Epilogue

Din was the Goddess of Death. She ferried the departed to the Sacred Realm and kept their light safe until Nayru needed to return them to the earth, to another body, another family, a new mind. But it was the same soul. It was always the same soul.

"Is it time?" Nayru asked as she came up behind her sister.

Din sat at the edge of the pool of souls, watching two familiar ones clinging to each other so tightly that there was no mistaking who they'd last belonged to. Running her fingers along them, they separated only for the moment she touched them, and then they snapped back together. She could see them both in her mind: one courageous enough to face death again and again, and the other wise and strong enough to bear the weight of the world if need be.

"They're the ones," Din said, breathing into her leg as she tucked it under her chin. "I wish they weren't."

"I know. But it is time. We need them as much as they'll need each other."

"After all these years, he's back."

Nayru took her place beside her sister. "Yes. I thought we'd been rid of him, too. Farore is taking care of the sword now, protecting it until the time is right. We cannot defeat him in this form, and he knows it."

Din closed her eyes and grabbed one of the souls, feeling their lives in her hand. "I won't let him die. Not this time."

Nayru held the other. "Sometimes, even you don't have to power to stop the inevitable."

Din scoffed and released the soul down to the land below, letting it wander to find its body. Nayru did the same.

They both crossed their arms, watching them drift down like feathers in the wind.

"You've taken a liking to the boy," Nayru laughed as she stepped away, seeing Din's hesitation to leave.

Din, on the other hand, shook her head. "I'm going to place my mark on him again."

"What?" Nayru hissed, rushing to grab her sister. "What are you thinking?"

With eyes like fire, Din pulled her arm free. "I'll control that boy's death. Give the girl your protection again."

"I can't. Not again."

"Do it!"

"We cannot meddle now. We have more to worry about. The return of that beast for one."

But Din simply smiled and winked. "Bye!"

"Din!" Nayru went to take a step forward, but Din was already gone.

Din stared into the eyes of the young baby, bright and blue, held by his father. A knight of Hyrule, a Royal Guard, even. He was born into a family with the perfect circumstances to give him his best chance at becoming the hero the world would need, she thought wryly. Souls knew what they were doing.

"You'll be strong," she whispered, booping the baby on the nose before grabbing the back of his hand. And once again, the boy had the Hand of Din upon him. And she returned to the Sacred Realm with a satisfied smile upon her face.

But the smile fell all too quickly.

She collected many souls in the years that followed the births of both babies as monsters ravaged the land. It became a task that she'd devoted all her time to, and rarely was able to check on the status of her favorite Hylian.

The Sacred Realm felt a fragility that it hadn't experienced in many centuries. There was a power trying to break through, to usurp the divinity of the three Goddesses, and there were only two Hylians who had the power to stop it.

Din, Nayru, and Farore all convened when a surge of light wafted through the Sacred Realm, engulfing everything they knew in a cloud of warmth and peace. When Farore investigated, it was the boy, just a child, who'd made it through the protective maze of her creation to pull the Sacred Sword from its resting place.

As hopeful as it made her, she sighed, remembering the last time she'd held the boy's hand. When he'd given his life for a girl his physical form barely knew, but his soul was connected to. And now, he was here, ready to do it all again. Farore knew their paths would have to cross soon, and she feared what this Sword and the responsibility it brought would do to that boy. If he was willing to give up his life for one girl, what would he be willing to sacrifice when he realized the entire world needed him?

There was already Malice seeping up from the earth. Malice, the purest evil, and the one thing that none of the Goddesses themselves could touch since the birth of Demise eons ago. They'd already lost their fourth sister in an attempt to stop it. Now, that sacrifice was all they had left as a weapon against such evil. And once her soul was reincarnated, even that was beyond their control.

Nayru watched some years later as Link's father brought him to the castle grounds. Link had already shrunk into himself, becoming a shell of what he once was. His childhood had been effectively stolen the moment he'd pulled the sword. It hurt her to watch one of her two chosen souls suffer so much. But she didn't have the luxury this time around of easing either of their minds.

He'd turned, looking at the magnificence of the high walls and glorious gardens. And there, a young emerged, clutching on to the arm of her handmaiden as she excitedly told her a story.

