Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story.

"M'lord!" A Gerudo ran into Ganondorf's throne room, where he was chatting with a few Gerudo.

"Hmm? What is it?" Ganondorf asked.

"It's Salem… she… she…"

"Is she doing necromancy again?"

"No, it's worse than that."

"Oh please, what can be worse than necromancy?" A Gerudo advisor rolled her eyes.

"Salem gathered up the soldiers and are currently marching off toward the Zonai as we speak!"

"WHAT?!" Ganondorf yelled in surprise.

Back in the present…

BGM: Field - Day (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom)

Weiss gently touched down on the Thundra Plateau, but she collapsed and slid off, landing on her back and looking up at the sky as Zwei and Revali went to check on her.

Her mind was still racing, wondering what the hell just happened. Scarlet red hands came out of nowhere and started to chase her, then proceeds to make a bridge and nearly strangle her hadn't she gotten away at the last second.

What were those things? Whatever they were, they were absurdly creepy. She shuddered at the thought of what they'd do if they even grabbed her.

Salem's forces? They seemed nothing like Grimm, and yet, they were creepy just like the old hag herself.

Weiss sighed as she sat up, petting Zwei and Revali. "Let's just hope we can find a way to avoid them as much as we can."

She got back on the Master Cycle as they got back into the sidecar. She still wanted a drink after that, but she can hold off until Salem's defeat. No need for any drinking and battling at the same time.

She drove off of the Thundra Platform and drove through it, but also spotted a Hinox picking up a tree and smacking it against a Nevermore that was pestering him. "Ooooh." Weiss winced. Sure, it was a Grimm, but it still looked mighty painful.

Weiss ignored the Hinox as it continued to swing at more Nevermores, a few of them deftly dodging but still got a massive tree into their beaks to knock them down and then crushed by the giant ogre.

As soon as Weiss got out of Ludfo's Bog, she ran over a sleeping Bokoblin and turned to the right, driving off as she pulled out Crescent Rose and proceeded to do a driveby beheading of a few Bokoblins, letting her arm get used to the heavy scythe that Ruby wielded. She had to wonder if Ruby secretly worked out despite not being one for working out even though she was a fast runner.

A stable soon caught her attention as she smiled and pulled up, where she saw Roman and Neo chatting it up.

Pause BGM

BGM: Stable (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom)

"Hmm? Ah, if it isn't the snow queen." Roman tipped his hat to her. "How are you and the missus coming along?"

"Well… not great."

"Trouble in paradise?"

"More like the lady is stuck in the past." Weiss said.

Roman raised an eyebrow. "You mean how Ruby keeps bringing up the past or-" His eyes lowered at Weiss's arm. "Orrrr… what's with your arm?"

"Oh, this? I've got some time to kill…"

One explanation later…

Roman blinked. "I would say your story is outrageous, but given what Hyrule's been going through for the past few weeks, I shouldn't be surprised."

Neo walked over and gave Weiss a hug, where she returned it.

"How are you two holding up?"

"Ah, doing well… trying to stay out of fights by being traveling salesman. We would've come to help you out five years ago, but we'd rather not get blown to bits by those Guardian things. Of course, now they're still roaming around and possessed by those Gloom things."

"That's understandable." Weiss nodded. "You two stay out of trouble if you can help it, okay? I'd rather not have you two get killed out there by the Grimm or Salem or… anyone else."

["You stay safe out there too, okay?"] Neo responded with concern.

"Honestly, I feel like saying "I'll be fine" is not gonna cut it this time. I'll have to be on my guard." She said as she walked off, unease creeping up inside her. Whatever those Gloom Hands were, they were enough to shake her up.

She spotted a shrine near the stable as she walked over toward it with Zwei and Revali accompanying her, walking into the shrine as soon as Weiss opened it up.

End BGM

Makurukis Shrine - Combat Training: Archery and Ranged Attacks

Weiss walked into the shrine with the animals accompanying her as they went into the arena and spotted a Strong Construct Bow. She picked it up right as a Construct lowered itself down on a platform.

