"Now that's what I call a close encounter."
- Independence Day
Calamity Ganon had been defeated. The fight had been more disastrous than anyone could have imagined, and annihilation seemed almost certain for a time. But the forces of good had fought off the crazed machines, fought off the Blights, and saved the kingdom from Calamity in the end. The losses, however, were almost too much to bear. King Hyrule himself, two of the noble Champions, and countless brave soldiers had been butchered almost as soon as the chaos erupted.
And now, in these early hours after the twilight, Link was about to become the final casualty.
Mipha held the hero in her arms as she sat on her knees, using her full healing power to no avail. The things he had pushed himself through and injuries he had suffered to overcome Ganon were simply too much to come back from. Zelda knelt to his other side with her Sheikah around her, waiting for a miraculous turnabout that never came.
It was difficult to comprehend all that had happened once Calamity Ganon appeared. He took control of the Guardians first, in complete defiance of everything written in the prophecies. He violated the divinity of the four Divine Beasts with his grotesque influence and began to sway them under his control as well. It was then that Link broke formation.
The argument between the princess and her Appointed Knight echoed in Zelda's mind. It had been in a moment of such chaos that no one yet knew exactly what was happening. Grasping him by the wrist, she had stopped him from running out of the castle.
"Link, what are you doing? You're supposed to stay in the center with me! The Divine Beasts provide support from the outside!"
"Mipha's by herself in that nightmare! There IS no support if the Divine Beasts fall!"
Zelda had gasped in horror, shaken the tears out of her eyes, and let her grip go. Nothing from the original plan would have worked then. The only thing to do in such a desperate time was to follow where your heart drew you.
Mipha brushed the hair clinging to Link's fevered forehead as she tried to comfort him. She would never forget how close Waterblight Ganon came to impaling her under his sword as she helplessly flopped about like a beached dolphin in the shallow waters of Vah Ruta's inner sanctum. Link had broken through the hatch moments before her death and took to the Waterblight in a suicidal charge. He chopped off the Blight's arm after a desperate struggle. Once Mipha recovered, a trident through the eye killed the monster for good.
Link had saved Mipha's life. Now here he was dying in her arms.
Daruk and Urbosa had fallen in a brave fight for control of Vah Rudania and Vah Naboris. The two Beasts had to be calmed later once Ganon's forces began to thin. In his insidious dark bidding, he had almost won them all.
All except Vah Medoh.
"Well excuse me, princess! I told you I could be just as good as that other guy!"
Revali had arrived at the castle by air only moments after Link had rushed out on his horse. There he recounted how the fight within the Divine Beast had been brief and vicious, ending with the saboteur's quivering purple entrails in his hands. Outside accounts repeated how Vah Medoh's power circuits had started blue, flickered to red, and flickered back to steady blue in relatively short time. Finding out Link had abandoned his post may have been the final straw that drove him over the edge and made him unleash his full wrath on the poor, pathetic, and ill-equipped Windblight Ganon.
But with no preparation as an emergency Appointed Knight, with no Master Sword, and with no place to stand in the center of the legends, Revali could only hold back the Calamity on a wing and a prayer for so long.
He held him back back long enough for Link to return and Vah Ruta to provide recovery fire. The only serious injuries he suffered were a few broken feathers and a bruised ego. If what happened in the past day would become a timeless legend passed down for thousands of years to come, then Revali was the underdog story of the century.
The final struggle was fought between Calamity Ganon and a Chosen Hero who was already half-dead from narrowly defeating the Waterblight. The prophecies instructed Link to protect a princess while she warded Ganon away with her powers. He wound up barely saving two princesses that day.
Zelda turned toward her researchers with a troubled look on her face.
"The Chamber of Resurrection. How long will it take to heal him?"
"With injuries his severe, the procedure would have to be… no less than 100 years. If it even works," Purah answered.
"All the notes we've excavated say memory depletion only starts at 10 years! He'll be a complete amnesiac in half that time!" Robbie objected.
Link was already shaking his head in a defiant "No." He wasn't about to use every ounce of energy in his body to defeat Ganon just for some ancient machine to take all his memories away. He'd rather be dead than allow Urbosa and Daruk to be forgotten.
Mipha brushed his head again, meditated deeply to herself, and spoke.
"Princess, if you can resign him to me, there might be another way to save him."
She hesitated to say what she was thinking.
"My family knows of an elixir that can turn any land life into sea life. It's made from an extract of the Zoranicus Majorus reed. If he drank it, it could completely restore him into Zora form. He'll never be a Hylian again, but he'd be able to start over with a new body and still keep his mind. I'd only have to get the dosage right."
She sighed with uncertainty and looked down.
"Do you want me to try, Link?"
Brushing back his blonde locks, she saw his eyes were closed. His breath was fading in and out and his pulse was hard to track. He had fallen into a coma.
"Link?!" Mipha cried.
Zelda gathered her resolve as Mipha came close to sobbing.
"You have my permission," Zelda said quietly. She knew then that she was letting him go from his duty and letting him go from her heart.
As Mipha's Zora attendants prepared to take Link away on a hammock of sea kelp, Zelda said one last thing with tearful eyes.
"Princess Mipha, for both of us, please… Don't let him die."
