Moments after the fall of Hyrule

They ran, as fast as they could. They had to, they had to escape from it, before it was too late. He had to protect her, no matter the cost. Even if his life would become forfeit.

But it felt as if it was already too late to do so, that the weight of it all was just too much. It was as if hell itself was raining down upon their shoulders, explosions and beams of death flying all around them.

Blood and rain mixed with the mud underneath their feet, only to be burned away seconds later by flaming beams of light.

The battle they had been preparing all their lives for, had come too soon, and the opposition they faced quickly became overwhelming. Their greatest allies in the fight were turned against them, and the resulting chaos rapidly brought about an end to peace in the land.

He knew that despite this all, she couldn't be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy. For if they lost her, then the war was truly well and lost. So when it all started falling to pieces around them, they ran without looking back.

The Princess of her own kingdom was forced to flee in terror, abandoning her people in the hopes that she may live to fight back against the calamity one day.

Her loyal and noble knight, armed with the sword of legends escorted her away from the burning castle town, throwing himself in harms way to keep her safe.

But it wasn't enough, and they truly weren't prepared. The loyal Shiekah, the people that devoted themselves to the continued safety of the royal family, were late. And because of such an outcome, the only chance of surviving this war, was left in the hands of an eighteen year old knight.

But try as he might have, with courage far surpassing all other men in the land, one boy alone with a sword would not be enough to protect the Princess by himself. Especially not against a threat that so quickly overwhelmed the armies of Hyrule.

The Guardians, large mystical and mechanical creations made to serve the royal family, the machines that they had armed themselves with in preparation to face the return of the dark lord, had all suddenly turned against them. The malice that embodied the king of evil was too strong, that it overtook any and all who's wills couldn't resist it's powers.

And now, because of that, Hyrule and her beloved people, were burning in flames. If only she had access to the power of the Goddess sooner, then this outcome may have yet been prevented.

And in the dead of night, the city of her people burning in the background, the darkness was illuminated by beams of hot death as the Guardians rapidly approached her. She couldn't think, she didn't know what to do.

They were out of time, and death was hot on their heels. So caught up in the moment, she was completely unaware of when her noble knight took a death blow meant for her. The tears blinded her as the hero took a second and third lethal attack, all for her. But still, they kept running.

Then it changed!

She…

She could finally feel it! The power of the Goddess, it bubbled up within her, leaking out from within her pores. She suddenly pulled away form her knight, and it was as if the Goddess herself guided her hand.

There was a bright blinding flash of yellow, and everything suddenly stopped. The Guardians went deathly still, the vile malice for the moment, leaving them. The attacks stopped, the fires faded out as the rain storm continued to flood the area. The machines that hunted them seemed to drop dead, and for a moment they were finally safe.

But…

When she turned around to face her noble knight, the sight that greeted her stopped her heart cold.

Her knight..

Her savior, the young and noble Link, lay face down in the mud, unmoving…

Clenched tightly in his hands was the legendary sword of the very gods, blessed by their eternal power. And it was broken, chipped, burned, and cracked. The ethereal glow that it always emitted, the power to repel evil, flickered in the blade.

And then it just stopped…

It was as if everything in the entire world just stopped, and she found herself unable to tear her eyes away from his unmoving form. The royal tunic he wore was drenched in blood, his blood.

He… he was.. he had…

He threw away his life..

To save her own. And because of that she was able to unlock the sacred powers of the Goddess Hylia. But the cost…

It was too much to bear, and she couldn't help herself as she ran to his side. Tears escaped her eyes as she wept bitterly, cradling his lifeless head in her lap. His blank gaze stared up lifelessly at her own, blood escaping from his lips. Not a single breath left him.

He was gone, and he was gone, because of her.

She was barely given any time to weep, because the aforementioned Sheikah had finally arrived, and swept her off her feet. There was no time to grieve, no time to think, nothing. She felt all her strength leave her as the stealthy ninja carried her off into the distance, far, far away from the immediate danger.

