Fan Fiction ❯ Never My Destiny ❯ Death's Possession ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Never My Destiny
The World's First G/I Romance Fanfiction!
By Galaxy Girl

A/N: Thanks so much for all the good reviews the last few chapters guys. ^_^ Sorry this one took so long, but a lot of important stuff happens during it. It may be a little hard to understand, but I've come up with my own explanation for the Sheik/Zelda thing that allows Sheik to be male AND a separate entity from Zelda!

Incidentally, this is the last chapter in the beginning part of the OoT storyline. Next chapter will be picking up from Adult Link's time period, IE when Ganondorf is the Evil King. How exciting, ne?! I'm looking at either 9 or 10 chapters of this story. Maybe 9 chapters and an epilogue. ^_^


SUPPORT GISOA! GANONDORF/IMPA SHIPPERS OF AMERICA! (and the rest of the world too)
A Galaxy Girl and Zel the Stampede Organization.

http://www.angelfire.com/games4/gisoa


CHAPTER SEVEN: Death’s Possession

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Ganondorf’s eyes were swirling pools of amber, twisted with determination and hiding something new in their depths. Something beyond anger, beyond a thirst for revenge. Something that almost resembled madness.
Impa could see them quite clearly, and thus had no doubt he meant what he had just said.


“You will not harm Zelda,” Impa said sternly, stepping out in front of him and placing her arms out to block him from passing her. “You will NOT harm Zelda.”
“They trained you well, my sweet Impa,” Ganondorf smiled with an air of nonchalance in his voice, as though he did not think of her as a threat. “Always with your mind on your charge… never thinking of your own selfish desires.”
His voice became dark as he set his hand on Impa’s left elbow, trying to lower it with a gentle force. “Why won’t you understand that that philosophy has been made obsolete? You are free. You were like a raven in a cage, Impa… I have opened the doors for you, now you need only face your fears and gather the strength to fly away… Fly away with me.”
Impa tossed her arm to force him to remove his hand. “You’re the one who doesn’t understand. This is my own choice, Ganondorf. I will not let you hurt Zelda. I love her…”
“More than me?” he asked in the same dark voice.
“I told you… you’re not the same man I fell in love with,” Impa repeated angrily. “You’ve changed. You’ve changed beyond where I can see or recognize the man I loved. You’ve changed beyond where you can see it, too… It’s over, Ganondorf.”
It was like something within him had shattered.
His cool demeanor had vanished. Three words destroyed the look on his face and the gentle calmness in his voice. Three words seemed to bring to light what she was saying.
There was a short, but awkward moment of silence.
“It’s… over?” he repeated.
“It’s over.”
“It’s only just begun!” Ganondorf roared. “This is our beginning! This is the end of Harkinian’s time! What’s done is done, and the bastard Hylian king is DEAD! You refuse to let go of something that’s already slipped away, Impa! I don’t understand this!”
“I don’t understand YOU!” Impa shot back, backing away from him on her way up to stairs to Zelda.
“DON’T YOU LEAVE ME!” Ganondorf snarled, stepping towards her. “You love me, Impa.”
“I don’t anymore,” she repeated coolly.
“You love me.”
“I don’t.”
“LOVE ME, IMPA!”
“You are no god, Ganondorf. You can’t command me to do that,” Impa said.
That did it. Ganondorf’s expression cracked into an enraged stare, and he stomped towards her so heavily she could feel his footfalls on the ground below her. “I sacrificed everything for you! I sacrificed myself, and my happiness and my entire life for you, Impa! And you tell me it was for NOTHING?! You’ll continue to pledge allegiance to everything I was working against?! You’ll deny our love to uphold your enslavement to that ignorant BASTARD?!”
He grabbed her around the wrist, squeezing hard, enough to seriously hurt her if he wanted to. “You WILL love me!”
“LET GO!” Impa cried.
Ganondorf pulled her towards him, roughly, without a concern for her pain. She felt her wrist pop the way it did if she’d overextended it, and she cringed with pain. “Ganondorf, let go NOW!”
“Wait until Harkinian’s guards come,” Ganondorf sneered, turning to look at her. “I’ll kill more for you. I’ll kill a hundred thousand men or more to make you see, Impa!”
There was a blur in time as Impa flung the palm of her other hand upward, smashing the ball of it into Ganondorf’s nose and sending him faltering backwards in agony. “AGH!” he howled, almost flinging her wrist aside and clutching at his broken nose.
Impa yanked her arm away and without so much as a look back, turned and sped towards the stairway to Zelda’s chamber.

I’ve got to get her out of here… he’s not himself anymore…


“IMPA!” Ganondorf screamed up the stairs, falling to his knees and staring at the hot blood gathering in his palm. He exhaled quickly and cried out in a broken voice. “Impa, I’m sorry! I lost my temper and-”
A hundred or more footfalls sounded from behind him. Metal clanking against the carpeted stone steps, and then a great cacophony of yelling as Hylian soldiers appeared, having arrived to check the final distress signal of their king.
“IT’S HIM!” the captain shouted, pointing at Ganondorf’s kneeling figure. “KILL HIM! HE MURDERED THE KING!”
Ganondorf stood up and wiped the blood on his face away with a sleeve, smiling evilly at the guards that came running down the hallway to attack him.
“I did promise you, Impa…” he said under his breath, as his body filled with charging magical energy.


Zelda looked at Impa with a horrified expression as the latter sped into the room and ran to her. “I-Impa! What’s going on?!”
“We need to go, Zelda,” Impa said quickly, pulling Zelda to her feet by one arm and pausing to squeeze her shoulders.
“Go where?”
“Away. We have to get out of here and go far away…”
“Wh-why?!” Zelda asked in terror. “It’s… It’s GANONDORF, isn’t it?!” she added a second later, her voice taking on a squeak.
Impa turned Zelda away from her to avoid letting her see the tears filling her eyes. “Go get your spending money, Zelda… I don’t know how long we’ll have to be gone.”
Zelda raced over to her bureau, tripping on the folds of her skirt as she yanked open the drawer second from the top and dug around. She removed an embroidered satchel stuffed thick with Rupees and shook off the socks that had become stuck on it. Speeding back over to Impa, she handed the satchel to her and looked up with big, worried eyes. “Now what?”
Impa took the satchel from her and unzipped it, counting the Rupees inside. Fifty-four, as Zelda had said. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to buy some clothes and food for the two of them until she could finalize her plan.
She couldn’t even explain the plan herself. All she knew was that she had to get Zelda out of there, now. Harkinian was dead. Ganondorf was ready to kill Zelda and take the throne himself, if Impa didn’t do something. And she doubted that she’d have either the physical or emotional strength to fight Ganondorf… especially since it would more than likely be to the death.
Now the two of them would head down to the stables and grab a horse to flee the castle, maybe even the kingdom. They’d find a safe house somewhere. Anywhere Ganondorf could not find them.
A part of Impa was wondering if this was really such a big deal. Was this really the way things had to be? Perhaps Ganondorf was not serious…
But the king was dead. Zelda was no longer safe here in Hyrule.
“Impa! Now what?” repeated Zelda, tugging on one of her leather straps.
Impa snapped out of her moment of thought and looked over at Zelda. “We need to go…”
“But I didn’t pack,” Zelda told her, cocking her head.
“We don’t have time… we need to get out of here NOW, Zelda,” Impa explained. “Grab anything you will absolutely NEED, and we’re going to go on a little trip…”
“Is Daddy coming too?” asked Zelda worriedly. She climbed up onto her bed and dug about in the covers, pulling out a small ragged doll with hair made of yarn and a smiling face inked on. Impa had given it to her for her fourth birthday, and she couldn’t sleep without it.
“N-no,” Impa said quietly. “Your daddy can’t come with us.”
“Why not?” asked Zelda. She handed the doll up to Impa.
“It’s a hard thing to explain, sweetie,” Impa said gently, taking Zelda’s doll and tucking it into the satchel with the money. She reached out and took Zelda by the hand. “Let’s go, Zelda.”


