Majora's War - Part 10


-Ganondorf Dragmire-

"Easy now." Ganondorf extended his hand.

The terrain proved too difficult for the elderly and they needed assistance descending down the Majoran path. One foot in front of the other, slowly, they climbed down. In so far as paths went, it was one no one would think of them using. It was direct towards the south, but was untraveled and unused, too difficult for wolves. The young, the limber, and the strong could make do with ease, and so were instructed to assist the ones who could not make it on their own strength. Thankfully there was little in the way of belongings but the clothes on their backs and a few bags of meagre tidbits on their hips.

The old man took Ganon's hand and took the leap of faith down towards the ledge the larger man stood upon. From this ledge the path became more stable and Ganon believed he could make it down into the forest without further assistance. Ganon reached out to who was next, and so on, as it went. He urged them to hurry. The distant sky filled with smoke and the light of fires rose over the mountain peaks.

Far above, towards the back of the pack, Ganon took a moment to catch eyes with Link. Meeting eyes with him, Link shook his head and returned his attention back. A whisper of shadow whisked by Link as Soli appeared briefly before disappearing again. Ganon sighed in relief. They had not been caught yet.

It took far longer than he would have liked for the rest to descend, but given time there was a full and waiting group down towards the valley.

"Good." Ganon breathed.

"We should hurry, some scouts came closer than I'd like." Solitare appeared at his side.

Ganon looked to her worriedly for a moment. He knew of her skills well. They had shared a war together. She wouldn't exagerate this. If she said they were close, then they were very close. If anything the Dragmire probably would have been caught by now, even in using difficult, elusive paths, if she hadn't stopped some scouts who came too close.

Ganon nodded, "Yes, we will. We will head towards the Fae Grove to seek refuge, but first there are a few Dragmire left to be gathered." He pointed in the direct they were to go. "That way." The words had barely left his mouth before she was gone from his sight. He smirked and shook his head. She was as ghostly as ever. He lifted up his voice, "Everyone! Soon we will seek refuge in the home of our old ally, the Fae, but first there are two of our kin to be found. They have lived alongside me outside of the Majoran village, so they will be distant enough from the riots to not be consumed by it, but also ignorant of it."

"Then let us help them escape!" A few Dragmire replied.

Ganon stopped at their words. 'Escape'. Truly, that is what they were doing. He nodded, "Indeed. Come!" Ganon marched into the forest and the assembly followed.

Ganon felt Link's heartbeat coming from the far back of the assembly, so he had taken up a position as rear guard. There was no telling where Solitare had gone, but he knew she would be near. A number of Majoran were with them, aiding them in their departure, as well as two Fae taken on shells of wood.

The march was slow going. Ganon quickly came to learn that this was not some war party. A hunting party was comprised of the strongest men and fastest steeds, and a war march might be comprised of almost the same. These were, however, civilians. Elderly could not move far without rest. About half-way there, they had to stop as the weak were lingering behind too far.

"We are safe for the moment." Solitare spoke up out of nowhere. Ganon flinched at her sudden appearance.

He briefly narrowed at her, frustrated with her antics, but nodded in thanks all the same. "Good. We should move the strong to the back and the weak to the front, so the strong may help them move, rather than set them as a handicap."

"Hm, good idea. You wouldn't want the wolves to nip at our back either."

Ganon sighed. It felt almost symbollic how right she was. They did not want the wolves of the Majoran clans to reach them, no. While most Majoran he had seen were trying to maintain the peace, there was no way to account for all of them.

"You've changed." Solitare reflected.

Ganon glanced towards her briefly, unsure what to make of it. "In what way?"

"When I first saw you, you left an army behind to become a berserker. Truly, you did aid Link in leading his unit, but it did not seem to interest you. Now you seem invested in the wellbeing of these people."

"Hmm." Ganon hummed without comment. He didn't know what to say or feel about it. Had he changed since then? Maybe. He thought he felt angrier, more tense, pissed off with the Triple Goddess and everyone in general. Yet for his actions to reflect the opposite? He wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Solitare continued.

"Might as well. You are unusually talkative. I don't recall you ever talking much." He grunted. "There must be something pressing on your mind."

