"Ditto."

- Patrick Swayze

"I must go. Ruta and I have our roles to fulfill. We are both honored to play the role of support. We'll annihilate Ganon together. Farewell. Save her, Link. Save the princess. Save Princess Zelda…"

The voice of Mipha's spirit floated across the water like a weak breeze after a shipwreck. Link's shoulders began to tingle as they gradually changed into shimmers of light energy. He was being drawn back to the surface where he belonged, out of the crypt that Vah Ruta had become. There was no reason for him to be here now that his task was complete.

Link had other plans.

He pulled against the magic current with all his strength, forcing his legs to stagger forward step by step while he could still keep them intact. Fighting against nature itself, he dragged himself toward Mipha's silently levitating afterimage, determined to leave on his own terms.

Mipha watched him confused and even slightly frightened as he staggered closer. When he was close enough to feel the icy chill of her green flames brushing against his face, so close that the hairs stood up on his back, he stumbled forward and threw his arms around her spectral mirage. His hands swept through freezing vapor and felt nothing but lifeless numbness. But if King Rhoam's ghost had enough sensation left to complain about his itchy doublet, maybe there was a chance Mipha could feel him.

"I haven't seen you in a hundred years," Link said in a bitter whisper, keeping his arms crossed around nothingness. "I'm not just going to let you whisk me away without giving me a chance to say goodbye."

Mipha lowered her head until her eyes disappeared in the shadows of her fins, looking almost ashamed. Her arms dangled limply at her sides, unable to return his gesture.

"Link… don't make this worse. The past is the past. There's no future for us, Calamity Ganon made sure of that. Wasting our time thinking about the life we could have had only makes it more painful for both of us. My healing powers are all you ready needed from me. Just worry about your mission now and let me go from your mind. It's better this way."

"Don't be so stupid," Link scoffed into the emerald fog that formed her ear. "Thinking about how much that monster has taken away is what makes us stronger. Having our own feelings and not just following what fate tells us to do is what makes this our world, not his. The only reason I'm able to go on is so I can make him pay."

His hand traced down the fin on the back of her head, brushing through her phantom jewelry, getting lost in the fading green mist.

"Mipha, no matter what's happened to you, you're more than just a battery that makes this mindless machine run. You have a bigger role than just being a tool to fight Ganon."

Mipha slowly lifted her head, and saw the love sparkling in his eyes.

"You mean everything to me," he quietly confessed.

"Zelda needs your help…" Mipha timidly echoed. Link put her fears to rest with a small nod.

"Don't worry, I'll save her. I'll make sure all of this ends before anyone else gets hurt. It's the only thing I can do now."

He crossed his arms closer together in the cold, sighing softly in regret.

"But I want you to know, if I had just had the choice that day, I would have saved you."

Mipha's eyes gazed down again. Tiny green embers fell out of her flames and splashed into ripples in the water at her feet.

"I wasn't sure how much you remembered me," she said in a soft voice that was caught somewhere between sorrow and joy. "I wasn't even sure how you felt about me back then."

Mipha finally gathered the courage to return his embrace. Her arms reached toward his back. Her pale incorporeal fingers moved like a morning frost tiptoeing over forest grass.

"Mipha, I'm not ready to die just yet," Link said quietly. "But no matter if my time comes today, tomorrow, or another hundred years from now, I want you to be the first one I meet in the afterlife."

"I'll keep waiting." Mipha's spirit smiled with renewed hope.

Making his peace, Link stepped back from Mipha and let the magic current take him. His body finished dissolving into golden flecks of light and went soaring through Vah Ruta's tower windows, returning to the world of the living.

Author's note: And then The Reel Fish Blues happened.

Author's note 2: This may or may not actually be in canon with The Reel Fish Blues. Note #1 was mostly a joke and I'll leave it up to your interpretation.

Author's note 3: There's a lot of intentional "Shove it, Nintendo" messages built into this fic, but I think the way it's worked into the dialogue is pretty subtle and in-character. I still need to figure out a way to write around that other obnoxious thing the cutscenes do where everyone is all "Ohhhh save Zelda precious Mary Sue Zelda and not our OTHER MURDERED FRIENDS first because the game regulates us as sidequest characters with no agency in the plot and we're completely optional for beating the final boss." That was really dragging the game down too.