A/N: Hey guys. I must say, I am super duper sorry this took so long. The only excuse that I'll give (I hate when people give excuses) is that I have been really, REALLY, genuinely busy with a ton of crap lately. A few words on The Medallion: Thank you guys so much, the ones that have been following from the beginning, and the ones who recently jumped on the wagon. This story was by far the one that I have had the most fun writing, and I'd almost like to write a sequel to it (and I don't do sequels). What do y'all think? ;P

Now, without further ado, the moment you've been waiting for, what I've been procrastinating for two weeks now, the final chapter (kind of):

Epilogue

There was no transition. I went from plummeting down to the ground, ON FIRE, to simply… not. I was suddenly standing on the island in the middle of Lake Hylia. Fog rose from the water in soothing waves. The water lapped at the island edges. Unable to resist, I took off my shoes and walked towards the edge. I stood in the water and squished the mud around my toes, feeling the cold water on my toes and ankles.

"You've done well, Zelda."

I jumped when I heard the voice. I turned around, waiting for something else awful to happen to me, when I saw my mother, standing by the tree. She was wearing the elegant white dress with a pink slip underneath, covering the slit that went all the way up her legs. She was wearing the ghost of a glittering, diamond crown that would be mine someday. She had long, dark blonde hair and midnight blue eyes. She looked just like me, but she was slightly darker in all her features.

"Mom?" I asked, stunned. "What are you doing here? Oh, Goddesses! Am I dead?"

"Of course not, love," she said to me. "You have joined me in the spirit world for a short time."

"Why?"

"The Goddesses have smiled on you once again. Your life and Link's have both been spared in the fall that should have killed you. You will wake up when we are done here and find that you are relatively uninjured," my mother told me. I continued to gape at her. "I suppose you have many, many questions. Where would you like to begin?"

"Um… The visions I had," I said, picking the most recent thing. "What were those? What caused them? What did they mean?"

"The darkness caused them," said my mother. When she spoke, an angry look came over her face and her fists clenched together. "When pure, unadulterated darkness comes so close as to touch the flesh of a soul as pure as yours, it causes side affects. Did you not feel angry? Hopeless? Despair?"

"I blamed that on the fact that I was imprisoned by Ganondorf," I said.

"A good deduction, but it was probably the darkness causing those feelings. I wouldn't say so if you hadn't had the visions," Mom told me. "I saw your visions through your eyes as they happened, love. The first one, you saw yourself as a child through your brother's eyes, correct?"

I nodded.

"The darkness was trying to convert you to be its slave. It first tried by showing you how it made him succumb. The darkness first spoke to Sheik when he was young. He was as much destined to listen as you and Link were to stop it, so he really had no chance. However, I know that had we listened to him-" the queen's voice choked off.

"Mom, there's nothing you could have done," I said a tad awkwardly, trying to sound soothing. "Once Ganondorf decides who he wants, there's not usually much anyone could do. He was very sly. It was a very good plan," I finished lamely. My mother smiled weakly, and then continued on.

"Sheik allowed the darkness to help him achieve greatness. He asked favors of it, not thinking of the consequences. He told no one, and there was no one to help him when the darkness took him. It was similar to what you saw in the vision, but of course you were not there. Sheik was alone when it happened. The visions were exaggerated. They were not meant to show you the truth; they were meant to scare you into giving in. Ganondorf's spirit somehow overtook Sheik's, and he continued to live in the place of my son. No one on earth knew.

"In the second vision, Link left you. This was playing on your fear of abandonment. Since he left you the first time, you've been terrified of being alone. He left you a second time last night, leaving you feeling afraid and betrayed. The darkness showed you that he would leave again. It showed you the voices, and the voices began to whisper to you. You started to go crazy. You left with the voices chasing you. The voices represented temptation. You ran from them and did not listen. However, when the King of Evil himself appeared to you, you saw yourself give in. Again, the darkness was trying to show you that was what you were meant to do.

"Keep in mind that when I say, 'You saw yourself', I do not mean you literally gave in during the vision sequence. I mean the darkness showed you a picture of yourself giving in. Does this make sense?

"The final vision consisted of Link's death and your total acceptance of Ganondorf. It played on the secret desire of yours to punish Link for leaving you. Don't make that face at me; I know that you have never wanted for a moment to kill Link. But you have had the secret desire to punish him. In leaving you, he was wrong. The darkness took this desire and blew it out of proportion. Then Ganondorf appeared, and you accepted him. However, in the acceptance, light first began to shine through."

