A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
A Pair of Time
Chapter 59- Requiem of Spirit, Part 6
Spirit Temple; Day
"Ma… Ma-Malon?"
Link couldn't believe it; he was fighting his friend all this time? But there she is, suited in a chain mail and holding a battleaxe set for his doom. There could not be a mistake just by looking at her; her fervently hair of red and long, her facial features as defining and sweet as hard work and traveling can let it. Even if she was brainwashed for seven years, her adult self still is the same as if she had just time traveled. It's definitely Malon; otherwise, the witches cursed upon him hallucination.
"Mal…" Very obviously, something is not right with the picture. Malon is on a rampage to kill her friend, and certainly she would never do that unless Link left her halfway on a round trip around Hyrule, or she's being completely manipulated to do so.
OF COURSE, IT'S NOT THE FIRST CHOICE, YOU IDIOT! Navi's voice bangs on his stupidity.
And Link can tell. Malon's eyes that used to light up with warmth every time he does something comforting for her are dulled out to where the irises are the only things visible other than the white part. If this isn't normal, Link doesn't know what is.
What's wrong with Malon?
I think she's being brainwashed! Navi answers. This is bad. The only way to free her is to stop the witches, who aren't here. Malon can't be stopped unless…
No! I'm not going to kill her!
I know! Don't you think I know that by now!
Then what should I do!
I… I don't know! Link, look out!
Hastily returning his focus back, Link blocks Malon's oncoming swing with the Megaton Hammer's handle, catching the ax's haft. The weapon's head barely makes contact, its sharpened side almost touching the tip of Link's nose. Again, he is startled by the immense strength of Malon's, this time an unusual, gigantic amount. It's too much for him to handle, shown by the shuddering and creaking of his knees and by the strain of his face. All the while Malon's countenance remains absolute and dull, but perfectly impassive, as if she's not living.
"M… M-M-Malon!" Link cries in a sputter. "Malon, it's me! Link!"
"Malon!" Navi said, coming out to support. "It's us! Navi and Link!"
The mindless redhead, however, holds passé to their call. Desired only to finish her frivolous struggle, she lands a heel on Link's stomach, earning her a grunt from him and a considerably lessening on his side of the wrestle. Another kick and she pushes him back on the ground, remaining callous to his pain.
"No…" Link slowly picks himself up, along with his hammer, which now is incredibly heavy due to his throe. "Mal… I… Wake up… I… I don't… want… want to… hurt you…"
"Malon! Don't you recognize us? I know you can!"
"Malon… Urgh!" Malon strikes again, sending Link into another barring to prevent being sliced in two. "No, I… I can't… I can't fight back… I won't… Malon, please… wake up… I can't hurt you… I can't…"
--
"M… M-M-Malon! Malon, it's me! Link!"
Link…? An awakening breaks the eternal night hemming Malon, who had been quietly sedated in the lonely corner of her mind.
"Malon! It's us! Navi and Link!"
Navi…? Link…? Link! Her heart fills with the great bliss she always wanted, bliss that only Link could deliver. Malon hugs all of her jumping, excited emotions, overjoyed to hear his voice and Navi's once more. Oh, Link! I miss you! Your voice… It brings me so much joy… But… Everything turns into alarming horror when she remembers what she's doing, and why they're calling for her. No, Link! I… I can't kill him! I have to break free! I have to! Fairy boy, hold on!
Impossible is the task, for after a few tries that are just as onerous, Malon is unsuccessful. But she continues, gathering again all of her might that is left to breach the sorceresses' control. Failure, then repeat. Malon keeps trying, so hard it is just to regain the rest of her mind back. Never in her life has she felt so desperate to do something, just to make sure Link is okay.
"No… Mal… I… Wake up… I… I don't… want… want to… hurt you…"
"Malon! Don't you recognize us? I know you can!"