Impa’s heart was pounding wildly as she squeezed Zelda’s hand and led her down the stairs and towards the corridor near the meeting room.
What would she see there when they arrived? Ganondorf, perhaps, struck down by a hundred guards? Or the other way around…?
“When we get to the downstairs corridor,” Impa said quietly, “I need you to close your eyes and run as fast as you can.”
“Why?” asked Zelda.
“Please, just do as I say, honey,” Impa pleaded.
“O-okay…” Zelda said uneasily.
Impa peered around the corner and into the downstairs corridor, and felt her stomach do a complete flip-flop. “Oh… GOD…” she said, quietly enough to where she hoped Zelda wouldn’t hear.

The corridor was littered with bodies. Charred, blood-spattered bodies of Hylian soldiers, the guards who had come to take Ganondorf into custody. The walls were darkened with char-marks and splatters of blood, and the corridor was dead silent, like a graveyard. Ganondorf himself was nowhere to be seen.
Impa took in a short breath and glanced down at Zelda. “Are your eyes closed?”
“Yes,” Zelda said, looking up at Impa to show her that her eyes were tightly closed.
“We’re going to run now, sweetie… are you ready?”
“Yes,” Zelda said, picking up on the worried tone in Impa’s voice.
Impa rushed hurriedly out into the hallway, still clenching Zelda’s hand tightly and stepping over the soldiers’ bodies as carefully as she could.
“Ouch… Impa, what am I tripping on?” asked Zelda worriedly.
“It’s nothing… keep going, Zelda…”
They passed by the open meeting room doors. Impa glanced in quickly, and it looked as it had before. Harkinian’s body on the ground, staring towards the sky as it would for eternity, smoke clearing out and the bodies of the other two guards on the other side of the table.
Impa gave one last look at Harkinian and lowered her head, almost in prayer.
Rest well… Father. She thought solemnly. I won’t let anything happen to Zelda…
Suddenly, Impa’s thoughts were shattered as she felt Zelda’s hand disappear from her own and heard a terrified scream from the girl. Impa spun around behind her and leapt backwards. “NO!”
Ganondorf had been concealed just inside the doorway of the meeting room, and he’d snatched Zelda from alongside Impa as they walked by. He held her several feet off the ground by one arm, smiling unpleasantly at Impa. Meanwhile, Zelda had opened her eyes in her terror and was screaming bloody murder at the sight of the bodies around her. “IMPA!! IMPAAAAAAAAAA!” she shrieked in horror.
Impa glared at Ganondorf fearfully. “Oh please… please, Ganondorf… don’t hurt her…”
“I must,” he spoke simply, placing his other hand around Zelda’s throat and holding her up against the wall. Zelda cried out pitifully as Ganondorf tightened his grip around her, cutting off her breathing.
“It’s the only way I can make you see exactly what I’ve done,” Ganondorf continued solemnly. “I will prove my love to you, Impa… You will share my happiness with me, even if I have to take this life away from you. You must forget about Harkinian and accept the life I’ve created for us…”
“Please, don’t hurt her… Oh God, Ganondorf, I’m begging you!” Impa said frantically. “Let her breathe! She’s just a child, Ganondorf… If you love me… if you’ve ever loved me, please don’t hurt her!”
Zelda kicked and squirmed as hard as she could to escape from Ganondorf’s chokehold, but he held it strong. “You know that I love you, Impa… that’s why I’ve done all of this.”
“I don’t WANT any of this!” Impa screamed at him. “RELEASE HER, NOW! I’m not above attacking you! I already did once, and I’ll do it again if you don’t let her go!”
Ganondorf gazed at Impa lovingly for a brief second, before turning back to watch Zelda’s expression weaken as her face paled. “Just another moment, love… then all this pain will be washed away, and we can finally begin our lifetime together…”
He’s gone completely insane, Impa thought quickly, finally deciding to act.
She sped in towards him with a fist raised to hit him in the side of the face, but he saw her coming. He spun towards her and raised his free hand to block her punch, but was too late to stop her from socking him in the gut with her other hand.
Her fist grazed the edge of the metal chest plate he wore and it stung badly, but it apparently had hurt him too. Ganondorf stepped backwards and snarled, throwing back his elbow to knock her away from him.
Luckily, Impa was able to duck down and avoid his hit, but she overbalanced and began to fall backwards.
With the reflexes of a cat, she lifted one leg and connected with a harsh kick to Ganondorf’s groin.
Stumbling as he yelled out in pain, Ganondorf pulled his other hand away from Zelda and dropped her to the ground as he collapsed himself. Zelda sat up very slowly, gasping for air and wiping tears of fear out of her eyes.
Impa leapt to her feet. “Zelda, let’s go!”
She helped Zelda to her feet but could not stop her from kicking Ganondorf’s collapsed body in the shoulder. “YOU’RE A BAD, EVIL MAN!” she screamed angrily.
“YOU INSOLENT LITTLE BRAT!” Ganondorf roared, sitting up and reaching to grab her.
Zelda screamed and Impa yanked her out of his grip before he could snag her. She began to race down the hall. “Zelda, LET’S GO!” she repeated.

But Zelda only went a few feet before she stared into the meeting room and realized whose body was there. “Daddy… D-DADDY?! DADDY?!” she shrieked.
Impa tried to pull her along, but Zelda ripped out of her grip and raced into the meeting room, collapsing to her knees next to her father’s body.
Zelda’s face was pale with grief and horror as she examined who in life had been her beloved father. His kind face was burned and pained, and his body was cold… very cold and very stiff. His robes hung unkempt off of him, and out of one of his pockets, a shining blue object was visible.
“Daddy… Daddy… wake up Daddy, please!” Zelda repeated, shaking him by the shoulders, but it soon became apparent that he would not wake up, ever.
The scream she’d heard in her dream had not been a dream. It was her father, screaming his last as his life was wiped from his body by that disgusting man in the hallway. And Zelda… she had been upstairs, helpless to save him… She didn’t care if she would have been helpless here too, but her young mind was overflowing with horrible visions of how he could have looked as he died. Did he remember this morning, when she kissed him on the beard before heading off with Impa? The last words she said to him? “See you later, Daddy!”
Zelda burst into helpless tears as she pulled the blue object out of his pocket. An ocarina. No, it was… that Ocarina of Time… the one he’d told her about so many times… This object that was supposedly so powerful just laying here for Ganondorf to get his hands on!
The Princess gazed through tears at her father’s face. He would want her to take it, and protect it for him… she could see it.
She slipped the ocarina into her pocket and turned around in time to see Ganondorf standing in the doorway, leering at her threateningly.
“AAAAGGGH!” Zelda shrieked in terror.
“For such an intelligent child,” Ganondorf growled viciously, stepping towards her, “You don’t seem to realize when YOUR TIME IS UP!”
Suddenly, Ganondorf was grabbed on the shoulder from behind. He turned around and Impa shoved to turn him towards her, leaping up at him and kissing him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to distract him.
Zelda’s eyes widened in disgust as she realized what Impa was doing, but she quickly understood why. She jumped to her feet, sniffling in her tears and giving her father one last look before she sped out of the room and down the hallway, past Impa and Ganondorf and down the stairs.

