more favorable." With that he saluted the lad, and hurried off to Zelda's quarters.
Link quickly reached the door to the Princess's apartment, finding, to his surprise, a half-dozen guards at her door. He walked up to them purposefully. "I need to see her majesty, it's urgent." The senior officer (senior being a bit of a misnomer, the man couldn't yet be twenty-five years old) answered apologetically. "I'm sorry, sir, but her majesty is extremely ill at the moment, and it has been demonstrated to be contagious. She thought is would be better if as fee people as physically possibly had to come and go." Link thought furiously. If the guards were turncoats, the less he pushed to get in, the less the unknown villain would know. "That makes sense. Very well," he sighed. With that, he turned and walked down the tower steps, his mind racing. Searching for a quiet place to process all of this information, he found himself in that dark alley in Castle Town, pacing frantically, at least until Egon had arrived. But now somebody was dead. What was going on at the castle?
Link sprinted furiously through the town, narrowly avoiding bowling somebody over on multiple occasions. The West Gate was only a two minute walk from his alley in the south of the small city, and easily less at his current pace. Several guards were heading the same direction, so he was still fairly early. There was no sign of anything strange at the gate itself, so the man must be on the bridge. He sped off into the tunnel. He'd funded the 1500 rupees to repair that bridge himself during his adventure. A crowd had gathered of the Hero of Twilight bridge (Link had resisted that name, but the townspeople were brutally stubborn at times). Sure enough, a man's body lay, blood seeping into the wood planks. Link went down on one knee beside the man to get a closer look. He had an absolutely colossal mustache that stretched almost from ear to ear, and eyebrows that were taller than the eyes they partially covered. His nose was almost a perfect square, reaching down far enough to cover a part of that incredible mustache. His skin was almost yellow in complexion, and his incredibly long arms were so hairy that they legitimately appeared black in places. Even the back of his hands had that hair. His stomach was... well, to put it bluntly, he was quite overweight, and the red shirt, covered by blue overalls, looked incredibly tight as a result. Link frowned. "I've never seen this man before," he whispered. "Why is he so familiar?"
Shaking his head to clear it, Link turned his attention to more pressing matters. The man's injuries were quite severe. It was clear whoever or whatever killed him wanted to leave no chance he'd survive. A massive gash across his forehead, puncture wounds in his stomach, and what looked like a club hit to the back of his skull. A human likely would have been much more subtle. No, there was only one creature alive that would do this. But that was impossible, they were extinct. "This looks like the work of Bokoblins," the hero announced aloud. "But I wiped them out after Ganondorf fell. How could they be back?" He rolled the man over. There were even more wounds on his back, and even a broken knife still lodged there. It was undeniably Bokoblin in design. "This was likely what killed him. It went directly into his heart. Hopefully it went in first, so he didn't have to live long with that many knives in his back." Link shook his head. If there was any way to tell such a thing, he didn't know it. He looked up. His senses were much better than the average Hylian's, largely thanks to spending so much time as a wolf. There were definitely several pairs of footprints, far too large to be anybody from the town. They led away from the bridge, into West Hyrule Field. Link rose from his crouch. "There are footprints leading away, too big to be a Hylian. I'm following them. Keep a good watch at all three gates, not just this one." With that, he took off into the fields, in hot pursuit of the monsters responsible for the crime.
Thankfully, Bokoblins had no sense of subtlety whatsoever, as evidenced by the man's body, and they weren't attempting to cover their tracks at all. They were also likely just taking the shortest possible path to their destination. They were definitely heading south, towards Kakariko Gorge and South Hyrule Field. As long as they don't go to the village... Hopefully they didn't have much of a head start over him. Suddenly, a group of Leevers erupted from the ground around him. Link sighed. Leevers were just a waste of time, not really dangerous at all. He simply jumped over the ring and kept running. The Bokoblins were thankfully too far east to be going to the town. But what did they intended to do in the fields? "One way to find out," Link said out loud.
