Hyrule Caslte Town, usually full of hustle and bustle as merchants peddled their wares, children laughed, and citizens went about their daily work, was quiet as the caravan of champions slowly trotted through the streets. People gazed out their windows or gathered on the streets as the Champions' horses slowly trotted down the main street toward the castle. There was a solemnness to the group of heroes that the people were not accustomed to seeing from their heroes, and no one was quite sure why they had returned so soon. Citizens in the crowds quietly commented on how tired and anxious they looked, and a foreboding feeling suddenly gripped the Town of Hyrule as the castle gates closed and blocked their Champions from view.

Mipha awoke suddenly gasping for air gasping for air. Sweating and with tears running down her face, she placed her hand on her chest and willed herself to calm down. Her breathing gradually slowed and her body began recovering from its sudden fight or flight response. Glancing around the room and then out the window, the starlit sky told her that she hadn't made it through the night; again. It had been three days since the incident in Hyrule field, and she hadn't been able to sleep through the night since. Nightmares had invaded her dreams ever since, and there were many moments when she had to step away from whatever group she was with and catch her breath. It was like a constant struggle to stay sane since she had seen Link die in the middle of a field. The image haunted her, and even in that moment the panic threatened to take over again.

"No!" she said to herself quietly as she swung her feet over the side of the bed and made her way to the balcony. Her room was spacious and decorated beautifully. The colors of Hyrule adorned the walls, giving life to the dull gray stone the castle was composed of. She could never complain about the amenities provided her by the Hyrule royal family. She even often thought they doted too much on the champions and sometimes felt guilty that she, royalty herself, was taking advantage of her gracious hosts.

The package in the corner of the room caught her eye and she paused. She had brought it with her to Hyrule, and then had traveled since with it. It was burdening her, but not due to its weight, but because of what it meant for her future. She had been able to ignore it for the most part because of the mission she had been tasked with, but seeing it reminded her that if they were able to defeat Ganon, there would be a future she would have to consider. And that package continually reminded her of the uncertainty of that future.

Reaching the balcony, she rested her hands on the rail and looked into the clear night sky. The faint breeze felt blew her fin gently and relaxed her. The city below, while not anywhere near as beautiful as her own city in her opinion, was still aesthetically pleasing to look at. The dots of light from the late night workers and night owls reminded her of fireflies, which in turn reminded her of nights she spend with Link in their youth catching the small bugs. She smiled as she remembered how seriously the young boy took the game, and how she enjoyed simply watching him run back and forth through the field excitedly grabbing them out of the air.

Then the vision of Link bleeding out while she helplessly wept at his side invaded her mind again. She turned from the railing and squatted on the balcony holding her head. It felt like she'd been struck with a rock. The pain in her head subsided and her breathing once again returned to normal, and she opened her eyes only to find the package in the corner staring her in the face.

She had determined to wait to show it to him till after they had defeated Ganon and had rationalized to herself that neither of them needed the pressure of the answer that would come, one way or the other, hanging over their heads as they went into a battle for the survival of the world. But in that moment, it hit her; she couldn't wait anymore. It had torn her apart when she thought she would never have the opportunity to show him the gift, to tell him what he truly meant to her. If either of them, Hylia forbid, died in the upcoming confrontation, then her feelings would be left unknown forever, and she couldn't handle that. She had felt as if she was coming apart at the seams emotionally for three days straight, and it was no longer something she could bear, in spite of her best judgment.

She grabbed up the package and made her way to the bedroom door and quickly started down the hall toward Link's quarters.

Zelda didn't sleep much anymore. In fact, she hadn't slept well for years, and she often found herself wandering the quiet, dimly lit halls of the castle at night; much as she was doing at that moment. She mindlessly dragged her hand along the stone wall, her shadow from the torches lighting the hall providing a slight distraction as her mind was filled with doubts, worries, and fears. Much of her internal thought life those days was caught up with self-doubt. She had no power and was nearly useless in battle. Her scientific acumen, as impressive as it might have been, was not what the kingdom needed from her. Her people needed her to be the Princess of Legend with the power to seal the darkness. But all she could do with any skill was study silly historical trinkets.

She stopped and hit the wall in frustration. Pain shot through her arm up into her shoulder, but she ignored it and cursed under her breath. Why couldn't she do it? She had tried for years to conjure the foretold power. Much of the past year had been spent traveling with Link and the other Champions as a last-ditch effort to pray at different holy sites around the kingdom to try to kickstart whatever it was that needed to be kickstarted.

