A/N: Thanks to ZeldaRubix, RoseWing-chan, EvanEssence, Kirkysaurus and (NEW REVIEWER... I think) anon for their reviews!

ZeldaRubix: Thanks! I still can't really believe it's finished :(

RoseWing-chan: Thanks! Haha, unfortunately, if I based the fight around my fight with him. Link would be dead in the first minute XD

EvanEssence: That's great! I wish I had an N64...

Kirkysaurus: Well, you are now relieved on both counts. Unless you hate Pokémon. But this is the final chapter, and my other fic is also up!

anon: Thanks! Unfortunately, I doubt whether one for another Zelda game will surface. I might wanna take a break from it a little bit. Focus on some OCs :)

Well, damn. I can't actually believe it. This is the final chapter! When I first started back in September I had no idea where I was going with it. But wow! 130 reviews! You guys are freakin' awesome! :D

For the final time, thanks to TheZeldaDungeon for their extensive walkthroughs, but for this chapter, sheiksevensage has to be thanked for their footage of the ending.

This chapter is inspired by one of my favourite VGMs of all time: Kingdom Hearts - Dearly Beloved. It has a beautiful finality to it, as if it says 'Your quest has finished'. And Zelda's has, sadly.

Chapter 37 - End

She didn't know how, but Zelda and Link were standing on nothing. Fluffy clouds peppered the sky, giving it the beautiful speckling of a Cucco egg, and Zelda was so happy. She didn't know whether it was possible to feel this ecstatic. The hairs on her arms were standing to attention due to the adrenaline making its way through her arteries. Link was standing before her and he was also exuberant, but the effulgence emanating from an invisible source was blinding Zelda from his smile, his grin. But she could make out a look of expectancy, and she cleared her throat.

'Thank you, Link...

'Thanks to you, Ganondorf has been sealed inside the Evil Realm! Thus, peace will once again reign in this world...'

There was a pause as Zelda contemplated the next words.

'...For a time.'

For whilst she was incredibly happy, a seed of doubt had been sown in her mind from Ganondorf's last words. It was true that he did still have the Triforce of Power in his hands, and if he had the power of the Goddesses, there was no telling whether he would stay in the realm forever. It was from this sadness that her next words spawned. She palmed her heart and turned her attention to the ground, for she was ashamed to tell Link.

'All the tragedy that has befallen Hyrule was my doing. I was so young...'

Her voice stuttered for a second, as if tears were starting to form.

'I could not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm. I dragged you into it too...'

Her voice righted itself.

'Now it is time for me to make up for my mistakes. You must lay the Master Sword to rest and close the Door of Time.'

Link didn't seem to react. He had his eyes trained on Zelda's, to find a sign of grief to throw his comfort upon her. But they remained true and unchanged, strong.

'However, by doing this, the road between times will be closed...'

Zelda hesitated and thought about this for a second. Whilst the Master Sword was one of the keys to the Door of Time, there was one more that was still in Link's possession. Zelda held out her palm and Link looked at it, anticipating her explanation.

'Link, give the Ocarina to me. As a sage, I can return you to your original time with it...'

Link stopped for a second, thinking about what this meant. His original time... as a Kokiri, not a Hylian. Living back in the forest with his friends, all oblivious to the events that had just occurred. His exploits as the chosen hero would be lost to the river of time, but then he could have an actual childhood. He had missed it when he was unconscious for seven years.

The ocarina sat contentedly in his bag, and he roused it from its sleep. It sat in his hand as he mulled the decision over in his mind. Before his mind had been fully made up, the ocarina was Zelda's hand with his hand still on it. Zelda's free hand clasped over his, and with a look of sadness on her face, she looked from it to him.

'When peace returns to Hyrule, it will be time for us to say goodbye...'

Link's hand fell from hers, but Zelda wanted to keep holding it. To know that her saviour would stay with her for longer so that she could fight with him again. But she knew that it was the right thing for him to do. She pressed the ocarina to her chest, as if it were the only physical thing that she had to remember him, even though he was standing right in front of her.

'Now, go home Link! Regain your lost time!'

She paused and sighed.

'Home... where you're supposed to be... the way you're supposed to be.'

She pressed the ocarina to her lips, and felt its warmth pass through her skin. It was as if it was Link pressing his lips against hers, in a display of love, of sadness, of closure. But she remembered why she had it there. Before she could fall into the trance of Link's 'kiss', she began to play. The beautiful notes passed through the air, and a blue light formed around Link. He didn't react, however, as he was mesmerised by her hypnotic swaying. Only when the light started to rise in front of his eyes and a blue aura started to form around Zelda did he look around him. Then he started to rise, and he kept looking down at Zelda.

At the pink scar in her hair.

It was only then that he knew what she had been through, the horrors she had faced, the things she had done. But as she opened her eyes with a sort of tragic lugubriousness, he rose above her and into nothing. Her voice cut through the empty air.

'Thank you, Link. Goodbye...'

Zelda was so thankful that he was gone, because the urge to cry became too much for her. She collapsed in a heap, sobbing for a reason she didn't know. She should be happy. After all, Ganondorf had just been defeated, and peace had been restored to Hyrule. So why was water falling from her eyes?

There was a squawk of a bird far away from her, in a tree somewhere. There was also a calm breeze that flowed through her fingers, mixing with the salty liquid and freezing them. Zelda looked up from her cold hands. There was only grass, and a few trees peppered around randomly. It was a warm day, the sun softly evaporating the water from her face. She stood and looked about her. The first thing she noticed, and this was so trivial, was that the drawbridge was raised even though dawn was starting to break.

'Hm? That's odd...'

Suddenly her eyes got wide and she palmed her throat.

What, what's wrong with my voice?

