Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the Zelda franchise, and I make no profit writing anything about it.
(AN): Uh, hello. Just decided to start plugging away at this since I've been diving through Zelda fic after Zelda fic. The basic premise of this is "What if Link remembered every life he's lived?" I'm not really sure what the end goal of this is, since it's basically a novelization of OoT, MM, and TP (since I've played a few of the others, but only those three make it to my favorites list).
Link woke from dreams of blood and fire.
"Hylia!" Tore from a ten year old throat, twisted with grief and joy mingled in an odd symphony as the boy rolled out of bed and hit the wooden floor in a flailing ball of limbs.
The sensation of pain shot through Link's elbow, making the boy wince and throwing off the last shades of his nightmare memories. Blue eyes crinkled tiredly as Link pressed his palms to his aching temples, mussing blonde strands.
"Goddesses help me." The young hero prayed, feeling the faint sting of tears in the corners of his eyes as he drew in a gasping breath. Wrestling control over his shaking limbs, Link brushed aside the cobwebs of the many lives crowding in the corners of his brain and cast an assessing eye over his surroundings.
Wood everywhere. Wooden floor with wooden walls and wooden furniture and through the windows the sight of trees barely visible in the early morning mist. It was familiar...and not in the usual way things were once he Awoke and assimilated the memories of whatever incarnation he was living in.
Brushing his blonde forelocks out of his eyes, Link huffed a breath and hauled himself to his feet. Even his clothing gave no hint to his history. It was green and crafted in the iconic form of the hero's garb that had passed down through history.
Light flashed through his vision, and Link instantly reacted with all the battle honed instincts of the warrior he was. Snatching a ball of light from the air, Link frowned down at the wriggling fairy in his grip – they weren't present in every life he'd lived, but they were in enough to give no hint as to where and when he was. "Who are you?"
"Let me go this instant you rude boy!" she squealed, buzzing up and away in an offended circle after he released his grip compliantly. "I have never in all my years met a Kokiri as breathtakingly rude as you!"
Raising an eyebrow, the ten year old Hylian offered the bobbing fairy a sharp glance. "A Kokiri?" There hadn't been Kokiri in hundreds of years and through several of his lives. Link had believed they'd passed into legend, but perhaps some of them had managed to hold out somewhere after all. Hyrule would be better for their re-emergence.
"Yes?" the fairy offered, pure confusion radiating through her tone and causing Link to wince. If she was treating it like an odd question, then he was obviously acting strangely concerning common knowledge. Din's breath! Where were his memories of this incarnation?
"But enough about that, Link." Cut into his churning thoughts. "The Great Deku Tree asked me to be your partner from now on. Not that we're getting off to such a good start." She mumbled with low resentment. "So nice to meet you."
Scratching the back of his skull with embarrassment, Link offered a small grin. "Sorry about that! I just rolled out on the wrong side of the bed this morning and was a bit disoriented. I didn't mean to grab a fairy like that – I thought you were something else."
The fairy's light grew in thoughtful intensity, shimmering faintly orange before floating a slow circle away. "Apology accepted!" she chimed, all irritation fainting away with all the typical forgiveness that fairies were marked by. "My name is Navi. I'm pleased to meet you."
The world dropped out beneath his feet, and Link was barely about to hold on to his mind through the abrupt roaring of blood in his ears. Navi? Rocked incredulously through his mind, stirring up memories from that life. The only life that he'd lost.
Words about meeting the Great Deku Tree flew over the boy hero's head as he nodded mechanically, struggling to contain the despair and tide of memory flowing through his veins. Blood and steel filled his lungs as Ganondorf cut through him. Zelda was screaming in the backround, pain and fear and death in her voice as the incarnation of Demise tore her into bloody fragments.
"Link, are you okay?"
His voice was rough and low as he growled out "I'm alright." Tortured blue orbs rose from the floor to follow the twisting fairy as she led him from his house and into the paths of the Kokiri Village. Goddesses please if you ever loved me don't make me do this again. I might be a child of violence but I can't handle this again –
Warmth. Golden, pure warmth burning through his left hand and up his arm. Courage it whispered through his muscles. Faith reverberated in the wounded spaces of his seizing heart. Link sucked in a fortifying breath, steadying himself against the constant presence of the Triforce of Courage in preparation to begin his life anew.
Digging through the dusty chamber of his memories, Link brushed off the pain associated with the Downfall and began to move. Navi cried out in confusion behind him as the fairy turned from leader to follower. The ageless man turned boy knew exactly when and where to go to begin his journey. He had a sword to find, a bully to get past, and an Emerald to find.
The nightmares and the tears could come later, as they always did in his dreams, life after life. The goddesses had either gifted him or cursed him with a second chance, and the Hero of Legend had no intention of being defeated this time.
Hylia. Hylia. Hylia. Sang through him, twisting up in love and determination. A dozen lives and a thousand years ago he'd stood on the fields of the land his Goddess defended and sworn an oath he would never break. It didn't matter how badly he suffered, or how many tears he cried, or how much blood he shed, that promise would hold.
Even if the enemy was his oldest friend and deadliest foe – the Hundred Year Man – it could only increase his will to see his vow fulfilled. Eternity had been promised, and eternity would be given regardless of the spite of Demise.
"My love." He breathed without care for Navi's ears as he pulled the Koriri Sword from the chest Mido had hidden it in. "I will fight forever to defend you."
Zelda.
I'm coming.
(AN): 1000 words. So short, yes I know. I suppose I just wanted to blurb out something and get a bit of a start on it. Although I don't title chapters with "Prologue", I suppose this would be the closest to one. Hopefully later chapters will be longer.
Anyway, the basic concept behind this story is "What if Link remembered all of his previous lives at the start of his adventures?" I don't want to just rehash whatever we've already seen. But I suppose I'll lay out a few baselines so we know the state of things before I continue on.
Link remembers, as does Ganondorf (partially), but Zelda only knows her current life. This is an odd concept I came up with a few days ago. Essentially, Link remembers who he is because of the godly magic associated with his reincarnation.
Zelda/Hylia does not remember because access to those memories was something she gave up explicitly as part of becoming mortal and may only access the memories of her counterparts in fragmented form with the assistance of the Triforce of Wisdom.
Ganondorf doesn't remember Link's adventures. Rather, he remembers his previous lives as King of the Gerudo. He doesn't even have a true name since he's the Hundred Year Man. Essentially, the King of the Gerudo is born, lives a life, dies, and is reborn as the next King of the Gerudo with all his memories of the lives he's ever lived. He was Link's best friend (since he's the only one in a remotely similar situation) and all around decent fellow until the spirit of Demise decided to inhabit his soul to spite the Hero (during his life as "Ganondorf" in OoT and every rebirth since). Ganon however, is the name of a pig-beast-moblin-thing that Ganondorf was named after due to Demise manipulating the circumstances surrounding the birth.
Timelines: This story takes part as if Link experienced the "Unified Timeline", and then the entire "Downfall Timeline" before getting turned around to relieve a life he thought he'd never see again ( OoT, and thus birthing the Child and Adult timelines). The Goddesses work in mysterious and odd ways, I guess.
Pairing: In case you haven't noticed by the tags, this is Zelda and Link together life after life after life. I like Midna, but the Skyward Sword Manga kind of blew that out of the water. Since that one friggen page "I will fight forever to defend you" I ship Link and Zelda together for all time. Plus the whole Hylia becoming mortal only makes sense to me if she's in love with Link – otherwise she'd mourn him and move on, and then just pick another hero if Demise's curse showed back up. But the whole memory loss thing means Link technically has to woo her over and over I suppose, haha.