AN: On a roll! This really didn't take me long to write, in comparison! Thanks to GreenFantasy64 for your review! And so, without further ado... on with the chapter!

Four:

"Hello, princess." Dark's voice was quiet, flat. I could almost feel his anger radiating off of him. The eyes watching me moved closer and I mirrored the action, but backwards.

"Going somewhere?" he asked and I was about to deny it when I realised I didn't want to – he had brought this on himself. Despite my fear I straightened my spine and adopted my best haughty demeanour.

"Yes. I was going back to Hyrule Castle, and don't even try to stop me." Dark laughed softly and I shivered, stomach tightening fearfully.

"Oh, I don't need to try. Keeping you here would be easy."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" I demanded, watching him closely. Dark didn't reply and instead just moved towards me. I saw a flash of silver and regretted my decision to leave his sword with him. He stopped barely an inch from me, staring down at me with his burning red eyes. I flinched when he suddenly moved and a moment later heard the soft hiss of his sword scraping against its sheath. Surprised, I blinked and looked up at him again just as he stepped aside.

"Then go, that's fine. I can reassemble myself without you." His voice became an angry hiss as he towered above me. "But know that when I fade away because you wouldn't help me open the temples, whatever happens to your precious Hyrule is on your hands." The venom in his voice was so tangible that I winced, and then paused to wonder if that was… hurt in his voice. Whatever it was it made me feel the need to defend myself.

"It's not like you're helping," I told him, "all you've done is threaten me! How am I supposed to believe that you're really part of the man who will save my country when you've been acting like you have?"

"Oh, so you want me to change who I am just to please you? Honestly, princess, haven't you picked up on the fact that I am the dark part of Link – the bit he squashes and squashes and ignores and ignores until he wants to explode? What else did you expect?" I opened my mouth only to close it again – he had a point. Then I shook my head.

"No, it's too late. I can't." Taking a deep breath I turned away from him and made to walk away, but I collided with something as soon as I took a step. When I brought my hands up to steady myself cold fingers caught my wrists, sending a whisper of pain up the one Dark had already bruised. My eyes snapping up I found Dark before me, somehow having teleported himself behind me. Startled, I wondered again how he did it as he leaned towards me and moved his hands to my shoulders.

"Princess, I am asking you to help me. I don't want this 'Ganondorf' to rule Hyrule any more than you do." He shook me slightly, digging his fingers into my skin as he did. Meeting his eyes I tried to find a trace of the anger he had so obviously been experiencing moments before, but if it was still there he hid it exceedingly well. All I could see in those two, cold orbs was something like sincerity. Upon catching it I was surprised and it made me question my earlier assumptions about him – could it be I was mistaken about just how dark his character was? In all honesty I didn't believe it, but as I thought about it I realised I was willing to believe it if it meant saving my country. No, not willing. I wanted to believe it, wanted to believe there really was something good behind those red eyes. I don't know why, but I felt compelled to try and find it as we stared at each other steadily. Although, I was still suspicious. And a little confused by his sudden change of heart.

So, confused and suspicious I narrowed my eyes at him before reaching up and gently dislodging his hands (in my head I imagined slapping them away, but I doubted that would help anything). Stepping back I folded my arms protectively over my chest and surveyed him. He met my gaze unflinchingly.

"Do you promise you won't try anything – like try to kill me or something – if I stay?" I asked, raising my eyebrows when he was silent. Finally he sighed and turned his eyes skyward in an exasperated way.

"Alright, princess. Let's put it this way – I will try to act like a good person if you promise to come with me." Eyeing him with no little mistrust I mulled over his terms; I didn't like the way 'promise' had been exchanged for 'try', and his sarcastic tone made me wonder if he was being serious, but I guessed it was as good as I was going to get. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Fine. I will try to stay and help you if you try to act like a good person." I always kept my word, so there was no way I was going to promise something when all he had to do was 'try'.

"Compromise, I like it, princess." A sudden, wicked grin broke out across his face. "You see? It was easy to keep you here." I rolled my eyes, masking the sudden fear that he was manipulating me with an exasperated gesture. Dark folded himself onto the ground and patted the earth beside him, grinning widely when I visibly hesitated.