"How did you survive transforming into the demon that burned me?"

Ganon's eyes snapped to her widely and his breath sucked into his chest. She kept her attention forward, as if she hadn't just said what he thought she said. He stared at her openly. He knew he had transformed, but to learn he had wounded her? He had burned some of the unit he had stood to defend in that war? Guilt punched Ganon in the gut until he almost keeled over. He struggled to take a breath.

"No need to look so surprised," She chuckled. "Link thought he was fooling me by being vague, but it actually wasn't hard to put together given time to consider and what I have seen..."

"Are we to come to blows then?" Ganon wondered. He found the idea wasn't unwarranted. He surely would have attacked him, even tried to kill him, were he in her position.

"Not right now, there are too many lives depending on us. As for the future, that depends," Solitare sighed. She looked up at him, and before Ganon's eyes, shadows fell over her body like a cloak. Similar to the smog he had witnessed Zant used, it coated her skin closely. "Did you do it on purpose?"

"No." Ganon answered immediately. "I swear to you on my honor as a former king of Majora, I did not transform into a demon by my own will. I tell you this even more, I did not know my soul was that of a demon, so even if there is a way to resist the possession, I was unprepared to resist and unknowing how to resist. I have no intention to ever transform by my own will."

She scrutinized him briefly, but nodded. The shadows fell off her skin into the wind as mist. Her shoulders relaxed and she smiled for him, "Then my revenge lies with the one who forced the possession upon you, Harken."

They fell into silence a moment. Ganon marveled at the ease in which she cast the blame away from him, and in a way he was reminded of so many in recent time who had offered mercy when he deserved... when he believed he deserved none. Did Din never answer him because his belief was lacking? Not in her, but in himself? Would he have accepted an answer from her if she had given one, or cast it off in the determined self-destruction he saught? Was it all a charade on his part?

Ganon shook his head and cast away the thoughts. He needed to stay in the present. He could ponder things later. "I heard Harken had survived the war. Is this true?"

"The last I heard he was seen impaled with dozens of arrows by the Zhao, but alive."

"How many of Link's unit..." burned? Did he kill? "Died."

"All but a handful."

Ganon breathed in the guilt deeply, held it in his chest, and breathed out, releasing it to where it belonged. Harken had dealt them a blow. Link would grow to command more than one hundred, but if they ever laid eyes on Harken again, it would be that first unit, the first one hundred, to which Link would no doubt remember. Among others. Despite himself, Ganon found himself chuckling. "Link told you. Of course he did! Why does that not surprise me."

Solitare smirked, "He likely wanted to protect you by being vague because its not your fault. He has even given a command that any in his unit that do not wish to obey an order they find morally questionable, they may disobey it at his expense. He wants to protect everyone. He is an idiot like that."

"Well, you are definietely right about that much. He is an idiot."

They laughed. Hearing them laugh, Link looked up from where he had been patrolling and asked, "What's so funny?"

"YOU!" Ganon roared. "You're an idiot!"

"And you're a dick! So **** you!"

"You!"

"YOU!"

"me!"

"You!"

"Glad we agree!"

"Yo-I-What?!"

Ganon chuckled madly and Soli shook her head. She sighed, "You two... I swear."

This went on for a several minutes before Ganon had enough fun and ordered the group to start moving again with the changes he had in mind. Between toying with Link and talking with Solitare, he felt lighter, like a small weight had lifted. He didn't know what he had done back then, but for them to understand and not hold his failing struggles against him was relieving.

They continued the march, and unfortunately his good mood did not last.

It was a faint sound, a barely discernable whisper in the winds, but it was enough to make Ganon pause and put his hand up in a fist, alerting those behind him to halt. With a motion he sent a few Majora forward. Barely a minute later, they returned.

"Someone is calling for you, Ganon," the Majora said. He blinked in surprise. Who, here, so close to home, would be calling out for him? Nabooru?

Solitare appeared immediately after. Black blood was on her hands and looked like had sprayed her face. Her eyes were sharp and focused. "Twilight, a pack of monsters have a house encircled and in their midst is a Dragmire. She looks wounded."

Twilight. At a house. Here. A Dragmire. Wounded.

Just one. What happened to the other one?!

