New chapter! Next part of the end you lucky things! And I left you at quite a cliff hangar! Woo! Thanks for reviewing! I'm glad the last chapter went down so well! Oh dear, nearly at the end! Don't worry though! It's not over yet!

Yeah if you're worried about Dark Link then...you should be! I'm not quite sure how he's going to finish but you never know, do you?

God, you are so going to hate me for this chapter, but all I can tell you is although this chapter might be...er...well, this chapter might be a HORRIBLE way to go but you don't know what I'm planning to do so there! So if it is awful, don't fret too much because I'm planning something special...sort of.

I also just noticed that I haven't included a BIG final fight off in this chapter...what do I do? I ought to have one.

Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda!

* * *

I stared at him. He'd taken my wound into himself to save me. And now he was dying. He had been given my wound. That explained it. I watched in amazement as the black eye Sao had given me sprang up on Dark Link's cheek and the grazes appeared on his hands from climbing the mountain.

"Why?" I gasped, starting to cry again, this was too much "WHY DID YOU DO THAT!? TELL ME!"

He looked surprised as I shook him to get his attention, he looked at me with his bright blue eyes, not so cold anymore, or was that just me? But it seemed like the one who had stabbed me at Sao's camp was gone. Replaced by someone else. Or maybe just changed a little.

"I thought you knew" he whispered, coughing on the blood, and then grinned "As if my final words to you were vague!"

I bit my lip.

"I love you" he said simply

And I felt something melt in me as I looked down at him. It occurred to me that maybe this was because he looked like Link and that's why I was looking at him like I was. But then I thought hard for a moment and realised maybe that it had been that before but things were different. That warmth and then the coldness that he had given through me before he had stabbed me had stayed with me.

I had liked that warmth. Maybe Link could have given me that once but Dark Link was the one who could now, and it didn't make a difference whether it was a recycled feeling.

Did I love him? It was hard to say. But I think that maybe I did, or was beginning to. In real life they say fairy tale endings don't exist. This certainly wasn't a happy ending, but as they say in plays 'it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all'.

And I was looking down at this man, who kidnapped my friends and killed me...well...more than once in reality and yet I could feel no hatred towards him now. He was lying here, covering me with his blood, staining over what had been my blood, and looking up at me hopefully.

As I said before. I felt something. Was it love? That small feeling like a candle inside of you, when you just know?

He smiled again, and it was so kind and warmth, replacing completely the old one tinged with coldness and a black heart. He had changed.

And I smiled back.

I brushed his hair away from his face and said calmly, "Don't die on me"

His eyes widened for a moment, shaking off the glazed look, and then he shuddered again and went limp, struggling to keep himself awake.

I wiped my eyes and held him up into my lap.

When would the others get here? I needed a blue potion at least. Would they even let me have one.

"Don't die" I found myself saying, my eyes streaming, my nose sniffling "Don't you even think about dying on me"

The blood drying stank and I could taste it in my mouth mixed in with the salt water from my tears. All over and around us was a gory mess, like a horror movie.

"Hey!" I screamed out, half at him, half to the corridors leading into this mammoth hall

He was closing his eyes.

"No" I said, shaking him awake, then turning to the corridors, "HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

No reply. Why would they come and save him? They wanted him dead.

"PLEASE!...someone"

Dark Link's blood still ran and his body weighed heavy on me.

It took him a long time to die.

And still no one came.

"Dark Link!!" I shook him one last time and he opened his eyes a tiny way, "Please don't leave me"

Did I love him now?

I believe I did.

He smiled faintly and began to close his eyes. How could he die? Was Link dying somewhere?

"No!" I shook him again, and once more he opened his eyes "Dark Link listen to me, I..."

He wasn't listening, I yelled down at him suddenly "LISTEN TO ME, FOR GOD'S SAKE! I LOVE YOU LINK"

And then, as soon as I'd said it, a thought flashed through me like lightening:

~you called me Link~

I felt more tears drip from my eyes and I said quietly "Yes..."

With a huge effort he lifted his hand to my face, and like many movie heroines before me, I held it there with my fingers, he smiled and I heard:

~thank you...I was always...alone~

And he was gone.

All he wanted was to be Link.

His fingers dropped from my face, laving a trail of crimson. He was gone. I peeled my fingers from his neck.

