Author's Notes: Yep, it's me again! I was browsing through my archives of Zelda fics, and although I do love this one, I think it needs some serious work. So I rewrote it and reuploaded it and here it is! TA DA!!! Didja miss me? BTW, this is just one version of Skull Kid's past.
~*~
Title: Insanity Will Always Be the Greater Evil
Author: - Cerena Montanyu -
~*~
Once a Kokiri, always a Kokiri. Unless you're lost.
The truth is, is that it's rather depressing being a Kokiri. You can't leave the forest, and you're always young forever. It gets rather boring here in Kokiri Village. Nothing new to see, and no way to see anything new. Which is the reason why I went in the Lost Woods...
Few of us can navigate it. Fewer still actually go in. But I decided to take my chances and go in, just for a few minutes...
But things went horribly wrong. I'm lost.
Now, instead of being a Kokiri, I get to be a Skull Kid forever. It's actually not that bad despite the fact that no one likes me anymore.
The transformation happens slowly. For me, it happened over a couple of months.
You slowly forget about civilization. There is no such thing as civilization any more, just eat or be eaten. You can't have a conscience, or you will die from starvation. 'Tis truly a terrible thing, but there's no memories of anything better.
And the Kokiri... They probably don't miss me. Why should they? But it's really when your fairy leaves, ceases to exist, that you truly become a child of the woods.
A Skull Kid.
Forever wandering, but doesn't have anywhere to go to. Not good, not evil. Not human, but not a monster.
More like... A nothing.
Always somewhere in between, on a thin line.
A delicate balance.
Emotions? I laugh at the word. I am nothing; I feel nothing.
I don't have any friends. Do I even want any? But I do. I did befriend one person, once...
But she left, and I forgot about her.
I can't be truly living. But I can't be truly dead, either...
Always nothing.
Not this, nor that.
Always insignificant.
And yet...
I posess nothing but a simple wooden flute. The center of my life, I play it to keep my boredom and loniness at bay and my sanity within reach...
~*~
There are others, of course. But of them all, I am the reject, was always the reject.
I don't know why.
But I remember a legend I heard somewhere... It said that there is a Hero of Time, who can twist destinies with a few notes, perhaps like me.
But what is destiny? Cruel fate, iced time. I have no destiny, just emptiness.
It also goes on to say that he will cause the downfall of the Twisted One, one of evil insanity.
His ocarina, the legendary Ocarina of Time, is truly a cursed item, then. Shadows surround it's name, and it only exists for insanity...
But I don't see the point in this legend. Of course, I don't understand a lot of other things...
His ocarina can twist destinies? So can a lot of other things.
The Godesses, Din, Fayore, and Nayru can twist destinies. So can all of the small things, conflicts we must decide.
And so can one mask I happened to stumble upon...
~*~
I remember the day the blonde-haired boy came with his fairy.
I knew he was different from the moment I saw him, different from all the others. He seemed to glow with a great purpose, one I knew I'd never have. He didn't seem to notice me at first...
He looked at me, while I retreated to a tall tree stump near safety. He sat on a smaller tree stump, and played the song of the Lost Woods.
And I knew that he would understand as no one else could.
Having nothing better to do, I lifted my flute, my only friend, to my lips and accompanied his song. It spoke of a certain doomed Kokiri trapped within a sad reality, who's only purpose was to serve the Hero of Time. I met her once, but I didn't realize it then...
I remember the way she smiled, a truly sad smile. Her eyes spoke of things which I couldn't begin to understand, didn't want to understand...
But there was one thing I knew...
From her blood stained hands, the despair in her emerald eyes, her crystal tears...
It wouldn't be long before she joined me, and I wasn't sure if I should be glad or sad...
But her fairy, weak and dying, was still full of non-existent hope, pretending it was there.
If she had let it go, she would be one of us.
But she spoke of a "Link",repeating over and over that he would save her, that he was her best friend in the whole world, and that she trusted him.
And unknowingly, the bearer of all this pain lied in the boy who was helping me forget my sorrows...
But I had forgotten the green-haired girl and her misery.
And he, he played the song which planted the seed of insanity, Keeper of Emotions, within my heart, genetics, and soul...
Link gave me a mask, to seal our "friendship". Was it friendship? No, it was a curse...
The mask could change my identity to a soul who didn't know the meaning of pain or misery.
His life was filled with sunshine, rainbows, smiles. His past was one I wish I had.
I paid him dearly for that mask...
But, I forgot him over time, and I slowly changed, to the curse of that mask...
I forced myself to become someone I really wasn't. I didn't know pain or misery and more, but I didn't know the meaning of happiness either.
I couldn't feel a thing, and what's more, I didn't care...
I didn't have anything...
But the emptiness.
If I was a nobody before, now I truly am a nobody.
And for the first time, I realized that life was a cursed thing. I was nothing. I knew nothing but bloodied tears over something I never had.
And that's the true meaning of insanity...
~*~
I didn't know who I was.
I became paranoid at that point, not trusting anybody, or anything.
I wouldn't eat, drink, or sleep, fearing... Nothing.
I wasn't afraid of anything, yet I was afraid of everything.
I didn't know anything, yet I knew that I didn't know who I was.
I wasn't anything, yet in some weird way...
I was everything...
But, then again, I lied when I said I feared nothing...
For I really fear fear. Phobophobia. I am constantly in terror, of things which don't exist... And the only relief... Was murder.
