Hello all you lovely people and beings still looking for some LoZ:SS fics 9 years after the game's release. Before you get to reading this thing, please, allow me to waste your time a little further. This is the first chapter of a four-chapter fic, which works as sort of a prologue to a fic I've been meaning to write for a while now. Or, well, considering what a prologue is, not really. But still, I just felt like writing this before I get to my 'main' fic.

These four chapters are basically just my versions of the first and second time Link and Ghirahim fought each other in SS. Why I'm deciding to write these encounters is mainly because, firstly, this is my first fic that I'm uploading to the internet and I kinda just want to warm up my writing with something that's not all just straight out of my own head. And secondly, there are just some things that I want to change and add into these encounters. For reasons.

This first chapter is just the first time the two encounter each other, excluding the battle (next chapter). Not much has been changed, but I try to add in my own bit of personality and depiction.

Anyway. I won't hold you any longer. I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda series, any of it's characters, places or happenings. Just my own dumb ideas. (Duh)

More notes at the end. (Yay)

Fated Encounters

Chapter 1

Link fidgeted impatiently with the golden carving in his hands, attempting to rotate it so that it would fit the oddly shaped keyhole in the middle of the massive gold-double-doors, which he was barely tall enough to even reach. Even as he silently worked to position the key correctly, he couldn't fully bring himself to place his attention onto the golden object completely. He was too caught up in his own thoughts… Although the golden key was constantly spinning in his hands and his eyes were locked on its shifting shape, the movement of his fingers was absent-minded.

As his thoughts landed upon the one thing -or more specifically, the one person- he hoped he would find waiting on the other side of those giant doors, he couldn't help but let his mind go on reverse and stop on the memory of the occurrence that had started it all. The one moment that had so quickly turned from a dream come true into a living nightmare…

His home, Skyloft. The distant sound of people conversing and laughing together on the streets of the so-called city in the sky. The silent clang of blades clashing in friendly competition on the training grounds of the Knight Academy. The loud friendly shrieks of the majestic guardian birds as they carried their masters proudly on their backs. The gentle breeze caressing his features as his own crimson loftwing carried him above the neverending barrier of clouds, his dearest childhood friend on her own purple loftwing gliding right beside him… Zelda… Her sweet smile and laughter as she enthuses about Link's victory over the long-awaited Wing Ceremony.

All of those things embedded into his mind as a memory of that one moment… That one moment which had turned his life into one he did not want to recognize as his own anymore…

The sudden sound of a loud chime followed by a blinding light, far from pure, that gave birth to the horrific disaster that was the gigantic black tornado… Zelda's horrified cries filling his ears as she tried desperately to steer her equally frightened loftwing away from the violent whirlwind's grasp, only to get pulled right into it… Only… Zelda didn't get thrown out like her loftwing did… and was instead sucked right into the middle of the raging tornado, left falling helplessly toward the cloud barrier and beyond it. And he… he could do nothing…

Link shook his head to clear it from those thoughts. There was nothing he could've done in that moment, he kept telling himself. The tornado had whisked him away and he had fallen unconscious. There was nothing he could've done to save Zelda back then, the situation had been beyond his control… right?

"Master." A soft yet emotionless voice spoke in his head and he was pulled back to reality by its familiar yet still foreign tone. "I recommend that you insert the key to its place within the next 27 seconds so that you may proceed to the room beyond these doors. In the last 12 seconds, I have felt Zelda's aura distance itself from us by approximately 20 meters."

"Right!" Link exclaimed after a moment of processing those words. "S-sorry."

He hastily raised the golden carving in his hands to eye level, about to start rotating it once again, only to find it already perfectly aligned with the keyhole. Had he really been that deep in thought?…

Without further hesitation, Link raised the carving and inserted it into the keyhole. The circular lock pulled itself into the door and the golden ring around it started to spin around clockwise, likely opening the lock.

"There is a 38% chance that we will find Zelda in the room behind these doors." Fi's voice sounded again in Link's head, the hilt of the Goddess' Sword on his back lighting up a bit as it did.

Damn it. The percentage had gotten lower from the last time, which had been 87%. Then again, Zelda not being in that room didn't exactly mean that she would be far away. She'd probably just be in a room beyond that room.

The carving in the keyhole suddenly disappeared from the lock with a snap, and the circular lock divided into two crescent parts and the giant golden doors started to move apart, opening slowly.

As Link watched the double doors' not so silent parting, a familiar thought wormed its way into his mind, something he had thought about earlier in the temple as well. How did Zelda make it all the way here? An obvious answer would be that she was not alone, which was probably true, and the fact that there was no way of telling whether the person she might be accompanied by was a friend or foe made Link feel uncomfortably uneasy. He had asked Fi about it, but apparently she could only detect a presence that was close enough or already familiar to her.

