A/N: Okay, just a reminder that this isn't a continuation of where the last chapter left off, but instead it takes place at the same time, just from Link's perspective!

Link was settled in his chair, comfortably looking around the strange room with a mug of beer in his hand, still filled to the top and now warm as he let it brush against his lips under the pretense of taking a sip as he'd done for nearly an hour.

When he'd been asked by the man who worked the tavern if everything was alright, he'd simply said he was having a rough day, and he was left alone to his thoughts.

But Link wasn't alone or lost in thought.

His eyes watched Viscen as the older man travelled throughout the room, sitting at tables and joining in a laugh, standing back with his arms crossed, or lying his head on a table like a man who'd been drinking for days. Each time, he'd offer Link a small signal, saying he'd heard something useful, or it was a waste to keep watching the group near him.

There were times, though, that Link managed to zone out, especially when Viscen was seemingly doing nothing.

Here he was, in a tavern in the streets of Damel, staring out the window at the massive house where Zelda and the others would soon be bombarded by far more than just the arrival of Auru's soldiers. And he wanted nothing more than to run to her side and get her out of there, but if he did that now, it would all be for nothing. She'd stay trapped with Auru.

Link had to give it to the King: he knew what he was doing. It had to be his years of experience on the throne, but he knew that Zelda was a threat in his grand plans. But if Link and Viscen couldn't get solid proof to Finn of Auru's deviance, Link already knew what Auru's contingency plan was, and it was almost worse than his actual scheme. Looking down at the King's armor on his chest, Link hadn't been the biggest fan of what he'd had to do to come to know all of this…

While Link had been thinking, he felt a tap on his shoulder and glanced up to where he'd last seen Viscen, who was no longer there. Giving it about thirty seconds, Link finally stood and set the full drink down beside a rupee, walking out in his faked stupor with a kind- though distant—smile to the man who'd been keeping an eye on him.

As Link traversed the dark streets, still an hour or two before most would even start to wake up, he bumped into a hooded man and stumbled, hearing the word "alleyway" muttered as he did. And straight ahead, Link continued his way behind an old run-down building into a small alley behind several quiet homes, waiting.

"How did it go?" he heard the man ask as he suddenly appeared beside him a few minutes later. It was Viscen, pulling off his hood, looking distinctly different than he had inside the tavern.

Link sighed and pulled a wad of folded papers from inside his cloak. "Got the letters. Damn near lost my hand for them though."

"You kept it, so well done. Did you find him yet? If he sees you, it could cause problems."

"Not yet."

"Shit," Viscen hissed, though he took the papers from Link and glanced over them, nodding his head in excitement. "Yes, she'll know what to do with this."

"Can you get them to her right now? We could just go back and stop them all before Auru even steps foot inside that house."

But Viscen shook his head. "No. You have to go back. You've got one more job too, remember?" Link groaned, and Viscen just eyed him with a dirty look. "You asked for my help when you came to my brother's clinic. I understand that you're eager to return, but now you know the danger she's in. Finish this, or they will. We've done well so far. Just a few more hours."

"Fine," Link muttered. But he swatted the papers. "Just get these letters to Zelda, Seres, or Finn."

"No, I was going to throw them in Lake Hylia just for fun," Viscen said, utterly sarcastic and agitated. Four days in, and Link had all but begged Viscen to stop asking him thousands of questions that he had no answers to. He was not well-matched for Link's personality, and for the past four days, they'd gotten on civilly, though not without a fair bit of friction. Still, both had the utmost respect for the other. Link just hoped he would never have to sit in a tavern for several uninterrupted hours with him again.

All Link could do was roll his eyes at Viscen before pulling up his own hood and heading back to the outskirts of town where the majority of Auru's army was camped for the night. He made no effort to sneak around; he'd been covering himself for the past few days, and even greeted the guard at the edge of the area by name as he passed by.

Though, he often forgot to listen when someone used his name. Or rather, his assumed name.

"Colin! There you are! Come on, you're going to be late! I've been trying to find you since shift change," a young soldier named Izza said as she led Link deep into the camp. "Are you ready for this?"

Link shrugged, "I suppose there's no better time."

She gave him a disappointed look. "Is that all the excitement you can muster? We are going to be famous. We'll be known throughout history as those who made Auru the King of Kings!"

