Revised version posted 12 January 2008
Some things just never changed, Zelda thought. Even after all this time and everything he had no doubt been through, in many ways Link was still so much like a little child. He looked cute when he blushed.
"Do I need to stand back?" she asked.
"There really isn't any need to. It's not like I'm going to explode or anything."
Zelda jumped back at that. Where had he come up with something so absurd? And what exactly did he mean by that? What had happened to him?
Judging by the look on his face -- confused and worried and more than a little annoyed -- he didn't know either. "Ne-never mind," he said, a little too quickly. "Just... Please, don't scream."
She was going to demand to know what he was going to do that might make her wish to scream, but she never got the chance. His entire body seemed to ripple and blur, and then it split in two. The blurry ripple then faded away, revealing two Links.
Fade to BlackSide Chapter Two: Time and Shadow
Princess Zelda stared in amazement towards the altar and the two men standing before it. Both men were Link, and yet... neither of them was him. She knew who they were, somewhat; they were the two men she'd seen in her dreams. She stood there, frozen, uncertain whether to laugh or cry or run to them or run away.
There was one thing she knew, however. She wasn't going to scream. Her voice was as frozen as the rest of her. Her mind, on the other hand, reeled as it tried to take everything in all at once.
The silver-haired one looked stronger. He had Link's sword slung across his back and a pair of large black leather and steel gauntlets on his arms, as well as a silver-blue tunic and matching hat. The rest of his clothing was a very dark blue, almost black. His face showed very little emotion, only a tiny flicker of concern.
The black-haired one seemed more agile. He also stood slightly taller. His long hair fell over his shoulders and down his back; he wasn't wearing a hat. His gauntlets -- all black -- were bulkier than the other man's were, and Zelda thought she could just make out the end of a hilt sticking out of each of them. His clothing was jet black, except for a dark gray tunic. He looked concerned and relieved and a little scared; his entire body was tense, as if he were prepared to bolt at a heartbeat's notice.
Finally, she spoke, her voice small and faraway. "Are you... real?"
"Yes," the silver-haired Link said, his voice every bit as calm and emotionless as his face.
"And... are you really Link?" Zelda took a small, hopeful step towards the altar.
The silver-haired one spoke again. "Yes."
She turned to the black-haired one. "And what of you? Are you also Link?"
"Er, yes and no," he said, his voice a little shaky. His voice was slightly deeper than the other's. "In a lot of ways, I'm Link... but I'd really prefer if you called me 'Shadow'."
Zelda smiled at that; Shadow spoke with the same tone Link had on the day he and she had first met, sounding as if he were convinced that at any second she would call the guards on him.
"Princess? Are you --" the silver-haired one stared to say.
She cut him off. "If your friend has his own name, do you not also?"
"Time." And then he smiled that gentle smile she remembered so well.
She couldn't deny it. Both of them, somehow, were Link. She ran towards the altar, towards them, and threw an arm around each of them. Then, hanging between the two of them, she started to cry. She felt them step closer to each other, making it easier for her to cling to both of them at once, and one of them reached up to gently pat her back.
"I was so worried!" Zelda forced out. "I thought something horrible had happened to you! I thought -- I thought you might be hurt!"
"Well..." Shadow said, sounding more than a little embarrassed. "That kinda depends on how you define horrible."
That was true, she thought. Something had happened to him to grant him such an unusual power, and she was forced to admit that she didn't have the slightest idea what that something might be. But there was something else... "What about Link?"
"What about him?" Time asked, sounding just as stoic as before.
"Is he... dead?" She had just been talking to him, but... he wasn't here anymore. Was he?
"No. He just..." Shadow slid out of her grip and started pacing back and forth in front of the altar. "It's, well, really hard to explain, as we aren't entirely sure ourselves. From what we've been able to figure out, Link is the 'whole', the sum of the parts. The sum of, well, us. We... We're two parts of him. Apparently, we're so much stronger than the other parts that we define him in some important way."
Shadow cleared his throat. "In a lot of ways, we're both Link. But, as I'm sure you can see, we aren't quite the same."
Zelda had to agree. "You said you're parts. What kind of parts?" she asked, releasing Time and standing up straight.
"Well... we're..." Shadow's voice trailed off as he leaned his head back to look up at the three statues. "Link's seen a lot of things that no one should ever have to see, especially someone that young. But he's always been good at filtering stuff out, at ignoring the bad that he comes across, at pretending that none of it bothered him. He just shoved it all away, leaving them to the shadows. Because that's all they were to him: things of darkness."
