Chapter One: Midnight Ritual

.oOo.

Title: Shadow's Light

Chapter: 1

Author: Hikari no Vikki

Genre: Romance/Action/Adventure/Angst

Parings: Slight Link x Dark Link

Disclaimer: Dark Link and Link are not mine. Or Zelda. Or Nintendo.

Description: There is a light within every darkness. You need only to search yourself to find it. But what if you are the darkness? How do find your light, if you are the shadows themselves?

EDIT: I changed the title, the description, and I'm going through and editing some of the story. It needs to correspond with Time Keeper in some events and others may need a little polishing.

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Darkness is light. Brightness is shadow. Two boys were once one in the same.

Blond wisps of hair crowned ones head, while dark locks of black the other.

Ones eyes were an ocean blue; the other's a burning red.

One night while asleep, both children were taken from their homes.

Into the shadows was one child taken, and from it, would never leave.

His captor was a man, tanned darkly from too many hours under the sun. His aura was dark, like an evil man's would be. His hair, however sparse, was flaming red; redder than the child's own eyes. His eyes were shadowed, but the babe could still feel their gaze.

The baby cried out from the man's arms, pleading useless cries.

"Quiet, child!" the man whispered harshly, "That village is no longer your home."

He carefully took the child to the open desert gates, making a mental note to find the guard and give her severe punishment so she would know to not leave her post again.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Left your post again Nabooru?" His second in command was who he had left here to guard this gate was once again missing. Most likely she was off searching for the Silver Gauntlets so she could be rid of him. 'Useless,' he thought. But then again, she was his assigned mate. He still wished he could be rid of her, though. Maybe someday he'd find an excuse to do just that…

He covered the child's face, the black locks crumpling at the touch of his hands. Then he entered the desert, cunningly dodging every obstacle the sands threw at him with ease.

The baby meanwhile, as he ran through the desert, was burrowing deeply into its blankets, cowering at the man's presence.

He wanted to go back, to be safe in his mother's arms. Anywhere but here, near this man. But that was all gone now. His infant mind could not know what the man would do to him, he just wanted to be safe.

He was not safe here.

The man could feel the child hunkering down, desperately trying to flee the darkness.

"Oh no, child, the shadows are where you belong. The shadows will raise you; they'll care for you. They will become you, as you will become them, and no man will bring you down!" He uncovered its face, looking down into the child's terrified red eyes. He smiled evilly as his golden gaze was now revealed to him.

"This, child is the place of your rebirth!" His eyes became more crazed as he held the child in front of the temple. Its eyes grew big and it cringed in overwhelming fear. The man was laughing wickedly, still holding the infant up.

His cries, though loud, would never be heard that night, because the sands soaked up his sound. Tears spilled from his eyes at the way the man jostled him in his blankets.

The man slowly became sane again, still smiling as he took the babe into the temple. "Quiet, little one… do not disturb the silence…" Somehow seeming to understand, it tuned down its crying to a small whining that sounded like a kitten mewling.

The man pressed the child against his chest, silencing the cries once more. He looked down at it as he entered the temple: wondering if it would ever think of him as nothing but his captor. But, he thought, it was only a baby. It wouldn't remember them, the Lord and his wife. He was too young, too malleable. He was the child's father now. And his mother? The man frowned. Nabooru would not cooperate with his plans. So his mother would be dead, then. Supposedly dead soon after birthing him. It was true, to a certain extent.

Once inside, the man went up the steps of the temple. He pressed a small button, no larger than his fist. A door activated from the pressure and it opened up vertically so he could enter. Down he went into the tunnel, torches lighting magically as he descended, stopping at another door, but this one was open.

His steps became slow now, as if he felt remorse for what was about to happen to the child. He reprimanded himself for thinking such thoughts. The child belonged in the shadows, lest he be his downfall! He was pretty sure he'd killed that his aunt, and that other child… but it didn't matter now. This one would soon be his apprentice, and when he lead his siege against Hyrule Castle at last, they would recognize him as their ruler and the child as his prince.

His golden eyes shone in the single beam of light that illuminated the inner chamber. The circular altar, made of pure polished black granite, stood in the middle of a crisscross of six wooden torches surrounded by an elevated platform with four round, thick stone columns.

A figure came out of the shadows. A woman, royalty, from the way she held herself. She looked at the frightened child he held protectively against his chest, her own blood-red eyes piercing it through and through.

Her hair was a striking fierce black and her face was gaunt; with a sad expression on her face as if she had lost something dear to her.

"Is this the child?"

"Yes. May I ask your name Lady?" Her eyes became sharp and she shifted her gaze to his. "No. If you must have a name, call me what you have been." He flinched visibly, slightly, but still visible all the same. He nodded, slowly placing the baby on the altar.

She caressed its wavy locks and she took a sharp piece of rock from her pocket. She then broke it in half and created thin strips of rope to fit in the existing holes for a necklace. She placed both on either side of the child and opened a small spell book and began reading.

"Light, create darkness, Darkness, create light. Begin anew, great shadows, refresh in new blood, precious light. Switch places and join the two partners, connected you will be." As she spoke the rest of the spell, she placed two objects beside the stones. By one stone was a knife, and the other, a gold key. From the stones drained all specks of the opposite element, the shadows forcing the light out and the light doing the same. When the spell was completed, the sorceress dipped her index fingernail into a bowl of black ink, and she dented the boy's left palm.

He screamed in unbearable pain as the fingernail pierced his hand. Blood mixed with ink as the wound quickly sealed, leaving a faint black triangle as a scar.

He lay shivering in the fetal position, and she lifted the now white stone, which was embedded into the key itself. She levitated the key on her two hands and then made it disappear from sight.

As the child quieted, she wrapped it up in its cloth, inserting the knife, with its cover, inside. Then she placed the stone around his neck, and she shed a single tear, which landed in the still open cut.

She finished wrapping him up as the wound healed completely, and she handed him to the man.

"There you go… he is yours now. Be careful raising that child… you know he's not normal." He nodded as she cleaned up her belongings. Then something hit him. What did she mean by… partner?

"Lady?" "Hmm?" "What did you mean when you said partner?

She frowned. She knew he would ask. "A partner of the light," she told him, "That's what the other item was for. You see, when something from the light is taken into shadow, a look alike, or hikari, which still exists in the light, must exist as a balance. They might become either the person's enemy, or a friend, or in some cases: lover. But those aren't often. Usually they don't even realize that they're connected for some time." He nodded, and turned from her. He didn't wish to be here longer than necessary. Especially not in her presence.

"Take care," she said as he walked to the door. Then he stopped.

"What will you name it?" She asked him. He stilled. "I…" "Well?" He looked down at the child, its gentle black locks mixing with light brown strands and some blond tufts as it slept against his chest.

"Well?" she said again. He looked up at her, his golden eyes plunging into her reds. "I will name him Peter." She scowled at him, her eyes flashing darkly. "That name will never do." "But it must! He can't by my son with a name like…Shadow." He stopped. He had almost pleaded to her, begged even.

Finally, she said, "Fine. But Shadow must be his true name. Do we have and understanding?" She paused.

"Ganondorf?"

He nodded as she left, disappearing into the dark, and he pressed the child against his chest once more before leaving and sealing the chamber for what he thought would be forever.

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