Here's my submission for Paradigm of Writing's "Comfort Zones Do Not Exist In Writing" contest and as such it's somewhat different from my usual works. The primary inspiration for this idea came from Melee's partner system (which is given an allusion in the fic itself). My thoughts on the piece are posted at the end. Enjoy.
8/24/2015: Made some corrections which were pointed out to me. Thanks to Paradigm of Writing for the review and for the honorable mention.
Forgiveness
With the new tournament just around the corner, Zelda looked down at her kingdom from the balcony of Hyrule Castle. The kingdom was in one of its rare periods of peace: The Demon King Ganon had yet to make a direct attack on the nation. In fact, the Gerudo king had not made another attack since the Subspace Incident.
The memory left a bitter taste in her mouth. In the end, nobody benefited from that situation and it ended with an entire race bar one member sealed away in Subspace at best and extinct at worst. Even now, several years later, it was obvious that it was something R.O.B. constantly reflected on, whenever he assumed that no one was paying attention to him. Overall, she was disappointed, but not surprised by Ganondorf's actions. What really surprised her was the actions of King Koopa who-
"PRINCESS ZELDA"
-was currently storming her castle. Zelda hurried down to the main hall. Down at the entrance to the castle, the guards were shivering in fear as Bowser, the monstrous King of the Koopas, shouted for Zelda's attention.
"Oh, Zelda!" Bowser shouted to the upper floors. "Come on out, unless you feel that your servants would be more effective as statues!" Bowser gave a slimy grin as he watched Zelda emerge from her quarters. "Ah Princess Zelda. Thank you for joining me! I wish I was meeting with you on happier terms, but I've got a kidnapping quota and the Marios are guarding Peach extra fiercely today."
"And what if I refuse to go?" Zelda asked only to receive a chuckle in return.
"See, here's the thing," All it took was a snap of the Koopa King's fingers and Zelda found herself sucked into a portal block and standing on a small platform stranded in a pocket dimension filled with amaranthine, eerie clouds staring up at a giant sized Bowser. "You don't have a choice."
Zelda looked around her and made a thoughtful gesture. If this was literally all Bowser had to do in order to capture Princess Peach, then it was no wonder she gets kidnapped so often.
Bowser's triumphant look of evil faded as he saw he wasn't evoking much of a reaction out of his latest victim.
"Hey!" He shouted. "Aren't you gonna, you know, panic or beg me for mercy or something?"
"Unlike Princess Peach," Zelda replied whilst turning away. A short second later, she turned back around. Something flashed in the air and Bowser felt a sharp sting in his eye. "I don't go down so easily!"
Bowser shrieked from the Light Arrow currently engorged in his eye as Zelda wore a satisfied smirk.
"What is with you princesses?! I just try to do my job and you get all uppity on me! I swear, back in the day it was so much easier…" Bowser tapped his foot, annoyed at the Princess of Hyrule. "Come on, didn't you used to play along? I kidnap you, we discuss our kingdoms, Fairy boy shows up and saves the day?"
"That was before you betrayed me and my kingdom. Along with everyone else."
"This about the Subspace Incident isn't it?"
Zelda nodded, quiver still at the ready.
"Come on, Ms. Killjoy! That was last cycle! It's in the past! Can't you just pull a Mario and get over it?!"
"Because this isn't the Mushroom Kingdom. And, as hard as it is to believe, not everyone is just going to forgive you for doing something like attempting to take over the universe."
"But I didn't that time…" King Bowser mumbled. Zelda looked annoyed and fed up.
"No, but between your constant harassment and Ganondorf's actions, you two were prepared to ruin the world for your goals."
"The damage wasn't that bad! All in all we only lost one place!"
"You mean the Isle of The Ancients? R.O.B.'s home?"
"Yeah-Oh…" Bowser fell silent as he reflected for a moment. "Well it's Ganon's fault! We didn't even know about the whole "Master Hand's a puppet of the Blue Guy" thing until it was too late. If anything, it's Dedede's fault for not telling us! And while I've got control of this situation, what's the deal with you!? You're getting up in my case about this for what reason?! You used to be cool Zelda! What happened since the last cycle?"
Zelda's face managed to look even grimmer than usual.
"That was a different Zelda. Even dismissing that, I have had to deal not only with having sets of memories that were not my own, but also nearly losing my kingdom to a madman. I was actually looking forward to the third cycle when the Subspace Incident happened. And in spite of all of this, I still don't think I'm quite ready for the forth. You've probably heard things going around."
Bowser did hear things, namely that Zelda was to be split from Shiek. The Shiekah princess fled to the old Kakoriko Village while the formal princess had to learn to summon one of her counterparts, the one from the same universe as the cat eyed Link. Additionally, in spite of many saying she deserved otherwise, it has been decided that Zelda's strength would be weakened in the fourth cycle. All that said, Bowser gave a small chuckle upon hearing his theory confirmed. He knew Zelda used to be a blonde!
The giant king stared at the princess with curiosity. He and Zelda used to have a rather strange friendship near the beginning of Melee. He fondly remembered those days: In the early days, everyone mingled and came up with some rather weird friendships. Donkey Kong hung out with Fox quite a bit, despite the mercenary hanging out with the other bounty hunters a lot more. Kirby was not only friends with the Ice Climbers, but all the Pokémon except for Mewtwo who not only sought company with the brutish Bowser but also the PSI wielder Ness. Luigi ran with Link, who also conversed with Marth. Finally, Princess Zelda made it a goal to keep close ties with the royal smashers and would constantly set up meetings. These meetings rarely ended well, either with the men starting a fight or Peach getting kidnapped. Still, in time they began to resemble something that looked like a friendship. To this day, Bowser had few memories that were sweeter than the fights where he and Zelda pulled off a victory against Mario and his teammate.
