Chapter 12: Divine Intervention

The Sacred Grove

Link, Ren, and Rusl stood in doubt at the pathway to the Sacred Grove. The two Twili Risen retreated back, and were definitely coming back with more. At the sign of more than a dozen Twili Risen, the three of them would be ready to bolt out of there.

"How fast can you get us out of here?" asked Rusl.

"In about ten seconds, if you two keep contact with my body," answered Ren.

"..." (Link). He said that he heard them coming.

"I can see them now. Quick, run!" yelled Rusl.

As expected one and half dozen of the Twili Risen were charging out, armed with longswords and bows. One keen archer walked up in front and took aim. Ren, Rusl, and Link were running to the spot that they arrived in, so they could get cover, and be farther away from the arrow shots of the archers. They were almost at the spot. The archer took aim at Ren, and fired. The arrow whistled through the air, and it lowered as it flew. The arrow shot into Ren's leg, as he was about to warp the three of them out. He fell down, screamed, and they all panicked. They didn't know what to do.

The Twili Risen piled off the bridge and readily ran toward them, ready to kill them. After their escape, Lord Grateau only wanted Link alive. He couldn't care less of what they would do to Ren. Rusl would be an added bonus.

"Keep Link alive!" shouted the archer in front.

They surrounded and enclosed the three of them in.

"How many people have you taken on at once, Link?" Rusl asked.

"..." (Link). Six at the most, and with the Master Sword. Using a lower sword and against more than a dozen? Not a chance.

Link and Rusl backed up, dragging Ren with them, until they were against the wall. The Twili Risen stood in their enclosing formation. The archer took out an arrow and readied it.

"Oh Ren'kir. How unfortunate that you must die by my arrow. I was sure that Stervan wanted to gut you with his swords," said the archer.

"Believe me, I'd prefer the quick death," replied Ren.

"After all, you were Lord Grateau's right hand man. Or at least one of them," the archer said. "Don't worry, I'll make this quick."

He aimed his bow at Ren and let go. He fired the killing arrow. That of which, was not the killing arrow, since it didn't hit him at all, nor did it kill anything else. It stopped a few feet in front of him, as if it hit an invisible stone wall. The air in front of them blurred and distorted, like on a hot summer day. The distortions could be made out to resemble a human figure. The archer gasped with anger, and shot another arrow. It was blocked again, with a metallic clink. At the ground of the distortion, color faded on it, from the bottom up. First, a pair of legs with white legwear and white boots with dirt stains. Then, brown upper body armor with vines hanging down. The arms revealed bronze gauntlets, a shield. and a shining sword. Finally, the head that rested upon the shoulder plates had a helmet with a T shaped opening in the front, and metal extensions on the top, and the sides of the helmet. Under the helmet was a skull face, with a red right eye.

The Hero's Shade.

The Twili Risen stepped back and readied their weapons. They had no idea what had just appeared in front of them. A tall skeleton, clad in armor, and bigger than all of them was not the most assuring thing to see. For them at least. For Link, it was a godsend. The Hero's Shade grasped his sword, in his left hand, and swiftly struck a horizontal slice in the archer, killing him. The sword wielders of the Twili Risen piled on to the Hero's Shade. He blocked them with his shield and sword, and pushed them back with his strength. He took two more sword swings, and killed a three of them. Four more of them came, and they were overpowered as well. The remaining four backed away, and proceeded to flee. The Hero's Shade dashed forward, with immense speed, leaving a trail of ghostly figures of himself behind him. With a dash, he swung his sword and killed one. He stopped for a second, and then dashed forward and killing the next, the next, and finally the last.

The Hero's Shade turned around and went back to Link. Link and Rusl were in awe at his appearance. Ren would have shown the same reaction, had it not been for the arrow that was jammed in his leg. The Hero's Shade sheathed his sword and shield.

"Keep your leg still," said the Hero's Shade. He cupped Ren's thigh, where the arrow shot through.

"Who are you? Or what are you?" asked Rusl.

"I am the Hero's Shade," he answered.

"The Hero's what?" asked Ren.

"Let's just say I'm an ancestor of Link."

"..." (Link). Link asked how he was here.

