*whistles innocently* Okay in my defense this was too good not to share. And I'm not posting this until I have the first two chapters out.

Disclaimer: You know the drill! I don't own the Legend of Zelda. If I did… xD
Destiny's Game is rated "T" for mild language, violence, and adult themes.
*I'm going to try to keep this "T", but that may be hard given the nature of this story.


Destiny's Game
A Legend of Zelda Fanfiction
And Then There Were Six

To this thee hear and to this thee shall listen…

Five millennia ago, the three almighty goddesses, the blessed sisters Din, Nayru, and Farore, descended from the heavens to create their sacred land of Hyrule. With her mighty, powerful flames, Din shaped the barren rock into the land. With her ultimate knowledge and grace, Nayru used her blessed waters to shape the landscape with its many climates. Finally, with her undying courage, Farore created all life on Hyrule, from the littlest of insects to the biggest of giants.

With their strenuous deed complete, the goddesses left Hyrule and ascended for the heavens. In their place, they left the legendary Triforce, one link between the mortal world and the goddesses.

What power does the Triforce hold?

No one knows for sure, but one thing is certain…it is a power so behemoth that its glory should never be touched by human hands.

So listen, well, child, to my call.

Listen to my warning.

The Destiny's Game is about to begin.


"Miss Haiden, is my class so uninteresting that it bored you to sleep?"

So Zelda fell asleep in history class again. Sue her. Peeking her eyes open ever-so-slightly so the harsh white light from the ancient, obviously cheap light bulb wouldn't blind her, Zelda gave a disgruntled yawn. She didn't know why Shad the Bad—err, Mr. Dempster, of course—always insisted on waking her up from her much-needed beauty sleep. She had an A+++ in his class. Yeah. That's right, triple pluses. She never understood why teachers didn't let their top students do whatever the hell they wanted in class. Oh, that's right. Something about "integrity" and "setting a good example" or some bullcrap like that. Cry her a river. Besides, everyone knew the Creation Legend. They only started learning it when they were what, five?

Zelda tossed her messy milky-brown low ponytail behind her back and gave another disinterested yawn, rubbing the sleep half-heartedly out of her emerald green eyes. She rested her head on her palm, glancing up at the chalkboard briefly. Let's see…yep, nothing she'd never heard before.

School was so boring. She was smarter, prettier, and richer than everyone else. If she really wanted to learn a subject, she'd just teach herself. Her father had one of the most expansive libraries in the country. She almost smiled as she recalled happy memories of her locked away in that room, surrounded by piles, piles, piles of books. How she loved books. They didn't care when she slept, what she ate, what she wore, or anything superficial like that. She loved the homey smell of dried ink, dust, and the slight mold of the older texts.

Zelda cast a quick glance up at the old clock that always ran three minutes late. Huh. Look at that, there was only two minutes left. In a way, she was almost disappointed. She could use another nap.

For some strange reason, nightmares plagued the teenager these past few nights. It was the same thing, over and over again. She didn't really see anything. She could sense a feeling of warning and caution. That feeling was put into words that repeated nonstop like a broken record that no one bothered to put out of its misery.

The Destiny's Game is about to begin.

With another toss of her hair, Zelda made a mental note to lay off the coffee or whatever the hell she was drinking before bed. Seriously, you'd expect that with such a bustling and busy mind like hers, she could come up with a different dream every once and awhile. Maybe it was something she read? Maybe her dream was trying to tell her something?

Pah. As if. Zelda was smart, not a gullible buffoon like most of the Hylian population. There was no such thing as "magic" or any crap like that. No, "magic" was just a human concept created to explain the previously inexplicable. Now it was used to create—admittedly quite interesting—stories, fantasies, and made-up stuff like that. That's all it was. A plot device.

A sharp bringggg! awoke her from her musings.

Saved by the bell.

