Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda belongs to Nintendo. They don't seem to write as dark as I do, though their games do have plenty of creepiness to work with…

Notes: This excessively dark story idea came to me as I was waking up from sleep. While I'd been having LoZ-related dreams, this was not the exact remembrance of a dream, but an idea that formed when I was awakening and still groggy. Ocarina of Time – third branch / Dark Timeline. I was thinking "what if "defeated" doesn't mean "dead" in the Dark Timeline? The idea tumor-ed itself into this tale of pain I wish I could say I wrote while on drugs other than a bit of caffeine.

BEHOLD, THY HERO

There was water in his mouth, a tiny amount that tasted of metal. Without registering it, he sipped it. His lips were very dry. Slowly but surely, his body began to hurt – every inch of him. Breathing was difficult. Ah…. Yeah, Ganondorf had got him in the side with a swift, iron-booted kick. Wait? Wasn't he just fighting Ganondorf? He was prone – the floor would seem to be soft…. Blood… Didn't he just fall into a spatter of his own blood? He smelled blood…

"Are you waking up?" - A soft, feminine voice. Zelda?

"Oh, you are. Easy, now. The light's probably going to hurt your eyes."

A vision flashed into his mind. Link did not know if it was a dream or a memory. Ganondorf was standing over him with a long, dark-bladed sword. Navi was shouting shrilly at him to get up. The Master Sword had slid across the room and the breath had been knocked out of his lungs. Ganondorf had placed the tip of his blade to his heart. Link had tried to find a way out of the situation, just has he had found his way out of impossible situations countless times before. His mind had sent a silent prayer to the Golden Three and to the spirit of Hylia. He remembered Ganondorf laughing. The sorcerer had said something – "better defeat to let you live" – something like that.

Link felt warm fingers brush his cheek and part the hair out of his eyes. When they'd adjusted to the light, he saw Zelda above him. Her hair was mussed and she was pale. She did not appear to be injured in any way, but she looked nothing like a princess. She wore no crown and looked like she had been stressed. She was in her dress, dirty and dull and she looked more like a chambermaid than anyone with a proud bearing. It was then that Link registered that he was in a bed – a very soft bed with many pillows and warm blankets. Ache wracked his body. It coursed through his spine and every breath he drew sent a sharp pain through his chest like loose electricity. His limbs were so heavy that he could not feel them at all aside from the heaviness.

"Zelda…" the young man said with his parched lips, glad that she was alive.

"You're badly hurt," she said frankly.

"I figured," Link replied. "I can't remember anything. Did we…. Did we win?"

"Link…" the princess said shaking her head.

"Did we win? We must have if we're both still alive. And where's Navi?"

"Navi…" Zelda said with a sigh. Her shoulders slumped as she moved from the bed. She took something off the bedside table. She put it before Link's face so he could see it.

"A jewelry-box?"

Zelda held a small wooden box onto which was engraved the symbol of the Triforce. "The dark energies were too much for her. After… after you….. after you passed out, she succumbed. I engraved this, and put her inside. I did not want to hold a funeral until you woke up because…. She would want you there."

"Open it."

"N-no."

"Open it. I have to see her for myself. Please, Zelda. I have to see her to really know."

"We all have different needs for closure," Zelda sighed as she opened the tiny makeshift coffin. Navi lay inside, her arms over her torso and her wings laid out neatly beside her. The glow was completely gone from her little pale blue body. Link had known she was a tiny woman behind her glow, but her form had always appeared to him in silhouette. Now he saw her dull skin, smooth and hairless except for the long ghost-wisps on her head. He saw her little pursed lips and her gently closed eyes. He grit his teeth, slammed his head back into his pillows and let the tears stream freely from his winced eyes.

Zelda slid the box closed and put it back on the table. "I was hoping that Lord Ganondorf would allow us to bury her in the field, or perhaps in the little garden he said he'd allow me to keep."

Link tried to sit up in bed, unsuccessfully. "Wait a minute – 'Lord Ganondorf?' Zelda? What's going on? We won, didn't we? I defeated him, didn't I?"

