Review replies:

SilverFlameoftheWindScar: Yeah. I told you he gets tortured a lot. Heheh. You'll see.

Trolly's Bara-chan: sexy demons are sexy. ;D

Other notes: If all goes as planned, I am publishing this chapter on Wensday December 14, 2011. Right now it is 11:47 in the morning, I just got the call I have been unfortunately waiting for since I woke up; my great grandmother has passed on. So in a warped, probably horribly incorrect way, this chapter is dedicated to her. Rest in peace, Nana.

Something I should probably include but always forget: looked over by Trolly's Bara0chan, who has my undying gratitude. If it were just left to me people would be assing instead of assessing.

And a bo = a staff. Donatello the turtle uses a bo.


Chapter 4: The fairy, the demon and the key (evening star)

Birds were singing. Dawn had just crested the horizon less than a half hour ago, and sprayed the world with its beautiful light. The sky's hue was sweet baby blue; the clouds that danced over it were fluffy and white.

Link groaned and covered his head with a pillow. What sadist decided academy had to start so early, anyway?

He shifted and curled into a ball, while his body desperately wished for (more) sleep.

"Oh Link~" A terribly high voice rung out with horrid glee, and then his blanket was torn away from him.

His eyes shot open.


Fast forward ten minutes. His room was wrecked to hell, a bruise was forming where his wrist had hit the wall, and he'd suffered defeat in the epic battle that had ensued between him and the tyrannical beast he called mother. A very grumpy Link was now trudging down the side of the cobblestone street to their first day of the school year with Zelda at his side. A piece of toast was trapped in his teeth. He was still pouting. Seriously, today sucked. Zelda, who had sat through the soundtrack of said epic battle at his kitchen table so they could walk to academy together, was talking and generally being a happy morning person. (Link kind of hated her right then.)

… On the subject of blonds (that he may or may not kind of hate right now), Link hadn't seen hide or hair of the demon yesterday (he didn't see much of anything besides the back of his own eyelids), though he'd heard soft wing beats outside his window again when the moon was high in the sky last night. Creepy keese or creepy demons, he couldn't bother to check if he was dealing with one or the other. He'd been very tired.

"… and there's someone I want you to meet today." Zelda told him happily. "My aunt has come to visit us from Kakariko."

Link blinked at her. Aunt, aunt… "… Impa?" He guessed, recalling the little he knew about the place. Little being that one, Zelda used to go there every summer as a child, and two, she had an aunt Impa who lived there. (There was also something about it being a village of the shadow tribe that had been opened to the rest of the land during a war a few years ago, but Link had been very young and didn't remember much about that, so he didn't trust his facts on the matter.)

Zelda grinned and nodded, and opened her mouth to say more, when the world decided 'why the hell not?' and hurled more weirdness at them.

Just then, a blond dressed in gerudo garb pelted around the corner. They didn't really look like a gerudo – their skin was a different tan, too light and not enough copper-brown, and the nose was all wrong - though before Link could catch a good glance at their eyes they had shot through the gap between he and Zelda in a blur of white cloth and desperation. A moment after, another, cackling gerudo – was that-was that Nabooru? - rounded the corner, cackling and wielding a camera as though it was a deadly serpent. Link gawked as she passed.

"… Well, that was interesting," Zelda settled on finally as her understatement of the year, watching the road behind them, where the two women had disappeared. And Link discovered that, at some point during that 'interesting' spectacle, his toast had dropped to the sidewalk. He looked down at it with a frown, toeing the edge with his boot, and heaved a morose sigh. He continued walking.

That toast would be mourned.

Zelda watched him give one last longing look back at the forsaken breakfast food. With a sympathetic and mildly concerned look of her own, she patted him on the back and began leading them towards the academy. They didn't talk the rest of the way.


Today was about as dull as it could get, Link thought. And of course he'd soon regret that. Class was going through introductions when 'it' started.

White bloomed across his eyes and invaded every nerve in his body, little snow-needles, and Link gasped.

- screaming, screaming, the echoes reverberate and join together in a symphony –

The pretty red eyes that watch with neither desperation nor contempt, but a sense of pitying sorrow

The feeling of being ripped apart… and the light that is far too bright and stings his eyes while he begs and screams…

And then he was back in the classroom, bent double and crying softly while he clutched at his temples. Everyone was staring at him in fear or concern; sometimes both… the teacher ordered him to go to the nurse.

To the shock of no one, Zelda was the first – and only – volunteer to take him.

