The next day, leaving the kingdom's affairs in the capable hands of their cabinet, they set out for the west. They elected to travel by Ganon-beast, as few other things could match the land speed of a boar demi-god.

Zelda clung to Ganon's mane as he raced over the fields of Hyrule, feeling the wind ruin her hair and watching the ground blur below them, and thought that this was the most fun she'd had in years. Ironically, having an evil overlord invade her kingdom was just about the best thing that had ever happened to her. Except he wasn't really evil—morally ambiguous, perhaps. To say he was evil would be a gross generalization.

The journey across Hyrule took several days. They stayed the nights in villages when they could, and camped when they needed to. Around them, Zelda saw evidence that her former subjects were adjusting quite well to the presence of Ganondorf's creatures, and it bolstered her confidence. Maybe her ancestors had done this all wrong, she thought. But another side of her was scared to get too cocky. Bucking the system could not be this easy, could it?

The grasslands and forests gave way to drier scrublands, and finally there arrived a morning when Zelda and Ganon found themselves staring out at a vast expanse of sand and barren rock.

The princess reached into her pack and unrolled the map. "I'll tell you how to get to the Colossus. Just follow my directions. We should arrive by afternoon if we're quick."

Ganon tossed his head to show that he understood. An unfortunate side effect of this form was his inability to speak, but it was a fair tradeoff for increased speed and power.

Zelda pulled the hood of her traveling cloak over her head to shade her face from the sun, and grabbed a fistful of his mane. "Let's go."

As Ganon leaped down the craggy cliff that led to the sprawling desert basin, Zelda hoped Link had not gotten there first. She was unashamedly not rooting for the hero in this case.

Despite Ganon's breakneck pace, the journey through the desert was tiring, mostly because of the heat and the sun. Zelda did not know there could be such a thing as too much sun, but now she found herself longing for central Hyrule and its rain-fueled greenery. Now she was starting to see why Ganondorf had envied it so.

The sunlight was just starting to tint the gold of late afternoon when the two neared a monolithic mountain of rock jutting out of the sands. It was the largest sculpture Zelda had ever seen, a seated meditating woman with a cobra for a hood, carved out of the towering sandstone that surrounded her.

"The Goddess of the Sand," Ganondorf said once he had resumed humanoid form. Shading his eyes with his hand, he stared up at the stone woman who had watched the desert around her for countless ages. "The patron goddess of my incarnation's people, the Gerudo."

"I think I've read about them," Zelda said, "although the texts don't have much to say. Mostly that they practiced unearthly magic."

"Spirit magic," Ganondorf corrected. "The powers that deal with life and death, the calling of forces from beyond this plane. Similar in purpose to shadow magic, but quite different in means. Do not judge my mothers so quickly. Your filtered histories rarely show all facets." He began to ascend the weathered steps of the ancient temple.

Zelda followed him. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean it like that. I was just… repeating what the books said. I should just get my history from you from now on, since you were there for all of it."

Ganondorf turned and smiled at her. "My apologies. There are subjects I am… touchy about. But you are young – well, on a certain level – and I should not expect you to read my mind to know these things. Unless—have you begun practicing your telepathy, by any chance?"

Zelda shook her head. "I didn't know I was telepathic."

"Well, several of your past incarnations were, so I thought maybe…" Ganondorf chuckled. "I imagine this conversation sounds very strange to you."

"A little," Zelda said with a grin. "I'm sorry. I won't make any more assumptions about history. I'd love to hear more if you feel like telling me."

Ganondorf extended a hand to help her up the steps. "You remind me a good deal of the Gerudo, actually. They were strong, intelligent, willful warriors. They were also bandits—that part doesn't remind me of you quite so much."

"I should hope not."

Outside of the door, Ganondorf stopped and put his hand on the doorframe, etched with winged Triforce designs and strange hieroglyphics. With a bittersweet smile, he rested his forehead on the hot stone. "It is good to be home again," he murmured. "This is the temple where I was trained in magic in my youth. I roamed its halls as a boy. Its ancient energy was my toy and its sentinels my playmates." Straightening up, he turned to Zelda with a smirk. "I had an unusual childhood."

"I wasn't really expecting you to have a normal one," she said.

