Chapter II
Daylight came, and Dark Link was still sound asleep on the hay. When Malon had walked in, she had gotten the surprise of her life to find him sitting there. He was what appeared to be a shadow, and yet she could see him almost full form as any Hylian would be. His features weren't very distinguishable, still in a shadowy manner. Unsure as to who he was or why he would be here sleeping on the hay, she took out a pitch fork and poked him lightly, just enough to try and get him awake.
Jarred out of his sleep by the unexpected touch, Dark Link jumped to his feet, unsheathing his sword in the same maneuver. Malon found herself standing with the shadow sword's tip almost touching her throat. It was then that she could see his eyes, glowing red as they were, and she could just make out his features. It was then she knew who he was. Link had told her stories about his adventures, and she knew that this could only be...
"You're Dark Link..." She said. "...aren't you?"
Dark Link didn't grace her with an answer. He just nodded in reply. A name did come to mind, however. Malon.
Perhaps Link had known this girl? He felt another name come to mind. He supposed it was associated to this girl. Talon.
There were feeling surrounding those names, too. The feeling surrounding Talon's name wasn't much, more of a humorous joke that could still be laughed about. The name around Malon's, however... Dark Link could sense that Link probably liked this girl more than as a friend. That was what the feelings told.
"I'm...Malon." Malon took a deep breath, hoping it wouldn't be her last. If Link's stories about Dark Link was true, then it was himself, yet as evil as Ganondorf could make it. "I've heard about you, but I won't say anything to anyone if you want to go."
This girl is smart, Dark Link thought. He removed his sword from where it was pointed and sheathed it, walking toward the door. He placed his hand on the door knob and turned it, opening the large wooden door, letting the sunlight flood in. However, as soon as a ray of sun touched him, he felt pain. Immense pain that he hadn't felt before when he had first awakened in the water a day ago. The sunlight had not hurt him then, so why did it hurt him now? Sunlight invaded his vision as well, temporarily blinding him. He shut the door and backed up quickly, soon feeling the wall against his back.
When his vision finally cleared so he could see clearly again, he saw Malon looking at him strangely.
"You can't go out into the sun, can you?" She asked. "It's probably because you're a shadow. I've never known a shadow to last in the sun very long."
Dark Link knew that she was right. It had been close to dusk when he had awakened, and he had felt the pain when the sun had touched him before it had grown dim in the sky. That meant he could only travel at dusk and night. Movements from Malon caught his attention. She was doing something that was the last thing he expected someone to do. There were a few windows in the stable where sunlight could come through, and she was walking around, closing the shutters on the windows.
His confusion only grew larger at this.
"I don't like to see anything in pain, even evil beings like you." Malon walked over to the door. She paused with her hand on the door knob, looking down at the floor, as if she wanted to say something more and couldn't. Finally, she opened the door and walked out.
Dark Link couldn't understand. Or, more firmly, he was made to where he shouldn't understand. His life was young in the world. At best he was only a year old or so, and the only understanding he had that he could be sure of was that he was meant to fight. To fight and to kill Link. To watch her do something that meant that meant caring made him feel...
A strange feeling inside. He didn't know what it was, nor could he find the thoughts that accompanied it. This feeling didn't come from Link's memories. They...
They...those feelings...they were his own...?
Never had a day been longer. It was his first actual experience with a day, he supposed. The time in the Water Temple that passed meant nothing. Time was nothing, and he was nothing to time. The two refused to care about each other.
Or, to the point, he refused to care about time. He refused it. To him, time was something to be loathed and to be rid of.
Malon had not come into the stable the rest of the day. Dark Link was grateful for that. If she had come in...that only meant more of the feelings that he didn't want to feel. When he felt them, he felt unlike himself. Unlike the creature that was to fulfill his destiny. No. He had a destiny, and he would fulfill it. No other creature would stop him from doing so. He stepped outside the door, feeling the shadows of the night creep over him, moving through him like an old friend that had been long forgotten only to have been found once again years later. He was a shadow amongst shadows. That was how it was to be.
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It was that night Dark Link found that if he walked just so he made no sound, and it was his silence that kept the Stalchilds undisturbed in their eternal graves. It was not too long before he made his way finally to the immense wall surrounding both Hyrule Market and Hyrule Castle. It was easy, making it up and over the wall, and even easier to move through the marketplace streets without being noticed, even by the nighttime dogs that seemed to trot everywhere. Out in the dark, two young lovebirds cooed words of devotion and promise to one another, ignorant of the silent being that crept among the shadows toward the dirt road that led to the main gates of the castle...