BGM: Shrine Battle (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom)

"This shrine purifies the ancient evil. You who have entered here, heed my instruction. You will be facing Grimm that flies in the air. It is extremely advisable that you take them down with long ranged attacks. You may try to use your other weapons, but it may be ill-advised. Arrows, along with ranged attacks, are key for surviving against airborne Grimm."

A dark portal opened up as a Nevermore came out while a barrier blocked off Zwei and Revali from helping out. It let out a screech as Weiss readied her new bow, conjuring up an ice arrow into it as the Nevermore lunged at the Lanayran. Weiss fired the arrow as it struck the Nevermore's wing. It let out a growl and flapped its wings and shot off its spear-like feathers at her.

She quickly rolled out of the way as the Nevermore passed over her, close enough to where it could have grabbed her with its talons, yet it chose not to. That proved to be a fatal mistake as Weiss conjured up an arrow of light and fired, piercing it through the head as it fell to the ground and faded away.

Another dark portal opened up as a Griffon came flying through, landing on the ground in front of her and stalked her, waiting for her to make a move. Weiss switched from her bow to Crescent Rose, pumping it as she swung at the Griffon, but it jumped back and countered, scratching her leg.

"Nnngh!" She grunted while wincing. Blood trickled from her wound as the Griffon continued to stalk around as Weiss used her hand to sear the wound shut with her fire. It was enough to make her head spin but kept focus as the Griffon pounced and opened it's mouth. Weiss swung Crescent Rose but the Griffon pulled away with his wings and flew off as Weiss switched to Crescent Rose's sniper mode, took aim and pulled the trigger.

…What Ruby never warned her about was the recoil that would soon follow. Weiss felt her shoulder pop the moment it kicked back. She fought back her tears and was thankful she didn't have it in front of her face, otherwise she might have had to deal with a broken nose.

The shot struck the Griffon's head, knocking it to the ground and faded away after slamming down to the ground. Weiss, meanwhile, had her whole arm go numb as she held onto it.

Suddenly, tentacles wrapped around her neck and was yanked away. "Gragh!" She yelped as she looked up to see a Seer holding her in place. She failed to have noticed a dark portal opening up as soon as she killed the Griffon.

She used her arms to latch onto the tentacles and froze them in place, using her good arm's strength to shatter them, making the Seer screech as she got up and jumped away as she quickly made a few glyphs and fired icicles at the Seer and pierced through it, destroying it and making it fade away.

End BGM

"Very good. That was just a taste of airborne Grimm." The Construct said as it hopped down and proceeded to headbutt Weiss's shoulder blade, which made it pop back into place.

"AUUUUGH!" She cried as it was enough to make her collapse on her side as Zwei and Revali came to check on her.

"You're welcome." The Construct climbed back onto the platform and rose up to the ceiling as Weiss sat up.

"Next time, I'm having you pop my shoulder back into place." Weiss said once she found her words as she stood up and limped over to the shrine, collecting her Blessing of Light and healed up her injuries.

Weiss walked out of the shrine and headed over to her Master Cycle.

"I sure hope everyone's doing okay over there. I came to scavenge for food out here and I turn around and the blizzard is getting worse." A Rito said.

"Really? You're running low on food?" A Hylian asked in surprise.

"Yes. It's hard to find food in a never-ending blizzard. I'm afraid we might be facing extinction if this blizzard doesn't let up."

"Oh dear… I hope that doesn't come to pass."

Weiss overheard the conversation and clenched her fists, hopping on the Master Cycle.

BGM: Gerudo Valley (The Legend of Zelda: 25th Annivesary)

"Not on my watch." She said, revving up and drove off, drifting to the side and then drove across the wooden bridge that has seen better days. Roman and Neo watched on as the latter clutched her chest.

["Good luck, Weiss."]

The wind blew through Weiss' hair as she saw a few Grimm nests up ahead. A Nevermore spotted Weiss and screeched, flapping its wings and flew up as a few smaller Nevermore rose up from the nests as well.

