Director Nick Fury wasn't sure what to do. His 'Avengers' Initiative was looking less and less likely to work. He only had a few candidates, and each came with… causes for hesitation. Tony Stark was behaving more and more erratically, Bruce Banner was… well the Hulk was the Hulk, and Link was apparently unconcerned with anything other than his personal mission.
Normally Fury would just have him watched and deal with him if he actually caused problems, like anyone else on Shield's list of potential threats. Unfortunately, Agent Hill had completely bungled that. Though she'd salvaged the situation incredibly well, Link was surprisingly uncooperative now that he apparently felt that he'd made Hill and her team aware of the danger enough to keep a safe distance. The aggravating thing was: he was right. Hill's report of the situation inside the 'Hylian' temple was incredibly clear about how outmatched they'd been.
Of course, it wasn't as if Shield was helpless entirely. They could probably find these 'curses' if they really existed faster than Link could, and certainly reach them faster. Agent Hill had, wisely, offered to give Link a lift to his next location, attempting to put the boy in their debt. He'd refused, either sensing the intent or just believing that he should stay solitary to avoid potential collateral damage. Hill suggested the former, and Fury agreed, but he claimed the latter reason.
The boy traveled remarkably fast even when he wasn't hurrying, though. And this time he was rushing. To make a journey from the heart of the Amazon Rainforest back to the USA in under a week, all on foot, should have been impossible. But Link wasn't just walking. He was running all day, straight towards his destination. His speed outshone even Captain America's record, and he could keep it up all day before needing to stop, eat, and sleep.
So the boy felt rushed, but refused an offer of help. Just how did this boy tick? If he was to be believed, he wasn't human, but had been born as a protector. He felt his charge had transferred to humanity, in the absence of his own race to guard, but didn't like to socialize. It wasn't that hard to figure out, reports said he'd been bullied for his ears in childhood. He protected humans out of a sense of obligation, but didn't trust them. Well, Fury did the same thing, he could manipulate this boy.
The question was, though Link clearly believed everything he said, and certainly some of it had to be true, was it all true? Or had the boy invented a rationality for the things he could do? No, almost all of what he said was backed up by one tangible proof or another, so what little remained to be 'proven' could be put under 'likely'. The remaining problem was simply Link's intent to remain wholly separate from Shield, since the threats he battled could not be entrusted purely to him.
Link dashed at nearly full speed straight along the path his directional sense pointed him all day, and each day he was increasingly certain of what he'd find when he arrived. If only his own feelings about that destination weren't so complicated. Back when he'd lived with his parents, he'd believed he was a slightly deformed human and he'd thought mostly like a human too. All that was now changed.
He knew who he was, now, and he had lifetimes worth of memories to completely overshadow his brief life as a human. He had, immediately and unconsciously, mentally distanced himself from humans. The need for secrecy making it easy to do what he wanted in that regard. He'd been forced to reveal himself a few times, true, and he'd even made friends with Captain Giovanni, yet he'd still managed to convince himself he was completely separate from humanity.
The problem was: he now had to confront his very human origins and he had no idea how to merge his two worlds. He'd never been close to his parents, in fact Serine was the only friend he'd ever had, but he might now have to explain his nearly year-long disappearance to all three of them. Strange as it may seem, he was more worried about that confrontation than the upcoming battles with Ganondorf's monsters.
One thing at a time, Link, He told himself, Fight the battle in front of you, make it there in time first.
He poured himself, body and mind, into his seemingly endless running and, as he did so, he began to sense a large amount of dark magic ahead.
"He's going there?" Agent Hill asked, somehow believing and not at the same time.
An agent had brought her a conjecture as to Link's next destination, and it seemed a rational one. He'd been running almost straight, only detouring around populated areas just enough to avoid a large number of people noticing him. He was through Central America despite starting from the heart of Brazil less than a week ago. At any rate, he was now pointed directly at a town that had been quietly quarantined and kept out of public knowledge.
The town was called Gove, and it currently suffered from a severe and unidentified plague that had appeared without warning a few months ago. Shield could do nothing for its people, they couldn't even identify the type of illness. And it was the town that Link had most recently lived in before his fateful trip to Athens. She hadn't known his hometown had been under any threat until just now, but it made sense.
Link could sense both sacred and cursed magic, if you believed him, and if he really had some ancient evil enemy, it made sense the monster would target his home town. Link might've become aware of the curse after clearing the one in the Amazon, and taken off, guessing the location. She felt bad for him, but there was nothing that could be done. Shield had already tried to help that town, covertly, and failed.
If it really was a curse, the only possible cure was to let Link work. Of course, she'd offered him a lift, but he'd refused for reasons she couldn't quite grasp. He claimed that it could be dangerous to be too near him for too long, and the agent in her wanted to assume he sensed a ploy to put him in their debt, but neither explanation seemed to truly fit. Her intuition said he hadn't been telling the entire truth when explaining his refusal, but she couldn't fathom what it was.
Well, at his current, surprisingly steady, pace he'd arrive in a couple days. There were no records of Pre- no Hylian structures in Gove, but Shield hadn't known about several that Link had found all but effortlessly. They would simply have to do exactly what they'd been doing, watch from a safe distance.
Link decided to continue running through the night for the last stretch. He had plenty of energy, he'd been rushing, sure, but he hadn't been exhausting himself each night. He could swim for multiple days on end without eating or sleeping, he could have been taking similar times to run, but he didn't want to be too tired when he arrived. He needed to be strong for whatever was waiting for him, but he could finish the journey now without overextending himself.
