Chapter Twenty One

Professor: Hi everyone!
Quick warning, MM Link mentions rape in this chapter. THERE IS NO ACTUAL RAPE IN THIS STORY. I want to make that very clear. However, he talks about how he didn't have a choice in a lot of his time travel adventures and compares it to rape. He calls it 'time-raped'. Again, no actual rape occurs in this story. Now or in the future. It will not be happening, I can promise that.
I didn't want to cross any lines or catch anyone off guard with the comment and/or possibly trigger someone, so here is the trigger warning!


Link's head hurt.

Again.

He was getting really tired of waking up with a headache.

He blinked, his vision slowly coming into focus. With it came a lot of sounds. Mostly yelling. Confused yelling.

He blinked again, sitting up. He seemed to be in a large, round room. Instead of stone, the floors and walls seemed to be made of some sort of blue crystal. If he squinted hard enough, Link could see through it, making out vague shapes on the other side. It looked like waterfalls? That didn't make a lot of sense.

Doors encircled the room, each one different. Some looked like house doors. Others like they belonged in temples. The one closest to him was the most familiar. Link could've sworn it was the door to his grandmother's house.

Again, it didn't make a lot of sense.

In the very center of the room was a small round pedestal. Link guessed that it would come up to about his chest, but it was barely wider than him. Floating above it was a long, translucent ribbon of light, reaching up towards the ceiling. It faded just before it got there, but there was something about the light that drew him in, like there was something familiar about it. The light moved, flowing like water, but never reaching out past the pedestal.

What really grabbed his attention though, were the people in the room with him. The room was absolutely filled with people, yelling and shouting over one another. Some he recognized. A lot of them he didn't. Most of them he did, but that was because they were versions of him and Tetra. Well, versions of Tetra back when she was Zelda.

Link blinked again, rubbing his eyes as he looked around in disbelief.

How were there so many versions of them here?! The Light Spirits were supposed to help him contact the Goddess of Time to send them home! How were they all here instead?!

Link was more confused than ever, deciding to tune in to all of the yelling in a small attempt to figure out what was going on.

"What just happened here?!" Ok, not a lot of hope so far.

"Who are you?!"

"Link, are you ok?!"

"Zelda, Midna, what exactly happened?!"

"My body! Link, look, my body's here!"

"Why are there so many of you?!"

"Where are we?!"

"Wait, you're alive?! How?!"

"My Triforce is gone!"

"Mine too! Where did it go?!"

"Ezlo! You'll never believe what just happened!"

Link watched in amazement as everyone kept arguing, talking over one another. A lot of them seemed to be in the midst of reunions. Link saw the other version of himself that he had met with Lanayru practically launch himself at a floating blue woman, reaching for the green hat on her head. Quill was on the other side of the room, arguing with another Rito while a red-headed woman listened, laughing at them. A version of him with dark hair and a bunny hood kneeled down to look at a painting (was that Zelda?!) with another Link, mumbling under his breath.

To the other side of the room, Link saw Tetra. Medli was helping her lean against a wall, the pirate's eyes wide in panic. That made him concerned. Tetra only panicked when things were truly bad. Link followed her line of sight, seeing what she was looking at.

There, on the ground next to another Zelda, was another Tetra. This one was unconscious, but her breathing was deep and even and she didn't look injured.

Memories bombarded him and he realized that one of them must be the Tetra he'd rescued from the Ghost Ship and the other one must not have lived through that yet. It was just like him back in the Hidden Village.

Link jumped up, rushing his way through the crowd to get to them. Squeezing in between a girl in a witch outfit and a man in a tunic like his, only yellow, Link reached their side.

"Hey, you ok?" he asked, squeezing Tetra's hand reassuringly. Medli sent him a small smile in greeting, which he returned.

Tetra blinked at his voice, staring up at him in shock, "Kid, there's another version of me. And you. And-and-"

"I know," he whispered gently, "Time sort of broke. I can explain what happened."

"You can?" Medli let out a sigh of relief. "We've been using guess work up until now, but I'm happy you have an answer."

"W-Wait, you knew?!" Tetra started out stammering in shock, but now looked angry. "What exactly is going on here?! What did you two get us involved in now?!"

"I don't know exactly how it started, but I got lucky and fell into a time with Light Spirits. They gave me the gist of things and asked me for-"

"Wait, back up, fell into a time?!" Tetra cut him off, looking at him in disbelief.

Link nodded, then realized that none of this was probably helping. From the look on her face, Tetra was more confused than ever.

"Ok, first of all, don't worry about your other self, I can help fix that." he said as reasuringly as possible. One problem at a time, he could handle that. "As far as explaining the rest goes, it might be best to do it all at once." he glanced around at the rest of the group, still yelling and reuniting, demanding answers.

Someone else seemed to have the same idea as him though. A small woman with bright red hair and a headpiece floated above the rest. She seemed more like an imp than anything, her skin covered in swirling light and dark patterns. She surveyed the room with her hands on her hips before lifting her fingers to her mouth, letting out a piercing whistle.

There were more yells and groans as many of them clutched their ears, especially the ones who were closest to her. The Link underneath her in particular looked like he was in a lot of pain, rubbing his ears far longer than anyone else in the room.

"Alright, now that I can hear myself think, does anyone have any clue what in the Light Realm just happened?!" she yelled.

