These were the awkward moments that Link loathed.

He was able to endure almost any kind of trial put before him, be it one of strength, cunning, or endurance. He was able to protect almost anyone who needed him, getting them somewhere safe or taking the forces on himself. That was who he was. He was always the man that was supposed to endure the worst and leave when the work was finished. That was what a hero was mean to do.

That was no longer a solution. Not when he was sitting at a table like this.

"Not comfortable?" Tai asked, Ruby's father, a man who had some relation to him now. Link stared at him, trying to put a name to just what he could be. The stare, however, only made the man raise his arms. Both arms and gauntlets to his magical armor, but only one of the surrounding an actual arm. "Easy, easy, not trying to make it awkward. Just hoping you get have some comfort at the table."

Link quirked his brows at the words, even more confused as his daughters groaned at the words. Even Raven, the enigmatic woman who had tricked Ganondorf, a woman he could see as partially responsible for a great deal of this, shook her head. The blonde, however, only held up his arms in some faux-defense.

"What? I thought that was a good one. I've had the past few hours to think it up." Had it been that long. "I mean if we're going to be waiting, we might as well have fun while we are. Just sitting around and staring at one another isn't exactly how I like to spend the afternoons."

"If you'd like, I can volunteer to have you assist the other hunters in the cleanup of the Grimm on the edge of Vale," Ozpin interjected. "There are still a great number of Grimm that are surviving off the panic of the crowd. Some placement may be beneficial for you."

"Don't I get a break for the workplace injury? Sure, the casting is nice, but shaving a few pounds tends to be more rewarding." Ruby's head hit the table now, groaning out the title of her father. Yang was pulling at her face. How odd.

"From experience, Tai, I can say that you'll appreciate moving with your… prosthetics more than sitting around with them." The General folded his arms, the tallest man in the room by far. "Though I do agree bedrest would be prudent, if there was a home for you to return and rest in."

"There are rooms available, and several have been opened up for hunters and displaced officials." Goodwitch now, adding in from the side of the room. "Majority of the residents are preferring to stay in the open, perhaps out of fear of close quarters. So, it will be a none issue to have you take a room. Perhaps, even one near Team RWBY. I am sure that Raven will be-"

"I am not staying here" the woman quickly returned. "I'm hear for one thing. To understand why he has Summer's Sword." Her finger was a blade unto itself, the way it was pointing at him. Link stared at her red eyes, attention on him once more. "Until I get that story, and we have something to prove with it, I'm not going anywhere."

"I wouldn't want you to either. We were having a fine enough time talking before, so having you leave quick as lightning would be awfully painful." Tai put a hand to his chest as he spoke. "Kind of wish you'd just fly into my arms instead." Now the woman turned from him blushing and cursing his name. Even odder still that neither Ruby or Yang reacted.

"Before Oobleck does arrive, I want to ensure you're alright with Ruby and Yang being here." It took Link a moment to realize that Ozpin was talking to him. Looking over the bridge of his glasses, hands folded on his cane. "I understand that on some level, this will be a difficult conversation. Certainly not one that you would want to burden children with."

"Hey! I helped fight the monsters with him!" "And I'm not going to leave after all of this."

"And I agree they should stay," Saria was the one who gathered the most attention with her words. Enough to have the room turn attention to her. "Or are you to assume they will not find out about this all in some other manner? Do you trust their father and mother to remain ignorant and mute around them for the rest of their days?" The long sigh from the Headmaster was proof enough.

"I am not about to entertain a conversation with a couple of children," Raven replied coolly. Her fingers were still playing at the hilt of her sword. Link wasn't worried, because he had his own. And he was, without a doubt, faster. "It's Tai you'll have to worry about. He doesn't know how to say no."

"That's right! Dad says that I'm the best at getting answers out of him," Ruby spoke with a chest filled with pride, even puffing it out for emphasis. "Uncle Qrow even says that no one can beat me at it."

"I will confess that Qrow may be right on this one," Raven spoke, with eyes on the youngest in the room. "It isn't hard to imagine paying you to quell your annoyance, even if for an hour."

"Hey! Don't to Ruby like that." Yang spoke up for her sister, her lavender eyes back to red on her mother, or so the relation was now known. "I'll take her annoying me over you abandoning us any day of the week." Only a flippant breath of air was her return.

That, and the solemn table conversation again, filled with the void of noise. Link looked around them, unsure of where to begin or what to do. In the end, he could only wait. Wait with folded arms, a tapping heel, and listening to the thrum of the clocktower gears underneath their feet. Perhaps that was why Ozpin kept his office in such a place. To let the metronome of the gears beat away unease.

"Am I… really that annoying?" The innocent question from Ruby did a far superior job. "I thought I was being cute." Link pinched the bridge of his nose, failing to stifle his laughter. Tai did a far inferior job than him.

The humor did not persist for long.

BOOM! "I'm present!"

Before anyone could respond to Ruby, Dr. Oobleck had entered. Entered with more sheets and scrolls in his hand that Link recalled him ever possessing. He had not visited the man's office before… quite unlike Tatl and Tael, but he was aware he wrote down most of what he said. With the volume of texts he was carrying, it was easy to see.

"Apologies for late. Unintentional, unavoidable, but necessary. Extremely so. Lack of preparation for this all-inclusive important discussion would invariably lead to a dissemination of information to an unusable state. No benefit, no gain." Link smiled at the rambunctious man.

"It is quite alright, Bartholomew," Ozpin relayed, waving his hand. "Please take a seat." The man did so with the speed of speech. Link heard Yang and Ruby snort as the General next to him had to adjust for the large pile of papers and material put down in front of him. "I believe General Ironwood may also have something for you, if you have not already mastered the art of lip reading that is." At the motion of his hand, General Ironwood nodded.

"No, the art eludes me. Difficult, too many details. Details to find details. Puzzle for a puzzle. Not impossible, but not efficient. Other methods preferred." His gaze, done up under his tilted spectacles, shifted from the head of the room to the tallest man in it. "Is there something I am to borrow? Use? I won't sign?"

"There is nothing you have to declare or sign. I only need to remind you that this is Atlas Dust Technology, proprietary and not to be taken out of this room." The comment came as he produced a thin piece of metal, curled and with a mesh of metal on the inside of it. "Fit it around your ear, but do not forget it is there when we are finished." Oobleck rapidly acquired the object, doing as instructed.

Link did recognize it, and not just because he was the only one in the room not wearing one. It was the same device that Winter had worn before, so that she could understand him. That was before Ruby's uncle had also gotten him… intoxicated… His stomach still growled in annoyance at the memory.

"Ah, yes, hearing enhancement, increasing the magnitude of waveforms. No no, not correct. No." Dr. Oobleck rolled his head, as if adjusting the device. Link watched him, him having clearly much more fun with it than the others were. "No, a filter more accurate. Yes, as I am not perturbed by normal sounds. Other noise understandable however. Higher and lower frequencies. Stop-pass filtering. Yes, quite ingenious."

The hand on his thigh lightly tapped him, earning his attention. Green eyes sparkled up at him, almost mischievously.

"Do you act like this with new tools, Link?" Saria asked in a discreet low tone. Link blew out a breath of air, shaking his head. Saria didn't break her gaze. "I don't believe you~." Now he was smiling again.

