Ok, again guys, I am SO Sorry for making you wait this long for another chapter! I know I haven't updated since like October, but that's what happens with college, and other writing obligations and whatnot. But hey, I managed to finally pump a chapter out, even if it is sort of a shorter chapter and is something more of an interval one. But whatever, I just knew I had to post a new chapter of this before the new year! And so, here it is! I won't be replying to reviews here, and really, I think I'm just going to start only replying to them via PM if you guys ask me specific questions or have very specific comments, so... Anyway, we might as well get started!
Chapter 23: Divided and Conquered
A natural burst of warmth draped over Lana's face, causing her to stir just the slightest bit. The white sorceress groaned tiredly, covering her face with her arm to shield it from the bothersome light, refusing to open her eyes in the strange exhaustion that lingered over her. It wasn't until confusion began to fill her hazy mind that she finally accepted the fact that she was awake and opened her eyes to see not the darkened skies above the Temple of Souls, but rather the radiance of the mid-morning sun against an open blue sky.
"What the…?" Lana mumbled to herself, still feeling drained of energy as she slowly pulled herself up to a sitting position. She opened her eyes even wider as she drew in a surprised gasp at the sight that laid before her. No longer was she in the Temple of Souls as she had been only moments ago, fighting off against Cia's forces alongside her allies, but now she was in a different place entirely. A vast, somewhat familiar field stretched out wide before her, lush and green and free of monsters across its rolling hills. Afar in the distance, the ivory towers of a castle that did not belong to the one of her time rose over the horizon. Overall, the scene was a peaceful one, but it perplexed the white sorceress nonetheless.
Thankfully, Lana was not alone here, for as she glanced over to her right, she spotted two of her allies lying unconsciously in the grass not too far away. "Midna! Agitha!" the white sorceress exclaimed with concern as she stumbled to her feet and rushed over to them.
The Twilight Princess roused as soon as she heard her name, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she sat up and repositioned the Fused Shadow atop her head. The insect princess, however, was sleeping a bit more peacefully as she simply sighed contentedly to herself and rolled over on the grass.
"Ugh... What's going on?" Midna asked groggily, not even bothering to look around yet as she slowly rose to float again. "I feel like I've been trampled by a shadow beast…"
"Agitha?" Lana gently nudged the slumbering insect princess's shoulder a bit in an attempt to rouse her. "Can you get up? Please?"
The Twilight Princess scoffed upon seeing that the white sorceress's attempts fell in vain, as the young girl only continued to doze as she mumbled incoherently to herself. "Hey, kid!" Midna called to Agitha rather loudly, a complete opposite from Lana's quite tone. "There's a bunch of… butterflies, or whatever, over here!"
"Butterflies?!" Agitha exclaimed with a huge grin as she darted up, not even the slightest sign of tiredness remaining in her eyes as she scanned over the surrounding area for any sign of the fluttering insects. However, her elation quickly turned to confusion as she failed to find any, and instead found only Lana and Midna standing before her. "Oh! Miss Lana? Miss Kitty? What happened? Why were we sleeping? Was it nap time?"
Midna simply rolled her eyes at this remark as she looked over to Lana for an explanation. "The kid does have a point…" the Twilight Princess said with a troubled frown. "Weren't we all just in Cia's palace a minute ago? How'd we get all the way out here? And where's everyone else?"
"I'm not sure…" Lana mused as she took a few steps forward, focusing her attention on the castle afar in the distance specifically. "It's so strange… It's like we were all pulled right out of the battle and ended up here… wherever this is…"
"We're home!" Agitha exclaimed with a joyful gasp as she cheerfully leapt up and down upon looking towards the castle as well.
"What?" the white sorceress asked in confusion, glancing to Midna, who was staring at the castle towers with wide eyes.
"She's… right…" the Twilight Princess affirmed quietly, clearly shocked by this news. "We're back in our time, our Hyrule. And I should know; I've been around this kingdom enough times with my Link to know it almost as well as the Twilight Realm itself."
Lana was silent for a moment upon hearing this, bewilderment overcoming her as she tried to make sense of the situation. It made no sense; what could have happened in the midst of the battle that would have ripped them away from the Palace of Souls and several centuries back to the Era of Twilight? Where were their other allies? Were they also in the same time period, just in different locations? Were they still fighting Cia's forces back at the Palace of Souls? Or were they somewhere else entirely?
