Last chapter, guys.
But don't fret. We still have the epilogue, as well as the two alternate endings.
Oh, and a quick PSA: We are just 20 reviews away from being the 10th most reviewed Zelda fic of all time! AHH! That means Acheronta Movebo would be on the front page, should someone filter search for reviews. I'm so excited, this is so amazing. Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to give me criticism and support and praise. It really means the world. And speaking of world, we can add 'Say Something' by A Great Big World to the list of songs that have lyrics that connect to me and this song on a spiritual level. The majority of this chapter was written with it on loop on youtube repeat, so check it out! It sure helped me out a lot.
Seeya in a couple days! (I can't make you wait that long for the end, after such a large gap)
~Alyssa
PS: So sorry for going MIA on you all. Finding time to write lately has been next to impossible. I didn't realize how much High School sucks until now. Not to mention I was under so much pressure to make this last chapter great. I WANTED IT TO BE GREAT. And I really hope it is great, and that I tied all those loose ties! Well, not all of them, but that's what the epilogue is for. But again, thank you for being so patient with me :)
Sicut faciunt fluctus lapidosa ad litora currunt Ad finem minutis sic facias nobis.
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, so do our minutes hasten to their end.
ox(O)xo
"Get up."
Looking over my shoulder so Archer could see that I was not, in fact, asleep, I stretched my arms as far as they would go, dramatically yawning for his sake.
"When they say execution at daybreak, they aren't kidding, are they?" I asked with a grin, turning completely around just in time to watch his face crumble.
"Shut up," he snapped harshly, unlocking the cell door and grabbing my arm, pulling me roughly to my feet.
I rolled my eyes when he turned his face away so he couldn't look at me. "Don't I get any last words?"
He whirled around then, shoving me so that I slammed against the wall. "You're not making this any easier, you know!" He cried, and I laughed, the barren sound of it echoing through the hall.
"Easier on you?" I shouted back, "You think this is about you? Have you stopped and wondered if maybe that this is what I want?"
"Wolfe told me." He shook his head back and forth, faster and faster. "He told me everything. I know that you don't want to die. You just don't want to keep living like this, and I understand that. We can go away, N—Link. You can forget about her! We can start somewhere else, just like we did in Noamas!"
"I can't." I said, begging for him to understand. "Archer, I want to die. You need to get it through your head that this is my choice. This is what I want, and you can't save me from my own choice!"
He stopped then, looking like he'd been slapped. Taking a deep breath, he bit down on his lip, forcing his face up to look me in the eye.
"What was I like?" He asked, his crimson eyes watering, swimming with desperation.
Though the change in topics was abrupt, I knew exactly what he was talking about.
My gaze fell from his. "Normal." I whispered. "You were just a kid, but you were smart. You were friends with the Princess. It was because of your family and Impa that she was able to help me save Hyrule, once she was older. You were good enough that you beat her in a spar, back then." I coughed, something that could have been a ghost of a laugh. "…You had a sister. Her name was Alix. She was only a baby, but you loved her. I could tell."
I heard him take in another shaky breath. "So what happened? What was different this time?"
The truth. Nox was the one that lied to Archer. Link didn't lie to anyone but himself.
"I didn't save Hyrule." I answered, even though the words were bitter on my tongue, because it was the truth. "The Sheikah were called to help subdue Ganondorf, and your father left for Noamas instead of staying in Kakiriko. And you know what happened on the way."
He nodded once, closing his eyes. "I can't say anything to stop you?"
He understood. He understood. He understood.
"No. If that's why you came back, you might as well leave now."
"Impa sent me. She wants to talk to you." Turning away, he shook his head. "I just thought…I just thought I would try one more time. That maybe you changed your mind."
"I'm sorry," I said, and I really meant it. I was sorry that I was adding one more person to Archer's list of people he couldn't save, even though it wasn't his fault.
None of them were his fault, really. It would be a shame that nobody would be left to remind him that once I was gone. I hoped Linden, or Odion would remember.
"I think I'm just being selfish right now." He admitted, giving a tug on my arm as we started towards the stairs that led to the castle.
I smiled. "We're all selfish when it comes to the people that we care about."
He didn't respond. I suppose he just didn't have anything left to say.
We walked up to the castle in silence, ghosting through the secret corridors we learned together all those months ago, until we reached the familiar pathway to the barracks. He stopped in front of a door, knocking twice briskly before enveloping me in the most sincere hug that I had ever received.
