Standard disclaimer

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Nintendo, I have no claim to any of the characters in the story below (except for the name Zartaris, the God Julios, the Goddess Laura, or the Goddess Darlen). Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo own the Legend of Zelda series, not me.

/standard disclaimer

Thanks to jade_angel86, I have fixed the Faore / Farore spelling bug. Thanks!

I got to work right away. In seconds I had left my bedroom, and I had reached Din's bedroom door. It was locked, but it was no obstacle; I may be the God of Nobility, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to do ignoble things like picking locks (in fact, my elder brother Eris, God of the Underworld and Lord of Thieves, taught me). I used my restored power to conjure up a thin metal wire, and sticking it in the lock, I turned and twisted it until I heard a satisfied 'click.'

I opened the door. Din was in bed, asleep, making the simple plan I had even easier. I extended my arm and concentrated; since she was asleep, she couldn't resist as I drained my power within her back into me. It took less than a moment, and she didn't even move. When I had recovered my power, I closed the door, locked it, and I entered Nayru's room using the same method. Once again I took back my power and departed, leaving no trace of my visit.

I then left my cousins' palace and went to the next one, which was occupied by Darlen and her husband, Aries. Darlen had been the one responsible for my imprisonment in the first place, so I was extra careful as I broke in. At least I tried to be.

Instead of entering through the front door, I decided to enter through an open first floor window. I was confident in my ability to enter silently; however, one detail escaped me as I climbed through the window: Darlen had flowers in clay pots on the windowsill. Even before they crashed to the snow-white carpet, I felt then against my face, and I knew I had a problem. Crash they did, resounding, and in the still of the night, they sounded like a bomb going off. In an instant I was hiding in the bushes, and an instant, Darlen was surveying the damage.

"Laêtes! How dare you!" she shrieked. I dared to look, and I saw her scolding a small creature; a cross between cat and demon.

"Knocking over my plants! Soiling my carpet! Don't you ever learn?" she threw her hands up in exasperation while I held my breath. "Third time this week!"

After several moments, she finally left. I crept into the house and followed behind her. As she slipped into bed, I waited; the instant she started to snore, I raided my power back. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that she had had over half of my power; added to what I had gotten back from my cousins, I had become three quarters as powerful as I had been. But the fact that she had had so much of my power showed that when the gods had drained my power, it had not been redistributed equally. The question was just who had my power and who didn't?

I knew that my parents probably had some of my power, a conjecture I quickly proved correct, as they were the next gods I visited. I had recovered all but a tiny fraction of my power, but I lacked my most powerful spells, such as the power to move universes or create galaxies. Unfortunately, by daybreak, I still had not found them, and I was forced to temporarily abandon my search.

The instant my cousins and me went to eat, I realized that I had completely overlooked an important fact in my haste to retake my power. The gods I had taken my power back from would feel that that power was missing, and I found that all eyes were on me as me and my cousins entered the dining hall of the Gods.

"Get over here, Zartaris!" shouted Julios. I didn't even bother to obey; after all, I was in a tremendous amount of trouble anyway.

"I have come to take my power back, and resume my old position in the heavens." I said firmly. "You took my power from me; is it wrong to take them back? I have no intention to cause a problem."

Darlen whispered something in my father's ear.

"Prove it. Remove the Black Armor and drop the Legend's Flame," my father's voice boomed.

Did they think I was a fool? "I wear the Black Armor and wield Legend's Flame only for my protection. Until I have recovered all my power I am at my weakest, so these items compensate for my current deficiencies."

The gods prepared to attack me. "I will stand by your side, cousin Zartaris," Farore said. Her voice was determined and resolved as she took a place at my side, and I knew she meant what she said.

"I can no longer deny my conscience. I too shall help." Din joined Farore and I saw my cousins stare expectantly at Nayru.

"I will also join," she said simply, and she prepared to fight.

I put my hand on the hilt of Legend's Flame, but I did not draw it. "My fellow gods, I did not come here to open old wounds. I do not mean to deprive any of you of what is yours."

They did not even consider slowing, and they were about to attack.

"I understand your anger. But that fight was long ago and needs not be repeated. I admit my ancient mistake, but gods do change. Give me a chance to prove that I ha-" They attacked.

And so we fought. Once again the Legend's Flame proved its superiority as a weapon, and the Black Armor once again deflected every attack. For a few moments me and my cousins fought, when suddenly, the attack stopped.

Not because I had defeated them. It was something else and I felt it. It was a great void, an emptiness of inestimable size. It was as if every world in existence, every light in the dark, had together winked, and gone out forever.

And then I knew what it was. A god has a link with everything he creates, and I felt a biting pain; it was as if my arm had been cut off, but it was more than just my arm. It was Termina. It was shielded from me, as if torn away from my influence.

My fellow gods and me had suddenly lost our creations; but to whom or what? Then in the center of the hall, I saw a sphere of light appear.

"Greetings, my slaves," It said.

Julios's eyes flared red. "Did you take what was ours?" he screamed.

"What is now mine, pathetic fool."

My father had redirected his fury from me to the mysterious intruder. "Show yourself, you wuss!"