"Malon… Urgh! No, I… I can't… I can't fight back… I won't… Malon, please… wake up… I can't hurt you… I can't…"
No… I hafta keep trying! I have to regain my control back! I have to! Please… hang on, Link… Hang on… Don't… Don't die on me… Don't die, Link…
--
Another roar from Malon is heard, not feminine at all. With ease, she thrusts forward, sending Link back with an opening. He retains his ground, only to see a sight that he would never envision: Malon, with celerity that is quicker now that the breastplate is off, swings her ax at him.
"Link!" Navi is heard screaming his name.
In a motion that slows down time in anybody's view, Link's eyes quake, the lighting on them oscillating. A tremendous eruption of pain surges throughout his body, its origin coming from his stomach. Clean, sharp pain that parallels deadly. His eyes slowly glance down as the ax swerves away, finished with its current move. A heavy slit is gashed on the abdomen, blood already spurting out and reddening the green tunic. Soon, his right hand feels the hot liquid of life, as Link places it over to examine the severe wound. Lifting it to see his blood, like so often before, he breathes, profoundly and harshly are each inhalation. His stomach suddenly sickens, causing Link to cough until he spews a fulsome quantity of blood from his mouth. It bespatters noisily as contact with the floor is met, imbruing crimson splotches. Link then turns his eyes towards Malon, who awaits his decision whether to die or not. He couldn't. He couldn't die… yet, he couldn't hurt Malon either, much less kill her.
Only… one thing… left… to do… He fights back the impulse to bring out a Red Potion in his inventory, rather needing it most after. Instead, he falls, landing on his back with a sound made by bone hitting clay. Malon accepts this and withholds her weapon, holding it horizontally and eerily still. Link lies almost in the same manner, panting raggedly and bleeding copiously.
"No!" Navi's yell sounds so far away and so long to him. "Link!"
"Urgh…" He weakly lifts his upper body onto his elbow, despite what seems like the inevitable outcome. "Mal… Not… Not yet… Not… yet…" Utmost like any near-death situation, Link's vision spins as if he's spinning himself. Color is no more; they succumb to the gloomy grey that is synonymous to the end. All sounds are stretched and distant, zoned out to almost indecipherable waves. The feeling of the warm ground and air are gone; they are usurped by extreme frostiness that nips every part of Link's body. And time, a word that he is supposed to be a hero of, has yet failed to obey to return to normal pace. A taste of death… How… secluded it seems… I can see… why evil fear it…
Malon, still merciless by orders of her brainwashers, does not hesitate. She brings up her ax to end the sad scene before her, no matter who it is. Link despondently musters up what energy he still holds in life and makes a move towards the nearest pillar. The redhead almost brought the end for him, she nearly did, but something halts her. The hero looks back and sees it; there's a struggle going on in Malon's eyes that could only be her trying to conquer over the sorceresses' domination.
Come on, Mal… I… I know you can….
Link persists in taking cover, while hearing grunts of Malon's as she fights on inside.
"No… I can't… hurt Link… No! Let me free! Let me… GO! NO!"
The tussle ends with a clamor, one that indicates Malon's attempt didn't end so well. The unmanly noise rumbles the floor and Link knows that his time is about to run dry if he doesn't do something better. He leans against one of the pillars, still determined to break Malon free; all she needs is his help.
"Link!" His fairy's voice, all spaced out, comes. Just like it is with the sound, so is the entity's image when he sees her. "This is the one time I know you're not okay!"
"Well… you're wrong… for one thing… Navi…"
"Don't even try to soften it up for me!" She cries, each sob as strong as the next one. They all fall as great as the plodding of Malon towards the dying Link.
"Don't… cry… What… are you… crying about…?"
"You… You… You stupid, dumb hero!"
Why does everybody… not expect the unexpected?
Finally, Malon, donned in such a way that is like Death, comes upon the Hero of Time. His eyes follow her giant battleaxe as it elevates, a grimmer, more terrifying weapon of the scythe. Link's sight then falls on her face, still as apathetic as an executioner can be. It's not long; he's going to die under the hands of the one closest to him.
