A/N and now ladies and gentalmen, I present the long awaited chapter 6.
Zelda moved her hand in front of her face in a futile effort to shield her eyes from the sun. Her eyes then noticed something in the distance, focusing on it more, she realized that it looked like a large building.
"Is that maze palace?"
Ganon squinted, shielding his eyes in a similar manner.
"It must be. there's no other structure that large around here."
she placed a hand to her chin, deep in thought.
"Well, princess? What is your brilliant plan to get in?"
Zelda lifted the Triforce of Wisdom and vanished before his eyes. Unfortunately, the Triforce was still visible. Ganon stared at the floating triangle. "You realize the Triforce is still visible, right?"
"Oh, it is? Well, then I guess this is going to be a little more difficult than I thought... Wait, you wouldn't happen to have a piece of cloth or something would you?"
Ganon gave a grumpy sigh, took off his cloak and tossed it towards the princess (at least, where he thought she was standing).
"Oh, this should work" the Triforce and Ganon's cloak both disappeared as she placed it over the Triforce piece, leaving nothing but a faint glow suspended in the air.
"Hopefully none of her monsters find a floating blue light suspicious." He said. "But should she see it, she'll know something's up."
"I guess we will have to be quick then, now hold still so I can get the spell working on you too."
Ganon stood still, impatiently waiting for her to finish the spell.
"Okay finished."
Once she said that she became faintly visible to him.
"Not bad." he scoffed. "But you make sure you don't lose that concentration of yours or else we'll both become visible again."
Zelda gave Ganon an irritated look. Did he really think she didn't already know that? Ganon, however, ignored her scornful stare and continued forward.
"Well? Let's go."
The pair continued forward, their invisibility making getting past the guards a cakewalk. The deeper they went inside, the more Zelda was filled with a sense of dread. This place was huge! Would she be able to find Link before something happened to him? That is, if something hadn't happened already. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of such a dark thought.
They continued walking through the enormous palace, using the soft glow of the Triforce of Wisdom to guide them to the Triforce of Power, and hopefully to Link as well. The closer they got to the other piece the brighter the Triforce would glow. However, a problem arose when the hall split into two directions. Zelda held the Triforce up to the West branch: it continued to glow the same. She then held it up to the East branch, only to get the same result.
"I'll go through the West hall, you take the East." Ganon announced, heading down one hall, leaving Princess Zelda by herself. She sighed taking the east hall. She was really starting to hate it when he did things like that.
Being alone brought little relief. It still felt as though there were eyes peering at her from the darkness. Like she was constantly under someone's gaze. It only made the existing feeling of dread worsen.
"I can't stop here." She told herself. "I'm not leaving until I find Link."
Despite her attempt to reassure herself, the darkness and silence of the hall seemed to swallow her.
tap tap tap
Then the silence was broken. Footsteps? Zelda stopped moving, but the footsteps continued, becoming more and more faint as they moved away. Someone had to be nearby. It could be Link.
She silently followed the sound of footsteps, unable to see who they belonged to until she came out into a what looked like an extravagant throne room. It was there that her suspicions were confirmed. It was Link! She had finally found him, alive and unharmed.
"Link!" She called, nearly dropping the Triforce of Wisdom as she ran to him. "Thank goodness you're okay! I was so worried!" She faltered a little at his almost deadened expression. "Link? What's the matter? C'mon, let's go!"
"Oh, but he doesn't want to leave..."
Princess Zelda spun around to face the voice, which belonged to none other than her own doppelganger.
"And why would he?" She continued. "After all, I treat him far better than you ever did." She held out her arms, almost as if to hug someone. "Come here, Link."
The Princesses eyes widened with horror as Link walked towards the other woman, standing by her side.
"See?" Dark Zelda smirked. "He likes me much better, don't you, Link?"
"I only want to serve you, princess." he replied in an almost monotonous voice.
She then smiled. "Then never leave my side."
Zelda watched in a state of shock as the pair embraced.
She felt the color drain from her face and tears prick at her eyes as they then kissed.
"I can't watch this...!" She thought, squeezing her eyes shut.
Her eyes snapped open again when she felt two rough hands grab each of her arms. The Triforce of Wisdom clattered to the floor.
