I don't know how long I cried or how many sips of whiskey I downed before dawn came around, but it really had felt like eternity. Link had stayed sober, watching with an expression of a statue, but Zelda had given in and reached straight for the bourbon. She was so spiritual that I could only imagine the heartbreak of her Goddesses wanting someone that she held so dearly dead. They knew that she would see it, too. They did not care. They was no amount of bloodshed that could save me now. The Goddesses were invincible, there was no disputing that.

Every few hours, Link would ask a question and Zelda would answer in a monotone. The Goddesses were coming in their earthly forms soon, she gathered. First, Dark would make his move. Despite everything he had done to me, the idea of a fight with him suddenly sounded like a piece of cake. The stab wound in my chest and all of the other scars were still raw and healing, and of course they hurt, but they were not going to end me. I had a somewhat fair fight with Dark, even with him having the Fused Shadows and the Triforce.

But with the Goddesses, I was toast.

The one question I asked all evening was why they didn't just strike me down like the vermin they saw me as...why they saw it necessary to come down. Zelda had just shaken her head-she didn't know the answer any more than I did. I wondered if they were dramatic. If there would be some kind of a show.

More importantly, I wondered how they would kill me. So as the silence loomed and dawn's rays started to come in the windows, I looked at Zelda and asked her, "What...what will it be like? Do you know?"

She sighed and bit her lip. "The wisest, most clear flash I have gotten is the three of us standing together in Hyrule Field just south of the castle. They are people all behind us, even though in my flash, I'm not happy about it."

I nodded for her to go on, silently conveying my morbid fascination with how I would be wiped out by the one force that I expected would save me. Zelda shook her head...she didn't know.

"What about the Twilight Realm?" Link asked quietly.

Zelda bit her lip. "Currently, it looks like they will destroy the Twilight realm before they come here. A month, give or take...but I'm just not sure...I don't know how they could ignore the potential consequences on this world, on this realm."

Suddenly, the quiet tones and hushed voices we spoke in were shattered. Link jumped up and slammed the mug of coffee he had been drinking down on the bar counter. "Then we're stopping them!"

I looked at Zelda's face for a fraction of a second, then turned to Link and burst into hysterical laughter. "Fight...the...Goddesses..." I choked out, thinking him very clever. "That is HILARIOUS, Link. Absolutely hilarious. But...no. Considering you're a petty human and your main source of power comes from the Goddesses...ha, ha, ha."

He, in response, looked at me like I had lost my mind. "I'm not letting them kill you or destroy your Realm. I'll die trying."

"Link..." Zelda said softly. I looked at her again. Her eyes were tortured. She was writhing, trying to escape the absolutely impossible situation in front of her. Betray the Goddesses and try to fight, not only eternally damning herself, but perhaps destroying her own world all together...or stand by and watch another realm be destroyed, along with her counterpart. "Link, I..."

"We can't just NOT do something, Zel! We HAVE to help. Innocent, wonderful people are going to die and you're not willing to take the risk to help them? I have the courage to do it, but maybe you don't." He was seething, eyes bright and glaring. "I will not stand by and watch them all be destroyed. I don't care if both of you stand idle on the sidelines. I will not."

A hush settled upon us again. The terror in me melted away into sadness, acceptance. I knew that Link would not listen to me if I told him to stand down. At the very least, he wouldn't stand on the sidelines and watch me be executed as some kind of divine traitor. I also knew that no matter which path I took, we would both die. He might not die, on second thought, but I could not see the Goddesses erasing his legacy as a Hero. . .they could erase his mind, I was sure. Or kill him and start his line over. Just a dead end...corrupted...either way, yes, we would both subjectively 'end.'

So why not go down fighting for something noble? If nothing else, my dying thought would be got ya, suckas! And I could go to the underworld of afterlife, the hell, the fire...where Ganon and Zant went. Where the bad people went.

If the Goddesses even let me have that.

I looked up at Link, sadness rebuilding itself into a mound of controlled anger in my chest. I flinched as I stood, the wounds still raw.Suck it up, I thought at myself.It'll hurt a lot worse soon. "You're stubborn as a mule, I tell ya. But...still. If you're going to try futilely, pathetically, insanely, and damningly to save me and my realm...well, you're going to try and do it. And I sort of like you, in case you didn't notice, so I'll join your little suicide mission." I messed with his hair and he grinned. It was a challenged grin. A runner beginning his race.

We both turned to Zelda, whose expression was both diplomatic and enraged.

"I can only tell you what they let me see," She said. "Other than that..."

"Tell you what," I told her. As a ruler...I understood her plight. The people of Hyrule were good folk and knew injustice when they see it. They were also well versed in stupidity. If word of what was going on got out, they would stand with us and be brought down by association. Zelda, the only person whose fate was most likely not ending in her getting killed by those she worshipped, could work to carry on life. "You can work on changing your vision. Damage control, if you must call it that. . .you know, make sure this stays cloak & dagger. Make sure your people do not find out. But yeah, in other terms, if you could give us some heads-up on certain things. . .things that aren't going to endanger your faith. . ."

Link was mutely seething, probably not understanding why Zelda would stand by idly. But still, he nodded. Zelda spoke. "That is...a good plan. That is all I can think to do." She hung her head, but looked up and began to be in mission mode. "First thing is first. The people of Hyrule do know about Dark...or at least they suspect, from the festival, that something is amiss. We need a scapegoat. We need something so that let their guard down and business goes back to usual."

"So fighting Dark will be the first and foremost thing."

Zelda nodded, bobbing her head swiftly. "He still wants Midna...I know he's struggling. The Goddesses do want him gone. His Triforce is not...cooperating." Her lips twisted into a wry smile, knowing full well how much trouble he was in. "I think he will try to make a last stand of sorts. He knows his plans are mostly over, but he does want Midna gone...mhm, I see it now. It will be in the oldest part of the castle. The tower across from mine. Very remote...very secluded...our royals who fell ill with the plague were kept there until they passed."

"Plague," Link repeated. "Why would it be there? We could say that Midna is ill. He won't fall for the plague idea. But he's an egotistical maniac. . .he might think he messed Midna up badly. . . We could stage something."

Link and Zelda exchanged a long, hard look, and then both nodded at me. I tipped my head to the side, curious. Link pressed his lips to my forehead, stared at me, and grinned very deliberately. "Think you can pretend you're dying?"