"The chasm between the living and the dead grows smaller, thinner. I would not expect that I come back here, but a few visions in the world of the dead showed the dilemma that you three were in. I had to come help," he answered.

He pressed his hand around Ren's arrow wound. A light blue essence drifted between the shade's hand and Ren's leg. Ren flinched back, letting out a gasp of pain. As the essence flowed, the shade pulled the arrow out. It did not cause Ren any more pain, as if it warped through and out of his leg. After the arrow was out, the muscle and the skin rapidly repaired, leaving no trace of an arrow wound.

"How did you-" asked Ren.

"I am the ghost of the Hero of Time. It's one of my abilities as a spirit," said the shade.

"The Hero of Time? And Link is your descendant?" questioned Rusl.

"Very distant, but part of the bloodline nonetheless. 'Twas nearly 800 years ago."

"..." (Link). He asked what happened after he warned Zelda about Ganon.

"Hyrule readied its armies. We prevented him from usurping the throne. He was, not amused, to say the least. He invaded after. The war lasted five years. On our side, we had Hylians, Gorons, and Zoras. We won, and his execution was to be put in order. The Gerudo were forced out of their homes. But the female warriors weren't relocated. They disappeared. I was never too sure what happened to them. Soon after, a prison was built to hold its lone prisoner: Ganondorf. During its construction, a dark artifact was discovered. You call it the Mirror of Twilight." he explained.

The Hero's Shade paused, and later said "I'm sure you know the rest of the botched execution plan that failed. Hyrule itself changed. Eventually, the Zoras would retreat farther North. Contact with them decreased, and that was only within my lifetime. Princess Zelda grew up, and eventually became the Queen."

"But what happened to you? Was there no happy ending for you? I mean, you look like a stalfos," said Ren.

"I wandered off. I had a brief stay in another land called Termina, but I returned after I was done. When I was older, I became a knight for the Hylian army. It must have become rather sluggish, seeing how weak they are," answered the Shade.

"..." (Link). Link said that since the Shade was his distant grandfather, who was the distant grandmother.

The shade had another pause, looked down and said "A woman from a ranch. Her name was Malon. She was everything to me. And that's also why you're from a small village with a ranch."

"You had your adventures, your knighthood, and your home life with a wife and a child. How exactly did you die?" asked Ren.

"I was an elderly man. It was inevitable. I do not know of anyone who can escape the inexorable passage of time," the shade answered. "With that, I asked my son to take me to the Kokiri Forest. One look, and I think my body gave out there."

The shade took his hand off on Ren's thigh. The wound was sealed, and his leg brand new.

"Alright. Get up. We have some people to save," said the shade.

Ylisstol

Gathered in the candle-lit room were Chrom, Robin, Zelda, Midna, Basilio, and Flavia. The candle chandeliers hung above, in a room surrounded by the dark depths of the night. They met in the midst of planning an attack on Hyrule. Chrom had ordered that the Ylisstol militia would attack in Hyrule. Flavia and Basilio organized an elite strike team, consisting of twenty-eight men. The Ylissean-Feroxi force would lead the attack, all throughout the city. Midna and Zelda would rally all citizens out of the town.

The attack plan first started with archers killing off the Twili Risen on top of the patrol walls. Basilio would lead into the southern wall, Lon'qu into the east, and Gaius in the west. After the archers were taken care of, Lon'qu, Gaius, and Gregor would sneak in. They would investigate and scope out the area before charging in. Specifically, they'd look for the Twili Bulbin leader. Ylissean forces would wait outside the walls, out of sight, until the three of them lit a signal flare. At the sight of the signal flare, all of them would charge in.

It all seemed in order, until Robin pointed out one hole in the plan.

"But how are we going to have hundreds of soldiers cross through the world barrier into Hyrule? Each time we've done it, it's only been a little over a dozen people. There's no way that we'd get hundreds of people," he said.

Everyone looked down, thinking "What now? How is this plan going to work?"

"I have a seemingly plausible theory," stated Zelda. "You can infuse your sword with the Radiating Stone. That could make so powerful that the tears in time could grow so large that an army can pass through."

"Would that have any negative side effects to, well, time itself?" asked Robin.

