Chapter Text
One more blow.
Straight through the very core of Ganon. The Calamity. His sword pierced through the carcass, where Link felt the burn of malice searing through and under the skin before pulling away haphazardly and landing hard on the cold stone floor.
Barely cognisant, he looks past the deteriorating silhouette of wretched skin; pearlescent scales, branched antlers on its head, crystalline claws; all paired with the blonde hair of another. Someone he once knew to be human.
The Calamity caught Link’s attention again with its shrill vocals, giving one final ungodly scream before pieces of it splintered off in various directions. He didn’t care where, anywhere but here would suffice for him.
He laid on the floor, the cold seeping through his shredded tunic, sending shivers up his spine. Is this it?
By the time Link woke up again, he was officially convinced he committed a cardinal sin to the goddesses in his past life, making it their life’s mission for him to suffer. Over the course of what felt like hours of drifting in and out of unconsciousness, Link felt his own blood mixed with dirt cling onto his skin and dry out.
His arm, which once was King Rauru’s, pulsed a crimson red, burning as hot as the sun. It ran up to his shoulder where his other hand dug hard into the skin. Malice was eating him alive.
Later on, a sure hand held him down, just stopping him from curling in on himself. Another shoved soft golden petals in between his lips. Sundelions. Link’s body went slack against the hand, not waiting to find out whether the flower will be enough to keep him alive. The hand held him tighter, yet he still felt himself slip through the grasp. A fiery voice snarled at him.
“Calamity be damned, like hell I’m letting you die here Link!”
Dead people aren't supposed to be able to wake up, yet Link found himself laying on a soft, thin mattress in a room with mossy cobblestones for walls. Slower than he ever had before, Link rolled to his good side and propped himself up into a seated position. Taking stock of injuries, his right arm was the only limb in a brace, and the other three are intact to his slight surprise.
Link looked around the room: broken wood planks that once were a bed frame, old books on shelves, an old study desk, all of it matched the ruins. He must not be too far from the castle, if he ever left.
Faint footsteps brought him back to reality. He swiftly glances around the bed, looking for his Master Sword to no avail. He shuffled quickly, pushing off his left hand, careful not to disrupt the brace, and gathered himself well enough to be standing on two feet. A woman in off-white Sheikah clothing turned the corner into the room holding a bowl of golden porridge. A caretaker, Link remembers seeing her in passing around Lookout Landing while he prepared for the Calamity.
The Calamity. Ganon.
Link forced the thought away, focusing on the woman’s eyes widening comically at the sight of him. It didn’t phase him anymore, regular people have a right to look in a mix of horror and disgust when he shows up at a stable half covered in the enemies blood and the other half his own. Link can only imagine that from the woman’s perspective, he might as well be a dead man standing before her very eyes.
She dragged in a shaky breath, “Master Link… I- You’re alive.” Link didn’t speak, his uninjured hand still holding balance against the wall. The woman shook her head, quickly recomposing herself before entering the room. Link watched her put down the porridge on the desk next to the mattress as she turned to him. Scanning his face as if she was dissecting every one of his scars and freckles, she broke the silence for what felt like an eternity for Link.
“This truly is quite an… Unexpected turnout. Purah was worried sick about whether she found you in time, I will let her know you’re awake once I get you settled in again.”
Purah. Link’s hand followed the wall as he started shuffling slowly out into the hall, ignoring the woman’s concerned voice. He took in the hall before him, seeing the opening leading to the emergency center. Link heard the faint voices of the monster-control crew, people he had run into more than once. His body groaned stubbornly at every movement. How long has it been anyway? Not long enough for him to not feel like he got trampled by a herd of wild boar, apparently.
Link felt the ripple of people noticing his presence as that goddamn silence came back, people stood slack jawed all over again. He felt his heartbeat speed up just by the sight of everyone’s eyes on him, but it was short-lived as his attention was pulled back to the caretaker hot on his trail.
“Master Link truly, you are in no condition to be out and about. Your injuries still have to be taken into account, the fact that you’re standing is a miracle in itself but you can fall! You are in such a fragile state-”
“Thank you, Jerrin, my boys and I can handle him from here.”
Hoz. Primary organizer of the monster-control crew. Link’s seen him on more than one occasion, mostly near the Akkala region, but it was odd for him to see Hoz now without his helmet and cold gaze. Now, he looked… Tired. Curt flashes of his time spent in fighter squads as Link concluded that being alone was at least a small blessing, he could only imagine how many fighters Hoz had lost to the enemy. Too many to be okay. He supposed fighting alone was a small blessing in a sense, it’d be only one more death to a boundless death count if Link were to die in battle. I’d be bones in an empty field if only the goddesses let me be.
Gentle calluses laid on Link’s left shoulder, breaking his train of thought as he came back to reality. His eyes met Hoz’s, the understanding between them remained unspoken, Hoz knew he had been elsewhere without moving. He gestured Link to the table covered in maps and scribbles of strategies, offering his chair to which Link took. Sinking into the seat, Link gave him a curt nob in thanks just before Hoz sat with him around the same round table they had spent what felt like a lifetime of planning attacks. Memories kept playing back until Hoz broke the silence.
“All squads are being ordered to return to their main center. For our branch, each local squad has successfully returned to Lookout, they will only be sent out if need be. Atmus manages his own groups that circulate around the Hebra, Tabantha frontier and Tundra.”
Link followed Hoz’s gaze as a man dressed in light blue clothes joins the two at the table before taking his turn to speak.
“We’re still missing about half a dozen squads, all of them were stationed to the very edges of the regions we occupied looking for Yiga hideouts and managing monster numbers as they went. The traveling takes a while, if all is well with these squads they’ll be back in Rito Village in less than a week. Those in the Zora domain have counted all of their squads, and the gerudo women have their desert well managed as always.”