"Let me know if it stops working, Bartholomew. The rest of us have had a chance to… let us say test them out." That was reason enough to have eyes return to him. It was also enough to force Ozpin to speak on. "Now, before we begin… Link…"

All attention was on him again, and the hero looked towards the Headmaster. The clock thrummed around them some more, matching his heart beat. Even with the booming noise, it did nothing to sway the tension in the room.

"I wish to emphasize that at no point is this conversation meant to force you to reveal that which you do not wish to share." A single sentence, and arguments grew.

"Hold on, he has to tell us." General Ironwood held up as he spoke up. "What we witnessed is a display of power clearly rivaling if not superseding the Atlas Military. Not explaining that kind of raw power and yet letting him walk about is a clear act of negligence on any leader's part."

"He's right, hard as that is to believe. This guy killed a man that could destroy the world. Heck, the same guy that literally burned all of the White Fang like dry twigs on a hot day." Raven rolled her jaw as she spoke. Link could see her hand itching for her blade. "I'm not leaving if he just shrugs his shoulders and says we have to deal with it."

"Unfortunate as it would be to have no answers, I don't believe forcing them out would be the most expedient way to satisfy anyone here." Ozpin turned from them and back to Link. "But I believe their fears are false. Because even if you don't wish to tell us about what you know, Link, it is obvious you wish to know what we do as well. Correct?"

He nodded, without hesitation. There was much he did want to know, and he couldn't pretend about it anymore. He felt a small hand on his outer thigh, looking down to see the dainty hand of Saria on him. He smiled at her, and she gave the same forest warm grin in return.

"And though I have no intention of hiding much from you, anything important I should say, I do hope you understand the importance of quid pro quo." He did not, and it must have shown.

"Quid pro quo best means something for something," the General responded. "You tell us what you know, and we will do the same. Even if there is company here I'd rather not be informed." The girls hmphed in response. "But you have been nothing short of an ally to us, and I would be remised to ignore the praise Specialist Schnee has given you. All this together, I do wish to know more about your past, and how it connects to what is happening now."

"Precisely! Adoring request! A most necessary one, undoubtedly." Dr. Oobleck was no less lively with his words than actions. "An exaggerated account from varying voices raises confusion in the recollection of ideas, so a singular mindset to carry on the history of land, even if from a matching viewpoint, will shed a great deal of light on the circumstances. Recounting your past will be a tale, and I intend to capture it."

All eyes were on him then, and he had to think they never left. These were the awkward moments that Link loathed, but knew were necessary.

The moments that had him staring at the consequences of his actions, and wondering about what was going to come when he was finished. No monsters to slay, no camps to claim, just words to share. And hope, by the end of it, no one was lesser of a man than when he started.

A slow breath entered and left him. Then, Link began to speak.

His heel beat against the ground. Beat back and forth as he sat on the stone bench, fingers meshed together and held over his mouth.

Link's eyes were focused on nothing, staring ahead at the large stone wall in front of him. A glance up and he could see the infinite blue sky, guarded only by the building he sat inside. The large, seemingly endless, structure of white marble stone, housing the famed royal garden inside. The very garden he sat in. He didn't appear to be an individual here to enjoy its scents or sights.

Link's boot beat at the ground until a divot began to form underneath him. The bench he was as had sat there for many ages, but his heel was quickly creating a large dent in the earth than the stone had through time and season. It still wasn't reason enough for him to stop.

The rest of his body, in contrast, was stiff. Hard, flexed, and focused, the very opposite to his gaze. His body was like the bench he sat on, and eyes like the sky high above. All because his mind wasn't with him at the moment. It was wandering.

Slow measured breaths entered and left him, quiet enough to be mistaken for a passing breeze. For himself, Link could have been hit by a boulder and he'd mistake it for a particular rough bout of hair. His mind was too far gone to register the world around him.

Not when his thoughts were on the future. The immediate and swiftly approaching future.

His heel stopped striking the ground, only after he realized he had potted a hole large enough for a small sapling to lay in. Perhaps it would be mistaken for something, perhaps not, but it was not the most important detail changing about the caste today. No, everyone, himself more than others, were preparing for the new major change coming.

Link swallowed on nothing once more, looking ahead in the garden, and waiting for some sign, anysign, of when it was finished. Time could be cruel, but he did not think her so unmerciful that she'd leave him trapped in such a state.

His nerves were raw from waiting, and desperate to move.

"Sir Link." It was the tone of the voice, not the volume, that drew him from his self-induced reverie.

Link looked up, and stared at the red eyes of Impa, gazing back down at him.

The Royal Guardian to Queen Zelda, standing before him with arms lowered, breathing deeply, and looking as if she had drug herself from the pits of hell. Link was terrified at the sight, more so than he was in any other battle or trial before.

"She's done…" came the quiet words. "You can see her, now."

The smile that pulled at her lips, faint and brief as it was, made Link's heart soar.

Then, he was running from the Garden as if monsters were clamoring for his heels.

He entered the stone hallways, barreling down the long passages and forcing the servants in the way to jump out of the way. The suits of armor shook as he ran past, the carpeting coming up from its tucked position, and the paintings on the wall shivering as if they were about to fall. They were all priceless, hung to show the value of the castle. But Link didn't care.

All he cared about was down the hall.

Past the Royal Chambers, beyond the dousing chamber, and past the mighty stair well to the foyer of the castle. He ran past all of it, determined to find what he needed.

Link slid to a stop before a more modest pair of double doors, but holding inside a treasure he couldn't wait to lay eyes on. Hands on the levels, he pushed the doors open.

And inside was a bed, larger than most in the castle.

A bed that was flanked by hand-maidens and chamber-maids, all washing large clothes in much larger buckets of steamed water. Enough that the air was scented with mint and lavender, smelling little different than the infirmary of the castle's barracks, and hotter than most chambers of Death Mountain. A wave of it rolled over Link, but he paid it no mind, no more than the tired gazes of the maidens about the bed. His eyes were focused on but one thing.

The woman who lay in the bed. The woman, long blonde hair undone and frazzles, stitched to her faced and running atop the blankets. With a face like porcelain, and drenched as if thrown into the rain. Her normally painted lips, shivering from exhaustion, heated breaths leaving her. She looked as if she were ready to throw the sheets from her body for some relief, but she looked just as sure she wouldn't move.

Because she held something in her arms, thin hands holding close a bundle of fabric and silk, rocking it back and forth carefully, cautiously, and lovingly. Her tired blue eyes were settled on the bundle itself, and paid Link no mind as he entered. Even as the rest of the maids made breath that he had come faster than they thought, and offered apologies for being so late, they were observed as well by the woman as they were by Link.

Utterly ignored.

For nothing was as important to Link as his Queen, his love, Zelda Harkinian Vas no Hyrule.

"Link… you made it…" she spoke as if he had any chance of missing this. He nodded, feeling breathless and light on his feet. He was careful to step, almost fearful that taking a foot step too far would have him tripping and falling out of this dream. "I'm glad… Impa… insisted you wait… I did not…"

He shook his head as he approached, already having forgotten her Guardian's insistence that he leave. Link moved past the maids, them having moved the wash rags and basins, leaving him to approach her by the bedside. She looked so frail and tired, bundled up as she was. He couldn't imagine what she was holding that was so much more delicate than that.