Part two of the meaning of insanity.
~*~
I remember stumbling into a black void.
Hidden deep within the forest, it only opens for someone who has truly lost something.
I remember stumbling into that black, heartless void, feeling something truly important to me slowly escape.
The hands of the darkness welcomed me, as I slept for seven long years.
Seven years, as the mother of darkness invaded my land...
But I did not care. Why should I? Nobody misses me, nobody even knew I existed.
The last true memory I have is being strangled by the darkness.
The darkness, who had borne my empty shell...
And being locked away from the light, slowly dying, slowly suffocating.
Where am I?
Who am I?
Do I care?
~*~
"The darkness is the light, we are one..."
"For darkness does not exist without light, yin and yang, yang and yin, light does not exist without darkness..."
"But the non-dead are neither, and the grey is insanity... Little one, you will become fear..."
"You will bring horror and thy darkest hour to this land, for it is prophesied..."
"O, Twisted One, you must wake."
I opened my eyes, seeing nothing but darkness, feeling nothing but darkness.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, I have truly become nothing after all...
What is good? What is evil?
Good...
Good brings nothing but sadness, suicide.
It is either eat or be eaten, and evil will at least ensure your survival...
For hapiness doesn't exist.
People have been tricked into thinking that good is something to be worshipped, and evil is something to fear.
Fools, all of them.
At least I, one who is not capable of emotion, know the truth.
And whether they like it or not, they will see my way...
The Hero of Time... He is no match for me.
Those who do not believe me... Are weak. And the weak do not deserve to live...
"Child of the Darkness..."
"Go now, and spread thy evil..."
I stand up, floating over the void, feeling strength, strength I never knew I had, flow into my bones.
I walk slowly to the entrance of Termina, waves of nothingness discoloring everything in my wake.
But... Purpose, the one thing I thought I never had... What was the purpose of this?
I feel an icy hand grip my mind, my thoughts, tearing that which interfered with my mission from my conciousness.
"Twisted One, you must not fall. You must destroy anything that stands in your way. If you fail... Then we have no more need for you, Twisted One. Go!"
I nod, a slow, insane smile spreading across my features.
I know who I am now...
I am the Twisted One, the child borne from icy shadows.
~*~
I emerge in Clock Tower, grinning at the soul of this depressing building. It is easily swayed, it is evil at heart...
My only ally.
I trudge slowly up the stairs, my demented mind grinding away ideas of how to make the people of Clock Town suffer...
Oh, and how they shall suffer...
Suffer like I did in the past...
No Hero came to me then...
Why should he come now?
A shadow falls over me as I realize that something is following me.
I twist around, pure darkness forming in my hands, ready to torture and twist the minds of any...
I'm immediately blinded by a blast of light which spreads throughout my whole body, twisting and piercing every cell...
I lower my head, shielding my eyes, and blast the person with shadow energy.
It was The Happy Mask Man.
I flip him over on his back, planning to take every thing he had and run.
But I sensed an aura of foreboding...
Was this freak, in fact, another child of Death?
No...
It's not the man.
But I can sense it.
I can feel the welcoming atmosphere of evil.
I flip the man back over, seeing that his eyes were beginning to glaze over. He wasn't dead, though...
I can see...
That idiotic man cannot withstand any more of the crashing waves of darkness.
He is slowly drowning...
All the better!
But...
He is fighting it.
He is fighting my Father.
Father of Death, Mother of Darkness.
He has something protecting him...
What is that?
I hear a faint melody in the background, one that drives away the darkness.
No, it cannot be!
I kick the unfortunate salesman, flipping him over once again, searching to end that... Cursed, doomed, torturous melody..
"Heheh... You have found me. You must rescue me, Brother, I cannot stand this any longer..." An icy voice echoes inside my head.
I stare intently at the pack upon the Happy Mask man's back.
I can feel my brother, one that was exiled, one that would help me...
It's stronger, beckoning to me...
I rip the man's pack apart, grinning at my findings.
It was a mask, another one, just like my Insanity Mask.
The colors were bright, as the spikes sticking out of the heart shaped mask seemed to glow with negative energy. I put it on...
Suddenly, a wave of confusion clouds my senses.
Where am I?
What am I doing?
"Weak. Just like all of the others. Oh well, I guess he'll have to do..." The overpowering voice in my head grows stronger, attaching to me.
My senses clear, and the wave of confusion now turns to intence anger and hate.
I can see through two eyeholes, and my feet are now running on their own.
Something is controlling me...
"Slave, you have awoken so quickly? Such energy..." I hear the voice in my head, critisizing me...
I tense up as I realize what is happening. Of course it was to happen, trust does not exist, it was a foolish mistake to trust my brother. But it won't happen again...
For while he is Evil, I am Insane and that's always worse...
He thinks that I am to be controlled. No, I shall control him, twist everything, do as I please...
I laugh, in a voice that is clearly my own.
I can sense surprise, and a bit of...
Fear?
"Yes, fear me..." For soon all shall fear me... They'll wish I was never born...
"You are my puppet! I shall control you!" The mask upon my face screams inside my head.
But I do not hear it.
I'm filled with anger, hate, darkness...
And insanity.
I don't know what morals are.
"Oh, you really think so? But who's controlling who? No, you are truly the puppet, Brother. Watch as I take over this world" I burst out the door laughing, while the revived Happy Mask Man shouts behind me.
