Another chapter! Hooray! I am sorry for taking so long to update. So this chapter is extra long! Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything having to do with Zelda or KH.
Ordon Village
The familiar reflection of the half moon wavered with the silent ripples in the small lake of Link's village. His leather boots padded softly on the packed dirt trail winding through the wooden houses; some embedded in hollow trees, others of simple four wall construction. The faint scent of river lilies traveled in the night breeze, ruffling Link's clothing. He passed the small goods shop, the slowly lurching water wheel, and the home of his old friend Rusl. Link came upon the home of his beloved Ilia finally, and for the briefest moment, hesitated to ascend the porch steps. Taking a breath for good measure, the nervous hero tapped softly on the door.
A lantern flickered to life inside, seen through the veil of a thin curtain that decorated the window beside the door. Hurried steps sounded from behind the door and finally the door was brought open ajar.
"Ilia." Link whispered.
The silhouetted figure appeared in contemplation for a moment. The girl raised the lantern, the golden light pooling around Link. Now Link saw her in her azure blue night gown that reached her knees, a shawl draped over her shoulders and gathered tightly in her fist.
The blond girl let out a small gasp of surprise. "Link!"
Link, as customary, removed his cap. "Sorry I woke you so late. I've just arrived from Castle Town-" Link's words stopped short as he nearly tumbled backward with Ilia's jumping embrace. She held her arms firm around his neck as she buried her cheek in his shoulder.
"Your safe." She said. She stepped back, and took a sweeping glance over Link.
Her eyes lingered on his cuts, the tear in his tunic at which the heartless had injured him. A selfish disappointment shadowed her face. "Are you hurt?" she asked.
"No. I'm fine." Link answered. "Promise."
"Well, come in and let me patch up your tunic."
The home was simple just as Link's was; a pot holding cold stew over a disappearing fire on the west wall, various wooden chairs cushioned with quilts, shelves lined with jars of jam, honey, and the like. However, something caught Link's gaze as he made his way to a chair. The familiar metallic glow was unmistakable; a sword-like weapon not quite the full size of Link's, yet not quite as small as a dagger. Even from a distance Link spotted the scratches of a battle worn weapon along the metal.
Ilia was busying herself with retrieving a needle and thread as she rummaged through her drawers and shelves. Link walked over to the weapon where it was leaned against a corner.
"Ilia," he began, his voice wavering in anxiousness. "Is this yours?"
Ilia paused, her hand poised above an open drawer. She turned her head toward Link. Her brow crinkled slightly and she breathed a sigh. "Link, it's not… I mean… there is nothing for you to worry about. Rusl gave it to me just in case."
Link lowered his eyes as he realized what had been going on in his village. He had never made the connection. Shad had given him reports of all of Frednot's raids and attacks on villages and provinces. He recalled reading of one attack in which Frednot's men had invaded a small village, but the province had not been specified. Link had never thought it to be Ordon, his home.
A horrible guilt burned inside him, drawing the course for anger to follow. Only now did the hero notice the gauze bandage around Ilia's ankle, and the fresh dressings to a gash on her left arm now exposed by her slipping shawl.
"Rusl gave it to you just in case? 'Just in case' doesn't mean anything if it already happened. Rusl knew they attacked this village and he didn't tell me! He didn't tell me they'd hurt you!" Link's voice raised an octave, anxiety outlining his features.
He slumped into a chair, still clutching the weapon in his hand. Link, his head bowed, was silent. He felt Ilia's tender touch on his shoulder.
Attacks on rural villages such as Link's were not frequent, but once a village had been attacked it was likely to be plundered again. A hero's luck may aid him in battle, however darkness is a tricky element. Its remnants lurk around every corner, inside every shadow and luck is not immune. The hero of Hyrule's luck had just been infected by the shadow of doubt and as he fretted over his beloved, heartless were fast on his tail.
Link's House
Riku was drifting; out on the crystal ocean just off of Destiny Island, the sky above him a clear darkness with the star of each world glowing softy, pulsing. The waves caressed his back, rolling him deeper, deeper into the sea. The warm breezes from the island lightly pushed against the tide. It was the night, and there was darkness, but there was peace. The strange, unfamiliar feeling of sereneness unsettled him suddenly as he felt the painful tinge of his darkness sensory instinct.
Riku's eyes opened slowly as his mind disconnected from his dream. The images pixilated away behind his eyes, but the burning of his senses continued. He sat up in the wooden chair with a start, the presence of a vengeful darkness creeping about him.
A small twinkle of appearing light caught the side of Riku's gaze. He swung his head over to see that Sora's kingdom keyblade had been summoned automatically by its magic sensing the foul darkness. The Destiny Island hero of light awoke with a small start as his weapon materialized on his lap as he lay dazed in the chair. Danger registered with raw kill intent inside his mind. In a swift movement, Sora was up, his keyblade at the ready on his frontal guard.
