A/N: I want to dedicate this story to Insane. Certifiably, as it was her who came up with the idea for this story. However, it is slightly different from her original idea. I have set it during Twilight Princess, and before the boss of the Temple of Time, but all the same, I still want to give her credit for giving me the inspiration for this fic. Read and review, and most importantly, enjoy!
It was strange, thought the hero. After all this time, fighting for good, slaying evil for the sake of his princess, it felt somehow… old. As time had passed, he had grown older, his muscular frame had strengthened, and he had matured. He was no longer a child, a young boy raised in the small village of Ordon, but a man.
The sword that lay across his back glowed faintly with a divine light, and the metal shield shimmered as it caught the rays of the late morning sun. The monsters he had fought. The people he had vowed to protect, slaughtered before his eyes, his past a mist of blood and fire and anguish. And what had he to show for it? Nothing.
His princess…
His ruler...
His lover…
All were appropriate titles, yet only one fitted her as perfectly as she deserved. His goddess.
And how much would he suffer for her? How much pain would he endure? As much as he had to. In his eyes, it was worth it. If only he could give her what she so richly deserved.
But he knew that even if he traversed one thousand temples, slew one thousand monsters, each more hideous than the last, that he could never truly satisfy her desires. Whenever he could not give her something, something he knew she should have, it was like a knife wound in his heart.
She was beautiful, yes, more beautiful than many of the women he knew. And with beauty, came immense power, he knew that. That was why she was princess, and that was why he married her.
And yet, even though he was married to the most powerful woman in the kingdom, he was not happy. In fact, his life had gotten worse since that day, and it was his entire fault. He could not give the woman he loved what she wanted, what she deserved more than any other woman in Hyrule.
He had gone through so much just to be with her. The things he had done. The evils he had slain. The friends he had lost. The blood that had stained his blade throughout the years. His mind had been warped by the years he had spent travelling, the blood he had shed. And what disgusted him the most was that none of that blood was his own.
It saddened him that he was married to the princess, was about to become her King, and still could not sate her desires. The closest he could get to satisfying her in any way was during their most intimate moments, and due to their being King and Queen, that didn't happen very often.
He had fought for so long, battled so hard to get to this point, all to rescue the love of his life, the princess Zelda, from the twisted, contorted fiend who had once dwelt in the desert, land of the Gerudo, the King of Evil himself. And now, here he stood at the entrance to the boss chamber that lurked deep within the Temple of Time, a large faded silver key with a ruby set into the handle clutched in his fist, so tight that his knuckles had turned white with the exertion of strength he was putting into holding the key. Hands shaking, more in anger than in fright, he raised the key to the keyhole and slipped it in, the mechanism's gears groaning and clicking as the key rotated in the lock.
The heavy onyx sphere that acted as the lock for the door was released from the chains that held it, and fell to the floor with a resonating thud, one that echoed throughout the chamber in which the hero stood. Drawing his sword from it sheath on his back, and sliding his sturdy metal shield onto his arm, tightening the straps that held it in place, the green clad hero grinned and, with a determined expression set in stone upon his face, strode into the pitch black room before him.
The moment the hero entered the room, a heavy gate slid up through a grate in the floor, blocking his path, and a giant arachnid, immense in size, and probably, he guessed, power as well, dropped down from the ceiling, The green clad warrior let out a gasp of surprise, and readied his weapon, poised to defend himself should the beast attempt to strike.
Lunging forwards, he slashed at the creature's hide, and recoiled when his blade made not a single scratch upon the beast's impenetrable armour. Enraged, the monster screeched and began to crawl up the moss ridden wall of the arena, the single eye that dominated its back staring at him, unblinking. Unslinging his bow the hero fired a single shot at the large, pus yellow sphere, and a ghastly shriek ripped itself from the monster's throat. It dropped to the ground, blinded, and, drawing his blade, the goddess' champion unleashed his fury on the creature, hacking and slashing, whirling and stabbing, until the beast found the strength to crawl back up onto the ceiling out of the hero's reach.
Another arrow already nocked in his bow, the princess' lover took aim at the monster's eye once more, but started to retreat, as he noticed that the beast's single eye had begun to glow a soft orange colour. No sooner had he noticed this, than a searing laser erupted from it, carving deep scorch marks in the stone of the floor. Cursing, he jumped backwards, just narrowly avoiding being burnt to a crisp, and took aim once more at the creature's weak spot.