He soon crossed over into the Kakariko Gorge portion of Hyrule Field. The monsters were just visible across the plains. "They run as if the very whips of their masters were behind them." They were at the entrance of Lantern Cavern? "Well, at least I know where they are heading. That cave could be tricky," Link thought aloud. "Only one thing to do." He set off for the dark cave. Using the Hawkeye, he was able to watch them enter the subterranean maze. "It's official now. I hope this isn't a trap." He accelerated as far as his legs would allow, and set his gaze directly on the gaping hole in the rock.
Link had cleared Lantern Cavern One (as he referred to it mentally) fairly early in his adventure to free the land from the clutches of twilight. It was a maze of small passages, equally small open "rooms", and occasionally monsters waiting in the blackness to ambush a reckless explorer. It was much, much darker than it had been originally. Last time, he could see decently without any portable light source. No such luck this time. Fortunately, Link had brought his lantern from home, because without a source of light, a person's chances of survival were nearly zero. Thankfully, Bokoblins could see as well as Hylians in the dark, so they'd need a painfully obvious light too. Link took a deep breath, then plunged into the pitch black cave. Unbeknownst to him, however, a pair of orange eyes in the dark scuttled away quickly. "My master will be very interested to hear this news," the creature thought.
The Hero of Twilight advanced cautiously through the empty cavern, lantern in hand, illuminating the pitch black expanse. It was surprisingly cold this far underground. Nothing compared to Snowpeak, but still quite cool. Those Bokoblins were still missing, however, it was a massive cave, so they could just be deeper. He sighed and pressed on. It was nearly silent in the passage, the only sound a quiet whistling from the wind hitting the cave entrance at just the right angle. He stopped suddenly. Were those footsteps ahed of him? He put out his lantern quickly. A glimmer of light flashed in the distance, moving toward him slowly. He ducked into a side passage, and waited for whatever was coming.
The first sound that reached Link's ears was a reptilian hiss, one that he had only ever heard from a single race of creature. As he had the thought, a very large lizard-like monster walked past. It was impressively tall, possibly a foot taller than Link himself, and painfully thin, almost to the point where it looked starved. The monster was covered in heavy armor, and carried a large shield. It was followed by two more of the same species, and behind that, an uncomfortably large (between eight and twelve, Link wasn't sure) party of Lizalfos. They were marching toward the entrance, looking fully prepared for battle. An attack with this many monsters could easily wipe out Kakariko Village, even with the soldiers now stationed there. Link groaned inwardly. He'd have to let the Bokoblins escape deeper into the cave. This party of lizards was just too dangerous. As he had the thought, a high-pitched shriek? Grumble? He wasn't sure how to describe it, but the sound clearly came from Bokoblins. The Lizalfos stopped, and appeared to be waiting. Pretty soon, the two parties met. Link was completely unsure what to expect. The two races of monsters hated each other, but were willing to cooperate if given a good reason. That reason had come from Ganondorf one year ago, but who knows how this interaction would go? The leaders of the two groups had advanced to meet each other. They stared at the other for a solid thirty seconds. The silence was almost painful, the only sound Link's fierce heartbeat in his ears. Eventually, the monsters began making their respective obnoxious shrieking noises at each other. At this point, fighting out of here would likely end poorly, given the sheer number of dangerous foes in such a tight space. However, the painful conversation between the two captains seemed to be going peacefully. After about two minutes, the two parties set off on their respective ways; Lizalfos to the outside world, Bokoblins deeper into the cave. As the latter passed, Link quickly inspected their swords. The lighting was far from ideal, but none of them seemed to have any blood on them. Hopefully that meant nobody had died at the hands of that particular group. However, the larger party of Lizalfos were still a major threat. As soon as the smaller party had passed him, he set off in pursuit of the lizard-like monsters.