No, he knew, but it was impossibleto imagine. Not before he saw it.

"It went well… it… it went well…" she looked up at him now, eyes finally leaving the cloth in her arms. Her smile was tired, as if she had not slept for moons. But the joy in her eyes, the satisfaction and salvation that seemed to be forthcoming from her face, was breath-taking. Link was smiling as well, slowly falling to his knees.

He stopped only when he was kneeling next to the bed, holding himself close to the mattress, looking at her. Zelda's head fell back to the lush pillows behind her, drenched with sweat, but having been fluffed and changed constantly, he could tell.

"She's asleep now…" the tired words just poured from her lips, and she swallowed on something Link couldn't recognize. His mind was more focused on one word his queen spoke. She caught it. "Yes… she… We… we have a daughter Link." His eyes were misty as the news came to him. He had a daughter.

Link, the Hero of Time, and Zelda, the Queen of Hyrule, had had a daughter.

"She's resting… still tired from starting her… first grand adventure…" a tired somber laugh came from the Queen, and Link raised a hand to steady her. She breathed deep when he was closer, falling into his grasp. "Her adventure… would you like to hold her? Do want… to welcome her to this life?" She pulled up the bundle of cloth in her hands.

Link stared at it, a hand already reaching out for it, but steadying itself before touching it. It felt like a great responsibility was lain before him, a destiny that he couldn't ignore. His blue eyes were misty and hazy, cheeks wet as well, but he saw not just a bundle of cloth, but the hilt of an embedded sword.

He saw a path forward once he grasped the steel. And the Hero realized he couldn't turn from it.

Carefully, he slipped his hand over Zelda's, and gently transferred the weight to him.

The first thought he had was that his daughter was light. So, light. As if the bundle of arrows in a quiver weighed more than her, or even leaves falling from trees. So light, so small, and so fragile. Something that could be whisked away in a second.

It made him pull her tighter to his chest, staring down at her. Studying the babe in his arms.

A crunched-up face, pudgy with baby fate. Wrapped up and freshly nursed, the small hums from the infant rumbled through Link like tremors from Death Mountain. His eyes could see nothing but her, and his body was already swaying as he held her, ill content to hold still while holding the new life. The soft giggle of Queen Zelda earned his attention, but only barely.

"She's beautiful," she spoke confidently. "And she has your eyes." Did she?

Link looked at the infant again, lowering his face until his nose hovered over hers. Like a tickling of a feather, it made the baby's face pudge and squirm, only to blink open a set of unsure eyes.

Silver stared back into his blue.

"Wait wait wait wait wait. Hold up." The sudden interruption made Link do just that. Stop mid-sentence and stare at Yang, holding up her hands with a look confused pain across her face. Her head shook before she continued. "Putting aside just… how normal you sound, which is not how I imagined your voice would come across-"

"Is that really necessary to say?" Ruby's curiosity was ignored.

"-you're literally telling us how you had a kid with a literal queen of your kingdom? That's like, the most insane thing I could ever think of! I thought you were just her knight or something." Yang's bewilderment was humbling, if not unexpected.

"For princesses of lands rooted in tradition, it is common for them to marry and wed knights of great renown." Link expected Ozpin to speak those words. He was mildly surprised to see General Ironwood speaking instead. "It is similar today with respect to corporations and powerful seats, or can we not forget that Ms. Schnee's leaving of her position as heiress to the Schnee Dust Company was treated like a ruler vacating their throne."

"Remember hearing about that, actually. Kind of a big deal." Tai stroked the back of his hair with his airy-non limb. Link realized he was still getting used to the feeling. It would take… some time. The Magic Armor was not so easy to adapt to. "What I was kind of surprised to hear that the girl on your team was the next in line. Here was thinking her dad was gonna lock her up in a keep or something."

"You mean like a princess?" Ruby pushed the words towards her dad, who met her question with a bright grin. She fell into giggles at it, though Link couldn't see why. "She does kind of act like one. Yang calls Weiss an Ice Queen a lot." Raven snorted at that.

"Sorry for interrupting, really, just… I can't believe we've been fighting with a literal king of some far of land for all this time." Yang's point brought a new stillness to the room. One that brought eyes back on him. "You'd think you'd be bragging about this up and down the street, being a literal ruler and all."

"Is Link the kind of person to boast of himself?" Saria's question was a pointed and damning as they ever were. Ever since she had started asking him where he had hurt himself as a child, and Link knew there was no such thing as an answer he'd be okay with saying. "To ask others to pay him heed and head for a position earned?"

"Uh… no?"

"I believe you're correct." The Forest Sage's smile was as bright as he remembered. Link couldn't look away from it, for fear that she'd be gone if he did. "Though now I must ask why you believe Link and Queen Zelda were wed. Do children follow only unions?"

"The correct answer should be yes," Tai seemed to push forward. "But I'm going to have to say, and flat out admit, that if you had a kid with a literal ruler of your nation out of wedlock, and got the whole castle to let you live for it, that's probably more impressive than fighting off all those Grimm."

"I agree with Tai. The idea of anyone of respectful standing in our kingdoms having a child without marriage would tarnish their names, if only because there would be no true way to declare if the child deserves inheritance or not." Ironwood turned a hard brow towards the Hylian as he spoke. "For a queen, a ruler of your land, and one who held the respect of those powerful friends of yours, is truly a feat I must bow to."

Link agreed. If that was what happened, he would think of it as the highest blessing Time had ever given him. Thankfully it was not.

"Humorous as the idea is, I don't believe this is the time to falsely lead others for amusement." Link glanced at Ozpin. Despite the man's words, a gentle amused smile was at his lips. "Least I cannot imagine one who carries the memories of his friends so dearly would not bind himself to a woman who gave him a child."

"You are a wise man," Saria complimented. Link had to nod. "They were wed. They were married. Link asked me for a locket of the Great Deku Tree's amber for her as a gift for her. Simple, yet meaningful. What else could be given to a princess that would not be tossed into piles of gold?" That was the question he asked her. And from the pleased sound Ruby made near him, she clearly thought highly of the gift as well.

"That's still jarring to hear," Ironwood went on. "The idea that not only have I been less than cordial to foreign royalty, but a king at that. Heh, if nothing else, it will be fun to see the Council squirm at the idea that they tried to have said king harmed."

"Link is a king? I was not aware," Saria carried her question with her usual tact. "Wed to a princess, indeed, but I do not recall hearing he was king. Did I miss such a statement?"

"But… but he had a kid with the queen! Queen Zelda and… and you said they were married!" Yang's hand pointed at them almost accusatory. "That has to make him a king! Right? Am I right?"

"No, you're Yang." Link found the statement from Tai oddly painful, yet similarly satisfying. The way the blonde fell with a groan of her own was just as appreciated, if not more so. "C'mon, that was a good one, wasn't it?"

"Shut up Tai. I'll honesty beg you to." Raven had her head in her hands as well.

"Back… on topic," Ironwood interrupted, showing his role as a leader. "I am curious about your position in this Hylian royal family. Tradition in the kingdoms is to marry into a higher family, and while you most certainly did, it's just as obvious your queen did not. Your traditions differ from ours, but is it because you were low-born, no offense." Link took none. "Or was it a choice you were able to make?"