"I'm really going to miss you, N—Link." He said, and then wrinkled his nose. "I'm sorry, but it sounds so wrong calling you that."
"You won't have to get used to it." I pointed out, and his face fell again.
"I could, if you needed me to," The hope in his voice made me want to cry. He understood, though. I needed to do this for me.
"My choice." I reminded him again.
"Your choice." He repeated, deflating slightly, and then gestured to the door. "Wait for me up there, will you? Put in a good word with the Goddesses? I hear they like you."
I laughed, then, and I knew it would be the last time I ever genuinely would. "You could say that." I said, and he smiled because there was nothing else left to do.
And then, with one final squeeze and a pat on the shoulder, he turned around and walked away, too spent to say anything more.
I turned and opened the door.
It was her study, once upon a time. I had never stepped foot into a part of the castle besides her gardens before, but she always told me about how it was her favorite place in the world. Books lined the walls in two story shelves, and a fire was dying in the fireplace, embers spitting orange coals onto the cobblestone. A large mahogany desk dominated the space, and a book still laid open on it, dog-eared for future reference but never to be finished by its owner.
Impa sat behind this desk, hands folded nearly on top of it, her red eyes falling on me.
"It's been a long time, Link." She said simply, and in those six words, everything became clear.
"You knew, too," I whispered.
She nodded. "All seven of us knew. We were ordered by the Princess to keep our distance, to maintain the idea that everyone had forgotten you at all costs. Almost all of us advised against it, but it didn't matter to her. She was afraid of what you might do if we didn't, but now I believe that that outcome would have been far less devastating than this one."
She paused, resting her finger thoughtfully on her chin.
"My regret is that I did not foresee this sooner." She sighed, "It was only a matter of time before you crumbled by the proximity."
I did a double take.
Was she forgiving me? Putting the fault on her rather than me?
"You're not…angry?"
"I am outraged and infuriated and devastated, do not misunderstand me. The Princess Zelda was a daughter to me, and she deserved many more years happily lived. But I do not blame you." She stood up then, crossing the distance between us until we were only a pace apart. "None of the Sages do. We all saw the bond between you before she changed time, the devotion that you had for her. It was a folly on her part to expect you to just go on living as though it had never existed."
So they had all seen what Zelda hadn't. They saw that I loved her, loved her more than my own life, that I would have done anything besides lose her. But as to why they took my side, I wasn't sure.
"I thought you said she deserved to live?"
She shook her head, placing a cool, gentle hand on my shoulder. Her eyes softened as they looked into mine, the first time I had ever seen them not piercing and cold. "I said she deserved to live happily." She said, and I understood. "However, that was impossible the moment she swore you off all those years ago. Without you, Link, she was only going through the motions. She had been miserable for years, she thought you had forgotten her completely, and with the death of her child…it wouldn't have been long, anyway, between you and I. I believe…if she were here, she would have thanked you for saving her the trouble."
Ice filled my chest at the terrible words. She wanted to die. She wanted to die just as badly as I had, all these years. She would have taken her own life just to get away from the awful world, because she had nothing to live for.
I had people to live for. I had a father and a mother and a new baby brother, an uncle and a little girl that might as well have been my daughter, two of the best friends a man could ever ask for, a fiancée who was ready to spend the rest of her life at my side.
For fifteen years, she had endured this life just as I had, for me. So I could live, and live the way I had always told her I wanted…normally, surrounded by those that loved me.
Even if that meant that she couldn't be a part of it.
I'm sending you home…where you're supposed to be…the way you're supposed to be…"
She gave me up so I would stay alive, so I would live the life I had always dreamed of, and I killed her for it. Goddesses, how could I have been so blind? How could I have been stupid enough to think, all these years, that she was to blame?
I had it all; the family, the love, the future that I had always wanted. I had parents, I had friends, I had someone that was going to marry me, and I threw it all away. She gave me the life I used to wish I could have, and I was so wrapped up in hating her for it that I never realized that she made it possible for me to have it.
And now, it was too late.
Because I killed her.
"Was he that bad?" I said finally, my voice small and trembling at the revelation.
Her lips pursed into a tight line. "Worse," she confirmed, and my heart shattered.