It didn't happen again until he was in the back of the healer Renado's office – and that was made for certain, he'd been watched like a hawk the entire way there… he wasn't even sure how Renado had convinced Zelda to leave. Just a calm moment, breathe in breathe out, and then fire crawled over him and he cried out and curled over, as the world bled to blue and red…

"I wish it didn't have to be this way." The demon's breath was beside his ear, and Link struggled against the arms holding him. He wanted so badly to rip into his own skin and tear it off… it hurt so much…

The demon held him tighter still, wings curving around them and blocking out the damnable light that wanted to burn him to ashes.

"Please take out everything on me. I'm sorry…" The mantra was repeated over and over, whispered into his ear. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry…' and he dug his nails into the body of the demon, whatever he could reach, but he didn't rip and tear. His body kept breaking itself.

"… nothing I can do." Renado was speaking when Link's vision swam back to reality and the nurse's office. He groaned softly and caught the man's attention, along with Zelda's – she came hurrying over, pressed a kiss to his forehead. Then he remembered – Renaldo hadn't convinced Zelda to leave. He'd convinced her to go back and give the teacher a note of absence.

"What's wrong, Link? What's happening?" She asked him with tear-bright eyes, and he wasn't really sure what to tell her.

"… It's okay." He managed, "I'll be okay." Not that she believed him. Even he didn't believe him.


Renado had forced Zelda to attend her next class, assuring her that Link would be fine if he just laid down where he couldn't hurt himself. Link realized as long as he had teeth and nails or even just the will to move, he could still hurt himself, but wisely didn't point it out.

"I'm going to drop off some paperwork. Please tell anyone who drops by that I've stepped out." Renado asked Link, giving him a sad smile, and stepped out the door after Link managed a nod. The door shut with a soft thud. He rolled over and gazed at the ceiling.

Little bursts of pain came and went through his body, reminding him of how it ripped itself apart without his knowing why.

He heard the door open and shut again. "Mr. Renado is dropping off some papers." He called, just loud enough to be heard and faint enough not to hurt his ears. Whoever was there didn't say anything back, but they didn't leave either. After a moment their shadow came over him. He glanced to the side, expecting Mido or perhaps the troublesome girl who occasionally helped the teachers, and found another surprise for the day. He jumped and let out a sharp noise (Something like 'oh-goddesses-why?'), and sat up to press himself into the corner – and then remembered why it was a bad idea. Light shined into his eyes and made him scream, squeezing them shut and clutching his head, hiding his face beneath his fingers.

The demon made an upset noise, catching his shoulders in a gentle grip. "I figured this would happen." Link heard him mumble, sounding irritated. Then, "Please let me see your face."

Right. Link refused. The demon didn't do anything to fight his decision, just stood there with his wings stretched out wide behind him in the tiny office. That can't be comfortable. Is he… is he blocking the light? And Link continued to tremble, feeling the flashes of pain, until the demon murmured something else.

"I can make it all stop." And just as that was said, one blue eye cracked open.

"… all of it?" Link asked in a tiny voice, peering out from between his fingers. The red eyes of the demon stared back, strange and sharp and sad, now… but also determined.

"The visions, the pain, everything." He promised. "Just let me see your face."

As if on cue, another flash of agony ripped through Link. He pulled his hands – reluctant and slow – away from his head. Anything has to be better than this. Under the gauze the demon's lips twisted up in a relieved smile, and his gaze was softer than it had been in the temple. Red eyes searched Link's for a moment, before the demon's hands came and covered Link's eyes so he couldn't see at all, while the tips of his fingers were laid without pressure over his temples. His hands were cold…

The world faded to blue again.

"The mastersword has chosen you." He could still hear the push and pull of water, without thinking he started to breathe with that rhythm. He was so tired… "Your path is paved by darkness and thorns. Will you still walk it?"

Blue eyes in a warped form watched him, pained and panting and silent. "… what will happen if I don't?"

"Then the world you love will fall."

"Then I suppose I don't have a choice." And… the pain faded to a faint blue light in darkness. The demon said his name, something Link couldn't quite hear or remember, and Link fell asleep.

In a moment another story flashed through Link's mind, about a monster and a devil. Well… that could work, if nothing else. "… Kishin." Link mumbled. "That's not your name, is it?"

"… no." The demon murmured, looking perplexed (though of course Link couldn't see it, he could still hear it in his voice), "But you can call me that until the memory clears."

With a sigh Link brought one hand up, and gently coaxed the clawed one of the demon off his left eye. He met the red eye of the demon that he could see. "What did I agree to? The night before last…"

One of the things Link really did not like was not remembering things. It ranked right up there with 'people who pull on my hat' and 'people named Mido'. And, unfortunately, he found that was happening right then. He had slept all of yesterday away, he remembered that. Navi had been worried he was sick. Anything before sleeping was 'we don't like to be kept waiting' and realizing that the man in charge of eastern sword techniques and Zelda's teacher were both utterly terrifying, and an image of an incredibly smug demon. He wasn't happy about any of that.

