Chapter 9: The Hero and His Villain
Crimodia was not a goddess. She had never been one, nor would she ever become one. Crimodia was not immortal. She could never be immortal, but neither could she ever again be mortal. She was and always would be, caught somewhere in between two planes of existence.
Crimodia was the mirror of nothing and no one. She existed merely to exist. She wanted merely to want. She could not desire for the sake of any reason, for she was a being that existed outside of reason.
Crimodia was not like Dark. She wished to be like him. She wished for that existence he alone possessed, an existence somewhat closer to life than her own did. If Crimodia was capable of feeling jealousy, then she might have been jealous of the silver demon with the glittering red eyes, but that would have required reason.
Dark did not fear Crimodia as he had feared Ganon. He hadn't ever really feared Ganon. He did not truly fear anyone. No, what Dark feared was what Crimodia represented. She represented a world without Light.
Dark didn't care much for the Light. To him, the beings of light were mere toys to play with and to discard. But Dark was not a fool. Dark knew the ways of the world, having been a part of it for what felt like time eternal. He knew the importance of the balance between light and dark.
Dark had been motal once. He had been a man once, before he split, becoming the other half of the Hero. Dark had never volunteered himself for darkness. He had never prostituted himself before the great powers of darkness in the world as Crimodia had done. No, Dark had been chosen, for how could he not be?
Dark's current existence was a result of nature's necessity. The Hero of Time was goodness and light incarnate, and Dark was not. It was that simple. When the Hero of Time rose, Dark would stir, coming to show the Hero what his other face looked like, what his failure looked like.
Dark knew better than to want anything more than what the die of fate had given him. He knew better than to believe he would ever be anything but a shadow of a true man, a shadow of a Hero.
But Dark was not Crimodia. Dark had desires and reasoning. Dark had wishes and dreams like any other being, of either light or dark. Dark was the Hero's villain, and as such he was forever tied to the light.
Dark knew that a world without all light was an impossibility. It was an abominable existence that would inwardly consume itself until there would be nothing left. Darkness cannot exist without Light, and Light needs Darkness to define itself. The two were eternally linked.
Dark then, needed the Hero of Time as much as the Hero needed him; they were each other's definition. As a result, Dark also needed the realm of light, even if he wasn't himself a part of it. He needed it to continue so that he could continue being what he was, what he would always be: the Hero's shadow.
But Dark wanted one thing in his twisted heart. He wanted one thing more than he wanted power. He wanted one thing more than he wanted freedom. He wanted this one thing more even than he wanted the Hero of Time and all of Hyrule to bow down before him. No, Dark wanted a body; he wanted a body like the one the Hero of Time had, a body that was all his.
It was his one desire. It was his last shred of humanity holding him affixed to the light in which he once strode so proudly. It was his one weakness and Crimodia knew Dark well enough to exploit it.
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"I said to the left, Damnit! Listen to me when my lips are moving!" Dark snarled at the Sage of Fire's apprentice making the man whimper in fright. Dark frowned irritably and pressed his slender fingers to the bridge of his nose, rubbing his frustration away as much as possible. These people were moronic and useless.
"I—I apologize my lord Dark Link." The sage's apprentice bowed shakily and quickly moved the pole he'd been placing to the spot Dark pointed out for him.
"Maybe if you didn't shake so violently your ears wouldn't miss every other word." Dark replied nastily, making the sage's apprentice shake even more.
"I—that is you—I mean not that I—" Dark rolled his eyes as the apprentice fished desperately fo an excuse.
"You're very lucky that I don't have the time to punish you, otherwise all that stumbling from your lips would be cries of pain." Dark leaned in, making the apprentice freeze. The apprentice's eyes were wide with a mixture of fear and dismay, and Dark felt his muscles surge with more energy. Dark decided to up the emotions that were already swirling with a dark grin. "When I'm king, I'll make sure you aren't even important enough to build Hyrule Field-houses out of Dodongo dung." The apprentice gulped.
"Terrorizing the innocent apprentices again Dark?"
Dark smirked wickedly and broke his connection with the apprentice, sensing the emotions shift and settle. Dark turned to see Link standing there in his Hero's attire. He looked like he was ready to take on all of Crimodia's dark army by himself; it made Dark's battle-lust surge and his arm muscles tighten in anticipation.
