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Chapter 14: The End of The End
(And The Beginning of A New Beginning)
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Link's POV
Accepting Sheik was a girl wasn't that difficult, accepting that I was King of the Gerudos was a bit of a relief as it explained why I had those random bits of information always floating around in my head. This most recent bit of truth that has come to light, however, is…well, intense. Sheik had been Princess Zelda this whole time? I felt more than saw as She—Zelda moved closer and knelt down in front of me. There was so much I wanted to ask, so much that I was confused about. She started explaining her reasons and, well most of the things I wondered about.
The most important thing was that she accidentally and unknowingly reminded me that it hasn't only been a number of months that things have been happening like this, things have been like this for them for seven years. She didn't just pick this disguise overnight; she lived as Sheik to survive for all seven years. It made sense to the Gerudo side of my thoughts, you did what you had to so that you could survive and you kept doing it until your chance of survival got better. You then stepped back and reevaluated. Desperate survival attempts are good to keep you alive when you have little left, but using them for extended periods of time wasn't good for you or those around you.
"No…It was not the kid's power I misjudged, it was the power of the Triforce of Courage." The voice of Ganondorf boomed through the temple walls. My mind didn't even try to make a witty remark as I watched Zelda being raised from the ground, still contained in the clear crystal cage.
"But, with the Triforce of Wisdom that Zelda has… When I obtain these two Triforces…Then I will become the true ruler of the world!" I stared at the suspended cage. Zelda hadn't moved since trying to beat on the walls closing her in.
"If you want to rescue Zelda, come to my castle!" Ganondorf said before he began to laugh. I watched as Zelda and the cage she was in began to fade from sight.
I sprint from the temple and head towards where Hyrule castle once stood. I reach a cliff and pause. Rauru speaks with me for a few moments and tells me what all I need to do once I get inside the castle. The Sages extend their power to where I was standing and they form a bridge from the cliff I was on over to the castle. After having crossed over it and entered the main doors, I slowly fought my way through the castle's different levels, destroying spirit barriers that then opened the way for the Sages to use their power within the castle against Ganondorf. Finally, sweat dripping from my head after the decent warm up; I stand just outside of the doors that led into the highest room of the castle. Taking a deep breath and pushing myself forward again, I open the large door.
Inside, I hear eerie music being played from somewhere in the room. I move slowly and quietly towards the direction I hear the music coming from. I move further into the natural darkness of the room, and as I go, my eyes adjust until I can make out a figure sitting at a large set of pipe organs. My eyes quickly glance around, looking for any hidden enemies and there, floating about where the figure, which I assumed was Ganondorf, was sitting at the organ was Zelda, still hanging in mid air, contained within the same crystal as before.
The Triforce marks on the three bearers' hands begin to glow as I moved further into the room. Mine had started to warm slightly as the glow grew brighter. The music stopped and Ganondorf rose from the bench he had been sitting on. Swirling his cape dramatically behind him, he turned around to face me, "The Triforce parts are resonating... They are combining into one again... The two Triforce parts that I could not capture on that day seven years ago... I didn't expect they would be hidden within you two! And now, finally, all the Triforce parts have gathered here! These toys are too much for you! I command you to return them to me!" He says, stretching out his hand with over emphasized movements.
"Man, you need to fire whoever is giving you acting lessens, a little less of the flashy stuff." My voice falters slightly as a dark light surges towards me, exuding from his hand. I dodge to the side and I notice that Navi shudders slightly as the dark energy passes us.
"I'm sorry Link, I can't help you with fighting him, the waves of darkness are keeping me from getting too close." She says with pained desperation. I nod and point towards Shei—Zeld,a without taking my eyes off of Ganondorf, "Go check on our dear friend and see how she is doing." Ganondorf began to float a short ways off the ground moving back and forth slightly.