He’s still so wonderful to kiss…

Ganondorf was the one who ended the kiss this time. He pushed her away and stared at her, breathing heavily. “Why do you continue to play these games with me!?” he demanded viciously. “Why do you keep changing your mind?! I want an answer, Impa! Do you love me or not?!”
Impa didn’t answer, but stared back at him with her eyes looking torn.
“Answer me!”
“I do,” she whispered in a teary voice, now that Zelda had gone.
“Then why do you fight me like this?! Don’t you understand, I’m doing this for the two of us?” Ganondorf cried in a confused tone. “If she dies, we can live happily, Impa… you’ll no longer be reminded of your life of slavery here! I’ll no longer be reminded of the man I hated with all my soul! We can start over together, if you’ll only stop fighting me… We can live happily together… we can redo our miserable pasts…”
“We can’t,” Impa said, shaking her head sadly. “You can’t undo the past… You cannot undo the past, no matter what…”
Ganondorf squeezed her arms gently. “Yes, we can…”
“We can’t. No one can… I can’t undo my vow to Harkinian… and you can’t undo your mother’s death… And you can’t live in those two days we were happy together, Ganondorf… you just can’t.”
She stepped backwards to pull away from him, though everything she felt told her not to. For the last minute, he’d been… himself, almost.
“Don’t leave. Don’t leave me. If you love me, you’ll stay…” Ganondorf repeated threateningly.
“I can’t. For the last time, you’re not yourself anymore…” Impa said, pushing his arms away from her.
Ganondorf stared at her in disillusionment as she stepped towards the stairway Zelda had disappeared down a moment earlier.
“Zelda isn’t safe here anymore… and I have sworn to keep her safe… So goodbye, Ganondorf,” Impa said quietly, wiping away a tear that had fallen out against her will. “I may never see you again, but… I do love you. I just can’t stay here with Zelda while you’re here.”
He didn’t move or even say a word as she turned and headed down the stairs after her charge.


The silence lasted for several minutes after the last of her footfalls had finished echoing through the stairwell and evanesced into nothingness. The castle was silent, dead silent, save for the sound of his own breath.
Ganondorf took a step towards the stairwell, but his legs gave out from under him and he dropped to his knees, holding his forehead in both hands and breathing heavier.
The room was spinning. The scent of blood overtook his senses, and the corridor was heating up almost like it was on fire. A cold sweat appeared on his forehead and his hot breath quickened. His pulse seemed to go faster than ever, and his thoughts were encased in a rush of noise. Loud, roaring noise that only he could hear.
“Do you love me?! Answer me!”
“I do…”
“Then why do you fight me like this?! Don’t you understand, I’m doing this for the two of us?”
“We can’t… we can’t live in those two days, Ganondorf…”

Impa…

“AAGGGGH!”
“Oh God, Ganondorf, please don’t hurt her…”
“I must…”
“Just a moment longer, love…”
“Ganondorf. Control yourself or I will have my guards remove you until you can calm down.”
“You can’t keep her here any longer! She’s MINE, Harkinian!”
“You can’t… you can’t do things like that! Things don’t work that way!”

Impa…

“Say you meant it.”
“I did mean it… but I can’t say-”
“Then say you love me.”
“I can’t say that.”
“You can. Say you love me.”
“Ganondorf, I can’t say that.”
“SAY YOU LOVE ME!”
“I would, but I CAN’T!”

Impa…

“YOU’RE A BAD MAN!”
“How DARE you talk to my brother like that, you little punk?”
“Gerudo bastard!”
“Fiend! Heathen!”
“Thief! Thief!”
“Ganondorf… Don’t say anything else baby, please…”
“Mama…?”
“You do understand… You’re on my side, right?”
“I’m on your side!”
“And you’ll always be on my side?”
“Always!”

Impa…
“Always…”
“I do love you, Ganondorf…”

His breathing erupted into a scream of rage. “IMPAAAAAAAAAAA!”
And that was when Ganondorf first realized, he could never go back.
He stood up and tried to see past the spinning room, down the stairs. He sped down them as fast as he could, chasing a vision no one else could see, of a 16-year old Impa smiling at him and gesturing for him to follow.
“IMPA!” he screamed down the hall as he chased her. “IMPA, I WON’T LET YOU DO THIS TO ME! BRING ME THE GIRL, IMPA! YOU SAID YOU WERE ON MY SIDE! YOU’RE ON MY SIDE, IMPA!”
The hallways were silent and abandoned. Everyone knew what had happened upstairs, and the castle staff had long since hidden away. Eyes watched the Gerudo King as he ran on his way out, and no one wanted to stop him.
“BRING ME THE PRINCESS! I’LL SHOW YOU I CAN DO IT! I CAN CONTROL MYSELF! I WILL NOT BE A HELPLESS GOD! I’LL SHOW YOU IMPA, COME BACK!”


“Hurry, Zelda!”
Impa quickly mounted the horse, a pure white stallion dressed in the royal colors, the saddlebags already packed with the satchel and the reins already fastened about his lips.
Zelda whimpered and held up her hands, holding as still as a rag doll as Impa grabbed them and lifted the girl into the saddle with her. She leaned back against Impa and sobbed, holding her arms close around her and lowering her head.
“Grab the saddle horn and hold on tight, Zelda,” Impa ordered in a gentle voice, pressing her boot against the horse’s left side. With a snort and a toss of his head, the stallion turned to the left and carefully backed out of the stables.
Impa spurred the horse with a short cry and soon they were running, down the path from the stables that led back around to the front of the castle. Over the drawbridge and down the hill, past guards who ushered them on hurriedly.
“GET THE PRINCESS TO SAFETY, LADY IMPA! WE’LL TAKE CARE OF THINGS HERE!” the one outside the castle road cried.
“Thank you!” Impa called behind her, reaching up with one hand and pulling the cloth at the top of her armor up around her face. It doubled as a hood, and though Impa knew everyone would recognize the colors of the royal family on the horse’s saddle and blanket, she could hope that people would understand that this was serious.
The horse raced down the dirt road towards the castle town, and soon people were turning their heads to see who could be riding from the castle in such a hurry.
“OUT OF THE WAY!” Impa yelled ahead of her.
The sea of townspeople parted with expressions frozen on the horse and his riders, one of whom looked remarkably like Princess Zelda, they thought.
Impa carefully steered the horse around the fountain in the center of town square, and it began to slow down, assuming that the brisk run was over.
“Keep on,” she said sternly, patting the horse on the neck. “Keep running!”
Obediently, the horse turned towards the drawbridge exit of the castle down and ran, carefully avoiding slow people and only stopping when realizing that the drawbridge was up.
Impa glared back and forth to the guards standing on either side of it. “Lower the bridge!” she screamed.
“It’s nearly dark, Lady Impa, we cannot-” one began lazily.
“This is an emergency! The princess needs to be evacuated!” she yelled at them.
“Evacuated? We heard nothing about an evacuation drill!” the second guard cried to her.
“This isn’t a drill!” Impa said shortly, losing her temper. “Lower the bridge as fast as you can!”
“IMPAAA!” Zelda whimpered in a shaky voice, leaning off of the horse on Impa’s left. Her head was craned back behind her, and she pointed back behind them where the crowd was being parted once more by a man on a black horse.
“GET OUT OF MY WAY!” Ganondorf’s voice boomed from behind them.
Impa turned only halfway and then began to panic. “LOWER THE BRIDGE!”
“Right away, Lady Impa!” the first guard saluted.
He raced over to a lever on the side of the guard post, shoving down on it with all his might but finding it stuck. His comrade arrived a second later, and together they heaved the lever down and released the cog that held the bridge’s chain.
Impa gazed back behind her and caught sight of Ganondorf, now a mere 50 yards away from them. Even from here, she could see it in his eyes… a maniacal, crazed ferocity, glaring at her and the girl she protected as he came closer and closer.
If he caught up with them, he WOULD kill Zelda. And Impa had no idea what he would do to herself.
The drawbridge slammed down with a loud clank, and Impa turned the horse once more and spurred it. “THANK YOU! GO, GO!” she yelled desperately.
The horse whinnied and burst into a full run just before Ganondorf passed the guard post, sneering at the two guards with rage.