Link could answer that one.

And he did by holding out his hand, palm down, and lowering it down, slowly, until he was beneath the table and out of sight. He caught Ruby trying to follow it, as if he were about to grab something.

"Lowborn. Non-political marriage, necessary price, perhaps necessity. Political affair? Agreement to placate other nations?" The myriad of words came from the Doctor at the table. Link couldn't be sure if he had gone through two or three scrolls at this point. "Many more questions, so many questions." He was just as impressed that the scrolls weren't burning. He half expected them to.

"Low born… doesn't that mean you're, like, supposed to be normal? Not that you're not normal just…" Ruby's hands waved up and down Link's figure. He tried not to smile.

"Ruby, remember what I told you about pointing at others."

"I'm not pointing, I'm waving!"

"Ruby, remember what I told you about semantics."

"You never said anything about semantics."

"Ruby, remember what I told you about repetition."

"You said that was important." The speed of the conversation, and flow from at east to jubilant, was quicker than Link wanted to make his own story.

"A point, query to make. May I?" Dr. Oobleck spoke up with his usual speed, treating the short second of silence as admittance to continue. "Relative purpose of this meeting was in regards to relation between Link, yourself, and that of Summer Rose, mainly to relate history of your service as a hunter, knight, hero and to that of your blade. Unique, amazing, shining silver and highly probably a Dust infused weapon." It was not.

"Your question, Bartholomew?"

"Yes, yes, question. Question is, is the birth of child described done to relate heritage of one Summer Rose? Further detailed, is Summer rose the rightful princess and ruler of your homeland of Hyrule? That question was not so easily ignored.

Link didn't answer, because he didn't know the words to say. 'Yes' sounded too short.

"Link is describing how he lost the Master Sword, as I recall," Saria spoke up for him, once more. "How he gifted it to his daughter before she came here. You claim this Summer Rose had it before, but neither Link nor I have met her."

"What is your point?"

"My point, loathe as I am to say it, is that Link is not telling the tale of Summer Rose. He's telling the story of his daughter. How Link's child came to be in the land of Hyrule… and how she was parted from him near the end."

The end… hearing her say it still filled him with dread. Perhaps because it was after it, maybe because she had already seen it. Link only breathed deeply through his nose, calming himself as he had taught himself to do.

"Odd question, not a question. Supposition of fact. Restating what has already been said. Inquiry now into what has not been said." Dr. Oobleck leaned forward, pen stopped over his parchments of paper, before beginning again. "Do not believe you have a family name, tradition perhaps. None heard so far. None reported. Royalty would. Impossible to believe they would not. So, your daughter, the child of a queen. Her name bears much importance."

"That I agree with," Raven's short voice came up with her eyes glaring at him. "What was your daughter's name?"

They didn't need to act like it was something he was burying away. Link had ever intention to tell them.

"Now remember, close your eye and focus." "But don't worry if you're nervous, th-that's normal." "Just be sure to breath slowly, narrow your gaze, and forget everything else. "Kind of like… like trying to imagine something!" "Yeah, that, imagine your arrow in the target." "Then… th-then you can do it."

The girl focused through the voices flittering in the air above her, a pair of choir tunes that rang and chimed with the dust that fell from their light bodies. Her gaze didn't switch up to them, too busy holding back the string of the bow, balancing the notched arrow on her fingers. Her gaze wasn't on it either, but the target far down the line.

"Don't get distracted, because that's how mistakes are made." "A-And practice is for making mistakes… so you can avoid them." "So, try to not make mistakes now, so you can make fewer out in the woods." "You just need to keep her arms still, a-and remember… you can do this."

Her head slowly nodded in agreement, listening without answering. Her blonde hair bounced with the small motion of her head. It threaded around her ears, poking out like the tip of her arrow.

Breathing out, she released the string, letting the arrow sail.

THWACK! "I did it! I got it!"

The high voice cheered as she bounced around on her feet, jumping with the joy and jubilation that only a child could possess. "Did you see that dad!? I got it! Two tries and pow! Right in the center!" Bright silver eyes looked up with the question, brimming with glee at what she had done.

"You did it!" "You really did it!" Tatl and Tael rang together as they danced and swirled around the girl, billowing her attire and making her squeal with delight. Her bubbly laughter was infectious with the fairies, making them twirl about as if they were surrounded in the life of the Lost Woods.

Link looked down the range from her, staring at the circle of painted hay, a pair of arrows lodged in it, and one in the red center of the small circle. Deep enough to show its intent, and nary a hair off from the other arrow lodged in the outer white circle.

Two shots, one bullseye, all from a hundred yards away, and just shy of six years old herself.

His daughter was an excellent shot.

"That was amazing Zelda!" "I knew you do it! Gotta be the hero blood in you!" "A-And Queen Zelda is a great shot, too…"

The girl danced around between the fairies, almost pirouetting her way closer to Link. She only stopped when her shoes were almost on top of his, looking up at him with a bright smile on her features, silver eyes reflected in his blue.

"Did you see that dad? Was I just as good as you were at my age?" He smiled down at her, watching her eagerly try and pull every ounce of praise she could from him. Instead of words, he responded by kneeling. "Who-HEY~! HAHAHA!" Then eagerly scooping up the young girl into his arms, holding her up and letting her writhe.

Zelda hardly fought in his arms, more trying to get comfortable than free. Her arms tucked into her chest, legs spinning about so her knees were hanging off his elbow, and wrapping herself up in his arms. Her couldn't help but smile down her as well. Tatl and Tael were not far behind. The pair of fairies dancing over his head, sprinkling their dust and light over them while the father and daughter laughed at the young one's success.

Then words were whispered just past the archery range.

"Is Sir Link paying with the princess again? I thought this was time for her studies."

"If she is the princess. He probably knows the truth and is entertaining her rather than teaching her."

Link couldn't tell if Zelda heard or not, looking instead past the line of trees towards the outwalk, seeing a pair of finely dressed magistrates walking by. Their eyes were as sharp as their ears, eyeing them with clear observation. Link wasn't politically savvy enough to know their names, but he knew they had high voice in the land. Not nearly as much as his wife, but more than most, perhaps himself.

"Eyes like that, far from the royal blue of her majesty, not even in line with those of Sir Link."

"I dash the rumors that they are proof of her lineage. No ancestor of the goddess has ever looked apart from her majesty herself."

"She does have the skill of her father, that is without question. And I would dare you to tell a few of the hand maidens that they mistook what came out of her highness."

"Anyone could shoot so well if they had the Hero as their teacher. Why else do you believe the other royals are all clamoring for Sir Link to teach their young?"

"Perhaps you are correct. Though I hardly see the benefit on reminiscing about it now."

"Because if you ever find a man with silver eyes, you would have fair proof of just whom her highness may have truly lain with. Think of the clout you could earn with the rest of the royals with such information."

"Dad? Are you alright?" Link blinked before looking down at his daughter, Zelda reaching up for him and grabbing his hear. He bent his head with the action. "Mom always grabs your ear when you stop paying attention to her. So does this work."

And just like that, he was smiling at her again.

"I don't know, Zelda, you might have to pull extra hard to get him to focus!" Tatl all but joyously rang the words.