"Come on, princess. You're the one who wanted me to act like a nice person." He raised his hands in the air. "I'm not going to hurt you – I'm a nice person, remember. Sit and I'll show you." Huffing irritatedly I did as he asked, sitting down about half a metre away from him. He tutted softly and immediately shuffled closer, until our shoulders were almost touching. Annoyed I resisted the urge to move away, turning my face away from him.

"Are you annoyed?" he asked, tone playful. I didn't deign to reply and he laughed slightly. "Hey, you told me to be nice but you never said anything about me being annoying."

"Ah," I sighed, "I should have just asked you to be completely silent for the rest of our journey." I was surprised by how easy it was to play along with him, and immediately regretted my words. I didn't want him thinking he could get to me. He still chuckled however, but afterwards was thankfully silent. Though uncomfortable with having Dark so close I soon found my eyelids getting heavy and I gave in to sleep praying that Dark would stick to his word and be good.

When a sudden, haywire stream of images interrupted my dream I woke with a start, to find a cold hand over my mouth and Dark crouched beside me, eyes on my face. On instinct I immediately began to struggle but stopped when Dark hissed at me to be quiet and stop squirming. Once I had I heard the reason why; monsters. More than one. I couldn't identify what kind they were, but from the warbling calls and what sounded vaguely like a conversation in a strange, foreign language I guessed they were some kind of forest goblin. Dark slowly removed his hand, and once he was sure I wasn't going to scream or anything moved away from me. I sat up and looked around, trying to distinguish where exactly the monsters were. They seemed to be close by, but considering just how quiet the forest had been when I'd fallen asleep the sound could have simply been carrying easily through the silence.

"Princess, stay here." Dark whispered as he stood, pulling his sword free with a soft scraping noise.

"What? No!" As much as he irritated and scared me, I wasn't about to let him go and fight a horde of monsters alone. Dark turned to me, resting the flat of his blade on his shoulder.

"Princess, if I have to pretend to be a good person, you're not going to want to see this." He said and I rolled my eyes.

"You're really still going on about that when there's a whole crowd of monsters right on top of us?" I hissed, following his example and standing.

"Fine. Whatever. Come along, if you get hurt or scared don't blame me." He muttered, turning away from me. Even as he did, however, he seemed to almost… melt into the shadows amongst the trees and vanished from sight. I blinked, startled, and spun slowly, searching the gloom of the forest for his silhouette. When I didn't see it I resorted to calling him.

"Dark!" I kept my voice to a harsh whisper. "Dark, where-" my voice was suddenly covered by a screech, and then several more. I winced at the noise, bewildered. It sounded… it sounded like the dying screams of monsters. I realised what was going on and cursed softly – if he got killed then where would we be? I jumped as something suddenly hurtled through the trees in front of me. Identifying it as a bokoblin I reached for my sword and became even more confused as it ran straight by me, squawking in its strange bokoblin language in a way that almost made it seem afraid. I turned my eyes back to the place it had appeared from just as Dark reappeared in amongst them, sword hanging by his side. Even in the dark I could see his eyes almost glowing, alight with some manic, gleeful energy and there was a grin bordering on insane on his face. It was a look that froze me where I stood and raised goosebumps all along my arms. Catching sight of me the expression dropped and Dark sighed, looking at me with obvious annoyance.

"You're the one who walked back here." I said immediately, willing my voice not to waver and betray my fear. Dark paused.

"True," he said, nodding his acknowledgement. "Anyway, did a bokoblin run through here?"

"Yes." I glanced in the direction it had run. "But it's gone now, so what's the point in following it?" Dark shrugged a shoulder, apparently thinking.

"Fun?" he suggested and I frowned at him, although in the shadows I wasn't sure if he could see it.

"Really?" was all I said and he shrugged again. "Just let it go, I don't think it's going to come back."

"Maybe it will, maybe it'll even bring friends." He pointed his sword at me. "Are you a bokoblin, princess? No, you're not; therefore, you can't understand how the bokoblin mind works."

