Chapter Five

	Sheik sat in shadow and brooded.  He was nowhere in particular, within the darkness through which he traveled when he went from shadow to shadow.  It was the special realm of the Sheikah and so it was now Sheik's alone.  From shadow he had watched as Link had emerged from the Spirit Temple, once again victorious over the evil that had tainted it.  Now he was on his way to the Temple of Time.

	Sheik's final task would be to meet him there and then...

	[i]Then I cease to exist, and somehow Zelda returns.  I know the spell, the one I use to lay Sheik to rest and become Zelda again.  I just don't know if I actually want to cast it.  But what choice have I?  Duty calls, and a Sheikah must answer.  I swore my oath to the royal family, I won't be forsworn.[/i]

	But a cowardly voice within him asked, [i]aren't you really the princess?  Wasn't that oath sworn to yourself?  Release yourself from it and flee Hyrule.  You can live out your life outside its borders as Sheik, you don't have to die.

	Yes,[/i] he answered himself, [i]live out my life alone.  Do you think he'll flee with you?  He's the bearer of Courage.  He'll stay and fight.  You'll live a coward, alone and unloved.  You have to stay, for his sake.[/i]  

	A wisp of magic told him that Link had reached the Temple of Time.  [i]Time. Which has run out for me.  It's time for me to decide, and I guess I know what I have to choose.  It's time for me to die.[/i]

	He rose and stepped out of shadow into the Temple.

-----
	
	"I've been waiting for you, Link."  Sheik's voice was somehow calm.  Fear still lurked somewhere in the back of his mind, but now that the moment had arrived it seemed very distant.  He was here.  Link was here.  Destiny would play out as it must.

	"Sheik."  Link took a step towards him, his hand lifting as though to touch him, then dropping.

	"The Hero of Time.  You've overcome everything placed in your path.  The six sages are awake.  Now there is only one challenge remaining."

	"Ganondorf."

	"The King of Thieves.  The bearer of Power."

	"I'm ready to fight him now."

	"Yes.  But... there is one thing I must show you first."

	"Your promise..." said Link softly.

	Sheik turned away and looked up at the ceiling, where light streamed in from windows high above.  "Do you know the nature of the Triforce?"

	"Uhm...?" Link trailed off, obviously confused.

	"That it has three parts, that is commonly known.  Some even know their names, Power, Courage, and Wisdom.  If someone would hold the Triforce, his heart must contain all three in balance, else the Triforce will divide itself, and he will be left holding only the piece most true to his nature."

	"What does that have to do with..."

	Sheik continued, ignoring Link's attempt to interrupt.  "Ganondorf does not have a balanced heart.  Power is what he loves, and Power is what he now holds.  The other two pieces have sought out other bearers.  Those bearers will be marked by the sign of the Triforce.  A sign that you may perhaps be familiar with."

	Link looked down at his gauntleted hand.  Sheik knew the Triforce mark must lie there, though he had never seen it.  Link nodded understanding.   

	"You bear the Triforce of Courage.  And the third piece is born by someone you know well.  The princess Zelda."

	"Zelda."  Link's expression was troubled.  "I had nearly forgotten...  You said she was safe, and that I could see her again when I had found the sages.  But I still don't understand what that has to do with your promise."

	"I will show you."  Sheik reached up and removed the mask that he had hidden behind for so long.  

	Link stared at him, frowning.  Sheik knew that he must seem familiar.  His face was Zelda's face.  And yet, of course, it wasn't.  Older, with red eyes, his hair bound back...  It might take Link some time to realize what he was seeing.  Sheik didn't want to wait.  He was ready, and there was no point in further delays.  He took one last breath, steadying himself, and lifted his hands to cast his final spell.  Magic flowed through him.  The Triforce mark he bore began to glow, making Link gasp in shock.  The light grew brighter, expanding and strengthening until Link had to shield his eyes.  

	In that moment of light, when magic flowed around Sheik, changing everything from his eyes to his clothing, something else happened.  Something outside the scope of the spell he had cast.  He felt as though he were suspended in space.  It was very like being within shadow, but everything around him was bright rather than dark, and a rainbow of colors whirled and danced around him.  The rainbow of light was wonderful.  It flowed into him, around him, through him.  It spoke to him, not with words, but in a wordless burst of understanding, and suddenly he knew.

