"Do you be sure you can no stay any longer?" Captain Giovanni asked.
"I'm sorry, but you know I can't," Link answered his friend.
"But your Italian do be near perfect now, and you did say you did no have a passport anymore. You do be leavin' a place you could soon be callin' home," the elderly man argued.
"Captain," Link said, "We've debated this for a week, ever since I felt the next location appear in my mind-"
"And did tell you the next big, dangerous place to be goin'. You did tell me what all you do be fightin'. And it do be gettin' more dangerous. What if this time you do no find your way forward. Eventually you will no find it, you do know."
"Maybe not…" Link said, acknowledging the reality of it.
Memories from the underwater ruin coursed through his mind, landing on that message that had played when he'd found the end goal.
"One who seeks the bounty of wisdom, its ability to illuminate and guide, face now the monstrosity of your future. Light the way forward, and defeat despair with understanding."
And then there had been no creature, only visions. Not memories, this time, but possibilities. Link, wounded and dying, standing alone in front of an army of inhuman creatures. Link being bombarded by something heavy that struck with lightning. Link swallowed by shadows and leading the armies of his ancient enemy against humanity. And worse, so much worse. All possible endings to his story. And yet…
"But I won't sit still and let everything just happen. The world ends if I do that. Yes, friend, I'm risking my life but, well, I feel like dying would be better than letting the world end all around me."
Giovanni looked grim, but he nodded, "Well, I do suppose there do no be anythin' to be done about that. You do be careful, ya hear? And you do best be off, or you do be missin' your flight!"
The captain held out a hand, and Link took it. Then he turned and walked into the airport. His flight was bound for Brazil, though Link wasn't 100% certain his destination was actually in Brazil, it seemed like a good place to start.
Link didn't have a passport, of course. Or, well, he did just not with him. It had had to be left with his family over a year ago now when he started this journey. After all, he'd been missing for days while he'd been given memories from past lives, and he couldn't risk being found out trying to obtain it. He didn't have a invisibility cape then. Now he did, and it solved the problem here too.
His flight finally reached its destination, and Link simply walked with the crowd, casually slipping the Magic Cape out of the inventory and draping it around his shoulders. Nobody noticed, and it didn't even matter that a space suddenly appeared, since the item also made him intangible and everyone crowding out the door just walked through him and he through them.
It was simple, stage magicians used the same tactic all the time. While everyone was hyper focused and maybe a fair bit worried, they simply walked through the crowd and nobody noticed until the spotlight suddenly turned on and everyone gasped in surprise. Link didn't even need to provide a distraction. Each person was worrying about themselves, checking pockets and holding onto their children, making certain nothing was left behind. Link simply left the airport without a trace. He found a quiet corner, suddenly appearing was far more conspicuous then vanishing, and took off the cape. He stuffed it into his inventory again and left to figure out where in the world his next destination was.
His directional sense pointed him much deeper into the heart of South America, but first he decided he wanted a map and extra supplies. Up till now all his locations had been… difficult to reach or even know about. Minus the forest with the hydra, but that outlier existed because he'd simply noticed Ganondorf's touch, he'd been on his way to Egypt at the time. If his directional sense brought him all the way to South America, well there was one obvious place he could think of that would keep those that didn't already know where to go away.
The Amazon River, mostly it's associated jungle, was a dangerous and still not yet completely charted section of the world. Being filled with poisonous creatures and plants, nearly impossible to safely navigate, and was only sparsely populated considering the size of the area: t was by far the most likely place for a intact Hylian temple to have survived without recorded discovery of any kind. Of course that 'place' was also the majority of the continent… so maybe that was a little unfair. Still, Link needed many more supplies to attempt something this dangerous, even with a internal compass pointing him in the right direction.
"You know," Campbell said aloud to nobody in particular, "We've seen him live for days underwater, without eating, and walk into active volcanos for weeks on end… but somehow this seems more dangerous."
Hill was inclined to agree, and it wasn't nearly as irrational as it might seem, she surmised. Link was, after a few days in the city gathering resources and preparing in other ways, starting a trip into the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. If he could hold his breath for a week or survive the extreme temperatures of a volcano, fine. Once that was out of the way he could pretty much just do whatever he wanted.
But all evidence suggested he could be killed and expected to have to defend himself. After all he wore that sword and shield anytime he wasn't in populated areas. And that suggested that a place as dangerous as the Amazon Rainforest would be, well, dangerous even for him. For anyone unprepared, that massive forest was death, probably by poison or venom.