"What should we do with her, m'lady?" The moblins asked, squeezing her arms a little harder.
"Take her to the dungeon and chain her there." Dark Zelda replied. "I shall deal with her later."
Zelda was still in shock, why would Link act that way? Something wasn't right... She snapped out of her trance as the monsters started dragging her away. She tried wriggling out of the grasp of her moblin escort, but they had a grip of steel as they led her even further into the fortress. They went down a dizzying amount of staircases and an innumerable amount of halls before she was brought to a dingy dungeon filled with equally dingy cells. They led her down to the last one and yanked the door open with a loud creak. She was roughly tossed inside before the door let out another loud creak and a bang as it shut and was locked behind her.
Zelda stiffened at a grumpy scoff from the corner of the cell. The princess looked up to see Ganon and he did not look to happy to see her. "Happy to see her" could have been no further from the truth. He was FURIOUS, having been so close to locating his piece of the Triforce, only for her stupid invisibility spell to wear off, leaving him visible for all the guards to see. She looked away from him and looked back at the bars.
"Well?" He snapped. "What's your excuse this time?"
"Leave me alone." she mumbled.
Ganon shook his head. He should have just gone in alone. If it hadn't been for her, he would have had his piece of the Triforce back already and be on his way to taking hers for himself.
Though, judging from her shaken state, he had to suppose that something had happened to Link. No matter. With Link out of the picture, taking the Triforce of Wisdom from the Princess would be a piece of cake. That is, if he ever got out of this cell and took down that doppelganger. Undoubtedly, seeing the Princess's empty hands, he had to guess that she had her piece of the Triforce taken from her by her dark copy.
The princess could feel his eyes on her. He had absolutely no right to judge her right now. She sighed trying to think of something else. An escape plan, whether or not she could pick the cell lock, even if guards would make possible rounds. Yet all she COULD think of was how badly she had lost this time. Not only was Link siding with the enemy, said enemy now had both pieces of the Triforce, spelling disaster for Hyrule. It'd only be a matter of time, now. Zelda ran her fingers through her hair, frazzled. Link acted completely out of character, sure he could be boorish and cocky every now and then, but he had never done anything like this before... Dark Zelda must have done something to him, that had to be the case.
…
Dark Zelda smirked as she watched the intruder being taken away. While petty, she loved being able to rub her success in the princess's face.
"Princess..." she thought. "We're BOTH still considered princesses." Despite being far more powerful, she was still lumped in the same class as the Hylian heir.
"That won't do."
she said aloud, walking over to the now discarded Triforce of Wisdom and scooping it up. "Link, gather your things. We're going back to Hyrule." He silently nodded and headed off. She glanced down at the Triforce piece in her hands, then the Triforce of Power sitting on a pedestal next to the throne.
"With both pieces of the Triforce, I'll be unstoppable." She thought. "Once I go to the castle, I'll rid the kingdom of that oaf of a king, then with him out of the picture..." her smile grew. "I'll be able to take over as a Queen."
However, there was a little problem. What was she going to do with her army? Surely she couldn't just leave them here, but if she brought them then villagers would panic at the sight of them, even if they believed their Princess was leading them. Perhaps she could use them to replace the Hylian soldiers, little by little. This way, she could create an army entirely loyal to her and her alone. She tapped her chin, mulling it over. If the Hylian soldiers whole-heartedly believed she was their beloved princess, there would be no need to replace them. Then again, unlike her monsters, they would be quick to change their view of her if she did anything wrong. Dark Zelda glanced over to the Triforce of Power. With magic, it'd be a piece of cake to disguise her monsters to look like regular men, and then it would be even easier to replace the regular soldiers little by little. Yes, the more she thought about it, the better this plan sounded.
Dark Zelda couldn't help smiling. She had won. She had created the perfect plan and her execution of it was even more flawless. Her eyes shot back to the hall when she heard footsteps.
"It's about time Link."
He simply gave a hollow nod as she went about casting a spell on the Triforce pieces so that they'd float alongside her. "Alright." She said, taking one last glance around the room.
"Ah, I nearly forgot." She walked over to her Evil Jar, and with a quick zap from the Triforce of power, it shrunk down to the size of an hourglass, which she scooped off the floor. It would be a bad idea to leave something so important here.
"Next stop: Hyrule Castle."