"Well, neither can you." I pointed out. "Why can't you just let it go?" Dark opened his mouth to respond before snapping it shut and stabbing his sword into the ground.

"You know what, you're right." He sat down with a soft thud, stretching his arms above his head. "Let's let the poor, helpless bokoblin go. Why? Because we're good people, we're nice and don't kill defenceless creatures… right, princess?"

"Be quiet." I said, not appreciating his sardonic tone. Dark tutted and shook a finger at me.

"Now now, princess. What did we say about telling me what to do?"

"Fine. Please, Dark, shut up. There, it was a friendly request." I put as much venom as I could into my voice, still trying to mask the remaining fear coiling in my stomach.

"It sounded oh so friendly, too." Dark suddenly rose, climbing to his feet in one fluid motion. He walked up to me and stopped mere inches away.

"What?" I snapped as he peered at me, tilting his head first left then right.

"Oh, I was just thinking that maybe we have more in common that I first thought." He replied, poking me in the forehead in an almost gentle way. Still, I narrowed my eyes at him.

"We have nothing in common." I said, brushing past him. Unexpected pain in the back of my head made me stop as my head snapped back. Wincing I raised a hand to the top of my braid and found it drawn out to an almost horizontal angle. Dark gave it another tug and I grimaced, attempting to pull myself free without pulling all my hair out.

"Ow." I said, stepping closer to him to relieve the tension in my hair and stomping the foot nearest to him blindly in an angry gesture. I was both surprised and pleased when I landed square on his foot and was rewarded by a hiss of pain and my plait being released.

"What was that for?" Dark growled and I mimicked him by shrugging casually.

"I wonder." I said, heading towards his sword. I was very nearly unsurprised as he materialised before me and I, again, collided with him.

"No way, princess. Get near that sword and I will…" he trailed off.

"Come now, Dark. We both know nice people don't make death threats," I said sweetly and saw him flash me a glare. I smiled slightly before pushing him away.

"Well, since we're both so awake now, I suppose we'd better keep going. I don't think I'm going to get much more sleep tonight." I said, walking up to his sword and passing it, though I was sorely tempted to pick it up and keep it from Dark, purely to annoy him. My fear had ebbed away, leaving me with a mental note not to let Dark get into too many fights, especially not with me or any of his fellow soul pieces. Or monsters… at least not many.

"Alright. Fine by me. Maybe we'll find some more goblins on our way."

"How bloodthirsty can you be?" I muttered, more to myself than to Dark, but he heard it anyway.

"Quite easily, actually." Dark caught up with me, sword once again in hand. I watched him from my peripheral vision as he pulled the sleeve of his cloak well down over his hand and began cleaning his blade, which I had noticed was now spattered with monster blood, with it as he walked. I frowned, wondering if that was really the best way to go about cleaning it, but didn't voice my thoughts.

"Relax, princess. It's a magic sword; it's pretty impervious to dirt and things." He said, making me wonder if perhaps he possessed telepathic powers like I did.

"Can you read minds?" I asked, sincerely curious, and Dark chuckled.

"Nope. I'm just good at reading people." He put the sword away and we lapsed into silence. I let Dark lead, assuming he was being drawn in the direction of his nearest fellow soul piece, and we continued walking through the night and well into the morning.

I was blindly following Dark, my thoughts elsewhere, when he suddenly halted. I followed suit and found a tall wall of pale rock blocking our path. Some way to the right there was a wide, dark crevice in the rock and I was appalled when Dark strode purposefully towards it. Reluctantly I followed him, hovering at his side as he peered into the hole, which up close revealed itself to be wide enough to admit about two people side by side but low enough to make them crouch.

"Where do you think it leads?" I wondered aloud as Dark stooped and stuck his head into the shadows within.

"I feel weirdly drawn to it, so I guess it's a temple. Taking in our surroundings I'd say it's the Forest Temple." He stepped back and straightened, turning to me. "What do you think?"