Granted, Link had been buying supplies and such, but as far as she could tell, none of that would be protection against the many dangers of the Amazon. Of course her team had prepped to follow, but as soon as she'd announced her suspicions of his next destination, Shield had sent her team all the antidotes she could wish for, all properly labeled and stored. They'd be carrying packs this time, no vehicle would go unnoticed, and they now had added an expert tracker to the team. With luck, they could stay far enough behind Link without losing him, but this was shaping to be a tough leg of this journey.
The first time Link got poisoned, he almost panicked. It was a Poison Dart Frog, a creature Link had seen in zoos growing up, and he'd been warned that one touch could be all you needed for a fatal dose. He hadn't seen it when it somehow got on his leg, which of course was protected by good travel clothes. He hadn't noticed it at all until he felt an odd sensation and simply tried to brush it free before he thought about it.
That careless mistake could have cost a human their life, in all likelihood, because Link was already days from civilization when it happened. But Link soon recalled the symptoms and calmed down quickly. A lethal dose would kill him in less than 10 minutes, and he'd know he had a bad case from the paralysis it should've caused, spreading from the point of contact. He felt it start in his hand, and felt it recede. It seemed his healing worked on non-magical poisons as well.
He did not become less wary, of course. Worse than dart frogs lived in the rainforest, and he might not be immune to all of them. He just hoped those people following him were even more careful. Many of the dangers here had no known antidote, they killed you or they didn't.
Other than one or two more encounters that testing his superhuman body more than he'd have liked to, Link enjoyed the journey. At this time of year the sun was hot and the entire forest humid, but he didn't mind. He could handle greater temperatures than any human, as he'd already proven, and the sun itself was thoroughly blocked by canopy. The rain, for which the forest was partially named, even provided relief from the heat when it came. Though it forced him to sleep in a tree, which was uncomfortable.
Mildly uncomfortable pretty much described the circumstances, but gorgeous described the rainforest, even while it was raining. The greens and browns never grew dull, not when something else entirely would appear every few hours. Multi-colored birds would fly overhead, he spotted more dart frogs several times, and once he even saw a family of some type of ape passing him overhead.
The whole place reminded him of the great Hylian forest, which had gone by many names through the thousands of years. Yet it did feel extremely… new in comparison. The trees in the Lost Woods or Faron Woods or whatever it had been named at the time never seemed to die, outliving even the oldest Hylians. Over the many lives he had lived over and over he could see change, but there were sometimes hundreds or thousands of years between incarnations. Still, even sort-of reminding him of his world made it seem beautiful. He loved it enough to forgive the discomfort.
Hill was not the only member of her team to have trouble sleeping. The forest was terrifying to her, now, after learning that no cure existed to many of the poisons and venoms in the forest. She'd thought if anything happened they'd simply pop the right antidote and move on, but now that she and her team were in very real danger, danger that could kill them with a simple brush on the hand... she'd prefer a firefight any day. It wasn't that she was leaping at shadows, just that the stress of all the ways her team could be hurt compounded constantly as time went on. Care and preparation could only take you so far, she knew that, she worked with that understanding on a constant basis. But if a mission when bad, normally you could still try and shoot your way out of it. This time, almost nothing could be done past what already had, and when something inevitably went wrong, there would almost certainly be nothing she could do about it. All and all, she was far too stressed to sleep. Their tracker kept them a day behind Link, saying that even in the rain he could still find the trail but, in all honesty, the kid was moving in nearly a straight line. How he could possibly know exactly where he was headed was a mystery to everyone, but he clearly must. Maybe he just had a map of unknown origin, as Grady had offered for explanation.
Suddenly, the tracker rushed back from scouting ahead and came straight to her, "I think we're here. Just an hour out there's a huge temple or something. It's overgrown but nothing of the building itself is damaged. It has to be a prestructure."
When they reached the described prestructure, Hill marveled that nobody had ever recorded it before. The tracker was correct, though, it was completely overgrown and undamaged despite both age and invading plant life. A canopy completely covered the temple-esc structure, possibly accounting for the lack of discovery by satellite. Oddly, though, the door was wide open yet nothing was attempting to grow it's way inside.