And from the body of her savior, who lay forgotten in the rain, alone in his death with nothing but his damaged sword.

And as darkness fell on the cooling corpse of her hero, the dark bubbling glint of the encroaching malice served as the only source of light. It had sought out another body that it could convert, turning it into another monster for the dark lord…

But as it began to cover his body, it came into contact with the blessed sword. And like a beast, it recoiled at the very touch of its mortal enemy. It's presence seemed to kickstart something within the damaged weapon, and the glow began to return to it.

But something was terribly wrong. It was damaged, and the holy energy within had become tainted by the malice. It was unable to fully repel the horrid hate filled evil as it began to take over its master, converting him.

It's energy thrashed within the confines of the chipped blade, biting and hissing at the vile entity. And the malice was finally forced to retreat, lest it be destroyed by the evil repelling powers of the Master Sword.

But the affects it had on its master had already taken hold. The entirety of his right eye was covered over with three smaller eyes of malice, with small sharp shards of red evil extending out randomly around the right side of his face.

The large gaping wounds in his abdomen were filled and covered with malice that hardened to cover the missing parts of his body. His teeth grew longer, with his canines rapidly expanding in length and ending at a point. His blank blue eyes turned a deep crimson red, and his blond hair color seemed to fade away until only a pale white remained.

The gashes and wounds covering his body were slowly filled with the malice, until no weakness remained. His hands from the tips of his fingers, all the way up to his elbows were covered with a thin yet powerful layer of hardened malice, acting as a skin to cover the damage he had sustained from the lasers.

And then…

And then the color in his eyes returned.

That spark of life that had faded away in death, suddenly returned. But it was different. It was tainted, wrong, changed.

Slowly, the downed hero sat up, his senses slowly returning to him.

Minutes seemed to pass in silence, with the only sound coming from the deafening rain that continued to assail his form.

His mind was a haze, and his vision cloudy. As if in a daze, his head slowly glanced down to his lap, and more importantly, the blade he was grasping so tightly that it couldn't be removed.

The blade was silver, and badly damaged. And the black hilt was heavily decorated, but missing some of the flare. The three triangles that marked the beginning of the blade had a deep gouge slashed halfway through.

He stared at the weapon for what felt like hours, his clothing clad form becoming drenched in rain.

Then, when he finally managed to tear his gaze away from the alluring blade, he began to take note of his location.

He was sitting on the muddy ground, old watered down blood mixing in with the puddles. It was dark out, almost too dark to see. There wasn't any other living soul within sight, nobody besides him and the sword.

Why was he sitting out in the rain? He couldn't remember what he was doing before…

Before…

He stumbled to his feet, the sudden urge to protect overcoming everything else. He lost his balance, tripping over his legs. He felt weak, so very weak…

But at the same time, he felt, alive. He quickly tried again, this time managing to rise to his feet. His head swung about left and right, looking for…

Something…

He… He was supposed to defend someone…

He.. He needed to protect her…

He needed to… find her. Protect her…

Defend her…

His red eyes lit up the night as he slowly shambled out of the battleground, going in a random direction. Dragging behind him was the sword, his sword that he had refused to drop.

For hours he shambled almost lifelessly, akin to a Re-Dead. He was carried forth by one single thought, the urge to protect someone very close to him.

But at the same time, he knew not who he was supposed to defend, who this person was, or what they looked like. He knew naught their very name, yet that reality did not stop him.

By the time he finally collapsed to his knees, the sun had finally breached the horizon. His energy was sapped, and he didn't know what to do.

He had found himself kneeling before a river, staring listlessly at his expression. He couldn't place it, but the face that stared back at him wasn't… right…

His memory was so foggy, but… Something about his face seemed wrong…

What happened..? Who.. who did this to him?

A dull red flash caught his attention, and it wasn't coming from him. The sword in his hand, the one he refused to drop. Right at the crest of the hilt was a red diamond shaped jewel, and it was cracked. But more then that, it was flashing.