Finally, the double doors came to a halt with a loud rumbling noise that echoed in the vast temple. Link, of course, didn't hesitate to take a step through those doors. He was quick to scan his surroundings and found that it was just a vast empty circular room. The walls were decorated with carvings with no particular meaning. As far as he could tell, they were just for show. The floor was decorated with some curly shapes that surrounded a sun painted in the middle of the room. On the other side of the vast circle was another golden door. This one, though, had the Goddess crest symbol carved onto it. Still, the most noticeable thing about the area was that there was no one there.

"I detect no presence in the immediate area." Fi's voice came, calm and emotionless as usual. Link would've been lying if he said it didn't startle him a bit. After the doors had opened, an eerie silence had taken over the temple, the only audible noise being Link's own footsteps.

The silence in the temple was soon broken though, as the heavy double doors started to suddenly close up behind him, much faster than what they had opened. A quick ray of panic shot through Link, but it vanished just about as quickly as it had come. There was no going back now anyway.

After a while, Link heard the double doors close behind him, but he didn't take his eyes off of the golden door that stood before him on the other side of the room, and kept walking towards it.

He was about to ask Fi of whether or not she could still feel Zelda's aura in the area, preferably behind the sealed golden door, but before he could do so much as even open his mouth something alarming occurred, which might have startled him more than any other occurrence in the temple so far.

It was so sudden, and Link had to quickly shield his eyes with his arm. A light so blindingly bright that it almost felt like the sun had just descended right in front of him for a split second. Yet, this light was nothing like the natural light of the sun. It didn't really make much sense logically, but to Link the light just felt… dark.

And to top it all off, the light came in with an alarmingly familiar chime, which slowly depleted along with the dimming light.

It all just gave Link an odious deja-vu feeling.

After the light had dimmed and Link felt it was safe for him to open his eyes, he was mildly surprised by what he saw. Before him, standing in front of the sealed golden door, was a person. They stood so that their sides were facing both Link and the sealed door, though their attention was clearly set on the golden obstacle before them.

A red high collared cape, which split into four pointy parts, three at back, one at front, flailed unnaturally in a non-existent breeze. On the inside, it was decorated in yellow diamond-shaped patterns against a pure black surface. Other than the more than regal-looking red cape, this person seemed to fancy the color white as that was what the rest of their clothes seemed to be, aside from a golden sash which circled around their waist, holding a majestic red diamond at the side.

Though, evidently what caught Link's attention was the ominous black sword the person held in their hand, which just seemed to radiate darkness.

Whether this person hadn't noticed Link yet or was simply choosing to ignore him was beyond his guessing. But still, he chose to stay cautious, thinking it was best to keep his mouth shut, and just studied the strange individual silently. Their presence just felt wrong in the moment. Also, Link could have sworn that he'd heard a silent chime in his head the moment this odd person had appeared, which would've been a direct warning from Fi.

He had to be careful.

After a few silent seconds of seemingly studying the sealed door, the person's stance shifted. With a clearly annoyed groan and a swift motion of their hand, they brought their sword behind their back, making it seem as if they were about to strike the door in front of them.

But instead, they came to an abrupt halt and the sword in their hand, strangely enough, broke into dozens of black diamond-shaped particles, which floated up into the air and nothing but vanished.

Link's attention was then set completely onto the person in front of him as they seemed to finally acknowledge his presence in the room.

"Well look who it is…" A calm male voice, clearly containing a hint of annoyance to its tone, finally spoke out. As this mysterious man took on a straight posture, they turned around, finally facing Link and letting him see their features.

And…at that moment, Link's mind was struck somewhat confused as the person's appearance was revealed to be rather… effeminate… Link also took note of the ashen gray color of their skin, which made him question whether or not they even were any kind of a human at all.

As soon as the man's gaze was set on Link, his white lips curled up to an oddly pleasant smile, which just seemed off with what he said next.

"I thought that tornado I stirred up would've tossed and torn you apart," He stated bluntly, though despite what he said, he didn't seem too surprised nor bothered by the fact that Link was standing before him. "yet here you are. Not in pieces."

He sounded almost amused, the way he talked, though what he was saying made it sound like Link was supposed to be dead in his book. His smile also turned into something much more devious, and his one visible eye, with an iris almost as black as the pupil, along with what looked like dark purple eye shadow under it, just amplified that devious look.

One visible eye, because the left half of his face was covered by a curtain of perfectly slick white hair, which hid that side of his head completely.

There was a short moment of silence between the two then. The strange man seemed like he was expecting some form of a reaction from Link to his words, but at the moment Link wasn't too sure of what he could even do. He wasn't really surprised to hear that this man was the one responsible for causing him the loss of his friend, which in itself made Link want to draw his sword. But at the moment he thought it was best to just wait and listen to what this stranger had to say.

