Chapter 9

The Curse

Tom drove. He had just been given the fright of his life by Mewtwo. He turned to make sure his family was all right, and continued driving through the midday sun.

A tree fell in Tom's path. He swerved to miss it, but despite the effort, he found the hood of his car smashed against the tree. "Rats," Tom said. He got out of his car and checked to make sure his family got out unscathed as well. A man on the side of the road stood staring out at him. "Hey, stranger." Tom said. The man didn't reply. "Um... Can you give us a lift please?" he continued. Another long silence ensued. "... We don't live far!" Tom stated, fear beginning to pass over him. Perhaps a bit of idol chit-chat would cheer him up?

"How's life, stranger?" he asked

"What is life?" the stranger answered. "A gift? A blessing? I think not. Life is a burden that must be borne upon already heavily laden shoulders, and it is often heaviest on those who matter the most. How does this matter to me? You'll not find the answer to that question anywhere among my people. If you had asked years ago, you might have, but not anymore. Even then, the answer would have depended on who you asked.

"Had you asked my step-aunts, they would have told you that their step-nephew was to be a great King, one who would lead his people to victory over those who so readily put themselves at the high throne of the land, casting our people into a never-ending watchfulness in fear that our enemy may someday decide to get off their royal asses and come to the desert to finish off the last of an ancient threat that so long ago almost made their nation crumble. Life was merely raising the boy to become the great King he was born to be.

"Had you asked my people, they would have told you that life was a long wait leading up to the most worth-waiting for event of all time; a wait for the time of their domination, a wait for the time when I would rise to take the throne and smite our enemy in the dirt and laugh at their royal deadness. They would tell you that life was merely a matter of waiting for their time to come.

"Had you asked me, however...

"Had you asked me, I would have probably told you to piss off and leave me to my studies, no matter how you persisted. Now, you have gotten the chance to ask before I've killed you, and I tell you that life is a curse. It wasn't always, but it has become so. To me, life is only a burden, born by those who it forces itself upon. To understand my reasoning, you must first know my past. Few know it, so be silent and listen carefully to my tale and all shall be made clear to you.

"As a child, I bided my time on my studies of magic under my step-aunts. As soon as I was of age, I did take up the throne... for a short time. My will to dominate grew beyond the reach of the throne of my desolate excuse for a country. Thus, I rode off with my Gerudo armies and searched for certain other powers.

"Eventually, I came to the palace of the very enemy I hated so much. Slowly, carefully, I established myself in the political realm of the great country, gradually earning the trust of the King. He trusted me well enough. I saw my time to strike...

"At first, I sought three different spirit stones, so that I could open the way to the Golden Land and retrieve my prize. Before I got a chance to do this, however, I found that a young boy had already set out to do it. Rather then get my own hands dirty, I decided to let the boy gather the stones for me, Then, I would steal the stones from him and kill the young Zelda to gain the final piece of the puzzle: The Ocarina of Time.

"And I took it. I intruded into the sacred realm that the naive youth had opened for me and gazed upon the awesome power that my enemy regarded so highly. But, something went wrong. The power scattered, and only a third of its might came to me.

"Despite the reduction, my enemies broke like water over a rock as I bared down on them, destroying them all. I slaughtered the people of the world indiscriminately. I even destroyed my own beloved nation. Those I allowed to live did so in fear. There were only a few who dared to stand up to me, and I played games with them until I finally got bored of toying around and destroyed them all. All, that is, but a few.

"As I came to realize how great the new power granted to me truly was, I came to realize how my power had cursed me. A great demigod of death had noticed me, and had seen his own opportunity to strike.

"And he took it. I find my soul tainted, even by my evil standards, with his presence. Where I used to bide my time taking more power for myself and killing those who displeased me, I found myself, the great Gerudo King Gannondorf, trying to hold back Gannon, one of the great Demigods, who held even more power then myself and all the sages combined. My struggle for my very humanity had driven me to near insanity.

"Had I a chance to end this torment and undo Gannon's taint, even if I had to exchange my freedom for all his exuberant power granted to me, I would gladly have ended it, until I found a way to control that taint which cursed me. In the bowels of my mind, Gannon struggled one final time to strike me down and take my body, bringing his undoubtedly greater evil into the world. So, I fought him. In the recesses of my consciousness, the great Demon Lord and I battled. A chain of events lead up to a great stroke of luck... And I smote the evil upon the blade of my magic, taking his power for my own, slaughtering the Demigod Lord of Undeath and taking his power for my own.

