Chapter Text
"My love, come to bed with me." Her voice was so sweet to his ears. A lullaby in a world of screams. It could still his heart, calm all his worries and stir up desires.
He smiled as he turned away from the crib that held their newborn son. His wife had given birth to him that morning and they both needed rest and he was there to protect them. He pulled back the covers to his side of the bed after tugging off his white tunic as well as his black leggings. "He is so perfect, just like you my dear. How did I ever find someone as remarkable as you? Someone who calms my storms and brings me to my knees."
"We got lucky with each other and with him. Our little Starlight." He heard her sigh as she relaxed into his embrace. "I'm excited for this new chapter of our lives. To raise our son and see him grow."
"I just hope he takes after you." He chuckled.
"Oh no, he will be getting some of your traits too. I can already tell."
"Hope it's only the good ones." He murmured into her blond hair. He worried about their son having any kind of resemblance to himself.
"You only have good traits, you goof."
"Oh, the God of War only has good traits?" He stroked her pink cheek lightly.
"I only see good in you. You may be called Fierce Deity by most, but you are my Dametrius. My beloved husband. Now, let's get some sleep before he wakes up again." They kissed goodnight with smiles on their lips.
Domestic life, he wouldn't trade it.
~
The next few years were some of their best years and hardest. Milestones and stepping stones all along the way.
° "Dametrius! Come quick!"
He raced to the living room, expecting something wrong. "What is it?!"
Hanging onto the coffee table was their son. He was facing his mother with a hand reached out towards her. "He's about to take his first steps! I don't want you missing it!"
"Woman, one of these days you are going to give me a heart attack. I can't say I'm going gray since it's white." He gestured to his long hair.
"You dork, come here and watch."
He walked over and sat on the floor behind his wife. Their little one wobbled at first, but then stepped without holding onto anything. Then another step and another until he flopped into his mother's arms with a fit of giggles.
"Such a big boy!" She cheered.
"Soon he will be getting into everything.” He brushed the blond hair from his son's cornflower blue eyes. Little hands wrapped around two of his fingers. "Worth it."
° Their son babbled, blew bubbles and clapped his hands while they fed him his favorite mashed veggies and fruits: pumpkins, hearty radishes (what child likes those?!), apples and carrots. He was a mess, but who cared, he could be cleaned up.
"Mm… mmmah…mah…" The determination on the child's face was astounding as it was precious.
"Come on son, say Mama." he encouraged.
"Mah-ha"
"Oh so close, little one." his mother cooed.
"He will get there soon." Dametrius assured and closed his eyes as he wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders.
"Dadda!"
They both stopped.
Who would have thought that the God of War could get any more pale or blush or even cry? Oh but he did. He lifted his son into his arms, swinging him around in a circle. "That's my boy!"
His wife rolled her eyes with the fondest smile.
° "Switch the way you hold the bowstring. Have your fingers facing outwards instead. It'll give you better control."
Thwap!
"I did it! Daddy, I really did it!"
"I'm so proud of you! Perfect bullseye!"
The backdoor opened. "Dametrius, Link! Time for supper!"
"Come along, you can tell your mother all about your shooting skills. I'll put everything up." He watched Link run into his mother's arms happily, mid back length hair swaying like wheat in a field.
He picked up the archery equipment and placed it back in the shed that he wouldn't let Link near that morning. He didn't want him to see what was behind the door. He never wanted his son to look upon a monster in human skin. A Yiga Clan Footsoldier paid them a visit that morning.
It could have been a mere coincidence that it attacked a house holding a boy named Link, but knowing his sister, Hylia, he doubted it.
He would do anything in his power to protect his family.
° "MAMA!!" Link screamed with a sob.
Dametrius was out in the pumpkin patch they had started to grow since they kept buying out Kakariko Village's, when he heard his son scream. He dropped the pumpkins that he had in his hands and raced towards the house. He could see a torch being thrown towards the house. ‘No!’ he thought. Instead of running, he teleported to where his son was. In front of him was his son, only ten, holding his mother’s body in his lap. Her eyes were closed, skin already turning gray. Her hair looked duller than it was only an hour ago. Pink lips now a shade of red as blood trickled out of her mouth. His eyes roamed her figure, landing on the swollen womb where their daughter was growing inside. He would never know her laughter. There was a set of arrows protruding from her stomach and chest. He knelt down, already knowing, he checked for a pulse. Nothing.
His eyes met the mask of a Blademaster and two footsoldiers. Pure range in his veins as his Double Helix blade materialized in his hands. One swing of his sword didn’t feel enough, but when he heard his son’s cries, he didn’t have the fight in him anymore. His son needed him.
He walked back to the front of the house that was now engulfed in flames. He kneeled on the other side of his wife and moved her hair from her face. “Freya… my love.” He pulled her and Link into his arms and wept.
° “Dad?”
Dametrius turned around to see his son with chopped hair at his shoulders and half pulled back, shoulders squared, soldiers training uniform on, eyes distant. “So you decided to go ahead with the offer?”
“I-I feel like it is the right thing to do. It’s like something is calling me to join and protect our country.”
He sighed and knelt in front of his child. “Link, I will not say that I am happy you chose this, but I also will not stop you. The call to fight and protect is in your veins, like it is in mine. The natural ability of war is instinct to us, second nature.” He hugged his son, who clung to him. “I am so proud of you, Link. Just as proud of you as your mother would be.” If Link or Dametrius held on to each other a little tighter, neither said anything.