Her mind wandered to Mipha. What did she have that Zelda didn't? Her power came to her as naturally as her swimming, and yet she faced a similar upbringing to Zelda. Mipha had never had to travel around the kingdom to unlock the ability to heal her friends. Rather, she had been healing people like Link (as Zelda had come to find out) since she had been a child.

And there was another thing that irked her about her Zoran counterpart; keeping her relationship with Link secret for all this time. What on earth was that girl thinking? Surely, she knew how relevant information like that was. And Zelda didn't even want to think of how upset she was with her personal knight at also keeping it under wraps for so long.

Having gone from discouraged to angry, Zelda hiked up her long nightgown and began storming back to her room. A nightshift guard thought about stopping her to ask if she needed anything, but he recognized the look on her face and decided better of it, quickly turning back to his post.

Zelda quickly rounded the corner on the way back to her quarters and suddenly found herself bouncing off of someone and falling to the ground.

"Oh Princess, I'm so sorry," Mipha's voice cut through the quiet as Zelda began to push herself up off the ground.

"Mipha, what are you doing up at such a late hour?" Zelda asked as she straightened out her nightgown, noticing a package laying on the ground next to Mipha's red feet.

Mipha quickly gathered the parcel up, "Oh, um, I couldn't sleep so I was…just going to take a short walk."

"Oh, would you like some company?" Zelda asked, figuring an opportunity to clear the air with Mipha was presenting itself.

Mipha hesitated and looked at the parcel in her hand. After a moment Zelda swore she heard her sigh and then she replied, "Yes, I would appreciate that." And with that they began walking down the dimly lit hallway together

"We haven't seen much of you the last few days, Mipha. Have you been okay?"

"I-I have been okay," Mipha lied.

Zelda thought for a moment, trying to find the best way to approach her counterpart. Everyone knew Mipha had been emotionally damaged by what had happened in Hyrule Field, and there had been chatter around the castle about how strangely the Zora Champion had been acting. When she wasn't with Link, she was trying to find Link. And when she couldn't find him, the panic from the Zora Princess was palpable.

"Look," Zelda finally spoke up, "we all know what happened the other day was tough on you, and I don't blame you. But…we're concerned about how you've been acting since it happened. You haven't been acting yourself exactly."

Mipha remained quiet and looked at the ground as she clung the package she held to her chest.

Zelda continued, "I-I just need to know that we can still count on you. We still need you to pilot Vah Ruta if we're able to discern what is going on with the divine beasts. And we're going to need your healing."

Quietly, Mipha responded, "Princess, I will fulfill my duties."

"I know there's history between you and Link," Zelda continued without missing a beat, her duty to keep the team effective foremost in her mind, "and we can't risk any distractions because of personal feelings, Mipha."

The Zora princess stopped, and Zelda halted after another step and turned to face her. It was hard to read Mipha at that moment because she was still looking at the ground, and the package she held was concealing part of her face. Did Zelda see her shaking all of a sudden? But when Mipha looked up to look Zelda in her eyes, there was no mistaking the emotion.

Slowly, forefully, and through gritted teeth, Mipha sneered, "What would you know about my feelings, Princess?"

Zelda attempted to back up a bit, "M-Mipha, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to ensure that the team is effective. I can't have a member more concerned about one person over the others."

"Oh yes, your highness," Mipha began to get angrier, and she spat, "we all know how you wouldn't want anyone else to pay any attention to your personal protector."

Zelda was taken aback. Her mouth opened but nothing came out.

Mipha stepped closer and pointed in Zelda's face, "You treated him like dirt for months and then you two went away together and all of a sudden you're inseparable! What did you do, your highness!?"

Finally, Zelda gathered her wits enough to respond. Quickly, she grabbed Mipha's hand and moved it out of her face. With her own surprisingly forceful tone, she firmly said, "That's enough, Mipha!"

With that, Mipha's demeanor completely changed. In a moment she went from anger and determination to a look of shame and regret.

"Is everything alright here?" The guard from down the hall had suddenly appeared next to the two princesses only to find Zelda firmly holding on to the Zora's hand and glaring at her.

Zelda released her now dejected counterpart and assured the guard they were fine. He walked away and Zelda softly continued, "I think we should both get some sleep, Mipha."

"Y-yes. I-I'm so sorry."