You think I am just a nobody?
Well...
Just watch.
I'll do whatever I want, for consequences don't exist anymore...
~*~
I marvel as the Mask's powers combine with my own, to create a truly unstoppable force.
The so-called Hero of Time?
He is now a pitiful Deku Scrub.
The Giants of the world are locked away in masks, forced to live the eternity of their lives watching their people suffer.
And...
I do the impossible, the insane... I bring the innocent moon, one who has watched the earth suffer for eternity, I bring it down to end us all.
"You cannot do that! It is suicide!" Majora gasps, who only wants to see pain in others.
But insanity feels no pain, and I will never, never show any mercy.
The Moon sheds many icy tears, but no one comes to it's rescue.
Rivers overflow with tears, as day after day of my forceful reign together.
All the innocent, all the good...
Shall suffer, crushed beneath my palm.
I now control destiny, and no one shall escape my wrath.
The people suffer, then die a slow, painful death.
Weaknesses?
I don't have any.
Who cares if I die?
If I die, the rest of the world goes with me.
I twist many destinies, and laugh as the annoying red-headed girl gets abducted, as the keeper of Clock Town inn's heart gets broken, as the innocent monkey gets boiled alive.
I laugh as I break the so-called Great Fairies up into little pieces, and as I scatter their corpses throughout the Temples of Sorrow.
I sit upon the roof of Clock Tower, that corrupted building, and solemnly watch as the sun sets for the very last time.
I have been abiding my time, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash temporal doom...
And now is my chance.
I look upon the pain-ridden face of the Moon, and I call it down for the very last time.
I laugh, as the lightness slowly dies away, leaving the Darkness of Death.
I turn around as the door to the roof slams behind me, as a blonde-haired boy enters the face of Clock Tower.
The Hero of Time?
But...
How?
No matter.
"If it is something to be stopped, go ahead and try. But I am the ruler of Insanity, the Twisted One of shattered destinies. You will never stop the invasion of darkness within the land." I cooly say to the Hero of Time, floating several feet above the platform.
I expect him to run. To perhaps kill himself. Most likely to attack me and die trying.
Boy, was I wrong...
True evil will never die, not without the most dangerous consequences...
Consequences which even I am afraid of.
My eyes widen as he takes out the same Ocarina which I had stolen from him three days ago, the cursed one, the center of the legend which changed my life... The heart of all insanity.
"What the... Never mind. You will never stop me with that puny little Ocarina" I taunted, enjoying the flashes of anger in his eyes, forgetting entirely about my split second of fear.
I shake my head, foolishly doubting the power of the Ocarina. But it was strange how he had it, for it actually defied all the laws of Time itself...
I turn my back on him, concentrating all of my power on the moon.
Now I realize that that was a mistake. For it was music which kept my sanity within reach, and it would be music that would bring it back again...
I slowly glance around, as the four giants rise from their domains which I had locked them in three days ago.
They come, with war cries, they've come to save their people from fiery death...
"Come on out, Majora." The Hero of Time said cooly.
I was filled with intense anger and hate when he said that. Majora, that weak sorceror, could never be able to pull this off. I am the one they should fear, and I am the one who will remain within their minds and hearts forever as the Keeper of Insanity...
I fling the mask on the ground, and I suddenly am aware of him staring at me.
I laugh insanely, realizing that the moon was still bearing down. The Giants are useless, for even they are nothing within my power... My power.
"You will never be able to stop me! What's done is done! Even I won't be able to stop this, and you are all fools for thinking that Majora was the evil mastermind behind this. He's not! I am, I am the Twisted One, the child borne of the darkness that raised me! And why should you come back now, after leaving me for seven years? Why the hell did you leave Saria in the first place? I will embrace Death, as it is my father! And maybe I didn't realize it before, but I know your little Time-twisting tricks!" I rant, as the feelings of emptiness once again fill me, leaving me with nothing but pain.
"No, Twisted One! You will not leave us! Do you defy your true self?" A raspy voice bursts from what used to be Majora's Mask.
I panic, being confused. Then the waves of darkness once again pierce me, and I realise what I must do.
"You shall die, traitor!" I scream, producing a ball of pure dark energy. All of my bloodied tears, my lonliness, my hate, my anger helped make it even bigger, until it was truly a weapon.
I flung it at the Hero of Time, tearing at my head and shrieking after I had done so.
He pulled out his sword, shining with gold, swung, and knocked it towards me. I shrieked in pain as all of my emotions came to betray me, forcing me to feel what I've been running from that past year.
"We have no more use for you. You are a failure!" The last word, "Failure" echoes inside my head, slowly destroying me from the inside out.
I tear and scratch at my head, trying desperately to get those words, the lonely words which described who I really, truly was...
I realize that the moon has stopped moving, but I don't care.
I feel the warm blood drip down my hands as I continue to tear at my head.
I slowly become weaker and weaker, shrieking at those cold words in my head.
I finally notice the Hero of Time, who is looking at me pitifully.
The same look...
The very same look...
Where?!
Something very important evades me, as I continue down the path to death.
I fall in darkness, once again drowning.
"Help" I manage to whisper as I take my seemingly last breath.
~*~
"Skull Kid..."
Someone calls me through the mist.
Skull Kid?
That's me.
"You have to come back."
Someone pleads with me, a female voice.
Back?
Back where?
I make my way through the mist, trying to reach the source of the voice.
