Link descended from the sky into the courtyard in front of the Sealed Temple. His Loftwing took off towards the Great Tree, and Link threw a weighted bag over his shoulder and went to enter the temple. As he opened the doors he witnessed Groose and Ilysa laughing and shouting happily and he picked her up and gently kissed her stomach. They always did the strangest things, Link thought to himself.
"If you two are done, I've got something."
"Link!" Ilysa shouted, "You're back already? Did everything go okay?"
"It went fine, exceedingly following our expectations though, and Irsia gladly took the stone in return. It seems an evil presence is in fact tainting the Ice Mountains, and that the Sheikah are indeed going to remain our allies, but will do nothing at the moment."
"Well, that's good news, the Sheikah are a strong people, and it was wise for you to seek their alliance." Ilysa took a seat on the stairs that did not lead to the Gate of Time. "But of this evil presence: are we familiar with its evil, or is it possible Demise's curse has begun to take shape already?"
"I've considered a few possibilities, but it would seem likely that we are in fact familiar with it; Groose you remember our friendly little demon lord? I think he's rebuilding power." Before Groose could respond, Ilysa clasped a hand to her mouth, and quickly removed it to blurt something out,
"Ghirahim was dealt with years ago, I swear it." She paused and shook her head a few times, maybe trying to reassure herself. "If he's returned—Link we have to go there, now: if he is able to return to full strength I'm afraid the humans won't be safe on the surface, the Mogmas won't be safe, the Parella, and certainly not the Kikwi."
"We will go, but there's something we have to do first." Link swung the bag on his shoulder in front of him and let it drop slightly, so that Groose and Ilysa could hear the clang of stones inside. "While I was in Lanayru, it dawned on me that we've been looking at this wrong; Zelda isn't stuck in the unreachable past, she's there in a very accessible time that we can simply walk into." Link tipped the bag upside down and let a large timeshift stone roll out, along with various rocks and pebbles.
"Link," Ilysa started, "Zelda exists in the past, theoretically, we can indeed find her and speak with her, but we cannot simply bring her back. The timeshift zones work in incomprehensible ways."
"Correct, but isn't assuring her that we're fine and that we're trying to bring her home better than leaving her alone in the past?" Both Ilysa and Groose remained quiet for a moment, but eventually nodded in agreement to him. "Alright, Groose, should we come across anything… un-fun, strike the stone. There is no point in all of us being at risk." Groose nodded again and unsheathed a large dagger from his belt. Link made eye contact with each of them, before pulling out his sword and striking the stone in one swift movement. Sure enough, the temple began to come to life as it brought them into the past. The temple was clean, quiet, and seemingly empty. "Hello?!" Link shouted into the room, his voice echoing off of the walls. He heard a plate crash in the other room, and the massive doors opened.
"Link!" Zelda shouted and she began to run towards him, but she stopped in her tracks about halfway. "How are you here right now?"
"Timeshift stones! I don't know how I didn't think of it earlier!"
"You can't be here: I destroyed the gate for a reason! No one should be able to just travel through time at their own will!"
"Zelda. It's just a stone, we can't do anything really." Groose quietly said, "We just wanted to make sure you were okay and stuff."
"I'm fine, honestly. I can handle myself. Now you have to go back, and apparently destroy a ton of timeshift stones, otherwise I trapped myself back here for no reason. We all know I can't come back, not without a gate. I knew that when I destroyed it, I knew that before I destroyed it, and you…" she looked right at Link, "…and you knew that I was going to, long before I did." Her breathing was heavy.
"I can't just leave you here forever, not after everything I did to bring you home 7 years ago. I'm not going to just walk away and pretend that it was all for nothing."
"That_" she paused as she searched for the right word, "_mission was set out thousands of years ago to destroy Demise; you accomplished that mission already. Now I have to clean up the mess that Hylia left on the surface: mortals cannot be left with the ability to travel through time, and surely you understand the importance of keeping them safe!"
"I want to know one thing then… before we go." Link walked towards her and stopped with just inches between them, "Why did you do it alone?"
"Why did I do it alone? I did it alone because I couldn't bear to see you choose someone else…"
"I wasn't going to! I was going to live with you on the hillside like you said you wanted. I mean sure, entertaining the idea of having options was nice for a while but it was always going to be you. I mean now, it's been years since you went on this one way trip and I moved into the house on the hill with someone, someone I care about deeply, and perhaps our time ended when you literally shattered time itself, but that doesn't mean I am ever going to give up on trying to bring you home so that you can live what's left of a normal life with your father, your friends, and your world."
"Our time has ended, so unless you figure this all out, I'm going to live out a normal and quiet life here, like Impa did when she was trying to save all of us. If someone who served Hylia could do it, then surely I can do it myself. I'm not sure I can live that long of course, but that's because Impa was better than I am, better than any of us ever will be."
"Alright, fine." Groose spoke again, this time visibly frustrated, "Let's just end it with this: we're glad you're safe, we're all safe too, we're dealing with some surface issues, and we're not giving up on you. If you two are just going to argue while dealing with your own personal morality complexes, I'd rather leave and deal with real problems."
"Surface issues… wait what surface issues? Demise and his demon hoards were defeated, what could possibly remain as an issue?"
"It seems a demonic entity has sought refuge in the Ice Mountains, and that the region is becoming visibly corrupted by its evils. We have reason to suspect that Demon Lord Ghirahim is to blame, but with no further investigation we cannot be certain."
"Oh, yeah, that's one reason I wanted to come see you," Link ran his hand through his hair, "I needed to ask Hylia a question."
"Well I'll do my best to remember whatever it is she knows."
"Ilysa, could you explain the whole sword legend?"
"Of course. My people, the Sheikah, speak of an ancient blade. Its nature seems comparable to the Master Sword that the Hero of the Goddess wields, but it does strike a very unique difference. The Sword of Four is a blade created by the world's creators, and it is said to possess the power of splitting a hero into his four strengths: courage, wisdom, power, and spirit. My people also tell of a great evil that would seek to use this blade in order to ensure his own immortality: by splitting into four, the wielder would in turn split his mind, body, and soul into four, making it respectably more difficult to destroy the entirety of his existence." Ilysa stopped there and looked between Link and Zelda waiting for their responses.
"Ghirahim's body doesn't exist in this realm, only his mind and soul, so how could he even use the sword?" Zelda furrowed her brow, the burden of time beginning to show on her once young and worriless self.
"I think it's possible," Link squeezed his hands into fists that lightly stayed by his sides, "that with time, Ghirahim may have been able to recreate some sort of body. It won't be as pretty as he prefers I'm sure, but it would be enough to use the blade. So that's where Hylia comes in: have you any idea, a whim even, of where a blade like that could be found?"
"I have only one guess: check the region of the Ice Mountains. If Ghirahim sought refuge there, it is for a reason: that excuse of a demon has very specific reasons for going places as I'm sure you already know. But perhaps there isn't anything to worry about: a blade with such powers could be used similarly to how we used to Master Sword: seal the evil inside."
"I will come back for you, I promise." Link kissed her on the forehead, then turned to leave, and he was about to strike the stone when Zelda grabbed his arm,
"Let me: I want to try something." Link nodded at her, and stepped beside Groose and Ilysa.
Zelda grabbed a rapier from a chest in the corner and she stood before the stone once more. "Be careful, all of you." She struck the stone and watched as her friends disappeared, having returned to their proper time. After a moment, Zelda realised that her plan had worked: on the ground in front of her was a fairly large timeshift stone.