"We've been crippled, Link," Zelda spoke frankly. "Me – magically. I have a few healing spells left in me, but they are low-level and I can no longer become Sheik. I can no longer wield the Light Arrows, either. You have been crippled physically. I do not know if you are yet ready to learn the extent of your injuries. We are in Ganon's Tower. He gave us a room. We are locked inside. I was told that I am to take care of you, to heal you."

"That doesn't sound like Ganondorf," Link said. "I mean, I know he took care of his tribe…somewhat – according to what Nabooru told me, but letting me live and you take care of me? Is this a weird dream?"

"It's not a dream, Link. It's a nightmare. Trust me."

"I'm not dead."

"I've been caring for you for three days, Link. I thought that you would die. I hate to say this, but a large part of me wishes you had died."

"It can't be that bad. I've healed from everything. Potions, medical-fairies… I've even died for a moment a few times and come back thanks to them."

"I… don't know where the Triforce of Courage is, Link," Zelda said hesitantly. "Ganondorf was unable to take the Triforce of Wisdom from me with his unbalanced heart. I think this is why he kept me alive. You, on the other hand…"

"I can't feel my hands. Strange…"

The moment Zelda was dreading came. Link looked down the length of his left arm. He looked past the sleeve of the nightgown he was dressed in, down the bandaged bicep and forearm to the heavily wrapped stump of a wrist.

"Aaaaaah!"

Link's face contorted in sheer disbelief. He looked quickly to his right arm. Bandages and a wrapped stump. He arched his back, rocked and screamed with all his might in spite of his injured rib. Zelda held him down.

"Calm down, Link! Calm down! You're going to arrest! Easy, easy…"

"What's…what's goin' on?" Link asked desperately with terror in his eyes.

"Your feet, too," Zelda said.

Link caught his breath. "I don't remember this."

"I guess the Three still allow for small mercies," Zelda said. "When Ganondorf had you down, he decided that it was more of a victory for him to let you live, but unable to fight or wield a weapon. He wanted me to make sure that you didn't die of the blood-loss."

"You said yourself that it might have been better for me to have died. What did he threaten you with to keep me alive?"

"Nothing at all. Link… I love you. Even as you are, you are my best hope."

The door to the chamber creaked open and Zelda went to it. "Some broth," she requested to a guard that spoke unintelligibly. The door creaked shut and there was the tell-tale clang of chains and locks being re-latched.

Zelda sat back down on the bed and took a cup of water and a spoon and put it to Link's lips. "Drink, please." Link winced and sipped down the water.

"The Sages?" he asked.

"Are still with us," Zelda answered. "Ganondorf cannot touch the Sacred Realm like we can, at least not without the whole Triforce. His heart is too unbalanced for the powers of the gods to accept him as a worthy wielder. The Triforce has no loyalty to good or to evil, but to balance. It is a good thing for Hyrule that evil tends to be unbalanced. I think he plans to figure out how to wrest Wisdom from me."

"He hasn't… done anything to you, has he? I don't know much about adult relationships but…. He hasn't done anything weird to your body, has he?"

"No, he hasn't, Link. Don't worry. I'm okay. He hasn't so much as kissed me or even hit me – yet. He just wrenched my magic from me. I'm worried; however, the he might make me a blood-sacrifice. It all depends upon what he learns about the Triforce."

"I had….I had the Triforce of Courage in my…..in my…h-hand. Do you know what happened to it?"

"No. When Ganondorf maimed you, it vanished. Completely. He was furious. That's why you have the big bruise on the side where you don't have the wound and that nasty bump on your head. He threw you across the room like a rag doll."

"I wonder if I could get a fairy… regenerate my lost parts…"

"It's possible, but I think it's far too late."

"Great Fairy might help."

"There is no way to get you to any of the Great Fairies right now, but that has crossed my mind."

Zelda fed Link another spoonful of water.

"What happened to the Master Sword?"

"I put it back in the Temple of Time. Ganondorf wanted to keep it where he knew where it was. He cannot touch it, I could. I cannot wield it, but I was able to drag it to its stone. It didn't send me back in time like it did for you. I don't have the bond with it."

"Fi must be so disappointed in me."