"B-But not too hard! You are strong too a-a-and-" Whatever Tael was going to say hardly mattered. His daughter had taken Tatl's advice.

Link fell to his side, Zelda tumbling from his grasp, as she pulled on his hear like a bow string. Her victorious cries were all he could hear out of his other ear.

"I won! I brought dad to his knees! I'm the conqueror of heroes! AHA!" She stood to her tallest even, as she held Link's ear tight in his hand. Through his laughter, he could hear Tatl nearly falling over in the air with laughter. "That makes me the greatest hero ever! Bow down to Princess Zelda! Bow to-" She had much to learn.

Zelda struck out with his hand, wrapping his nimble fingers around his daughter's sides, squeezing the sensitive patch of skin below her ribs and under her dress. With practiced ease, he began to shake his hands, quickly vibrating her muscles beneath. And all the while, she was pinned underneath him, unable to escape.

Or, more simply, Link began to tickle torture his daughter.

"AHAHAHAHA-STO-AAHAHAHAHAHA~!" His daughter's laugher was infectious, and he continued his assault. The ringing of Tatl and Tael was matched only by the great amount of dust they twinkled onto the father ad daughter as they played. The young Princess Zelda thoroughly lost in blissful defeat by her father.

And he enjoying ever moment of this hard-earned victory.

"That's adorable. Reminds me of raising these two brats back on Patch." PAT-PAT! The statement from Tai came as he let his hands fall on top of either girl's head. Neither were pleased.

"H-HEY!" "Not the hair dad!"

"Rascals so excited about every little thing. If they weren't biting ankles, they were pretending they were chopping down trees, or punching the boulders nearby to see if they could break them in half. Guess you could call them chips of the old block." The blonde's grin was broad, and Link could hear the disappointment linger in the air, strong enough to make even his daughters sag under his hand.

"Maybe we you can speak of your daughters in a less… abusive manner?" Ozpin's request sounded odd to Link. Then again, the headmaster was massaging the bridge of his nose, pushing his glasses up as he did so. "I fear that you may cause them pain if you continue speaking in such a way."

"C'mon Oz, as far as puns go, this is pretty low on the punishment scale." The groaning was far louder now, and Link was beginning to see what the issue was. Or rather, he could hear it.

"Make it stop… please." Ruby had her head in her hands. "Just… please let Link keeping speaking about Zelda, or mini-Zelda… not Queen Zelda."

"That actually is something I have a curiosity about. Why Zelda?" Ironwood faced Link with the question, hands resting on the table. "I can understand naming an offspring after an ancestor in the family, as it is certainly common in the royals even today, but after her mother? And without a suffix to distinguish them?"

"It would make events confusing for others, especially as your child got older," Tai finally let up, pulling his armored hands off of his girls. Ruby acted as if she were breaching an ocean for air. "Can't imagine having Yang here named after her mother. Already got too close with her having my last name."

"Don't make me imagine that," said blonde pleaded. "Naming me after her. I'd rather you crack dad jokes at me for a week than have that kind of name." The woman in question didn't conceal her snarl at the girl, her daughter, Link had to remind himself. The exchange, venomous as it was, was recognized by the others almost passively, as if it were natural. He struggled in his seat, just as uncomfortable with it as he was speaking for so long.

"Oddity aside, I must ask Link if there was any significance to this moment." Ozpin's words felt sharp. "Please, please, I meant no offense. I only believe in the scale that I believe this story will eventually reach, the comforting time of teaching your daughter how to fletch and notch arrows will seem… small."

"Do small things not matter?" Saria spoke faster than Link could think. "Should a sapling be ignored for a forest giant? How will a forest survive if only the mighty can grow in it?"

"A forest endures for time near immortal. I am asking for tale meant to be finished before the end of the day." Ozpin's quick return was just as impressive.

"A tale about a daughter and her father, about a father who fought through much for her." There was no anger or disappointment in Saria's words. Link could count on one hand all the moments he had heard such a sound from his old guardian. "A daughter that Link cared for, but Time felt the need to test the bonds for. Test them with a terrible battle… one that was destined to rise."

Link nodded with her words, the event she was speaking of clear in his mind. Clearer now with the recent events just as fresh in his mind. It must have shown on his features, and he was in a room where everyone was staring, therefore focused, on him.

"Battle, war, all mean death." Dr. Oobleck snuck in again. "And destiny intertwined. Interesting, curious as well. Predicted then? How long ago? By what methods? Stars or dreams? Different methods mean different levels of accuracy, though both far from accurate in comparison to studying opposing cultures."

"Bartholomew, I may ask you to hold off on your questions."

"Yes yes, of course! Personal musings far less important than actual event, well aware." Dr. Oobleck placated his superior. "Much to manage, speaking as I write. Ignore me."

"Don't ask for the impossible," Raven ground out. "And what are you waiting on? I'm still looking for the part where you explain how that sword of yours got here." Her ire was not reserved for anyone member in the room, which earned her the patient, or impatient, gaze of all nearby.

But her curiosity, or impatience, was understood. There was still a story to tell. Link had to speak it.

No matter how much he loathed what came next.

Fighting in the fields of Hyrule was not something many fighters enjoyed. Too many directions for dangers to come from. Arrows falling from the sky, riders galloping across the grass, frontline fighters carrying spikes and spears, even the aerial foes that swept down to attack. In a field there was nothing to put your back against to protect yourself.

Fighting in an open field was a difficult and nerve-racking experience.

Fighting in a sand-meltingly hot desert was far worse.

"Soldiers! Keep your positions back! Do not lose your position in line! Archers, trust your men! Shoot the dunes and do notstop!" The voice of the queen roared above the clashing battle around her.

Running in the attire of a royal commander, wielding a rapier doused in holy light, she yelled to her troops as she slashed through monsters. Tektites and Moldugas fell to her as she tore through them, steel and light turning the most vicious of monsters to wisps of smoke. But for however many she killed, farmore lined the sands around them.

Their army had started in the tens of thousands, and in a day of fighting, the number was ground to half.

And the monsters never stopped coming.

"BEGONE!" Zelda yelled out as she thrust her blade forward. It shot between the soldiers of two of her men, stabbing through a Darknut's helm and sending the sprawling metal into a heap in the sand, falling into it and vanishing. She did not have time to celebrate. "Continue to fall back, but do notturn your back! Do not show them weakness!" Her commands echoed once more.

The clatter of steel was heavy, but she knew she was not alone. She had come here with many friends, many generals, and many men.

But Queen Zelda had lost some of them, from all of them.

She had lost men, she had lost generals, and she had lost friends.

And there wasn't a second in the hours of fighting to even mourn. She could do nothing with it, because she had never experienced loss in such a way. She could only fight on and keep her men safe.

"My Queen! Duck!" One man yelled out to her, too slow for her to realize that another Stalfo had raised a mighty lance over her head. Her feet too ingrained in the sand to jump, and arm extended to far to pull back. She was going to be hit.

CHING! Until a blade severed it from bottom to top, through bone, stone, and steel. It fell away to reveal its killer, standing proud in an armor of gold, and with a scarf of blue.

"Link!" Zelda yelled to her spouse, the man standing with the Master Sword in hand, pulling it back to defend himself among the myriad of monsters. "Link! We must continue to fall back! We were unprepared for this!" She was not wrong.

