A shining maiden floats in front of me. Who is she? Why do I see her? What are these feelings I have? Trust? No… it is greater… She is dancing. She dances all around me. She is the source of my strength.

But wait! Where is she going? She is suffering.

"No, come back!"

She is engulfed by the darkness… I can still hear her screaming.

"Help me, please help me, please help me, pleeaase… LINK!"

Chapter 1: Living a Lie

Link woke up.

He was surprised to have found himself in his bed. The wetness under the sheets told him how much he was sweating, the soreness in his throat how much he's been screaming, and the stickiness in his eyelids how much he's been crying. He slept for so long, but he was still tired. He thought to himself, It was the same nightmare again. How come it went on for so long?

Link looked over at the empty bed next to him and realized why. He wasn't there to wake him up.

"Drake…"

Link's heart sank as he remembered that Drake was no longer around. It had only been a few days, but Link's mind had gone from suicidal tendencies to revenge tactics, and even running away.

Since Drake had died, Link found no joy in anything. The only thing he could do was wash the memories away by sleeping. He barely ate, he didn't attend training, and he slept almost all of the time. Though he could normally find escape in his slumber, the recurring nightmare now haunted him beyond his ability to bear it. There was no more escape.

Link lived in the junior knights academy, a pre-knight training center, which was located between Hyrule Castle and the Castle Town. Castle Town was the place where he had grown up. The tales of old told of a wonderful kingdom of Hyrule where freedom and happiness grew and everyone was welcome.

That was not this place.

This place was different.

It seemed as though there was no order. Those in charge of the safety of the citizens, the police, were the second greatest source of fear to the citizens. The greatest sources of fear were the Sheikahs, an ancient clan that was deemed by the king to be "The Greatest Threat to our land and the embodiment of true evil." Every night you could hear the screams of the citizens, as the Hyrulean guards would raid another peasant's home in search of "Sheikah terrorists." They would take everything the people have and leave them homeless.

No one cared; it was just another "act of valor." The guards were taking control of the kingdom. The threat of Sheikah attack was apparently growing. Certain churches and parts of the castle had been attacked. None of the citizens had ever seen these Sheiks but knew that they wanted them killed.

Link had one true friend. His name was Drake. Drake was outgoing and funny. He was the type to make friends very easily. Link had met Drake on the first day of the Junior Knights Academy back when they were both thirteen. They were roommates and, over time, bonded. They always had each other's backs no matter what. When others would try to bully Link, Drake would come to help him out, and vice-versa.

One night, while Link was on guard duty, one of Drake's childhood friends, Clyde, came running to Drake's door in a panic.

"DRAKE! You gotta help me!" he cried. "The- the night guards are attacking my home! They arrested my dad and mom when they tried to resist. I- I don't kn- know what to do!" Clyde started crying uncontrollably at this point.

"Get it together, Clyde!" Drake shouted as he shook Clyde by the shoulders.

Clyde seemed to calm down. Drake managed to snap him out of it.

"Lets get over there and figure this out," Drake said as he grabbed his gear and left with Clyde. When Drake and Clyde got there they saw Clyde's family tied up outside the house in a carriage. The guards were inside the house rummaging through their belongings. Clyde ran to his parents to untie them and Drake walked up to the house. He entered through the door, and said in a very loud and clear voice, "WHATS GOING ON HERE?"

About ten or so guards had stopped what they were doing and turned to Drake with a baffled look on their faces. It was the first time anyone had tried to stop them from raiding someone's house.

"This is a police investigation, go home kid!"

"I know exactly what this is! And it is you who needs to be investigated."

"I'm gonna say this one last time. Leave now, and you leave with your legs!"

Drake decided on another means to get his point across. He pulled out his sword and slashed one of the guards down.

"That's it!"

All of the guards ganged up on him and in a matter of seconds he was killed.

The next day, Clyde and his parents disappeared and they were labeled criminals for the murder of Drake and for injuring several of the guards. Link knew Drake and Clyde. He knew that they would never get in a fight this badly. Link very soon gave up on becoming a Hyrulean Knight.

He asked himself: "What for?"

Link felt foolish. For so long he had believed in justice. He even joined the Knight's Academy because of this belief. Now it was clear to him that these "knights" were the means of injustice to society. It seemed as though that Link's entire life until this point was a lie.

There was no more apparent reason for Link to go on with the daily mundane tasks of a knight in training, so one night, he grabbed his gear and set out with no intent of returning to his room that he and Drake had shared for so long. He had only one thing on his mind: Revenge.

There was a full moon out that night. It was almost dead quiet until Link heard a lady screaming. He ran and turned the alley corner and spotted an elderly woman with a large bag flung over her back trying to run away from four guards who were inquiring about what was in the bag. The guards joked around at how slow she was moving. They toyed with her weakness. Link instantly became furious at the scene.

He walked up to them and without saying a word cut one of the men down from behind. One of the other guards, after noticing what had happened, blew a whistle to call in any nearby allies for backup. Then the remaining men pulled their spears out and guarded against Link. By now the lady had gotten away and the guards had forgotten about her.

Link heard a vague "thank you" from the lady. It did not seem to affect his composure.

He charged against the first guard. He used his shield to knock the spear out of the way and made a clean diagonal slash across the chest. The next guard tried to stab Link from behind. Link dodged the thrust, turned around, and made another cut across the chest. The third guard, after seeing this, was more hesitant about attacking Link. Link dashed at him very quickly, sliced the spear in half, and cut him across the chest. Each of the four guards lay on the ground around Link moaning in pain while rolling in their own blood. A moment of realization settled in on the trainee.

Until now, he had only trained with either wooden sticks or on logs. He had never actually injured real people before this moment.

He looked at the blood on his sword and felt an acidic build up in his throat. The jolt of the uncontrollable spasm of vomit brought him to his knees. As the pain welled up in his nose in eyes his inner moral compass took it as a form of punishment. He was not sure if he regretted what he did. "They deserved it!" he told himself in succession.

Link feels his sanity holding on by a thread.

Guards began to gather around Link. With spears drawn, they tiptoed towards him, wondering what exactly was going on. Link, who was unable to defend himself in the middle of this breakdown, was arrested and taken into custody.