A/N: The name of this story is "I", as in the pronoun I, as in I am the author. Not the roman numeral.
Dedecation: To the SFTOOT readers that I keep waiting WAY too frelling long. I've started playing MM again -hopefully, stuff'll go faster. 'Til then, enjoy my serious (or mayhap mildly psychotic) side..
____~____~I~_____~______~
I'm sitting by myself, lookin at the view. 'Course, I would be by myself, because, dude... I'm standing on top of Stone Tower. Who'da thunk, yeah? Took me awhile ta figure out how to land on the roof of that temple, but hey, heroes' blood runs through my viens (or something) -I guess I can do anything then, no?
It's a totally gnarly view from up here. Heh, I guess that even when you're saving the world from some gimungo bogus evil moon thing, ya still gotta take the time to admire the scenery. Survey the land, sorta get a feel for what you're protecting an' appreciate it. Well, this view is a doo-zy. Maaaan... I can see everything from up here! I can see the creepy valley below me (sorta hard, but, eh, whatever), and whoa, I am easily higher up than Woodfall, dude. Whoo, there's Snowhead! And dude, I'm even higher than the Clock Tower, and past it I can even see the ocean!
Home... But.. Which one was home again?
It's...confusing... Home is.. An endless...bl...green? Green..with leaves...children...fairies... My fairy..wh...fish and music...no..
No, no, no... Not again... Please not this.. I'm...dizzy... Help...sitting down now...help me...Zelda...
Zelda?
The hell?! I hiss in my mind, my claws gripping the my head hard to stop the pain, stoppit stoppit stoppit...
A feeling so wacky -like I'm peeling my brain outta my head -something outta my head- but it doesn't hurt at all... And my gasping, it's different, not so raspy, younger...
'Link?' Comes a voice.
Link.
I let out a sigh, my human fingers rushing through my blonde tendrils. Gods, it's screwy... Mikau is dead. Dead dead dead. I'm Link, Hylian. Hero of Time.
Not Mikau.
...
It never really happened wth the others, the Deku child or Darmani -sorta a faint little memory here or a tiny stirring of some emotion or another there, but never anything major. It would ghost into my mind, then be gone. But it was different with me-
With MIKAU! Mikau, Mikau, dammit!
Argh! My head hurts again, my hands are shaking, that mask staring back at me with dead eyes, dammit... I almost want to just-to just- to just chuck it over the top of the tower! Watch it go down, down, hundreds of meters, then shatter, into a thousand tiny little fragments of this nightmare!
But... It isn't as if that would help anything. For starters, I doubt this mask.. Would break. You could throw it from the surface of the Moon, but I think that it would hold strong, even if just to mock me. Secondly...
It's the other weird thing about that freaky mask.. Even when it's off, we're one... No, not one... We're constantly fighting for space, pushing and pulling at this brain like a tug of war, one dominating the other at times, and in places just blending together. Like, did I just say freaky back there?! See? It's.. It's.. Messed up.
'Link?' The voice repeats, accompanied now by a little ring. I look at Tatl, the one person who knows everything about us, me.
Except what goes on inside my head.
"I'm fine, Tatl," I say, waving her off. I think my eyes let her know that I just needed... To think.
Actually, I needed to break out of Hell, but who's counting?
I finger the damned thing in my hands -it's so odd, how it's all.. It smells like the sea. And.. I wonder.. Why?
Why must Mikau torment me...?
And he, I, whoever, we answer each other, a rush of emotions so strong I'm nearly blown over. I see it when I was just a hatchling, in that pool, and we were together, the five of us, tiny as can be. And we got older, and I was the one who helped her take her first step on land. From the dawn of my memory, dude, we just were, we did everything together -heck, that's why I started playing guitar, cuz her mom had been in showbiz and she was expected to, too, and we all wanted to join her. We were the greatest of friends, just us five.
Then I fell in love.
It happened slowly, but surely, as people say, yeah? It was.. It drove me crazy. Jasper'd had his little crush for ages, but dude, this was serious. Maan..
And the surprise and joy I felt when I found out she loved me back?
Those eggs... I had to get our kids back. No one knew, of course, that I'd fathered them -except for the boys, I'm pretty sure they figured it out, cuz they pretty much're my brothers, dude.. Maybe those kids weren't born yet, but they were my children, our children, and by the Giants we were going to raise them. I wouldn't let anything happen to them, I wasn't gonna let the pirates get 'em. If it had been treasure, maybe I woulda used my head. But no, these were my kids.
The night before I left, I proposed. It was alla that romantic stuff -beneath the shining stars, the waves gently lapping on the beach.. The Moon shining (OK, so perhaps the Moon bit wasn't exactly the most romantic thingummy but ya get the pictograph, yeah?), an' the whole sh'bang. And I asked her; Asked her if she'd marry me so we could raise our children together. And she smiled, and she handed me a small sparkling stone. All Zoran girls get 'em as soon as they come outta the hatchling pool -that means she said yes.
Yes.
Yes!
She made me swear to come back to her, always. And I swore with all of my heart.
But I wasn't strong enough.. The fortress was huge, and my fins couldn't hit the pirates from far enough away. Scimitars cutting into my scales and arrows an...
And I lost Lulu's stone.
That's how I found me, floatin in the water. The gulls wailin, my guitar weeping as I told my plight to me. There seemed ta be nothing to do.. But die.. In peace...
But no. I don't know anymore if I'm Mikau or Link or a fragment of their imaginations, but I shall not leave this world, I will stay and fight, because I made my promise, I promised to her. I've seen my children being born more than once in this crazy quest through time, but I need to live on with her, and them, forever.
But am I Mikau anymore? Or Link? I'm not even either, am I...? I..
I swear to you, baby: I'm comin back to ya. And no one and nothing can stop me.
Argh! He's..I'm taking over! What's going on?!
I pity ourselves.. I wish that... I wish there was away I could bring Mikau the Zora back to his own flesh and blood, make him whole again. It breaks me, every time I told to the guys, and they all think...
And, when it's Lulu.. It's almost too much to bear..
So I'm two promises: One for Mikau, one for Link. Mikau swears he shall return, and Link, Link swears that he will make sure Mikau does so. Hyrule. How much magic is in Hyrule? The Sages can aid us, I'm sure of it!
I stand up slowly, and return to my form -sometimes, I feel like a Zora wearing a Hylian's mask rather than the other way around. My fins sparkle as I turn to Tatl, slowly, and say
"I feel like a swim, yeah?"
~End
Yes yes, dumb, pointless, mildly crack-induced but, ah, whatever.