Yeah, things are really picking up! Two more chapters to go, and an epilogue! I’ll be done by tomorrow!
Obviously, it has been spelled out that the Hero from the past is Link from LttP. He also happens to be, in this headcanon, the Link from Four Swords and Minish Cap and the Oracle games. …I haven’t played Minish Cap. But I’ve played Oracle of Ages, and I have both Oracle mangas (whooo Raven is hot whooo), and I don’t think it’s too farfetched to stitch all these together into one boy. One extra note, which I may have mentioned before… That Link married Zelda, so I totally support Zelink here, for you Zelink shippers. : )
Speaking of shipping, I have the idea that Midna and Zant are cousins, and one of the inappropriate things that he did was attempt to court her. : P
I only started using RPG Maker a week ago, and I’ve already logged 60 hours on it. o_O Of course, at least an hour or two of that was just listening to the music, but still! The next longest playtime I have on a Steam game is KotOR II with 50 hours, and that’s because KotOR II is ridiculously long. Wow.
Chapter 19: Twilight Helm
The magic circle behind Zant pulsed, and darkness fell around them and lifted to reveal… the cave where Link had fought the giant Diababa.
“Oh, that idiot,” Midna said. “As if we can’t remember how to defeat him in these places!”
“But we have more resources now,” Navi said. “Need your bow?”
“Yes, please. Or… a hookshot, actually.”
Zant, now wearing his helmet again, dodged the hookshot. He was very quick, perhaps as quick as Link. This would be a challenge. A good challenge.
He was not faster than arrows, but although they clearly hurt him, he just ripped them out and healed himself, while throwing balls of dark magic at Link. Link twirled his sword, anticipating another game of dark-magic-tennis, but the balls only bounced slowly off his shield, and dissipated when he struck them with his sword.
He caught Zant a particularly good shot in the eyepiece of his helmet, and his antagonist decided he’d had enough for now. The magic circle blossomed in the air behind him, and darkness fell and rose to reveal they were standing a foot above a circular disk in a volcanic cave.
Link fell and rolled as he hit the disc, and got unsteadily to his feet. The disc was floating, and wobbling like crazy. Zant jumped up and down on the edge, making it sway and tilt wildly, and Link almost fell on his face while trying to get over to him. He fired a blast of purple balls at Link, who knocked them away easily, and as Link got close to him, he teleported away. When Link tried to turn his own strategy back on him and began jumping up and down on the disc, Zant began to hover, immune.
Five minutes of them dodging each other, and Zant got bored; in this location, they were at a stalemate. He changed the arena again.
Link tried to breathe and choked. They were underwater. He tried to call out to Navi, but couldn’t.
She immediately saw his problem and plastered his breathing mask to his face. “Oh, that jerk. Here, let me get the rest of you.” She somehow swapped out his Kokiri tunic for his Zora tunic, and stuck his flippers on his feet, and he could breathe much better.
“Thanks,” he said breathlessly, and darted upwards to avoid a blast of purple balls. There was a giant helmet in the shape of Zant’s helmet, and inside Zant was casting at him.
“Let’s try the hookshot again,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll be able to get close to him, even if I swim very fast.”
“Yeah, that helmet will just slam shut on you, or he’ll teleport again,” Navi agreed. “Go get ‘im!”
He dove down to the bottom of the pool, where he could see Zant, and found that Zant had raised four identical helmets to face him. He spun in the water, trying to watch all of them. They all opened, and there was a Zant casting magic at him in each one. He dodged rapidly; there were a lot of shots to dodge.
“Here!” Midna cried. “This is the real one!” Link flung out his arm and fired the hookshot; it latched around Zant’s robes and yanked him out of the safety of his helmet – and into a swing from the Master Sword.
“No fair!” Zant yelled, breaking free and healing himself.
“You shut up about fair!” Midna hissed.
“No! You cannot do this!” He changed the location again.
Now they were in Yeta’s bedroom, and the floor was covered in slick ice. Now Link did fall on his face, his flippers hindering him from walking normally. “Navi, help!”
Zant trampled him, a twenty-foot tall Zant who felt like he weighed as much as all of Death Mountain, and Link grunted as he felt a rib or two break.
