Endless War

XXV

"Hail. All hail Zelda, Empress of Hyrule and Lorule."

-Makarov

Yuri gave up. He couldn't do it. His CPR wasn't working. He was a fighter, and his specialty was in killing people.

This had all started when Hilda had lunged at Zelda, and the latter had thrown off the former, which made sense. Self-defense right there. But then self-defense turned into aggression, and Zelda had gotten slightly larger, with red eyes, ethereal flames slowly leaking out of her head, and Malice pouring out of her. All of their punches and attempts at restraint went unnoticed by her. She was back to normal, thank Hylia, on her knees crying, but being an ex-Cabal, he knew the terrible things Malice could do.

Contact with Malice would start corrupting a person from the inside. It fed off of violence and your darkest thoughts and devoured anger and hatred for its sustenance. You would most likely kill everybody around you when it became strong enough. The affected possessed increased combat capabilities, and were immune to pain, only focused on chaos and destruction. The closest comparison would be rabies, only extra, extra strong. And its strength only increased with time.

Pray at a statue of Hylia, and she might be able to purge the darkness from the individual. Great Fairies were also said to be able to heal Malice's wounds for the price of rupees. There were also ancient legends that a descendant of the goddess would be able to cleanse the afflicted.

But Zelda is the descendant of Hylia. How are we supposed to cure her? What happens when the healer becomes infected?

Yuri had no answers for that. And besides, he had more pressing concerns. He could only hope that Zelda would find help for her condition soon before she was possessed permanently.

But Link... 

They would carry him out of here, even if they all died.

It was what he would have wanted.

"Hey! Hey, the hero's dead. The hero's dead!! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

The two Yiga guards pressed their masks against the cell bars. "This world will see its end now! Thank you, Princess! You've done a wonderful job, though I'm afraid Lord Ganon will want you dead too. We can't have anything thwarting his arrival now, can we?"

Zelda had stopped crying now. She was staring at the two monsters. So long that Yuri was worried that she had been possessed again.

Then she let loose the loudest scream he had ever heard.

It echoed and reverberated throughout the prison and beyond, sending waves of fear and terror throughout the prisoners and guards alike. The two in front of her were left stunned.

Yuri forced himself to look up again, and he witnessed Zelda, her travel clothes dirty and ripped, her eyes shining with desperation and a hunger for vengeance.

No, no, no. Bad combination.

His head still rang from her scream, but he started stumbling towards her. He had to stop her from any action. Doing anything violent would most certainly send the Malice within her into a frenzy.

"YOU. WILL. PAY!"

"Stop! STOOOOP!"

She lunged for the two, even with bars in the way. He lunged after her, even with those red-pink flames coming out of her again. And following him was an unsteady Hilda and the two disoriented guards.

Somehow, someway, the bars shattered with a mere touch of Zelda's finger, sending shrapnel into the faces of the guards. They started writing and yelling on the ground, and Zelda's guards quickly kicked them unconscious before stealing their weapons.

"Now's our chance. We get out of here!" That was Reznov.

"No!" Yuri roared. "We take Link with us. We're not leaving him here! I'm not leaving anybody behind ever again!"

Hilda coughed, still trying to recover from Zelda's attack. "I'll carry him. You four-"

And Zelda - no, the thing that looked like Zelda but wasn't her - attacked again, sending the other Princess flying into a wall with a sickening crunch.

Gaz and Griggs immediately drew their weapons against the person they were supposed to protect and attack.

Pathetic, the Malice creature hissed - was she speaking in their heads? - before laughing.

Tendrils of Malice erupted from her fingertips, streaking for her two guards. Yuri knew what would happen to a person encased in the foul substance. He forced himself to run to Hilda so he wouldn't see it, but the screams and Zelda's laugh still reached his ears.

Reznov was already there, fending off other guards trying to capture Hilda again. The other princess was quickly breathing, unable to get up. The slam into a stone wall at 60 mph must have cracked a few bones. But her lips were moving. She was trying to say something, and Yuri would hear her dying request.

"Yuri...Yuri...Link..."

Hilda's breathing grew increasingly laborious. "I loved... Tell the General...proud...know...son."

Yuri didn't hear anything important because Reznov was single-handedly holding back guards and the Malice creature. And Reznov was noisy when he got busy, so Yuri always argued with him whenever the man brought a pretty lady to the barracks back in Hyrule.

Link was dead. Hilda was ready to meet her maker. Zelda had transformed into some dark abomination. Reznov was weakening with the strain of combat.

The princess he practically worshipped because of her love for her subjects and soldiers had picked up a sickle and engaged in single combat with Reznov. Watching them were several Yiga, and among them was the man who had been brought back with the power of Malice.

Makarov.

The man grinned at Yuri but said nothing.

Reznov grunted. "Yuri, get out of here! I'll hold them off."

"Freedom," Yuri gasped. "The last step was freedom for us all, Reznov!"

"No! Just go! I'm a dead man anyways. You can't die too!"

Makarov grinned again. "Go, Yuri. Tell the world to enjoy its final days."

Yuri sobbed. Now he understood why his commander had cried at night. Now he understood why Link had cried out for Zelda's comfort in the dead of night.

He threw Link and Hilda over both of his shoulders and ran. Nobody tried to stop him.

And as he did, the monster's feminine voice echoed in his head.

Go. Hide. This world is at its end.

Zelda is no more.