But while Zelda had not lost anyone in fights such as this Link had.

He had lost friends in many battles, lost them to monsters and men, and he knew how to use that feeling. In a distant future no one remembered, and with a land of the dead in his mind, he remembered how he had watched old friends perish, only to fight on the next day.

Zelda did not know how to use the pain of mourning in a battle. Link did. And he intended to.

He told her as much, and the Queen objected.

"You cannot run off and do that Link! The men need a general now, and you cannot abandon them!" The command came with a stab over her head, a summersault that bisected a monster clawing for her. Link parried and destroyed two others in so much time. "We have already… the men have no one else to follow!" That was not true.

But when they had witnessed the Great Royal Protector Impa being cut down by her legs, and Link too slow to save her, morale had plunged. A mask of her memory was little good when the stain of her death was impossible to ignore.

Link held that memory in him as he threw his shield out, bashing a skull in and tearing off the helmet around it. He used the armor of the monster to bowl over two others, just as able to dodge in the sand as the Hylian army. Zelda didn't blink, even if the fellow soldiers blessed him for it.

He was not blessing himself. Not when he had watched Darunia being discarded in such a way.

"We have to retreat Link! We can… we can think of something else." Her voice was quiet now, barely heard over the screaming in the field of battle. Her hand was his shoulder, perhaps intending to pull him away, though they both knew the act would be foolish at best. He didn't answer her.

Instead, he looked at the Great Tower in the distance, the monolith pulled up from the sand like a grave marker. One that was shadowing all the evil of the battlefield, and looked all the more menacing as blood and bodies piled up around it.

The Master Sword aimed towards it, tilted to act as if the tip of the sacred blade could punish the distance itself and destroy the top of the structure. He wished it, and so did Zelda, because on top of that structure was the source of all this pain, this death, and this horror. Up there was the reason the battle was going south, and he knew it. Link had no reason to think otherwise.

"Link… we will kill him, but we can't yet, not like this." Zelda implored him once more. "We canmake a plan, we canfind a way, but not here. The men are dyingwithout us. Without direction… we won't last." Zelda wasn't wrong either.

Link turned from the tower, facing his queen, his spouse, and his love. The army needed her.

But she was wrong. It didn't need him. It never did.

Leaning forward. Link gave her a quick chaste kiss. Just enough to make her real back in surprise. It was impossible to tell if the heat on her face was from the desert, the war, or the intimacy. In the end, it didn't matter, not to him.

Link had already taken out Elrora's mask.

Before Zelda could call out to him, he was in the air, soaring towards the head of the tower.

The archers that fired at him couldn't hope to match his speed. No beast in the sky could flap their wings before he was gliding past them. The desert was far beneath him, but the tower was stretching before him. And despite how far away he was when he started to fly, it took even longer to ascend, the tower that caught the clouds.

Windows, stone monuments, and etchings from years of work were all flung past him, faster than any eye could see. Neither Link nor Elrora cared. All that mattered was at the top of this tower.

And when he broached the surface, he shunned Elrora's mask, putting it away before he flipped deftly and landed on the high ceiling. The wind was cold, the air thin, and his body worn.

In that tired state, he looked up in the cold impassive eyes of a mad king, who gazed down at him with glowering hatred. Hatred that burned in golden eyes that roared like hell's infernos. With air that matched heat. With a body fit more for giants than men. With a snarl that would turn milk sour. And with a lance that was heavier than Link fully armored, carried in one and.

All of it was there, and all Link cared for was the man himself.

"Hero of Time. You have come." The rumbling voice of Ganondorf shook the tower, more than the battle that echoed far beneath it. "Have enough of your queen's men died to earn your attention? Or have you come to this high point to watch."

SHINK!His blade was out in a moment, aimed at the man. It glowed with the holy light of the Sacred Realm, just as Ganondorf's lance burned with the fires of hell.

"I am not surprised you wish to fight, only that you would scorn your men and queen to do so." The sick twist of his lips turned upwards into a malicious smile. "Do you admit to be so careless with your men? Do you see them disposable? If so then you are farmore horrendous than I! I can recreate my troops, breath life into the dead Gerudo, rule a land of nothing and turn it into a paradise for ALL!"

He raised his hand high into the air, letting it shine with might.

"And I can do it with the power gifted to me by the gods."

The triangle on his hand, glimmering with a light more brilliant than the Master's Swords, was proof of it.

"What can you do, Hero? What can you hope to do to quell my insatiable rage?" Link took his stance, blue eyes narrowed like shaped ice. "Face me then? To the death? To end my rage and fury upon this land!?" He screamed at the idea. "You may face me, but you will notkill me! I will lead a scourge upon this land, your kingdom, and all that the light touches!"

The fires around him burned with his command, and Link never took his eyes off of the Dark King as he did so. He never forgot the faces of the friends he'd lost this day, and used them now. Impa, Darunia, Ruto, Malon, Nabooru. They were all that he could see.

Standing before him and the Dark King.

"This world will fall to darkness, Hero! And you with it!" The time to talk was finished.

Link charged, screaming for the death of a king.

"I never saw Ganondorf act in so vile a way… and yet I have no difficulty in imagining it," Ironwood crossed his arms and breathed deeply the somber note. "I had nothing but mixed feelings about him, but on paper and in testimony, he would appear to have been a powerful man guided by redemption. If that was how he acted before, and the army was his fault… then I suppose his desire for redemption was needed. Though I cannot testify if it as genuine."

"I think he was being honest at least," Ruby added in. "I mean… that's bad what he did, like really bad, but… I don't know. He did help me and Link before. Restored my Aura and everything so-"

"Wait, he did what?!" Raven, of all people, spoke up. Link was surprised the passively aggressive woman displayed an ounce of surprise, born of fear. "What did he do to do it? Did he latch onto you? Did he…"

"H-He just gave me a 'shard of power'! That's what he called it!" Ruby hastily put up her hands. Tai and Yang were close behind her, and Link felt no reason to interfere. Even Saria was simply hanging her legs next to him. The grip on his leg, just above his knee, was strong. He knew why.

She wasn't there, but she knew what was coming.

"Shard of power, shard of his power? Essence of Aura? Fracture of soul? Gifted!?" Dr. Oobleck pushed forward. "Can you describe it Ms. Rose? Size, color, density, shape, weight, speed, fragility, light fracture, shore hardness?"

"I didn't see it! Honest! I was just at mom's grave and he just did something and it was like *POOF*!" She shot her arms out to show just what 'it' was. Link wasn't sure if it was obvious from her action. But he knew what she was talking about. "I just suddenly had my Aura back and I could sense the danger. Before that, I was just at mom's grave and he… stopped to make sure I was okay."

"Yeah, that was right after you called us and made it sound like a final testament." Yang had her hand on Ruby as she spoke. "Getting off track Rubes, never do that again, okay?"

"I won't, and I already promised I wouldn't."

"You did, but considering how dad was trying to hope to the elevator on one leg to try and find you… on Patch… let me just drill it into you deeper than I could a fist into a Grimm, okay?" Ruby sighed at Yang's insistence.

"Could've phrased it better, but Yang's not wrong Rubes. Pretty sure even the general or Saria over there could tell you how out of it I was."

