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Through a crack in the town gates, Midna watched a cloud of smoke and dust rise from Hyrule Castle to pollute the twilit sky. Zelda gazed inscrutably in the same direction. Link didn't look at anything at all—just blinked hard, over and over, as he leaned against Midna and staunched the bloody wound across his chest.
"Sorry about the castle," Midna said to break the silence.
"Stone is a small sacrifice to make," Zelda replied. "I hate to ask this, but…"
"What, you don't want to terrify people further?" Midna joked. "I get it."
Despite a valiant attempt to stand on his own, Link wavered as she stepped reluctantly away. Zelda filled her place a heartbeat later, bracing her narrow shoulders against his weight and meeting his mumbled apology with graceful dismissal. Midna looked at these two people in the golden sunset—exhausted, filthy, harrowed, magnificent—and knew that if the Light Spirits hadn't saved her, she would have died happy.
She slipped into the shadows without complaint. The alarming presence of a Twilig was the last thing the townsfolk needed after months of nameless fear capped off by the castle's destruction.
Zelda was reaching for the gate when someone pulled it open from the other side. She and Link both stumbled, and Midna was relieved to see that help had arrived in the form of the Resistance—some of the only Hyruleans brave enough to run towards danger instead of away.
"Link?" Rusl said breathlessly. "Golden Goddesses, what—"
"He needs a doctor," Zelda interrupted.
"Princess?" An older man stepped up to Rusl's side, hefting a large cannon over his shoulder, his face drawn with shock.
Zelda froze.
Auru had helped Link find the Mirror of Twilight, but Midna had also seen him through Zelda's memories: his eyes crinkling when she impressed him during their lessons, his arms holding her fast on the day her mother died, his horse disappearing on the horizon while she watched from the ramparts.
Before either of them could speak, Rusl disentangled Link from Zelda. This time—as hours of pain and blood loss and desperate battle compounded with months of the same—Link's knees buckled. Rusl caught him smoothly.
"I can walk," Link insisted, because he was all stubborn pride, because he wanted to reach the end of this long nightmare on his own terms.
"I know you can," Rusl said, lifting the boy he'd raised into his arms anyway. Shad ran ahead to warn the doctor; Ashei stuck to Rusl's side as he carried Link down the street.
"Auru," Zelda said at last. "My people are waiting."
He followed her into the city, and so did Midna. Link was in good hands, and she wanted to see how Zelda handled a homecoming that she herself would soon have to face.
The scene at the gates had drawn a few curious onlookers, but a larger crowd gathered at the plaza, watching the castle's central tower crumble and smoke. Chin up, back straight, the princess glided through their midst like a royal galleon parting the sea. By the time she sprang up onto the rim of the fountain, every pair of eyes was on her.
Thin from captivity, shaky from months without a body, her dress smeared with Link's blood: yet Zelda carried herself with exquisite grace. A statue of the Hylian crest spread its stone wings at her back. The last streaks of the dwindling sun crowned her in gold. In her right hand was a bow fashioned from magic, bright and pure, granted by the Light Spirits to rout the end of the world.
"The scourge is vanquished," Zelda declared. "The castle is damaged, but everything that matters is safe. I trust you have many questions. Answers will come in time. For now, I thank you for your courage, and I promise: Hyrule is ours once more."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Not cheers—people were too confused for that. But Zelda's presence kindled an unmistakable awe. Would Midna's people look at her that way when she went home? Would she deserve it?
Zelda did, without question. But she had never abandoned anyone.
Link was bandaged and clean and fast asleep in the spare room above Telma's bar by the time Midna arrived. The bewildered doctor was telling the Resistance that if the damage hadn't killed him already, perhaps nothing could. Rusl stayed after all the others were gone, unaware of Midna as she curled up in the shadows beneath the bed and closed her own exhausted eyes.
Link was still asleep when she woke the next day, and the day after that. She split her time between his side and Zelda's, popping out of the shadows to startle the other princess whenever she was alone. That happened rarely enough—with the throne room in ruins and monsters still about, Zelda had her hands full getting the castle back in order with the deeply incompetent Hyrulean guard and some volunteers the Resistance had organized.
On the dawn of the third day, Link opened his eyes. Midna, who had been watching the emerging sun and remembering her changeless homeworld, turned to look at him.
He blinked a few times, groggy and a bit shy—she was not the imp he'd known. She was herself again, tall and strong with the full force of her ancestors' magic flowing through her: the Twilight Princess would never flee her people again.
"Hey," Midna said, settling into Rusl's chair. "We did it."
The knowledge settled like gentle snowfall. Link smiled, soft and sweet and truly content for the first time since they had met. Midna made her decision there and then.
They talked for a while, about everything and nothing, until someone knocked on the door. Knowing that Link's awakening would create a great deal of fuss, Midna whispered, "See you later," and ducked into the shadows.
She was relieved to find Zelda awake and alone, clutching a cup of coffee like a lifeline as she watched the rosy sunrise from the castle ramparts.
"Link woke up," Midna said by way of greeting as she took form.