Dark Link knew he could have saved time and walked through the very midst of the guards without any hesitation, for he knew by sheer ingrained knowledge that Link was the only one who could cause pain to him, the only one who could defeat him. All other weapons, save those of magical extent, would pass right through his shadowy form. That is, if they were lucky enough for him to stand still long enough for that to happen... If their lives would be long enough for them to see it...
Yet, instead, he slunk past the guards, through the small garden field just outside the gates, and over the moat, moving up through an open castle window and into the empty hall beyond. The hall was dark. Night had far from disappeared.
This was to Dark Link's advantage. He would not be noticed as easily, if anyone cared to notice him at all. The sound of footsteps behind him alerted him, and he hit in a corner, fitting in perfectly with the rest of the shadows. The footsteps were too light to be a guard's. Someone else..
Yes. Someone else. Someone else that was none other than Princess Zelda herself. She held a torch in one hand and a book in the other. It was not the book nor the princess that made his mind turn. It was the torch. If the light of the torch crossed him, it would not force him to move like it did the other shadows. He wanted to find Link by surprise, not by force this time. He waited as Zelda passed by... But the torch did not come his way. Luck. No. He did not believe in luck. It was fate at work. The princess wandering the halls at this time of night was...interesting to say the least.
There was no drawing force leading him to Link, so Dark Link had to find him on his own, yet maybe Zelda would come in handy...
Dark Link followed her discretely as she made her way down the hall and to her room. The two guards standing outside her door didn't see Dark Link as he followed Zelda through the double-door entrance to her bed chamber. Once inside, Dark Link found his way to a corner to hide once again in the shadows. The two occupants of the room...
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Zelda sat down on her bed next to her blond friend. He had come to her in the dead of night asking her many strange questions she had little idea of how to answer, but she would not fail him in his search. The castle library had many books that held many answers. She may have found one that would help him on his search for the truth of what had happened only days before. Many days had passed for him, yet only three had passed for Hyrule.
She opened the book and pointed to a particular page. On the page was a picture of a mask. "Is this the mask you were speaking of, Link?"
Link nodded solemnly. On the page was a detailed drawing of none other than Majora's Mask. He had thought himself gone from this future forever when he had placed the Master Sword in the Pedestal of Time for the final time. Yet, when he had returned from his adventures in Termina, he found himself once again a grown-up in this time, Epona once again a grown horse, and the world only three years older than when he had defeated Ganon. He placed all the blame on Majora's Mask. No other power in Termina could have returned him to this time.
"I was sure Majora's Mask was only a legend, as many of the masks you spoke of were." Zelda said, placing her fingers on the page gently. She smiled. "I suppose I should have learned by now to keep nothing in legend."
"It had to have been the mask that returned me here." Link tightened his fist, looking at his gloved hand as he did so. If he could have seen his knuckles, he knew them to be white. "I don't understand why or how, but I know."
Zelda took his hand in her own. "The power of the Sages can send you back to your time, even without the Master Sword in hand."
Link looked at her hand. "I don't want to be sent back. Not until I find out why I'm here. If there is a reason, I will find it. I have a purpose here."
Dark Link felt it when Link's feelings of purpose flooded through him. They were so strong! He had no idea that something besides hatred could possibly be of such a strength as this! It made him...think over his own sense of purpose.
If Link ended up destroying him once again, then what would happen? Would he still go on to reform only to try and kill again, or would he disappear forever back into the waters and magic of the Water Temple that Ganondorf had created him from?
If he indeed destroyed Link, then... What could he do afterward? He had no...purpose...other than to kill...
He existed only to kill...?
No... There had to be more to it than that! He lived, didn't he? Living things have more purpose to their lives!
Yet, he didn't live... No. He didn't live. He was a shadow. Link's shadow. An echo. Echoes had no other purpose than to return, to drown out the force that created it. Dark Link felt it when the hilt of the Dark Master Sword slide from his now limp hand. He had to have more purpose than just to kill. He had to... If not, once he succeeded in his purpose, what of him then?
Link leapt do his feet, putting himself in between Zelda and the unknown invader. The Gilded Sword, which he had been able to keep after his adventures in Termina, was unsheathed quickly and in his hand. This action brought Dark Link back to his senses. He gathered up the fallen Dark Master Sword in his hand, securing it in his grip as he started to take a step forward into the dim light of the room. His thoughts caused him to stall before he could take that crucial step. He had to know what would happen if he killed Link... He had to know what would happen to him!
Dark Link forced the sword back into the sheath and ran to the only window of the room, crashing through the thin glass and falling downward feet first toward the moat.
Unable to remove his attention from the window, Link barely heard it when the guards pulled the doors open and entered into the room. Had he seen what he had thought he had...? It could be! He had killed... He had killed it, hadn't he? Surely he had!
