Author's Note: The predestined battle with the Dark Link. No where to go but no one in the way.

Edited on 03/08/2014 - New ending with a new rating and cover illustration to match.

Edited on 05/30/2017 - Minor adjustments to grammar and spelling.

The Doppelgänger

Maloni

With a metallic clang, irons bars fell over the door, trapping him in the unknown room he had entered. Link turned and took in his surroundings suspiciously, a hand resting on the Master Sword's hilt, knowing that some sort of enemy lurked in the dense fog that blanketed the cavernous chamber. The fog was white, pure and ethereal, slowly contracting and expanding as if it were drawing breath. There was no sound in the room; it was as if he had gone deaf.

Link took a few tentative steps towards the middle of the room, his eyes darting back and forth anxiously; water rippled silently underfoot. He could feel the evil in the room, sensed it watching him as he stopped just before the fog's edge. A droplet of sweat sluiced down his face from his brow to get caught in the thin, scraggly beard forming on his face. Now closer to the clearly unnatural fog in front of him, Link strained to hear something from within it. At first, there was nothing, but then...

Whispers, hundreds of tiny voices, their words indecipherable even to Link's sensitive Hylian ears. His instincts screamed at him to move, to get as far away as possible, but out of sheer horrified fascination he stood frozen to the spot, listening as the whispers turned into tiny screams of torment. They became louder and louder, stabbing at his ears and making him widen his eyes in terror, despite whatever divine blessing of courage the Goddesses had seen fit to bestow upon him.

Just when he thought that it couldn't get any worse, the screams stopped. The voices were silenced as if they had all been executed and escaped the pain of their tortures. The chamber fell silent again but Link didn't move, his hand still hovering above the Master Sword's hilt.

Then, through the eerie silence of the room that Link had adjusted to, came two words, the voice icy, deep, and terrifyingly delighted: "Got you."

Link screamed as a gauntleted hand shot out of the fog and wrapped itself around his face, black steel claws cutting into his skin and letting blood flow down his cheeks and forehead. The hand Link had over his still sheathed sword got yanked away by the force of him being pulled forward, towards the fog. The air inside was damp and the fog burned his skin, his screams intensifying when it found its way into his newly acquired wounds.

Link screwed his eyes shut against the pain of steel biting into his skin, swinging his arms wildly and hoping for one of his blows to connect. There was a hiss and then he felt the world rushing past him, landing in heap on the ground. He was dimly aware he landed on coarse sand rather than in water. That small detail was immediately washed away by what he saw when he opened his eyes. All around him, the world had turned a dark crimson.

Dark red smeared with black had replaced the thick white expanse, sending a chill down his spine, despite the itchy burning sensation of the fog meeting his skin. Link raised a gloved hand and wiped the blood from his face, only to have more take its place. He was about to reach for a Red Potion that hung in a phial from his belt when a hand clamped down over his mouth and a blade was at his throat. Not about to let himself be helpless again, Link threw his head back into his assailant's face, eliciting a grunt from whatever creature had attacked him. Link rolled forward and to his feet, whirling around to face his enemy, sword and shield drawn.

It stood there, hissing while holding a steel-clad hand to its face, obviously in pain. Abruptly, it stopped hissing and snapped its eyes open. Link couldn't help but take a step back out of shock, the horrible bright red orbs that were its eyes narrowing in what seemed like hatred. Slowly, it lowered its hand to the hilt of its sword – which looked like a twisted version of the Master Sword. But it wasn't the creature's weapon that had him off-balance; it was its face.

It was himself.

Its skin was ashen and the hair sticking out from under its cap was grey and speckled with black. The tunic it was wearing was a copy of Link's, turned black and grey instead of his deep forest green and brown. A pointed tooth stuck out over its bottom lip in a sinister grin, one that promised evil. Link tightened his grip on the Master Sword's hilt uneasily; sweat slid freely down his face and into his eyes. He wiped a gloved hand across his face to clear his vision – the action taking less than a second – but when Link returned his vision to where his enemy stood, he found that the creature was gone. Not even a disturbance in the sand.

