Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Who’s there?” Time called out.

Leaves rustled for a moment before two figures came into view. A frail, old blind man being guided through the woods by a girl who might have been around Sky or Twilight’s ages.

“Oh dear, there’s so many of them,” the old man hummed to himself with a big smile on his face. Hyrule eyed the man up and down. His eyes…well…he was blind. There was no disputing that fact. Hyrule didn’t even think he could even open his eyes anymore. And yet he spoke as if he was surprised to see all of them gathered together.

Surprisingly, Legend was the first of them to relax and let down his guard. Actually, it was more like he looked so shocked that he completely forgot the meaning of the word ‘caution’. “No way…”

“I’m so sorry. My grandfather isn’t well, he says things that don’t make sense half the time, please forgive him if he’s offended you.” The girl looked very flustered to suddenly be in the presence of so many heavily armed men. Hyrule briefly wondered if they looked like a band of mercenaries or some other group of unsavory-like people. “Grandfather, let’s go, we shouldn’t disturb these men.” She tugged uselessly on the man’s arm but he made no move to leave.

“Forgive my granddaughter, she’s not right in the head. Never believes a word I say.”

“Grandfather!” The girl looked absolutely appalled.

Off to the side, Wind coughed. Even though it sounded a little watery, it might have been to cover up a laugh.

“Unbelievable.” Legend shook his head and crossed the clearing to stand in front of the man. “Sahasrahla. Long time no…well, you know.”

Four blinked and tilted his head. “I’m so lost. First Hyrule knows the princess of this time and now Legend knows some random old blind man?”

“Well, to be fair, I know his great-grandfather…or something like that.”

“The hero of old,” the old man—Sahasrahla apparently—extended a very bony hand that Legend was quick to grasp in greeting. “What a pleasure it is to finally meet you.”

“Legend—” Sky started to ask but couldn’t find the right words.

Legend waved off his concerns. “Don’t worry, he’s a friend. The Sahasrahla I know is someone I trust wholeheartedly. And that’s big coming from me.”

For some odd reason, Warriors glanced over at Hyrule very briefly after Legend said that. “But this isn’t the man you know, Legend. You still trust him that easily?”

Legend looked at the hero like he’d just asked him to eat a Tektite. “He’s a descendant of one of the Seven Sages that sealed Ganon away in the Sacred realm centuries before I was born. Why wouldn’t I trust him?”

Before things could end up in yet another pointless argument, Sahasrahla put his hand on Legend’s shoulder. “Now, now. He has every right to question it, my boy. A smart young man, that one. With the eyes of an eagle. As expected of a highly valued servant to the crown.”

“Don’t go feeding his ego,” Legend grumbled needlessly. Especially since the compliment apparently hadn’t sounded like one to Warriors. If anything, it just strengthened the distrust within him.

“Link the Hero, you yourself are the descendant of a King of Hyrule and yet you are no king.”

“I…” It was Legend’s turn to completely deflate as they all looked at him incredulously. “You know, you could have just left it at ‘he has every right to question it’ and moved on.”

Four raised an eyebrow at the hero. “The princess in your time is your…?” The short hero’s voice trailed off in an odd tone as he quickly looked towards Wind and Wild’s direction.

The two boys dressed in blue couldn’t even look at one another. Of all the magic that Hyrule knew, clairvoyancy was not among them; but he didn’t need to be able to see the future to know that the two of them were in for a very uncomfortable conversation before they could make it out of the hole they dug themselves in.

The unfinished question was left unanswered and Legend was very quick to move the conversation away from his relation to the royal family—if not for their sake, then it was definitely for his own.

“Don’t worry about it, point is…point is…I probably had a point there somewhere but it doesn’t matter. This is the one thing that I will blindly trust the goddesses on because the kingdom would have been destroyed long ago if it weren’t for the sages and that’s that.”

Sahasrahla patted Legend on the arm. “My ancestor can rest happily knowing that your trust in him stands so firm. Now, where is that lovely niece of yours?” Legend’s eye twitched but said nothing as the old man turned his head in Hyrule and Princess Zelda’s direction. It truly had Hyrule questioning whether he was actually blind or not. Because neither of them had spoken a single word since Sahasrahla showed up.

The man beckoned for her with his hand. “My dear, come here, come here. You are scared and confused, yes?”

She hesitated and looked up at Time like a child silently asking their parent if it was okay to approach a stranger. Hyrule knew that she was too used to having to ask permission to do anything. The other Zelda from his time had tried very hard to break her of that habit. So, he sort of expected that from her. On the other hand, the small action startled the older hero. For some reason, it caused him to heave a tired sigh. It was weird. As far as Hyrule knew, Time didn’t have any children of his own. He couldn’t figure out why something like that would bother him.

Regardless, Time spoke up. “I trust Legend’s judgment.”

It might have been a blanket statement for the benefit of all of them, but the princess still took it as an ‘okay’.

In order to stand, she had to let go of Hyrule’s hands—something Hyrule was very reluctant to do. He refused to let go until the very last second. It was dumb and probably childish but a part of him felt that once he let go of her, he would lose contact with the only thing keeping him in control.

Princess Zelda approached the old man slowly. “Wise man, she curtsied with respect even though he probably couldn’t see it. “I am Princess Zelda. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Child, you don’t sound too pleased.”

“Grandfather!” Sahasrahla’s granddaughter nearly jumped out of her skin at the flippant way the old man spoke to a member of the royal family. “Your Highness, please forgive him.”

“Oh, let this old man have his jests, granddaughter,” Sahasrahla laughed and patted the princess’ hand. “Yes. All is well. All very well and good. Like the shattered remains of a broken pot set in a reverse trajectory of time. Don’t you agree, Hero of Time, the very broken pot?”

What? Hyrule tilted his head towards Time. It was nearly impossible to tell the man’s thoughts by his face alone—even more impossible since his eyes were closed—but the warning tone in his voice gave away his feelings on the direction the conversation was headed in.

“I’m not sure that I can. Messing with time is not something I easily condone. It won’t always mend the pot.”