Together they slipped into the cool shadow of the interior, waiting a minute for their eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness. Ganondorf said, "I could help you resume your magical training, if you like. It would probably come in handy—"

As the room faded into view, Zelda could see why he stopped. The entire entrance was filled with sand, mounds of it that reached the ceiling and spilled nearly to where they stood. "I should have guessed this would happen," Zelda said. "It's been too long and the wind has carried in too much sand, I'll bet." She sighed. "Well, according to my research, later generations excavated a second entrance through the rock, halfway up the back of the Colossus—"

"One moment," Ganondorf said. He held out his hands, which pulsed with magic. The sand blackened and shriveled, and crumbled away into itself like imploding ash.

"Oh," Zelda said.

Ganondorf squeezed her shoulder. "Sorry. I don't feel like doing any rock climbing today."

"Me either," she admitted. "Although I am beginning to wonder just how useful my research is to you."

"Oh, incredibly useful," Ganondorf said as he led her to the doors on the far end of the antechamber. "I imagine you might know in which room the Spiritual Stones were stored?"

Zelda nodded, happy to at least be of some help. "The texts said something about a Serpent Room. Which I hope does not denote a chamber filled with snakes."

Ganondorf snickered. "Certainly not. The snakes would starve after a while, and then we'd have to crunch through snake bones to get to the stones. That's rather ghastly, even for me. Sounds more like a Sheikah implementation."

"Impa always did have a morbid sense of humor…" Zelda muttered.

"But to answer your question, the Serpent Room is the large shrine in the center of this temple where the Gerudo would worship the Goddess of the Sand." The sorcerer smiled and patted her cheek. "So, you see, your knowledge has prevented us from having to comb through this entire temple! Which would be a nice walk down memory lane, but not under these time constraints."

Zelda placed her hands on a doorway and pushed, hoping to activate some mechanism to open it. "I would enjoy that, too, once we get this mess sorted out. You wouldn't happen to know how to get to the Serpent Room, would you? I couldn't find any maps of the interior of this place."

"Yes—it's past that door, actually, good job." Ganondorf helped her push until they heard a soft click, and as they let go, the massive stone slab slid open. "I'm surprised the doors still work after all these years. Probably magic. Very reliable engineering tool, that. Except when it backfires horribly."

"You have a surprisingly good memory for someone so ancient," Zelda said as they entered the hallway beyond. "I mean—I can understand remembering each of your past defeats, but the fact that you remember the layout of a place you haven't been in millennia?"

Ganondorf traced the wall carvings with a finger. "I do take care to remember the important things. And this place was very important to me. On the other hand, if you asked me what I'd had for breakfast the day I got a sword plunged into me eight hundred years ago—now that, I cannot recall."

"I guess that's reasonable," Zelda said.

Ganondorf looked over at her. "But that particular grisly demise happened on a Thursday. I've hated Thursdays ever since."

Zelda grinned.

As they traversed the innards of the temple, Ganondorf holding aloft one hand roiling with purple magic for illumination, Zelda's eyes wandered over the walls. "Do you know this language?" she asked.

"Yes. It is an ancient variant of the Gerudo language. Well, more ancient than my mortal incarnation's time, but it's still readable to me. This place was not built by the Gerudo, but by their ancestors, a tribe that it is said possessed an even greater amount of magical ability. They say in those days, the Goddess of the Sand walked among them, bringing rain and assisting in their hunts." Ganondorf swept his hand-torch along the walls, showing a painted fresco of a half-serpent woman.

Zelda studied it. "She was a real goddess?"

"As real as you and me. You might be surprised how many deities inhabit this world—" The harsh snapping of rock pierced through the passage, and with a shout, Ganondorf fell through the floor.

Zelda yelled and reached for him a moment too late. The stonework beneath his feet had given out, leaving a dark gap where the sorcerer once stood.

A few more chunks of stone cracked away from the masonry and clattered into the abyss, and for one awful pause, Zelda feared the worst.

"I'm fine!" His voice echoed up from the hole, and her tension eased. "I may have overestimated the state of preservation of these millennia-old ruins. Somehow."

The princess dropped to her hands and knees at the edge of the gap. "How far did you fall? Are you hurt?"

"Not far." A purple fist glowed in the darkness, revealing Ganondorf standing in another stone hallway, looking up at her. "No injuries. But…" He glanced around. "This passage looks older than anything on the surface levels. I don't remember it at all…"

"I want to see!" Despite the situation, Zelda was enthused by the prospect of a valuable archaeological discovery.

Ganondorf sighed. "Are you sure you don't want to retrieve the Spiritual Stones first?"