"It can't really be called an agreement. As you said, you didn't have much choice." 'Kishin' let go of his other eye and backed up, until he was leaning against the wall and a fair distance from Link's cot. "Something bad is going to happen." And something about that phrase had Link thinking it was another understatement of the year, "You pulled the mastersword; you will be the one to banish the evil."

"That's stupid. Anyone could have pulled the sword."

"Anyone could have, but that doesn't change the fact that it was you."


"Kishin,"

A legendary character from the folklore of Termina. A god with white hair, tan skin and a sword with the power to rip the world in twain. He fought the incarnation of spite, Majora.

Link thought it was a pretty fitting name for the demon that had guarded the mastersword.

The demon that had guarded the mastersword… and was now slipping out the window like a common felon, because Renado was back and they could hear him outside the door. Link snorted, rolling over so he faced the wall. At least the pain was gone.


"Whirling winds and the glittering sheer… he who is left, who is not remembered here… the beautiful king with the smiling face, with the hands that will crush the broken race… his singing voice will reach high into the sky, to the careless moon who refuses to die, to the tears of the wind-dancing demon…" Sweet, high notes that were just a little off-tempo. It was a pleasant song, but something about it would always be eerie. That's what Zelda was singing when Link stumbled outside, glaring at the sun like it had wronged him. It hadn't, except by being so very bright, and really that was its job, but Link was feeling spiteful and the light was still stinging his eyes. Zelda laughed at him and finished her line, then told him to come on, because "I want you to meet Impa."

Then the song was picked back up and crooned to anyone who'd listen on the semi-crowded street home. Up in the bright blue sky, Link could see the moon, waiting to rise into power again. The demon's words were echoing in his head even as Zelda narrated the tale of the great gale king and pulled him along by the arm to her home, and he knew that he'd said he would call the demon Kishin, but the name didn't seem to fit quite as well as he had thought. It didn't sound right. But it wasn't as though he could really call him anything else.

The blue motorcycle wasn't in Zelda's driveway when they walked up to the house. A young man was standing outside, though, with arms stretched towards the sky in an expression of wanting. His hair was a very pale violet, and he hid himself away in the shade. With white-as-snow skin and red eyes, Link wondered if he should really be out in the sun at all. Light sensitivity became very painful very quickly. (Something he was learning first hand, he supposed.)

"What? You came, too?" Zelda called to him, sounding half-indignant. The young man's eyes – red like cherries or a white rabbit's gaze, Link thought – flickered a moment on the moon before he turned to them, and a sharp smile slipped onto his lips.

"Of course I did." He began, in a particularly smooth and smug way that would have made less rational people want to punch him. Probably, Link didn't know. He was one of those rational people. "Mother doesn't trust me home alone; she thinks I'll burn the house down." This said, his gaze switched to Link. "And… who is that?" His tone had gone predatory; somewhere between 'should I rip his head off?' and 'perhaps he'd be interested in other things?'And anything rational flew out the window, because Link realized he'd just met another creepy person. So it came as no surprise that he was trying not to fidget as Zelda introduced him.

"-I've known him for years, I know I've told you stories… Link, this is Vaati." Zelda introduced with a smile, and Link was forced to shake the young man's hand. He kind of wished he hand some latex gloves to put on first, though.

He wasn't bad looking, really, and Link maybe would've been attracted to him if it weren't for the sense of something being off. Like he might take the DNA Link had inadvertently left on his hand just by touching him and use it to develop some sort of horrible puppet magic or a virus that would only target Link. Something insane. Something that might end with Link in a maid costume, and he was not letting that happen ever again. So, whatever it was about him just put Link on edge. Probably the predatory gaze he'd been given before. He was also probably just overreacting, like Zelda said he always did. (Zelda also insisted he was her personal teddy bear, so what did she know?)

"He's my cousin."

you're… kidding, right? The cheerful look he got then said she wasn't. A half-suspicious stare was turned to Vaati, who smiled and gave a little wave.

"See something you like?" He asked Link dryly. Link shook his head.

"Sorry, can't say I do." He replied gravely. Vaati narrowed his eyes. Going on heedless, Link turned to his friend, "Zelda, I have something to take care of soon, so…"

"Oh, alright." She rolled her eyes and switched her focus to the young man who seemed to be leaning more towards ripping Link's head off, now. "Much as I enjoy your company, Vaati, where is aunty?"