Irony… I guess… this… is what… irony is… Malon… you're the… most ironic person… I've ever met… Heh. Cogitating about this, Link, under the blade and while Navi's screaming her lungs out, smiles.
WHISH!
… This… is… my… my death…? It's… all… dark… and… and… cold… Wait… my eyes… are still closed… Link opens them, surprised and yet not so when he finds the head of the ax again almost reaching his nose. His gutter vision portraits Malon, but to his relief, an expression is written on her face. An expression of worry, welfare, and the all-too-familiar elation for him. She's broken through; her waiting is long over.
"Hey," he greets.
Nothing changes for a moment after that, then Malon drops her ax out of the way and kneels down to Link. Her rapid breathing starts things off, then tears, unstopped, pour like crystal waterfalls down her cheeks, each having a portion of the fragile mixture of emotions in her heart. Link doesn't know where to begin, except stare, stare at her beating eyes.
"Oh, Link…!" She embraces him, not with the amplified strength of brain control, but with her own and that of her emotional side. Too long had she been without him, too long had she been left alone in a world that could be analogous for hell. Too long had she cried for him, but now she cries, not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. "Link, I… I…"
"I know… I know, Mal…"
"So long… have I been alone… So long… have I waited… for you…"
"And… I came… for you… didn't I?"
"I… Link… I… I love… I love you… I… love you, Link… for… being here… for me…"
Contrary to expect the unexpected, Link chokes when she said those three words that could do a lot to him. "Um, uh… Mal… Malon… you're… hurting me."
Instead of having a considerate look after letting go, an irked face that spelled frustration forms. "Oh, that's it! After all we've been through just so that I can be saved, YOU'RE ONLY WORRIED ABOUT GETTING HURT?"
"Well, Mal… I'm not as… as…"
"Emotional?" Navi fills in for him.
"Yeah."
"EMOTIONAL? DARN IT, LINK, I JUST TOLD YOU I LOVE YOU!"
"You see… about that…" He chuckles nervously, "people… don't have to be…"
"I WAITED SEVEN YEARS FOR YOU, YA JERK!"
"And nobody… should have to… experience that, Malon… I mean… I was very… worried… and afraid… for you, too… but there's… no reason to-"
"FOR THE LOVE OF FARORE, SHUT THE HELL UP, YA UNGRATEFUL BASTARD!"
"Sorry… Again… sorry… Just… not ready…"
"Goddess, and I was gonna give you a kiss with all my heart in it, too!"
Link looks startled for a moment, then nods slowly. "Oh… uh, sorry… about that… too."
Malon sighs, not bothering to hide her disappointment. "Forget it, fairy boy… It's my fault. Again, I just wanna… go along, but you're still… not caught up. I waited… seven years… like this… I felt so much about you during then. But… you're still… not ready… Even when… when I was gone! I cannot believe you! What will it take just to get ya ready?"
"Mal…" He coughs hoarsely, almost gagging.
"Malon," Navi cuts in. "I know how Link is nearly incorrigible when it comes to romance, but I highly, HIGHLY suggest that you take care of his wound first."
"Why should I?"
"Because he's about to die from it!"
"And…" Link coughs again, "you're… the one… who… gave me it…"
The two stares at him, then back at each other. "That was… unnecessary to say," Navi comments, "but anyway, Malon, you have to put aside your open feelings for now and save Link!"
"… Oh, okay…" Taking Link up by his shoulder, she heads for the advancing door. "You're still lucky I love ya for all the things you've done, fairy boy."
"Please… until… I'm ready… don't… don't say 'I… love you'… It's… very… awkward… to me…"
Desert Colossus
Twisted it all seems, but Malon somehow doesn't feel hurt knowing the fact that Link had a hard time feeling what she felt for him. Sure, she was brainwashed for seven distressful years, but she somehow feels for Link's reason. He's the friendliest of all the people she knows of, yet the most shy when it comes to anything closer than a friendship. Although she gets frustrated with the latter, it's part of the ground reason she has such feelings for him, other than the first.