	[i]I am a sage.[/i]

	"Yes.  The Seventh sage, the Sage of Hyrule.  Our leader.  All six powers answer to you now."  Sheik looked, and saw Rauru, the Sage of Light, standing before him.  

	"How?  Sages have to die..."

	"And is Sheik not dead?  Zelda may yet live, but you have died, my child.  You died within your Temple, the Temple of Time.  And now you have awakened."

	"I see."  And he did.  He saw so much!  The history of Hyrule, the nature of the six powers, the nature of the Triforce itself, and the nature of the enemy the hero now faced.

	"He'll fail, won't he?"

	"If he goes with no further preparation, yes."

	"Then I must give him what he needs... I must..."

	"You must grant him the power of light, the one power Ganondorf has never managed to corrupt, in a form he can use. And then you must go with him, for even with light, alone he will still fail."

	"I'll go then."

	"The future isn't certain, even to sages.  If you go, you may die a death with no awakening."

	"I'll go all the same."

	"Why?"

	Sheik paused.  Somehow he knew that he couldn't lie here, in this place.  "Because I love him," he said finally.

	Rauru nodded.  "Yes. And that too is something Ganondorf has never managed to corrupt.  Go then, with love, with light, and with my blessing."

	"Thank you," said Sheik.  The light around him began to fade.  As it did he heard something, faint but clear.

	"When it's over, don't despair. You are young, and all your life is before you.  Many things that seem insurmountable can be overcome with time."

	Then he was back in the Temple of Time, where Link was still shielding his eyes, all that having taken place in a single instant.  The last of the light faded, and Link lowered his hand and gaped at what he saw.  

	The warrior Sheikah was gone.  In his place stood the princess Zelda, dressed in her royal regalia of pink and white and gold.  Her hair no longer bound into a severe tail, but loose and flowing.  Her eyes no longer Sheikah red, but as blue as Link's own.  And the Triforce still glowed on the back of her hand.

	"Zelda?" said Link softly, incredulously.

	"Yes, it is I."

	"You... you were Sheik all along?"

	"Yes.  I'm sorry I couldn't tell you.  But it was necessary.  Ganondorf has searched for me all this time.  If he'd found me..."

	"I understand."

	"I became Sheik the same day you drew the Master Sword.  And then all I could do was wait for you to return, for without the Master Sword no one could oppose Ganondorf's evil."

	Link nodded.  "I'm here now, and I'm ready."

	"Almost.  You need one thing more before you're ready to face the King of Evil.  You need the power of light.  Give me your arrows."

	Link didn't question, he simply nodded and took the quiver out of his pack.  He held it out to Zelda, and she put her hands over it.  Once again she glowed with magic, and this time when the power faded the quiver itself still glowed faintly.

	Before either of them could speak again, the light coming in through the windows darkened, and there was a rumbling like an earthquake.  Dust sifted down around them from the rafters above.

	"That rumbling..."  Zelda recognized the power behind it.  Black power, not of shadow but of evil, that suddenly wrapped around her and solidified.  Link dashed forward, but it was already too late, Zelda was encased in a prism of magic.  His hands touched it, but couldn't touch her within.

	"Zelda!"

	A dark voice echoed Link's cry, but with satisfied contempt rather than desperation.  "Zelda!  I commend you for escaping my notice for so long.  But now you've let your guard down.  I knew you would, eventually."

	Zelda scowled.  "Ganondorf."

	"Quite so.  I am very surprised you both got this far.  I underestimated you.  But no.  I underestimated the power of the Triforce.  And I know you both hold pieces of it.  As do I.  I have the Triforce of Power.  And now, little boy, I hold Wisdom in my hand."  Zelda felt the dark power tightening around her, suffocatingly thick.  The world began to fade away, but before she blacked out she heard Ganondorf say, "If you want to rescue your princess, boy, come to my Castle. Bring your courage, you will sorely need it!"

-----
	
	Zelda rose slowly from a sea of nightmare blackness to an awareness of sound.  Music echoed around her.  She opened her eyes, and found she was still imprisoned within a prism of power.  It hovered high above a large open chamber, and when she looked down she saw the source of the music.  Ganondorf was sitting before a great organ, playing.

	The music stopped and Ganondorf looked up at her.  "Your hero is almost here, princess."

	Zelda tried to gather shadow around her and step outside her prison, but nothing happened.  She reached next for light, but that didn't answer her call either.  She was cut off from her magic.

