Chapter 9: Reincarnation

Link's POV

"I want to see you…when I wake…" she whispered ever so softly in the silence. She became cold in my hands, and her head fell back.

She was gone…

I couldn't hold back my tears or the welling emotions pouring out of my heart anymore. I hugged her bloody body to me, not wanting to believe in anything anymore. I cried into the serenity that surrounded us, tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Zelda," I breathed while I shut my eyes in grief, the sobs and cries becoming uncontrolled. "ZELDA!" I shouted to no one in the room. "Why?" I said a little more subdued. "Why? You damn goddesses! Why did you take away the only person I love? Damn you all!" I shouted angrily.

I gathered Zelda's icy, lifeless body to me, slowly sliding my sword from her waist. I had killed her…She had died from my foolish mistake. Damn Gannondorf…Damn Hyrule!

I removed my gauntlet, and traced my bare fingers over her white skin, following the lines of her face tenderly. She was cold to touch, but the softness of her cheeks still stung me in love. Minutes before her face had been warm, her lips burning with fire. I leant down and kissed her frozen mouth, shivering slightly.

The tears still streaming down my cheeks, I sheathed my Master Sword and picked up Zelda, holding her dearly in my arms. I walked out of the accursed fortress, my footsteps echoing as I stepped on the dead flagstones. The wind whipped harshly through the silent valley, banners and clothing flapping in the breeze as I walked clutching Zelda to me.

If it hadn't been for her frosty touch, anyone would have thought she was sleeping peacefully in my arms, weary from battle. Even in death she was still beautiful.

With a false hope rising within me, I expected her to shift in my arms at any moment, waking up to the beaming sun shining down upon the renewed world. But with every passing moment she remained motionless. If only I had been more careful, if only I could have saved her, if only…

I sighed. 'If only' wasn't good enough. Nothing could redeem my actions now. Not even the goddesses could turn back the hands of time…

A rumble came from the skies. I looked up, half expecting the clouds to part, opening the earth to its cleansing waters. But water did not fall from the sky. Instead a flotilla of light pink spheres descended onto the planes of Hyrule, raining down in their great numbers. It looked like snow, but as I looked closer I saw that every bobbing sphere of light was indeed a faerie…

I gaped and stared at the reincarnation of life happened before my very eyes. For every soldier that had fallen, a faerie was there to resurrect the brave soul that had fought in the second war. Comrades and enemies alike began to stand up amongst their companions, the Gerudos seemingly back to their normal state…

The women around me rubbed their heads and glanced at me briefly before ignoring me and tending to their people. As I continued to walk across to the fallen bridge I saw Epona and Zelda's white mare still waiting patiently for us, and around them Gorons and Zoras alike were beginning to awaken from their temporary sleep.

Realisation struck me through my silent grieving, and frantically I tried to move in a path of one of the faeries, hoping that they would resurrect Zelda too. But every ball of light dodged past me, falling on the bodies around me.

I looked up, and saw the last faerie descend from the clouds.

'Please…please bring Zelda back. I need her…I need her to live…I need her love and her comfort, and everything that she brings me in her soul…Please, hear my prayer goddesses…'

As the wavering orb fell, my eyes watched its every movement. It was coming for me. I stood promising to myself that everything would turn out right…that everything would be ok…

But as I stood with a lifeless Zelda in my arms, the faerie fluttered over my head, and rested on the hard, rocky body of a Goron.

I felt the tears bud at my eyelids, and my hands begin to tremble. I truly was forsaken…from the very moment of my birth when my mother discarded me into the forest, until this very day…

But no tears fell; they had been exhausted already. Instead I fell to the ground, shaking like a frightened child as my head spun in confusion. The cries of Guays filled the empty canyon, along with the rushing of the waterfall as I fell into the agony of misery. Everything had been taken away from me now. First it had been Saria; her heart had wandered and had been captured by the forest. Now Zelda had been snatched from me…again…

I felt the cool hand of someone on my shoulder. I looked up through the blur of my mind to see a nameless Goron whose usual silly and smiling face, looked down at me with pity. Another hand came to rest on my other shoulder. Its smooth, wet fingers were that of a Zora. I looked at him too, seeing the sympathy in their faces.

Someone then came to kneel down in front of me. Her red hair was touching the dirty floor of the valley, her tanned skin bowing in forgiveness. She looked up; her yellow eyes and white lips pleading for atonement. The Gerudo uttered a single sentence that made forced me into mercy.

"Please, we beg for your forgiveness. We are all incredibly sorry for your loss and we are forever in your debt. Please, we ask for your mercy." She said apologetically as she bowed again, her forehead grazing the dusty rock.

"Get up," I said coldly. "Go back to your fortress and never set foot outside this valley."