"Me too," Zelda said reassuringly, "maybe I came on a little strong."

Mipha turned and slowly began making her way back to her room as Zelda watched. As the red skinned girl got farther and farther down the hall and the shock of the confrontation began to wear off, the gears in Zelda's head finally clicked, and surprised at her own realization she blurted, "You're in love with him!"

Mipha froze at the end of the hall.

"So then you're absolutely sure that this is Link?"

The small lab was dimly lit and was in a dank basement underneath Hyrule Castle. Urbosa, Revali and Daruk were uncomfortably tall in the lab because the ceiling was set much lower than most other places in the castle. It made sense given the stature of the two women who owned and operated the facility, but it made it difficult for larger visitors to navigate around the space.

Unfortunately for the three Champions, Purah had been rushing back and forth throughout the entire expanse of the room, forcing them to try to keep up as she did her work and jabbered on using jargon neither of them really understood.

"Yes, madam Champion," Purah resonded dutifully and quickly. Her small voice was surprisingly loud, and her pronunciation was exceedingly clear, to which Urbosa was grateful for. She talked so quickly that if hadn't spoken so clearly, no one would be able to understand her. "You see, we've recently discovered a method the ancients used to identify people using a kind of code found inside of the smallest components that make up our bodies. That code is made up of 4 component parts and it is responsible for the way any of us develop in our physical forms. It's beautiful too. It sounds unbelievable, but what makes up what our bodies become is shaped like a beautiful double helix, and…"

Urbosa knew the young scientist had already lost Daruk, and she was getting off on another tangent, so she gently interrupted, "And that code from the dead body we brought back…?"

"It's the same as from the blood sample I took from Link…our Link. The one that isn't dead."

Urbosa tapped her chin thoughtfully as Revali spoke up, "So did he come from the future?"

Purah nodded, "That I can also confirm. As we excavated the divine beasts, we also discovered small fragments of stone that we soon realized caused a small localized reaction that brought past events into the future. Struck the correct way a localized effect would occur where the past would appear in a small circumference around the stone. There were only fragments, so the practical effects of the stones were limited, but we were able to get readings off of the stones. They emanated a strange radiation when activated, and this Link is completely riddled with it. The best explanation is that he indeed traveled through time."

Urbosa found herself pulling on a strand of her hair. It was starting to become a bad habit, and she wasn't exactly sure when she'd started doing it. Quickly she put it out of her mind, "It would probably be a good assumption then that if Link needed to travel back in time, we probably lost in the future."

Revali scoffed at the suggestion, but Daruk remained stoically quiet as the probability sunk in. Losing. It wasn't something he had even considered as possible. He hadn't lost at much in his life, and now it looked like he had failed in his most important moment. "So what he said about there being monsters in the Divine Beasts…you think they…killed us? Err…will kill us…Uh…what do we call it?"

"Well technically," Purah interjected, "assuming he did come from the future, then that reality is either gone completely, or we've split off into a different parallel timeline. Whatever the case, our path isn't his path anymore. And lucky for us judging from the looks of him."

Urbosa then was faced with having to deal with the uncomfortable reality in front of her once more. A dead friend.

"We should bury him," she said softly, "it's already been too long."

"Yeah," Daruk said quietly and uncharacteristically subdued.

"Hey wait! There's still a lot I could learn from studying his body!" Purah protested.

"Purah for Hylia's sake, have some respect for the dead," a new voice wafted in from the entrance to the lab as Impa strolled in gracefully.

Impa approached Urbosa and bowed slightly, to which Urbosa reciprocated. She repeated the action in front of Daruk as well, who would have bowed if he hadn't already been crouching over in the small room. Revali simply nodded to her when the formality was performed for him.

"Welcome back, sis," Purah said as she embraced her older sister in a tight hug. Urbosa chuckled. It looked like Impa was about to pop.

"I came as soon as I received word about the situation. How dreadful this is," she said solemnly as she laid her hand on the dead Link's forehead and said a prayer.

"Purah, please go call the funeral director and tell him to prepare for a quiet burial."

"But sis, we can't know what knowledge we're missing out on if we do that!"

Impa turned to her sister sternly, "We can't learn anything else of practical value at this point. And regardless, we don't have the time!"

Purah backed down and left the lab grumbling. Impa took one last look at the dead Champion on the examination table and turned to leave as well, beckoning to the three elder Champions as she passed.

