Chapter 7: Backups and Breakouts

The trip back to Hyrule Castle was relatively short for the Champions. The road held no threats, and fair weather kept delays to a minimum. The only struggle the 5 people in the wagons suffered from was boredom. They hadn't been much for them to fight, and not too many experiences to discuss, considering the trip was cut short by the need for a return to Hyrule Castle. Urbosa, Zelda, and Daruk rode together in one wagon, while Link, Mipha, and, surprisingly, Revali, rode together in the other. Revali was still flabbergasted as to how he ended up in this situation. One minute he was making his way into the lead wagon, and next thing he knew, a brown blur blew past him, snaking the last spot from him. He barely caught a wink from the Goron champion to the Zora one, who gave a knowing smile and a nod. The two were up to something, and Revali feared it had something to do with that blasted robot.

A sudden bump pulled Revali out of his recollections, causing him to look over at the two other beings in his wooden, rickety cage. Mipha was quietly conversing with that thing, who would occasionally ask a question for clarification or provide its on insight. Mipha would giggle at an overly mechanical answer, often times missing the point of the question entirely, but nevertheless seemed to be enjoying her time with it. How could she, though? The thing had no life, no soul. It was a piece of technology. He didn't "connect" with Vah Medoh. Sure, he felt come kind of connection with it, but it wasn't his friend. He didn't hold long conversations with it. He didn't show clear signs of interest in the technology. And yet, her was the Zora princess, actively trying to bond and get closer to a piece of tech that cared about nothing except its mission. It was all a joke to him, and one he chose not to humor for too long.

"Mipha."

The Zora princess perked up at her name. Turning to face the Rito Champion, she grew a quizzical look on her face. "Oh, Revali. What is it?"

Revali sneered. "How long do you plan on humoring that thing?"

Mipha glanced between Revali and Link, before landing back on Revali, her face an odd mixture of annoyed and calm. "I wish you would stop referring to Link as a thing. And I'm not humoring anything. Link has shown traits to be just like you and me. What about him makes him lesser?"

Revali scoffed. "Shown traits? You mean to just you, correct? Considering you are the only one to ever truly witness these bouts of "humanity", you'll forgive me if I find your evidence to be just a tad bit ludicrous." Revali slowly leaned back, his wings laced behind his head. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that maybe you want it to be real. You want him to be real with you. I'd even go so far as to say you want him to be real so badly that you're making up stories about his 'moments' with you so you feel better about yourself."

Mipha tensed up, straightening up to say something. Her words died in her throat, her mouth slowly closing. She then grew silent, a sadness flooding her eyes as her gaze fell to the floor. Link glanced between the two. "I am sensing hostilities between you two. My records indicate that calming tea and soothing music can settle people's spirits. Shall I prepare them for you?"

Revali scoffed, gesturing to the construct. "You see? This thing only operates on pure logic. No emotions. No feelings. No sense. Who would offer tea and music when two people are arguing? No real person, just a machine."

Turning back towards his original spot, Revali stomped over to his seat and promptly took it. Glancing once more to the robot, he could only grumble, "Who needs a replacement when you have the real thing sitting in front of you. I'm better in every way, and they choose to place their hopes into a piece of junk."

With the last of his venomous words, the cart grew silent once more. Link raised a hand to speak but Mipha pulled it down, gently shaking her head. Looking to her and then to him, Link's eyes flickered for but a moment, before a quick shake of his head cleared the thought that came from nowhere.

"Well, that should about do it."

