The Master Sword clattered to the stone floor, the nerveless fingers that once held it, wielded it with such skill and determination now limp and unresponsive. Link collapsed, his grievous injury finally taking its toll. Yet he continued to gasp for breath, each one a weak, tortured hitching of the chest. He felt strangely empty, the flames of revenge gone. Nothing remained to keep him alive.

Midna raised herself from the floor, still shaking from the torture Ganondorf had inflicted upon her. With a jolt, she suddenly realized she had taken her true form. Overjoyed, she spun in a circle, grinning from ear to ear. Link would be so happ-

Link!

She rushed to his side, her eyes filling with tears as she saw the true extent of his horrific injury. Broken shards of bone ringed the hole in the right side of his chest. Blood streamed from the ungodly wound, pooling beneath Link.

"Midna…" he whispered.

"Don't speak, Link," Midna said, trying to focus through her tears. Using the full extent of her newly returned power, she wove a healing spell, focusing it into the chest wound. Her body jerked as the power left her in a rush, flooding into Link. To her horror, the wound showed no sign of closing, despite the amount of power she channeled into it. There was simply too much to heal. Desperate, she increased the flow, stopping when Link's hand grabbed her wrist.

Surprised, Midna allowed the power to slip from her grasp, fading back into her body. "Midna," Link said again. His gasps were becoming shallower, and less frequent.

Painfully, he beckoned for her to come closer. He knew he didn't have much time left. Already, black was flickering across the edges of his vision. Midna leaned closer, unheeding of the tears that dropped onto Link's ruined chest.

"I wanted…tell you…better circumstances…" Link managed.

He leaned up, positioning his mouth inches away from her ear. "I…" he said, voice cracking. He swallowed, then tried again. "I…love you," he gasped with his dying breath.

Midna gently eased him back to the floor, weeping freely now. There was so much she wanted to say to him, starting with returning his words, but she knew it was too late for that. Instead, she leaned in and kissed him, smashing her mouth against his, savoring the first, last and only moment where their hearts would beat as one. She kissed him passionately as his life left him.

Although she was loath to do it, she backed off, staring into his eyes. Link smiled gently. He was at peace. The wolf was finally silent, its endless howls having finally ceased. His chest wound wasn't even bothering him that much anymore. The fact that he had stopped breathing hardly even seemed relevant. His task was complete. As his awareness faded, he began…to see…something…different…

A slight, barely audible sigh came from Link's lips as the breath in his lungs left. He didn't take another. "Link?" Midna asked, her voice quavering.

He didn't respond.

"Link!" Midna shrieked, becoming hysterical. She shook his shoulders. "Don't leave me!"

A whisper on the wind. Midna's head jerked up. Was it her imagination, or did it say something?

Something she never expected to hear.

I will always be with you...

Reaching out with a shaking hand, she closed Link's eyes. The blank cobalt orbs were hidden, sparing her from the terrible emptiness that now showed inside them.

Giving in to the tidal wave of grief, Midna bent over his body.

Moments later, the haunting sound of her keening began to echo through the deserted halls of Hyrule Castle. They were the first thing Zelda heard when she awakened from her cursed sleep.

…

Blankness.

Link suddenly awoke. It was not the walls of Hyrule Castle he looked at, but an utterly featureless landscape. The flat, treeless land stretched as far as the eye could see, somehow illuminated by a light that couldn't exist. The horizon ended with a night sky devoid of stars, an utterly blank void. The only feature that existed was a river that carved through the landscape. Link made his way toward it, his footsteps making no sound.

The river seemed to be composed of pure light, all the stars missing from the sky above collected in its eternally rushing current. Within its banks, Link saw all the detail and beauty that this landscape was missing: The shine of the sun as it reflected off the leaves of a tree, the feeling of the wind whistling past, the smell of the sweet clover that made up the field. And, over all that, the whisper of a thousand conversations, speaking of joy, sadness, love and peace. The river more than made up for the blankness of the landscape.

Silhouetted against the river's ethereal light were two figures: A girl rubbing a proud, blue-eyed wolf behind the ears. She looked over at Link. Blue eyes met sparkling green, and she smiled.

For the first time, Link felt that everything was right in the world as he gazed into Ilia's eyes. Joy blossomed in his heart as he saw the woven bracelet that adorned her wrist. Tears flowing down his cheeks, he said one thing:

"You waited for me…"