Zelda made no motion to converse with the other students in her class. She hated small talk. She could care less what Mindy wore today or who was Darla's boyfriend of the minute. All of it was so superficial. She yearned to have a decent, philosophical, meaningful conversation. Something not about looks or boyfriends or meaningless things. She craved to have a conversation about the meaning of life. Something substantial. If she asked one of the girls about the meaning of life, they'd respond it was to "get boys". And her Mom asked her why she didn't have any friends. Zelda tried to tell her mother that the teenage population was far too stupid, but her mother only shook her head and wondered what she did wrong.

Biting her lip angrily, Zelda held her head up, the soft flick of her hair tickling her back as her ponytail swished from side to side. She relished in the boys' passionate glances and the girls' glares of jealousy.

A small thump brought her back to Hyrule as she smashed into an unsuspecting student. She rubbed her hair angrily, opening her mouth to curse out the lowlife who dared crash into her when…

"I'm so sorry!"

His voice was just so soothing and he was just so polite that Zelda couldn't help but…poof! Her anger quickly dissipated away. She stared at the boy who ran into her. He was in her class—which class was it? Math? History?—but she couldn't remember his name. Hey, she couldn't help it, she was bad with names. What was it? Wink? Sink? No, that couldn't be right…her brow scrunched up as she frowned, trying to remember the poor sap's name. While she was lost in her thoughts—something that occurred on a very regular basis—the boy stood up, trying rather fruitlessly to rub the dirt off his pants.

The Destiny's Game is about to begin.

Chink? Gink? Clink….oh!

"It's LINK!" Zelda cried as she snapped her fingers. She made a motion of victory, unaware that her outburst had caught the attention of the entire student body in the hallway. She tried to pay no attention to the students' harsh whispers "oh, she's that girl" "she's the genius that thinks she's too cool" "…the girl with no friends". She learned that life was a lot easier when you didn't give two craps about what other people thought about you. Still, despite her attempts to block the parasitic whispers out, she couldn't help but feel down.

It's all of your faults that I don't have friends. It's not my fault teenagers are so stupid.

She was sure the boy with the melodic voice that bumped into her was probably whispering something nasty to his friends right now. Just like everyone else, he saw her as a strange genius who thought of nothing but herself.

She finally turned her attention back to the boy, finding a pair of legs where his head once was. Oh. Right. She glanced up, expecting to see a raised eyebrow or an obvious look of disgust. Or perhaps he'd already run for the hills.

To her surprise, he was still standing there, with nothing but a soft, gentle, serene smile on his face. His light golden hair seemed to shine even in the dim, dank hallway. His blue eyes shone light stars among the night sky, shining brightly when everything else was black, blacker than the darkest night. He wasn't the tallest guy—Zelda expected he was shorter than her—and he could afford to eat a few hamburgers, but boy, was he…handsome.

Handsome!? Did she honestly just think he was handsome!? Well, he had to have left some sort of impression on her or she never would have remembered his name. Zelda cursed at herself internally, furious that she would ever think of something so juvenile. He was probably like every other person at her school…rich, entitled, spoiled kids who thought nothing of themselves and gossiped about superficial things.

He was probably just like her.

"Are you okay, Zelda?"

Zelda. He knows my name is Zelda.

Zelda couldn't stop—despite her best efforts—the blush that naturally flushed her cheeks a gentle pink. He outstretched his hand to her, his gentle smile still radiating warmly. She saw the dirt lining the tips of his fingers, but to her surprise, she took his hand almost immediately and allowed him to help her up.

The Destiny's Game is about to begin.

She wanted to say something, to tell him thank you, but when she opened her mouth, all she could hear was the jeers of her classmates; the condescending insults said when someone was jealous and incapable of higher thoughts. She tried to tell herself that she was above all of that and to screw them all to hell, but to her surprise, she merely ran off, not saying another word and leaving a befuddled Link in the middle of the hallway.

She ran, ran, ran until she came into the gym locker rooms, quickly throwing on her archery uniform without so much saying a word to the other members of the squad, brown hair knocked askew and falling out of her already messy ponytail. Her mind and heart alike buzzed with the superficial thoughts and feelings she despised so much. She cursed at herself for thinking that Link was handsome. She yelled at her every being for caring what those lowlifes she was forced to call peers thought of herself. She desperately yearned to be herself, the Zelda she loved, the genius girl with a superior intellect.

