Whumptober Day 30

digging your grave

major character death | left for dead | ghosts

kingdom come - corrupt!zelda au finale

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6

warnings: blood, stabbing, ...major character death (duh)

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Hyrule Field was burning. It was an odd sense of deja vu, of dread and of grief and of helplessness. Link had seen this before, the chaos and the smoke, and standing amongst it a second time is no easier than the first. He had no idea whether the Calamity’s destruction reached as far as those civilizations he’d grown to love, and he didn’t plan on finding out. It would be far better if he didn’t, because then, his weary mind could rest. It wasn’t as if the Calamity took issue with the other races–it was with Hyrule that the problems lied. At least, that was what he told himself when he was aching for comfort.

Link fisted the Master Sword tighter, digging the tip into the ground as he forced himself to stand. His free hand clutched his bleeding side, filling him with a fear he was well acquainted with. It was hard, even for one as familiar with death as him, to not be afraid. He’d been in this position before, many times, but nothing could compare to the first. Scared and hurt and ever with her, holding her hand as they ran across decimated fields—that was a feeling he would never quite shake; his body screamed and all he could think about was protecting her. This time, however, there was no protection. There was only decay as far as his eyes could see, and it was set onto the kingdom by their own hands. 

Whumptober Day 26

alternate prompt 8: comfort

kingdom come - corrupt!zelda au part 6

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | finale

warnings: didn’t see anything that could be triggering so read with caution

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By the time Link found Zelda half asleep in the Sanctum, he could hardly walk. He was shaking too hard, the nightmare chilling him to his core, and even if this was not his Zelda, even if he hated her and didn’t hate her at all, the idea of losing her again in the way he had when that chasm swallowed her was enough to have him in tears. He was almost hysterical, and he couldn’t tell if it was the fever or the dream that had his skin so uncomfortably heated. He stumbled before he could even reach her, his knees hitting the floor, and his whimper was what made her look up. She’d been sitting on the throne with the light from the windows hugging her like a golden shawl, and she’d looked so exhausted, but she raced down the steps and to his side in hardly any time at all.

“Link, why are you up?!” she exclaimed, but that surprise and frustration melted away when he grabbed for her and buried his face in her shoulder. “You’re burning…”

“I had a nightmare,” he mumbled out, feeling so akin to a child, but it was muffled by her night dress. Maybe she heard him anyway, because he felt her fingertips bury into his hair, scratching gently at his scalp. His shoulders dropped, the tension leaving his body now that he could hold her, solid and present and real. His Zelda, who was still so strong and passionate that sometimes, he could be fooled into loving her, too.

Whumptober Day 15

feed a cold, starve a fever

delirium | fever dreams | bees

kingdom come - corrupt!zelda au part 5

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | next

warnings: fever, nightmares

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Something was living in Hyrule Castle, leeching the life from his body and raising his temperature until he thought he was going to combust. Every bit of his body hurt. Whatever illness was spreading around, whatever old viruses were kicked up when Zelda forced open parts of the castle for their comfort, had buried itself in his lungs. Calamity Ganon was no longer the worst parasite Link had ever faced. 

It was not the first time he’d gotten sick since his emergence from the shrine. He figured the presence of malice made it worse, but he was feverish and hadn’t been able to get out of the makeshift bed since he collapsed at the throne side a few days ago. Zelda had looked so scared, so worried for him when she helped him up and found that his forehead was burning. He found he didn’t mind being sick, because she took care of him. She would come sit beside him, touching his face, his hair, talking absently just to fill the air, and things almost felt normal. It was what he wanted more than anything: her. And she still left every now and then to handle whatever she was up to, but she always returned. 

Link asked her about her intentions one day, when her toying became frustrating and she wouldn’t pay him any mind. When she coddled Calamity Ganon like a pet and then regarded him as even less than.

Whumptober Day 10

alt. prompt 1: losing control

kingdom come - corrupt!zelda au part 4 

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | next

warnings: isolation, manipulation, pain, self deprecation

this is a drop in quality from the other pieces, admittedly. if it seems rushed, just remember it’s a century she spends with the Calamity. a good portion of that is when she existed in nothing. that would drive me insane personally

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The Calamity was a painful thing in every meaning of the sensation. It was destructive to all of Hyrule, devastating her lands by setting them aflame and killing every last bit of life. When the malice touched her skin, it was so painful that she screamed. The golden glow encasing her body was not enough to save her, and she held tight to the power, to her anger, until it all faded into nothing.