Purah jumped down from her desk as she walked back to Mipha and Zelda. The two were sitting quietly on a nearby bench as the scientist completed her work. On the middle of her table lay Link, his eyes shut, and a modified Guardian limb attached to his right temple. A quiet, whirring noise emanated from him as the Sheikah Slate, attached to a terminal, glittered in the low light of its position. Every once in a while, a drop of information would hit the slate, and the whirring would kick up again. After a good 3 hours, in which Daruk and Urbosa had visited, brought Zelda and Mipha lunch, and a few light conversations were had, one of which included a very angry Purah demanding to know how her greatest find was damaged, a strange sound emanated from Purah's terminal. Looking over to the glowing construction, a strange golden glow began to permeate through the blow, trickling down the top of the machine. Purah, stunned for a moment at the odd glow, made a move towards the terminal in a desperate move to halt its transformation. A second away from powering it off, the glow reached the tip, and single, brilliant drop fell to the slate. A shining glow emanated from the robotic being, with the three occupants having to shield their eyes for a good half a minute. Once the light died down, all the machines had stopped, their light faded to black. Purah cautiously approached the construct and detached the tube, gently laying it on the floor. The three waited with anticipation as a series of sounds, some electronic, some mechanical, emanated from Link. After a solid minute, his eyes finally snapped open.

Link slowly rose from the table, his blue eyes slowly scanning the room around him. His eyes finally fell on the three other inhabitants. His eyes danced around their forms, narrowing and widening as if dissecting their images. Finally, he spoke. "Entities identified. Princess Zelda, identified. Memory restored. Princess and Champion of the Zoras, Pilot of Vah Ruta, Lady Mipha identified. Purah, resident Sheikah scientist, identified."

Zelda stepped forward. "So…Link…do you remember everything? Before Ganon corrupted you?"

"My memories of you have been restored, as well as your status within my permissions. Running a scan to determine integrity of restored files. One moment." Link went silent, his eyes closed in what could be assumed contemplation. As the three ladies in the room glanced to one another, a dull hum began to emanate from their robotic ally.

Zelda quickly turned to Purah during the lull in activity. "Purah! What was that all about? What was that golden glow?"

Purah quickly stepped back, her hands raised defensively. "Wh…what!? I don't know anything about it! I tried to shut off the infernal machine before it dropped, remember?"

Zelda huffed, crossing her arms. "Still, it's your personal machine. How could you not know it could do that? What if it permanently altered him? What then?"

"It's never done it before! And I only allowed the information you approved to go through! Nothing else but divine providence could bust through our barriers!" Purah quickly shot back.

"Well…" The two turned to the until then silent third party. "…what if it was?"

Zelda and Purah shot her a quizzical look. "What? Are you suggesting that Hylia had something to do with this?" Zelda questioned.

Mipha looked down in contemplation. "Well, we can't explain what happened, right? An odd, golden glow breaks through, Purah has no idea what it was and has never seen it before, and Link matters to the encroaching Calamity. Wouldn't this be the only time her intervention would make sense?"

Before the two could retort, the subject of their confusion chimed in. "Error."

Zelda's eyes snapped to the construct. "Wh..what? What's wrong? Did the transfer fail in some way?"

Link shook his head. "Negative. The transfer did not fail. Information was successfully transferred to my Archives, but two entities are causing delays in its organization. One is successfully contained, but the other is actively working to break it free. Standards anti-tampering defenses have been implemented but are having no effect. Outside assistance is required."

Standing from the table, he turned towards the Princess and Champion. "Princess Zelda and Lady Mipha, please allow me to download you into my Archives. Extreme circumstances require your intervention.

Zelda looked to Mipha, the question of safety present on her face. Mipha gave a reassuring smile, nodding her head. Turning back to Link, Zelda exhaled, collected herself, and returned her gaze to Link. "Is it absolutely necessary?"

Link nodded. "Affirmative. The entity attempting to break free has slipped through my defenses a few times before, due to my systems underestimating its ability to do so. Successful countermeasures have now been put in place against it, but the other being is now attempting to work outside said countermeasures. Further assistance is necessary at this juncture."

Going over the outcomes in her mind, weighing the options available, Zelda nodded. "Ok, we'll do it. We can't have another catastrophe like Ganon corrupting your systems again. Mipha?"

The Zora Champions nodded. "Of course I'm all for it. Let's help our friend."

Zelda hesitated. "Um, yes. You're right. Let's help our…comrade."