“It is a very messy business, isn’t it? By taking that broken pot backwards through the river of time, you would fix the problem back in the past and the people would be none the wiser.” From where Hyrule sat, he could see more of the tattooed side of Time’s face as well as the eye that never opened before that moment. He didn’t open it all the way, merely just a sliver but that was enough for Hyrule to see the pure white, irisless eye. It sent a terrible chill down his spine and Hyrule wished he’d never seen it at all.

It was painfully clear that Time had not been too happy with the old man’s choice of words.

But the blind man kept going as if he was completely ignorant of the increasingly heavy atmosphere the clearing had taken on. “Life can continue as if it had never broken to begin with. But what of the present? The pot—broken or not—would be lost to that time for good unable to collect the rain as it falls.”

Wind squinted in confusion and rubbed at his nose. “I don’t get it. Can’t you just get another pot? It’s a pot. Won’t a new one work just as good as the one you broke?”

“I am very glad you believe so, young sailor.”

“Huh?”

“Of course, leaving the natural flow of time alone is a fine option as well.”

Legend rolled his eyes and folded his arms over his chest with a frown. “Sure, but someone has to take the blame for the pot breaking and then clean the mess up. The thankless job.”

“And you have done such a fine job of that.”

“I’m pretty sure that you and I have two very different definitions of the word fine, but whatever, I guess.”

The longer the conversation went on, the more Wind had looked confused. “Translation, please?” As if they had stopped speaking the same language altogether.

“Time’s the broken pot,” Legend explained without looking away from the old man. “You knew we were going to be here.” It hadn’t been a question.

“Hero, you knew I would be here one day.”

“Yeah, okay. Care to refresh my memory as to why I had you meet us here?”

“Wait…” Wind held his head in his hands.

“It’s a paradox, Wind,” Sky sighed, looking almost as tired as Time had earlier. “Don’t try to rationalize it.”

The princess turned her head to look back at Hyrule for a brief moment before asking Sahasrahla, “Wise man, for what reason have you sought us out?”

“For you, my dear,” he told her. “I fear there are dark days in our future—darker than my blind eyes can see.”

And I’m the root of the problem. “I’m sorry.” It was like that was the only thing he knew how to say anymore. If only they had just listened to his pleas and killed him when he first asked.

“Hyrule, stop apologizing. This isn’t your fault.” Legend frowned in his direction but just before he could even open his mouth to dispute that claim, the old man beat him to it…sort of.

“The fault of Hyrule. Yes, I fear it might just be all of our faults.”

The clearing fell dead silent. A very dark look passed over Warriors’ face and the man looked ready to draw his sword—if it hadn’t been for Time grabbing his elbow, he just might have.

Either ignorant of or ignoring the situation, Sahasrahla waved the hand not holding the princess’ as if beckoning Hyrule. “Come, come,” he prompted when Hyrule made no move to stand.

Wise man, I don’t even know if I can get up let alone walk over to you.

Legend offered a hand to help him to his feet. It was difficult, his legs shook with the effort it took but he eventually managed it. The first step he took nearly brought him to tears again.

I can move. It was such a small, insignificant thing for anyone else in the world like breathing, but that was the first step Hyrule had taken on his own in almost half a year. How sad was it to be so emotional over a silly thing like that?

Sahasrahla had only been a few feet away but after the fight with Ganon and the magic suppresser continuously eating away at his stamina, he might as well have walked all the way to his parents’ house in Calatia from Hyrule Castle. It must have been obvious because Legend stayed and kept a hand on his arm just in case he toppled over out of the blue.

Hyrule took the old man’s skeletal hand in his own right beside the princess. For the longest time, Sahasrahla remained silent apart from humming to himself every now and again. A few minutes passed before the old man nodded as if he’d just understood something significant.

“It seems the Demon King is up to his old antics once again,” he said but after everything Hyrule had seen of the man, he wasn’t the least bit surprised. “Such an underhanded trick for such underhanded reasons; but it seems to me that you have underhanded the underhander, child.”

Now that had shocked Hyrule a good bit as the princess and heroes all looked at him in question.

How could you possibly know of that if Ganon still hasn’t figured it out when he’s quite literally inside my head?

Hyrule sighed and closed his eyes. “Ganon has been stuck as a monster for far too many centuries,” he started to explain. “He’s convinced himself that my people are as unintelligent as his followers. I don’t think he realizes that I’m not the idiot that he thinks I am. Just because he managed to pull one over on me.” He tilted his head back to allow his eyes to mock the clouds.

“It was my own stupid shadow that injured me. One careless move in battle on my part and the demon prides himself as if he’d been the one to deal the killing blow. But like I said, I’m not an idiot. I might have only discovered I could use magic a few months before Ganon returned, but I took to it like a Zora takes to water. I know full well how to break enchantments, especially on myself. Crushed my soul?” Hyrule felt a dry laugh leave his throat. “He might have for about a day and a half. I’ve been mostly conscious from the very beginning.”

That day was one he wouldn’t soon forget. Hyrule had been so close, so close to finishing his quest. The only thing that had stood in his way from using the Triforce to wake the princess himself had been his shadow.

Its appearance hadn’t come as a shock. The second he’d entered the chamber he knew something would have popped out to challenge him. It hadn’t even been that difficult of a fight—Thunderbird whom he’d faced right before his shadow appeared had been a worse battle. Still, all it took was one misstep and he ended up with the mirrored image of his own sword piercing his gut.

A handful of drops of blood later and the next thing he knew he was in an incredible amount of pain and some heavy force was pressing down on his very soul. It had been severely disorienting and he’d never felt so weak in his entire life—not even when he’d nearly died from an infected wound during his first adventure.

The first thing he realized was wrong were the fragmented memories that didn’t belong to him floating around in his head like butterflies. It was actually one of his first conscious thoughts, the memory of a small blond boy dressed head to toe in green. Looking back on it, he knew that the boy had been Wind but at the time he’d been so confused why the sight of the battered boy glaring up at him from where he’d been tossed to the ground caused him to feel both angry and slightly afraid.

The word hero had echoed around in his head like it was more a curse than title.