The woman nodded and hastily ran away from me, many of her people following her at my order.

I got out my ocarina and impatiently played the tune I knew like the back of my hand while holding Zelda to my chest. A yellow light enveloped us both and immediately we were transported back to the Temple of Time, where I lay Zelda down on the floor as I sat of the steps, holding my head in my hands.

From this moment forth, I resolved never to let such a mistake happen ever again. I would never love anyone again, never be distracted away from my mission, never be held in the arms of another, for I feared that the pain would be all the more tormenting if I let something terrible happen to them…

I looked over at Zelda's still form, and felt the lump in my throat rise in despair once more. I turned away, not being able to bear the memory of the shocked look on her face when I…when I…killed her…

"Link," a thunderous voice emanated from the heavens. "Your mission is still incomplete my boy," his voice grew softer, suddenly coming from behind me. I spun round and looked up to see Rauru standing before me. "I am deeply sorry for you Link," he said looking toward Zelda. "But you must put your emotions aside, for now you face a difficult decision: one that will alter history as we know it." He paused as he walked in front of me. "Well my boy, are you ready?"

I nodded in response. "What is it that I must decide." I said half-heartedly.

"Now, now Link, I'm being quite serious," he said clearing his throat. "As you may be aware, Gannondorf was in two forms. The form you faced just now was only one, one that escaped into this world as you travelled back to your time. The other is one that escaped from the sacred realm the instant that Zelda brought you back here. We could do nothing to prevent this. Now that you've sealed away one half of Gannondorf's mind, the other half is still running rampage in your world."

"He said something about joining again," I mused. "Does that mean he'll go back to my world?" I said looking up at Rauru.

"Most probably. However in order for this to occur, time travel must take place. If you were to go back to your world then you could defeat the two Gannondorfs and Hyrule would be safe from his tyranny for good. However, in order for this cycle to discontinue, you must remain in that world…for eternity."

Those last words hit me like a brick. I must stay in my world…forever…without Zelda…This was her world, and I didn't belong here…I really would have to leave her…just like I did before…

"But in order to do this, if you agree, we must erase your memory in every living person in Hyrule. For they cannot know that you exist, nor can you know that they exist. You will become obsolete from this world."

"If I did agree," I paused, knowing my question was ridiculously impossible. "Could I take Zelda with me?" Rauru looked stunned, clearly uncomfortable about my question.

"But…she's no longer with us…Why would you possibly want to take her with you?" he said flustered slightly.

"Because I love her…I want to give her a proper burial in my own world. I don't want her to forget me and I don't want to forget her…" I said, pleading Rauru to comply.

"I cannot alter your decision…but this will leave Hyrule without an heir to the throne, without a princess…Are you really willing to be so selfish?" he said smiling.

"Yes." I said.

"Very well then you foolish idiot." He said sarcastically. "I will send you back to your world where you belong, where you need to save Hyrule from total destruction…and where you and Zelda will live happily together." He said smiling as I picked up Zelda in my arms.

But before I could question his last comment, a blue light surrounded me, a crystal enclosing around us. What could he possibly mean? As the transparent crystal rose into the air, I saw him laugh at us happily as he too disappeared, returning to the heavens.

"The sages will be watching over you two." A voice said from nowhere, echoing the words Daurnia had said to us before, when Zelda was still alive…

Unconsciousness took me as I felt my existence being pulled from this world, and beginning to fly through the winds of time, back into the world I once knew, when I was carefree and ignorant of the terrors that the world possessed. The entire time I kept Zelda close to my heart, her white face pressed against my tunic.

When I woke up I found myself lying in my Kokiri bed, the ceiling of my tree house staring down at me as my eyes fluttered open. But I found my legs hanging over the small bed frames, everything appearing to be so small. But before I could figure that out, my thoughts flew directly to Zelda. I jumped out of my dazed state and rolled over, letting out a deep breath as I saw the white angel deep asleep in the lands of the dead beside me.

For reasons unknown to myself, I kissed her forehead before I almost fell out of my shrunken bed. I was expecting to be in the small body of a child, but as I straighten up, I found my adult body had come with me, as had Zelda's grown form. And for a fleeting moment I thought I saw her stir…

But when I blinked and rubbed my eyes, I saw that she was still again. It was just my imagination. Too many times had I hoped to see life in her again.

"Heh…I'm beginning to hallucinate." I said to myself. I walked out of my tree house, seeing that night had fallen upon the forest. The coast was clear for escape. I looked back at Zelda once more and whispered to her in the night silence. "I'll be back soon. Then I'll say goodbye…" and with that I jumped from the balcony, clutching my blood stained Master Sword in my hand, swearing to the heavens that I heard her voice whisper my name as I ran out of the forest.

"Link…I knew you'd be there when I woke…"