She drew her bow angrily, not even trying to clear her mind, as she fired, fired, fired arrows one after another into the same target, hoping to quell the fire in her heart with archery. Ever since she was a child, she was a skilled archer. Her father absolutely insisted that she join a sport—he couldn't bear to see his delicate daughter fry under the sun or some silly reason like that—and since Zelda was far too lazy to do anything that required physical activity, she chose archery. She was an excellent shot, she could shoot a squirrel bustling in the bushes from miles away if she wanted to—although even the thought of doing such a thing made her sick to her stomach—and could draw a new arrow quicker than someone could say "help!"

She ignored any of her squad's supposedly concerned statements—it was all superficial anyways, who actually liked her?—and continued to fire away mercilessly, ignoring anything that caused her to feel painful emotions and have her experience unnecessary thoughts. Seriously. She was Zelda Haiden, for cryin' out loud. She was ten times more beautiful than any of the other girls in the school. She was smarter than the smartest teacher. She was even the star of a very competitive archery team to boot. And yet, and yet, and yet

The Destiny's Game is about to begin.

There it was again. That voice. It had been pestering her all week, but it had recently become more and more frequent. A feeling of dread welled up in her already queasy tummy. But why did she hear it now? Before she only heard that voice when she was sleeping…

The Destiny's Game has begun.

Reality around her suddenly morphed. Images flashed before her as they became distorted as if they were something out of a fantasy coloring book. The panicked cries of her teammates echoed as if they were screaming in the middle of some lost valley.

As Zelda's world turned from a harsh grey into black, she couldn't help but think maybe her teammates really were worried about her after all.


Okay, Zelda was going to punch whatever asshole dropped her on her head into the next oblivion.

"Where the hell are we?"

Zelda frowned. She didn't recognize that voice as any lowlife from her school. Using her excellent deducing skills, Zelda guessed that the speaker was in her late teens, maybe early twenties. Zelda tried not to sigh. So much for escaping teenagers. Zelda decided to screw her migraine and forced open her eyes, bracing herself for the bright light of the outside world.

To her surprise, it was dark; the only light the shade of blood as the setting sun streamed through a crack in the window. Huh. Now Zelda was royally confounded—a very rare occurrence indeed. Last time she checked, just moments ago when she collapsed at archery practice, it was barely 2:30. Since when did the sun set at 2:30? Certainly not at this latitude. Zelda frantically glanced around, observing her new surroundings. Everything was stained crimson or deep purple from the sun's fading rays, but Zelda was able to discern some sort of bed that you'd expect to see in an old romance film and a crickety old armoire with more cracks than a piece of broken glass. Were they in some second-rate hotel?

The aforementioned speaker was sprawled on the floor to Zelda's left, or at least she assumed she was the speaker, as she was the only one Zelda could see. Just like Zelda guessed from the sound of her voice, the girl appeared to be in her late teens, maybe a couple—just a couple—of years older than Zelda. It was hard to make out her coloring in the light, but Zelda deduced that the girl was definitely a natural redhead, with fiery curls that stuck up in all sorts of places around her head. She was dressed in an oversized baggy t-shirt that said GUNS KILL, which Zelda assumed to be some sort of band—the teen definitely didn't seem like a pacifist, that was for sure—and a pair of tattered camo pants.

Zelda wasn't sure what should she say—she didn't like fraternizing with the commoners, especially people she didn't know—but she knew she had to say something.

"We appear to be in some sort of hotel," she finally said, acknowledging the messy girl—quite begrudgingly—with a small nod.

"Huh," She said, blowing a bubblegum bubble and smacking her gum loudly. Zelda cringed. How she hated the sound of gum. It was so uncouth. The other girl itched at her bangs, squinting her almond brown eyes at her surroundings. "I guess you're right. This looks like the set of some low-rate porno film."

