A/N: I am still looking for a beta. Unfortunately, without one I may not be able to post fics that are as flawless as I would like them. Please, if anyone is good with grammar and willing to read flagrant, PG-13 rated yaoi, please give me an email. (towerofmagic@hotmail.com)
I have totally forgotten the layout of Gannondorf's castle, so don't yell at me if something about it is wrong.
***
Carry on my wayward son
There will be peace when you are gone
Lay your wearied head to rest
Don't you cry no more
Kansas, Carry On
***
The wind shrieked around the destroyed vale that had once housed the castle of the Hylian rulers. Like the talons of a mythical harpy, the wind cut through Link's tunic, stripping from him any warmth he might have had. He shivered once and walked toward the Dark Lord's castle.
Who, he wondered, had destroyed this once-fertile and beautiful vale? Who dug into a vein of molten rock below the earth's surface to create this lake of fire? Who had created a castle capable of staying aloft like a misshapen bird? Would Gannondorf trouble himself with such things?
He walked slowly cliff's edge, and watched as a few dislodged pebbles dropped into the seething magma. For the moment, he was too lost in introspection to wonder how he would get across.
So this is my fate, he though sadly, looking up to the uppermost windows of the black tower. To kill the man I love in order to win the heart of the woman I despise. I am… so low and weak, to allow this to happen. I have failed my heart and sold my soul to my sword. Why would King Gannondorf care for so loathsome a man as I? What am I to someone so grand as him?
Do I fight for my homeland? Do I fight for my friends? Do I fight for my dead love? Or, worst of all, do I fight because I have nothing else?
Beyond him, a bridge was being spun from raw magic. He watched in apathy as it was created; it shone against the backdrop of black and red, the only color in the bleak tapestry of death. He loathed it, loathed it for enabling him to challenge the Gerudo King, loathed it for its color and its meaningful existence.
The way fulfill his destiny had been opened.
Gannondorf, meanwhile, stood on the highest balcony of his tower, laughing into the wind. He had watched Link avidly, as he had watched the Hero's talk with Zelda through the eyes of his pets. His heart had ached for the pain of the beautiful Hero of Time, a familiar ache he had learned to accept. For was he not in love?
His oldest sister, Naboruu, stepped out of his chamber and onto the balcony with him, her hair whipping in the wind. "I don't know about that bridge, brother," she said, gesturing at the newly created object. "It's bright and shiny and… rainbow… It's a bit gay…"
"Well, I'm a bit gay," he retorted, laughing. "Do you keep forgetting?"
"What will people think?"
"I don't care what people think! I don't care what these Hylian bastards think of me. Except… for him…"
He leaned against the balcony railing, sighing as he watched Link walk across the bridge. Naboruu had a brief but amusing image of a teenaged girl longing to be acknowledged by a handsome young man.
"Big brother's got a cruu-uush…" Naboruu taunted, poking him with her index finger.
"I do," he answered, not at all annoyed. "I want him so badly. I want to heal him, to stop the pain fate has forced upon him."
"That's very high and noble, but what if he doesn't love you? Will you force your love upon him?"
"I would never rape him, if that's what you're asking," he said, frowning at her. "Even if that thought had crossed my mind, after what happened to Danäte…"
"I didn't mean that," Naboruu said apologetically. "I know you wouldn't. But what if he doesn't love you? Will you kill him, as he would do to you?"
"Either way, I will deal with it when the time comes." He turned and opened the door for her. "He will be here soon. The pitiable man… Zelda's beloved slave, here for my head. Through his efforts, Hyrule shall be purged of darkness and he may marry his darling Princess. I wonder, would he be happy with her? Would he love her?"
"I wouldn't know," Naboruu said.
Gannondorf continued as if he had not heard her. "How many nights has he cried himself to sleep, mourning for all that have died on his sword and in his stead? Could I ever possibly lift the curse he has placed upon himself, to make him see life as I see it? Could I ever show him that life does not have to be a burden?"
"Well," Naboruu said softly, "I suppose you shall have the answers to your questions very soon."
Link recoiled in pain as the laser of a Beamos cut through his tunic, slicing into his shoulder and cauterizing the wound almost immediately. Screaming in anger, he threw a bomb at the monster with his other arm, jumping back to avoid another laser.
The bomb exploded, sending bits of shrapnel in all directions. Link held his hand up to his face, wincing slightly as the shards of metal cut into his elbow and forearm. With the assurance that the creature was destroyed, he reached up above where it had been and plucked a silver five-rupee piece from the air, snapping the thread that had attached it to the ceiling.
With a few notes, a door on the opposite end of the room opened. For the moment, Link did not go through it; he slumped down against the wall and took off his gauntlet, plucking metal shards from the leather, then from his skin. His once-white bodysuit had been stained crimson from his blood. It saddened him to think that he would barely be alive right now if it were not for the faeries and potions he kept with him. And Gannondorf was supposed to fall because of him? The concept was laughable.
Still angered at his weakness, he took the last of his potions and poured part of it over the deep wound in his shoulder. As the skin began mending itself, he sucked in air through his teeth to ward off the stinging pain it caused. When it had closed over with little more than a scab, he drank the remainder of the potion.
His one consolation was that this was the last section of the castle he would have to conquer before Gannondorf's deplorable barrier was destroyed. He opened the door leading out of the room, slipping on his gauntlet as he did so.
He was once again in a small room whose far wall plated with obsidian, a bulbous, tumor-like growth of orange magic hanging from the ceiling. He fired a light arrow into the loathsome pod—it seemed to him that if left long enough, the magic would give birth to a magnitude of repulsive insects—and was greeted by the Sage of Light. He barely heard as Rauru urged him onward, trying to encourage him.
Once again he found himself warped to the main chamber of the castle. When he looked up, he saw the thread of magic attaching Rauru's chamber to Gannondorf's barrier begin to melt away. With it gone, there was nothing left to hold the barrier; the entire castle seemed to shake as the black magic of the barrier was melted and destroyed.
At last, the shaking stopped, and the central column of Ganon's Tower was exposed. With a deep sigh, he turned toward the tower's mouth.
He did not seem to notice the sleek black rat that had been watching him since he came into the castle. It shook itself once, dislodging a bit of dust that had settled into its fur during the barrier's destruction, and skittered away towards Gannondorf's throne room.