Riku silently summoned his own weapon. His blue eyes flicked about waiting for a dark form to seep through the floor or perhaps the walls. His tainted heart panged with a trembling desire to free his own darkness. It's forceful rapping against his insides, strongly reacting to the approaching enemy.
"Sora." Riku called. "Do you feel that? It's… different."
Sora nodded slowly before answering. "Stronger than a heartless…. Somehow… it's almost like a…nobody, but it's not." Sora raised a confused glance to Riku.
The sound came, a sly hissing, mischievous and daring. The darkness rose from the floor in front of the fire place like blackened fire. Its whipping tails like restless snakes, came together slowly intertwining to create the form of someone familiar.
"Link?!" Riku and Sora simultaneously shouted in bewilderment.
The darkness took the form of their Hylian friend. Everything was flawlessly exact and twin like to the real hero. The tunic and cap not green, but instead born of darkness, colored night black and deep menacing purples. Even the details were strikingly exact; the fingerless gloves Link often wears along with his leather arm covers, the tunic's belt and buckle, the strap that secured the sword sheathe to his back was decorated with the Hylian letters and triforce design that the real Link bore. At every edge of fabirc the darkness twitched and curled, a thing veiling fog creeping around the feet of the thing. Its dusty black hair hung in his face as a horrid smirk curled on the lips of the creature, its red, void eyes staring with playful evil. The dark link reached behind it and wrapped a dark hand around the grip of its sword.
"What is that?!" Sora shouted. "Its… its Link!"
"No…" Riku's voice strained off as he realized. "No! It's my fault! Link and I… we traveled using my darkness. The effect it had on him… it must have created some kind of…"
"Dark Link?" Sora filled in. The two keyblade wielders glanced at each other with distressed expressions.
Riku sighed with a semi-faked annoyance. "We never get a break do we?"
Sora smiled slightly. "Nope."
Both readied their weapons. Dark Link slid his black bladed sword from its sheath at his back with a swift dragging of metal.
Village
The dim night served as a constant flowing medium for the creatures closing distance upon the wooden homes of Ordon village. The village was quiet, but not sleeping. The world of dreams was far from the frightened minds of farmers and herders around the village. Each home, curtains drawn closed, scarce displayed any movement from inside. Though the small, measured breaths of villagers lying in wait with daggers and makeshift shields ready, were heard by the turned ears of darkness. The threat was dangerously unseen; every shadow harboring some heartless, mindless creature of nothing but the instinct that triggered it lust for hearts.
With swiftness like wind, they moved in; forward enclosing homes. Like black water, they seeped into the domains of villagers from underneath their feet.
"Link, I'm fine." Ilia offered. "I'm just glad your ok. Stay here for tonight huh? I'll heat up some soup and we can take this whole trouble off our minds." She leaned her head forward, and placed a gentle kiss on Link's head. A blush rose to his face, and for a moment he smiled.
Link's head bowed as it was meant for a nod to agree with Ilia's offer, but it instantly shot up. A panging in his body sensed the new kind of darkness that Riku and Sora described as "heartless."
No… My own weapons are at my home with Riku and Sora… Link realized.
Link stood up in a rush, grabbing the small sword Ilia had said Rusl gave her. He ran a thumb over the blade, to the tip. It cut only the surface of his skin, drawing little blood. In his experience with weapons he knew that this sword was far too dull to do much damage. It was a weapon more for defense, and this put the hero at a disadvantage.
"Link! Link what are you doing?!" Ilia screamed, as she saw the blood drip from Link's thumb. This cry did not reach the hero, as he was deep in concentrated thought.
Suddenly and without warning, Link flung the sword at a darkened portion of the room not reached by the lamp light. The two heard the weapon hit its mark, and the agonized hiss of creature of the dark. The soldier heartless lurched forward in its dying movement, and collapsed before Link's feet. As its form hit the floorboards, its body dissolved into a veil of wispy darkness. Ilia gasped and took a frightened step back, clutching her shawl.
Link immediately retrieved the weapon, and grasped Ilia's wrist. "We have to go!" he said urgently.
With Ilia in tow behind him, Link burst through the front door and ran down the steps to the dirt pathway of the village. Instantly Link felt the thickness of the outside. The entire night itself was the enemy. They were surrounded. The stirring hisses of heartless came from all directions; in the trees, in the shadows of a small home, in the dark water pooling at the edge of a pond. There was no refuge, save for the light that was scarce.
Link took a small breathe and called his horse with a melodic whistle. The sound faded into the night as if absorbed by the dark. There was no echo back as there should have been from the low lying cliff sides around the village.