"Guess mama bird wants to feed her young." She said as she quickly drove off to the cliff wall, popped a wheelie as she activated the anti-gravity and drove up the wall as the Nevermore tried to tackle her as Revali flew out and proceeded to fight them off by clawing them with his talons.

Weiss vaulted up and landed on a Moblin's head, knocking him to the ground as she heard draconic roaring, followed by the temperature rising as she looked to see a Fire Gleeok flapping its wings and breathing fire at Weiss, but she quickly put up Glyph barriers to block the fire.

The Fire Gleeok followed but the mama Nevermore dove in to try and divebomb Weiss… only for a dragon head to lean down at the same time as they both collided. The Fire Gleook turned its attention toward the Nevermore and roared as it proceeded to fire its dragon's breath at the flock while Revali snuck past and flew alongside Weiss, letting out a screech.

"Not what I meant to do, but I'll take it!" Weiss said as she drove off the cliff and activated the paraglider to safely descend while the Nevermore and its offspring were decimated by the Gleeok.

Weiss landed on the road as she turned off the anti-gravity and put the Paraglider away as she continued to drive off, determined to save her Rito friends. She heard screeching as another Nevermore came flying by as Weiss pulled out Crescent Rose and aimed with one arm, stretching out her arm as far as she could and fired, hitting the Nevermore while making sure she held onto Ruby's weapon as it recoiled.

The Nevermore shook it off as it dive bombed her, only for Weiss to make a U-Turn and fired a laser from the Master Cycle, disintegrating it as blood rained down on them as Weiss turned around and kept going.

She started to cross another bridge where down below, a Battle Talus was fighting off a Beringel as it pulled back its fist and threw an uppercut that knocked the Talus in the air, crashing through the bridge and caused Weiss to go airborne along with the Bokoblins. Weiss recovered while Revali caught Zwei as Weiss aimed her arm and used Recall on the Talus, sending it back toward a bewildered Beringel as the Talus swung its rock arm down on the Beringel to crush it.

As for the Bokoblins that were currently raining down to their deaths since they were on top of said Battle Talus, they weren't so lucky as Revali plopped Zwei back down into the sidecar. Weiss then used recall on the bridge to repair it as Weiss drove off into a perpetual blizzard, popping a wheelie and hopping up with her anti-gravity as she drove through a cliff edge and stopped at a shrine.

She looked down to see a stable dimly lit in the blizzard as she also could barely see Rito Village.

End BGM

She turned toward the shrine and opened it up. Maybe there was something in there that could help her see in this white out.

BGM: Shrine (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom)

Oromuwak Shrine - A Launching Device

Weiss walked in and saw two rockets against a wall and she also saw a target on the wall. She picked up a rocket and placed it on the ground as she gave it a good kick, sending it flying into the target and activating it, causing the door to open.

She walked in and saw minecarts, seeing one attached to rails but there was a massive slope going up. She walked back to the other room, used her Ultra Hand to pick up the other rocket and attached it to the minecart… but had a wild idea and decided to fuse them together to see what would come out of it.

A metal minecart stood in the tracks before her… while also having a turbo engine on the back. "Ooooh~!" Weiss's eyes sparkled as she hopped on, but both animals felt something was going to go terribly wrong, so they opted out as Weiss pressed a button, causing the turbo engine to light up… and shot up through the rails and started to fly off the tracks as she continued to gain altitude rapidly.

"Waaaaaaaaah!" She cried as she abandoned minecart and paraglided toward a treasure chest right when the minecart collided into a wall and ended up in a fiery explosion and sending shrapnel everywhere.

Weiss grimaced at the result as the remains of the minecart fell into a heap of scrap metal into the ground. "Okay… never doing that again."

She opened up the chest near her as she pulled out a Ruby stone, then she hopped down and gently descended down to meet up with the duo. She then looked at the ruby and pulled out Crescent Rose.