"I think I don't want to go in there." I said and saw his mouth twitch in response. "Don't laugh at me. I'm the princess of Hyrule; I can't just head into pitch black crevices without considering the risks to my life – I have a responsibility to my country to stay alive." Dark raised an eyebrow, apparently unimpressed.

"And I'm the apparent saviour of Hyrule, yet I'm perfectly willing to head in. I think you're just scared."

"Think what you like, you're going first." I said it in a voice I knew encouraged no argument and Dark shrugged casually, silently telling me he didn't mind going first. No doubt he was hoping to be the first to encounter enemies so he could disembowel them or something equally as horrible. Reining my thoughts in I stared again at the dark hole, anticipating what lay inside with a barely repressed shudder. It was hard to imagine so sacred a place as a temple being hidden in such a place.

"Let's go then." Dark said before ducking into the crevice and vanishing into its black depths. Taking a deep breath I followed, placing both hands flat against the walls and carefully manoeuvring myself inside, determined not to bash my head on the rock above. I had only gone a few paces when it began to feel like all light had been extinguished, despite still being able to clearly see the exit if I looked over my shoulder. Dark, with his non-existent aura, had completely vanished. I couldn't see, hear or sense him, and the loss of his cold silhouette left me feeling inexplicably alone. It's not like I wanted him for company, but even he was better than being alone – especially when following a pitch black tunnel to an unknown destination.

The floor beneath me suddenly dipped sharply and I almost slipped before regaining my footing. My hands were still firmly against the wall, but my palms were slick from the cool condensation that clung to them and made them feel almost slimy. After a few more steps down the slope I gingerly raised a hand above my head, searching for the tunnel's roof. When my fingers met nothing but air I stood a little straighter before fully extending my legs. I breathed a sigh of relief and paused to stretch my back, which had begun to ache in such an awkward position. The feeling of claustrophobia that had been descending upon me lessened a little and I breathed a soft sigh of relief before advancing on, carefully following the sloping path down, my hands glued to the walls either side of me.

As the slope levelled out I suddenly realised I could see a faint light ahead of me. The way it flickered and glowed a soft orange made me think it was candles, or at least some kind of firelight. Quickening my pace I found myself exiting the tunnel and entering a huge, gloomy cavern. A gust of cool air that smelt stale and musty and made me wrinkle my nose as I strained my eyes, trying to take in my surroundings. Far above me I heard the rustling and squeaks of what sounded like bats or, and I sincerely hoped it wasn't, Keese. In the centre of the cavern there was what seemed like an abyss, across which stretched an extremely unstable-looking bridge. I swallowed harshly – I hated heights. Torches flickered at both its start and its end, attracting small swarms of bugs to their bright light. I approached the nearest pair of torches and stood at the edge of the bridge, staring towards the other end. Dark was nowhere in sight and I wondered if he had abandoned me, despite all his claims of needing me. The growing seed of doubt in my brain grew a little taller as I hovered at the edge of the cliff, fear threatening to overwhelm me as I gazed into the depths of the abyss.

Shaking myself I raised my eyes to the opposite side of the cavern, attempting to find evidence of Dark's presence. Finding none I was surprised to feel a slight pang of disappointment. Had I really been putting so much hope in the idea that he could, acting or not, be a good person? Grinding my teeth I fuelled my disappointment into my growing irritation at my current state of abandonment and, in the throes of anger, unthinkingly stepped on the bridge. It wobbled beneath me and I stiffened, hands flying to the flimsy rope barriers that were the only things barring my way to falling to a certain demise.

"Ugh," I swallowed, pitifully lamenting my situation. Why was I still doing this?! "Farore protect me." I murmured my prayer, closing my eyes briefly before clenching the ropes tighter and taking another step. The wooden planks beneath me creaked and I grimaced, quickly moving on. As I went I repeated my prayer to Farore like a mantra, taking courage from it and using it to distract me from just how high up I currently was.

