CHAPTER 11

"Wake up Kaito." Said an unfamiliar voice in the distance. Kaito was in pain, a lot of pain "Ruto is in trouble! Wake up!" The voice cried out. Kaito opened his eyes There stood in front of him a translucent non-aquatic human.

"Am I seeing a ghost? Kaito said, how could you be here underwater like this?"

The figure nodded, "Ghost is close enough, come on, we have to get you out of here."

Kaito stood up, he struggled but the ghost was telling him Ruto was in trouble, so he did as quickly as he could gritting his teeth through the pain.

"I need you to concentrate. I'll lend you my spirit. You can feel the inside of the lock with it, concentrate on the mechanisms and use water pressure to open the lock." The spirit commanded in an urgent tone. The spirit put one hand on the lock and one on Kaitos head. The ghost had a cold touch. He closed his eyes and focused on the visual in his head. He could picture which mechanisms needed to move and used his mind to create tiny currents to free himself.

It took a literal minute of concentration, but he was able to hear the lock open. He pushed on the door, and it opened.

"Good now follow me." the spirit said sternly.

Kaito saw his spear propped up against the wall outside his cell. He grabbed it.

"I'm glad you are helping me and everything, but may I ask, who are you?"

The spirit stopped and looked into Kaitos' eyes. Kaito could see a tired expression on the spirit's face, "My name is Link. I can answer any questions you have but we need to walk and talk. Ruto is being held captive." The spirit then turned back and continued forward. It was a fast walk. It pained Kaito to keep up but he did it anyway.

"Link? Wait Rutos ex fiance Link? What happened to you? How come you never came back?" Kaito first asked.

Link: "Do you remember when Ruto told you that Zelda sent me back to relive my childhood and that there was a possibility of a time split? I never returned in this timeline because of that. The two timelines are two different to merge with each other, and they remain that way for several hundred years."

Kaito: "what happened when you went back to the other timeline, did you see her again?"

Link: "Not right away. My fairy who was guiding me flew away, I went to try and find her and fell into some kind of alternative kingdom known as Termina. I dealt with a crisis there and got to walk away with a variety of masks. Including three that allowed me to transform into the races they represented. One was a Zora mask. When I returned to Hyrule, I went to give the three spiritual stones back to their rightful owners. I held Zora's mask in my hand and had a hard time giving hers back. I loved Ruto, but I wasn't in love with her. Still I knew she was in love with me. I didn't want to break her heart by telling her. How do you tell someone you needed to get engaged just to see what happens when you use the stone? How do you tell someone you didn't even know what engaged meant at the time when you did it.

I talked to King Zora about it, he put an end to it and I gave it back. Zoras and Hylians rarely are able to produce offspring, the few times it's happened, they have been sterile hybrids whose lifespans are closer to Hylian than Zora. It hasn't happened for hundreds of years though. If I married Ruto, I would have likely not had any descendents. This would have been less consequential for her since she would still be young enough to marry a Zora and have kids after my death, but you already know that."

Link paused for a moment and looked up like he was gathering his thoughts. He made a few turns in the tunnels and continued.

"I looked like an adult Zora when I wore the mask, which didn't help. She became all the more enamored when she saw what it did. She had hoped that maybe I wouldn't care as much about kids. When we got older I started dating around not really wanting to settle with anyone, not at that point in my life anyway. After she hit her growth spurt, she learned I was dating. It upset her."

Link stopped walking for a moment. Looked around, turned right and kept walking. He then continued with his story.

"This triggered her to go on long swims, one where she runs into you. You did the same thing when your human love left you didn't you?"

Kaito nodded. Then said, "The exercise helped me clear my mind."

Link nodded back and continued. "In that timeline because you met younger, you actually never went through your second heartbreak of this timeline, you have the same two kids though, prince Jordan and princess Rutella. The heartbreak fresh for both of you caused you to both bond over it. Ruto's dad also dies younger, the stress of hearing of the birth of a new Guredo male causes him to have a heart attack. This causes Rutella to return to Hyrule just after she grows up. She will be remembered as the Zora princess of Labyrinna and the Zora Queen of Hyrule, like Ruto, but in reverse."

"Wait." Kaito paused and asked "Hyrule did not flood in the other timeline?"

Link shook his head. "In that timeline Gannondorf was never able to enter the sacred realm, So Ruto never awakened to the knowledge that she was a water sage. She knew she had water magic, but didn't know it was sage magic. Gannondorf doesn't flood Hyrule in his next reincarnation, rather his time spent unable to unlock the sacred realm caused him to set the stage for Hyrule to be covered in twilight, something his future reincarnation would discover and enforce."

They reached the end of a tunnel and up a set of stairs

"We're here and a little early thankfully. See down below there, that room? They are going to bring Ruto here. You need to trust your gut sneak strike at the right moment. You will be able to save her."

"Thank you Link. Ruto told me you didn't talk much, I'm glad we were able to have this conversation despite this." Kaito said smiling

Link's ghost let out a sigh, "Each time I come back as the chosen hero, I have no memory of my past lives, but each time I feel the weight of them on me. It's so hard for me to find the words for what I am thinking and feeling because I often don't comprehend it all in life. So I don't end up talking that much as a result.

I think this is also why with each reincarnation, I also have a hard time truly falling in love. With so much heartbreak around me, finding love was difficult."