Navi flies off quickly to check on Zelda and Ganondorf motions largely with his hands and a decent section of the floor falls away, leaving a small square island in the middle of the room. A five or six foot gap surrounded the island and then the rest of the room's floor was left as it should be near the walls. Deciding that I would have a little easier time of fighting him if I had a little more space between us until I figured out what he would be trying to do. Good thing too as the evil king apparently decided he was no match for me with a sword and started using magic right away. I smirk, turning my sword so the blade's flat edge was facing Ganondorf. I waited with the sword just over the shoulder, ready for Ganondorf to throw the first bit of magic at me. He launched it in my direction and as it neared, I swung my sword and connected cleanly with it. The sphere of magic sped up as it raced back in the floating magician. He knocked it back towards me, the speed increasing once again. Having faced many other magic using enemies, I swung lazily at the orb, connecting it and returning it to the sender. He tried to return it again but mistimed his swing and it struck him. What looked like whitish yellow strands of electricity flowed over his body. I watched for a moment, waiting for him to drop as most of the enemies I had fought this way had. He didn't, after a moment he seemed to absorb the energy and began building up for the next magical attack. Hoping to wear him down with multiple shots of the returned orb of energy, I watch as time and time again, he absorbs the energy into himself. After being hit by one of the orbs of energy since I was beginning to tire, Sheik, or, Zelda, err, whoever she is told me that the Light Arrow was the only thing that would be able to pierce his defenses. Frustrated with myself for wasting so much time, I return the orbs of energy again, but when it connects this time, I quickly pull my bow and the Light Arrow out and fire the arrow at Ganondorf, hoping that he had at least been worn down to the point I only had to use the arrow this one time since…it was the only light arrow I had been given. I jump over the gap and rush over to where Ganondorf had fallen after the arrow connected with him. I cut and slash at his curled up form as it sat on the small island platform, sure, it may not be considered honorable fighting, but I doubt the knights and all the other people who kept those kinds of codes had to fight against magicians who seemed to be made of pure evil.
To my horror, Ganondorf straightened and floated back into the air after a few minutes, though blood was flowing freely from the hits I had landed. Most hadn't because of that stupid armor he wore. As Ganondof began building up his next magical attack I decided to have a little fun, "I always thought that only cowards wear armor, these gauntlet I wear help me light things, but this tunic isn't anything special, other than the color, the boots aren't much either, here you are with this blackened, hardened leather outfit on. Won't even fight me with swords, have to cheat and use magic. Scared I'll beat you if we go toe to toe?" I taunt, though as he flings the next orb at me, I question the intelligence of it. I noticed, easily, that the orbs were flying towards me at a much higher rate of speed. 'Should have kept my mouth shut…should have kept…OW!'
Missed another orb of magic and it crashed into me, wracking pains running through my body. Frustrated and angry that he had landed yet another hit I set my mouth in a grim frown, trying to keep myself from being myself for the time being and staying focused on fighting. 'He definitely isn't a slacker, then again, he is the Great King of Evil, the subtitles that floated up in front of me as he also took to the sky at the beginning of the fight had told me so.' I shake my thoughts away and focus on just reflecting back the orbs of magic. He misses again and as I jump across to start attacking his leather armor and trying to find another place to land a painful hit, I think to myself, 'for someone who relies this much on magic, surely he would have practiced reflecting it away from himself…'
I hear Navi screaming something at me from off to the side, but I ignore her like I usually do when I'm fighting something. 'Can't count the number of times I've heard "Hey!" because she notices I'm not paying attention, but really lets be honest, I'm in the middle of fighting something at the time. I stop paying attention for too long and I could loose my head. Can't she see that I'm busy during those times?'
After a few more times of back and forth, Ganondorf finally drops to the ground and stays down, mostly. He is straight-backed, though sitting up on his knees, a look of confusion and hate in his eyes as he looks at me. He mutters softly, "The Great Evil King Ganondorf...beaten by this kid?!" Though it didn't come out as clearly for some reason, very…bubbly sounding. A few seconds later I understand as green tinted blood spews from his mouth. "Link…!" He says softly but with a large amount of pain and tension in his voice. He stands back up after a moment and gives a yell. Magic builds at his core, I slowly start to move away some, because that much magic in one place usually isn't a good thing. A couple seconds later, it erupts around him. His yell dies down as the bright light that accompanied the release of magic clears. The walls that had been around us have large holes in them and it looks more like a castle that is a few hundred centuries old rather than what it looked like before.
