"Whatever happened to freedom of the road?"
- Viper
"I know."
- Star Wars
The Hylian Shield flew backwards as if it had been launched from a catapult. The Master Sword exploded into thousands of pale blue splinters. Link collapsed on his back in the middle of the castle street, slain by Calamity Ganon.
His courage failed him as he lay dying. Nothing he did, no matter how much pain he put himself through, made any difference in the Great Calamity. The castle was in smoldering ruins. All of its people had been laid to waste. The Divine Beasts were a lost cause. Everything he fought for had ended in disaster. And now he was going to die here at his enemy's feet, alone and afraid.
Waterblight Ganon's throwing spear suddenly slammed into the pavement beside him like a malevolent Cupid's arrow. A second later, Mipha crashed to the ground next to him, wincing in agony and holding a gash in her scales that no magic in the world could heal. Her long, labored breaths grew quiet as she opened her eyes and realized who she had fallen a few feet next to. Her expression changed from pain to grief.
"I've… failed," the Zora princess said to Link with a shivering whisper, expressing his exact thoughts. Hearing that sadness in such a sweet voice made the knife dig deeper into his heart.
"The king. Zelda. The Champions… You," she said. "I've let you all down."
He saw nothing but despair clouding her once shimmering gold eyes. She was even more hopeless than him.
Link drew on his remaining strength and slowly reached for her, squeezing his fingers over hers when their palms met.
"You've done enough," he said, forcing himself to find the words to reassure her so her life didn't have to end in misery.
"Daruk and Urbosa will pound these fools into the ground. Revali will get his chance to be the real hero."
He knew he was only lying to himself.
They both heard a horrible sound echo in the distant fires. It was like the screeching neigh of a wild mare.
"Link…" Mipha whimpered with tears growing in her eyes. "There's so much I still wanted to tell you…"
Link pulled her close in his arms and let her fins rest against his chest, sharing the last of his strength to give her whatever closure he could.
"I know," he said in a soft, bitter voice.
The horrible noise galloped closure with mechanical speed. Hydraulic hoof beats raced through the ruins of the fallen city.
Mipha sighed peacefully in Link's arms, letting him know being close to him in those bleak final moments was all she needed. He let a gentle smile sneak across his weary face, feeling the same way toward her.
Calamity Ganon raised his dozens of glowing sabres over Link's and Mipha's dying forms. Waterblight Ganon yanked his spear out of the pavement and aimed to impale them both, a lump of beef and a scrap of fish on the same skewer.
Two flaming wheels of fortune came screaming out of the inferno and screeched to a halt a few yards away from the Hylian and Zora Champions. Link's ancient Sheikah mount revved its motor and slowly inched closer toward them. In ancient times, it had been known as Divine Beast Vah Riasa. In modern times, it was called the Master Cycle Zero.
In Calamity Ganon's hands, it had become Death.
Mipha stared at the awful two-wheeled abomination wide eyed and terrified. Link choked back his own tears and pulled her head into his shoulder so she would only think of him. He closed his eyes and painfully waited for fate to race over them.
The cycle released its brakes and screeched forward like a thousand stampeding horses.
Author's note: I'm not sure if this works as well as the Mipha Ver. I wrote last month. The pathos is there but it gets kinda cartoony at the end.
Author's note 2: Mipha's reaction to the MCZ is pretty much my own in-game reaction to when I first saw they were putting a motorcycle in a Zelda game that's trying to be "serious."