It was chaos. Riju had never seen anything like it. Corpses lined the halls. Both Hylian and Monster.
Being Gerudo, both she and Nabooru were assumed to be the enemy. Riju had no choice: she fought them off as best as she was able as they tried to get a handle of the situation.
"Where's Ganondorf?" Nabooru asked. "Where's the King?"
Riju turned her head. An arrow from a nearby soldier narrowly missed her forehead and shot right past her, embedded itself into a moblin's skull. She barely had time to register just how different it looked from the moblins in her own time as she answered.
"Our priority should be support the King of Hyrule." She said. "The Alliance-"
She barely got to finish her sentence. A bright flash of light hit her eyes and she cried out. The soldiers and monsters around her stopped fighting.
They craned their necks upward, and stared up at the balcony above them. Ganondorf himself was standing above them.
"There can be only one King!" He shouted, as he held up the King of Hyrule's head over the balcony. Riju let out a cry of rage, lightning crackling all around her, as the monsters let out a jubilant cheer, as the soldiers below stood, frozen in shock.
"It can't end this way!" Riju cried. "It can't!"
"My first act as King." Ganondorf rumbled. "Bring me Princess Zelda."
Riju felt a flutter of horror well up within her. It took her a brief second to remember that he was referring to the little girl from this time, not the grown woman from her own. Her confusion, however, gave way quickly to blind determination.
"I have to stop him."
"Riju-"
"I can't let him have her." Riju snapped. "I will not allow the Gerudo to go to war with Hyrule for this madman's ambitions!"
She had barely finished speaking when a white horse shot out from across the battlefield. Riju barely had time to recognize the Princess, and her retainer, as they crossed the drawbridge to the gate.
Ganondorf saw them too. He leapt downward, his cape flying wildly behind him, his hand outstretched. Riju did not hesitate. The greatest bolt of lightning she had ever made launched out from her, headed straight towards him.
He turned to her, clearly surprised. She barely had time to feel a sense of smug satisfaction as the attack landed.
"Hug!"
To Riju's horror, he grabbed the bolt of lighting in mid-air and sent it back with his own magic, shattering the ground beneath her feet. Riju let out a cry as she was thrown back.
"Stupid girl." Ganondorf snarled. "To think you had such power!"
He turned and whistled. Immediately the mighty black Gerudo Stallion he favored came racing to his side, and he mounted it. He clicked his heels, and it raced off in pursuit of the White Horse.
Riju fell to one knee, completely rattled. Nabooru raced to her side and clutched her arm.
"You can't stay here." She said sharply. "When he comes back, he'll…"
The monsters, now that they were not in the presence of their master, resumed their assault. The soldiers, completely taken off guard, were picked off one by one. Riju grimaced as one came towards her, weapon raised. Nabooru stepped in and killed it.
"I can't baby you." She said, frustrated. "Can you stand?"
"Y-yes… I'm not injured."
She stood up shakily, and tried to get her bearings. She was rattled. His power was beyond that of anything she had ever encountered…
"Focus." Nabooru said, sharply. "You're not getting out of this alive otherwise."
Riju took in a deep breath. By the time the second and third monster came at them she was able to fight them both off, with Nabooru's help.
"We have to return to the Fortress." Nabooru said. "And warn the others what has happened."
"Zelda needs to be protected."
"You think she's going to forgive us after what happened here today?" Nabooru snapped. "A war is coming!"
"It isn't about her forgiving us." Riju said coldly. "It's about doing what's right for the Kingdom."
"The Kingdom!" Nabooru laughed. "The same kingdom that turned us out into the desert and left us to rot?"
Riju did not answer. She did not want to inform Nabooru of her greatest fears… that, perhaps, the Gerudo people were too dangerous to be allowed to live.
She blinked. And then she was back in her own time, with Zelda.
"What happened?" She asked, taken aback by the sudden change of scenery.
"I… I don't know!" Zelda said, surprised. "It was like… something happened to the flow of time… in that very moment."
Riju let out a deep breath and then inhaled again, trying to settle her nerves.
"What happened to Nabooru?" She demanded. "And Zelda? And the rest?"
"I don't know!" Zelda told her, horrified. "I… didn't get to see… something interfered with my powers… Someone else with power over time…"
"Ganondorf." Riju breathed. "It had to be. He must have gotten a hold of her, and…" A sinking feeling welled up in her stomach.
"You have to send me back." She said. "I can save her, I know I-"
"Riju." Zelda said, her voice calm and composed. Riju fell silent.
"If anything had happened to her… my distant ancestor… do you think that I would be sitting before you now?"
Riju opened her mouth to argue but Zelda cut her off.
"You have forgotten what you set out to do." She said. "Your role is not to play the role of savior for long past events. Your goal is to understand the true nature of the Demon King, and his relationship with your people. That was your goal, was it not?"
Riju felt her mouth go dry.
"It wasn't in the past, it was happening right then-"
"You did not belong in that time." Zelda repeated, her voice firm. "You mustn't feel guilty for events that do not concern you."
