It's a new chapter! Yay! I meant to upload this yesterday night, but profiles were down because of maintenance or something. So I couldn't upload this to my Doc Manager or even get to my account in general, really. Also, the story itself is 2500 words exactly. It was in no way intentional, and I just happened to see that and go, 'Oh, really? Neat.'
I think Link's in denial for more than half this chapter. It wasn't intentional, but after I started to refer to the stages of grief, I realized that he did seem to come up with various excuses for everything that was going on, so...
Oh, and how is it possible to have 6 reviews, and only 1 single view? Seriously, that's what it says in my Story Manager. 1 view, 6 reviews, 3 followers, and 1 favorite. I don't think I quite understand.
Now for reviews! (Yay!)
EquioxWolf: It did move a little fast, huh? Well, I took that into consideration, and over half the chapter is Link stuck in a dungeon. Now that I think about it, I'm not even sure how I managed that... Anyway, after a while, I was only at about a 1500 word count, and I want all of this story's chapters to have 2000 words or more, so I ended up throwing some exciting stuff in towards the end.
As for the Guest, were you the top, the bottom, or both for the first chapter reviews? I can't tell, you're all just 'Guest' with a capital G, so... Anyway, Link should the hero, huh? Though, you don't see many stories with an evil Link, but I don't think that I could do that, because I don't want anything bad to happen to Midna, but it's not like I can have her join the bad guys and say they lived happily ever after. And so that's probably why the 'exciting' part of this chapter turned out like it did.
By the way, the later parts of this has the stages of grief in them, so in case you don't know what those are... You lose something important, you go through various stages to cope, basically. Those are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. Most of the time, you don't go through all of them, and sometimes you bounce between stages, so you could very well be in depression, and then jump back into anger.
I think I've rambled enough. Have fun...
Several days passed since he was thrown into prison. In that time, Link did very little, lying on his hay bed, acting like a model prisoner, at least, that's how he fancied himself whenever he bothered to look over at the savages that lived a couple cells over. As he found out on his second day, he only got two meals a day; probably an order from the princess because everyone else stuck in a cell got three a day. He hardly stood because his wounded side still stung, but whenever he did, every guard and prisoner turned their attention to him, and kept it there until he sat down again, even if he was simply stretching. It was very unnerving when he was trying to use the toilet, which he found plugged very easily, and was temperamental at times. He didn't feel like anyone knew what the word 'privacy' meant. He expected the guards, at least, to not stare. Because of this, he became more nocturnal (at least, he thought it was nocturnal) than the other prisoners so at least he wouldn't have quite so many eyes on him when he had to take a dump.
It was the middle of what he suspected was his fifth day. He couldn't tell due to the fact that there wasn't a clock or window of any kind. He could only tell very basic time due to the sleep schedules of the other inmates, even if those were all over the place. Anyway, it was his suspected fifth day, and the princess had yet to visit him, which came as a shock considering how much she seemed to be dying to talk to him since his first kill.
About mid-day, when all the other prisoners were getting their lunch, and Link was in a half-asleep daze, a princess did finally arrive. It wasn't the one he had expected though.
Not completely awake, Link only registered a couple bits of the conversation that went down behind his cell door, but soon enough the door was opening. Link opened his eyes and looked up. He could only really see a silhouette because of the light being directly behind her, but he had a good idea of just who it was, judging from height alone.
"What do you want?" Link asked.
"What do you think?" Was the reply.
"I think you came here to annoy me," Link said.
"Guess again," the princess told him.
"You're here to give me food in hopes that I'll follow you forever like a lost puppy?" Link guessed, the thought of food making his stomach growl.
"Getting warmer," she told him, handing him an apple. "Honestly, I don't understand what Zelda thinks she'll achieve by taking your lunch."
Link looked over the apple to ensure it wasn't poisoned and then bit into it. Finding that it was safe, he started to devour it. Midna chuckled at his behavior.
"So why are you here?" Link asked, already halfway through his apple.
"I heard Zelda won't give you a lunch, so I figured I'd provide you with something to tide you over," she explained.
"Cool," Link said somewhat uncaringly before returning to his apple. After a moment, he asked, "So when's Zelda planning on visiting?"
"Oh, she had no plans to," Midna informed him.
Link had a shocked look on his face. "But I thought she was going to try and get me to spill the secrets of the SDB or something!" Link yelled, gaining the attention of the other inmates, who, until that point, had been ignoring the two.