In an explosion of speed, the marble gray of the castle town gave way to the endless stretches of yellow and green that was Hyrule Field. Impa turned the horse to the right and leaned down to streamline them and increase the speed as much as possible.
Zelda was cowered down beneath her, holding onto the horse’s neck with one hand on each side and looking around them fearfully, watching the rocks and plants speed by beneath them. Suddenly, her head whipped out to the left and she gasped. “IMPA! STOP!”
“We can’t stop, Zelda!” Impa cried at her.
“NO, IMPA! IT’S LINK! HE’S WAITING FOR US!”
Impa sat up and turned around and sure enough, standing just a few feet to the left of where they’d just passed was the familiar Kokiri boy, staring at the speeding horse with a look of confusion and shock.
“ZELDA!?” he yelled to her.
Zelda fumbled around in her pockets for a moment and said, “Impa, lean back!”
Her nanny obliged, and as hard as she could, Zelda flung a shining blue object towards the boy behind them. It sailed with a surprisingly long trajectory until it landed in the moat with a splash. Link whipped around to look at it before turning to watch Impa and Zelda leave, obviously confused.
“What was that, Zelda?” asked Impa curiously as she turned back to face the road.
“The Ocarina of Time,” Zelda said in a weak voice. “He’ll take care of it for us.”
Impa wasn’t sure if she would have protested had she known that’s what Zelda had given to the boy, but there was little difference in the matter now. “Hold on… we’re home free in a little bit, sweetie.”
“Let’s just run and run until he stops following us,” Zelda said, reaching down to clutch the horse’s neck again.
Impa nodded the affirmative and gave Zelda a reassuring pat on the back as they continued their escape.


The Gerudo stallion must have softened up in his time in the castle stables, because he had run out of breath not far out of the castle drawbridge.
Ganondorf reined in the horse and narrowed his eyes at the empty distance of the field, no white horse in sight… He’d just exited the gate too fast to see where Impa had gone.
He glared down at his faithful horse and sighed heavily, wishing he had the energy to continue the chase. But to force it would only hurt the animal more, so he instead gave an angry curse. “Agh! I lost her!” he mumbled, not sure himself who he meant by “her”.
Turning his head to the right, then the left, he searched desperately for prints, a cloud of dust, anything that could give away where she was headed. He HAD to catch that horse. She was on her way away from him, far away, possibly forever if he didn’t catch up to her and make her see she was wrong. Once that girl was dead… Impa would finally see the light.
He brushed a tuft of ruby red hair out of his eyes and made a frustrated grunt. Not a sign of them.
His grunt was echoed by a small gasp from below.
Ganondorf turned to the left and saw for the first time a small boy who couldn’t have been more than 10 years old, staring up at him a few yards away. He had blond hair and was dressed in the manner of a Kokiri, complete with a small blue fairy flittering over his shoulder.
“You! Boy! Tell me which way they went!” Ganondorf growled at the boy in desperation. He turned the horse towards the boy and stared him in the eyes.
“Wh-who went which way?” the boy stammered, taking a single step backwards.
“You must have seen the white horse that passed by just now! With a woman and a child riding? Which way did it go?” Ganondorf repeated darkly.
The horse snorted and there was silence. It was obvious that the boy had seen Ganondorf before and was quite intimidated, as his deep blue eyes were locked on Ganondorf’s and his mouth was hanging open a bit in his shock. He took a few more steps backwards before finally standing his ground with his hands clenched at his sides. The fairy slipped away behind his hat and disappeared from sight.
Ganondorf glared furiously at the boy’s silence and tried to remember where he had seen him before…
Oh yes. That day he first arrived here… out in the courtyard with the princess. This was her little friend.
“Don’t disrespect your elders. Answer me, boy!” Ganondorf growled.
The boy did something surprising. He narrowed his eyes right back at Ganondorf, reached behind him and pulled off a small wooden shield. Removing a tiny sword from its sheath beneath where the shield had been, he brandished the weapons at Ganondorf and spoke. “I’m not telling YOU.”

Link had no idea of the risk he had just taken. With Ganondorf in his current mental condition, it would have been quite plausible to the Gerudo King to blow the child to bits or crush him beneath the hooves of his horse, simple as that.
But apparently, he found this funny. Ganondorf smiled unpleasantly and let out a low, heartless, condescending chuckle. “Geh heh heh heh heh…”
“Don’t laugh at me!” Link piped up again, glaring up at the Gerudo with a look of venom.
“Link, DON’T!” his fairy cried out from inside his hat.
Ganondorf burst out into laughter at this pathetic child. “I like your attitude, kid,” he sneered, grinning unpleasantly at the boy as though he found him a big joke. “You actually think you can protect them from me?”
“I can try!” Link sassed.
“Do you even know who I am?” Ganondorf snarled, the laughter in his voice gone and replaced by a stone cold threat. “I am Ganondorf Dragmire, the Gerudo King of Thieves! I am the greatest sorcerer in the world! And soon…” he smiled once more, raising a hand up off of the reins, palm out towards the boy. “Soon, this entire world will be mine!”
The same electrical pulse built up in Ganondorf’s body and spread to his hand, and with an explosion of light and a scream of pain, Link was knocked backwards and away, landing on his face in the dirt a few yards from where he had stood.

Ganondorf smiled at the boy’s prone body and turned his horse back onto the path leading across the field, spurring him on. The horse burst into a full gallop and he rode determinedly into the distance, wishing and praying that that white horse would be just over the hill.


Link…
Zelda turned from the altar and smiled at him, in his thoughts. In her hands she clutched the very ocarina she’d entrusted to him.
The time was the day before, on her Sunday trip to the Temple of Time with her father. She’d asked to borrow the ocarina as she stood in front of the altar, reading the legend of the Sacred Realm and the Ocarina of Time.
Zelda barely knew what she was doing as she recorded the message, but the thoughts came naturally.

If you’re hearing this… I’m not around anymore.
I was afraid Ganondorf would pull something like this. No one but my nanny, Impa believed me… And I’ve either been killed or I’ve run off with my father and Impa.
But there’s still hope, Link… I know any day now you’ll be coming back with the three Spiritual Stones… Which means you can open the Sacred Realm now that you hold this ocarina in your hands!
Go on with the plan like we promised… Stand in front of the altar in the Temple of Time and play this song.
It’s up to you now, Link…



The last note of the Song of Time faded away from the echoing hall, and the three stones on the altar seemed to shine brighter than ever.
“Did you hear that?” Navi squeaked.
“What?” asked Link, lowering the ocarina from his lips.
“I heard… I heard something behind us!” Navi advised.
“I didn’t hear anything…” Link murmured.
“Oh, be careful, Link. This is the most important thing we’ve ever done.”
Ethereal voice that may or may not have been figments of his imagination echoed through the halls of the Temple, and the Triforce above the Door of Time shone with a golden glow. Slowly, the door split and parted, sliding into a niche into the wall on both sides, revealing a dark hallway to the tremendous room beyond.
Slowly, Link mounted the steps and made his way into the dark hall, catching a glimpse of a bright beam of light ahead of him, shining on some silver object at the top of another altar in the next room.
“Is this… the Sacred Realm?” asked Link, blinking at the room. “I thought it’d be bigger…”
“This can’t be the Sacred Realm,” Navi stated, shaking her head. “This room is the gateway… there must be a way for us to get there to find the Triforce.”
“I don’t see any doors,” Link said.
Navi suddenly stopped in midair. “Oh… oh! Wowee, that isn’t… is it?”
“Is what?” asked Link.
“Is that… the legendary blade…?”
The fairy fluttered up ahead of Link and into the room, up the altar in the center and towards the silvery object.
It was a fine sword, the point of which was encased in a stone pedestal. The sharpest steel was smithed to make the double-edged blade, and the handle was composed of some kind of fine blue metal. A tiny golden Triforce decorated the center of the flared edges of the hand guard.
“The Master Sword!” Navi whispered in awe.

