In The End
A Songfic

He wandered through the ruins of the castle, where so long ago he had first faced destiny. [Seven years,] he thought. [But it could have been yesterday... or it could have been another lifetime. For all that's happened to me...]
Slowly, he approached a solitary figure, standing with her head bowed and weeping silently into her hands. Almost as quietly, he moved in.

-

It starts with one thing
I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try keep that in mind
I designed this rhyme
To explain in due time

-

"Zelda," he whispered. Immediately, she looked up and around, to see where the voice had come from.
"Who..." she replied to his comment, in a state of shock. "Who... that can't be... Link? That's..."
He didn't respond immediately. It was a second or two before he spoke again. "Home... where you are supposed to be..."
"...The way you are supposed to be," finished Zelda, recognising the words she had spoken barely seconds ago - as she regarded it. "But why... I sent you back..."
"Time's not everything it's supposed to be," Link remarked, almost under his breath. "I should know."
For the first time, the princess set eyes on the person who had so recently been her saviour. But... something immediately struck her. Why was he hiding behind that cloak? His face was all but covered, with an almost Sheikah-style mask pulled up to his eyes and the hood falling low over the rest of it. If it wasn't for his voice, she wouldn't have been able to tell who he was. And surely... he'd hardly been taller than she had...
"What's happened to you, Link?"
He paused. "I prefer the name Oni, now..."
"What?"
Unseen by her, he smiled. "Oh... there's a lot about me you don't know..."

-

All I know
Time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It's so unreal

-

"You had no idea what you were sending me back to, Zelda. To you - seven years of my life were yours to play with."
"But... I had to... otherwise the Evil King would still be on the loose!"
"Ha! It's easy to talk about fate when it's not yours you're dealing with!" Link snapped, angrily. "You don't have any idea what I went through! You thought that sending me away to a life I didn't want, didn't need, was the easy way out... But what sort of a life was it? Oh, I know now why no-one - now - remembered me, had thought I'd disappeared. I... virtually didn't exist! People forgot about me as soon as I'd talked to them. Time itself didn't want me in Hyrule. I bet you don't remember meeting me, when I met you that time in hiding?"
Zelda blinked, and stuttered. "Met you - when? I only saw you when I was escaping the castle, I threw you the ocarina, then..." But the ocarina itself had vanished, shortly after she'd played it. Where had it gone?
"Oh? The ocarina I just returned to you? Then explain this..." He reached a hand into a pocket, and retrieved the familiar blue musical instrument. "What's this? Fairy dust?"
{Wait... I remember now... I found it again, but... lost it... Did I give it to Link - again? And how come I don't remember anything?...}
[She hasn't got a clue.] "Never mind that. You can have it back now. For good - for all the use it does me." He shook his head, and Zelda spotted a stray lock of his hair falling in his face. Silver, not gold. {This is becoming stranger by the second!}
"Link - Oni - whoever - you've... changed..."
"Damn right." Zelda looked at him, taken aback. "I have changed. I wouldn't have if you'd never sent me back... Did you ever hear of a land called Termina? That's where I've been. And that's where I became what you see today."

-

Didn't look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on, but didn't even know
Wasted it all just to watch you go
I kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when

-

Link talked on. Barely a detail of his childhood's experience in another world was neglected. "Three days. The same three days over and over again. You don't have a clue what it's like... No-one in Hyrule remembered me. And no-one there did either. Each time I returned to the beginning - everyone had never known me." He let out a laugh totally unlike any Zelda had heard. It wasn't the sort of laugh she'd have associated with him, but one which carried a cold, bitter touch under its surface. "I was the hero in Hyrule, but no-one knew. And as for Termina? Perhaps the only good thing I got out of it was time to realise who I am."

-

I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter

-

"What I've realised is that I'm not yours to command, 'princess'," Link snarled. "The last night I spent there, I found out... let's say, that I'm more than what you think I am. Your little servant, to send on impossible quests..."
Zelda interrupted. "I never said... I never..." Her words trailed away. {I never meant to...}
"But the fact of it was always there. You didn't need to say it. Oh, no. You're the princess. So whatever you say goes. Even when it's someone else's entire life you're playing with..."

