Illusory:
"Monsters are real.
They live inside of us.
And sometimes,
They win."
Shadows were nothing more than a darkened reflection of one's self. A morbid gloom passing over a vacant battlefield. The hollow emptiness of dead eyes. Shadows fell in the realm between importance and uselessness, never acknowledged but never deterred. Living, breathing, tangible wisps of bleak smoke and fractured hope. A muddled reflection. A faceless one. Nothing more than darkness. Not evil, but not good. There was no identity for someone that couldn't feel. Couldn't touch. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't smile.
But it smiled anyway.
Because it wasn't a mere shadow anymore. Its existence was no longer spent following in the boy's presence whenever he let out a sigh of contentment, the suns warm rays gently passing over his creamy skin. The shadow was no longer him, but even as it could feel itself peeling from the darkness of the room, it still was. He had blue eyes while it had red. He had golden hair while it had faded grey. He wore a smile of purity while it wore a grin of malicious intent. It crept forward through the shadows, feeling the wetness soak its boots. It stared at the boy, who now looked much more like a man and a warrior. Scars raked his body, his arms, chest, and fingers. But he was whistling still. A happy tune as he walked onward, the muscles in his cheeks jumping as Link recalled a distant memory. It could feel his swallowed down fear. It could practically hear the smothered screaming of his pain as Link struggled onward. Not even his cheery tune could lift Link of his burden. It knew what he felt. It knew the crippling pain of carrying Hyrule's future, because it had taken every step with him.
It stared around the room with ruby eyes. A world that wasn't black and white, but rather, colorful. It grasped onto this new sensation. Learning the difference from cold and hot. The shield and sword was heavy in the shadow's arms, and it soon learned the contrast for weightless and weight. Emotions jittered through it. Confusion. Why could it feel? For it was nothing more than an it, a shadow, a bleak reflection that didn't proclaim the entire truth. Lies consisted of its existence, swallowed by the whispers that were rasped out in the secrecy of night. The confessions that could only be held and heard by the ones that stalked and lurked in the midst of black tendrils.
No, it wasn't an it. The shadow was a he now. A person. Perhaps even, a monster. A creature that was created and produced for the main purpose of destruction and bloodshed.
He exhaled. Inhaled. Got used to the air filling his chest. Thoughts were hesitant at first, prolonged and foggy by his time spent being nothing. His entire continuation was spent as a mythical, insubstantial, fictitious being.
He wondered what exactly the hero would see.
Would he see himself, in a tunic stained black rather than green?
Would he see his darkest times? Would the shadow's eyes reflect that dark night burned permanently into Link's memory? Zelda a small child, frightened and staring at Link. You never do forget the face of your last hope. Would Link see the flashes of everyone he had lost, all the denizens that he failed to protect from the wrath of Ganondorf?
Would Link see his secrets in the condescending smirk of Dark Link? Because darkness knew all. The silhouette knew of the hero's hidden, masked, (forbidden) desires. He knew of how the hero longed to capture the hidden princesses lips with his own. He knew that in the hero's dreams, glimpses of golden hair and sky blue eyes captured every frame. He knew of Link's lust, how he thought of red hair and green eyes when his mind wasn't preoccupied. He knew because he was him. They were one. Link was the bright light while he was the darkness that festered within the hero. Dark Link was a constant reminder of the tragedy and destruction in the hero of time's life. No matter how much Link detested the shadow, they were one, and no amount of wishful thinking could deter that notion.
His red eyes glinted with cruel intentions. The hero wandered around blankly, the tune escaping and dying in his throat. His blue eyes got stormy and guarded, hand resting firmly on the hilt of the Master Sword. The Water Temple was never this quiet. Never this serene. Underneath all that tranquility, dark secrets were lain about for the hero to eventually discover.
The shadow of Link crept out, swirling like a mirage. He whispered words so quietly that they could've been mistaken for undiluted silence, and Link stiffened, his sword making a raw sound as he tore it from its sheath. The tree was behind him now, and the shadow laughed, enjoying his playtime with his other half. He perched behind Link, murmuring profanities about the princess, spilling every guarded secret, informing him about all Link's failures and everyone that had perished because of his own mistake. The hero tensed, prepared to lunge into battle, but not yet sure to determine whether or not he was alone.
That's when the hero noticed that his reflection in the water was no longer there.
He whirled around, his blue eyes coming into contact with bloody red ones.
Dark Link saw the shock on his face. The horror. Fear rooted inside the hero as he took a shaky step forward to the apparition, mouth clamping shut into a firm line. There was sheer terror and loathing in his eyes, something that Link had never bestowed to anyone, not even Ganondorf.
Link lifted his sword in deliberate slowness, watching as Dark Link copied the same movement.
They then began the battle with themselves.
The brighter side was victorious. The one with blonde hair and blue eyes. The bleaker side reverted back to its place as a fragment of a shadow.
This, however, was only a battle.
The war between them would continue forever.