Link stepped towards the altar himself, examining the blade from a few feet away. He edged closer to it and leaned down with his hands on his knees to check it. “Wow… that’s a nice sword…”
“Go ahead and touch it,” Navi suggested.
“I’m not gonna touch it. It’s not mine!” Link said quickly.
“Maybe it’s the way you get to the Sacred Realm?” suggested the fairy.
Link stood up and very slowly, very carefully placed one hand on the handle of the blade. He leapt backwards seconds later, and looked surprised that nothing had actually happened to him. “I… don’t know if we should…”
“Just try taking it out… we can always put it back,” Navi said reasonably.
Link nodded very quietly and placed his other hand on the blade, tightening his grip. “Just don’t blame me if something bad-”
There was the sound of metal on stone, and the base of the altar began to glow blue just as Link was aware that the sword had been removed from the stone.
A high-pitched whirring noise like something spinning sounded in the background, and the ground trembled beneath his feet like something was about to explode. The blue light became blinding, and shot up towards the ceiling, encircling Link and Navi in a swirling, columnar vortex of light.
“… HAPPENNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!” Link screamed as his body was filled with coursing energy, and his form evanesced into thin air.

The room was silent as a tomb as Ganondorf walked in.
Something told him that following that boy would pay off… and it had indeed. Not only did that boy hold all three of the Spiritual Stones that Ganondorf had read about, but he also held the Ocarina of Time!
Leaving the door wide open behind him… the little fool. And now he’d disappeared somewhere, leaving the Sacred Realm open for the taking.
Ganondorf realized, as he’d ridden back into the castle town, that he’d failed her. He’d promised Impa he could take control of himself, and look what he’d done.
Killing a hundred or more people in a fit of rage. What a disgusting display of weakness.
That’s just what his Gerudo subjects would have wanted him to do… steal things. Steal people’s lives. He hadn’t even the willpower to resist his own anger! No wonder Impa had walked away from him, afraid for his lack of control towards her…
Her words were haunting him. Her voice was haunting him… everything about her was haunting him. It hurt more than anything, more than the pain of his beatings, more than the shame of his position, to know that she was… afraid of him. Afraid of his lack of control… his lack of power…
“I won’t let you down again, Impa…” he muttered under his breath as he stood at the center of the altar, gazing down at the stone pedestal in the center of the room. The blade that had been there a moment ago was gone, evanesced into nothingness along with the boy and his fairy.
Where were they? In the Sacred Realm, perhaps? Or maybe they’d been obliterated for touching the sacred blade.
Either way, the one sure ticket into the Sacred Realm was gone. There had to be another way in. A way to make this room disappear and reveal the shining, golden prize beyond.
It was all Ganondorf had left. His life had been shattered into pieces, ruins, all because of his lack of control. The treaty meant nothing. Harkinian was dead. His Gerudo subjects and especially Koume and Kotake would be furious or disgusted at his actions and the shame he’d brought to them. And Impa had run from him.
To him, the golden Triforce was not a piece of the puzzle, but an entirely new puzzle. To gain it would make it all go away… he’d have the power to move into the vacancy left by Harkinian, to unite the Hylians and the Gerudo under one king, as his mother had begged him to do on her deathbed. He’d wish for the power to be a god, like his people wished for him to be… their worship would be no longer false.
And with that power… he would finally gain the power to decide the course of his own life. The power to control his own circumstances… the power to show Impa that he would never harm her. He loved her… he would die for her, he would kill for her, he would steal this endless power to prove it to her. The power to keep his promise…
Now that the Sacred Realm was open, Ganondorf finally had access to that object he’d thirsted after in the even that he couldn’t rise up and gain the power he wanted himself.
The divine Triforce was ripe for the taking, somewhere beyond this room. A doorway to the future… his future.

He barely remembered walking into the room before he was there, standing in a sea of pure whiteness.
Ganondorf put a hand to his forehead to help block the blinding light and squinted to try and see what was around him. Very little… a shining walkway had appeared beneath his feet and far ahead of him, floating in midair, was a bright object glowing an unearthly gold.
The Gerudo King burst into a full-fledged run, racing towards the object, paying no mind to anything around him. Not the blinding white light, not the voices echoing around him, the voices of Sages long dead who lived forever in spirit in the realm.
Not to the realm itself, that was suddenly fading into an actual place. Ganondorf was on a long walkway of light, heading towards a stone-silent temple carved of heavenly marble and golden trim. The whiteness vanished altogether, leaving him alone on the path towards the temple, surrounded by blackness.
And not to a very clear voice that spoke to him, directly to him.
“You’re not going to try and take that, are you?” an old man’s voice spoke, very concisely inside Ganondorf’s head.
“You can’t stop me! I will make it all my own,” Ganondorf yelled back, though he wasn’t sure to whom.
“You have no right to it, Gerudo King. Your heart is no longer pure. To touch the sacred Triforce will bring nothing but ruin and despair to this land of Hyrule.”
“I don’t give a damn about Hyrule,” Ganondorf argued. “My heart is strong. My heart IS pure!”
“Where do you get off saying that?” the old man sighed.
“I only want her to love me!” Ganondorf screamed, continuing his ceaseless walk towards the resting place of the Triforce. “I only want the power to control myself!”
“To control yourself… or her?”
Ganondorf stopped suddenly and spun around, swatting an arm to hit anyone behind him. No one was there.
“What do you know?!” he roared.
“I know you will not succeed,” the voice continued. “You cannot wish on the Triforce because your heart is not balanced. You will retain only a piece of its power.”
“You know nothing,” Ganondorf snarled, continuing his hurried race to the Triforce.
“I know nothing for certain, but I can foresee many things,” the voice said wisely.
Ganondorf passed beyond the threshold of the great temple, his eyes locked on the golden column shining from floor to ceiling up ahead, within it resting a triangular object. The air within the temple grew cold and still and the whispers of the dead began to pick up, roaring in his brain. But he continued ceaselessly towards the sacred relic.
“If you touch the Triforce, you will gain the power you seek. But not all of it,” the voice stated over the roaring whispers. “You will gain but a fraction of its holy strength. The rest will vanish and be lost to you for many years.”
Ganondorf slowed several yards from the column and continued his approach at a slower, awed pace. The light was dazzling, more beautiful than anything he’d ever seen.
“You will rise up and take command of everything you want to command… except for two things,” the voice warned. “The first is the remainder of the power you seek. The second is the woman who haunts your dreams.”
“Shut UP!” Ganondorf cried.
“You will lose every shred of the person you once were. You will become someone—or something—entirely new, but whether human nor demon I cannot say. One shall rise to oppose you from where you least expect it… and if the Sages are reunited, he will triumph over you and you will fall from grace and lose everything.”
“You speak of matters which you do not understand,” Ganondorf snarled, turning around to yell at the voice once more. “You don’t know me! You don’t know her! You don’t know anything!”
“I, the great Sage of Light, do not understand?” the voice nearly chuckled. “It is you who are ignorant of what you’re getting yourself into, King of Thieves. Your lust for power will be your ruin, and the ruin of everything you hold close to you… your people, your woman… your entire world.”
“If I’m going to destroy everything,” Ganondorf spat, turning back towards the golden light, “You certainly sound very calm about it.”
“I’m calm because I know you will fall.”
“We’ll see,” Ganondorf retorted, finally placing his hands on the Triforce.