Ganon's reaction was instantaneous. He had a number of people behind him who were safe here, but there was one before him who was in danger. Not from mobs and riots, as he had originally feared, but monsters. Monsters that had appeared briefly to stir up the Soran clan into sparking the riot. Were Ganon of the right mind, he might have wondered about the connection, but as it was, he had no such thoughts.

Ganon sprang past them and burst into a run. Behind him he vaguefuly heard voices as Link barked orders, and as Ganon ran he felt the triangles on his hand flare. Link's heartbeat was close and beating strong and fast, alerting Ganon to him being on his tail. The young man's presence was a comfort, but all of this was subconcious.

All of Ganon's focus and thought was on what was ahead. It felt in reach, and he only needed to extend his hand to grasp it. The smell of Twilight picked at his nose, and seconds later the first of the monsters entered his view. Hot adrenaline pierced his veins, strength flexed in his arms and legs, fire burst from his hair and steps, his swords swung down, tearing it to pieces without breaking his stride, his vision filled with blood, the burning coal in his heart he had quieted lit into a bonfire, and the wrath, anger, and fury ripped itself from his throat in a loud roar that sent the birds scattering and earth quiet in his wake.

The pack scattered the moment his fiery personage entered their view, and in their midst sat Kuroko, the former governor of Jouto, and... Ghiradrim.

Kuroko, the Dragmire mother to Malon, sat before Ghiradrim. Her face was a collection of cuts pouring liquid down her face and her eyes were haunted, hopeless, and filled with agony as deep as the soul.

The former governor of Jouto, that mask thief and scoundrel, laid among the Twilight torn to pieces and eaten. A Dragmire mask fell to his side.

Ghiradrim, the albino, stood before her in a position of authority, power, and glee. The Twilight bowed to him, listened to him, followed him... and Kuroko looked on him with fear.

Malon was missing. The house was damaged, like something massive had broken the door trying to break in, and there was a trail of blood just in sight within, and scattered dark-red blood around the porch.

Link was on Ganon's heels.

Ganon needed to know nothing more. Details became irrelevant.

"Ah, brother. About time you-" Ghiradrim turned to greet him.

Without breaking stride, Ganon rammed into him. They both slammed into the front wall, broke through, carried on through the house, slammed into the back wall, broke through, and carried on into the grass behind. Ghiradrim fell into the dirt, but Ganon took him by the leg, still not breaking stride, spun, and swung him away into a large tree. He expected the man to be torn to pieces in the impact, as the last time he had swung someone into a tree with his full strength, the man's body had burst. Instead, the tree snapped, sharply bent, and the man's body dented the tree. His shape became imbeded into it. Bark and splinters flew into the air. The tree creaked and moved, the ground shook, and after a moment of resistance, the tree cracked and fell. Its trunk collapesd onto the man, further imbedding him into its frame, and shook the earth with thunder.

A pale hand burst up from the wooden frame. Ganon grabbed his hand. Below him, Ghiradrim looked up in surprise, but smiled all the same. "Ah, thank you-"

Ganon stomped down onto his face. Black blood burst from the albino's lips. Stepping past him, still holding his hand, Ganon pulled him out of the tree and swung him into another, and then another, and then a rock surface, and then across the dirt. Ghiradrim rolled across the ground, his body seemingly limp and broken, but as soon as he skidded to a halt, he started to rise.

"Oh, damn! Whooo, I actually felt that!" The man laughed.

He was laughing... Ganon narrowed his fiery eyes.

Ganon extended his hands, felt both Twilight and Divine flare up from the marks on his hands, and in calling both, unleashed pain. Twilight tentacles erupted from the ground around Ghiradrim and snapped around him, entangling him and squeezing him in their embrace. Fire exploded in his chest and set everything around him aflame. Running at him again, Ganon formed an explosion around his fist and slammed his knuckles into the man's face. The berserker felt bone break, and the next moment Dinfire exploded between them, sending the albino flying back across the valley in smoke. His gangly body impacted one of Din's altars. The stones making up its frame scattered about, despite having baked and solidified in Ganon's flame. Dust filled the air.

And he was laughing.

