AN: I'd like to acknowledge JamesYorke's "Fish out of Water" story here on the Zelda section. It has been an incredible read thus far with an attention to detail and lore that few of us can hope to surpass. After reading it and completing my own play-through I was interested in pursuing a story with a twist on the timeline in BotW, and also because I have a soft spot for the tragic romance that was implied between Link and Mipha. I hope you all enjoy my own story about the flow of time and the struggle of the hero.

"Whenever there is a meeting, a parting is sure to follow.

However, that parting need not last forever...

Whether a parting be forever of merely for a short time...

That is up to you.."

-Nameless Mask Salesman

The rain fell on the ruined skeleton of a Hylian army outpost, a grey pall of light pushing through the clouds across the landscape. The animals skittered out of the downpour, tracking mud as they found refuge among the nearby trees that had begun to reclaim what were once clear-cut battlements and defensive lines. Through the broken outer wall and among the ghosts of those who'd defended it, the man in blue walked alone.

He strode with purpose, and arms honed by many hours of swordcraft easily clambered along the ruined masonry. Those the man had come across often found him the very image of the disciplined, dashing hero of legend they would expect from the many stories told in his wake. It was tragic, then, that the look on his face was of a dead man walking.

Empty, tired eyes stared out of that picture of firm resolve. The stoic demeanor that had been cultivated as Hyrule's perfect champion knight was almost a mockery now, the dispassionate gaze only a shell of its former light. A sad, lonely man alone on the road.

Callused hands found purchase on the rain slick rock, and the hero climbed through the broken ramparts of what had once been the outer wall of the outpost. Fragmented memories compelled him to check the lamp oil in sconces that would never glow again, and to stand to attention on rounds patrolled now by no one. Faces smiled at him from memories of burnished mail and plate, but the painful truth was no names came to mind, no context tying his scattered thoughts together.

It was a terrible fate to have forgotten everything that made you what you were.

The mettle was there. His craft for slaying remained, the muscle memory serving him well as he carried out his duty. A blank empty gaze regarded those who instructed him on his quest, his mute demeanor accepting the role for lack of anything else to draw on. He felt himself an imposter in his own skin, recognition from the few who might have known wasted on a heart empty of memories.

Though as he walked the land, the man found himself wondering no longer who he was, but how much of him remained.

A soldier fights for his country and his family, and there was neither left for the knight-out-of-time. The Sheikah looked to him as some sort of warrior-hero returned from the grave, he could only laugh bitterly wandering through the rain and the mud with sword and shield he took rusting from the grasp of a long dead body along the way; Hardly the arms of a legend, let alone one that had to scramble amid trees to outwit mere moblins.

The hero methodically searched crates, barrels and broken chests, scavenging supplies for his journey ahead. Staying busy helped the man keep his mind off the painful wreck of his memories, his own identity as a person muddled by amnesia.

A home between the mountains and the sea.

The sound of running water.

Haunting amber eyes that warmed his soul.

The hero shook his head abruptly, feeling his heart clench once more at that particular memory. There was pain there, and too little of the warmth that should have been remembered. He did not die in the shrine of resurrection, but he didn't quite live either.

He pushed on, breaking open a door to the sublevels of the compound. It was surprising that so many of the ruins dotting Hyrule had gone largely unmolested during his 100 year sleep following the Calamity, but with the presence of Guardians killing any who drew near, the man could surmise that few would dare poke about the areas they patrolled mindlessly.

Mildew and mold made him cover his nose, the smell of a damp basement below the outpost not the most pleasant greeting, but any treasure or equipment left behind may be a help in the final battle. Lighting a torch, the man drew further into the ruins. Below the outpost was the command center, at which the garrison commander would store sensitive materials, prisoners and afford some measure of all around protection to any valuable persons taking refuge at the fort. An examination of a tattered set of orders posted to a bulletin board revealed that before the last battle the troops there had been transporting relics from the Royal Family.

Perhaps there will be some magical tools I can use. The hero thought idly.

It hurt, walking the ruined hall of a familiar-but-not place, half expecting some faceless friend to appear and remind him about his duty shift. Now all that was left of the knight order and soldiery of the once proud Hylian army were rusted arms and bleached bones. Were it not for the Sheikah's timely arrival, he would have died at his post too, far from home.

And what was the point of that unwavering service? The bitter thought crossed his mind. Did the knight champion make any difference against that calamity?

Legends spoke of great heroes and their unrelenting courage, but the stories never dwelt on what happened when those suffering warriors came back to their ruined villages, broken families and dead friends.

He came to the storage lockers of the outpost's basement. Behind the rusted grate he smashed open were manifests and a number of chests. Searching through what was left yielded some ancient texts, likely headed for the royal library. The final chest was something different, however.