"He was rather insistent on leaving. He would not answer the question of how he would get there." Link breathed slowly at Saria's agreement.

"Okay, okay, I know it was bad, and I am sorry, but Ganondorf did help me out. At least that call would've… could've… been a lot worse if he hadn't shown up. I mean, he was fighting Roman when he was wearing that mask, and stopped just because of the moon, and the Grimm… and Link…" Said hero sighed.

"That is who he is now, but not who he was before. That is all we can conclude from this." Ozpin turned back to Link with the simple deduction. "I agree that Ganondorf did much to placate us before, even if his stature and power alone were enough to inspire fear in many others."

"The Council still have a working contract to have him executed, set out shortly after the reports of the Atlas Military being unable to subdue him." The note came from Ms. Goodwitch standing in the corner of the room. The news wasn't surprising, and he doubted it would do much to affect Ganondorf either way. It took the Hylian Military and himself to chance at defeating him.

"Yes, well, they aren't the most dedicated members of society when it comes to foresight." Ozpin's quip was hardly unnoticed. "Though I am glad to hear, and kind to agree, that knowing Ganondorf had his dark side shown so drastically before is proof he wasn't merely a misunderstood figure. There was an evil to him."

"But you beat him, right?" Raven's question came now. "Had to of. You killed him and took that mask off of his face. The thing that surprised everyone hear, including the girl next to you." Insults within her questions even, finger pointing at Saria. "You hid that you had his mask or whatever before. Like Tai said, even Saria was surprised to see him. So you didn't just kill him. You saved him."

Link nodded his head. There was no point in denying that he had done that.

"I am curious as well… why did you try to save him Link?" Saria's question, however, was harder to answer. "He was responsible for much of the war, all of it. He had taken the lives of the sages with his own hand. He had power that made the sand freeze and sky burn. So why did you try and save him? Why did you do it?"

Link didn't answer, not immediately. With the eyes of everyone in the room on him, he laid his hands out on the table. One hand atop the other, calloused fingers hidden beneath leather gloves. He had swung his blade a lot with these hands, and used just as many other tools with them before. Now, he was just staring at them with his silver eyes.

Slowly rubbing circles over the back of his left palm, feeling the burning triangle that had been engraved upon it.

Pity.

The word came out with far more hesitation than his story.

Understanding.

"You understood him?" Raven sounded far from convinced. "Hell, you pitied him? The guy killed your friends and you're talking about feeling bad for the guy?"

"I must agree that is a rare person to feel anything close to an emotional connection towards," Ironwood joined in. "Pity for enemies who not only wish, but do bring death is a dangerous thing. Did he say or do something that made you believe that he was worthy of such a tale?" Link nodded.

It was a legend he heard long ago, but one not even Saria could recall.

"You heard of the hatred he had in him then. You realized it before you fought him… or while you fought him." Ozpin, the wise man, spoke instead. "I do not think it important how you figured it out, but I am curious why you decided to act the way you did towards him. Even if he was a victim of a curse, it was one that had him enacting desires of his own. Why would you feel guilt for one such as that?"

Hatred is blinding.

That was a truth he knew for far too long. Hatred kept everyone from forging a better future, and instead kept them trying to change the immutable past. He'd seen it too much, and lived through it for years on repeat. That wasn't something the Hero of Time wished to think of now.

Link sighed again, hoping to stave off the further question that would come from the statement.

The story had to continue, because there was far more to tell.

The most important detail was soon to follow.

The battle had left him tired and weak, nearly broken as well. The tower was crumbling before Ganondorf drew his final breath, and before the whispers of his song took his spirit from his rage, and separated them.

Link took the mask of the Mad King, fleeing from the tower as it began to give under its own weight.

He hung in the air as he fell, watching the remnants of the army fall with their king.

Link watched the monsters squirming in the molten sands, dust swirling around them with the coarse sand and tearing into their flesh. Watched as pillars of darkness rose about them and took over their bodies, burning them worse than the sun itself.

One by one, like candles in a field, they were snuffed from existence, falling and melding into the sand, or giving way through the brick and mortar of the collapsing temple. Link couldn't tell which was more frequent, more likely, or more important. He didn't believe any of them were.

Holding onto the Paraglider, drifting through the air, he saw the line of the Hylian Military, the remnants of their army, and he flew towards it. The war settling beneath him, and Ganondorf dead behind him, a smile pulled at his lips. It was little different than the first time he had faced the Mad King, but it was still as terrible a battle now as it was then.

Even if he offered a peaceful farewell in death, the release of his power was destroying everything around him. Link took it as the ultimate sign of victory, and that he could not hold out for much longer.

Even if Link held that power now.

He had to return quick, because Zelda was waiting for him. She and the army would need him, if only to assure them that Ganondorf was dead, that Nabooru was avenged, and that they had done what they set out to do. He needed to tell them that the lives lost were not lost in vain.

For men who had marched from homes and comfort, they needed to hear it.

He needed to return to his princess, to Tatl and Tael who now constantly hovered at her side and speak to them about what happened. He needed to tell them all about how he did now what he had done before, and that Zelda was even safer for it. He needed them to see the mask he had made, and then listen on what to do.

Link needed to do much, and he knew it as he slowly fell towards the ground, the rumbling of the falling tower behind him like thunder on his approach.

His leathery boots hit the sand first, and he was in a jog through the ruined messes of the Hylian Army as he did so. Dead men stared up at him, others weak and being tended to mumbling at him as he drifted past them. He gave them nods, but little else. He needed to find Zelda.

Gorons and Watarara approached him as well, offering thanks and somber farewells as he ghosted past them. They were collecting themselves as well, nerves still frayed from the battle. The monsters were dead, but they were just as ready for the battle to continue, after having it so nearly fall to ruin before.

Link moved through all of them, looking for Zelda and trying to find her. But he was having little luck.

"SIR LINK!" Someone finally called his name, and he turned to see a non-descript soldier calling towards him. "SIR LINK! HERE! PLEASE HURRY!" The fear in his voice was more convincing than the words, so Link followed.

The man was sprinting, even in his heavy armor, and it forced Link to do the same. He did not know what was so important to follow and find, not that the tower of Ganondorf Dragmire was ruined and his military with it. They had given the Gerudo a chance to grow again, but he needed to collect the army together first.

"Sir Link! You must hurry!" The soldier spoke as if Link were in fear of falling behind him. "It… this cannot wait!"

Why was this soldier calling for him?

He was no general, hardly a leader? He was a knight under Queen Zelda, and she would be far more preferred to ask for help than him. Maybe she needed him, as that would make far more sense. The sand was hard to run through, but Link did so despite his fatigue.

If Queen Zelda needed him, he would not accept any reason to slow himself.

But even after going through several lines of men, each them broken and weary, still Link did not see Zelda. Her golden form, her tall body, her shining hair, none of it. It brought a drip of fear to his gut.

The feeling only became worse when he broached a dune and found dozens of soldiers, perhaps hundreds, shed of their helms and crying. Tears spilling from them and doing little to control themselves as he passed. The few who recognized him tried to straighten up, to hold their head high, but it was too difficult.

They were too tired, too sore, too beaten… and something had broken them.