Link swallowed slowly and turned in a circle, deftly twirling the Master Sword nervously in his right hand, bracing his shield arm in preparedness. His eyes widened suddenly, whirling around and raising his shield to block a powerful downwards aerial strike that sent him reeling backwards, leaving his guard wide open. The creature stabbed forward but Link quickly regained himself and parried, kicking forwards to ward it off. The two regarded one another, both knowing this battle would prove to be an extreme challenge.

Simultaneously, the two warriors started circling each other, the sand staying unnaturally even under their heavy footsteps. Link bounced lightly on his feet, sizing up his opponent with narrowed eyes. He decided to call it Dark Link, both for its likeness to him and for its colour of clothing. It obviously had great prowess with a blade, more so than any other monster he had battled on the course of his adventure. It seemed to have the same move set as him as well.

There was a hiss and then his dark twin was charging him, sword raised. Link rolled to the side and dropped to one knee as he swung his blade at the creature's back, but his blow rebounded off its quickly raised shield. Dark Link snarled and threw himself at his light counterpart, sending both rolling to the ground. Link struggled for a moment but then went still once he felt the weight of his enemy vanish. He swiftly rolled to his feet, looking around frantically. He reached for his last Red Potion but found the small phial shattered, all hopes of healing himself gone.

The sandy ground had disappeared, instead replaced by the ankle-deep water from before. Link involuntarily shivered as it finally found its way into his leather boots, soaking his feet. He continued his search, turning slowly in a circle, wondering how the creature had disappeared in a matter of seconds. Sweat rolled down his face from his physical and mental exertion, despite the shortness of the encounters. Fighting an evil copy of himself not only left him confused but also instilled a feeling he had rarely felt before: fear.

Link tried to shake the alien feeling but it persisted, tossing his stomach and biting at his heart. The silence roared in his ears, his hands shaking from the tension and fear. He shook his head and steeled himself, planted his feet wide and firm, and closed his eyes in anticipation.

His breath levelled out and his heart rate decreased. The silence roared in his ears but he refused to show weakness to the monster that was surely watching his every move. He stood there standing still for what seemed like years, listening and feeling for the slightest disturbance in the air.

In less than a second, Link had whirled around and thrust his sword forward, expecting to see the shocked expression of Dark Link, impaled upon the tip of his blade. Instead of feeling triumph, he felt a wave of horror wash through him at the sight of empty air, not the creature's chest. Link screamed in pain as he felt the cool kiss of a blade slicing through the back of his leg, a triumphant snarl ringing in his ears. He screwed his eyes shut and gasped for air as he toppled, barely managing to catch himself on one knee to twist and slash at the empty air where Dark Link stood, only to find him gone.

Link pushed the pain to the back of his mind and grit his teeth, forcing himself to stand. He struggled to steady his breathing, deciding it would be foolish to lower his guard and tend to his leg. He decided that it was too shallow to do any lasting damage and seeing as he could still stand on it with minimal pain, he ignored it. But that didn't mean that blood loss wasn't still possible. He knew he needed to end this quickly.

Gathering his thoughts and steadying his stance, Link decided upon a different approach. He sheathed his sword and unslung his bow from over his shoulder, drawing an arrow and pulling its feathered end back to his cheek. There was a short moment of silence before a large splash brought his attention to his unguarded back, Dark Link repeating his earlier aerial strike. The creature obviously wasn't expecting an arrow to cross the short distance between them and embed itself in its shoulder, sending it off-balance and crashing to the ground.

It pulled itself up on one knee, its chest heaving as it snapped the arrowhead off and pulled out the wooden shaft with a pained snarl. Link sheathed his bow and drew his blade, watching as Dark Link pulled itself to its feet, its eyes flashing malevolently. It wasted no time in crossing the short distance between them and swinging wildly at his head, a blow Link's shield took as he made a stab at Dark Link's undefended side. The creature deflected it with the flat of his blade, but his light counterpart pushed him back with a shield bash and leapt forward bringing his sword down on the other with a reverberating clash of steel.