The two turned to Link, who nodded. "Approved. Beginning the download process now."

A blinding, blue glow filled the room, and within moments, they were gone.

"Well great! What am I supposed to do, then?" Purah complained.

Her second time in the Archives was no less breath taking then the first. Rows and rows of mahogany book shelves filled the seemingly infinite space. Glowing books filled the shelves, all labeled with various different titles. Mipha looked around, trying to find where their companion was. Zelda, on the other hand, was acting like a kid in a candy store. Her eyes danced around the book shelves, the structures lined with vast amounts of information she could only wish she knew. Pulling books randomly from the shelves, her eyes scanned over their contents, furiously devouring the information within. Mipha attempted to break the Princess from her information frenzy, but to no avail. Sighing in defeat, Mipha turned away and began to walk through the shelves, trying to find someone who could help point her in a useful direction.

"Hello."

Mipha jumped back slightly, surprised at the sudden voice. Turing back around the bookshelf, she came face to face with another person. Or, maybe person was too generous. It certainly was another being. It had a face, and what appeared to be hair. Its body was also human like, but there were some things that were slightly off. Legs extended down to a pair of feet with no toes, and their upper body was sleek, with billowy arms that had to hands. But the oddest thing about them was their face. While they appeared to have eyes, a nose, and a mouth, the features were slightly off-putting. The eyes were merely an outline of them, with no pupils to speak of. The nose was more for aesthetics, lacking any real holes to use for breathing. While studying the being's face, it spoke once more.

"Hello. I would assume you to be Mipha from prior descriptions. Am I correct?"

Mipha slowly nodded. "And you are?"

"Apologies, I have yet to introduce myself. I am Fi, the spirit that resides in the Master Sword. I guide all the wielders of the Master Sword, as they are my master." She explained.

Mipha hummed in understanding. "I believe Zelda once mentioned that there was some sort of spirit within the blade, but it was only really ever a legend. She couldn't find enough information to prove it. I suppose the legends are true."

Fi nodded. "Indeed. And now I have awoken from my slumber once more to assist my master. He is currently in trouble, and needs our assistance. Will you help? Continuing on by myself constitutes a 35% chance of success, while gaining your assistance will increase odds to 68%."

"Well, I hope my presence can raise those odds."

The two turned to Zelda, appearing out from behind a shelf. "What? I'm not so obsessed with research to forget my mission here. We are here to help fix whatever is wrong with Link, correct?"

Fi nodded. "Affirmative. You and Mipha's assistance will help save Link from the other Entity in this space threatening him. While he did recently receive extra outside help, the other Entity present is preventing him from completing his task."

Zelda nodded. "Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go beat this thing so we can get Link back to normal."

Turning her attention to Mipha, Mipha only smiled and nodded. "Anything to help Link."

Fi gave whatever was closest to a smile she could muster. "Affirmative."

They walked for what felt like hours. The bookshelves never seemed to end, as they stretched on into eternity. They couldn't exactly pinpoint how long they had been following the floaty being known as Fi, but they hoped they were at least close.

"Um, Fi?"

"Yes, Lady Mipha?" Fi responded without looking back.

"Are we close to where Link is? I'm not trying to seem impatient, but it does seem we have been traveling for quite some time."

"Affirmative. We are nearing the core. You may recognize it as the place you battle Demise the last time you were here."

Mipha shot a glance over to Zelda, who could only return a unsure look. Zelda decided to pry for information. "Who is Demise? Mipha fought no such entity."

Fi paused suddenly, causing the other two the halt as well. "Apologies. You would know this being as Ganon." Before Fi could continue forward, a shout broke the two living being's train of thought, as their attention was pulled to a golden glow emanating from a bookshelf further down. Suddenly, Fi dashed off, vanishing around the corner. The hesitation broke between Mipha and Zelda as the two dashed forward as well, trailing behind the spirit. Turning the corner, the two came face to face with Fi staring down Link. Link was standing completely still, his arms down at his sides gripping a glowing blue sword, small pixels emanating off the blade. His eyes held no emotion, as they often did, but were quickly jumping between each of the three.

