notes 1: This is the end of Ocarina of Time, taking place in the Downfall Timeline, which really breaks my heart. Ganondorf gains the complete Triforce and becomes the Demon King.
disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda is not mine.
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All around her, there is heat. The wind tastes of ashes that seem to settle in her throat, the lava below them churns and sizzles, the ground beneath her feels hot and cracked. Zelda surveys it all with weariness and a sinking sort of desperation. They have lost.
She glances down at the back of her grimy, bloodstained hand, where only the faint outline of the Triforce remains, almost like a scar. It doesn't even look like her own hand anymore without the presence of the mark she carried since birth. Zelda swallows hard and looks up at the abomination before her. Ganondorf has stolen Wisdom and Courage both to complete the Triforce, and now he is wreathed in shadows, his form distorting and growing as he transforms into the true Demon King. He has what he's finally wanted, now. They have lost.
There is a quiet cough, and Zelda looks down. Link's eyes are fixed on the shrouded sky, as if he is searching for even a hint of blue through the dark clouds. His hands press against the wound just below his ribs, where Ganondorf's blade had slashed through his tunic and chainmail into his skin. Zelda looks helplessly at all the blood soaking through his clothes, into the earth beneath him, into her tattered skirt where she kneels beside his prone form. She has no bandages, and even if she did, she knows she couldn't save him.
Her heart pounds a hysterical mantra against her ribcage, and she bites down hard on her bottom lip to keep the tears back. Navi is perched on his shoulder, pulsing weak blue light. Zelda sucks in a breath. "Link—" she begins.
He only shakes his head. "I'm sorry," he says.
His voice is so faint. She remembers his yells during battle, his peals of laughter when they were children, the strength in his voice when he accepted the missions she gave while masquerading as Sheik. "Me, too," she whispers back, "For everything."
His breaths are growing weaker, and she reaches to take his hands in hers, as if that can anchor him to this world. That wouldn't be fair even if it were possible; the world has never been kind to him, and he deserves a rest.
Link's eyes shift to the shadowed form of Ganondorf as he transforms, and Zelda sees the despair and the guilt crash through him. She squeezes his hands as he looks back at her. "I tried," he says in a voice that betrays his real age—always eager, always having something to prove. "I tried," he says again, and the last word is almost a sob.
"I know you did," Zelda soothes, running a hand through his honey-blond hair, thinking of how she'd watched it catch in the sunlight as she followed him in Sheikah shadows. "Everyone knows. The Sages and I can do this. Hyrule is not lost yet." Neither are you, she wants to say, but she could never lie to him.
"You can," Link agrees, and smiles—and even now, after everything, he smiles like the sun. "You're stronger than you think you are."
"Hey, so are you," Navi says, her voice quavering. "You did well. You were brave. The Great Deku Tree would be so proud."
Zelda swallows a sob and leans forward to press a kiss against his forehead. "We will meet again. Rest well, Link." She does not call him Hero—it was never what he wanted in the first place.
When she pulls back, the life is gone from his eyes. Zelda slides the lids shut and presses a shaking hand to her mouth, not caring that blood rubs off on her lips. Everything feels numb, distant, unreal. "I love you," she says—not to him, really, because he is gone. She just wants to say the words out loud.
She isn't sure if fairies can cry, but she imagines that Navi is now, past the blue glow surrounding her. "I think he loves—loved you too," Navi says, then lets out a shuddering sort of laugh. "But I'm not sure. He was a quiet kid, you know?"
Zelda nods. She does know. They hadn't need words to understand one another. She swipes at her eyes and rises to her feet. In front of her, the Demon King is stirring. "What will you do?" she asks.
Navi floats up a few feet, then back down, to land on Link's shoulder. "The Great Deku Tree assigned me to him," she says. "He was my partner. Fairies don't leave their partners."
Zelda isn't sure why, but she is grateful. "Watch over him."
Navi bobs up and down in a nod. "I always do."
Zelda takes a breath, and steps around the broken body on the ground. The Triforce of Power had changed Ganondorf; now, with the other two pieces, he is nearly unrecognizable. He towers before her, his skin turned scaled and blackened, his hair a flaming inferno down his back. His features are sharp and cruel, and he regards her with wry amusement.
"Little girl," the Demon King croons, "You never give up, do you?"
"And you never stop underestimating me," she retorts coolly. "Triforce of Wisdom or not, I am the princess of Hyrule and the Leader of the Sages. You will regret crossing me."
He just chuckles at that. Zelda closes her eyes and reaches for the power deep inside her, calling the Seven Sages to her aid. Her palms begin to glow with the sealing magic that will protect Hyrule from him for good.
"And you will pay for what you did!" she snarls as her eyes snap open.
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