D3ath: NEW STORY! Wow, I feel like all I'm doing is churning out story ideas. And I'm supposed to be getting my portfolio ready for application. Oh well. This popped into my head while I was playing Twilight Princess, because I had beaten Skyward Sword, and I noticed a lot of similar themes and ideas running through them both.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ZELDA: SKYWARD SWORD. If you do not want to be spoiled, don't read.

Trapped in Time

By D3athrav3n92

Chapter 1

"Master Link, I do not believe that is a good idea. My calculations state that is a seventy-six percent chance that it will backfire on you."

"That means there's still a twenty-four percent chance it will work, Fi. And I can't think of any other way to get over there anyways."

The blue-colored figure frowned minutely. "Master Link-" she began, but the blonde-haired teen next to her grinned.

"Don't worry, I'm sure nothing too bad will happen," he said cheerfully, hefting the electric club that a technoblin had dropped earlier in the Temple of Time. "Maybe the resulting shockwave will land us over on that platform over there," he said, gesturing to mentioned platform on the other side of the room.

"Master, there is a high rate of mortality-"

"YAAAH!" Link swung down, his dark blue eyes glowing as the electrified club hit the timestone.

All Link saw the next moment was a blinding light, and everything went dark.

"I don't think we've entered this room yet," Link stated, peering into a room that sat at the western end of the main chamber in the Temple of Time. A floating figure next to him rolled her amber eyes, folding her arms.

"Link, we don't need to check every room in this place. Besides, that one looks like a storage closet."

Link turned fierce, yet puzzled light blue eyes on Midna. "What would they need a storage closet for in here?" he asked, frowning, and Midna sniggered.

"Oh, I don't know," she said airily, waving her arms. "They probably had some important rituals in here. Maybe this is where they kept the sacrificial virgins or something. Anyways, let's go."

"Ha ha, very funny," Link drawled sarcastically. Regardless of Midna's impatience, he opened the door, and stepped in, looking around warily in case of a monster lurking in the shadows. Once he deemed the room clear, he began studying the room. "Hey, Midna, come look at this?"

"What?" Midna demanded, floating up to him. "It's just some squiggle on the ground, wolf-boy."

"Nah, it looks like some sort of symbol," Link muttered, studying the swirled patterns. "Maybe-"

All of a sudden, light erupted from it, and Link felt something seizing him. He tried to draw his sword, but the pressure caused him to black out.

The last thing he heard was a yell of shock from Midna.

Fi had been asleep inside the Master Sword for a long time. However, despite her slumber, she still was able to know what was going around her. It had been an experience, especially in the hands of those she had deemed worthy, such as the Hero of Time and the new hero, the Hero of Twilight.

However, she felt the stirrings of wakefulness when the bright light faded, and she listened absent as Midna cursed up a storm. Fi, however, was focused more on the boy laying next to her, his breathing quickening as he came to.

"…You idiot! You just had to go and investigate this room, didn't you? Now look! Some weird symbol came to life, and now this whole quest might be ruined. Ruined, I tell you! Are you listening to me, Wolf-boy? ARE YOU?" Midna shrieked, turning to the young man on the floor. However, upon seeing him, she froze. She had spent enough time with Link to recognize on sight that this was not Link.

She flew towards him and picked him up, seizing him by the front of his tunic and shaking him awake. "Who are you?" she hissed, "And what have you done with Link?"

The boy blinked up at her in bafflement. "I am Link," he shot back crossly. "Where am I, and what goddess-forsaken creature gave birth to you?"

"You're not Master Link."

Link's brow furrowed as he woke up, and he stared up at the slightly-disapproving expression of Fi.

He leapt to his feet, and went to draw his sword, but his hand grasped air. 'What?' His head whipped around to stare at the missing space over his right shoulder, and he took a step back warily. However, at the motion he felt an uncomfortable sensation on his back, and he realized that his sword was on the wrong side.

'How did it end up there?' he thought, frustrated as he grappled for the hilt awkwardly with his right hand. As soon as he drew the blade, he switched hands, pointing it menacingly at the blue and purple figure. "What are you?" he demanded, his light blue eyes narrowing in a challenge, and the figure regarded him with interest.

"Odd," she remarked calmly, her voice almost monotonic as she spoke. "I seem to calibrate with you, while I am one hundred percent attuned to Master Link. You also seem to bear a number of similar qualities to my master."

