The Legend Of Zelda: Divine Intervention: Part 4: Slowly crazy going am I

Quincy007

Author's Notes: I apologize for the delay, but I suck at introspection. On a side note, I don't own 'The Legend of Zelda' and any other proprietary characters.

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            Who are you?

            "I'm Link. Who else would I be?"

            Which Link?

            The blackness fell away to reveal a place he had only visited once, and he hated it. The field of Termina's moon. Yet he would never forget it. He saw people of all races at the tree, and Link rushed up to them, desperate to get some answers to his questions.

            When he got close enough he gasped in shock and surprise. The closest person to him was a young boy, about ten years old. His blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight. He laughed aloud at Link's shocked expression. He wore a green tunic, a long sword, and a Shield that looked almost Hylian in design. "You're…me."

            "You are you. I am me. We may have shared a body at one time, but now…we are separate."

            Link backed away from the earliest version of the Hero. "I grew up! How can you be here!?"

            "Don't worry about it. Guys! He's here!"

            The others, who were talking amongst themselves, all turned to face Link. The 17 year old in a Zora tunic with a red Mirror shield and Master sword; The light absorbing Dark Link, his red eyes glowing fiercely; All three of his Mask transformations were there talking amongst themselves, and probably didn't care; A Link dressed in heavy Chain mail but smiling despite his burdens Link guessed he was from the 'War for the Sacred realm'; And in the back, a huge towering bulk of a man, Dressed in black war armor, white eyes staring fixatedly Fierce Deity, Oni Link, whatever he called himself had his sword buried in the ground enough to let him rest on it.

            Link stepped back, taking comfort in the fact that his sword and shield were still there. Probably the same sword Chain Mail Link had, and the same shield the Hero of Time was holding. "What the hell is going on?"

            "I would think you to be above such crude vulgarities." Oni laughed from the back, his voice reverberating.

            "When you have been screwed around with as much as I have, you tend to get over common pleasantries pretty quickly." Link snapped, his shaking hand finally grabbing the Master Sword.

            "Calm down Link, we aren't here to hurt you." The Hero of Time said, and Dark Link nodded.

            "You can't be here! I was you and am passed that!"

            Dark Link smiled, not that anyone could see, "We will always be a part of you Link, because we are you. You've led a pretty odd life as so far, and you appear to be perfectly normal because of it, but you aren't. We are the aspects of yourself that you choose to ignore when you finish a quest. You become a drifting wanderer, looking for the next big quest."

            "I've never left anyone behind. Its not right." Link said, drawing his sword slowly.

            Young Link spoke up again, "That's the point you never left us behind. We are still a part of you, even though time has dictated otherwise. Even when given another chance at Childhood you ran off to adventure, excitement. I grew up so fast, I turned right into him." He pointed to Chain Mail Link.

            Chain Mail continued, "When we should have been chasing girls, you were chasing monsters through dungeons, hacking, slashing, killing. It was all good fun, wasn't it?"

            "Hyrule needed to be saved! What's wrong with that?"

            Zora Link spoke up, "You're an idiot you know that? As long as you were sacrificing your life for Queen and country, you thought all was well. Hyrule needed to be saved indeed, you were using quests and journey's to fill the emptiness in your heart. You couldn't actually calm down a little and talk to people; you were always trying to save the princess, the world. When it was all for self satisfaction."

            "But…I saved Hyrule! Bunches of times!"

            Hero of Time nodded, "True. You did. Without question. You thought it was your destiny."
            "You let people order you around because you thought you were supposed to. Fate, Karma, those are just words for giving up if you ask me." Dark Link said solemnly.

            "When you doubted yourself, you asked someone else for the answers, instead of figuring it out on your own. How many times did you go to Zelda, just for some words of encouragement and a point in the direction you were already facing? Was thinking on your own really that hard?"

            "I think on my own!" Link defended.

            "Uh-huh."

            Oni had picked up his sword and held it in a battle stance, "Tell me Link, Why do you fight?"

            Link accepted the challenge and charged with his sword, "To save Hyrule!"

            His attack was blocked and Oni used the flat of the double Helix sword to send him back.

            Link was unfazed, "To balance the Triforce!" he said and this time the swords clanged with righteous fury.

            "To keep the Triforce in balance is a good reason to fight, but is it your reason to fight, or Princess Zelda's?"

            Link swung low, and it was blocked. Oni kept one hand on the sword, but punched Link backwards.

            "I fight for many reasons! To save the people! To save the Triforce! Because I want peace!"

            Oni took a big step back, feeling the Master Sword clang against his armor. "How has fighting ever achieved peace!"

            "I'm alive on the battlefield! People respect me when this sword is in my hand!" Link twirled the sword once and brought it down in an overhand strike. Oni rolled out of the way, the blow glancing off of his shoulder.

            "First blood to you." He smiles as he hefts his sword again. "Tell me Link, are others kind to you?" He swung the sword from the right. It glanced off of Link's shield.

            "Of course! The people love me!"

            "Why?"

            "I'm the Hero of Hyrule! They are kind to me because I fight. It's the reason why I can stay here. It's all that supports me. So I must fight the enemy. Yes, I must fight against the ones which everyone calls the Enemy." He yells and thrusts with his sword.

            "Fight?" Oni chuckled as he easily sidestepped the thrust.

            "I must win. Yes, I mustn't lose. I must fight as they say, and I must win as they say. Otherwise, nobody, nobody, nobody..." Link trailed off as he beat Oni's defenses and ran the Fierce Deity through.

            "Nobody?" He gasped.

