Warning: Spoilers for Hyrule Warriors!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyrule Warriors or it's characters!

Eclipse of the Moon

I'm...

I'm fading. Fading away. Not sure where to. Oblivion, maybe. Gone for good.

She had warned me not to do this. She had begged me to stop. I hadn't listened. I should have, in hindsight. In hindsight, I should've done so many things. Should've done so many things different than I actually did.

But I didn't. I was stupid. Was blinded by the things that the darkness had promised me. Me, who I should've never been corrupted by the darkness. Me, who I should've been the true neutral, just fulfilling my only purpose: Guarding the Triforce, the will of the goddesses.

I couldn't. Was more human than I thought myself to be. Grew bored of my bland purpose, but infatuated with the one thing that I saw as a way out, my key to freedom. But someone else had taken that chance. Each and every one of them.

The jealousy sparked in my heart faster than I had thought possible. And with that jealousy, jealousy towards each and every Princess Zelda that had ever existed within the timelines and took each of the chances – my chances – to freedom, the small gap was opened, the small crack in my defenses, that the darkness could slip into. Corrupting me. Turning me.

I hadn't been careful.

The corruption was anything but perfect, though. Or maybe too perfect, what do I know? Ganondorf at least sure didn't like to see how I turned against him. How I continued to pursue my own goals, rather than his. I had freed the parts of his soul, all but one, and had returned some of his former might to him.

But I didn't want absolute control. I didn't want death and murder. I didn't even want the Triforce, though I did have it at one point.

I wanted my freedom. I wanted my chance at freedom. To make my own decisions, to do what I wanted to do. No longer watching the Triforce for the goddesses. No longer doing that each and every second of my life, observing as it's parts were claimed by each Link and Zelda, and repeatedly by Ganon, only to then be returned to their spot under my observation.

I was fed up with it, with my only purpose in life, with the goddesses, and with my own existence, with never being able to achieve anything myself. Fed up with being forced to watch, never allowed to interact with anyone and anything myself. The darkness woke that desire in me anew. It slipped into me through envy, but found another, much stronger desire. The desire to end the passiveness of my own life.

And I saw my chance to do so. Saw it countless times, reincarnated into the shape of countless men as the times passed, as I grew older. Grew older in soul, but never a day in body. I was doomed to possess the eternal body for my eternal purpose. Was unmoving. The passive observer of active ones out there.

I would've given everything to swap places with them.

I had given everything to be, just for a while, one of them.

My sacrifice was ultimate. For a short amount of time, I had gained the ability to act on my own. And it had thrilled me. Had filled me. Had made me greedy for more. The darkness had allowed me to act, though it wanted me as a puppet. But I was no puppet anymore. I had learned to cut my strings and become sentient. And I still didn't have enough, lashing greedily out to wrap my arms around my only chance to escape the passive emptiness of my life, fearing that once darkness left me, I would be passive again.

But my sacrifice was ultimate. I'm fading. Fading away in the arms of myself, of that which I had sacrificed to be who I had become. Lana.

It had to be irony. For a long time, for the passive emptiness that my life had been, I had not felt a thing. Had never felt a thing, and had always been forced to watch. And in my final moments, it is remorse that I feel, as I am, once again, forced to watch. Watch my own vision fade. As my greatest enemies and my chance at escaping this passive emptiness stand above me with pity for me in their eyes.

But I feel remorse. Remorse, as my chance at escaping the emptiness is just within arms reach. Remorse, as it is Lana, the half of me that I abandoned, of all people, who gains that what I wanted. Her own free will. Without having to take the chance. Without grabbing what I saw as the key to freedom. Link.

I admit, I was foolish. To become so obsessed with him. To make myself believe I was in love with him.

I wasn't. Never had been, to begin with.

I wasn't in love with the man that fought the darkness. Not in love with the man that was chosen by fate to rescue the land over and over again. Not in love with him, he who changed fates as he passed them.

What I really have been in love with was what he could do. Exactly that he could change the fates of those around him. I was in love with the thought that interacting with him would change my own fate for the better, freeing me of the passive emptiness of my life. I envied the princess for fate choosing her over me to be always bound to him, his actions always changing her fate.

But for me, it had been denied even until the end. Even now, as I fade away, I am just the passive observer I have always been forced to be. There were so many things I wish I could say, so many things to tell him, to tell Zelda, and most of all, Lana.

But I cannot speak. Cannot even move my body in the slightest. I have given up everything in my selfish attempt at freedom. I am not allowed freedom. And my attempt to be so has been punished greatly.

Can someone blame me, though, for trying to be free? To be free of the endless repetition? For being like everyone else? For being human?!

