Link cried out in pain when he crashed on the lower floor of Ganondorf's lair for the third time, the elevated platform just disappearing from under him at Ganondorf's bequest again, sending him hurtling down, down, down to the floor. Bits of the platform Ganondorf had just magicked out of proper existence had hit him on the way down but done nothing to slow down his fall.
The worst of the pain seemed to be from his lower half, except for a sharp stabbing pain in his head. He tried to move his legs, found one of them was not responding. He reached in his pocket for a potion, hoping against hope that he'd somehow miscounted and that he had some left: no such luck. All four of his bottles were empty. Two had been used on his previous two falls, and two more after Ganondorf had either hit him with spells or with his sword.
He sat up and looked at his leg. His vision swam from the movement, and something was leaking in his eyes. He swiped at his forehead and eyes absently, and the back of his hand revealed blood. His head was bleeding. Well, that explained the headache that was nearly as bad as the pain in his leg.
A glance at said leg revealed it was bent at an unnatural angle. He clenched his teeth together and forced it back to a more normal position – there was no way he'd be able to stand at all if he didn't. The pain exploded, and everything went black.
He woke up to more pain as all his nerves suddenly lit on fire. Acting on instinct, he jumped to his feet and did a spin attack to remove whatever was hurting him.
His leg screamed and the spin attack did nothing to help. Thankfully, the spell Ganondorf had just hit him with dissipated on its own. Link first looked up to try and locate the Evil King, but his peripheral vision found him at the same level Link was.
Ganondorf had joined him on the lower level of his lair and was grinning at him.
Link faced him, Master Sword ready.
"Would you like me to do this attack again, boy?" Ganondorf said with a chuckle. "It's the same one you've been sending back to me with that accursed blade."
Link would have indeed liked that very much. He'd managed to hit Ganondorf with his own dark magic twice, following it up with more traditional attacks while his enemy shook off the effect of his own evil spells, but Ganondorf had changed strategy after that, and was now attacking him with spells Link couldn't seem to deflect, combined with making the floor under Link's feet suddenly disappear and at times, simply rushing him with his sword. Link had been able to push back some of those particular attacks, but Ganondorf was bigger, stronger and more experienced than he was, and had sliced him up pretty badly a few times.
Through it all, Navi had kept trying to get close to Ganondorf, more and more frantically the longer the fight went on, but the evil radiating from the monster in Gerudo form was too much for her: the last time she'd tried and refused to give up, she'd eventually fallen to the floor and she had been there since. Link didn't know whether she was still alive, but he did know he couldn't afford to think about that right now.
He didn't bother answering Ganondorf's question, bracing himself instead for whatever attack the King of Evil threw at him next. His head was still swimming, it felt like the room was slowly spinning. Keeping his eyes focused on Ganondorf was helping with that a bit, but between his headache, the dizziness and his leg, a potion would have been REALLY nice right about now.
Ganondorf smirked and raised his hand. Link recognized the motion: this was one of the spells he couldn't deflect. Standing his ground was not an option, he'd only get hit, so he ran for Ganondorf.
Or rather, he tried. His broken leg gave out and he sprawled. He rolled and the spell narrowly missed him.
Ganondorf's sword did not miss. Link was coming out of his roll when he felt pain piercing and digging into his upper back, right around his wing bones. It didn't last: everything went black again.
The spirit of the hero looked on dejectedly.
He supposed he'd been due for a defeat. His memories were coming back of all his previous lives, and truth be told, the blessings upon him usually helped to secure victory. He couldn't remember another time where he'd failed to defeat the manifestation of Demise's curse.
The fact didn't lessen the sting, the pain, of THIS defeat at all. He'd failed. He'd let everyone down.
The Sages had taken over the battle. He'd at least managed to weaken Ganondorf enough to allow them some hope. All seven of them, even Rauru who'd finally left the Chamber of Light for the occasion, even Zelda who'd been freed from her Crystal prison somehow – Link had missed that part, it had taken a few minutes after death to be aware again – all seven of them were surrounding Ganondorf with some kind of barrier.
Navi hadn't moved. As much as he hated the thought it was hard to deny that she was almost certainly dead too.
His own body was still on the floor, just outside of the barrier. He looked worse than he'd realized: the injury on his head was severe enough it was mildly surprising it hadn't been enough to kill him, and he had several other deep cuts all over himself – if Ganondorf hadn't impaled him right through the heart, he would probably have bled out fairly quickly anyway.
The barrier was closing in on Ganondorf, who was clearly distressed by that fact and cursing vehemently. The Spirit noticed the hidden spell in the curse words a mere second before the Sages did, and in either case it was too late. The barrier suddenly expanded, dimming as it went as if it was being spread too thin, and the Sages were now inside it right alongside Ganondorf – not that it mattered, the barrier was too weak by now to do much of anything.