“Gotcha!” she cried, and he felt his encumbrances removed. Without even waiting for her to put his Kokiri tunic or hat back on, he crawled to his feet, biting his lips against the pain. He backed away cautiously as Zant came at him again. The other didn’t seem interested in firing spells at him anymore, but only interested in squashing him like a bug.
Link timed it carefully, and stabbed Zant in the foot. Zant howled and began to hop on one foot about the room, shrinking until he was only four feet tall. Link chased him, but mini-Zant was even faster than regular Zant, and a lot squeakier. And he was hindered by his rib.
Just as he slipped and fell again, Zant came within his range, and he swung – perhaps an overly wide swing, but it was well aimed and would have taken off Zant’s head if not for his helmet, which managed to block even the shining Master Sword.
Zant, shaken, retreated to floating in the air and changed the arena yet again.
“Aren’t you tired of that?” Midna yelled. “We’re just going to keep hurting you until you roll over and die! Stand and fight!”
“I will stand and fight… here!” Zant responded, as Hyrule Castle Town’s square came into view, with its great fountain in the centre. The castle under its shield loomed in the background. There were no civilians around, for it was only a copy.
Link scrambled to his feet, took sword and shield in his hand, and set his face. “You’re going down.”
“No, foolish Hero,” Zant said, drawing two razor sharp curved blades from his voluminous sleeves. “You are the one going down.” And he sprang at Link with inhuman speed.
Link snarled as he brought up his shield to counter, and responded with a blow of his own. Zant hopped away and around in a circle to attack again, but Link stopped him with a kick to the chest. Zant dodged his follow-up swing, but now Link had the upper hand and was chasing him backwards. The other locked swords with him, but wasn’t expecting Link’s combination of a shield-bash and a tumble around him that ended in a twisting attack upwards. It sliced through layers of robes on his back, and Zant screamed and fell forwards.
The usurper caught himself and healed himself. “You are good, Hero! But you will not survive!” He slashed his twin swords on each other, as if he was whetting them, and then launched into a frantic spin attack. It bounced repeatedly off Link’s shield, battering him back.
Link only held out his sword, and one of Zant’s swords was torn from his hands and went flying into the fountain.
“Go get it,” Link said, lowering his sword and breathing heavily.
Zant stared at him for a second, then leapt at him, sword raised high. “Curse you and your accursed ‘mercy’, Hero!”
Link blocked the sword without much trouble. “Zant. I’m better than you at this game. You can pull what tricks you want, I’m injured, but I’m at the top of my form and you are weakening. Making mistakes.”
He glanced to the side. “Besides. It’s not my mercy you should worry about. It’s Midna’s.”
“He gets no mercy from me,” Midna spat. “Finish him.”
“No!” Zant screamed. “No, no no no no!!” He began hurling attacks at Link, a blinding flurry of strikes that Link could barely block. He certainly wasn’t getting an attack in edgewise while Zant kept this up.
Zant managed to hook his sword on the inside of Link’s shield and ripped it from his arm. “What now, Hero? Now that you’re as defended as I am?”
Link took the Master Sword in two hands. “Now I’m only more dangerous, aren’t I?”
“We’ll see about that!” Zant launched into yet another assault, aimed at Link’s throat. Link skipped backwards, blocked a few attacks, stepped backwards again, threw a feint, and had to backflip away from another ridiculous spin attack.
The attack struck the Master Sword and this time sent him stumbling back, falling heavily to the ground on his back. He was getting tired, too, and sweat was pouring down his face and back, and his side hurt.
Zant loomed over him, as intimidating as a clown like Zant could be. “What now, Hero?”
Link gritted his teeth and slashed wildly at Zant’s midsection.
With a poof, they appeared back in the Twilight Palace throne room.
Zant was hunched up on his throne, his helmet askew, his hands clutching the last wound Link had given him.
Midna rose in the air, and the pieces of Fused Shadow Zant had taken from her floated out from him to her, where they swirled around her. She plucked her helmet from the set and placed it on her head. “And now,” she began, and stopped, staring at her hands.
