Dark has had some stupid ideas in his time, some truly moronic "people could die if we do this' ideas, but this was the pinnacle of stupidity.

He strode through the halls of Kohga's manor with a lazy grin on his face and his hands in his pockets, trying to exude as much confidence as possible. He had been gaining the trust of the masked mob boss for nearly a week and was already trusted enough to be left to his own devices.

All it had taken was him handing over the location of a warehouse full of weapons…

Ganondorf was definitely going to kill him… with his bare hands… and then he would probably string him up by his own bowels.

It would be worth it though.

This plan, if it worked, would be worth all the potential maiming and or killing. Unless Kohga caught on before Dark was ready for him to. Then he would be beaten and tortured until he was a black and blue corpse floating down the Zora's River.

He flashed a wicked grin toward an idle member of the Yiga and heard a feminine scoff from behind the eerie mask. "What's wrong, doll?" He propped himself against the wall opposite the masked woman. "Boring detail?"

This woman was his ticket forward.

"Hah," The thin woman scoffed again. "Guarding Master Kohga's favorite plaything is far from boring," Dark could hear the cruel mirth in her voice as she cackled. "Such lovely music comes from behind this door,"

Dark bit back the wave of anger that clawed up his throat and plastered on his most dazzling smile. "Plaything?"

"Some little bitch that rubbed him the wrong way," The woman cackled again, the sound eerily muffled by the mask she wore. "Rumor has it he stole her from Ganondorf himself,"

"As if," Dark rolled his eyes and scoffed, keeping his cool and calm facade. "Ganondorf is incapable of human emotion. Kohga is just trying to boost his own ego,"

"You would know," The playful tone in the woman's voice made his hands tremble with rage.

"I would know," He hoped she could see the slight point of his canines as he widened his grin. "Have fun guarding a defenseless plaything," He gave the woman a lazy wave as he turned and made his way deeper into the maze of Kohga's mansion.

A heavy silence settled over the mansion as night fell, Dark stood staring out of one of the few windows. The sky was void of both the stars and moon, casting dark shadows over the faint city skyline in the distance.

He needed to move soon.

The phone in his pocket buzzed softly drawing Dark out of his hole of thoughts. He lifted the small black device out of his pocket and sighed as a familiar name flashed on the illuminated screen. It had been weeks since he had spoken to anyone that he usually spoke to on a daily basis.

His thumb hovered over the red button that would silence the buzzing, but he hit the green button instead and lifted the phone to his ear.

"Hey, love," He tried to hide the waver in his voice as he was greeted with silence on the other end.

"Where are you?" Link's voice was devoid of emotion as he finally spoke. "It's been weeks, Dark,"

"I know, love," His crimson eyes flicked down the hall both ways before he began moving through them toward his destination.

"Don't you "love" me," Anger crept through the phone into Dark's ear. "Where are you?"

"I have a plan," Dark was whispering now, anxiety clawed at his throat. "Just trust me, please,"

"Trust you?" Link scoffed on the other end. "Like Ganondorf trusted you?"

Dark paused as the venom in Link's voice hit him like a brick wall. "Please, just trust me,"

"The man is a wreck Dark," LInk's voice raised an octave the same way it always did when he was exceptionally angry. "Nabooru says that he hasn't left his office in weeks, not even when one of his warehouses was raided," Dark felt like he was going to vomit as Link spoke. "And when he needed YOU most, his most trusted underling, one of the few people he truly sees as a friend. You disappeared when he needed you,"

"Are you sure you're a cop?" Biting humor was always his defense mechanism. "You do know that you're talking about your biggest enemy right?"

"I'm talking about a broken man," Link spat before silence fell over the line. "Whatever this plan of yours is, you better do it soon,"

The line clicked and went dead, leaving Dark alone in the silent hall facing what could potentially be his death.

"They make you stand here all day and night?" Dark smirked as he turned the corner to see the same masked woman standing in front of a closed door. "You sure you aren't bored?"