The air was once again split by the creature's roar of agony, and the room shook as it landed hard on the stone beneath the hero's feet. His sword flashed as it cut through the air, and bit deep into the eye of the creature before him. An ear splitting screech escaped the giant arachnid's gaping maw, and it once again crawled up the wall to escape the vicious bite of the hero's blade.
Readying his bow once more, the green clad hero let loose an arrow that sheared easily through the bulbous eyeball. Roaring in pain, the immense arachnid fell to the floor for a final time. Its last breath escaped its teeth lined maw, and it curled into a ball, dead.
The monster's corpse lay silently in the centre of the arena. Even as it dissipated into flecks of shadow that vanished just as soon as they appeared, the hero could feel something deep within his soul changing.
He could feel the goodness that once dwelt in his heart shatter like a mirror, as if the life he had once led was nothing more than a reflection of the life of shadows and darkness he now lived. The tunic he once wore ad turned from emerald green to a malicious, inky black, his hair had faded to a light grey colour, like ashes, and his eyes had changed from a light cerulean to a deepening crimson.
All the rage he had felt, from not being able to satisfy the needs of his princess, crystallized into a shell that encased his heart and warped his personality. He could feel himself changing, even as he surrendered to the darkness that had taken over his once good soul.
He had once thought that he could do anything, that he would only lay down his blade to evil when hell freezes over. But now, with him turned to evil, hell had indeed, frozen over.
Hyrule, the kingdom he had fought so hard to protect, would fall to darkness, and his princess would suffer. He did not want that, of course not. But the rage filling his heart was too strong for him to even attempt to control. The source was something far more powerful that he had ever felt before. More powerful than even... dare he even think it… Ganondorf.
And yet, he felt compelled to surrender to it, if it would help his princess, he would do anything.
His newfound power had made him stronger, more powerful than he had ever been before. And with the Master Sword in his hand, he was unstoppable. Its hilt, now a soulless, jet black colour, shone in the pale moonlight that filtered down through the hole in the ceiling that had been opened by his fight with the giant arachnid.
Sheathing it, he turned and strode away from the place that had once been a battlefield, but was now as silent as the grave, the only noise his echoing footsteps on the cold stone floor. Blood once more soaked his clothing, a feeling he was used to by now, having fought so long and hard for the love he thought he had lost forever.
What he would give to hold her in his arms once more, to hear the satisfied whisper she made when he ran his hands over her body.
What he would give to hear the agonized shriek escaping the Desert Man's lips as he drove his blade through the armour that protected his chest and deep into his heart. To watch as his enemy's corpse vanished in a burst of light, a maniacal grin stretching his lips into a grotesque pattern of insane laughter.
And he would do it all, just to see her kind, loving smile once more.
He would move heaven and earth, defy even the gods themselves, risk everything he had, just to see her smile. It alone defined all that she was.
All that he had been through, all that he had seen, all he had experienced. It was all worth I of only he could be with her again. The night he had proposed to her still blazed like a star in the dark recesses of his mind, as clear as day. It had been a magical experience, for both him, and the woman to whom he was married.
It had kept him going, like an energy source to fuel his tortured soul onwards through the trials he had no choice but to face. But he didn't care whether he had a choice or not. He would suffer it all, until the end of time, if it meant she would live the life she deserved.
The enemies he had faced had been no more than mere pests compared to the love he felt for his princess. Even the Gerudo King himself was no more of a threat than any of the enemies he had fought. Simply an obstacle which he had no choice but to get around. And if he could not go around, well, he would go through.
Nothing would stop him from achieving his goal.
That, he would make sure of. His love for her shone so bright, and ran so deep, that no amount of darkness would ever quench that feeling from his soul.
He would make it to the end of his quest, even if only to see the tortured glow in the sorcerer's eyes fade into darkness, he would endure whatever it took to achieve his goal: reunion with his princess- the one he loved.
The impenetrable darkness that clouded his judgement did not, could never, blot out the strong feeling of love that blazed deep within him. For the Triforce piece he held, and the one she held would make sure of that.
They might be separated in body, but nothing could ever separate them in spirit. The gods knew this, and they knew they had made the right choices. Except for perhaps the madman who wielded the unimaginable power he should not have.
And he would keep fighting. Shadows were mere hindrances to him, darkness a mere distraction. And he knew it.
For despite the veil of shadows that now blinded his thoughts, he still felt love for her. Despite the darkness that blinded him, his love for her burned brighter than ever before.
And that would never change.