"It does concern me." Riju said quietly. "They are my people. Regardless of what time I find myself in. Please… you must send me back."
Zelda bent her head, and acquiesced.
…
It was a hellscape.
She stood among the remains of Castle Town, shocked at the apocalyptic state of things. ReDeads walked the streets, moaning in hopes of discovering fresh prey. Filth and decay had built up so much that she doubted that a single building was habitable. The only soul living in town was dark merchant who dealt with ghosts.
It couldn't have been the day after the massacre. It had to be have been some time after that. Looking at the ruins of this town made her think back to day she first stepped into the ruins of Castle Town. But then, at least, the Calamity had been dealt with, and the Guardians with it.
"How long has it been?"
"Seven years."
Riju reached for her scimitars. She turned, expecting to see a monster or perhaps Ganondorf instead, but it was instead a young boy. It was a Sheikah, she could tell immediately by the symbol on his chest, but the hair was a bright blonde rather than the typical white, like Impa's had been.
"And you are?" Riju asked, as she brandished the blades in front of her. "A servant of Ganondorf's, perhaps?"
"Amusing, coming from a Gerudo." Was the dry reply. Riju flushed, turning her head away, and then lowered her weapons.
"I have no love for that man." She said softly. "But you didn't answer my question."
"I am Sheik." Was the reply. Riju raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. She found it hard to believe that that was a real sheikah name.
"I am the last of my kind."
If that was true this man must have bred like a rabbit.
"Have you come to visit the Temple of Time?" Sheik asked. "I often pray there myself… even now, it is a place free of monsters."
"Pray?" Riju curled her lips. "Here?"
"But of course." Sheik answered. "This is holy ground, after all. Dedicated to the Goddess Nayru… the Mother of Time."
She struggled to remember the theology she had been taught in this period. The three golden goddesses… Din, Nayru, and Farore… did not have any obvious relationships with the Goddess Hylia, the patron deity from her own time.
"I will not." Riju said. "The last time I prayed to gods that were not my own, I met Ganondorf."
Sheik gave her a dark look.
"You've met the Evil King?"
"Yes." Riju said, evasively. "Before he… became the king." She wasn't sure how much time had passed since he had come to power, so she wasn't sure what her story should be. Best keep it vague.
"That was quite some time ago." Sheik said, amused. "You were probably still a child, then."
"I was not!" She protested, before realizing what she was saying. She blushed again, turning her head away from him, and again he laughed.
"Perhaps you should be more forthcoming with me." Sheik said. "You are not from this era, are you?"
Riju reached for her swords again.
"There is no need for that." Sheik said, raising a hand to placate her. "No… I simply sensed another disturbance here and came to investigate. This place…' He tilted his head upward to look at the Temple. "Is where it will all begin… and, perhaps, someday end."
"Another disturbance?" Riju repeated. "There is another person out of time here, just like me?"
"Perhaps not quite like you." Sheik said. "He is fighting with the flow of destiny… you…. Are fighting against it. You wish to stop Ganondorf, don't you?"
"Yes."
"It cannot be done."
Riju opened her mouth to argue, but Sheik quickly intervened. "It cannot be done the way you imagine it can be. There will never be an everlasting era of tranquility and peace… his cursed existences is interwoven into the very fabric of our world. He is more idea, than man."
"You speak in riddles."
"In this era." Sheik said. "He was born to the Gerudo in a era of oppression. His people were forced into petty thievery in order to merely survive, and as a young man who admired the elegance and influence of the gods… he sought to become like one himself. He educated himself in magic, in history and politics… and in the ancient wisdom left behind by the Three Golden Goddesses."
Riju stared at him.
"He sought Power, for no higher goal other than that it was what he desired most." Sheik. "To a man like Ganondorf, merely being the king of a tribe of thieves… too small and petty to even be called a tribe, let alone a kingdom… was intolerable. And now he that rules the entire world…. Now that he has wiped entire countries and continents off the map… all is how he thinks it should be."
Riju bared her teeth. "He's a monster. He must be destroyed… for the sake of us all, I cannot allow him-"
"Somewhere." Sheik continued. "There is a man… who can stop him. For a time. He is traveling the land now, gathering together a group of very powerful people... those in whom run the blood of ancient, powerful sages."
Riju's throat ran dry. This all sounded very familiar…
"With these sages." Sheik continued. "Ganondorf can be sealed away. Until the day he rises again…"
"You believe he can't be killed?"
"Believe?" Sheik repeated. "I know this for a fact."
Riju clenched her teeth and bared them at him.
"That isn't what I wanted to hear." She said. "I will break the cycle, regardless of what you say. History will never again repeat itself… as it has so many times before."
Sheik stared at her intently.
"The cycle is unbreakable." He said, his voice slow, firm, and reassuring. "It cannot be done."
Riju smiled. "It isn't in my nature to believe the words of a man."
Sheik laughed, and in a brief flash of light he was gone.
…