"Oh, I bet all of my little bugs at home have missed me so much since I've been away!" Agitha gushed, still clearly overjoyed to be back in the Hyrule of her own time. "I can't wait to go see them all and introduce them to all of the new bugs that I've met during our trip!"
"Hold it there, kid," Midna interrupted her enthusiasm as she hovered in a somewhat relaxed pose, even if her expression betrayed the same puzzlement that Lana was feeling. "We can't head home just yet. We still gotta figure out what happened. That is… unless…"
"Unless what?" Lana asked as she turned away from the castle to face her allies.
"Unless we won," Midna said, the sudden theory still churning inside of her head as well. "What if Link or Zelda or someone else actually managed to land the final blow on Cia? What if we won and were sent back here because of some time-magic nonsense?"
The white sorceress hated to crush the Twilight Princess's budding excitement, but she knew that she had to, especially as her elation was beginning to spread to the insect princess as well. "Midna, I'm sorry but… I don't think that's true… If Cia had been defeated, I would have felt it. We are two halves of the same whole after all… And besides, if Cia was gone, then wouldn't you be restored to your true form?"
Midna's smile instantly disappeared into a bitter frown as she glanced down at herself, still seeing a small impish body instead of her true, tall, illustrious form. She let out a sigh of disappointment as she glared coldly at the ground, growing ever impatient for the black witch's long awaited defeat, which seemed even more out of reach now that they were back in the Era of Twilight somehow.
"But…" Lana said after a moment of silence, regretting having revealed the truth to Midna upon seeing her disappointment. "I think I do have a theory about what actually happened… I think Cia sent us back here intentionally…"
"Why would she do that?" the Twilight Princess asked with a scoff, thinking that idea to be even more inane than her own.
"Maybe she thought we were homesick!" Agitha quipped innocently.
"I… highly doubt that…" Lana said with a frown. "I could be wrong, but I believe Cia wanted us all out of her hair all at once… And so she used a powerful spell to expel us from the Palace of Souls and somehow… she sent us here."
"But why here?" Midna inquired, knowing it would have made more sense for the black witch to off them all instead of merely pushing them back in time. What made even less sense though was the fact that Cia had sent the three of them to this era specifically, especially since they had battled there before and had the advantage of being familiar with it.
"That I don't know..." Lana replied. "But what I do know is that Cia did this for a reason, and I think I know exactly what that reason is…"
It took Midna a minute to catch her drift, even if it flew over Agitha's head entirely. But when the Twilight Princess did come to understand, the very thought filled her with dread. "Oh… you… you don't think…"
"I do…" Lana said gravely.
Midna let out a harsh scoff of disgust upon hearing this, the same overprotective side she had for the hero of her own time filling her as she thought of what might have happened to the hero of the present-day Hyrule. "That… that witch!" she exclaimed hotly, practically screaming as she launched herself into a fit of rage. "That worthless, low-down, lewd, sadistic, perverted, selfish, despicable, evil wrench! If she so much as touches him, I'll kill her myself! Goddess, what a bi-"
"Midna!" Lana exclaimed as she rushed to cover Agitha's ears before the swear escaped from the Twilight Princess.
Midna let out a huffy, enraged breath as she silenced herself and crossed her arms, glaring bitterly away from the white sorceress. "We have to do something," she said with cold resolve, imaging Link, her Link in the treacherous grip of the black witch. The very thought nearly made her retch with revulsion. "We… we can't just let her…"
"And we won't," Lana agreed, knowing that she would never be able to forgive herself if Cia did anything to Link. "We have to find a way back to the present and reunite with everyone else. If Cia really did capture Link, then we'll need all the help we can get in saving him."
"Oh goodie!" Agitha cheered with a smile. "We're going to find all our friends again! I'm missing them all already!"
"Yeah, but… how?" Midna asked. "Can you just… make us a portal back like you did before?"
"I don't think it will be that simple this time…" the white sorceress mused as she closed her eyes and focused her magic. "Something's happened to the flow of time… Cia must have done something to it when she sent us here to keep us from returning. It's almost like… it's been closed up…"
"So we're trapped here?" the Twilight Princess said with growing dismay.
