THE LIFE THAT COULD NOT BE SAVED (TP)
He screamed, prolonged.... And in that bellow, a thousand memories flooded back within an instant.
A century ago.... He remembered what it had felt like to be trapped within the Sacred Realm, without hope of escaping save for
his pulsing need for vengeance. He could recall that day when the Sages had ripped him of his power. But he had escaped … only to be caught again. And that time the Sages had resorted to a more brutal punishment. Execution.
But they had not been able to kill him, not he, the Wielder of ultimate Power. Not he. His power had pulsed anew within him when their sacred blade had pierced his heart. He had always looked to that day as one that had renewed him somehow, for the Power within him coursed deeply whenever the circumstances surrounding him were ever darker.
But not this time.
Grunting, Ganondorf pushed himself up slowly, inch-by-inch, and was surprised to find that the two youths did nothing to restrain him. Perhaps they saw in him what he felt. Before, when the Sages had pierced his heart, he had been rejuvenated, with a vigor that uplifted his darkened soul. He had cheated death. The gods had allowed it. But now....
He knew what it was without having ever felt it before--though approaching its distinct line closely during his lifetime. He had never crossed that line until now.
He was dying....
The white scar upon his chest pulsed with a replenished glow, a hole in his darkness that marked his existence and what he had spent his lifetimes trying to achieve. Even in the Sacred Realm and Twilight Realm he had never truly been dead. His power had only been depleted to a level that no one had looked to as a threat.
He wrapped a hand over his wound, the blade still sticking out of his chest. Oddly, he did not have the energy to pull it forth from his body. Was this what death did upon its approach? Did it truly drain one’s energy before pulling the soul into its final plummet into forever darkness?
Staggering, he used his last breaths of liveliness to look up at his killers. “Do not think it ends here....” Was it that he wanted to press into them a false but lasting fear of his return… a return that would never come? Or was it true that he may find a way to resurrect himself in the Netherworld?
His eyes drooped as he nearly tripped, but he gritted his teeth and peeled his eyes open once again, struggling on his words. “The history of light and shadow will be written in blood!” He fell forward slightly as he spoke but kept himself upright, panting for his breaths to sustain him just a little longer. But his right hand tingled, and when he looked down … his worst fear.... The Power of the Triforce faded from him, and his eyes felt heavier than the world.
His hands fell to his sides. His chest heaved. His breaths crackled. The corners of his mouth fell, and his face grew blank. And then--
He jerked his head back when the pain of his wound pervaded his numbness, its whiteness fading to a black nothingness. His eyes grew white as a perfect cloud. His breath escaped forever, and his head fell forward gently, his chin resting against his armor.
Only the sound of whirling dust in the wind greeted Link and Zelda’s ears. The warrior stood firm, blood-splattered and gravely wounded. He held his stomach as he looked at the dark man, still standing yet dead by the true blade renown for banishing such evil. Behind Link, Zelda stood silently. For a moment she merely stared in disbelief. There he stand, the man that had--with Zant--tortured the existence of her people and trapped them as mere shadows of their former selves. And yet, she bowed her head slightly. It seemed appropriate. Not in Ganondorf’s honor or of his ways. She could never see justice in either.
She bowed for the life that could not be saved, could not be purified. His name had slipped in and out of Hryule’s history for generations, but so little was known of him. Only that he had been born of the Gerudo tribe that still lived somewhere deep in the
sands of the desert. If only she had known why he had become this way, why he had become so full of hate and darkness.... Maybe he could have been saved.
She would regret it forever....
But Link staggered for a moment, and his movement brought Zelda back to reality. Ganondorf’s evil reign had been torn from the pages of their future and had become but a horrid memory. Now, it was time to rebuild what had been destroyed and regain what had been lost.