From then on, it felt like he’d been in a never-ending dreamlike state. Every now and again he could hear a few sounds from the outside world or feel the breeze on his sunburned cheeks and the ground beneath his feet. His feet that had somehow taken him from the Great Palace all the way back to Hyrule Castle. When he stood before the bed where the princess from an age long ago slumbered, that was when he fully realized what had happened to him.

Ganon’s spirit had taken control over his body and was trying to crush Hyrule’s own soul into nothingness. The Demon King’s plan had become clear to him at that moment and Hyrule had never felt more ashamed with himself for allowing him to get so far unable to stop him.

Breaking himself out of his thoughts, he saw Wind give him an encouraging half-smile. “I knew you could hear us.”

Hyrule shook his head a little. “Sort of. Not all the time. I have no memory of what happened after I managed to speak to you the first time. Next thing I knew, I was here.”

“You know what he wants, then? What his plan is? I can’t imagine Demise playing this sort of game.” Sky frowned. It had been Twilight and then Time to answer him with similarly displeased expressions.

“This is exactly the kind of game Ganondorf would play. He’s done it before.”

“The King of Thieves. He would play any role to get what he wants.”

Right, Hyrule could remember that much of his predecessors’ lives. “And what he wants is to use me to destroy the kingdom from the inside. Both Zelda and…” His voice cracked as he trailed off looking to the side at the princess. Hyrule accidentally met her gaze and all his previous feelings of guilt washed over him once again like a particularly angry tide.

He hoped that his hesitation had made clear what he’d meant to say because he couldn’t actually manage to say it in the end. “They’ve been trying their best to fix all the messes he’s created while I’ve been trying to regain control. But he’s strong. I can’t do much more than trick him into seeing what he wants to see from time to time.”

And even that had been extremely taxing on him. Not only did he need to use his magic to create those illusions, but he had to work with the barest minimum amount of power to prevent Ganon from realizing that he was using magic at all and that he’d been conscious enough to use said magic.

“He thinks he’s caused unrest with the citizens of Hyrule, but I’ve managed to keep him within the sights of people who know me. People who would know right away that something isn’t right but would play along for the time being. He thinks he’s killed when they’re only hiding away until I can destroy him. If I can destroy him.” That last part had been muttered but he’d been heard clearly regardless.

Legend scoffed and smacked Hyrule upside the head lightly. “Hey now, none of that. Between the nine of us, we’ve killed that guy, what? A dozen times now? What’s once more?”

Well, you could easily make it a dozen plus one if you would take this golden opportunity to end him by killing me. Given how strongly the others felt about finding a solution that didn’t result in his death, he elected to keep that comment to himself.

“The only thing neither I nor Ganon anticipated was the portal showing up.” He glanced at Princess Zelda out of the corner of his eye. Neither queen nor princess had looked very surprised to hear the news of its arrival, however. She must have told her about what happened here, today when I wasn’t around to avoid Ganon hearing. “Meeting you guys. He was so angry to see you all again.”

Probably an understatement.

“Oh, I know,” Legend said with a wicked smirk. “Your eyes turned red and I could practically feel the bloodlust radiating off you.”

Before Hyrule had the chance to apologize again, Four asked, “How did you know what time we were in? You knew we were here in her time from the very beginning.”

Not expecting to be asked that, Hyrule blinked. “I…don’t really know how to explain it. Like I could sense she was here, I guess.” He truly didn’t know how to put into words how he knew. As soon as he’d walked through the portal, he’d felt a tugging sensation on his soul then his thoughts had exploded with images of her. He just knew.

“You arrived in this time early this morning.” The princess then made a loud sound of surprise before rounding on him. “That was you?”

“What was me?”

“You were calling out to me. Asking for help.”

Hyrule reeled back slightly and wracked his brain trying to sort through his fragmented memories of that morning. “Really? I don’t remember doing that. All I could think of at the time was how to keep him away from you. But then you guys found the magic suppressor and I didn’t have to worry about that anymore.”

“Alright, so,” Twilight steered the conversation back on track. “As per usual, Ganondorf wants to take over the world and he’s using Hyrule to do that. Why did Legend tell Sahasrahla to have his descendant to meet us here?” Because the old man still hadn’t technically answered Legend’s original question.

Why?

“Because it can take eons to reforge a broken sword,” the old man answered as if that had been the most obvious answer to that question confusing and frustrating the group of heroes even further.

“Find a better blacksmith then,” Four said under his breath after a lengthy pause. Hyrule nearly agreed with his snarky comment. He might have, had Princess Zelda not spoken in that moment.

“Eons as in several hundred years?” All signs of excitement or wonder at the mental connection he must have had with her hours before had completely vanished from her face at the not-so-gentle reminder of what was to come.

Hyrule’s heart beat painfully in his chest. He watched the old man for a moment and thought back to all the strange things that he’d said since stepping foot in the clearing.

“You know what’s going to happen,” Hyrule hazard a guess. Well, more like he shot an arrow out over the sea hoping it’ll land in water.

“I know lots of things.”

One day after Legend finally returned to his own time, he would seek out the original Sahasrahla and tell him everything he needed to know to pass on to his descendants. That Legend at the end of the mishap with the portals would have known everything which meant that the old blind man should know everything.

“It’s my magic that will curse her to sleep for centuries.” He needed to be sure. He needed a confirmation that that was what happened…will happen. Perhaps after discovering that Hyrule had been right all along—that he was the monster who would hurt the princess—they would finally just agree to Hyrule’s plan and all his sufferings could come to an end.

“That it is.” When Sahasrahla confirmed it, a tear slowly welled up in his eye before sliding down Hyrule’s cheek. It was a tear-filled with relief and pain and sorrow and guilt. He was one step closer to the end. Surely that would have helped the heroes to see his side of things.

It wasn’t until the moment that Warriors drew his sword and swiftly approached him that Hyrule realized that, sure, he knew the heroes, but he’d only known them through Ganon’s eyes.

There was apparently a very large difference between who the Heroes of Courage were in Ganon’s eyes to who they actually were because Warriors’ sword hadn’t been aimed towards him at all.

Silence screamed in the air for a fraction of a second before borderline pandemonium broke out as the tip of the knight’s blade came to rest underneath Sahasrahla’s chin.