There was no mention of it on the manifest, and judging by the double lock he had to pry off, this was a high priority relic being transported. The hero lifted the lid of the aged chest, and found sitting on a padded surface a small blue instrument.

It was a sky-blue sheen, although when he picked it up the man found the weight of the thing to discount any ceramic material. Some kind of stone perhaps. There was a band about the mouthpiece with a golden triforce symbol, and holding the instrument gave him an odd sense of nostalgia.

Ocarina... The word popped into his head.

Not the kind of magic weapon he intended to loot, although the hero pocketed the instrument none the less. It may prove useful being traded some time later for arrows. He left the basement level and stepped out into the clearing daylight of the storm passing by. The smell of wet loam and fresh air was welcome, although the stoic expression on the Hero's face did not change.

Better get moving, might be able to cross the Tabantha frontier before nightfall.

The man hitched up his pack once more, and departed from the outpost ruins, he never looked back.

There's nothing to look back on anymore...

Night time brought the chirp of crickets and the occasional call of Keese. The ink of the dark heavens overhead made way for the circle of light warmed by the campfire. A bedroll and tarp, rucksack and sword. He never needed much when traversing the land, some part of him relished the natural state. The man bit off a piece of venison jerky, and stared into the flames.

Link...

That was his name, he supposed. That mysterious voice that greeted him in the shrine of resurrection called him such, and the few still living since his 100 year slumber recognized the face he wore.

Like a mask... He thought to himself morosely.

So much was broken, missing, gone. An entire life, who he was, fragmented and unfamiliar. He felt like a stranger in his own skin, a pretender or some sort of phantom. There was little to no comfort he could recall.

...but he felt pain, sure enough.

The men he served with in the Hylian knight order, all faceless ghosts to him now. The camaraderie and forging of a soldier lost but for the practiced swing of his sword.

The comrades, now dead or gone, living among the Sheikah tribe or spirits shackled to the divine beasts, all looking upon him with relief and familiarity, and he couldn't look upon them the same.

A wet embrace, amber gaze, and gentle words in the rain.

A set of armor with a white scale sat at the bottom of his enchanted pack, a gift to a fiancé from long ago, a vow unremembered and unrequited.

The ache was there. He felt her loss keenly, some part of him gone, but the comfort of their time together was also stripped away. What cruel joke could the goddess have pulled to ask of him everything, even the bittersweet memories of the one closest to him? Or had even the goddess faded into ancient legend, and now the living struggled on in futility against the end of all things?

Link stared into the fire, feeling the warmth on his face, long past the point he'd shed tears, now only very old and tired in a body that struggled on to fulfill a final duty.

Something had changed. He didn't feel much like any hero of yore, if he ever was. The courage in his bones was born now of heedless disregard for his own life, and as if sensing something had broken in the Hylian, the blade of evil's bane had rejected him too. Link recalled trying to draw the sword once before in the ancient Korok forest, but the blade had refused his call.

He wasn't a returning hero, he was just some damaged old man that didn't live up to the legends.

Link prodded at the fire, watching the sparks curl up into the night. Duty pushed him onwards. Whatever dregs of soldiery still left in him that clung to the knight's code, the stoic face of his service to the crown. Destroying Ganon to save the land.

...and then what?

There was no home for him to return to. No one to welcome him back with open arms. The hero felt the despair of his endless struggle seep into his bones and eat away at him from within. He was trying to live up to what the man he once was had been, but he felt like a child playing pretend in their father's clothes.

He spent some time sadly by the fire, before he recalled the curious relic he picked up at the outpost. Rummaging through his pack, Link drew out the ocarina once more.

The smooth blue instrument eased his spirits. Just holding it made him calmer, fingering the holes experimentally, drawing it up to his lips.

He blew one clear note.

All at once, he felt a rush not unlike his memory flashbacks, and the instruments in his hand sparkled as the world around him dissolved into white...

Link stared around at the foggy surroundings, no sensation of touch, smell or taste greeting him.

This isn't a memory... He thought to himself warily.

It must have been some magical safeguard of the relic, or perhaps this is how it was supposed to function? Was there a spell on it?

He turned about, and almost yelped as he came face to face with a skeleton in ancient armor staring him down with dispassionate empty sockets.

Link stood ready, sword drawn with a ringing rasp, waiting for the specter to make the first move. Ever was he surprised when the being did not advance on him, but instead spoke in a deep thrum he could hear inside his skull.

"You may be destined to become the hero of legend... but your current power disgraces me."

Link's brow furrowed. Yet another Sheikah trial of some kind perhaps, though the disapproval irked him none the less. He steeled himself to meet this combat trial head first, and stepping forward he thrust quickly from his practiced stance with his blade whistling as it cut through the air.