Her team set up camp behind the temple. Odds were, Link would leave by the same direction he'd come, so in the interest of remaining hidden, Hill had made the call to set up out of sight. They had small cameras that would remain unseen they could set up so that they knew when he left. With a little luck, they would remain unknown and unseen by the strange boy. Fortunately, the rainforest was not living up to its name at the moment, so they were able to set up the communication array, a bulky piece of equipment that hadn't even been worth setting up during the journey here. This meant they were able to send a report of everything they knew so far. The response was completely expected, and what Hill had hoped for: enter the temple and see what can be learned about both prestructures and Link's motives. Of course this would still have to be done with the utmost care, the temple was extremely large, but they could still run into Link himself. The idea was to spy on him, not confront him.
She picked her team, Grady and Cambell not included, of 4 including her and prepared to enter her second prestructure. If they did get seen, they had a story prepared to make it seem natural for them to be there. These preparations had been made at every stage of this mission, but this was by far the most likely time to need it thus far. There was a lot of light coming from inside the temple, so they couldn't really see what was inside. Hill took a deep breath, and walked inside.
The inside of the temple was filled with plant life. Wild and alien plant life. Hill had never seen anything that looked like them. Flowers, grains, herbs, fruit and nut trees, bushes and other plants that Hill suspected would be vegetables when plucked.
"The doors weren't open a day ago, Link did open this place up," someone said, Hill didn't register.
Looking up, she saw the roof was entirely made of glass and the sun shone bright through it, actually, now she noticed, all the surfaces were made of glass, the walls and floor as well as the ceiling. It had been stone outside… or it had appeared to be. She didn't need to check to know that this place wouldn't be scratched by even the most dangerous weapons mankind had devised.
"It's beautiful… a closed ecosystem, protected for who knows how long inside this temple! We need to get samples!" Someone else said.
That shocked Hill out of her awestruck stupor, "Wait, we don't know what's poisonous. And we're not here for them."
"I doubt they're poisonous, they've been planted here, can't you see? They've overgrown it sure, but look at the way the dirt is placed."
Hill looked, and she did see it. The plants had been set in huge rows of planters. The reason it all looked wild to her before was that whatever order they had been placed with was lost, enough time had gone by now to allow them all to transplant themselves into all the other planters. She looked down through the glass floor and realized that there was at least one subterranean level below her with more rows of planters and the plants inside.
"There's even pollinating insects!" someone said extremely loudly.
"Be quiet! We don't know where Link is," Hill whispered urgently.
Everyone stopped chattering on like mall cops and finally started spreading out like they were supposed to. If they could figure out what Link wanted from this place, they might learn something about his true goals.
Suddenly, a massive plant reared it's massive head up, and it was a head, with a gaping mouth lined with teeth. Several people reacted quickly, but Hill had always been a fast draw and had impeccable aim. She put a bullet in its mouth and it fell backward, dead. The bullet made very little sound, thankfully, as everyone had silencers equipped to their firearms, they didn't want Link hearing them if they needed to shoot anything. Then the body of the carnivorous plant decomposed rapidly, vanishing into a purple smoke that wafted away until it was spread too thinly to see.
"Still think nothing in here will be poisonous?" Hill asked quietly.
Everyone took more care around the plants after that. One or two more of the same plant monsters attacked, but one bullet in the mouth was always enough to end them. Eventually, after some exploration, they found a door in the side of one wall. It wasn't locked, thankfully, and they carefully opened it up and filed in, everyone watching each other's backs and checking corners.
The room was decidedly strange though, there was a chest just sitting in the open air some fifteen feet above them, and another door at roughly the same level, only no floor that they could see, and both apparently sitting on their side.
"Who do you think died here?" someone asked.
Hill jerked her eyes down, and saw what everyone else had: skeletons littered the ground here, human, by the look of them.
"Real question is: who killed them? They couldn't have died of starvation, think it was poison?"
Hill moved closer to them while the others debated, none had broken bones, so they hadn't fallen from above and been crippled or killed. And now she was close… they seemed very strange. Not quite human, the skulls were wrong, humanoid though. Some appeared to be children, or at least very small. All had weapons.
"Should've brought Cambell, she's good with crime scenes…" someone was saying, and Hill turned.
"Cambell's been seen, we couldn't have her or Grady here if Link spots us, he'll know someone's following him and use that cloak of his," she said.
Then she heard something rattle behind here. She turned and started backing away, that skeleton was putting itself together. No, they all were!
"Back! Out of the room!" Hill shouted, suiting her own words.
In moments the monsters had constructed themselves, seven of them, each with weapons and sometimes shields. Red glowing orbs in the eye sockets said they could see, and Hill was reminded of that… monster back on Stromboli island. Her fight or flight took over, and this time she pulled the trigger. The shot only knocked an arm off of one of the closest to her, but her next bullet broke through its spine and sent it tumbling down. They could be killed again.