I pulled his body up to me held it furiously, sobbing and choking into his lifeless shoulder. Rocking back and forth, praying that he hadn't really gone and he'd wake up in a moment. But he didn't. We sat there for what seemed like forever, caked in dry blood, his and mine, like we had mixed our blood for a blood pact. And in a way we had.

We'd confessed love. Wasn't that a pact in itself?

Tragic ending.

I felt numb like before, but it was because he'd been ripped away from me, the moment I'd realised that I'd loved him, he'd been ripped away. All he'd wanted was to be called Link. I'd fulfilled that dream I guess. But he'd left me.

I held his body forever, I couldn't say goodbye, not yet. It was too soon, I'd barely known him. Yet he had been Link. I'd known Link, so I knew this guy too. That gave little comfort.

I ought to say a few words. He was dead after all. Like a final passing rite or something. But I didn't know the words apart from 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust' and that didn't seem right now.

So I sat there, holding the shell that had been Dark Link.

I suddenly felt very sick. Sick to my stomach in fact, the smell had begun to take effect on my insides it seemed and I stumbled up and away from his body to the side of the platform, throwing up noisily.

This is my usual reaction in these situations.

I wiped my mouth and looked over to his body, now my body was starting to be affected about what I'd seen the sight of Dark Link drenched and lying in a pool or blood affected me. And the fact that I was covered in drying blood also didn't help. I held the side of the platform to keep myself steady.

I shakily crawled back to him and lifted his body. Noticing the knife that he had stabbed me with close by, I picked it up and then threw it back down.

"Come on" I whispered, as if he might hear me "There's nothing more to do here"

I struggled to lift his body up with me, but fell back down with it. He was heavier than he looked.

I sat next to him and sniffed, it happened to me, all this bad luck. Maybe I worried to much and it was attracted to me.

I didn't know what to do. I sniffed again and burst into tears again. I lay down next to Dark Link's body and put my arm across him. Aware of the mess I was lying in and what I must look like. But I was lost, I didn't know what to do.

So I just lay next to him, sort of embracing him with my arm. Waiting. For what I wasn't sure until I heard a yell:

"Hey!"

I didn't move, my head was obviously playing tricks on me. I shoved my face into Dark Link's tunic and cried silently.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and roughly turned me over, I stared up at...Dark Link?

He looked at me in horror and put a hand up to his mouth, blanching for a moment at what must have been a gory mess, and then pulled me up.

Not Dark Link then...just Link.

I let myself be picked up and I sat in his arms limply, looking down at Dark Link's body. Why wasn't Link dead? Dark Link had said that they would die when one of them did.

I realised he was talking to me "...so you killed him after all, let's go then"

I struggled against him suddenly yelling "Let me go, let me go!"

"What?" he said surprised, "Come on~ we need to find Sao's tribe"

"No" I screeched, obviously hysterical (strange how being stabbed and seeing people die can do that to you) even I knew I was being hysterical, but I still pulled and tried to pull away from him "WE CAN'T LEAVE HIM!"

"Who?" Link asked finally giving up and putting me down after nearly having his eyes poked out

I pushed him away and pulled at Dark Link's body, sobbing and heaving to pull him up with me "We can't leave him alone again!"

Link looked at me incredulously "Him?"

I wiped my mouth and said "I can't leave him"

Link came over and grabbed my arms "No, we're leaving, come on!"

I pulled back a fist and planted a fist straight on Link's cheek. He grabbed my arms and held them tightly as I fought to get away. I wore myself out trying to hit him and then fell silent, grabbing instead Link's own, bloodless, tunic and wetting it with tears of frustration.

"I see"

Link tipped my head back and stroked my cheek "Your black eye is..." he looked at Dark Link's body and sighed

I bit my lip and got out "He..."

"I understand now" Link replied, he let go of me and my legs collapsed on the floor

He moved to Dark Link's body and picked up the knife I'd thrown down examining the rust colour dyed onto it. I thought he was going to do something to Dark Link, like scalp him or something, but Link tucked the knife into his belt and began to pull up Dark Link's body into his arms.

I stared as Link pulled up the body and lay it across his shoulders.

"Come on" he said, he face expressionless, offering down a hand to me on the floor "We still have a job to do"

I took the proffered hand and let him pull me up. Following him out of the huge room where Dark Link had saved and killed, bearing the weight of his other easily.

* * *

We travelled through a tunnel to where I could hear shouts ahead, it seemed the prisoners were escaping and the Stalfos weren't standing for it. As we drew nearer the clash of metal echoed through our tunnel and I felt the floor shake beneath my feet with the noise.