"The Gerudo, who I once considered my kin, were no longer my people. My nation was not even a living nation. My realm was one of the undead. The Re-Dead, the very corpses of my enemy, came to be my kingdom of soldiers. None could stand before their might. I slaughtered all who lived, save for the handful who escaped. None of them dared to challenge my might. And so, I let them be. Everything had gone according to plan over the seven years sense my ascension to power...

"...Until HE showed up. As if to mock my power, the youth named Link scoured my most precious vaults of treasure and killed the most valuable of my pets, as if to tell me that the living would not be ruled. One by one, he revived the Sages whom I had so skillfully dealt with. And then, bearing the Triforce of Courage, he came to confront me. I thought I would break him easily, as I had done to countless enemies before him. Just to make sure, I stole the weakling Zelda away from him and sealed her in a glyph of power.

"But the youngling didn't break so easily. He mocked me with his combative technique. He defeated me with my own power, and as I felt my strength slipping away, I decided to bring the palace where we fought crumbling down around our ears. I knew I would live, and I knew the Hylian would not. But even through this, Link survived. With the help of the Sage Zelda, he escaped my castle before it fell. I rose from the rubble, wondering how this could have happened. I had the power of a Demigod and the power of the Triforce on my side! He may have had a piece of the Triforce, but surely, the Master Sword was no match for a Demigod's strength!

"It was then that I realized my error. I didn't have the strength of the Demigod. Somehow, Gannon had lived, and in my state of weakness, the monster rose up inside me. I knew that the time to release the taint was now. If Link was to be defeated, I'd have to let Gannon's power do it. And so, calling upon the last bits of my power, I bolstered Gannon's strength and waited as he transformed my body into his own.

"But apparently, even Gannon wasn't strong enough to defeat Link. The 'Hero of Time' killed Gannon, freeing me from his bondage. I would have thanked him for the peace of mind he gave me, had I not been busy cursing Zelda for sending me to the great nothing of eternity.

"Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, months turned to years, and eventually, I lost track of time. Madness crept over me, and I had nothing to do, save for gathering what scraps of my former power I could.

"For years, I meditated, building my magics back to their full power, and I exceeded what I formerly was. My power passed beyond that of the sages, beyond the strength of Gannon, and I came into a truly unique power.

"With might I had never seen before, I broke through the seal of timelessness the sages had sealed so well. I emerged into a Hyrule ruled still by great Hylian kings. I found my old enemy, Zelda, to sit on the throne, and my arch nemesis, Link to be her guardian. So, I laid low for a few years. I learned of great masks endowed with great power. I dared not use them, however, not even the Fierce Deity's or Majora's masks, for I feared another taint entering my soul. So, instead, I found the masks and hid them as best I could from the sight of my enemies...

"I took them back to the time of my enemy's childhood using a long forgotten magic, back seven years when the masks had not yet been forged, and I hid them from my enemies in their pasts. Confident that they wouldn't be able to grasp them, I returned to the future and sought a way to re-gain the throne of Hyrule.

"Then, I learned of a power not quite as great as that of the two chief masks. It was a single being that called itself the Master Hand, and it, like me, had been sealed in a great void. In return for its service, a few others and I shattered its prison and brought the evil of the powerful race of the Hands back into the world. We sent them out to destroy the greatest heroes of the world which we so avidly wanted to dominate.

"To my surprise, Link and a few of his friends stepped up to try and smite my powerful minions. And so, I find myself at an impasse. I know not what to do next, for I fear that any move I may make will lead to a second downfall. This is where I shall pick up the grand story that is my life. I shall find a way to smite my enemies and take the world for my own once more!"

Tom waited a few moments, just to make sure that this person was done with his story. "Um, are you okay, mister?" he asked. Gannondorf, whose attention had shifted to his thoughts, snapped back to Tom.

"You have heard too much," Gannondorf stated. He pulled back his hood, revealing his red hair, extremely tan skin and the Gerudo Stone on his forehead. A wicked smile spread across his face. "I might have apologized if things like this didn't bring me such joy," he continued, drawing a fancily bedecked sword from under his cloak.

"What the... Hey, you put that away, mister!" Tom commanded. It was the last thing he ever said, and the last sounds he ever heard were those of his family's slow death by means of magical torture.