"Not necessarily," Lana clarified as she knelt down in the grass and opened up her magic tome, leafing through its weathered pages. "Aha, here it is!" she smiled as she held the book out for Midna and Agitha to see the page she had pinpointed, most of its script written in a Hylian script neither one of them could comprehend as it showed several intricate illustrations, the most paramount among them being a drawing of the Master Sword. "This is a little hard to explain, but I'll try to make it simple," the white sorceress began. "Think of time like… a hallway, filled with many different doors, each door leading to a different era or age. For those who are able to utilize time-traveling magic, it's easy to traverse that hallway and go through any door of their choosing without any problems. But suddenly… it's like all of those doors have been locked, most likely by Cia. She tossed us here in the Twilight era and locked the door from the outside in. And the only way to get out and back to our time, is to find the key."
"Key?" Midna asked, trying her best to understand the complicated analogy, even though it was all lost on Agitha completely. "What's the key?"
"The key is… the Master Sword," Lana said, pointing to the image of the sacred blade. "It's long been believed that the Master Sword has some power to traverse time, and it says here that… 'In instances of the gateways of time being shut by dark magic or curses, the Master Sword can ward such magic away and act as a vessel for traveling through the ages. Past, present, future; the Master Sword is a ship with which you can sail upstream and downstream through time's river.'"
"Hm, poetic," Midna commented once Lana was through reading the passage. "So… all we need is the Master Sword?"
"Yes, but… there's one big problem…" the white sorceress said with a frown as she closed her book. "We don't have the Master Sword; Link does, and if Cia really does have him, then our chances of ever seeing it again, or returning to the present, are next to none…"
"Not entirely…" the Twilight Princess said rather vaguely. "I wouldn't say our situation is completely hopeless…"
"Midna?" Lana asked in confusion as she rose to stand.
"I have a plan," Midna said with a resolved grin as she turned to Agitha. "Hey, kid, can you do me a huge favor?"
"Sure thing, Miss Kitty!" Agitha said eagerly.
The Twilight Princess took in a deep breath, knowing that she was taking a risk relying on the flighty insect princess at a time like this, but she didn't really have too many other options to get this task done. "Listen carefully," she began, her tone serious as she tried to break this down as simply as possible. "I need you to go to the castle and find Princess Zelda."
"But Princess Zelda isn't here!" Agitha said with a frown, thinking that the Twilight Princess was talking about their missing ally.
"Wha—no, no, no!" Midna said, shaking her head as she understood where such confusion could have come from. "Not that Princess Zelda. The Princess Zelda of this time."
"What?" Lana cut in, clearly puzzled by the Twilight Princess's idea. "Why do we need her?"
"You'll see," Midna said with a sly grin, still being ambiguous about her plan. "But for now, I need you to go do this for me, kid—Agitha." She resorted to calling the girl by her actual name this time as a show of just how serious she was. "Can I count on you?"
"Of course, Miss Kitty!" Agitha said with a compliant nod. "What do you want me to tell her? Oh! I could give her one of my prized beetles if you want!"
"Somehow, I don't think she'd be too crazy about that…" Midna muttered in slight exasperation. "No; all I need is for you to get her to come meet us out here. She might not believe what you tell her at first, so if that's the case, just tell her that Midna sent you. And give her this." With a swift wave of her hand, the Twilight Princess made an elegant, golden charm necklace appear above her palm. Its chain was simple, and from it hung a small rendition of the Hyrulian royal crest, its Triforce mark encrusted with a ruby, a sapphire, and an emerald. "She'll know what it is," she said, handing the necklace to Agitha, who clasped it carefully in her hands before placing it in her basket for safekeeping.
"Where did you get that?" Lana asked Midna, knowing that such jewelry certainly wasn't native to the Twilight Realm.
"She gave it to me before I left," the Twilight Princess said with a soft smile. "Said it was supposed to be a parting gift. It's not really my taste, but… it's the thought that counts, I guess. Now," she said to Agitha, hoping that the girl would do as she was told. "Get going, kid. And don't mess this up!"
"I won't!" the insect princess reassured as she began on her way back to town. "Bye, Miss Lana! Bye, Miss Kitty! I'll make sure to tell the princess you said hi!"
Lana and Midna watched as Agitha skipped merrily towards the castle, though it wasn't long before the white sorceress turned to the Twilight Princess to ask her the obvious question. "Midna, I don't understand. What's going on? What is this plan of yours?"
