The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Queen

After the Storm

"Link? Are you okay?" Midna asked, her voice shaky. She pulled the Fused Shadow off her head and let it fall to the floor. It landed with a thud. Midna's eyes were rimmed with blue, bloodshot in exhaustion. At least she was still alive, unlike the others... The Red Owl was gone... Dead. Zant was gone too. He was worse than dead, trapped in the fused shadows once more. And Princess Zelda... She too was dead.

"I... I don't know." Link was shaking, his shoulders heaving and tears streaming down his face, pooling with the blood at his jawline. He'd just killed Princess Zelda. He'd stabbed her like a cold blooded murderer... He should have been able to save her! He was a hero, saving people was what he did. He'd risk anything to keep his friends from harm! He wouldn't kill them...

"It's going to be okay," Midna said softly, going to stand beside him. She understood how he felt, though her guilt was less because she hadn't dealt the killing blow. And she hadn't been looking into the princess' eyes as the life that remained fled them.

Midna pried the Master Sword from Link's death grip and tossed it to the ground. He flinched at the noise, staring down with blue eyes wide in horror.

"How can you be sure? I've just killed..." He put his hand to his mouth, looking as though he was going to be sick.

"It's going to be okay," she repeated, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder. He shook his head in disagreement, his sandy hair continued to wave back and forth even once he'd stopped.

"Fine! Maybe it won't be okay, but that doesn't mean you are going to give up. Giving up isn't an option. It never has been, not for you. You are the hero of courage! You don't know how to give up!" Link closed his eyes, breathing heavily. She was right, obviously. He couldn't give up, not now. The princess's death would be in vain if he gave up now.

"I'm sorry. You're right..." He reached down and grabbed the bloodied sword.

"Your arm! It's back! How!?" Midna exclaimed, grabbing his arm and turning it around. She needed to be sure it was as real as it appeared to be. It was real... Skin and blood and bone and muscle... Looking as though it had never been lost, other than the faint band-like scar that ran around his elbow.

"I met the Golden Goddesses... Or I think I did. I think... I think I must have died," he said, a grim smile on his face as he remembered what happened. It lasted only a moment, for his sorrow returned quickly. A darkness filled his blue eyes. A darkness that was enhanced by the angry looking cut that bled across the right half of his face.

"Wow, you must be someone special. An audience with the Goddesses and a revival at their hands... Wow..." Midna looked away as tears came to her eyes. She'd thought he was dead... Too many times that day had she believed he was dead. Murdered first in a foolish duel with King Bulblin. He'd been lucky to survive that. And later murdered by the Red Owl for evil purposes. It had been an actual miracle that he'd lived to tell the tale.

"It's okay, right Midna?" he teased, his smile falling back into place.

"Eee hee... I see what you did there. Very clever of you to use my own words against me. But... Just today I don't mind... As long as you don't die again. Please?" She looked up at him, pleading with his brilliant blue eyes. Yet she knew it was a promise no hero could keep.

"Maybe... If you promise not to leave me behind again."

"I didn't leave! You were the one who left to foolishly challenge King Bulblin!"

"True, but there were lives at stake then. You left me when there was still peace. At the mirror..." Oh that. Back to this conversation, were they? The Mirror of Twilight... The one she'd destroyed with a single tear.