Chapter Text
His daughter appeared a day after their imprisonment, heralded by words of warning issued by his sister. Rauru listened intently to their every noise. Unlike Hylians, both of them stepped softly upon the stones; he would have recognized the clack of Zelda's shoes at once.
"Papa!" Hylia, his little girl, called out. She gasped at the sight of him, frozen in a cruel embrace with the man who'd murdered her mother. "Papa! I'm here! Please, please, wake up!"
Rauru had a body yet no control over it. There were no tears to shed over his deathless abandonment, no words to form to apologize for his choice. He could not explain his decision to her nor anyone. Perhaps, the sight of Ganondorf's demented and twisted smile may convince onlookers.
He hoped Hylia would never realize whose Secret Stone it was which had given the Demon King such power. Rauru would take the blame for his rise, his rule, and his imprisonment… all for Sonia to rest in peace.
Gasps inevitably led to crying—at least they had in his short experience of soothing Hylia after Sonia's demise—though from the sounds of a scuffle, Mineru seemed to believe violence to be her first answer. "Hylia, please," Mineru pleaded. "You know the danger—the Demon King could still be watching through his body! As the… the princess… you cannot put yourself in such danger."
Mineru…
In all the time spent knowing his sister, Rauru had never heard her so shattered. She had merely stared at Sonia's warm body, signaled a soldier to carry her, and comforted him. In being the eldest, she had always been the smartest, the best, the infallible. Even as he became a king, he had trusted her more than any advisor.
If she had cried in the wake of Ganondorf's dual murder (one of his wife, and one of his home), Rauru wouldn't have been able to push through. Without a younger brother to play strong for, why would Mineru hide her tears? It… only made sense.
"Please, Hylia, we are the only ones we have left. Rauru may be here, trapped in his body… listening to us… but he cannot help us anymore." He was grateful to be blind to her suffering, unable to see anyone but Ganondorf. The Demon King's grin was etched into his eyes; the reds of his body had become neutral tones to the Zonai's gaze.
"You let me hug Mama when she…" Hylia sniffled, and it broke his heart. Every part of him rallied to move, to turn, to see his daughter and let her see him, seeing. "So why can't I hug Papa? If he's as good as dead, and he's as good as gone, then why can't I?"
There was no answer to give.
"It's stupid!" Hylia screamed her fury, and the heavens heard; the cave reverberated her words into his soul. "You're stupid!"
Her footfalls were soft, not soundless. Mineru's knees gave a soft click as she stood up—had she been kneeling in front of Hylia? Neither spoke a word as his daughter's presence approached the doomed body of her father. If he were a poison, surely a touch would be enough to spread it. Perhaps, there was a reason beyond arrogance for which the Zonai had neared extinction.
Tiny, hybridized hands wrapped around his hips. From the squatted position he'd "died" in, she could easily rest them there and lay her forehead against the middle of his back. Her snout pressed into his cold skin; it felt like the first touch of warmth after a blizzard. Static buzzed over his skin.
Her tears ran through his fur.
"Hylia… please…" Mineru stood out of sight of the kings-turned-statues. Silence reigned for a time, and Rauru could feel every thought running through his sister's mind. A thousand different reactions to Hylia's rebellion; not all of them were kind, and very few of them would Rauru enact himself. What Mineru settled on was: "Say goodbye to your father, Hylia."
"B—bye…" his little girl blubbered through the word. "Papa… good—goodbye." Her voice cracked; Rauru wished he were there to hold her and to laugh at her puberty-stricken voice. "I'm… I'm gonna save you one day, Papa! I promise!"
It was a torture to hear her grief yet be unable to see her. If only he had taken Ganondorf's place, he'd be able to see any changes to her. Had her blonde fur darkened at all? Were her ears in a droop like his own had been for months? Were her eyes—
Her eyes.
What color were they?
"If you'd frozen yourself in any other position, I could feed you." Mineru leaned against Rauru's leg, only her ears peeking into his vision. "I'd give you only your favorites, of course. You know I'd never give you something bad—not even when you were getting on my nerves as kids." Mineru laughed like a ghost. Rauru, in his ceaseless internal monologue, laughed as if they were kids and this were only a game of freeze tag.
"I—I wish you'd allowed me more time to research this method of trapping him. I'm… afraid you're hurting in there, starving to death without me even noticing." Rauru felt guilty for being alive; these confessions were meant for a grave stone, not a living, listening man. "Of course, we know that both of your bodies have entered a stasis-like state… but your bodies aren't the same, Rauru. If the spell is focused on keeping Ganondorf under, then it could allow your own body to decay. By the time you're unsealed, there's a chance you could already be dead."
You're the smart one, Rauru would say, so you tell me what's happening.
"But… if you're going to wait until Link arrives… I'd be a terrible sister to let you go alone, wouldn't I?" Mineru laughs bitterly. "If we can't find a solution beyond yours, then… yes, I'll do that."
In the corner of his fixed vision, he sees her stand and face him. Arms wrap around his shoulders, and his sister's snout nuzzles against his folded back ears. The comfort has arrived too late to fix them.
Fingertips brush against the underside of his third eye; had crust formed, perhaps?
"Don't worry, Rauru. I'll take care of you."
He couldn't find it in his soul to doubt Mineru.
Zelda only visited once.
She'd lingered in the doorway for long minutes (which would soon become blinks in comparison to years), feet scraping at the stones. He imagined her pout and the worry over her features; Zelda was likely thinking she had no place visiting him. If he could, Rauru would walk up and envelop her in a hug.
He hadn't done something like that since before…
Rauru felt his soul go silent in respect, a grating emptiness once more chafing on his subconscious. Ever since Ganondorf's murder of her, it'd been impossible to think of anything without her specter lingering. The woman they'd raised as a second daughter was, unfortunately, no exception.
