Chapter 3: False Pretense

"Betrayed but not gonna be willing to change
And it doesn't seem likely to fade
Betrayed but not gonna be willing to change
Cause you know it's sacrifice
False pretense you'll hurt again
Stop pretending to deny
False pretense you'll hurt again."
by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

- Link -

Slowly I opened my eyes.

The ground I was lying on was hard and cold, my hands were tied behind my back.

Arduous I got up, so I could sit on my knees. I closed my eyes again for a moment. My head hurt and I felt a bit dizzy.

'Zelda!' I called inside of my mind. No answer. But I could feel her presence.

I sighed and opened my eyes again. My gaze wandered along the sparsely lighted hallway. This light reminded me of the endless twilight in the Twilight Realm Midna had always talked about.

I lowered my head. She's never had the chance to see her world again, to say goodbye to her loved people.

A part of my conversation with Zelda came into my mind. The princess of the Twilight Realm had died in our world. Did our goddess give her the right of the last wish too, although she hadn't been one of her people? If so, what did she wish for? To see her world once again? That her people could live in peace forever, that they never had to suffer under somebody like Zant ever again?

Or maybe something completely different...?

"Link?" Startled I recoiled and turned to the direction the voice had come from. It seemed familiar, but my head was full of thoughts, and I couldn't really match it to a face right now.

A young man was sitting in the cell next to mine, his hands tied behind his back just like mine.

"Shad?!" I said surprised.

"Yes, it's me," he replied and slid closer to the bars seperating us. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, at least as long as I'm ignoring the circumstances," I mumbled and nodded.

"That's good." He nodded as well. "When they brought you here unconcious I was really worried."

For a moment it was silent, then Shad asked carefully: "Did you really talk to princess Zelda?"

"Yes." I looked at him in confusion. "How do you know?"

"You were speaking when you were unconcious." He tried to smile, but I couldn't return it.

Again it was silent. I looked at Shad, and a question came up in my mind. "Why are you here? The Shad I know would never do something which is against the law."

He sighed. "You neither, as far as I can tell." He looked at me over his glasses. "But they sentenced you for doing something to princess Zelda. Although we all know you two are close friends."

"How do you know what I was sentenced for? And does that mean you've been imprisoned for nothing as well?"

He looked at me for a moment, seemed to wonder where to begin.

"Everyone in Hyrule was informed immediately, it's about princess Zelda after all," he finally started. "And yes, I was sentenced for something I haven't done as well."

He paused for a second.

"Link... I'm sure you realized that Auru has been acting strange lately."

I nodded, and my body was suddenly tense, my heart was beating with the same commotion it did when I was facing an enemy and a single second of carelessness would be the end. Wherever this conversation was going, it wasn't good, I could sense it.

"Well..." Shad adjusted his glasses. "It happened only a few days ago. I had just found a new method of analyzing the nature of the fused shadows. Luckily princess Zelda had allowed me to take a small piece of it with me, as a thanks for helping you back then. During my research I was at Telma's like I usually am. Telma herself was in Kakariko Village at that time and she had asked Auru to look after her tavern while she was gone. I was sitting at one of the tables and studied the fused shadows when I was distracted by a loud rattle. Startled I looked at Auru, who was standing in front of the bar, staring into the nothing. Worried I stood up and asked him if he was alright, but he didn't answer. He didn't react to anything at all. Then he suddenly screamed. Then he fell to the ground. I didn't really know what to do. I had to get help, but I didn't want to leave him like this either. But then..."

I saw fear in Shad's eyes. Big fear, which seemed to get me too, although I still couldn't tell how this story was going to end.

"... then he suddenly stood up again, looked around, and pushed me against the bar. I asked him again if he was alright. He answered that he was feeling better than he had ever done before. I was just about to get up again when he looked straight into my eyes. My body suddenly felt as cold as ice and I couldn't move, so I fell back to the ground. He was still looking into my eyes, and I saw something inside his I've never had seen there before. There was thirst for power and revenge. He took my jacket and pulled me up, but he didn't let go of me. He said 'And what am I going to do with you?', more to himself than to me, I think. He let me fall back to the ground and took the fused shadow I had been working on. He smiled satisfied and said 'What is Zelda going to say when she hears that you helped Link cursing her? Probably nothing, because she won't be able to!', then he laughed loudly. At that time I didn't understand what was going on, but I wanted to warn you and princess Zelda. But I had to find out I was already too late..."

Shad lowered his head. I looked at him with compassion. He must've been really scared. He never was a fighter, he was much more talented at thinking.

We were both silent. He had finished his story, and I didn't know what to say. The only thing I actually knew was that I still had no idea of what was going on. I hated this. It felt exactly like the first time I was at Hyrule Castle. Pulled into the part of our world which had become part of the Twilight Realm by a huge black monster, turned into a wolf, locked up in a cell familiar to this one, with an iron chain around my foot and without anybody to tell me what was going on. It had also been the day when I met Midna for the first time. Back then I didn't really like her. She was treating me like a slave and she didn't feel like it was necessary to tell me what was going on or at least where I was.

But after spending some time with her our relation had changed. We had become a team. Friends. Very good friends.

By now I had realized he had been more than a friend to me. Even if I had never had the chance to tell her. Maybe it was better this way.

I felt a sharp pain inside of my heart while thinking about this. She was a twilight being, I was the exact opposite. Were we even allowed to love each other?

"Nice story, Shad," a voice pulled me out of my thoughts. Shad and I looked at the hallway, where Auru had appeared. "But neither of you actually understood, am I right?" He raised an eyebrow and smiled. It was everything but a happy smile.

A bit clumsy Shad got up and went to the bars at the front, so he could stand face to face with Auru.

"What has happened to you, Auru?" He asked, his voice truly sad. "Why did you suddenly change like this?"

Auru laughed, it sounded like he was making fun of the fact we didn't know what was going on. "You really didn't understand at all."

'You didn't understand' seemed to be one of his new favorite sentences. When we left Ordon, he had said the same, when I asked him why he was doing all of this.

"Well then," he started, "I don't want to be that mean. I'll tell you why I'm doing all of this. Maybe it'll make this whole story even more interesting." He smiled again.

Alarmed I jumped on my feet, stumbled and almost fell down again backwards, but I found my balance in time.

Auru looked at me, and suddenly I understood the feeling Shad had described a few minutes ago. My body felt as cold as ice, and it felt like my heart would stop beating, although it was beating even faster than usually.

He didn't look away when he raised his voice again. "I'll give you a hint. You'll have to figure out the rest by yourself, but I'm sure that it won't be a problem."

He seemed to think for a moment while he was still staring at me. Then he smiled again, this kind of smile which made me even more nervous than I already was.

When he started to speak, I held my breath.

"He may have destroyed my body... but my ghost's still alive, driven by hatred. And I won't die completely until Link, the boy who destroyed half of me, has paid for his actions.