Heroes Between Realms

Link

Link jumped awake, restraints digging into his skin. He didn't want to be patient anymore. He wanted to be free from the restraints, to find Zelda, and get the heck out of there. He pressed his head down hard on the table beneath him.

    He had to stay calm, to keep a clear mind. He had to get information from White Hair. He had to earn his trust.

    "I met your lady friend," said that awful, taunting voice. "She said to tell you that she was all right and that she'll take you home as soon as she can."

    Oh, Zelda. Sweet, trusting Zelda. Link hoped she hadn't told White Hair anything. If she did, breaking free would already be so much harder. But before worrying about that, he had to get information out of White Hair.

    "Where am I?" Link repeated from the day before. "We're are my things? Where is Zelda?"

    "What is Sheikah technology?" White Hair countered, stroking his chin. How much had Zelda said?

    "Technology created by the Sheikah 10,000 years ago." He could give this much. Link tried a different approach. "Who are you?"

    "My name is Poe Jenkins. What is Terrako?"
 
    Link had no clue who Terrako was and why it was important. He let himself look confused. Hopefully, Jenkins would see this and choose a different angle - one Link could counter.

    "What is the Sheikah Slate?" Jenkins went on.

    Link revealed as little as possible. "A tablet created by the Sheikah to open the shrines."

    "Shrines?"

    Link didn't answer as he decided his next question. "How many other Links are there?" Leave Jenkins grappling with why he wanted this information. He didn't. This question was only to throw him off.

    "Three." Three other Links? "Shrines?"

    "Tests of strength and wit. Where are my things?"

    Jenkins paused before answering, "The item research wing. Why was Zelda starving and dirty and you bloody?"

    Two questions in one. Jenkins was good at this game. "Years of war and destruction take its toll." But Link was good at it, too. He took a risk. "Where's Zelda?"

    Jenkins gave a cheeky smile. He stood. "Follow me." He slapped a hand around a bar by Link's feet, pulling the table with him on it. Nothing detached from his body - it must all have been connected to the table.

    Jenkins carted Link down pristine white halls, around corners. Link tried to memorize the ways he turned, but it was clear that Jenkins was trying to confuse him. There were too many similarities and too many turns to commit to memory.

    The halls widened out, the doors grew farther apart until they disappeared completely. The ceiling raised, the space widened. Cubes were placed in equal distances. Each cube was made of widows and had a desk outside with strange equipment sitting on them. Most of the cubes had someone trapped inside with people sitting at the desk, observing everything the people inside did.

    In one cube was a teenager that looked almost exactly like Link. He even had his ears pierced with the same blue hoops. The person sitting at the desk of this cube spoke into a black ball on a stand.

    "Just turn, and we'll be done," he said.

    "I can't without the Twilight Realm," the Link-copy growled.

    The person at the desk pressed on something, and the Link-copy fell to his knees, howling in pain. He clawed at his neck.

    "Do it, and it will all be over," the desk man called.

    "Fine! Just make it stop!" The Link-copy growled. He stopped clutching his neck just long enough for Link to see a small black square embedded in his skin before the copy transformed into a wolf.

    Link had to crane his neck back to watch the entire thing. He looked into every occupied cube, finding strange people and people who appeared to be normal. There was a girl with a metal leg and hand, a short man with overalls and a red hat, a pale adult with dark black eyes.

   The adult was backing away from people in white coats pleading, "I don't want to hurt you. I just need an animal. A rabbit would do. Please"

    A girl was thrown at the beautiful woman. Her arms were strapped to her sides. She struggled to get up.

    "Renesmee!" The adult cried, running to help her child.

    Jenkins pulled Link to a stop. He twisted a handle in the side of a cube, pulling open a door. Jenkins pulled Link into the cube, the inside full of mirrors. The cubes were made of one-way windows.

    Jenkins left the mirror room, shutting the door behind him. There was no handle on this side of the door.

    Link layed there completely still, except for his fingers that drummed on the table beneath him. He wandered what Jenkins would have him do in this cube. He wondered where Zelda was, if she was okay. Link suspected, with the way that Jenkins acted when the princess was mentioned, that he would bring her to him. At least then, Link would he able to see for himself that Zelda was okay, and they would be reunited.

     Glancing around, Link had to find a way out of the restraints. He tried slipping his hands out again, but it was useless. The leather cut into his skin, even tighter than last time. It bit him so hard, that it cut his left wrist. A trickle of blood smeared his hand and the table beneath him. Eventually, he gave up. When Zelda found him, she would be able to free him. It frustrated Link even more knowing this - that he wouldn't be able to protect Zelda until she came to free him.