Ganon stepped up to him, more infuriated than before. Even after everything he was doing, this... villain was mocking him! Ganon could see the blood and broken body of the man, but there was something wrong about him. It was taking far too much effort to hurt him. Yet even with all of the damage he was doing, all the black blood (why was it black?) the man spilled, he. Was. Laughing.

"Come on, surely you can do better!" The man jested.

Ganon grabbed him by the snow-white hair, picked him up, stared him in the pale-white eyes, and broke his fist across the man's jaw. The man collapsed onto the broken altar. Stil. Laughing! Ganon stepped over him, raised his fists, and dealt blow after blow directly into the man's jolly face. He felt bone break. Blood spilled from his white lips and poured from his beautiful nose. With each blow, the altar beneath the man's body crunched and cracked further. Ghiradrim laid on it as if a living sacrifice to Din, and Ganon his executioner.

"Stop laughing!" Ganon roared. He punched the man between the eyes and across the temple. "You think this is funny?!" He broke the man's nose and sent his face slamming upwards from an uppercut across the jaw that would have broken any normal person's neck. He drew his fingers together and brought both of his fists at once onto the man's ribs, breaking them, shooting more blood from the man's mouth, and smashing the altar down into the dirt. Yet still, the man wouldn't stop laughing! "YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY!?"

Quick as a snake, one of Ghiradrim's hands shot out and tapped Ganon's elbow. Before Ganon's eyes, something black, long, and thorny pierced his elbow. Pain and electric numbness shot through his arm. Ganon rushed back, held his arm, and looked at it. Before him, Ghiradrim continued chuckling. He swung his legs around and placed his feet on the ground, using what remained of the altar as a seat. Ganon's eyes widened, for one of Ghiradrim's hands, at the fingers, was black, long, and pointed as a sharp needle.

Ghiradrim popped his neck. He grabbed his jaw and shoved it back into place with a snap and flexed his shoulders. "Yes, actually. Mortals are just so... easy. The sight of golden metals breaks alliances. A few whispers breeds insanity. A death sparks wars... and riots." Ganon felt his blood go cold. "I'll never understand why the Divine gave this world to mortals... unless it is to laugh because mortals are just a joke." Ghiradrim smirked. "But then that is something you know already, don't you? Your wish is, after all, to leave this world behind."

Ganon breathed in and out heavily. The sheer amount of power he had been throwing at Ghiradrim was draining. He could go on for a long time if he wished, but the shock, the realization that his monster was at the core of events lately, drenched his body into a cold sweat. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you do all of this?!" Ganon demanded. "I have never met you, nor heard of you, and yet what you have done..."

"Oh, you mean all the troubles in Majora?" Ghiradrim hummed. He tapped his chin with a finger in thought. "Granting a wish. Two wishes, actually. The first wished for justice, so I gave him his justice." He chuckled. "Huma justice is funny, always self-centered and left to self-exploration and never wondering what true justice is from the very ones who invented it. Huma justice is what we see all around us every day. Endless war. Endless anarchy. Endless cycles of hatred and revenge."

"And the second wish?" Ganon wondered. He clenched his fists as best he could. His arm was still numb, but slowly he was managing to regain some sense of feeling in it. The damage was artifical and short-lived, little more than a pen-prick apparently. Good. Ganon almost feared he had lost the use of his arm forever.

"Yours." Ghiradrim answered. "You wanted an escape, and I granted it."

"I never wanted this!"

"Funny thing: Wishes. Man has the power to do as they will, but man would rather do nothing, shake their fists at the heavens, and say 'why couldn't this have just happened'? Man would rather cast off their ability to do anything to others, and so wish it to be done without themselves working for it. It is putting the power in other people's hands..." Ghiradrim smiled predatorily. It reached around his face to an unnatural degree and hundreds of sharp teeth bared themselves. His gums were black and oozing and contrasted with his albino appearance. "Into my hands. When you make a wish, you lose the right to decide how it goes about... seeing as how you put the work in the hands of others. If you wanted it to go about differently, you should have done so on your terms, your way, instead of wishing for it and waiting for it to happen on someone else's terms. Wish makers... more like slaves chaining themselves to me, more like. To be used and tossed aside when I'm done, and all on agreed-upon terms."