"Porn? Where!?" A new voice—obviously male, only a guy would have such a reaction—cut in suddenly as a lanky kid bumbled towards Zelda and the other girl. The boy was extremely tall, well over six feet, with waist length blond hair and brown eyes so vibrant they almost appeared to be red. He either had really bad eyesight or was thrown off by the color scheme as he banged into the bed and promptly collapsed on it. Zelda groaned, rubbing her temples. The other girl burst out into a hysterical fit of laughter, snorting after every other giggle.

"Why, if it isn't Sheik," she snarked, smacking her gum for an added effect. "What are you doing here, Loverboy? Can't get a date so you stranded two beautiful ladies in a hotel to please your every whim? Don't you have a hand to do that for yourself?"

So apparently the—perverted—newcomer was named Sheik. Hmm. Zelda wondered if he had anything to do with the Sheikah tribe, a once proud race that was skilled in all sorts of martial arts. Back when Hyrule was a monarchy, it was the job of the Sheikah to protect the royal family. However, given the kid's lack of balance and lack of self-awareness, Zelda doubted that to be true. This must be one of those cases where his parents named him "Sheik" to honor the Sheikah tribe, just like when parents named their daughters "Hylia".

"Shut up, Midna," Sheik growled, his voice muffled from the bedcovers. "First of all, I can get a date, thank you very much. I happen to be quite good with the ladies. And second of all," he pulled himself up, turning to the armoire and failing to realize that the girl—apparently named Midna—was in the opposite direction. "If I wanted to capture girls and take them on a date, I certainly wouldn't take you."

"I wouldn't take an armoire either," Midna grinned, smacking her gum again. Sheik gave an indignant huff, brushing the armoire aside—as if it had feelings—and quickly turning to face Midna and wagging his finger in her face.

"Now you see here…wait a minute, did you say two beautiful ladies!?"

Midna pointed in Zelda's direction.

Zelda cursed the redhead internally and debated whether she should hide behind the hideously orange and obviously stained—stained with what, she didn't want to know—chair or the tattered curtains. Unfortunately, Sheik realized that he could see and noticed her. He floundered about on the floor, practically crawling to her and clasping her hands in his monstrous monkey paws. Ugh, he reeked of some sort of weed.

"Beautiful," he said in a hushed—did he seriously think he was sexy?—voice, his breath smelling like a combination between dog poop and dandelions. It was utterly repulsive. "What is your name? I'm sure it's something gorgeous like Angel, Lily, Flora…"

"It's Zelda," Zelda cut in, not wanting to know what other so-called "names" he picked out for her. While she was a bit hesitant to give this wackjob her name, she wanted the redhead to know it, too. Whatever their situation was, Zelda couldn't shake the odd feeling that they'd have to face it together. Well, after all, they too woke up in some hotel randomly. Maybe, maybe…

"Midna…your name is Midna, correct?" Zelda asked the redhead, completely ignoring whatever mumbo-jumbo Sheik was babbling about. Red nodded, spitting out her gum in one of the—fake—plant's pots. While Zelda disapproved over her rubbish methods, she was relieved that the girl finally stopped chewing that disgusting rubber. "Did you have a strange dream?"

"Huh?" Midna asked, crossing her legs over the three-legged broken coffee table and leaning on the wall for support. "Hmmm…" her brow scrunched in thought and she pursed her lips for a moment before suddenly sitting upright as if a light bulb went off over her head. "Do you mean that weird voice? Some old crone kept saying 'The Destiny's Game is about to begin' or some crap like that."

Well, would you look at that? It seemed like Zelda's hunch was right. She still couldn't shake the feeling that no matter what, the three of them would have to work together for…whatever was going on. That included icky Loverboy over here, still clinging onto Zelda's hands and babbling incoherently. Well, he was, until…

"Yeah, that happened to me too," Sheik said, suddenly letting go of Zelda's hands and sounding serious, crossing his arms over his chest. "I've been having dreams the past week. But it's weird. When I was dreaming, I didn't see anything. I just kept hearing the same thing over and over again. 'The Destiny's Game is about to begin'." While Zelda was a bit perplexed in Sheik's sudden change in behavior, she sure was grateful. She took a whiff of her hands. Gross. She wanted a shower right now.