She looked no different than she had before. Link pulled himself wearily to his feet, reading the crushed disappointment on her face. She had hoped her curse would end with Zant’s defeat, of course, had wanted to come out and greet her people in her true form with the promise that he was gone and her rightful and just rule would resume… but with her fear of rejection in her current state, she would never do that.
Zant slowly laughed, a hollow, choking laugh. “You thought that just because you could defeat me, that your curse would end? Oh, no, my dear little princess… I cursed you with the power of my god, and he does things to last! Even now, he will save me, his faithful servant!” He craned his neck to the unseen heavens, his helmet crashing to the floor, and gave a wondering, keening sigh.
“You know why our people rejected you?” Midna said in a low voice. “It was your eyes, Zant. We all saw it, your lust for power, for domination, for control. For things that were not for us to desire! Your parents knew you were dangerous, and so they chose me, because I rule for our people, not over them!”
“Well, it doesn’t matter, does it? They are dead, and I am King, and even if you kill me, my Master will always bring me back and kill you!”
Midna trembled in rage, before great tentacles of her hair shot out to Zant as she screamed, impaling him. He seemed to inflate for a moment before he burst in a shower of blood all over the throne.
“Eww!” Navi shrieked, and Link knew even he looked a bit disgusted.
Midna didn’t even notice. She was staring at her hands again, this time in horrified astonishment. “I… I did that with a fraction of my power… The power of the Fused Shadow…”
“You all right?” Link asked quietly, sheathing his sword and taking the Kokiri Tunic that Navi handed to him. He felt more comfortable in it.
She turned to him with a manic energy. “Link, we can save Zelda now! Let’s go to Hyrule Castle!”
Link laughed, holding up his hands in protest. “Hang on. I’m injured and exhausted. Let’s go back to Kakariko and get some rest, make a plan with the others. I can’t do anything more tonight.”
She hesitated for a moment, and then smiled. “Yes, that’s a good idea. Come on! I’ll get you out of here.” She opened a portal and floated into it. “Come on, let’s go! Let’s go rest so we can save the world!”
Link smiled and followed her.
She took them to the portal back to the Mirror of Twilight, and once they were in the Light world, Link found a note from the others.
“Dear Link,” it read in a curving script, most likely Franz’s, “we have decided you wouldn’t want us to wait, and Princess Ruto is taking us all back to Kakariko somehow. Lady Nabooru is joining us. We are glad to see the happy conclusion of Shoza’s quest, and hope to see you soon.”
“Well, that makes things easier for me!” Midna cried, and opened another portal.
They arrived just after sunset in Kakariko; the faint clouds in the sky were tinged pink and purple with the passing sun.
They were mobbed by rejoicing people; the warriors of the Resistance – and Shad – the children, the remaining civilians of Kakariko, and the complete Six Sages.
“Rauru!” Link shouted in astonishment. “Saria!” He picked up Saria and set her on his shoulders. “What are you doing here? I didn’t expect to see you.”
“We felt the Sages were gathering,” Rauru explained. “You will need our power again to oppose Ganondorf and save Zelda. It was time for us to come. And of course I couldn’t let my brother take all the credit.” Auru punched his older brother in the arm, proving to Link that siblings didn’t change, no matter how old they got.
Saria wrinkled her nose. “Link, you stink.” He laughed long.
Ilia appeared in front of him. “We’ve been preparing a feast ever since Princess Ruto brought the others back, and it’s just about ready, so…”
“Shouldn’t I have a wash, first?”
She leaned forward, sniffed, and giggled. “Not if you don’t want to.”
“No, he needs a wash!” Saria argued. “He’s gross. Is that blood?”
“Saria, I’ve been fighting Twilight monsters all day. Yes, it’s blood. It’s not chocolate sauce.”
The Sage on his shoulders gagged. “Eww, put me down and go change.”
He laughed, set her down, and went to do as she said. Renado helped him bind up his side, but the water from the Spirit’s Spring began to heal it right away.
The festivities were joyful, and there was plenty of food and drink and laughter, but they didn’t last long. Everyone knew the next day would be an action-filled day.
While the children were being put to bed, the Resistance and the Sages gathered in Renado’s house to plot their course of action. They resolved to travel to Hyrule the next day, leaving their own version of a protective shield – courtesy of the Sages – to protect Kakariko, going in twos and threes to try to avoid Ganondorf’s notice as much as possible, and pack into Telma’s bar for the night. In the morning, Midna would take down the shield surrounding the castle, and then they would all storm it together in groups.
