Chapter 3

(Semi-Flashback, Anastazia's P.O.V)

(Setting: Ganondorf's Castle)

(Anastazia's Age: 14)

"DIE YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I shouted as I plunged my sword into the chest into a Darknut prototype as a training dummy Ganondorf programmed for me while he was gone, which was often. He was always gone. Which meant that I was always alone. That started when I turned 10, he just started leaving me alone in the castle for undisclosed amounts of time ranging from a day to about two weeks. Though now, it's been about a month since I've seen him. My only comfort was Koume and Kotake. Each night I would wait by the door, awaiting Ganon to come back so I could be the first one to greet him. But, I've gotten to the point where I'm doubting that he's ever going to come back. Thinking of that, I could feel my sadness and worry sweep over me and cause tears to rundown my eyes. I threw the sword so it stuck into the wall and ran inside. I instantly fell into the couch in the huge sitting room and cried into the fabric.

"Anastazia?" Koume's voice said.

"What's wrong?" Kotake asked. The two sat down next to me. One of them was tousling my bright scarlet hair, which I had changed permanently. Blonde didn't suit me.

"I-I m-miss my f-father." I cried. I was now comfortable with saying Ganondorf was my father. Though, no one knew how much I wanted him as my true dad. I belonged to someone else who was dead. "Where is he?"

"I don't know. Koume? Don't you know?"

"No. No, I don't. I hate to see you like this, sweetheart. I'm sorry we can't do anything."

I turned to my side and faced the back of the couch. "I need him. I-I love him." I said silently.

"You what?!" Kotake exclaimed loudly.

"Didn't you hear me, grandmother? I LOVE GANONDORF! He's the only person in my life who takes care of me, and now he's probably dead and you don't even care." I shouted. I cried harder, drenching my face in hot tears. I couldn't stand being down here only to face more disappointment. So, I pulled myself up to my room and crawled into the bed, fully clothed and with my shoes still on. I covered myself with the down comforter and slowly drifted off to sleep. Thinking nothing more than sadness,

I didn't realize it until now, but I had actually been concealed in my room for a week. No food, no water, only sleep. Koume and Kotake would offer to make things and they would clean my room, but I would always deny the offer. The only thing I wanted was for Ganondorf to come back. He has been gone for far too long. Sometimes I wouldn't sleep, I would just sit in the window sil with the comforter wrapped around me, watching the field and sunset or sunrise.

"ANASTAZIA!" Kotakes voice shouted. I groaned and opened the doors. The blanket still on me, I walked downstairs to not even see Kotake or Koume. Just a large oversized head of red hair. I immediately felt my heart skip a beat or two. Without any warnings, I ran and threw my arms around his neck in a large burst of emotion.

"Holy shit." he said suddenly. I had my face buried in his shoulder due to my sheer happiness of seeing my father back. "Ana?"

"Why were you gone for so long!?" I asked in a muffled tone.

"I had some pent up anger that-" he stopped his words and I then knew why. Though, before I could really indicate it, he shoved me off of him and I fell to the ground. Hitting my shoulder and dislocating it.

"OW!" I exclaimed with watery eyes and clutching the now sore spot. I looked up at him and saw his face go from semi-calm to full on Ganondorf. When he was like that, I knew something truly was angering him to the point of insanity and he would forget any emotional relationships that we had. I always kept my distance from him when he was like this. I ran away most of the time, other times I would hide. But now, I couldn't move. I couldn't stand up. I then felt him step on my leg, crushing the already brittle bones under his heavy boot. I held my breath and bit my tounge so I wouldn't scream in pain. He looked down upon me, eyes narrowed in devilishness that he always had. Ganondorf reached down and clasped his metal plated gloved hand over my wrist then set his other hand on the back on my neck, sending extreme chills everywhere. I felt the tears in my eyes inch their way out and down my cheek. He was behind me so he couldn't see that I was crying. Why was he so mad at me? What did I do?

"Daddy!" I cried when he threw me to the pavement in the courtyard. "Why!?"