"What?" Link lowered the blade of the sword slightly. "What do you mean by that?"

"I am Fi, the spirit that resides in that blade," the spirit said, nodding at the blade in Link's hand. "I was created for the sole purpose of assisting the chosen hero of the Goddess Hylia in his quest. I can safely calculate that you are, despite the similarity to my master, not the chosen hero."

Link gawked at the spirit, before lifting the blade to study it. "But this is the Master Sword!" he blurted in shock. "How-what-?" Then he noticed something. The blade was a little lighter, as well as a little shorter than the blade he was used to. "Wait," he muttered to himself, hefting the blade. "It is, though. It has the exact same design, almost the same amount of power, and same tempering-but it feels different."

Fi tilted her head. "Please elaborate," she commanded, and Link jolted, his blade pointing up at her, before he remembered who she said she was. He frowned suspiciously, but he lowered the blade.

"I also have a sword just like this, but we call it the Master Sword," he explained. "It is a sword of legend amongst the Hylians, and has been around for thousands of years."

Fi was silent for a moment, before she studied the area around them, particularly the timeshift stone that had been struck earlier.

"It seems as though my calculations earlier were correct," she commented, before turning back to the Link before her. "I believe an explanation is in order."

There was a moment of silence.

"What did you just say?" Midna hissed, her pale cheeks darkening in fury.

"I asked what sort of monstrosity gave birth to create something like you," Link repeated, his big, dark blue eyes narrowing at the challenge.

Midna held up a hand, and created a ball of condensed, black, glittering magic. "I dare you to repeat that, you son of a Skulltula!" she spat, and Link's eyes darted to the black magic before swallowing.

"I-I take that back," he stammered. When Midna's furious expression didn't change, he cringed. "I'm sorry?"

"Tch." Midna dropped him, before hovering in front of him and folding her arms. "What'd you do to Wolf-boy?" she demanded angrily.

"Wolf-boy?" Link frowned. "Who on earth would name their child Wolf-boy?"

Midna felt like tearing her hair out in frustration. "LINK! His name is Link! He's about eighteen or nineteen, he's wearing just about the same uniform as you, light blue eyes, a little on the dim-witted side, freaking worked on a GOAT FARM, need I say more? Because you OBVIOUSLY did something to him!"

Link stared at her like she had gone mad. "I'm not dim-witted!" he exclaimed indignantly. "And I never worked on a goat farm! We don't even have goat farms! And I'm not nineteen, I'm sixteen!"

"THEN YOU'RE NOT WOLF-BOY, IDIOT!"

"I'm not an idiot!"

"Yes you are, because I'm talking about a different person! Geez, even his horse is smarter than you!"

"That's not tru-Wait." Link paused. "What's a horse?"

Midna rolled her eyes, scowling immensely. "My point exactly."

Link scowled back in return, before he looked around. "Where am I?"

"You're in the Temple of Time," Midna snapped back. "Wolf-boy was helping me get these mirror shards, but since he's no longer here," she said, giving the Link in front of her the stink-eye, "I guess you'll have to do. You know how to fight, brat?"

"Yes, old lady," Link gritted out.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing…"

"Master Link…?"

"Fi?" Link whirled around to look at the blade. When he saw it lighting up, he leapt towards it with a happy grin. "Fi! You came too!"

"What in hell?" Midna muttered, staring at the Master Sword. "Since when has it done that?" Her eyes widened as a glowing ball of light jumped out of the hilt, and a blue figure in purple and dark green floated before them.

"Master Link, my condolences," said the spirit in a monotone. "I'm afraid I didn't come. This is the result of your failed experiment, and you are now thousands of years ahead of time."

Midna and Link both gawked at the spirit. "What?" Link said numbly, and Fi nodded.

"I am one hundred percent certain that my previous master and you have switched places. My memories indicate that my previous master was thrown into your time, while you were thrown into his."

"Wait!" interrupted Midna, darting up to float in front of the spirit. "Where's Wolf-boy at? Where'd he send him?" she demanded, jabbing a finger at the dirty-blonde behind her.

"My memories indicate that while I was still active as an interacting spirit, he appeared after Master Link had performed an experiment with a seventy-six percent chance of failure," Fi stated. "A hundred or so years before Hyrule came into existence."