The impact of being disarmed shook the breath from his body, and in an unfamiliar turn of events the ex-knight found himself aching flat on his back with the skeleton specter's sword at his throat.

"What ails you? This is not the courage of the hero, it is the struggle of a dead man."

Link only stared up at the being, the muteness of his chosen knight demeanor returning easily. The skeleton stared back, and somehow Link felt vulnerable there, as if the being could see something inside him and find him wanting.

"I sense much regret in you, and a broken soul robbed of its childhood."

The rusty helmet inclined slightly, almost sadly.

"Believe me warrior, I am no stranger to your pain."

"What would you know?"

Link's furious reply caught even himself off guard.

"I've lost everything! I don't even know who I am, and I'm forced into a hopeless quest to save the world!"

He felt tears come to his eyes, but this outburst was long overdue, and being lectured by a Sheikah specter was just too much.

"I'm nothing! I'm scrabbling in the dirt trying to survive and I'm supposed to kill the demon that destroyed Hyrule! I had a name, I had a fiancé, and both are just bits and pieces I can't even remember!"

Link sank back onto the floor, feeling that terrible ache return to his weary bones.

"I can't save anyone. I'm just a nobody wearing a champion's face..."

A hundred years of pain and suffering crashed down about the young hero, of impossible expectations and unrequited love, and Link wept as he felt his stoic mask give way.

The skeletal being knelt, and Link felt the heavy gauntlet on his shoulder as the strange being sat next to him.

"Tell me."

He spoke for some time.

There in the ethereal realm of fog, Link found himself a brief respite. Away from the expectations of being the Hylian champion, from grand quests and world ending troubles, the young man finally found a chance to express all of his troubles. Here with this Sheikah apparition, at the very least the Hylian hero found he could vent his anguish.

Link concluded his tale of picking up the pieces since he had awoken from his 100 year slumber. The skeleton knight was silent, staring into the distance with those empty sockets, though a burning red began to alight in one of them.

"The flow of time is always cruel." he spoke at last, as if half to himself, rising from his kneeling next to the despondent Hylian.

"As you stand now, you have no hope of overcoming Ganon. You must regain that courage you once had... and find it you must. Only then will you become the hero for whom this world despairs."

Link drew an arm across his tired red eyes, and stood to face the being.

"What we need is more time..."

Sheathing its fearsome broadsword and shield, the skeleton knight reached into a moss-covered belt pouch, and withdrew a small grey ocarina with a green mark on the mouthpiece.

"From I, who have walked through time and fate, I offer this melody that opens the door of time."

The spectral knight raised the instrument to his helmet, and a haunting series of notes were played, ringing in the silence of the foggy realm. Link withdrew the blue relic ocarina he had found, and put it to his lips. He pictured the skeletal finger movements, and closing his eyes he began to play.

Together, Hylian and ghost played the ancient song that had long since faded into myth. The somber notes echoed as Link felt the music burned into his fragmented memory, an anchor in a world of uncertainty.

As the song ended, Link stared in wonder as the instrument began to glow with a fairy sparkle. The skeleton knight nodded in approval.

"You have learned the song of time. This was the melody I had used generations prior when the great king of evil threatened the land of Hyrule."

At this, the dawning suspicion Link had that this apparition wasn't a Sheikah test after all began to come to light. He stared in wonder as the pieces began to fit together.

"You may have known me as the hero of time."

There was a blinding light, and Link covered his eyes as the world surrounding him disappeared.

What he saw next was a chaotic lightshow of broiling clouds, rain and lightning. Some sort of vision that the being was imparting to him.

"Before time began, before spirits and life existed, three golden goddesses descended upon the chaos that was Hyrule. Din, the goddess of power. Nayru, the goddess of wisdom. Farore, the goddess of courage."

A trio of heavenly beings descended, glowing with light and color that defied the imagination.

"Din, with her strong flaming arms, she cultivated the land and created the red earth. Nayru, poured her wisdom into the earth and gave the spirit of law to the world. Farore, with her rich soul, produced all life forms that would uphold the law."

Stone and water, air and fire were shaped like clay, and the world took shape out of the cold black of the void.

"The three great goddesses, their labors completed, departed for the heavens. And golden sacred triangles remained at the place where the goddesses left the world. Since then, the sacred triangles have become the basis of our world's providence. And, the resting place of the triangles has become the Sacred Realm."

The vision faded away, and Link found himself once more facing the skeletal knight.

"This is the foundation mythos of our world, so ancient that even the old goddesses have fallen into legend. The goddess you worship as Hylia was tasked to protect the sacred triangles, the Triforce, from evil's grasp."

