I don't own Zelda, only this AU that I have chosen to plop the characters down into.

The barefoot boy ran through the empty streets, his heart racing in his ears as loudly as the shouts of the men pursuing him. Images of scalpels and needles flashed in front of his eyes and urged his feet to move faster. Half a set of hospital scrubs and a paper gown whispered and rustled like a gaggle of gossiping women as his legs brushed together, the sides flaring out and his skin erupting into goosebumps where it was exposed to the brisk air. His pointed ears, one marked with a tag, pricked up, and he ducked with a cry when he heard a whistling sound behind, then flying over him. He saw a glint of silver – a tranquilizer dart – sparkling on the ground, and then it was gone as he sprinted past.

Desperately wheezing now, he curved into an opening between two buildings, hoping that he could lose his pursuers in a twisting maze of back alleys. He felt something stab into the sole of his foot, a piece of broken glass perhaps, but he felt no pain – at least not yet. The shouts continued, catching up to him faster than the men dressed in white. His eyes widened when he heard the obscenities and threats being yelled at him, and part of him begged him to stop so they wouldn't be any angrier than they already were. The other half of him refused, screaming at him to keep running and not to look back. The boy obeyed the latter half's instructions and followed a twisting path through the alleys behind the shops of the unknown street. He heard the heavy pounding of bass and screaming laughter from a dance club, and then loud talking and laughter from what smelled like a restaurant. His nostrils flared and his stomach growled, but he did not stop, and he did not cry out for help. No one would hear him anyway. No one would help him. He was alone in this chase, and he was alone in this city - wherever it was. He had no idea, only that the man with the pale face had taken him from his home in Outset and brought him here years ago. He was ten then. Now he was sixteen or seventeen - he didn't have access to a calender, so he had no concrete way of making sure.

The only thing that was a constant through those six or seven years was that the man with the pale face, carrying needles that frightened him so badly and made him shake with memories of terrible pain, had always said he was special. Unique.

Well, if that was what special was, then he wanted no part of it. So he had run. And now he was here-

The boy stopped abruptly when he came to a dead end, his eyes wide with surprise when his nose almost met with the brick wall. His hands slammed into the bricks first, before his nose could, and he turned when he heard the chanting insults and thinly veiled threats come into the alleyway he was now trapped in.

"Looky looky here…" one guard sang in a childish taunt. The boy could just barely see the blood red diamond emblazoned on his right breast in the dark. "The freak's caught with nowhere to run." The boy flinched at the insult, shrinking against the wall with a shudder of terror.

"What's wrong? Scared of this?" The other pursuer waved the black tube that the boy knew so well. "Scared to take a little nap?"

"N-No." His voice came out shaking and raspy, and he stammered. He had never stammered before the man with the pale face had gotten his hands on him. The men in white took a couple steps forward, and the boy made a break for it, making an attempt to slip between the guards and run back to the alleyways where he could get lost. One guard's hand closed around a bit of his hospital gown, and it ripped, leaving him with a torn scrap of blue paper in a closed fist.

The other one tackled the boy, pinning him to the ground with a grunt. He let out a thin scream and started to thrash under the weight of the guard until a cool barrel pressed against the back of his neck. He went quiet abruptly, his mouth closing with a snap. He felt like he was suffocating, both because the guard was crushing his lungs with his bulk and because now he had to go back to-

"I think you could be my favorite, child. However, that condition firmly depends on whether or not you are cooperative."

"You're special, child. Unique. We work very well together."

"You belong to me now, boy."

The tag in the boy's ear shivered as he shook his head frantically.

"Pl-please. D-don't make me g-go back there," he wheezed out. The barrel was shoved harder into the back of his neck, forcing his head and neck to the dirty ground while his arms were pinned behind his back. The boy felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead, and he let out a whine of fear as his wrists were bound so tight he thought his hands were going to fall off. The crushing weight on his torso ceased, and then he was hauled unceremoniously to his feet by his elbows. He kicked and thrashed mindlessly, heedless of the fact that the black barrel was just waiting to be held up to his head again.

"OH FARORE, PLEASE HELP ME!" he shrieked before one of the guards clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Shut up or we'll make you shut up." The guard's voice was now completely devoid of the laughter it had held before. The boy's feet were set on the ground, and he tried to wrench his hands away to make his escape, but the guard yanked him back. Stars exploded in front of the boy's eyes with a beautiful brightness, and he collapsed to the ground with a hopeless groan. He felt himself being slung over a shoulder, his head staring at the brick wall that had blocked his escape before and his hands uncomfortably pinned between the guard's shoulder and his tailbone. The boy felt blood trickling up into his blonde hair, and he struggled feebly before he was punched in the stomach. Hard.