But this was a different Zelda. One who had memories of the experiences but did not actually experience them. Bowser thought it over for a bit and made a decision. It couldn't hurt to smooth out complications between regions (especially ones he planned to annex into his own someday) and besides, it couldn't hurt too badly to have a few matches together right?
There was one flaw with this otherwise brilliant plan: Bowser was stubborn. Even as he thought all this, he refused to be held accountable for his actions. Besides, apologizes were not his shining factor. Bowser's brow furled. He decided to focus on that other stuff Zelda mentioned.
"Alright Zelda. We still got plenty of time and I'm in a good mood." Bowser snapped his fingers and a chair which honestly, with its grey stone bricks and shell ornaments, looked more like a castle, materialized out of thin air. This minor flexing of his power out of the way, Bowser made himself comfortable on his throne, an attempt to show power possibly. "Go on, tell Mr. Bowser all about how hard your day was. Gwa-Ha-Ha!"
Zelda did not acknowledge his display, but made good on his offer to vent her feelings.
"Very well." She said.
Thus, Zelda told her story, of how an eccentric villain named Zant had arrived right in the middle of her coronation and took the throne. Due to a combination of Zant's power and her own disorientation from her new memories, she was easily overthrown and forced into hiding. She later learned that not only was her kingdom put in peril but also that of another's, including its ruler Midna, who was turned into an imp. And, unsurprisingly, it was all plotted not by Zant, but by Ganon.
Bowser listened calmly, almost giving off the impression that he was bored with the tale outside of a few snarky quips. He looked more and more invested as Zelda went on however and by the time she explained the point where a permanently transformed Link brought to her a dying Midna, his interruptions had ceased entirely. Throughout the rest of the story, there was only one action that stood out to Zelda: Bowser gripping the handles of his throne tightly as she explained Ganondorf's manipulation and disposal of Zant. Apparently, he knew that feeling far too well.
After the conclusion of the tale, Zelda paused to allow Bowser a response. Surprisingly, he did not say anything. The only thing he had to say was a slight complement/condemnation towards Ganondorf's villainy and he realized at the last second that that was the most inappropriate response he could say at the moment. Instead he waved his hand and she continued.
She discussed her separation with Shiek and how the disguise was originally a contingency plan incase something like that happened again. Bowser actually thought about asking Zelda how far the disguise went, but a sharp look when he brought it up convinced him to drop the subject. Then she concluded with a slight rant about how badly she was messed up from the double memories. Bowser kept a close ear, interested in knowing how much of his former acquaintance's memories made it intact.
Zelda felt quite relieved to spill everything. She had those ghastly feelings for quite some time now but had kept them bottled up. It was strangely satisfying to explode and release all of her stress, even if the one she was talking to was a usually unapologetic warlord.
At last, there was silence in the void. Bowser stared at his story teller with curious eyes.
"So… even after all that, you refuse to give up."
"Of course. I have to remain strong for my kingdom."
"Well you better! Don't let me catch you giving up anytime soon!"
Zelda stared at Bowser with confusion on her face.
"I will not…?"
Bowser nodded in an approving fashion and began grumbling.
"I thought so… Bah, this is stupid. Get out of here."
"You're letting me go?"
"Peach would've made a better hostage anyway. I think I'll try her again." Bowser got up from his throne and prepared to send Zelda back to Hyrule Castle only to stop as he saw the princess raise her hand. She calmly questioned him.
"Why are you releasing me? Don't you want to conquer Hyrule like Ganondorf?" Bowser paused to consider her question, but shrugged soon afterwards.
"Eh, Mario and 'Green Sta- Luigi usually take it in stride. Fairy boy's usually in this sort of stink for a couple of days after. And well…" Bowser looked away from Zelda for a moment. Was he blushing? "This isn't much, but it's a start."
"You're sorry aren't you? You want us to be friends again."
"Look, I'm not good with apologies okay! And don't go telling people what happened here! I've got a reputation to keep and I can't have the rest of the guys thinking I'm going soft! And don't forget! Someday your precious kingdom will be part of the Koopa Kingdom! Just you wait! "
Zelda gave him a sly smile that wouldn't look out of place on her predecessor.
"Don't worry Bowser. I'll keep my word. It'll be a secret to everyone."
Bowser gave her an annoyed grunt and a faint "thanks" before making the platform underneath vanish.
"…Lda!... Prin… Zel… Princess Zelda!"
Zelda opened her eyes. She was currently standing in the main hall of her castle once more. The captain of the Royal Guard was standing above her lying figure. She slowly got to her feet. "Oh thank goodness you are alright! We had no idea of where that tyrant took you after you both vanished! Did he do anything to you?"
Zelda looked thoughtful as she recounted her time with Bowser, what she told the king and his overall reaction.
"No, he did not harm me in anyway. He merely stuck me in a cage. I escaped and used one of his minion's magic wands to teleport back here." She then remembered the tournament and planned accordingly. "Also, send word to the arena for a custom ticket. I request an Exhibition Brawl with Bowser. The Bridge of Eldin would be the most preferable location."
The guards ran out to fulfill the request. They believed the brawl was an excuse for the Princess to repay her kidnapper. Satisfied, Zelda went back to her quarters to prepare for her match. While Bowser's apology was not enough to excuse the actions and consequences of the Subspace incident…
It was a start.
This idea felt so much better when I initially typed it out. Now I feel that this piece in general could have been much better. Still, since it wasn't until recently that I started trying more "serious" and plot-centric fanfics again and since this is one of few times where one of the 'human' characters is given a major role, I can give this piece a pass. Still, I much prefer my writing in Bowser's Modern Life or even Adventure Mode (despite growing since then).