Ganon closed his eyes. True, he had wished to depart. He never wanted to actively engage with the community. He wanted to be approved of and to prove himself, but not to engage or be one of them. He didn't want the consequences or responsibility of being a part of something. Those very things he cast off at every chance and oppurtunity, and to a degree it had brought him where he was now. The one he cast responsibility on to lead, while he did not.

But he never wanted this.

And then if Ghiradrim was a normal wish-granter, he might have granted the wishes a bit differently. Giving Ganon money and a home away would have been nice. Ganon had already tried at having a home outside the village. No... Ghiradrim was violent, manipulative, and found joy in torment and agony.

"What is it you wish?" Ganon asked.

The question gave Ghiradrim pause. The monster lost his smile, lost his humor, and blinked in surprise and bewilderment.

"You use others." Ganon stated. "You manipulate events and peoples to your will. I don't know how far back and how far wide, but it seems you yourself must have a desire to work towards, otherwise you wouldn't take the effort."

Ghiradrim chuckled. "True enough. Yes, there is something I want, but I must say... this is the first time I have ever been asked. No one ever asks the wish-granter what he wishes for." Ghiradrim stood and took a step closer. "With everything I have ever done... everything I will ever do. It all aims towards a singular goal. Something you cannot understand, but if I were to put it into its shortest form, it would be a singular word:"

Ghiradrim cocked his head to the side, the toothy grin returned, and his eyes turned hollow and black as night. His answer was not verbal, but was heard all the same.

"You."

Him. All of this was because Ghiradrim wanted... him. Ganon didn't understand it, as he had never heard of, nor met, this man before in his life. He had never heard of any being that went around granting wishes or having any goal. He had never heard of Ghiradrim before the last few days. What had Ganon done to earn his recognition?

Didn't matter. Ganon felt blood pooling down his arm just as much as he felt feeling return to his fist. He clenched both of his fists and felt the warmth of Dinfire come over him.

"Well, here I am."

"Here you are, partially at least." Ghiradrim agreed. "But don't worry. I'll bring the rest of you out yet."

Ganondorf didn't know what Ghiradrim's game was about. In some ways the creature -for it could not be human- was acting as if it was helping him, but was at the same time fighting him and taking actions the albino knew the Dragmire wouldn't take well to. Did it want his hate, his appreciation, or merely his attention? The latter felt most likely.

Well, he wanted his attention, he got his attention. More than merely the actions taken by him in recent time and more than the realization that the creature had been inserting its thoughts into his mind today, there was something familiar about him. From the moment Ganon had laid eyes on the creature he felt the creature was special. One would easily think the creature abnormal by his albino appearance and extremely polite eloquence, but even this did not touch on it. There was smell about him. A hint in the air. A whisper in the winds, a shadow of memory and recognition.

Had he met this man in a past life?

The possibility troubled him, more so by how it was a true possibility rather than one to be easily dismissed. Ganon did not know how how old Ghiradrim was. Its inhumanity and near indestructability could mean it capable of a much longer life-span than mortal men.

And then Ghiradrim had referred to him as brother...

While leading a pack of Twilight...

Twilight that had called him father before...

Ganon closed his eyes briefly and pushed the thoughts away. It did not matter if this Ghiradrim knew him in a past life or was related to him in some way. It did not matter if the inhuman appearance and leadership among Twilight and black blood hinted at being a creature of the Twilight itself. It did not matter that Ganon was branded with the Twilight pantheon on his left hand.

He chose his family. He chose his friends. And Ghiradrim saught to take it all from him.

Ganon opened his eyes. Reached behind himself, grabbed his broadswords off his back, and roared. Dinfire rippled along the edges of his blades, his fiery hair blew in the wind, and his bloodshot eyes demanded his death. The birds fled from the trees and the world seemed to quake beneath his fury. The marks on his left and right hand both lit in opposing colors as he drew on a hint of their power.

Ghiradrim grinned, "That's more like it. Bring him out."

Ganon charged at him and brought his blades down upon him. Before Ganon's eyes, Ghiradrim's arm lengthened and his hand fell to the ground, only then for the entire arm to turn black and solid and sharp. Ghiradrim brought his blade-arm up to block him, and on contact the earth shook beneath their feet. Ghiradrim flinched slightly. Ganon failed to cut him or pierce him as the arm was too solid, but the exposure to Dinfire burned the creature slightly.