Behind Link stood a massive blue wall in the shape of a cylinder, flaming pixels crackling off the top. The wall offered a single door, but the portal was completely sealed behind multiple nearly black bars, spanning the length of the door itself. While almost uniformly blue, the wall was beginning to show golden spider web-like cracks. The cracks were small, but the golden glow contrasted with the bright blue, revealing their existence. And they were still slowly spreading.

Link raised his blade towards Fi. "Beings confirmed. Lady Mipha, friendly. Princess Zelda, friendly. Sword Spirit Fi, hostile. Lady Mipha, Princess Zelda, please step away from Fi. Target is intent on breaking quarantine protocols put in place by the Creators. Assistance is required in defeating hostile entity. Please move closer to this unit to ensure victory and safety."

Caught between the two beings, both literally and figuratively, the two princess shared concerned glances. "But Link…" Zelda began, "…Fi is the spirit residing within the Master Sword. Surely she wouldn't try to jeopardize the mission to defeat Ganon. She's our ally."

Link shook his head. "Negative. While Fi may be the spirit residing within the Master Sword, she is attempting to access an area permanently sealed off by the Creators, and I cannot allow that at any cost. Protecting this quarantine is imperative. Extreme countermeasures will be enforced if you do not comply with the stand down notice."

"I shall not stand down. My duty is to my creator as well." Fi sternly stated, standing her ground.

Mipha stepped forward, standing between the two. "Please, cease this. We are all allies before Ganon. We cannot fight each other in these desperate times."

"If that is your goal, assist in defeating Fi. If this being triumphs, our ability to defeat Ganon will become uncertain." Link turn to the two princesses.

"Negative. If your goal is to defeat Ganon, then you must assist me in breaking the quarantine. The fate of Hyrule could rest in the completion of this task." Fi affirmed.

While the two princesses held a common goal, their thought process on who to side with couldn't have been more different. Zelda, after taking but a short glance between the two before standing beside Fi. "I may hold anger for my father for the role that has been forced on me, but I will stand with Hylia. She cannot be wrong."

Mipha, on the other hand, was torn. On one side, the spirit of the Master Sword, the sword that seals the darkness. Surely Fi wouldn't try to assist Ganon. But she had only met Fi. She had no idea of her true intentions. While her time with Link hadn't been long, she trusted him more than she did Fi. There must have been a reason the original Sheikah makers of him would want to keep whatever this was sealed. Why else would he fight so hard to contain it? And then there were the times he showed her his living side. The things he found beautiful. His favorite color. Those were real emotions the living had. That must mean Link is living, right?

"I guide all the wielders of the Master Sword, as they are my master."

"And now I have awoken from my slumber to assist my master…"

Mipha let loose a slight gasp. Wasn't Fi supposed to help her master? She is tied to him, and yet Link and Fi are fighting. It could be that Fi does not recognize Link as her master, but if so, why would she be fighting for a hero that died 10,000 years ago? How is any of this helping him? And moreover, if Fi wouldn't allow any to draw the blade save for the Chosen Hero, why would she allow for Link to pull the bla…

Unless Link wasn't the one she thought she was letting draw her. Unless there was some way for Link to be the Chosen Hero without even being alive.

"Link…what is in the quarantine?"

Link's eyes snapped to her. "Classified. Apologies, that information is not available to you with your current clearance."

Zelda took a step forward. "Well then mine should be high enough. Link, what is behind that quarantine?"

"Classified. Apologies, that information is not available to you with your current clearance."

Zelda quickly grew annoyed. "What do you mean? My father and I should hold the highest clearance in Hyrule!"

Link shook his head, drawing another blade and pointing it towards Zelda. "The Creators hold the highest clearance. Records indicate that no surviving Creators exist. Information shall stay permanently sealed. Princess Zelda, I must inform you that if you continue your actions, extreme countermeasures will be deployed against you as well."