"I do!"

"Me too!"

"I have a theory?"

The woman groaned as most of the room began talking over each other once again, "Alright, let's try this. Raise your hand if you know what just happened or have any idea where we are!"

Over half the hands in the room went up, the fairies on the far end flying up in the air in lieu of being able to raise their hands. Link was impressed. He didn't realize that so many people who fell through to other times may have also figured it all out.

"Great, you first little wolf." the woman nodded to the Link next to her who had his hand up.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the other Rito, the one Quill had been arguing with. "Exactly why should we be listening to you?"

The woman raised her eyebrow at him, "Because I seem to be the only one here with any sort of common sense. The rest of you were too busy arguing and yelling to try to figure something out."

Link shivered at her tone of voice. The expression on her face never changed, but he still had a chill down his spine.

"Midna, lighten up." the other Link sighed at her, "He's probably as confused as the rest of us."

"No, Feathers is just mad that we aren't listening to him first." the red-headed woman next to him spoke up. "Please continue on."

"Urbosa," the Rito growled at her.

She shrugged, "I don't have time to deal with your bruised ego today, Revali. I want to go home and make sure my people are ok and after what I've been through and what I'm seeing here, where no one is attacking us by the way and seems as confused as we are, I'm willing to go on a little faith to get an explanation. So shut up and listen."

The Rito, Revali, seemed shocked by her voice, not responding. Urbosa gestured toward the floating woman, "Please, continue."

"Thank you." the woman smiled appreciatively at her.

"Wait!" the dark haired Link with the bunny hood spoke up, waving his hands around.

"What now?" she sighed.

"I would love an explanation as much as the next person, but can it wait until we get our friend out of this painting?" he gestured to the stained glass looking picture behind him, "I don't want to have to re-explain it all again in just a few minutes."

She rolled her eyes, "Fine, but how exactly are you going to do that? Your friend is in a painting. How'd she even get there anyway?"

"Yuga did it." The witch Link had run past earlier spoke up, "He trapped a bunch of us in them, but Greenie was able to save us. He can get her out as well."

She gestured to another Link. He waved quickly before reaching for the painting. Link saw a bracelet flash on his wrist before his hand sunk into the painting as if it was liquid. There were multiple gasps from around the room as they all watched. This Link braced his foot against the edge of the painting and pulled. Slowly, his hands emerged from the painting, clenching someone's arm tightly between them.

Bunny Link, for lack of a better name, grabbed hold and helped him pull. With the added help, another Zelda slid out of the painting, collapsing on the two Links who had just freed her, the three of them tumbling to the ground.

Urbosa looked at them in shock, whispering, "Huh…she really wasn't lying about that."

"Thank you." Zelda panted, "It's really hard to breathe in there."

"Tell me about it." The witch scoffed.

"Would you like us to bring you up to date, your majesty?" Bunny Link asked.

"I believe they were already going to do that." Painting Zelda gestured to the floating woman and the Link next to her. Like everyone else in the room, they were looking at Painting Zelda in a mix of amazement and confusion. "I was conscious and aware of everything that happened in front of my painting. That reminds me, when this is all over Ravio, we are going to need to have a talk about Hilda and Lorule."

She glared at Bunny Link and he blushed guiltily, "To be fair, I tried to stop her."

"Wait, stop Hilda?" Bracelet Link looked very confused. "But she was helping us stop Yuga."

"I'll explain later." Painting Zelda said, standing back up and looking towards the floating woman, "Sorry to get sidetracked!"

"Are you…ok?" Another one of the Zeldas looked at her in disbelief, "You were just in a painting!"

Painting Zelda just nodded, "It was like suspension actually? I was conscious and knew what was happening around me, but my body itself was put on a type of pause. I never got hungry or tired. I'm fine, I promise."

"...Good to know." That Zelda did not look reassured by Painting Zelda's words.

"Anyone else we need to help first?" the floating woman asked, "What about those two?"

She nodded towards the unconscious Tetra and another Zelda.

Link shook his head immediately, "We don't need to wake her up. I'll explain why later."

"Ok then."

"And this is actually me." Another Zelda spoke up, flying down to the two bodies. This Zelda made Link's eyes go wide. She looked exactly like Tetra did when Tetra was Zelda, but she was a ghost! An actual ghost!

"Ok, are you ok?" the same Zelda who had asked it before said, "You're a ghost!"

"I'm not a ghost!" Ghost Zelda huffed, folding her arms and glaring at her, "I'm just a spirit that has been temporarily disconnected from my body. My body is right down there! I don't know how to fix myself yet, but I do know that I'm not a ghost! Ghosts are spirits whose bodies have died and mine is alive, right down there. Link and I have-"

Another Link cleared his throat uncomfortably, "Um, Zel?"

"What?!" Ghost Zelda snapped, turning on him.

"They all see you," he whispered.

"Of course they see me, we're talking!"

"No, I mean, they see you," he repeated, emphasizing it.

That finally got through to her and Ghost Zelda grew very still, the words sinking in. Slowly, she turned away from that Link and looked at the rest of the group who were staring at the two of them awkwardly.

Ghost Zelda blinked, then turned back to her Link, "How exactly is that possible?" Her voice came out as more of a panicked squeak, "I was with the two birdbrains before I came here and they definitely didn't see me before and now they do. How is that possible?"