Link's Home
Riku was suddenly distracted by the distressed braying of Link's horse outside. He chanced a quick glance out the nearest window, seeing only the outline of the animal struggling against the rope that anchored it to a tree.
As he turned back to the battle, the dark Link was inches away, his sword bearing down on Riku with a downward slash. Riku blocked with his keyblade and the two weapons of darkness collided. Both opponents straightened their stance, forcing full weight onto one another.
Sora saw the advantage in an instant and charged keyblade outward, toward dark Link's back. However, dark Link ducked and rolled to the right, evading both Riku and Sora's reach. Riku had to quickly draw his keyblade back up to defend himself from Sora's attack momentum as the two collided.
"Ugh. Sorry Riku." Sora commented, frustration beginning to wear down on the hero of light.
Riku just rolled his eyes. "Let's get this imitation Link already."
Sora twisted his keyblade and aimed for the Link. "Gravity!" he shouted. At that moment dark Link was forced onto his knees by Sora's spell. He had manipulated the gravitational pull from under the dark entity, but this would only last for a moment.
Temporarily helpless, the dark link struggled against the invisible force, his features twisting into annoyance. Riku took this opportunity and lunged. He ran, slashing sideways at the creature with a skilled mark, creating a gash in its right arm which handled the sword.
The dark Link threw his head back and cried out, a hissing grimace of laughter. "The darkness born of a hero can only be defeated by that hero." It spat. The wound Riku inflicted oozed wisps of moving darkness, and with slow deliberation the arm was reconstructed with the dark power.
The gravitation spell dissipated, and dark Link stood. Riku seethed with a raging guilt. "You were created with my darkness! I'll kill you!" he yelled, slashing his keyblade through the air.
"Your memories lie in your pathetic dark infected heart, and I know them all because you created me. I am the ugly embodiment of your tortured soul that has taken the form of this 'Link.' You exposed the poor kid to a new kind of darkness and created me, but you cannot be rid of me, Riku. Your darkness lies forever in your heart. You despicable human! You gave up on light, your friend Sora, and then the very darkness that saved you! You have darkness but shun it. You refuse to take the form and power that it give you! Pathetic. I am born of that stained heart of yours and now you are under my will." Dark Link smirked, menacingly, a horrible confidence about him. Suddenly he held up his left hand, palm exposed, and slowly began to close his fingers in.
Riku felt it instantly. His heart became constricted, struggling to pulse. Inside him strings woven of the darkness inside him tangled themselves around his heart, pulling tighter, tighter. "ACK!" Riku gasped, his eyes widening in pain.
Sora watched as Riku's expression morphed. "Riku?" Sora glared at the dark Link and drew his blade. "I'll kill you!" he threatened.
The dark Link just smiled and cocked his head to the side. "Really? I wouldn't do that. It might mean trouble for Riku here." The creature tightened his fingers.
Riku's keyblade clattered onto the floor, his hand now desperately clutching his chest. Blood slithered in a line out of the side of his mouth. He fell hopelessly to his knees, the pain interlacing with every one of his nerves. The all too familiar pang of darkness now became an explosion within him.
"Riku!" Sora screamed. He too dropped to his knees, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Riku!"
Riku braced himself with one hand against the floor as blood splattered from his mouth. He coughed and gasped with a whimpering pain. "Ugghhhh…..st-stop," he forced out. "S-stop."
The dark Link opened his hand, releasing Riku from the binds around his heart. A shaky gasp of relief escaped Riku as he panted hard.
"You understand now? I control your life. I am Link! I will be the only Link. If you interfere with my goals in murdering that hopeless hero I'll kill you Riku! The darkness that you loath so much will consume you just as you've always feared it would. No light can save you. There is no way to dawn with a past of darkness."
With this, the dark Link sheathed his sword, and stepped back into a shadow, vanishing as if he had never existed. Riku pulled his head up and peered with detest at the place where the Link had been. Defiance lined his blue eyes, cold and without fear. He struggled painfully to stand, placing only one foot under him first. Sora draped Riku's right arm over his shoulder and helped him up.
"Link's in some trouble." Riku said.
"Do you think that dark Link will attack him tonight in the village?" Sora wondered aloud.
"I don't know, but his horse was freaking out before dark Link said he was going for Link. There has to be some heartless around." Riku's gaze suddenly settled upon Link's untouched sword and shield. "…and he doesn't have his sword…"
"Ok Riku I'll just cast a heal spell and then we can-" Sora began.
"Sora, don't waste your magic. Magic won't do anything for me now. It can't erase the black on my heart. Besides I'm fine… we have to get that equipment to Link." Riku interrupted, adding in a small smile for reassurance. Even as Sora knew it was a faked and forced smile, he also knew there was nothing he could do to stop Riku.