He could sense the spread of the curse, it completely covered his old hometown already, but there was, at least, a clear epicenter and it was a fair bit outside of town. He vaguely wondered what Hylian temple had ended up so separated from… well anything, but that could be anything really. He still didn't actually know how Hylian structures had spread out so far around the world, as when he'd first started he'd guessed they would all be localized around the Mediterranean, Hyrule had never been as big a place as the modern Earth.
Dawn began to creep up over the Horizon, out here there were no mountains or even much in the way of hills to obscure the sun, and with it came enough light to see his hometown in the distance. He'd make the town in under 15 minutes, he guessed. Of course his home was a little bit away from the town, and the temple he sensed was a fair bit farther even than that, which explained all those strange feelings he'd had back when he lived here.
There was something of an anomaly on the road, though. He wasn't on the road himself (he didn't want to look strange to any cars that would see him), but he could see it now as he neared the town and there was an odd blockade, causing any vehicles that came by to detour around the town. That was a very bad sign. If Gove was under quarantine…
He could sense the spread of the curse, of course. It was extensive, covering far more than just the town but he couldn't see yet what it was doing. Hopefully not something as bad as the Hydra or Curse of Decay, because if it was… he doubted there'd be anyone left to save. He charged straight in.
The town was still sleeping, of course. Dawn had only just broke, nobody would be up yet… but there seemed to be more to it than that. There wasn't a single light on, and the windows were dark… but the curtains didn't look right. They looked ragged, as if age and moth had been working on them for years, but that was impossible.
Then Link spotted someone in the street. A single shape of a human walking. Link slowed to a walk himself and started towards the early riser. The first oddity he noticed was it's posture. Bent, as if with age, and walking too slow as well. Only it was too tall, and used no staff or stick for support.
Then light peeked up over a building that had been shading the person, and Link saw it's true form. A humanoid, yes, but no human, it's skin was tight and leathery, and it's bones had flattened to make the whole thing just a bit too thin even for a corpse. It was a Redead. The sun, however, had a fairly predictable effect on the monster. It screamed for just a second before it froze stiff, then disintegrated into dust where it stood.
Link heard other Redead scream then die, but the sun wasn't high enough yet to coat the whole town in its cleansing light. And worse than that, they wouldn't stay dead. Link knew Redead and their rules, each night they would return unless their spell was broken. The sun would hinder them, but it could not undo them.
Of course, it left the question of where the Redead had come from, and Link was afraid he knew exactly where. He suddenly felt a stab of real fear, not for himself, but for those he'd left behind. His mother and father, yes, but more importantly: Serine. He ran again, harder and faster, with fear pumping through his veins. He dashed for his old home, hoping against hope, praying to… to…
Link slowed again. There was something wrong, not here in the town but in his head. He'd been about to pray… but to who? Zelda? Zelda was as mortal as him now, despite her divine origins. No… it was something, or someone else. But he couldn't… remember who. His memories, for the first time he noticed… flaws. Momentary holes or gaps peppered through some of them. There was more to his past. More to Hyrule. More to him . Was there a way to regain more of his old live's memories?
All at once his earlier urgency jumped back out at him and he shoved his personal worries down. There would be time to examine that problem later. He ran fast enough for a dust cloud to form behind him, and arrived at his old home in only minutes. The house looked… aged, decrepit. Like decades had gone by since he'd last seen it. He tried the door, locked of course, then he shoved it hard. The door gave way against his Hylian strength, of course, but not in the way he'd expected. His hands just punched holes in the door.
Something was going very, very wrong here. Link pulled the door handle out with ease and swung the door open. It nearly fell off its hinges. He ran to Serine's room, the door looked as week as any other part of the house. He was almost surprised the floor had taken his weight. He knocked tentatively on the door to his friend's room. There was no answer.
He opened the door, which didn't seem to be as decayed as the front door had been and saw his friend laying on her bed. He crossed slowly over to her, terrified of confirming what he expected. If she'd been well, she'd be up by now. But as he came close, he saw her chest rising. She lived.
He examined her carefully. She was asleep, but he doubted she'd easily wake. Her pulse was far too slow, her bed had too much dust to be one night since she'd climbed into it, her face too pale, and her eyes didn't respond as he opened them. Link carefully lifted her head a poured a health potion down her throat, though he had little hope it would help. Her pulse quickened, and he saw a little color come back to her skin.
Link sighed with relief. The old woman had always been strong for her age, and both wise and strong willed. All three could help, if only slightly with resisting magical ailments. Somehow she'd held out this long, and the potion, though not curing her, had managed to give her more strength.
Her eyes fluttered open. He saw recognition there, and confusion. She tried, for a moment, to speak, but the strain was clearly too much. Her eyes closed in sleep again. Link had bought her a little more time. He had to make use of it.
He dashed upstairs to his parents room, but it was empty, and it didn't appear to be lived in. Perhaps the quarantine had taken effect before they tried to come home? He hoped that was true. He steeled himself. He knew what he had to do. His friend would only have a little more time, and Link would have to be fast to save her and anyone else who still struggled. He couldn't spare any more health potions, if he had none for himself everyone would die. He just had to hope he'd come in time.
Link drew his sword, left his old home, and ran towards the Hylian temple hiding a short distance away. He would save his friend, no matter what had turned his hometown into a ghost town.