But there are shadows, my nightmares, barriers of them, blocking my way to reality, my insanity.
"Help!" I scream, falling once again within the darkness.
Notes slowly drift to where I am, guiding me.
" V, V" Notes of lightness, happiness penetrate the darkness.
I float sown to solid ground, looking around me.
"Sleep unharmed now..." Words seem to come to me.
Still...
I sense darkness.
I spin around, ready to protect myself from the onslaught of darkness if needed.
But what I see...
Is me.
I walk over to 'me', shivering.
If I'm here...
Then who is that?
"An empty shell, a child borne of the darkness." The female voice is joined by two others.
They sound familiar, echoes of people forgotten so long ago...
"The spirit is the child of light, the one that is truly the person." They sing along to a voiceless orchestra.
I see now.
I have been sleeping all of this time, and my body, being empty, was filled with darkness.
I touch the skin of my body, still shivering at the waves of darkness radiating from it.
The song continues, driving away the darkness, healing my body and soul...
I'm no longer drowning...
I'm no longer the Twisted One.
I know who I truly am now.
~*~
My body seems to spasm as- Wait. It's just someone shaking me.
"Wake up!" A familiar voice pierces my thoughts. Someone very familiar...
Link?
I suddenly sit up, surprising the person.
It was Link, the Hero of Time, that twisted legend.
Shaking, I stand up, looking at the scene of destruction that I had caused, starting at the patches of blood dotting the ground.
"I'm sorry..." I whisper, horrified...
"Don't be." Link stands next to me.
I can still hear the reassuring song behind me, the one that had brought me back to my senses...
"What is that song?" I ask Link, looking around to see where it was coming from. I couldn't find the source, it seemed to be a gift from heaven...
"The Song of Healing," Link said simply. "It wasn't your fault that you went insane..."
"Was it anybody's fault?" Or was it simply destiny?
"Not really. Unless you want to blame the root of darkness, or even that Skull Mask..."
It makes sense...
"What was in the Skull Mask? Why did I go insane?" Why was this whole saga about masks?
Link shrugged. "I don't know. Sometimes destiny can make a mistake, and something that wasn't supposed to happen happens. I guess you were supposed to remain a Kokiri, but for some reason, you turned into a Skull Kid. Things happen, but they turn out all right in the end."
I understood that it was a big war, Light and Dark... And their brother, Insanity, lies where Light ends and Darkness begins.
"The Light attracts the Dark, and the Dark attracts the Light. One without the other is like woof without the warp, or life without death. It simply cannot happen. It can come close to it, however, and the space-time continuum can become distorted in the process. Why is there a war? It's just one of those great mysteries of life." Link continued to explain.
Memories come flooding, revealing more than I ever wanted to know, as a gap makes itself known to me.
"Where are Tatl and Tael?" I suddenly shout, panicking, before it registered in my brain that I didn't know WHO Tatl and Tael were.
"Who is Tatl? And Tael?" Link said, confused.
I thought for a moment, considering the outburst. But something snaps, and I understand all of a sudden. "One was the symbol of Light... Tatl... and the other was the symbol of Dark... Tael. I was something in between, the shadow. Tatl was supposed to help you, the bearer of Light, but Tael was attracted to me because of my insanity. Dark is not always bad..." I realize.
"Is this from a different Destiny stream?" Link asks, understanding.
"Yes... I was supposed to have picked up Majora's Mask, originally... But I wasn't supposed to be insane... I was supposed to originally be good, but I was forced to fuse with Dark, to create shadow, the seed of insanity. I don't know what happened to cause it to be otherwise..." Link walks with me to the portal.
"What will happen if we go back?" I ask Link, just as he was about to step into the portal.
"Portals are passsageways between time-lines. Termina is just a mirror image of Hyrule, a reflection of what Hyrule would've been like in another time stream. If we go back, the time-space continuum will be righted, which means none of this will have happened. We will go back to the second the continuum was screwed, and instead of doing the things that will trigger the portal to appear, we will do exactly the opposite." Link explained.
With that, I step into the portal, and all memories of this are erased.
This time-line is erased forever.
Things will be righted...
I stop right at the portal, and turn to look at the Hero's retreating back. It was sort of strange, because he was the cause of all of this. He was created for good, but if it weren't for him, bad guys wouldn't exist... It was all confusing, how everything was linked together, hopelessly criss-crossed in ways which didn't seem possible.
But maybe the Godesses were truly evil, them that only exist to introduce pain and misery in our otherwise happy lives.
But I've seen things I've never wanted to see... Things I never wanted to know, to know that they existed. I have to forget all of this...
I can't take it any more...
~*~
"Koru! Don't go in there!" Saria shouts.
"You can get lost!" Another one of my Kokiri friends chime in.
I pause, with one foot almost touching the grass on the other side of the Lost Woods portal.
It seemed that that moment seemed to drag on forever.
I was extremely bored, I must admit. I needed a change of scenery, and I told Saria so.
"I'll take you there later, so you won't get lost and turn into a Skull Kid!!" Saria giggles, the other Kokiri dividing into teams to play soccer.
Echoes of emotions I had felt before, somewhere, shoo me away from the portal as one time line is erased from memories forever.
"But that's just a legend! There are no such things as Skull Kids!" I shout back.
And it seemed for the first time, I was happy.