"Do tell," I said dryly. The visions were not a subject I found enjoyable to discuss. They were dark and awful and horrifying and I had no idea how my mother could suggest that light had a place in the third and most terrible one, where I- figuratively, of course- had murdered the love of my life.

"Light showed you how to beat darkness," my mother said. "Don't you remember? I know you used it." She waited for me, her dark blue eyes watching my countenance. I looked at her for a moment, trying to remember. When in the spirit world, it was kind of difficult to recall things that had happened in the realm of the living. At least it was for those actually alive. I assumed it was an annoyance that would fall away when I joined the spirit world for real.

"Ganondorf… said… he was surprised," I said, struggling for words.

"And what did you have to do to defeat him?" the queen asked me patiently.

"Catch him off guard," I said. "I pretended to accept him in real life, and he dropped his hold on the Triforce."

"Why did you do this?"

"I just knew that I had to," I said, biting my lip and running my hand through my hair. "I can't really explain it. I just knew."

"Because light told you," the queen said, smiling. "It showed you how to defeat Ganondorf, and you did. When you surprised Ganondorf, it enabled Link to make a wish on the Triforce to banish Ganondorf and his army. The darkness is gone- for now, at least."

"What happened to the Triforce when the chapel fell?" I asked.

"It disappeared into a new location," the queen said. "That's what always happens. No living person knows where it is right now. No one will find it until the next time the legend is to happen."

"That won't involve me, right?"

"It will be after your body is dead. Your same soul, however, will be resurrected."

"So Link's reincarnation theory is true."

"Yes," the queen confirmed. "Link is a smart man, as was his predecessor."

"Whose mother are you?" I asked finally, breathlessly. "I have to know. Are Link and I really brother and sister? He said no, but…"

The queen's expression of jubilation faded into sorrow. "I promised you I would tell you nothing but the truth. Here is a dark part of my past. Before we begin, I apologize for failing you as a mother.

"My best friend was practically my sister, growing up. I grew up, a middle class girl trying to find her place in the city- I was married into the Royal Family, not born into it. I attended a wedding, where my friend was married to a glassmaker in Kakariko Village. The king did not like this. He hated the glassmaker, and adored my friend. He believed she could do better. He did not like the glassmaker because he had once been a general, but had been demoted on suspicions of treason to the country. There was no solid proof, though, so he could not be banished. He was dismissed from the military and started his career as a glassmaker. The king did not like it when I visited the couple. He deemed it unsafe. I visited them in secrecy, not from the king, but from the public. I have always despised publicity. The public never knew that I was a friend to a possible traitor.

"I still remember the first time I saw him," the queen said, rather dreamily. "I was at a party of his, wearing a mask, of course. It was costume party. He was dressed as the Hero of Time, and I a Keaton fox. We danced and danced, and the night was enhanced by wine. I found myself waking up the next morning in bed with him. I should have ended it there, but he enchanted me. He was handsome, funny, smart, and witty- or so I thought.

"I returned to him many times on the weekends. I only had one child at home, Sheik, to understand what was going on. The king noticed my absences but could do little to stop me. I was incredibly selfish. I saw that he loved me, and even though he could, he would never dream of assassinating my lover or doing anything that might hurt me. Your father is too good a man to have been hurt by me so," she said, her voice again choking back a cry. "Your father and I were fighting all the time, so when I found out that I was pregnant, I knew for certain that it was not his child. I knew who the father must be.

"It wasn't hard to hush up. I had never been a target of publicity, so no one thought about it too much. However, I was forced to appear at a couple events with your father, and the public saw my baby belly then, and the news was out that I was pregnant. But no one suspected the truth- that I was having an affair."

"How did you tell our fathers?" I asked, my voice as emotionless as a boulder.

"Our fathers?" the queen said.

"Yeah. Mine and Link's."

"The glassmaker?"

"Yes," I said, impatiently. "How did the glassmaker take it when you told him you were carrying his son?"

"I haven't explained this properly," the queen said. "It was not the glassmaker I was infatuated with. It was the rancher, the glassmaker's friend. I was never having an affair with Link's father. I would never, ever do that to my friend, his wife. The rancher was single. I can at least say that I only wrecked my own marriage.