            "Will like me." Link said as he pulled his sword out, realizing his words seconds after he spoke them.

            Oni smiled and closed his eyes.

            Link fell to his knees. "Why can't they be nice to me? I try so hard. But they all wouldn't even care if I existed without this damn sword."

            Goron Link used his deep voice to tell him something, "You have problems with self worth don't you?"

            "You are in such a hurry to get away from the pain that being alone causes you rush off to fight in the next great war. So that you will be noticed, and people will be nice to you." Young Link summarized.

            "Never growing up, or growing up to fast, leaving parts of yourself undiscovered because you've never had a use for them." Dark Link said.

            "You hate being alone, yet you refuse to stay in one place."

            Hero of time asked, "Could you even be at peace if you didn't have to fight?"

            "Of course." Link whispered. "I'd love to live without this sword."

            "But you define your self worth as to how well you use the sword. Without it, what are you?"

            "Nobody. Another blond haired, blue eyed Hylian."

            "You would be Link." Chain Mail prompted.

            "And what is so good about that? Nobody knows Link! They don't care about me! They just want a problem solver!"

            "You fight for their words of kindness, yet are skeptical as to whether they are true? And if you knew they were false? Would you stop fighting?"

            "No. If I…If I trust their words, I can just keep living from now on..."

            "…By deceiving yourself?"

            "Everyone does it, huh, people live by doing so."

            "If you continue to think you can't change yourself, you cannot live on."

            "I change myself all the time! I can't live like a 10 year old from the forest forever!" Link said. He was so confused. They were all right, but it wouldn't work to change himself. Nobody likes change, and if he changed nobody would like him.

            Dark Link pulled Link up. "You misunderstand. Of course your body grows and matures as does your mind, but you let your mind believe things that you shouldn't. Then you refuse to let go of these 'truths'."

            Link shook off Dark Link's hand. "The truth is the truth, plain and simple! There can be only one truth, right?"

            "No."

            "Look around you Link, and think about what you said again."

            Link did just that. He saw a young boy, a teenager, an adult, a dark twisted version of himself, a god, and his body in the forms of other races. Each was unique, but they were all him. How could this be? What did these people have to do with the truth?

            He looked each in the eye, meeting their gaze, and knew each one was person, but with different views on things, things that they thought…were…true. Each was him, and could be again, if he would let them. That childlike naiveté he used to enjoy.

            "The…me at the moment…is not always the me as I am. There are many of myself. Yes. Like masks for the real world, only I knew the true me."

            "Considering that, the real world isn't so bad."

            Link shook his head, "The real world might not be so bad, but I hate myself."

            The Hero of Time took a resting position and tried to explain, "It's your mind that conceives that the reality is bad and hateful. The mind that confuses Reality with the Truth. The angle of view, the position. If these are slightly different, what is inside your mind will change a lot. There are as many truths as there are people. But there's only one truth that you have, which is formed from your narrow view of the world, it is revised information to protect yourself, the twisted truth. Oh, yes. The view of the world that one can have is quite small."

Young Link picked up on it, and continued, "Yes, you measure things only by your own small measure. One sees things with the truth, given by others. Happy on a sunny day. Gloomy on a rainy day. If you're taught that, you always think so. But, you can enjoy rainy days. Through different ways of conceiving, the truth will change into very different things; it's a weak thing. The truth within a person is such a cheap thing that people wish to know deeper truths. It's only that you're not used to being liked by people. So, you don't have to look to others' faces."

"But, don't they hate me?"  Link asked, looking at the faces of the people, who were smirking and smiling.

"It's only you who is always trying to believe that." Chain Mail said

"Yet, I hate myself." Link said and looked for some affirmative. All the things he'd done, the people he'd hurt, killed. Why should he feel good about anything?

"Those who hate themselves cannot love or trust others. If you know yourself, you can be kind to others. The weak cannot forgive, forgiveness is an attribute of the strong." Oni Link said, leaning on his huge sword once again.

"I hate myself. But, if I tried to love myself I might be allowed a life. Yes. I am nothing but I. I am I. I wish to be I.  I want to go home! I don't need a stinking title to be a likable guy. I'm Link, and only Link. And Gosh darn it people like me!"

"See? You don't have to spend your life rotting in self made misery." Dark Link said.

"You don't have to hide parts of yourself from others." Young Link said.

"Everybody has parts of themselves that they don't want people to know about, but once you talk about it, they can accept it." Oni Link told him.

"Lingering on the past, or what might have been doesn't help you in the present, but its good for remembering the good times, and that gives you hope for the things to come." Hero of Time smiled.

"Just be yourself, and have a little confidence in your abilities and your friend's abilities to cope." Chain Mail suggested.

Link watched as the handful of Links slowly faded into the air, becoming nothing. He smiled and actually felt good about the upcoming days. He pulled off his gauntlet and looked at the Triforce mark, and smirked when he saw Courage glow faithfully. The glow ebbed out from his hand, to the field he was standing in, and it began to change. The blue sky turned to a dull brick ceiling, and his mind slowly filtered back into the Sacred Realm.

He sat up and looked around. Everyone was gone. He didn't understand at first, but then he realized that it was because they needed to collect the Triforce again. Did the Goddesses go out themselves?

He gathered up his equipment, and noticed what was missing. No doubt they helped themselves to his arsenal. His smile slowly faded as he felt a blackness eat away at Sacred Realm. Getting outside he saw the sky had turned black as night, and the sky flashed with lightning.

"A great evil is attacking while the Goddesses are gone. What should I do?" he asked, then mentally scolded himself.

"I'm gonna stop it."