Alethea screamed over and over again in agony and fear, the sound ripping from her throat painfully. The figure she screamed for retreated only farther, his green clad back and windstock hat the only thing she could see. Terror gripped her heart as it dawned on her that he wasn't going to turn back for her. He was leaving her, leaving her to this twisted fate, all because he thought she was evil. Ganondorf had made her seem like she was turning to his side, and she wasn't! The blood that started all of this still coated her hands, forearms, and the front of her aqua dress tunic. By now it was dried and crusty but still looked morbid and sickening. Ganondorf had caused this blood to be spilled, and Alethea was only trying to stop it when Link had found her. The form that the blood had come from was in Link's arms, curled into his chest, and very limp; but not dead. Alethea had enough medical knowledge to stop the intense bleeding before it had killed the woman. But when Link had walked up it looked as if Alethea had done the damage herself, the way it coated her. Ganondorf had thrown the offending sword at her feet, and stepped away into the shadows just as her friend had stepped into the room. Hot tears spilled down her face as she remembered his face when he found them. Shock was the first obvious emotion that crossed his handsome face but then hate and disbelief seemed to be etched into it permanently. She remembered how Link had stalked up to her, bent down and scooped Zelda into his arm, then vehemently shoved her away. Her head still throbbed where it had cracked against the stone when she had fallen backwards. Yet Link still had grabbed that horrible, gnarled looking sword and pointed it at her throat as she had lain on the ground. His tenor voice still rung through her head at what he had said to her next, "I was a fool to ever think I could trust you. You're nothing but a freak and an outsider. You hurt Zelda, and for that you deserve to suffer. I'll gladly leave you here with Ganondorf; then you might actually be of use for something. You're an invisible, forgettable, nothing to me." The tears poured in torrents down her face as she watched him continue to walk away, not a second glance back at her. His silver-blue eyes were probably still hardened with anger and hate as he looked ahead, concerns only for Zelda. Alethea went limp in the arms of Ganondorf, a chill settling over her body as she fell into a state of numbness. Ganondorf chuckled darkly behind her, his large chest rumbling as she leaned against it. "The hero was wrong about one thing; you're of much importance. Your powers exceed even Princess Zelda's by far. The Hero is a fool himself not to see that and protect it. Your fate is in my hands now." He breathed in her ear and with snap of his fingers, he whisked her away with dark magic into the depths of his castle.

~Link heard a snap and the sound of rushing wind that chilled even him when it blew past. He turned his head just in time to see Ganondorf vanishing in a dark ball of light, with a crest fallen form of Alethea in his arms. Her usually bright, chestnut brown eyes were dull and lifeless as they bore holes into his own eyes. Sparkling tears coursed down her cheeks and her copper hair blew around her face as the wind whipped around them both in a vortex. Her full lips were opened in a haunting silent cry, not able to cry for the nonexistent help. Then they were gone, the black light taking them away in a sudden suction of all light in the room, and then it was over. The dim light filtered back into the cavernous room, and nothing was left to suggest they were even there. Link continued to sit there, staring into the space they once occupied, trapped in his own thoughts. He couldn't understand why his heart was clenching like that; he was so furious at her that he shouldn't have even felt a drop of remorse for what just happened to her. Yet her harrowing screams still echoed in his mind, sending a shiver up his spine and making his heroic side want to chase after her. With a growl, he spun around, determined to leave this place and to get Zelda immediate help. As he thought of her he glanced down at the woman in his arms, and was shocked to see her cerulean eyes open and looking off behind him, tears budding up in the corner of her eyes, and dampening her golden lashes. He quickened his pace, thinking she was in pain. Zelda must have felt that jostle because she peered up at him, and gazed at him with such a mournful look that it made his heart drop. Link opened his mouth to speak to her, but saw that she was already going back under. Though before she did she lifted a delicate hand partly behind him and her fingers fluttered as the tears finally spilled down her pale skin. It looked as though she was reaching for something, or someone. His mind was flashed with image of Alethea's heartbroken face at the same time Zelda muttered her name in a whisper, and then they both fell into a silence. Link let his mind shut down, refusing to think of that girl anymore, as his lithe figure ran into the wasteland that used to be Castle Town and melded into the shadows completely.