Amends, redux
"I…dreamt about your mother."
Midna stiffened.
"That so?" she said, nonchalant.
"Well, at least," he looked at her apprehensively. "I think it was your mother. I don't know why it would come back to me now of all times, but…"
"Fantastic," she snapped. "No, that's great. You wanna tell me exactly how you killed her while you're at it?"
Link stumbled, his palm catching on jagged stone.
"I…I…" he stuttered, averting his gaze and hurrying ahead of her towards the village in the distance. "I'm s-sorry, forget I said anything."
Midna caught the tail end of his vulnerable expression and reached out, grasping his wrist before he could escape.
"Link, wait. That didn't come out how I wanted."
She tugged him down so they both sat.
"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry."
"It's funny," he cracked a timid smile. "This is the first time I've ever heard you apologize for anything, but it's when all the blame – for absolutely everything – rests with me."
She sighed.
"Tell me about her," she said quietly. "Like I said, I don't really remember what happened when you attacked. Did she...say anything?"
"She begged for your life," he told her softly. "And I…and I cut her down. It was so easy."
He shuddered.
"It always was. There was never any remorse or anything. No room, you know. No room for anything of what made me a person."
Midna moved her grip to his hand and curled their fingers.
"It's like I was forced out of my own head. And that's what frightens me the most. Because you were right to seek out my death. So was Ganondorf."
He looked her in her eyes, tinged the color of blood.
"They'll come back," he insisted. "They always will. And when they do, what's going to happen to me? They'll strip me down until I'm nothing left but that cold killer. They'll rip my soul alive from my body and I'll be gone. Maybe for good, this time."
Midna squeezed his hand tight until it hurt.
"But you weren't," she hissed. "You killed my mother, but you did as she asked, didn't you? I'm living proof that something in you fought back."
"That wasn't it," he maintained. "I just didn't care."
"Bull," she scoffed.
"Midna-"
"Link," and her gaze upon him was an inferno. It scalded him and set his every nerve ablaze, left him feeling numb and burning alive all at once.
"You always care. Way too damn much, if you ask me."
And she wrenched him furiously to his feet, and she set them off at a pace so brisk, it left him no time to hang his head.
Author's Note: My god, Midna said the "S" word! That's the real plot twist, amirite? Lol.