° Dametrius watched his son grow from a recruit to a knight, a member of the Royal Guard, Captain of the Royal Guard to Princess Zelda’s appointed knight. What he prayed never to happen happened though on a rainy night. The Princess and her knight were headed out to the Spring of Wisdom and Link had persuaded her highness to stop in Hateno just to sleep somewhere safe before they went back into the wilderness. A knock on the door announced their arrival. “Dad?”
“Link?” Dametrius came down from the loft and saw the princess next to his son. When she gasped, he bowed to her. He was sure that she had never seen someone like him. Blue and red markings on his face, slight scar over one eye, both eyes white, eight feet tall and could easily sense the godly magic on him. “Your highness, welcome to Hateno. Please, make yourself comfortable in our home.”
“Thank you, sir?”
“Dametrius.”
“Dametrius. It is an honor to meet the father of our dear Hylian Champion or how the history books will say, hero.” He looked over to his son, who had his eyes cast down. “Oh, my apologies. I-I did not realize that he had not told you yet.”
“No worries, I could feel the presence of the holy blade on his back before you even made it through the gate.”
“H-how?” She had the eyes of a researcher. Pure curiosity flowed through her. His wife would have loved her.
“Why don’t you make yourself comfortable first while we put the horses in the stable and cook supper?” He walked out of the door, holding it open for his son.
When they walked to where the stalls were to unpack the horses, Link spoke, “Dad, I didn't know that it was the sword. My sword broke fighting a sorcerer who created hollows of the other Champions. I had to protect the princess, it’s my duty. I heard the voice only after I pulled it from the stone. I wanted to write to you, but the King ordered us to stay quiet and-”
“Shh, shh, Link it is alright.” he gently soothed, running a hand through the hair that he kept down at his neck. “I am not angry, just worried for you. How is she treating you?”
“We didn’t start off on the right foot, but we are getting better. I am trying to be more vocal around her, but sometimes the responsibilities of the sword are too heavy and I find myself unable to use my voice at all. It frustrates her and she thinks of herself as a failure since she hasn’t unlocked her sealing powers and it caused her to hate me at first. I just don’t understand. Why hasn’t Aunt Hylia allowed the princess to awaken her powers? I don’t even hold part of the Triforce, yet she already chose me as her hero!”
“Hylia doesn’t play nicely with others.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning she isn’t going to make this easy since you are my son. A demigod born to a deity, holding the Master Sword. It is her way of slapping me in the face since I disobeyed an order and chose your mother instead.” Neither noticed Zelda by the door, snooping on the conversation.
° He could feel a change in the air, dark magic corrupting the land. He also felt the lack of a pure source of godly magic, his son's magic. He wasn't given time to think about it.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!
Dametrius answered the door to a frantic Sheikah woman. “Yes?”
“A-are y-you Dametrius? Father of the Hylian Champion, Link?”
“I am. What has happened?”
“The castle was overtaken by the Calamity. The King is dead. All the guardians and Divine Beasts’ have been corrupted by the malice of Ganon. The four pilots of the beasts’ have died.”
“What of my son?” His heart was sinking.
“He was rushing the princess here, but was ambushed by an army of guardians. He was struck down trying to protect her highness. Only then did her powers awake. She has ordered that the sword be placed back in Korok Forest and Link be taken to the Shrine of Resurrection to heal his fatal wounds.”
“Where is this Shrine?” The word ‘fatal’ repeated in his head over and over again.
“The Great Plateau, sir.”
“Where did he fall?”
“Fort Hateno.”
‘Shit, he was almost home’. “Thank you.” He closed the door. He looked around the house that felt colder than ever. His armor and sword materialized onto his body. He teleported first to the fort and looked around for where the ambush happened. He zipped between carcasses looking for any sign, then he smelt it. Fresh blood, burnt skin and singed hair. He fell to a knee and placed his hand on the ground where the evidence of the fight was.
He never was one to turn away from the sight of war, but this time he did. He closed his eyes, tears slipping between his lashes. In an instant he saw the battle as if he was there. A gasp and whimper came from him as he tried to hold it in. The sight of his boy standing his ground against machines, the blasts burning away his skin, him falling to the muddy ground, then the princess laid over his body, sobbing… it was too much. He felt their pain and it was overpowering. He needed to get out of that place.
He stood and teleported to the shrine where two Sheikah men were working to undress his son. “Let me see him!” his voice boomed.
The two men pulled weapons. “We are here by order of the princess! Do not come closer to her hero!”
“He is my son! Let me see my son!!” He marched forward. When he saw Link’s body, mangled, he dropped his sword and reached for his face, which looked like his mothers. Red and blue markings were fading on his face and neck, signs that he used his divine power. He looked over the child's body that was struggling to even get a single breath in. Burns that reached bone and organs covered his left side from mid thigh, up his torso, chest, neck, arm and face. He wept at his son’s side “Damn you Hylia. Damn you and all you stand for.”
“Sir, we need to activate the shrine to heal him.” one said softly.
“How long will it take until he wakes?”
“We do not know.”
He removed himself from his son after kissing his unmarked cheek. “Do it.”
The agonizing screams, his son banging on the side of the basin he laid in, the gurgling of blood in his lungs, nails ripping on stone, the child-like voice pleading for death, then the deafening silence haunted him. His heart ached.
One hundred years later, Dametrius was still sitting next to his son’s body, waiting.