"It's a risk we have to take," replied Midna.

"I'm not sure about the stone though. Infusing the stone with one of the three swords is what Lord Grateau wanted, isn't it?" said Chrom.

"Then we just need to make sure that we don't lose!" exclaimed Basilio.

"We also need whatever power we can get against the Twili Bulbin leader," said Zelda. "A normal Bulbin leader is one problem, but another infused with Twilight is a threat that parallels to Zant or Lord Grateau himself."

"Then the attack is settled. We arm ourselves tomorrow, and depart by midday," stated Chrom.

In the plan, they expected to find Link and Ren in the castle dungeons, or chained up somewhere. Hopefully, they weren't dead, and it was in their best hopes that they were not. They would certainly encounter them.

The Sacred Grove

The four of them passed over the wooden bridges built by the Twili Risen. The traps that Link previously encountered were not to be seen, probably displaced in the bottomless pits that laid beneath them. Until now, the only ones with knowledge of the Sacred Grove were Link, Midna, Rusl, and Zelda. Link had only gone their to pull the Master Sword and find the Temple of Time.

"It's been long since I've wandered these parts. I remember when there were ageless children inhabiting these forests," said the Hero's Shade.

"Speaking of you being here, what did you mean before when you said 'the chasm between the living and the dead?'" asked Ren.

"Your world and the realm of the dead. An afterlife, of sorts. The realm of the dead is but a dark reflection of the world you inhabited in your time. A good soul would have no trouble down there, but the wicked lay in a decaying state. A mere remnant of who they once were," explained the shade. "They try to get to the other side of a dark chasm. To the world of the living. But no matter how much they tried, they would just get pulled back down by the imprisoned hands the wait from below. As for me, the gap was thinning. Each side was coming closer. I was able to come at the right time."

"The right time? How'd you know that we were about to get killed?" Rusl asked.

The shade didn't answer. He halted, and then everyone else. They were blocked by the wooden barriers that kept trespassers out. They looked with dumbfounded expressions.

"Do you hear that?" asked the shade. "In the distance, somewhere."

They listened, trying to hear past the howl of the winds and the rustle of the leaves. Hidden among those sounds, a faint tune from a horn of some sort. The shade knew the song that was playing. "F, A, B" he thought. Those were the notes. He sheathed his sword and clenched what would be his lower chest. He slowly lifted his hand away from it, simultaneously forming a navy blue object in his hands. It formed from seemingly nothing, and just pieced together by tiny particles. There were holes in it, and a stout-like tip at the top, with a hole on the top. In his hand, he held the completed object: an ocarina.

The shade put the ocarina up to what would be his mouth, grasping it with both hands. He blew into it, and played a single tone. How he was able to blow air and play an ocarina, despite being a skeleton-like ghost, Ren did not know. How he formed an object out of nothing, Rusl did not know. How he had an ancient artifact that was supposed to be locked in a hidden vault, guarded with dozens of arrow traps and poison traps, Link did not know. Disregarding all of this, the shade began to play a nice upbeat tune that was the same as the one coming from the horn. He played the rhythm three times, "F-A-B, F-A-B, F-A-B." Then he played "E-D-B-C-B-G-E-D-E-G-E-." The horn in the distance responded with the same, but after the first three tunes, he played "E-D-B-C-E-B-G-B-G-D-E-."

The wooden barrier faded away. The four of them passed through a corridor, and were immediately greeted by a short figure, dressed in brown motley-like clothing, and a scarecrow hat. The figure lifted his head up and looked to them, revealing the blue face and the bright red eyes. Skull kid.

"I know you aren't going to hurt me because you know that song. I was once friends with a fairy boy who knew that song, and taught it to me. I do wonder what happened to him," said the Skull Kid. "But how do you know that song?"

"I am that fairy boy," answered the shade.

"You? You can't be. You're a skeleton man. Not a fairy boy," Skull Kid responded. "You, you look more like the fairy boy." He pointed towards Link.

The shade walked to him, kneeled down, and looked in the Skull Kid's eyes. He held up the ocarina and said "Look, this is the ocarina. The very same one. And look into my face. Can't you see?"

