Disclaimer: I do not own the legend of Zelda game series or the characters.

Chapter 23: Despair

When I woke up I crawled over to Rose and lightly tapped her cheek. "Rose…can you hear me? Please, please wake up! I don't want it to end this way." Midna moved aside for a moment. I put my ear close to her mouth to listen for breathing. It was soft, and more like weak gasping, and then it stopped. I panicked. "Rose, please don't die." I gently kissed her on the lips. I started to lose hope as there was still no answer, so I put my head in my hands and started to cry silently.

"I'm sorry, Link…" Midna said. "We lost a good friend today."

I cried more loudly, each breath sounding more like a gasp as I literally let it all out. I then heard coughing. It was Rose!

She opened her eyes and looked at me. "Link…"

"Thank God!" I said happily.

She gleamed weakly at me. "You killed Shon, huh?" I nodded. "Good. At least…at least he didn't get a hold of the heirloom…if he did, things would have been worse." She managed to say. She coughed again and breathed through her nose.

"Yes. Things would have been worse." I said to her as I kissed her on her forehead. "Everything's okay now, so please rest, okay?"

"Okay." She said. "But why…why did you just kiss me?"

"I definitely have some explaining to do." I held her hand. "First off, how are you feeling? I want to make sure you're alright."

She nodded. "I'm alright. It's just hard to breathe." She then started to cough again and this time, she coughed up blood. I took a handkerchief and wiped the blood. I started to realize that her injuries were affecting her breathing. As I looked at her and tried to comfort her, fears were buzzing around in my head. Above all, I was afraid that some of her organs were going to shut down from the shock of the wounds.

"I'm getting some water for her." Midna said.

"Thanks." I answered. Midna nodded and headed off. I looked back at Rose. "I feel terrible…I lied to you and I shouldn't have done that. If I knew that this would be the outcome, I certainly wouldn't have done it."

"What did you lie about?" She asked.

"Our relationship." I said. She tried to speak, but she coughed again. "Please don't talk." I started to tear up. "It's only…" My voice was breaking as I caressed her cheek. "It's only making you weaker." She nodded. "…I did feel the same way…I still wanted us to be a couple…but I felt like I didn't deserve you and that I didn't deserve to feel the way I did for you. I loved you, Rose; and I still do." She smiled a weak smile. "You're my other half. I don't know what I'd ever do without you. I love you more than anything in this world."

"I love you too, Link." She started to cry. "When I was about to leave for Nikitre, I wanted to tell you that I loved you, but I was scared too, so I paused to think of something else."

"Oh." I said with a smile. "Well, now we both know." We both let out a little chuckle. I knelt closer to her and lifted her slightly to kiss her. I put her down and Midna came over with the water. She gave her a drink and I laid her down again. She started to cough again, this time more severely. "Are you okay?" I asked her.

She shook her head and wheezed while breathing. "I feel like I'm getting weaker, and…I'm in a lot of pain. It hurts so badly to breathe; it's like a sharp blade stabbing me each time I take a breath. She coughed again, and a huge amount of blood came out, splattering all over her and the floor. "I don't…" She turned to the side and coughed some more; the blood forming a pool on the floor. "I don't know if I can make it..." Midna just watched with terror in her eyes.

"D-don't say that!" I said to her desperately. "It'll turn out okay! You and I both know that. You'll get better, and we can be together. It'll be great. We can go back to the castle and look at the frogs like we did when we were little, you and Marie can visit Hyrule again…there's so much life yet to live! You can't be dying!"

"Trust me, Link…I want to do those things…but I think it's my time to go."

"No…just…just tell me what to do to help. I'll make sure that you don't die!"

"I don't think you can't keep me from dying…I will have to leave you and everyone else on earth." She coughed and blood came out again. I took the handkerchief and held it to her mouth as she cried.

She started wheezing and coughing more frequently. And then came the scary part. Her breaths were becoming shallower and shallower…soon she was gasping for air. "ROSE!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I tried giving her CPR for five minutes, but it didn't help much.

She used the last bit of her strength to talk to me. "I love you, and I always will."

"I love you too, and I always will." I said to her. Her eyes closed slowly as she took a final breath and simply quit breathing. I checked her pulse again. It was gone. I started to sob very loudly, and Midna cried too. I couldn't believe this was happening. I was filled with so much grief that I physically couldn't make myself stop crying. I turned to Midna. "She's…gone…"

"I know. It's…devastating." She said. She put her hand on my shoulder. "She will be missed." She went to grab some blankets and I wrapped Rose's body in them.

"Let's take her home." I said finally.

"Alright."

Midna and I took Rose's body home and showed it to her father. He was shocked.

"Who did this?" Harold yelled in anger and devastation. "Did you do this, Link!"

