Chapter Text
Zelda was back. Despite the impossible, despite everything Mineru had said about the finality of draconification. Had that unseen force not held him midair, Link would have fallen to his knees from the relief that crashed down on him. She hovered beneath him, held in place by the same force that kept him from making a fool of himself. She practically glowed in the sunlight, real and Hylian and so so beautiful. Goddesses, his chest ached as the hole that had been gouged open when he found out what happened to her closed from her presence.
Link turned to where the spirits of Rauru and Sonia hovered next to him, to—thank them? Ask them if this was real? Before he could find the words, the spirits faded into the clouds that blocked them from the outside world. As Rauru disappeared, so did the arm he had used to save Link from the gloom that poisoned him the day his world ended, leaving behind Link’s own arm.
In its place came pain. Burning, draining, and familiar.
Something foreign rose up from deep within his arm. It clawed its way out to the surface of his skin and burrowed deep into the muscles of his chest before he realized.
The shrines of light hadn’t cleansed him of the gloom. Rauru’s arm had been nothing more than a seal, and it had broken. What he had forced himself to think of as a gift (as uncomfortable as it was) had really just been another problem someone else had kicked down the road and left for Link to deal with the consequences.
Anger bubbled up in his chest, burning hotter than the gloom eating away at his very being, but it froze the moment it started to form. Link’s heart dropped.
None of that mattered, because the strange clouded realm that Rauru and Sonia had brought them to faded into the familiar sky over Hyrule Field. None of that mattered, because the force that kept him and Zelda hovering far above the ground vanished in an instant. None of that mattered, because Zelda fell lifelessly and vanished beneath a cloud.
Instinct kicked in, and despite his quickly fading strength and the panic that made his blood feel like ice, he dove.
Months of jumping from sky islands to the surface had taught Link to expertly control the speed of his dives, to slow down and plan exactly where he would land, but he ignored all of that and angled himself nearly straight down, willing himself to fall as fast as he could. He knew how to dive this time. He would not, could not miss her again. Not again.
He hit the cloud that separated them and his surroundings slowed as if he had drawn his bow midair. The cloud felt like sludge against his skin and sent pinpricks of pain through his right side. The familiar sound of wind rushing past him turned to deafening silence. Link urged himself to dive faster, faster, faster, yet the cloud grew longer and longer.
Finally, the sky over Hyrule field opened up beneath him once again. For a brief moment, Link allowed himself to slow and he scanned the air beneath him.
What if, by some horrible force, she had already hit the ground?
What if this had just been another one of Ganondorf’s puppets—
He cried out in both relief and sheer panic when he spotted Zelda rapidly approaching the ground. Despite the distance he’d closed between them with the speed of his dive, far too much open air still separated them. He didn’t have long before she would hit the ground with nothing, not even her own awareness, to protect her from the fall.
And she would die. He had finally gotten her back and she would die—
Dark spots crept up into his vision and the gloom burned at his insides as if his blood had turned to lava. He steadied himself against his rapidly fading strength and angled himself into a pin-straight dive towards her.
Hylia please!
But Hylia only ever answered his prayers when he had already worked for what he needed.
The seemingly infinite open space between them closed—too slow, too slow. Zelda’s head angled away from him, but without resistance from her, the wind lifted her hand towards him as if, even in unconsciousness, she was reaching for him. Only with the space between them closed did he notice the scales that still littered her skin and the vibrant turquoise horns and talons. Link shook himself internally. None of that would matter if she died. He gritted his teeth at the white-hot pain surging through his arm with every heartbeat and reached for her.
Please!
His fingers brushed against hers, still covered in gray scales, but she was still too far from him. He grunted and stretched himself as far as he could, and finally, his rotten and burnt hand wrapped around hers. With all of the strength he had, he pulled Zelda towards him and held her as they fell.
Water, Link realized through the thick haze that gathered in his mind. He had lost his paraglider during the fight with the Demon King. Water was the only way he could get her to the ground safely. He scanned the ground the best that he could as the dark spots grew.
By Hylia’s grace, he spotted a pond directly beneath them through the dark spots that clouded his vision.
They crashed into the water barely a second later.
The water rushed over him and only intensified the pain in his side. Link fought the urge to gasp as the water seemingly allowed the gloom to spread further, biting into his chest and coming dangerously close to his heart. He grit his teeth. Drowning would not help anything. He shifted Zelda’s deadweight to his left arm and fought the panic that rose up over how the shock of the water hadn’t awoken her. Rauru and Sonia wouldn’t have done all of that for her to just die in the process of turning back. He steeled himself, then clawed his way towards the surface. His arm protested every stroke and his entire being burned with the effort as the gloom burned away at what little energy he had left, but he pushed on. He had to.
Link kicked his legs desperately as he finally broke through the surface. The pond was not large, but between the strain of supporting Zelda’s weight and the pain that rendered his right arm nearly useless, the distance to the shore seemed impossible. Just a bit further… Finally, his feet found purchase on solid ground. He shifted Zelda in his arms and his legs shook dangerously as he lifted her out of the water.
