Author: Auditory Eden
Rating: T
Warnings: Meh.
Notes: Sort of...post post post post everything. I have no real time frame, except that it takes place in the universe of the actual games.
A Fate in Red
It was said, first by those who'd been there, mostly young soldiers and experienced warriors of all races, later by everyone else, that the three goddesses themselves had fallen from heaven to cry at their deaths.
It might have been true. Where else had the crystal came from, if not the tears of the goddesses? The little blonde girl and her sandy-haired companion sat and contemplated the pink crystal, a double tomb for two of Hyrule's most famous people.
The Hero and Princess Zelda.
The little girl looked at the boy sitting next to her and wondered. Princess Zelda was named Zelda, obviously, and every other Princess in every other bedtime story was called that as well. But the Hero was always just the Hero, and no one ever seemed to know his name.
"Link, what d'you think the Hero's name was?" she asked her companion.
The boy, Link, was taller than her, older than her by a two years at twelve, and had bright blue eyes to rival her own. His hair was a dirty-blonde mop, which fell in his eyes as he looked at her.
"I don't know, Zelda. No one does."
She sighed, and looked sad. "D'you think anyone knew his name?"
"I don't know, Zelda. If they did, they never told anyone..."
"Isn't that sad? He saved Hyrule over and over again, reincarnated, my mom says, and no one ever knew his name?"
Link, who had been lying on his back, rolled over to look at her. "I guess it's sad. Maybe the Princess knew his name. That must've been enough."
"I guess..." Zelda looked at the older boy over her knees, where dirt and grass were scrubbed into coarse fabric. "D'you think the Hero will ever come back?"
"Maybe...I mean, if something bad happens to Hyrule, he's gotta, right?"
"But what about the Princess? There's always three."
Link twisted his mouth as he thought. "Yeah, I know. Power, Wisdom, Courage, for Din, Nayru and Farore...but the Princess' bloodline died out with her, right?"
"Bloodline?" the little girl asked. She tugged at the hem of her rough dress, noting places where her stitched were wearing through.
"Her kids...and her parents, and stuff. There's always been a bloodline, that's what Mr. Talon says...That's why we don't have a King or Queen anymore. The last one was Princess Zelda, and that was years and years ago."
"How many years?" Zelda plied him fervently. Link scowled a little, but began to smirk after a moment.
"One hundred and fifty."
He heard a gasp beside him and grinned a little. "How do you know all this stuff, Link?" she demanded.
"I pay attention in school, Zel. Anyway, you'll only be up to the first Hero, the one who traveled in time, and then went to Termina."
"He defeated Ganandorf, right?"
"Yeah."
Zelda sat in the grass, watching the crystal again. In it, perfectly preserved, hung two adults, grownups, one man and one woman. The woman was wearing a long, fancy dress, the Hylian coat of arms emblazoned on it, as well as the symbol of the Sheikah and the Triforce. There was armor at her shoulders and hips, and a slim sword hung at her waist. Next to her was the Hero, a tall man, with wide shoulders in a battle-worn green tunic. He wore no armor or mail, but strapped to his back was a simple Hylian shield, and hung at his waist was an empty scabbard.
"Hey, Link. Why doesn't the Hero have a sword?" Zelda asked after a moment.
"`Cause it's in the Temple of Time, in Castle Town. The Master Sword isn't just one Hero's weapon, it's belongs to all of them, and Hyrule. So if another one comes along, it has to be ready for him."
"Oh..."
The man and the woman, the Hero and the Princess, were both lying as they must have fallen in the battle, the Hero sprawled, with a wound in his neck where a stray arrow felled him right after the defeat of the enemy, the Princess fallen close to him, her head lying on his outstretched arm, a sword cut visible on her back. There was no blood or dirt. The crystal around them slightly discolored them, but Zelda could still tell that her namesake and the man next to her were blonde, in shades exactly matching those of her and her companion.
"Where d'you think the crystal came from, Zel?" Link asked her.
"It's called Nayru's Love," she responded without thinking, then said, "Wait, how do I know that?"
