-1Rewritten: Chapter 3: Lure

It had been a month and the training at the castle was difficult, but Dark Link had gladly accepted all his training, no matter how demanding they were. Whether he really wanted to help link or beat him was still unclear to Link, as he noticed Dark would give him a challenging glare every once in a while during their training.

The two rarely spoke, and they only met during training. Link had wanted to know his double, but he was to be kept away from Dark and even during training, they were never allowed to spar and were kept under watch.

"Link!" A villager had burst through the guards, "I have urgent news!"

Link was outside training the castle soldiers when the villager had come in. The soldiers had immediately gone into a defensive pose at the presence of the villager, but Link had waved a dismissive hand and they relaxed.

"What is it?" Link asked, he thought it had been a while since anything had happened.

"Murder! There's been a murder! And I think the murderer wants you there." The villager replied.

"The murderer wants me? How do you know this?" Link could already see where this was heading.

"Follow me," The villager told him.

With a slight sense of dread, Link, accompanied by two soldiers, followed the villager downtown where a large group was surrounding something.

As Link got to the group, he realized the object was not something, but someone, a young girl, no more than 17 years old. With Link there, the crowd backed away and the murmuring had stopped. Link nearly threw up.

It was the body of a young brunette, grotesquely mutilated, her dead eyes stared up at Link, a white film covering the pupils.

Link was used to this type of stuff, but the thing that got him was the drawing in blood next to the body, it was a triforce with one of the triangles filled in with blood, the triforce of courage.

"This was a lure to get me out of the castle!" Link realized, he looked up and immediately yelled, "Back into the castle!"

But it was too late, one of the soldiers accompanying him gave a grunt, and as Link looked over, he saw that the soldier's head had been taken clean off.

By now, the crowd had broken into frenzy and they were dispersing wherever they could. Through the crowd, Link caught a glimpse of the same person that had attempted to kill him a month ago.

The killer made his way through the crowd, cutting people down and stepping over their bodies, his eyes set on Link. "I have to get him away from these people, it's me that he wants!" Link planned.

He dodged through alleys and through buildings, trying to lose the assassin. Eventually, as he turned a corner, he looked behind him, seeing the figure hunch over and fall down as if something had struck him. Suddenly, the same figure got up and vanished in a quick blur.

Still gasping for breath, Link made his unsteady walk back to the castle, glancing ever so often over his shoulders.

Back at the castle Link headed directly to Zelda's room. He had thought about this killer and what to do. When Link walked back to the castle he had made up his mind, he knew what he would say. Link opened the door to Zelda's room.

"Zelda, I'm going to have to leave Hyrule."

Zelda turned towards link, she seemed to want to object, but she only managed to say, "That's sudden". It was clear that she and Link shared the same idea. Link's breathing slowed.

"Dark Link will come with me, we will take care of this problem once and for all, away from innocent people."

Zelda gulped, "Very well, we didn't bring Dark Link out here for nothing I suppose. Guards!"

Two guards came in, Zelda paused a bit before resuming.

"Bring Dark Link up here."

"Yes, ma'am," and with that, the two silver-clad soldiers marched down the stairs.

Link and Zelda looked into each others eyes, "Are you sure about this Link?"

"This is the only way, we both know that. If I stay here, more people will just die."

"Link…." Zelda trailed off

"Don't worry Zelda, I'll be alright. Remember that all my other escapades started out like this too, but here I am right?" Link spoke with a plastered on smile. He wasn't fooling Zelda nor himself, he saw the look in the killer's eyes, he was scared. Not to mention that he was clearly sweating buckets.

"Am I correct, the incident in town was a tragedy?" Zelda spoke quietly. Link's mouth opened to say something, but closed again, he gulped.

The sounds of the guard's boots ascending the stairs increased. Soon, they both appeared at the door with the dark doppelganger of Link between them.

"What do you two want?"

They both looked at him, Dark's face had changed from contempt to a more serious visage as he realized what was being planned. "So it's time?"

Link nodded, "We'll prepare our stuff tomorrow, then we set off at night, so get ready." Link then turned to Zelda, "I'll make it back in one piece, don't worry," and with that, Link looked back at Dark Link, as if expecting to get a remark of disapproval. Dark Link glared back at him and Link walked out of the room.

Once Link was out of the room, Zelda's face grew stern, and her teary eyes locked onto Dark Link's, "If you even think about hurting Link, I'll have every guard in Hyrule looking toward your death."

Dark Link turned his head away and walked out, before he walked through the door, he turned back and said, "Whatever you say, princess." And gave a slight smirk before leaving.