I was about halfway across the bridge, which was much longer than I had first anticipated, when a sudden flurry of squeaks broke out above me, along with the sound of many agitated wings flapping. Looking up I saw a crowd of glowing eyes high above me and froze. Keese. Cursing my bad luck I moved a hand to my sword, but even as I did the bridge swayed and it jumped straight back to the ropes, anchoring me where I stood. Transfixed by the many bright pairs of eyes above me I knew I was completely stuck. Moving quickly on the bridge was an absolute negative, in fact moving at all was pretty much out because I didn't have it in me to move faster than a crawl, so swinging my sword wasn't something I could do. All I could hope for was that they didn't get agitated and I made it across the bridge in one piece.

Steeling myself I moved on, resolutely ignoring the Keese, and I intended to keep going like that, or at least I had intended to, until a Keese suddenly flew right past my face. With an extremely undignified squeak of surprise I reeled back, feeling the bridge tilt and my stomach drop in response. When another Keese flew at me I realised I wasn't getting across the bridge in one piece and turned my eyes to the cavern roof again. They were even more riled up than before, and I saw several break off from the main colony and swoop towards me. Unable to do anything, I went down on one knee, released my hold on the ropes and covered my head, hoping to dissuade their sharp claws. No blows came. Instead, something hit my head gently and I watched half a Keese fall onto the bridge in front of me, followed by several more soft thumps.

"Honestly, this is what you were doing?" that annoyingly familiar voice had not once been so welcome yet, and I nearly smiled with relief as I looked over my shoulder and found Dark stood behind me, sword resting on one shoulder and a bored expression on his face. Catching my eye he shook his head and looked at me disdainfully.

"You can't even fight off a couple of Keese?" he said and I scowled, rising to my feet.

"Not when I'm on a rickety bridge above an abyss." I said, matching his tone as I put a hand to my head where the Keese had fallen on me, worried that there would be Keese entrails in my hair. Finding nothing I let my hand drop again before attaching it to the rope beside me.

"You're afraid of heights?" Dark guessed and I felt my cheeks heat as I didn't reply. Dark laughed. "Well, you learn something new every day, eh, princess?" Staying silent I shot him a glare and he grinned before he abruptly moved towards me and slung me over his shoulder in an extremely undignified manner. I immediately protested, flailing all four of my arms and legs, beating my fists against his back.

"Put. Me. Down!" my voice was almost a shriek as my cheeks seared at the embarrassment of my predicament. Dark simply laughed and began striding along the bridge with an ease that made me jealous. Burying my face in my hands I stopped squirming and instead waited impatiently for my humiliation to end. A few times I felt him shift to cut down a few more Keese but I kept my face hidden as I went hot then cold from the embarrassment.

At the end of the bridge Dark dropped me rather unceremoniously, and I staggered slightly before regaining my balance and glaring daggers at him. He raised his eyebrows in response.

"I had to get you across somehow." He said, "plus, if I'm being a good guy now, pointing my sword at you and making you go isn't something I can do." Rolling my eyes I ignored him and faced forward, finding myself looking at a steep and incredibly long staircase. It looked a lot more manmade that the rest of the cavern, with symbols carved all over the walls and completely even steps that were deep and looked like they'd be extremely tiring to climb. Climbing the stairs mentally I saw, as my eyes reached their end, a figure stood at the very top, half hidden from view because of the angle.

"Hey, Dark, do you see that person up there?" I got no response and looked back at him, only to find he was gone – something, as I was coming to see, that he was incredibly prone to doing.

"Oi, princess!" a faint voice bounced down the staircase and I lifted my eyes to the silhouette, which lifted an arm and waved. It was Dark.

"How…?" I asked myself weakly, glancing between where he had stood a moment ago and where he stood now.

"Hurry up! We don't have all day!" I ground my teeth at that, cursing whatever powers of teleportation he apparently possessed. Although I myself had a spell that allowed me to teleport, it was really unstable and I had never felt safe using it. So, with more than one heavy sigh, I resigned myself to a long climb and began my journey up the stairs to Dark's side.

I hope you enjoyed chapter four of Split! Also, if anyone wants Dark or Zelda, or anyone, to do something specific in later chapters tell me and I'll try to do your idea justice!