A few quick notes:

1. This story is rated T due to some very violent content.

2. The story is actually completed, and I intend to post a new chapter weekly.

3. I don't own any Legend of Zelda character or setting. I'm just borrowing them and I hope Nintendo won't mind too much.

4. Thank you so much for reading (and for reviewing)!

Chapter 7: Unorthodox Research

Despite the fact that it brought about more guards, the scream proved to be a blessing. Zelda and Link, upon hearing it a few paces behind them, automatically ran in the opposite direction, Link dragging Zelda by the wrist in a daylight replay of their flight from the Stalfos.

A guard who arrived from the direction opposite that of the first one almost toppled them, but Link veered left and only turned the right direction again when the guard was a few paces behind them. Zelda, while running, was staring at Link's skirt and praying he wouldn't trip on it.

Which, of course, he did.

They both went down and scrambled up, but not quickly enough: a hand closed on Zelda's ankle. She kicked wildly with her other foot and the hold loosened enough for her foot to slip free. She wasn't even on her feet yet when she felt herself being yanked away by Link, who had scrambled right out of his skirt and whose green pants were showing.

The guards automatically recognized them for who they were and called more of their comrades. Zelda managed to get back to her feet and run, which only meant that she wasn't quite as difficult for Link to drag along.

Link was heading straight for the Lost Woods. Zelda was completely out of breath less than halfway there, but Link did not seem to slow down, or at least to slow down less than their pursuers, who were steadily loosing ground.

There was a close call when more guards, noticing the chase, joined in by trying to block their way. Link had veered left in an alley, right at the next opportunity, and the new guards had joined the other ones behind them.

Zelda did not think she would manage to stay on her feet all the way to the Lost Woods, expecting to fall and be dragged face down for the rest of the way at any moment, but somehow, she made it. Link dashed into the forest and kept going for a bit, just in case the guards dared to take a few steps past the Woods' dense edge.

They didn't, and were left shouting threats at Zelda and Link from beyond the trees, which their quarry ignored. They eventually gave up yelling, but stayed at the edge of the forest, hoping the boy and girl they believed to be murderers would come out before long.

Needless to say, this hope was not realized.

Once safe in the Lost Woods, and certain they were not still being followed, Link let go of Zelda's wrist and collapsed on his hands and knees, panting and shaking. Zelda did much the same thing, except she fell to her side after a few seconds. After a few minutes, still panting a bit, Link lied down as well, on his stomach with his head turned to look at Zelda. She was amazed to see him grinning, but it was contagious: she grinned back.

"You really can outrun anything, can't you?" She said, panting.

"They were faster than that Stalfos." Link said, wheezing but still grinning.

"Too bad we couldn't re-enter the Woods where we left them." Zelda said, losing her smile. "We're lost."

Link lost his smile too. He somehow managed to gather enough strength to push himself up on his elbows and frantically looked around in a panic.

"It's okay!" Zelda said, still out of breath. "I bet you can still find the Master Sword, and from there, we can find our way."

Link didn't look convinced, but he was simply too exhausted to worry.

"Yeah, maybe." He sighed.

They set out as soon as they could both breathe normally again. They stopped at the first stream they encountered to have a drink, but after that, just kept walking, Zelda following Link who was dearly hoping he would get lucky again. Zelda did not bother with maps this time: they had no use for a map that lead nowhere and besides, she was confident Link would find the sword again and thus put them back on the path of their first maps.

They found the treeless corridor a few hours before nightfall, arriving, as they had before, right at the far end of it. Link scratched his head in amazement, and turned to Zelda.

"Weird." He said. "I didn't know where I was going at all."

Zelda shrugged and smiled.

"Are you complaining?" She asked, sitting down and pulling the books she had taken from the library out of her bag.

Link shook his head and sat down as well.

"Hrm. Some of this is written in Hylian..." Zelda muttered.

"Can you read it?" Link asked. "I know some people learn it."

"I studied it, but I can only understand about half of the words I see here. Let me see..."

After a while, she sighed and closed the book she had been reading.

"That can't be right." She said. "I must be remembering those words wrong."

"What words?" Link asked.

"Sea, water, islands, boat... they keep appearing in the text, but it makes no sense."

"Maybe it's about Lake Hylia?" Link suggested.

"I doubt it... it's hard to explain, but these words appear so much it's like there is no land to speak of, except for a whole bunch of islands. I even thought one of the phrases in there was 'giant fish' when I read it."

Link got up to stretch his legs. Zelda picked another book, which was, thankfully, written in normal Hyrulian. She skimmed through it until it was too dark to read anymore.

