(A/N) Hello, and welcome to my newest series: The ABCs of Zelda Villainy. Here I'm going to write one story for each letter of the alphabet, based around a certain word. Each of these will be written in an attempt to more flesh out and understand why Legend of Zelda villains are so villainous.

These oneshots are intended to be darker and more serious than my previous works, so if that's not your thing, don't read it. I don't want anyone getting disturbed or creeped out if they don't want to. Nothing here is explicit or sexual, just dark with some blood and occasional gore(not really that much though).

I personally love villains, so this is something I've wanted to do for a while. It seems to me like a lot of people write villains and bad guys off as simply being 'evil' without giving any thought to how they might've ended up that way. Unfortunately, some of the villains in Legend of Zelda have suffered from backstory or depth loss. It is my goal to remedy that.

That said, here is the first installment of The ABCs of Zelda Villainy.

Happy(or not really) reading!

Apathy

It was near the end of the day, and a man was walking back through the Palace to his wing after hours of sitting by the King's side. This man was tall and thin, with a rather skeletal build and spidery hands. He wore a long beard, but kept his head bald. His skull and forehead were decorated with blue tattoos, the designs each telling a different story. The man was the King's main advisor, and the cloak he wore showed this. He didn't wear a shirt, and kept the front of the cloak open, leaving his chest bare. His people didn't often wear much in the way of clothing, and wearing a cloak was rare, but it showed his status.

He oftentimes found the overlong sleeves to be impractical, but he managed to get on fine. They all did. Nothing was great, but nothing was terrible. Everything was simply fine, and everyone was fine with that.

Everyone except for the advisor's son.

The young man was different, discontent. He got angry easily, which was unheard of among their people, since emotion was something everyone kept under metiphorical lock and key.

The advisor thought that his son was just going through a phase, and would eventually grow into normal apathy.

How wrong he was.

When the man reached the wing of the Palace he lived in, he was feeling content, having had a productive day with the King and the Princess, and was ready to retire to his quarters with his son. It had been nearly a year since the passing of the advisor's wife, but it seemed that the advisor's son had still not completely recovered. The advisor didn't entirely understand why, since he didn't feel emotions like his son did, but he too had grieved the passing of his wife.

The advisor didn't understand his son when he talked about emotions, but he tried to listen anyway. What he felt for his son was very vague, but it was there, and it was stronger than anything he felt about anyone else, except perhaps his late wife.

He sometimes pondered how his son would fare as a royal advisor, since he would take over for his father once the man died or became incapable. The way he thought about this was akin to what concern was like for light beings, but it wasn't nearly as strong.

As he came upon the door to his quarters, he wondered what his son was doing. The young man spent much time in his chambers, doing who knows what, and occasionally would spend time with the Princess. The Princess adored him, and seemed to be the only other one who had emotions like him.

The advisor opened the door and found his son sitting in the gathering room with his back to him. He was thin like his father, but had the same sharp cheekbones and orange eyes as his mother. His hair was a dark wine red, just like his father's, but he had no beard and kept his hair short.

All seemed normal, but as the advisor closed the door he noticed something in his son's hand. The young man was holding what appeared to be a sliver of black matter, shot through with a matrix of red and aqua lines.

"Good evening, my son." the advisor said blankly, as usual.

The young man didn't respond, he only held the sliver of black up higher, showing a line of greenish liquid that had gathered along the edge. As the young man tilted the sliver, the liquid slid along the material and began to drip off, splattering on the pristine grey floor.

"What is that?" the advisor asked, a hint of something creeping into his heart. He tried to shut it down, but it refused to listen to his demands.

"Blood," murmured the son, turning his head to the side to look at the sliver thoughtfully.

The advisor's eyes widened ever so slightly, startled by what he saw.

He had always known that his son was considered handsome, and that many young women his age might have seen him as a potential husband, but his strange personality and violent mood swings(at least compared to everyone else) were off turning.

However now, his son appeared to have run something sharp over his lower eyelid, cutting a long tear in the skin. Shimmering green blood ran down his skeletal cheek and jaw, dripping off his chin onto the ground.

"What have you done to yourself, my son?" the advisor asked, the very slightest of dread in his tone.

His son turned his head completely, revealing that the same tear had been cut into his other eyelid as well. There was a manic gleam in the young man's eyes as he lifted the black blade in his hand and slid it between his lips. The advisor tensed a tiny bit, his heart beginning to beat a little faster. His son smiled, but the smile was empty and apathetic, something the advisor had never seen on his son's face before.

Suddenly the son's hand jerked and tore a slit in the side of his mouth. He didn't even flinch. The advisor's heart skipped a beat in fright. The unsettling smile on his son's face didn't falter as he dragged the blade over his lips and pressed it into the opposite side, tearing that side as well. The advisor couldn't breathe. His son tilted his head slightly and pressed the knife downwards, cutting a diagonal slit underneath the first. He repeated his actions on the other side, afterwards dropping the blade and spitting green blood out of his mouth, as the fissures were still bleeding.

"Apathy," his son said softly, his eyes growing larger until they were perfect round orbs of orange. His lips pulled back as he spoke, blood mixing with thick saliva, coating his teeth in green liquid. "That is all you feel. Because you feel nothing."

The advisor shivered, but didn't show any emotion on his face. His son's face twisted in a gruesome scowl, and he stood up to his full height, a good two heads taller than his father. Orange eyes connected with red ones, and then narrowed.

"My son-" the advisor began, but something flashed in his son's eyes that made him stop. Made him fear.

What had happened to his son?

"I am not your son," the young man spat, baring bloody teeth and hissing. "Do not call me that ever again, you foolish man."

The young man shoved his father aside and strode out angrily, his torn up mouth contorted into a hideous snarl. Green blood was still dripping down his chin, but he paid it no heed.

The advisor fell to his knees as the door slammed shut, and for the first time since he was a babe, he cried.

"Oh, Zant, my son," he whispered. "What have I done to you?"

(A/N) And there we go. This isn't going to have a regular update schedule, since I don't have all of them planned out, but this is something I really want to finish. If you have any suggestions for letters, please let me know. I'm trying to keep this away from humor and fluff, and focus more on the serious stuff, like tragedy, pain, and the things that would catapult villains into being villains. Of course, this isn't all backstory, and there will be some that are based around the atrocities committed by the villains in-game, and/or things I think it would be interesting to see them react to.

Thank you for reading, friend! :3