Link was stunned. He only ever been traditionally religious, but this earth-shaking revelation was quite a lot to process.

"Many generations ago, a demon lord emerged from the underworld and threatened to capture this sacred power for himself. The goddess Hylia, with the aid of a hero, took a mortal form and sealed away this demon lord to be destroyed within the sword of evil's bane."

The skeletal knight hung its helmeted head, ruefully.

"However, this demon, who lusted after the sacred power of the gods, cursed the now mortal goddess and the hero's bloodlines. That an incarnation of his wrath would challenge them forever. This demon's incarnations came to be known as Ganon."

Link's eyes widened. Ganon's return was an apocalyptic event, though the knowledge that it had occurred multiple times filled him with despair. What hope was there in overcoming an unrelenting evil that would simply return time and time again?

"In my time, this evil incarnated as the Gerudo king Ganondorf. In the course of my quest against him, I used the powers of the ocarina you now hold and the blade of evil's bane to travel across time. With the help of the princess in my age, and the seven sages, we defeated Ganon and sealed him in the Sacred Realm."

The ocarina felt warm to the touch, as if responding to the legend the skeletal knight spoke of.

"Even with the power of these ancient Sheikah constructs, eradicating Ganon cannot be accomplished merely by force of arms. Truly, it was little wonder that the untrained princess of your age was unable to fully banish Ganon herself. You will need the power of the ancient sages to trap Ganon in the sacred realm..."

The ghost knight's eye began to glow with a red menace, the bite of his words turning hard.

"...and then you must journey there, to destroy the heart of that evil once and for all, and bring peace to our land forevermore."

Link stared at the ancient hero, feeling all at once very small and insignificant. He looked at his callused hands, chapped from scrabbling over rock. He felt the aches and pains of dozens of injuries that plagued him. He felt the despair and turmoil of being a stranger in his own skin, and the pain of a broken heart.

Though even as he shrank inwards, he could remember the gratitude of those he had saved along the way. The ordinary folk of the stables, from merchants to horse mistresses; The Zora who called out his name amid a liberated Domain...and the heart-wrenching tears of a spirit long imprisoned that saw some spark inside him he could not explain.

Even if he was but a shell, he would live up to what she had believed of him. Even if the world stood against him.

...And so he stood up and steeled himself in front of the skeletal knight.

"I'm not a champion or a hero," he said with a weary voice, "but I will face this solemn duty."

The pain inside throbbed, but Link clenched his fists knuckle-white.

"Not because I have any hope for myself, but so no one else will suffer at the hands of Ganon ever again."

There was a silence, and the ancient knight placed a heavy gauntlet on Link's shoulder.

"I am proud of you, my child."

The ancient hero shook his helmeted head, "Even now, hurt as you are, you possess the mettle to carry on."

The red eye glowed brightly, and the being seemed almost eager.

"...But you are not alone. I shall guide you in the lonely path of the sword, and finding the ancient sages, with which you will ensure Ganon's destruction. To this end, the true hero must rally forth, not the casualty of time I see before me now."

The world of fog surrounding them began to collapse. There was a roaring cacophony, and Link struggled against unseen wind as he felt something tearing him away.

"Now then, chosen hero, you will start over from the beginning."

Link screamed as he felt his body turn to something ethereal, and with a tugging sensation behind his naval, was drawn into the howling white light, and knew no more.

There were birds chirping, and the sight of an endless blue sky that greeted Link when he opened his eyes.

His mind was foggy, as if some half remembered dream still dwelt on his mind. His eyes felt red and blotchy, as if he'd been crying. He reached up to rub at them, and the small hand that did so surprised him.

"Hey kid, you're awake, huh?"

The Hylian whirled about, and found himself sitting among some shipping crates and hay, with a Hylian soldier leaning back against the wagon they rode in. A merchant of some sort was studiously directing their horse to the front, and the rasp of cicadas told him it was summertime.

"You okay kid? Looked like a bad dream."

The soldier lifted his plumed helmet to wipe his brow, "Ugh, this armor's way too much for these balmy days."

Link tried to say something, but could only look about in shock. There was something...strange about all this.

"Ah great, we're here! I can't wait to cool off in the river."

Link turned once more, and found himself greeted by an eerily familiar mountain range and a valley blessed with running water. From its bosom a breathtaking city sculpted out of luminous rock towered on beautiful tresses, and waterfalls crashed down amid the cliffs surrounding it.

Despite his chaotic thoughts, Link felt tears come unbidden at the sight, as something necessary inside him was made whole again. The Hylian soldier patted him comfortingly on the back.

"Welcome to Zora's Domain kid, I hope you like it here."