The next moments happened in a blur. Bullets rang out, muffled but still seemed loud in the the strange room. Someone screamed and Hill turned to see that one skeleton had leaped at one of her men, then one leaped at her in her moment of distraction. Her bullet took it in the head, and the whole body collapsed like the one before. But then she saw behind it and realized her team had to run. The first skeleton that had 'died' had simply pulled itself back together again.
Hill shot the one already on her team member and she and another started pulling the man away and through the door. They all got out, but the skeletons were still advancing, and they had a wounded and likely dying man to carry. One leaped through the air at her and she pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. Her clip was empty.
Time seems to slow at it came at her, it's sword ready to end her then and there. Her people would die here, she would die here. Then another sword flashed and deflected the entire skeleton away. Link stood between her and the skeletons, holding both sword and shield. He charged them all, seven to one.
Maria had never seen anything like it. Link was a whirlwind of steel, both sword and shield turning away any attack that came at him from any of the skeletons. He didn't play defense for long though, and soon arms and spines separated at the edge of his blade. After breaking their spines he always struck the skull, and that seemed to be the trick for when he did, the whole of the skeleton would start that same dissolving process the carnivorous plants she'd shot had experienced.
Suddenly, Hill noticed one skeleton standing back from the main melee, holding a bow with an arrow drawn back. Before her mind could react, it fired, as if it had only waited for her to notice. The arrow sailed well apart from Link, and should have buried itself into the agent trying to tend to the fallen man's wounds, but at the last instant a spinning object collided with the shaft and snapped it in two. The object flew through the air, curving around and finally struck the skeleton archer in the neck, breaking it into a pile of bones, for the moment.
Still the spinning thing did not stop until, mid combat, Link snatched it out of the air with his shield hand and fought on, finally killing the last of the undead. He strode forwards to the pile that was trying to pull itself back together, and stabbed down into the skull with his sword. The final skeleton puffed away into purple smoke. Then he turned on the Shield Agents.
"What. Were. You. THINKING?!" he thundered. Maria tried to answer but he plowed on, uncaring, "You've always kept a safe distance before, always stayed out of the way and out of danger you could see coming. The volcano exploding nobody could've predicted in time, but walking right into a Hylian temple? Did you ever wonder why I carry a sword? Or what kind of dangers I face where I need MAGIC? Did you think that because you were physically capable of entering this time it would be any less dangerous? WELL?!"
Maria wanted to respond, knew she should take charge and set this boy in his place. She opened her mouth, but it felt too dry to speak. She'd been admonished by higher ranking agents several times since joining Shield but none of them had made her feel like a child who still needed to learn that crossing a road without looking both ways was dangerous. Despite his age, Link spoke like he was far older than any present, and made them feel it too.
An extremely painful sounding cough sounded behind her, and Link seemed to notice the injured man for the first time, and strode right past her while finally putting away his sword and shield. Hill turned to follow him, and as he crouched by the wounded agent, the one who had been tending him looked at Hill and shook her head. The man would not survive his wounds.
Link put his hands to his side and into a pack there, one Hill had never really noticed before, and produced a small vial filled with a red liquid. He uncorked it and held it to the man's mouth.
"Guess it's time to find out if these work for humans, he's dead anyway if it doesn't…" he muttered as he fed it to the dying man.
Maria wanted to object to him administering treatment she didn't know and he wasn't sure would even work but she still felt chastised. Regardless, it was already done. A moment later the man coughed again, this time a far more healthy sound, the sounds of someone pulling air back into their lungs after just barely too long without, and he sat up.
"What was that stuff?" he asked.
"Just a potion of mine, you're alive, that's what matters, and I intend to keep it that way," Link answered.
Hill finally found her voice, "I... thank you for the timely rescue. Since we've finally met face to face..." Link cut her off, "You're going back outside, and I'm escorting you there. Stalfos are hardly the only danger in this temple and some are affected by bullets even less. Not all of you are here, is this everyone you brought into the temple?"
"Y-yes, everyone else is still outside... uh... sir," the man he'd healed said.
Link nodded, "Good, I saw you set up camp behind the temple, I'll take you to the entrance. Do not come back in here. Ever. When I'm done in here we can talk for real."
