Well, guys. This is it. What you've all been waiting for.
I'm very iffy on how I feel about the way I executed this. I'm curious to see how you do. Leave a word, if you still have any after. ;)
~Alyssa
(PS: The breakoff for one of the alternate endings (I'll let you guess which) takes place in this chapter. The alternate endings will not be posted until the completion of the original intention for this story.)
ox(O)xo
Sed Acheronta movebo.
….
But I will raise Hell.
ox(O)xo
Then
Link.
She just called me Link. Not Nox.
Link.
I froze in my tracks, letting Lucien's body slump to the floor at my feet, my mind going a thousand miles a minute with the implications. She remembered me.
She remembered me. She remembered everything.
"What did you just say?" I asked, my voice unsteady, wavering and unsure as an afraid child's.
"Link." She repeated, letting out a breath like a sigh of relief, dropping her stance and letting her arrow fall from the nock. "Nayru, I thought that thing inside you had completely taken you over. What the Hell happened to you? Where in Hyrule did you find dark magic like—"
"You knew this whole time?" The question came out in nothing but a whisper, splintering like ice.
She knew.
She remembered.
All these years, she had been playing me for a fool. She knew, and she lied.
Mechanically, I reached back, grabbing the arrow lodged there by the shaft and ripping it out. It fell at my feet. There was no pain. My body was stone, thousands of pounds that pulled me down and mercilessly crushed my heart. Everything was hard, cold and dead and unfeeling.
She knew, and she lied.
I took a deep breath, the weight on my chest making it harsh and labored.
"You knew this whole time?!" I demanded again, my voice rising to a shout.
Her gaze fell from mine. "I didn't have any time to think. I was young. I was stupid. I was still in shock, and—"
"But you knew?!"
"I had no choice!" She pleaded. "Link, believe me, if there something else I could have done, another way—"
"Oh no," I said, shaking my head. How dare she. How dare she. Anger flared inside me, a fire burning the weight away. "There were other ways. You could have let me die. You could have kept things the way they should have been and not put the entirety of Hyrule back in jeopardy by bringing Ganondorf back to life for your own selfish means. I could have understood that, though. We would have stopped him again. But I don't understand how you couldn't have just looked me in the eye and said that you made a mistake, that you were in there and that things would be okay. But you couldn't do that, could you? You had to lie to save your own skin because you were afraid."
"I wasn't—"
"You were." I repeated, my voice getting steadily louder, more angry. "You were scared. You knew you messed up, you knew I was angry at you to begin with, and you were afraid that when I woke up that I would hate you for what you'd done. And when I left you alone, you'd be free to fulfill your twisted idea of duty and marry Lucien, right? So you took the easy route. I couldn't get mad, couldn't marry someone who didn't have their memories, could I?!"
"Link—"
"COULD I?" I shouted, and by the way her face twisted I knew I was spot on.
She knew, and she lied.
"You ruined me." I continued, before she had the chance to speak up again, pinching the bridge of my nose between my fingers. "I thought I was insane. I used to stay up all night trying to rationalize this, wondering whether or not I had imagined the whole thing. Sometimes I would spend hours trying to conjure up your smile, the color of your hair…" I laughed, the sound of it flat and bitter. "I loved you. I can't fathom why anymore, but I really, really loved you. But you took that love and you spit on it. You tossed it around and used it to your advantage and then you threw it away like it was nothing. Or worse, like it was yours to do what you pleased with."
I spat at her feet. "You owe me, Zelda. More than you can imagine. You took everything that I had done, all things I had gotten and the friends that I had made, the name that I had made for myself and the future I was building and you took it away. You ruined my life. Is that what you wanted?"
"I wanted you to be happy!" She whispered. "I wanted to save your life. You—you were dying, Link, don't you remember?" she drew her head up, her voice pleading. "I couldn't let you die. I couldn't lose you, not after everything that happened. You…you deserved a childhood. You deserved to be ha—"
But I couldn't bear to hear her any more.
"HAPPY?!" I cried, voice maniacally unfamiliar, a hysterical laugh ripping through my chest. "YOU CALL THIS HELL OF A LIFE I'VE BEEN LIVING HAPPY? FIFTEEN YEARS, ZELDA, FOR FIFTEEN YEARS I'VE HAD TO SIT BY AND WATCH YOU, THINKING THAT YOU WERE GONE FROM ME FOREVER." I began to tremble, hands balling into fists. "I WATCHED YOU GET HURT AND I WATCHED YOU GET MARRIED AND I WATCHED YOU GET PREGNANT, AND EVERY SECOND—EVERY DAMN SECOND— OF MY LIFE I WAS THINKING OF YOU, WAITING FOR YOU TO COME BACK TO ME. YOU THINK THAT'S HAPPY? YOU THINK THAT'S BETTER THAN DEATH? I WOULD HAVE RATHER DIED TEN TIMES OVER THAN SEE YOU WITH SOMEONE ELSE, BUT I DIDN'T GET THAT CHOICE, NOW DID I?"
And she hung her head, having the audacity to not even look me in the eyes, to admit that she was wrong, to just say she was sorry.
She knew and she lied.
If I hadn't been sure of my course before, I was now.