~*~
Ending Notes: ^_^ Just like the last time, the last line's not dark. But I decided to give this a happy ending for once... I love this fic... *Ahem* Do you have any suggestions, or coments? All flames will be used to roast smores. I like smores...
~*~
Title: Insanity Will Always Be the Greater Evil
Author: - Cerena Montanyu -
~*~
Once a Kokiri, always a Kokiri. Unless you're lost.
The truth is, is that it's rather depressing being a Kokiri. You can't leave the forest, and you're always young forever. It gets rather boring here in Kokiri Village. Nothing new to see, and no way to see anything new. Which is the reason why I went in the Lost Woods...
Few of us can navigate it. Fewer still actually go in. But I decided to take my chances and go in, just for a few minutes...
But things went horribly wrong. I'm lost.
Now, instead of being a Kokiri, I get to be a Skull Kid forever. It's actually not that bad despite the fact that no one likes me anymore.
The transformation happens slowly. For me, it happened over a couple of months.
You slowly forget about civilization. There is no such thing as civilization any more, just eat or be eaten. You can't have a conscience, or you will die from starvation. 'Tis truly a terrible thing, but there's no memories of anything better.
And the Kokiri... They probably don't miss me. Why should they? But it's really when your fairy leaves, ceases to exist, that you truly become a child of the woods.
A Skull Kid.
Forever wandering, but doesn't have anywhere to go to. Not good, not evil. Not human, but not a monster.
More like... A nothing.
Always somewhere in between, on a thin line.
A delicate balance.
Emotions? I laugh at the word. I am nothing; I feel nothing.
I don't have any friends. Do I even want any? But I do. I did befriend one person, once...
But she left, and I forgot about her.
I can't be truly living. But I can't be truly dead, either...
Always nothing.
Not this, nor that.
Always insignificant.
And yet...
I posess nothing but a simple wooden flute. The center of my life, I play it to keep my boredom and loniness at bay and my sanity within reach...
~*~
There are others, of course. But of them all, I am the reject, was always the reject.
I don't know why.
But I remember a legend I heard somewhere... It said that there is a Hero of Time, who can twist destinies with a few notes, perhaps like me.
But what is destiny? Cruel fate, iced time. I have no destiny, just emptiness.
It also goes on to say that he will cause the downfall of the Twisted One, one of evil insanity.
His ocarina, the legendary Ocarina of Time, is truly a cursed item, then. Shadows surround it's name, and it only exists for insanity...
But I don't see the point in this legend. Of course, I don't understand a lot of other things...
His ocarina can twist destinies? So can a lot of other things.
The Godesses, Din, Fayore, and Nayru can twist destinies. So can all of the small things, conflicts we must decide.
And so can one mask I happened to stumble upon...
~*~
I remember the day the blonde-haired boy came with his fairy.
I knew he was different from the moment I saw him, different from all the others. He seemed to glow with a great purpose, one I knew I'd never have. He didn't seem to notice me at first...
He looked at me, while I retreated to a tall tree stump near safety. He sat on a smaller tree stump, and played the song of the Lost Woods.
And I knew that he would understand as no one else could.
Having nothing better to do, I lifted my flute, my only friend, to my lips and accompanied his song. It spoke of a certain doomed Kokiri trapped within a sad reality, who's only purpose was to serve the Hero of Time. I met her once, but I didn't realize it then...
I remember the way she smiled, a truly sad smile. Her eyes spoke of things which I couldn't begin to understand, didn't want to understand...
But there was one thing I knew...
From her blood stained hands, the despair in her emerald eyes, her crystal tears...
It wouldn't be long before she joined me, and I wasn't sure if I should be glad or sad...
But her fairy, weak and dying, was still full of non-existent hope, pretending it was there.
If she had let it go, she would be one of us.
But she spoke of a "Link",repeating over and over that he would save her, that he was her best friend in the whole world, and that she trusted him.
And unknowingly, the bearer of all this pain lied in the boy who was helping me forget my sorrows...
But I had forgotten the green-haired girl and her misery.
And he, he played the song which planted the seed of insanity, Keeper of Emotions, within my heart, genetics, and soul...
Link gave me a mask, to seal our "friendship". Was it friendship? No, it was a curse...
The mask could change my identity to a soul who didn't know the meaning of pain or misery.
His life was filled with sunshine, rainbows, smiles. His past was one I wish I had.
I paid him dearly for that mask...
But, I forgot him over time, and I slowly changed, to the curse of that mask...
I forced myself to become someone I really wasn't. I didn't know pain or misery and more, but I didn't know the meaning of happiness either.
I couldn't feel a thing, and what's more, I didn't care...
I didn't have anything...
But the emptiness.
If I was a nobody before, now I truly am a nobody.
And for the first time, I realized that life was a cursed thing. I was nothing. I knew nothing but bloodied tears over something I never had.
And that's the true meaning of insanity...
~*~
I didn't know who I was.
I became paranoid at that point, not trusting anybody, or anything.
I wouldn't eat, drink, or sleep, fearing... Nothing.
I wasn't afraid of anything, yet I was afraid of everything.
I didn't know anything, yet I knew that I didn't know who I was.
I wasn't anything, yet in some weird way...
I was everything...
But, then again, I lied when I said I feared nothing...
For I really fear fear. Phobophobia. I am constantly in terror, of things which don't exist... And the only relief... Was murder.
Part two of the meaning of insanity.
~*~
I remember stumbling into a black void.
Hidden deep within the forest, it only opens for someone who has truly lost something.