"It's definitely been fixed before." She said to Link, putting the book down. "It says here the Hero of the Wind's legend was inspired by the sword having to be repaired by one of the heroes. It doesn't say how he did it though."

"What's the Hero of the Wind's legend?" Link asked.

"He would have been one of the early heroes." Zelda explained. "The story is not even set in Hyrule, it's in the ocean. Hmm... The book I was reading before might have been talking of that legend, come to think of it, but it sounded like it was talking about facts, not stories… no, I must have been reading it wrong. Anyway, the Hero of the Wind was a kid who showed up to defeat Ganon, and who could control the wind, which was very useful for sailing in the ocean. In the legend, he finds a powerless Master Sword but magicians he rescues fix it for him."

"I don't know any magician we could rescue. Do you?" Link said, trying, and failing, to sound amused.

Zelda ignored the question.

"When you relived that battle, it felt like it was you fighting, didn't it?" She asked instead.

Link stiffened.

"So what?" He asked. "And it WAS me."

"It was part of you." Zelda corrected. "Past lives are part of us, but they're not exactly us. Everyone is a sum of all their past lives and of their new self."

Link shrugged. "If you say so. But again, so what?"

"If you can remember so well what happened to this one past life, maybe you can remember how another fixed the sword." Zelda explained. She resisted the strong desire to complain about having to spell it out for Link.

"Sorry." Link said. "The only stuff I remember from the past is that fight against Ganon."

"But you remember it perfectly! And, you found the sword, twice." Zelda insisted. "You obviously have some memories from your past lives. You have to at least try."

Link sighed. This was such a waste of time, but Zelda looked like she would refuse to come up with another idea until that one had officially failed.

"Just try for few minutes." Zelda persisted, confirming his impression. "I really think it could work."

Link sat down with another sigh.

"Fine." He said. "But only to show you it's a stupid idea."

Zelda ignored the insult and smiled at him.

"Thank you for humouring me. Now, close your eyes so you can concentrate better."

Link closed his eyes, but not before rolling them.

"Now, try to conjure memories of magicians fixing the Master Sword. Imagine yourself watching them do it."

Link tried, but found he couldn't. He could see what felt like himself but looked like a young Hylian boy holding the sword, and the sword starting to shine, but there were no magicians around. There was a leaf with a face on it, but that was it. He tried harder, concentrating on his happy past self.

Link opened his eyes in surprise: it felt like he was falling. A split second later, before he could even start to make sense of his surroundings, he was plunging into the water. He miraculously managed to keep his head above the surface long enough to scream for help, hoping the flash of red he had seen out of the corner of his eye was a boat with someone on it.

It was, and a hand closed on his arm and pulled him up on said boat. Link coughed up water for a bit, and when he looked up, found himself looking at a young Hylian dressed in green and obviously trying not to laugh.

"W... what's going on?" Link managed. "Where am I? How come you look Hylian?"

"Hold on!" The Hylian interrupted him, still looking very amused. "One at a time, okay?"

Link nodded, fighting back the urge to scream and panic.

"Where am I?" He asked.

The apparition's shaky voice killed the Hero of the Wind's urge to laugh at it, replacing it with pity.

"You're in Hyrule." He said, trying to sound reassuring but not knowing whether this would be good news or not.

"Hyrule? This is Lake Hylia?" Link asked, looking around. There was nothing but water all around them: he couldn't make out any coastline. "I never knew it was THAT big… wait. How did I get here? If this is Hyrule, why do you look Hylian?"

"This isn't a lake." The Hero of the Wind answered. "It's the sea. We're not very far from Windfall Island. And I look Hylian because that's what I am."

This confused Link even more.

"The sea is not part of Hyrule." He said.

"Hyrule is nothing but a sea." The other said. "With some islands. It was flooded a long time ago."

"It was?" Link interrupted him. "So Zelda was reading the book right? But it's not anymore…"

"Zelda?" The other Link asked. "You know Tetra?"

"I'm in the past?" Link said, not paying attention to the boy. "I can't be…"

But even as he said that, Link knew, beyond any doubt, that he was indeed in the past. How he knew, he had no idea, but he knew it just as surely as he knew the sky above his head was blue. It was a very strange feeling, because even though he was absolutely certain of this fact, part of him still couldn't believe it. After a few moments of reflection on the subject, he decided he'd never figure it out and he might as well just go along with it.

He looked at his rescuer again. Now that he knew he was in the past, he recognized him.

"You're the boy I saw with the sword!" He exclaimed. "Your name is Link, right?"

The boy nodded.