"Upstairs dragging the beast from his bed." Vaati shot back immediately. As if by his words they heard the loud, angry growl of a bike, and witnessed the garage door slide open just in time for the blue bike to go shooting under instead of into the sheet of metal, and right past the three young adults as it did so. Link gave a horrified stare to the rider's back. They had been close enough to touch.

A woman stepped out a moment afterward and recaptured all of their attentions. She was tall, with at least six inches on Link, with silver hair and red eyes like blood. Her skin was tan, like the medic named Sheik or the demon from the temple… and garbed like a warrior. She was… rather intimidating to behold. And just then, she was giving an exasperated stare to the road the bike and its rider had disappeared down.

"… And the dragon fled the castle." Zelda quipped dryly, to which Vaati snorted. "Aunt Impa! This is my friend, Link." She pulled him forward, against his wishes of course, and the red eyes flickered toward him. Link bit back a sigh and met the woman's gaze, and when she turned to face him he saw something shift on her back and realized she had… wings. Another demon. (He figured he was dealing with this rather well. He didn't even squeak this time - not that he was admitting to squeaking last time. Definitely.)

Zelda's… aunt. Link reminded himself, and bowed to the lady. She crossed her arms and gave him a sharp once over, though whatever she was searching out escaped his notice. "… It's good to meet you." She settled on, her too-sharp eyes meeting Link's. "We've heard many stories."

"I really hope they're not the stories she likes to tell everyone here." Link replied calmly, and added, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Impa."

Impa echoed something like that, still giving him the unnerving-intense stare and Link excused himself. As he left his back burnt from two red-eyed gazes. He really missed normal boring people, truly.


Green. He couldn't really summon up a reason, except that the color seemed appropriate. Green was the color of the forest children; the fairies… the first wielder of the mastersword had been a fairy and appropriately garbed in the color. Green was the hero's color. That had sealed the decision for him.

"After sunset, the town will change. If you hear anything… take the key and find me."

"Isn't there a better way?"

"If you can call my name, I will come." Of course he couldn't call his name.

Kishin knew that. Link wondered if he was being cruel to torment him, but at the same time… perhaps it was better the demon didn't appear at all. He was starting to remember the face that watched him drown without changing or reaching to aid him. Who was to say the demon would be any assistance at all?.. Link found himself thinking he might even be a liability, or an obstacle, but at once he couldn't quite imagine the demon plotting to betray him. Not while he could have just killed Link before, in the temple or the ocean or when Link was on his knees and really, literally begging for it.

He zipped up his pack; giving a last glance to the white and red box inside, the packet of matches, and the knife… he picked up his staff from beside the doorway, and tossed it out with his bag to the yard, before climbing out the window and leaping down. He rolled as he hit the grass, grabbed up his bo and his things, and continued walking through the dusk. He didn't notice the curious red eyes tracing his progress from the top of the north-east watchtower.


Change.

Ha. He must come from a time where 'change' means 'go utterly fucking insane.' Blue eyes swept over the town square while he considered this. Literal clouds (yes, clouds, as in masses of the little beasts so thick he couldn't see through them) of keese were flying around, swooping low and letting out threatening chitters. On the ground gohma spawn were scuttling along, occasionally hissing back at the keese, or congregating together in disturbing, hairy writhing groups not unlike a mosh pit.

Just as he was about to sigh with relief – no one is out here – he heard a startled noise, one that could unfortunately only be made by a set of vocal cords like his own.

And sure enough when he turned to look, the medic intern who'd seen to his head the other day stood there, at the end of the street. His dark eyes were roving over the swarms of monsters, and his hand slowly was edging toward a scabbard on his back.

The monsters looked too, and then Link didn't really have a choice in the matter.

The satisfaction he felt at the crack-clatter-squelch his staff made against the gohma really shouldn't have been so strong, he supposed. Monster guts were a pain to clean off. He was careful to keep his body in front of the man, slashing away with his weapon at the descending cloud of black wings and snapping teeth.

He got through the first wave fairly neatly – one keese had slipped through his defenses to bite his shoulder, but he barely felt the wound – and was turning partway to tell the silent man, if he hadn't gone, to run, when the medic stepped forward with a ko-wakizashi in hand. His eyes were sharp and determined when he turned them on Link then, with a focused passion that reminded him of Zelda. "Go get help. I'll cover you." He said simply. When Link continued to stand and stare, trying to summon up a protest to explain just why he wouldn't leave someone alone with all of these monsters, Sheik canted his head.

