Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda
"Finally back, fifteen years and I'm back in Hyrule," a tired cloaked figure said as he walked out from a forest into vast rolling plains.
The warrior was wearing a heavy black cloak, hiding his face; he was carrying a backpack with his first two fingers on his left hand thrown over his left shoulder. He had a dark blue gauntlet on his hand, a moon symbol over the part protecting his hand; under it he wore black fingerless gloves. He walked into the fields humming a haunting melody. As he reached the apex of one of the hills he could see a dark cloud hanging over the western to the northern skies, in the east he could see a thin cloud of smoke slowly rising above a mountain. "Well that isn't good," he said as he ran towards the east at an inhuman speed.
On his way, all around him were the bodies of Hylians, Zoras, and Gorons, children and adult alike. However, there were also the bodies of monsters strewn about them, Wolfos, the skeletal remains of Stalfos, the bloody pussy bodies of Redead, Keese littering the field like grass, and even giant Dodongos. "What has happened here?" the warrior said as he continued to run through the field, constantly surveying the carnage.
As he neared the mountains, leaping over a wide river as he did so, he came upon a staircase into them, the steps falling apart because of what looked to have been giant clawed feet tearing into them. He carefully ascended the stairs coming into a great city that had been set ablaze and torn apart, the sounds of steel clashing against steel, bone, and scale echoed throughout the city. The sound of a great beast roaring filled the northern parts of the city, the part that seemed to be suffering the greatest damage. The warrior looked towards the eastern part of the city, where the sounds of battle were coming from and charged towards it. Within minutes he had navigated the burning ruined roads filled with rubble and found that about twenty armored knights were fighting off a large force of Stalfos. However they were only doing so much good, what was keeping them at bay was a warrior clad in black. He wore a black tunic, black pants, black boots, a black form-fitting shirt, and black gloves. His skin was pale and his eyes were blood red. In his hands were a pitch-black shield and an ebony black longsword. He was weaving in and out between the Stalfos, slashing at them occasionally as they slashed at each other trying to get him. The warrior whistled impressed with the dark warrior's skill as he switched his pack to his other hand as he reached for a sword behind his back. Throwing back his cloak he revealed his dark blue breastplate, sky blue tunic, form fitting black long sleeved shirt, black pants, and brown riding boots. His face was pale as well, but he had blood red wing-like tattoos on his cheeks, a blue devil horn tattoo on his forehead, and his eyes were sapphire blue. His sword was a six-foot long, thin bladed broadsword with a flawless white diamonds set in the pommel and hilt. Holding it in only his left hand he ran towards the nearest Stalfos, cutting it and the Stalfos around it in two. This managed to draw their attention as they began to try and kill him now, not making any difference to the warrior as he tore through them like a raging inferno. He quickly managed to reach the dark warrior who looked very surprised to see someone do so well against the Stalfos. "One hundred and fifty left," the warrior said with a smirk, "How many do you want?"
"Take them all out for all I care," the dark warrior snapped, "I just want to make sure we don't lose anybody."
"As you wish," the warrior said as his sword suddenly seemed to glow with blue energy as he rushed forward into the middle of the Stalfos Knights, letting their blades bounce off his armor and dodging any strike aimed elsewhere. The moment he felt he was in the middle he firmly planted his left foot in the ground under him and extended his right foot slightly, "Spin Slash!" the warrior roared as he pushed off the ground with his right foot as he pivoted on his left foot, letting his weapon form a perfect circle around him as a wave of energy flowed out from the blade.
The results of the attack were spectacular to say the least, all of the Stalfos within thirty-five feet of him suddenly exploded in a burst of blue flame, leaving about fifteen of them still standing. The warrior slowed his rapid spin down by slowly dragging his right foot on the ground, a cocky smirk spread across his face. "Funny, I used to think they were a lot stronger than that," he said as the rest of the Stalfos ran off, somehow showing fear on their skeletal faces.
The dark warrior quickly looked back, counting the knights to see how many were left and then walked over to the warrior. Extending his hand to him the dark warrior said, "Thanks for your help. If you ever need any work go to Hyrule's Recruiting offices and say Shadow sent you."
"Good to know you've changed Dark Link," the warrior said with a coy smirk at Shadow's surprised face.
"How do you know that name?" Shadow asked, almost at a loss of words as the knights began to escort people out from an alleyway.
"So you don't recognize me?" the warrior asked, almost sounding hurt, "It's me, Link."
A sudden hush befell the area as the knights suddenly stopped what they were doing. Shadow carefully studied the warrior's face as look of recognition spread across his, "By the Goddesses, it is you Link," Shadow said as he suddenly slapped him over the head, glaring at him, "Where the hell have you been!"