"Just a quick look. We haven't seen any sign of Link since we set off." Zelda was already swinging one leg over the edge. "Would you be able to get us back up?"

Ganondorf flung his magic over his shoulder, where it coalesced into a glowing orb that hovered just behind him. With both hands now free, he reached up to help the princess into the lower level. "Probably. I have to admit, I'm curious too."

As her feet touched the ground, Zelda rushed to one of the walls. "This writing is much different than what's above us."

"Yes, I can't read this," Ganondorf murmured, squinting at it. "Whoever built this hallway was even older than the ancestors of the Gerudo."

Zelda wandered further down the hall, to the limits of the magic's illumination. There, the writing ceased and was replaced by images carved into the stone. "What's this…"

"What?" Ganondorf walked over to join her. A sudden jolt of recognition crossed his face. "We should get going. Now." He moved to pull her away.

"Why—" Zelda's eyes fell on two stylized figures: a winged woman and a man with skin patterned like scales. "Wait a moment… that's us." The representations of Hylia and Demise seemed to be overseeing a map of some sort. And they were holding hands.

The princess turned to Ganondorf and motioned to the carvings. "What is this? This doesn't look like a war."

He searched her face for a long moment. "I didn't want you to find out…"

"Find out what?" Zelda folded her arms. "You can't be secretive just because you're afraid of my reactions. That's not exactly a trusting friendship." When he didn't respond, she put a hand on his arm. "You can tell me the truth. Please?"

Again he was silent as his eyes moved from her hand to the wall in back of her, and then met her gaze. "I haven't told you the whole story. What happened before the beginning."

"I would like to know what happened," she said.

Taking her by the shoulders, he turned her around and pointed to the carving. "At the start of ages, before Hyrule was formed… we oversaw its chaos as husband and wife. I, Demise, was god of those that dwelt below the brooding void. And you, Hylia, were goddess of the bright heavens above." He closed his eyes. "We loved each other and worked in harmony, and when the Golden Goddesses created Hyrule, they entrusted the Triforce to us both."

When Zelda did not respond, Ganondorf continued. "At first we paid little notice to the beings that inhabited the surface world, but you began to take an interest in them, and soon many of the tribes started to worship you. You became known as a goddess of Hyrule itself, not just the heavens above it. Your focus shifted ever more to them as you aided and defended them, helping them build up their civilizations.

"I enjoyed seeing your work… but I admit I began to grow jealous. I felt as though you were ignoring me in favor of your little mortal wards. I was reluctant to confront you about it, because you so obviously loved your tribes, I did not think you would want to leave them." Letting go of Zelda's shoulders, Ganondorf stepped away and wiped a hand over his face. "So I made a grave mistake. In my anger and frustration, I decided to attack your worshipers with my own demon hordes, hoping that would make you pay attention to me.

"It did, but in the wrong way. You grew enraged at my acts of violence, commanded your worshipers to fight back, and sealed me away." Ganondorf's shoulders slumped. "So, you see, I am a horrible excuse for a husband. I am sorry, Hylia. I have felt your anger every day since then through the eons. I felt it every time you and your hero stopped me from carrying out my ambitions."

He turned away. "I had really hoped that this time would be different. For the first time in so long, you opened up to me, you showed me friendship and compassion. But I didn't think you could possibly forgive me for my selfish acts, for all the grief I caused you and the ways I betrayed you in the past, if you knew. Now you will surely side with Link and strike me down once more. And when I see you again in another generation…" He shut his eyes tight. "You will not remember the brief days of happiness we shared."

Zelda felt like the world was spinning. At the same time, everything made much more sense now. And she might have been mistaken in her history, but she could not mistake her own decisions and feelings. "I forgive you," she said. Putting her arms around him from behind, she rested her head on his back. "I don't think I was ever really angry at you. I couldn't let you go around doing stupid things, but I wasn't angry at you. And I'm not now."

The dark king turned to look at her. "I'm sorry… this whole mess is my fault."

"We can still make things right again, I'm sure of it." Zelda took his hand and turned it over to see his Triforce of Power glowing. "The Triforce consists of three qualities in balance with one another. For ages, this balance has been achieved by courage and wisdom keeping power in check." She looked up at him and smiled. "I think it might be more effective if they were all working in harmony."

Ganondorf smiled back. Reaching up, he cradled Zelda's chin between his finger and thumb. "Despite all the ages that have passed, and all that has driven us apart… I still love you."