"Come on, Lana," Midna said with an impish laugh as she began to glide towards the eastern hills, hoping that the second, even more important part of her plan awaited not too far away. "If I just outright told you, where would the fun in that be? Now, come on. We have someone we need to find…"
"…ome… ink…"
"Are… ure… to?"
"…course… I'm sure! How… know… home?!"
"…"
"Only question… How did we… here?"
"I have no idea…"
Impa's senses returned to her in slow waves, her hearing being only the second slowest to movement as her eyes gradually lidded open. She felt as though she had both been sleeping for ages and yet had not slept in years as she awakened, and her pounding head and still very-present battle wounds not helping. Partially cloudy blue skies greeted her vision as she simply lay on the grassy ground beneath her, her mind still clearing from unconsciousness. True cognizance only truly returned to her as she happened to overhear the continuation of the conversation that had roused her, the familiar voices coming from not too far away.
"I'll bet you anything that this was that witch's doing!" Ruto. Impa recognized the haughty impatience of her voice instantly, even before she slowly turned her head to the right. "Nayru only knows what she did with everyone else!"
"Aw, I'm sure they're around here somewhere, Sister Ruto!" Darunia assured her, though the concern on his expression was clear. "I mean, it can't just be the three of us here, right?"
"Let's hope not…" Ruto said sourly as she crossed her arms. "Oh!" she exclaimed a moment later upon realizing that the Sheikah guardian was gradually sitting up in the grass nearby. "Impa! You're finally awake! Are you alright?"
"Yes…" Impa said tiredly, rubbing the back of her head as she glanced around at the surrounding area. For a moment, she was surprised by the possibility that they were somehow out in Hyrule Field, but she was quick to gather that something wasn't right. While this place was certainly familiar, it was significantly different as well, especially as the Sheikah guardian looked to the north to see a continuous cloud of darkness hovering in the skies there. "Where are we?"
"Well…" Darunia began, his tone not entirely certain as he glanced around as well as he helped Impa to her feet. "We think we somehow ended up back in the Hyrule of our time… But… we're not sure how or why…"
"What?" Impa asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. Mere moments ago, she had been standing alongside Zelda in battle, and as her memories came rushing back to her, the last few, highly dramatic moments before she somehow fell unconscious. Cia appearing and taunting the princess. Zelda's sheer grief and desperation upon seeing that the black witch had successfully captured Link. And then… nothing. Nothing until she awakened here, in the past. In the Era of the Hero of Time.
"We're back home!" Ruto said with a half-smile. "Well… home for me and Darunia at least… We're honestly just as confused as you are. We were fighting the witches forces, and all of the sudden, we woke up here, right out of the blue! It's downright ridiculous if you ask me!"
"Where is everyone else?" Impa asked, wanting to get a read on their situation as quickly as possible. Her manner was serious and cold as ever as she glanced around the field, seeing that the surrounding area was barren and empty.
"Er… Well… we're not… exactly sure…" the Goron patriarch said rather awkwardly. "We checked around for them a little before you woke up, Sister Impa, but we couldn't find anyone else. Looks like we're the only ones here."
The Sheikah guardian's fists clenched tightly upon hearing this, only one thought alone filling her mind as she tried her best to remain as calm as possible before her allies. "Princess Zelda…" she muttered to herself bitterly, knowing very well that this was the second time she had lost her in a matter of months. And all at once, all of this made sense.
"Cia did this," Impa said, her tone harsh and angry as she marched ahead of her allies. "I'm sure of it. I don't know how, but she separated all of us, probably all across Hyrule's history. And I do know why: she captured Link."
"What?!" both Ruto and Darunia exclaimed in worried unison.
"That foolish boy, he… he brought this on himself!" the Sheikah guardian scowled bitterly, her temper getting the better of her. "And on all of us! If it wasn't for his stubborn callousness, then we would all still be at the Temple of Souls instead of scattered to the winds of time! Cia separated all of us, and chances are she probably trapped us here too, just so she could be… alone with him. Goddesses, the next time I see that boy, I'll-"
"Impa, wait!" Ruto exclaimed, finally halting Impa's enraged rant. "Do you really think everyone is in different time periods?"