The way back wasn't far, and nothing attacked them in that time, but Link kept a sharp eye out, just as sharp as any agent should have had. Agent Maria Hill kept silent and tried to understand how she'd lost control with him so quickly. Part of her, a traitorous part of her, whispered that it was because he was right. That couldn't be true, she'd just been following orders. Yes, they were orders she'd agreed with but she hadn't actually given them. So maybe there wasn't much of a difference. She'd never considered the problem from the angle Link had. She'd been so tunnel visioned on what he could do and where he would use it, that she'd never asked herself why he needed that kind of power.
And he'd known, always known from the sound of it, that they were following him. That stung, really. He'd known this entire time and simply let them continue. Because they hadn't done anything dangerous yet. Like an older brother letting his younger sibling watch him split firewood.
He left them at the entrance, with a final command to stay there until he came back, and Hill directed everyone back to the camp. She'd have to send a report about this, and what she'd learned. The advantages they'd thought they'd had were nonexistent, but at least Link was willing to talk… once he was done. She wrote up the report in a sour mood, sent it off and sat back to wait.
No, she thought to herself, I've completely lost control here. I, a Shield agent, am waiting here because a 16 year-old boy told me to. The thought infuriated her.
Link cut down another Skultula from it's web effortlessly, then flipped it onto its back and stabbed it with his sword. The giant spider-like creatures had shells as hard as diamond, but soft undersides. Those people following him had been lucky to only see Stalfos and Deku Babas. If it had been a swarm of these creatures instead he wasn't sure he could've saved all of them. Each one took personal attention to destroy.
He supposed he might have been a bit harsh on them, they had shown the courage to come in here despite having seen him fight the Curse of Decay. They had to know things like that would be in here, but whatever it was they wanted to learn had given them the courage to enter anyway. Still, while courage was absolutely an admirable virtue, courage in excess became foolishness.
He knew that he himself often challenged near-insurmountable obstacles both in this life and in all his previous lives, but those odds hadn't been absolutely insurmountable, only nearly, and he'd done so only in situations of utmost need and with the tools required. These people had not had either, whoever they were. No, no he could not assume their motives. For all he knew they could be desperate in one way or another.
Regardless of that, they were safer outside the temple than in and now they would stay out, he was sure. He could talk with them later, once he'd finished in here. Here had turned out to be incredible. The recovery of magic items from his pasts had always been both welcome and needful, but this greenhouse of a temple had turned out to be a patch of Hylian wildlife, blessedly preserved through the years.
The plants were all of the varieties with near or actual magical effects when cooked or stewed in the right way. Almost as soon as he'd found the right types, they were sorted to some extent despite the way they'd overgrown their planters and the insects were everywhere, he'd started brewing the most useful potions stored in his memories. Health potions before all.
Potion brewing only took a few hours per brew, thankfully, which was how he'd already had one (actually several) to hand when he'd saved that man's life. He'd been here a day before they came in after him and he'd made several discoveries in that time. First was that his inventory actually trapped anything inside in some kind of stasis, at least no food spoiled in the slightest or even lost its heat or chill. Knowing that gave him a greater ability to store food than he'd previously known.
Second he'd also found a fantastic item, two really but the other was a little more situational, a hookshot. A powerful blend of both magic and technology, the hookshot was a grappling mechanism attached via a long chain that was spring loaded to launch out. It would stab into what it could (which was quite a lot, made with Hylian steel as it was) and either pull it to him or him to it, depending on the weight, and magically nullify the effects such a motion would normally have on his body doing it.
Between the nearly unbelievable treasure of Hylian herbs and creatures and the hookshot, Link was ready so say he finally had all the main items he needed. As far as his memories could tell him, he rarely needed more than what he had, but something… felt wrong. Like there was still something important he would need to find. Well, he could at least expect his directional sense to guide him to it… whatever 'it' was.
Surprisingly, Ganondorf's touch was light here, he could sense evil creatures when he first got here, even a 'boss' not far ahead now, but no curse like he'd found in that forest or in the Stromboli volcano. Whatever 'monstrosity of his past' lay in wait for him, it wasn't infecting anything. Perhaps it was too well contained but, if it wasn't his ancient enemy's creation, why were there simplistic enemies riddled throughout the rest of the temple? Link had to admit… he was scared to learn. Because one possibility had occurred to him: maybe Ganondorf had decided whatever it was would be bad enough not to bother.
Regardless of the reason, it lay ahead. He'd cleared rest of the temple of evil, and taken what he wanted for the moment from the bounty of plants and insects available. Now he just had to kill whatever lay behind this door and close the temple again, then he could return anytime to restock. And of course he could finally start talking to his stalkers.
Link put his hands on the door and pushed.