"Hey!" Revali yelled out, insulted. Ghost Zelda ignored him. Quill looked confused, muttering, "When were you with us?"

"I believe I…can answer…your questions…" an ethereal voice flooded the room. Link jumped, looking around for one of the Light Spirits. It sounded so similar.

"Who is that? Who's there?!"

The ribbon of light pulsed so slightly that it was barely noticeable, "I am…always here. Time is…constant."

One of the fairies (Link blinked in confusion, was that Ciela?) trilled, the sound ringing through the air, "Your Grace, is that really you?!"

"What, you know the voice?" another fairy snapped at her.

Ciela ignored them, flying towards the ribbon, "Your Grace, I can barely sense you! Before I came here, I couldn't sense you at all! What's happened?!"

"Yes…it's me. I wish…I could've helped…sooner."

"You've helped plenty! Let us help you!" Ciela cried out, "You feel so faint right now, it's like you're…"

Her voice trailed off, as if afraid of what she had been about to say. Link's heart panged. He'd never heard his friend sound so terrified.

"Ciela, it'll be ok." he said, running up to the fairy and pedestal before he knew what he was doing, "Whoever your friend is, we'll make sure they're ok, I promise!"

"Kid, how do you know the fairy?!" Tetra called out after him. He ignored her, something that he would probably pay for later.

The ribbon pulsed again, "You do not…know me…young hero? You called…for me, sending…the Light Spirits'...power."

"The Light Spirits? From my time?" Another Link, the one who had been called 'little wolf' asked.

Link ignored him too, gaping at the ribbon, "Wait, you're the Goddess of Time?!"

Yet another Link rushed forward, clinging to the edge of the pedestal as he was possibly one of the shortest Links there, and staring up at the ribbon, "You're the Goddess of Time?! Really?!"

"Yes, I am…I heard all of your calls…I-"

This smaller Link cut her off, now glaring, "You're the reason I've been to hell and back! You've put me through so much, you know that?! You're the reason I'm stuck like this now! I can't even find a word that describes all the Dodongo crap you've put me through! Did you know that-"

Link's jaw dropped. Who was this other version of him and why in the world were they yelling at a literal Goddess?! Did he have a death wish?!

He looked like he was about to keep ranting at the Goddess, but another Zelda, this one in a flowy white dress, leapt forward and covered their mouth. She looked sheepishly at the ribbon of light, "Sorry about that, give me a moment?"

She spun the angry Link around, hissing at him in a low voice, "What do you think you're doing?! That is the Goddess of Time! You can't talk to her like that!"

"I'll talk to her however the Din I want to." he scoffed, crossing his arms, "Not only did she make me miss seven years of my life, but now I'm mentally way too old for my physical body and keep getting mentally older without actually aging because she stuck me in an endless 3 day time loop! Anyone ask me if I wanted to do that? Nope! Just threw me to the metaphorical time wolves!"

"You didn't seem this angry on the train!"

"Yeah, well the Goddess wasn't on the train with us! Now she's right there and I have a chance to let loose all of the pent up anger from all the time travel I didn't consent to! I was basically time-raped!"

Zelda facepalmed, "That doesn't mean you get to yell at someone who can literally turn you into dust with barely a thought."

He scoffed again, rolling his eyes, "I'd love to see her try. If she was gonna kill me, she would've by now. No, she needs me. Actually, she needs all of us or we wouldn't be here."

"He is right…to be angry…I did not…ask for help…I demanded. I…apologize…deeply."

Angry Link looked over his shoulder at the Goddess, eyebrow raised appreciatively, "Thank you. Apology accepted, that's all I wanted."

Another Link stepped forward, hand held up nervously, "Sorry to interrupt, but did you say you lost 7 years of your life?"

Angry Link nodded, "When I drew the Master Sword. Ended up in a time-induced coma for 7 years."

"That's impossible, that's what happened to me."

Angry Link sighed and looked back at the Goddess, "Really? This now too? Did you really have to?"

"I was not…the one who…did it…this time, hero."

"What?" The questioning Link looked more confused than ever. Angry Link waved his concern off.

"Don't worry, it'll make sense to you…eventually."

"I would love for everything to make sense now." the floating imp woman from before said, coming over to them with her hands on her hips. "I think we've been remarkably patient, but that patience is running out. Now, what happened?!"

"Allow me to…explain." the Goddess of Time said. Everyone else listened intently.

"It revolves around the Hero of Time."

"Me?" Questioning Link asked in a panic. Angry Link huffed, "Figures."

"I'm still confused by that."

"I'll explain later."

"If what I think happened with you two did actually happen, would that really be wise?" Ciela piped up.

Angry Link shrugged, "At this point, I don't really think it matters. Obviously time is broken, more than it's ever been before. Learning about my own future has already happened, not happened, and is currently happening. Any more of it and nothing will really change because we are already broken, while not being broken. Also, I don't really care at this point."

Link rubbed his head, a headache building from trying to work through that sentence, "What?"

"Time travel and time magic both happens and doesn't happen. It's really confusing, but I promise, he knows what he's talking about." Medli explained helpfully.

"Wait, so, do you remember all of this from his perspective?" Painting Zelda asked.

Angry Link thought about it for a long moment, looking very confused, "No, actually, I don't. That's weird."