"Shut up," Link hissed, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from a tent. "Do you want the world to hear you? There are still those in this camp who would stop us. I don't really feel like dying today."

She made a face and nodded, "Right, sorry." She kept pace with his rushed stride. They both knew where they were going. "So, how about you and I celebrate our," she lowered her voice for his sake, "victory tomorrow with a drink?"

And though he'd managed to dodge her question once before, he snorted as he found himself caught in it this time. "Sorry Iz, I'm… pining for someone else," he mused.

Her face fell for a moment, but she bounced back quickly. "She pretty?"

Link smirked.

"Oh, so she is! Tell me about her."

"No," Link said, finally glancing at Izza.

"Fine. Then can we get a platonic drink? I'll even toast to your unrequited love."

He genuinely hated Izza. And the only reason he found himself hating her was because she was a good person, and far too easy to like. For the past few days, she'd been nothing but nice, overly nice at times, but generally a good person to pass the time with. She reminded him of Elosa, his old friend back at his garrison. He felt the same about several others he'd met up with. Except he hated them all, and it was for one single reason:

In a few hours, they were all going to try to kill Zelda.

Of course, Link couldn't say much. He was on the mission to kill her too.

When he and Izza reached an unimpressively normal tent, they slipped inside and went out the back end of the tent as well before reaching a much larger tent, greeting several soldiers as they passed. They went inside and and knelt along the edge of the tent, waiting in the darkness of the pre-dawn.

Link tried to get a good look at everyone. There was one pair of eyes who should be here, one person who'd recognize him and blow his cover the instant he realized that Link was not an Auru loyalist. And he'd never thought he'd see him again, since, until a few days ago when Viscen had told him otherwise, he'd believed to have been killed.

It didn't take long for a tall soldier to hold up a torch in the center of the tent, dimly lighting the room. The tent was so tall that the flame was on little consequence. But then again, the tent was tall and secluded because it was King Auru's, despite the lack of the king's presence.

"Soldiers," the man with the torch said, looking around. "We are about to do the Goddess' work, and help proclaim King Auru as the true ruler, above the usurpers. Our liege has the blood of old, and his family stems back to the dawn of this land. It is his right to rule."

Link found himself responding with the words he'd learned to repeat whenever someone mentioned Auru's rule: "By the Goddess' will."

His eyes scanned the room, though the light from the flame wasn't enough to show everyone's faces. He still couldn't spot the face.

The torch-wielder continued. "Today we are the harbingers of fate. And we share in it together. As we live, we die as one. Should things go poorly today, our king will save us. And so, as you all know, we bear his mark to illuminate our complicity. We will be found with ease, and we will go without fight, should he need to turn this in his favor. You have all agreed, and you are here now, hours before our fate, to face it together. In the names of the Goddesses, we will sacrifice if they see fit."

Not the sacrifice Link had thought of when he'd first come along.

Another soldier took out a knife, and she walked around for a minute before bending to the nearest soldier, pulling him into the center of the tent. He followed willingly, kneeling before taking his armor and shirt off. The woman knelt before him and dug the knife down his chest, close to his collarbone, in a straight line, then two more that jutted off the bottom. It was the most basic version of Auru's royal symbol. Link looked around at the other zealots and waited for the woman to bring him to the center.

He did as everyone else before him had done, gritting his teeth as the sharp pain spread around his chest. It was done quickly, and he was handed a cloth to place over it to stop the bleeding before returning to his place. It was deep, and he knew it would scar. For everyone else, it was a mark of pride. For him, it was an unfortunate repercussion that he'd been willing to accept.

When everyone had finished, Link watched the woman with the knife mark herself before standing up. "We all know the plan: kill the false princess tonight. Make sure you enter the room beside hers and kill her guard in there before the ones in the hall. He's your greater threat. As soon as you take him out, she will have no protection. No mistakes, you go in large numbers. You know what it will look like. You've practiced. Now, we succeed; for our king, we cannot fail."

"By the Goddess' will," Link muttered again before standing, wringing out his arm as he clutched his stinging chest like many others.

Izza was beside him again as soon as it ended. Her excitement was palpable. To her, she was following orders as an extreme loyalist of King Auru. She wasn't going to murder an innocent woman, she was going to bring her king closer to his destiny. It made her feel important in a world where she was considered one of the most expendable people to Auru. Objectively, Link could almost see the appeal of feeling so special as a field soldier. "Do you think King Auru will thank us personally?" she asked, a dreamy expression in her eyes.