As he exited the cave, Link had the unpleasant feeling he was being watched. He whirled around. Behind him stood a pair of glowing orange eyes. They were either a long way back, or just incredibly low to the ground. The second seemed most likely. He drew his sword, and the creature retreated with a squeak. Somehow, Link got the impression that the sound conveyed bemusement. He shook his head. That seemed pretty fanciful, but he had been able to communicate with animals before. Perhaps a tiny amount of that ability had bled over to his human form? Whatever that creature was, it couldn't be friendly. At best, it was a random rat, merely inspecting the intruder into its domain. At worst, though, it could be informing something more dangerous than a Bokoblin about his presence. He shook his head. The eyes were gone now. It was definitely time to leave this place.
The Lizalfos were heading straight north, directly toward Kakariko, at a ferocious rate. Link would need to risk drawing unnecessary attention and call Epona, just so that he'd make it in time to participate in a possible battle that would go very poorly without him. He sighed, and pulled out his horse whistle. It had been given to him by an old friend during his adventure, and his horse could hear it from anywhere in Hyrule. Hopefully she was close enough to make it in time. He inhaled, and then blew three notes into it. Before they were faded, he blew the same notes again. It was a very old tune, and Link was still unsure how he'd learned it. Perhaps he'd been too young to remember the event? However he learned it, the sound worked. Epona came galloping across Hyrule Field. He mounted quickly, and set off in pursuit of the incredibly fast monsters.
As he rode, Link fell into deep thought. Something had united the Lizalfos and Bokoblins. That was highly concerning in and of itself. However, for some reason, the former were attacking a large settlement. Something was going on behind the scenes. Was it all an elaborate diversion so that whatever plot was being hatched the castle could be carried out? If so, it would likely work, because he was duty-bound to stop innocent people from being murdered over investigating questionable evidence in the castle. Hopefully, it was all a coincidence, but something had caused the two races to stop hating each other, and history shouted from numerous examples that such a thing was not easy. Too many attempted usurpers in the last 150 years had tried such a thing, only to get torn to pieces, often literally, by one race or the other. Whatever it was... But now he'd some up on the party. He rode straight through the middle of the group, unleashing a spin attack on the way through, injuring several of the monsters. Thankfully, none of them had a bow, so he was pretty much safe from a counterattack now that he had gotten through the group. They started hissing in fury, and somehow accelerated even further to chase him into town. The soldiers would have about two minutes to prepare before the attack reached the village itself. Epona sped through town, attracting quite a few confused stares. He slid to a stop in front of the large guard building that had been erected next to the bomb shop, and pounded on the door as hard as he could. "I'm awake! What do you want?" an irritable voice asked. "There's a small army of Lizalfos about to attack the village, you absolute tomfool!" Link shouted back. "Get out here and protect the townspeople!" He heard a loud crash through the door, and the man grunted loudly. "Sound the alarm, we're under attack!" the guard shouted. An alarm bell began to ring, and a lot of noise began coming through the door to Link. He shook his head. "I guess that's good enough," the hero said to himself. The civilians were running out of their houses to see what the alarm was about, which seemed like a silly idea, given that the alarm would only ring for an outside threat. He sprinted back to the south gate into town, intending to lock it and stall the attack further. But instead, he was faced with the full horde of monsters, looking right at him with murderous glares. He drew the Master Sword and stood calmly, waiting for the inevitable charge. He didn't have to wait long, and the monsters rushed forward in a frenzied stampede.