I remember stumbling into that black, heartless void, feeling something truly important to me slowly escape.
The hands of the darkness welcomed me, as I slept for seven long years.
Seven years, as the mother of darkness invaded my land...
But I did not care. Why should I? Nobody misses me, nobody even knew I existed.
The last true memory I have is being strangled by the darkness.
The darkness, who had borne my empty shell...
And being locked away from the light, slowly dying, slowly suffocating.
Where am I?
Who am I?
Do I care?
~*~
"The darkness is the light, we are one..."
"For darkness does not exist without light, yin and yang, yang and yin, light does not exist without darkness..."
"But the non-dead are neither, and the grey is insanity... Little one, you will become fear..."
"You will bring horror and thy darkest hour to this land, for it is prophesied..."
"O, Twisted One, you must wake."
I opened my eyes, seeing nothing but darkness, feeling nothing but darkness.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, I have truly become nothing after all...
What is good? What is evil?
Good...
Good brings nothing but sadness, suicide.
It is either eat or be eaten, and evil will at least ensure your survival...
For hapiness doesn't exist.
People have been tricked into thinking that good is something to be worshipped, and evil is something to fear.
Fools, all of them.
At least I, one who is not capable of emotion, know the truth.
And whether they like it or not, they will see my way...
The Hero of Time... He is no match for me.
Those who do not believe me... Are weak. And the weak do not deserve to live...
"Child of the Darkness..."
"Go now, and spread thy evil..."
I stand up, floating over the void, feeling strength, strength I never knew I had, flow into my bones.
I walk slowly to the entrance of Termina, waves of nothingness discoloring everything in my wake.
But... Purpose, the one thing I thought I never had... What was the purpose of this?
I feel an icy hand grip my mind, my thoughts, tearing that which interfered with my mission from my conciousness.
"Twisted One, you must not fall. You must destroy anything that stands in your way. If you fail... Then we have no more need for you, Twisted One. Go!"
I nod, a slow, insane smile spreading across my features.
I know who I am now...
I am the Twisted One, the child borne from icy shadows.
~*~
I emerge in Clock Tower, grinning at the soul of this depressing building. It is easily swayed, it is evil at heart...
My only ally.
I trudge slowly up the stairs, my demented mind grinding away ideas of how to make the people of Clock Town suffer...
Oh, and how they shall suffer...
Suffer like I did in the past...
No Hero came to me then...
Why should he come now?
A shadow falls over me as I realize that something is following me.
I twist around, pure darkness forming in my hands, ready to torture and twist the minds of any...
I'm immediately blinded by a blast of light which spreads throughout my whole body, twisting and piercing every cell...
I lower my head, shielding my eyes, and blast the person with shadow energy.
It was The Happy Mask Man.
I flip him over on his back, planning to take every thing he had and run.
But I sensed an aura of foreboding...
Was this freak, in fact, another child of Death?
No...
It's not the man.
But I can sense it.
I can feel the welcoming atmosphere of evil.
I flip the man back over, seeing that his eyes were beginning to glaze over. He wasn't dead, though...
I can see...
That idiotic man cannot withstand any more of the crashing waves of darkness.
He is slowly drowning...
All the better!
But...
He is fighting it.
He is fighting my Father.
Father of Death, Mother of Darkness.
He has something protecting him...
What is that?
I hear a faint melody in the background, one that drives away the darkness.
No, it cannot be!
I kick the unfortunate salesman, flipping him over once again, searching to end that... Cursed, doomed, torturous melody..
"Heheh... You have found me. You must rescue me, Brother, I cannot stand this any longer..." An icy voice echoes inside my head.
I stare intently at the pack upon the Happy Mask man's back.
I can feel my brother, one that was exiled, one that would help me...
It's stronger, beckoning to me...
I rip the man's pack apart, grinning at my findings.
It was a mask, another one, just like my Insanity Mask.
The colors were bright, as the spikes sticking out of the heart shaped mask seemed to glow with negative energy. I put it on...
Suddenly, a wave of confusion clouds my senses.
Where am I?
What am I doing?
"Weak. Just like all of the others. Oh well, I guess he'll have to do..." The overpowering voice in my head grows stronger, attaching to me.
My senses clear, and the wave of confusion now turns to intence anger and hate.
I can see through two eyeholes, and my feet are now running on their own.
Something is controlling me...
"Slave, you have awoken so quickly? Such energy..." I hear the voice in my head, critisizing me...
I tense up as I realize what is happening. Of course it was to happen, trust does not exist, it was a foolish mistake to trust my brother. But it won't happen again...
For while he is Evil, I am Insane and that's always worse...
He thinks that I am to be controlled. No, I shall control him, twist everything, do as I please...
I laugh, in a voice that is clearly my own.
I can sense surprise, and a bit of...
Fear?
"Yes, fear me..." For soon all shall fear me... They'll wish I was never born...
"You are my puppet! I shall control you!" The mask upon my face screams inside my head.
But I do not hear it.
I'm filled with anger, hate, darkness...
And insanity.
I don't know what morals are.
"Oh, you really think so? But who's controlling who? No, you are truly the puppet, Brother. Watch as I take over this world" I burst out the door laughing, while the revived Happy Mask Man shouts behind me.
You think I am just a nobody?
Well...
Just watch.
I'll do whatever I want, for consequences don't exist anymore...