"I am not your 'daddy'." He told me coldly. The weather was awful. Rain drenched our hair in a matter of minutes. It was made worse by him kicking me into a large puddle of watter, causing extreme pain.

"Stop this now, Ganondorf!" Koume's voice exclaimed from inside. My eyes darted towards where she was and I saw both Kotake and Koume holding each other as they watched their son attempting to kill their only grandchild. "Don't you realize who she truly is!?"

"You have no right to tell me what to do, witches." He said turning to them. "Angering me will for surly be the last thing you will do. Mark my words."

I tried to scoot my way to safety when he was yelling at the two, but that didn't work. I felt his hand wrap around my red hair and he began dragging farther out into the field.

"What did I do to you!?" I asked while panicking.

"YOU HAVE BEEN IN MY LIFE WAY TO LONG. YOU NEED TO GO." Ganon shouted as he once more threw me down. Even through the rain, I began to sweat. My pulse racing. Tears mixed with the water already on my face. I had no sword to protect me. I was for surly going to die.

"B-but, you said that I made your life worth living!" I said in between pain filled breaths.

"You know what? I never liked you. EVER! Your adoptive parents were imbisiles who raised an idiotic daughter. You are nothing more than a pathetic insect to me. A pawn to play around with. Toying with your emotions to see how long it will take until you-"

"YOU'RE WRONG! You-you loved me! You said you would do anything for me! Why are you really trying to do!? Is this all a test that I-"

Ganondorf then slapped me across the face like he had done multiple times, but this time it hurt much more. "Shut up! I don't need your input. You have been a pain in my neck for years and now, you will pay for that!"

"Stop acting like this! You were and are still the only person I really care for! I hate seeing you like this!" I said getting up shakily and attacking him with another hug. I had my head pressed against his chest and my arms wrapped around his neck tightly. "Just stop! I-"

"GET OFF ME! Do you not know who I am?!" I was pushed away from him and I quickly saw him draw his swords, which led me to believe that this really was it. I'm dead. I am going to die.

"GANONDORF!" Kotake screamed. "DON'T KILL HER! SHE'S NOT CIA! LOOK AT HER! REALLY LOOK AT HER!"

Ganondorf's eyes locked on to my face and I instantly saw them soften a bit. The steel melted away and the apparent hatred turned to near-forgivness. "Ana," he whispered quietly while helping me up and into his arms once again. I put my head on his shoulder and cried silently. My hands buried in his long scarlet hair that was still soaked. "I-I'm so sorry."

"As long as you don't-" My words halted when I began to realize that this wasn't a hug, this was a set up for him to break every bone in my body with pure strength that he possessed. "STOP! You're crushing me!"

"That was my intention, Ana."

"Let me go!" I cried while still holding onto his hair. He grabbed one of my arms and flipped me onto my back.

"GANONDORF! Look at what you are hurting! That's not Cia! THAT IS YOUR DAUGHTER! You can't kill her!" Koume and Kotake's combined form, Twinrova, shouted, while stepping in front of me holding her arms out proteting my injured body.

Ganon went up to Twinrova and knocked her out with a single backhanded slap to get to me. She fell to the ground with a thud. I really couldn't stop crying now, and for the first time in my life, I was scared.

"Why Ganon? Why are you trying to kill me! What did I ever do to you? I-I love you! Why can't you just listen to that!"

He chuckled darkly and towered above me, swords in hand. Rain dripped off of the blades. Eyes glazed over with hatred for me. A smirk of pure evil made it's way onto his face. "I do not love you." he told me while bending down to hold my face in his cold hands. "You are worthess. A mere shadow in my greatness, weighing me down to surfit your every need."

"NO! I'M-"

"You will me much more useful in death, Anastazia. Even if you are my own flesh and blood, you are no use to me."

"Wait, what!?" I looked up at him in realization on what he just said, but that was a mistake. He clenched his teeth and raised the sword, only to bring it down quickly. Right on my face. I felt the blade slice through the skin from the top of my forehead and through my left eye. I fell to the ground, blood spewing from the fresh and open wound. It formed a small pool where I was. I couldn't see or walk.