"Fi?"

"Fidelis. What I call the sword's spirit. I... kind of feel her, it's hard to explain."

"I'm sure she's not. You fought valiantly."

"Not valiantly enough," Link said, sparing a glance for Navi's casket.

"She was proud of you," Zelda assured, "Navi, I mean. You know that."

"I wonder what plans Ganondorf has for me."

"I'm sure they're not good. He wants you good and healed, though, that much I know. I think he wants a healed body to break, so it will hurt you all the more."

Zelda began sobbing.

"You could end it, you know," Link said. "A pillow's not the quickest way to go, but I'm sure it'll be quicker than anything the old pig has planned."

"You know I can't do that."

"And I don't want you to, Zelda. Listen to me. Look at me, Zelda."

The princess looked into the fallen Hero's eyes.

"Zelda, we will get through this. We'll find a way. I don't know what right now, but as long as we're alive, there's hope. Ganondorf left us alive. We should make that the biggest mistake he ever made."

Zelda smiled through her tears. "The Triforce of Courage chose well," she said.

Link healed steadily over the time spent in the tower. He and Zelda spent weeks there, cloistered, never being allowed out. Food and water were brought to them by the Evil King's minions. They also carried away dirtied rags and chamber pots and brought clean dressings. Ganondorf stopped by once to check upon the progress of what he termed his "little projects." He stayed not five minutes. Aside from him, the only humans Link and saw were each other.

There was some room to move around in the little room. The occupants were even given a few potted plants to give them a little bit of nature to cheer them up, for Ganondorf wanted to "break them slowly and not before their time." All it did was intensify Zelda's fear. Link, on the other hand, seemed to be living within his own head. He seldom told Zelda what he was thinking when he'd sit up in a chair she'd helped him into staring off into space. Zelda suspected that he was plotting, running strategies through his mind. She cautioned him not to try to contact the Sages. They would put the Sages at risk if they contacted them while imprisoned.

He was nearly well one day while sitting in a chair gazing out the high window at the bloody-red sky of Ganondorf's Hyrule. He'd complained of the chamber being too warm so Zelda had taken his shirt off and had left him in pants that hung below his ankle-stumps. Zelda was burning incense at a little table-altar she'd made in the back of the room, beseeching the help of the Three as she'd developed a ritual of doing since she and Link had been here.

She turned to Link and to his surprise, straddled him in the chair.

"Zelda, what are you doing?" he asked.

She cupped his cheek and then ran her hands along his bare shoulders. "Link," she asked, "What do you know about adult relationships?"

Link's ears twitched and he became flustered, "Well…um….yeah…um… I… not very much. I know people kiss a lot."

"Like this?" Zelda asked, cupping his cheek again and bending over to give him a deep kiss, nibbling his bottom lip slightly.

"I liked that," he proclaimed.

She ran a hand down his chest and traced a sizeable old scar there. "I am a maiden," Zelda said. "The plans my father had for me involved me marrying a prince or a nobleman. When everything got torn asunder my thoughts….well, when I tailed you as Sheik, my thoughts turned to you."

"Huh-uh? But… When you were Sheik weren't you… a man?"

"I was…. Both and neither, just like you were neither child nor man – and it doesn't matter. I've had feelings budding for you ever since we met as children. They were sort of cute and innocent then, but they've really turned into something else."

"Ever since I woke up from the Sealing Sleep and ever since I saw you again I've had feelings that are strange and deeply confusing to me."

Zelda traced a finger along his left ear. "I can feel you through your pants, you know."

Link winced. "Zelda… I'm not ready for this!"

Zelda eased herself off his chair. "I'm sorry," she said. "I apologize."

Link hung his head. "It's not that I don't love you, I do, it's just…I still like innocence, I guess, even though the hands I don't have anymore have shed a lot of blood…"

"It's okay, Link" Zelda said, touching his shoulder. "You slept through a critical time of your life and in some ways; you're still a little boy inside. It's part of your charm. I just hope we'll both live to a time when we're both ready."

"I want to know your spirit more before I know the rest."

"Since I've been taking care of you, I know every inch of your body. Physically, you are a man, trust me."

