Until The Last Breath

24 - Fools, Fools, and More Fools!

"Don't worry!" Zelda heard Link call out to the champions, his voice quickly fading. "Get inside the castle, I'll get Zelda!"

Ganondorf chuckled. "He's a fool if he thinks he's gonna get here in time."

Zelda let out a scream as Ganondorf dipped down, taking them into what seemed like a large ditch. Craning her neck to look up, Zelda saw that the Hyrule Castle was floating above them as they sunk below the ground.

Ganondorf had pressed her close to his chest, his meaty arms preventing her from wriggling out of his grip. His feet touched the ground of the pit, and he finally dropped Zelda onto the floor.

"What do you think you're doing?" she spat, backing up against the dirt. The feeling of his arms around her was still there, and she didn't want to be anywhere near him right now.

She still wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but the relaxed look on Ganondorf's face made her uneasy.

"I think I'm taking over Hyrule," Ganondorf said, sending a smile her way. "I also think I'm now in control of two pieces of the triforce."

Zelda's heart dropped to her stomach. She almost didn't believe it.

Ganondorf had betrayed them. He'd convinced them all that he'd help get rid of Calamity Ganon, but really, he was just helping himself. Link still had the plan in place. He was going to get the champions to use the Divine Beasts to destroy the Calamity, then all that power would go to the monster that was standing in front of her.

He'd be unstoppable.

"Now listen, Zelda, it's nothing personal." Zelda's jaw set, her teeth grinding against each other so hard that it almost hurt. "I just feel like Hyrule needs a more competent leader, don't you? You trusted me so easily, even when I killed your friends! You were practically asking for my betrayal."

"You...I didn't trust you. You promised me you'd help Hyrule. You said that the malice had left you...you..."

He was right, though she hated to admit it. Zelda should've let Link kill Ganondorf the second they found out he was alive, but she didn't. She was too weak to. Especially when he had just saved her life. 

She'd been naive.

"The malice did leave me, about 100 years ago. But with all that time, I was able to stew over the doings of Calamity Ganon and honestly, I see the monster's point of view. King Rhoam was a fool and—"

"How dare you speak of my father that way!"

"—and now he's a dead fool because I did what needed to be done. Your father wasn't fit to be king, just like you aren't fit to be queen."

Zelda's heart thudded in her chest. It became harder to breathe, and she didn't know if that was because she was hyperventilating or because the castle seemed to be lowering itself back into the ground, sealing up the only way Link could save her.

She was trapped underneath the castle with Ganondorf. Who would come for her now?

"Actually, you can be queen," Ganondorf mused. "You can be my queen. Doesn't that sound nice?"

The thought almost made Zelda physically sick, bile rising up her throat. She would never, not in a million years—

"Marrying me would be the only way you get to live. I'd be able to use the triforce of wisdom, you'd be an obedient and loving wife, and I'd have all of Hyrule at my feet. Yes, I do like the sound of that." He stepped closer towards Zelda and got down on one knee, using his finger to lift her chin up. "Will you marry me, Zelda?"