The familiar chiming sounded, a language of song, "One who learns the strength of courage, it's ability to stand against fear and evil, face now the monstrosity of your past. Press on through terror and despair to conquer the darkness."
The room was blacker than night, though light did spill in from the outside. Link only got a moment to see, however, as the doors closed behind him automatically. What little he had seen wasn't useful either, a dirt ground with small weeds growing randomly. He could use the Fire Rod to make light, but if there was nothing to catch it wouldn't last long and use up his magic besides. It would regenerate… but slowly.
He drew sword and shield from instinct, though he may well need something else from his inventory more. He walked forward, firmly but cautiously, and eventually found a vine and moss covered pillar jutting out from the ground. He still couldn't see his hand in front of his face, but here at least was a structure that could provide light, if temporarily. He summoned his Fire Rod and set fire to the moss and vines.
The flames climbed high fairly quickly and light finally broke the darkness, though it took a moment for Link's eyes to adjust. He couldn't see the whole room, but he did see several other pillars exactly like the one he stood next to now, all set around ten feet from each other. He heard an odd rustling sound, and only then remembered to check that sense of a dark entity he'd been following to get here. It sat directly above him.
Link looked up to see a true horror: a huge body standing upside-down one the ceiling, hanging from its multitude of massive hairy, segmented legs. One enormous red eye finally visible, reflecting the firelight, staring directly at him. The creature had been created in many different forms across the many lifetimes Link had faced it, but it always held the distorted image of a spider. The Arachnid Abomination: Gohma had been watching and waiting for Link, yet again.
It was well after midnight when Link finally came out of the temple, somehow closing the prestructure behind him. He'd named the culture of origin when he was yelling at them, but try as she might Agent Hill could not recall precisely what… Highleah or something. Her report had been received and the reply had come back admonishing her for being caught but ordering her to stay and wait since Link was willing to talk.
Again, she agreed with her orders, but that hadn't worked out so well last time. This time she thought things all the way through, though, and no matter what she couldn't see Link turning violent on them now or even him allowing anything dangerous to get out of the temple. Still, she felt worry building up in her as he walked towards the camp, and multiple other agents rested hands on firearms, apparently unconsciously.
As he drew closer, though, Hill saw that far from angry, he was clearly tired, exhausted even. His steps were far heavier than they should be, and even his shoulders looked… slack. When he came close enough for words Hill opened her mouth to begin negotiating, but Link held up his hand.
"I promised you answers and I'll give them to you, but I just fought a monster to give anyone nightmares for weeks, and it got me good at one point. Healing potions don't recover lost strength, can I at least get some sleep first?" he asked.
Every bit of training and instinct told her to get him while he was tired and possibly less resistant, but someone shined a light on him finally (about time, someone should've done that the moment he turned the corner of the temple) and her breath caught. There was no doubt he'd suffered major injury, half his shirt was torn off, and blood soaked what was left of both shirt and pants. It was in his hair too.
She knew she should offer refreshments but insist on debriefing him… but he'd saved her life and those of her team without taking a scratch. Whatever could do this to him… she didn't want to think about. She gave the order to let him take a hammock, and he willingly surrendered his sword and shield to them. He was asleep as soon as he laid down.
Nobody spoke as the odd circumstances settled down on them. They'd been tracking and stalking this boy, with little to no real knowledge about him, for the better part of a year. They'd been hoping to observe and see his real motives, but in over half a year all they'd learned was more about how dangerous he was and that entire time he'd known about them and been unconcerned. As long as they, the Shield Agents, stayed out of danger Link had been unconcerned with their presence.
Now that they'd finally gotten into trouble, now that they'd finally come face to face with them, he was just… willing to talk. It was never so simple, Shield had taught her that, she kept waiting for some… trick or double cross, some catch that would overturn everything she'd just experienced but… the boy had asked for a bed and handed over this main weapon without hesitation.
Shield agents were not foolish enough to camp in the Amazon without setting a watch, so she gave the completely unnecessary (because no agent would've done otherwise) warning to watch Link too, the boy could turn invisible after all, and went to lay down. The day had been very trying.
When Link awoke, the camp wasn't busy, per se, but there was some activity. He sat up in the hammock he'd been lent and stretched. That helped get his blood pumping, but it also signaled to everyone awake that he was awake. They wouldn't want to be surprised.
He was surprised by the high tech of the campsite, these people had far more funding than he'd have thought. It smelled of some government agency, though he couldn't pin which one it could possibly be. Well no matter, he didn't need them, but he didn't want them afraid of him either. He would have to disabuse them of any notion of using him or any other Hylian structure or item, though, he was certain they would try.