The two locked blades, their faces mere inches away from each other, Dark Link's twisted into a cruel sneer while Link's expression showed the physical strain, both pushing with all their might against the other's sword. The creature had not made any noises other than ones of pain, so when it spoke with a raspy voice as it leant its head closer, Link was shocked. "Do you think you can win?"

And then before Link could react, Dark Link disappeared into the ankle-deep water, melting like a candle with a flame burning it down to a stump. "This battle is one you will not walk away from,Hero,"it spat, its voice seeming to come from everywhere at once. "Do you haveanyidea what I am? When the Goddesses created the Hero's Spirit they stripped away all the evil and dark thoughts that could manifest themselves during its life, any temptations of becoming a villain and using its power for anything but good. Those evil aspects, now torn away from the Hero's Spirit, grew conscious of themselves and fashioneda form, the only form they had ever known.Iam your Shadow,Hero,the bastard child of the Goddesses!"

With that, Dark Link burst out from the shallow water which erupted with a massive splash, soaring through the air and crashing into Link with enough force to knock the breath from his lungs. Link tensed up expecting to slam into the ground, but instead, he found himself submerged in freezing cold water. He snapped his eyes open and all around him was an endless, dark expanse of water, Dark Link nowhere in sight. Thinking quick, Link touched a small gem set into his belt, feeling his green tunic melt away, replaced by a deep blue one and the strange sensation of his lungs starting to take on water.

A shiver ran down his spine as he switched from breathing air to water, a strange sensation Link had never quite gotten used to in the short span of time he had possessed the blue piece of apparel. He pushed any thought other than survival to the back of his mind and tread the water with the Master Sword at the ready, his shield safely secured on his back. He used his free arm and legs to turn himself slowly in a circle, a steely resolve flooding through his extremities, colder and fiercer than anything the world could throw at him.

It started with a small tingling on the back of his neck. Any other normal man would have attributed it to the water, nerves, perhaps just an itch. But Link was no normal man. And attesting to that was the lightning-fast movement of his blade flying up to match Dark Link's steel, blow for blow. To the outside observer, the fight seemed unaffected by the normal passage of time, their movements slowed by the weight of the water pressing down on them both.

Dark Link snarled, bubbles issuing from its mouth as the Master Sword cleaved the space where its shoulder had been, narrowly dodging a crippling strike to its sword arm. While the water around them somewhat impeded their movements, the two warriors made up for it in sheer strength of muscle and of will, though the rivers that carried that will stemmed from two very different springs. One corrupted with the stagnant waters of hatred and evil, the other a clear blue of justice and all that was right.

The pair slashed, parried, blocked, and dodged for what seemed like an eternity, trapped in the oppressive darkness of the endless abyss below the original battleground. The two suddenly locked blades and, muscles straining, Link pushed against the twisted copy of the Master Sword, nearly face to face with Dark Link. With one final push, Link sent his dark twin floating backwards, buying him enough time to slam the pommel of his Master Sword down on its face twice, breaking its nose and stunning it momentarily. Link gave several strong kicks to propel him upwards towards the dim light filtering down into their underwater battle, knowing the weight of the water would continue to tire him out until he made a fatal mistake.

Mere metres from the surface, he was suddenly tackled around the waist and sent flying upwards, finally breaking the surface with a massive splash, losing the Master Sword in the process. Just before he slammed into the suddenly solid ground, Link managed to change back into his green tunic using another gem on his belt. The pair rolled several times before coming to a stop, Dark Link's steel-clad hands wrapping around his exposed throat. Link's eyes met with his evil twin's, the crimson pools boring into his skull as he squeezed harder and harder. Link gasped for oxygen as black spots began appearing on the edges of his vision and his hands flopped around on the ground around them, searching for anything that could be used as a weapon.