"If you were…to step in the…same time, then…your memories…would appear…up to that…point. As we are…outside of time…right now…this will not…occur."

Angry Link frowned, "Sounds fun." he said sarcastically.

"Wait, if both of you are the same person, could you hold hands or touch or something really quick?" Link asked.

Angry Link looked at him, puzzled, before shrugging, reaching out to poke Questioning Link in the hand. When nothing happened, he turned back and shrugged.

Link huffed, "Now why did it work for me, but not you two?"

Questioning Link shrugged this time, "I'm not sure what you expected to happen?"

"Their times are…too far apart…you met yourself…in a much closer…timeline than…they have. Time…corrected itself in…a closer instance…but too much has…changed between them…for the same…solution to work." the Goddess explained.

"I feel like this is making more questions than answering them." Bracelet Link muttered.

"You aren't the only one." Quill agreed.

"Then maybe we should shut up and let her explain." the floating imp glared at them. When everyone was silent again, she nodded to the Goddess.

"When the Hero of Time…sealed Ganondorf away…Ganondorf gained control…over time…in the Sacred Realm."

"How is that even possible?" one of the Zeldas asked.

"When the…Hero of Time…was sealed away…for 7 years…and then time traveled…between two points…of his own timeline…he created a paradox. After that…every time he…time traveled…it created a…rip in time. Ganondorf…used these rips…to attack me and…gain control of time."

"What paradox did we create?" Questioning Link asked Angry Link.

"More like what paradox didn't we create?" he answered with a frown and a scoff, "Off the top of my head, I'd say the Song of Storms was the first paradox we made, I just thought it was self-sustaining."

"Normally it would've…been self-sustaining…but time traveling…through the Sacred Realm…so much…after the creation…of a paradox…made it worse. This…this is what created…the rips in time…that he used."

Angry Link and Questioning Link winced at the same time, looking even more alike than before, and both said, "Sorry."

"You keep saying time travel through the Sacred Realm." Urbosa spoke up, "I mean, I get you are literal 'time' and all and so you live in the Sacred Realm, but why does traveling through the Sacred Realm change things?"

"Normal time travel doesn't go through the Sacred Realm." Angry Link answered, "It uses magic spells or items blessed by the Goddess of Time. A Gate of Time or the Ocarina of Time, things like that. When we did it-" he gestured to himself and Questioning Link, "we bypassed that by basically sleeping and waking up in the Sacred Realm at different points of our own personal timeline. That brought everything a lot closer to literal 'time itself', the Goddess of Time. It made her a lot more vulnerable than she ever should've been. I'm also assuming that the standard 'realm' rules apply?"

He directed the last part to the ribbon of light with a raised eyebrow.

"Most of them. The Sacred Realm…is more stable…than others…so the rules do not…change as frequently. The Sacred Realm…where we are now…is outside of time…Hyrule will not…move forward until…one of you leaves…through a door."

"What does that mean?" the Zelda in the flowy white dress asked.

"You remember my tree metaphor?" he asked her. When she nodded, he continued, "Well, at the end of the day, the Sacred Realm is still a realm and that means that it doesn't follow any of the standard rules. Realms throw out the rulebook. However, as the Goddess just said, the Sacred Realm is more stable than others. In the tree metaphor, instead of being the acorn that sprouted a branch as realms normally do, the Sacred Realm is more like the roots of the tree. Still connected, still part of the tree, we wouldn't be here without it, but underground. Stable, but not officially part of the main tree trunk until it gets above ground."

"I'm very confused." Bunny Link said.

"You aren't the only one." the man in the yellow tunic said.

Angry Link shook his head at them, "I can get into more detail later, but basically, what she is saying is that the Sacred Realm is connected to Hyrule right now, but outside of time. She brought us here, we are in the Sacred Realm right now, but while we are here, we are as paused as that Zelda was in the painting." he gestured to Painting Zelda and the blank canvas behind her. "If any of us leaves the Sacred Realm through one of the doors, then time will start to move forward again, in every timeline."

"As long as…one of you remains…here in this room…time will be…paused." the Goddess clarified, "It is…one of the…few things I can…do to help…buy you time…in order…to fight back."

"Thank you, Your Grace!" Ciela said, fluttering her wings gratefully.

"So, basically, you time traveled by going to the roots of the tree and back again, multiple times. Since this isn't how time travel is supposed to be done, especially after making a paradox, every time you did it, it was like an axe hitting the tree trunk over and over again, letting this Ganondorf guy attack the Goddess of Time and gain control of time through the power and weird rules of the Sacred Realm, since it is still technically a realm?" Flowy Dress Zelda attempted to recap.

"From what I understand." Angry Link nodded. "I guess that means this is all technically my, I mean, our fault." He gestured to Questioning Link again, "Sorry."

"What's done…is done. There is…no point in…blaming anyone now."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Revali huffed, leaning against the wall. "We fell through time, somehow, and now what? We were in the middle of a fight for our Hyrule, we can't just put that on pause."

"When Ganondorf…reached through time…he was gathering allies…your enemies." the Goddess answered, "Ones you have…already defeated have now…returned and are…fighting by his side. In doing so…in grabbing those…enemies…you all fell through…the rips in time. It was…accidental."

"So we have to beat them all again?" Tetra snorted, "Great."

"Many of you…reached out to me. Songs…powers of the…Light Spirits…Ciela's attempt…with the Gate of Time."