Link rubbed his head, "Guess I deserved that, didn't expect it from you of all people, but I definitely deserved it," he said as he sheathed his sword as the knights decided to continue what they were doing, "What's happened?"
"The conceited degenerate warthog is back," Shadow said, earning a confused look from Link, sighing Shadow added, "Ganondorf."
"How? He was sealed away by the seal of the Seven Sages and the Master Sword," Link asked as the last of the people were escorted out, the two of them following soon afterwards.
"Don't know, don't really care. I'm fighting him, that won't do us much good right now," Shadow stated as a loud roar shook the buildings around them from the north.
"Volvagia," Link said looking that way as Shadow nodded his head, "It needs to be stopped."
"I can't even do it, nobody can. No weapon can crack that hard skull," Shadow grumbled as the people began to hurry.
"That's what you think," Link said as he unsheathed his weapon again and the diamond in the hilt of his sword began to glow blue.
"What in the name of Nayru…." Shadow said as Link's attire began to change.
His sword began to curve itself back and forth until it became a flamberge. His tunic turned a navy blue, his armor turned a light blue, his undershirt and pants became white, and his boots turned black. "Element shift, Water," Link said as he vanished into a plume of mist that appeared out of nowhere, which then careened off towards the north.
To the north, at an exit to the city into the mountains that towered over it, a giant molten oriental dragon was tearing apart the building all around it by either thrashing it's long tail into them or melting them with it's hot body and breath. All of the sudden a mist cloud appeared and settled on the ground before it, "Why can't you stay dead?" Link asked with a bored tone as he walked out of the cloud as it dispersed.
Volvagia took one look at him, opened its mouth, and shot a blast of fire at Link. Link swung his blade causing a torrent of water to appear out of nowhere, overpowering the flame and running down Volvagia's throat. Volvagia's body solidified and cooled down, falling to the ground as a solid piece of rock. Link then walked over to it and returned to normal, he raised his sword high and swung it down upon Volvagia's hardened body, splitting it in two. "This time, do stay dead," Link said with a smirk as he ran back towards where Shadow and the others were.
Elsewhere, three hours later, within Hyrule Castle's ivory white walls, inside the throne room, several beings were all talking as they sat around a large table. A giant muscular Goron, a fat Zora wearing a red cape that looked like he was carried in the room, a small redheaded child in a green tunic and shorts, and a young woman in a white royal gown. "Zelda, we need to come up with a plan, Ganondorf is growing stronger with each and everyday. Shadow and our army can only hold off his forces for so long," the giant Zora said slowly.
"I know, but what can we do? With the Master Sword shattered we have nothing that can hurt him as he is now," the woman said, rubbing her temples.
"Princess Zelda!" a solder said running in with a rolled up message, "A message from Shadow."
Zelda sighed as she took it and unrolled it; her eyes went wide as she started reading it. She finished it and read it again in disbelief; the goron began to shift in his seat as she did so. "What is it?" the child asked, growing impatient as he began to drum his fingers on the table, resting his head on his other hand.
"'I actually have good news to report, Volvagia has been slain,'" Zelda read as the Goron's jaw dropped, "'Furthermore over one hundred Stalfos have been slain, we have successfully evacuated the remaining citizens of Kakariko Village. And I can't really claim any of this was because of me. You are going to be very pleased when you hear this, a warrior came to us in our hour of need. He tore through the Stalfos within seconds and reached me, after a short conversation he then decimated the rest of them. As we were escorting the citizens out of the city we heard Volvagia's roars to the north, he somehow transformed and vanished for an hour, upon his return he told me that he had vanquished the dragon. We will be back in Hyrule Castle Town by tomorrow. He told me his name after the citizens were secured and before slaying Volvagia. You are going to love this part, he said his name was Link."
The room fell silent at that, the Goron and the Princess speechless. The Zora and the child wondering what was so important about that. "Link? What's so important about that?" the child grumbled, annoyed that he didn't know what was going on.
"Mido, remember when I told you of the other time. In the other time, he was the one to defeat Ganondorf, he destroyed his greatest monsters single handedly, he defeated Shadow in that time, and he drew the Master Sword from it's pedestal," Zelda explained, still shocked about his appearance.
"Then where has he been all this time?" the Zora asked.
"I don't know, but we shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth," the Goron said, feeling relieved about the news.
"Well put Darunia," Zelda said as she got up from the table, "It will be good to see the Hero of Time again."
Off to the far west, in the middle of a vast desert, a dark citadel was moving through the sea of sand. In it's tallest tower a man clad in dark leather armor with fiery red hair and deep black eyes looked out of a window towards the east. The room he was in had two ornate doorways, a grand organ covering an entire wall, and a dining table with several chair about it. "What an unusual power I feel, it reminds me of that damned boy. Yet its different, almost as if it was the Goddesses themselves," the man said in a deep, thoughtful voice.