Midna gaped at Fi. "But that was thousands of years ago!" she exclaimed in shock. "He's all the way back there?" At Fi's nod, she turned furiously on the Link behind her. "This is all your fault! If it wasn't for you and your stupid experiment, I wouldn't be in this mess! DO YOU KNOW WHAT MY PEOPLE ARE GOING THROUGH, AND WHAT THEY WILL GO THROUGH IF WE DO NOT COMPLETE THIS MISSION?" she screamed, seizing Link and shaking him back and forth.

"I didn't mean to-!"

"BECAUSE OF YOU, EVERYTHING WILL BE RUINED! DESTROYED! ERADICATED, YOU DIMWIT!"

"Fi, help!"

Fi smiled in return. While she wasn't entirely sure of emotions (much less her emotions), she was seventy-eight percent sure she was feeling something akin to joy.

"Y-you think I'm thousands of years back in time?" Link stuttered, staring up at Fi in stunned disbelief. "How'd you figure that out?"

Fi tilted her head. "You believe that the…Master Sword isn't fully powered," she stated. "I haven't explained the full details behind the sword to Master Link, so he wouldn't know about it unless he does do so in the future, in which he will then proceed to explain to younger generations. Also, the name of your people. You call them Hylians, while we call ours the Sky-dwellers. I can only assume that somehow, the sky-people are reunited with the earth, and they take on the name of our Goddess, Hylia."

Link jolted. "Sky people?" he asked. "Shad- he's a scholar I know- he was talking about how the Hylians were descended from a group of people that lived in the sky!"

"Then it seems I have reached the correct conclusion," Fi said simply.

Link sat down heavily on the timestone behind him, only to yelp slightly as he came in contact with an electric shock. He decided to sit on the ground instead. "This is all wrong," he said shakily, clutching at his head. "I need to go back! Midna needs me! People are going to die if I don't go back!"

Fi blinked at Link. "Please elaborate."

"I'm currently trying to prevent a war from breaking out in Hyrule," Link said shakily, running a hand through his hair. "If I found all the mirror shards in time, we'd be able to break into the Twilight region and stop Zant and Gannondorf before the war starts. But now-"

"I calculate that there is a forty-three percent chance of your plan succeeding," said Fi emotionlessly.

"Forty-three- What d'you mean, forty-three?" Link demanded, glaring up fiercely at the floating figure in front of him. "There's zero percent chance that anything'll succeed! Without me there, I-"

"My Master Link will help your friend succeed," Fi stated. "He has been trained for knighthood since a young age, and will be more than equipped to handle any of your problems. Now the question is, will you help his quest?"

Link hesitated for a moment, before he stood.

"What do I have to do?" he asked, determined.

Link stared at Fi in shock and astonishment. "That's what's been going on?" he asked, stunned.

Midna shrugged. "She failed to mention any of the important parts, but yeah, that's what's going on, brat."

"I'm not a brat!" Link ran a hand through his hair. "And that's not even the important- Explain!"

Midna began to explain everything from the beginning, and at the end, Link was clutching his head.

"What do you want me to do, help you?" he demanded. "I don't even have this Tri-whatchimacallit! I never got it! And I'm thousands of years into the future! I have no idea where anything is, what to do-"

"We can help," Fi said calmly. "What is important is that you assist Midna on her quest, just like you assisted me in mine."

Link hesitated, before he stood, his dark blue eyes burning in determination.

"Tell me what to do," he ordered.

And first chapter is done! I have no idea how to differentiate between the two Links in this fic, other than the time periods they're trapped in. Any ideas? Because I don't want to label them SS Link and TP Link in anything other than the author's notes, because that just looks weird in my opinion.

Also, I believe that while they are almost the same person, there are still a few…differences. Notably age, appearance, and manner of speech. Since TP Link grew up in a small, rural village, he's not as cultured or educated as SS Link, who went to the Knight Academy in Skyloft. Also, there are subtle personality differences which I hope to incorporate in later. However, you readers have already seen one or two: TP Link is a lot calmer than SS Link in my opinion, a silent and strong kind of guy, and SS Link…well, I think of him as the smart-mouthed version. XD

Please review, and tell me what you think!

posted 2/5/2012, 1:33 AM