"Stay close" Link warned, the weight of Dark Link's body evident in his voice

I heard a voice clearly through the jumble yell clearly for 'no prisoners to be taken', most certainly Sao's. I smiled wryly, he seemed to be in control. I hoped all the tribe were safe and in one piece.

We came out into a large hall, not as big as the one where Dark Link had tried to summon Gannondorf and Reika, but certainly big. And on the far side, as we came out the tunnel we could see what was left over of the tribe fighting out. Stalfos bones everywhere and, luckily, not a dead human to be seen.

Lucy was still safe then. Looking at Link he seemed to be thinking the same thing as he let out a sigh, which sounded like one of relief.

Once again I wondered why he wasn't dead.

I felt tears build as I thought of Dark Link but pushed them away, now wasn't the time to be sad, we needed to get out of here.

We followed the noise into one of the tunnels ahead, speeding up now as we came closer, desperate to get out of this maze of tunnels that we had all been lead into, some forced, some because we had to.

I was amazed that Link had begun to run in his speeding up, with Dark Link across his shoulders, it was amazing, even I had trouble keeping up and I was carrying nothing.

A speck of light appeared out in front and in the distance, getting bigger and bigger as we drew nearer, the air clearing as the hot oxygen pulsed in from the outside.

Despite all that had happened, this light, natural light, filled me with joy and I rush to meet it with all my strength.

Suddenly getting stitch, I slowed to breathe and Link slowed with me and we walked the rest of the short distance to the surface, vaguely feeling the land beneath us rise minutely.

A few steps away from where light hit the rock of the floor in the tunnel I stopped, listening to the rowdy congratulations and laughs from outside.

Link turned back to me, edged in light, and said, "What's the matter?"

I didn't reply.

"Do you think they'll hate you?" he asked softly

Outside, my heart stopped beating momentarily as the noise went silent as the tribe outside (and hopefully Lucy) stopped to listen to noises from inside the cave. We had to go out or they'd come in to check it out. They were making sure we weren't enemies.

I took a deep breath and took a step forward.

Link stretched out his hand and grabbed mine reassuringly. It didn't matter how old he was, or how many children he had, I knew then for certain how close a friend he had been and would always be, even if we did have long periods of not seeing each other.

And we walked into the blinding light.

As my eyes cleared the first thing I saw was a mass of men, Sao's tribe and out in front, just staring were Lucy, Kafei and Sao.

I stopped and looked at the ground, smiling uncertainly.

I imagined what we would have looked like, a body drenched in blood, a girl drenched in blood and Link, holding the burden and a girls hand. No wonder half of them looked ready to throw up.

"Well" Link said loudly "Looks like you got them all out"

In a moment the huge bulk, no less diminished or proud by the experience that had happened, of Shigeru waded through the mass ahead. He looked the same, but carried rough bruises on his face where he'd been punched and he was dirty. His smile was no less white however as he came out to the front.

He looked me up and down, showing none of the nausea other members of the group seemed to be showing.

Link moved away from me and out to the gap of around 20 feet between them and us, and he lay down Dark Link's body on the canyon's floor. Shigeru regarded the body with a passive face, emotionless.

He looked at the body, up to me, and back to the body again. His eyes held mine for a moment and I didn't turn away, he was saying that he knew exactly what had happened in there, I'm not sure how he did, but then he'd known the whole story about the war with Reika and so maybe he knew this too. In a flash of realisation I realised he was a seer.

My jaw dropped and his face broke out into a wide smile, Shigeru nodded slowly and then moved to Dark Link's body. He stood over it and for a moment I thought he was going to mutilate it or something for all the damage it had done to his tribe, but, instead, he bowed his head as if in prayer and then moved away.

The tribe copied him...even Sao, albeit grudgingly.

"We have sent him on his way to the plain of the dead" Shigeru said

My knees suddenly felt weak and I dropped to the floor, the days events sinking in, a pair of feet came into view and Shigeru knelt down in front of me and grasped my hands, holding them firmly but gently.