"I'm positive," the Sheikah guardian said pointedly, still fuming over what the hero had indirectly done to set them all back like this. "That's the only explanation that makes sense. It would be to Cia's advantage to split us all up as much as possible."
"Well, then, we just gotta find everyone and save Brother Link!" Darunia encouraged optimistically. "I mean, it can't be too hard, right?"
"Easier said than done," Impa said with a huffy sigh. "As far as I know, we have no way of finding them. They could be anywhere at all in time for all we know, and we don't even know how to get out of this time period ourselves. We're stranded."
Both Darunia and Ruto were silent for a long time as Impa turned away from them to face the darkness afar in the distant sky. The Sheikah guardian crossed her arms as she frowned, wondering where in the world, or more specifically, in time Zelda could be. Of course, while rescuing the hero was certainly important, Impa found herself more concerned with the princess's wellbeing than his. After all, he was the one who had gotten into this trouble, it was his fault that he had fallen into Cia's grip. Zelda was an innocent in all of it; she had only wanted to protect him for some reason, even if he refused to accept her aid, or anyone else's for that matter. As far as the Sheikah guardian was concerned, Link deserved to be humbled in such a way. And so, Impa knew that her main priority, once again, was to find her young charge, ensure her safety and protect her from Cia's wrath no matter what the cost.
"Oh!" Ruto suddenly exclaimed as a sudden thought struck her, catching the attention of both the Sheikah guardian and the Goron patriarch. "I think I have an idea!"
"What is it, sister?" Darunia asked curiously.
"Darunia, we need to find Link!" the Zora princess said with a bright smile.
"Uh… that's kind of impossible right now, Sister Ruto…" the Goron patriarch frowned.
"Of course we need to find him," Impa said, even if saving Link was not at the top of her task list at the moment. "I thought that was obvious."
"No, not your Link," Ruto shook her head with small laugh. "Well, I mean—of course we need to find him too, but—I was talking about our Link."
"The Hero of Time?" Impa raised an eyebrow.
"Yes! I'm sure he'd be able to help us!"
"How, exactly?" the Sheikah guardian asked, not sure if they needed to drag another young hero into this situation.
"Well, he is the Hero of Time," Darunia chimed in, agreeing with Ruto's idea. "He probably knows something about time travel, right?"
"Perhaps…" Impa mused, really ready to try anything at this point. "But… for all we know, he could be anywhere in this land! We'll have to search for days in order to-"
"Actually, based on how he only awaked me as the Water Sage a few days ago, I'd say he's probably on his way to awaken the Sage of Spirit now," Ruto interjected thoughtfully. "Which means he's heading to Gerudo Desert. Of course, that's just a hunch, but I believe in it fairly strongly."
"The desert?" the Sheikah guardian repeated. "You're certain?"
"Hey, it's worth a shot!" Darunia said heartily. "And if we wanna find him, we should probably go now. It'll take a while to get there from here."
Impa took in a deep breath as she steeled herself for this resolve, knowing that even if it was a rather flighty plan, it was a plan nonetheless. After all, she was willing to do anything at all that would help her find the princess. "Alright," she said with finality, turning towards the west, where the dry lands of the desert awaited. "Let's go then. Hopefully you both are right; at this point, the Hero of Time is the only chance we have…"
Zelda's eyes snapped open to the nightmarish landscape of the Temple of Souls, the sounds of the sultry, wicked laughter of the black witch immediately hitting her ears. The princess sucked in a gagging gasp at the scent that seemed to be laced in the dry, acrid air, a scent that she knew all too well: blood. Immediately, she checked herself over for any signs of injury, but she found none. So instead, she glanced over the area around her to find a startling sight.
A trail of blood was staining the tiled floor before her, leading into the central chamber of the temple. All of Zelda's instincts were screaming at her not to follow it, but her heart was telling her that she had to, for she had a good idea as to who was waiting at the end of it.
The princess was horrified upon entering the main chamber, even though she honestly should have expected that Cia would have decorated her hall with a mass amount of portraits of the hero. But as much as that revelation disturbed her, she only had a moment to focus on it as her attention was immediately drawn to the figure lying listlessly on the other side of the room.
"Link!" Zelda shouted with concern, not wasting her time in rushing over to him. However, right before she could reach him, she suddenly collided with what could only be an invisible wall standing between the two of them. She let out a sharp cry as she was roughly sent back several feet, pain reverberating through her body.