Link gave her a flustered smile.

"Link! What is that?"

Zelda pointed to the center of his chest. He looked down. A golden glow in the shape of a triangle pulsed in the place where his heart lay beneath, then disappeared.

"Was that the Triforce?" he asked.

Zelda sat on him again, this time, thoughts of carnal pleasures gone from her mind. She pressed her right hand to the center of Link's chest, closed her eyes and felt their respective energies. "It's the Triforce of Courage," she said with a deep sigh that sounded like pure relief. "It seems like it has gravitated toward your heart."

"That means…" Link began.

"Ganondorf must never know. There's hope for us still, hope for Hyrule."

"Just what I've been telling you."

One morning, the door to the chamber creaked open. Into it walked a large, muscular moblin carrying a strange coffin covered with leather belts and straps and a hole where the deceased's face would be. In behind him walked Ganondorf.

Link and Zelda looked up at him with scowls. "Oh, don't look at me like that," the tyrant said, "You two get to go outside today. Isn't that a treat?"

Before waiting for an answer, Ganondorf pointed to Zelda. "I am allowing you out to a garden area. You may bury the insect in the matchbox. You, on the other hand," he pointed to Link, "You are going to be spending the day with me. We are paying a visit to Kakariko village. The people there are quite subdued, but I think they could use a good look at their defeated Hero, heh, heh."

Link glared at him as though he was looking for a weak spot on the wizard.

Ganondorf reached down to Link's chair and traced a finger under the young man's chin. "What are you thinking about, little boy? Are you thinking of chewing my ankles off?" He laughed raucously.

He nodded to the moblin, which put the coffin down and undid the belts on it. Ganondorf then grabbed Link up by the collar of his shirt. "I had this custom made for you. It is going to be your new home."

"It's a coffin and I'm not dead."

"No one said that you would be dead, Hero. On the contrary, you are more valuable to me alive. Oh, it looks like it's just a little too short and a little too narrow…"

He put Link into the coffin, but found that its intended occupant did not fit precisely.

"Easily remedied," Ganondorf said as he casually reached down and snapped Link's knees and stuffed the dislocated limbs into the container. Link's scream was deafening.

"You'll kill him!" Zelda screamed. Ganondorf shot her into the wall with a small bolt of magic.

"I'll play with my toys as I see fit, princess." He said the last part with a sneer. "And he is not dead, just in tremendous pain. Music to my ears."

The moblin slammed the lid down over the casket and secured the belts before hefting Link, still screaming, over his shoulder. A Mad Scrub shuffled in after he'd exited. "Your escort to the garden, M'Lady," Ganondorf said. "Take care that you do nothing out of sorts or your Hero will be buried."

It was past nightfall when the moblin opened Zelda's chamber and set the coffin inside it. The beast propped it up against the wall. Zelda ran to it, undoing the belts in a panic. She caught Link as he fell out.

"Link!" she cried, "Link!"

"Long day," he said through a bruised, bloodied lip.

She laid him out on his bed and proffered him a bottle of red potion. This had been given to her earlier presumably for this purpose. Link's broken knees straightened out into their natural positions. The former princess went about the unpleasant but gentle and caring work of cleaning him up from the experience of an entire day spent in an immobile and involuntary position, the sweat on his skin being the least of problems.

"Behold thy Hero," Link said, rolling his head on the pillow. "Behold thy Hero, behold thy Hero…"

"What did that monster do to you?" Zelda asked, referring of course to Ganondorf, not to the servant-moblin.

"He… he had a stage," Link said. "He'd had a stage built in the center of Kakariko Village. He used me as an attraction. The moblin held me up and showed me to everyone. Ganondorf even had the top opened they could see my wrist and ankle-stumps. He… wants the people of Hyrule to know despair, to know that he's the King and to know what he'll do to any resistance. He emphasized the 'worse than death' part of that."

"Horrible," Zelda said, sponging his forehead with a damp cloth.

"People cried for me," Link said with a rueful smile. "I tried to tell them not to."

Zelda choked back a sob.

"How was your trip to the garden?"

