BotW Zelink Oneshots

What Could Have Become of Us (T)

My weapon clattered limply onto the ground at my feet. I'd finally reached the heart of the castle, but something was terribly wrong. I'd overcome countless trials to reach this point. I'd eradicated each of Ganon's blights from each of the divine beasts and freed all four of the champions' spirits. But now, the reality that my efforts were all in vain was sinking in.

"Princess!" I nearly screamed. She couldn't hear me, it seemed. All she did was stare back at me with lifeless eyes. The oozing, maroon liquid covering half her body convulsed like a twisted heartbeat. The stench in the air made me feel sick. "Oh, Goddess..." I choked. The sight of the princess—my dear princess, whom I'd sought for countless days and nights without rest while she'd singlehandedly held back the calamity for as long as she'd been able—now being held captive and controlled like a puppet on a string was unbearable. I should have known from the way her words of encouragement had stopped ringing in my ears some time ago. And yet, why did it have to be her? How could I have let this happen?

She lurched toward me. I lurched back. I'd lost the reigns on my breathing, each exhale accompanied by a hoarse whimper. There were no weak points on her body that I could see, meaning there was no way for me to free her from this toxic prison. I was too late. There was only one way to save her now.

"No, I can't..." I fell to my hands and knees. Tears were pouring down my face as she put another foot forward. "I can't do it...!" My head was spinning out of control. It felt as though my heart would burst inside my ribcage if it were to pound any harder. My nails scraped into the earth. She kept advancing, and I could do nothing but kneel and tremble. I shrieked at the ashen ground out of sheer terror and rage and helplessness, and she continued to close in on me all the while.

                                            ~ • ~

I snapped bolt upright. It was the middle of the night, maybe early morning, and I was back at home, in my bed. When I didn't immediately feel her next to me, I went into panic. But then a pair of arms wrapped themselves around my middle. I whipped my head around.

"Link, are you alright?"

When I heard her voice emerge from pitch darkness, all my grief came flooding back, then out again through my eyes. I'd had plenty of nightmares before and most of them I would just brush off. But the onslaught of emotions brought on by this one in particular stuck with me. I couldn't shake the image of her wreaking, corpse-like form. "I'm...sorry..." I sobbed, face buried in her bosom as her delicate hands stroked through my mess of hair. "I'm so sorry..."

She hushed me softly, reclining and laying me on top of her. "It was only a dream," she whispered repeatedly. Breathing in her familiar scent again did much to ease my nerves. I groped around blindly until my hands landed on her warm cheeks. There were no signs of corruption anywhere on her from what I could tell. "Link, I'm okay. It wasn't real." I went still. She kept rubbing my back in a soothing rhythm. Out of the good handful of memories I'd accumulated from my former life, none of them were of her holding me in her arms like this while I forsook my mask and wept, like this. "Want to tell me what it was about?"

I gave her a frail nod before realizing she couldn't see me, so instead I mumbled the word, "Yeah," in the shakiest tone imaginable. The entire time I was relaying my bloodcurdling visions to her, she never let go of me, and neither did I her.

"The good thing is that it's all over and we've sealed away that monster for good, so there's no possible way for any of that to happen," she reassured once I'd finished. "What's going to happen now is we'll go back to sleep for a few more hours, and then when we wake up, we'll make honey crepes for breakfast. How does that sound?"

My eyes had adjusted to the darkness by now, and I could see the contours of her precious, unforgettable smile. I nuzzled my nose into the crook of her shoulder. "I'd like that."