"Wait, something was sucking my power away!" she burst out, "Was that you?!"

"Yes it was…little one. I needed power…to bring you all…here to ask…for your help. To create…this room…and the doors. I am…so sorry…for the pain…I caused you."

"That doesn't matter to me! You can have all of my power!" the fairy trilled.

"That is…unnecessary. The more…you all repair…time…the more power…I will have…again."

"How do we repair time?" Quill asked. "I would love to help, but this seems nearly impossible."

"Fighting your enemies…will help. The less…chance they have…to damage time…the better. Restoring the…timelines…as much as…you can. Eventually…you will need…to kill Ganondorf…before he makes…things worse. I can tell…he has a plan…it will not end well. You have…other friends…allies…who fell through time…I could not reach them. He has them…and has a plan…for them. Save them."

"We will." Link vowed for them. At everyone else's nods, he felt secure, proud even, in their united front.

"We'll need to come up with a plan then." One of the Zeldas spoke up, "I don't see us succeeding in killing Ganondorf without the Triforce though, so we will also need to find out what happened to that." she looked down at her empty hand.

For the first time since waking up here, Link glanced down at his hand as well. It was empty, like before he had ever found the Triforce. Strange, he never even noticed it disappearing.

"That is…due to me. My…apologies." the Goddess of Time told them, "I knew that…by bringing you here…you would lose…the Triforce pieces…you carried. The Triforce…is too powerful…to ever exist…at the same time…as another Triforce. When you…came here, your…Triforce pieces…resonated with others…from different times. They tried to…combine…and then shattered…and spread among the…different time periods…you came from."

"So we also have to hunt those down." Link sighed, thinking 'again.' Not his favorite part of his own adventure.

"There may be a solution." The floating blue woman that Link had seen before, no longer wearing the green hat, came forward, "My Master and I encountered the Triforce in our time. I am accustomed to its aura. I can dowse for the missing Triforce pieces in each time."

"That's brilliant!" A Link near the back of the crowd cheered, smiling up at her. "With Fi, we can find the Triforce pieces in no time!"

"And while we do that, kill any enemy who gets in our way. Two birds, one stone." A blonde woman in dark clothing smirked.

"Simple plans are the best." the floating imp agreed with a smirk of her own. "And if we're lucky, Ganondorf has to do the same thing with his own Triforce, which buys us some time."

"The Triforce…will attempt to…guard itself. It knows…that evil has…control over time…and will try…to protect itself…from that evil."

"I'm sure we can handle it all if we work together." Questioning Link smiled confidently.

"Do we get started then?" the witch asked, looking around at all of them.

"I say we start now," Link said, turning to Tetra, "The first repair to time we can make is right here."

The pirate frowned at him, "I don't like that look in your eyes kid."

He smiled, walking up to her, "Consider this revenge for launching me at a window and then missing."

"Wha-" Tetra tried to say something, but got cut off when Link pushed her towards the unconscious Tetra on the ground in front of them. She tripped over their arm for half a second, before something shifted.

It was one thing to experience it, it was another to watch it, but it was exactly like the Resistance members had described. Both Tetras seemed to fade, melting together into one. For a moment, both Tetras overlapped each other before solidifying into one, laying on the ground.

"What did you just do?!" Medli cried out, rushing to their friend's side. Quill was on her tail, kneeling down to help Tetra sit up, blinking rapidly and looking dizzy.

"Repairing time, it happened to me when I met myself in the Hidden Village. She'll be fine, I promise, it just takes some adjustment." Link answered, then frowned, "But this is totally not fair. It took me an entire day to wake up after that!"

"That is…my doing…young hero. Being in…the Sacred Realm…makes it easier…for me to help…reconcile small tears…in time…like this." the Goddess explained, "It is also…why all of you…can now see…the spirit of the…princess. Giving you…that power…took no effort…on my part."

Ghost Zelda sighed in relief, "Well, at least that answers that."

Tetra still seemed dizzy, but was obviously well enough to start glaring at him. Link backed up nervously.

"Kid, I swear, if you ever do that to me again, I will let Niko be the next one to shoot you out of a catapult, understand me?"

"Yes ma'am." he squeaked. Niko had horrible aim. With his luck, Link would be launched straight into the Helmaroc King's mouth. On accident. And on purpose. Somehow.

"This does help." the Goddess said, "Thank you."

"So what do we do now?" Questioning Link questioned, "Do we just pick a door? Start looking?"

"No way." the floating imp woman shut down that idea instantly, "We are learning each other's names before we try to save all of time together. Plus, if we are going to be traveling into each other's homes and times, we should at least know what to expect. I say we take advantage of the fact that we are in a literal moment of paused time to do all of that."

"That seems very reasonable to me." said the Zelda who had brought up the Triforce.

"Great. Who wants to start?"

Angry Link raised his hand, "I think me, and myself, should go first. We got everyone into this mess, it's only fair you know how we did that."

The imp smirked and twirled in the air, coming to rest on the shoulder of one of the Links, "Then explain away, hero boy."

Midna narrowed her eyes, looking over the entire room.

To say that the day had gone haywire would be an understatement, but at least now they were moving forward.

The Goddess hadn't been lying. All of them had spent what had to be at least a day in here, telling stories and sharing their experiences, both before and after falling through time, yet no one felt the slightest bit hungry or tired. It was truly like they had been put on pause while in this room.

