I am still there, I am just not that much active in the Zelda Fandom at the moment, for I am most active in another fandom right now.
But I haven't forgotten about this one-shot collection and now I am back with a new one.
It's another pretty dark one-shot from one of my most favorite Zelda games of all time: Majora's Mask.
It features the moon, the kids and their questions and how Link feels after all those events in Termina and how much they've changed him.
But the next story will be a light-hearted one again. I promise ;).
I hope you'll like this one and again: I am sorry for grammer/spelling mistakes, for I translated this from german into english.
German version can be found on my german Fanfiction account.
As always I would appreciate feedback in the form of a comment very, very much, thank you.
All this power in one mask
Silence surrounded him.
Unusual silence…
When had it been so quiet around him the last time?
He couldn't remember it anymore and he didn't even care for it if he was honest.
A long journey lay behind him.
A journey, into which he had just fallen by accident and which had changed his whole life.
Again he had saved a whole country and again he had become a hero.
But this journey had been so different from his last journey, in which he had saved Hyrule.
This time, there had been no princess whom he had to save, there had been no Ganondorf who had been waiting for him at the end of his journey and there had been no Hyrule…
No.
This had been his journey and his alone.
No one of his old friends, not even princess Zelda knew about this journey or what he had done for this country in which he had lived in the past months.
And the more he thought about it, the more all of this felt like a dream to him.
But all of this had happened for real.
It was hard for him to believe all these things that had happened to him in the past weeks.
He had been transformed into a Deku, a Goron, even a Zora and he had saved a whole city.
He surely would never forget that moon ever again and even in his dreams he could see the devilish grinning face of that moon that hunted him in his nightmares and that was about to crush the city, which he had just saved.
His journey through Hyrule had already pulled hard on his sanity, but the journey through Termina had done the rest.
He had thought that he could handle all of this, but deep inside of him he knew that he couldn't handle it. He had seen so much suffering, so much pain and so much death in the course of his journey. Something that had disturbed him really bad was by far the journey through the Ikana Canyon. The things he had seen there and the things he had done there would be hunting him in his nightmares for a long, long time afterwards...
But the most disturbing place had been the moon itself.
He still remembered how this place had looked like.
He had been standing on a huge meadow and there had been only one big tree in front of him and underneath this big tree he had "played" with four kids and all of these four kids had asked him questions.
Questions, that still echoed through his mind; even now, after he had left Termina long behind him…
He now was back in the lost woods and he had stopped his journey for some time to rest a bit. His mare Epona was standing a bit away from him, eating some of the grass the forest offered her.
Link was sitting there, with his back leaned against a tree and he was lost in his own thoughts. Next to him lay a bag, filled with the masks which he had found through his journey through Termina and every mask had its own story to tell.
Your true face...What kind of...face is it? I wonder...The face under the mask...Is that...your true face?
He still could hear these words in his mind whenever he looked at one of the masks in his bag and they still tormented him.
He still couldn't find an answer to that question; no matter how hard he was trying to find one.
Was it really his true face which he had hidden behind so many different masks?
In the beginning of his journey he would have said "yes", but now, many months after that, he wasn't so sure about that anymore. He had changed in these past months and he couldn't say that he had changed to the better. This whole journey had destroyed his sanity, had made him to a shadow of the hero he once had been. Hyrule and Termina may saw a hero in him, but when he looked into a mirror, he saw anything but a hero in his reflection. He saw a broken boy, someone who had lost all of his friends and someone who was desperately looking for this one friend, who had not forgotten him.
Your friends...What kind of...people are they? I wonder...Do those people...think of you...as a friend?
He also couldn't find an answer to this question either.
Those people, which he had called his friends when he had been in Hyrule had surely forgotten about him the moment Zelda had send him back in time to catch up on his childhood.
And those people, which he had met in Termina?
He wasn't so sure if he could call them his friends.
He had saved them, had done what they had asked him to do, but could he really call them his friends?
And would he be a friend in their eyes?
He doubted that…
A small tear was rolling over his cheek as he thought about all of this and he felt how his heart clenched at these thoughts.
Had he ever had real friends?
Zelda had told him that she was his friend, but a true friend would have stopped him if he would have told her that he was about to go into the lost woods without a fairy.
And Navi?
She had left him alone after their journey was finished.
A true friend wouldn't have done that!
They had let him down!
All of them!
Navi, Zelda…even Saria!
And even those people which he had met in Termina he couldn't call his friends either.
Not even Tatl…
Another tear rolled over his cheek and more followed soon.
He was all alone again and he was sure that he would be alone for the rest of his life, doomed to walk around in the lost woods until he would die and no one would ever care for it, if he would die in here…
His eyes went back to his bag and he grabbed the mask, which he had gotten from the fifth kid, that he had met on the moon.
Carefully he brushed his fingertips over the mask and a small smile appeared on his face.
You...What makes you...happy? I wonder...What makes you happy...Does it make...others happy, too?
This time he had an answer for this question.
What made him happy lay here in his hands.
He would never forget about all this power that lived within this mask or the powerful feeling that had rushed through his body when he had worn it during his last fight against Majora. These feelings…he couldn't describe it, but he had loved it!
All this power he had felt in his whole body…it had made him feel like a god!
Would it make others happy too?
He had no idea, but as long as it made him happy, everything would be just fine and this mask made him very happy for sure…
A small grin appeared on his face as he thought about that.
A dark grin…
He raised the mask to his face and he could already feel the great power that radiated from it.
Who needed friends if he had such a mask?
This mask would be his friend…his one and only friend.
His true friend…
The right thing...What is it? I wonder...If you do the right thing...Does it really make...everybody...happy?
What the right thing was?
To wear this mask and be one with the power that lived within it!
Ohhh and what a wonderful feeling it was, as he put on the mask.
The moment it touched his face, the power rushed through his whole body and made him feel like a true god once again!
A god, everyone would respect…and fear!
Was it the right thing to wear this mask?
Definitely!
Would it make everybody happy?
That was a question that could never be answered.
And Link didn't care for the answer anymore.
He only cared for the mask he was wearing right now and the power which he felt.
He could feel how the mask changed his body…and also his soul, made it darker and everything, in which he had believed in before, vanished a bit more with every second.
As he raised his head and looked at Epona from those empty eyes, the horse rose on her hind legs and whinnied in fear, before she ran away.
Link watched her and how she disappeared in the fog, but he didn't care for it.
He wouldn't need this horse anymore.
He would be better off alone.
But then again…he wasn't alone.
Not anymore.
He had this mask.
And this mask would be his new friend now.
A friend, that wouldn't leave him alone.
A friend, that would always be by his side and guiding him with this dark voice inside his head.
A friend, that would lend him his powers.
A friend, that would make him strong.
A friend, that would make a god out of him.
A god, that would teach evil and good alike fear.
A god, that soon would rule over this world, once he had drawn it into darkness…
The end