He couldn't move. His arms wouldn't respond, his legs could not budge...even his head would not turn so that he could inspect his dark surroundings. Link knew not where he was, nor even how he had gotten here. All about him, the air was filled with a grey mist, like a thick fog of midday, and he felt a chill run up his paralyzed spine. Why couldn't he move!? Why would he not respond?! Something was horribly wrong with him. His mind fought, trying to see through his memories as to how he had gotten here, desperately searching for some sort of clue. But none came to him. The fog about him, it seemed, pervaded even his thoughts, to where even trifle things, such as the faces of his dear friends, and even his name, became a strain to recall. Why could he not remember? Why was he here? His blue eyes, possible the only thing that could move at this point, darted around, searching for a sign, but none came to him. Nothing revealed itself out of the swirling fog. He was there, trapped. He would not get free at this rate. He had to try and move. He had to try and escape.
Focusing his will upon his legs, he fought to get them to move. But they would still not reply. The most that happened was a feeble twitch from his left leg. This, however, gave the young swordsman hope, and so, he pushed on, willing it, at least, to move. It trembled again, the strain feeling like he had a cramped muscle that would not loosen, and he winced against the pain that it sent shooting through him. But the Hero of Time would not be stopped. He could not be stop. To give up now would mean...well, he didn't know what would happen. With little clue as to where he was, he could make no predictions of what would happen if he simply stayed standing there.
It moved. With a small, jerking motion, his left leg lurched forward, the sound of something beneath his boot sounding through the empty, mist-filled air.
Water.
Wherever he was, there was water below his feet. How he didn't notice before eluded him, but he guessed that, if anything, the liquid must not have been too cold; either that, or his boots had suddenly become extremely water-proof. Either way, though, didn't matter. He could move! It may have only been one leg, but it meant that he could still move if he mustered enough strength.
"And where will you go...?"
The voice was very clear, very precise, and very sly, and Link's eyes shot around again, seeking the owner. But he found nothing. The only thing he saw was mists and a dark silhouette of something too far away to distinguish what it was. This was strange, for it had not been there before, but Link had seen stranger things in his life, and been in predicaments just as odd. Even here, as he strained to move his right leg, finally succeeding, he was reminded of an incident where he had been swallowed whole by a giant fish. Lord Jabu Jabu's digestive track had been almost as murky as this place, though it certainly smelled a great deal better here then within the bowels of the fish god. He recalled it all clearly now, though why that little adventure came back to him now, out of the fogs that clouded his mind, while other things still eluded him, he knew not; he still could not remember his name.
With each forced step he took, Link found it easier and easier to move, until, finally, he could walk at a normal pace once more, the tall shadowed thing in the mists growing closer as he approached. The mists began to roll back as he did, the water around his feet swishing lightly with each step, and finally, he was able to make out what it was he had fought so hard to reach.
There, as the mists vanished to the fringes of his vision, Link could see a single tree, sitting on a smooth mound of earth, rising up into the gray sky. Its twisted branches were bare of any leaves, and its wood was as dark as tar. Still, Link realized the accomplishment he had made, and smiled satisfactorily to himself as he walked closer, now but only several feet from his destination. But as the fogs around him disappeared, so to did the mists in his mind, and he realized that he had seen this tree before, had been in this place before, walking through the same waters, the same mists...it had been when he-
But his thought and memories were halted. The feeling of something icy cold and extremely sharp being drawn from a sheath echoed through air, before being placed against his neck, a hand reaching about his waist, pining him tightly against an unseen assailant behind him. Sweat beaded on Link's head, as a familiar voice, his own voice, echoed into his pointed ears, blowing the blonde hair that hung over them out of the way.
"You never learn, do you?" his darker self questioned, pressing the blade and himself against Link, his darkly tanned face seeming to materialize out of the fog to his left, his face, spread in a wicked sneer, leering at him from just above his shoulder. His eyes, those piercing, menacing eyes that Link had seen what seemed so long ago, now stared into his own from beneath a black fringe of hair, the very aura of the this image of himself radiating violence and evil. The blade bit into Link's neck ever so slightly, a tiny trickle of blood running from the cut down the shining metal and into the water, turning the spot it fell into a pinkish color, before dispersing. "This is the second time I have caught you like this...but this time you will not escape so easily..."
His darker self narrowed his red eyes, but Link stood defiant. He would not be intimidated. He was facing himself, or rather, his evil inhibitions and desires, the darkness within himself manifested. Dark Link was only as strong as Link himself, and both of them knew that. Still, there was one thing that the demonic Hero of Time had that Link didn't; a sword.
"Do you think I'm afraid?" Link hissed against the biting pain of the cut on his neck. "I've defeated you once...I escaped from this same thing before..."
"Ah yes of course..." his wicked self laughed, holding him tighter, "But then again, you were both armed and in a normal, physical plain...you have neither advantage now..."
