Beautiful clear light filtered down on the massive statue of Hylia. Her stony eyes gazed down benevolently at the collection of her chosen Heroes on the Sealed Grounds.
She also gazed benevolently straight at them with another, far younger and smaller, set of eyes.
"Greetings, Heroes." Smiled Sun, as radiant as her namesake.
Sky was quick to match her with a beam of his own as he stepped forward for an embrace.
"I missed you so much. It's good to be back."
"Aw, Link ol' buddy! I missed you too!" Groose appeared to intercept Sky's hug for himself, nearly strangling the poor sap with his beefy arms.
"Ack, air, lungs, breathe." He gasped.
"What was that? I couldn't hear you over the sounds of your ribs squeaking. You should probably get that checked out, Link."
Everyone watched in silence as Groose continued to squish the sky child.
"Yes I believe that's quite enough Groose, thank you." Zelda finally rescued Sky when it became clear none of the other Heroes were planning on it.
"He didn't even turn blue yet!" Complained Wind.
"Yeah, squeeze him harder." Encouraged Legend.
"No no no, wait wait wait." Sky forcibly pried Groose's grasping grip away, "I'm supposed to do a speech or something."
"Okay." Time hummed.
Everyone stared at Sky.
"Uh, well, I'm not very good at this…"
"Don't worry Link, I got it." Sun patted his shoulder, stepping forward to save him once more.
"Ahem. Heroes of Hyrule, chosen by the sword that seals the darkness…"
Four and Hyrule shifted self-consciously.
"...you all have shown unflinching bravery and skill in the face of adversity, and have proven yourselves worthy of the blessings of the Goddess Hylia. Whether braving the wilds, a leader amongst warriors, skyward bound, steeped in the glowing embers of twilight, charting the winds, being as one yet four, adrift in time, a fabled legend, or merely travelling Hyrule…" Sun inclined her head at each Link in turn.
"Pft, 'Hyrule'?" Snorted Groose, "That's a silly name. I say we stick with Grooseland, or Groosedom. Huh… Groosedo. Geru-"
"Groose." Zelda interrupted with a sidelong glare. The pompadoured punk promptly flushed with a muttered 'sorry', "Thank you."
"As I was saying… The sacred blade is forever bound to the soul of the Hero. We pray for your protection, and we hope that you will continue to grow as you choose your own destiny."
"Amen." Hyrule and Legend murmured.
"It's too bad Cook and Captain aren't here for this." Wind noted.
"Fret not, you who were not Chosen but heeded the Call nonetheless, for I have cast my View out far to the many futures in order to convey that which I proclaim in the Here and Now by means of my many Selves."
"...What?"
"She's saying that she's gonna have the other Zeldas say it to their respective Link." Sky translated.
"I was trying to be mysterious and divine, Link." Sun, Hylia incarnate, groused.
"You were being confusing." Sky rebuked.
"I thought it was, uh, divinely mysterious?" Groose scratched the back of his head. He was still thinking about cool names for his kingdom.
"Yes, thank you Groose." Sun rubbed her forehead in slight irritation, "But he's right, the future Zeldas should be able to pass all of this on."
"That sort of ability… seems incredibly powerful." Four pondered.
"Can't you just tell our Zeldas to tell us about this beforehand? Before our first quest?!" Twilight questioned. "Wait! Warn my Zelda about-"
"I'm afraid it's not so simple." Sun carefully interrupted. "While I can pass things along, so to speak, the further in time it goes and the more complicated the message the… messier the results are."
"It'd also be a serious detriment to the stability of the timelines." Time added.
"You're one to talk." Legend muttered.
"Yes, and as delightful as you are, I don't think the universe deserves two."
"You time-travelling son of a-"
"Hang on, if it gets distorted over time, and the other two are, like, thousands of years in the future, what exactly are they hearing?" Hyrule wondered.
"I'm… sure the message will get across." Sun reassured unreassuringly.
"I'm… sure the message will get across." Artemis blankly intoned, her eyes staring straight through Warriors' soul.
"What… in the fuck." He said.
"I warned her about this." Tutted Lana. She boldly stepped right in front of Artemis' glassy gaze. "I told you so, Miss All-Powerful!"
Sun's face hardened. "I'll show you All-Powerful!"
Artemis limply slapped Lana across the face.
"The nerve!" She shrieked before raising her own hand.
"Woah there!" Warriors quickly stepped between the two. "Let's not let goddessy disputes harm us mortals, yeah?"
"Yes… yes of course. You're right, Link." Lana composed herself.
"Thank you."
Lana slapped Artemis in the face before flashing away.
"Lana!" Warriors called out futilely, while behind him Artemis came to her senses.
"What just happened? Why does my face sting?! Link! Did you just strike me?!"
Sun cringed. "Ooh, I'm so sorry about that."
"Sorry about what? Zel, what in the world is happening?" Sky demanded.
"Zelda, put down the knife!" Wild shouted, backing away from the seemingly possessed girl.
"Make… Link… Pay… Proud… of… You…" She stuttered, slashing wildly.
"Um, let's just say that there's a reason that this ability isn't, uh, 'on the books', heh."
"Using your descendents as flesh puppets aside, I don't think it's a very effective means of communication." Four agreed.
"Should we just put that aside?" Questioned Legend, "It sounds like you can rob the Zeldas of their free will. Do they even have any? Do we?"
"L-Let's not look too deep into that. I think Link was ready to give that speech!"
"What? No I'm-" Sky saw the look in Sun's eyes, "Yes. Right. The speech. Uh."
The Chosen Hero beheld his expectant audience.
"The speech…" He said to himself. "Ah, what the heck. You guys all know how I feel. I'm- I'm just so proud of you all. As the first-"
Zelda coughed awkwardly.
"-I must admit I left some pretty big boots to kill. I mean fill. Boots to fill, heh. And despite there potentially being a curse on all of us that I was too scared to mention-"
"What?!" Half the Links shouted while Sun cringed.
"-everything's turned out fine, so I guess it didn't matter anyway. Wow, Zel, you were right. This is easy."
"Maybe too easy." Sun replied. "Oh, hey, look at that! Your portal's ready!"
The portal behind the Heroes had, in fact, never closed.
"Wait a minute, these usually vanish when we go through them. Do you control these?" Twilight narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah, and what was all that about a curse?" Wind cried, "I want to know about the curse!"
"Everytime those have dropped us into a pond in the middle of a meal, that was you?" Four accused.
"I'm still thinking about the flesh puppets!" Bemoaned Legend.
"Why did you have to make them all so scary looking?" Hyrule whined, "I've been checking us all for corruption everytime!"
"I too would like to know about this curse." Time crossed his arms menacingly.
"Ha ha, yeah that's crazy. Groose?" At Sun's command, the meaty knight shoved the shouting Heroes into the swirling darkness.
"Whew. That could've gone better." Sky, once more the only Link, wiped his brow.
"I thought you told them about Demise's Curse!" Zelda stabbed a finger into his chest accusingly.
"Yeah, well I didn't want to freak them out! And what was all of that with the flesh puppets?"
"They're not-! Gah! Whatever. Let's just calm down." They both took a deep breath.
"I'll give you two some space." Groose managed to read the room despite his questionable literacy, and scurried away.
Regardless of everything, the sun still shined. The wind still blew. The statue still smiled.
"I missed you." They said at the same time.