After waiting for a couple of seconds, the man seemed to realize that Link wasn't going to give him any form of an interesting reaction, so he just sighed and turned his attention back to the sealed golden door.

"Not that your life or death has any consequence." He stated, sort of matter of factly. The tone of his voice was now less amused and more 'on to the point', like Link's nonexistent reaction didn't even matter to him. "It's just the girl that matters now, and I can sense her here, just beyond this door." What he said next, although not something Link didn't already know, still made Link's patience start to crumble. "Yes, I plucked her majesty from her perch in the clouds, and soon she shall be mine."

What… What did he mean by this? Just what was it that this man wanted from Zelda? What reason did he have to have ripped her away from her home and family? … 'Her majesty'?… Just who was this odd freak?

"Oh, but listen to me! I'm being positively uncivil. Allow me to introduce myself."

The sudden change in tone caught Link off guard. He had thought of questioning the stranger, their motives and just who they were, but before he could even think to exhale they had continued talking, though, in a completely different tone. Much more pleasant, but that didn't take away the feeling of danger in Link's stressed mind.

The man had turned to face Link. He'd also placed his hand over his chest on the mention of introduction, as if to seem more polite. Then he proceeded to introduce himself, starting with a more than attention-seeking hair flick- "I am the Demon Lord who presides over this land you look down upon. This world you call The Surface. You may call me Ghirahim." -and ending with other hand again over his chest, as well as a slight bow of his head.

"In truth, I very much prefer to be indulged with my full title: Lord Ghirahim. But I'm not fussy."

The mannerisms of this man… confused Link, to say the least. This man- This being-… Ghirahim… He talked and acted in a polite manner, but everything about him just felt off. Everything he had said before, about Zelda and what he had done to bring her down to the surface, as well as what he had said just now. A Demon Lord? Those monsters Link had encountered in Farond Woods and that had been infesting the temple before his arrival. Bokoblins. They were demons, at least according to Fi. Did that mean that Ghirahim was their leader? That he controlled them? … Was he himself some sort of a demon?

If there was one thing that Link had learned about these demons during his still short travels, it was that they were pretty much how the legends described them. Not a very nice group of creatures. Still, the self-proclaimed Demon Lord had yet to show any clear signs of aggression towards Link, but he was still being cautious. Besides, he still had to figure out the possible demon's motives.

After the introduction, Ghirahim turned to face the golden door once again and spoke.

"Though, you'd best remember that name, as it will be the one you'll be begging for mercy."

…

Well, It didn't take a genius to point out a clear threat… It wasn't really a surprise to Link that Ghirahim turned out to be hostile, but still, the verbal threat was pretty sudden and he had kind of hoped that he wouldn't have to fight the Demon Lord. Ghirahim was the most human-like being he had encountered on the surface so far (aside from the old lady in the temple), and engaging in a fight with someone more on his level, who he had no knowledge of beforehand, just didn't seem like such an inviting idea. Fi hadn't said anything so far either. She also hadn't been aware of Ghirahim's presence in the room when they had entered. Unless it really just hadn't been there…

Anyway, a threat's a threat, and Ghirahim's certainly didn't sound like an idle one. It was about time for Link to open his mouth as well, and as he reached for the hilt of the Goddess' sword, he thought through the various questions that had formed into his mind.

"Why are you after Zelda? What do you want from her!?" Were the questions Link decided to go with, the tone of his voice ranging from angry to demanding.

Him talking seemed to have been unexpected, as Ghirahim tilted his head a bit to the sound of his voice. Still, the Demon Lord remained silent, and the whole situation was finally starting to eat up at Link's wavering patience.

"Answer me!" Finally drawing his sword, he seemed to have caught Ghirahim's full attention. But instead of an answer, what Link got was a displeased scoff.

"Did you really just draw your sword?" There was a short unamused laugh before Ghirahim's tone just went deadly. "Foolish boy."

He turned so that his back was now facing the golden door behind him, while he was eyeing Link, plainly unimpressed. Soon after, he raised his hands as if to stress the words he was about to say, lips curving into an unnatural smile, though his gaze gave away clear signs of agitation.

"By all rights, that girl should've fallen into my hands already." His hands formed a grasping motion at the last three words, after which his fingers started curling and moving in no particular order as his expression changed into one of pure frustration and anger.

"She was nearly mine when that loathsome servant of the Goddess snatched her away." He'd lowered his head and was facing downward and Link could've sworn that he saw Ghirahim shaking and twitching every once in a while, ever so slightly, likely trying to conceal the rage now clearly boiling inside of him.

For the moment, Link thought it would probably be best to just wait and listen rather than to try and act. He had gotten some information out of that last sentence anyway. Servant of the Goddess? So Zelda wasn't alone then, and was apparently with someone who was on their side. Link didn't get to linger on that comforting thought for long though, as he was very quickly pulled out of his thoughts by Ghirahim all but yelling at him.