“Grandfather!”

“Whoa!” Legend’s eyes grew so wide that Hyrule was shocked they didn’t pop out of his head entirely. “Wars! The fuck are you doing? Back down!” Hyrule’s immediate predecessor released his grip on his arm to cling tightly to Warriors’ sword arm.

Hyrule had been learning a whole lot over the course of the past few minutes. The other thing he’d just discovered was just how much he’d been relying on Legend to remain standing at all. Once Legend had let go, Hyrule felt as if he’d lost a huge battle with gravity as he fell very painfully to his knees.

Princess Zelda seemed to have been the only one to have really noticed at that moment and attempted to catch him before he fell completely. The gesture made his heart feel warm but he also wanted to chastise her for it. Hyrule had dead dropped and he’d accidentally ended up dragging her to the ground with him.

Warriors futilely tried to shake the other hero off. “Legend, you said it yourself, this isn’t the old man that you know. I’m not going to stand here listening to his nonsense!”

As the two of them started to squabble, the other heroes gave them both extremely tired glances. Neither one of them noticed—or if they did, they just hadn’t cared because they continued to yell at one another until Sahasrahla’s calm voice broke through the noise.

“It is nonsense, isn’t it?” Hyrule and Princess Zelda both snapped their heads up to gaze at the man. “Courage and faith can both seem so nonsensical at times. My dear, princess, might I ask you, how much courage lies in your heart? Hero of Hyrule, how much faith rests in yours?”

Even Legend and Warriors stopped their bickering at his words.

Faith? In what? The goddesses? Princess Zelda? Himself? He could only fully say yes to one of those options.

Princess Zelda looked over at Hyrule with her forehead all scrunched up. “I…I don’t understand.”

Hyrule was certain at that point that the old man was completely incapable of explaining anything in a normal way. “Hero, do you know the way to free yourself from Ganon’s thrall?” He asked and Hyrule nearly screamed.

Yes. Yes, he did know. It was everyone else who refused to accept that way as a solution.

“Aside from killing yourself, idiot.” Case in point. It didn’t even matter which one of them had said that, that was the consensus of all but him.

Hyrule closed his eyes and took a deep breath to keep his frustrations in check. “I’ve seen his memories. I know you all from his eyes. The princess’ holy power and that sword on your back.” He opened his eyes to nod in Sky’s direction. “Those were what sealed him away each time.”

The Master Sword. A fine weapon that Sky tempered with his own hands. It was a weapon that Ganon greatly feared.

“But not in your own memory?” Came Sahasrahla’s pointless question.

“I had a magic sword. Clearly, it didn’t do the greatest job of killing Ganon.”

Sahasrahla hummed. “The swords you use may be magic and holy but those are merely tools. Not just any person can wield such tools and stand face-to-face with great evil. There is no need to deprive your kingdom of a hero in the name of a noble sacrifice.” Hyrule couldn’t help it, he glared at the blind man. What noble sacrifice? I’m not offering to die for glory or anything ridiculous like that! “The birthright power of the princess and the goddess-chosen power of the hero’s very spirit are both what the Demon King fears the most.”

Four’s eyes brightened so much that Hyrule could have sworn they reflected green in the sunlight. “Then there is a way to free him without hurting him?”

Princess Zelda frowned. “But my power isn’t great, Wise man.”

“You would be correct, dear princess. I was told to—how did you put it, young man? Find a better blacksmith?” Four’s face turned pink as the old man chuckled. “Unfortunately, the best blacksmith for this job was born four hundred years too early. I’m afraid it will take some time for her to come to your aid, Hero of Hyrule.”

What? Was he suggesting that the key to defeating Ganon without ending Hyrule’s life was the princess the whole time? But that doesn’t make any sense at all. She wouldn’t have let Ganon use me for six whole months if she could have dealt with him this entire time. Of that, he was absolutely certain. The old man must have been wrong. There was no other explanation that Hyrule would accept. He was lying.

Anger bristled underneath his skin. Warriors had been right all along to not trust the man. So full of nonsense! Absolute bullsh—!

“Oh. Oh.” Wild interrupted Hyrule’s thoughts. He ran a hand through his long hair as his eyes widened considerably.

“Wild? What’s wrong?” Sky looked the boy over with concern.

“It’s time. Not…not you Time, but time,” he tried to explain.

Sahasrahla nodded as he hummed once again. “Another hero who has lived far too long.”

Wild had a distressed look about him not unlike earlier when he was yelling at Wind. “Listen, the day the Calamity came, I tried to get Zelda to safety but we only made it as far as Fort Hateno before getting overrun by Guardians. Ganon’s malice had affected them all and it was all I could do to fend them off to keep her alive. You’ve seen my scars. You know how that situation ended for me.” Hyrule eyed the pink skin on the hero’s cheek and suddenly felt as if those scars went far deeper than just the surface.

“But the sword…she suffered almost as badly as I had. After I fell, Zelda took the sword to the Lost Woods to recover. A fraction of her power—a memory of her—remained while she went to the castle. It took a century for the sword to heal and that almost wasn’t even enough time. I’m really afraid to imagine how she would have fared had I woken up several decades earlier because Zelda had eaten away at Ganon’s power, he wasn’t at full strength when I finally faced him.”

“What exactly are you trying to say, Wild?” Warriors asked.

Wild turned to look down at the girl holding Hyrule upright. “Princess, your power might not be great right now, but…what about four hundred years from now?”

Hyrule felt cold all of a sudden. He felt as if his blood turned as frigid as ice. No. That can’t be right. He knew what Wild was trying to say and he didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to hear that the princess was detrimental to freeing him. Not only because of the implications that she had just left him to suffer under Ganon’s control, but because that truly would make her centuries-long sleep his fault.

Before Hyrule could fall fully into panic, Princess Zelda’s soft voice assured him against his fears. “Hero, it doesn’t work that way. The power I have at birth will be the power I have at death.”

Wild nodded in agreement. “Yes, but what if you’re constantly feeding your power into an object for all those years?”

“An object?”

Hyrule had a headache.