The four original members of the Resistance, Auru, Ashei, Shad, and Rusl were in one group, and the Six Sages were in another. Shoza would be going with the Resistance, as he would not be able to do the same things as the Sages. Impa was even going, although she was still cursed, the same as Midna. As for Link…
“Well, Navi and Midna will be with me,” Link said. “That should be enough…”
“Don’t be silly,” Franz said. “Jakob and I are coming with you.”
“No. I’m quickest on my own.”
“No, you’re not. How many times have we been able to help you get into places, watched your back for you?”
“But you…”
“There are plenty of people in the Resistance group, and… well, my loyalty is to you. I wish to follow you.”
“And I’m following you too,” Rana said. “I’m going to see this through.” He look at her, and her eyes flashed in a defiant way he had rarely seen from her. Her inner strength was shining through her child-like veneer, almost blindingly. “You know you’re not going to get me to not come with you, Link. Don’t even try.”
He hung his head. “All right. Rana can come.”
“And we are too!” Franz insisted. “You can’t make any argument that I can’t counter.”
Link sighed mightily. “It’s not like I can actually stop you. But no one else, all right? We all have our separate assignments.”
“Right,” Auru said. “The Resistance takes the outer walls, the Sages take the inner walls, and the Hero takes the main building, because that’s where Ganondorf is most likely to be, and we can’t stand against him.”
“Which means,” Link said, turning back to Franz and Jakob and Rana, “that when I tell you to leave, you leave. You’re not fighting Ganondorf. I’m the only one who can fight him.”
Rana’s mouth pressed into a line. “Fine. But I’m not happy about that.”
“Your complaint has been logged and will be ignored,” Link said. “If, for whatever reason, I fail, you can have the Master Sword to try again.”
“Don’t even say that,” Franz said. “You won’t fail. Not with all our support.”
He looked around at them all, and they all looked back at him, with the trust in their eyes of an army for its general. “Thanks, all of you. I won’t fail.”
Even though he was so tired after everything, he still couldn’t sleep. After an hour of rolling in his bed, he decided to get up and walk a bit and see if that helped. Without waking Navi or Midna, who were sleeping like the dead, he crept downstairs in bare feet and out onto the porch. The stars shone brilliantly in the dry air over Kakariko, and the Mountain glowed in the distance.
“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” came Rana’s voice from somewhere overhead, and he turned to see her sitting on the roof of the hotel. Naeri was not with her.
“Is this what you do instead of sleeping?” Link teased her, and began looking for a way up to join her. Around the side of the building was a stack of large boxes and a shed that he managed to use to haul himself up.
She was looking mildly affronted when he got up there. “I sleep, now.” She was wearing an oversized shirt, her ‘nightgown’. Her hair was down and her green eyes shone luminously in the light of the moon rising in the east beyond the mountains. “I just can’t right this minute. Apparently you can’t, either.”
“And eat?” He poked gently at her midsection. “You’re a fighter. You have a high metabolism. No one wants to see your body devour itself.”
She smiled a little. “I’m eating.”
“You’re ready for the next couple days?”
She nodded firmly. “I’m ready. I will kick monster butt until my arm falls off.”
“I hope that isn’t necessary.” His smiled faded. “I’m sorry for putting you through all that, Rana. It… really wasn’t fair. I should have articulated things better.”
She shook her head, looking out at the Spirit’s Spring. “No, no… I don’t blame you, not at all. Sometimes these things happen. I’m sorry for letting it ruin other things unrelated to us, and for waffling around like a terrible blob of a person. I know Shoza’s been defensive of me. But you know he just cares about me as his friend, right?”
“I know. And he knows you better than he knows me.” He was quiet a moment. “Rana… I don’t know if we have a relationship in the future… but after Ganondorf is defeated… I want to be your friend again. If you can. I don’t want to force you into anything uncomfortable…”
She looked a little disappointed at that, although he could barely tell in the moonlight. She didn’t say anything, looking off into the distance. Perhaps she couldn’t think of the right thing to say. Perhaps she was trying not to tell him how much she hated him…
They sat in silence for a long time, but although Link wasn’t convinced that she didn’t hate him, it felt… companionable. Comfortable. It was strange.