Once the princess had regathered her bearings, she immediately turned back to Link, only to find that he was somehow standing and facing towards her, though Zelda instantly knew something was wrong. Even though the blood trail had led straight to him, he seemed to be uninjured, but his wore a blank, hallow, almost lifeless expression, his mouth agape and his usually brilliant blue eyes dull and dim. He didn't look at her at all, nor did he really seem to look at anything at all as his arms hung limply at his sides and his posture was lose and vulnerable. For a long moment, Zelda simply stared at him in worried confusion, though she was quick to shake herself out of it and face the matter head on.
"Link? What are-" Zelda's question was cut off by that same treacherous laughter from before, laughter she now recognized as Cia's. The princess instinctually took a small step back as she reached for her rapier, only to find that it was missing from its usual place at her side. Not that it mattered anyway considering she was still completely blocked off from reaching the other side of the room where the hero was.
"Greetings, princess," the black witch taunted coyly as she materialized out of thin air right beside Link. The hero still showed no signs of a reaction, even as Cia draped her arm around his shoulder as though he belonged to her. "I'm so glad you could make it."
"Cia!" Zelda shouted angrily, clenching her fists tightly as she glared at her enemy. "Let him go! Now!"
"Oh, but why should I?" Cia asked mockingly as she drew herself even closer to Link. "Because you're going to stop me?"
"Yes," the princess said boldly, determined not to back down from the black witch this time.
Cia let out an amused laugh at this, obviously not taking her seriously. "You and what army?"
Instead of sending a retort flying back, Zelda actually did take a glance behind her to see if any of her allies or soldiers were en route to stand with her. But as she could tell from all four of the chamber's open doors, there was not a sign of anyone, her soldiers or Cia's. She was alone.
"I can take you on my own," the princess proclaimed bravely, even if she knew she was in really no position to do so without a weapon.
"I'd love to see you try," the black witch rolled her eyes in dry sarcasm. Her sinister grin widened as she leaned in close to the hero and gave him a torturously long, drawn-out kiss on the cheek, even if he didn't so much as shudder in response to it. A biting heat coursed through Zelda as she glared daggers at the witch, wanting nothing more than to rip her to shreds for so much as touching the hero.
"Stop it!" the princess shouted harshly, banging a fist against the barrier that separated her from the hero and the black witch. "I don't know what you did to him, but you can't force him into loving you and you never will!"
"Watch me," Cia said with a cold grin as she took Link's face into her hands, stroking his cheek gently for a moment or two before finally pulling him into a full-on kiss. Zelda gasped in disgust as she was forced to watch this appalling display, noticing that the hero was still doing nothing to resist the black witch's advances. She could only guess that Cia had him under some sort of spell, but a small part of her feared that, perhaps, he was allowing this to happen willingly. That he was accepting the black witch's romancing because she had failed him, because she had let him dive head first into a battle that he had no hopes of winning. Because she had let him fall into the hands of the enemy.
"Link!" Zelda practically screamed as she pounded against the barrier harder than ever, desperate to rip the black witch away from the hero.
"Now, now, princess," Cia said with a lustful grin as she briefly pulled herself away from Link, even though she still clung onto him closely. "It's not polite to interrupt a kiss between true lovers…"
The princess was seething up seeing this, blind rage filling her until she saw red. Not even caring about the barrier, Zelda lurched forward, throwing all of her weight against the invisible wall until it somehow shattered completely. Letting lose a fierce battle cry, the princess rushed towards the black witch and the hero, ready to use her fists alone as weapons if she had to, even as they continued to passionately kiss. However, before she could reach them, a sudden flash of light blinded her, bringing her to a screeching halt as she tried to clear her vision. Yet, in the seconds before sight returned to her, an incredibly strong burst of pain ran through her chest, accompanied by a wet warmth that she knew to be blood. Her blood.
Zelda was already screaming in agony before her vision cleared, but when it did, her scream only turned into a ragged sob. Cia had disappeared, and there was practically no distance between her and Link at all. And yet, the hero's cold expression had finally shifted into a dark glare as he met her tearful eyes, his arm not moving at all as it held onto the sword that had been stabbed cleanly through her chest.