"When I told the rancher, he was shocked. He was supportive at first, and told me we would decide what to do with the baby later. He never denied that it was his. Your father practically exploded when I told him. No matter how I pleaded, he said that he would not keep it. He did not want a lie living in his castle. He would not pretend to be the father to a child that was not his. He didn't want the baby."

"That's kind of mean," I said.

"I had just hurt him very much, and he was upset," the queen justified. "But he wouldn't back down, even after he'd calmed down some. He told me to give it to the real father, let him deal with it. I asked how we would explain it when I had given birth, but there was no baby. When I gave birth in the castle, there was only one attendant, a Sheikah who had been with me since I had been a girl. She disapproved of the plan, but she went along with it. We told everyone that it had been a stillborn. The public went on a frenzy. We kept the "funeral" limited to only a few family members, no press. The stillborn was big in the news for awhile, but it faded away.

"I remember when we took the baby, a girl, to the rancher. He lived alone, had few close friends, and the child was relatively unnoticed. If anyone asked he told him or her the truth, really. He said that he had impregnated a girl on a one-night stand, and she did not want the baby. They dropped it after that."

"So I have a sister?" I asked.

"A half-sister, yes," my mother told me. "But the story is not over just yet. Shortly after I discovered that I had become pregnant, my friend found that she also was with child. She and the glassmaker named me godmother. There was no godfather. I told the king that I was godmother and he resented it because of the glassmaker's past. He made sure that it was kept a secret. He did not want the public to know any more of my scandalous secrets. My friend wanted to give birth traditionally, at home. I warned her against this, but she went ahead with it. She died during birth, leaving the glassmaker to be the sole parent of their baby boy.

"The glassmaker needed a female influence in the boy's life. Neither of us had very good judgment at the time. His wife had just died and my marriage had been ruined. I had been forced to give up my baby. When he asked me if I would pretend to be the boy's mother, using the argument that I had already agreed to it when I agreed to be the godmother, I said yes. I would leave the castle for two weeks at a time, sometimes, to spend time as Jamie Sullivan, a normal Hylian. When I pretended to be Jamie, I would spend my time between baby Link and the rancher's daughter, Malon."

"Malon is my sister?" I asked incredulously.

"Why do you think she got the job at the castle after I died?" the queen asked. "The king felt guilty by how things had turned out, and he offered a stable position. I think it was his way of making amends with the child that he had never wanted to claim. I think he felt like he had me back, in a way, by allowing Malon to come to the castle and take care of the horses. I had always loved the horses.

"So I pretended to be Link's biological mother. After the heat of the moment when his mother and died, we all cooled down a little. I realized this may have not been the best decision, but there wasn't much we could do at that point. After you lead into a lie as big as that, it's hard to get out.

"It was actually easier to keep a secret than you may think. I was good at avoiding cameras by that time, and had only taken a couple pictures with Link as he aged. There were no pictures of the queen to compare the pictures of Jamie with. I thought I was safe. Then, not long after Link and Malon had been born, I was pregnant again- this time, with you. You are the daughter of the king, a full-blooded, royal, Harkinian. I avoided the other two children when my third pregnancy began to show, and rejoined my visits after you were born. You grew up thinking I was going on business trips. No one wanted to explain to you what was going on.

"Sheik, despite what you may have heard, knew very little of what really went on. He knew that our marriage was crumbling, but he did not know anything about the affair. He believed the stillborn lie. He believed I was on business trips. What he told you, Ganondorf had told him. Sheik believed it with all his heart. Sheik never knew the truth- that Malon was his sister, and that he bore no relation to Link. He told you that to hurt you."

"So you only pretended to be Link's mother. You never actually were with the glassmaker."

"True," the queen said. "The glassmaker was never more than a friend. I think he may have been framed for treason. He was a perfect gentleman with me. He never told a lie, but for the big one."

"And Malon is my sister."

"I think you've got it figured out," the queen said, almost sadly. "I'm sorry I failed you as a mother, Zelda. But I will always love you. From the day I found out I was pregnant, I was nothing but happy to be a mother again. I just wish we had had more time together."

"So you really did die in a car accident?" I asked finally. That was what I had always been told, but as I had learned some of her secrets lately, I had started to doubt that as well.

