Link had lived a long and painful life. When he was only five years old, his parents vanished off the very face of the earth, abandoning him and his uncle. His uncle tried his best, he raised him all by himself on his apple farm. When Link had turned 14, the Kingdom had been under a brief attack, his uncle had been recruited to protect the King and died fighting. As payment, one of the Knights that fought by his Uncle's side took him in and trained him.
A year later, he learned what the strange mark on his hand meant, he fought his way through the hordes of monsters ravaging Hyrule, he found the Master Sword, he met Zelda for the first time, he had been knighted and worked hard to rise through the ranks. 2 years later he knew what he had to do, he tried to defeat Ganondorf, to purge him from the Gerudo Desert. He met Saiota, still one of the strongest most impressive people he'd ever met, she deserved so much better. Once he thought Saiota had Ganondorf under control, he returned to Akkala, returned to his apple orchard. It was a peaceful life, he loved every second of his solitude. And yet, he knew that he couldn't stay away forever.
He had fallen in love with Zelda, he couldn't stay away from her forever. He stood by her side no matter what, he supported her when she was doubtful of her abilities, when she was weak.
When Saiota died and they had defeated Ganondorf, he didn't run away again, he stood by Zelda's side and a year later they got married. Soon after they had Zariah. Zelda and Zariah made his life paradise, despite all of his hesitations of being King, they made it worth it. When Bahuma striked, the worst thing he ever did was force Zariah into the battle. She had been so brave, so incredibly brave. In the years that past, he watched as she suffered for it. 5 years ago when she started traveling the world, running away, never coming back home, he watched as Zelda cried for weeks, supporting her through it. He knew she took after him, she was running away just as he had.
When Zelda died he was distraught. He hadn't talked in months. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't bring himself to do anything in the weeks that passed.
Walking into Zariah's Coronation, he told himself this had to stop. He would never forget Zelda, he still loved her so, his heart throbbed whenever he remembered her passing, but he would have to be there for Zariah, for his daughter. He couldn't turn his back on her. He would protect her, no matter what.
He had already failed. Watching everything that had happened, unable to do a single thing, was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do in his life. Before, watching his daughter being tortured, he gave in, he surrendered his piece of the Triforce, anything to stop it.
He decided he couldn't let it continue. He was tired of waiting.
Once Aadil handed over the Triforce of Power, he had been dragged back to his feet. His hands had been tightly bound in rope, so had his feet. One of the men in red held a dagger at his side and a sword to his neck.
Their leader, a tall man differentiated from his men from the slight change in his mask and by his cloak, now raised his hand to touch the Triforce.
"You won't get away with this!" Jira, the last of the Sheikah, shouted.
The leader paused and looked at her, "I already have,"
He placed his hand upon its golden surface.
"Gods, hear my words," he said slowly, "Bind the Triforce to the power of the Goddess Hylia—"
His daughter's eyes widened in fear, "NO—!"
"Seal its powers away, seal all of it away, may it never touch this land again,"
The Triforce began to glow as his wish became reality.
"What have you done?!" Zariah screamed
The shine grew brighter and brighter until it vanished. The Triforce was gone.
Link watched in shock. And then turned back to his daughter.
He remembered now she had told him what had happened to her since going to all three Springs. That she now held the Goddess's powers, she was it's keeper and guardian, if she died and took the Goddess's powers with her, the world would be destroyed.
As soon as he saw all three pieces of the Triforce now on the back of her hand, he was terrified for her. He couldn't lose her too.
Then her skin began to glow with that familiar golden light. It shined brighter and brighter and brighter until he couldn't see her at all. But he heard her screams, the very sound of it, the sound of it was nothing like before, this scream was a scream that would haunt his days forever. He watched her break out of her bonds as her body arched backward.
He trashed against his captor, his muscles painfully flexed as he fought to rip his hands free. The man holding him cut deeply into his side. He shouted out.
He watched the man closest to Zariah ripped his mask off and jump to her side upon seeing her pain. He looked back to the leader and Link recognized who it was.
Raeden, Zariah's appointed knight. He recognized his green eyes, his crazy hair. The same kid that saved his life, that had saved Zariah's life countless times. He had been working with them the entire time.
And now he shouted desperately at this leader, "What did you do?!"
"Exactly what we've been planning to do this entire time, we've succeeded don't you see?" the leader answered, "Don't let your emotions betray you,"
"She's going to die!"
"She's the only one who can survive it," The leader seemed surprisingly calm.
Even as blood seeped out of Link's side, he couldn't help but keep fighting back. He had to help her, he had to save his daughter, no matter what. He strained against the rope. The man holding him growled, and cut the sword closer to his throat.