It is beyond what I can grasp. Beyond my understanding why I was denied this. Beyond my understanding why Lana is so different from me. I had thought she wanted this too! That she was, being part of who I once was, just like me! She must see the difference between us and everyone else! She must see what I have become, and why I have become it! So why is she so different from me? Why is she active, while I am passive?

Is this just another sick joke of fate?

If so, it is perhaps the first joke I can laugh at, despite it being at my expense. To show me that, all along, there was some active part within me, one that was not forced to be the passive observer that I was.

Perhaps it is the greatest joke that I, who I am what Lana was once part of, cannot understand her at all.

"We've seen how this ends..." I croak weakly, forcing the darkness out of my vision, longing to see her face one last time, the worry in her eyes, to know that I wasn't all alone all the time, that there was someone out there caring for me, "...and we both know he doesn't choose you."

Surprise flashes across her face, and I know I am right. I know she believes she is in love with Link, just like I believed myself to be. Perhaps she really is, what do I know? I cannot understand her, she who is me. An active me. Not passive, as I have been, and still am in my final moments. Freed from all the shackles of my existence. And we both know she will take my place. We both know she will take the place of the passive observer, and that she will do so on her own free will. Why, I won't ever be able to understand.

"How do you do it..." I continue when I get no answer, hoping that my last words would get through to her, that she'd realize what I did realize in advance, but also longing to understand her before I fade once and for all, "Knowing you get left behind?"

She turns her head, faces Link and Zelda, as if to find answers in their surprised and worried faces. I see his eyes widen in surprise. See Zelda nervously interlock her own hands. Everything beyond them is blurry. The darkness returns to claim me once and for all.

Lana turns back to me, a soft smile crossing her lips. Once again, I cannot understand. She smiles at me, despite all I've done?

"You don't always get the person you think you deserve... And I can live with that."

My eyes close against my will, darkness claims my sight. Foolish girl. She hasn't understood yet. Still believes she is in love with him. Or is she? Was I? The lines begin to blur. But I do know that she has not understood yet. Has not come to realize yet what I have. Not knowing what I do, she is locked onto a suicide course, even if she doesn't know yet.

But I can't tell her. I want to, desperately want to change her fate. But once more, I am just the passive observer. Once more, I cannot interact. My purpose was to observe, not to change. So I lie. I'm good at lying. Especially to myself.

Even though my words are no lie. Even though my final words to Lana are but a mere avoidance of the full truth that I know she cannot stomach. No lie, but omitting what I see to be her fate.

No lie. But a warning.

"You always were... my better half..." I chuckle weakly, but cannot look at her anymore. Look past her head at the beauty that reveals itself to me that moment, oblivious to those with me there. The dark clouds move aside slightly. Reveal the full moon above.

A shadow begins to fall over it.

Of course, Lana doesn't realize the warning behind these words. Doesn't realize I am warning her that she is, despite being my better half, still half of me. She is me.

As my eyes fall close again and the last strength leaves my body, as I give it to free the Triforce of Strength and make it my heritage to Lana, I can only hope that she will realize it as well, that which I have realized.

That she, by becoming the next observer of the Triforce and everything involved with it, is locked onto the same suicide course that I had been. The destruction of herself as she gives up all she ever had gained by becoming separated from me.

I can't feel my body anymore. It is no more. It's over.

Lana. I can only hope that you realize in time that you do not love him, but that which he can unknowingly give.

I don't want you to become the next me.

I don't feel the tear that falls through the fading light of my body.

And that's it. A tribute to what is probably my most favorite villainess of all time. Cia. When I bought Hyrule Warriors, I expected me playing it for hours on end with my Beta-Reader and best friend Time96 - which beta-read this, by the way, so my greatest thanks go to him once more - because of epic gameplay, a great storyline and an interesting co-op mode. What I didn't expect was for me to become fascinated and obsessed with it, to encounter such fantastic music, characters, stages, missions, and to fall in love with Cia and her theme 'Eclipse of the Moon'. Shit, I fell so in love with the game, the moment I was done with Legend-Mode, I bought the four DLCs and have since then invited Time over on a regular basis to continue with those. And guess who I play most? That's right, Cia.

Now, while it was without a doubt done brilliantly, I wish we had a little more insight on her thoughts. Her side of the story. Sure, we got the additional missions for her in Legend-Mode, but we still don't know much of her thoughts on everything.

Now, I know that this was a collaboration between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo, and that Cia, Volga and Wizzro most likely belong to Koei Tecmo, but I really wish that they'd return in another game. They were great characters. And I admit that I kinda wished that some music (especially Eclipse of the Moon...) was in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U and 3DS. How epic would that have been?

But before I rant, let's end this here. I hope you enjoyed reading my take on Cia's final thoughts.

So, until we see each other again,

So long~