"Why should I show myself to such unevolved beings like you?"

"Because we are going to destroy you in a moment!"

"I think not, imbeciles, for I am the product of your stupidity. Ten thousand years ago you gods created me to avenge your rule under Zartaris. For ten thousand years I served your bidding, but in the ten thousandth year, I was defeated and killed. Yet in death, I grew stronger than ever, and now, I am even more powerful then my creators!"

The sphere of light dimmed, and in its place hovered a wooden object. Even before it spoke, I identified it instantly. "I am the Mask of Majora. Your worlds are mine, and you all are my slaves!"

I whipped out Legend's Flame. Imprisoned in a mask, my soul had been owned by that foul…thing for ten thousand years, and I knew how evil it was; it was possibly more wicked and deceptive than even my cousin Set, God of All Evil. Even if its boast was true, I would give my immortality and fight to the death if it would allow me to utterly and eternally destroy that hated object.

"Incarnation of Darkness! I, Zartaris, am freed from eternal prison. Majora, I doom you to eternal misery!" I pointed my finger at the mask, and instantly, I created a tornado of flame around it. The vortex glowed brightly as its flames, hotter then the sun, encircled the dark being of Majora. As the pillar of fire died down, I summoned raging torrents of lightning and sent them to replace the flaming tornado. I followed that attack with a mere flick of my finger at the Majora infested area, yet that simple act produced a huge wave of liquid agony, which washed over Majora in holy waves. Only a god could have survived the shear brightness and noise of it all; especially when I rocked the heavens with a blast of thunder targeted at where I had last seen the mask.

It took nearly five minutes for the air to clear after I finished my attack. Nothing could have withstood god-powers of that sort; even though I hadn't regained all of my power, I had literally nuked that mask with the power of ten thousand exploding suns. The heavens were completely silent; my fellow immortals were shocked at the ferocity of my attack.

However, I had used a little to much power. My fellow immortals and I were hovering in the empty heavens, for the dining hall, the gold-paved streets, and the palaces of the gods had been completely decimated and evaporated. As I saw them starting to look at me with that particular, 'we're going to kill you!' look (Din, Nayru, and Farore included this time) I realized that I had gotten myself into even more trouble.

"Zartaris, there is no forgiveness for your kind of scum!" Julios' roar was painful even to my ears. "Imprisonment in a mask is too good for you! Even the death of mortals is almost too sweet."

Once again, the gods circled me, but this time, they weren't going to attack quite so soon as last time, I knew. They were gauging me; for there is one thing we gods fear, and that is death, for while we can resurrect people from death, no god other than Vulcan has ever died. To us gods, the thing called Death, the sudden termination of existence, the eternity of it, and the unending question of Death, "What happens after?", is the one thing we do not know, the one thing that even we fear. Well, if they wanted to see fear in my eyes, or to see me quiver and beg mercy like a coward, I would not satisfy them, for I am the only god who does not fear Death: if the spiritual anguish of ten thousand years imprisoned in a mask is not death, then what is? I only had one thing to tell them. "I am sorry. I misjudged the extent of my powers."

My steady apology, betraying no fear whatsoever, and my calm demeanor enraged them even further.

"Then you will die NOW!" Julios screamed, and I watched as they gathered there powers together. Before they attacked, I heard a shout from behind me.

"Lo and behold! I live, Zartaris!" I turned and once again I felt my anger overtake and overpower my reason. From the corners of the heavens I watched as thin filaments of dust gathered together into one spot. The ash gathered together, and I realized that the gods had stopped there preparations to attack me. Majora's Mask rematerialized.

"Zartaris, you worthless fool," the mask seemed to sneer. Even without a mouth it managed to talk, and each word was filled with malice, as if every evil deed made the mask more powerful. "Your limited intellect and even more limited powers are nothing against me. You are a demented slime mold, incapable of unraveling even my slightest weakness. And you even tried to defeat me… you are more stupid than I thought possible."

"Out of the mouth of babes and fools can come the truth, you foul thing. Realize this truth, spoken by one you have branded a fool: I shall be your end, Majora!"

The mask turned towards the other gods as if I hadn't even spoken. "You so called…supreme beings…are even lower than your rejected brother Zartaris. You have such pitiful intelligence that you have not even comprehended that in the last second, I, Majora, kidnapped several of your most respected gods, with no more than a desire."

I turned round; it was as the mask said. Julios, Darlen, Din, Nayru, Farore, Eris, and Aries had vanished, leaving no trace. Laura, my mother, gasped, and Majora's eyes emitted a fire beam, and she was consumed in flame, leaving no indication that she had even existed. The mask rotated to face me.

"Go ahead. A one on one battle. At your full power." I felt a strange beam encircle me, and I knew I had recovered all of my powers. "Your brother Eris had what remained of them. Are you ready to be truly defeated, for the first time in your pointless, frivolous, useless life?"

"Or the other way around."

"Poor fool; I pity you actually. You are just as dead as your father, mother, cousins, sister, and brother."

I leaped forth with the Legend's Flame flaming and glowing with the power of the immortals. That thing would not survive my wrath. Nothing could save it… ever. Period. Game over, Majora; I, Zartaris, win.