Ravio reached for Hilda but his fingers slipped harmlessly past her arm. Biting back an annoyed growl, he tried to catch up to her.

Like always, she's two steps ahead of me…always in the distance…always unreachable…

He stumbled slightly, his head spinning as the thought rose unbidden in his mind. He gave his head a slight shake before checking to see how much ground Hilda had on him. He had to catch up to her.

He still couldn't believe she'd agreed to Rova's crazy plan.

"Hilda!" His voice sounded strained even to his ears, but he didn't care. "Please…"

She slowed her pace and turned to him. "Why are you even still following me?" Her mouth curled into a sneer. "You made yourself perfectly clear…"

"You can't go through with this!" He used her faltered steps to his advantage to catch up to her. Again, he attempted to close his fingers around her arm. "Rova's plan is –"

"Brilliant." She tore her arm free from his loose grasp. "Why can't you see that? If Link and Zelda are with the Deku tree, then we've missed our chance to get the sword by having them lead us to it. To get the sword now, we'll have to flush them out like rabbits."

"And how is wiping out an entire village going to do that?" Ravio demanded.

She stared back at him coldly. "You always were such a coward."

He couldn't believe his ears. "Rova is using you. If you do this, you'll be indebted to her to keep you safe; that's the only thing this stupid plan of hers will accomplish."

Hilda rolled her eyes. "Indebted to her? Do you really think I am so incapable of taking care of myself?"

He wasn't getting through to her. How was he going to make her see reason?

"You'll be killing a lot of innocent people and for what? A forgotten sword that we're not even sure…"

"No." Hilda cut him off before he could finish. "No, do not lump me in with you. The sword is exactly what the legends say it is."

He was losing her.

"Fine, but you can't just kill a bunch of people to get it. The sword is supposed to be a symbol of righteousness…and…and…" He had to think quickly. He was grasping at straws now, but he was desperate. He had to get her to see reason. "How do you even know this crazy plan will bring Link and Zelda to you?"

Hilda gave him a smug look and he suddenly had a sinking feeling that he knew how she was going to ensure Link and Zelda came.

"Why Ravio, you'll do as you have done before." Turning on her heel, she left him standing alone in the forest. "You'll go running to the Hero of Light just like last time."

Her words sent a chill down his spine and he found he couldn't bring himself to take another step. "What…"

Her voice floated back to him as if he hadn't spoken. "Although, I suppose you won't be able to cash in on this little endeavor. You've no equipment to sell to him this time, do you?"

"Who Ravio and Hilda are related to?" Link's grip on Zelda's hand tightened as he gave both the Tree and Nayru incredulous looks. "Why would it matter who they were related to?"

"They're related to us." Zelda spoke suddenly, drawing Link's attention. "The Deku Tree just finished explaining that we're the reincarnated Goddess and Hero. I am guessing they'd heard about Ravio's intention of finding the Master Sword," She twisted around to look down at the slumbering sword in its pedestal. "But they hadn't counted on him being related to the one person who could actually find the sword."

"You are correct." The Deku Tree rumbled with a hint of pride in his voice. "Rumors of Ravio and Hilda's search had reached Midna, but she dismissed the rumors to be just another fruitless search. However, Hilda angered Midna when she attempted to steal a Sol from the Twilight Fair…"

"And turned her into a wolf." Link finished and crossed his arms. "We're aware of that part of the story considering we arrived shortly after she was turned."

"Uh yes, of course." The Deku Tree cleared his throat and Nayru muffled a laugh. "Since you're well acquainted with Hilda's transformation, I'll skip past that part…"

"I think I understand now." Zelda smiled and clapped her hands together. She'd been going over recent events in her head while the Deku Tree had been speaking. "Midna decided to change Hilda back, without any type of compensation, because she realized Ravio would get Link's help retrieving the Master Sword."

Link sarcastically grumbled, "Finally a straight answer" under his breath.

The Deku Tree, who hadn't heard Link's sarcasm, chuckled at her exuberant declaration. "Your intuition is spot on –as usual. Yes, Midna reversed the spell hoping the search for the Master Sword would be called off."

"But it wasn't." Zelda fought down her growing guilt. This was all her fault wasn't it? She was the one who'd insisted on continuing the search. "I…" She didn't know how to continue. Should she apologize? She snuck a look up at Link, but his eyes were on the Deku Tree.

"That Sheikah-mummy-thing," Link slowly started, his eyes narrowing to slits as he worked it out in his mind. "Impa said the sword is needed again, but everything you guys have done has been to prevent it from being found. So, why bring us here if you have no intentions of letting us take the sword?"

