Fate
YES! You reviewed! Sorry for the super-long wait for Chapter: 2! ^_^ Something called 'Error 403' kept coming up… UGH! Anyway, you guys are the best! Let's roll the 'thanks-for-reviewing' list:
Twilinkzem: Thanks for reviewing! Love your new username!
GirlversionofRed: Thank you for the review! Maybe he will, maybe he won't… nah, he will. In time, my good people!
` YoungLinkZeldaFan123: XD I know right?! Yeah my fault… SORRY!
The Shapeshifter Writerartist: (chews on random carrot) I'm so scared right! Wait… I HATE carrots!
LumaniiDoesFanfiction: THX!
Now, onto ze story!
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Normal POV: Young Link
"Young Link! Wake up! Wake up!"
The ten-year-old opened his eyes, the bleary form of Zelda clearing up. She was smiling.
Wait a minute. Smiling? Here?
"I found out where Link is!"
Young Link gaped at her. "Really? How?"
"My magic may be weak inside this dreadful place, but not completely unusable. I conjured a map of Hyrule and discovered that Link—and Midna—and also two other females I didn't recognize—"
"Yes?" Young Link pressed.
"— They are in none other but the Twilight Forest!"
Young Link blinked, thinking of what Zelda had told the guard only yesterday. "Didn't you tell one of the guards to look there last time?"
"Yes, but they made it out alive!"
"Is it close to here?"
She shifted. "In a manner of speaking…"
Young Link frowned at her.
"Ugh, fine… no, not particularly. But it's not too far away. If they traveled for twenty-four hours each day, it would take about one to two weeks to reach us,"
Young Link stared. "How is that not far away?!"
"Well—"
"Zelda, they're NOT traveling twenty-four hours a day, and even if they were, two weeks is still too long! I'll be good as dead by then!"
The distraught princess angrily kicked the ground. "How do we get out of here, then?"
"I think I could help you with that!"
Both prisoners whirled around to see a small blonde child, no older then twelve, looking at them with huge dreamy gray eyes.
"Who are you?" Zelda asked uncertainly.
She smiled giddily. "I am a girl of many names! I've been called brat, freak, lunatic, and many more! But I prefer Cleo,"
"Are you new here?" Young Link questioned, aghast to how optimistic someone could be in a place like this.
"Oh, no, good sir! I have been here for as long as I can remember! My mother was captured by Ganondorf when she was pregnant with me, and I have been here ever since!"
"Why are you here?" Zelda hissed. "You could get hurt!"
"Well, after all those guards were finished 'beating the freakiness out of me', they decided to promote me—"
"Promote you?" Young Link said, frowning.
Cleo took no notice of the interruption. "—to a slightly under-classed cell. They said they'd 'deal with me later'. So… you're a princess, right? Zelda? And Link's brother? That's very nice!"
Okay. That settled it. Either Young Link had gone mad, or he was still dreaming.
"My family came from the poorest of the poor," continued Cleo, oblivious to the appalled looks Young Link and Zelda were giving her. "But we never lost hope, not even when Ganondorf invaded our home. We were forced to depart. Father died in the fight against him… I miss him very, very much… even though I have no memories of him,"
"How very touching," sneered a familiar voice, and Young Link shrank against the wall. Ganondorf had returned.
He smirked at the princess of Hyrule, eyeing the side of her face he had struck her on. "Looks like it'll leave a scar, eh, Princess?"
Zelda merely glared at him. "Get away, Ganondorf. Don't hurt Young Link! He has done nothing to you!"
"In case your memory is as fragile as your fighting skills—" (Young Link had to hold Zelda to keep her back.) "—you owe me a location, Zellie,"
"I already told you," Zelda said coldly. "They're in the Twilight Forest,"
She's not lying, thought Young Link, panicking. But Ganondorf will think she is… oh, no. Zelda, please tell me you've got this under control!
Ganondorf glared at her. "You're lying,"
"I'm not,"
"I have sent a soldier, and he has not returned,"
"He is dead,"
"Bart is my best warrior!" snarled Ganondorf.
"He is not alive," Zelda said firmly. "He is dead,"
"You LIAR!" the Gerudo bellowed again.
"She's not lying!" pleaded Young Link.
"I agree," Cleo drawled.
Ganondorf frowned at her. "Who are you, foolish child?"
"Cleo Isabella Genevieve Gaze, sir,"
"Do you not know who I am?"
"I do!" she said cheerfully. "You're Lord Ganondorf!"
His eyes narrowed. "Are you not afraid, girl?"
"A bit," she admitted reluctantly. "I know you can hurt me and others, but you wouldn't, would you? That wouldn't be very nice, you know,"
"I am not a 'nice' person," he snarled. Ganondorf was losing his patience, and fast.
"Enough with the stalling, you insolent brat! Now, princess, each time you refuse to tell me the location of Link—" he spat the name, "—and his little friends, the boy will get whipped,"
Young Link swallowed hard. He would not show fear. That was what Ganondorf wanted. He would not give him that satisfaction of seeing him in pain.