Hyrule had a really, really bad headache.

Even though Wild’s argument logically made sense, he just couldn’t rationalize it. Nothing made sense. She never would have just stood to the side.

Unless…unless even that wouldn’t have been enough. Four centuries' worth of magic still wouldn’t be quite enough to rid Hyrule of the Demon King safely.

In his mind, he could see pieces of both Time and Twilight’s final battles against Ganon. He could see their youthful faces covered in blood, dirt, and sweat but filled with courage and determination. He could see their princesses both tall and regal.

Neither hero could have come out of those difficult battles the victor had it not been for the aid of a princess blessed with the power of the goddesses.

There were three pieces to the Triforce. Not two. Always three.

As he said twice earlier, Link the Hero of Hyrule was no idiot.

Once his panic finally subsided and he allowed logic and reason back in his mind, Hyrule sighed. Nine whole heroes with experience in fighting with Ganon, it was highly unlikely that they wouldn’t be able to come up with some scheme to get rid of that monster. The princess that woke up in his time had already sat through their current conversation. She already knew at least part of what their plan would be.

She was waiting for the portal to arrive, wasn’t she? That had been the true reason why she’d looked so relieved when the knight had come barreling into the ballroom with the news.

“In a small snapshot of time, Wild’s princess’ power wouldn’t have been great enough to heal the Master Sword; but over the course of a hundred years, she continuously poured in her power even from a distance. Fi…” Sky drew his sword and gazed down at her in heartbreak.

After that, no one made a move to tell Wild that he was wrong, that he was talking nonsense, and that whatever happened in his time wouldn’t work for Hyrule’s current situation. Both the first hero and the latest in the line had gone and validated Sahasrahla’s words and all of a sudden, a different kind of fear and panic overwhelmed him.

There was understanding and acceptance in Princess Zelda’s eyes and Hyrule felt his organs rearrange themselves.

He shook his head and gripped her shoulders weakly. “Princess. Princess, we don’t need to do this. You don’t need to do this. We can find another way to get rid of him and we can somehow prevent you from getting cursed. I am a stranger to you. You don’t have to do this, I promise. I can keep you safe this time to make up for failing you in the future.”

There had to be some other way. There just had to. He didn’t mind creating a paradox. He didn’t care that by preventing her curse, he would have still ended up Ganon’s prisoner. The only thing that mattered was keeping her safe. She didn’t need to lose four hundred years’ worth of time for a boy she didn’t even know.

As if she knew his thoughts, she cupped his face with her hands. “You might be a stranger to me but…I am no stranger to you. Are you in pain? Does he hurt you?” What hurt was the concern in her eyes. He hated seeing her upset and he hated even more being the reason she became upset.

“No,” he gripped her hands, “this isn’t anything I can’t handle, princess.”

One look in her eyes and he knew that no matter how much he begged or pleaded, he would never be able to convince her otherwise. Doesn’t mean I won’t still try.

Princess Zelda broke eye contact with Hyrule to look over at Wild. “Hero, when you woke up in the future, were you afraid?”

Wild looked down at his hands—his body language perfectly clear that he didn’t want to answer, but he did. “Terrified,” he said honestly. “But I couldn’t allow myself to wallow in those feelings. My own princess was waiting for me to rescue her from her century-long fight with Ganon. Having that goal kept me sane.”

Hyrule felt so goddess-damned conflicted. He was glad that Wild’s words had reassured her—some of the fear in her eyes diminished. But, on the other hand…Wild’s words had reassured her. That fear that had left was very quickly replaced by determination.

“Wise man, what do I have to do?”

“No, Zelda, please,” he begged her squeezing his eyes shut. His hands left hers in order to bring her head down closer to his and connect their foreheads. “We can find another way.”

“Do you have courage in your heart, princess?” Sahasrahla asked a second time.

“No.” Hyrule wasn’t answering for the girl. He knew he had no right to speak for her and he also knew that telling her what to do would be no use, but he just couldn’t let her make such a decision. Not for him. He didn’t deserve it.

“I do.”

“Zelda.”

“Sahasrahla,” Legend started hesitantly after watching their exchange, “is there another way?”

“Time heals all wounds.” And what of the wounds that time creates? “Granddaughter, hand me my box.”

If Hyrule’s attention hadn’t solely been on the princess, he would have felt sorry for the possibly very confused and out-of-the-loop girl. “Grandfather, I don’t understand what’s going on here.”

“In time, you will. My box.” There was a bit of shuffling and the sound of cloth moving.

“A ring?” Wind sounded skeptical.

“Wow.” Legend deadpanned. “Have I mentioned how much I hate time travel?”

“You gave this ring to my ancestor and my family has protected it generation after generation.”

Zelda leaned away from Hyrule just enough to look up at the small object now in Legend’s hands. “An empty vessel to pour my power into.”

When Hyrule chanced a glance at the piece of jewelry, he felt even more hopeless. He recognized that ring. In his time, she never took it off.

“Okay, maybe I’m just not fully understanding everything here, but if you woke up in Hyrule’s present, you would have already had the ring. Why wouldn’t you have used it?” Four put voice to his earlier concerns.

“My power alone still wouldn’t be enough, right?”

“Then why send you forward in time at all? Isn’t there something we can do right now to get rid of Ganondorf?” Twilight asked.

There is and we can avoid hurting the princess by choosing that option.

“We’re trying not to kill Hyrule, right?” Four clarified probably solely for Hyrule’s sake.

“Not killing Hyrule would be ideal, yeah.” Warriors narrowed his eyes in Hyrule’s direction as if daring him to say otherwise. “The plan is to kill Ganon again.”

“Guys…” Sky frowned, “how do we kill something that doesn’t have a physical body?”

“What do you mean doesn’t have a physical body? Hyrule’s right there.” Wind gestured at Hyrule wildly.

Warriors sighed sharply. “I thought we already established that we’re trying not to kill Hyrule?”

Wind continued to wave his arms about to emphasize his point. “No, I know that, but isn’t Ganon, like, fused to Hyrule or something?”