Ganondorf drops to the ground, face first, in front of me. The crystal that Zelda had been in slowly lowers back to the ground and disappears from around her. Zelda walks over to stand next to me but watches Ganondorf as she moves, "Ganondorf...pitiful man... Without a strong, righteous mind, he could not control the power of the gods...and..." She turns to say more to me but the castle give a frightening lurch and then trembles for a few seconds. "Link we have to get out of here, I think he was trying to bring us down with him! We need to hurry and escape, follow me!" She cries as she is already moving towards an opening in the former wall where a door used to stand.
We rush down through the levels of the castle, a much quicker trip down than it was up. Ganondorf seemed to have brought the dumbest group of fighters for himself from wherever these beasts came from, the entire tower is coming down but instead of fleeing for their lives, they are still waiting around and slow our progress by fighting us. I dispatch them easily enough, but even the smallest amount of seconds can be the difference between life and death with something like this. Thankfully we were able to get out with a few seconds to spare, but the castle was gone, completely rubble around us. My heart broke, knowing that the castle would never be the same, knowing that the building Zelda used to call home was gone.
I look over at my friend, Zelda…Sheik, a person whose face may have changed, and her personality had more than a little bit of difference, she was still there beside me, willing to help and encourage. If she had been two completely different people towards me, I would have had more trouble accepting who she was; but when she told me and gave a decent amount of proof I had thought back between the two. Starting off, Sheik was nothing like I remembered Zelda to be, but closer to the end of our traveling, just here recently, I could see more of my old friend. A more mature version of my old friend, but I could see the similarities all the same.
I continued looking at her face and watched as she took in everything around her. A light of hope and joy entered her face and lit a fire in her eyes that I hadn't seen in a long time, though I knew it had been longer for her. "It's over...it's finally over..." She whispered, just loud enough for me to hear and she looks over at me and smiles broadly. Navi comes over and she talks to use for a moment but she is slightly cut off by a rumbling noise coming from the rubble. Something tells me it isn't quite as "over" as we thought.
A hand rockets from below the rubble, followed shortly after by the rest of Ganondorf. The Triforce mark on his hand glows for a moment before his body begins to contort. A disgusting number of moments later, a large…human…looking…pig is standing before me. "Glad you've changed, the other form was a little too ugly for my tastes. Big improvement." I say sarcastically to him, swinging my sword at my side slightly.
Deciding to start of the offensive, I rush forward and bring the blade down. Well…halfway down, my hands follow through, but the sword, I notice a second later, is flipping end over end, landing with the blade buried in the sand outside of a ring of fire that had sprung up, probably during his transformation, I was a little too distracted being amazed and disgusted by his transformation to really notice…
I pull out the Big Goron sword. Not really my favorite sword, can't use my cool shield with it, but any sword is better than no sword against this massive beast…thing. I take a few steps back, Navi is fluttering over his head yelling something about being helpful this time…yeah… I take in "Ganon's" appearance, as Navi pointed out shortly before she just started yelling "hey" and "over here" type phrases at me. The two flaming swords look very intimidating, heck, all of him looks intimidating, but this is something I have to do. For the people of Hyrule, and…Zelda, I have to finish this. I risk a glance at her and see that she is standing on the outside of the fire—thankfully. A concerned look is plastered on her face, but not one of fear or doom. From that one look alone, I know she trusts me and my ability to fight and beat this evil creature, and that is good enough for me.
