Zant's day couldn't have been better. Not only had his master been pleased with his work, but he had made his army. An army that would strike fear into the hearts of his enemies. So what if he'd made it from his subjects? They were just puppets, and he held the strings. His main threat, the princess, was a week gone. Without her, the rest of the Twilian government and rebels quickly collapsed, leaving Zant to easily take over. Too easy. At the moment, Zant was taking a little "me time" for himself. He felt he deserved a break, as the new supreme ruler of the Twilian Empire, he felt it his right to do what he wished.
Goddesses, it felt good to be king.
Zant had called in two servant girls to give him a massage and wash his feet. A third was hand-feeding him delectable (and hard to grow) Starshade Ruby Raspberries. As the juices of a third, and particularly sweet, berry washed through his senses, all he could feel was bliss. Until his back molars grinded on something...out of place. Quickly, the Twilian Emperor spit out the offending seed and sat up. He thrust the miniscule seed into the poor servant's face.
"What's this?!" Zant roared.
"I-I-It's a... seed? sir?" the poor woman stuttered, the pupils of her eyes finding great interest in the ornate marbled floor of the king's chambers.
"Everyone can damn well see it's a seed! What's it doing in my personal fruit?!" he shrieked, getting into the woman's face, yanking her chin up so she was forced to look into his eyes. They were like looking into a shark's.
"I-I must-st have m-missed it when I was d-de-seeding the berries." she stuttered through her mostly shut mouth, eyes dilated in fear. Zant threw her to the marbled floor yelling,
"Missed it?! You left it there on purpose, you vile scum! You hoped I would choke, didn't you?!"
"I-I never meant to leave it in there! I'm sorry!" the servant girl looked up from the floor with tears in her eyes, sitting up on her palms, which were quickly becoming slick with a cold sweat. Zant stared down at the frightened Twilian coldly. He could see how her pupils dilated in fear, her breath came fast and uneven, and the tension in all her muscles; she was ready to flee for her life. And how he reveled in her fear.
"I will not allow an anarchist in my kingdom. Terrorists must be purged!" Zant's voice was low and deep and growling, like a lion ready to pounce on an unsuspecting gazelle. The girl's fear reached a crescendo.
"Let this be known from this day forward, anyone who makes an attempt on the king's life will be sent to the shadow beasts, and armed to fight against shadow beasts under the witness of the Twilian people. Should they survive as a gladiator, they would have proven themselves worthy to become part of my personal shadow beast guard or as a general in the new military." Zant had started walking slowly closer to the girl, arms swinging in loose sleeves. As he spoke, his voice became more and more shrill and maniacal, slowly revealing Zant's true nature as a crazed and ruthless dictator. The irony in his words went unspoken through the ranks of the other servants and guards in the room, though none dared to voice their own thoughts against the Twilian who'd bested the last of the descendants of powerful mages. The girl's gaze switched around the room, looking for assistance. No one dared to meet her gaze for a second.
"Do you hear me girl?!" None of the girl's feeble attempts at escape nor her heightened senses could tell what was to happen next. Zant picked her up by the throat and hoisted her to his height with ease, despite her being a relatively...large...Twilian female. He stared eye-to-eye into her panicked gaze.
"DO YOU?! HOW DARE YOU IGNORE YOUR KING!" he roared into her face when she didn't answer. She tried to make a sound, but her trachea was completely shut from his death-grip on her pale neck. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish, desperately trying to answer. To get air.
"GUARDS! THROW HER TO THE DUNGEON TO AWAIT HER DEMISE!" Zant finally shouted, throwing his victim to the floor with a nasty crack. She shuddered and began to cough up a bit of blood, barely alive. Two guards scurried to lift the servant by the arms and half carry and half drag her down, down to the belly of the castle. Everyone else in the room stood stock-still until his shrieking voice pierced the silence.
"Don't stand there, go about your damn work! Hire another servant, one who is competent this time and continue your day!" Each member was jolted from their stupor and hastily set back to the work they were posted to do. Zant lay back down on the massage table as another Twilian continued where the unfortunate servant left off, begging to the goddesses that there would not be another seed in the berries.
~~~~This is a time skip, about a week later~~~~
Zant's castle stood nearly devoid of any life. In fits of rage and paranoia, he'd fired, killed, or watched be mutilated each servant and guard in the entire castle's vast expanse. In their place where magic hands that kept Sols away from the general populace. Why Sols? Well, their power could be used to fuel his next experiments, like the magic hands. He'd decided to call them Zant's hands. If he had anyone to assist. No, right now, Zant was completely alone with his own thoughts to keep him company.
"Why. Why? Why! WHY WON'T THEY ACCEPT I AM KING?!" Zant screamed into the echoing empty halls, "I am the rightful ruler! They should realize their "princess" would take the Twili as a whole nowhere but into the ground! If she'd ruled, there would be nothing done! Anarchy in the streets, invasions, death! I am a better and more worthy ruler, am I not? And yet, there I was. Advisor to the eldest of King Oblivin's daughters. She always got what she wanted, never me. Lucky little...GRAH!" Zant continued the rant more to himself, muttering.