Link's father noticed his son's distraction and immediately bowed, nudging his boy to follow suit.

The Princess of Hyrule's eyes went immediately to the sword on the back of the boy, the sword that was so large it nearly dragged into the grass behind him. It didn't even looked like it belonged to him, but the Princess knew that it did. It stirred a resentment in her small body that she didn't even know she could possess, and she immediately stormed away.

Nayru made a face and watched as Link's gaze on her lingered until she was long gone before returning his attention to his father.

Years later, Din watched Link fall to his knees, bleeding and struggling for breath. Zelda was pressed up behind him, clutching his arm in desperation.

"Link, save yourself! Go! I'll be fine! Don't worry about me! Run!"

She made to push Link out of the way as the Guardians approached, but Link held fast, pushing himself to his feet and raising his sword again.

Both of their eyes went wide as the Guardian crawled over the rubble and the wreckage, locking its single blue eye on them, raising itself to an impossible height as it climbed over its own dead to ensure its prey had no escape.

Nayru appeared beside Din, with Farore on the other side. "Can we do anything?"

"The Calamity is too strong to intervene," Din said simply. "I've already tried."

"Then the Spirit of Demise has won."

"NO!" Zelda cried, pushing herself in front of Link, her hand raised skyward as a massive beam of blinding light erupted from it, engulfing the land, permeating the sky, breaking through the barriers of the Sacred Realm itself.

The Guardian sputtered, and the light subsided, and every Guardian on the field fell to the earth with a crash of rapidly decaying metal.

"Was that…" Din asked at the same time that Zelda did. She turned to her sisters.

Nayru nodded and watched, open mouthed. "I gave her my protection. Perhaps that was what made it so difficult to access the Sacred Power?"

"Too little too late, it seems," Din said, as she walked over to Link and Zelda.

Zelda cradled her knight in her arms as she begged him to get up. And when his head lolled back and his breathing subsided, Zelda's head crashed down to his chest, her body wrought with despair.

Din knelt beside him, feeling his death keenly. She'd thought her mark would be enough to keep the inevitability of death at bay. But instead, like her hand always did, it simply caused more death.

Her eyes flicked up to the castle, to the town of people she still needed to collect. To the beast who claimed the world as its own. To the man behind it who wanted the Sacred Realm and all its powers.

Had she and Nayru doomed the world with their intervention? The look on her sister said that the thought was there in her mind as well.

But Din had always been stubborn, and there were few things that could stop her when she wanted something done.

"You will not die, Link," Din said, grabbing his hand where she'd held him as a baby. The mark glowed, her power lighting up even the Master Sword in his hand. "I will not take you with me today."

"So he can… he can still be saved?" Zelda asked, almost as if she could hear the whisper of the Goddess in her ear.

Din locked eyes with Zelda, for only a moment, forgotten with a blink. Din stood up, pulling up the hem of her dress as she walked back to her sisters with a determined look on her face, more determined even than when she attempted to show Nayru up.

"What did you do?" Nayru asked as several Sheikah ran over to the fallen boy.

"Nothing. I'm just not taking him today. That is my right. I've marked him, and I will take his life when I see fit."

"He's dead, Din."

"He's not dead until I say he's dead."

Nayru and Farore watched as the Sheikah took Link's body away, leaving the Princess to hurry in the other direction.

"What makes you so sure? We have no influence in the Calamity."

Din flexed her fingers and held them tight. She'd have to wait. They'd all have to wait for Link to recover from death, but this was not the end.

She'd once offered the boy a chance to trade his life for Zelda's. He gave it freely again in this life. And she'd be damned if the Goddess of Death wasn't able to control the one thing that was hers. Even if it took 100 years.

A/N: AKA The fic where I managed to kill Link twice hahahahaha! Din's stubbornness was what we hated in the beginning of this story! I wanted to write this as the epilogue for about half this fic, so I'm glad it's here, but I also know that it's not for everyone, since it's not the same Link and Zelda you probably expected to be featured here, so feel free to pretend this ended in the last chapter if you want! Anyway, thank you so much for reading!

Reviews: James Birdsong: Thank youuu! AndrewPixelKnight: Do ittttttttt!