-

One thing, I don't know why
It doesn’t even matter how hard you try, keep that in mind
I designed this rhyme, to explain in due time
I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so (far)

-

Link slowly pushed back his hood, and pulled the mask away from around his nose and mouth. "See what you've made of me..." he whispered, a twisted grin distorting his painted face.
Zelda almost cried out in shock. {What's happened to you? What happened to the Link I knew?} Her heart pounded as she looked into his brilliant white eyes.
Now she was finding out just why he'd been hiding what he looked like. And she wasn't sure she liked it. The only word she could think of to describe his appearance would have to be... {Fierce.}

-

Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me (in the end)
You kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when I

-

"Tell me... I'm guessing Impa taught you well in the ways of the Sheikah. But - what did she teach you of their legends? Do you even know who I am now, 'Sheik'?"
"Of course... the Hero... the..." Zelda stuttered. "You're the Hero of Time! You always will be..." But even as she said them, the words sounded false and artificial in her mouth. And now she thought about it, Impa had said something in passing... what was it? An exiled god, or something? Whatever it had been, it seemed to suit the new Link she saw in front of her now. And as she thought, he confirmed her suspicions.
"Wrong. They call me the Fierce Deity," he hissed. "And that's who I've been for five of those seven years you so kindly gave me..."

Zelda stepped slowly backwards away from Link, who was spinning a sword unlike any she'd seen from one hand to the other. "I won't say I haven't enjoyed it, however..." He laughed again, and the princess found herself chilled to the bone. She was beginning to think she'd made a mistake sending him away. Wasn't there another way? Couldn't she have done something different to lock up Ganondorf, rather than using the Master Sword to seal the gateway?
Link seemed to hear her thoughts. {If he really is a... a deity, a god, then maybe he did...}"Perhaps it was destiny that I was meant to be this way, then. Those years I spent as that lonely child - I had time to think about who and what I was. Unloved, unknown, even by those I called my friends... Perhaps it's no surprise I turned to the darkness..."
This time, Zelda couldn't restrain a shriek of surprise, shock - and fear. "You..."
A faint, seemingly amused smile flashed across Link's face. "I've learned a lot in those five years. We were both so naive, believing we could, oh, 'save the world' and 'protect the forces of good' or whatever. There's no right, no wrong, no good, no evil, Zelda. There's only what will and won't happen. And what I see happening now... is you handing over that piece of the Golden Power you possess..."
{The... Link wants my Triforce? But why? How?...}

-

I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter

-

"You're... you're as bad as Ganondorf!" she whispered.
"Don't you dare compare me to that... to that fool. Suffice it to say, my reasons for searching for what you so jealously guard are mine and mine alone. Conquer Hyrule? I could do that with my powers alone - ones which the Evil King could never have dreamt of. So don't patronise me. And don't think you'll be able to hold me off alone."
"But... Link..."
"Get my name right!" he snapped. "I haven't called myself that for five years!"
"Okay... But I... trusted you..."
"More fool you for thinking that your little ideas of truth and justice had any background to them. Really, Zelda..." The cloak finally fell away from around his shoulders, revealing the shining silver armour he wore, and he readied himself to attack. The princess stepped backwards, away from the apparition that had been Link.

She turned away and sprinted.

-

I’ve put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
And for all this
There's only one thing you should know

-

Zelda ran as fast as she could to get away, whipping the ocarina to her lips and playing the Nocturne of Shadow as she sprinted over the rubble and ruin.
{I've got to get away... got to say... got to warn everyone... Tell the Sages, tell the world..}

She vaulted over the fence in the graveyard much as she would have as Sheik, and landed on the other side winded.
{The dark times aren't over. Ha. Heroes? Villains? What's the difference? How could I think it could be so simple to destroy the evil? Only it's not Ganon now... The person who should have saved the world... could be its destroyer...}

-

I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter...

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