"NO!" Zelda cried, now desperate. "You monster!"
Cleo, quite clueless to the tragedy feet away from her face, hummed merrily and played with her chains.
"I think we should get into the proper position first, though," purred Ganondorf, smirking at the bleeding boy. "Don't you?"
In what seemed faster than the speed of light, Young Link was bound to a pole with rope. Still smirking, Ganondorf declared, "I would usually gag my captors, but not this one. I want you to hear his screams,"
"I told you already!" Zelda snarled. "Why won't you believe me?!"
"That's one!" Ganondorf raised the whip and brought it down—HARD—on his back.
Young Link had experienced pain, and was expecting it, too—but nothing like what he felt now.
His soft, delicate skin—the skin that had never felt the sharp sting of a whip before—broke open and blood streamed down his shirt. He could not help but to cry out and clutch the wound in agony. Blinking back tears, he glared at the villain—the swine—in front of him with hatred.
Zelda looked pale, like she was going to faint. Cleo stopped humming at the sound of his scream to examine the situation.
"Ganondorf, I don't know,"
"That's two!" He raised his arm and brought it down again, if possible even harder. It landed on the boy's leg. Young Link managed to muffle his scream in a low, agonized grunt.
"Shall we go for three?" the warrior asked slyly.
Zelda fell silent, looking helplessly into the young boy's eyes.
"Alright, three!" He lifted his arm once more.
Cleo frowned. "Wait! Stop! You're hurting him!"
Zelda gasped. Ganondorf, miraculously, lowered the whip. He strode over and grasped her chin tightly. "What do you think I'm trying to do, stupid girl?"
"I know what hurt is," she said quietly. "I felt it when you killed my mother. I stood by and did nothing. And I never regretted anything more in my life,"
Ganondorf released her, sneering. "So. You must be that idiot Lily Gaze's daughter. Standing up for a peasant, eh? What would she say?"
"I imagine she would be proud, sir,"
Scowling at the truthful answer, Ganondorf turned to leave. "I will be back tomorrow with the strongest Truth Potion I possess. Then… we shall see where the Hero of Time went." He left.
Zelda raced over to Link, untying him. Cleo started humming again peacefully, as if nothing drastic had happened.
Glancing curiously over at the dreamy prisoner, Young Link thanked Zelda and limped over to the wall; the gash on his leg was killing him. He sat next to Cleo, closing his eyes as he lowered himself painfully.
Zelda looked at them, determined. "I've got a plan,"
Young Link nodded for her to go on.
"See that gap in there?" Zelda pointed to the wall where a large tunnel with pipes in it. When he said 'yes', she continued, poking her head through and sliding in carefully. "I'm going to go in it and see where it takes me,"
Cleo looked up, gray eyes wide. Young Link immediately disagreed. "No, Zelda! It's too…"
She was gone.
"Dangerous," Young Link finished, sighing. He slumped against the wall, feeling completely and utterly alone.
Cleo clucked her tongue quietly and jiggled her chains again, singing softly in the eerie silence. Occasionally Young Link caught words like 'flower' and 'sunshine' but despite that, he couldn't make any sense of it.
"Um… Cleo?"
She turned around to face him, their eyes inches apart. Young link moved back uncomfortably; it was entirely too close for comfort to him. Cleo, however, didn't seem fazed. She just leaned closer in, large gray eyes bulging. "Yes?"
"It's… uh… it's getting dark…"
What? Where in the world had that came from? It was true—but random.
"Yes… I do believe I have something to fix that, though…" A bright orange light shot out from out of the blue. It was a match, Young Link realized in confusion. Where had she gotten it from?
Cleo shone the light in her face, and Young Link's heart flopped. She was actually very pretty. He blushed and mumbled, "Cleo… you saved my life… thank you,"
Cleo smiled faintly, but not at him; she never really had looked directly at him. She was looking behind him, smiling. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, she spoke, her voice sweet. "Isn't it beautiful?"
"What?" Nothing seemed beautiful about the cell in Young Link's opinion.
"The moon,"
The boy stared; there were no windows. "There is no moon. There's no windows,"
"There doesn't have to be windows for you to see it…"
Young Link was lost.
"It's here!" she insisted. "It's right here!" Cleo pointed at the side of the wall.
He cleared his throat uncomfortably. For a moment—and just one—he could almost imagine the moon, in all of its beautiful, shining glory, gleaming in the night sky that had seemed to replace the stained background of cement. But the next time he blinked, it was gone.
Cleo smiled, still not meeting his face. "You just noticed it, didn't you?"
Young Link shook his head slowly. "I… don't see it,"
For the first time ever, Cleo met his gaze, gray eyes filled with warmth. She spoke in a quiet voice a sentence that made Young Link blink in confusion.
"Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there,"
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Samusaran101: WOW… I gotta say… that was pretty bad. Right? Wrong? Next chapter, Zelda will return and we'll catch up to Link, Avy, mory, and our favorite imp princess Midna! So… was it good? Bad? Okay? I don't know, just click the magical review button!