"So it happened to you children as well," a new voice filled with wisdom said. Zelda, Midna, and Sheik quickly stopped talking and all stared at the newcomer who magically appeared on the bed in front of them. Zelda's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. Who was she and where did she come from!? Well, on the bright side, Zelda could hear the intelligence overflowing in the elderly lady's voice. Maybe she could actually have that meaningful conversation she dreamed of.

A small old lady sat cross-legged on the bed, graying blond hair fell over her shoulders in a type of messy braid. If Zelda didn't know any better, she would think the braid was swinging back and forth in time, a metronome keeping the beat. While Zelda and Midna continued to look shocked—Midna even reached into the plant pot and popped her now dirty gum in her mouth as a coping mechanism—Sheik only groaned.

"Not the old crone again. I should've known you'd be behind this," He pulled himself up into the orange chair and collapsed on it, resting his head in his palm. Her once serene expression turning into a frown, the old lady leapt gracefully off the bed as if she was performing a dance move and quickly brought a large fan down on Sheik's head who promptly yelped and covered his face with a yellow polka-dotted pillow. After smacking him to her heart's delight, the elderly lady resumed her meditative position on the bed, humming some sort of folk song that Zelda recognized but didn't remember the name.

"Do you know her?" Midna asked sarcastically, blowing a now brown gum bubble.

Questions swirled in Zelda's mind, so many that she couldn't keep track of. Who was this lady? How did she appear on the bed like that? How did she know Sheik? Where did she learn to jump like that? And why, why were they all here!?

"Unfortunately," Sheik replied, more questions plaguing Zelda. She was about to burst. She couldn't stand not knowing so much. She always knew everything. This doubt…this misunderstanding…this unknowing…it was insufferable! "Believe it or not, the witch is my teacher."

The old woman took out her oversized fan again—"who are you calling a witch!?"—and smiled lightly at Midna. "Believe it or not, that child has a lot of potential, if he'd only use that brain of his for something other than girl-chasing."

Zelda could see the look of utter confusion on Midna's face. Normally, she'd scoff at such an expression, but for the first time, Zelda was completely bewildered as well. Teacher? Of what? Surely Sheik went to some sort of college—at least he looked to be college-age, mentally who knew—for education. Perhaps she was his personal tutor? But the way she moved…it was almost like she was…

"Are you his martial arts instructor?" Zelda finally asked. She wasn't positive about her deduction, but it was the best she could come up with. She had to ask one question here and there—she couldn't ask too many, that would ruin her genius reputation—or otherwise she'd go nuts. She wanted to start understanding again.

Now the elderly woman stared straight into Zelda's eyes, as if she was peering into Zelda's very soul. Zelda tried not to focus on the braid, because otherwise it would put her to sleep. After searching for something—what, Zelda had no idea—the woman smiled.

"Good guess. Martial arts is just one of the many things I teach him. You seem very knowledgeable, my dear, and you may have already figured it out yourself. Sheik is a Sheikah, a member of the tribe that vowed to forever protect our dear land of Hyrule."

So Zelda's hunch about Sheik being a Sheikah was right after all. She couldn't stop her smile, the sense of confusion and idiocy happily leaving her instantly. Of course. Why did she ever doubt herself? She was a genius and her sense of observation was keen and always correct.

While Zelda was certainly pleased with this revelation, Midna looked more confused than ever. After a pregnant pause, the redhead burst out into another hysteric fits of giggles, snorting louder than ever. She laughed and laughed until tears formed in her massive brown eyes.

"Sheik? A Sheikah!? You've got to be kidding me! Your race surely must be hurting if he's your last hope," she snorted.

"Shut up, Midna," Sheik growled. "You didn't have to tell her, Impa. She's never gonna let me hear the end of this now."

The elderly woman—apparently named Impa, if Sheik was calling her by her actual name for once—only smiled again, although instead of wisdom this smile possessed a sense of mischievousness. "My boy, I'm afraid that is the least of your worries. We mustn't keep secrets from each other, because in this game, we are all that we have."

There it was again. The word game.

The Destiny's Game has begun.