As if to prove precisely that, Ganondorf flew towards the outer edge of it, obviously planning on escape.
The Sages all glanced at each other, and Zelda nodded, grimly.
"Ganondorf," the Sages all said in unison. "We banish you now from Hyrule!"
The spirit of the Hero's eyes widened even as the Sages closed their eyes and joined they hands in prayer.
Ganondorf turned back to the Sages, looking furious, but the Spirit of the Hero never saw what came next. The barrier and everything in it blinked out of existence, and Ganondorf was gone.
And so were all seven Sages.
The Spirit of the Hero had no idea what they had just done and why, but it was clear that the Sages had followed a preset plan to be set into motion if all else failed. Following Link's failure and death, and following Ganondorf effectively neutralizing the barrier the Sages were building around him, the Sages had somehow traveled away from Hyrule themselves, and dragged the King of Evil along. Just as clear was the fact they were not coming back.
The spirit was still more connected to his most recent lifetime than to any of the previous ones, and felt the full blow of the fact.
Because he'd failed, Saria had had to exile herself right along with Ganondorf to save Hyrule.
And so had Princess Zelda.
And Princess Ruto. And Darunia. Impa, Nabooru, Rauru... all of them had had to sacrifice in order to save Hyrule because he, Link, had failed.
The Spirit of the Hero whimpered and curled in on itself, its spiritual 'body' curling up in a ball. This was his fault. He'd failed them, he'd failed all of them, and now they were either dead or worse, stranded with Ganondorf in who knew what prison they had banished him to.
His best friend for as long as he could remember was dead or worse, because of him. She'd never play her ocarina again, she'd never play anything again, she'd never smile or laugh or talk to him or any of the other people who loved her – which was basically anyone she'd ever met – again.
The Princess of Hyrule who'd spent most of her life desperately trying to save Hyrule. Dead now, or worse, because of him. Impa, who'd been alongside her all along and who was so dedicated to everyone all the time, same terrible fate.
Princess Ruto would never see her father again or her people come back to life. She was dead or worse, because Link had failed in his mission.
Darunia had called him a brother and had named a child after him, and Link had allowed this to happen to him, had allowed him to be lost forever.
The Spirit wished he'd gotten to know Nabooru better. She'd been captive, brainwashed into serving Twinrova, for seven years, and before that she'd been trying to fight their influence on the Gerudo. She'd been surprised to be a Sage but it had never seemed surprising to Link. He barely knew her and he could still tell she was an exceptionally good person. And now she was dead, or again, worse, because Link hadn't been able to defeat Ganondorf.
Rauru was the one the spirit knew the least about, and even for him, what happened was obviously unfair. The Sage of Light had trapped himself for eons already, in the Chamber of Light within the Sacred Realm, and had projected himself as a talking owl in Hyrule to help Link out, and it hadn't been enough. Link had failed him too, along with everyone else. After eons of being trapped alone, Rauru was now trapped with Ganondorf, unless he was just dead.
Because Link had failed. He'd failed every last one of them, he'd cost them either their life or their freedom and any chance at happiness.
He was shaking, unable to escape the spiral of guilt and fully feeling like he didn't deserve to, when he heard the voice.
It was small, distant, barely there. And yet it cut through his own thoughts like a blade.
"My brave hero."
His eyes, or the spiritual equivalent, widened. He knew that voice.
He straightened up, fully alert to his surroundings, rather than to the World of the Living, for the first time since his most recent death.
There was nobody around. There never was. The curse on him prevented him from having any kind of proper afterlife, or any contact with people who did. He was just in limbo, waiting, between each lifetime.
He hadn't heard her voice since his first death. Since HER death since it had happened first. And it had barely made it through to him this time.
He had barely heard it, but he had, and that should have been impossible. She'd done the impossible, even as the mortal, dead mortal to be exact, that she was now, she'd done the impossible and reminded him that she believed in him.
Even after this, Zelda, his Zelda, Hylia, believed in him.
He focused on the Lost Sages and with all his heart, thanked them on behalf of Hyrule. There was nothing more he could do, other than acknowledge their sacrifice and thank them for it. He then focused on Hylia, on his Zelda. He pictured her on her Loftwing first, and then in the white dress she'd worn through her pilgrimage, and then bouncing their first baby on her knees.
"I won't give up," he said. "I don't know if you're going to hear any of this, probably not, but if you do... I won't give up. Until the curse is gone, I'll keep fighting as hard as I can to save as many as I can. Even if it's not everyone, even if it's not everyone I love. I won't give up and I know we'll beat this eventually. You and I, we'll beat this curse."
"I won't give up. Ever. I promise."