A/N: Yeah, it's official, you're not really reading the same story you were before. Sorry folks. I think this one's better though.

The Past Is Another Land

Elizabeth staggered as the smooth marble floor of the Temple of Time reintroduced itself to her feet. Briefly, she fought to keep her balance -- fought, and lost. Gravity prevailed, and she landed on her butt. For a moment, the teen just sat there as her head spun from the realization that she was in the Temple of Time. The Temple of Time -- as in the one she thought was imaginary. Her mind went blank as her awed gaze moved from the triangular pedestal in front of her, to the enormous Triforce emblem surrounding it on the floor, to the gray stone walls and vaulted ceiling. Dazed, she stared upward for a moment -- fought to control her emotions -- and lost. Tears spilled down her contorted cheeks; her body was wracked with sudden sobs.

"Hello?"

The teen froze in horror; that was Link. Did he hear me crying? she wondered; the thought mortified her. Immediately she tried to suppress her grief and wipe away any sign that she had been crying, cursing the loss of the long, thick hair that once might have hidden her face. Now it was much too short; it came only about to her eyebrows in front. It looked nice, but Elizabeth was starting to realize what an utterly useless haircut it really was.

"El--um... Liz?" Elizabeth wondered briefly if there was anyone else in Hyrule with four syllables in their first name. "Are you there?"

"Yeah," she responded dully. Her voice didn't shake, and that was good, but would it pass muster? The hero didn't really know her; maybe he wouldn't notice how low and croaky her words came out. There was a slight pause before the muted sound of well-worn boots on marble found its way to Elizabeth's ears; she prayed as she stood hastily that it wasn't caused by a realization that something was wrong.

"Hey, umm…" Elizabeth's face was turned away so that she couldn't see the hero, but she could hear the awkwardness in his voice as she tried to wipe discreetly at her wet cheeks. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," she stated flatly, trying her hardest to make it plain that she didn't want to talk about it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Link bending over slightly, trying to peer into her face; she turned away further. Bad idea.

"No you're not." Elizabeth winced, but made no move to resist as the Hylian took hold of her elbow and led her off to the side of the Master Sword's pedestal; upon reaching the stone wall, he sat down against it, tugging at Elizabeth's sleeve to indicate that she should do the same. Elizabeth hesitated a moment, her pride reacting negatively to being led around by the hand -- err, elbow, then sat. There was a silence as they both got situated, Link sitting with one leg bent and the other outstretched, his right arm resting on the former, and Elizabeth hugging her knees and trying to look anywhere but at Link. The silence stretched on still longer, and then finally the hero spoke: "I know what it's like, you know."

"Yeah right." She didn't mean it to be heard, but Link's pointed, Hylian ears were sharper than she realized.

"No, really, I do," he insisted. "I didn't grow up here, you know."

"You grew up a lot closer than I did," Elizabeth retorted.

Link arched an eyebrow at her. "How do you know that?"

Elizabeth squirmed uncomfortably. "I just do." There was another silence. "So I guess Mr. Smith was really Ganondorf, huh?" For some reason, her chest started to swell up with sobs that she wouldn't be able to hold back in a minute. She didn't really understand why it was that just that thought upset her so much, more even than the realization that she was never going home again. Was it just that it was where it all started? Or maybe it had do do with her safe, predictable world being invaded by things she knew had never existed there before.

Link let out a short, one-syllable chuckle that had no real humor behind it. "Mr. Smith. So that's what he decided to call himself. Wonder where he came up with that one..."

Fighting the tidal wave of tears threatening to burst from behind her eyes, Elizabeth forced herself to ask: "My band -- are they going to be okay? I just... if he hurts KP, or Matt, or... or..." Her grief and fear burst free in that one moment; sobs that wracked her entire body made it impossible for her to say anything more; great, hiccuping sobs that she could no more have controlled than the weather. She felt an arm wrap itself around her shoulders, and though she would usually have resisted, she found that this time, she couldn't.

"Hey," she heard him say softly, "hey, it's all right. I don't think he'll hurt them; they're not part of his agenda. You know it was you he was after, right?"

"M-me?" she sniffed. "Why?"

Link sighed. "We're not sure," he admitted. "But when we saw him going after you... well, we couldn't just sit there. You weren't even from our world. You had no idea what was going on... excuse my saying so, but you didn't stand a chance." Elizabeth didn't bother to take the time to be in any way offended by his words. She just kept crying. Link sighed again. "I know this must be hard for you," he said, "but we felt it was the best way to keep you safe."