"Ganondorf!" someone yelled from outside the window as two old women in arcane robes riding atop flying broomsticks flew towards the window.
"What is it Koume, Kotake?" the man asked calmly.
"Volvagia has been slain!" one of them said, a blue tinge to her robes.
"What! Koume, tell me you are kidding!" Ganondorf roared out in surprise.
"Afraid not, reduced to nothing but ash," the other said, a red tinge to her robes.
"HOW! Who dares to defy me!?" Ganondorf yelled, grabbing them by their collars.
"A young warrior," Koume said, eyes wide in fear.
"Damn that Shadow!" Ganondorf yelled as he looked straight into their eyes, "I want him dead!"
"It wasn't Shadow!" Kotake yelled out as she began to struggle to get free.
"What?" Ganondorf said letting them go, "So that boy is back."
"No, it wasn't the Hero of Time. Someone else, someone far stronger. The power I felt coming from him was like looking into a raging inferno, unrelenting and unstoppable," Koume said, rubbing her neck.
"Find his weakness then, all beings have a weakness. Also I want you to collect Volvagia's ashes and use them to revive him, infuse him with your magics this time. I want him stronger than ever," Ganondorf growled as he turned around and began walking to his organ, waving them off with the back of his hand as he did so.
"We shall great King of Evil," they both said as they flew off.
Ganondorf sat down in front of the organ and began playing a strange, ominous melody. "I don't believe it, after all this time someone who is a real threat has come," he said to himself as he became enveloped in the song, "No matter, without the Master Sword I cannot be defeated."
Back with Link and Shadow, they were sitting about a campfire in the middle of the field, Hyrule Castle within sight of where they were. The knights patrolling the immediate area as the people they rescued from Kakariko village slept. "So the Master Sword is gone," Link said after Shadow finished relaying the events of the past years.
"Your turn," Shadow said as he sat cross-legged, "Where have you been these past few years?"
"Just about everywhere, but I suppose you mean where have I been of interest. The first was a land called Terminia which I saved from the moon itself, it was slowly falling upon it because of a curse, from that entire encounter I ended up with a strange mask filled with dark power. Then I traveled to a small town in the mountains that had been put under a curse to sleep forever, while freeing them of that curse I gained a special sigil. I then traveled to another land where nature itself seemed to be against the people; I ended up with a strange medallion from that encounter. And finally I traveled to a country where the Goddesses were even more revered than here in Hyrule, however a demon was taking it over from the inside out. Before the final battle a weapon I picked up during my adventure there fused with the medallion, mask, and sigil to form the sword I have now. When I first drew it from its sheath I changed into what you see before you," Link said, summarizing his adventures over the past fifteen years.
"Damn you," Shadow complained as he layed down on the ground, looking straight into the night sky, "Here we are fighting Ganondorf tooth and nail, barely even able to survive. And there you were saving every other place but here. Growing ever stronger as you did so."
"I didn't know, had I known I would have come back immediately," Link said, trying to defend himself.
"You know, I envy you," Shadow said with a smirk, "You really are something special you know that? No matter how great the odds, no matter how easily it could kill you, you always come out on top. You always win."
Shadow looked at Link out of the corner of his eye, "You defy fate. Your presence distorts it, anything becomes possible while you are around," Shadow continued, impressed with Link, and in slight awe of his abilities.
"I'm not that great, I just do what I think is right," Link said, embarrassed about the praise as he unsheathed his sword and began to look at it.
"Yes you are, you did something no one else has been able to do, you vanquished Volvagia on your own, and you were no worse for wear. You are the only one Ganondorf is afraid of, the only one who can stop him," Shadow snapped at Link harshly as he began to whistle a song.
Link looked to the sky as then, resheathing his sword, and began to think about what Shadow had said. He took out a small blue ocarina and began to play a song on it.
And that is all for this chapter! Well then what do you folks think of this so far? Quite frankly I'm pretty happy with the way this is turning out. I've been a bit of a rut for the past few months, and I needed something new to write about. The idea about Hyrule having been enveloped in a war in Link's absence may not be exactly original, but what I've done to Link this time is. Well then time for my traditional questions….
On a scale of one to ten, ten being the highest. How interesting is this so far?
On a scale of one to ten, ten being the highest. How well is this story written?
What do you think I did to Link this time? (It isn't quite as obvious as you may think)
Shadow (Dark Link for those of you who weren't paying attention) or Link, which do you like better? Why?
And that is all. Some of you may wonder why I'm asking those questions. I ask them to encourage reviews, it helps me decide what I want to do next, and I find it interesting to read people's opinions. With that said, press that review button and give me one. Ciao for now!
Tis has been a fic from your unfriendly neighborhood LunaticChaos