In moments one of the agents he'd saved back on Stromboli island was there, offering breakfast and coffee. Link hadn't ever actually tried coffee, so he accepted a plain black just to try it. In moments the cup was in his hands and the leader was walking towards him. He stood up to meet her, held out his hand, and introduced himself as Link.
"Agent Maria Hill of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division," came the reply.
Link blinked, "That's a mouthful, you got anything simpler?"
"You can call us Shield," Agent Hill said.
"Shield then. Well, let me start by apologizing for yelling at you all yesterday. I shouldn't have gotten angry. I should've approached you a long time ago and warned you of the danger."
The agent paused, as if not sure what to do with an apology, but Link had gotten angry with them unjustly, he really should've realized they wouldn't have understood the danger from the outside.
"Let's sit down, Mr. Link, and you can explain what exactly it is you have been up to for the past eight months."
Link did sit down at table with two chairs, and she positioned herself directly across from him.
"Has it really already been eight months since the Valley of Kings? Time really flies huh."
"Since Greece, Mr. Link…"
"Please call me Link, ma'am. It feels weird hearing anything else."
"Well, Link, Shield is reasonably certain you're the same Link that vanished on a vacation to Athens with his family. You reappeared in Egypt and immediately proceeded to open a newly discovered prestructure there, which is where Shield took an interest in you," agent Hill said, "What happened in Athens, Link?"
"Pre… structure…" Link said, tasting the word, "A good a name as any if you don't know the real one, I suppose. Look, I'll tell you what I'm willing to tell you, and you can ask questions, though I might not answer them fully. I'll promise only to tell you the truth, however, sound good?"
"The truth is what we want, Link. What happened in Athens, there is a prestructure there, but as far as Shield can tell, it's still untouched and there's nothing hiding there."
"Starting there won't be as informative to you, agent. What you need to understand is that I'm a part of an ancient race, from before humans, from before dinosaurs really. We called ourselves Hylians. It's the ruins of that race you call prestructures and…"
"You're human, Link, even if you display superhuman abilities, you yourself were born to humans," agent Hill cut in.
"Yes, I was born to humans. But I was never human," he said, patiently. He was fully aware how absurd his story would sound to her or anyone else, he could be patient explaining this.
"That doesn't make much sense, you say this… Hylian race lived before dinosaurs, but you were born to humans? Is your race still alive somehow?"
"Not… exactly, agent. In all likelihood, there are only two of us now, but magic is a powerful thing. I am one of two reincarnating Hylians. Throughout our history we were born again and again, with our race… gone, our souls didn't have an easy way to reincarnated, but I guess it finally happened. We're… connected to each other, the other Hylian and I. Us and one other, though he… he probably is human, at least he likely started that way," Link said, not without some amount of hesitation. Talking about his dead people was… hard.
"You say three of you have reincarnated, where are the other two?" Agent Hill asked.
Link spread his hands, "I wish I knew, agent. You see, each time we're reborn, it's to fight the next in a long line of battles between us. Me and the other Hylian on one side, our eternal enemy on the other. His name is usually Ganondorf, just as mine has always been Link. If I knew where he was, I'd try to fight him pretty much immediately. Ganondorf is dangerous, agent, all those monsters I fight, he made them. All of them. I've seen what happens when Hylians and humans get caught up in his schemes and curses. People die, and humans are… less resilient than Hylians were."
Agent Hill looked… controlled. She was trying very hard to maintain a poker face, and it was working, but it meant there were emotions to cover, and Link had to wonder what those were.
"What happened in Athens, Link?" she asked again.
"I learned who and what I was. Like you said, there's a Hylian shrine there, it has a secret, I cracked it. I never would have if I hadn't been who I am, so don't bother trying. Anyway, I found something in there, a pool, a sacred pool. When I get inside, it gave me memories from my past lives. Not everything, but important bits. Enough to know what's going on. Once I knew, I had to leave. Ganondorf is here, he's been here, and his goal has always been to remake the world in his image. My race is dead, Agent Hill. But I was made and then repeatedly born to stop him and protect my people, the way I see it, that means I should protect you now. Humans."
He let his explanation die off. The basics were out, she'd ask about anything else she considered important.
"You have displayed… several impossible things. We've seen you do some of them. Your strength is among the greatest Shield has on record, and we've tracked far more than just you. You can turn invisible, run faster and longer than normal humans, use both fire and ice, survive both underwater for days and the inside of a volcano for over a week. How?"