~*~
I marvel as the Mask's powers combine with my own, to create a truly unstoppable force.
The so-called Hero of Time?
He is now a pitiful Deku Scrub.
The Giants of the world are locked away in masks, forced to live the eternity of their lives watching their people suffer.
And...
I do the impossible, the insane... I bring the innocent moon, one who has watched the earth suffer for eternity, I bring it down to end us all.
"You cannot do that! It is suicide!" Majora gasps, who only wants to see pain in others.
But insanity feels no pain, and I will never, never show any mercy.
The Moon sheds many icy tears, but no one comes to it's rescue.
Rivers overflow with tears, as day after day of my forceful reign together.
All the innocent, all the good...
Shall suffer, crushed beneath my palm.
I now control destiny, and no one shall escape my wrath.
The people suffer, then die a slow, painful death.
Weaknesses?
I don't have any.
Who cares if I die?
If I die, the rest of the world goes with me.
I twist many destinies, and laugh as the annoying red-headed girl gets abducted, as the keeper of Clock Town inn's heart gets broken, as the innocent monkey gets boiled alive.
I laugh as I break the so-called Great Fairies up into little pieces, and as I scatter their corpses throughout the Temples of Sorrow.
I sit upon the roof of Clock Tower, that corrupted building, and solemnly watch as the sun sets for the very last time.
I have been abiding my time, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash temporal doom...
And now is my chance.
I look upon the pain-ridden face of the Moon, and I call it down for the very last time.
I laugh, as the lightness slowly dies away, leaving the Darkness of Death.
I turn around as the door to the roof slams behind me, as a blonde-haired boy enters the face of Clock Tower.
The Hero of Time?
But...
How?
No matter.
"If it is something to be stopped, go ahead and try. But I am the ruler of Insanity, the Twisted One of shattered destinies. You will never stop the invasion of darkness within the land." I cooly say to the Hero of Time, floating several feet above the platform.
I expect him to run. To perhaps kill himself. Most likely to attack me and die trying.
Boy, was I wrong...
True evil will never die, not without the most dangerous consequences...
Consequences which even I am afraid of.
My eyes widen as he takes out the same Ocarina which I had stolen from him three days ago, the cursed one, the center of the legend which changed my life... The heart of all insanity.
"What the... Never mind. You will never stop me with that puny little Ocarina" I taunted, enjoying the flashes of anger in his eyes, forgetting entirely about my split second of fear.
I shake my head, foolishly doubting the power of the Ocarina. But it was strange how he had it, for it actually defied all the laws of Time itself...
I turn my back on him, concentrating all of my power on the moon.
Now I realize that that was a mistake. For it was music which kept my sanity within reach, and it would be music that would bring it back again...
I slowly glance around, as the four giants rise from their domains which I had locked them in three days ago.
They come, with war cries, they've come to save their people from fiery death...
"Come on out, Majora." The Hero of Time said cooly.
I was filled with intense anger and hate when he said that. Majora, that weak sorceror, could never be able to pull this off. I am the one they should fear, and I am the one who will remain within their minds and hearts forever as the Keeper of Insanity...
I fling the mask on the ground, and I suddenly am aware of him staring at me.
I laugh insanely, realizing that the moon was still bearing down. The Giants are useless, for even they are nothing within my power... My power.
"You will never be able to stop me! What's done is done! Even I won't be able to stop this, and you are all fools for thinking that Majora was the evil mastermind behind this. He's not! I am, I am the Twisted One, the child borne of the darkness that raised me! And why should you come back now, after leaving me for seven years? Why the hell did you leave Saria in the first place? I will embrace Death, as it is my father! And maybe I didn't realize it before, but I know your little Time-twisting tricks!" I rant, as the feelings of emptiness once again fill me, leaving me with nothing but pain.
"No, Twisted One! You will not leave us! Do you defy your true self?" A raspy voice bursts from what used to be Majora's Mask.
I panic, being confused. Then the waves of darkness once again pierce me, and I realise what I must do.
"You shall die, traitor!" I scream, producing a ball of pure dark energy. All of my bloodied tears, my lonliness, my hate, my anger helped make it even bigger, until it was truly a weapon.
I flung it at the Hero of Time, tearing at my head and shrieking after I had done so.
He pulled out his sword, shining with gold, swung, and knocked it towards me. I shrieked in pain as all of my emotions came to betray me, forcing me to feel what I've been running from that past year.
"We have no more use for you. You are a failure!" The last word, "Failure" echoes inside my head, slowly destroying me from the inside out.
I tear and scratch at my head, trying desperately to get those words, the lonely words which described who I really, truly was...
I realize that the moon has stopped moving, but I don't care.
I feel the warm blood drip down my hands as I continue to tear at my head.
I slowly become weaker and weaker, shrieking at those cold words in my head.
I finally notice the Hero of Time, who is looking at me pitifully.
The same look...
The very same look...
Where?!
Something very important evades me, as I continue down the path to death.
I fall in darkness, once again drowning.
"Help" I manage to whisper as I take my seemingly last breath.
~*~
"Skull Kid..."
Someone calls me through the mist.
Skull Kid?
That's me.
"You have to come back."
Someone pleads with me, a female voice.
Back?
Back where?
I make my way through the mist, trying to reach the source of the voice.
But there are shadows, my nightmares, barriers of them, blocking my way to reality, my insanity.
"Help!" I scream, falling once again within the darkness.