Zelda motioned toward the window to the guards. "He jumped through the window. Outside in the courtyard, quickly!"
The guards nodded and turned around, running out of the room and down the hall. No doubt the guards below had already been alerted to the presence of the unwanted intruder, and it was no question that several guards would probably be searching the marketplace as well if the intruder could not be found around or in the castle. Zelda turned to Link, who still stood there gripping the Gilded Sword tightly. She used to muse how much it looked like a short sword in his hands, yet now it looked like a deadly weapon ready to strike.
Yet the owner of the sword was far from ready to use the weapon as it was intended. His appearance was nothing less of looking as if he had been struck by some shock.
"Link?" Zelda touched his shoulder lightly. Nothing. No answer. "Link, do you know who it was?"
Link found himself nodding, though his mind wanted to scream a different answer. He thought he knew who it was.
Whether or not he knew for sure was questioning. He sheathed the Gilded Sword, walking over to the window and placing his hands on the window seal, leaning over and looking out it down to the moat. Though there were many lights lighting the castle courtyard, there were still many dark, shadowy places that he -no, it- could still hide in.
"Who was it?" The princess prompted him.
"I think it was..." Link started to say. It took him a full ten seconds more before he could answer. "...Dark Link."
Zelda gasped, her eyes going wide as well. She knew as much as Link who Dark Link was. As Sheik, she had been able to infiltrate the Water Temple far enough to where she had gone all the way up to the third floor of it. She had dared to venture into the locked room where Dark Link resided. She had nearly been killed by the shadowy form of Link before she had finally found a way to escape. Dark Link had guarded the Long Shot, and without the Long Shot it was impossible to get to the boss of the Water Temple, Morpha. Impossible.
"You...killed him, didn't you?" She asked.
Link took a deep breath, clearing his thoughts as to what had happened that day in the past. "When I struck the final blow, he cried out in pain. I barely had a last glimpse at his glowing red eyes before he sank back into the water of the floor. Then, the entire room changed. I supposed it was an illusion conjured up by Ganondorf and, since Dark Link didn't reappear, I supposed, too, that I had killed him."
"Maybe he didn't die." She said. "Only injured."
Yes. That had to be it, Link decided. Only injured. That would explain why Dark Link didn't disintegrate before his eyes as all his other enemies that he had defeated had done. But, a question plagued him.
"Why didn't he kill me?" He asked Zelda, mentally hoping that she had some sort of answer. "He...hesitated. We heard him drop his sword. He would have been able to kill both me and you easily. Why did he...?"
Zelda smiled. This was no the time to smile, but a smile formed on her face all the same. She placed her hand on Link's, and Link looked at her, questioning. She said, "Maybe that's your purpose here. To find out why."
Link nodded once slowly, looking out the window once again. Maybe that was his purpose for being here. Dark Link had returned for some reason, and Link had returned for a reason as well. Maybe his reason was to rid Hyrule of Dark Link.
Yet, why did he feel, then, it to be something more than that? Perhaps it was something more. He'd find out. He'd leave in the morning. He didn't know if Dark Link could travel in the daylight or not. He was sure he would find out.
The Water Temple would be his first ground to search. He needed to find out how Dark Link had survived in the first place.
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The day traveled slowly along, but whether it was day or night, Dark Link did not care. The sunlight nor the moonlight affected him this day. He had returned to the Water Temple, not finding it any different than it had been the last time he had been there. The Sages liked to change nothing, he figured. The water had all drained out, but he fixed that.
Soon, once again the Water Temple was filled with water to the third floor, and he was able to reach the doorway that led to "his" room.
The moment he stepped inside the large, barren room, the illusion that he had known before very well appeared. He walked over to the tree in the center of the room and stood under it, just as he had waited when Link had first appeared to him. He touched the tree with one hand. It felt real. It was there. He kneeled down and ran his hand through the water.
It was there as well. If it felt real, then was it real? He placed his hand on the shadowy fabric of his tunic. He could feel it just as well as he could the other things in the room. Did that mean he was real?
Yet the other things in the room...the water, the tree, and even the sky, was all an illusion. He knew he could not be an illusion, for he could leave this room and still be him as he was now. Was puzzled him was that he had never thought about this before. During Ganondorf's rule, he hadn't cared about what happened to him. He only cared about one thing. To kill Link. Now, he found himself thinking about so much more. So much more...
He heard the familiar sound of a door opening and, once again, the all too familiar sound of metal bars closing over the only two doors of the room. The way the person walked, the way he sloshed the water with his boots, sounded familiar as well. Link. Dark Link knew it. He hadn't expected him to come here, but he wouldn't fight him. No, not until he found out what he needed to, and he wasn't finding anything out by kneeling here with his hand in the water.