	"You can't escape.  But don't worry.  You'll be free soon enough. When the third piece of the Triforce arrives, born by your ever-so-helpful hero, I'll claim the power of all three, and then I won't need you any more."  He smiled darkly up at her, and Zelda knew he wasn't speaking of simply releasing her.  He would kill her, when he had what he wanted.

	"Link won't let you win," she said.

	Ganondorf laughed.  "He's just a boy.  Though I'll admit he's dealt with the challenges I've set in his path surprisingly well.  He does indeed have courage.  But how can mere courage stand up against pure power?  He will fail, and I will rule.  It's that simple."

	Ganondorf turned back to his organ, and began to play again.  

	A moment later the door slid open and Link stepped into the room. He strode with ready confidence, looking every inch the hero that Zelda knew he was.  He stopped, taking in the scene before him.  

	Zelda felt a strange pulse of power pass through her.  Her hand tingled and she looked down to see her Triforce mark glowing.  Across the room Link's hand glowed as well.  And beneath Zelda Ganondorf's hand, its fingers still moving over the organ, glowed too, though he seemed to ignore it.

	"Ganondorf!" called Link.

	Ganondorf stopped playing, but didn't turn.  "The three are becoming one again," he said.  Then he laughed darkly.  "And that one will quite soon be mine."  Finally he rose and turned.  "You can't keep the other pieces from me any longer."

	Suddenly the room turned dark. Ganondorf held up his still glowing hand, and darkness pulsed from it.  Zelda felt the darkness pull at her, tugging at her hand.  Link below braced himself against the same pull.  But he wasn't ready to give in.  He lifted the bow that he had been casually holding and pulled a glowing arrow from his quiver.  In one smooth motion he nocked and shot it.  The light seemed to shatter the waves of darkness emanating from Ganondorf, who cried out in rage.

	And then the battle was joined.  

	Zelda could do nothing but look on, her heart in her throat, as Link and Ganondorf fought.  Ganondorf used black magic freely, but Link countered or dodged it, even sent it back in his teeth with the Master Sword.  Link was soon battered and sweating, but his determined expression didn't change.  And after what seemed like an eternity of combat, Link ran Ganondorf though.

	Zelda's heart leapt in joy.  Then her sage's awareness told her that it wasn't finished yet.  And indeed Ganondorf didn't fall immediately.  Blood trickled from his mouth, but he stayed on his feet and shouted.  "No.  I cannot have been beaten by a child!"  He raised his arms and blackness boiled around him.  Link stepped back.  Power exploded outward from Ganondorf, shattering the room itself, sending glass and stone flying out in all directions.  But when Zelda could see again, she saw that Link was unharmed, and Ganondorf lay prone on the floor.

	The prism that held her weakened, and she reached for shadow instinctively, then paused, and pulled light to her instead.  She didn't want to touch the tainted darkness here.  She lowered herself to the floor and banished the prism.  Link smiled at her, that same bright, welcoming smile that she had seen as Sheik.  She smiled back, though inside her stomach was twisting.  She didn't know how to be Zelda.  She had been Sheik for too long. What should she do? What should she say to the hero who had saved her?  

	She had no chance to decide, for suddenly the ground began to shake.  The tower, raised by Ganondorf's black power, was falling.  "Link!  We need to go now, before the tower collapses. Follow me!"

	She ran for the stairs with Link close behind.  Her skirts swirled around her legs, slowing her, and she mentally cursed them.  She had prepared a spell to return her to a princess's appearance, clothing at all.  Now she wished she'd readied a spell to go the other way, Sheik's practical uniform would be infinitely preferable to trying to run in the restrictive dress.

	But despite the dress, and despite the obstacles that Ganondorf had somehow placed in their path, she and Link both managed to escape the tower before it collapsed entirely.  From a safe distance they watched the black spires sink to the ground.  Zelda was panting, and Link was out of breath as well, so they said nothing for a long time.  At last, when the tower was nothing but a pile of rubble, Link said, "It's over."

	Zelda opened her mouth to reply, then stopped.  It wasn't over.  The black power was still there, pulsing, alive, and somehow growing stronger.  Link looked over at her.  Zelda shook her head.  "It isn't over."

	"He's still alive?" asked Link incredulously.

	"Yes."

	Link sighed.  "All right."  He drew his sword and strode back towards the ruins, his expression grimly determined.  

	Zelda wanted to stop him, but instead she merely called out, "The power I sense is very strong.  Be careful."