"Yes," she said. "I really died in a car accident." There was a silence as we stared at each other, mother and daughter. "You have become a beautiful young lady," my mother whispered to me, her eyes filling up with tears and her words choking up with emotion. "I am so… proud… of my… daughter…"

I closed the distance between us and embraced my mother. She was warm, tangible, real. She cried when I touched her, and I cried, too. She began to sing to me the lullaby that she had when I was a little girl.

"I love you, Mommy," I said, releasing the words I had held in since she had died years ago. "I love you so, so much… I forgive you… You will always be my mother… I love you."

"I love you too," she said, crying.

I don't want to disclose the rest of our conversation. That basically tells you how it went. It was a very personal thing, you see. What would you tell a loved one, if they had died years ago and you got to see them one last time? We all have that thought, that lingering regret that we didn't get to say. I consider myself lucky. Not many people get the opportunity to see their dead again. When I left the spirit world soon after that, I felt whole again. The void that had been in my heart since my mother died had been filled. I knew that she was always watching me, always forgiving me, always loving me. She saw my mistakes and loved me anyway. I missed her every day and began talking to her regularly, knowing that she could, in fact, hear me.

When I went back to earth, I woke up in Link's arms. We were lying in the rubble of the turret. It appeared he had been having a spiritual experience, too. We woke up at the same time, and jumped from the rubble, laughing and crying with happiness. He picked me up and spun me around, like in the movies. He told me that my father had given him the watered down version of what my mother had told me in the Hero's Shrine, and he asked if the engagement was back on. As the victorious army of Hylians that had risen to defend the castle swarmed us, embracing us, I pulled the old engagement ring out from under my dress. I had worn it as a necklace as I had every other day since we broke up. He was surprised when he saw that I was still wearing it. All I asked him was, "Was it ever really off?"

We got married six months later, a huge wedding in the castle gardens. It seemed that all of Hyrule wanted to attend. There were all kinds of people- rich people, peasant people, middle-class people. There were lawyers, bankers, musicians, and even a glassmaker and a rancher from Kakariko Village. My father walked me up the aisle, and crying with joy, kissed my cheek before leaving me with Link. My father died of a sudden heart attack less than a month after giving his only living child away to, in his opinion, the finest soldier that Hyrule has ever seen.

I have risen as queen of Hyrule. Link is the commander of the army, and he makes quite a few of the decisions. He's working on making the peace with the other races. His goal for now is to heal what Ganondorf broke. He's creating a new way to rule Hyrule. With my approval, he has appointed the leaders of the Kokiri, Deku, Goron, and Sheikah to a board of representatives. They also have a say in any major events taking place in Hyrule. The ball that we had in honor of the Hero of Time that had taken place in the castle, with only Hylians present? Link and I changed that. It now wasn't so much a ball, but a huge celebration, taking place in one of the fields. There was no indoor place that could hold all the Gorons, Zoras, and everyone else that had RSVP'd to come.

Oh, I've forgotten the best news! Recently, we've decided that we are ready for the BEST journey together- parenthood. Link is so excited to be a father, and me a mother. We are determined to make the best of everything. We're not hoping for either a boy or a girl, but we already have a few names picked out. We debated naming the baby Ruto, after our newly appointed Castle Physician, and we probably will if it's a girl.

If it's a boy, we considered naming him after Link, but Link had a better idea in mind. He and I thought about someone who deserved the highest honor of being named after. He thought about naming him after my father or a past king, but I didn't like that idea very much. We finally came up with it together. We decided to name it after a boy who had had no choice but to give in to darkness. He had started off good and pure, but had had his childhood ripped away. He had resisted as much as he could. He had gone through the worst thing imaginable- he had been haunted by the King of Evil himself. He had been close to me. I had loved him.

If our first child turns out to be a boy, I'm sure that my brother in heaven will smile down at little Sheik.

Some people might look down on our decision to name our future son after the guy who had, after all, been the vessel that Ganondorf had used to try to bring Hyrule into his own control. But I know the truth. So does Link. We believe in love, honor, and trust. We believe that the direction Hyrule is heading into is a good one. We believe in the power of truth. We know that family is the most important thing. We know that alone we are nothing. We draw our power from the people surrounding us. We believe in all these wonderful things. We know that miracles are real. We believe in second chances and new beginnings. Do you?