Chapter 6

"You can open your eyes now, young one"

Link obeyed, and gasped aloud at the beauty that beset him. There was a misty glow covering the area as though the clouds themselves had come down to see what was about to take place. There was no way that he could tell what time it was as the light merged into a grey twilight. Golden light spread through the mists, twining round like a cat eager to see its master, and colours swirled and spun in the pulsations. The flickering light concentrated around Link, but further ahead he could see that darkness was overcoming it, sucking it in like a black hole.

Link stepped off Shanu's scaly hide, dusty from the day's flight. There was no thanks enough that he could give to Shanu, for he had given him the greatest chance of all…the chance to save his wife.

Inside of Link, in the deepest recesses of his heart, there were two opposing forces fighting. There was one, the colour of fear, that asked why it was that he felt that it was up to him, why no-one else could do it, why me? It was an accident anyway! This fear threw at him the pain of his last battle with Ganondorf, the despair and the thanks that he got. He had grown up on that journey, and not just physically. He had matured more than he would have given the normal cycle of events, then in the moment of his final triumph he was condemned to the body of a child. Then he had been abandoned by his companion, Navi, and had to save another world from which he didn't hail. There he had fought for all the people of this world, yet was sent off without a word of thanks. Only then had he ventured back to Hyrule, back to the castle to be finally married to the princess who had banished him back in time! What was the point of fighting and what did it get you, except pain?

However there was another section him that argued. It was him who had, however unwittingly, opened the door for Ganondorf. He felt a deep, overriding sense of responsibility for all the problems that he may have caused, for the people of Hyrule, and for Zelda. His wife was paying for the mistake that he had made. In his entire journey, he had never once turned his back on someone in need, never lost his determination to do what was right. And he wouldn't start now!

There was only one person that could fight Ganondorf; only he could save the world. Only he could save his wife.

Determination coursed through him like new blood in his veins and he felt the light respond to his call. He would not fail. He could not fail!

The mists parted before him as he strode into the unknown. He never looked back, even when the dragon, his friend, bid him farewell. The area ahead became increasingly dark and gloomy, and the light seemed to gather closer in to Link, as if to protect him from the darkness. As he got closer, he could pick out a figure, a silhouette standing out, blacker than the black mists that gathered there. The light was sucked towards the figure, yet Link generated more and more light from the joys and determination that lay in his heart.

"So… you come."

Link gasped. There was no doubting that voice. The evilness radiated from it like the darkness radiated from the figures body. It was his arch-nemesis. It was the one who had driven him to the depth of despair, alone in a dying world. He had caused unimaginable pain and suffering to countless innocents. It was the one that had stolen his wife away from him. It was Ganondork.

There was a grinding of metal on metal as Link drew his sword. His eternal sword, that was with him from before the end of time and until the far reaches of eternity. The Master Sword.

Surprise sat frozen on Ganondorf's face. It was strange, almost pained expression as he beheld the sword that had banished him to the sacred realm in the first place. Link brandished the sword in front of his face. No change in expression came over the warlords face. Only after a minute did Link notice the dark stain that stemmed from his heart and spread through his breastplate that he realised that the shocked expression was not of his doing. Ganondorf, the Gerudo warlord, toppled forward like a sack of wet bricks. The green blood oozed out of the fallen enemy and settled into a pool around his body.

Behind him there was another shadow. This was where the light was disappearing to, the figure that was blacker than the night's sky, swallowing any stars. The shape was as Links, the muscular form the parallel of him, but the opposite. Where Link was light, he was darkness. Where Link was joy, he was sorrow. Where Link was life, he was death.

There was no word for the apparition, no name except that given to him during his fight - DarkLink. His shadow sword pulled out of the body before him with a sickening squelch. He held the sword up in Links face

"Surprised to see me?"