"I buried Navi beneath some colorful pansies. I also… when I wasn't being watched…. I was able to telepathically contact Impa. She reminded me of an obscure passage in the book of Mudora that might help us."

"What's that?"

Zelda drew a copy of said book from the small bookshelf they'd been allowed to have. Ganondorf had allowed the Book of Mudora to be a part of the collection because "fairy tales were always entertaining, though of little substance."

"Here," she said, turning to a page with an illustration. She was mindful that Link was functionally illiterate. He could read a little, but had not had much use for it in his childhood filled with fairies that read things for the forest-children. He'd had to learn a few basics he had not had a fairy of his own, but he'd let his knowledge slip since getting Navi.

"I don't know how much you know of the deep legends of Hyrule," Zelda said, "other than your part in it all."

"The Great Deku Tree knew everything. He told the Kokiri all kinds of legends."

Zelda helped Link sit up in bed and cuddled up with him. She pointed to the pictures in the great holy book. "Did he ever tell you the story of the forging of the Master Sword?"

"A little, only that it was forged by the powers of the ancient gods and that it has a soul, which is why I didn't feel weird when I felt the soul in the sword."

"It is written that an Ancient Hero forged the sword using the essence-flames of Farore, Nayru and Din, in that order. The flames lived in different areas of Hyrule, the deep forest, an ancient desert that became our lush Lanayru Royal Province and somewhere in the Death Mountain area."

"Yeah," Link said, "but that happened a long time ago. Even in my time-traveling, I could only go back to a fixed point. I suspect if the Master Sword and the Temple of Time tried to send me back to a point before I was born, I'd cease to exist or something."

"There is a passage here that implies that the flames were not used up in their entirety –the Master Sword took only what it needed."

"So, what does that mean for us?"

"The Master Sword is not the only holy weapon in our world. The Light Arrows are holy. They were meant to aid the Master Sword in putting Ganondorf and the ancient evil he is bonded to down."

"The Master Sword is bonded to me," Link said, looking at his left wrist. "I cannot wield it unless I am healed in a miraculous way or at least get an aid of some kind."

"That is true, but what Impa conveyed to me, word passed down from Rauru, is that the remnants of the sacred flames may just be enough to purify the Light Arrows and turn them into as powerful an evil-slaying weapon as the Master Sword is. I've never been good with a sword, but I'm an excellent archer."

"Brilliant! My brilliant Zelda!"

"We have to bide our time. I think it may be possible for us to search for the flames if we…. I know you're going to hate this… endear ourselves to Ganondorf. I don't mean that we suddenly start calling him 'master' and bow to him or anything, he will never buy that, but I think we can pull off gaining a little incremental freedom if we act broken."

"Broken…"

"Link, you need to act more broken."

"How can I be anymore broken than I am?"

"Your eyes, Link. Through this all you still have defiant eyes."

"He'll probably take those next."

"If you want to keep them, I suggest pretending that you don't have the courage that you do. If we act meek, make him think he's really got the upper hand, we can be subversive."

"I'll do what I must to help you find the flames, Zelda. For you, for Navi, for Hyrule."

So the acting job began, along with pain that was not an act. Link spent his days being stuffed into the coffin and taken on tour. Ganondorf spent his days bringing Hyrule into subjugation and letting its people behold their broken hero.

One evening, Zelda was invited into Ganondorf's dining chambers. Link was there, sat up in a chair, his body belted to it, with a stalfos by his side, before a place-setting with dining utensils. Link had his head down in a submissive pose. He was also gagged.

Ganondorf beckoned Zelda to sit at the end of the table opposite of him. A bat-like servant placed plates before the three gathered at the table. Upon the plates were well-cooked, juicy-looking steaks.

Zelda looked at hers hungrily. Ganondorf had been feeding her and Link a bare minimum, with protein sources a premium. It was a far cry from the royal meals she had grown up with. The plate before her with the steak and the buttered vegetables reminded her of the royal meals that she missed.

"I have decided to give you a little reward," Ganondorf said, lifting a glass of red wine. "You have been cooperating well with me recently, and, after all, you are a former princess. It pains me to see one of royal bearing deprived of finery for too long when she is showing such obvious fealty to me."