He's like a puzzle. He's difficult to unlock, but… if… I… I solve him… She smiles, almost sighing like her younger self when thoughts become heavenly.
"Malon," Navi calls to her outside on the left hand of the Colossus's statue. "Is it there?"
"Yeah." Malon walks inside the opening and shows her finding to the fairy and Link sitting against the wall. "It almost blinded me when I looked at the surface outside. But in here," She gazes upon the finely polished surface of the object, "it… reflects my image… so perfectly. It's like I'm looking at my twin."
"That's the Mirror Shield, then." Navi floats over to it, causing a clear deflection of her light from the aegis's surface. "It is said that a lone blacksmith spent almost a year buffing every square part of this area. He took one day just to purify, chisel, grate, clean, and shine an area of a tiny distant! It's a very valued shield, but I don't understand why it's out here in the desert."
"Gerudos must have stolen it and used it as an offering, maybe?"
"… Reasonable."
She kneels down to Link. "How're ya doing, fairy boy?"
"Ugh… Doing well."
"He's holding up," Navi explains. "Saving up that Red Potion was a good idea, Link."
"I knew what I was doing."
"You didn't have a plan to save ourselves from the witches seven years ago, yet ya do when it comes to facing me?"
"Must you make it worse?"
"You're the one that always do!"
"Well, you certainly made it worse for me with that ax you used. Din, you wielded that thing like a maniac."
"What?"
"Okay… a professional ax-wielding maniac."
"This is not how I expected our reuniting to get along…"
"Expect the unexpected, Mal. And besides, we're together again, right? That's what counts."
"Ya don't understand, Link. Seven years… I waited for you for that long. I… didn't think you would come. I thought… you've forgotten about me."
"Malon, it's hard to forget about you, and that's not including your interestingly bad points," Link points out. "It's just… I had… no way to get to you back then."
"But seven years, Link… I… I felt broken… when you didn't come to my rescue. I thought that maybe you sent for someone to help us, but… I knew… I had to settle in for the long haul."
"I'm sorry, but… there… wasn't any other way."
"Not even… waiting until five or six years?"
"The Silver Gauntlets wouldn't fit me at those ages. No one I knew of back then would be… well, in their terms, 'mad' enough to come with me to this temple. I had no choice. It had to be seven years."
"Oh… Seven years… it had to be then…"
"Mal, if there was any way to give you back your lost years, I would have… I would have given them back."
"No… I… I lost them. But, then, ya lost them, too. We both lost our years, if I think about it."
"But, Malon… Mine was quick and painless. Yours… I don't know what the witches did to you, but…"
"All I know is… I don't wanna relive them. I don't wanna remember them, I want them forgotten. Those long times where… I was so alone… Oh, goddess, Link!" She brings him into her arms and squeezes him again. "I can't explain how it all felt… It's too terrible, living in darkness by myself, for seven years… It was the worst thing I felt… Worse… than… losing Mom… I was so alone… It felt worse… than death, I think…"
"You're not… going to be alone anymore." Link does his best in his condition to hug back. "I know I said this a million times and each seems to be disproved every time, but… I'll keep saying it, because I try my best to make sure… I'm always with you."
"Fairy boy… I… I always thought of you… when… when you were away… Even if you didn't come back then, I knew you would come during this time… You would come for me… and… you did…"
"Yes… but… now that I'm here… I'm afraid I can't go on with this wound here healing up."
"Oh…" She stares at the bandage wrapped around his midsection. "Is it… that bad?"
"It's a mortal wound," Navi said. "Can't be healed normally. However, a person can be saved with the Red Potion. But since it's severe, it'll take a while for the medicine to fully mend the cut."