The only one who might say something different was the pirate, Tetra. As the stories had progressed and questions got answered, she slowly started to look more and more coherent. After the 'reconciliation' as the Goddess had put it, she had seemed like she would pass out any second. Now she looked like she was completely normal. It was the closest thing they had to measure the passing of time. Except time wasn't passing? The tiny Link from before had given them all a quick lesson regarding how it all worked, getting really into trees for a while for some reason, but it still didn't quite make sense to her.

Once again, she was very thankful that she stayed so far away from time magic.

But now they needed to move forward. However, there was something they needed to do first before they left the Sacred Realm. Something that would save them a lot of confusion in the long run.

Luckily for her, everyone had already subconsciously sorted themselves into groups based on the time frame they came from. That made it so much easier.

"Midna? What are you doing?" her Zelda asked her, watching curiously.

"Settling something." she muttered before flying up, yelling out, "Alright everyone, listen up!"

Everyone turned towards her, waiting to see what she'd say next.

"I'm all for kicking Ganondorf and his cronies into bits of dust and all that, but we need to figure out names first."

"Names?" Shad called out to her, obviously confused.

"Yes, names." She sighed, "Now I'm good with names, but when you have so many people with the same name, it gets confusing. We have-" she did a quick head count, "8 different Links and 6 different Zeldas here. Obviously we can't call them all Link and Zelda, too confusing. So, we are figuring this out now, while we have the time."

Her little wolf groaned, "Midna, you can't just decide people's nicknames like that because you say so."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Did you just try to tell me that I can't do something?"

"...Are you going to injure me if I say yes?"

"What do you think?"

"Moving on." Zelda stopped his next response, "It's a fair idea. I say we figure it out now."

"Why does she decide our nicknames?" the youngest Link, the one with the talking hat, asked, looking genuinely curious.

"Because I'm great at it." Midna answered as if it was obvious.

"Because we don't have time to argue with her about it." Link translated.

"I mean, technically-"

"Yes, technically we do, but does anyone want to?" Link cut off the time traveling expert Link.

It looked like Revali was about to, but Urbosa clapped a hand on his beak before he could say anything.

"Great." Midna smiled and turned to the group from her time, "You lot are up first then."

With her, it was Zelda, Link, and Shad. She was thankful that no one else had been dragged along on this ride with them at least.

After a moment of consideration, she said, "Light and Beast."

Link, Beast, breathed out a sigh of relief. He clearly expected something far more humiliating. Well, she would still call him other names, but this would be his go to name for the time being, so his relief really wasn't well placed. She almost smirked at the thought.

"Why those names?" Tael asked.

"She's the princess of the Light Realm and blessed with a lot of light magic. He got called a blue-eyed beast more times than I can count on our adventure. It works."

"I agree." Light said with a smile.

Midna grinned and turned to the next group. The two Heroes of Time, plus their Zelda, and Navi, Tatl, and Tael.

"You already went by the name Sheik, right?"

"Yes," she nodded, "I have no problems continuing to use that name."

"Perfect, then that just leaves you two." she turned to the Links thoughtfully. They were the Heroes of Time, could she use that? For one at least, but what about the other? Wait, he said that he had-

"Mask. And Time." she pointed to each one in turn, "Self-explanatory I believe?"

Mask nodded and Time shrugged, "It sounds good to us."

"Good. Next up is…"

The Link and Zelda from the sky, Pipit, and Impa. He had a talking sword, Fi, who was with them as well, waiting patiently for Midna to finish.

"Sky, for you, cause duh." she said, "And you can be Grace."

"Grace?" she asked.

"You're apparently Hylia in human form and Impa kept calling you 'Your Grace' during your story."

She mouthed the word silently, trying it out, before nodding, "Alright then. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Midna turned to the youngest Link next, his hat, Ezlo, perched on his head and watching intently.

"You're the Hero of the Minish, right?" At his nodding, she continued, "Then we'll call you Minish. Now-"

"But I'm not," he interrupted.

"Not what?"

"Minish. I'm Hylian. Ezlo's a Minish." he shrugged, meaning no harm in his correction.

Ezlo nodded, "I agree. It would be confusing if we ever met another Minish."

"Fine then." Midna huffed, "What about Mini?"

"Mini?"

"Short for Minish, plus you can shrink right? There you go, happy?"

Mini looked up at Ezlo for approval.

"I guess…." the hat mumbled.

Mini gave her a thumbs up and she rolled her eyes, moving to the next group.

Urbosa and Revali. No naming issues there.

Next up was Link, Tetra, Medli, and Quill. Three fairies bounced around Link's head, Ciela, Leaf, and Neri. This group still confused her, if for nothing else than watching the two Tetras combine into one. According to this Link, they had both sets of memories now? Midna wasn't sure exactly how that worked, but frankly she didn't really want to know.

However, Tetra, although technically a Zelda, wasn't raised with that name, so that made it easy there. This Link was the Hero of Wind so-

"Tetra and Wind. Done."

Tetra seemed ok with it, clearly not expecting anything else.

The next group was the one with the painting. Zelda, Link, another Link who was apparently named Ravio (again, making it easy on her), Irene, and a bird called Sheerow.