"L-Link…" Zelda choked weakly, her heart breaking as the pain only seemed to increase tenfold upon seeing that Link himself had done this to her. "Why…?"
"Because he's not your hero anymore, Zelda," Cia laughed darkly as she returned once more, standing over Link as she gripped his shoulders tightly, claiming him as her own. The princess only barely heard the black witch's last statement as she began to fall backwards away from the hero's sword, darkness flooding her vision amidst the immense physical and emotional agony she was feeling. "He's mine…"
"…Princess Zelda…"
A familiar, monotonous voice was the first thing Zelda heard upon awakening, but she had no time to take it in as she darted upright, a fearful gasp escaping her as her eyes flew open. Her heart was still pounding, but she found that she wasn't actually in that much pain aside from the minor wounds she had sustained in battle earlier. Upon glancing down at her chest, she saw that it was clear of blood, no signs of the fatal stab wound she had received in what she could only guess was a dream. Or rather, a nightmare.
Zelda was still breathing rather heavily as she steadied herself in a sitting position, but before she had a chance to glance around at her surroundings, a bright blue ball bounced into her immediate field of vision. Proxi beat her wings together excitedly as she exclaimed something in the mysterious language of the fairies that the princess could not understand. Thankfully, someone else was nearby who immediately helped translate.
"Yes, the princess has awakened," Fi said to the fairy as she hovered not too far away from Zelda, her expression as emotionless as ever. "And according to my scans, I can detect that she is fortunately uninjured."
"Fi?" Zelda asked in confusion as she looked over to the sword spirit before finally catching sight of their new surroundings. From what she could guess, they were in a wide, deep pit, as could be told from the earthen walls spiraling in a path upwards, a cloudy blue sky high above them with the sun positioned almost directly overhead. The princess frowned as she felt a small, inkling aura of darkness coming from the bottom of the pit where the three of them were, but she passed it off in favor of learning more about their location instead. "What happened? Where are we? Why aren't we at the Temple of Souls anymore?"
"Be at ease, your highness," Fi began respectfully. "And allow me to explain. According to my calculations, I can concur that we are no longer in the Temple of Souls, nor are we even in your time period any longer. Instead, it seems as though we have been transported back in time, most likely by Cia's magic. I can affirm that there is a 95% chance that we are now in the age that I originated from, the era of the goddess Hylia."
"What?!" Zelda exclaimed in dismay. "But that means… we're thousands of years in the past! Where's everyone else?"
"I am not entirely certain…" Fi reported. "I have scanned the area several times and have found no readings of any of our allies. There is a large likelihood that they might not be in this time period at all."
"Of course," Zelda said with a bitter sigh as she rose to stand. "Cia would separate all of us… Just so she could be alone with…" The princess clenched her fists tightly as she trailed off, remembering her nightmare and all that had happened within it. Being sent away from the temple was confirmation enough that Link really had been captured by Cia and was now in her grasp, with no one to save him from her if Zelda's suspicions were correct and everyone else had been expelled from the temple as well. Yet regardless of how tarnished her last encounter with Link had been, Zelda was still determined to rescue him before it was too late. After all, she knew that he had driven himself to such extremes for her sake, which meant that the full responsibility for whatever happened to him lied on her. And she wasn't about to stand by and watch as Cia wrongfully attempted to claim the hero as his own. "We have to get back," she said with resolve to the only two allies that were still with her, viewing their current situation as but a setback, a hurdle they needed to overcome in order to reach their ultimate goal of aiding the captured hero. "Before she does… anything…"
"I agree," Fi nodded. "But it may not be as simple as we would hope. According to my scans, the time stream has been closed by powerful magic, meaning that there are very few options available to us for traversing it back to the present."
"I don't care!" Zelda said firmly, disregarding the challenge presented. "We have to find a way back to the present as soon as possible! I refuse to let Cia try and make Link hers!"
"I understand that you are concerned for Master Link's wellbeing," the sword spirit said after Proxi interjected her own concerns for her companion. "But I would advise that this problem should be addressed with rationality rather than emotion."
"Well do you have any idea about what to do?" the princess asked rather harshly as she began to pace around in worry, her stress showing itself clearly.
"As a matter of fact, I do," Fi said as calm as ever. "I would recommend locating my first Master, the Chose Hero of the Goddess Hylia, otherwise known as the Hero of the Skies."