Zelda gripped at her dress because there was nothing else to hold. She existed in a vacuum of nothing. There was a vague part of her, in the very back of her mind, aware of her physical body, of the pain of being encased by malice, of the devastation that Hyrule suffered. She could feel everything, all of the grief and fear and horror of her people, just as intensely as her own. She couldn’t tell them apart anymore, though she supposed she didn’t really need to. They wouldn’t be so different, after all.

She lost her entire life. Everything she’d worked for, with the technology and the Sheikah and her sealing powers and building relationships—all for nothing. It made her upset, angry, and there was nothing for her to do but think about it: about her friends, trapped forever in their corrupted vessels, and Link, buried in a lonely little shrine in a mountain. She might’ve had faith he would return, but there was no evidence for that faith to stem from. It was nothing, if not just a blind wish that he wake and come save her from her prison.

Whumptober Day 6

touch and go

bruises | touch starved | hunger

kingdom come - corrupt!zelda au part 3 

part 1 | part 4

warnings: survivor’s guilt, manipulation, gaslighting, guilt, insecurity mention, jealousy, threats

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Though his memories were traumatic and jarring, Link could not fathom the destruction that the Calamity was capable of. He’d seen it with his own eyes, through his travels and accounts of others who’d been unfortunate enough to also be there, and yet there was no processing what it had done or could do. Even as it grew restless and Princess Zelda was merciful enough, or maybe just cruel enough, to let it feast on the barren lands just behind the castle, Link could not comprehend it. Or maybe the case was just that he didn’t want to.  He didn’t want to believe something could be so terrible. He didn’t want to believe that Zelda was in leagues with it. He supposed he wasn’t any better, playing dress up for her, allowing her to toy with him and push his buttons? Maybe if he was half the hero he used to be, he’d have had the courage to put an end to this already. But didn’t he owe it to her, for failing her the first time? Had he not turned and ran, had he gotten them to safety faster, she would not have been imprisoned with a demon for long enough to drive her insane.

…you’re here on your own accord… Is it out of fear that Ganon would follow you? No, I don’t think it is.

Whumptober Day 3

sticks and stones may break my bones but...

taunting | insults | “who did this to you?”

kingdom come - corrupt!zelda au part 2 | part 1 | part 3

warnings: gaslighting, manipulation, death mention, cursing, survivor’s guilt

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From what little he could remember, Princess Zelda was nothing short of lovely. She was the sort of kind that came from a genuine place, unlike the fake kind that so many had offered him because he was the one burdened with the sword. Even when she was mean to him in the beginning, he could see the good in her heart, the passion in her voice, the brilliance in her mind. She was a girl willing to do anything for her kingdom and for people who didn’t even bother believing in her. She was so painfully human beneath the crown and the gods and the sealing power that it was impossible not to like her. The only thing she wanted above all else was to save her people.

And now, a century later, she was nothing short of cruel. 

For days, Link could not go outside of the Sanctum for fear of Zelda setting the Calamity loose on him. On Hyrule. 

“You can go,” she’d told him from her seat in the throne, looking every bit the queen she was always meant to be, “but he will follow you, and wouldn’t it be a shame if the Calamity was brought about by the very hero destined to slay it?”

Whumptober Day 1

all trussed up and still nowhere to go

“you have to let go” | barbed wire | bound

kingdom come - corrupt!zelda au | part 2 

warnings: survivor’s guilt, trauma, gory imagery/body horror (descriptions of Ganon), injury mention, burn mention, blood mention, nausea, head injury, loss of consciousness, acceptance of death, binds, manipulation

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Looking out at the rolling plains, the baby blue sky, the lively green grass, and the flourishing wildlife nearly everywhere he could see, it was hard to believe that Hyrule was decimated a century ago. Where life bloomed now, death had once spread, and it was anything but beautiful when the fields were burning—when guardians and monsters alike chased down any and all living things. It was hard to take down powerful beasts and even more so when they didn’t stay down.

But just like those vile creatures who only wanted to cause chaos, Hyrule never really died either. It was the quick and clever thinking of Princess Zelda that saved them all by containing the beast of Calamity inside of the very place she once called home. She was a thing of myth some hundred years later when people recalled her beauty or her bravery. If it were not for the moons scorched with blood, or the chilling cry of a colossal demon, or the guardians still roving over the land, one could find themselves thinking that the story of Hyrule was nothing more than a cautionary fairytale. What moral could come from such devastating times? Do not run from fate, or you will end up as caged as the Hyrulean Princess? Do not put heart above duty, or you will fall just as the legendary hero? Or perhaps, do not put trust in things you cannot always control?