Zelda scoffed. "Link, you cannot harm me. Protecting me and defeating Ganon is your Prime Directive. Injuring or even killing me would go completely against that."

Link shook his head, raising both blades and assumed a hostile stance. "Negative. The defeat of Ganon is my secondary directive. 'Prime Directive: prevent the breaking of quarantine set in place by creators, for the fate of the future and beyond'."

Zelda raised her fists up, adopting an improvised battle stance. Fi merely raised her arms, bring one arm forward with the other straight back.

Mipha looked at the scene unfold before her. This was it. She had to make a choice. Stand with the Princess and Hylia, or forsake them for her friend. She clenched her eyes shut, working her brain into overdrive.

"I guide all the wielders of the Master Sword, as they are my master."

"Quarantine…for the fate of the future and beyond…"

"What is your favorite color?" "It's red."

"This area contains at least six known factors that people denote as 'beautiful'" "Error, sixth factor not found in surrounding scenery."

"The entity attempting to break free has slipped through my defenses a few times before…"

Mipha's eyes snapped open. A metallic clink hit the ground as Mipha's trident tapped the marble flooring. Standing beside Fi and Zelda, Mipha had chosen to hold firm against her robotic friend before her.

Link looked between the three. "Query. Why, Lady Mipha, would you stand against your ally, your 'friend'?"

Mipha shook her head. "I'm sorry, Link, but I fear that it wasn't you who I made friends with."

Link stared at her for but a moment jumping backwards. Upon landing, his eyes had adopted a red color, a red laser protruding from each as he targeted Fi. After a second, he sprang into action, dashing forward at blistering speeds. Zelda moved to react but could not match his speed, his blade swinging down upon the spirit. A clang, pixelated sparks, and parried blade forced Link backwards. Mipha stood before Fi, her trident bathed in the gold infected blue glow of the quarantine wall. Link glanced down at his hand, the blade missing. Glancing around, he managed to spot it right before Zelda grabbed it, leveling it towards the AI.

"I'm sorry Link, but I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Mipha warned, pointing her trident at him.

Link scanned the three adversaries. "Plotting attack patterns. Eliminating redundant movements. Plotting hostile attack patterns. Confirmed."

Link once more dashed towards the three, his sword held horizontally to his side. Zelda stepped before Fi while Mipha stepped forward, her Trident held in a defensive stance. Ten feet before reaching Mipha, Link jumped. Bringing her eyes to the air above them, she raised her trident up, hoping to catch him as he descended. Her eyes widened in shock as he landed his foot on top of the trident, narrowly missing the pointed end. The weapon was quickly shoved to the floor, where Link, one foot on the trident, spun around and kicked Mipha square in the chest, knocking her back. Mipha barely managed to stay on her feet as the trident was kicked away, Link raising his sword towards her once more.

"This is your final warning. Further hostile actions or attempts to break the quarantine will be met with lethal action. WARNING: fatalities inside this space still result in fatalities outside of it."

Mipha coughed, still recovering from having the wind knocked out of her by the kick. Zelda, while she was putting on a brave face, was not prepared for combat. She had the Champions for that. Hell, she even lacked powers! What was she going to do against a highly advanced piece of Sheikah technology hell bent on taking her life? She could back down, but that would mean abandoning Fi and Mipha. So, with false courage, she raised her blade.

"So fatalities can occur? Interesting. Noted, and changing strategies."

Fi immediately leaped forward, her movements not unlike a figure skater. As she skated towards Link, he quickly raised his blade in anticipation. Once she had moved close enough to him, he take a swipe, sure that he had kept enough range to ensure a hit and suffer no recoil. A digital clank hit the floor, as Link stared at the broken sword in his hand, the top half of the blade now missing. Glancing up, Fi gently touched down. "Apologies, but my body can serve as a weapon, considering I am the spirit of the Goddess Sword, I can assume its form temporarily. My reach in that form is also over thirty percent longer than yours."