"In a word, agent, magic. Well, some of it is magic. I'm far stronger and faster than any human on my own. I'm also pretty close to immune to natural poisons, turns out, though magical poison is another story…" he rubbed his sword arm a bit, recalling the Hydra venom.
"How much can you lift?" she asked.
"I'm not really sure, so far I haven't found a limit, though that Curse of… well the lava creature was definitely the heaviest thing yet," he noted, he also took note that she didn't ask his speed. They must already have that one.
"Link, assuming everything you've said is true… you've been going around to 'Hylian' structures and fighting various creatures, but they've all been inside places human's can't go anyway. How is this protecting humans?"
She sure jumps around a lot, Link thought, but he answered, "It's not that simple. I'd be almost as out of my depth as you would be if I didn't have the right tools, Agent Hill. These Hylian temples contain things, mostly magic items I used to possess in previous lives. Ganondorf can't get inside very easily, but he can curse them. I need to get to these things before he can destroy them, or eventually he's going to create something I don't have an answer for. Besides, if I didn't clear away the curses, they'd eventually spill out. That lava creature wasn't really a creature made of lava. It was a Curse of Decay. It was eating at that volcano well before I even got to that island. If it had been allowed to continue…" he trailed off, but Agent Hill's eyes had widened, showing she knew exactly what could've happened.
This went on for hours, Link eventually actually tried the coffee and found it bitter but drinkable. He explained about Hylian protection spells preventing typical forced entry, produced a few of his magic items to showcase, explained about the Hydra and Gohma to show how dangerous these creatures were, told some of his memories about Ganondorf, explained the herbs and insects used in potion brewing (and, no, he wouldn't let them examine the plants and such inside the temple, that needed to stay a closed ecosystem), and more. She was very thorough, but Link didn't tell her anything about Zelda. She would still be out there, maybe aware of who she was, maybe not, but he'd find her eventually.
"How can we be sure you're not lying, Link?" Agent Hill eventually asked.
Link had known this would come up, "You've seen for yourself that magic exists, agent. Beyond that… I didn't have to tell you any of this. I could've slipped away, invisible, and never let you find me again. I did make the mistake of letting you follow me without letting you know of the danger, but I could have just left you behind. Either way you'd be safer, but… maybe this way you don't have to be scared of me. Maybe this way, you can see me and know that I'm not going to threaten humanity. That my strength, my magic, will always be used to protect humanity. What do you think, Agent Maria Hill?"
She hesitated. Then, almost reluctantly, she spoke, "On Stromboli island, there was a… thing. It appeared like a dark robed person. But at one point… I saw under it's hood. I've never been so terrified in my life. Even yesterday, when I was certain I and my team would die, I wasn't as scared as then. What was that, and why can't I remember what I saw?"
Towards the end she sounded like she was pleading for an answer. Link grew very serious, he remembered those creatures, and what they did, and this woman had been affected by one. That wasn't an experience anyone could just shake off without magic. By her tone and body language, it still scared her.
"It was a… scout of sorts. Ganondorf can probably sense the general location of Hylian ruins… but probably not always pinpoint them, not at a great distance anyway. Those scouts aren't very powerful, but they have some magic. He can see through them, and looking at their face puts an enchantment on you. It makes you so scared you want to run to the safest place you can. I think he's trying to use that to find the Hylian structures. They're all imbued with blessings and beneficial magic, so anyone who's found one even by accident probably couldn't help but think of them. He could track the places he wishes to curse that way," he paused, remembering that fear himself, though he'd only felt it for a moment. "One got me too, just for a moment. It's an awful feeling, even afterwards. I'm sorry I didn't kill that one first, I should never have left it wandering around to see you. If it helps, it's face is just blank. Creepy, but not actually all that terrifying. It's just the enchantment, and I've killed every one of them I've found."
Agent Hill quickly mastered herself again, and the interview continued. This time the questions were more focused, what kind of abilities did Link have, whether by magic or natural, how likely were the monsters going to hurt innocent people, how did Link know where to go. He didn't fully explain his abilities, but the rest he was happy to explain. Unfortunately, by the time the interview was done, Link's next location had appeared in his mind, north and a little east. By the distance he'd be a fair ways into the U.S. again. The reason it was unfortunate was because he'd realized something during the interview, while explaining that very sense.
Back before he knew who he was, there had been one of those senses he got. He hadn't known what it was or how to focus on it, but it had unnerved him for a significant portion of his life. He had been sensing evil magic back home.