Time had left to go talk to Wild's Zelda. He didn't give a reason, or say what he wanted to talk about. He kind of just left.
He wanted to see if she knew about that "third time's a charm" thing. See if she knew what it meant. See if she knew what would happen.
He reached Castle Town and walked up to the castle. There were guards stationed at the entrance, which had already been fixed up.
They stopped and asked him what he wanted. He simply said,
"Link sent me to speak to the Princess."
"How do we know you aren't a Yiga spy?"
"Just send her down. She'll know me."
One of them nodded and went into the castle. They came aback and said,
"I had someone bring her down. You just wait here."
Time nodded.
Soon, Zelda came down. He noticed that she had cut her hair. It looked nice. When she saw him, she frowned and said,
"Time. Did something happen? Is Link alright?"
He nodded. "No, nothing happened, and he doesn't appear to be getting any better. May I speak with you in private? I have a question. About Link."
She nodded and led him into the castle.
They went up to what appeared to be her room. It was completely empty except for a chair by the window.
"Sorry about the lack of seating. We've just recently finished clearing everything out to begin repairs. We're lucky that Bolson is so good at time management. Anyway, what was it you wanted to talk about?"
He decided to not waste any time and just jump right into it.
"I- well, Twilight and I have recently been hearing the phrase "third time's a charm." It seems to be connected with Wi- I mean, Link."
"Connected? What do you mean?"
"I'm not completely sure, but I had this vision..."
He explained what he had seen to her. When he mentioned Wild drinking something, her eyes widened.
"Is something wrong?"
She shook her head. "No, no, I'm fine. Just... keep him from doing something stupid, okay? I... don't want him getting hurt because of something I did."
She looked down at her feet and sat down in the chair, folding her hands in her lap.
"I... you can go now. It doesn't matter. You don't need to worry about that. And... don't tell Link."
She looked up at him.
"And... well, nevermind."
She shook her head and stood up, pushing him out of the room.
Then, she firmly shut the door behind him. Not quite a slam, but close to it.
●~●~●
Twilight opened his eyes. He was greeted with darkness. Pitch blackness.
Wild stood in front of him.
That nightmare version of him.
And Wind.
And Time.
It was...
Creepy, to say the least.
Wind looked sad. And annoyed.
Time looked... like he was wordlessly pleading for something.
Something.
Third time's a charm.
What did that mean?
And what did Time want?
And why were all three of them like that?
And why did Time have those same cuts on his arm as Wild did......
F**k.
And there were more. So many more.
F**k.
He tried to reach out, but he found that he couldn't move.
He opened his mouth to speak, but no noise came out.
They disappeared and were replaced by Wild's Zelda.
Her hair was short and messy.
She had the same empty eyes as the others.
Blood was dripping out of her mouth.
And he heard two words in her voice.
I'm sorry.
Then, she disappeared as well, leaving him alone in the darkness.
●~●~●
She knew it.
She knew he'd do something stupid.
But she was already committed to this.
Anyway, his friends would keep him from doing anything stupid. Like... that.
Hopefully he wouldn't even try it in the first place. Hopefully he'd understand why she was doing this.
Hopefully it all worked out. For him. She didn't really care about herself anymore. Especially considering what she was planning.
●●●
Don't tell him.
Even though he understood why, it was still an odd thing to specifically request.
Why didn't she want him to know about it? It was just a phrase.
"Third time's a charm."
Nothing odd about that. Except for the fact that it was getting really repetitive. And the ways he was hearing it. And seeing it.
"Third time's a charm."
Why did it seem to be connected to Wild? Why did his Zelda seem upset by it?
"Third time's a charm."
What a stupid concept. Whoever thought that was true was wrong.
Maybe it just kept coming up because it confused them. It was on their minds. That was all. It wasn't anything ominous. They were just thinking into it too much.
He shouldn't have bothered Zelda with something as unimportant as this.
●●●
When he got back, Warrior was up and kicking. Well, not really kicking, seeing as his right leg was broken. His left leg wasn't broken, but it was still injured.
Because of this, Warrior was just sitting against the wall on his sleeping bag looking annoyed.
Time gently shut the door behind him and almost immediately walked up the stairs.
Twilight was up here, since his sleeping bag had been here. He had also woken up and was lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling.
"Hello, Twilight."
"Hey."
"How are you?"
"I'm okay. You?"
"I'm... fine."
He sighed and sat down in the chair by the bed. Twilight tilted his head back to look at him.
"Is something bothering you?"
"Well, I went to talk to Wild's Zelda about that "third time's a charm" thing. She seemed a little upset by it. And she said to not tell Wild, and to keep an eye on him so he doesn't do anything stupid. She also said that it doesn't matter, so... I've decided that it's not that important if she's just brushing it off like that."
"Oh."
Twilight looked back at the ceiling, not saying anything else.
He seemed... confused. Scared, even. But of what? What would be bothering him like that?
Probably Wild.
"Hey, Time?"
"Yes?"
"Remember that nightmare I told you about? The one with Wild?"
"Yes. What about it?"
"Well... actually, nevermind. It doesn't really matter."
"Oh. Okay."