"I'm fairly certain I love you, too," Zelda said.

For a moment they held each other in the gaping silence of the ancient tunnel. "I missed you," Ganondorf whispered.

"I'm not leaving you," Zelda assured him.

He gave her one last squeeze and then pulled away. "Thank you. We should be going—I'd hate for Link to find those Spiritual Stones and kill me at a time like this. Terribly embarrassing."

Zelda chuckled as he led her back down the hall. "That's not allowed to happen. Oh, and next time? Just talk to me before unleashing demon hordes."

"Lesson learned, I assure you."

The ascent back to the ground level was brief, thanks to a small thing called teleportation. "I have to admit," said Zelda as they rematerialized in a cloud of darkness, "I think there's something to this magic business after all. It's a shame I've forgotten everything I learned in past lives."

"It will come back to you as you work at it," Ganondorf said as they edged down the hallway, a little more carefully this time. "Don't judge yourself by my standards. I've had millennia to get good at this."

At the end of the passage was another door, and it slid open to reveal a vast space beyond. In the enormous inner sanctum was another representation of the Goddess of the Sand, sitting cross-legged with a benevolent and knowing smile on her face.

And at the base of the statue, next to a small altar, stood Link. His hands hovered over three jewels that hung suspended above the altar by some magical force. The sound of the door caused him to look up, and when he saw Zelda and Ganondorf, the hero of Hyrule smiled, a grim and twisted smile.

"How did you get here?!" Zelda gasped. "We should have seen you come in!"

"I took the back door," Link said. "It was a bit of a climb, but nothing a strapping hero like me couldn't handle." He reached for the jewels.

Zelda's stomach dropped. "Link—don't—"

Link grabbed the Spiritual Stones and clutched them to his chest. The hero was enveloped in a cloud of light that spewed multicolor beams. Red, green, and blue light filled the room, dancing off the ancient walls and playing across the face of the Goddess.

Ganondorf flung out his hand and shot a blast of dark magic that careened into the maelstrom. The spell deflected into the ceiling, and bits of crumbled rock rained down.

The light wisped away, revealing Link holding a Master Sword whose blade now glowed with energy. The Spiritual Stones were nowhere to be seen. "You cannot defeat me," he growled. "This sword shall once more be your bane!"

"Link, stop!" Zelda stepped forward. "Hyrule doesn't need saving! I've got everything under control!"

"You are weak, Zelda!" Link shouted. "Content to quail in fear and let our sworn enemy take the throne from you! I see now that only I possess the courage to fight against evil!"

"You're not looking at it the right way at all!" Zelda said. "I did what I had to in order to keep our people safe—and Ganondorf isn't evil!"

Link staggered back. "Traitor!"

"In fact, we shouldn't be fighting at all!" Zelda said. "We don't have to! The three aspects of the Triforce can work together for good! Like they did in the beginning!"

"Link, listen to her reason!" Ganondorf said. "I do not wish to fight you, here or ever. If you would leave me in peace to govern my kingdom—"

"Your kingdom?!" Link snarled. "It was supposed to be my kingdom!" With a yell, he charged the sorcerer. "I deserve it more than you do!"

Ganondorf drew his sword. "Zelda, get out of here! He's gone mad!" As the princess scrambled to the corner of the large room, the blades of the hero and the villain met with a searing clang.

The force of the impact jolted Ganondorf back—the Master Sword had evidently absorbed more power from the Spiritual Stones than he was anticipating. He threw out a blast of magic as a distraction and whipped his own sword around for another strike.

With a swipe of the holy blade, Link dispelled the dark magic and leaped away from Ganondorf's swing. The two men darted around the room, parrying and blocking and lobbing everything they had at each other.

Now they were more evenly matched than in the library. Ganondorf had raw power on his side, as well as a finesse that could only be attained from long ages of wielding a blade. But Link was faster and driven by a dangerous rage, and something about the Master Sword at its full power seemed to enhance his own combat skills.

Zelda stood plastered to a wall, feeling helpless and frustrated. Impa had taught her some basic combat magic, but Link was a berserk force that the princess was afraid to get in the way of. And she didn't want to hurt him. Even though he had started annoying and then turned ruthless, something about joining a fight against him felt wrong.

In a flash of light, Ganondorf stumbled back. Clutching his side, he let out a few ragged breaths and collapsed.