A short time later they all found themselves in a small conference room in one of the castle offshoots as Impa poured herself and Urbosa some tea. Daruk had been given a pristine cut of rock steak and was munching on it happily. Revali stood to the side and gazed out a window, unusually quiet and thoughtful.

"Is something in your hair, Lady Urbosa?" Impa inquired, and Urbosa suddenly realized she was pulling at it again.

"No," she replied curtly and sipped her tea.

"How are the younger Champions holding up?" Impa quickly moved to the next subject.

"Princess Zelda seems more driven than ever but has been short and uncharacteristically curt with everyone. Link is always pretty unreadable, but he's been training for 12 hours a day since we found the body. Mipha has basically been shadowing Link since the event and has been acting erratically at times."

"And you've at least developed a nervous tick, I see," Impa said gesturing to Urbosa again as she was pulling at her long red hair. "And what about you, Daruk? How are you holding up?"

Daruk thought for a moment. Should he have some emotional aftereffects from seeing his friend dead and yet not dead? He looked down at his food and suddenly realized he wasn't hungry anymore. In fact, when had he last eaten a good meal?

"Revali?" The Rito had no answer. Nothing was making sense to him that day.

A loud thunk echoed through the training range as Link embedded his sword into another training dummy, splitting it down the middle. His breathing was ragged and heavy. He was into his sixth hour of training that day without a break and his body was screaming at him to stop. But he didn't listen. He hadn't for days. He was a failure, and he couldn't tolerate it. It was such a contradiction in his own mind that it rose to the level of logical impossibility.

He had know from the instant he saw his own dead body that it was him. He hadn't needed Purah to come by and tell him, though she had. In his gut he knew, at it had made him feel things he'd never felt before.

Slicing horizontally, another dummy was chopped in half. He heard himself yell but it didn't feel like himself. He had felt oddly disconnected from reality since he saw himself dead, and he didn't know how to get back onto solid ground. It was a strange feeling that only slightly subsided when he trained. But almost four days of nothing but training was beginning to take its toll. He was tired. Sweat drenched his shirt and was dripping off of his face. Glancing around he noted that the large training yard was mostly empty. A lone guard in the distance was doing his daily drills at the far corner of the rectangular yard, almost purposely setting himself as far away from Link as possible.

At the other wall he saw the only constant in his life the last few days other than training, and that was Mipha. She sat in a chair and watched him nearly the entire day, passing the time with reading or knitting. He was worried about his long-time friend. They'd always had a deep bond ever since childhood, and they tried to spend a lot of time together, but she'd never clung to him like this before. Shutting his eyes, he recalled her pained sobs and when she had watched the other him die. He'd never seen her so distraught, and he was ashamed that he had been the cause of her grief.

Thirst finally began to well up in the back of Link's dry throat, far later than he had expected. Maybe stopping and resting had finally allowed his body to express that he hadn't exactly been taking care of it the last several days, and so he determined to get out of his funk and go have a drink with his friend.

Since beginning his duty as Zelda's knight, he hadn't been able to spend any time with Mipha at all, and it had been strange to travel with her and yet have to forego their typical friendship due to their respective duties. That was going to end today. He didn't particularly care what the others thought, he didn't want to see his friend so troubled any more. If he could make her laugh like they did when they were children, it would make the whole bleak situation that much better.

Mipha looked surprised as Link approached her. "Oh!" she said, "are you finished?"

He nodded while grabbing a towel and wiping his face off. "Would you like to go grab something to eat?" he asked.

She nodded and smiled. Yeah, that did make things better.

It wasn't long after that it happened. Mipha and Link were still finishing off their meal in the castle mess hall while Urbosa, Revali, and Daruk had just left their meeting with Impa. Zelda had been spending time in meetings with her father and other military leaders in the throne room as they discussed the new revelations regarding the Divine Beasts.

If only they'd had a little more time; a few weeks probably would have done it. Zelda had even already approved a plan for a garrison to travel with her and Link to the first Divine Beast to inspect it and clear out any potential monster. But that's not what happened. Ganon's return was never going to be pleasant; whether in this timeline, or the other.

And indeed when the ground began to shake and the thick dark smoke began to flow throughout the castle and pour out of any opening possible, when the dark monsters coalesced from that smoke and began to kill the castle's inhabitants, when Ganon arose in this new timeline, it was no more pleasant than it was before Link was sent back in time.