Link resisted the urge to make a face. "Maybe? He came in a few days ago, so I don't see why not."

"If he shook my hand, I'd die," she laughed, starstruck as much as everything else.

With a halfhearted noise of agreement, he grabbed Izza's arm. "Hey, I just wanted to thank you for getting me in there in the first place. You took a risk on a stranger."

She shrugged. "A hot stranger. Your girl will notice you after we succeed, I guarantee that."

"I'm sure she'll notice me," he muttered. Since he'd volunteered to be in the first wave of the first group who'd take out the guards, he was positive she'd notice him. Him and a few dead bodies, he imagined, hoping that Finn would be the guard on the door. At least he'd have help. And the irony wasn't lost on him that he'd been assigned to fight… well… himself.

The thought made him smile a little. "I was actually wondering if you knew how many of us were involved. I only know my group, really."

She made a dismissive face. "A lot. I'm in the same boat as you. I just know my people. I do know that there were a few more who got the royal mark earlier in the night."

"I was just curious," he said, a despondent smile on his face. "I'm going to go get some rest before we move into the city."

She looked disappointed but stepped out of his way. "Until later. See you for that drink."

He rubbed his hand against his chest as he walked, making sure the wound had clotted before peeling off the cloth and tossing it into a nearby fire. It identified him as one of Auru's, and he knew that once he started fighting, there was no way it would stay closed. That's what they wanted, and it's why they weren't given bandages to cover it. The blood would soak through his shirt would help identify him even more. Not only would he have to ditch his fake uniform, but he'd have to leave his chainmail behind as soon as he could after reaching Zelda or he could get grabbed by Auru's guards who were prepared to enact his emergency fallback plan.

He went over it in the dirt just far enough away from everyone that he was easily ignored to run through the plan again and again. He traced the layout of the house into the dirt, and marked the numbers he knew, their positions, their plans. He studied it in the rising sun for what felt like hours before kicking it clean and heading back to his tent. And damn, he knew that the ripples of trying to foil Auru's plan that he was about to cause would quickly turn into waves.

At least Viscen had taken most of the proof they'd need and gotten it safely away. Link's mark would help prove he was telling the truth about his information, and his participation in the coup had given him access to several tents and piles of letters that he wouldn't have managed to get to otherwise.

There was just one more thread. One soldier who lurked in the camp who wanted Zelda dead for different reasons. One who'd tried it before and who's continued existence and influence had done more harm than Link ever imagined it could.

The time to march came much faster than Link had anticipated. He'd gotten very little sleep, but then again, he'd fought battles on less than that.

The march itself was a mindless display of pomp. When they arrived inside, it felt beyond strange to parade past Zelda; with her expression so vacant, he imagined that she didn't notice any of them passing by. And while keeping himself from staring at her was hard enough, he found it was surprisingly more difficult to ignore the soldiers he'd come to know in the house, keeping his identity from them by keeping his eyes to the ground. For now, he was grateful that the armored helmets Auru invested in covered a good portion of his face.

Despite the pent-up energy that was nearly palpable, the day passed much the same as any normal day would. They followed Auru to the courtyard, and he watched them train until it was time to eat. Auru left for the meal, and soon, several of the soldiers involved in the coup were beginning to pass messages of certain players' whereabouts along. He found the confusion over the mysterious absence of "Zelda's Knight" to be mildly humorous, despite his otherwise antsy mood.

Then word came that Zelda was just leaving the dining hall. Link knew this meant he still had another half hour or so, just enough time to let Zelda settle into her routine before springing the attack, as they'd said.

So, Link continued his search for the soldier he was looking for, though only in an absent pass-the-time kind of way, given the time. He'd hoped to catch Seres or Finn along the way, to give them both a fair warning, but he didn't see them. With any luck, Finn would be with the both of them, and he'd be ready, protecting them. Without luck, he'd still be out with Viscen somewhere, the timing of their meeting off, and Zelda without a trustworthy guard when the attack begins. As Link mulled over the location of his friend, he and another of Auru's soldiers collided while rounding a corner.

"Sorry," Link said, stepping off to the side to let the man pass.

But the man stopped, looking Link over. "Do I know you?"

And when Link looked up, he felt conflicted between elation and dread.

It was the man he'd been looking for.

It was Reese.