He watched in stunned silence as a figure manifested in the air in front of him, seemingly coming from the blade itself.

It had long slender legs, the left leg completely covered in darkness, while the right was dressed with a torn black and white stocking. A short billowing white skirt extended up into a small chest decorated with a large yet broken red jewel. Two arm-like wings spread out from their shoulders, left one white, and the right one a burnt charred black.

The downed hero's gaze slowly rose before he was face to face with the soft face of the being. Dark grey lips were open in a silent scream, both eyes wide in horror, one completely blind and the other faded. The being's face was split down the middle with a zigzag scar running across her face at an forty five degree angle, splitting it light and dark.

Her regal yet wildly unkempt hair billowed in the early morning light, the slowly rising sun shining a light on the small gem that was imbedded in her forehead.

He wasn't aware of just how close he was to this mythical looking being, until their foreheads touched.

"-My m-.. Mas-… Mast..-er…?" Her voice sounded as if it was supposed to be heavenly, but the tone that greeted his ears was scratchy and damaged. She was floating only inches off the ground, but it seemed her power was waining, because she shakily sunk until her knees hit the earth.

He stared speechless as she slowly leaned forward, eyes twitching and eyelids drooping until she collapsed onto his corrupted lap. "I-.. 've fai.. led you ma-.. ster…" She whispered, her being seemingly shattered.

The faded hero didn't know what to do, and so he followed the only thing he had left. His instinct. And his instincts were telling him to hold her close, and defend her from the world…

It was only them now. No one else…

Just the two of them, beaten to the brink and left behind by the world. Yet they still both lived, in some wrong twisted sort of way. Shattered beings only a shadow of their former selves.

Two beings, damaged beyond compare, and yet they existed together. One could not continue on without the other, and forgotten by the world, they were left only with each other. To embrace, to comfort, to protect.

Nothing was left of he Hero but his courage, his skills, and his will to violently protect whoever or whatever was dear to him.

And the twisted cracked maiden of the sword, the being that existed to secretly assist the hero, was left weakened and on the brink. And for the first time in her thousands of years of life, she didn't know what to do…

The sun set on the hidden mountain village of Kakariko, casting warm shadows across the land. A month had passed since the downfall of her cherished kingdom of Hyrule.

But more then that, a month had passed since her sworn knight died in battle to protect her. She had been in a daze since that night, unable to overcome this grief that weighed down her heart. She couldn't help but feel as if it was all her fault that his life ended, and that there was something she could have done to save him.

Something she should have done…

But it was far too late now…

She had begged Impa, the leader of the Shieka, to send a search party out to find her hero. That maybe, just maybe they could save him. There was a shrine that was made for such a task, to bring one just lost back to the land of the living.

But when the ninja returned to the sight of the hero's final battle, there was no sight of the boy. Worse then that, the legendary sword he carried with him had vanished too. The stark reality of it all shook Zelda to her core, and she had shut herself in her room, grief staying her feet.

Her soldiers that remained tried to comfort their Queen, doing all they could to heal her wounded heart. But try as they might, her pain was too great.

She felt as if the kingdom fell because of her. She felt that the four champions died because of her shortcomings. And worse then that, she believed with her whole heart that Link's life was snuffed out because she was too weak, and too slow to control her sacred powers.

But her men and women, the ones that survived the Calamity, praised her for stopping the threat that was only moments from wiping them all out. If it wasn't for her Goddess blessed powers, they too would have died.

Zelda had managed to repel the evil, containing the Calamity within the confines of the Castle in the far distance.

The Guardians, the machines that had betrayed her under the influence of the Calamity, the vile machines that ended her Hero's life, had all become inactive from her display of power.

With both of those evil's for the moment stalled, her people had gathered themselves in Kakariko to comfort their only remaining member of royalty, their beloved princess. She had been renamed as the new Queen of Hyrule shortly after that.