Link looked him in the eyes, his expression softened a bit, "Kaito I wish I could have known you when I was alive, I think we would have been friends."

Kaito smiled at this and nodded, "I would have liked that"

Link's ghost turned around, back facing Kaito and spoke again, "If you tell Ruto about this conversation with me, don't tell her the part about me loving her, but not being in love with her, she had her heartbroken enough. She doesn't deserve more heartbreak. Just tell her I loved her, but we weren't fated the way you two were. If she is struggling to believe you about your conversation with me, ask her how many people she told that she wanted to name her daughter after her mom, she should realize it's true then. She loves you, as much as you love her, but there is a "what if" thought in the back of her mind about me. It's something she feels guilty about. It will go away in time on its own but I think you will see her happier sooner if she knows at least the partial truth of the other timeline.

Kaito nodded, thinking about his own human loss. "I understand that feeling."

"I wish I could stay, and answer more questions, but they are coming. I'm sorry, our time is over. You can do this. I believe in you." As soon as Link finished his sentence his ghost disappeared.

Kaito immediately heard the door in the room below open. Three mermen dragged Ruto in. She still had a dark aura around her, still in the cloud chains cast when Kaito was unconscious. He didn't know why, but his gut was telling him that aura was preventing the use of her magic. He noticed one of the mermen had to actively hold the spell in place. It seemed that if he could aim for him, if he could break his concentration, he could break her free, she could use her magic again.

Seeing her like this caused him to feel a deep seated anger. She was covered in cuts and bruises, and even as she was being dragged in he watched as one of the mermen wacked her in the side with his tail.

"A water monkey with magic like yours will be a true prize for our King, he will be able to sap it out of you before you are consumed, and then he will be even more powerful, the three of us will be rewarded greatly in your death. Don't cause too much trouble while I'm gone huh? It will all be over soon."

He had followed up that sentence with a punch to her gut. Kaito was about to go but he heard what sounded like Link's voice in his head, "not yet, wait until he leaves" Kaito grit his teeth. Anticipation to pounce flooding his body. He was seeing red. The guard who punched her had left the room. The other guard who wasn't concentrating on blocking her magic stepped in front of Ruto, his back to Kaito. "Now!" The voice in his head said.

Kaito quickly and silently found himself swimming forward as fast as he could, before he knew it, both mermen were on the floor, dead. He grabbed Ruto and swam quickly up to the ledge with which he came from. He crouched down with her in his arms holding her tight."

"Thank you Kaito." She whispered "Do you know where this staircase goes? We still have to take out the mermaid King."

Kaito shook his head, "I know one of the paths leads to my cell they put me in, but there were a lot of tunnels I passed, I don't know where they all go."

Ruto looked confused, "Cell? Like a holding cell? How did you escape? And how did you find me so quickly?"

"I'll tell you later. I think it best that we just wait for the king to emerge. How is your magic? You can use it again now right?" Kaito asked

Ruto moved some currents around to clear the blood coming from the dead guards bodies.

"Yep, looks like I'm back to normal." She smiled, reassured in her powers.

"Then when they come back move the water away from their gills just as they enter the room, that should confuse them enough to not notice me come in and sneak attack. I want to just kill them and get it over with. No mercy, and no worrying if the meat is fresh."

Ruto nodded, and the two of them waited patiently as Ruto used her healing magic on herself and Kaito.

She paused the healing as they heard conversation approaching. As soon as the other guard came in with the mermaid king, they were both stunned from the guards on the floor. They didn't have time to react before they realized they couldn't breathe properly. Kaito moved in Swiftly killing both the king and guard. Kaito used his spear to slice into the king's neck. He sawed the mermaid king's head off with his spear. He grabbed the Dead guards spear in his other hand.

He then stabbed the head in the bottom and held it up on the dead guard's spear like a trophy.

"Come ride on my shoulders love, and hold the king's head as our prize. If anyone challenges our victory I will slice them with my spear."

The mermaids and mermen who remained alive backed off at the sight of the mermaid king's head, with little opposition from anyone. A full on retreat from the mermaids followed between the sight of the king's head and Kaito and Ruto attacking together. Those that didn't retreat were killed very quickly. They had successfully eradicated them from the river Zora territory.

"We should have done this sooner. I didn't realize how much easier it is to fight up here on your shoulders," Ruto said.

Kaito smiled at this "Yeah I'm surprised we didn't think of it earlier. You always seem to naturally end up there. Why wouldn't it be in our nature to fight this way?"

Seaton had ordered King Zales be released and Ruto and Kaito presented him with the mermaid king's head as proof of their victory.

Seaton then said, "We upheld our end of the deal, I expect you to uphold yours. Otherwise we won't just be on the defensive when you come around, if our two kingdoms can come together and take out the mermaids you couldn't, there isn't any reason we couldn't take you out as well."

Zales looked at the head in disbelief.

"Fine!" Zales snarled and left in anger. He didn't think they would have as much success as they did with the mermaids and was upset Ruto and Kaito were both still alive. He didn't think they would be. Still he wasn't in a position to do anything about it at the moment, he needed to rebuild after the war, so they were safe from his attacks for now.

Seaton then turned to Kaito and Ruto, "So you two up for some of this mermaid meat shipped to you? I can have it sent in a few days."

"Yes please" Ruto smiled as she answered.