A/N: This is crack. And one of my many Dark Link headcanons, because actually, I support them all. And because I must say it, FIRSTIES ON NAYLARK! I STARTED THIS PAIRING. Nyah-nyah!

Title has nothing to do with anything except Nayru's element being water (I forget if that's ever actually stated…you know what? It is) and Dark Link's being in the Water Temple. I R genius, no?

Disclaimer: I shall only say this once—I do not own The Legend of Zelda in any way, shape, or form.

o0o

Water's Flow

Prologue: Shadow

I came up with the plan, Din prepared the prison, and Farore forcibly removed it from the Hero's soul.

"It" was, quite simply, the part of the Hero's mind that he wished to hide from the world, the part of him that surfaced when he fought monsters and spattered his face and tunic with their blood. It was his rage, his grief, his frustration; it was every part of him that was not bright and beautiful; it was all that was not flooded with light. It needed to be removed.

You know what happened after that. My creation broke him.

But you must understand, I did not intend for this to be so. You know that I see far into the future. I saw not only the quest to save Hyrule, but also a repetitious cycle of time which, unless we were to siphon any and all negativity out of him, would drive him to madness. The darkness was created to save him. Pin not all the blame upon us.

o0o

The darkness did not come quietly, as we had anticipated. Instead, as Farore tried to separate it from the Hero, it struggled and fought like the demon we believed it to be, unwilling to part with the light that made it whole.

We fought for three years with that shade of a person, in a great clash, until Din, with a short, forceful, "ENOUGH!" used every ounce of power in her to force the shadow into her prison.

Tongues of fire shot out of every pore of her body, ensnaring the thing in an unbreakable bond, and, with her typical fierce carelessness, dragged it away to her prison.

I pitied it. I pity it still. It seems that the wounds we inflicted upon it never quite healed.

o0o

Din's prison was flawed, as things of her creation tended to—only when she had a true interest in what she did was she ever careful.

Thus why Ganondorf was able to infiltrate our holy realm and take the specter from our grasp.

Having done so, he took this shadow and, over the course of four years, molded it into—such mockery! Such arrogance! Such brutal irony!—into the Hero's form. He gave it—no, now it was a he—life and purpose, the latter being to kill his lighter half.

Shall I lie to you? Shall I tell you that I was not curious about that battle? Shall I say that I regret making what would become known as Dark Link?

Or shall I tell you a grand tale of how the waters flow?