Malon gently rubs the area that covered the gash. "I'm so sorry, Link… I-I tried my best to break free of the witches' hold, but… I hurt… I hurt you. I almost… killed you…"
"It's not your fault, Mal. Clearly, you knew that it wasn't you that did this. It was the witches that controlled you."
"Those hags… When I get my hands on them, I'm gonna tear them a new one…"
"Well, Mal… I'm sorry I won't be able to join in on the fun."
"Right… Right."
"Here." Link carefully undoes his scabbard behind his back, then presents it to Malon. "Take the Master Sword. It'll do more than your arrows… that is, if you still have your bow and stuff."
"I'll find them somewhere," she replies while strapping on her comrade's sheath. "Left them all inside my pack."
"Well, the sword will have to do, then. Besides, I want to give the witches a taste of my blade… Need my shield since you don't have yours?"
"Link." She brings up the Mirror Shield to his eyes. "How dumb can ya be?"
He rolls his eyes. "Okay… I'll keep the rest of my inventory."
"Hold on, I ain't done yet," she returns while positioning the buckler on her back. "It doesn't hurt to come prepared. I'm gonna need the basics; your bow and quiver, please."
"Yeah, you might do better with them than I can." Link hands over the requested items.
"Bombs, I… I think some Bombs."
"Anything else?"
"Well, handy and dandy I'll hafta be so I'll need the temple's Map and Compass. And… your Longshot."
"What?" He stops midway in passing over the dungeon's items.
"That's right, ya heard me." She extends her right hand out expectantly.
"No… Anything but… the Longshot. I just only… got it back after two days!"
"Argh! I'm just gonna use it for an hour or so!"
"But… But… it's… mine…"
"Just give me it! Goddess, you're impossible!" She groans. "What is it with you and your Longshot?"
"Alright, alright!" Link, now sadden to see his precious gadget out of his possession the second time, unsteadily relinquishes it over to Malon. "… Take care of it, okay?"
"I swear, you love this thing more than me…"
"I never said I love it… I'm just… attached to it."
"So… ya love me now, Link?"
"… Stop."
"Okie-dokie!" She stashes all of the items away. "Well, I'm sure ya can be okay right here, right?"
"It's a little hot, but…" He looks around the cave, "I'll survive, providing that you don't take any longer than a day."
"Ya sure?"
"I have some canteens of water. I also got the Megaton Hammer, Deku Nuts, some Bombs. Din's Fire if I'm really desperate."
"Okay! I'm off, then!" She turns to Navi. "Gonna need your help, Navi!"
"Sure!" The fairy flies to her face. "Anyway, I'm also sure Link can take care of himself."
"Right…" Link stretches, "and I suppose Mal wearing chain mail and having most of my weapons isn't a sign that she can take care of herself, too."
"Well, fairy boy, we girls gotta stick together, right, Navi?"
"Yeah, it's not that bad, Link. I know you; you can do well here, so I really don't have to worry." Navi then faces Malon again. "Hopefully we'll have better experiences this time around than the last time we were together, yes?"
"Definitely." Malon winks at her.
"Wait," Link intervenes. Malon and Navi both turn to him, catching him searching through his pack. After grappling something, he brings it out and tosses it at Malon. "Here. Something for you that you might need."
"… Lon Lon Milk?" She eyes the Bottle and its pearly content. "Ya haven't… used this?"
"Just…" His face gives a funny look, "a reminder of you… when you were gone."
Malon smiles heartedly, her blood rushing around her veins with fervid gratefulness. "Thanks, fairy boy. I owe ya… a kiss… 'kay?" She winks at him too, coupled by blowing a kiss. With that, the two giggling girls whisk away behind the door leading inside the Spirit Temple, leaving Link in a state of stuttering. His brow twitches, digesting Malon's debt for keeping the Bottle of milk.
Is it just me… or did Malon somehow become more… attracted towards me…? Oh, Nayru, tell me she wasn't thinking of other things about me during those seven years…