"I wonder…" She placed them down and fused them together as Crescent Rose had fire decals on it. She aimed and fired, shooting off fire bullets. She switched to its scythe mode and swung around, where a trail of fire wrapped around the head of the scythe.

"Okay. I think Ruby would like this." Weiss smiled, picturing how her wife would react.

"OH MY GOSH! THIS IS SO COOL! LOOK AT ME, I'M A FIREBENDER!"

Weiss snickered and shook her head. She's a dork, but she married her so she's stuck with her doofus of a princess. Not that she minded one bit.

She walked over toward three rockets as she pulled one away and decided to pull her Paraglider out and decided to fuse them together, creating a Rocket Glider, where it had turned metallic and had a rocket engine at the end. She picked it up and manipulated the wind to fly up toward the platform and decided to try it out. She hopped off and glided down, where the rocket engine activated and caused her to glide further away.

She landed on the ground as she tilted her head at it before undoing the fuse. "Yeah, didn't like how it felt." She said, putting her paraglider away and walked over toward the shrine, collecting her Blessing of Light.

End BGM

Weiss walked out with her pets as she got on the Master Cycle and started to drive down toward the stable, but as she got closer and walked in… it was anything but a stable.

BGM: Lucky Clover Gazette (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom)

"What in the world…?" Weiss wondered.

"Hmm?" A news reporter turned her head to see Weiss. "Well, as I live and breathe. The heroine of Hyrule has returned to us!"

"Who… are you?"

"Ah, right. We haven't met yet despite it being five years. Lisa Lavender, the head of Lucky Clover Gazette."

"Nice to meet you… uh… what's with this, uh… how do I put it-"

"Why is this stable a newspaper business now? Why, it's simple… this blizzard that came out of nowhere forced the owner of this stable to close down due to struggling to make ends meet due to little to no visitors. That is where I stepped in and turned it into the Lucky Clover Gazette. Which works out perfect because my old office was in Castle Town and… well, I'm sure you've seen the damage."

"Yeah… I was out for a few weeks. Ruby and I were at ground zero when it happened." Weiss said.

"Ah, I was wondering where you lovebirds ran off to. So spill it… what happened?"

"A mummy by the name of Salem woke up, transported Ruby to the past and I'm stuck with this new arm."

"...And why did you go underneath the castle anyway?"

"The one who asked us to go check it out because he got scared of something spooky."

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "This wouldn't happen to be the self-proclaimed "King of Fun" himself, would it?"

Weiss gave her a deadpanned look. "Is THAT what he's calling himself now?"

Lisa brought out her pen and wrote down in a notebook. "Confront Kohga later…" She mumbled to herself. "Still, you being here is promising. A few days ago, Penn saw some sightings regarding the princess, but she's been acting very suspicious. Flying up to who knows where and disappearing, talking with bandits, seemingly engaging in a slumber party with a Boss Bokoblin, standing and looking at the blood moon and monologuing something… it's all very odd."

"That's not Ruby. It's a fake… trust me, I know my wife when I see her and she wouldn't do any of that."

"I knew it." Lisa smirked. "These sightings are all fake then! I had a feeling Ruby wouldn't do any of these. She's a woman of action just like you. So if the princess isn't doing those things… then where is she?"

"Stuck in the past."

Lisa blinked. "Beg pardon?"

"I wish I was joking."

Lisa glanced over at Weiss' arm and looked at her. "I can tell when someone is lying or telling the truth… and judging by the weariness in your eyes, you've definitely seen some things. How did Ruby get stuck in the past?"

"I don't know… but I'm going to get her back."

"Well, here's hoping that you do."

"And for the record, can you not add into your newspaper that my wife somehow time traveled? I don't want people to panic over it."

"Weiss, I am a woman of integrity, you have my solemn oath. I wasn't even going to mention that part anyway."

"Thank you."

"I'll be on the lookout for anything suspicious. Just the other day, Penn came over with an "electronic scroll" or whatever he said. Give me your number and I'll call you if I come across anything juicy."

"Okay." Weiss nodded as she pulled hers out and by doing some trial and error, they both exchanged numbers.

