A/N: Hello everyone! It's been way too long. Actually, you've got one of my LU Discord pals to thank for this update! I'm also trying something new with this story. As many of you who've read my other works may know, I tend to have lengthy chapters after gaps of several months or years of no updates. So here, with this story, I'm trying a different approach. I'm going to try shorter chapters and more frequent updates! (I hope). Minimum chapter length will still be 1k words, but most chapters will be between 1k and 5k words until we hit LU.

Also, expect the in-game journey through Hyrule to be more like flashes of Phoenix's (how I refer to this 'Wild') journey and experiences. I do hope it still reads well! Please kudos and review, and remember to check out my tumblr for some exclusive story snips and concepts that you won't find on my writing platforms! You can find the link on my pfp!

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The first thing she awoke to was cold. For a moment all she could hear was an odd humming and dripping sound that tickled the back of her mind. Thoughts drifted through her like formless clouds. They had no substance, mere wisps of what should've been. But there was a soft warning bell on the edge of her consciousness. Like she was forgetting something important.

Her brows furrowed as she traced whispers of memories towards the last clear one. The castle... Ganon... Link.

She sat up with wide eyes, gasping for breath. "I... I'm alive?" Her voice echoed around the cavern she was in, but it didn't sound like her. She cleared her throat and tried again, but her voice was rough and low. It sounded almost masculine in a way. Her hand flew to her throat, but instead of smooth skin there was an unnatural roughness that had her heart quickening in her chest.

Her hands shook as they traced their way up to her face—scars, awful deep horrid scars, she could feel them. They covered her entire left side. She glanced down, realizing she was in nothing but her undergarments. What she saw had her feeling a strange mixture of horror and fascination. There were chunks missing from her left side, and she was certain she had one less rib than she should have. Yet there was no pain. The scar tissue looked years old, and she traced the divots in her body as she tried to understand her situation.

There was only one place that she knew of that could heal someone like this—heal someone who had injuries as severe as her. "The Shrine of Resurrection." She whispered in awe. But... she was certain she'd died. The Shrine was... had it truly brought her back to life? How?

She carefully hauled herself over the edge of the basin, leaning heavily against it as she forced her legs to bear her weight for the first time in Goddesses knew how long. They shook frighteningly so, but did not give. Though the sudden vertical position had her head spinning, she managed to blink through the black spots in her vision to focus on one of the only light sources in the room—her Sheikah Slate.

"How did...?" She reflexively cleared her throat again, but to no avail. There must've been damage done to her vocal chords then. With a quiet sigh, Zelda stumbled her way towards the pedestal. Somehow, the Slate felt right in her hands in a way that it never had before. Like some part of her was now connected to it.

The screen lit up, and she blinked. Zelda had spent excessive time studying the Sheikah and their creations. She'd grown up with Impa and Purah and Robbie. Sheikah—both spoken and written—came to her as easily as Hylian and Common. But there'd always been odd symbols in the Sheikah Slate that even the best researchers couldn't understand. Old Sheikah—from the age of ten thousand years passed—was quite a headache to translate and required a cipher at the very least. Even still, they hadn't managed to completely understand it.

So why was she suddenly able to stare at those same symbols that'd made her head spin not a week ago and know what they said? How did she happen to learn an entire ancient script in the course of a death-induced nap?

She turned to stare at the Shrine that'd imprisoned her for her recovery nap. The symbols that stretched up and down the side glowed softly, and while much of it was too worn to read, she could make out some of it for the first time.

"There's the word for recovery here... hmm... 'liquid of fairy's ... slumber of healing... price of...' does that say 'memories'?!" She reeled back, nearly tripping over the pedestal that the Slate had been attached to. "This Shrine heals people at the cost of their memories?!"

She was quick to analyze her own mind. She certainly didn't feel like she was missing any memories, but it was entirely possible that she was simply unable to pinpoint what could be missing because she didn't remember them. Then again, it was said that she had the blood of the goddess in her veins. It was equally possible that that could've negated any 'cost' for her recovery.

Zelda felt her lips tick down into a frown. "I'll not get anywhere by staring at ruins." She concluded. "That's what got me into this mess in the first place." The words sat bitterly upon her tongue as she turned to face the door. "I suppose... Link, I do hope that you managed better than I."

She tapped the Slate against the terminal, opening the doors. The room was covered in dust, and the crates and chests looked ready to fall apart—strange, since the crates were the supplies for the research teams that came out to this Shrine. Even if they'd left the Shrine be so she could heal, they shouldn't be this old.