"I don't understand. If he left them to the shadows, wouldn't they have left him alone? He's always been so innocent!"
Shadow laughed bitterly. "That's just it, Princess. He may have left those horrible things to the shadows, but the shadows never left him. You can't see that sort of thing and not be marked by it in some way. Besides, Link has had exactly two forces acting on him his entire life. Time. Darkness."
Time shook his head before saying softly, "Warriors cannot remain innocent forever."
"But I sent him back to his own time! He got to live those years he lost! Didn't that change anything?" Zelda snapped, whirling around to face Time.
"You sent his spirit back, Zelda. You undid what time did to his body, but you couldn't undo what it did to his spirit. He remembers everything." Time leaned against the altar, crossing his arms. "You know he left Hyrule."
"Of course I do. I gave him the Ocarina to take with him. Don't you remember?" She scowled. "Wait, can you remember?"
Shadow finally lowered his head to look towards Zelda. "We remember everything he does, because we are him. In some ways, he's still innocent, but... Link left because he had to leave. I'll let him explain it himself. So we went looking for Navi and somehow ended up in a very faraway land called Termina.
"Termina was, well, an infinite three-day nightmare. The flow of time looped over and over for us until we managed to break the cycle and prevent the end of the world from happening."
Zelda's eyes widened in surprise. Link had mentioned something about a moon crashing into the earth, but... The end of the world? "What?"
"A skull kid found a mask. This mask turned out to have a great evil sealed in it, and through him, that evil proceeded to try to crash a moon into Termina and destroy everything. Link arrived three days before Moonfall, and by luck or fate, by using the Ocarina and the Song of Time, we could infinitely live those three days. It took a lot of work, but we eventually stopped the moon, battled the mask, and destroyed it." Shadow glanced back up at the statues. "And that's where we came in."
Zelda swallowed hard. "What happened?"
Shadow just sighed and sat on the altar.
Time took a deep breath. "The battle didn't go well. Even with a mask containing the power of a god, Link couldn't win. He prayed to the Goddesses... and somehow that prayer combined with the power of the breaking Fierce Deity's Mask and memories of fighting Dark Link in the other time... and Link's shadow tore itself free of him and dove into the fray.
"It wasn't until the battle was over that we realized that it wasn't that his shadow had torn free; Link had split in two. For a while after that, we just wandered aimlessly. We couldn't control whether we were Link or Time and Shadow, and we split for odd reasons; we didn't even have names for ourselves yet."
He sighed. "We still aren't exactly sure how this happened, or why. Our best guess is that this is the result of the Fierce Deity's Mask's power, as it broke right after we first split. But we aren't certain, and we don't know if this can be undone."
"I don't want this undone," Shadow said with a snort. "Anyway, to keep someone from talking all night... Time is what's left of that innocent Link, only he's got a whole new view on things thanks to all the months he's spent manipulating time to suit his needs. I'm both Link's nightmares and his reactions to them." He smirked. "I'm all the horror he's lived through, all the hate and fear and rage.
"It's not that I'm evil, though, so don't worry about that. I just don't care. Considering the things I've seen, silly little 'normal person' concerns just don't matter at all."
Zelda shook her head slowly, trying to let that all sink in. "Is that why you're sitting on the altar to the Three?"
Shadow leaned his head back, staring up at the statues again. "I fail to see why They need like a temple, or even an altar. They take what I offer without any holy ground."
Zelda opened her mouth to speak, even though she didn't know what to say, but Time put a hand on her shoulder and gently shook his head. "Don't. You have to remember: outside of Hyrule, the Three aren't very well known. The other lands don't really... The people there don't take too kindly to seeing the praise of foreign deities. We've done all our worship in private."
"That... must be hard," Zelda said. "I'm sorry."
"Nothing you can do about it," Shadow replied nonchalantly, hopping off the altar. "Anyway, there's our big secret. So now you can start screaming and get Impa in here and order us out of Hyrule or thrown in the dungeon or whatever your little heart desires."
"Why would I do such a thing?" She smiled. "I will admit that this comes as quite the shock, but it isn't as if you've become another Ganondorf. You wish no harm on Hyrule... so why would I wish harm on you? You're still Link, and Link is always welcome here."
The door opened. "Princess? Are you still in here?"