"You have, in one way won another battle" he said softly, and then he reached up and ran his fingers over Dark Link's dried blood fingerprints that ran across my cheek "But, it seems you have lost another" he stood and pulled my up to my feet again, supporting me with one arm "Come" he announced so all could hear "We travel back to Clock Town to drop off our heroes who rescued us"

"I'm glad someone rescued you" I muttered

"Sao, Lucy, Kafei and Link, the Hero of Time and King of Hyrule and yes" he looked at me "Even you, have saved us all from death. We are forever in your debt"

"I've heard that before but you never pay up" Link replied and this was greeted by a series of laughs

It seemed everyone was beginning to relax and for the first time since the camp had been attacked there was an air of contentment. That the course of evil had been averted once more.

Pretty easily it seemed.

Maybe too easy.

But I shoved that thought away.

"So, we travel back to the centre of Termina" Shigeru announced, "Let's go, if we start now we might be there in a day or so"

A day or so? I'd forgotten how long it had taken us to get here.

So the tribe began to move off on foot, I could see Lucy and the others bobbing ahead but I didn't feel like facing them now. So I drew up the rear of the column along with Sao. A huge man had taken on the burden of Dark Link's body, and I was glad to see that he didn't stray too far from me and I could keep an eye on his body.

I also think that people were keeping a distance away because I smelled. In the hot sun, the smell that had been bad before got worse, I couldn't smell it now as I used to it, but the dried blood all over seemed to be causing others discomfort, so I lagged back even further.

"Hey" Link slowed down from the others and matched my place, he had a few stains across the shoulders of his tunic but that was the only damage

We walked in silence for a while. I don't think either of us knew quite what to say.

But then Link said calmly "You must wonder why I'm not dead"

I nodded; I had been wondering that for a while, ever since he'd come to get me in the hall "Yeah"

"Well, I'm not sure but I...got a visit from Dark Link"

I stared at him "What?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure how he did it but he was suddenly in me and I was looking through his eyes up at you and...I felt what he felt" Link said quietly "And I then knew I had to come and find you no matter what because if I didn't it would be something cruel"

"But he said when one of you died you both died" I said "Before he stabbed me, he said you would die when he died"

"I think he found a loop hole though. I think he found a loop hole that you only die together when one kills the other one" Link said after a moment of thought on the subject "So if we were fighting to the death and I killed him then I would die too. But then, ancient writings have never been clear on that, it's all down to interpretation, it may be that when one dies only a part of the other dies. I'm not sure, the goddesses work in mysterious ways"

"What did the others say?"

"About what? Me going off to find you?"

"Yeah"

"Well Lucy and Kafei were like 'go ahead', they really wanted me to go, but Sao was pretty angry at you. No idea why he was THAT angry when even I wasn't THAT angry, although it did hurt for a while"

"Oh"

Link grinned and said "But I thought you were both dead when I saw you both drenched in blood" he paused "That was a nasty sight. Even worse than the war in Hyrule and that was pretty horrific. It's even more horrific though when it's people you know"

"You knew Dark Link well?"

"Yeah, sure" Link grinned "In a weird, round about way, no one wants to see themselves die, let's put it like that" he continued "Anyway, he was a part of me (even if he was an evil one) and even if I did hate him, it would hurt me if he went. And he has" he was silent a moment "So now I feel a little...empty...but what about you?"

"Me?" I asked, looking at him

"You were crying over him"

"Yes"

"Why?" he asked

I shrugged and then said, "You were in him, you tell me"

Link smiled again, but it was more of a secret smile than his first smile, and then said "The others" he motioned ahead "Think you killed him"

I looked at the floor "I guess they would, there was no one else there and he WAS evil, and the one who was dead"

"Will you ever tell anyone the truth?"

"You know the truth, that's enough" I replied, "Maybe I'll tell someone else one day, maybe I won't. I will when it" I put my hand on my chest "Stops hurting here"

I felt my eyes fill up again for a moment and Link reached out and put his arm around me, not seeming to notice the blood.

"It'll never stop hurting" he said quietly "It won't, but after a while you won't notice it so much, and even further after that you'll be able to forget about. Yet it'll always be there I'm afraid"

"I know" I replied, sniffing, managing not to cry "I don't really want to forget either"

"Come on" Link said after a moment "Chin up, life goes on as they say"

We walked in the hot sun for a moment, I noticed Lucy glance back at me and I flashed her a grin, she smiled and then walked on.

A question suddenly hit me.

"Link, what happens to you when you die?"

Link looked at me strangely and then said "Well, we believe that you go to another world"

"Another world?"