"I will show them I am worthy. What to do? What to...! The army is large, yes, but our empire is too small! But what to conquer, where?" Zant continued to ponder what to do, but soon his thoughts drifted back, far back in time. And he knew what to do. And he laughed. In a fit of hysterics, he finished his idea. He would take the light realm which had been denied his ancestors. He would reclaim the land ten thousand years lost! They would love him. The Twili would worship him as a god among kings! He slowly crossed the room to the balcony to look out at the kingdom.
His kingdom. Soon to be a real empire. The light world would crumble into the shadows of his home.
His thoughts were dashed as he thought of a puzzling question. How would he cross the barrier the three most powerful deities in the universe set up to keep the Twili in? His previous fair mood was dashed in a millisecond. He fell to his knees and screeched, pounding his fists and head against the perfect marble floor. The balcony suddenly lit up, as if by a second sun. Zant looked up at the source of light.
It was exactly what he needed.
A head made of glowing sheer power, hovering right above the balcony rail. Its strength could be sensed from were Zant was kneeling.
A king doesn't kneel. Quickly, Zant stood, still looking awestruck at the powerful being before him. It smirked. Zant knew everything would be better for him.
...
"What you want, I shall want too." Those words bounced around Zant's mind as he raised his arms in preparation for his spell to open a portal to the land of light. His new master, Gannon, surveyed his work from behind Zant's eyes. He would guide the spell.
"Good, good. Now, pull your magic into your arms!" Zant did as he was told, and his master unleashed the power into the air before them. With a slightly metallic whirr rrr and a sound like breaking glass, a thin disk of blackness emerged into from Zant's fingertips, spinning like a penny on a tabletop. Then, it seemed to encounter a wall. The disk then stopped spinning, facing the Twilian usurper.
Before Zant's eyes, the dark disk sprouted geometric red vein-like magic strands that anchored it into the reality it was in, blackening the air further as it drained magic to keep itself stable. The original circle gained a three-dimensional spiral that petered off far into the depths of the spell. Zant lowered his arms, panting in exhaustion but savagely joyful, he turned to the beastly army behind him.
Each was a product of his own thought. The first row was composed of only Twilight Assassins, to act as a personal guard (he normally made them from his previous guard or survivors of the new law). Nasty creatures, they walked on two shorter back legs with normal Twilian feet with longer and more muscled hands. Their faces were composed of a flat, detailed gear with a taller tooth on top. The next few rows were Shadow Beasts. similar to the Assassins, but much more brutish and with feathery hairs on top of and bottom of a smaller, but more detailed, "face". These were his pride and joy.
The last few rows were comprised of random assortments of Stalfos, Lizalfos, slimy monsters which he hadn't cared to learn the name of, and inanimate statues brought to life by magic visible on their surfaces. Many more Lazalfos were in the air, as well as a few monstrous birds. It was an army Zant was proud of.
"Today, we shall take our rightful lands, and kill each and every light-dweller! Come to battle, my army!" Zant's short speech excited the blood-thirsty monstrosities as they raised weapons, claws, and different magic breaths into the air with a bone-chilling roar. They charged through the portal with bloodlust on their inferior minds.
~~~~This is a cut to the castle fight~~~~
ROOOOOOOOOUUUUUUHHHHHHHH!
It was the first sign of blood that day. Princess Zelda Aileen of Hyrule looked on at the carnage of the soldiers posted as guards. From the sky came a dark blemish on the sky, and soon after came all beings like from Hell itself. The creatures mercilessly ripped the guards to shreds, butchering almost a dozen of her majesty's finest in the blink of an eye. They continued the gory crusade all through the castle, killing guards and innocents who couldn't get out of the way fast enough. Swiftly, Zelda reached behind her throne to a hidden button, and pulled out the rapier which lay hidden in case of such an emergency. And there he was.
In a rush of shadow, the beastly monsters descended into the room like wasps, swiftly taking down guards and moving closer and closer to the throne. As they subdued the last guard not within a five-yard radius to the princess, their leader entered the room.
It was a bipedal figure wearing thick robes decorated with odd runes and geometric patterns like the portal outside. On where Zelda assumed its head would be it wore a fearsome metal mask with bulbous eyes. He only spoke a few words, but they rang with a final truth. Surrender, or let die each person in the castle as well as the town below. The guards looked to their leader in fear.
Zelda let the unused rapier in her hand clatter to the floor. Hyrule castle, once proud and great, had fallen to a great shadow. Only the Hero of Legend could save Hyrule from definite destruction.
~~~~Sorry for the short scene, it was shown in the video game. Now, this is three weeks after the attack~~~~
Link had long since given up hope. For the first few days, maybe a week, he had struggled to escape, earning himself nothing but beatings and lashings until his new coat was stained and mussed up. The chain around his foreleg remained as steadfast and strong as ever, likely due to a spell. The skin and fur around said chain, however, was furless and rubbed red and raw, looking rather like a plucked chicken. No one would guess that this beaten and broken wolf was the reincarnated Hero of Legend.