"Impa, if I may ask," Zelda said tentatively. She had to know what the game was—the suspense was eating at her and driving her nuts—but in a way, she didn't want to know. She could feel that something was off, that something was completely and utterly wrong. She was sure that the "game" wasn't something she would play at a birthday party with friends (well, if she had any, that is). It almost seemed so…so…morbid. "This game…the one we heard of in our dreams…what is it?"

Midna placed her gum back in the plant pot and even Sheik seemed somber as they too listened, eagerly—and worriedly—awaiting Impa's response.

"If the legends are true," Impa said after a heavy sigh, "The Destiny's Game was a battle between twelve warring kingdoms in order to determine who was worthy of the true power of Hyrule."

"That's it?" Sheik scoffed. "That's the War of Unification. We learned about that in history class. That war lead to the official unification of Hyrule for the first time in Hyrule's history. The twelve kingdoms of Hyrule had this big battle to decide who would rule Hyrule once and for all. C'mon, Grannie. That's nothing. Hasn't like, every country gone through something like that?"

As much as Zelda hated to admit it—and she really hated to admit it—Sheik had a point. Just like the Creation Legend, the War of Unification was a basic part of Hyrule's history. Every Hylian child learned it when they were in elementary school. Although, now that she thought about it, the War of Unification was a bit…unique, especially compared to some of the other countries' histories. Zelda remembered reading many books about it when she was a child in order to cope with the boring a dull lesson she was forced to relearn every year. According to many different sources, the War of Unification was only fought by the royalty of each kingdom. The common people weren't involved. No armies. No catapults. No swords. No Boom! Nothing.

As she thought about it more, she remembered reading about a conspiracy theory regarding the War of Unification. Now, she hated to believe a conspiracy theory more than she hated to agree with Sheik, but…maybe…

"Impa, I remember reading something…this might sound silly, but…" Zelda blushed, upset with herself for even considering such a silly and illogical thing. Impa only nodded, a subtle motion for Zelda to continue. "There are some theorists…" she cleared her throat, still not believing what was coming out of her mouth, "…that believe that War of Unification has to do with the Creation Legend and the Triforce. They believe that the goddesses wanted to unify Hyrule, so they created some sort of contest. Whichever kingdom won the contest would be blessed with the Triforce."

Zelda blushed, happy to finally say it and get it off her chest. The whole idea was preposterous, of course. The Creation Legend was exactly that, a legend. No one actually believed that three goddesses with magical powers actually created Hyrule, did they? And who believed in the Triforce? Who believed that three triangles of all things could be the key to ultimate power?

"That's exactly it, my dear," Impa said almost soothingly. "That's the Destiny's Game. It is said that every three thousand years, Hyrule's royalty will compete in a fierce battle to obtain the ultimate power."

"Okay, let's say I actually believe you," Midna said, sitting up and crossing her arms and feet not unlike Impa. "There's something that still doesn't add up here. What royalty? Hyrule's royalty ended a couple hundred years ago when we became a democracy."

Zelda repressed a snort. Seriously, was Midna considering believing this utter nonsense? Yet, despite all of Zelda's feelings of logic and reason, something, something felt right. It was as if deep, deep, deep, deep, deep down she believed Impa's words too.

…and she hated it.

"The contenders today would of course be the descendants of the original royalty," Impa answered as if this situation was perfectly rational and it made complete sense. "In the original Destiny's Game, there were six members on a team. There was the member of royalty, of course, and five protectors. If the royalty member died, the team lost."

She explained it if it really was a simple board game you played as children. The way she talked about death and dying was just so sickening, especially for Zelda. She could feel her stomach turn over and over again as the word death echoed in her mind.

"If this is still too much to handle, look at your palms, children."

Zelda didn't want to look down—who knew what horrors would befall her—and she shut her eyes real quick, shutting out any excited noise Midna made or Sheik's gasps of disbelief. No. This was complete and utter nonsense. She was not about to fight some stupid game where the loser died. She was not fighting for so-called "ultimate power". She was Zelda Haiden. She was above all of this nonsense.