An electrical, pulsing sensation spread through his hands and up his arms into his body. Ganondorf let out a surprised cry at the suddenness of it all, and very nearly let go of the triangles. With a determined glare, he pulled, trying to dislodge them from their resting place…
Just how did you use them, anyway?
The temple began to rumble and the gold light shone even brighter, almost blinding, enough to make Ganondorf turn away and squint to protect his eyes. The rushing sensation worsened and worsened until he thought he might let go accidentally, but finally, he released the Triforce from the column of light and stumbled backwards.
The voice in the room got even louder and the light shone brighter. Ganondorf turned his back on it so he could at least see what he’d stolen- the three golden triangles, Power, Wisdom and Courage, in his hands… Rather, floating above his hands, circling around and shining with a golden light of their own, a much less intense one.
Ganondorf smiled evilly and stared up to look at the ceiling of the room. “YOU’RE A FOOL, SAGE!” he screamed spitefully at the voice he’d been speaking to that had since faded away. “THE POWER IS ALL MINE! I TOLD YOU I WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO-”
His statement was cut short as two burst of light rocketed out of his hands and away, up through the ceiling of the temple and off to who knew where.
Ganondorf let out a gasp of shock and stared down at his hands. One golden triangle remained, floating over the back of his left hand. The top one. The Triforce of Power.
“NO!” Ganondorf cried, whipping his head up to try and find the other two pieces. The lights were gone, long gone.
A burning sensation spread from his left hand and up through his body. He glanced down at the hand to see the golden triangle steaming almost like it was on fire and sinking down into the back of his hand. He tried his best not to flinch and instead gritted his teeth as it burned its way past his gloves and into his skin, leaving a dark triangular scar as his skin closed around it, healing nearly instantaneously and leaving a dull ache coursing through his veins.
But the ache was welcome… with each throb, he could feel power rushing into him. He could feel his muscles strengthening like steel, his heart racing to keep up, and a feeling within him more powerful than any spell he’d ever spun… but it was permanent.

The power made its way into his head, where visions and memories were flashing a million miles an hour. Impa, Harkinian, Zelda, Link, Milana, Marya, Nabooru, Koume, Kotake… A million voices and a million fragmented thoughts coming up again, roaring until he thought his head would burst.
He collapsed to his hands and knees in surprise when it was suddenly over.
The warm pulse was still spreading through his left hand and all through him. It was wonderful… strong, comforting, the best feeling he’d ever had.
The temple became dead silent and the golden light behind him faded into a black one, jetting up and out of the temple, dousing the light of the shining walkway outside… in fact, dousing all of the light. The temple, everything faded away into that inky blackness.
But Ganondorf didn’t even notice. Eyes wide at the sensation and his lips twisted into a fiendish grin, he burst into laughter.
Wild, insane, maniacal laughter.


“So it begins.”
Rauru sighed heavily and closed his eyes, sealing the vision of Ganondorf losing his mind into his ancient memories.
“I warned him… I foresaw everything that will happen, if luck is on our side.”
The elderly Sage turned, twisting his yellow and burgundy robes around his feet as he gazed at the silhouette suspended in the middle of the air on the other side of the Chamber from him.
“Sleep well, Hero of Time,” he said, nodding in Link’s direction. “I regret that it will be your responsibility… to clean up after this fool’s mistakes.”


Impa took a deep breath of cold air and reined in the horse just before he became tangled in another thicket of bushes. “Steady,” she said in the calmest voice she could, though her heart was still pounding and aching like anything.
They were beyond Hyrule borders now, in a deep forest before the neighboring territory of Termina.

(A/N: I know some people think Termina is actually an alternate universe, but… my creativity is a bit lacking right now and I can’t think of any names for Hyrule’s neighboring countries. And Koholint was an island, so don’t suggest that. Just… go with it. ^_^;)

“Zelda? You still with me?” Impa asked softly, nudging her charge on the shoulder with one hand.
Suddenly, Zelda lurched forward, emitting a small gasp of pain before toppling over and falling right off the horse.
“Zelda!” Impa cried, backing the horse away and dismounting.
She had fallen face-down in a prickly bush, almost like she had simply fallen asleep and tumbled. The thorns were tearing at her dress and digging into the skin on her arms, and her turban had fallen off, spreading her hair out for more of the wretched things to grab onto.
“Oh Din…” Impa sighed, very gingerly clutching Zelda around the shoulders and lifting her. She squirmed and cried out in pain as her skin and dress ripped away from the thorns, and her hair became caught up in them.
As Impa carefully pulled her out of the bush, Zelda burst into loud wails and clutched onto her. “Impa! Impa!” she sobbed.
“It’s all right, sweetie… you can cry if you need to,” she assured her.
“I f-fell asleep and… oh, my hand hurts…” Zelda wailed.
Impa lifted her up into her arms and glanced up through the thick foliage of the trees. It was nearly sunset, and soon they would be surrounded by darkness on all sides. She needed to find a clearing in the thorns before they got lost in twilight.
“I think you deserve a break,” Impa said to the horse as cheerfully as she could muster. “You too, Zelda.” She grabbed the reins and very carefully, ignoring the prickling thorns on her own legs, led him through towards a break in the scrubs she could see up ahead.
“D-do we have to stop here?” asked Zelda worriedly.
“It’s almost dark, and we haven’t time to keep going, honey,” Impa told her, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly.
“I-I don’t want it to be dark… I wanna go home,” Zelda sobbed.
“We can’t go home, Zelda…” Impa said sadly. “We need to keep you safe until we decide what to do.”
“I don’t wanna spend the night out here,” Zelda continued, shaking her head childishly and burying her face in Impa’s shoulder. “Can we find a house or something? Please?”
“Be brave for me, princess,” Impa said. “You need to be brave… we both have to be brave, for everyone in Hyrule.”
“For Daddy?”
“Yes… let’s be brave for Daddy,” she nodded.