Ganon raised his feet and kicked the creature in the gut. Ghiradrim stumbled back, clutching his stomach. Ganon brought his blades around and hacked away at him repeatedly, each blow stronger than the last. Each swipe faster than the one before. Ghiradrim stumbled back with each blow, being forced to block them, deflect, or evade. There was no opening provided and the creature, while strong, was losing in raw strength as it could barely block as it was. Seeing himself slowly overpowering him, Ganon grinned victoriously and drew on yet more power to finish him.

Trees fell around them. The brushes burned and lit into forest fires. The sky filled with smoke. The eye of Din became blurred out in the sky until all that existed was their battle.

Ghiradrim avoided a blow and cut back at him, briefly drawing blood on Ganon's side. The blow was shallow though, and only stung enough to infuriate Ganon more. He struck Ghiradrim with a blow that sent the creature stumbling again, leveled his hand at him, drew on the Divine fully, and made the air explode in fire all around them in a pillar of flame. Burning and yelling in pain, Ghiradrim fell back and tried to flee, but there was a rock face behind him. Ganon stepped out of the pillar of fire encased in it like a second skin and appearing as a mortal demon. Ganon brought his blades down on the creature harder than ever, sent Ghiradrim's defenses going wide, and brought another blow on him that succeeded in dealing a mortal blow.

Ghiradrim's arm fell to the ground. Ghiradrim held his bloody shoulder and fell to this knees, screaming in pain from the cuts, broken bones, intense burns, and now loss of an arm.

Ganon stopped and looked down at the creature. He had no pity for it. Nor did he intend to have mercy, even if it begged. Even if Ghiradrim fully intended to make up for everything and turn aside and repent, Ganon had no mercy to give. The only mercy this world would have this day was the removal of this monster. Raising one hand slowly, Ganon brought his blade down onto Ghiradrim's head.

Only for Ghiradrim to reach up with its opposing hand and catch the blade's edge in the palm of its hand.

Ganon blinked in surprise and stared in surprise. Ghiradrim had gone silent. Ghiradrim looked up into his eyes, a wide smirk on its face and mischief in its eyes. Before Ganon's eyes, the arm regrew and the blow he had blocked did not make him stumble. Ganon felt like he had just tried to hit an iron wall with a stick of wood.

"Good." Ghiradrim purred. "But I'm sure there is yet more to draw out. This isn't the 'Power' I remember. Come! Bring him out!"

Before Ganon could react, Ghiradrim jumped to his feet and connected a left hook square into his jaw that sent him flying off his feet.


-Link-

From the moment Ganondorf took on the leader of the Twilight, Link understood instinctively what Ganon wanted from him. Ganon had once taken on the minions of Zant to allow Link to get to Zelda. Now Ganon wanted the reversal, to take on the pale-skinned man and leave the minions to him. So as Ganon threw his full weight and fury into the pale-skinned one and left them behind, Link rushed in, grabbed the woman in the confusion, dragged her into the house, and dropped her in a sturdy corner.

She put up a very mild fight at first, but quickly stopped and huddled in the corner when the situation became clear. The Twilight bared their fangs and claws at the young man, and the young man held a glaive spear at the ready while keeping his back to her.

"Hey, how's it going?" Link wondered.

"I-who-wha?" The woman stumbled over herself. A huge crashing sound exploded nearby and the earth shook as a tree fell beside the house.

Link chuckled and glanced back at her with a reassuring smile. "I'm Link. The big guy back there you probably know." Link's head spun around looking around the building. "Is this where Grumpy-Dick's been? Huh. Not what I would have expected. A little trashed but-"

One of the Twilight entered the house and tried to pounce on them, but Link swiped his glaive'd spear across its body, cutting it deep and causing the area around the cut to burst into blueish flames. The creature survived, barely, and scurried away screaming in pain before being pounced on by its comrades and eaten alive.

An explosion of fire in the distance sharply drew their attention and the building shook beneath their feet. The woman stumbled. She gaped at the power thrown in the distant forest.