"Well if it isn't the Hero of Time! Hyrule's ardent savior! The defender of Light and life! The eternal thorn in my side." Dark yelled back, his arms extended in a manner that would imply a boast or the welcoming of a long off friend. It just made Link cross his arms and raise an eyebrow irritably.
"And if it isn't Dark Link! Hyrule's number one criminal! The master of selfishness and shadows! The eternal thorn in Hyrule's side." Dark glared at Link, arms crossed in a disgruntled mimic of his other half.
"You know that really huts my feelings."
"I'm so glad."
"Seriously Hero, it's been a year since I was prancing about in your head, you should really grow up already." Dark said it as if he was talking to a child, and he rolled his eyes and tossed his head arrogantly. Link's temper flared at the mention of weakness.
"Don't you even try and bring that up! I can prove to you right here and now it'll never happen again." Dark's gaze flicked amusedly to his seething other half.
"Is that so?"
"You bet that smarmy grin of yours!"
Dark turned his attention from Link to the transfixed apprentice. "Beat it, now." The apprentice bowed hurriedly and vacated the courtyard as fast as he could in his obnoxious robes.
"Alright." Dark's eyes glinted as he returned his attention to his light side. The air thickened. Dark uncrossed his arms and began striding towards Link. He watched him reach for his Master Sword, but Dark knocked that thought from his head with a wag of his silvery finger. "Nuh-uh." He whispered, "You won't be needing that."
"I—won't?" his light side was battling. Dark was aware of the emotions shifting sideways, backways, and all over. Anger. Fear. Frustration. Determination. Fear. Anger. Desire to Win. Frustration. Battle-Rage. Anger.
"You know Hero, there's something I don't get about you." Dark slinked closer, moving as if he were made of mist. Link's eyes tried to appear defiant, but Dark could feel the hero's power draining.
"What's that Dark?" Link replied, his voice beginning to hum somewhere between captivation and courageous defiance. Dark smirked as he slid closer.
"You're always going on about how you want to kill me. But did you ever stop to think how detrimental that would be? How utterly boring that would be? Were I not around to torment you."
Link's Triforce piece shimmered, renewing his battle strength. But Dark just smirked and let his soulless eyes darken, quickly suppressing the resurgence as if it were nothing more than a candle he had to blow out.
"I'd never miss you—you shadow!" Dark flinched a bit at that comment, he hated when people referred to him simply as a shadow. He was so much more than that.
"I'm a shadow yes," Dark said, through sharply, "but I'm you're shadow." Dark had moved almost close enough to touch his light side, Link having long since become rooted to the spot. "And do you really think that anyone in this realm of light would ever care for a spark like yours, were there no darkness to make it shine?"
Dark felt uncertianity throw itself into the already dozens of emotions that were whipping about the Hero's head as Dark worked his corruptive magic. Dark smirked again.
"Do you think Hero, that were there no dark left in this world to fight, that there would be a need for you?"
Dark brushed his other half's cheek, silvery fingers colder than death absorbing the warmth of his eternal twin's skin. Dark felt a flash of jealousy hit him, but he dismissed it smoothly.
"Because I don't, Hero." Link looked at him with dead blue eyes, and Dark knew he had won. It was so easy for him to corrupt his other half so long as his other half wasn't whipping that Master Sword around and swinging at everything that moved. Dark knew better than anyone what lied in the hearts of beings, both dark and light. And Dark knew most what lied in the heart of his light side, because they were the same, eternally bound together.
Dark leaned in and poked the Hero on the nose, letting his spell drop. Dark smirked in dark glee. "You lost, Hero." Dark's smirk deepened as he watched his light side spring back, a flush of embarrassment and dismay making him fluster like a child.
Dark leaned back away from the Hero and gave a harsh laugh, a sound mixing malice and mirth as he walked away from the flustered Hero of Time. Dark made his way back towards the castle, his stomach telling him it was time for lunch, "Mortal bodies are so limited," he said causally to Link as the Hero of Time chased him shouting obscenities at his back.
"I'm gonna kill you Dark!"
"Yeah, yeah, can you wait until after lunch?"