She took a deep breath at last. “Is… that… all you really want?” He turned to look at her, startled, and saw she was blushing all over her face.
“You… still love me,” he said softly, disbelievingly.
“Always,” she whispered, green eyes flickering to him and away again in complete adorable nervousness.
He scooted closer to her and put an arm around her, then felt how inadequate that gesture was and kissed her on the cheek.
She actually gasped and half pulled away, staring at him in shock. “Wait, wait, wait. Is… is that what you really want? When you could have any woman in Hyrule…”
He laughed. “You’re not just any woman in Hyrule, and you need to start realizing that too, kitten.” He hugged her tightly, pulling her close against him. She smelled nice, and her body was warm and soft, and her heart was racing. “If… we both survive this… we’ll be proper friends, for sure… and… we can try again to be something more. I can’t make any promises. But you are a wonderful, loving, brave person, and that’s exactly the kind of person I want at my side…”
She gave a tiny squeak, and he could tell she was smiling fit to burst, and a tear ran from her eye down her cheek. He kissed it away and failed to resist the temptation to nibble her ear. She squeaked again, and he grinned. She hesitated a bare second more, then whirled in his arms and flung herself at him, kissing him deeply.
He still didn’t understand how she could love him, after only a distant childhood, a few days of meeting in adverse conditions, three years of waiting, and a painful separation… but she did love him, regardless. They had each traveled their own separate paths to find themselves again, and in finding themselves, finding each other only fell into place.
He did love her, her innocence and wonder and courage, her boundless love for Hyrule and everything in it, her laughing eyes and her laughing voice and her awkwardness and her proud strength and her grace, and her incomprehension of normal society, so similar to his own incomprehension.
He wondered what she loved about him.
Unbidden, she began to tell him. “Link, I don’t love you because you’re the Hero, or because you’re ridiculously attractive. I know it seems like it, but it’s not true. It’s just easy to say. I love you because you’re brave, and you’ve always been brave, Triforce or not, and you’re strong, and you are smart – brilliant…”
“Although I’m also extremely dense, to hear Navi and Midna talk…”
“Well, in things that matter, like finding your way to where you want to be, finding your friends again, saving people, stopping the bad guys…”
He laughed. “You have a funny opinion of things that matter.” He stretched out on the roof, and she snuggled in beside him just like she used to.
“My point is that you are smart and unstoppable and funny and tender and… just… breathtaking.”
He pretended to preen. “Why, thank you.” He stopped and looked down at her in confusion. “You really think all that?”
She snorted. “Link, I thought you had self-confidence now. You don’t believe you are all those things?”
He lay back and looked at the stars. “I… guess. I don’t think about it all that much.”
She didn’t say anything, just wrapped her arms around his arm. “Good night, Link.”
“Good night.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too.”
He woke when the sun rose, shining in his face with the brilliance of the most malevolent of spells, and he grumbled. Rana was still sleeping soundly beside him, not at all disturbed by his movement or noise. He paused to look down at her, brush some hair out of her face.
“This was a dumb idea,” he said softly. “We should be in bed, getting actual rest.” She didn’t move.
He smiled, scooped her easily up in his arms, and looked for an easy way down off the roof that wouldn’t wake her. There wasn’t one, so he hopped off and landed as softly as he could.
She stirred. “Hmm?”
“Shh,” he told her. “Go back to sleep. I’m just taking you to bed.”
She giggled.
“Stop it,” he said, blushing. “I didn’t mean like that.”
She giggled more. “I know.” She stretched in his arms. “I can get up now, though.”
“The sun just rose…”
“All the more reason to be ready before the others. I mean, really, how much more rest are you going to get?”
“I guess you’re right. I’ll just get lots of rest tonight. You know, it will be nice when this whole thing is over and we can sleep regular hours again.”
“What’s regular hours?” Rana said, sliding to the ground and smiling at him mischievously. “I never sleep regular hours even when it’s peacetime. Just ask Zelda, she doesn’t either. It’s actually really difficult for her to be princess, because either she’s staying up late to work on things, or she goes to bed when the sun goes down, and her internal clock can’t figure out which one it likes better.”