	Link looked back and nodded before continuing forward.  He took two more steps, and a wall of fire sprang up between him and Zelda.  He halted and turned.  Zelda, feeling her stomach sinking, reached out to the fire.  Fire should answer to her hand as easily as light or shadow.  But the wall was tainted, and resisted her touch.  She scowled at it.  Link shrugged and turned away again, continuing forward.  

	Ahead of him something stirred in the rubble.  Zelda knew before he leapt clear of the heap in a burst of power.  It was Ganondorf, somehow still alive.  But he was not the arrogant, collected king they had seen above.  There was something animalistic about him now.  His eyes were glowing, and he was panting, a dark, unhinged chuckle emerging with every breath.  His hand glowed once more, the Triforce symbol on it burning with eye-searing brightness.

	Zelda's eyes went wide.  He was giving himself wholly over to the Triforce of Power.  He would cease to be Ganondorf and become something else entirely, a being made up of nearly pure magic, a demon of power. 

	"Link!" she called out, wanting to warn him, but Link was striding determinedly forward, his sword raised, his attention focused entirely on his foe.  Ganondorf loomed above him, his transformation nearly complete.  He let out a roar, his face now that of a demonic pig, tusked and horned, his hands, each one as big as Link itself, holding long daggers made from pure power.  He swung them, and Link met the blow with the Master Sword.... which flew from his hand to land outside the wall of flame.

	"Thrice-damned bastard!" shouted Zelda, filled with helpless rage.  She had a sudden flash of memory, one of her childhood tutors had told her that a princess never swore.  But Princess or Sheikah, she wanted Ganondorf damned to the lowest of hells!  Link was unarmed now, and in horrible danger, facing something made of elemental power, something far beyond his abilities.

	But Link didn't seem afraid.  And apparently he wasn't unarmed either, for a moment later he had pulled a war hammer from his pack.  With that same expression of grim determination on his face he once more advanced on his foe.

	Zelda held her breath as the demon swung his immense blades again, but Link rolled aside easily.  The demon was huge, the embodiment of power, but it was also slow.  And it seemed that Power would be outmatched by Courage, for Link danced easily around the demon, hitting it again and again, while never once being hit by it.

	It roared in pain each time it was struck, but it didn't fall no matter how often Link smashed the hammer into it.  [i]It's just an ordinary weapon,[/i] Zelda realized.  [i]He needs the Master Sword![/i]  She looked around for it, and found it not far away.  [i]I'll be thrice-damned if I'm going to just stand here and do nothing![/i]  She ran to the sword and picked it up.  "Link!" she called out.  Link dodged yet another blow, and sprinted clear of the demon before looking over at Zelda.  Seeing the sword in her hand he grinned and nodded.  She flung it over the fire, and he dove and snatched it up, the demon close on his heels but not fast enough to stop him.

	And with the Master Sword in his hand the battle was soon over.  Once more Ganondorf fell.  And as he fell the fire barrier broke.  

	[i]Now is the time to use your power, sage,[/i] said Rauru's voice in her head.  But even before he said it, Zelda knew what to do. She raised her hands and light welled up in them.  A beam of energy, light and shadow, fire and water, forest and spirit, the elements of Hyrule, all struck at the demon of Power.  But he roared and struggled against the beam, trying to get to his feet.  "Your sword!" called out Zelda.  The Master Sword suddenly glowed, as six sages reached from the Sacred Realm to infuse it with their magic.  Link struck again, and the demon roared with what must surely be its death cry.

	But still the power pulsed darkly in it.  What would it take to kill it?  Then Zelda understood.  Having given himself over to Power, Ganondorf couldn't die unless Power itself did.  Which was impossible.  But there was a way...

	[i]Yes.  Now that Link has weakened him, let us finish this,[/i] said Rauru, and Zelda felt his magic reach through her, with the magic of the other six.  Pure energy wrapped Ganondorf and pulled him out of reality, into the Sacred Realm itself, where a seal formed, a crystalline thing of six colors, that would hold him hopefully forever.

	"[i]Now[/i] it's over," said Zelda.

	"Thank the Three," said Link, and he sank to his knees in the rubble.  He looked terrible, his clothing tattered and filthy, his body bruised and scraped.  His wounds were all minor, but he was obviously completely spent.