Link was sat up in his chair now, waiting for him to grow a second head. What the fuck? His good hand started signing.
‘How the hell is centering every troop to the region’s major city respectively ever going to keep people safe?’
Hoz held his gaze evenly, “Safe from what?”
Despite workers bustling about in the common area, Link heard only silence. No.
“You know best not to get hopes up, but this is what we know so far.” Link’s gaze didn’t waver when looking at Hoz.
“There hasn’t been a blood moon in over a month. It’s been nothing but clear skies all night, every night.”
“Monsters have been slain by troops, and there’s been no traces of malice. Holes that lead to the depths aren’t glowing red and hurting people anymore, they’re being fenced and covered. More research is to be done, but that’s not the job of a fighter. That’s not your job, Link.”
Link didn’t breathe, the world might as well have stopped turning. It can’t be over, there’s no way.
‘I’ve been out long enough for a blood moon to pass?’
Hoz let out a long sigh. “Yes, about nine days you’ve been in and out of consciousness. The damage was enough to kill three men two times over from what I gathered, and here you are.”
Cruel trick after twisted ploy, Link silently cursed the goddesses above. He didn’t like it as much as the next person, having to be pieced back together just to feel like he’s running in place. His ears rung from overlapping questions, all of them jumbling together.
“It might be over, Link.”
His face felt hot as he stared at the floor. The final blow to Calamity Ganon, the countless nights he didn’t sleep, the battles, and now the end? There’s no way.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before he came back to reality with Hoz and Atmus having returned to more strategies and mapping of the crews. Leaving the table they all hunched over, Link headed over to the ladder leading out of the underground bunker. He climbed slowly, carefully not to press his damaged arm against the wood, and hopped his good hand up carefully each rung to the surface.
Shining brightly above, the sun settled in the late afternoon in the sky, with rain clouds rolling in from the eastern horizon. Hylians bustled around, seemingly busier than ever, like there was no better time than now to do everything. Like there wasn’t death looming over them anymore.
Link shuffled over to a traveller’s sword leaning on the stone making up the very fountain where the champions were appointed. That was a lifetime ago, as he recalls. He picked it up, balancing his weight between his body and the dull, deteriorated metal as he walked on.
Looking ahead to the sheikah research department, Josha seemed to have never moved from when he last saw her. Forever studious, she seems to have her nose stuck in roughly five old texts, whether Hyrulian or Zonai, he couldn’t tell. The rhythmic clink, clink, clink, of the sword was paired with him limping over, it seemed to be the loudest sound around, safe to assume Robbie isn’t here then. No matter, as long as Purah is still here.
Josha didn’t lift her head once as he walked over, Link gently clearing his throat was his attempt of grabbing her attention, with her not even moving an inch as result. Right. How a piece of paper could ever entrance a kid this much was entirely beyond him. Licking his dried and cracked lips, he whistled the same way he always grabbed her attention before. This elicited a reaction, as Josha’s head shot up in record time, a beaming smile and sparkling eyes found Link standing at the entrance.
“Master Link! You’re up again!” Josha yelled.
She spared no time before launching herself at him, where he quickly moved his injured arm away from her impact. Link dropped the sword to the wooden floor and wrapped his good hand around her, trying to squeeze with as much fervor as Josha. They stayed hugging for a good moment, Josha eventually pulling away first.
“You're really awake? Really really? Wow you look tired, is that from almost dying?”
The corners of Link's lips twitched upwards at her, his hand hovering with uncertainty on how to answer that question to a kid.
He's ignoring it. ‘Where's Purah?’
“Huh? Did almost dying scramble your brains? Fascinating. Purah is probably in the lab again, she hasn't really left, something about- hey!”
Josha grabbed Link's shirt as he was already pulling away to make it way up to the lab, stopping him to look back. Link quirked his eyebrow at her.
“When am I gonna your story time of killing evil guy Ganon? All Auntie Purah said was that you went ‘WHA-POW’ and ‘KABOOSH’ and all of a sudden he was gone in a snap! You gotta tell me, pleaseeee Link?”
There's not a single person in this world who asks harder questions than this kid. Link held her gaze for a moment before signing.
‘Ask me some other time.’
That answer was clearly unsatisfactory.
“Nooooo!” She whined, “all the other adults say that Link! All of the adults in Lookout Landing keep telling me that!”
He turned to face her more squarely, slowly bending over to reach eye-level with her.
‘When you’re older.’
“UGH.” Josha throws her hands in the air and returns to her nook to sulk.
Link returned to hobbling over and up the staircase leading him to the lab, which has been suspiciously quiet since he surfaced from the bunker. His legs ached walking up the stairs to the lab, stopping at the top to look onwards from the fort.
The castle.
It was no more than one big lump of cobblestone now. All of his time dedicated in those halls protecting, fighting, managing, supporting; it was all gone. Link wondered about the ruins underneath it, about what it might still harbour. His stomach churned at the thought, tearing his eyes away from the landscape and kept walking.
Pushing the door open, he finds Purah. It's all the same; her white hair neatly tucked into a bun, the traditional Sheikah fabrics she wears; all but her eyes. They had no light. As she leaned over maps and papers on the table in the middle of the room. Her attention didn't break from the work in front of her as Link walked into the room. Goddesses above, Josha didn’t learn it from no one. Getting closer, her eyes finally break away to stare at him while Link watched the flurry of mixed emotions dawn her face in real-time. A little bit of light.
He didn’t give her the chance to speak. “Where’s my Master Sword?”