"Nothing to say? Well, then. I'll let you in on a little secret." I unsheathed my sword, lifting the flat of it under her chin and forcing her head up. I wanted her to see, to look in my eyes and know that I meant every word that I said. "There's no love anymore, Zelda." I said with a grim smile. "There's nothing left but your pesky little debt. And you know how I intend to have you pay that?"
"Link," she whimpered, "Please—"
"Just one reason," I said as I gained on her, pressing the tip of my sword to the center of her chest, backing her up step by step until she hit the wall behind her.
Nowhere to go.
Nowhere to hide.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't just do it now and be done with it." I told her, my voice steadily raising. "One reason why, after all the things you've taken and all the pain you've caused, I should leave you alive. I'm DONE WITH THIS, ZELDA, AND I'M DONE WITH—"
"BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!"
My mouth dropped open on its own accord, anything I was about to say abruptly forgotten as the sword fell from my hand, hitting the ground with a pitiful clatter.
"What…" I whispered, knees becoming weak at the words, suddenly unable to draw breath. "What did you say?"
You wait so long for something.
You dream about it every night.
Somewhere deep inside you, you know it will never happen. It can never be true. But still, you hope. You hope with all your Goddess-damned heart, even though you know it's impossible, because that hope is all you have left. You cling to it, because without it, you're nothing.
But then, when it happens, that impossible, unattainable something becomes a reality…
"I said I love you." She breathed, and shakily, she got to her feet.
And I saw it there, in her eyes, on her face. I saw it in her movements as she came towards me, as she wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in the crook of my shoulder, I too dumbstruck to speak, to move.
She loved me.
Zelda loved me.
She was here, right here. And she said so.
Flabbergasted, I took in a shaky breath.
And then I let it out.
In that moment, there were so many things I wanted to say, so many things that I wanted to tell her, so many voices—though they were all my own—in my head all yelling different things as loudly as they could, trying to drown out the rest.
But Link, furious and vengeful and absolute, the one who had gotten me to this point, the only one that really mattered…he was silent. He wasn't sure. He was confused.
And without him, I was lost.
"You… love me?" I finally managed, and she looked up, her eyes—still a vivid sapphire blue and endless as the sky—boring into mine. Slowly, she reached her hands up, cradling my face with a small smile.
"I love you, Link. I've always loved you." She confirmed, but when I didn't respond, her brow furrowed slightly, lips turning down in a dissatisfied frown. "…Isn't that enough?"
And all at once I was eight years old again, waking up back in time with the sweat of my final battle still on my brow, going to find her only to realize that she was gone.
"Zelda! Please!" I had cried, the two guards she had summoned tugging at my arms, pulling me away.
She had looked up then, and our gazes had met. They were the same then as they were now, still an endless blue that made my knees weak.
For a long moment, she had only looked at me, as she was looking at me now. It was strange, I knew. I didn't…I couldn't tell, back then, what was behind such a peculiar gaze.
But now, it all made sense.
She remembered. This whole time, she remembered. She stood there, while I screamed and cried and begged, flailing in the arms of the two guards that were trying to pull me away and lied, leaving me bleeding and broken and alone on the street. She stood there, when she saw me after her wedding, while I ranted and raved and confronted her and lied again, professing her love for another and leaving my heart in shambles. She stood there, while I annihilated man after man in a tournament in her honor, while a voice whispered in my ear and I kissed her hand and lied again, naming me her sworn guard without so much as a thought towards me, how I would be able to stand being so close.
She knew all this time, and she just stood there and watched.
She just stood there and lied.
And now, she was here, and she said that she loved me.
She was asking if it was enough.
That was when I knew.
Slowly, I leaned in.
And for the first time in fifteen years, the first time in this lifetime, captured her lips with mine.
Goddesses, they were so familiar, so tender on my own. Memories, countless memories, all began flooding back. Every line and contour of her body I remembered, every touch and break and breath. My hands fell to her waist, and she melted against me, hands falling to rest behind my neck.
Her fingers began to tangle in my hair. Warmth radiated from her, her lips worn silk as they molded against my own. I nearly lost myself then. The taste of her, the scent that I had almost forgotten, the fierceness in which she reciprocated, it was almost intoxicating.
Almost.
It was as simple as a knife, thin and dark and long as my forearm, stowed carefully in a sheath at my hip.
As simple as abruptly shoving her off me, grabbing her by the bodice of her ruined gown and pulling her forward.
As simple as holding it out, plunging the blade into her middle and letting it skewer her to the hilt.
You will have your revenge. Link whispered as I yanked the blade out, letting it fall to the ground with a clatter.
She had time to gasp, once the shock wore off and she had realized, eyes wide and uncomprehending and hands going automatically to the hole in her stomach that wasn't there a second previously.
"Link," she breathed, shoulders beginning to sag as she stumbled forward, heaving in a breath and spattering my feet with crimson. "Why?"
"Because," I whispered, watching the blood spill between her fingers as she collapsed to the ground. I turned around and closed my eyes, listening until her labored breathing slowed, quieter and quieter until the only sound was the crickets outside, continuing to make their music like the world wasn't crashing down around us, the sound roaring in my ears as I made my escape, picking my sword up from the floor and treading over to the door. "It wasn't enough."
It never was.