"You're the Hero of the Wind, right? The one who was in the Ocean? Except it WAS Hyrule!"

"Well, yeah…" The boy stammered, blushing. "I've been called the Hero of the Wind. It's the baton though, I'm not controlling it myself."

"I'm Link too!" Link said, delirious that Zelda's crazed idea was working out after all, and better than he would ever have expected. He wondered how she would explain that one. "I'm from the future!"

The boy's eyes widened.

"You're the Hero of Time?" He asked. "What were you doing in the future? Is that why you didn't come back? You traveled to the future? Why are your ears so small? Anyway, you're too late, job's done." He added proudly.

"No, no. I'm not the Hero of Time! I'm just another Hero. I have to fight Ganon in the future, not here. You did that."

The boy's eyes widened a bit more.

"Ganon?" He asked angrily. "He came back? For crying out loud!"

Link kicked the side of his boat in anger. After all that, Ganon had returned? And now, a future hero had to fight him, again? How many times did the pig need to be defeated?

"Well... yeah." Link said, completely stunned by the boy's reaction. "He always comes back. Everyone knows that."

The color drained from the boy's face, and Link intensely regretted having said that. He tried to apologize, but the boy raised his hand to shut him up.

"Not your fault." The boy said. "I should have known. He came back after a hundred years, that's why I had to fight him. It makes sense that he'd come back again eventually. Urgh!"

He kicked the side of his boat again, looking, for all his words, completely furious. Link deeply wished he hadn't mentioned Ganon, but there was nothing for it.

"I'm going to try and beat him." He promised instead. "But I need your help."

The boy looked at him grumpily.

"What's the point? You defeat him, he'll just come back again!"

"So what?" Link argued. "At least Hyrule's going to be safe for a while!"

The boy sighed.

"I suppose. What can I do to help you? You promise you'll try to get rid of him for good? I can't believe I did all that and he just came back a bunch of times afterward!" He started pounding his fists on his legs for lack of someone else to punch.

"Well…" Link stammered. He wasn't quite sure how to explain. "You know those magicians that fixed the Master Sword? How did you find them?"

The boy had a puzzled expression, and Link suddenly wondered whether he had arrived at a time after the Master Sword had been fixed.

"It WAS fixed already, right?" He asked. "It has to. You needed it to… oh no." Link's eyes widened.

The boy blinked, but Link cut him off before he could answer and ask what magicians he was talking about.

"You didn't beat Ganon yet?" Link asked, looking horrified. "And I told you he comes back... I'm so sorry! I can't believe I did that! I..."

"I DID defeat Ganon. I told you the job was done, didn't I?" Link interrupted him. "But I didn't get any help from magicians to repair the Master Sword."

Link frowned, relieved but also very confused.

"You didn't? But… how did you fix it, then? It's broken again, and we don't think it's a good idea to just melt it back together. We're afraid to ruin it."

"Melt it back together?" The boy asked, taken aback. "Whoa. It was still whole when I got it, it's just its magic that was weakened. The sages fixed it."

"Sages?" Link asked. "What's that?"

"They guard temples..." the boy stammered. He didn't seem to be entirely clear on the point himself. "The old ones helped the Hero of Time lock Ganon away, but there's only two left. And the worse thing is, neither of them even knew who they were. I had to play them a song to awaken them as Sages, so they can be hard to find. Maybe it would be easier to bring the ones from here to your time?"

Link shook his head automatically, surprising himself. He knew at once he couldn't do as his past self had just suggested, but it was the strangest feeling: he had no idea why he couldn't, other than the certainty that it was a bad idea.

"I can't do that." He sighed. "So that's all you can tell me? I need to find sages?"

The boy nodded.

"Sorry." He said. "And like I said, the sword wasn't actually broken. It was just the magic that needed to be fixed, so I don't even know if Sages will be able to fix it in your time."

Link sighed again.

"Thanks anyway." He said. "Sorry about Ganon."

The younger Link shrugged off the apology, but his future self didn't see it. The ghostly form, which Link had found so funny when it had been "drowning" in the water that was just flowing right through it, and which had lifted itself up effortlessly when Link had "grabbed" its hand (he had actually went right through it), was gone, and Link now fell thoroughly depressed. He slunk back in the boat and wondered whether he could catch up to Tetra and the pirates: he had left them over an hour before, but he could really use the company. And he had been having such a great day until the future Link had mentioned Ganon, too.

From Zelda's point of view, Link's trip into the past was far less exciting: he breathed slower for a moment, leading her to think he was asleep. She had just decided to let him sleep rather than try and wake him up when his eyes flew opened and he shook his head. She smiled at him so he wouldn't think she was angry he had dozed off.