Link approached the figure kneeling in the water. This wasn't how he had expected to find Dark Link, not that he had expected to find him at all. He drew the Gilded Sword from its sheath and held it down at his side, ready to use it if necessary. He was surprised when Dark Link spoke. Dark Link's voice...save for only slightly deeper, it sounded just like him!
"Sheath your sword! I won't fight." Dark Link said, now looking down at his reflection in the water. He showed no surprise when he heard the smooth sliding sound of the Gilded Sword being replaced in its sheath.
"You came to kill me earlier." Link said, knowing his words to be the truth, then asked. "Why didn't you? You didn't even raise your sword against me."
Dark Link clenched his fist, closing his eyes, and beyond that, closing his mind tot he innate urge to sink his sword deep within Link's flesh. Ganondorf had created that objective well. He did not want Link to be here, that to be sure. It was hard for him to control the urge with Link being this close. One the urge was momentarily fought off, he relaxed the tension in his hand, loosening it.
"You..." Dark Link opened his eyes. "You have a sense of purpose, do you not? A sense of...being?"
Link wasn't sure if he understood. "Nobody knows what their purpose is."
"You know who you are. You know that you are the Hero of Time." Dark Link said. "You were born with a destiny. I was created with only one purpose, and it was given to me."
Link thought for a moment, venturing through his thoughts for an answer to this half-riddle Dark Link was speaking in. This was about purpose, and, though Dark Link had heard him and Zelda speaking, that could not have possibly changed Dark Link's state of mind. Link didn't understand.
Dark Link stood up abruptly, casting his hard gaze on link, and Link could see that he was enraged. "Don't pretend you don't understand! Understand this, Link. Ganondorf made me to be your shadow. To make me powerful he infused a small amount of the Water Temple's magic in me. That's the reason I live. The Water Temple heals it's own."
Link listened on, doing his best to comprehend everything fully. Everything needed to be understood.
"I am your shadow. I contain all of your past memories, thoughts, and feelings you had during the time before you fought me the first time. Even your irrefutable need for a purpose. I have but one purpose, and after that purpose, what then?"
Dark Link turned away, his hands clasped into tightened fists yet again. Why had he told one he considered his enemy, he did not know, and yet he had. Strange. He did feel as if a thousand pounds had been removed from him. He felt...better? Was better the true word for the situation? It seemed to fit good enough. It fit it very well. If only he hadn't turned and looked at him. If only...
Looking at Link had forced upward the urge to destroy him. He tried to bury the feeling once again.
It was now that Link understood. He understood all too well the need of purpose. Even when he believed himself to be a Kokiri he had known he was waiting for his destiny. If it was true Dark Link had his feelings, then he could still only imagine what the possibility of fulfilling his one and only purpose would contain. To not have a destiny or a reason to continue, and yet continuing all the same... It was too horrible for Link to want to imagine. It would be his ultimate reason for death.
"Your only purpose is to kill me." Link sighed. "I won't allow that to happen."
"I refuse to die." Dark Link replied. "Seems we are both at a loss."
"You stay in the Water Temple, then. If you leave..."
Dark Link looked toward Link again, the red glow of his eyes brightening to a blood red intensity. Link held back to not flinch under the cold, forceful glare seeming to say 'You dare?' and 'You expect me to stay?' at the same instant. Dark Link was a dangerous being, Link knew, and far more dangerous when crossed the wrong way. Killing was not his fear. Dying was not his fear, either. If there was a fear, then it would surely be what he had just revealed.
Link nodded. "I won't make you stay, but if you begin trouble I will come after you."
The red-eyed shadow showed nothing, not phased by the words. Let Link come after him. He would find nothing, and he would see nothing. Dark Link would do as he pleased, no words of otherwise moving his direction or thoughts. After all, how does one command, or control, his own shadow? How does one catch his own shadow? It couldn't be done.
The metallic clack of locks coming undone sounded, and the iron gates covering the doors slid back out of sight.
Link looked at the now unlocked door behind him, then switched his gaze back over to his shadowy double, who appeared annoyed now by his intrusion.
"Go." Dark Link said slowly. "Leave."
Link did as he had been told, however hesitant he was to turn his back on his evil version. Dark Link watched the Hylian leave, his eyes narrowing by degrees. When the door closed, he unsheathed the Dark Master Sword and, with a yell filled with more anger than he thought he knew possible, plunged the sword's blade deep into the tree. The illusion around him faded, leaving the room bare and him alone.
Alone.
He shouldn't even be alone! The feeling of being alone wasn't his. He wasn't...alive. Living things had blood, skin, a heart...
A heart...