Hyrule blinked. “Fused?” Was that what they thought? If Ganon were fused to him that would have given Hyrule no room at all to regain control of himself. “No, he...oh. Oh, Ganon you really have spent too much time as a monster. That idiot.”

Ganon never fused himself to me. Such a huge mistake, Hyrule unintentionally let out a small, incredulous laugh.

He saw the exact moment when Legend understood the problem. His eyes went wide before he busted out laughing wholeheartedly. “Golden Goddesses. Ganon himself fucked up his own resurrection this time, didn’t he?” The way he worded that, Hyrule felt it was safe to assume that Legend had screwed up Ganon’s resurrection ritual at least once before.

“He needed my blood. He should have killed me and completely fused his spirit to my body. But he left me alive and he’s still just a spirit—stuck inside me, but loose not merged. Why didn’t he kill me?”

“My fault probably?” Legend shot him an apologetic grin. “Last time I faced him, he’d fused himself to the wizard that resurrected him. It worked once…sort of…so he must have thought it would work again, but he got it all wrong this time. How the hell did he think he could resurrect without a sacrifice?”

Wild raised an eyebrow. “So, we’re trying to kill something that’s technically already dead? How is that going to work?” Hyrule and Legend both sobered up at Wild’s question that no one seemed to have an answer to.

“But if he’s just a spirit, why isn’t the princess’ power enough to seal him away again?” Wind asked.

“Because it never is enough.” Wild shook his head. “If it was, then—wait. Calamity Ganon. He was nothing but pure malice. He didn’t have a physical body either. Not technically anyway.”

Four looked at the other hero in hope. “How’d you beat him?” A little sliver of hope started to blossom in Hyrule’s heart. He really didn’t want to die. If there actually was a way of freeing him without killing him, he’d probably be willing to listen—so long as that plan didn’t involve letting the princess get cursed that is.

The light in Wild’s eyes dimmed as he answered defeatedly, “The Master Sword and Zelda’s sealing powers.”

The hope in Hyrule’s chest fizzled out as well. There goes that idea.

“And we’re back to square one. We’re. Not. Killing. Hyrule,” Warriors continued to stress and it was starting to irritate Hyrule a little. Did the man have to be so bullheaded?

“But if it’s the only way—”

“You’re not dying on my watch,” he snapped with all the authority of a highly-ranked knight. Hyrule flinched back suddenly sorry for speaking against him. “No more talk of you sacrificing yourself. You are getting out of this shitty situation alive if I have anything to say about it. Got it?”

Needless to say, the tone of voice had worked like magic. “Yes, sir?” Hyrule found himself agreeing without thinking.

Wind eyed Warriors warily as if he’d been on the wrong side of that commanding tone before. “Okay, so I get that her power even after four hundred years won’t be enough to destroy him, but surely it’s got to be enough to, you know, nudge the guy out of Hyrule, right?”

Legend shook his head. “No, that’s basically the same principle as sealing him. Ganon’s floating around in him like a Bubble. Since he’s not fused to Hyrule, you’d have to pin him down somehow. It’d be like trying to catch a fish swimming downstream with your bare hands.”

“So, not impossible?” Wild looked as if the hero’s example had made no sense. The look he received from Legend clearly told him to keep comments like that to himself.

Legend went to turn but froze as he continued to look strangely at Wild. “Hey, you said that the Master Sword was damaged before you were put in the Shrine of Resurrection, right?”

Wild nodded. “Ganon’s malice corroded it.”

Legend wasn’t able to continue his thought due to Sky cutting him off in outrage. “Hang on. I forged that bade solely for the purpose of standing against Demise. That shouldn’t have been possible.”

“Sky,” Wild tried cautiously, “she’s extremely old.”

“And? She was extremely old by the time she fell into my hands.”

“You’re straying from the point again.” Legend snapped. “Your princess healed her?” The Master Sword.

“Either that or she severely expedited the healing because I don’t think a hundred years is enough time to heal from the state the sword was in.”

“Did you need the sword to defeat Calamity Ganon?”

Where are you going with this?

Wild stared at Legend about as confused as Hyrule was. “If you’re asking me if my normal weapons did any significant damage to him, they did. Honestly, I probably could have done him in with a handful of ancient arrows.”

“So, you didn’t need the sword?”

“I mean, I guess not, but it sure helped.”

Legend started to pace the length of the clearing. “If you didn’t need the sword, then why would your princess expend precious energy either healing or accelerating the sword’s healing? Your Zelda significantly weakened Ganon to the point that you could have defeated him just fine with ordinary weapons. So, why?”

“Why, what?” Wild tossed a pinecone at the boy with the pink stripe in his hair. “Why are you trying to analyze my fight with Calamity Ganon like this right now?”

Legend caught the pinecone before it could smack him right in the face. “Because your princess didn’t age a single day over the course of one hundred years.”

“Neither did I. What is your point?”

“You are my point!”

Wild threw his hands up with a frustrated grunt. “Goddesses above! You are not making any fucking sense right now!”

“You didn’t need the sword! The Master Sword is inconsequential—no offence Sky.”

“Offense taken, Legend.”

“Then take it quietly, I’m trying to explain.”

“You’re doing a shitty job at it,” Wild felt the need to add.

“Oh, for Din’s sake.” Legend pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath as if he were desperately trying to keep himself from throttling wild. “Your Zelda didn’t need the stupid Master Sword! She needed a tether to this goddess-damned plane of existence! The sword healing was just an added bonus. The goddess’ power froze the princess in time not just to keep Ganon at bay, but so she could give you time to come back from the jaws of death.”

Oh. More things that made sense that Hyrule didn’t want to hear because they were leading back to letting Princess Zelda get cursed to sleep for centuries.

Sahasrahla had mentioned something along those lines as well earlier. Saying that the Master Sword was just a tool, the important thing was really them who wielded that tool.

It also lined up with what Hyrule had pieced together. If the princess had been sent forward in time in order to build up enough power, then she really had been waiting for the portal to show up. She had been waiting for Hyrule to join the other heroes from all across time.

Because if the princess’ power wouldn’t have been enough on her own in her own time, then Hyrule himself wouldn’t be enough either. Just as she needed greater power, he needed strength in numbers that came in the form of his predecessors.