"Maybe Nayru told you. You've always been smart."
The pair sat in silence for a moment, and then Zelda asked, "Link? I know I was named for the Princess Zelda, but why were you named Link?"
He shrugged. "I'm not too sure. I think...." he paused for a moment. "Yeah, my old man said something about my great-grandfather...he died in the war, the same battle these two did, with only a son, and no one knows who the mother was." Link wrinkled his nose.
"You don't know about your great-grandmother?" Zelda asked curiously.
Link shook his head, tow-colored strands flopping in his face. "Nah. I mean, he said his father, my grandfather, had the document of their marriage, but he burned them when he was nineteen and never told Dad who she was."
"Maybe she was someone important," Zelda mused. "Like a Princess. Hey, maybe your great-grandfather was the Hero!"
"Don't be silly, Zel."
"I was just thinking," she persisted, but then lapsed into a sulky silence. Almost half an hour later, as Link was beginning to fall asleep, she woke him.
"But it seems right. Link, I mean. I bet that was the Hero's name."
"I don't know, Zelda."
xXx
The crystal was still there four years later, when the girl cried as her best friend left home. He had told her his reasons, and after a deluge of tears, she was sitting, quiet and subdued, sniffing every once and a while, watching the blonde man and woman.
The girl still wore rough cloth, but her own stitching where she'd mended the dress was much finer, and there was some embroidery around the neck and wrists. She wore a green apron over the blue dress, faded almost to the color of moon-moths from use. Her face was older now, and she looked more like the woman in the crystal than her own mother. People in the village spoke in hushed whispers, calling her uncanny.
The boy was no longer a boy, but a young man. He lay sprawled beside her as she sulked, eyes closed, a mirror image of the man in the crystal. People said that was uncanny too, but they'd said it of his father, and his father before that, so it was nothing new, like Zelda.
"I'm sorry if you don't want me to leave, Zel," he said softly. She turned her head to look at him, and when he opened his eyes, he noted guiltily that her face was blotchy with tears. "I'm sorry," he insisted. "But you know my reasons."
"Your stupid, noble reasons," she muttered, turning away again and rubbing at her eyes.
He laughed a little. "Yeah, my stupid noble reasons. But, Zel, I want to make a difference, you understand right?"
"By joining the army?" She looked at him, fresh anguish in her face. "Link, you know what happens to boys who join the army." Zelda waved a hand towards the crystal monument and tomb. "They die."
"I won't," he promised her.
She shook her head angrily. "You can't promise that! I know you, Link. You're so damn stupid, so courageous, you don't even think about the danger."
"I'll try, Zelda, I will. I'll come back to you, I swear it!" he told her desperately. She looked at him hopelessly for a moment, then threw herself at him, catching him around the middle with her embrace, crying again.
"You're my best friend, Link," she told him miserably, her face muffled against his chest. "I don't know what I'll do if you die."
xXx
Zelda waited for a year, listening to every scrap of news about the war against a dark new enemy that some cal Ganandorf reincarnate, treasuring every new letter from Link like a jewel.
He wrote once a week, mostly short things about the fighting. Once she was in terrors because he sustained a slash across the back. Mostly she worried and waited, learning and sewing and doing ordinary domestic things. A boy in the village, a young man her own age with whom she has never spoken, began to show an interest in her.
Link, when she told him this in a letter, threatened to rip him limb from limb.
One day she woke from a particularly vivid dream and saw Link's letters, tied with a ribbon, sitting on her nightstand, and had an overwhelming feeling of oldness. She remembered what it is like to watch her husband ride away to battle, to wait for the news that he has lived—or otherwise the news that he is dead.
But in a moment she returned to herself. The moment remained strange in her mind, but was soon joined by others like it. Three weeks after her fifteenth birthday, as she watched the village children play and listened to the young man who was trying to court her, she saw one little blonde boy and had a horrible longing for her son. When she thought about it later, she had no idea what could have caused such a thought.
