"The only weapon that can stop them needs a driver."

- The Legend of Zelda opening text crawl, 1986

"Snort snort snort, oink oink oink."

- Waterblight Ganon

Princess Zelda and her sworn protector fled through the forest to escape the massacre of Hyrule Castle. Smoke and fire still burned through their senses. The clangs and screeches of berserk Guardians echoed all around them in the far off but menacing distance. Rain poured through the trees as if the goddess Hylia herself was crying down from the heavens for them. Or something else was trying to drown them.

The princess's hand lost its grip on her guard's ruby plate mail, sending her collapsing in the mud. She groveled over her knees, soaked to the bone and shivering in terror. Her floodgates came crashing down all at once.

"I'm a failure!" she screamed. "Why haven't my cursed powers awakened yet?"

The guard knelt in front of her to offer support. Her tears roared onto her protector's shoulder harder than the waterfall where she had first seen young Prince Sidon.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this! I used the Guardians and the Divine Beasts just like the prophecies said! Everything I've done has just led to disaster! Everyone was counting on me, and I couldn't help a single one of them! All of the people in the castle! Urbosa, Daruk, Revali… Link… trapped in those THINGS! Even my father! I left them all to die!"

Mipha had herself to blame.

It was her fault the Hero of Legend had fallen. He had arrived in time to save her life from the Waterblight, but not in time to save Vah Ruta from infestation. It had been his soul sealed inside of the Divine Beast's control conduit that day, and the Master Sword now lay lost under a pit of Malice in Ruta's corrupted bowels. He had sacrificed his own life in her place in a foolish act of love.

As she had stood there watching in terror as the Blight hacked Link to pieces, as she had fled through Ruta's glowing red halls with sounds of horror ringing in her ears, her emotions burst into a thousand floods that all swept her in the same direction.

Protect the princess.

She wrapped her arms around Zelda to share her grief. Zelda sobbed in unbearable anguish and sorrow. Mipha remained quiet and let own her tears run hidden in the raindrops washing down her face, forcing herself to remain the strong one. Hours ago she had felt sorry for making her father worry about her as she boarded Vah Ruta. Now Zelda didn't have any father to worry about her.

For the first time in her life, Mipha found herself as speechless as Link.

The rain pellets dropping beside them suddenly snarled like a wild boar. Mipha and Zelda watched in horror as a patch of mist glowed ghostly blue and twisted into a grotesque semi-solid form.

Waterblight Ganon's eye gleamed murderously toward the Zora princess first and the Hylian princess second. He had returned to finish the job, and to carve out a small bonus along the way.

Mipha lowered her head and breathed like a swimmer about to take the most dangerous dive of her life. All of her fear had been exhausted when she was first ambushed by the Waterblight. All of her sorrow had been exhausted in her long, agonizing retreat from Vah Ruta. She knew now this was the last chance she would ever have to pass on her wisdom.

"Princess, I never finished saying what I was trying to tell you when we were on the mountain."

She brushed the soaked golden hair away from Zelda's face to help her see more clearly.

"When I needed to use my healing powers," Mipha said with a lump growing in her throat, "I would always try to focus on… who I cared about the most."

Mipha stood up from the mud. She glanced up at Waterblight Ganon with an empty stare, wondering if her own powers were worth anything now that Link was gone.

"Mipha, no! This is suicide!" Zelda shook her head as she pleaded. She sounded almost like him in his final moments. "You don't have to do this! You're the only one I have left!"

Mipha cautiously drew the Lightscale Trident from the back of her oracle toga. She offered Zelda a look of remorse hidden behind a small forced smile.

"I'm sorry, princess. A good leader can't keep running from her responsibilities."

Her webbed fingers clutched the pole of the ceremonial weapon for dear life. She raised the trident so the central prong shielded the space between her eyes. She shared just one more small thought with Zelda before she was ready to make her final sacrifice.

"If I was never meant to face my fate with Ruta, maybe I was meant to face it with you."

The Waterblight drew back his massive mechanical spear. Mipha charged with all of her might toward a cloudy and desperate future.

Author's note: Will Ganon be able to cut the fish and shelf the elf in one fell swoop? Or will Zelda learn that love can be a slippery slope in time to awaken her powers and save them both?

Well I don't goddamn know. I just wrote this because I thought the premise sounded neat and it utilized the game's cutscenes in an interesting way. Use your imagination.