Link calmly sidestepped the first blow, and countered it by slamming his shield into the Lizalfos's ribs, then leaping over its head, thrusting his sword into his target as he flew. One down, eleven to go. He quickly unleashed a great spin, leveling all but the three heavily armored foes. Sadly, they weren't dead yet, but Link picked off another with an Ending Blow. He took a hit from one of the armored ones on his shield, and thrust his sword into the chest of a different monster. Suddenly, he felt an impact in his back. A spiked tail had found its mark. He grunted in pain, but it would take a good deal more than that to bring the Hero of Twilight down when he had a clear objective. Link backflipped twice, just to get the monsters behind him to a point where he could see them, and spun around again. Sadly, no great spin this time, as he was no longer brimming with life energy after the hits, but still a dangerous attack. Three Lizalfos fell and exploded into nothingness. Just five of the unarmored left, plus the three elite soldiers with heavy armor. Another blow caught him on the shoulder, but Link quickly blocked the pain out of his mind and focused on the job at hand. One of the tougher ones lowered its guard for just an instant, but that was long enough. He slashed at the creature's feet, cutting one clean off, and forcing it to the ground, where he ended the monster's life with the Ending Blow. All seven remaining foes took a step back at that. Link smiled wolfishly. "Which one of you wants to try me next?" he challenged. They looked at each other for a few seconds, and all charged simultaneously.
Link quickly rolled around to the side of the mass of bodies, and pushed himself up from the ground, spinning in midair, sword extended. The move was known as a Back Slice, and it once again proved lethal, eliminating two more of the unarmored monsters. Another sharp tail cut him in the calf. He spun around just in time to block the follow-up blow, and decapitated the monster responsible. Suddenly, one of the armored monsters broke off from the battle, and started sprinting toward the village. Link turned to give chase, and received a foot to the back for his troubles. He hit the ground fairly hard, and scrambled back to his feet. However, the monster was fully past him by now, and he needed to deal with the close one first. He slammed his shield into the monster's face, and followed it up with a quick thrust. The lizard's face showed confusion, then surprise, and finally, no expression at all as it fell. However, Link's blood ran cold as he heard screams coming from the village.
The Hero of Twilight sprinted harder than he ever had before, back into the village. A few soldiers were desperately trying to hold off the monster, but they were no match for its lethal combination of speed and strength. Two fell as he watched, and it ran over to the nearest building and began heavily pounding the door. As he grew close, Link began shouting loudly, trying to distract it from the people inside. Sure enough, the reptile turned to face him. He promptly put his shoulder in its chest and sent it flying off the porch of the house. The two combatants landed next to each other in the main street. Link recovered first, and leaped on top on the monster, drawing the Lizalfos's own knife from its sheath and attempting to drive the weapon into his opponent's throat. The lizard was able to grab his forearm as it came down, and it became a battle of brute strength. Link pushed as hard as he could, and slowly began driving the blade downward. He gritted his teeth. This was a battle he refused to lose. Suddenly, the monster rolled violently to the left, standing as it did. The sudden lack of opposition caused the hero to fall forward, landing on the ground. He rolled over frantically, just in time to catch the monster's arm as it attempted the same maneuver. Now their positions were reversed. The blade came slowly downward. He'd barely been stronger in the first round, and that was with gravity on his side. Now, however, the fickle force was against him. Sweat ran into Link's eyes. He shoved upward with every ounce of his strength, but he was pushing against the monster's full body weight now. The blade moved up just an inch or two, before resuming the slow, inexorable advance downward. He could see the reptile licking its lips in anticipation. Suddenly, the monster yanked its feet off the ground, and Link frantically rolled to the side to avoid the blade. A small gash ran down the side of his neck, but it wasn't deep, and he could worry later. If there was a later. The two combatants returned to their respective positions, and the battle began anew. He bucked and heaved, but to little avail. Link closed his eyes, preparing all the strength he had left for one last, desperate effort. Suddenly, he took his left hand off the monster's arm, and rolled to the side to avoid the blade. Caught off guard, the lizard fell forward, and Link was now beside it. He planted a savage punch in the monster's forearm, feeling bones snap beneath his hand. A pained shriek came from his opponent. He yanked the knife from the suddenly limp hand, and drove it into the Lizalfos's skull. One last agonized hiss came from it, and it went completely limp. Link rose to his feet, breathing heavily. The village had been saved.