Link not only felt like crap, but the guards had limited his food and water so much that he looked half the size he once was, but bony and weak. His fur had started to fall out, and his breathing was raspy from his poor, dry, aching throat. Multiple times, about twice to three times, maybe four times a week, he'd been given a rat to eat as breakfast, lunch, and dinner until the next one he got. That was his food and water. As well as the only way to tell the passing of time as the world barely seemed to get lighter or darker anymore. No one could tell night from day. But even as he got thinner, so did the chain on his leg. Definitely magicked.
There were no doubts in Link's mind that the rest of Hyrule was in a similar, if not exact same condition at the moment, and that there was supposed to have been a change in the environment already. But still he rotted away in a cage with restricted movement, poor nutrition, and musty surroundings. He had no doubts he would die here if nothing changed. He would have died after the second week if not for his worries for the children of Ordon Village. But, as it will happen, poor-ending scenarios of their demises or other unfortunate events began to poison his thoughts of them. And so, the bearer of the Triforce of Courage, gave up hope.
Without his hope, Link knew he would let himself fade. He could already feel it getting harder not to give into the fear that this place seemed to radiate, crushing his soul. As much as he tried to fight it, eventually the effort would be too much, like fighting quicksand. He would soon let himself sink into the macabre and grim atmosphere the lighting made. Dark would conquer light, unlike every other story. This if it would happen. He couldn't let it, though. Not without a fight.
Shakily, Link stood, despite the tremendous effort it took not to wobble. He growled weakly at the darkness, staring into its ugly emptiness. He noticed every detail, the mold on the stone, the rustiness of the bars, the crates in the corner. And the chain on his leg. If only he could break the chain, it would only be too easy to escape. If only the damn chain would snap. If only it would break.
Link suddenly felt a wave of vertigo wash over his vision. His weak and unsteady legs paired with the lack of control and exhaustion were too much for the Hero. He tumbled to the floor, unconscious.
...~~~~This is a scene change from place to place~~~~...
Hyrule, by the end of the month, was in a state of complete shambles. The bulblins and bokoblins had looted the shops and homes, dragging furniture and possessions out and burning them in the streets. Rapidly, proud and humble towns and cities of all races had been reduced to broken husks of buildings set aglow by Twilight-resistant fire. Small wisps could be seen cowering in their shells, what was left of the inhabitants after the light was stolen from their guardians. The keening songs of the light spirits kept cities awake and alert.
Ordon Village was the last of these places to go. Just a week after the attack on Hyrule Castle, shadow beasts crept to the spring that was loved by the village, and ripped the light from the grip of the powerless spirit. As the village and surrounding forest faded to Twilight, the final thought the spirit had was, "Golden Goddesses, what has happened to this timeline to change it?".
The village's crops were smashed, and the village swordsman was lying sick from infection of the shadow beast's corrupted claws. The animals that lived and thrived in the village became violent, even the common fish and frogs, eventually succumbing to the madness the Twilight brought on and fled to the forests.
The village also mourned the losses of five of their children, Link included. All were presumed dead long ago, and the village lost their hope. Their children were dead.
If only they knew the truth.
...~~~~Yeah, yeah, Shyamalan disorder. Explaining and exposition. I had to do it. ~~~~...
Zant should have been the happiest man (or Twilian) alive that moment. As he sat on the ornate throne the princess once inhabited, he slowly sank into a somber mood. It was barely a month after his army had taken Hyrule castle, and everything had been too easy after that. Gannon had summoned more and more monsters to "keep them in line" as others had started to desert from boredom. The only ones that remained loyal were those that didn't have a mind of their own or didn't care for much violence.
The ones who stayed loyal were armos, beamos, spin traps, bubbles, Chuchu, Darknut, Skulltula and Skullwalltula, Stal creatures, and the Shadow Beasts. The rest left the Palaces and spread over Hyrule, good and bad for Zant. Bad because he didn't have an army anymore, good because places would be crawling with his minions. But he wouldn't be in full control.
The next thing that was making him sour was how easy taking over Hyrule turned out to be. They never kept a large standing force, and Zant's creatures easily took care of those who tried to fight them. Zant almost wanted the Hylians to rebel, just because he wanted to know whether or not the entire species were wimps! He couldn't even experiment with magic on them, because the entirety of the races of this new land had become magic intolerant! They would die before becoming an honorary member of his army!
But his worries didn't end at that. While sending out magic rays to find more powerful Hylians, Gorons, and Zora, one had found a rip in the time/space fabric of the universe. While it was already mending, and wouldn't be catastrophic, it had picked up the energy signal of one he knew all too well.
The Twilight Princess had survived. His throne was still in peril.
"Why? I thought I'd let you run, but no. You're probably trying to usurp me AREN'T YOU?" Zant shrieked into the darkness, "You still want the damn throne?! ITS MINE, I WON'T LET YOU TAKE IT FROM ME! How to be rid of you, how to be rid of you?"
Zant pondered more silently this time until the answer came to him. He grinned from beneath his mast.
"Let's go visit the princess, shall we?"