"SDB?" Midna asked.
"The assassin group I'm in," Link expained with a confused look on his face. "The Secret Death Bringers. You've seriously never heard of us?"
"Nope," Midna replied.
"Ok... So why isn't Zelda going to come down here?" Link asked.
"Well, for one, she's afraid of the other prisoners," Midna told him, glancing at said inmates, who were staring at her hungrily. "As a matter of fact, they're giving me the creeps. Secondly, she figures that she can catch them herself after coming up with a 'brilliant' idea."
"And that is...?" Link asked.
"Because we caught you so easily, Zelda figures that if we just put a fake hit on her, that we can catch whichever one comes. Unfortunately, this is lengthening my stay far past anything I had expected because she somehow convinced me to stay for the whole thing."
"Does this mean you'll keep bringing me lunch?" Link asked hopefully. As much as he didn't want to rely on someone, especially who had previously been a target, missing lunch was a pain in the ass.
"More than likely not," Midna replied.
"Why not?" Link asked. "Is it the other prisoners, are they creeping you out? You can get them to back off!" He probably sound a little childish with that last statement, but he didn't care. He didn't want to lose the only person was was willing to talk to him.
Midna chuckled. "Do you really want me to visit that much? Are you getting lonely?" She teased.
"As a matter of fact, yes. There isn't a whole lot to do down here, after all," Link admitted. "Plus, I hate missing lunch."
Midna laughed. "While the other inmates do creep me out, that is not the reason. I don't want Zelda to get any odd ideas, like I'm going to bust you out or something stupid. As a matter of fact, I fear she's going to yell at me as soon as I walk out of here."
"There are guards watching my every move should I do so much as twitch, which makes using the toilet rather freaky. Something tells me that I'm not going to be getting out of here any time soon," Link replied.
"Well, then maybe you should use this time to reflect on what you've done incorrect throughout your life," Midna advised before leaving, not waiting for a reply.
A couple days passed after Link's talk with Midna. In that time, she didn't visit again, and Link was left to ponder what she had told him. It didn't even take an hour for him to determine that the only thing he could have possibly done incorrect was that one time he tried to steal. Because of that, his life fell apart, and he was now in the mess he currently found himself in. After that, he turned his thoughts to what his family could possibly be doing in order to free him. After all, they weren't just going to leave him... right? He also wondered how Zelda and Midna were doing. He hadn't heard any news so far about either of them. It was likely that Zelda's fake hit was still being processed, since she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, which would explain why nothing had happened to her yet. It was highly unlikely that the hit on Midna would be called off, though, so it felt odd that nothing seemed to be happening with her that the guards, who seemed to love gossip, would want to talk about. Link tried to convince himself that they were taking the time to plan upon realizing that she wasn't going to leave yet, or maybe find out where he was being held before attempting to take her out again. Or maybe they thought he was still trying. Occasionally, he was sent in to take someone out, but various circumstances caused him to have to sit around and hope that he put the poison in the correct drink because every other method would be too risky. Sometimes it took up to two weeks. Yes, that must be why. They thought it was just taking awhile.
After two weeks passed, Link began to get anxious. Usually, if he thought that he would take awhile, he would send a message via a white hawk that oddly trusted him. So they had no reason to still be waiting around.
So when a crash, boom, and a bang sounded not far from the dungeon, Link jumped up, mostly out of shock. A smile quickly grew on his face as he realized what was going on.
A bomb must have been used on a nearby wall. There were three people of interest in the castle, so there was no particular reason to be stealthy, even though they had to deal with the whole castle's defenses. As well as the two magic wielding princesses. Never forget them.
It was possible that the stealthy approach was thrown out the window because they had been spotted. Or maybe they knew that the hit wasn't real, and didn't want to deal with the ambush that was inevitably set up every night in hopes that they would stumble into it.
Regardless as to why they were causing a scene, they had definitely arrived, and Link was sure he was going to be freed.
A moment passed, and most of the guards ran up to see what was going on. And for the most part, other than that moment, it was silent. None of the other inmates did much. They were tense, but otherwise didn't move an inch. Neither did the remaining guards.
Link stood, clinging to the bars that kept him from the world, the anticipation killing him, which was clear in his eyes. All the remaining guards stared at him, nervous.