"Go." He ordered it this time, voice barely audible over the noise of beasts but very clear in intention. "You're fast, right? You can be back before I'm dead if you hurry." Then he turned away, slashing through the first thing that leaped at them. It would probably be more of a fight to make him leave, Link realized, so he tried to remember the nearest place… he took off towards the swordsman school, clutching the half of the key on a chain to his chest.

Kishin… should I really call him…?

More and more monsters lined the streets, rushing him with glittering eyes and gnashing teeth. He jumped and dodged them in a horrible flurry of motion, the world more of a blur in his vision than anything else. He stumbled on the steps and nearly went crashing into the door, stumbling in after a moment of readjusting to clear sight.

The loud thumps of his boots against the wood – that he should not be wearing shoes on, some part of his mind scolded, but that part could fall over and die because he didn't have time – the panting of his breath, or just the scent of fear… one or all of these things attracted the first adult to him, and in the worst way. Link yelped and lashed out at the hands that seized him. A hand as white as death caught the wrist his staff was in and another pinned his free one to the wall. Yellow eyes gleamed when they met his. Zelda's teacher had a very calculating quality about him, like he was thinking about exactly how to rip you apart piece by piece in the least amount of…

A door slid open down the hall. "Kers? Is something… hero?"

… time.

Still panting and barely-emerging from his terrified haze, Link glanced at the voice. The red-haired swordsman stared back, hurrying over to them, and after another second Zelda's teacher let go of Link's wrists. Link peeled off the wall with according impatience, gesturing toward the door. "The whole square is covered in monsters!" He spat, to the one's amusement and the other's concern, "I was out there and- a medic is fighting them, he told me to get help, this was the first place I thought of-!"

"Slower." The fox (named… Kers, was it?) demanded, cocking his head and watching Link with another calculating gleam in his eyes, one that hinted less at death but was still as unnerving, his mind running over something Link didn't know or see. Amber was such an eerie color…

Link took a deep breath, his own eyes hardening like crystal.

A smile started to twitch on the swordsman's lips.

"There is a medic, fighting hundreds of monsters alone in town square. We have to help him, or the whole town will be overrun. We have to go. Now." He could die. Link said this all much more clearly, staring at the swordsman and then Kers as though daring them to protest.

"… alright." Kers slipped away into the room the swordsman had come from, carrying a lantern with a blazing flame. "You coming, Sanguine?" He called back while the sound of rummaging echoed around the otherwise-empty place.

"If only to see how it plays out." Was the casual retort, while the man gave an idle pat to the blade tied at his hip.

Link didn't pay their words anymore mind, just took off through the halls, only waiting long enough to ensure they could follow him.

Squelch squelch squelch. The ground under his boots was slippery and disgusting, coated in the innards of monsters.

The only warning he got was a shout of something like glee, sharp and terrible, then when he looked up Kers had vaulted off a fence and over his head into the fray of beasts, laughing all the way. With the flames of the lantern arching around his body, he was the most terrifying beacon of hope Link had ever seen.

The swordsman was more calm, hand on the hilt of his blade as he approached the edges of the crowd, and only kicked away anything that strayed too close. His eyes slid over the square like he was studying a group of ill-behaved students or perhaps a puzzle, and Link remembered that this person was different. This person was another demon…

"That medic you mentioned isn't here." Sanguine spoke up, cat-eyes that were slowly changing red flickering to Link. "Are you going to look for him? Kers will be through here in minutes, quicker if I help…" Link nodded, sharp and determined and whole body ready to go – the swordsman smiled. "Good." He said, and in a neat move drew his blade and sliced apart a larger gohma that came at him. He moved into the swarm. Link jumped onto the concrete wall that lined the square and started running.


Despite having no real clue where he was going – he went down the road most littered with corpses – Link felt he was making good progress. He heard someone shouting and veered to the side, knocking into a rather large tektite as he did. That was another thing – the further he went – or perhaps it was the later it became – the bigger the monsters that would appear. The hard edges of the key dug into his palm as a disturbing reminder… Or maybe the jagged memento of the apocalypse, or something.

Coming apocalypse, Link reminded himself. It wasn't quite here yet.

The first person to wield the mastersword, Vilink… Failed to stop the world's end, and instead ended it again…

The tale went that Vilink had failed because of a seven year slumber. Link didn't have to sleep for seven years, and the world wasn't ending as he fell asleep. He didn't think he could even dream of sleeping.

So… he could stop this. He had to be able to stop this.


(Chapter end)

I honestly felt kind of ridiculous by writing 'young adults' to describe 17-or-18 year olds. Please don't take offense if you are in that age range - I'm just used to writing teenager for that range. Its a little stupid, but.