"Yes, we are, Impa." Zelda waved, even though the Temple was mostly dark. Impa would be able to see the motion.
"Princess, we should return to the castle." Impa started walking across the Temple. "Why do I see three people?"
Time and Shadow glanced at each other, clearly uncomfortable. "Well," Shadow said softly, "I told you she'd find out..."
"We'll explain on the way, Impa. What is the matter?" Now that she stopped to look, it seemed strangely dark outside.
Impa just shook her head. "I have a very bad feeling about this. Now, let's go."
Time and Shadow shared another uncomfortable look before following Zelda outside, one on each side.
Castletown seemed too quiet, too dark, too empty, even for this time of night. Zelda didn't need to be told that there was something very wrong going on somewhere close. The four of them hurried through the streets, watchful for anything that might pose a threat. Zelda found herself wishing she hadn't convinced Impa to come alone...
They were at the castle road when they heard the scream. They turned as one towards the sound just in time to see a guard fly backwards across the market square in a cloud of blood, landing in a heap on the other side of the fountain. He didn't get up.
Time and Impa drew their weapons. Shadow grabbed Zelda's arm and turned towards the castle, ready to run. Zelda took a deep breath. They should get out of here, but she wanted to see the threat for herself. Something told her that she needed to see this.
"For too long, Hyrule has sheltered evil. That evil must be destroyed to save the world..." With that, an older man walked into the square, leaning lightly on a gnarled walking stick. "I have come here in order to purge that evil. It must be destroyed for the good of the world!" His arm moved --
Time grunted and fell to one knee, clutching at his chest with his empty hand. Impa doubled over, sucking in a quick breath.
Zelda hadn't even seen what struck them... "Time! Impa!"
"Zelda, we have to get out of here!" Shadow tugged at her arm, but she refused to move.
"Who are you?" She demanded, turning to the old man. "I order you to identify yourself! How did you get in here?"
"The path was cleared for me, just as it is meant to be. The light of purity shines on me and guides my path! Who am I? I am the one who shall restore this land to its true glory!"
"No... you aren't..." Time rasped, staggering to his feet. The man moved his arm again, and the air filled with a loud crack as Time slumped to the ground. The man was throwing rocks!
"Time!" Shadow yelled, looking over at where his other half lay, unconscious, his nose broken and bloody. "Zelda, we have to get out of here."
She ducked closer to the road, pausing only to yell, "I order you to stop!"
"I will not listen to those who ally themselves with evil!" he snarled, hurling another rock. Impa stepped to the side, closer to Zelda.
That didn't stop the rock from smashing into Zelda's stomach, knocking all the air out of her lungs. She staggered back, suddenly dizzy. There was an enchantment on the rock, something that drained her strength...
"Princess!" Impa caught her before she could hit the ground. "Are you hurt?"
Zelda could only lean weakly against her nursemaid and guardian and try to catch her breath. She felt so weak.
"How dare you!" Shadow roared from somewhere near her. Zelda looked his direction as he moved forward. She felt her blood run cold. Shadow looked ready to kill...
xXx
I stalk forward, sliding one of my blades free of its hidden sheath before pointing it at the strange old man and glaring at him. Something about him seems familiar, but I'm far too busy planning his death in my head to even pretend to care about figuring it out.
"The evil must be destroyed!" he shrieks. "The taint must be cleansed!" He moves his arm --
there! I swing the flat of my blade at the rock, sending it right back at his ugly face. He manages to dodge, mostly; the rock glances off his shoulder. He doesn't even flinch. But that doesn't matter right now. I have his undivided attention.
I slide the other blade from its sheath and point both of them at him, the slightly-curved blades glinting dully in the dim lights from the magical lamps. I hear Zelda behind me gasping for breath; I hear Impa trying to comfort her.
He's not hurting Zelda again. I don't care what his great plan is. I'm not letting him. I'm killing him tonight.
"Oh? What is this? A boy with a pair of knives? Do you intend to fight me like that, boy?"
I narrow my eyes and snarl. He's dead. The world's turning red; light and dark snap into harsh focus. There's that harsh churning deep in my chest again, and rage and hatred and bloodlust are practically singing in my veins. He doesn't realize it, but he's already dead. I can't keep the maelstrom building within me out of my voice, not that I even try.
"I don't intend to fight you, you senile fool. I intend to scatter your pieces to the wind."