And yet…

Zelda peeped her eyes open, just as she had sleepily peeked at the board in class earlier that day, at the palm of her hand. On her palm was the number six, a deep crimson red. There was no sign of a cut and even more strangely, it didn't hurt. It was as if that six was there her entire life and she was just now seeing it.

"…what's with the six?" Sheik asked, holding up his palm to Impa. In return, Impa held up her hand, also emblazoned with the fiery six. Midna, still making strange noises—an interesting combination of outrage and a sense of morbid curiosity— also produced her hand, revealing a six. Finally, after her other three strange companions stared at her, Zelda showed them her six as well.

"The six symbolizes our team," Impa said. "We are the Sixth Kingdom."

Sheik opened his mouth to speak but was suddenly cut off by an extremely loud and feminine scream, a scream so loud it could shatter the strongest glass. Midna covered her ears, Sheik laughed, and Impa seemed very worried. Zelda, on the other hand…

…she recognized that scream. She could recognize that scream in her sleep. That kind of scream would only come from the most pompous, arrogant, entitled, stupid person she'd ever known in her life. Oh hey, life doesn't think you're suffering enough from this game to the death so let's just throw in the person you hate most!

The large, overweight boy nearly knocked Impa off the bed with blundering speed and raised his chubby hand to show her the mark that was on his palm. Hell, even the six on his hand looked fat. No, if he had a six on his palm and this cruel twist of fate really wasn't a bad dream she could just wake up from…

"What does this mean!? I'm in a fight to the death!? I can't! I'm too young to die! I'm too special to die!"

"Please tell me he's our royalty member," Sheik grumbled. "Then we can just kill him and get it over with."

This time, Zelda was more than happy to agree with Sheik.

Please. Anyone but him. Anyone! Zelda was willing to become religious. She'd pray to the goddesses any day. She'd build a church! Heck, she'd even use her fantastic art skills to make the most beautiful goddess statues Hyrule had ever seen. Just please, please, please, please, please, please, please don't make her fight for her life with this buffoon.

"Calm down, my boy, please relax," Impa said gently, placing a hand on the idiot monkey's shoulder. "You're not going to die. I promise. Somewhere, deep inside of you, even if it may seem hopeless now, there is courage within. Find it. We will need your strength if we are going to protect our monarch."

"So much for that idea, Sheik," Midna said. Sheik and Midna groaned in unison, even placing their heads in their hands and the same time. If the situation wasn't so dire, Zelda may have been tempted to tell them how much they looked like each other. But now wasn't the time. No, as long as that arrogant freak of nature was stuck in this so-called game with her…

"But you don't understand, Grannie! I can't be involved as something so horrible! I…I…"

"SHUT UP, GROOSE!"

Zelda's furious scream echoed throughout the previously noisy room, leaving only silence. She placed a hand over her mouth, surprised at the vitriol intent behind it. Sure, she hated the guy's guts. He was horribly arrogant and rude and entitled and fat and…Zelda sighed. Impa, Midna, and Sheik all looked surprised at her, and Groose, well…

Instead of saying how mean Zelda was and that she should never be so cruel to someone as wonderful as he, Groose only grinned from ear to ear, tears falling down his face as he crashed towards her, the ground shaking with every step, blubbering the whole way. Zelda ducked behind Sheik's chair—"hey, don't put me in his warpath!"—for safety and sighed as Groose ran to her regardless, knocking Sheik out of the way and pulling her into a suffocating bearhug and blubbering all over her nice clothes. Zelda swore, if she found snot in her hair…

"I take it you know him?" Midna wandered over, making no motion to help a panicking Sheik up off the ground. Zelda only nodded, making sure she had the most miserable look on her face so one of her companions would finally help her. After a moment of flailing around trying to find something to hold on to, Sheik pulled himself up by the fallen chair and smacked Groose, hard.

"The hell do you think you're doing, knocking me over like that!?"