She couldn't exactly name them Hyrule and Lorule, although that would've been simple. Mini and Ezlo already pointed out about copying names like that and using his hero title wouldn't clear anything up either as the 'New Hero of Hyrule'. She'd have to get creative.

Her eyes flitted over to the blank canvas that had previously held this Zelda. This Link could merge with the art and help rescue others from it as well. Could she use that instead?

She pointed to Link, then Zelda. "Merge and Canvas."

Link, Merge, made a face, not thrilled with it. "Why those ones?"

"You can merge with walls and paintings. It's either that or Bracelet."

"Merge works." he said quickly, afraid she would change her mind and actually name him Bracelet.

"And let me guess, I came out of a canvas?" Canvas asked with a playful smile.

Midna smirked, "You're getting the hang of it now."

"These aren't very creative." Revali huffed, glaring at them.

"I'm going for quick and easy so we can move ahead with saving everyone, you got a problem with that, Feathers?" Midna snapped at him.

"No, he doesn't." Urbosa jumped in, grabbing Revali's beak again to shut him up, "In fact, he's going to shut up now because I can't keep acting like his filter!"

He tried to say something, but it came out as unintelligible grumbling. Urbosa glared at him, hissing under her breath. Midna thought she caught the word 'snap'.

Revali froze, obviously afraid of whatever it was that Urbosa had threatened. Midna felt duly impressed by the Gerudo woman.

"Please continue."

"Thank you." Midna grinned and turned to the last group. Link, Zelda, and Byrne.

Zelda was a literal spirit, floating up near Midna's own level right now. Well, she could use that.

"Spirit."

"Spirit?"

"We can call you Ghost instead." Midna said dryly.

"Please don't." Spirit slumped in the air, practically begging. She'd already argued with them three separate times during her story that she wasn't a ghost.

Midna smirked, "Spirit then."

"Fine, and what about Link?"

Midna turned to the last hero, stumped. He didn't have any magic powers like the others that she could use to inspire a nickname. He was the Hero of New Hyrule, but she didn't like just calling him 'New'. It didn't fit. He looked exactly like Wind, and based on their stories it wouldn't surprise her if he was some sort of descendant.

The most unique thing about him was the fact that he had a train. However, she didn't want to call him 'Train' either. It would work in a pinch, but there had to be something better.

Engineer maybe? He was one, it was a title he already had…

Wait, he had that flute! The one from his adventure!

"Flute!" Midna proclaimed, actually feeling very proud of herself for that nickname.

"Flute?" He looked very unsure.

"Yep!" she said, popping the 'p', "You've got one and know how to use it, right?"

"I don't really get a say in this, do I?" he asked.

"Did I give anyone else a choice?"

"Mini got one!"

Midna rolled her eyes, "He had a valid reason due to a race already being named Minish. Your reason is based on if you like it. Therefore, not valid."

"I like it!" Spirit said helpfully, smiling at him, "Better than being named for your current state of being anyway."

"Fair enough." he chuckled before turning to her body, "Speaking of which, should we fix that before we head out?"

"Actually, I was thinking, maybe not?" Spirit looked at them sheepishly.

"Why not?" Byrne asked, "You've been waiting to get your body back since it was stolen."

"Yeah, but that was also before all this happened." she gestured around to their current location, "We have a lot of enemies to fight and, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm more useful like this. I can scout and sneak around, watch everyone's back, and in the Spirit Tower I can even possess the phantoms! If I go back into my body now, I'll just be useless, a liability."

"You do have magic," Light pointed out, "Like the rest of us. We can teach you how to use it if you like."

Spirit thought it over for a moment before shaking her head, "Thanks, but we won't have time for me to become a master in magic before fighting Ganondorf. Sure we can live in paused time here, but not forever. I should stick with what I'm already good at, as a spirit."

"You two were able to defeat me when you possessed a phantom. Your skills there are nothing to laugh at." Byrne said helpfully. Spirit smiled up at him.

"What do we do with your body then?" Flute asked, nudging her body's shoulder with his toe gently.

"If her body stays here…time will still be paused." the Goddess told them.

"We can't lug her body around everywhere we go." Impa pointed out.

"And outside of this room, she'll start to die. A body can't last long without a spirit, let alone food and water." Sheik said.

"What about this?" Ravio asked, holding up the blank painting they had pulled Canvas from. "Putting her in here would pause her, and as a painting, she wouldn't force time to be paused by staying in here, would she?"

"No…she would not."

"That's perfect!" Spirit said gleefully.

Merge leaned forward, grabbing one of her arms, "I'll need a little help to hold her in place, but it should only take a minute."

Pipit rushed forward, taking hold of Spirit's body and helping Ravio prop her up in front of the blank picture frame. Merge took a deep breath and then put his hands on her shoulders, bracelet flashing. He started pushing, throwing his weight into it. Flute joined him, both of them shoving as hard as they could.

Like with Canvas, the extra help sped it along and Spirit's body slipped into the picture. A sleeping Zelda appeared in the painting, looking peaceful. If no one had told them, they wouldn't have thought that it was someone actually in there.

"Thank you!" Spirit said.

"Anytime." Merge said, "It's harder to put anyone in or take them out of a painting than it is for myself, but overall, still pretty easy."

"Is that the last thing then?" Tetra asked, "Can we head out?"

"Head out where, where do we start?" Grace asked. "Ganondorf and his allies could be anywhere, anywhen."