"And yourselves," she flatly. Link blinked.

"Well, yes," he admitted, "but we can take care of ourselves, mostly. I'll admit that we were concerned over what he would want with you, and what it would mean for Hyrule, but... we were also worried about you." Elizabeth looked up at the hero, feeling a little warmed by this -- although she couldn't stop the sobs.

"Th-thanks," she whispered, still sniffling. Link smiled.

"No problem, kid," he said, ruffling her hair fondly. Elizabeth scowled and ducked away, the same way she would have had it been one of her older brothers doing that.

"Don't touch my hair," she growled. Link laughed.

"All right then, I won't," he agreed, leaning back against the wall with a lazy smile. Elizabeth sighed, the worst of her tears spent -- although she kept sniffling from time to time.

"So is he still in my world, or -- or what?" she asked finally. Link frowned.

"Yes, he's still over there for some reason," he confirmed. "I can't imagine why. He must know by now that you're in Hyrule."

Elizabeth blinked. "How would he know that?" she asked.

Link's face darkened. "Easy: he was there when we took you." He sighed. "To you it was probably just a dream, but he tried to take you back himself, so that he could convert you to his side before we got to you."

"Oh, fantastic job he would have done of that," Elizabeth said sarcastically through her tears. "I was so heart-warmed by his earlier behaviors. You know, bullying a bunch of middle-school kids, and all that."

She could see that Link was confused by the term "middle school," but he smiled nonetheless. "Well, Ganon's always had a bit of an issue with taking on anything that isn't half his size or smaller," he said lightly.

"Huh." Elizabeth was quiet for a moment, wondering how many times bigger than her the Gerudo King was. "I guess so," she said finally.

"Yeah." Link was quiet too as he stared contemplatively at the flagstones in front of his feet. Then he spoke: "I know you probably want to go back home, but... will you do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Give Hyrule a chance." Elizabeth was silent for a moment, so Link pressed on: "Look, I know it can be a little scary -- Farore, I was only ten when I first came here, and from all I was told, I was supposed to stay that way forever. I was terrified. All I'd ever seen before was my forest, which I was always told I could never leave, and suddenly there was this whole big world. There were things I never knew existed, and things I never thought I'd be without that were suddenly nowhere in sight... Like trees. I grew up in a forest; I'd never known anything else. By all the goddesses, I stepped onto this great big plain and... it was so completely strange. Without trees, I felt... lost." He shrugged helplessly. "I think that's when it really hit home, how out of place I was. It was a bigger, stranger world than I was ready for, and I was just one Kokiri. It was all I could do to keep from running back into the forest as fast as my legs could carry me."

"Why didn't you?" Elizabeth asked. "I probably would have."

Link smirked sideways at her. "You'd be surprised what you wouldn't do, given the choice," he said simply. "Do you feel better?"

Elizabeth thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah."

"Then we should get going," he said, and stood. Elizabeth placed her hand in the one he held out to her and pulled herself to her feet.

"You never really answered my question, you know," she pointed out as they walked towards the temple door.

"Pretty soon, you won't need me to." Elizabeth scowled at this new version of the phrase "you'll understand when you're older," but didn't comment. Instead, she stopped and turned to look back in the direction they had come from. Suddenly, she realized that she had walked right past the altar, where three shining stones defied every law of nature she had ever taken for granted, and hadn't even noticed.

"Are you coming?" Elizabeth turned back to look at Link, who watched her with concern in his bluer-than-blue eyes, and smiled.

"Right behind you, Link," she responded, and, turning her back on the altar, walked forward with him. One thing was for sure: her home world was gone from her. She would most likely never go back. But maybe, just maybe, she could adjust to this strange new place after all.

A/N: Geez, how long did I take this time? Sorry 'bout that, guys! Well, here's a new chapter. Sorry for the corny ending, but I got tired of being stuck on the same chapter. Now you know what my English teachers go through when I get sick on their essays on the conclusion paragraph. :) Still, I figured you'd rather actually have something up.

I'm really sorry it took so long. My life was insane this year, plus I suffered a severe lack of self-esteem where this story was concerned: "It's crap! I never want to look at it again!" You know the drill. I'm going to try and push through a little more this summer, if I can remember where I was planning on going with it after this chapter. I mean, I know what the general goal of the story is, but I don't remember what comes next. shrug It'll come to me.

To make it up to you, the next chapter has a one-week deadline, I promise. :)