He exhaled sharply, hunching up and trying to curl around the sudden hurt, and then going slack as the pain in his head increased with a vengeance, rebounding around his brain like an echo. With one final moan, he gave up, allowing the guards to start to walk away without any more resistance on his part. The boy's eyes squeezed shut, and tears leaked out from behind his closed lids and trailed up into his hair, following the trickle of blood.

He was going back. All that planning and plotting had been for nothing, and now his luck was out. There wasn't going to be an opportunity like this again. He was pretty sure trying to escape crossed him off the list of favorites. That meant more dangerous, more painful tests and less food. He would dead by the end of the year.

The man with the pale face could guarantee that.

But behind his closed lids, he saw a brilliant flash of golden light and heard the death throes of one of the guards. His eyes snapped open as he felt himself slip off the shoulder of the guard, his arm loosening from around his torso and his spine bending. The boy twisted as he fell, but he still landed square on his side with a grunt. His ribs ached, but he looked around with wild blue eyes to try and find the source of his salvation. The other guard was searching his surroundings for the same thing, his hands shaking.

"Who's the-" He was cut off with a gurgle as a beam of light speared through his neck. The boy shifted with a muffled shriek as what looked like an arrow pierced into the ground and stuck there in the pavement, quivering gently. It looked like it was made of pure light, and the boy couldn't look at it directly without his eyes hurting. He would have reached out to touch it if he had use of his hands, but he shook his head and tilted his head up to look at where he judged the arrow to have come from.

What he saw almost made his heart stop.

A figure was falling from the top of the building. No, falling wasn't the right word. It was floating to the ground gently, and the boy's mouth hung open as the figure touched down without a sound. It ran over to him, a flash of something curved and wooden showing from under the cloak it was wearing. It kneeled next to Link, dropping the object to the ground with a small thump. It was a bow, long, oaken, and trimmed with silver.

"Are you okay?" The boy's eyes darted from the bow to the figure, who had dragged its hood down to reveal a still hidden face. Even though its mouth was still covered, he could hear its voice, decidedly feminine and songlike. A cowl covered everything below her eyes, which sparkled a soft indigo in the darkness. Everything about her seemed to shine, from her ivory skin to her golden hair, tousled tendrils of which hung around her flushed and sweaty face.

"I heard you screaming…" she said. "I need to know. Are you alright?" He noticed he was staring with an open mouth, and he quickly shut it and nodded. She sighed and helped him sit up.

"You came from Eidikos Labs, didn't you?" she whispered, her eyes darting to the tag dangling from his ear. He hesitated, then nodded again, noticing the pain in her eyes when he did.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" He shook his head, remembering all the times that the man with the pale face had threatened his grandma and sister if he ever escaped. Better that they didn't know, at least right now, even if it made his heart sink. They must have thought he had died a long time ago. He watched her hesitate, then pull the scarf down off the rest of her face. A high, aristocratic nose and a full mouth were revealed, and now he could tell that she was about his age, mid to late teens. He absent mindedly wondered if she knew how old she was.

"I live with some people – people like me; like you, I assume, if Eidikos wants you." She blinked at him slowly, as if to see if he caught her meaning. "Special. We hide from the people who want to use us. We can shelter you for a while, if you want." The boy's face twisted a little. That made him sound like a dog begging for scraps. The girl watched him with bated breath, but he finally looked back at her from his bloodstained feet and nodded. She smiled at him, exposing glittering teeth.

"What's your name?'

"L-Link," he stuttered out. "What's y-yours?" She studied the top of the buildings for a second, then turned to him, her eyes gleaming.

"Eidikos's files call me the Huntress," she said with a smirk, "but you can call me Lumens for now." Her eyes literally flashed gold for a second, two bright spotlights shining into his, and then reverted back to normal. His eyebrows rose, but he didn't react beyond that.

"So, now that we're introduced, you wanna head out before more creeps show up?" Lumens whispered, smiling slightly as she slung her bow over her back. Link nodded, and then hollered out something without words when she grabbed under his arms and kicked off the ground. Link felt his feet dangle in thin air as they took a short flight up to the top of the building. His eyes were wide when he felt the soles of his feet reconnect with solid stone, and Lumens landed next to him and started to walk across the top of the building.

"Well, c'mon. Don't get left behind!" she called behind her when she saw that he wasn't walking behind her, and Link followed, still not able to believe his incredible luck.

So... I've been watching a lot of Teen Titans lately... and I just had the urge to do a superhero story, which is something that, to my knowledge, hasn't been done yet. If it has, then whatever. I wanna write a superhero story eventually, and that is what this will turn into eventually. I say eventually because I just kind of wanted to put the idea out there before it left my mind. This is a prologue or a preview, whichever you wish to call it, and for now, it will stand on its own.

However, if you wish to see more of it sooner - review or favorite or follow or do something. Let me know what you want, what you liked, or what you didn't like, and I will try to either make it happen or fix something.

Lotsoglomps,

~Eva