“I would have thought someone like Zelda would love routine and regimen.”
“Oh, sure, she does, in every other part of her life. But…”
“Hey, there you are!” Navi called, fluttering out the window and down to them. “Where’d you go last night?”
“The roof,” Link said, pointing up.
“It shows,” Navi said. “Your hair is sticking everywhere.”
Link looked at Rana. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She reached up and smoothed it down. “Because it looks cute.”
He snorted a laugh. “You have odd taste.”
“She’s right,” Midna said, hanging out the window. “But you better come in and get dressed before anyone else sees you and jumps to conclusions.”
He blushed again. “Fair.”
The collected Resistance set out in dribs and drabs after they had eaten breakfast. Link traveled with Rana and Franz and Jakob, riding Epona, enjoying the sunshine. If he died tomorrow, it was a good day to be alive today. Even the morbid thought of death didn’t bother him much.
All traces of sadness had gone from Rana’s eyes. She had changed over the last weeks, and that change wasn’t going to go away in a hurry, but today she was bright and shining in her happiness, and Franz remarked on the change, and then proceeded to tease both of them mercilessly, with Midna and Navi helping him.
They arrived at Telma’s bar in the late afternoon, to find Auru and Rusl had gotten there first. Ashei and Shad arrived shortly after them. The Sages all arrived at once, appearing from a water portal. Telma hadn’t exactly been warned, but by the time Link had arrived, she was closing the bar as Auru informed her of the plan. She was greatly excited and was talking up a storm, commenting on every part of their plan with exclamations and motherly criticisms.
She somehow managed to get dinner for all of them, and they began setting up their bedrolls, although it was going to be a tight fit for all of them.
With his own bedroll set up, Link slipped outside, unnoticed by any except Navi, who came with him quietly. He again climbed on the roof to watch the sunset.
Paws tapped on the roof behind him. “Hello, Hero.”
“Hello, Hero,” Link answered. “Can I guess that your name is also Link?”
“It is,” said the Hero, sitting down next to him in the form of a golden wolf.
Link watched the evening star twinkle. “Why do you take the form of a wolf?”
The wolf showed its teeth in a grin. “Because you take the form of a wolf, and I wanted to be something familiar to you… And also because I don’t like being a bunny.”
“A what?” Link turned to the other in surprise, and saw he had taken the form of an old man.
“When I was young, younger even than you were when you set out on your adventure, I was called to rescue the Princess. But while I was gathering the Pendants of Courage, Power, and Wisdom to unlock the Master Sword to fight Agahnim, she was kidnapped again and I arrived too late to prevent her from being sent to the Dark World.” He glanced at Link. “I think you can draw the connections here.”
“Many,” Link answered. “The Dark World was the Twilight Realm. The Pendants of Courage, Power, and Wisdom… are those now the Kokiri Emerald, the Goron’s Ruby, and the Zora’s Sappire?”
“Very observant,” said the Hero, de-aging in front of his eyes. He was already looking middle aged, rather than old, and gold was beginning to show through the grey in his hair. “But yes, I looked like a bunny when I first entered the Dark World, and it was a lot more threatening than it is today, believe me…” He smiled boyishly, his hair now all gold, his face that of a young man with strong blue eyes. “So I had to go through a whole rigamarole to find the Moon Pearl, because I needed to pass through the Dark World before I found the Master Sword… It was a pain, believe me!” His voice cracked, and a small boy was sitting beside him, grinning cheekily. He held up his left hand, and the Triforce glowed on it. “It was only this that saved me, that turned me into a bunny instead of some hideous monster like I saw there! I wouldn’t have minded being a wolf, though.”
Link smiled and held up his own, shining through his glove. “We’re a lot alike.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we all share the same soul, or something.”
“All?”
The boy Hero snorted. “You think we’re the only two Heroes in Hyrule’s History? There are Heroes… well, not beyond count, but more than history remembers, for certain.”
“I knew that…”
“The funny thing is, we all end up wearing green.” The Hero poked his Kokiri Tunic, right in his healing rib, and he twitched.