Proxi made a clearly confused comment at this as Zelda simply gave the sword spirit a bewildered glance. "The Hero of the Skies?" she asked as she paused in her pacing. "What can he do to help?"
"The power of the Master Sword will be needed to reopen the flow of time," the sword spirit explained eloquently. "However, even though I am the spirit of the blade that will become the Master Sword, I do not hold such power myself. My very presence in this point in time after the completion of my Master's journey is an anomaly caused by the black witch. And so, we need to find my Master, the Hero of the Skies, who is the only one capable of drawing it from its place in the Sealed Temple."
"Alright…" Zelda said, only partially certain of this plan, even despite Fi's thorough explanation. "Then I guess we should find him… But… where would he be?"
Fi was silent for a moment as she gathered information through another one of her scans before providing a prompt report of her findings. "He is currently in Faron Woods, not too far away from our current location. I can also report that he is accompanied by the reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia, who, as you might know, princess, is your ancient ancestor."
"Oh," the princess was somewhat surprised by this, even if she had heard legends about her family originating from an ancient goddess. But the fact that she was about to meet her herself was somewhat exciting, if not intimidating, to say the least. "So… are we just going to find them and ask them for help then?"
"I believe you will be able to come up with a proper plan of action upon meeting them," Fi said. "However, I would recommend avoiding going by your actual title and name when we encounter them. Neither of them are aware that this land will eventually become a monarchy, and even more than that, you and her grace share the same name."
"Well, I understand how that would cause some confusion…" Zelda said with a small smile of amusement, her first one since Link had been captured. "But don't worry; I think I know of a way to avoid that." The princess closed her eyes as she held her hand up, the mark of the Triforce of Wisdom shimmering upon it. Her transformative magic swirled around her as her regal battle gown dissipated in favor of rugged Sheikah battle armor, her long hair twisting itself in to a golden braid and her eyes shifting from blue to crimson. Her bangs and face coverings shielded her true identity well as the magic faded from her, leaving a Sheikah warrior in the place of where the princess had once been.
Proxi let out an exclamation that, while still in the language of the fairies, could clearly be read as surprise at Sheik's return. Indeed, the newly revived Sheikah warrior looked over herself as she opened her eyes, seeing that her disguise still held up as well as it had before. The princes herself couldn't deny that it felt good to be Sheik once more; it felt as though the pressures of being Zelda had been lightened at least, though not removed from her entirely. After all, she still felt incredibly guilty for what had happened to Link, and she was still just as resolved as ever to save him, regardless of whether she was Zelda or Sheik.
Fi showed no signs of surprise at the princess's transformation, but simply nodded in acceptance with her plan. "Very well then," she said simply as she began to glide forward, preparing to lead the way out of the pit. "Let us depart with haste."
"Yes…" Zelda—Sheik—said with finality as she began to follow. However, she stopped short as she looked up to the skies above, feeling the soft warmth of the wind blow through her face coverings as she closed her eyes and pictured the hero. She prayed with every fiber of her being that Cia would not harm him, even if that wasn't really what she was afraid of. What she was really afraid of was what her nightmare had implied, that the black witch would somehow find a way to turn him to her side, to make him love her against his will. The princess couldn't deny the spark of hot jealousy and burning anger that ran through her upon even thinking this. The very thought of Link accepting Cia's "love" willingly made her sick. And Zelda knew that if she didn't hurry and find a way back to the present to rescue him, then that would certainly be the fate he would meet. "Don't worry, Link…" she whispered softly to herself, hoping that somehow, someway, the captured hero would hear her even across the ages. "We'll save you… I promise…"
Ok so yeah, everyone is all separated across time! I thought it would be something of a fun twist, plus a neat way for me to bring in some certain other characters that you've probably already guessed will be coming in soon! But not next time! Next time, we're going to focus on what's going down with Link and Cia, and we might also see another appearance by a certain evil Gerudo... ;) And I can't wait for it! Hopefully it won't take me so long to get out! Now for the chapter question: How do you guys feel about the Amiibo incorporation in HW? I feel like it could have been integrated a lot more, like instead of bringing in just reused weapons or rupees, they could provide costumes for certain characters, or more! But that's just me. Let me know what you think in the REVIEWS! Until next time (and HAPPY NEW YEAR! May you all have a great 2016!)