He didn't care. He flung his head back with all his strength. The man stumbled backward. With one more jerk, the rope split and he spun around, punched the man in the face, ripped the sword from his hand and hit the handle against his head as hard as possible. The guy fell limply to the floor instantly.
He cut the rope still binding his feet then he turned back towards where their leader stood.
He froze still, completely paralyzed, unable to do a thing.
Their leader approached, watching him through the blank mask.
"You're furious, I know, I would be too," he said calmly, "To suffer through the loss of your wife, now watching your daughter being tortured like this? It's all for the better, though, you have to believe me,"
Link snarled at him in disgust. He could never know.
He heard a sudden jump in movement to his side. The force holding him still broke and he saw Corvus, the Rito Traitor, tear out of her bonds, grab the dagger that had been held at her throat, stab it into her captor's throat, and then she threw it at their leader. Link watched the dagger fly through the air, and implant itself into his gut. He gasped in shock, shakingly ripped out the knife, and healed his wound.
"You just made a grave mistake," he growled.
Link didn't wait any longer. He rushed forward, sword in hand and slashed his sword across his side.
Behind him, he heard Raeden shout "No!"
The leader recovered quickly, blocking his next attack with a vicious looking sword. Two of his men not occupied with anyone came after Link. One of them fell before he could even attack as Corvus regained a dagger and joined in the fight, she had plunged the dagger deep into his heart and fought against the next guy.
Link, in the meantime kept their leader preoccupied, knowing it had been years since he had fought so viciously. He ignored the soreness already in his arms just from breaking through the rope.
He heard a slight ringing and turned his head towards where his daughter sat limply in the throne. He knew something was wrong. Then he noticed the gold. It started at her fingers and her feet, her very skin was turning into solid gold. It didn't stop, consuming her flesh with every second.
In his shock, the leader shoved him back and held his sword at his throat.
"How do you feel knowing that you've lost?" he mused.
Then he froze still. Link saw blood stain around his chest.
Behind him was Corvus, her eyes wide, still wary.
Then he saw blue, the leader gripped his sword tighter.
Corvus gasped.
In less than a second, he had turned his sword in his hands and plunged it deep into her chest.
Corvus fell back, gripping her wound tight, the blood seeping through her feathers easily.
"NO!" Jira screamed, thrashing back.
Corvus stumbled backward and fell to the ground.
The ringing stopped. Link turned to see the gold encapsulate his daughter completely. Raeden still stood at her side, his attention ripped away from their fight. His head fell, and then he turned back to the leader with tears in his eyes.
Link crumbled to his knees as the reality hit.
He had failed. He had failed to save Zelda, now he had failed to save his daughter.
The statue that remained was beautiful. Zariah almost looked peaceful, her eyes closed, free of any pain. The Triforce still shone eternally on the back of her hand.
She was gone.
He heard a scream erupt from his side and turned to see Corvus back to her feet, fighting through her pain, her hands covered in blood, she now held a different knife, one he hadn't seen before, a simple throwing knife.
"How are you not dead?" the leader asked in shock of seeing her up.
"I've survived worst," she spat, laboring through her words. Painfully, she brought the arm with the knife up, and threw it.
The knife soared through the air, and missed.
After a second, the leader laughed, threw his head back and laughed, "You missed," he said.
"I wasn't aiming for you,"
Link turned his head back towards the throne. Somehow, suffering from a severe wound to her chest, lacking the strength and agility she had 15 years ago, Corvus had managed to throw the knife across the entire room where it stabbed itself into Zariah's shoulder, breaking through the golden surface. Cracks emerged over her skin where the knife hit, blood seeped out from the wound, tracing the cracks, running over the golden surface. Where he expected to see skin, he saw nothing but light pouring from the edges of the cracks.
"NO!" the leader screeched upon seeing what had happened, he turned back to Corvus with a growl and thrust the sword towards her, then collapsed to the floor as Link slashed his sword over his calves. Corvus stumbled back, nodded at Link, and fell over once more.
The leader once again healed himself and turned to Link enraged.
A ringing once again filled the air. They both turned to see what it was.
Gold light flooded the room from where Zariah sat. He watched as the golden figure opened her eyes, as gold poured out of where her eyes once were. She was still encased in gold, but he could see her blink, her chest rising and falling with her breath. The Triforce now shone brighter than ever.
She got to her feet. A slender sword appeared in her hand. She raised an arm and the leader froze still.
Slowly and gradually, his daughter's golden form moved closer, taking one step after the other, moving completely emotionlessly, painlessly, apathetically.