Thankfully, there was a change of clothes in the chests beside the doors. And while she found herself questioning the person who left her threadbare clothes that were hardly held together, she wasn't in any position to be picky. She fought off a light shiver as the warmth started to creep back in, but she also realized she was quite thirsty.

How long had she been asleep for?

"Zelda..." The voice echoed around her, but there was no source. No other person was in the room, but she knew that voice. She'd only heard it once before, but she recognized it instantly.

"Link?"

"I'm sorry. I failed you. The Calamity was too strong for me alone. I used the last of my strength to seal him in the castle." Tears built up in her eyes as his words registered.

"No... so even our desperate plan was..." She fell to her knees. "I am sorry. I sent you to your death."

"This is not your fault." Link's voice was firm. "I will hold the Calamity in the castle, but my strength is waning. Zelda... you have been asleep for the past one hundred years."

Her heart nearly stopped and her mouth went dry. She couldn't have heard that right! "One... hundred years?" She echoed numbly. "You can't be..."

"Please. I know it's a lot to ask, but take my name... and all that comes with it. Become the Hero that Hyrule needs."

It was an embarrassingly long moment before Zelda fully registered the meaning behind his words. He wanted her to become Link. To become Link the Hero. To save Hyrule with her own hands and defeat Calamity Ganon in his place. The fact that Link was able to speak with her meant that he had not been reincarnated. There was no hero in this era.

For a moment, she thought about refusing. She could move somewhere and live a quiet life. The memories of her life up to this point accosted her. The names she'd been called. 'Tinkering Princess' 'Heir to a throne of nothing'... She was sick of it. She was done with it.

Something hot swelled in her chest as she forced herself to her feet. A fire burned in the depths of her soul. "I will." The words rang with a surety that she'd never really had before. A sort of confidence that she'd always tried to convey but could never fully grasp. "Leave Hyrule to me. I will defeat Calamity Ganon."

She thought she heard a sigh of relief. "Then I will give you this—I call it Link's Courage. May it aid you on your journey... hero."

A light appeared before her—it was a nearly blinding white color tinged with the oddest shade of forest green. Before she could fully analyze it, it flew into her chest. She felt power swell within her—magic answering the call of whatever Link's Courage was. It took a long moment for it to settle down within her.

"Link?"

Silence. It seemed that Link had already left. Likely to reserve whatever strength he had remaining to keep Ganon sealed just a little longer. How he'd managed to fight for a century she hadn't a clue. But he had trusted her with more than just the kingdom—he'd entrusted her with his purpose. And that was something she would not waste. She tapped her Slate against the terminal to open the main entrance.

Sunlight poured through, blinding her entirely. She hadn't realized how dark it was until she'd seen the sun, nor had she realized how cold she was until she'd stepped into the light. She couldn't see much, but a flash of blue and green beckoned her closer.

Plucking up what courage she could, Zel—Link, she was Link now, wasn't she?—climbed up the broken step that led to the front of the Shrine. Slowly, as if in a trance, she exited the Shrine of Resurrection for the first time in a hundred years.

She'd been there several times, but never had she seen so much green. It wasn't until she stepped forth and crested a small hill that overlooked the Great Plateau that things truly fell into place.

It was one thing to hear that a century had passed since she'd last seen the world. It was another thing to see it. Where once there had been cobblestone paths and stairs and people, now lay nothing but ruins and trees and broken down walls. Grass covered much of what once was, and the only signs of civilization she could see was that of the monsters.

Smoke rising to the right caught her eye and she tilted her head when she saw an old man sitting beside a firepit. He looked oddly familiar, but from such a distance she really couldn't tell.

She took that moment to sit in the grass and look over what had befallen her kingdom. It was a land of ruins—scarred just like she now was. But the sun was warm. The birds sang freely as they fluttered through the skies, and there was a magnificent hum of life all around her. Wind played in the branches of trees and the ever-present smoke of Death Mountain rose in the distance.

It was different, yes. But this was still home. It was still alive. They may have failed to protect this land a century ago, but they had succeeded in protecting its future in some manner. That was more than she had dared to hope for.

The once-princess leaned against the trunk of a tree and took a moment to simply be. She'd been gone for a hundred years. She could sit and enjoy the sun for a moment longer. The Old Man by the fire could be spoken with in a few minutes. For now, she let a few stray tears roll down her cheeks.

She didn't know if it was sorrow, relief, grief, or some hellish mixture of them all, but for the time being, the newly renamed Link let herself feel whatever she was feeling. After all, the sun felt very warm.