Her men and women, soldiers of her army that remained, settled down in the hidden mountain village. Furthermore, with Impa's approval, they were allowed to create temporary settlements.

Despite wanting to keep the village on the down low, there was no where else her people could go at the moment. Too many of the other villages were too far a distance to safely travel to.

It was a day of celebration, because despite how badly it had gone, they were still alive, and they still had a kingdom and a Queen to rule it. They only had to cure their Queen's bleeding heart, so that she could take up the mantle of ruler, and bring them all back to prosperity.

But her power weakened in her sorrow, and the people truly began to fear what would happen if she truly gave in to her grief. So they set out too bring that life back to her eyes.

They danced for her. They made banquets for her, and they tried to cheer her from her pain. They dressed her in the finest royal white robes, making her resemble the very Goddess Hylia herself, because they believed that she must have been the descendant of the Goddess.

When that didn't seem to be enough, they attempted to have the handsome young men, and sometimes beautiful young women, woo her to distract her from her pain. To some extent it seemed to work, but never for long.

Her people began to grow desperate, and had requested the help of the legendary belly dancers from the Gerudo Deserts own Gerudo women. They had heard of the legendary heart healing powers that the Gerudo women had, and had begged them to heal their Queen's bleeding heart.

It too worked to some extent, and their Queen's mood had indeed brightened. But when the dancers eventually left, her grief quickly took hold of her heart once more. She couldn't tear her thoughts away from her failures, despite the love her people gave her.

Then one day she requested that she wished to be left alone for the day, up by the lake above the village. Lantern Lake was located directly above and behind the Shikah temple where she spent many of her days and nights alone.

In the belief that some time alone by herself would do her heart some good, none of her soldiers attempted to talk her out of it. So, dressed in only bathing garments and her sacred white dress, she made her way to the beautiful lake, alone.

It was already late when she left, and the sun had set by the time she arrived at the lake. There were no clouds in the sky on this night, the moon shining brightly was enough to light up the whole mountainside. She stopped by the water, staring at her own reflection on the glassy surface.

Her eyes were dark, the result of many sleepless nights alone. She had cried so much that she felt as if no more tears could ever come, but they always would.

She stood there for a while, mesmerized by the moon's glow. But eventually she de-robed, leaving nothing on her fare skin except for her golden diamond crown. Her unblemished body seemed to glow in the moonlight, her visage so close to the very Goddess Hylia herself that it was uncanny. Her golden blond hair fell gently around her shoulders and her mature chest, cascading down her back, and ending at her rear.

The water barely made a sound when she entered it, the feeling surprisingly warm. She moved forward slowly, until she was floating quietly within the middle of the lake. She was careful to avoid the waterfall, lest she be dragged down with it.

This was comforting. To the young woman blessed with the mature body of the Goddess, the cooling night air was refreshing. The feeling of the open winds blowing across her unclothed form, sent gentle shivers down her body.

The only sound that filled her ears was the sound of the rushing waterfall, the blades of grass being gently caressed by the wind. The occasional cricket that chirped.

This silence was wonderful, and she soft breath that escaped her lips was proof of that. She melted into the water, floating on her back, chest to the open sky. Her hair spread out, waving about through the water.

She felt warmth, like she had nothing to worry about. The feeling that she was protected filled her, the feeling similar to when her trusted knight stood beside her. When he was there, she could rest easy, because he would rather kill himself then let her die….

And then he did…

Tears started to fall down her cheeks, the silent sob betraying her. She was up here to try and move on, not continue blaming herself.

But no matter what she did, it always came back to him. How badly she treated him beforehand, how she ignored him despite how hard he was trying to care for her. How no matter how many times she told him to leave, he never failed in his dedication to her.

And when she finally came around to him, he accepted her with open arms, holding no grudge against her for her treatment of him prior. It made her feel horrible.