I start in again, more cautiously this time, but slowly I begin to land hits on the great pig. "Link!" I hear Zelda yell at me, "The master sword is here! Hurry up, only this will let you truly defeat him." Ganon has stood back up by this point and looks like he is ready to go again. We trade more hits, his size means he can hit harder, but his swings are a little bit slower, slow enough that I can dodge the majority of the attacks. Ganon goes to swing again, but loses balance and falls. Zelda chooses this time to strike with her magic.
I watch in fascination for a few moments before Zelda grunts, "Link, you idiot, I can't hold on like this forever, get in there while I'm holding him down and hit him with your sword!"
As if in confirmation of her words, the Master Sword glows for a few brief seconds. "Use the sacred sword to destroy Ganon!" She yells, though a bit weaker.
I plunge forward and ram my sword Ganon's body. "Six Sages, Now!" Zelda cries again.
A few seconds later, six spheres of light fade into view around us and a large portal opens beneath Ganon. I jump backwards to stay out of its pull and just in time as Ganon begins to sing into the abyss. Even after his head is submerged below normal ground level, his voice could still be heard, "YOU... CURSE YOU...ZELDA! CURSE YOU...SAGES! CURSE YOU...LINK! Someday... When this seal is broken... That is when I will exterminate your descendants! As long as the Triforce of Power is in my hand..." His voice fades as the portal closes around him.
I slap my forehead dramatically, "Knew we were forgetting something…" I say. I start to turn towards Zelda but a flash of light momentarily blinds me. I close my eyes tightly, waiting until I know they have readjusted from the flash. I open my eyes slowly and squint as my eyes readjust to the new level of brightness that seems to be everywhere around me. It was almost like I had stepped into a room full of mirrors and the suns light was shining into all of them at different angles.
I glance to either side of me for a moment and sense someone behind me. I spin quickly, reaching for my sword but not finding one there, weird… Zelda stood there though so there was no need for it anyways. She was looking at the ground, even when I moved closer to her she didn't look up.
She took a deep breath, "Thank you, Link... Thanks to you, Ganondorf has been sealed inside the Evil Realm! Thus, peace will once again reign in this world...for a time. All the tragedy that has befallen Hyrule was my doing... I was so young...I could not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm. I dragged you into it, too." A notice a tear running down her cheek as she took another breath, though she seemed to shake slightly as she did so this time.
"Now it is time for me to make up for my mistakes... You must lay the Master Sword to rest and close the Door of Time... However, by doing this, the road between times will be closed... Link, give the Ocarina to me..." I pass her the Ocarina slowly and cautiously, something was going on here that wasn't a few minutes ago…
She looked at the Ocarina for a few moments before continuing, "As a Sage, I can return you to your original time, let you grow up as a normal kid and live your life like you should have." Zelda says softly, looking more towards my feet than anything. She begins to lift her Ocarina to her mouth and I quickly move forward.
Just before the mouthpiece reaches her lips I place my hand over hers and force them downward, tears overflow her eyes as she looks up at me and then bends her head forward, leaning against me, her hands gripping mine like they are her life source before beginning to sob, "Please, Link... don't... don't make this harder than it already is. You won't remember anything... not the pain or loss or evil, not m-... you will keep your innocence, everything will go b-back to...how it should have been..." Her body shakes violently as she cries and I pull her close, giving the support I always have, waiting until she calms down.
She slowly relaxes into the embrace finally, I step away slightly and turn her face towards me with the hand that isn't still wrapped around her and smile softly.
"You haven't learned hardly anything still have you? And you the supposed bearer of Wisdom, why would you ever think I would want to return to before. Sure there is innocence returned to me there, but there isn't you." I rest my forehead on hers as I continue to look into her eyes willing her to see the sincerity in my eyes.
"Yes there is pain here, yes there are dark memories, but there is also a brighter future, coming from this darkness we appreciate the light so much more. The night that covered the land is leaving, it's becoming one of the many shadows in time and it will pass as the new day comes to full light."
My thumb softly strokes her cheek as I speak and she unconsciously leans into it, tears still streaming from her eyes as she looks at me. Uncertainty still flitting through her gaze almost as if there is a battle going on between her and…something else. I sigh softly and move my other hand to the other side of her face, gently making sure she is looking straight at me.