When she reached the leader, she took off the man's mask. The face underneath was dark skinned, had sharp facial features, and green eyes now widened in shock and amazement.
She turned back towards the throne, where Raeden stood with an equally shocked face. Link noticed the similarities between Raeden and the cruel man that stood before him.
Zariah looked Raeden in the eyes, and said "I'm sorry," Her voice sounded different, like a hundred people talking through her at once.
She plunged the sword deep into the leader's chest, stabbing it deeper and deeper, and then ripped it out. He gasped and fell to his knees.
Then she slit his throat for good measure.
She dropped the sword. Then she ripped the knife out of her shoulder and let it fall to the floor as well.
The golden figure turned to Link, her eyes fluttering as she struggled to stay awake. She took a step forward, and then started to fall. He caught her, and held her tightly.
"Let go," he said.
Zariah hugged him tighter, a tear fell from her golden face, hitting his shoulder and burning him.
Another ringing filled the air. Gold light shone brightly from where Zariah stood in his arms. He closed his eyes and let it flood the entire room.
When he opened his eyes, everything seemed normal again. The world seemed to go still. Zariah shook in his arms. She had gone back to normal, her skin was back to it's fleshy tone, she still wore the red dress and golden necklace.
She finally pulled away and looked at him with bright blue eyes, her bangs thick over her forehead, her freckles dotted her face like constellations. He noticed a deep white scar over her shoulder where the knife wound was, white cracks scarring around it.
She turned towards the rest of the room and he watched with her. All of the others were still being held and bound, the men in red were all glancing uneasily from one another. Raeden had sprinted forward and now held the leader's body in his arms, crying over him. Corvus lay not too far in a pool of her own blood.
Zariah held out her hand again. In a flash, the rope binding all of the others were cut and there was a golden shine coming from Corvus's wound. She jerked forward, completely healed, looking around in shock.
The others dealt with the remaining men easily, turning their weapons against them just as Link and Corvus had done. Sooner than later, they had all been freed and all of the attackers had been knocked out. Jira and Corvus hugged tightly. Aadil had regained his arm and kissed Miko. Even Hoff had tried to do his part, having knocked out his own captor with a single punch.
Link glanced down towards the back of his hand and found his familiar mark of the Triforce of Courage. Looking over at Aadil told him he had the Triforce of Power back in his possession.
Zariah apparently noticed this, "I returned the Triforce pieces to where they belonged," she said, "And the Triforce of Wisdom, I gave to the one person I knew deserved it,"
She looked towards Jira, and now Link could see the mark of the Triforce upon her hand as well.
"YOUR MAJESTY—!" Hoff screamed, leaping in out of nowhere, shoving Zariah aside.
A second later he grunted as an arrow embedded itself into his sternum. Link looked up where one last man in red stood with a bow from the window.
Zariah snapped and a dagger appeared in his chest. The man stumbled back through the window and fell. Then she turned back to Hoff. With a flash the arrow was gone and the wound was healed.
"What were you thinking?" Zariah exclaimed, turning to Hoff, "You could've gotten yourself killed!"
"It would've been worth it," he said.
Zariah seemed struck by his words. Then she shook herself out of it, took a deep breath and held out both of her hands. Beneath his feet he felt the ground lurch again. He stumbled, struggling to stay up.
Moments later the castle landed, hitting the ground hard, he fell over, along with most of the others. He could see more gold light shine outside the windows and then go away.
Zariah stumbled back herself, she seemed exhausted as the events of the day hit her.
The door opened and it seemed nearly a hundred knights flooded the room. Hoff immediately jumped back into action, he saw how tired Zariah was and took to ordering around the knights for her, commanding them to take away all of the men in the masks, to search the castle for any trace of any others, checking with them to ensure the safety of everyone who had come to Zariah's Coronation. He lost track of the other champions in the rush.
Zariah waved over a few of the knights, she turned back towards Raeden, "Take him to a spare room in the castle, lock him up in there, ensure he doesn't escape. I— I have a few questions I still need to ask, a few things to sort out," the knights nodded and went to work, tearing Raeden away from his leader's body. He didn't fight, just fell back dejectedly.
Zariah stiffened as she watched him go. He could tell his betrayal still hurt her and a new wave of anger and sympathy came over Link.
Zariah turned to him, and again he could see the exhaustion in her eyes. She took a step towards him, and then fell as sleep overtook her. Link caught her and picked her up in his arms. He was hit by a brief memory of carrying her to her room when she was a young girl. He smiled at the thought and then turned to carry his daughter back to her bed.