"She's here… just up ahead…" Link swallowed to wet his dry mouth as the soldier spoke, his quick pace having died down to a forced walk. He pointed head, to where several soldiers stood tall and in a defensive formation, but eyes looking as broken as a shield smashed by Ganondorf himself. "She's… Her highness needs you, Sir Link… I'm… I'm sorry."

Link wanted to hear nothing of the word. Terror gave him energy, and he tore ahead, the guards moving aside when he did so. He beat up the sand, pushing away the fatigue, the pain, the unease, all of it, in order to see Zelda. She had to be here!

And she was… lying down on sheet of cloth, stained red, eyes shut, and a wound marring her stomach.

She did not stir as he approached.

Link stared down at her, one of the few sights in his life to truly make him freeze in horror. Not the dark future he had witnessed as a child, not the machinations of Majora in the other world, nothing made him feel like he did now. Like ice had frozen over in his stomach, like his eyes were about to fall from their sockets, like his legs were too weak to hold up his sword, let alone his body.

FUUM! The sound of sand being beaten away thrummed as Link's knees gave out. He fell, collapsed even, by Zelda's side. His Zelda, his queen, laying still over the sheet and with her hands folded over her chest. They were as bloody as the cloth underneath her.

"She was attacked… a-and we couldn't stop it." A soldier spoke, but Link didn't give them heed or mind. "Some giant beast…a monster that… it tore through her, and she was only barely able to slay it before she fell."

Link's hand hovered over the wound, still warm even compared to the scorching heat of the desert. Blood didn't flow from the wound, it dripped. That made him all the more horrified.

This could not be happening.

"She was… we put her on the flag, to keep her above the sand, but she… she wasn't recovering. Everyone who knew how they… they were already gone." Already dead, already killed.

Impa was killed. Ruto was killed. Rauru was too far away. All mages that could heal were gone. All fairies used.

Nothing to save Queen Zelda from the perforation of her stomach… from the beast that clawed through her.

"I'm sorry Sir Link. I'm so… sorry but Queen Zelda… her highness is… she's-" Not even the solider could utter the word.

Link dared not himself. He couldn't say it. He couldn't just admit that she… Link couldn't say Zelda was dead. How could she? He was supposed to protect it was his job. He was the Hero of Time and she… she was the Princess of Destiny, the Queen of Hyrule. This wasn't how this was supposed to happen. It just wasn't. She was supposed to outlive him, to lead Hyrule to be… to not stop like this.

Her breathing was short, non-existent, as he hovered over her, wondering what he could do. What had to be done. There had to be something, anything.

Link had never given up before, and he was not now. Even when time was undone, and Time herself commanded him, he found a way. There was always a way out, but he didn't have the tools. The tools and skills for it were gone or too far away.

And there was no tool that could bring back the dead.

… But Power could.

Link looked at his palm, the back of his hand that had on it the proof of his defeat of Ganondorf. Not the Mask of his Memories, not the lance he had used to fight with. It was an etching of power that was engraved upon his hand now, as another was before it.

Power was in his grasp, and Ganondorf had used that Power before to return the dead to life.

Queen Zelda of Hyrule was dead… but Link refused to accept it.

He clenched his fists above her stomach, breathing heavily as the rest of the soldiers eyed him, crying in mourning for their queen. The defeat of Ganondorf a non-event in the face of this tragedy. But it wouldn't be a tragedy for long.

Link was not going to lose her.

"Sir Link… what…" The question withered away. It was concealed even.

As a triangle of brilliant gold bloomed on Link's hand, the tearful faces and unsure words were smothered to death.

It was a power that hung above Zelda's body, flowing through Link and making his soul burn. It felt like his nerve's itches, that his mind was about to implode. That all possibilities were possible, and all impossibilities gone. It was like holding the Master Sword for the first time, but in reverse.

He didn't have the power to vanquish evil, but instead had the power to create light.

Ganondorf had corrupted it, a man with no courage who had let it fall to ruin.

Link was not Ganondorf, and he was not going to stop.

BOOOOOOOONNG! The echo of Power rung across the desert, but Link payed it no attention. The soldiers were screaming, but he didn't look towards them. He didn't care about any of them.

All he cared about Zelda, and that she died because he wasn't with her.

So, he'd give everything to bring her back.

A scream ripped from him as he sent power into her, using Ganondorf's stolen shard to breath life into Zelda. Heal her wounds, as he did his, give him breath, as he did his, and make her live. Link would not fail, he could not!

The silk underneath her was nearly ripped to shreds, burning where it wasn't torn. Link didn't care. His soul felt as if it were being shredded, but he didn't care. All he cared about was Zelda, and Link wasn't going to lose her.

He focused, eyes burning like they were on fire, as her wound started to stitch itself. The light that burned from her as powerful and brilliant as the gaze of the Master Sword. It dipped away slowly, but was don so with more and more of her flesh, and gown, being shown.

More than just her skin, her clothing was healing as well. Link watched, but he didn't stop. He couldn't.

His eyes turned towards her face, watching her and hoping beyond anything else that the Power would do its job.

He watched it work… and didn't stop even with what he saw.

He watched her golden hair bleach itself. He watched the red that had stuck to it from her wound being burned away, leaving only straw white locks of air behind. He watched her pale skin, colored like a newborn's cheeks, shimmering away until they were the purest white. Parts of her turning white, burning as if becoming one with the light, but that was all that turned brilliant.

Zelda's clothing did so much the opposite. From royal blues and purples, to midnight black.

Her gown and leggings looking as if they were made from charred cinders, coating her outfit and making her look as if she were a shadow. Clinging to her and flowing up her body possessively. So much so that tendrils of darkness started to crawl up her neck. Like vines in a forest up a giant tree, clinging to her skin and melding with it. Even with the brilliance of Power hovering over her, Link couldn't' see a shadow, but he also didn't care to stop.

Because through it all, the only thing he cared about was her life. It didn't matter what else happened to her.

Link just needed more time… he just needed more time. He just needed TIME!

"GUUUUH!" The sound of a desperate gasp finally hit his ears.

And it was matched with Zelda's back lurching, and body writhing to life.

Link clenched his fist, drawing Power back once more, damning his soul for feeling as if it were alight. He ignored the ache it gave him, the horrendous feeling of agony that ripped through him, because he wasn't important. Queen Zelda was all that mattered.

And she was on her hands and knees, gowned in the black outfit, like her royal battle attire charred with fire's remains. Her skin was almost like a mirror to the harsh sun, and her long hair flowing to the sand, being lost in its coarse grain. Her breathing was harsh and hollow, coughing and hacking. But breathing at all.

Link put his hand on her shoulder, holding her steady. Her hand rose to his knee, gripping him with a desperate strength. He ignored the burning in his limbs, focused only on her. Not the guards screaming behind her, no one else, just her.

Even as she turned to face him, and Link was too out of breath to gasp.

"L-Link… Link?" Her voice wavered as she spoke, her voice though. Link latched onto that. "How… w-what happened? I… I thought I…" Zelda raised her hands and stared down at them, shivering. "W-What… What?" Link had no answers for her.

Not for her alabaster hair, not for her black scarred skin, not for her midnight clothing.

Not even for her red eyes staring back at him, over a bottomless black void.

"Link… what happened to me?"