"Y-you know him?" She asked.

"Who? Ganon?" The woman nodded. Link nodded. "Yep!"

"How?"

"I-uh..." Link blanked. His mind rushed through memories and events and he wasn't sure how to explain it indepth. "You want the short of it? He tried to kill me. I threw a rock. He lost his shit. I broke him out of jail... k-kinda? Not sure if it counts. Turns out we are related. -um- When there are three sisters who have children, the children are cousins to each other, right?"

The woman stared at him, blankly. Slowly her face fell condescendingly.

"I'm not lying!" Link protested. "Its just... complicated."

Again the earth shook. The Twilight creatures stirred worringly around them, unsure what to do and tense. They bit at each other and glared hatefully at Link. "Din... he really isn't holding back." Link whispered.

The largest creature of the Twilight stepped into view. Link saw on its sides were many liquid sacs. He gripped his spear tighter and adjusted his stance. Would this larger beast come at them? It would be difficult to keep the woman safe if he had to deal with the smaller ones and the large one at the same time.

"There!" The woman suddenly pointed at the creature. "That thing has Malon! It has my daughter!"

"Malon?!" Link gasped. Now that she mentioned it, it did look like there was a human shape curled up inside one of the sacks.

The large one turned its beady eyes on them. Its eyes seemed to slit angrily on seeing Link. A moment later its neck swelled, then its chest, and along with the swelling was a building up glow. "Oh... shit." Link mumbled.

A large plume of liquid fire vomited out from its mouth over them. The woman screamed in agony and fell dieing a slow death. Link grit his teeth and fell to his knees. He had been burned before, but never with something akin to liquid fire. It was a searing, all encompossing, piercing and intense burn he had never felt before. The salt-water treatment he had been tortured with by the Zora was the closest comparison he could latch onto, but even that was a pale candle compared to whatever this was that covered his body. Before his very eyes, his flesh melted off and on looking at his left hand, bone revealed itself as muscle and flesh and blood hung off its frame. His every inch, his every nerve, screamed in his mind as an orchestra of agony and torment. His vision blurred with intoxicating smells and mind-numbing agony. His muscles lost strength as his mind lessened and the fibers fell from his bones. Link fell onto his side.

Link struggled to pull his rational mind together. A moment was all he needed. Slowly he clenched his right hand and called on Farore in his mind. His triangle lit up.

The flesh returned to him, the liquid fire flew off of him, it returned into the creature's gullet, its chest and neck flattened.

Link took a single breath. The creature narrowed its beady, monsterous eyes at him. "MOVE!" Link barked. He grabbed the woman and threw both of them to the side. Half-carrying, half-dragging her out, they ran out of the back hole left by Ganondorf. Just behind them a vat of liquid splattered across the house. The woman's eyes widened. Everything inside melted and sizzled. Its frames weakened and the whole building collapsed on itself. The large beast stepped forward, stomped down onto it, and turned its eyes on them.

A large pillar of fire exploded in the distance and the large beast turned its neck to gaze at it, as did most of the pack.

Link dragged the woman into the midst of the Twilight in his haste, and the creatures leaped at them. Link made short work of them. One knocked the woman down and bit down on her shoulder near the neck, but it didn't get to go further than draw blood before he cut a wide swath from its back shoulder to its waist and through its spine. He pushed the monster off and dragged the woman to her feet. Even with blood dripping down her torso and a hand on her shoulder trying to stave the bleeding, her eyes would not leave the larger monster of the pack.

Link pulled her away, but she wouldn't budge. "No, Malon!" She pointed back.

"I can't defend you and fight that thing at the same time! She is moving. She is alive."

Her face fell and Link's heart broke. He didn't know Malon, though they had met. But she was part of the life of people around him. She was Ganon's ward and to him, that made her family. But there was only so much he could do. He could use his Gift for brief spurts, barely seconds in his own perception. If he went after Malon, then this woman would be torn apart by the Twilight around them.

He hated having to choose. He wished Zelda was here... she would know the answer.

The Twilight's attention was distant. Link took this as an oppurtunity and hid them both behind a ridge nearby where he could watch over the place. If Ganon returned he could do more, but as it was...