Skull kid looked into the shade's face. A faint but light figure appeared in front of his face. A ghostly apparition of the face of the Hero of Time. The Skull Kid winced, then straightened back up.

"But how? If you are the fairy boy, why do you look like this?" he asked.

"I've been dead for 800 years. But I should ask you how you're still alive, if you're the very same skull kid," replied the shade.

"800 years? Has it been that long?"

"What do you mean? Of course it has been. Over 800 years since Termina and Majora."

"I don't know. I see day and night, but it feels frozen in here."

"Frozen?" asked the shade.

"Listen, I hate to break up your reunion with your, uh, scarecrow friend, but we came here to find the Ordon villagers," interrupted Ren.

"You want the villagers? I can lead you to them, but you guys have to get rid of those mean guys with swords," responded Skull Kid.

"That won't be a problem," said Ren.

Ylisstol, 30 Minutes from Midnight

The soldiers of the Shepherd army were at this hour, sound asleep. Their gear was refined, sharpened, at waiting to be wielded the following day. Robin lied in bed, beside Say'ri. Both were sound asleep, after a night of preparation. Robin turned to face Say'ri, who was facing the other way. Although he could only see her back, it gave him a warm feeling just to be near her. Especially since they're going into a battle where they might not leave to tell the tale. Surely they would not meet their ends, right? He'd rather not ponder the question, nor could he, since he was then fully asleep.

In the royal bedroom, tentatively guarded by Ylissean guards, Chrom and Sumia lied in bed together. Sumia held present-day Lucina in her grasp, as all three of them laid soundly asleep. Chrom was barely awake, but he could not help but focus on the light-headed feeling that he had. Then again, how could he care if he was already asleep.

?

Chrom and Robin found themselves in the completely white room. Naga's mind link. She appeared before them, in her heavenly glow, producing a blinding light in the white room.

"Why are we here?" asked Chrom. "In fact, how are we here?"

"You two are fine. You're both asleep, but I've tapped into your dreams so that you two are here," she answered. "But please, if you are going to do anything, make it so that you stop what you are doing."

"What are you talking about, your highness?" asked Robin.

"Your plan to go back to the land you call Hyrule. Your movement between each realm is only making the barriers between worlds weaker and weaker. If you keep cutting deeper, you'll eventually cut of the entire arm," she explained.

"You know we can't do that. We have to help the people of Hyrule. And help Link and Ren," said Robin.

"Doing something as big as what you plan to do may have... cataclysmic effects. Empowering the sword can only make it worse," said Naga. "That which keeps the realms from colliding into each other is but a thread above an open flame. Are you sure that you want to drop it?"

They paused, unknowing of a response, until Chrom popped back up.

"It's a risk we have to take. For the greater good," he said.

Morning, 2 Hours before departure

"Hey, Robin. Did you-" asked Chrom.

"Yeah. I saw it too," answered Robin. "Please don't tell me you're having second thoughts. It's like when I was considering on sacrificing myself to destroy Grima completely."

"I'm not. I just wanted to make sure that it was real," Chrom said.

"Everyone's doing their last rounds before we leave. Surely you're not just going to sit in this room for the next two hours."

"Oh, no, we still need to infuse the stone with Falchion."

"Okay, here."

Robin took the Radiating Stone out from the inside of his robe. It was glowing brightly, ejecting light to every corner of the room. If held in the air, it could outshine the sun.

"It's been glowing haywire since I brought it in here. Must be cause Falchion is near," said Robin.

"Hm, let's see," said Chrom.

Chrom lifted Falchion so that the tip of the blade touched the stone. Even with the gentle touch, the stone suddenly shattered, and fiery orange essence coated the blade. Edge to edge, not a spot left untouched by the stone's essence. This continued until there was no more color left in the stone. After, it looked like a broken glass paperweight. The sword itself felt more versatile. Chrom stood up and tested it. It swung more swiftly through the air, leaving an orange trail after each swing. He then sheathed it.

"I'd say that we're ready. I'll see all of you in two hours," Chrom said.

I know the whole part with the Hero's Shade is all Deus Ex Machina, but I wanted to work him into the story, even if it's just a short cameo for this chapter and the next.

-Kaz