"Yeah, not a heaven, just another plain, then you go to heaven after that life" he said "So your spirit can learn from it's mistakes so to speak"

"So Dark Link has gone to another world?"

"Yeah"

"I hope he's happy"

"Yeah. I hated him up until when I was in him, I hope he will be happy, I hope he changes and becomes a better person"

"Me too"

* * *

Sao found me at the edge of the camp when we stopped to rest for the night after hours of walking. Somehow the distance seemed larger when we had been above the canyon.

He came and sat a couple of metres away, looking out into the shadows beyond the ring of light, not speaking. I felt uncomfortable, I'm sure he did too. The night air was cool and apart from the occasional insect buzzing, peaceful too.

I wasn't going to say anything, I was going to wait for him to say something. He had come to talk, that was obvious, otherwise he'd be far away from me, who still smelled like a rotting corpse.

"You betrayed us"

I looked over at him, his back to my, surprised that that would be the first thing he would say and yet not surprised that it was.

"Did not" I replied, trying to keep my voice steady

"Link told me what happened and so maybe I'll believe that" Sao replied, still not looking at me "I think it would be impossible to believe you betrayed us when HIS body lies over there"

He was silent a moment.

"I was angry at you"

"I noticed"

"Shall I tell you something?" he paused "Dark Link killed my wife and child"

I felt my gut twist at that, so no wonder he had been adamant about killing Dark Link. I felt awful yet not so awful I was guilty about telling Dark Link I loved him. By the time he died Dark Link had changed for the better, he wasn't the same as when he had killed Sao's family. It was horrible though, I felt sad for him and bit my lip.

"I'm sorry" I said quietly

"Yeah, well it won't bring them back" Sao said bitterly "We'd been married just over a year and a half, I was getting used to it. We had an arranged marriage you see. And what we didn't tell you when we brought you to our camp was that they had been travelling with us"

I suddenly felt sad, a very great sadness washed over me.

"We never usually bring women on our trading trips" Sao continued "But I insisted, they wanted to come and see the world beyond the village. So we let them, it was great, so much fun. I enjoyed it, and I'm so happy our last days together were so joyous"

Behind us the camp was settling down for the night, we could hear the murmurs gradually died, and in the back of my head I wondered whether Link, Kafei and Lucy were sleeping yet.

"When Dark Link attacked with his Stalfos and Moblins and who know what else, and he told us to bring the seer to Termina for him or else, he wanted to make sure we did it. So he took an example"

I closed my eyes to try and stop my head from imagining it.

"My wife and child were picked out and killed, he ran them through in front of us all and then while they were lying there dying he cut off their heads. In a way I'm glad he did that so it ended their suffering, now that I look back on it anyway. He didn't leave them dying for so long. Yet it killed me seeing that. And for days I was in a silent stupor, unable to understand anything, dazed I suppose. And who wouldn't be? The tribe was so patient with me, Shigeru most of all, did I tell you he was my father?"

"I may have guessed"

"And the rest of the story you know don't you?" Sao said, still not looking at me, his shoulders were slumped

So that was his story, I felt so sad for him, for his family, dying so young. In front of him and all. It was tragic, no wonder he had wanted revenge. It all seemed so clear to me now, no wonder he had hated Dark Link. I would too.

We sat there for a moment without talking. I didn't really know what to say, I couldn't take away his pain with a few words. I couldn't apologise for 'betraying' him because I hadn't really felt like I had been 'betraying' him. And I couldn't apologise for Dark Link either.

The camp was quiet except for a few snores here and there. It seemed like they'd all fallen asleep and we'd been left awake in our own little bubble.

I got up and went over quietly to Sao, and, carefully, not wanting to make him jump, I knelt down behind him and slipped my arms around his shoulders. He jumped and I felt him tense up, and then he relaxed. I felt like that somehow made things a little better between us. I'm not sure if he forgave me or whether I needed forgiving, but I felt like he'd been bottling all this and the story up for a while, and that's not good for anyone.

So we stayed like that for a while, quiet, each in our thoughts but in a strange sort of at-arm's-length embrace.

* * *

How was that chapter? I'm really sorry, I've probably killed you all with the crap way I write sad parts and emotions. You're all about to kill me as well aren't you for killing Dark Link, he made me do it! Not the other way around! Oh well, anyway, I'm going to give you a surprise for just reading this chapter, I'm not going to tell you what it is but I HOPE you won't be disappointed. It'll be special for DL fans especially.