"Do you have any idea how that made me feel inside!?" He let out a frustrated yell, then proceeded to practically shout his emotions out, adding emphasis to every word with the movement of his arms.

"Furious! Outraged! Sick with anger!"

Then, as soon as that last word had left his mouth, a metallic chime, a spark of diamonds, and he was gone.

Oh no… Link was certain that Ghirahim was still somewhere in the room. He was starting to feel increasingly more nervous, but of course, he couldn't let that show.

"Now this… turn of events has left me with a strong appetite for bloodshed." Soon enough, Ghirahim's menacing voice invaded Link's ears, sounding from all around the room as an eerie echo. Link looked around frantically, but anywhere his eyes landed there was no sign of the demon. The fact that Ghirahim could seemingly disappear into thin air while still being present was certainly something Link wasn't too happy about. He shuddered at the thought of what else the fiend might be capable of.

The sound of a low cackle echoed throughout the room as Link scanned his surroundings. He turned his head from left to right, trying his damndest not to let the creeping anxiety get the better of him. But that all came crumbling down when he felt the sudden blow of cold air caressing his neck.

He was paralyzed. Ghirahim was right behind him, literally breathing down his neck and leaning over his shoulder. This was definitely not something that was welcome into Link's aura of personal space. And yet, he could not move. He should've leapt away, swung his sword, done something… but he couldn't. Link had experienced fear in many different levels throughout his life, but never had he been as scared or uncertain as he was right at that moment.

"Still…-" Ghirahim's voice was a bit too clear, as well as a bit too calm. Link turned his gaze warily to look at him, and the smug look that was plastered on the demon's face didn't go unnoticed by him. "-It hardly seems fair, being of my position, to take all of my anger out on you." His eyes darkened and the expression on his face became increasingly more threatening. "Which is why I promise upfront not to murder you." His hands had crept onto Link's shoulders, sharp fingernails digging into the green fabric through his own white gloves. "No… I'll just beat you within an inch of your life."

The lightness in Ghirahim's voice didn't go unnoticed either. Nor did the sudden yank on Link's shoulders to pull him closer… Nor the serpentine tongue slithering out of the demon's mouth all too suddenly, disturbingly close to Link's paling face.

Never had there been a moment in Link's life that his body had so actively reacted to a fight or flight response. In fact, he didn't think he'd ever even had one. But right now his body and mind were all but screaming at him to just move away. He'd barely even been able to let out a clear gasp as he quickly pried himself away from the demon. And, fortunately for him, Ghirahim didn't seem interested in defiling his personal bubble any more than he already had. Instead, he'd just let Link retreat to a safe distance, eyeing him deviously as if he'd already gotten exactly what he'd wanted from him.

Link couldn't help but let his breathing become unstable, and he felt like the shield of grit and nerves he'd tried to build around himself throughout his journey was starting to crumble down right on top of him.

The nature of his new enemy was starting to become increasingly more clear to him… and the fear of losing in a battle against the demon becoming all the more apparent. But it also made him that much more determined. The thought of Zelda in the hands of a being like Ghirahim was, well… He didn't even want to think about it.

Instead, Link composed himself and focused on the moment at hand. At this point, it had become clear that a fight was inevitable. He could only hope that his skills with a sword could rival the Demon Lord's, though he had his doubts. Although he was one of the most skilled students in the Knight Academy, the techniques taught there weren't exactly something meant for killing another human being. Self-defense at most. And above all else, Ghirahim had magic at his disposal, a matter Link wasn't any more familiar with than he was with the demon himself, so assuming that there was even going to be a sword fight could've just been wishful thinking at that point…

But Link didn't want to get ahead of himself. He couldn't afford to… At that moment all he could do was to just go with the flow of the oncoming battle and hope that his skills and instincts wouldn't fail him. And hopefully… Fi would be there to aid him.

If you liked what you just read, GREAT! But I'm sorry to say that you shouldn't expect to see any fast progress on this fic. Due to the way my life is, I'm only able to write this fic on Saturdays and sometimes maybe Sundays too. It may take some months for me to come out with another chapter, depending on how I'm feeling and how well I'm able to write.

So I can't promise anything when it comes to this fic and the one I'm meaning to write after this. Anything could happen, from me to just losing interest to me just becoming too busy. But I'll try my best, that I can guarantee.

Anyways, feedback is always appreciated. Favs, follows and any non-aggressive comments will certainly keep me motivated if you want to see where I'm gonna go with this and what the other fic (the main fic) is all about.

And if you have any questions about this chapter, don't hesitate to ask. I'll try to throw another chapter out as soon as I can, if it seems that people actually want that.

Until then, go play some Zelda.