Link tore off a sleeve and tightly wound it around the woman's shoulder. She didn't resist him anymore, but sat there looking distant... hopeless. Link sighed. "Look... I can try." He pulled a spare knife from his boot. "But you cannot move. If they catch you, they will likely kill you." The woman gripped the knife tightly with both hands, seemingly afraid of it as much as the things she would have to use it against. Link nodded and peered back over the ridge. Something loud cracked into the air and the earth shook. Something flew through the air. Link's eyes widened he stilled when he recognized it, or rather him.

Ganondorf Dragmire's bloody body skidded across the ground and splashed against the nearby creek. The albino stepped out of the woods, deformed and monsterous. One arm was normal, but the other looked like a mass of thousands of branches akin to spider legs. Before Link's eyes, the arm reformed itself into a semi-normal shape and turned white as snow as the rest of him.

Ganondorf was shrouded in fire and shadow, but as he laid there, it dissipated as dew in the wind.

"Come then, brother. Where is the power you showed before? Where is the rest of you? You have shown him twice now, so where is he?" The albino wondered. He approached closer to Ganon. Ganon awakened, gurgled and groaned, and struggled to his feet. One of his arms hung uselessly on his shoulder and one of his legs was limp. Yet still, he raised himself up on a single leg. He clenched his fist, fire encased it, and he punched the pale man. An explosion of fire ruptured around them.

In the smoke, Link's eyes widened further and Ganon's gasp was audible, as the albino had his fiery hand firmly in his palm. He caught it and was unaffected.

The albino narrowed his eyes. "Is this all? Okay, lets try this."

The hand to have caught Ganon's punch exploded into thousands of spider-leg like appendages, and all at once pierced Gano in a thousand places all over his body with a thousand needles. The heartbeat of Ganon fluttered briefly in Link's hand, but still he stayed as the heartbeat stayed strong. Ganon was powerful, he would get through this! Link needed to protect the woman.

Ganon fell, his entire body limp and useless. The albino kicked Ganon onto his back, stooped down over him, looked down at him. "Do you feel it, brother? The Triple Goddess' rejection? You feel how they reject you as they reject my and our kin? I see from these altars that you are a religious man, yet have they ever answered? What kind of master rejects a devoted servant? Can you see the injustice to you? Can you feel it, the anger, the fury, the wrath? Fight it. Fight them. Fight me. Fight all of it! Unleash fury! There is only one way you will recover from this! Your body is useless and at my mercy. I've pierced a thousand nerves. Now it takes but the slightest stroke and you die. Bring him out and you will live. Unleash the full fury and be reborn and both of our wishes shall be fulfilled! Your choice."

The albino stood, and to punctuate his words, turned one of his arms into a long blade and held it to Ganon's throat. Slight movements on Ganon's part showed he was awake and aware, but as his foe said, his body was useless.

"Come on, Ganon." Link whispered. He clenched his spear tightly, but his blood fell cold. Why wasn't Ganon winning? Why wasn't he fighting?

The albino blinked. "You... want to die?" The pale-skinned man asked, hesitantly. "After everything. Why?"

"I would rather die... than be enslaved... and caged within my body again." Ganon replied.

The albino stared down at Ganon for a long moment, surprised. At last, the man closed his eyes and chuckled lightly. "Amazing. So that very pride of yours, that led you to defy the gods in that war, has now led you to defy yourself!" The man lifted his bade from Ganon's throat and walked away, towards the pack of Twilight. "You truly are different. So how about this?"

The monster lifted the blade towards the sack in the side of the larger Twilight beast, in which was held Malon.

"Heal yourself. Fight me. Bring him out. Save her. Or watch your kin die." Hearing the man's words, Ganon thrashed around violently, but still his body rejected him. "I will hunt down your kin and make you watch as I execute them all one by one until you stop holding back! You are weak, much too weak as you are now. Acknowledge that and maybe, just maybe, there is hope for you." Hearing his words, Ganon continued to thrash more and more, yelling and roaring. Fire built up on his skin and both marks on both hands lit.

"And it starts with the one." The monsterous man plunged his blade-arm into the sack-

Link swiped up his back with his spear. Black blood exploded from the gash and the wound burnt with a white flame.