Nayru, who'd been quiet this entire time, chimed in. "Yes, isn't that the question of the hour. Why bring you here, if Midna and the Deku Tree want to keep the sword a secret?" Grinning mischievously, she hopped onto an adjacent root and carefully walked its length. "Could it be they wanted to remove the ones who could access the sword from the playing field?"

Zelda's eyes widened in alarm. "Wait? What? Do you really mean to keep us here?"

Ravio was still standing in the middle of the forest path, wondering what to do, when Midna and Phierce found him. The pair stumbled to an abrupt halt at the sight of him, and it wasn't lost on Ravio that Midna was leaning against Phierce in a way that suggested he was the only thing keeping her upright.

Despite her obvious pain, Midna wasted no time getting to the point. "Where's Hilda and Rova?"

He gave them a blank look. "They…" He pressed his lips together with a grimace. He couldn't even finish his sentence because Hilda's plan was too horrible to even articulate. Instead he asked, "Where is Link and Zelda?"

This time, it was Midna who hesitated to respond. Beside her, Phierce avoided his gaze. Ravio's eyes narrowed on them. "If you won't tell me where they are, at least tell me they're safe."

Midna almost looked relieved at his revised question. "Yes, they're safe. Now back to my original question: where is Hilda and Rova?"

Turning away from the pair, Ravio returned to staring down the path he'd last seen Hilda. He had to stop her, and (for once) he wouldn't be able to rely on his cousin to fix his problems.

"Ravio!"

Midna's snarled call caught his attention. His continued silence was obviously starting to annoy her, but he really didn't care. The wheels in his mind were turning and he kept coming back to the same solution. A solution he knew Hilda would hate but he really saw no other options. Something within her had changed, or broke –depending on how you wanted to look at it –when Rova had confronted them. He could sense it because there was something within him that was responding to her changed personality. He had an uncontrollable desire to pull her back from the edge of darkness she was teetering on.

"Rova and Hilda are up ahead." He finally answered before Midna could snap again. "I…think I have an idea to put a stop to this."

Midna exchanged a look with Phierce before nodding for him to continue. "I'm listening."

He drew in a deep breath and slowly released it. "Before I tell you my plan, I need you to agree to something first."

Midna's eyes narrowed. "And what would that be?"

"Can Hilda and I join the Twilight fair? Can we work for you?" Ravio hurriedly continued before Midna had a chance to respond. "We'll need to go into hiding if we're going to give up searching for the Master Sword and I think we'll need your protection…"

Midna perked up at the mention of the Master Sword or, more likely, at the mention of calling off the search for it. "You finally agree that the Master Sword should be left alone? You're not saying this to turn around and continue the search once we've gotten your girlfriend away from Rova?"

The corner of Ravio's mouth kicked up in a rueful smile at her suspicion. "No, that actually leads to the second thing I want to ask you."

Midna pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side. "And what's the second thing you wanted to ask?"

"Can you turn the two of us into wolves?"

"What? Why?"

Ravio swallowed and shifted his gaze to the side. "Hilda won't give up her search for the sword. She's fixated on it. The only way I see to stop her is to change her back into a wolf."

"Alright, but why change you as well?"

Ravio's smile went from rueful to sad. "I would be no match as I am now against a wolf. Hilda will be furious when she realizes what's been done…"

"You can't keep us here." Link snarled and moved in front of Zelda. He should have listened to his instincts instead of following walking pieces of bark to this place. His eyes strayed to the silent sword glistening softly in the ethereal light of the clearing.

The sword –of course –he could use the sword to get them out of this mess. All he would have to do is make sure Zelda stayed close to him. He was sure they could safely jump from this overgrown root they were standing on. It wouldn't take much to reach the pedestal the sword was buried in, and once he had the sword…

"Oh look at him scheming his way out of here." Nayru cackled gleefully. "I apologize. I should have realized my comment would throw you into full-on hero mode."

His shoulders tensed at her teasing remark. "Full-on hero mode?" He didn't know if he should be insulted or confused by her comment.

Nayru hopped down from her perch –wait…when had she gotten up there in the first place? Link shook his head. Why did it feel like time was slipping by without his notice? Nayru shot him a secretive smile. It was almost like she knew exactly what he was thinking. He blinked to clear the thought because, quite frankly, that was impossible. At least, he thought it was until her smile grew wider.