Link finally managed to grasp a stray arrow that had fallen from his quiver and, before Dark Link could react, plunged it into his eye, twisting it several times before sucking in as much air as possible when its hold on his neck loosened. Dark Link shrieked and twisted away, giving Link time to roll away and spot the Master Sword lying a few feet away. It seemed to call out to him, and in reply, his hand itched to hold it again. Link stumbled to his feet and managed to make it halfway to his blade before being tackled from behind. He threw his head back into Dark Link's maimed face, succeeding in loosening its grip. Link crawled forward and wrapped his hands around the Master Sword's hilt before rolling onto his back to narrowly block a strike that would have rent his head from his shoulders.

Link grunted from the force of the blow and kicked Dark Link in the chest, effectively pushing it away long enough for him to get to his feet and ready his shield, his jaw set and his eyes burning with determination. His dark twin threw all caution and strategy to the wind and surged forward, an animalistic scream exploding from its throat as it raised the Master Sword's evil copy far above its head. Link stepped to the side and dropped to the ground in a sweep kick for Dark Link's stumbling legs but it leapt over it in a surprisingly graceful front flip, rolling to its feet once it hit the ground, turning to face Link with a snarl on its face. Link didn't skip a beat in jumping up and slashing at Dark Link with skilful precision as soon as it turned. It was barely able to raise its sword in time to parry with a powerful two-handed downward slash that Link had to take on his newly equipped shield, enough power behind it to send him staggering backwards, his defence open. Link barely turned aside Dark Link's stab aimed for his chest and replied with his own thrust, one that Dark Link easily flipped over, landing lightly on his feet behind Link.

A moment passed where the two of them simply stared at each other, chests heaving from exertion and sweat rolling freely down their faces, a sort of warrior's respect passing between them. But it didn't change the fact one of them would not be leaving the chamber. Simultaneously, the two of them sprinted at each other, their blades outstretched for the other's heart. Link had thrown aside his shield along with all his caution and ran at his dark twin, the distance between them closing in mere seconds.

Link's sword flashed first, turning aside Dark Link's stab and running his dark twin cleanly through the heart. They collided, seemingly embracing the other in a close, almost brotherly hug and for a moment, Link relaxed, feeling no movement from his enemy. But his heart rate skyrocketed when he heard Dark Link's icy voice in his ear. "You're just like me."Dark Link laughed quietly, his freezing cold breath sending a shiver down Link's spine. "Except I can't be killed."

Link's face screwed up in an expression of rage as he ripped the Master Sword from Dark Link's chest and whirled it high above his head, flicking fetid ichor from his blade, bringing it down across his opponent's neck. Dark Link's head flew from his shoulders in a fountain of inky blood and his body crumpled to the ground with a splash. Blood billowed out into the water from the stump of his neck like storm clouds, spreading through the water like a disease.

"Liar."

Link stood still for Goddesses know how long, chest heaving, sword held beside him in his outstretched arm, long bangs hanging limply in his vision as he stared at the ground, the blood pooling around his boots. Droplets of water fell from Link's body, creating smaller pools of clear water in the black sea of blood.

Then, suddenly, his wounds caught up to him, the sizable gash in his leg throbbing with his heartbeat, smaller cuts and scrapes burning in the fog. Link slowly fell to his knees, stabbing the Master Sword into the ground to steady himself, resting his gauntleted hands upon the pommel. He took a few minutes to compose himself, push the pain to the back of his mind and find the will to continue.

Link slowly pulled himself to his feet, staggering as he did so, and gazed down at his dark twin's body in disdain. Expressionless, he watched as Dark Link's body and severed head dissolved into black and grey flecks of ash, dissipating in the water until there was no trace they existed. He set about gathering his discarded shield and it was then that he realised that the burning fog had lifted from the room, and he could make out the regular architecture of the Water Temple making up the walls around him. Link spotted a new door across the room from him and made his way towards it, glad to be rid of the cursed room.