A/N: This is gonna be a long one, this little story I've written.

It was a mistake. A simple one, but a bad one. Though, by the end of everything, I suppose it worked out.


Ganon had to admit, two weeks into knowing her, Mida was perhaps the single most interesting girl he had ever met in his many, many lives.

She spoke with a wisdom beyond her body, moved with a grace beyond her mind, and laughed with a heart too big for her little chest.

He honestly found himself enjoying her company.

The fact she had taught him more hand-to-hand then he had learned in several hundred lives was, admittedly, quite helpful for her case.

But, old as she sometimes seemed, other times…

"Oiiiii, Ganny, you gonna keep standing down there or you gonna get up here?"

Other times, she was an absolute fucking child.

"Keep hanging upside down like that, brat, and maybe you'll do us all a favor and pass out from the blood rushing to your head!"

"Pfft, puh-lease! I can swing my way up before that happens!" And she did, indeed, swing herself up with her knees, catching the edge of the roof and scurrying up out of sight. Ganon grumbled to himself and started scaling the tight alleyway wall after her, climbing to the distant sounds of her urging him to, quote, 'move it or you'll miss the sun dip, Ganny!'

Sun dip.

Kids came up with weirder words by the day.

Ganon kicked off of the top of a windowsill and caught the edge of the roof, dragging himself up. "How do you even know how to climb...a…"

Ganon could barely breathe.

The city they called home, whatever its name yet was, was nestled in a valley near the desert, he knew that.

But by the Goddess did he have trouble believing the desert could produce such beauty.

Mida was stood with her back to him, near the far edge of the roof, looking past the city wall out into the mouth of the valley.

The sun gazed back at her.

In all its burning glory, was the celestial giant shaped perfectly against the miles-distant entrance to their valley-home, and before his disbelieving eyes did it gently touch the horizon, igniting the sands far into the distance.

Sun dip made a lot of sense, he decided, as the sands matched the great orb, light spreading out into the dunes like a drop of gold into water, burning in front of him like the great wings of a bird, steadily growing and flowing out until the desert seemed alive.

Ganon didn't know how long he watched this phenomenon, but when the sun began to crawl beyond the horizon, when the light slowly receded to its home among the stars, he felt...saddened, by its loss.

"Did you feel it?" Mida asked from next to him. "Did you feel the pulse of the world?"

"Yes." He said before he could stop himself.

He had only said it because it was true.

At that moment, gazing out at the blazing land, his heart had pounded hard and slow, but he didn't notice till it was at its normal thrum. Ganon shook the last of...whatever that was from his mind with a few quick blinks.

"How did you find this?"

"It was pretty easy," She murmured, gaze drifting upwards into the night sky, "From anywhere in the city you can see lil' bits and pieces of it. Jus' had to look for the place it all came together." She explained, vibrant eyes drifting among the stars, drawing patterns and following lines with eyes that were so old.

"Why did you bother?" He couldn't help but ask. "Why not watch what you could from home?"

She was silent for long enough that he bristled, ready to demand an answer from this weird, old-soul'd brat-

"Laugh hard, because it's always funny," She started, eyes closed at last. "Run fast, because you'll never see it all otherwise." She turned to him, and Goddess but those eyes, those vibrant, old eyes felt so pained, so understanding it made his ancient, twisted soul ache- "Be kind." She smiled at him then, and suddenly the child was back, full of life and smiles, lips spread too wide and heart worn on her sleeve. "Because there's never a point to anything else."

"I…"

"'Read that in a book once!" She chirped, twisting her chest opposite to the twists of her hips, turning back to the many stars above. "Good book, that. Little dull at times, though."

"...Yes," Ganon murmured, turning to watch the empty desert, "I imagine it would be, on occasion."

They don't leave until Mida's Mother-the weird difference between her Mom and her Mother still hasn't clicked with him yet-comes calling, shouting up to them without needing to search.

Mida smiles, then. Something soft and full of love, and she throws herself off the roof, into her Mother's waiting arms with an echoing laugh.

Hmph. Children. Hurting themselves so. Something like that must hurt more than his chest-

Oh hey, his chest was on fire.

Ganon woke with a choked off gasp, glaring into the smug brown eyes of the Hylian man above him.

The man dug his boot into the bruise on his chest, and Ganon suddenly remembered why it is he hated Hylians since his second life as Ganondorf.

Ganon had survived Ganondorf's first loss because it wasn't a loss. It was a setback.

But to the Gerudo, it was a terrible loss. Their king dead, their war without victory. Hylian's were people, same as the Gerudo or the Zora, but they were different all at once. The Gerudo killed because they were ordered and desperate. The Zora killed because they had to defend their homes and waters.

After that first, terrible war, the Hylians reclaimed their old territory and made peace. But when that old, distant memory of a Princess Zelda died, when her hero vanished from the world at her loss, the Hylians did what Ganon believed they were best at.

They killed for revenge.

Thousands of Gerudo died, hanged or butchered. Hundreds of cities were put to the sword or the torch.

The Gerudo retreated and lost millions in property, history, and land. They lost a priceless amount of lives after they lost just one babe.

They would lose more infants than they could hope to count, each lost to the desert or the flame or the stomach of a beast.

And then the Hylian's retreated again, their fill of fun and revenge over. And once again they put up their precious walls, hung their 'noble' banners over the bloodstains, and dared to claim their post of righteous defenders of the innocent.

That was why Ganon fought so hard, and so cruelly. For he had lived in every Gerudo who died in those days because it was his fault. He did that. All of it. He took the life of that little boy of a miracle birth and took his place. He had caused all of the death and destruction on every side.

It was why he never gave up, or in, no matter how many times he was killed by-

By the Hero.

The Hero, who was always a fucking Hylian, just like the man sneering down at him and sneering his racism and threats of selling this younger body for a few Rupees back in Hyrule.

Normally this wouldn't bother him.

Normally he had his magic by now.

There was a loud crash, and he heard it from beyond the small, thin-walled room he was chained to the floor of.

The choked scream of a dying man.

One who this Hylian knew if his sudden leaving of the room was to be trusted.

Ganon sat up, and stared out into the large room beyond his doorway, and felt his heart stop.

It was Mida.

She was stood, surrounded by Hylian's who stared in horror at her, even as they waited, armored and armed.

"-If you're right." She hissed, and by the Triforce, he didn't know a voice that young could be that cold. "If my brother Ganon is really DEAD-!" She stopped and took a very sharp breath. "Then you better be very very careful about how you tell me."

An arrow slammed into Mida's back, slid cleanly between her too-small ribs, and she staggered forward. She dropped her blade-coated in blood-and fell to her knees, beautiful head dropped to her chest. Two more arrows slammed into her, and she fell onto her side, all of eight and dead because of HIM-

Ganondorf screamed, and his magic roared back.

A/N: Surprise?