In a short while, Impa had built a fire in the center of the small clearing and laid out the horse’s blanket to make a more comfortably place to sit for Zelda and herself. The night was dark and very chilly, made even more foreboding by the dark forest around them.
Zelda was crying again, snuggling close to Impa and keeping her arms wrapped around her with an iron grip. Impa sat cross-legged, with one arm over Zelda and the other one absentmindedly playing with a strand of the princess’s hair.
“What do you think happened back home?” Zelda asked.
“I don’t know, sweetie… Hopefully, the guards arrested Ganondorf and have things under control again,” Impa said quietly.
Hopefully, they got him to see what he had done. Hopefully they hadn’t killed him on sight. Hopefully, he hadn’t massacred them all with a wave of his hand and held no remorse for it.
Impa’s mind was focused on one memory. The look in his eyes as he chased them through the marketplace. That torn, wretched, angry, abandoned look. A look of betrayal. A desperate look, the sort of look Impa must have had as she attacked him in the hallway to free Zelda from his murderous grip.
Perhaps her words to him in the hallway fell on deaf ears. Maybe he still didn’t understand… Impa loved him, but she also loved Zelda. She loved Harkinian. She could not give them both up for him… She just couldn’t.
Did he not understand that he had changed?
She told him he wasn’t the same. The warmth in his eyes was gone. His smile was cruel, not happy. He oozed power, a frightening, cold power that she just couldn’t accept.
But a part of her still felt guilty. That promise… the promise he made to her, the reason he killed the king and all those people…
Had she really done everything she could to stop it?
Perhaps she was too passive. Would he have done such a thing if she’d spoken up sooner? Informed the king of what had happened in the courtyard that night, ten years ago? Told him of Ganondorf and her mutual feelings?
Perhaps it wouldn’t have come down to this. Maybe it could have been different. Maybe Ganondorf could have accepted Harkinian as his king if Harkinian had known about their relationship and approved it. Maybe he could have kept his post as Gerudo King and yet come to live in the castle with them. A big happy family…
Maybe she could have helped to heal those wounds of his, like he’d hallucinated her doing for ten years in his fevered, desperate dreams.
But no matter how long Impa wondered about how it could have been, it didn’t ever seem right to her.
No…
Just… no…
There was no way she could ever realistically see it working out any different. Ganondorf, as the only male Gerudo could not renounce his throne. He would not renounce his love, as Impa would not renounce her vow and her love for Zelda… But she did love him. She wanted to help him and be with him so desperately badly she couldn’t think straight. If it weren’t for Zelda hugging her so tightly and crying in need of reassurance, Impa wasn’t sure what would have happened.
If Zelda was never born, if Impa had just been a servant in the castle… perhaps then, she would have considered doing what Ganondorf wanted, breaking her vow to the king to be with him.
But as she’d thought before, her two paths had been laid before her. There was rarely, if ever a middle road. There were always choices, and each choice came with consequences.
She tried not to think about what could be happening back in Hyrule now. One of two things had happened. Either Ganondorf had lost his mind, gone insane in his longing for Impa and the power his people wanted him to have… killed thousands more people in his rage, exerting his revenge on the Hylians who robbed him of himself… He was capable of it, after all.
Or he was dead. Struck down by a multitude of guards, beaten down like his mother before him, stabbed by the very people he hated so deeply.
She didn’t want to imagine either scenario. They both seemed too cruel, too horrible for a man who had once been such a sweet, idealistic boy.
Her thoughts echoed in the fire, and she mused that it burned like his yellow eyes had across the marketplace as he realized that she was leaving him and he was going to lose her. She couldn’t fathom what could be going on in that head of his or what he had planned.
Impa gazed up at the sky and sighed heavily, searching through the black treetops for stars, the moon, any kind of light from above to give her some reassurance that there was hope. Some kind of sign from the gods that this wasn’t all just some sick joke played on the both of them… to taunt them with their fates like this, make them think they could have everything and then send things crashing down around them in pieces.
This wasn’t the time to be regretting the past, though. Impa needed to keep her head on straight, for both her and Zelda’s sake. She needed to find someway to know about what was happening back in Hyrule before she could decide what to do.
If, as she hoped, Ganondorf had been taken custody, she would bring the princess back and serve as her regent while his trial went under study. It would be difficult, but Impa would use all of her power to block a death penalty and a charge of high treason to the crown against him.
If Ganondorf had been killed, she would do the same… though she prayed he wasn’t dead. There was hope for him as long as he was alive.
And if, as she feared above all… If Ganondorf really HAD gone on to kill more people, to massacre the guards and possibly the entire village… if he’d risen up and taken the throne as he had been planning…
Impa didn’t want to think about that.

Zelda was watching the fire too, but entirely different thoughts were running through her head.
Even with Impa close by and protecting her… horrible, sick visions were running through her head and she felt hot and sweaty. She clutched the rag doll she’d managed to grab before their escape in her hands and squeezed it, staring at the worn smile on her face and wishing that she could smile. She kept seeing the events of the afternoon replaying over and over again…
Her father’s corpse, the blank look in his eyes, the blood on his face and neck and the burns all over his skin…
Ganondorf’s frightening eyes, leering at her, speaking in such a calm voice as he squeezed tighter and tighter around her neck…
The west wing corridor, littered with bloody bodies of soldiers, some of them her friends, who had run to her rescue and died gruesomely as their reward…
The dark forest, silent but for the chirping of crickets and the occasional brush of the wind through the trees…
A permanent ache had settled into Zelda’s chest and showed no signs of going away. She was terrified. She couldn’t place a pinpoint on exactly what, but she was terrified… terrified of being alone, cold, scared out here in the middle of nowhere. Terrified of what could be happening in her homeland, at her castle, to the rest of the guards, Link, the townspeople, her father’s friends…
Terrified of that man. Terrified of that horrible, horrible man. His laughter echoed in her thoughts until she thought her head would burst, muffled out by her own frightened whimpers and the ache in her head that came from too much crying.
“I know it’s hard for you, sweetie… but you’re doing a wonderful job and I’m very proud of you,” Impa said calmly, tucking a strand of hair behind Zelda’s ear.
“I wanna go home…” Zelda whimpered again.
“You know we can’t, Zelda…”
“I-I know, b-but… I just… I wish none of this had happened…” Zelda sobbed. “I wish he had never come. I wish I never met him. I wish he was never born.”
“You hate him that much?” Impa asked, her voice sounding a bit forlorn.
“I hate him! I hate him! I hope Link… I hope Link or someone kills him for what he did,” Zelda said honestly, wiping her dirty cheeks with the sleeve of her dress.
Impa sighed heavily and leaned down, giving Zelda a kiss on the cheek. “You’re so brave, Zelda. We’ll be brave together until this all works out…”
“I’m glad you’re here, Impa,” Zelda whispered.
“I’d never leave you, sweetheart,” Impa told her, leaning back on her hands and letting Zelda rest her head in her lap. “Try to get some sleep… we have a long day tomorrow. We’ll ride into Termina and maybe get to Clock Town by nightfall.”
“Clock Town?” whimpered Zelda.
“Yes… we can use your spending money to get a room at the inn, and eat some hot soup and get you a nice bath,” Impa said cheerfully.
“How long will we stay there?”
“As long as we can,” Impa told her. “We’ll stay as long as we need to until we know what’s happened back at home and we know it’s safe to go back.”
“Okay,” Zelda said quietly, leaning down on Impa’s lap and closing her eyes through the tears.
Humming Zelda’s Lullaby, Impa rubbed her back until she wasn’t squirming anymore and then lay back on the ground to get some rest herself.
The most important thing was to keep Zelda hidden away until they could come up with another plan.
It was so wrong, so sad that everything had to turn out this way… That Impa had to imagine him as truly being their enemy, not just a sad, angry man who had turned his back on the world.
Maybe there was still hope for us, and Hyrule…
Or maybe he was never my destiny.


