Chapter Text
The putrid smell of burning was heavy in the damp air, smoke clinging in Link’s nose and on his armor. There were too many guardians. Too many . They were out of the Sheikah’s control, besieged by Ganon’s sinister essence. It was an endless slaughter, Hyrule falling to ruin before their very eyes.
The ground shook with the stomps of their metallic limbs on the rain-slicked grass of the field.
Link let out a cry of exhausted fury as he plunged his master sword into another guardian’s glowing eye – the killing blow. The machine contorted like a drowning spider and he jumped back, too slow to avoid one of its metallic tentacles flailing towards him. It knocked him square in the chest and he plummeted to the ground with a sickening thud.
He had used his every reserve of energy.
The apocalyptic battle had been raging for hours, and there was no end in sight. They could not defeat this threat. Everything would be over. Ganon had won after all.
“Link!” Zelda screamed in a devastated wail, running to his side and struggling to drag him up by his bloodied arms. Her once pristine white dress was filthy with dirt and ash, tears leaving black streaks on her cheeks.
Rage burned in him, to see her in such a state. She should not be here.
He imagined her in her study, a Silent Princess flower in a vase on her desk, tapping the end of a quill to her lips thoughtfully.
She should not be here.
But where else could she be? Everything was gone; their home crumbling under Ganon’s might.
He stood, his limbs screaming, body enveloped in every possible sensation of pain like the burning air around them. Blood trickled down an open wound on his temple. He had to keep moving . He had no choice. It was his duty to protect Hyrule… to protect the princess…
“Link, save yourself, please! Go!” She was pulling his arm, trying to guide him away from danger. The vile clicking and vibrating stomps of a guardian stalker grew closer. Link stood firm despite his injuries and shook his head, breathing hard. He could barely lift his sword arm.
He had trained his entire life for this duty and knew nothing else. Self-preservation was not in his blood, destiny, or training. He would defend Hyrule with his dying breath.
His vision began to tunnel as the eerie red sight of the approaching guardian stalker leveled on him. A high-pitched whine in the air signaled it was preparing to shoot.
Link’s choked breathing and the rush of his blood in his ears drowned out the sound. His body did not want to be standing and would punish him for it. He attempted again to lift his sword arm and it gave out pitifully. No! No! He gritted his teeth in frustration, tears stinging his eyes. They could not die like this.
“No!” Zelda cried and pushed in front of Link, holding out her hand in a desperate attempt to shield him from the incoming laser. He closed his eyes, knees buckling and breath evaporating in his lungs.
He had failed. He braced himself for the deadly singe of the laser, but it did not come.
A ripple of indescribable energy passed through him and he opened his blurry eyes, looking up at Zelda from his knees. There was a glowing ball of sacred light surrounding them and pushing outward, first stalling the guardian, and then miraculously causing it to combust.
The energy expanded across the field, halting every guardian it passed over and exorcizing the demonic forces manipulating them. Crash after crash rang out in the field as the guardians fell.
She looked like an angel.
In the golden haze of his blurry vision and her holy light, he had never seen anything so beautiful. She had finally ignited the sacred power prophesied to be within her. She would be alright.
She would be alright.
He closed his eyes again and the ground suddenly came quickly at him, his head hitting the damp grass, a small smile on his face.
He surfaced from the blackness to her holding him in her slender arms and weeping.
He had the silly thought that it had been a very long time since he had hugged her. It was only permitted when they were children.
And what a lovely way to go…
APPROXIMATELY 100 YEARS LATER
Link fell to his knees at the weight of the memory, tears threatening to spill over his eyes. The scene before him was so far changed.
It was the same place. The same marshy field. But now it was sunny, a breeze sifting through the long grass and pushing cotton white clouds along in the sky. Vegetation and time’s tireless embrace had almost swallowed what remained of blackened guardian husks and the stone foundations of buildings long abandoned. Instead of ash and fire swallowing the air above, there was a small flock of sparrows taking flight, spooked by a passing wild horse nearby.
The world had forgotten their suffering.
He had forgotten their suffering.
His gloved hands gripped the grass beneath him as he breathed hard, clawing back to the present.
He had been told that she saved him. It was only logical, how else would he have appeared at the shrine of resurrection where he woke up almost four months ago?
But to see it…
He swallowed a lump in his throat and stood, brushing off his hands. Nothing would stop him from bringing Zelda back now.
It was fortunate that he had spent so much time training before locating this final memory, because the urgency boiling in his blood would have carried him to Ganon’s throne regardless of how prepared he was.
She had saved him. When she had no hope of her efforts making a difference, she still would have sacrificed herself to try . On top of everything else… he owed her his life.
He owed her his life, and she was all he had left of his kingdom, the only semblance of family.
It was her voice that had woken him. Her soft, melodic voice calling to him from her spiritual slumber, where she fought to contain Ganon.
“Link… open your eyes… ” The voice still sounded in his mind, nothing more vivid than his first memory in this new existence, the luminescent words spoken into his dark and empty mind.
He turned to his horse, King, a strong chestnut stallion he had befriended over his time in this new world. The breeze licked at his black mane as the horse stood proud and ready. Link’s blood cooled like tempered steel in his veins, pulse strong and determined now as he walked back to meet his horse. He climbed on with a huff, and made for the castle.
Somewhere in that ruined castle, the princess struggled to contain Ganon’s evil. Zelda had been the one to wake him, and he would be the one to wake her. No matter what it took.