"F-father? W-why?" I thought as I looked up at him weakly with my one good eye. He stood above me breathing heavily. Though, the breaths were not of anger, they were breaths of worry. Once his eyes met mine, he gasped and stepped back, only to quickly run away, leaving me in a pool of blood and freezing water.

"ANA!" Twinrova exclaimed. She turned me over and held my body in her arms, brushing locks of blood and rain soaked hair out of my face. She was panicking. "H-how could he!?"

I groaned in pain. Unable to cry anymore.

"Sshh, you'll be alright. Don't worry, he won't hurt you anymore than he already has. I promise."

That was the last thing I heard before slipping out of consciousness.

I laid in my bed reading with my one good eye. It had been about six months since the 'incident', and I still had bandages on the left side of my face. My hair was restricted to the right side so I didn't have any straglers in the wound. Koume and Kotake took care of me the while time. They didn't even grant Ganondorf access to my room due to the fear of him possibly hurting me further. I didn't blame them. I was still scared of him. I would always wake up in the middle of the night to find myself even more afraid of him than I was before. I knew how much he wanted to make sure I was okay, but lately he gave up on that opportunity and hasn't been heard from for about two months. I was reading the Hyrule Enquirer to see if there was anything intersting that could keep me entertained during this never-ending horror of pain I was being subdued to.

"Anastazia?" Koume's voice said behind the door. "Is it alright if we come in?"

I set the magazine down. "Yeah, I guess so."

Both of my grandmothers came in with a plate of cookies and another stack of Hyrule Enquier magazines. They were so considerate of me right now. I didn't really get this from Ganon at all. Mainly due to his guilt of being the one who put me in a pain-driven scenario.

"How are you, sweetheart?" Kotake asked.

"Have you heard anything about him?" I said ignoring her question.

"I thought you didn't want to see Ganondorf anymore."

I picked at my nails. "Well that doesn't mean that I can't ask about him and see if he's alright or not."

Koume ran her hand down my hair. "Why don't we check out the damage instead."

My eyes lit up. "Does that mean that I can take the bandages off!?"

"Yes, I think it's safe to. But, you should know that you need to be really gentle. The stictches haven't been exposed to the air yet." Kotake warned while helping me up. She led me to the mirror where I almost laughed at my appearance. I looked awful. The bandages were a light pink due to the blood mixing with the white. I set a hand to the clip and began unwinding them slowly. With each circle the pink got lighter and lighter until there was no more. I smiled a bit when the bandages were gone, but I held a frown in my smile as well. I was going to have a large scar running down my face once the stitches heal.

"Koume? Is it okay if she opens her eye? Or will that cause even more stress on the muscles?"

I turned to them. "Wait, so that means I wasn't blinded?!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"No, you were lucky that he didn't slice all the way through. It was as if he sliced you heavily everywhere else but your eye. Now, look at the mirror. And slowly open your eye."

I did what she said, which revealed that my eye had a few popped blood vessels, but that was it. The stitches went from the top of my hair line, diagonally through my left eye, and ending at my jawline. I looked at myself sadly.

"Sweetie," Koume said setting a hand on my shoulder. "What's wrong? Aren't you happy that you don't need to wear those wretched bandages anymore?"

"Of course I am. I'm estatic. But, odd to say, I want Ganondorf here. I just want to know that he's safe."

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Kotake added with a grin.

"Mother, did you seriously take all the chocolate chips! I-" Ganondorf's deep and firm voice said while barging into my room with an empty bag of Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chips. I slowly turned to face him. Then, forgetting what he did to me, I ran over and tackled him to the ground with a hug that was long overdue. "ANA! WHAT IS THIS!?"

"Anastazia, get up. Those stitches could tear!" Kotake warned. Now, it may have looked like I was crying, but I was laughing. I was looking down upon Ganon, while he too was laughing.