Strange dreams haunted Link in his sleep. It was impossible to tell if he was remembering the horrors of Calamity Ganon's outbreak or still living through it. Monsters swarmed everywhere. Fire and Guardian lasers lit up the night sky. The clouds were a hideous shade of black and red ooze. Calamity Ganon bore down on him, engulfing him in utter darkness.
Then a taste like sweet watercress kissed his lips. Link blinked his eyes and saw that he was floating under clear, serene ocean waves. He was submerged in an infinite sea, yet he could still breathe freely.
There was something else in the water with him, and for once it wasn't Ganon. Just above him hovered a young Hylian woman. She was dressed like a country maid, matching Link's own humble upbringings. She wore a white blouse, a long violet skirt with an earth brown apron, and farm boots. The centerpiece of her simple attire was a light blue shawl worn over her shoulders and pinned to her chest with a brooch that resembled a turtle's face. Her appearance was so strange, yet so familiar.
The Hylian woman smiled down at him, silently showing him everything was going to be all right. Her long shimmering hair was the same color as Mipha's scales.
Link closed his eyes, instinctively relaxed, and let the sea take him.
Link awoke with an indescribable spongy feeling all over his body. He sat up from a pearl table and shook his head back to awareness. As he lifted his arm to rub his temple, he jumped back in shock.
His whole arm was covered with goldfish scales. He became horrified when he waved his hand in front of his eyes—if it could be called a hand. It was closer to a flipper with five black nails. He reached to the back of his head and felt what could only be described as a long leathery fin in place of hair. But his expression changed once he looked down.
He was wearing a blue tunic weaved with Zora decorations. He had never seen it before, but it fit him perfectly and had a strangely calming affect on him. Somehow it made him think of Mipha, the first familiar thing he felt in what seemed like an eternity.
He stumbled off of the table on dripping webbed feet and began walking through Zora's Domain. The place was strangely empty compared to what he was used to on his journeys, but he followed the sparkling reflections of waves on the ceiling and soon heard voices echoing from the throne room. He slowly walked up the stairs and arrived in the middle of a conversation between royal family.
"…recovery efforts are almost done. Vah Ruta put out the rest of the fires on Death Mountain this morning. Vah Medoh is clearing up the last of the residual sandstorms in Gerudo Desert." Mipha's voice paused with a sound of regret. "I'm so happy we were able to seal away Ganon. I only wish we had some warning how great the cost would be."
"Cheer up, Mipha!" Sidon's voice said. "At least we've still got you around to brighten up the place! Beats just having an old statue of you here!" A chiming came from his teeth.
"I know how much it hurts, my daughter." King Dorephan wisely spoke. "The damage here was light thanks to you and Link saving Ruta from that monster, but we have to continue to give the rest of the kingdom all the aid we can until no ruins remain."
Link dizzily stumbled over his feet, catching the attention of the three speakers. Mipha turned around in surprise and ran to where he was crouching. She stopped in front of him and put her hands on his shoulders.
"Mipha, what is this?" Link asked in half confusion and half fear.
"You're going to be a Zora like me from now on," Mipha tried to delicately explain. "I'm sorry, but this was the only way to keep you alive. My father allowed it because of how much you've done for us."
"What about Zelda?" Link asked as he gained his bearings.
"This is what she wanted for you, too." Mipha blinked, growing slightly worried. "Does that bother you?"
Link shook his head and smiled.
"Not if it means she's safe and I get to stay here with you."
Mipha sighed. She wrapped her arms behind his shoulders and drew him close. Her hand gently brushed down the back of his head fin. He closed his bright amphibian eyes as his ear nestled against her waist.
After a moment of peaceful reunion, Link opened his eyes again and looked up.
"But Mipha, how am I going to get used to this? Where do I even start?" he asked in lingering doubt.
"That's easy, Link," Mipha replied playfully. Her mind went back to the days when they were children.
"I'll just have to teach you how to swim."
Two Zoras sat on the beach watching the clear sunset. Link was stretched on his back with his toe flippers occasionally kicking through the water. Mipha sat beside him with her legs crossed. Between them was a basket covered with a light blue sheet embroidered with the symbols for Vah Rudania and Vah Naboris.
Link looked up at the sky and thought.
"Do you think it's over for good?"
Mipha turned to him and tilted her head. Her fins bobbed gently like large ruby bangs.
"I've been thinking about those stories Zelda is always talking about," he continued. "It's always some green Hylian guy showing up to fight Ganon. If that thing ever comes back, I'm not going to have any descendants that fit that bill anymore."
He sat up and turned toward her.
"Did we do the right thing?"
Mipha nodded slowly, never breaking her peace.
"Of course we did. Why would the spirits be smiling down on us like this if we were wrong? Maybe this is exactly what needed to happen to end the cycle."
Mipha reached toward the basket and unfolded the sigils for Vah Naboris and Vah Rudania. Inside was a small Zora egg nestled in a bowl of warm saltwater. She skipped her claw across the water and gently rubbed the egg to ensure it stayed moist. Link watched her with a caring eye.
Mipha tucked the light blue sheet back over the egg. She and Link stood up together.
"We should be going. The tide is starting to come in," Mipha said.
Link silently nodded. Mipha began walking back to the palace, with Link carefully towing the basket behind her.
Author's note: Waifu is always first. Take care of waifu and everything else will work itself out.