Her dreams became more vivid, battles and magic and other things, some of which make her blush. Most of them were presented like a memory, through her own eyes, and she had no control in these dreams. Often there was a boy or man who looks a lot like Link, and she called him Link, as well. The man she called Link always called her Zelda, and sometimes "Princess". Soon it dawned on her that these are the experiences of her namesakes, and as they continued, she became different. She saw her pasts, and knew that they were hers. The girl with the blonde hair became more beautiful and distant as time wore on. Her stitchery became as fine as a lady's, her manner gracious but separated. People began to say that she was not all there.
But she remembered. She was Princess Zelda, and just Zelda as well. She still treasured every letter from Link, and knew that every part of her past did the same.
xXx
The crystal was still there when he next saw his home village. Now eighteen, it had been two years since he last saw his home and his best friend.
When the troops were told that they would be passing through his village, he decided not to tell Zelda—he would surprise her. It had been her sixteenth birthday only a few weeks ago, and he was glad of the chance to see her again.
He told one of his friends about his plan—they all knew where he came from, and his whole squad listened with interest to his stories about the beautiful blonde girl.
When they arrived, everyone in the village was shocked and pleased to see Link again. His father shouted and ran to him, but was beaten by a blur of green and gold.
Zelda hurled herself towards Link the moment she saw him, and was inordinately pleased when he returned her tight embrace. She could hear the whispers of the villagers and Link's squad, but ignored them all in favor of burying her face in his chest. She realized with a jolt that he was tall enough now that her head was barely level with his nose. A long moment stretched while they held each other, but soon they had to break apart. Link's grin was slightly sheepish, but Zelda radiated pure, unadulterated happiness, and everyone around them seemed to be infected by it.
"Hey," she greeted him, ignoring the looks of those around them.
"Hello," he returned. Link took a moment to really look at his best friend, and found himself blown away by her. Perhaps if he had stayed he wouldn't have noticed it, but after two years he couldn't help but see the difference in her face and body. They watched each other, taking in new appearances, and in his case, scars, while everyone around them clamored and talked.
"Hey," Oneir, another infantryman said. "You can go now, if you want."
Link looked around to him. "What?"
The man shrugged. "Captain dismissed us."
Link barely had time to acknowledge this before Zelda dragged him away.
He caught up with her as she led the way to their special place, the monument where the Hero and the Princess lay entombed in ruby crystal.
She sat and pulled him down as well, sighing as she leaned into his shoulder. Every single one of her former incarnations sighed with her, sinking contentedly against Link.
A long moment passed as they simply sat and soaked in each others presence.
It was Zelda who first broke the silence. "Are you here...because the fighting will be here soon?"
"It's a possibility. But really, we're just a sort of diplomatic party, we were traveling to the Gorons, but got held up. Now we're on our way back to Castle Town."
Link sighed and wrapped his arm around Zelda, before falling back onto the turf. She squealed and fidgeted, before settling down in his arms.
"It's good to see you again," she commented, squirming her body closer to his. Link inhaled sharply and looked straight upwards as he became very acutely aware of exactly how much she had grown in their two years apart.
"What?" she asked him curiously.
He forced himself to exhale slowly and remove his mind from the subject. "Nothing."
Clearing his throat, he asked, "So, how have you been lately Zel?"
Zelda noticed the strained quality to his voice and connected a few dots, drawing on her past lives' knowledge of him. She couldn't restrain a giggle, which left him frowning at her intensely.
"Why are you laughing at me?" he questioned, suspicious.
"O-Oh, nothing," she laughed. "Just...that was a really bad icebreaker." The excuse fell easily from her lips, not quite a lie, but nowhere near the truth. Just, I can totally tell when you're aroused just by the sound of your voice...
"If you say so. I meant it." He gave her a glance that made her stop laughing very quickly. It was very, very blue and intense in a way that made her suspect that he knew exactly why she'd been laughing.
"Well, I-I've been good. How about you?" she returned lamely. Link grinned a little and hugged her a little tighter.