"I saw two witches with a statue of a Zelda in whichever time I fell in." Shad said. "Maybe we start there and save her?"

"I also saw someone dancing on a moon, the one you described." Spirit said, gesturing to Mask.

"I'd prefer to take care of that first to be honest." he said, "Not that we shouldn't save statue Zelda, but the second we step into any timeframe, that moon is coming down. We've got a time limit on Termina."

"I agree." Impa said.

"I don't." Revali huffed, pushing past Urbosa, "Termina isn't the only one with a time limit. Our Hyrule was under attack by Calamity Ganon when we fell through time. Without our Divine Beasts, they don't stand a chance."

"Chances are that Ganondorf has already recruited Calamity Ganon." Time said, "None of us landed in your time, so we don't know what's happening there. However, we do know that something is happening in Termina since time was attacked. My vote is Termina."

"My vote is my Hyrule." Revali growled at him, "You were right when you said no one here landed in my time. We have no update on what happened after Urbosa and I fell through time. It could be worse than Termina."

"Termina has a moon falling on it." Mask huffed, "Soon, maybe immediately after we exit the Sacred Realm. We know they need our help now. We know that there is an enemy there that we need to take care of to help save time itself."

"You said that you had a Link and Zelda of your own, correct?" Sheik asked.

At Revali's grumbled "Yes." she continued. "They aren't here right now, which means they didn't fall through time. They will still be in your time and we'll have to trust them to take care of things until we can show up to help them."

"But what if they didn't?" Urbosa asked quietly, surprising them. She had yet to take her fellow Champion's side in any argument, "What if they are one of the ones that Ganondorf has in captivity? That leaves our Hyrule completely defenseless."

Sheik sighed, laying a hand on her shoulder, "I know you want to help your friends, and we will. We will go to every time possible to stop Ganondorf. This is my fault too, I helped seal him away in the Sacred Realm, but we need to work together in order to stop him."

"If we let them win in Termina, where we know they are, then they'll only get stronger." Canvas said, "We'll go to your Hyrule soon, we promise, but there are a lot of innocent people in Termina who are going to die if we don't help them first."

Urbosa pressed her lips into a thin line, considering what they were saying, before sighing, "Fine. You're right, they need our help first."

"Urbosa!"

"Stop Revali. I want to go home as much as you, maybe more, but I can't sit by and let innocent people die when I could've helped."

Revali looked furious, wings clenched into fists as he tried to stop himself from shaking in anger.

"We'll go home soon, Revali. I'm not going to sit by and let my people suffer under Calamity Ganon's attack." She assured him, a fierce look overtaking her gaze. "I'm certainly not going to leave Zelda and Link unprepared and fighting him all alone."

He clenched his beak even tighter, seemingly having no response.

"Ok then." Beast cleared his throat awkwardly, "Which door leads to Termina then?"

"This one." Mask said immediately, pointing to one of the wooden doors. It had a bunch of circles on it and a bar slid across the middle, locking it in place. "That's the face of the clock tower in Clock Town."

"Literal name." Midna muttered.

Mask shrugged, "Trust me, that's the most normal thing about this place."

"Lead the way then."

Mask took a deep breath and then reached for the door.


Professor: Wow, I think that was the longest chapter I've ever written. So far at least. I honestly can't predict what future chapters are going to look like at this point. However, this is part of why this chapter took so long to write is because there was a lot that I wanted to include in it, so hopefully you enjoyed it!

Believe it or not, this was actually the original first chapter for this story! It's been rewritten so many times, it's not even funny at this point, but I'm glad I finally got a version of it posted!

Couple things (because I always seem to have notes),

First, thanks to ChangelingRin for inspiration with the nicknames! I know some of them were obvious, like Time or Wind or Sky, but she also made me think about using synonyms or items or things that are similar to make some of the nicknames more unique! So big thank you to her!

I forgot to include it in the last chapter, but the whole thing about realms is also a reference to another one of my stories called 'The Smallest and Most Important Realm There Is'. It is a Legend of Zelda and Doctor Who crossover all about how Hyrule is considered a realm and therefore works differently than the rest of the universe works when it comes to things like science and magic. I still love that story, so I wanted to reference it. However, that will be the only reference, you don't have to read that story to understand the realm references in this one, I promise.

For the Song of Storms paradox, I honestly love that paradox. Normally things like that bug me, but this one actually doesn't bother me too much. I wanted to include it and reference it in some way. It was just unique and inspired and, again, I just love it. Maybe I'll include others or other theories about the Zelda timeline that I have. I don't know everything I'm going to include just yet, just my overall plan for the story right now.

And some people have messaged or commented, both on this site and AO3, asking about if I will be including Tears of the Kingdom. I have to say, at this time, I will not be. I mean, I could, but I already have a lot planned and a lot of characters to take care of in said plans. The other reason is that I had a lot of theories and headcanons about Breath of the Wild and its placement in the timeline. TOTK kind of takes all of those theories and headcanons and throws them out the window. I do not like that because I like my theories and headcanons and would still like to use them as they pertain to this story. A large part of my plan for the plot involves one very major headcanon I have about BOTW. I may include references to TOTK, such as character names or something like that, but TOTK overall will not be part of this story at this time. Sorry to disappoint you if you were hoping otherwise.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please tell me what you think and have a great day!