Notes slowly drift to where I am, guiding me.
" V, V" Notes of lightness, happiness penetrate the darkness.
I float sown to solid ground, looking around me.
"Sleep unharmed now..." Words seem to come to me.
Still...
I sense darkness.
I spin around, ready to protect myself from the onslaught of darkness if needed.
But what I see...
Is me.
I walk over to 'me', shivering.
If I'm here...
Then who is that?
"An empty shell, a child borne of the darkness." The female voice is joined by two others.
They sound familiar, echoes of people forgotten so long ago...
"The spirit is the child of light, the one that is truly the person." They sing along to a voiceless orchestra.
I see now.
I have been sleeping all of this time, and my body, being empty, was filled with darkness.
I touch the skin of my body, still shivering at the waves of darkness radiating from it.
The song continues, driving away the darkness, healing my body and soul...
I'm no longer drowning...
I'm no longer the Twisted One.
I know who I truly am now.
~*~
My body seems to spasm as- Wait. It's just someone shaking me.
"Wake up!" A familiar voice pierces my thoughts. Someone very familiar...
Link?
I suddenly sit up, surprising the person.
It was Link, the Hero of Time, that twisted legend.
Shaking, I stand up, looking at the scene of destruction that I had caused, starting at the patches of blood dotting the ground.
"I'm sorry..." I whisper, horrified...
"Don't be." Link stands next to me.
I can still hear the reassuring song behind me, the one that had brought me back to my senses...
"What is that song?" I ask Link, looking around to see where it was coming from. I couldn't find the source, it seemed to be a gift from heaven...
"The Song of Healing," Link said simply. "It wasn't your fault that you went insane..."
"Was it anybody's fault?" Or was it simply destiny?
"Not really. Unless you want to blame the root of darkness, or even that Skull Mask..."
It makes sense...
"What was in the Skull Mask? Why did I go insane?" Why was this whole saga about masks?
Link shrugged. "I don't know. Sometimes destiny can make a mistake, and something that wasn't supposed to happen happens. I guess you were supposed to remain a Kokiri, but for some reason, you turned into a Skull Kid. Things happen, but they turn out all right in the end."
I understood that it was a big war, Light and Dark... And their brother, Insanity, lies where Light ends and Darkness begins.
"The Light attracts the Dark, and the Dark attracts the Light. One without the other is like woof without the warp, or life without death. It simply cannot happen. It can come close to it, however, and the space-time continuum can become distorted in the process. Why is there a war? It's just one of those great mysteries of life." Link continued to explain.
Memories come flooding, revealing more than I ever wanted to know, as a gap makes itself known to me.
"Where are Tatl and Tael?" I suddenly shout, panicking, before it registered in my brain that I didn't know WHO Tatl and Tael were.
"Who is Tatl? And Tael?" Link said, confused.
I thought for a moment, considering the outburst. But something snaps, and I understand all of a sudden. "One was the symbol of Light... Tatl... and the other was the symbol of Dark... Tael. I was something in between, the shadow. Tatl was supposed to help you, the bearer of Light, but Tael was attracted to me because of my insanity. Dark is not always bad..." I realize.
"Is this from a different Destiny stream?" Link asks, understanding.
"Yes... I was supposed to have picked up Majora's Mask, originally... But I wasn't supposed to be insane... I was supposed to originally be good, but I was forced to fuse with Dark, to create shadow, the seed of insanity. I don't know what happened to cause it to be otherwise..." Link walks with me to the portal.
"What will happen if we go back?" I ask Link, just as he was about to step into the portal.
"Portals are passsageways between time-lines. Termina is just a mirror image of Hyrule, a reflection of what Hyrule would've been like in another time stream. If we go back, the time-space continuum will be righted, which means none of this will have happened. We will go back to the second the continuum was screwed, and instead of doing the things that will trigger the portal to appear, we will do exactly the opposite." Link explained.
With that, I step into the portal, and all memories of this are erased.
This time-line is erased forever.
Things will be righted...
I stop right at the portal, and turn to look at the Hero's retreating back. It was sort of strange, because he was the cause of all of this. He was created for good, but if it weren't for him, bad guys wouldn't exist... It was all confusing, how everything was linked together, hopelessly criss-crossed in ways which didn't seem possible.
But maybe the Godesses were truly evil, them that only exist to introduce pain and misery in our otherwise happy lives.
But I've seen things I've never wanted to see... Things I never wanted to know, to know that they existed. I have to forget all of this...
I can't take it any more...
~*~
"Koru! Don't go in there!" Saria shouts.
"You can get lost!" Another one of my Kokiri friends chime in.
I pause, with one foot almost touching the grass on the other side of the Lost Woods portal.
It seemed that that moment seemed to drag on forever.
I was extremely bored, I must admit. I needed a change of scenery, and I told Saria so.
"I'll take you there later, so you won't get lost and turn into a Skull Kid!!" Saria giggles, the other Kokiri dividing into teams to play soccer.
Echoes of emotions I had felt before, somewhere, shoo me away from the portal as one time line is erased from memories forever.
"But that's just a legend! There are no such things as Skull Kids!" I shout back.
And it seemed for the first time, I was happy.
~*~
Ending Notes: ^_^ Just like the last time, the last line's not dark. But I decided to give this a happy ending for once... I love this fic... *Ahem* Do you have any suggestions, or coments? All flames will be used to roast smores. I like smores...