"I've been alright. Better now, though," he stated.
"Better now, why?" She picked up her head and looked at him.
Link smiled at her and shook his head. "Guess," he said quietly.
"Don't be silly, Link. Just tell me."
"Ah well, I guess if you can't," he lamented. "It's `cause I'm with you, of course."
He had definitely figured it out, she resolved. He was obviously teasing her.
"Oh, I see," she responded quietly.
She regarded the crystal again, for probably the thousandth time, but enjoyed the novel sensation of hearing Link's heartbeat beneath her head. The man in the crystal was seriously a carbon copy of the man lying under her, and the only difference Zelda could trace in their appearances was a difference in dress. The Hero was dressed in green, and Link wore blue, as part of his uniform.
At the same moment that Zelda was comparing the Hero and Link, he was comparing her to the Princess. The talk among the village biddies had never been more right. The congruency between the girl in the crystal, and the girl in his arms, was almost frightening. The same gold hair tumbled to her waist worn in an eerily similar manner, and the lines of her face were identical. His gaze traced the very pattern of her lashes against her skin and noted the similarity to the girl in crystal.
"I came back."
The words broke the silence with a jolt. Zelda made a connection or two, and smiled. "You did. You always have to."
"I will," he promised.
The sun was setting, and the evening bugs were starting to come out.
Zelda pried herself away from the ground and shook Link's shoulder. "Come on," she told him. "It's time to be getting back. They'll wonder what's become of us, and it's nearly time for dinner."
It amused her to see how his eyes began to glow at the mention of food. In some ways, she thought, he would always be the same.
xXx
Almost five months later, a rumor began to circulate. The dark sorcerer Ganon, as he was calling himself, had obtained the Triforce of Power, just like in the Legend of the Ocarina of Time. No one could confirm it, but the word was that the Council was hushing it up. Zelda thought back to that time and braced herself. So much darkness was coming.
But when it came to her, she wasn't there. By some trick of fate, she'd been sent with the traders to Castle Town because she was a diplomatic bargainer. When they returned, there was no village to return to, only a smoking patch of dead earth strewn with charred corpses.
At that sight, the Triforce began to glow on the back of her hand.
xXx
She'd seen him, fighting, battling, collecting the jewels and the Ocarina, seen him fight as a wolf in Twilight, but nothing was quite as painful as watching him fight in this life, where they had known each other for years, since they were small children, unhampered by her status. Before, the close knowing had always come after the huge fight, or just before it. Never had she known him so well as she did now. People had noticed her Triforce, and they began to collect around her. And they had noticed his, as well. Before long, there was a new Hero, a new Princess Zelda.
All the events took place as they should, as Zelda knew they would. He was he, she was she, and they had danced this dance countless times before. She could hear the goddesses whispering into her pointy ears and knew that when the time came, they would win, as they always did.
But all the same, even with her centuries of experience, despite her long practice at indifferent support, she feared for ever strike Link could possibly undertake, every hit he might sustain.
xXx
The next time they really saw each other, it was at the Temple of Time, where he had come to draw the Master Sword. The door to Time opened and Zelda, cloaked in the shadows, held her breath. As he stepped towards the door, she stepped towards him.
"Wait."
The start was visible and made her feel hideously guilty. His eyes, dark blue with the sight of so much pain, flitted to her, and softened.
"Zelda," he said, his whole form relaxing.
"Who would have thought it?" she asked him, smiling sadly.
Link frowned at her, puzzled. She was seventeen now, and he was nineteen. "Who would have thought what?"
Zelda laughed a little, a pained laugh. "Our special place was always by the old crystal tomb, and now we are the people we saw there..."
"The Hero and the Princess...." Link acknowledged. "And it's strange, but they still don't know my name. I'm just the Hero to everyone now..."
"You'll always be Link to me," Zelda pointed out. "Remember when I was ten? I wondered if anyone knew the Hero's name but the Princess...Is it enough?"
She felt his burning glance on her. "Yes, if you're the Princess."
"I am. I always have been," she told him.