"Rauru," Zelda greeted when she eventually got the bravery to approach their frozen form. "It's… good to see you. Mineru said you may be able to hear us, so I…" He heard her Secret Stone hitting her chest with every step; it was as steady as a heartbeat, though Rauru would conspire to bet the Hylian Princess' was racing.
Rauru found himself lulled into the familiar comforts of simply having to watch over Zelda; there were no armies to command, a wife to grieve, or a Demon King to seal. There was simply a girl with her hair who smiled at him like Hylia always had.
She stopped walking behind him and said, "So I wanted to say goodbye."
There was no bodily reaction to house his terror, yet the emotion made itself known in spikes of adrenaline with nowhere to go.
"You and Sonia were… so very kind to me, more than I ever expected. You welcomed me into your home as family! Rauru, I can never truly thank you enough for all you've done for me. If you are there…" I am, Rauru thought desperately. I am! "I want to apologize, sincerely. If only I could have decided on this sooner, we could have… no, that isn't important," Zelda shook her head stubbornly. It was as if she was trying to outrun her worst thoughts; Rauru, of all people, would know how useless that could be.
"I wanted to remind you that what you've done is brave of you. You're the perfect king of Hyrule, and better than I ever expected you'd be. And… when you come back, come find me." Rauru tried desperately to twist his neck to look at her, to stare at her and mouth no. "Do you remember what Mineru said? I'm going to do it… become a dragon… so that the Master Sword can become strong enough to defeat the Demon King in the future. Link will… he'll save me; I believe in him."
He could hear her teary smile as she continued: "I hope when you meet him, you'll understand why. And… when we're all together in the future, safe from the Demon King, we'll be happy! That's my prophecy, as the princess from the future. So you better" — she sniffled — "you'd better work with Link to make it come true!"
He'd already lost Sonia to such notions of the future, how could he lose someone so close to a daughter to him? No, he had to break free from his own bindings. He had to stop her. Rauru couldn't stand to lose someone else.
He closed his mind's eye, praying, praying, and praying to a god who was long-dead. When he gave up, she was long gone and only Ganondorf had stayed with him. He growled at the demon who'd cursed him to losing all his loved ones, crying only in the fictitious sense.
His Sages had been the first to visit him, in a real timeline. Rauru's memories had blended the events ever so slightly—however, the memory came back to him more often than any of the other farewells he'd be experienced. Ardi was the most vocal of the four of them… crying, as she was.
"The Gerudo will always be grateful for what you've done for us, King Rauru," she declared. "I will be returning to my home to drive out those still loyal to the Demon King; I shall make it my duty to honor all you've done to protect Hyrule."
Rauru couldn't see Ardi, but he could see Raphica and Agraston who were both refusing to look at Ardi. Their gaze lingered on the walls and on Rauru. Though, when they looked at him they only seemed to grow more awkward.
"Yeah, since the Demon King has been defeated, we all need to head back to our homes to defend them," Raphica murmured defensively. They were all acting as if he'd hate them for leaving him—like it was an abandonment to leave behind a grave. "Mineru and Zelda are staying to defend your home, but the rest of us… well, if they need us for anything they know where to find us."
Rauru wanted to nod in the solemn way he had during the war, and it seemed without such a signal none of them knew how to continue. Qia murmured a Zora prayer; Rauru didn't understand it but hoped it would help him in the coming years. None of them would be able to.
His Sages said further platitudes and farewells before promising to visit. Mineru and Zelda approached after that, stating their intention to stay until any monsters still inside of Hyrule had been killed. To know what Zelda had chosen to do once that task was over… Rauru wished they'd failed in their duties—at least one of his Sages.
Mineru visited him now more often than she ever had when he was "alive". If it was out of guilt, Rauru could understand. Those times he'd stood silently beside Sonia's grave had etched themselves into his mind. If Sonia had done what he'd done…
Yes, he would haunt her living grave too.
"Zelda is gone," Mineru explained. "She's flown so far up in the sky, none of us can reach her. Raphica visited her before, as you remember," she snapped like the temporary tutor she'd once been, "and it seems like the Master Sword has taken well to her mane. There's… no reason for us to intervene with the natural patterns of the Light Dragon, and yet… despite what I know as a researcher… I want to bring her back down to us, even if it would only hurt both of us."
I would want to do the same, Rauru thought, if I were in this position. A dead brother, a draconified niece, and a second niece left behind by them all. Not to mention Sonia…
"Is that selfish of me?"
His sister was crying softly, he realized. Soft gasps punctuated her sentences, and he would surely see them if she'd chosen to stand instead of sit at his feet.
No, Rauru decided. It is monumentally selfish, but I'd allow you to do it.
The years passed in a slow drip, and before he knew it somewhere around half a decade had passed. Mineru had crafted a new castle overtop Rauru's grave. It was Hylia's home, and would be her children's children's home. Apparently, she was happy here; Hylia had never visited again to say so herself.
It had been a long time since anyone but his sister had visited him. His Sages had broken their promise, his daughter had moved on, and the rest of the world…
A trio of children bounded into his chambers, chattering among themselves. "Woah!" One of them cried out, sounding like a Hylian. Their accent resembled Sonia's—were they raised in the castle? "Look at this! A sculpture of that old battle!"
For the first time in a half a decade, Rauru felt another's touch. A child grabbed onto his extended arm, pulling themselves up and down as if he were a part of a jungle gym. "It's sturdy!" They said with a grin.
Rauru frowned. It hadn't been long at all, how could these children simply play with the corpse of two kings? How could they have forgotten the horrors the Demon King had committed?
How could they have forgotten him?