Before Link could ask what this meant, the doppelganger had swung around, the sword still against Link's neck, but his hand removing its hold. Instead, the demonic swordsman pulled Link backward, knocking him off his feet, causing him to fall back towards the water. In a flash, Dark Link had set upon him, forcing him down into the shallow pool, the blade still at his throat, the metal humming with an almost life of its own. Link could barely blink before Dark Link was settled on top of him, pinning his arms down with his black boots and knees, his hand holding him balanced as he straddled the fallen hero, the blade cutting just a bit deeper.
"I have wanted a long time for this..." the Dark Link hissed, snickering with unhidden glee. "I have wanted to end your life for so very long...to do so would free me from my bonds to you...to become a physical being and wander the world as you do, spreading YOUR malice and YOUR hatred!" Link opened his mouth to speak, but his evil twin placed a finger to his upper lip. "Now, now, don't speak...I really may end up killing you if you do, and I wouldn't like to do that...after all, we're the only company either of us will have for a long time..." His black fringe concealed his eyes as he leant forward, hunching a bit, a cold shudder of a laugh making its way up his throat, before he burst forth in terrible hysterics, as though he had been told the funniest joke ever. Link grimaced at the thought of what could entertain this dark being so greatly, but he didn't have to ask for an explanation.
"You see," his dark self continued, "We're both trapped here! The irony is too delicious for me, really!" He continued to laugh, though a bit quieter now, as Link struggled to get his arms free, though to little avail. Dark Link suddenly felt as heavy as lead, and nothing Link did could get him from this most precarious position.
"What do you mean!?" he spat, daring to question the laughing entity. "I don't even know where HERE is!"
"Don't you?" dark Link asked, finally quieting his raucous laughter long enough to answer. However, instead of explaining himself, he stood up, relieving the heavy weight upon his lighter self, and bid him to rise up. Link couldn't refuse, and found, despite his mental protests, that he stood not because he wanted to, but because Dark Link wanted him to. "Look there, below us, and see your answer..."
Link turned his blue eyes towards the water and allowed a gasp to escape his throat. He remembered now! There, below his feet, was the reflected image of this place they were in. But that place below, the fogs there were lighter, almost white, and there was a slightly blue sky to be seen above the mirrored image of the tall tree. He had been in that room, fought in that room! It was...it was where he had been pulled into this place. This nightmarish reflection of the watery room in the Water Temple!
"You made this my prison, Link..." his evil counterpart hissed, grabbing Link by the front of his green tunic, and pulling him within inches of his own dark face. "I was trapped here eternally, never again to be freed...well now, you may share in my fate! I won't be here by myself anymore! You are now my prisoner, as you made me a prisoner to this accursed place!" Without another word, the Dark Link brought his sword to bear, and shot it forward, piercing Link's stomach, impaling him on its icy blade, as his blood flowed forward, dripping and mingling with the water. The Hero of Time fell forward, his blue eyes wide with pain and shock of the wound, of everything that had been revealed to him. So this was how he was going to die? Sealed within a dark mirror of water, slain by himself? He closed his eyes for what he fear would be the last time.
Dark Link looked down at his bloodied counterpart. As much as he would have liked to have killed him, it would have done him no good. One could not die in this place. He would have killed himself long ago if he could have. Withdrawing his now crimson stained weapon, he regarded the blood upon it. He took the blade to his face, sniffing the red flow for a moment, before licking the flat of it, making a disgusted face at the taste.
"Too sweet..." he grimaced, dragging the unconscious hero to the tree's island. "Even here in my own world, you continue to be a bother..." he muttered as he propped the hero up, cutting down the middle of the green tunic, allowing it to fall onto either side of Link's waist, his chest and wound now revealed fully. Link's hat, the green, ridiculous hat that he, Dark Link, cursed for ever having been made, was the perfect amount of cloth for bandaging the gruesome piercing, and so, he made use of this time to think of what things he could do to Link, what tortures would serve as a lesson to the Hero of Time for sealing him eternally in this prison of mists and darkness. But none came to him. As much as he hated Link, as much as he wished to make him pay for what had transpired during their fight in the Water Temple, the demonic being simply could not bring himself to harm his own self...though there were times when he loathed even his own existence.
"You are so lucky that I wanted someone to speak to..." he growled at the blacked-out Link. "So fortunate, as always, that you have found favor with yet another person...I'll let you remain unharmed from now on...maybe..." He rose to his feet, the bandages set, and reached into the leather pouch on his belt, where Link would have stored his ocarina, the Ocarina of Time. Examining his own, a black instrument, made of dark wood, and painted to the point it was almost as dark as onyx, the entity tossed it onto Link's form. Dark Link hated trying to play it, but perhaps Link could...it would give him something to listen to then just the whining he was sure would come.
"Sleep well, hero..." Dark Link spat. "I expect it'll be the last bit of sleep you'll ever find here...welcome to our hell..."