"What?" Link asked, honestly puzzled. Zelda did not look remotely surprised that he had vanished: she looked mildly amused. "Did it look funny when I came back? You knew this was going to happen? How?"

Zelda blinked. What was Link talking about now?

"Came back? You didn't go anywhere, you fell asleep. You must have been dreaming." She said.

"What do you mean, 'I didn't go anywhere'?" Link said indignantly. "I was trying to remember how to fix the sword, and next thing I know, I'm falling into the Ocean! The Hero of the Wind saved me! He was real! And that Ocean, it was Hyrule! It was flooded!"

"You met the Hero of the Wind." Zelda said. "In a flooded Hyrule. And that doesn't tell you that you were dreaming?"

"I wasn't dreaming! I'm sure of it!" Link protested. "Hear me out, will you?"

Zelda sighed very slightly and nodded. It was quite obvious Link wouldn't let her get away with not hearing his tale, whatever it was.

Link related what had happened. When he finished his story, he waited for Zelda to react. It was now too dark to properly see her facial expression, but she was sitting very still and not saying anything. Link assumed she was thinking it over, probably trying to decide whether she still believed he had been dreaming.

"Incredible..." She finally said after a moment.

"What is?" Link asked.

"I think you're right." Zelda said. "You were not dreaming, but you didn't seem to go anywhere. And you weren't 'asleep' for very long at all. A couple of seconds, that's it. Wait… you traveled through Time!" Zelda suddenly realized the enormity of the situation. "Goddesses." She whispered. "Link… you're a Hero of Time. Just like Him!"

Zelda could hardly believe it. She knew Link had some magic: he had changed the colour of his clothes without even trying to, judging by his surprise when he had realized they were green. She also knew that he was very connected to his past lives, as attested by his ability to find the Master Sword and by how he had relived his last encounter with Ganon so vividly as to exhibit physical symptoms of the experience. But time travel was well beyond anything she had dared hope for.

"Just like who?" Link asked, interrupting her reflections.

"The first Hero on record. The only one that was the Hero of Time. Some of the other ones got called Heroes of Something or Other as well, but he was the only Hero of Time. Until you!"

"So what?" Link asked.

"Well…" Zelda said, surprised by his lack of enthusiasm. "Nothing, I guess. Except you can apparently send your spirit into the past. But… don't you realize?" She started back. "I… err… I mean, many people DREAM about meeting the Hero of Time. He's a legend! There are a lot of girls who…" At that point, she trailed off and looked down.

"He's dead." Link pointed out. "Tell all those girls to start liking ME." He added with a mocking smile.

Zelda seemed to shrink in embarrassment. Link took pity on her and switched the subject back to what had happened.

"So you didn't see me leave and come back? I must have come back right after I left. And you didn't notice because it's already pretty dark..."

"Not dark enough for me not to notice you disappearing and then reappearing. Besides, you looked asleep for a few seconds: even your breathing was slower." Zelda said. "Like I said, I think only your mind traveled in time. Your body stayed here."

Link shrugged.

"Maybe." He said. He didn't really see the point of the distinction.

"Do you even realize what this means, Link? You can travel through time!"

"Well…" Link said. Zelda sounded more excited than he would have thought, seeing he couldn't bring the sages back. It then struck him that at least, he had learned they were looking for sages, not magicians. "Hey… I can find out things when you can't!"

Zelda nodded vigorously, grinning. Her eyes went wide as another possibility presented itself to her mind.

"What if... what if you went back to your last life and helped yourself fight Ganon?" She said.

As before when his past self had suggested bringing the Sages back to this time, Link had a very strong negative feeling about that idea. He said so to Zelda, who quickly sobered up.

"Yes... you're right." She said. "We have no idea what would happen in the following 1500 years if we changed the past like that... for all we know, Ganon would come back again in between and just kill everyone. But... to think we could help the last Hero... I hate not to." She concluded.

"No kidding." Link said miserably.

There was an uncomfortable silence between them, broken after a few minutes by the first painful scream of the night. It seemed so close that Link and Zelda could have sworn it was within the Lost Woods themselves if they had not been so certain that no potential victim would come into the forest.

"Those guards know we're in here." Link remarked. "You don't think Ganon can find us, do you?"

"I hope not." Zelda said. "I'm hoping the guards will not even admit knowing where we are. If we are lucky, they had orders to catch us no matter what and they will be too afraid to admit they stopped pursuing us just because we entered the Lost Woods. But it's possible they will tell their superiors the truth, too. And if they did…" She trailed off. If Ganon found them in the Woods, they had no chance to survive.