Wind let out an excited yelp. “The hero’s spirit!” He cried. “That’s the story I grew up hearing. Every hero that the goddesses would pick, the hero’s spirit would find them and fill them with it. The hero’s spirit must have split itself to fill each of you with a part of it. That’s why the goddesses had to flood Hyrule in my time because there was no hero to stand by the princess when Ganondorf rose again. The princess can’t do this alone just as Tetra wouldn’t have been able to take on Ganondorf by herself—just as all your Zeldas wouldn’t have been able to stand alone. Wild, you should understand this the best out of us all.”

Legend patted Wind on the head and gave Wild a look that clearly read see? “She was the only one who could repair the one sword that only you could wield. Get it? It was never about the sword. She was waiting for you to wake up.”

Time looked up at the sparse clouds. “The blood of the goddess and the hero’s spirit are closely entwined.”

“Power. Wisdom. Courage,” Four said, causing Twilight to nod.

“The Demon King. The Goddess. The Hero.”

The littlest hero rubbed his chin contemplatively. “So, if the hero’s spirit is split between us each time a hero is needed, does that mean that it’s weakened as the ages went on? Is that why Hyrule can’t just shoo him out with the princess’ help?”

Honestly, that was what Hyrule had figured. Imagine his surprise when Sky firmly shook his head in disagreement.

“No. It was an equal split,” he told them as if he knew that for a fact. “None of us could have handled more than just a fraction and I think the hero knew that.”

“What hero?” Warriors questioned. “Aren’t you the first of us?”

To that, Sky started to look a bit uncomfortable. “Yes and no,” he answered slowly. “I’m the first hero in this endless cycle of reincarnation. But there was one before me, long before my people had been sent above the clouds. Long before even the past that I walked through to defeat Demise. Back when there was the Demon King, the White Goddess Hylia, and a mortal man with an unbreakable spirit. I’m sure you can guess the story. There was a war. The hero defeated the Demon King. The Goddess sealed him away but not before the Demon King vowed his revenge, yadda, yadda, yadda. The hero was heavily wounded during the battle and died soon after.”

He paused. “Zelda…Hylia…She loved him. She became mortal for him and ensured that his spirit would live on. Then Zelda and I were born and things didn’t go exactly as planned. I ended up getting us cursed for all eternity.”

Twilight looked at him funny. “If you’re that hero reincarnated, then how is it an equal split?”

“Because I’m not his reincarnation. If I was then by now—especially after being with Zelda—I would have remembered my previous life. I don’t. I’m not his reincarnation. We are.” Sky gestured to all eight of the other heroes.

“So, I’m right, then.” Wind’s eyes brightened considerably. “With all of you here together, the hero’s spirit is complete. Whole.”

Sahasrahla chuckled making Hyrule jump—he’d sort of forgotten that the old man was still there. “Do I hear correctly that the pirate does not think himself a hero?”

Wind scrunched up his nose and scratched the top of his head. “No? I’m a new pot, remember? When Time’s princess sent him back to his own time, he left and took the hero’s spirit with…him…equal split?” The kid blinked his large eye. “Are you trying to say that I actually am a chosen hero too? Not just a kid who accidentally got himself wrapped up in Ganondorf’s business?”

“That’s why we’re all together?” Warriors assumed. “Why we ended up walking through the portals?”

“But we’re not all here.” Four shook his head. “I know for a fact that there was at least one other hero that came before me, sometime after Sky.”

Wild made a noise of agreement. “And the hero who came ten thousand years before me.”

“There are probably others that even we don’t know about,” Time said causing several of the heroes to look dejected.

Wind kicked a small rock into the undergrowth. “So, it won’t work?”

“Why do you think so, sailor?” Time gave the kid a patient look while Hyrule eyed him curiously. The man sure acted like a parent but didn’t like being treated like one?

“Well, if not all the heroes are present, wouldn’t that make the hero’s spirit not powerful enough?” Wind asked a very valid question that nearly solidified completely Hyrule’s resolve to end everything the way he originally suggested. But then a small knowing smile appeared on Time’s face.

“It’s never been power that we’ve needed. Only the courage to fight.”

“Okay. Back to the big question. How?” Legend flopped down on the ground to lean against a tree.

Time hesitated. “I don’t know.”

Warriors folded his arms across his chest. “I’m sure we can work out all the fine details later. For now, all the princess has to do is pour her power into the ring?”

Hyrule’s heart constricted. Why did all roads lead back to that? “Hold on. She hasn’t agreed to anything yet!”

Princess Zelda frowned and that just made everything even worse. “I want to help you. Why won’t you let me help you?”

“Zelda, listen to me, forget what they’re trying to say, we can find a different way.”

Warriors looked about five seconds away from strangling him. “No, your idea of another way ends up with you six feet under.”

Hyrule glared at the older hero. Shut up. You’re not helping.

“Zelda…” the princess muttered and Hyrule then realized that he’d forgotten his manners and had referred to her by her first name. However, she didn’t seem to mind—quite the opposite, really as she gave him a smile. “Not many people call me by my name anymore. I don’t know why, but I think I’d like to hear you call my name more.”

Hyrule had to wonder if she knew just how easily a single smile from her could manipulate him.

He raised his hand to brush his thumb against her cheek. “Please, you don’t have to do this.”

“You’ll come save me four hundred years from now.”

But that won’t be me. He wanted to argue. If she refused to let him prevent her curse, then she would end up being subjected to Ganon’s evil for six months. Why couldn’t anyone understand that he didn’t want that for her?

“Zelda, I know you’re afraid, you don’t need to pretend to be brave. We can save you right here and now, you won’t have to wait four hundred years.”

“I think you’re the one who’s afraid here, Link.”

“Zelda.” He felt like crying out of frustration.

Without turning away from Hyrule’s eyes, she asked Sahasrahla, “Wise man, do you how and when it will happen? I want to be prepared.”

It was official. Hyrule would never in a million years be able to find the ability to forgive himself. He was going to ruin her life just to save his own. What kind of hero did that make him?