As the pair headed toward the exit, Dark Zelda hesitated a little.
"Link, come with me. We have someone to visit before we go."
...
Dark Zelda descended down the narrow stone staircase into the dungeon with Link trailing obediently behind. She came to a stop in front of the lone occupied cell.
Her former master did nothing to acknowledge her presence. The princess on the other hand, raised her head, an expression of mixed disgust and sorrow on her face.
"What do you want?" she spat.
"Nothing, just to reassure you things will be taken care of." Dark Zelda replied, flashing a diplomatic smile. "Hyrule will be in good hands, I assure you. As a matter of fact, I'm sure I will be the best queen the country has seen!"
The Hylian Princess's lip trembled as she continued.
"With both pieces of the Triforce, the Hyrule will prosper under the careful care of Link and I. The two of us will lead the land into a golden age!" She felt like squealing with childish joy as tears welled up in her prisoner's eyes.
"It's just a pity you'll have perished in here by time this all comes to pass."
Tears spilled out of Zelda's eyes as Dark Zelda turned her back to the cell, grabbed Link by the hand and started back up the stairs, ready to put her plan into action.
She came back up with a devious smirk on her face. She shot a quick glance back at Link who still had that ever present blank look on his face. Would he have ever fallen for her, had things been different? She wondered. She'd thought he was finally beginning to see how great she was, until the night he tried to take the Triforce of Power. Had he just been pretending? No, he couldn't have. It was only because he was around the other princess for so long that he was confused enough to try and steal her Triforce piece and had a hard time seeing how much better she was. Still that empty expression of his saddened her a little.
"Link?"
"Yes?"
"Do you like being around me?"
He nodded. "I live to serve you."
"Then, why don't you smile a little more around me?"
He obediently smiled a little. His eyes still looked hollow, but it was an improvement.
"Good. I'm glad to see you happy." She kissed his cheek. "Now, let's go."
...
Spryte flew around anxiously back and forth. It had been days since Zelda had left with that mysterious stranger, and she still hadn't returned. Her blue eyes darted to the door when she heard footsteps. She had been incredibly high strung ever since Link went missing. The foot steps stopped for a moment, then started up again, moving away. Spryte knew it was just a guard walking by, but despite knowing the source of the noise, her nerves were frazzled and she was constantly on the verge of panic, knowing that Link was clearly in some sort of danger, and that Zelda had too thrown herself headfirst into it without even knowing who or what was behind it, or how dangerous it was. Maybe she ought to go look for her...?
She shook her head. No way! Not only was Zelda more experienced, she would more than likely get herself in trouble before finding the princess.
Then again, she was a fairy. Fairies were much less noticeable and smaller to boot, making it easier to sneak into places undetected.
"Spryte?"
She startled, and spun around. She hadn't even heard the old King approaching.
"Yes your highness?"
Harkinian looked like he'd aged ten years since Zelda left. His expression was that of exhaustion, dark bags under his eyes after sleepless nights full of worries. A few new wrinkles seemed to have appeared and he no longer stood up straight.
"Any news regarding Zelda?"
The fairy shook her head.
"No, nothing yet. "
The King sighed. "I hope she comes back soon."
"Me too."
A melancholy silence passed between the two. She hadn't realized how horribly this would effect the king, then again why wouldn't it? Zelda was his daughter and only child, after all.
Spyte sighed. They didn't even have the Triforce to help this time. The silence was broken by a polite knock at the door. Harkinian opened the door to a guard who quickly saluted.
"Your majesty!" he began "Princess Zelda has returned with Link!"
The King's expression grew visibly lighter.
"They're here?"
The guard nodded.
"Wonderful!" he clapped his hands in delight. "Please notify the kitchen staff to begin preparations for dinner. We'll be having a feast to celebrate their safe homecoming!"
The guard gave another silent nod and left.
Harkinian turned to Spryte, beaming.
" I knew they'd come home safely! Let's go greet them!"
Spryte gave a happy nod. It felt like all the worry had that constricted her heart and lungs had dissipated, leaving her to freely breathe again.
Feeling lighter than ever, she quickly fluttered out after the King, eager to greet her friends again.
A/N this has been our shortest chapter by far, what was your opinion? Cunstructive critism is welcome here.