Link gently rested Zelda on her side before collapsing to his knees, panting. His vision blurred dangerously and the dark spots overtook more of his vision. The nerves in his right side screamed. White-hot pain coated everything from his hip up to his throat and face. Hesitantly, he looked down at himself to find his entire right side blackened with gloom, with veins turned that glowed dangerous red and pulsed intensely with his rapidly beating heart. A broken sob escaped him, which only caused his lungs to spasm further. Coughs shook his body and tears stung at his eyes as he strained to draw in a proper breath. The coughs slowly subsided, only to be replaced by a rotten taste in his mouth and something warm running down his face. He brought his left hand to his chin when his right refused to move and wiped it away.
He froze.
Through blurred vision, he could see a mix of blood and gloom staining his hand, black and deep red and glowing unnaturally. Oh
“Link?”
Through his coughing fit, he hadn’t noticed Zelda stirring. Link tried desperately to gather enough strength to stand. She shouldn’t have to see him like this. However, much like his right arm, his legs refused to respond. Even lifting his head to look at her caused him to shake from the effort. He tried to level his expression, to appear calm for her, but instead of meeting Zelda’s eyes, he met the Light Dragon’s, multi-colored and unnatural.
His heart turned to ice. Zelda’s eyes were supposed to be green. The most beautiful shade of green that nothing else he had ever seen could compare to.
Yet, her eyes were wide with a fear that matched the one he felt. He had never seen in the Light Dragon, even as he watched her transform in the memory held in her tear. He hated that he was the reason for that fear. Another cough tore through him and he felt more of the blood-gloom mix fall past his lips.
“Link! What—what’s going on?”
Zelda sounded terrified, but an odd relief washed over him at the sight of her, alive and awake and Hylian. Link sighed and the world spun around him.
Zelda’s hand met his shoulder and he jolted at the contact, panic immediately overtaking him again. They were still far from anyone who could help, and he knew there were several monster camps that surrounded the pond. He had to get her safety. Link met her eyes and fought the sick feeling that rose up at the strange colors. She looked so scared. It was his job to make sure she wasn’t scared. What was he supposed to to when he was what scared her?
“Link please! Tell me what’s going on,” Zelda cried.
His muscles finally gave out and he fell roughly into the dirt.
Distantly, Link registered the sound of a scream. Hands gripped him and he yelped at the pain that tore through him at the contact with his right side. Zelda immediately let go of that side, but he felt her arms wrap around his back and pulled him close to her chest.
“Oh Link, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!” Zelda sobbed.
Link forced his eyes open—when had he closed them?—and gazed up at her. Despite the dark spots that danced in his vision, he still met her eyes, the colors of the Light Dragon’s, but still undeniably Zelda’s Tears burned at his own, from both the pain and the relief at the sight of her. Relief that, despite the uncomfortably familiar way she held him, she was there. She was there, and she was Zelda.
“Link please! I can’t lose you again!” Zelda sounded distant, like his head had fallen back under the water. He wanted to respond to her, to assure her he was fine, but a familiar lump formed in his throat and he struggled to draw in a breath deep enough to allow him to speak.
A chilling realization hit him. He was dying, wasn’t he?
Rauru had said that he was almost beyond saving when he woke up on the Great Sky Island. Without whatever power Rauru had used to save him, there would be nothing to stop the gloom from overtaking him.
A strange sense of calm settled over him. Dying was a familiar feeling. He should fear it, but a newfound clarity broke through the haze in his mind. In that clarity, all he could think of was Zelda. He didn’t want to leave her. Not like this. Not alone, not surrounded by monsters. Just like last time.
Zelda shifted and his head fell to the side. Before she could adjust him again, Link caught the blurry image of the Lookout Landing tower in the distance. Blurred as it was, it gave Link the resolve to summon the last of his strength.
He would not leave her alone again.
The strength it took to lift his arm was like parrying a blow from a lynel. He fumbled desperately for the Purah Pad at his hip. When he finally found it, he could hardly focus on the screen, but months of traveling with it gave left him with a muscle memory with each location on it.
“What—”
Despite his trembling fingers, he finally managed to hit the travel point. In the moment before their bodies dissolved into wisps of blue, Link could only see Zelda’s eyes.
Lookout Landing appeared around them in an eruption of activity, but the sounds seemed distant and far too quiet.
Zelda was saying something too, but it took too much energy to focus on her words. She looked terrified. He felt sick with guilt over that, but that quickly faded from him.
Link’s limbs went numb and the dark spots overtook Zelda’s tear-stained face. Zelda brushed her hand over his cheek, but even the idea of leaning into it took too much energy. His thoughts became more and more disjointed and the world around him faded. Soon, all that remained was Zelda’s comforting warmth.
Link knew what it felt like to die. He was dying again.
At least Zelda would be safe. At least he got to be in her arms again.