“This is from living in the forest as a kid… I resized it as I grew up.”
“Well, when I was a kid, this was what kids wore. The windsock hat was my grandma’s idea, though. And one of our ancestors, that ensemble was the Knight’s official outfit, none of that fancy ceremonial plate armour! But that was back even before Hyrule was a country.”
“The Heroes predate Hyrule?”
“Yeah, more or less, and so does over-powering evil, and the Princess. The Triforce is older than Hyrule, duh. But that one particular Hero was right-handed, too. Kind of a fluke.”
Link laughed.
“Anyway,” the Hero chirped, sitting back. “I came to wish you luck for tomorrow. I know you’ve faced down world-shattering evil before, monsters bigger than should be physically possible to fight, blah blah blah, and so have I… but I just wanted to talk to you one more time before I left. To thank you for letting me pass on my training and skills.”
“You’re going?”
“I have my sleep to get back to. Gotta go tell your parents how well you’re doing. Like you probably know, ghosts really aren’t supposed to wander around indefinitely.”
“That’s too bad. It would be nice to have you around.”
“That would defeat the purpose of death,” the Hero said patiently, aging up again slowly.
“There’s a purpose to death?”
“We fight with all our strength to stay alive, to protect others, to destroy evil, to make this world as good and just and peaceful as it is humanly possible to manage… And that is what we must do. We must never stop doing that. But yes, there is also a purpose to death. What that is… I can’t tell you yet. You will find out for yourself one day.” He glanced sideways at Link, in his late teens. “Just try not to find out tomorrow.”
“I won’t,” Link said. “Thanks to you and the others, I am the strongest I’ve ever been.”
“You do seemed to have settled your spirit.”
Link blinked. He had forgotten about that. “I guess I did.”
“It fits you. It’s good for you. Try to hold on to that.”
“I will. I will save Zelda and Hyrule, and prevent Ganondorf from coming back in my lifetime.”
“That’s all that can be asked of us,” the Hero said, standing. Link stood, too, and they shared a hug. “I’m going to miss you, some-odd great-grandson.”
Link laughed. “I think I’ll miss you more, great-grandfather. And say hello to my parents for me, would you?”
“Will do. Fight strongly tomorrow.” The Hero faded into the air with a whisper, blowing away towards the sunset.
The next day dawned grey and cloudy. Not the most promising of sights, but their plan was ready to go anyway.
In ones and twos, they filtered casually through town, grouping in their assigned groupings beneath pillared overhangs over the sidewalk. It was difficult for their eclectic groups to look inconspicuous, two groups covered in armour, the other group made up of representatives of every race in Hyrule. But there were fewer people out that morning, most choosing to avoid the dark, cold weather.
Link watched Midna, ignoring the others softly chatting behind him, as she skipped swiftly towards the gate that separated them from the shield. The Fused Shadows appeared and began to swirl around her, spinning faster and faster, until they slammed shut around her like a rocky shell with openings for her arms and legs.
She was still a moment, and then seemed to be yanked to the side. She cried out as she collided with a pillar, and then again as she was yanked across the roadway to slam into the top of the wall on the other side. Then she was tossed clean over the top of the wall to the right, out of Link’s sight.
“Midna?” he cried, stepping out of cover, but before he could go anywhere, there was a burbling noise, and a giant, half-glowing green hand that was made out of some indescribable wobbling substance seized the edge of the wall. Link’s mouth fell open as the top horns of the Fused Shadow came into view. Midna had transformed into some kind of seven-armed creature as tall as the watchtowers that framed the castle gate.
He heard the guards and the people in the square shriek and begin to run, dropping their spears and shields and goods with a clatter. Even his companions were struck dumb, frozen in their tracks.
With a low roar, the creature bounded high in the air. It bounced a little as it struck the shield, and scrabbled to find footing. Next to the size of the shield, its giant size looked tiny, as if an overgrown spider had fallen onto a pane of glass.
It raised two of its arms, wrapping them jointlessly around a white spear of light, and stabbed it into the shield.
There was a flash, bright as the sun, and a thunderous crash.
When Link could see again, there was the castle, with no shield around it, and a tiny figure, falling from a great height…