"Is he well?" Zelda wondered.
"Yeah." Midna rested her hands on the parapet, growing warm with the rising light. That garish sun would have hurt her, once, but something had changed since Zelda saved her. Everything had changed. She stared towards Gerudo Desert with desperate eyes.
"I know what you're thinking," Zelda said.
"Of course you do."
"Your concerns are well-founded. The risk would always be present. But with enough work…we could make both our worlds safe."
"You really believe that?"
"I dream of it," Zelda said sincerely, a response Midna had never expected of the self-contained princess, which made it all the more valuable. Early sunbeams scattered the world at their feet, shining softly across the grey stone of Hyrule Castle, turning the surrounding moat into a brilliant mirror. Long shadows shifted and loomed in every empty space.
"I dream of it too," Midna admitted. "I just don't think dreams are enough, after all we've seen."
Zelda said the kindest thing one ruler could say to another: "I understand."
"And…you'll take care of him?"
"I will be with him," Zelda promised. "Just…just as I will be with you."
Midna took her hand, small and warm against her own cool flesh. "I wish there was someone I could ask to take care of you. But you'll be all right, won't you, Princess?"
"Yes," Zelda answered. She was the product of everything Midna had seen in her memories, both the sorrow and the sweetness; she was indomitable. "But, Midna—aren't we past titles by now?"
"You're right, Zelda. We are."
The memory of her answering smile—careful and sad and utterly real—would stay tucked into Midna's heart for the rest of her life.
By the time she seeped along the shadowed streets and up through the floorboards of Telma's bar, Rusl was ruffling Link's hair and telling him to go back to sleep. After he was gone, Link murmured Midna's name—not in question, but with total certainty that she was here. Certainty that would be shattered twenty-four hours from now.
"Hey," she greeted. "Think you can make it to the desert tomorrow?"
"Think I'd better," he answered. "I know you want to go home."
And if she waited any longer, she would lose her nerve. Midna swallowed hard and lied through her teeth: "I'll come back in a week or so."
Even that time apart felt jarring, frightening. They had spent nearly every minute of the past six months together. Looking up at her with his fierce blue eyes, Link opened his arms.
Midna came from a world of perpetually mild temperatures. Hyrule's summer heat had shocked her; Snowpeak's bitter cold was even worse. That was where she'd curled up against Link's thick wolf-fur for the first time, terribly self-conscious about the whole thing, daring him to speak a single word of it the next time he was human.
He never had. And somehow, she found herself at his side the next night, and the one after that, no matter what form he took. They held fast to each other while the world dragged them away from everything else, and that was salvation.
When Midna climbed into his bed now, everything felt different. Tall in her true skin, she was the one gathering his small body into her arms this time, and he melted into it.
"Promise me something," she said.
"Anything," was Link's immediate reply—one that would have been ridiculous coming from anyone less capable of following through.
"Two things," Midna corrected. Her fingers brushed the clean white bandage that covered the deep cut on his cheek. Though she had been unconscious at the time, she knew it came from Zelda's sword, wielded by Ganondorf as he possessed her body. "We don't tell her about this. About what he did."
Link closed his eyes briefly—in weariness, certainly, but also to fend off the memory. "You sure?"
"Yeah. She's had her fair share of pain, and with Hyrule in the shape it is…all I want is to spare her more."
"Okay," he agreed. Where they touched, his heartbeat was steady and regular, not hammering from the horrors of that day or fear of the next. Right now, Link's profound relief eclipsed the physical pain, the soiled past, the uncertain future—but it wouldn't stay that way forever. "What's the second thing?"
Midna wanted a thousand promises. One to find peace. One to remember her, and forgive her if he could. One to show Zelda that trust didn't always mean danger.
But if Link would forsake everything he loved to follow her if he knew what she was about to do. Besides—two promises were already more than she deserved.
"I can't say I have no regrets," Midna said finally, swallowing hard. "But what we did together—what we achieved—was worth every cost. Remember that. Promise me you'll remember it was worth it."
Ordinarily, Link might have reacted with skepticism. Right now he was half-asleep, and healing, and happy, so he just mumbled, "I promise."
Already his eyelids were fluttering shut and his face slackening into that boyish softness that broke Midna's heart every single time. She stayed awake, waiting for the breaking of the last dawn she would ever see.
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Hi and welcome to my fic, As Dusk Falls! This is a post-TP fic that complies with canon wherever possible and aims to answer some unresolved questions. For example, why did the Bulbins kidnap Ilia and the Ordon kids? Why does Zelda appear to be in charge but is still princess rather than queen? When Link rode away from Ordon during the end credits, where did he go? Read on to find out my take!
While this prologue is from Midna's POV, all other chapters are from the POV of Zelda and/or Link. The fic is really about those two, though it also features characters like the Ilia, Rusl, the others in the Resistance, and some OCs.
The fic is going through its last draft now - I'll be posting pretty frequently and am confident the entire fic (25 - 30 chapters) will be done before Tears of the Kingdom releases! I hope it helps tide you over as we all wait with bated breath :)