Link discarded the blade, another appearing in his hands. "That form matters not. Information recorded and applied to predictive combat programs."

The battle resumed, Fi dodging each hit and attempting to parry and land hits of her own, only to be dodged herself. The two beings were accurately predicting the other, a hit never landing. As they continued to "clash", Mipha recovered her trident. Looking for an opening, she dashed forward, only to get a similar outcome to her earlier performance: blocked, parried, and kicked away. She luckily avoided his blade due to Fi's onslaught. Mipha stepped back to Zelda, who still hadn't moved.

Zelda studied the two clashing beings. "We need to figure out a way to get past his predictive patterns. We'll get nowhere trying to attack him like this. We need to either get past him or trick him. Since I have the highest clearance, I would most likely be able to open the door." She glanced to the door itself. "No…if he can't tell me what's in there, I doubt I can open it. Then how…" Her eyes drifted to the actual wall itself, "…do we break through…"

Zelda flipped around towards Mipha. "The cracks! If we can strike them with enough force, we could shatter the wall itself! But the strongest one in here would probably be…"

"Link," Mipha finished. She turned to the wall. "If we can somehow cause him to hit the wall, then maybe it will shatter."

"Exactly!" Zelda replied excitedly. "But how do we do it?"

Mipha's eyes drifted from the walls to the two artificial beings clashing. "We bait him into hitting it." Mipha dashed forward, trident in hand. Link's eyes snapped to her as she approached him. As he went to deflect her predicted strike, making sure to kick Fi away from him, he was a tad surprised to see her race by him towards the wall. His eyes flashed, his targeting focused entirely on her. She was too far away. She would reach the wall before he could stop her. He had one option. He opened up his mouth, his eyes tracking Mipha as the Guardian blast charged up. Finally charged, Link let loose the blast, its red light streaking through air directly towards her. And as it neared her, his chances of success skyrocketed. One target down.

Or so he thought. No sooner had the blast reached her that she planted her weapon into the floor, vaulting over the shot. And too the robot's horror (or at least, to the sirens of various errors, warnings, and failures, that was closest to what someone would call horror) the shot went clean past her, crashing into the wall. Everyone went silent, waiting for something to happen. Then, the crack in the wall grew larger, the spider webs spreading across the wall at a rapid rate. Link dropped his weapon and raced to the wall, pressing his hands against it to prevent its breaking. But to no avail. The cracks, upon reaching the edges of the wall, glowed a bright gold, before quickly shattering, the blue pieces crumbling to the floor. Link took a small step back, its mind a mess of warning, errors, potentials, but most of all, failures. The other three took careful, curious steps forward, trying to spy what could have been behind the wall.

There, in the middle of the circle, sat a chained up person, braces holding his legs together with a thick black chain bolted to the floor. Dressed in a faded green tunic, his looks were strikingly similar to Link's. So similar, that they would be identical if not for the difference in eyes. Whereas as Link's eyes shined a bright blue, the man's eyes were more human, the blue a striking contrast to his melancholic face. Glancing up, his eyes widened at the sight of the three other visitors.

"Is that…a copy of Link?" Zelda cautiously asked.

"No…" Mipha stepped forward, her eyes locking with his. "I think Link is a copy of…him…"

Fi floated down next to the man, her feet gracefully clicking against the floor. A billowy arm was offered to the man, who took hold and helped himself up. Once on his feet, he fell forward, Fi catching the man and steadying him.

"Careful Master, it has been some time."

The man stared down at her, his eyes tearing up at the sight of her. "Fi…is…is it really you?"

Fi nodded. "Yes. I am returned to you as you are returned to us…Master Link."

Soooooo, congrats to those who guessed why the robot functioned the way it did. Robots can't pull Chosen Swords. But they can if they happen to have someone in them who can! Anyways, hope you liked the chapter. Lemme know if you did! Or if you didn't! I'm always looking to improve!

Next time! Death! Sorrow! Closening of people! Writer (Not Writer) out!