She sucked in a gasp, her head snapping up suddenly. She looked around the lake, searching for something. She wasn't sure why. But in that moment, she felt as if someone, or something was watching her. She strained her ears, listening for a sound.

The wind was flowing through the grass, the rushing waterfall cascading behind her. But, there was nothing else. Nothing but this phantom sensation of her loyal knight watching over her, as if he was still right beside her.

"I must be going mad… Surely that is the only explanation…" She whispered to herself. She went to relax again, but a flash of red in the reflection of the water caught her eyes. She gasped, her eyes shot up to the shoreline, and for a moment, her heart stopped.

Standing silently at the water's edge, dressed in worn and blood soaked champion's garb, was the one person she never thought she'd see again. She found her eyes unable to tear themselves away from the red glowing gaze that locked hotly onto her, the four eyes blinking slowly.

There was no mistaking that long wild flowing pale white hair that perfectly resembled her memory of him, the blue jade earrings, his long elven ears that ended in a point. And clutched tightly in his bloody hand, was the legendary sword.

Even though his skin had darkened to a creamy light chocolate in color, and his hair had turned nearly silver, she could never mistake him for anyone else.

The words escaped her mouth before she even registered them. "Link…"

That was when she noticed the otherworldly figure wrapped around him, her white and black winglike appendages covering his shoulders like a cape. The being's soft white and black face rested on his shoulder, her legs resting around the Hero's hips for support. The feeling of weakness and death radiated from the strange female beings entire form, leaving a uneasy feeling in the Queen's stomach.

But that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the fact that her hero was here, standing before, seemingly defying all odds.

She didn't hesitate, not thinking even for a moment, that this could be some ploy from the forces of evil. So she swam, never taking her eyes off of him. The second her feet touched the ground beneath the water she ran, reaching out to him, afraid that maybe, if she took her eyes off of him, he might vanish.

Having no thought for her current state of dress, or lack there of, she reached the downed hero and pulled him into a fierce hug.

"It's you… It's really you…" She whispered, her face hidden from him. But when he failed to return her hug, she pulled back, studying him closely. It was only now that she noticed his feral looking features. His sharp long fangs, his aggressive glowing red eyes, and the claws that extended from each of his fingers.

But more then that, she noticed the malice that surrounded him, the malice that filled him from the inside out. She stared with tear stricken eyes into his three right eyes of darkness. It was only his left that remained normal.

The hero stared speechless into the eyes of his goddess, awestruck, and yet…

"You… You don't remember… do you..?" Her voice was so quiet that he almost didn't hear her. She knew it to be true. His eyes, they said that they recognized her to some extent. But…

He tilted his head to the side, as if looking at her for the first time in his life. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but nothing but a soft hiss escaped.

She pushed the realization to the back of her head, and pulled him back into another hug. Surprised by her actions, he lost his footing and fell backwards. The naked Queen landed atop him, holding herself up by her hands. She smiled down at him, tears falling from her azure orbs.

She didn't care that he was different, or that he didn't remember. That didn't matter, because he was here now, and that was what she cared for.

"I'm… I'm so happy…" She could barely manage to get the words out, her voice failing her. She missed the concerned look that filtered across his features at the sight of her tears.

She squeaked when she suddenly found herself positioned in his lap, pulled into a hug instigated by him. She felt his sharp malice ridden claws softly drag across her exposed back, as if he was comforting her. But he never hurt her, sending only shivers down her spine.

She melted into his grasp, letting the tears fall unhindered. She rest her head against his chest, and she felt his chin rest atop the crown of her head. It was going to be alright now, because he was here for her. He would protect her, even past death.

Now, nothing could stop him from protecting her…

Nothing…

Beside them both, resting on the ground was the sword. It's black hilt shone in the moonlights rays, a dull golden power radiating from it in recognition of its creator's holy power…

Chapter

1

End

I'm unsure if I'll continue this. It was just an idea that hit me one day, and I had to put it out there.