A voice spoke to Zelda in her dreams that night.
/Poor little girl… you’re such a pretty little girl, and so brave, too…/
“Who said that?”
/A friend of yours…/
“I-Impa?”
/No, not Impa. Open your eyes, Zelda./


Zelda opened her eyes and for a moment forgot where she was. She was still lying on Impa’s lap and it was still dark outside and the fire was still raging ahead of her, but now Impa was asleep behind her.
“Who’s there?” Zelda whispered, sitting up and groggily wiping sleep out of her eyes.
“Over here.”
Zelda turned to the left and thought she saw someone standing there. She blinked in disbelief and rubbed her eyes again. No, there was definitely someone there, watching them. “Who are you?”
“Who am I? Oh, I’m sure you know me, Princess.”
He was a young Sheikah, who couldn’t have been more than 17 or 18 years old. Dressed in navy garments with a white veil over his face and feathery blond hair, his hands wrapped up in bandages and a blood red eye gazing at her from behind the veil. The boy stepped forward and kneeled down in front of her.
“This must be pretty scary for you, Princess… Your nanny is right, you’re being very brave. I’m proud of you.”
Zelda let out a little gasp and stood up, backing away. “Whoa… no way… you’re not…? You can’t be…?”
“You don’t recognize me?” asked the boy, chuckling under his breath. “It’s me. Sheik… Survivor of the Sheikah.”
Zelda blinked in shock. “You can’t be Sheik!”
He laughed. “Why not?”
“Sheik is… Sheik is just a story. A story that my nanny told me!” Zelda said reasonably, pointing at Impa’s sleeping figure.
“Just a story? Oh, come now, Princess… every story has its basis in fact,” Sheik said, having a seat on the ground facing the fire. He rubbed his hands together and held them out to the fire. “That’s nice and warm…”
“You mean… you’re… there was a real Sheik?”
“Of course there was a real Sheik. You think your nanny was lying to you?” Sheik said cheerfully, patting the ground next to him. “Come sit by me. I want to talk to you.”
Zelda was wary at first, stepping towards him and even reaching out to touch him. She flicked a finger through his hair, which rustled a bit but Zelda couldn’t feel it… her hands seemed to move right through it. Finally, she seemed to buy that this really was the legendary Sheik, and she had a seat next to him by the fire.
“Why are you here?” she asked him curiously.
“I’ve always tried to help people in need,” Sheik told her in a pleasant voice.
“Are you a ghost?” she went on. “I mean… you’re not… alive, are you?”
“No. I’m not alive,” Sheik said solemnly. “I’ve been dead for several centuries. It’s like you’re talking to a shadow. My shadow… that’s been wandering the world for all these years.”
“But don’t you have somewhere to go? Like… to Heaven, or something?” asked Zelda. “To be with your family?”
“I like it here, rather,” Sheik told her, reaching over to tousle her hair playfully. “And I have unfinished business.”
“Huh?”
“I died without finishing what I needed to,” Sheik told her, “And I’ve been wandering ever since to find out what I needed to do.”
“I’m sorry… I wish I could help you…” Zelda said quietly, hugging her knees in towards her chest.
“Actually, I’m here to help you.”
Zelda looked at him quizzically, and he spoke again. “You know that the Sheikah have always been the guardians of the Royal Family, Princess?”
“Yes…” Zelda nodded. “My nanny is a Sheikah.”
“Well,” Sheik said, “When I was alive, when I was young, I was the guardian of the princess of Hyrule. Just like you. We were very close friends and I wanted more than anything to keep her safe… like your nanny does for you.”
Zelda nodded again.
“Well one day, while we were out traveling, bandits attacked our wagon,” Sheik explained. “They recognized the princess and fired arrows at her. I tried my best to protect her, but I was unable to stop them. Our wagon caught fire and I rushed in to save her, but I was too late… I was burned badly in the fire and the princess was killed.”
Zelda frowned. “That’s sad…”
Sheik lifted up the edge of his veil to reveal bright pink scarred skin all over the left side of his face. “I became a Sheikah hero after that to try and make up for my failure… But I was always regretful that I couldn’t save the princess. That’s why I want to protect you, Zelda… I want to make up for my mistake back then.”
“B-but how will you do that?” she asked curiously.
Sheik smiled at her. “Heh… You’re such a pretty little girl, Zelda. Everyone will recognize you if you continue into town tomorrow… and that could be very dangerous. I want to help to disguise you to hide you from the evil that’s hunting you.”
“But how will you do that?” Zelda repeated.
“Magic,” Sheik said in a mock mysterious tone.
Zelda cocked her head to the side. “Huh?”
“You know you have magic,” Sheik told her, reaching out and lifting up her left hand. “You’ve inherited a piece of the Triforce, as the Princess of Hyrule. You have magic within you, Zelda… and if you use your magic with the rest of mine, perhaps we could work out something of a disguise…”
Zelda studied the triangular mark on the back of her hand, having never noticed it until this minute. “You mean… a magic disguise?”
“Yes,” Sheik nodded. “If you take my soul into your body with your magic… you could become me.”
Zelda’s eyes widened. “I could turn into you?”
“Something like that, yes,” Sheik smiled behind his veil.
Zelda made an odd face. “But you’re a boy!”
Sheik laughed warmly. “Yes… but no one would look for the Princess of Hyrule as a boy, would they?”
“But would I be stuck that way?” asked Zelda worriedly.
“No, you could turn back whenever you wanted,” Sheik explained. “But you know, if you take my soul within you… I’d be able to speak with you inside your head.” He tapped her on the forehead playfully. “Would that scare you?”
“Nah,” Zelda shrugged. “I already have visions all the time… and those are scarier than you. You’re nice.”
“Heh,” Sheik smiled at her again, patting her on the shoulder. “You’re such a sweet girl, Zelda… You remind me a lot of my princess… but then again, she was your great-great-great-great aunt. I’d be happy to give you my soul to protect yourself.”
Zelda smiled at him. “I’m not scared anymore now that you and Impa will be protecting me.”
“It would be an honor, Princess,” Sheik bowed, extending his left hand towards her.

Zelda took his hand in hers and there was a flash of golden light out of nowhere. She blinked once and Sheik was gone, as though he’d vanished into thin air.
But something was different now. The night was less cold, the forest was less dark, the visions in her head were calm now and replaced by a warm, comforting voice.
/See? That was painless, wasn’t it?/
Yeah… that wasn’t bad at all. Are you a part of me now?
/Yes. I’ll be here whenever you need me, Zelda. All you have to do is wish for me to come and I’ll appear./
What do I tell Impa about all this?
/I think she’ll understand… tomorrow, I’ll explain everything to her for us, all right?/
Okay… thank you, Sheik. I always have believed in you… you’re my favorite story.
/Heh… thank you, Princess. I’m honored./

There was no telling whether Zelda had really seen the ghost of an ancient Sheikah warrior or just a fevered dream made real by the stress in her mind.
But either way, the next evening a Sheikah woman and a young Sheikah boy rode into Clock Town together and reserved a room at the inn.


And so it went for seven years… Impa and Zelda (often in disguise as Sheik) rode across the continent together, constantly hearing news about the tragedy unfolding in the Kingdom of Hyrule. King murdered… Princess vanished into thin air… Capital destroyed, and people enslaved by an Evil King…
No longer a Gerudo Prince. No longer a King of Thieves…
But an Evil King.

But soon would come an awakening. An awakening of a familiar boy, who had grown into a man…
They rode back towards Hyrule for what to Zelda, would be a method of finally regaining her throne and her kingdom from the clutches of the Evil King…
And what for Impa would be the final seal on the last chapter of their story together.

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Wow. That’s the most serious chapter I’ve ever written. O_o Okay, huge thanks to my beta Ryn for helping me plot out my Zelda/Sheik theory.

To sum that up, basically we’ve got a “Birdy the Mighty” thing going on. Zelda and Sheik share her body and though Zelda is always in control, she can pick up on Sheik’s memories and thought patterns to do her Exposition!Ninja duties.

And SHEIK. IS. MALE.

Now, of course, it’s really up to you to decide if Sheik is really a ghost or if Zelda’s gone a bit nuts after seeing dear old dead dad.

And just to confirm it, Ganondorf REALLY IS INSANE NOW. He regained his sanity a little bit in this chapter for that last conversation with Impa, but after he got the Triforce he completely lost his mind.

ARIGHT! Thanks for reading this far and next chapter will take place in the New Hyrule, ruled over by a psychopathic Ganondorf. But I wonder what he’ll do when his ex comes back to town, eh? Stay tuned!

Oh, and if this depresses you, go read “Hey, OCARINA!” for my comedic take on the events of this chapter.

::GG’s Shameless Self Advertisement sign drops from the ceiling and flashes::