Four hundred years she would be asleep. Just like Wild said, her entire world would change and she would never be able to go back. She would be leaving her life behind, her friends, her family, just to save him? How could he just accept that?

“In three days’ time, the king shall pass.” The princess looked pained at his words but not overly surprised. “That evening your brother shall come to you and will continue to come to you for the next three nights to confront you about the location of the Triforce. On that final evening, he will bring with him a magician with a wicked heart in order to threaten you into answering.”

Wind clenched his fists. “That bastard! Who does he think he is? She’s his little sister! How can he do that to her?”

“This magician will curse me.”

The old man shook his head and for once, gave a straight, simple answer. “No. That mage doesn’t have the capability to place such a curse on you.”

“Then how?” Time asked him.

“Hero of Hyrule, take the ring in your hand.” Sahasrahla gestured for Legend to come forward and hand the ring to Hyrule.

When he refused to take it, Princess Zelda retrieved it from Legend herself and proceeded to try to pry open Hyrule’s hand to make him take it.

“I can’t,” he begged. Why couldn’t she see reason? “I can’t do this to you.”

She didn’t respond to him as she continued to try and force the ring into his hand. When he finally gave in, she turned to the old man and asked, “What does he need to do?”

“Zelda, I’m being serious here.” She was no longer listening to him.

“Imbue your Shield spell into the ring. The spell the magician will cast upon you is one of eternal sleep only in the sense that you will never wake until the day of your death. Your own magic along with the Shield spell will clash with the magician’s curse and in order to protect the wearer’s life, the Shield spell will backfire and encase both you and your magic, keeping you closed off from the flow of time hence prolonging your life until the Triforce recalls the magic.”

Four hundred years.

“Please, don’t make me do this,” he whispered.

“You will be there for me when I wake in the future and I shall be with you when the Demon King takes control of you. I won’t leave your side. I won’t leave you to be alone with him.”

“Zelda.” He pressed his forehead against hers once again when he could no longer handle looking her in the eye.

“Let me protect you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

The princess laughed softly. “I think my soul does. Isn’t that enough? My heart doesn’t like seeing you cry—seeing you in pain. Please, let me help fix you.”

“It’s four hundred years.”

He finally succeeded in making her pause and think. And, in those seconds, he hoped and prayed to the goddesses that she would change her mind. The goddesses, it seemed, had decided to go deaf that day. “I know,” she admitted. “I’m scared. I’m very scared to be trapped in the future but knowing that you will be there with me makes my heart feel at ease. Link, let me help you.”

Hyrule had lost fights before. He had gotten hurt. He had found himself in hopeless situations time and time again.

But there was no fight that he’d lost in his entire life that hurt him as badly as the one he’d just lost to the princess.

Hyrule leaned back and stared mutely at the ring in his hands. On the outside, it looked unassuming—like a normal ring—but he could feel that it was a magical item. The ring was an object that absorbed power like a sponge absorbs water. He really wanted to be mad at Legend for owning such a dumb ring in the first place, but he quickly realized that being mad required energy that he no longer possessed.

Speaking of energy…

“Legend, you’re going to have to take the cuff off. Put it back on as soon as I finish, I don’t know how much longer the seal on Ganon will last. I don’t want him waking up in the middle of this.”

The very second he was released from the cuff, he felt about a thousand pounds lighter. He dug through his bag until he located the little bottle of green liquid.

“What’s that?” Wind asked and tilted his head like a puppy.

Hyrule downed the contents of the bottle before answering. “Magic potion. That thing completely drained me.” He nodded his head to the silver cuff currently in Legend’s hands. “Glad you thought of it. You really don’t want to end up on the wrong side of some of my spells.”

Hyrule wrinkled his nose. “Especially my Spell Spell. Even I don’t fully understand what all that spell does.” Was he stalling? Yes. Yes, he was. Or at least he was until he met with Time’s unimpressed gaze.

You’re such a dad and you don’t even realize it. Hyrule thought bitterly as he continued to gaze down at the ring in his hand unable to move an inch. Maybe he could pretend that it would take much longer for him to recover his magic.

Legend would call my bluff in two seconds flat.

Hyrule sighed feeling positively miserable.

He looked up at Princess Zelda as he finally activated his Shield Spell. A thought occurred to him, staring at her blonde hair. “No wonder your hair turned red,” he muttered.

“Red?” The princess blinked before grabbing a lock of her hair to study it.

For some reason, the action made him smile. “It suits you,” he assured her as his spell came to completion.

It took a lot of convincing to get himself to actually hand to ring over to her. Once he did, then that would seal her fate. Once he handed her the ring, he would be cursing her to sleep for four hundred years.

But this was her choice. No matter how much it pained him to admit it. No amount of pleading had convinced her to change her mind. She was choosing to have him curse her.

Very reluctantly, he handed her the ring. When she slid it onto her finger, he felt like he’d gotten sucker punched by a Lynel.

“What now?” Wild asked.

Princess Zelda sighed before looking up at Legend. “You should return me to the castle before anyone finds me missing. I want…I want to spend what little time I have left with my father.”

Twilight eyed him with a slight frown. “Speaking of…how much longer do you think we’ll have Hyrule with us?” How much longer until Ganon regained control?

“Not much longer.” There was something about admitting it that made Hyrule feel small and afraid. I hate this. I don’t want to be a prisoner in my own body anymore. “I can already feel my hold on him loosening.”

After Hyrule had finished with his spell, Legend had been quick to return the cuff to its home on his wrist. He probably could have held onto control for longer had they not had to remove it. Once Hyrule’s magic flowed through his body once again, in the back of his mind, he could feel Ganon start to awaken.

“Then we’d better get you out of here soon. I’d rather you not be subjected to that monster when he comes back out.”

Legend helped the princess to her feet. Before she turned to leave, she gave Hyrule another bright smile. “Link. We shall see each other again. Come find me, four hundred years from now.” She crouched down and planted a feather-light kiss on his cheek. His skin burned like he’d been touched by fire. “Rescue me and I’ll do the same to you.”

For the first time in half a year, Hyrule managed to smile. A real smile. One that actually reached his eyes. “Okay, save me, Zelda. I’ll be waiting for you.”