"What is going on Zel? Hope you don't mind me calling you Zel, terrible time to introduce a nickname and all but, talk to me, what's going on?" I ask her softly.
She looks at me, the battle still being fought in her eyes, but it seems to have died down some for the moment, "While we were sealing Ganondorf away, the Goddesses visited me and told me what I had to do. That your innocence should have never been taken from you like it was, that you deserve those seven years after all the fighting you have done. You shouldn't have to remember it because the burden shouldn't have been yours to bear. It makes sense, there isn't much left for this place. Turning back time…you will be home in the forest once more…" She trails off, tears forming in her eyes once more. She half laughs with frustration, "I hate crying like this." She mutters, but I don't laugh at the statement. She looks at me and flinches slightly at the intense look that was probably on my face.
Not sure who I was talking to, whether Zelda or the Goddesses I figured were listening, but I say strongly, "The circumstances may have stolen my innocence, but don't you dare, please don't even try to take the one I love from me." I lean forward and claim Zelda's lips with mine softly, before pulling back and looking at her slightly shocked face, "Don't give me a past I don't want instead of the future that is promised to me right now because it is all I could ever ask for. I. Love. You. Zel. Don't take that from me. Please." I return to hugging her for a short moment before sighing once again.
Even though I know what I want…I don't know what she wants, and I will leave the decision up to her on this. It is hers to make after all and I decide to tell her as much. I take a step back, "But, in the end, I suppose it is your choice and I will accept your choice."
She looks at me for a second, glances at the ocarina before dropping it and launching at me, wrapping her arms around me and burying her face into my neck. She mumbled a few times but I couldn't understand. Waiting till her grip loosened and then moving back enough to see her face I asked, "What was that? I couldn't understand you."
She looks up and smiles brightly at me, "I said I choose you, and I love you too. I figure I can be selfish on the point." Her smile widens. "Thank you, Link. For everything you have done." She leans forward and our lips meet once again, not noticing the blinding white flash of light that occurs around us a few seconds later. When we pulled apart a few minutes later, I see that we are standing in the same general area that we were before the whole out of world trip thingy. I glance around checking for anything weird around us, but the rubble looks as it did before we left also. I look back to Zelda, who was still wrapped in my arms at this point and smile as she looks up at me, grateful and happy with her choice, and that the Goddesses let us chose it.
"So what do we do now?" I ask, pointing at everything around us.
She looks around for a couple seconds before shrugging, "Rebuild. Just as big, just as grand, maybe even better." She says with a determined but happy look in her eyes.
I smirk at her after a moment, "I have a better idea, for right now at least. I think a party with the Gerudo's is in order." I say before scooping her up and racing down to where I hoped Epona was still waiting. Excited to see where this life would take me next.
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A/N: I was thinking about doing an Epi, but…I don't really know what all to put. In my mind, he won't go to Terminia with this ending, just live out his life as King of the Gerudo and marry Zelda, truly uniting Hyrule for the first time in a couple centuries
There won't be a sequel. Thank Goodness! I doubt I could handle writing another one for LoZ. It was fun, but a challenge at different times. Thanks for sticking with me through my first fic, hope you enjoyed it, and if not, that you find a wonderful one soon so that you can feel contended. Next fic that I am working on will probably be a HP Twilight crossover; should be fun! Happy readings!
For those who care, thank you to all those who have reviewed, followed the story, favorited the story, etc. I appreciate the response you all have given me. I am sorry if there wasn't as much to the end as you wanted, but I have honestly gotten tired of the story. I wanted to complete it so I had the general idea of where I was going with it down so that (if I feel like it) I can come back later and rework the last bit to be longer, more detailed, whatever. Hope the ending wasn't a let down for anyone. :/ anyways, I'm done rambling. By the way, did I ever mention? I don't own this story or these characters, aside from Gwyn, but I don't really own her either. ;)