It was so much higher than she remembered. Compared to the voice that she once knew, she was a timid mouse sneaking into a cat's lair. And her hands... were the always this small? Her arms... this short? What the heck?

Zelda's thoughts were interrupted by the low drone of the drawbridge lowering in the distance. She found that she wanted to do nothing more than to run for it, to the antique store, find a mirror and see what was going on. She stumbled again and again, and she was starting to get frustrated. But then she remembered something. She hadn't fallen this much since she was running from the first stalchildren she encountered. So...

She stopped and reached tentatively for her head, ready to shudder at the feeling of the dry flaky skin that characterised the dead skin. But instead, all she could feel was hair. Soft, silky hair for miles around.

Okay, this definitely isn't normal.

But even so, she liked it. She had vowed never to be rid of the bandages that covered the horrid impurity, but now she was glad to be rid of them. Not only did this mean that she had no scar, but she also didn't have to scratch every two seconds.

She continued to run, and she didn't care that she was stumbling every minute or so. The fact that her scar had disappeared into thin air gave her cause to be ecstatic, exuberant, as she thought it was a cause for misery.

An hour of stumbling later, Zelda reached the lowered drawbridge. The soldier at the other side tipped his hat as a sign of respect, but she ignored him and pressed on. The main she needed right now was a mirror, and the antique shop was only a couple of minutes' walk, or rather run, away from her. She reached it and stopped just short. Whatever she was going to see in the mirror was going to be a shock, that's for sure. The cause for these changes - her voice, appendages and the disappearance of the scar - would be something big, guaranteed.

She took a few deep breaths, clenching her fists as she did so. Then, she stepped in front of the mirror. She almost fainted. The mirror's image was her down to the last freckle on her nose, except for one thing.

The girl that stared back at her was a mere child. If one were to guess her age, Zelda would be 10 years old. She drew back, tiny hand stuck to her now non-existent chest.

How could this have happened?

Suddenly, a flap of wings formed in the corner of her eye. She looked up, and there, perched on the roof of the shop, was a large owl. It cocked its head every now and again, on occasion twirling it around in a full circle. Zelda watched it, and it watched her, trying to decipher what the other was thinking. And then Zelda's mind flashed like a torch in a dark cave. The cause of this transformation, why she was like this. She had thought that Link's situation was tragic, having never lived a normal childhood. But that wasn't so far from reality. After all, her childhood had been stolen from her by a king of thieves, the king of Evil itself. And perhaps, Rauru had known this too. For he sent her back to the moments before her life had steered off track.

The owl gave what looked like a nod and flapped its large wings a few times before flying off. Zelda smiled and stood upright. Now there was no reason to be sad. The only reason that she had to be sad was the fact that she hadn't seen her family and...

Family!

She ran, just before the owner of the shop could come out and ask whether she was interested in the mirror she was so intently staring at. She ran through the back alleys to avoid any of the traffic that built up at shopping hours. Oh, how she loved that! The market was as it should be. Everything was as it should have been. The shops were back where they were supposed to be. Hyrule Market, not Kakariko. In an open space, not clogging up a village that was already full to bursting.

She reached the pathway that led to the castle and stopped in front of the soldier, hopping on one foot in excitement. The soldier stared at her in puzzlement, but after a few seconds understood why the princess of Hyrule was hopping in front of him, sweating and grinning. He flicked a lever and the bars rose, and Zelda breezed past them before the soldier could bow as was customary.

This was the same for all the other soldiers that littered the meadow outside of the castle. Some of them acknowledged her with nods, but others understood that she just didn't have the time of day.

'Ma'am,' the guard from the front of the castle entrance said. Zelda nodded and sped past him. But after looking at his face, she noticed that he was the one who first revealed that it was time for the royal family to surrender. She gritted her teeth at the memory. The first time she discovered that she could have been torn away from her family. Her mother.

Her father.

He was standing near his throne, pacing up and down while his wife sat at her throne and sighed. Daphnes merely kept his eye on the light coming from the entrance. Any sign of a ripple, a shadow, something.

Suddenly, a silhouette of a girl bifurcated the arch of light and Daphnes stopped. He tapped his foot, and Zelda remembered with a feeling of nostalgia that he did this when he was annoyed.

'Zelda, your walk around the courtyard was supposed to finished fifteen minutes ago. What kept you?'

Zelda's mouth arched. Her lips quivered. Her eyes brightened. Her legs started to move. To run. Her arms spread outward, and during all this, Daphnes' eyes widened, and he braced himself for when Zelda was going to hit his stomach.

She reached him and he responded with a grunt. Her face was buried in his robe and tears began to fall, staining the crimson of his clothing. Daphnes merely stroked her hair a little bit, looking over to his wife for help, but getting no answer.

'Zelda, are you alright?'

Zelda smiled. Laughed. Everything was finished, everything was normal and everything was beautiful. No darkness could ruin this for her. No more. The shadow was long gone, in the Evil Realm. Only light was coming, and it was brighter than ever before.

'Yes, father,' Zelda whispered. 'Everything is alright.'

She looked up at him with glistening eyes.

'Everything is perfect.'

A/N: And that's that. I'm really sad that it's all over, but then again I'm happy that it's got this far.

So again, thanks to EVERYONE who reviewed: alwaysingirl, RoseWing-chan, James Birdsong, mairaloveszexion, Kirkysaurus, Kick-Aft, Fanfiction Ninja, TheoneandonlyKaorin, ZeldaRubix, Ananymous Reviewer, pikachucat, mizsxy91, anon1, EvanEssence and anon2. You guys are all amazing, seriously.

Want some more OdnetninAdlez-y goodness? Head to my profile where *shameless plug BEGIN* you'll find another fic that has just been started. It's a Pokémon one, and a far cry from what I've been doing here. Check it out! *shameless plug END*

Well, that's it. See you guys soon! :)