"Ganon! Stop this! You're-"

"Mother, shut up. I don't need you telling me what I can or cannot do." he said while sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. "OW! That seriously hurt, Ana!"

I set a piece of hair behind my ear and smirked shyly. Right now, I was distracted from my original plan. Though, I realized that I needed a new one. I accomplished my goal of playing off of Ganondorf's disadvantages and weaknesses, but I know now that I WAS WEAKENING HIM! He was no longer going for his goal or conquering Hyrule. His goal was to raise me like his own child. I needed to fix that. My way. The Anastazia Way. And the Anastazia way meant pain, lies, and bloodshed. The only thing was, how am I going to do this?

(4 years later)

(Anastazia's Age: 18)

(Setting: Ganondorf's Castle.)

Operation Make Ganondorf Evil Again was working like a charm. I had convinced him to think that I was horrible at magic, thus giving me an opportunity to make my plan work. So what I had going was pretending to be awful at learning dark magic, leading him to beleve I was going to fail. Knowing an insult would come next, I took at as the next part. Which was pretending to have one of my freak out attacks. Now what happened previously was that Ganondorf was trying to work with me with my magic, only to see me failing and then I began faking my frustration when he insulted me.

"Gahh!" I yelled as I ran up to my room in frustration.

"Ana?" I heard Ganon say as he came into my room, uninvited.

"May, I help you?" I said with little enthusiasm.

"I'm quite disappointed with you right now." I rolled my eyes.

"I've heard it once, and I don't need to hear it again."

"You can't keep doing this, Anastazia. Running off, meaning."

I sat on my bed and sighed, then ran a hand through my hair. "I'm clearly not getting any better, why do you insist on keep training me? You know I'm not going to be the apprentice you so desire, so why?"

Ganondorf walked towards me, but ended up going to the window instead. "There are things that you don't know yet, Ana. Though, when you do know them, everything will fall into place and you'll understand why I do things I do for you. I just can't tell you."

"I don't think you want me here in the first place. No one does. I swear this whole time I've lived here, you've been hiding something from me. Now, are you going to tell me it, or not?" I yelled getting up. He looked down and pushed past me.

"I-I can't tell you, Ana. Not yet." I threw my hands in the air and set them on my head, symbolizing stress running rapidly throughout my brain.

"That's it. I'm done! I can't do this anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"THIS! I can't be here anymore, I'm leaving here, this time for good. I know you don't truly love me, no one does. Though, if you do truly love me as your daughter, you won't follow or try and bring me back. I'm a weakness to you. Ever since you brought me here and began training me as an apprentice, you've slowly lost everything you are known for. Cruelty, ruthlessness, unforgiving, and gained feelings. It's all my fault. Now, with me out of your life, you can regain what you are known for. Go take over the world, kill everyone in the land, I don't care. Just know that you won't find me crawling back to you, seeking for forgiveness. I'm so done." I yelled in his face. By now, I was nearly six foot five, he stood a head taller than me, so I could get up in his face if I wanted to. He just stood there, motionless as I gave him an ultimatum.

"Ana-" He began, but I stopped him.

"Don't. I'm just done, okay? Goodbye, Ganondorf. Don't find me. I don't want to be found." I walked over to the window and punched the glass, causing the shards to be stuck in my hand. I looked back at him, and saw that he was just standing there. Blank expression and dull eyes. I hopped out of the window and began running away from the castle, leaving my life as Ganondorf's daughter and apprentice behind me for good. Some might say go back and apologize. Nope, not me. I was done and no one can tell me what to do. I then thought of an ingenious idea. If I was going to fully disappear, then why not make a scene about it? Go under an alias and cause an upbringing of hell across Hyrule. Make people worry abut me coming and killing them as my next victim. Yes, that is what I'm going to do. Ganondorf won't know who The Duchess of Darkness is, all he'll know is that this Duchess is someone who matches his power, but will never be able to engage in a battle for superiority. I stopped running and glanced back at the castle. A black and red mask appeared around my eyes and then left for good.