"Trust me." Annie said, coming out from hiding behind a pillar. "It wasn't Link. It was Shon. He was abusive to Rose…and he finally ended up killing her."

"Oh my God!" Tyler said with horror. He stood there with his mouth wide open.

"That's terrible." Abigail said.

"Oh..." Harold said sadly. "My poor daughter!" He started to sob. "I…I don't know what to say. I'm so sad." He thought to himself, and then addressed me. "Is Shon dead?"

"Yes. I killed him, sir." I said.

"This is a tragedy…Guards, please make a coffin for my baby girl." He continued to sob as they saluted to him and went to work. After a few minutes of mourning, he gained some composure. "I can't believe this is happening. I…I feel terrible." He looked at Annie, Midna and I. "I didn't imagine the possibility of my daughter dying before me." He looked at me and at Rose's wrapped-up body in my arms. "They should be done with her casket soon, sometime tonight most likely. Meanwhile maybe we should lay her down?"

I nodded. I took her to her old bedroom and set her body down on the bed. I came back out into the throne room. Everything was eerily quiet. I spoke to him again. "I feel terrible too, sir…she didn't deserve to die." Midna and I spent some time filling him in on everything that happened. Then he switched the subject.

"Tell me, did you really feel like your relationship with Rose wasn't working? I know this is random, but I'm quite curious." He asked me.

I took a deep breath. "Sir, I loved your daughter very much." I said seriously. "I was scared to tell her until moments before she died, but I loved her more than anything."

"Oh." He said with surprise. "I never knew that."

"I had an idea that was what was happening." Tyler said.

"She meant the world to me." I said, starting to tear up. "I'm sorry, sir, I shouldn't be crying like this." I wiped my tears with my hands. "She was my other half…I never felt like that before until she came along. She was truly a very special woman, in so many ways."

"She was really special. So giving…" He was silent.

I thought to myself. I felt sorry for Harold; first he lost his wife, and now he's lost his daughter, too. I then thought to myself about my own feelings about this situation. I have lost someone very special to me, and I feel like it is my fault in a large respect. If only I would have told her how much I loved her at an earlier time, then things would be different. I missed her…so badly…and she hasn't even been dead long.

That night her casket was finished. It was made of oak and had a dark finish. We placed her into the casket and shut the lid. Her funeral was in a week, and I wanted to stay for it, so I stayed in the same spare room that I stayed in when my legs were shattered. When I stayed here the few days before Rose died, I stayed in a different spare room, and going back into this room, I was pleasantly surprised. I saw two picture frames on the end table. One was of Rose and me when I was recuperating and the other was of Rose and I shortly after my legs had recovered. I looked closely at both of them, noticing all of the details. It was bittersweet. There was a knock at the door and I answered it; finding out that Marie was the one who had knocked. Midna was behind her.

"I need to talk to you, Link." Marie said sadly. Midna and I sat on the bed with her. "First I find out that my cousin died, and then I found out that you lied. Why didn't you tell Rose that you loved her?"

"It's…difficult to explain, Marie. I was scared. I didn't know if she cared for me in that way."

She looked sad. "I get it now." She said.

"I'm so sorry. I feel like it's my fault that this happened."

"Don't say that! It isn't your fault! You did all that you could to revive her; you weren't the one that injured her."

"Yeah, but it doesn't stop the pain that I'm feeling inside."

"We all feel that pain." Midna said to me. "I doubt it'll go away very soon."

"Yeah." It was getting late, so we all told each other goodnight and went to bed.

At midnight I went to visit Rose. I stood in front of her casket and kissed her on the forehead. "I love you." I told her. "I wish that you were still here…I feel lost without you. I hope that you're happy…" I paused, and then continued. "We'll be together again someday. I'm looking forward to that. Goodnight." I closed the casket and went back to bed. I didn't know it, but Harold was up at that time too, and he watched me when I was at Rose's casket. The next morning we had breakfast, and then Harold wanted to talk to me. We went to the fountain at the courtyard.

"I saw you last night at Rose's casket. The way you spoke to her and treated her really got me to thinking."

"About what sir?" I inquired.

"…You would have been a good husband to her, I just know it. I now realize it; you two were definitely soul mates." He smiled.

I smiled back at him. "Unfortunately it's too late for that, but I'm glad that you feel that way."

There was temporary silence, and then Harold spoke again. "You'll see…one day you won't be so sad anymore; you'll remember all of the good memories you had with Rose. That's what I had to tell myself about Carol. It hurt to lose her, more than words can ever describe…but I know that everything happens for a reason. You'll see her again."

"I'll be happier when that happens." I looked at the water for a moment. "Thanks for the talk." He nodded. I continued to look at the water as he walked away to leave me at peace.