Thanks to Sheik's interference, Groose dropped Zelda. She gasped, hacking for breath and quickly dashed to the other side of the room, this time hiding behind Impa. The kind woman smiled, helping Zelda brush icky stuff out of her hair with a handkerchief. Stupid Groose. Even when she insulted him he still ran to her like a baby ran to his mother…

"My name is Groose DeArcy," Groose said, placing his hands on his hips. His shirt, which was three sizes too small, revealed his flabby belly. "I am the son of the DeArcy family. I will take over the prized family business and control 10% of Hyrule's money supply. I will not let some commoner…" he spat in Sheik's face for good measure, "…lay their hands on me when I am having a moment with my fiancé."

Sheik was too grossed out by Groose's bright red hair—even brighter than Miss Red over there, to Zelda's surprise—slicked with grease and his hideous lime green too-small ensemble to care what he was saying. That was, until he heard the dreaded word fiancé.

"Fiancé?" He asked, eyes as wide as dinner plates. "You are that beautiful angel's fiancé!?"

Okay. Zelda sighed. She felt the need to explain. Her parents, the Haidens, were the owners of a massive business conglomerate that owned the majority of businesses in Hyrule. How it wasn't a monopoly, Zelda would never know. If she had to guess, her father probably paid off someone and her mother probably slept with a few people in order to get the government to look the other way. Anyways, Groose's family was also pretty successful, and their parents thought it would be a wonderful idea for business if Groose and Zelda married.

"I didn't pick him, if that's what you're wondering," Zelda growled from behind Impa.

"Well naturally," Midna said sarcastically. "Unless 'shut up' is the new hip way to say 'I love you'."

"Shall we get back to the task at hand," Impa said tiredly, waving her hands as she tried to defuse the tension that was obviously building in the room. "We are a team. We must work together in order to protect our Doll."

For once, Zelda was almost glad they had this whole deadly-game-thing to take her mind off of her stupid fiancé and her cursed familial situation for a moment. That was a new term that Zelda had never heard of. She vaguely remembered—she never put a lot of stock in those conspiracy books before—reading about the term "Doll". Apparently, it was given to the member of royalty on each team.

"I'm gonna guess that little "Doll" thingie is our royal member…wait, so none of us is the Doll?" Midna asked. She shrugged, slouching back down into her previous position now that the action was seemingly over. "Well, I guess I'm a little relieved."

Impa shook her head. "We are merely the Doll's protectors," she said. "The five of us must work together in order to protect our Doll. After all, we can still survive if our team loses. Our Doll, however, cannot."

"I still have no idea what's going on, but first we gotta find our Doll, right? Bet she's a babe," Sheik grinned, almost drooling at the thought of some beautiful girl with pale white skin like a China doll and luscious red lips.

Impa opened her mouth to say something when she was cut off by a scream.

This scream was much more different than Groose's. It was one filled with pain and more than that, despair. Instead of being harsh and feminine, the scream had a despondent and almost gentle tone. Zelda knew who that scream belonged to.

It shattered her spirit and tore at her very being.

No. Please. Not him. Anyone but him! PLEASE!

"LINK!"


A/N

Muahahahahahahahaaaaaa! Well, seeing as this chapter is going up at the same time as the next one…I guess that kind of defeats the purpose of a cliffhanger. :P You're welcome. :P

I am already a bit concerned with the rating…this is a very dark story. It doesn't seem too bad right now, but that's because nothing's happened yet, LOL. xD

Well that chapter was longer than I was expecting. :P This chapter's purpose was to introduce our main cast. This is a pretty large world with a lot of characters from all the different Zelda games making significant appearances. If you're still confused on what the game actually is, that's fine, the next chapter will explain it all. xD This one was more about the characters.

And then there were six: Zelda, Link, Midna, Sheik, Impa, and Groose. This will be an interesting little bunch for us. :P

There is a lot of writing in here so please forgive me if I missed any mistakes…but please point it out to me! I have been trying to drastically improve my writing, so any constructive criticism is more than welcome. Please also leave a review and let me know how you're enjoying the story! I'm kind of treating this as my second Ascension so it's definitely my baby.

I hope you're enjoying the story and I'll see you in the next chapter! Which…is already posted. So please go ahead and click if you'd like. xD

*Interesting tidbit: The word-count (before I edited and without this little note) was exactly 6,666. Huh. Spooky. ;)