Standard disclaimers apply. As does a confused little laugh, because this got a bit longer than I thought it'd get.
The sky was dark.
Everything was dark, the floor of her prison, the panes in her window, the wood of the door, the covering on her bed, even the meagre fire which had apparently quit the fight against the bleakness. It was just sort of there, producing some sullen semblance of heat and a lazy reproduction of light. But it seemed especially noteworthy that the sky was dark.
Zelda was bored. It was an annoying thing to be. Hyrule was tortured, wrapped in Twilight, all her citizens turned to ghosts, mere shades of their former self, many dead and all slowly dying, stagnating themselves out of existence, and she was distracted by the fact that she had no distractions other than a half-hearted fire and pacing over the same worries yet again.
Midna had occasionally come to see her, talking with her of the Twili and the Hyrulians alike, how both people suffered under Zant and her plans to overthrow him.
"Find the Courage," Zelda had told the imp, holding out her hand to display the Triforce symbol. "It tends to make an appearance when we need it most." Midna had scoffed, tossed a snarky comment about trusting in fate and old fairy tales her way and left. She hadn't come back for two weeks. Boredom hadn't quite had the chance to settle on her, and she pushed it forcefully away.
Then Midna returned with a wolf.
A wolf.
Oh, well, she supposed the old stories had told odder tales. Besides, that was no ordinary wolf. As if the shackle around its leg and those vivid blue irises hadn't been sufficient evidence, he was also the only thing that actually seemed to produce any light in her dank cell. Which was curious, actually, as his coat was rather dark.
Midna and the wolf had left, inspiring the less than hopeful thought that Hyrule's saviour was the steed of an otherworldly princess.
She turned back to the window, contemplating the grimness of her castle, her home, in the jaws of twilight, the mantle of worry settling back over her shoulders as the breeze of hope was stifled by the perpetual dread.
The door flew open behind her, rustling her cape and displacing her hair. She glanced over her shoulder, a flicker of annoyance concealing worry for the imp and wolf.
The usurper king stood in the door, one arm flung out in the dramatic gesture he had opened the door with.
What a diva that man could be.
She rolled her eyes and turned to face her erratic and rather annoying visitor. "Good evening, Usurper King," she greeted evenly, turning her gaze from him again. How dreadful those battlements she had played on as a child looked in the gloom.
"Have you seen them?" Zant's sibilant voice oozed across the room, his anger cutting through any niceties.
"Seen who?" She spared him a glance over her shoulder.
He hissed, a sound of cold water on hot rocks, and stomped his feet. "You know who! You know so much, you definitely know who!"
She smiled bitterly at that. She knew so much, true, but not enough.
"Tell me!" he hissed, suddenly right behind her, his hand on her neck. "Where are they?"
"Everywhere," she responded cryptically, sidestepping his hand.
Zant made some sputtering attempt at words that had no meaning whatsoever, before finally turning to stomp out of the room, squawking like a petulant child. He turned back to her before leaving the room. "Someone will suffer for this!" he hissed, and the door slammed in his face.
That was probably true, someone would suffer and it'd probably not be one of the Twili. But the alternative would hurt more people.
It didn't take long for the wolf and Midna to have a palpable impact. Zelda could physically feel the Twilight lifting in part. She'd expected Zant to come storming at that. He didn't, and that's when boredom struck.
She threw one of her books out the window. She'd never liked that particular book and she was curious to see what would happen. She hit one of the shadow birds, utterly confounding the creature.
It had come up to screech at her, but hadn't attacked. It wouldn't have, even if it felt angered enough to do so. Even if it had no idea she could obliterate it, it should know its master would have if she'd been hurt.
It didn't take many more days, a week or two, before the next curtain fell. Eldin Province, perhaps?
Zant showed up not even an hour later, opening the door with as much flair as ever before. Or, rather, with more foot than ever before, as he'd kicked it open. "Where are they?"
"Who?" she asked sweetly.
"You know who! Midna and that lightdweller... pet of hers!" He spat out the word 'pet' as if it had personally insulted him.
"Oh, her!" She turned to him with a smirk. "Is it really so difficult to keep track of one little girl?"
He shook, shockingly visibly, with anger and a Shadow Beast lunged at her, raising one of it's spindly hand to crush her.
Zelda didn't move. Why would she?
It didn't move, its hand held over her head, its whole body vibrating with a growl.
She was in no danger, nothing could harm her before she could harm it worse. If it was actually to be allowed to harm her.
Despite the mask, she could see him fuming. "Where is she?" he hissed, and the Shadow Beast retreated a few steps.
"I don't know, Usurper," she responded, evenly, the smirk faded. "The last time I saw her was just before your grip on my kingdom started weakening."
"This will cost your citizens dearly!" The Beast reared over her again, letting out a malicious screech.
She waved her hand negligently, muttered a chant, and the Beast was lying in two pieces clear across the room.
Zelda turned back to the window. "It already does."
Zant gave the remains of the Beast a disdainful kick, causing it to disintegrate into flakes of darkness. "A woman with your power could walk out of this room with ease, even causing some mayhem along the way, but your devotion to those pathetic creatures keeps you from even trying." He snorted, although it sounded strange from within the helmet. "How sad."
That stung, a bit, but she didn't let it show. "Oh, and here I thought it'd please you," she gibed.
He might have glared at her, but it was difficult to tell, he might just as well have smiled. "You have no idea," he hissed in the most infuriatingly ambiguous manner before turning dramatically on his heel and sauntering out.
Zelda glared after him for a moment before turning back to the window.
True, she could probably leave whenever she wanted, she could probably do quite a bit of damage on her way out, but the only thing that kept Zant from going on a rampage was her not going on one.
She leant against the cold, dark glass, watching the feeble flickers of light, all that remained of her citizens, move haphazardly under a sky dark as evil.
She wasn't so powerful after all. She knew so much, but not enough. So wise, but infinitely much too young.
She wished she was bored.
I have no idea where half of this came from, the other half was inspired by Alpha's "Rewriting Twilight Princess" series on Zeldainformer. Some of those ideas are good, like adding a cutscene with Zelda gibing at Zant, and some are rather bad, like wanting to kill off the inhabitants of Castle Town.
Anyway, uhm, Zelda will probably seem OOC to some of you, and that's fine, she seems a bit iffy-off to me, too. And Zant seems to float all over the place... but that man's insane, anyway.
Please review and tell me what you liked/disliked.