She didn't offer any type of explanation and instead, directed a question to the Deku Tree. "Do you still have my harp?"

"The Harp of Ages?" The Deku Tree fell silent as he pondered the answer. His bark creaked as he nodded. "Yes, I believe I do." His eyes searched the tall grass around his roots. "Chio? Chio; now where did that Korok go?"

"Right here, Great Deku Tree." A Korok stepped forward; he was a bit taller than the rest and sported a red mushroom growing out from the top of its head.

"Ah Chio, there you are." The Deku Tree rumbled. "Could you please get Lady Nayru's Harp?"

The small Korok nodded and disappeared from sight. A moment later he (she?) returned carrying a blue and red harp. Link couldn't really tell how an instrument was supposed to help, but seeing the instrument seemed to excite Nayru.

Running to the Korok, she took up the harp; and lovingly ran her fingers over the strings, but refrained from strumming a tune. "With this I will succeed where I failed before."

Link scowled. More riddles, why anyone couldn't just speak plainly was beyond him. He was done with all of this…this…mystic, magic crap. He just wanted to go home, back to his bar, where his biggest worry was whether or not he was going to expand his business. Even so, he stared hard at the harp, why did the damn thing look so bloody familiar? Where had he seen it before?

Catching his look, Nayru clucked her tongue and shook a finger in his direction. "Whatever you're thinking, forget it. I'm not about to give the Harp to you, "Her eyes shifted to where Zelda was watching with ill-concealed curiosity as well, "or you. The Goddess of Time refuses to let either of you mess around with time again. Three timelines are enough to handle thank-you-very-much, we don't need any more*."

He exchanged a confused look with Zelda, but Nayru spoke up before either of them had a chance to reply to her cryptic reprimand. "You need only to stay here an hour more." She glanced back at the Great Deku Tree. "That's all the time I need to help Midna take care of Rova. I believe Ravio has a plan to rein in Hilda."

Midna's eyes narrowed on Ravio. "Alright, I suppose I can grant the second part of your plan. However, you've left out one rather major problem."

Ravio started to nod, but he caught himself. He hadn't told Midna about Hilda's weird comments, but he felt that wasn't what Midna was talking about. He was missing something…or someone? His brow furrowed in confusion. Why couldn't he remember?

"Ravio?" Midna gave him an odd look.

She obviously knew whatever (whoever?) it was he was forgetting. So why couldn't he remember? He stared helplessly down the forest path, wracking his brain to find the missing piece. They had to stop Hilda…but there was some sort of complication that would stop his plan…but what WAS it?

"Ah, here you are!" A cheerful voice intruded as a woman with long blue hair seemed to appear from out of thin air. Wrestling her way in between Midna and Phierce, she threw her arms around their shoulders. "I haven't missed anything, have I?"

"Nayru?" Midna extracted herself from the blue-haired girl and gave her a hard look. "Sweet Hylia, don't tell me you've actually awakened…"

Nayru shrugged. "Wouldn't be here if I hadn't."

"Are you the reason why Ravio doesn't remember –" Phierce began to ask, but Nayru quickly shushed him with a finger against his lips.

"Let's not speak of that." Nayru winked and backed away quickly at Midna's thunderous look. "Unfortunately, there are somethings that are fated to happen." She turned to Ravio. "Hilda going down this path is one of them. Removing certain players from the playing field cannot change this."

Midna sighed and tiredly pinched the bridge of her nose. "I will be so glad when this is over. So then, all that's left is to carry out Ravio's plan."

Nayru gave her a thumbs up. "Yep and I'll make sure Rova steers clear of Link and Zelda." She turned to Ravio. "Rova will hear of your plight. I suspect she'll trail the Twilight Fair for a bit, but she'll give up soon enough when she realizes she won't be able to reverse the spell you and Hilda are under."

Ravio was still confused. He felt there was more that should have been said. He now remembered Rova was involved, that she had threatened their families if they didn't produce the sword; but, he had a nagging feeling that there'd been more that happened after her threat. He just couldn't remember it. He eyed the new-comer. He didn't know Nayru, but she apparently knew Midna and he wasn't sure if that was any better. He drew in a deep breath. Did he really care though? She was apparently on their side and their time was running out. They had to get to Hilda.

He sent out a silent prayer and straightened his shoulders. "Ok, if you're certain Rova will be drawn away. Let's get this over with."

A/N: Hey guys, so sorry for the looooong delay on this. I'm happy to report there is but one chapter left and then this story is done. Thank you to anyone who's still following this.