There was a moment of liquid clarity, but it lifted. "What does that mean, Zel?"
"I am the Princess. The same girl, or at least the same soul, who defeated all those foes by your side. You are the same Hero." She bit her lip. "I—"
"I know that," Link said. "Everyone knows that the Hero and the Princess are supposed to be reincarnations...but besides that, I've started to remember..."
"How far?"
He shook his head. "Not very. But I do know that I was my own great-grandfather...."
Zelda smiled and traced a hand over the skirt of her dress. "Ah, yes. I figured that out when I was sixteen."
He pulled a face, but then looked back at the door to Time. "Zel, I—"
"I know," she cut across him, voice anguished. "I know you have to. Again and again and again, a cycle that never ends." They looked at each other for a moment, before she ran to him, closing the short distance between their bodies. Their lips met in a kiss.
"I love you," they murmured at the same time, once they broke apart. Zelda's eyes filled with tears, and Link's smile was pained.
The Princess swallowed and sniffed, and allowed Link to wipe her eyes. They both embraced and held each other, but Zelda released him.
Through a watery smile, she said, "You said it yourself. You have to."
"I know..."
Right before he walked through the door to Time, he turned to her again.
"I will come back to you."
xXx
The battle was every bit as bad as Zelda suspected it would be. Arrow after arrow, sword upon sword, magic against magic, the troops of Hyrule, with the Gorons and the Zora and a few others by their side,versus the dark army of Ganon. She was with the archers, her golden arrows bringing creatures she could only think of as things crashing to the ground.
She watched, feeling helpless, as the man she loved fought the evil man who always managed to upset their peace.
There was no surprise for her when this latest Ganandorf-type fell under the ringing blade of the Master Sword. Only a kind of acceptance, of knowing.
Nor was she surprised when the Council requested her rise to the throne of Hyrule. That was how it was. The Royal Blood died out, and the next girl with Wisdom was their next Queen, the start of a new bloodline.
But she knew, and Link knew, that the old bloodline still lived.
xXx
The crystalline tomb was still intact as the pair of lovers drew close in the twilight. A man and woman, both with spun gold hair, lying together in a shining prison. Apparently no magic had managed to damage the tomb.
It was, after all, reputed to have been made of the tears of the Goddesses.
The tall man in green bowed his head to the monument and stood back as his wife-to-be walked up to the ruby casing. They had spoken of it together, and had reached their decision.
"Farore, grant me the courage to surmount the wall," Zelda began, one hand resting on the stone.
"Din, grant me the power to make what is right," she continued, and Link was not quite sure if she was praying or making a spell.
"Nayru, grant me the wisdom to see past illusion," she finished. The pair waited for a long moment, and the tomb that had held their past selves disintegrated, taking the bodies with them, leaving nothing but a pile of ruby colored dust which began to blow away in the faint autumn breeze.
"It's done," Zelda said softly. Link walked quietly up behind her, sliding his arms around her waist.
"Let's go," Link whispered into her ear. "You don't want to be late for your own wedding, do you?"
"No," she agreed. "No, I don't."
As they left the meadow, the last blood-red sliver of the sun disappeared into the gray sky of twilight.
xXx
Parting Comments: well, golly. SEVEN PAGES IN ONE SITTING. Really, I couldn't get it to stop bugging me, so I've been writing for hours and now at nine twenty-four, I have to finish it up and start an essay for English. Also, I've just listened the CD "Harry and the Potters" (incidentally, also the name of the band that produced it), and it was SO BAD. I mean, it was outrageously bad. The kind of bad that puts people in comas. That was part of why I loved it so much.
Also, my mommy got me in the eyeball with her nail during dinner. Grrr.
Oh, and, in this fic, Link is the great-grandson of one of the past Links and his Zeldain counterpart. Gives a whole new meaning to "I am my own grandpa"...
For anyone who cares, I am working on an update for OMAM (my chaptered Spirited Away story). Expect it by next Sunday (that is, the 14h).
Hugs and Kisses,
Eden