Link strode purposefully through Lantern Cavern, cutting down the occasional Bokoblin as he did. He was going to learn what was in here to cause the monsters to become so aggressive, and nothing was going to stop him. A few rats and Keese squeaked in the darkness, but nothing came out to face him. A Lizalfos leaped out of the darkness, but one quick thrust ended that threat. He resumed his inexorable advance. A powerful sense of foreboding slowly began to sink into Link's bones. Some powerful evil waited at the back of this place. He shivered. Had the cave grown significantly colder in the last minute or two? What could possibly be here?
As he grew farther from the entrance, the temperature steadily dropped. It had to be close to freezing the water in his canteens at this point, and the hero was still relatively close yo the surface. The cave itself was relatively short, but the five minutes trek felt like several hours. Some force at the back did not want him there, and was determined to slow him, either physically or mentally. However, Link was more determined to reach the end, so reach it he did. However, what he saw caught him completely off-guard. That strange, perfectly flat rock that marked the back wall of the final section was gone, resulting in a tunnel that ran down quite steeply. What could be down there? Some ancient, nameless evil, waiting to be awoken? Link exhaled slowly. "One way to find out," he told himself, and set off down the tunnel.
After a few minutes of steep descent, the small passage opened up into a massive cavern. It had to be the size of the throne room in Hyrule Castle, if not larger. A vast chasm ran down the center, spanned by a bridge constructed of stone. Strange, eerie rocks glowed green in the darkness. There was enough light at this point to render his lantern unnecessary, which was fairly lucky given the oil was running low, and he only had one bottle with more. After a few minutes of walking, Link drew near to the bridge. It looked quite dilapidated, but should be strong enough to hold his weight. Should. He kicked it a few times, and it seemed solid. It was quite a long bridge, so if it failed in the middle... Link shook his head. "What if I get struck by lightning? No point in being that pessimistic." He stepped up on to the rough stone, and set off.
His foot came down on solid ground again, and the hero breathed a sigh of relief. There had been that nagging doubt in the back of his mind the whole time. Suddenly he noticed the paintings on the walls. Many of them depicted a man on a horse, brandishing a trident. Link shuddered. He'd recognize that red hair anywhere. Why were there drawings of Hyrule's greatest enemy here? This place didn't feel evil in and of itself. No, the nagging menace was from another source.
He pressed on. The malice grew to a nearly unbearable level. The very air he breathed began to feel hostile, like it was watching him, waiting for an opportunity. The temperature was painfully low, almost at the level of Snowpeak. The cave was so silent that the silence itself began to feel like a sound. Something was glowing green in the darkness ahed, and it wasn't more of those rocks. The floor was littered with rubble, so not tripping was a struggle. There was a bit of a cliff ahed, perhaps he'd be able to see what was glowing. A spiral of green magic floated through the air, consisting of letters in a language Link had never seen before. At the base lay a body. He recognized it instantly. So this is where the Dark Lord had been buried. Seeing the man lie on the floor of the cave brought back unpleasant memories. He hadn't changed at all from the day Link had driven the Master Sword into the Gerudo's chest. But he had clearly died, so how was the corpse not decayed at all? Some dark magic was at work here, and it made the hero uneasy. However, there was nothing he could do, and as long as Ganondorf didn't rise from the dead, it was no big deal, right? He gave one last, long look at the body, and began to turn. However, something interrupted him. A flash of movement drew his eye back to the corpse, but nothing seemed to have changed. Perhaps it was just a rat? But either way... "I wondered when you'd come along, hero," a voice behind him whispered contemptuously.
Who could that be? It's not Ganondorf, I'll reveal that much. I originally played the game on Wii, so left and right are reversed compared to the Gamecube and WiiU versions of the game. You probably figured that one out though. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and I apologize in advance for my incredibly inconsistent upload schedule. See you next mission!