Dark silently choked as a muffled scream echoed from beyond the door. "Oh not at all," The pure joy that radiated from her voice was enough to make Dark's stomach turn.

"Someone's having fun," Dark clenched his fist behind his back as another agonized scream was cut short behind the door.

"It's Kraden's turn tonight," The woman examined her perfectly manicured nails. "The little bitch bit him when he grabbed her. He's getting his pound of flesh,"

Dark clenched his jaw as he forced himself to smile. "Sounds like fun," His own words burned in his throat as the rage building in his chest slowly crept toward the point of no return.

"You want in?" He could imagine the cold look in the woman's eyes as she stepped aside and offered him entrance to the room.

"Me?" Dark put a hand on his chest in mock surprise. "Sounds like fun,"

He stepped toward the woman with a sickly sweet grin as another piercing scream rebounded through the wall. He reached for the doorknob, but turned at the last moment and wrapped his hands around the woman's face. His fingers gripped the side of her face under the mask and he slammed her head against the wall, the force of the blow cracked the mask and the woman slumped lifelessly to the floor.

His hands trembled as he stared down at her lifeless body. "You'll all pay," He crouched down and pulled the mask off of her face revealing her face. She was pretty, in a cruel kind of way, her nose was sharp and her jaw square. "For every hair on her head that one of you touched, you will pay,"

He rose to his feet and straightened his suit jacket. His hands were still trembling as he reached for the doorknob again, this time he had every intention of turning it. The door clicked open and he slowly pushed it open and he hoped that whoever was inside would be to preoccupied to notice him enter.

But the scene inside the room took his breath away.

A small woman stood over a large man with a jagged kitchen knife clutched tightly in her hand. She was battered and bruised beyond recognition, with nothing but a tattered bra and underwear on.

Her back was facing him and dozens of cuts and bruises littered the mottled skin, her right knee was twisted at an awkward angle and her left arm was tucked against her chest. Her black hair was cropped close to her scalp in rough uneven patches and her shoulders heaved at she stared down at the man who had been in the room with her.

Blood poured from his face, neck, and chest as he laid in a crumpled heap and took his last shuddering breath. Unspeakable wrath had been taken out on the man and Dark had no doubt in his mind that he had deserved every single one of those stab wounds.

"Aeris?" He said her name like he was seeing her ghost.

When she turned to face him with hunched shoulders and trembling legs, there was no trace of tears, not in her eyes or in tracks down her bloodstained face. Her eyes were narrowed and cold, hard in a way that he had never seen before. The light that had once shone behind her green eyes was gone, there was nothing there and he knew in that moment she was somewhere far away.

He held his hands up with his fingers spread trying to calm her as her bottom lip began to tremble. "Aeris, hun, it's Dark,"

"Dark?" The knife tumbled from her fingers as the first hint of tears began building in her eyes and her maimed knee buckled, unable to support her weight anymore.

He rushed to her side, shrugging his suit jacket off as he did to wrap her trembling form in it. She gripped the front of his shirt with broken fingers as she sobbed against him. Each broken sound that left her broke his heart even more than the last.

"Dark," She took several shuddering breaths as she looked up at him with sad broken arms. "If you're really here, I need you to do something for me,"

"Anything," He wrapped his jacket around her shoulders and winced as he noticed the way her chest seemed to rise unevenly with every breath she took.

She gripped his face in her trembling hands and pulled his face toward her until their noses were nearly touching.

"Kill me," Dark's eyes blew wide as the weight of what she had just asked him to do settled over him. "Please, kill me," He looked down at her and the pure determination in her eyes made him suck in a deep breath.

Her grip on his shirt faltered and she collapsed against him. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her easily into his arms. The world felt like it was crashing down around him as he turned and carried her limp form out of the room and through the darkened halls of Kohga's mansion.

His best friend was in his arms battered and bruised after weeks of enduring unimaginable torture and pain and she had just begged him to kill her, to end her suffering. It was only fitting when lightning cracked across the sky and rain began pouring from the heavens as he stepped out into the night and disappeared into the inky blackness.