It was my job to protect her, to love her unconditionally, to forgive her for what she did wrong. She sent me back in time to start over, and I left her to face the world alone in thanks. I could have stayed with her, could have confronted her, could have kept coming back and forced her to tell me the truth, could have forgiven her for her stupid mistakes and told her to just get over herself so we could make our happy ending together.
I could have done that fifteen years ago.
I could have done that yesterday, too.
I took a deep breath. "When I die, will she be there?" I asked, no, begged, even though I knew she had no control of the answer. "Will she remember?"
"We believe so." She said. "Because she was the Princess of Destiny and you were the Hero of Time, there should be some sort of connection in the Sacred Realm."
I closed my eyes, the weight that was crushing me just moments before lifted. I would have a second chance.
I could say that I was sorry.
I could say that I loved her, more than anyone had ever loved anyone else, from the very first day that I had met her, and that I never, ever stopped. I could tell her that even after fifteen years, I never forgot the twinkling of her eyes when she smiled, the sound of her laugh, the heat of her lips against mine. I could say that it was her comforting embrace, enshrined perfectly in my memory, that got me through the hardest days when I was feeling the most alone; that when I looked into the mirror that showed me my deepest desire, it was us, with a family, and that I had never seen her more beautiful than when she was holding our daughter close.
"Thank you," I whispered, my heart soaring, because finally, finally, the final piece of the puzzle in my ruined mind fell into place.
Link loved Zelda, and Zelda loved Link, and soon I would be with her forever and nobody would ever be able to tear us apart again.
A hint of a smile played at her lips. "Tell her goodbye for me. I'm afraid I didn't get the chance."
I nodded once.
"It's nearly time." She looked out the window, then, where the sun was shining brightly through, nearly ending its rise into the sky. "Is there anything you would have me do?"
Nothing, I was going to tell her, you've already done so much. What else could I possibly ask for?
But then something occurred to me.
"Tell Kassia I'm sorry." I pleaded, "Watch over her for me. Make sure she's happy."
"Oh, Link." She shook her head, a humorless laugh escaping her lips. "Haven't you learned by now that when you lose the one you love most, you're never truly happy?"
"She deserved better than me." I whispered, because it was true.
It wasn't Kassia's fault that I was sent back in time, that I stripped myself of my former identity. It wasn't her fault that I used her, that I was a good actor, until somewhere along the way Nox fell in love with her almost as hard as Link had for Zelda.
It wasn't her fault that Nox wasn't real, and all this time she didn't even realize it.
I was selfish. So selfish, so damn selfish and stupid and terrible to the people that I loved. What did I ever not ruin beyond repair?
Impa smiled then, a small, sad smile. She lifted her hand and patted my head, stroking my hair down once, as motherly a gesture as any.
"That's what Zelda thought, too."
ox(O)xo
When death came, it was quickly, just as Impa had promised.
There was none of the pomp and circumstance of the vision that I saw in the mirror, none of the trumpets and guards or the gilded salute.
I stood silently, stoically as the executioner read my crimes, and declined my last words, because I had nothing to say. I was too busy searching the crowd for the tell-tale mop of red curls, a giant blond man with a little boy on his hip, a defiant young woman with emerald green eyes, and I sighed with relief when I found none. I didn't want this to be their last memory of Nox, of me.
The guards forced me down on my knees and pushed my neck onto the block, even though I would have gone easily, willingly. I was already far away, with the hearts of my family. I could feel them from here, even though I didn't know exactly where they were.
Zenith is cleaning off the table and Baxter is singing and Garrett is reading and Archer is telling a joke to Linden and Wolfe and Kassia are playing with baby Finley.
They're happy without me. Life went on without Link for fifteen years; it would also go on for Nox for the rest of their lives.
"By the order of the Sacred Three, it is done!"
The axe fell, the air whistling as the blade cut thought it, barely audible over the screams of the crowd, thirsty for blood, thirsty for my blood.
I took their monarch.
I took their future.
But she was mine before she was theirs, before the thread of time had so violently ripped us apart. They didn't know, but that was okay. It didn't matter what they thought of me. The people that mattered knew the truth, and that was all I cared about.
"Goodbye," I whispered to them, even though they couldn't hear me. In that moment, I almost wished they could, because I never got the chance to in person, and they deserved that.
But that was all I had time to think, for the blade finally found its mark.
And everything went black.
Leave a word, if you please. I've missed you guys!
~Alyssa
Seeya for the epilogue!