There were sounds that indicated a struggle not far outside. "They're coming for me," Link told the guards, which made them all the more nervous. "They'll kill you all for locking me up here!" He probably sounded like a crazed maniac, but that was the least of his concerns at the moment. They were probably getting closer by the moment.
Hurried steps made their way down the stairs. The guards jumped, and pointed their spears at the entrance. To everyone's shock, it was not a member of the SDB that emerged. It was, instead, Midna. The guards hastily put down their spears, apologizing.
Midna ignored them and slammed the door shut and ran to the back of the room, pressing herself against the bars of Link's cell. Turning her head, she looked at him.
Link actually felt rather surprised to see fear (tiredness was also present) in her eyes, considering how calm she was the night that he tried to take her down.
"So, they've finally come for me. And for your head," Link grinned, though it didn't stay on his face for long. "You're one of the few people I've ever trusted with my name and face. It will actually be rather saddening to see you go."
Midna shook her head. "I refuse to die now." Suddenly, she disappeared, seemingly melting into the shadows or, to be more specific, his shadow, though he didn't notice that it was his shadow she dived into.
Immediately after she was gone, the door burst off its hinges. Ghirahim calmly stepped into the room, effortlessly knocking out the shaking guards. He looked around the room for a moment, not batting an eye at Link, who was staring at him intently. As a matter of fact, he hardly acknowledged Link when he asked, "Are you going to let me out of here?"
Finally, Ghirahim turned to him. "Where is she?" He asked, not making a move to help Link out, nor did he talk to him like he was a friend of any kind.
Link felt rather confused as to why he didn't seem to care about his friend's safety, but answered anyway. "She kinda... sunk into the shadows."
Ghirahim swore. "She's probably fled already then. But she can't get far, not after I drained her magic like that. To think that she could still pull that trick, though." He swiftly turned around and started to walk away.
"Ghirahim, get me out of here!" Link yelled, annoyed.
Ghirahim stopped. "Why should I do that?" He asked, not bothering to turn and face Link.
"I-I'm-" Link started, too stunned to form a sentence.
"A member of the SDB?" Ghirahim finished. "Sorry, not anymore. After the boss realized you had been captured, he stopped seeing a use for you." With that out of the way, he started walking again.
Meanwhile, Link, effectively having just lost the only people he could ever call family, began to go through the stages of grief, rather quickly at that. "N-no, y-you can't just... Y-you're joking, right? Right?" He muttered, his hands slowly slipping from where they had been gripping the bars. The mature persona that he had held onto while stuck in the dungeon slowly slipped away, leaving only a pained child at was just told that he was no longer a part of his own family. It didn't even take another 5 seconds for him to snap into the second phase. "I'll kill you!" He yelled, his hands shooting up to grab the bars again, his knuckles white from how hard he was gripping them. "I'll fucking murder you all!" And immediately after that, he was on the third phase. By this time, Ghirahim had stopped to watch the saddened boy break down. "Please, don't leave me. I'll do anything. Please. I'm still useful to you, just... Please don't leave me." He looked at Ghirahim, desperation in his eyes. And then, just as fast as he passed through the other stages, he was onto the fourth. He fell to his knees, crying.
By this point, Ghirahim had had enough of watching the boy and left.
Amazingly enough, it was at this point that the other inmates finally learned what 'privacy' meant. They swiftly removed their gazes from him.
Despite his rather loud sobbing, Link heard movement behind him in his cell. His head swung around, shocked to find Midna sitting there on his hay bed, a look of pain on her face, probably because of the lack of magic in her system, judging from Ghirahim's words.
"Y-you," Link said, suddenly jumping back to the anger phase. "It's your fault I'm in this mess!" He screamed in anger, slowly standing.
"L-Link, please," Midna pleaded weakly.
Link walked towards her; suddenly back in the bargaining phase. "If I just kill you, they'll take me back, right?" He asked aloud, though he didn't expect an answer.
"Link, you're just a pawn to them," Midna slowly told him. "They don't care about you. Killing me won't change that. Please see that."
And just like that, Link slipped into an odd mix of denial and acceptance, the two of them contradicted each other, sure, but somehow he managed it. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered, the rational part of him telling him that there was nothing he could do, even though every other part of him told him that they couldn't possibly just leave him. And so, unable to come up with a decent answer to what he could do now without his family, he fell back onto his knees and cried once again, allowing the Twilight Princess to comfort him.
