As the vision cleared from his eyes, Link blinked several times to clear them again. He found himself back in Rist Peninsula in the middle of the night, standing where the Light Dragon's final tear had fallen. His head felt somewhat hazy, but he was returning to reality.

Then, the full force of what he'd seen finally hit him.

"Zelda...oh no," he breathed, as his eyes began to water. His legs began to wobble, as though he would collapse at any second. He tried to stay strong, but eventually gave in and allowed himself to fall onto his hands and knees. Two tears began to drip from his face.

"Zelda...you didn't have to do it. There had to have been another way," he said to himself. He knew she couldn't hear him, especially not now, when she was likely miles and miles away, flying over the vast expanse of Hyrule, her scales glistening in the moonlight.

It wasn't fair, least of all to her. Why did she have to do it? Why did she have to swallow the Secret Stone, to transform herself into an immortal dragon, to be alone as nothing more than an animal for thousands of years? She had already endured a hundred years of solitude keeping the Calamity at bay in Hyrule Castle while waiting for him to return and vanquish it. Hadn't that been enough? Apparently not, as fate had forced her into a role far more tragic than that.

Link blinked a steady stream of tears from his eyes as he trembled with sobs. She didn't remember him. She no longer remembered the life they'd lived together before finding the mummified Ganondorf beneath Hyrule Castle. And, unlike his memory loss due to the Shrine of Resurrection, as far as Link knew, there was no cure for her condition. She would be the beast that she was now, for all eternity, doomed to wander the earth as a dragon, never knowing what she had sacrificed. All for a sword.

As the last tear fell from his eye, Link choked back his last sob, and stood on his feet once again. "She wouldn't want you to be like this," he mumbled. Indeed, if he knew her, she would want him to soldier on, as he always did. To make sure that her supreme act of selflessness hadn't been in vain. At the moment, Link could only think of one way to make that happen.

It didn't take long for Link to pinpoint the location of the...Light Dragon. A quick visit to the Korok Forest and the Deku Tree later (after clearing out the Gloom that was corrupting the forest, of course), he had the location of the Master Sword marked on the Purah Pad's map. Upon discovering that the sword was advancing towards the Sky Archipelago, he warped to one of the shrines there, and leaped off the edge. After deploying his paraglider and flying for a short time, he saw...her, flying a good distance above the ground.

Link's eyes threatened to begin watering the second he saw her up close. The dragon was mostly unrecognizable from her old self, but there were some things that remained the same. Her eyes were the same shade of bluish-green. Even worse, she had the same mane of honey gold hair, in the exact same cut she'd had when they'd last been together. Link could see the Master Sword sticking out of her head.

It was almost too much. Link felt himself begin to cry yet again, but he barely held himself together. As much as he wanted to turn around and pretend he'd never seen that vision, that would've been disrespectful to Zelda, and the price she'd paid. For her sake, he had no choice anymore.

Gliding a little closer, Link dropped down onto the dragon's head. Unlike the other dragons, this one didn't randomly fire bursts of elemental energy wherever she went, so it was much easier to get close. Careful not to lose his footing, Link stepped down her muzzle, and seized the Master Sword with both hands, and pulled.

As soon as he did so, the Light Dragon released a pained cry, and began thrashing her head back and forth. Link yelped in surprise, but managed to keep one hand on the blade's hilt, even as he was lifted off his feet. The Light Dragon began to contort and twist as she flew, and it took all of Link's strength not to release the sword and go flying off into the distance. The air around him grew colder as the dragon ascended, and soon, they'd pushed through the layer of clouds hovering above Hyrule. Link had to squint to avoid having his vision blotted out by the intense sunlight.

Then, a blinding flash forced him to close his eyes completely.

When Link opened his eyes, he and the Light Dragon were no longer in the skies above Hyrule. Instead, they were flying in an endless golden plane, with nothing to see around them. The Light Dragon had calmed by this point, allowing Link to stand up on his feet once more. He released his grip on the Master Sword, fearful of what might happen if he tried to free it again.

However, as he looked around, a calming aura seemed to penetrate his skin, relaxing him from the trial he'd just endured. Looking down at the blade of the Master Sword, he saw the tendrils of hair around it slacken, releasing the sword. The portion of the blade that Ganondorf had broken off was restored, and glowed a brilliant gold. There was no doubt in Link's mind that it was time.

He reached down with one hand, curled it around the hilt, and with a gentle tug, pulled the Master Sword free.

The sword's handle fitted perfectly in his hands, even with Rauru's arm replacing his old one. Any other time, Link would've seen this as a cause for celebration. A chance to finally feel happy, now that the one weapon that could rend the Demon King was back within his hands. But instead, he felt only a hollow emptiness, a hole in his stomach that Zelda had once filled.

He looked down at the Light Dragon. Her beautiful eyes stared forward, unblinking, no longer holding the luster and love that had once been there. Link ran a hand through her mane, unsurprised that the hair felt the same way.

"Zelda..." he whispered. A single tear dropped from his eye, landing on the dragon's scales.

With another blinding flash, Link was brought back to Hyrule, and found himself still on the dragon's head. He turned, and faced Hyrule Castle in the distance, still hovering above the pit in the ground.

"GANONDORF!" he screamed. "FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE, I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!"

I do plan on making another chapter once I actually beat the game.