"This isn't human meat or anything like that, is it?" Zelda asked.

Ganondorf retched. "What do you take me for? Princess, you will find that, though I command the darkness, I have very civilized tastes. You and the boy are getting skinny. I have decided to keep you alive a bit longer. You both could use a little protein and a taste of the life you miss, hmm? Take a bite of your meal and I will take the gag off the boy and allow him to eat. Partake and improve your health. My treat."

Zelda cautiously cut a small piece of steak and put it in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed. She recognized the flavor, so it probably wasn't human. The meat had a flavor of something she and her family had not eaten very often, but partook in sometimes.

"Tell me, princess, what does it taste like?" Ganondorf said, raising an eyebrow.

"Cheval," Zelda answered. "This is cheval steak. I thought horses were sacred to the Gerudo, though."

Ganondorf nodded to the stalfos beside Link. The undead knight took the gag off him.

"Don't eat it! It's Epona!" the young man gasped.

The stalfos cut a piece of steak and shoved it into his mouth as Zelda dropped her fork and looked on horrified. Ganondorf laughed. "Go ahead and finish your steak, Zelda. I took great pains to have it prepared."

Zelda's stomach growled. She was ferociously hungry, but she also felt sick. Was what was on her plate really the remains of Link's beloved mare?

Link tried to spit out the pieces of steak the stalfos was force-feeding him. "He took me to Lon Lon!" he yelped. "He made me watch as she was put up on a butcher-hook! He forced Malon to drink some of the blood!"

"Eat, princess," Ganondorf ordered.

Zelda took up her knife and fork in trembling hands and decided to keep up the charade of loyalty.

"I think the brokenness is beginning to be real, Zelda," Link said in their room. "I think the only thing that's keeping me going anymore is the fact that he doesn't think the Kokiri to be a threat. He hasn't put me on display in the forest yet."

"Hold on a little bit longer, Link," Zelda said. "I have something that might mend you, just a little bit."

"He will murder us soon, Zelda. He doesn't say so, but I can feel it. He's gotten his grip over all of Hyrule. He's been carting me around everywhere. I feel like my usefulness to him as a psychological warfare tool is ending."

"He is still searching for the Triforce of Courage," Zelda reminded her Hero, "And he knows he cannot yet wrench Wisdom from me. That will save me, at least."

Link smiled slightly. "It'll save you. You said you had something that might help?"

"Yes. Look around. Make sure none of the minions are watching."

"I don't see or sense anything."

"I was allowed to wander around the halls today." She opened a little pouch she had stored in her underwear beneath her skirts. She drew out a pair of familiar objects that expanded and glowed with ethereal light.

"Your bow and the light-arrows?"

"Yes. But notice the arrow. Does it not seem different to you?"

"It's silver at the edges. That's strange."

Zelda waved her hand, causing little puffs of flame to ignite in the arrowhead. One flame was green and the other blue. "Ganondorf has been allowing me visits to parts of my kingdom when you and he are away, under supervision, of course. What he doesn't know is how stupid some of his generals really are, or that some of the humans under his keep are really more loyal to me than they are to him. It's strange that I managed to gather the flames before I procured the weapon, but, as I said, the Sages are on our side. The remnant of Din's Flame is in Death Mountain. If I can get it, the Light Arrow will become the Silver Arrow. At least, that's what Rauru has been telling me when I can make contact with him. The Silver Arrow will have the same properties as the Master Sword, but if I aim it just right, I could get a one-hit kill."

"That's amazing. So, how are you planning to get to Din's Flame? What must I do to keep the old pig occupied?"

Zelda concealed her weapons. "That's the beauty of it. I've arranged to take a trip to Death Mountain tomorrow. The Gorons have already seen you, but I convinced Ganondorf to let me take your bearer and you there alone. You're coming with me"

"How did you manage that?"

Zelda sighed deeply. "I said I just wanted a day alone with you, out in the fresh air to… to say goodbye. I convinced him that I was ready to give myself to him the way I promised to give myself to you."

Link gasped. "You aren't going to go through with it, are you?"

