[First-person – Temple of Echoed Balance, Lower Depths]
Every step deeper into the earth felt like a memory being pulled out of my spine.
Zelda led us forward with her hand aglow, lighting the path. Riju followed close, blade drawn, eyes alert. I was in the middle—between the goddess's heir and the desert queen—yet somehow, I felt alone.
Not because I lacked companionship.
But because the walls knew me too well.
They whispered.
They breathed.
> "Guardian…"
"Traitor…"
"Come home…"
---
The chamber ahead was massive—vaulted stone ribs arcing like the skeleton of a dead god. At its heart sat an enormous seal etched into the ground, pulsing faintly with black light.
Zelda halted. "That's a containment glyph. Ancient. Pre-Zonai. This is older than any temple I've ever read about."
Riju stepped forward slowly, staring into the swirling lines. "There's something beneath it. Something alive."
I could feel it too.
Not just power—but familiarity. Like meeting an old version of myself I'd locked away.
The Tear of Balance pulsed in my chest.
It was answering the presence.
And it terrified me.
---
[Third-person – Zelda's thoughts]
Zelda watched him, watched the way he hesitated.
He was always so sure in battle. Unshakable. Kind. Strong. Gentle even in chaos.
But now, his eyes flickered like a child seeing a monster under the bed and realizing it was wearing their own face.
> "You sealed this thing once…" she thought.
"But part of you stayed down here with it."
The idea of him being consumed—or worse, becoming it—clawed at her chest.
> "I won't let that happen. I'd rather kill the world than lose him."
She gripped her dagger.
And smiled softly at him.
---
[First-person – OC]
The seal hissed.
Not aloud.
Inside me.
A fragment of a voice, sharp as glass.
> "You left me. You became soft. Balanced. Loved. But you were once the knife that slit the gods' throat."
I stumbled back, gasping.
Zelda was at my side instantly. "What is it?!"
I couldn't lie.
"Something… inside me. Something trying to wake up."
Riju looked pale. "You mean the Broken One… isn't just sealed beneath us?"
I met her eyes.
"No. He's sealed in me."
---
[Flashback – Fragmented Memory]
It hit like lightning.
A vision, not mine yet deeply mine.
Two figures—both me. One cloaked in golden light, the other draped in shadows darker than death. They fought atop a floating sky-island crumbling from their power.
The golden one—the Guardian of Balance—sealed the other in a temple he carved from his own heart.
And as the dark version screamed, he said:
> "When you return, so shall I. Because I am you. I am your will without compassion. I am your truth without love."
---
[First-person – Temple Interior]
I collapsed to my knees, panting.
Zelda caught me again. "Tell me what you saw."
I looked up at her.
At Riju, too, who was already kneeling beside me, her fingers brushing my cheek like I was glass.
"I sealed… the part of me that couldn't love. The part that wanted to burn the gods for abandoning me."
Zelda's expression changed.
Not fear.
Devotion.
> "Then you're stronger than any hero who came before," she whispered.
> "And if that thing rises again," Riju added, "we'll slay it together."
They leaned in, both too close, both too warm.
I felt their hearts. Fast. Dangerous.
Too much emotion.
Too much… obsession.
But I didn't pull away.
---
[Third-person – The Seal Cracks]
Beneath the seal, a single crack formed.
A long, thin fracture that leaked black mist like dying starlight.
Something stirred.
Something laughed.
It didn't scream or roar.
It simply whispered:
> "Thank you… for remembering me."
---
[Cutaway – Akkala Research Lab]
Purah dropped the tuning crystal in her hands as alarms across the lab flared red.
Yona ran in, wide-eyed.
"It's spreading, isn't it?"
Purah didn't answer at first.
She just stared at the map—now glowing with cracks of unstable energy across the entire kingdom.
Time. Space. Memory.
All unraveling slowly around a single figure in the desert.
She whispered, "He's not just reborn. He's rebooting the world."