	Zelda knelt beside him.  Shadow couldn't heal, but light could.  So she put her hand on his shoulder, and sent healing energy flowing into him.  He smiled up at her, and the warmth in his blue eyes made her heart jump once more.  "Thank you," he said.

	"No, it is I who should thank you.  And in thanks, there is something I must do for you."  Light could heal, and as she began to explore her new powers she was beginning to realize it could do other things.  Including, she suddenly knew, fixing the mistake that had caused all this in the first place.  So she stood, and Link rose as well, looking puzzled.  With a thought Zelda pulled them both through light and shadow into the Sacred Realm.  

	They hovered at the heart of a gentle sea of rainbow power.  Though since Link couldn't see pure elemental magic, Zelda didn't know what he saw.  But to her they were surrounded by a thousand swirling, colored currents, any one of which she could draw upon.  

	She looked out at the sea of light, away from Link, unable to speak the words she knew must be spoken while looking at him.  "You once told me that you'd given up everything for your duty."

	"Zelda, I..."

	"No, let me finish.  It's my fault you had to.  It was I who was so foolish as to think two children could control the power of the Sacred Realm.  It was I who sent you on the quest that let Ganondorf reach the Triforce.  All this is my fault.  You aren't to blame, and it's not right that you had to give up your childhood and lose everything."

	"Not everything..."

	Zelda kept talking.  "I can't make you into a Kokiri, you'll have to grow up no matter what happens, but I can give you back everything else you've lost.  I'll send you back in time, back before we first me.  You can undo all this, and live out a normal childhood in peace."

	She stopped, and looked up at Link.  His expression was unreadable.

	"And what of you, then?"  he asked.   "If I go back and change everything, then none of your past will happen either.  You won't have to become Sheik.  Is that what you want?"

	[i]To not be Sheik?  To have always been only Zelda?  Would it be easier, if I had never forgotten how to be the person I am now?  Or would I be giving up something precious, if I never experienced Sheik's life?[/i] "I... I don't..."  Zelda stopped, gathering her suddenly scattered thoughts.  "No, I... I will still be..."  She stopped again, and shook her head.  "It's hard to explain.  When you go back the time line will branch.  There will be two different versions of history.  In one all this will never have happened.  In the other it will, so while the me that you'll meet in the past won't become Sheik, here in this branch I will still have been a Sheikah."

	"I see. So I'll be leaving this world and going to another, different world."

	"If you want to look at it that way, yes.  It would be more accurate to say that by going back you will create another world."

	"Create a world?  That easily?"

	"Some hold that it happens all the time, that every choice we make creates a new world."

	"Ah." He frowned, considering that.  "I think I understand.  But I think my question still isn't quite answered.  What of you, Zelda?  If I go back, some other you will have a more peaceful life, you say, but what about [i]you[/i], what will you do?"

	"I'll go on," said Zelda softly, unable to keep a hint of pain from her voice.  "Hyrule needs its princess.  There is much rebuilding to be done.  So I'll go on with my duty, and do what I must."

	"Duty again."

	"Yes."

	"And my duty is done, I suppose."  

	"Yes.  So it's time for you to go back.  Give me the ocarina, I'll need its power over time to send you back."

	Link looked away from Zelda, surveying the space they hung in thoughtfully for a long moment.  Then he shook his head.  "No.  I think I'd rather stay."

	"What?  But... your lost childhood..."

	"I know, I did say that I'd lost everything to my duty.  But that's not true.  I've lost some things, and gained others.  And Zelda... if I go, [i]you[/i] will have lost everything to [i]your[/i] duty.  I want to stay and help you.  I want to make sure you have something left besides duty, even if that something is just... just a friend like me."

	"Link, please... just go."

	"You don't want my friendship then, Zelda?"

	"I..." Zelda couldn't lie to him.  "Of course I do.  But it's not right.  It's not fair."

	"And leaving you all alone for the rest of your life is?"

	"Give me the ocarina, Link.  Let me send you home."

	"No.  It's mine now."  He grinned at her suddenly.  "No takebacks!"

	Zelda scowled at him.

	"Though I do agree it's time to go home. For both of us. Take us back to Hyrule, Zelda.  As you said, there's a lot of rebuilding to do.  I'd like to help with it."

	Zelda stared at him, feeling exasperation and anger, but mixed with them was relief, hope, and even a touch of joy.  He wanted to stay with her!  "You win," she said wryly.

	"The hero always wins," he replied.

	Zelda laughed.  "All right, let's go home."