"I might have to, Link. I hope I won't. If I have to, I assure you, I will be thinking of you the entire time. I'll have the one I really want, if only in my head."

"Maybe I'm ready now. You know… to say goodbye, if it comes to that"

Zelda shook her head. "Ganondorf wants a virgin."

"Let's try to get the victory tomorrow."

They were near the apex of Death Mountain and the old shrine where the flame was said to rest when the moblin-bearer fell easy. Zelda let him out in front of her and snuck up on him. She followed signals from Link's eyes and facial expressions. She grabbed the dog-pig's spear off his back and ran him through with it. As the beast disintegrated, Link's coffin was sent clattering to the ground. It was a rough landing, but he didn't mind.

"I'm sorry about this," Zelda said, undoing his straps. I don't know how far I can carry you, so you will have to wait here. I couldn't let the minion know what I was up to."

"You know what?"

"What? Come on, let's prop you up on the boulders. I've already sent a mind-message to Darunia. One of his people is coming for you."

"The Great Fairy's cave is near here."

Zelda's ears perked. "Oh no. I hear armored horses. Soldiers are coming."

"Make a run for it."

"I can't leave you if there's danger."

"Yes you can. What's more important? Me or Hyrule? Zelda, you've got to do this. Get to the shrine, now!"

"Link…"

"They probably won't even notice me back here. I'm making a crawl for it, anyway. If I can make it to the Great Fairy's cave, I'll be fighting along with you."

"And if you don't…"

Link closed his eyes and leaned forward. Zelda took the signal and kissed him.

"Go."

Zelda nodded and took a run down a narrow part of the Death Mountain trail. Link began his own journey on his elbows and knees. As he crawled in the dirt, he could hear the gentle tell-tale sounds of magic emanating from the cavern where he once learned the ways of magic as a child.

A booted foot barred his way. Link's eyes trailed up to the bare shin-bone that belonged to that boot. General Kairos – one of the chiefs of the stalfos.

The last thing that Link saw in his life as the Hero of Time was the general's descending sword.

The last thing that General Kairos saw in his un-life was a ball of magic-flame from Ganondorf's open palm. The last thing he heard in his un-life was an angry demanding scream; "You killed him! Why did you kill him? I was not done making him suffer!"

Ganondorf stared down at the body of Link and then turned away, leaving it in the dust.

The Silver Arrow was forged, but Zelda never was able to use it. It was lost before the beginning of the Great Sealing War. As for what happened to the former princess of Hyrule, none of the common people ever knew for sure. Some tales say that she was killed by Ganondorf. Another tale has it that she lived and formed a new dynasty in secret. Some say that Ganondorf allowed her to get away simply because he was bored. As the Goddesses played an ancient game with the Triforce-bearers, he'd wanted to play a game of his own, perhaps. In fact, some among the tale-tellers think that the entire forging of the Silver Arrow was a game he'd allowed the cunning princess to play, just to see how far she would get.

As for old Hyrule, no one knew what became of that kingdom.

It is said that the Hero of Time was buried by friends and mourned by the Sages in a place that later became a sacred spring. His tale was lost, only to be rediscovered much later long after the world was sundered into Light and Dark, North and South, and new Heroes were celebrated in the land that once again became Hyrule.

It is told that it was the last Hero of Hyrule who found the true Silver Arrow and used it to finally bring peace to the land in a time when all old legends and broken Heroes were forgotten.

END.

Shadsie, 2012

Endnotes: Thanks goes to Sailor Lilithchan for giving me the most excellent idea of *how* to forge the Silver Arrow. For people who are, like me, fans of "Trigun Maximum" – yes, I was inspired by the Legato-coffin thing. Apologies to fans of the more sophisticated kind of Ganondorf I usually try to write – he turned out just straight-up sadistic in this. I tried to keep an air of sophistication about him, but plain cruelty served the purposes of this story. For those of you who wanted Link and Zelda to consummate, I wrote that scene specifically to show who I think the Hero of Time is in "Ocarina of Time" – a little boy / child warrior in the body of a young man who spent his puberty in a coma.

Thanks for reading.