"I won't let you down, Weiss. We'll get to the bottom of these fake Ruby sightings."

"Right." Weiss gave her a smile and walked off.

"Wait! Are you heading toward Rito Village?"

"Yeah."

"The bridge is out. The blizzard snapped that bridge cleanly in half. The only way you can get through is if you find a pinecone and throw it into some fire. Apparently pine cones explode and causes a gust of wind due to the heat rising. Good luck finding anything in this snowstorm though."

"I can handle it."

End BGM

Weiss walked over to the broken bridge as she looked down toward the icy lake below. She looked up toward Rito Village and saw Vah Medoh still roosting atop the village. Despite having shut down along with the rest of the Divine Beasts, it stood proudly as a symbol of hope and peace for Hyrule.

She looked back down and spotted a pinecone. She had an idea and placed it at the starting end of the bridge as she hopped on the Master Cycle. Revali and Zwei hopped in the side car as Weiss pulled out Crescent Rose and aimed at the pinecone. She pulled the trigger, but missed it by a few inches.

She took a deep breath and exhaled, focusing on the pinecone and her breathing as she pulled the trigger again, a fiery shot shooting out and striking the pinecone, causing it to explode and melting the snow around it as Weiss quickly put it away and drove off, activating the Master Cycle's glider as the wind picked it up and sent them flying until she landed on the other side.

"Hang on guys, I'm coming!" Weiss said as she drove off.

Up ahead…

"That's not fair at all! You know I can handle it!" Tulin protested. "Checking out that huge cloud wouldn't be hard! I could even do it alone!"

"Mmmm…" Teba had his wing on his head, trying to keep his composure against his protesting son.

"Look, I can go there with Ren… if we don't do anything, we'll-"

Suddenly, they heard the sound of a motorcycle as they turned to see Weiss launching off of the stairs and sliding near the Rito.

"You guys okay?" Weiss asked.

Tulin gasped. "Weiss!" He exclaimed as he tackled Weiss off of her bike.

"Whoa!" Weiss yelped as she landed in the snow as Tulin kept hugging her. She laughed immediately after. "Hey doofus." She said, giving him a noogie as she stood up as Revali and Zwei hopped out of the sidecar.

"You came at the right time." Teba said.

"So I did." Weiss nodded. "What exactly happened out here?"

Meanwhile, in the past…

Salem stood atop a cliff as she smirked, looking at Hyrule in front of her with an army of Gerudo behind her. Her scorpion companion rested on her shoulder contently.

"Hyrule will bow down before me." She said, raising her arm up and signaling to a Gerudo, who blew into an instrument as a swarm of Molduga raced toward Hyrule's greener fields.

"Molduga are approaching our position!"

"It's more than we thought! It's a swarm!"

Rauru, Sonia and Ruby approached as the latter looked on in surprise. "There's so many of them… why would…?"

Rauru immediately placed his hands together as Sonia aimed her hand out, turning her head and encouraging Ruby as she nodded and aimed her hand out as well. Magic started to pout out of Sonia's hand but then silver light nearly engulfed her. She looked on in awe as silver lighting poured out of Ruby, causing Sonia to smile.

Rauru turned his head to acknowledge the silver light as he began charging up. His third eye opened as he fired a powerful silver beam of light into the Molduga, wiping them out effortlessly.

"That blast wiped out all of the Molduga!" A Gerudo exclaimed.

"How is that possible?!"

Salem scowled. "So brute force will not be enough…" She said as she saw the lights out into the distance, seeing Rauru's Secret Stone on his hand. "A Secret Stone of the Zonai… how interesting." She smirked before looking at Ruby in particular. "That young girl's silver light… she intrigues me."

"SALEM!" A voice called out as her as she turned her head to see Ganondorf approaching. All the Gerudo bowed down immediately as Ganondorf scowled at her.

Salem couldn't help but scowl back at him. A growl dripped with venom escaped her lips.

"Father."

Oh, don't worry, Salem. Ganondorf will understand. ...Maybe.