Ordon Village pathway
A twitching heartless form rose into Link's vision, and he braced. He made sure Ilia was safely behind him, and he used the small sword as a defense. As the heartless sprang forward, Link sliced it in its mid-jump, causing the thing to be thrown to the right. It landed on the ground, dazed but hardly injured by the dull weapon. It ran, fading into a shadow were it was unseen. On cue, more heartless appeared from all directions, lurking forward.
Ilia's high pitched squeal sounded from behind Link, and in a flash he turned around and pushed her out of the path of a jumping heartless. It landed on the hero, using its pointed limbs to create a diagonal gash across Link's chest as he struggled under it. Link winced as he pain hit him, but he grabbed the thing and tossed it aside with a strong jerk.
"Gah… that hurts." Link whispered to himself more than anyone else. Ilia held out a small vial with a blue liquid inside.
"I grabbed it when we ran out of the house." She offered.
Link recognized it as a blue potion, one similar to the red potions he usually carried with him for healing purposes. The hero quickly shook his head. "Keep it with you." He said. "You could get injured."
"Link!" Ilia pleaded. "Please, just take it."
"I'm fine, really." Link assured as he away momentarily to slice another heartless. All the time he wondered agonizingly why his stead hadn't come. They were trapped, and he had no way of contacting Riku and Sora from here. He could only wait.
Horse Stable
The horse reared back again, pulling helplessly against the rope that held it. It brayed and whinnied in escalating distress, a panic in its light eyes. Her ears were drawn back, a sign of frustration. Sora with Link's sword and shield gathered in his hands stared at the animal, completely at a loss.
"It's hopeless Riku. She'll never calm down enough for us to bring her to Link"
"Cut the rope." Riku suggested bluntly. "Let her go. I've seen this horse interact with Link's he'll run right to him."
"Right he must have called her somehow!" Sora realized. Sora raised Link's sword and brought it down onto the rope, cutting it instantly. Epona bolted down the pathway to the village kicking up dust behind her powerful hooves.
Riku and Sora looked uncertainly at their own horse, knowing how poor their riding skills were.
Village pathway
The deep pounding of hooves on the dirt path reached Link's ears, and he saw his loyal mare come raging down the path crushing all heartless in her way under her great hooves. She skidded to a stop near Link, being sure to angrily stomp out a few more heartless in her reach. She snorted with apparent dissatisfaction at the creatures. Epona brayed and nudged Link gently with her snout.
Familiar voices came closer and closer until Link could make out the shouts of Riku and Sora with the clamping of a running horse. "WHOA! WHOA!" The two Destiny island boys came around the bend now; Sora gripping the reins for dear life, Riku grasping desperately onto Sora's shoulders as he sat behind him on the horse's back. The uncontrolled horse came barreling past Link, Ilia, and Epona, only to turn around and fly past them in the other direction.
Link put his fingers to his mouth and whistled sharply. At once the horse's gallop slowed to a trot and he approached Link, with a dizzied Riku and Sora on his back.
Heartless had scattered in all directions to avoid being smashed, and now lay hidden.
Riku leapt off the horse and approached Link. "Link, we've meant your darkness. I'm sorry. It's my fault… when we traveled using my darkness; it had a reason for affecting you the way it did. It created an imitation of you, a dark form. It'll be com- ARGH!" Riku suddenly gasped in agony, his hand groping at his chest in a meaningless effort to tear out the pain. This time though, he refused to fall. His keyblade appeared in his grasp, and he turned. "Come out you! I'll-" Riku failed to finish his warning as he was overcome and silenced by a tightening inside him.
"Riku?" Link questioned, utterly confused.
"It's him!" Sora shouted. "It's dark Link."
Link's eyes widened with immediate shock. He had heard that name before. It was the name for the monster opponent he had battled in his adventure with the Ocainra of Time. They had battled on a shallow lake, the dark Link taking the form of Link himself and imitating his attacks with deadly precision.
Was it just coincidence that an anti-Link had been born from Riku's darkness? Or was it a kind of fate, a rebirth of his old enemy? Not to mention this affect it seemed to be having on Riku. How was it controlling him? These thoughts ran inside Link's head as he contemplated his circumstances.
Sora broke Link of his thoughts as he tossed the hero his weaponry. Link immediately strapped his sword and shield to his back, afterward drawing his sword from its sheath.
"Bring it, Dark Link." He whispered.
Dark Link appears! I got a reviewer that requested dark Link and I thought it to be the perfect addiction to the enemy list! Poor Link, Riku, and Sora. Now they have Coanan, Frednot, and Dark Link to deal with. This chapter did not have anything about the progress of the rebellion infiltration in it and I'm sorry. That will be included in the next chapter hopefully, as Rusl plans to overthrow Coanan. Please review if you wish.