Link's eyes had widened and he looked around nervously. She decided to change the subject, partly to get their minds off the possibility of Ganon jumping out of the trees at them in the middle of the night, partly because they did need to talk about what they were going to do next.

"So." She said. "Sages. How do we find them?"

"No idea." Link answered. "They don't even know they're sages. I told you that, right?"

Zelda nodded.

"The Hero of the Wind said I should bring the two he knows back here, but it's just like helping my past self... I don't think I should."

"You told me that too." Zelda said testily. "I wish you didn't feel that way, but since you do, we'll just have to figure out something else, won't we?"

Link didn't say anything. He couldn't really blame her for being annoyed that he was ruling out the most obvious solution to their problem.

"Maybe we can do some genealogical research." Zelda suggested.

Link tutted at her. He had the distinct feeling that she was going out of her way to use words he had never heard before. He could often guess what they meant, but not always. In this particular case, he didn't have the faintest idea what "genealogical" might mean. In fact, he suspected she had just made it up.

"What I mean is," She said, "you could travel back in time to find the descendants of the Sages the Hero of the Wind knows of, then go forward a bit to find THEIR descendant, and so on until we know who all their current descendants are. I'm sure the current Sages will be among them."

"That sounds... long." Link said.

"Long for you, but you were only gone for a moment from my point of vu. You're travelling in time, so you can come back right after leaving, and that's what you did. I think you may be able to find the descendants before dawn. It probably won't even tire you out, since it's only your mind travelling."

"Okay, okay." Link sighed. He still thought that would take forever, but he didn't know what else to do. "I'll try."

And he did. He seemed to fall asleep again, and after a few seconds, opened his eyes and slumped, looking depressed.

"I found the kids of one of the Sages the Hero of the Wind met, but that was it. I couldn't go to the time when THEY would have had kids, I kept ending up too late or too soon. It's like I can only go to certain times. I think it's no good anyway: one of them was a talking leaf-thing – he didn't have any kids - and the other one was a bird-girl with wings and a beak. There are no bird people around now, so…"

Zelda's eyes widened. She had never even heard of such species, which meant they were either extinct, as Link suggested, or had been in hiding for centuries. Out of sheer unwillingness to dwell on the Sages' apparent lack of descendants, she concentrated on the fact Link could only travel to certain times.

"I think..." she said, "I think you might only be able to travel to where you already are. Where your past selves are, that is." She said. "It's easy to check. Try to go just a few years before you were born."

Link obliged, and although Zelda could not see him as more than a silhouette in the darkness, she assumed from his silence and immobility that he was doing as she had asked. It was several minutes before he broke the silence.

"I can't." He sighed. "I can't go anywhere closer than when Ganon won."

Zelda sighed as well. She would have loved to cheer him up, but she was so discouraged herself that she couldn't think of anything to say. Link's ability to send his mind through time to talk to his past selves was an unexpected treat, but right now, it really made no difference. The revelation that he had not been reborn at all since Ganon's victory, instead of his reincarnations having merely failed to face Ganon, was not helpful either, as interesting as she would normally have found it.

"I think I'll go back and get the old Sages. I don't even know why I shouldn't." Link said.

Zelda could not bring herself to disagree. She knew that if Link had been given the power to travel through time, any instinct he had also been given should not be ignored, but the situation was desperate.

"The two from the Hero of the Wind's time were only able to restore the blade's magic, though." She thought aloud. "The Master Sword is in pieces now... I don't know whether they'll be able to fix it. I wonder if you shouldn't go for the first Sages. History says they were the most powerful."

"Where are THEY?" Link asked.

"Well, come to think of it, there is no guarantee that they were the actual first ones. The ones I meant, the ones history calls the first and the most powerful, were around in the time of the Hero of Time, back when Ganon first became Ganon instead of Ganondorf Dragmire."

"So, what, I should try to remember Ganondorf? What if I arrive right in front of him?"

"Maybe you should try to remember preparing to go battle Ganondorf, as opposed to Ganon. This way, if you arrive next to the person you were thinking of, it will be the Hero of Time."

Link nodded and one second later, appeared to have fallen asleep again.

He found himself in a vast field, at dusk. No sooner had he taken in that much of his surroundings that an arrow whizzed by his ear. He yelped and threw himself on the ground, trying to be as flat as possible while looking up and around in the hope of seeing his past self and calling him to his rescue.

That hope was squashed by the fact his attacker appeared to be none other than his past self. He was on a horse, a Hylian of about his age clad in green with bright white pants and undershirt, and pointing an arrow at him with a fierce expression on his face.