Link had to bite his cheek just to avoid acting too quickly. "Were you at the meeting this morning?"

Reese shrugged in the picture of feigned innocence. "I don't know what meeting you are talking about."

Link nodded casually, backing away. Though he'd been looking for Reese for days, now, right before the attack on Zelda, was not the time to engage with him. "Then I don't think we know each other. Sorry."

"No, take off your helmet, soldier."

Link mentally cursed himself, and he cursed Viscen for picking out such low-ranking soldiers to ambush on their first day. Link took off his helmet as ordered and kept it under his arm, his hand twitching towards his sword, hoping Reese had forgotten knowing each other back in Saria Town. But then again, it had been a memorable few encounters.

"You—" Reese gasped, catching on faster than Link hoped.

"Oh, right, you stabbed me! How could I forget?"

He dodged Reese's fist as it snaked out in an instinctive move to try to debilitate Link. In the next instance, they both reached for their swords, clashing them together hard and loud. Link cursed once again, needing to keep his presence as quiet as possible. He couldn't risk being caught and not getting to Zelda. So, he did the dumbest thing he could think of. He tossed his sword to the ground and tackled Reese.

"You're not with Auru!" Reese choked out as he and Link struggled for the upper hand.

With a flick of his wrist, Link managed to push Reese's sword out of his hand, sending it flying far out of reach. "You were supposed have died back in Saria!"

"So were you!" Reese countered, only knowing that he'd stabbed Link three times in dangerous locations.

Link rolled off him and turned just in time to feel Reese's fist against his cheek rather than the back of his head. It sent him staggering back to the ground, and he had to blink away some of the pain for a moment. Reese's metal gauntlet on his hand would have drawn blood, and the brush of cooler air down a line on his face was confirmation of just that.

"I heard what you did," Link said as he made his way to his feet and searched for an opening. While he knew how to fight with his fists, he certainly wasn't a trained brawler. And with armor, it only made everything that much more difficult. And Reese still had a helmet, severely limiting the places Link could hit him to cause any useful damage.

So, he grabbed his knife instead.

Reese chuckled, eyeing his fallen sword behind Link. "That's cheating, you know."

"I've been told I'm pretty good at that."

Keeping his legs moving, Reese circled around Link, his arm up, ready to block the knife. "Killing her would have been a mercy!" Reese spat, the fight forgotten as they simply continued in a circle. "Ganondorf was going to kill her slowly!"

"So you decided to take half of army that was going to save her to give to that monster?"

"I didn't do anything but suggest the idea that Auru could make a fair profit from the decision. Besides, Zelda is not going to survive tonight, especially if you're with me, or if you're dead," Reese said, though it prompted Link's heavy fist to slam against Reese. In Reese's distraction, Link sent his knee in Reese's gut, though with the armor, Reese was sure that Link might be the one in more pain.

"Ganondorf is going to succeed against her cousin Daltus, not her. She won't give up her kingdom, but he's weak enough that he will be far more pliable under Ganondorf. It saves her that torture. She'll be with the Goddess by then, far from the Demon King's grasp."

Link stepped back to avoid a blow to his leg, only to feel another one, a knife this time, cut his forehead. Reese had used Link's momentary distraction to pull out his own hidden blade. Link wiped away the rivers of blood that came with a face wound using the back of his hand, tightening the grip on his own knife and spitting some dripping blood off his lips.

"Your logic is shit, Reese."

When he'd seen Auru's symbol on the letter the day he'd left, he remembered… it was on Reese's armor. He'd noticed it when they'd fought the dinofols, but it just looked like a general symbol that the armor had been engraved with. And that letter combined with the one in Niko's room… it was a good start to tying threads together, and Viscen had worked on making the final knots.

It was only after Viscen had gathered some of Auru's reports about Zelda that Link had learned Reese was still alive. And Link had spent two days trying to find him, to kill him before he had a chance to try to kill Zelda again.

Sometimes, fate did work in his favor.

And sometimes, it didn't.

He blocked several of Reese's quick jabs but faltered just once. Unfortunately, it was enough to take a disorienting hit to the head, then another before feeling a flurry of hard, gloved hits in the gaps of his armor, his abdomen, and then the hard kicks to his back when he fell. Reese knew armor, and his foot landed hard in the gap under the chest plate again, this time into Link's ribs.

Link groaned, rolling onto his back as he tried to open his swollen eye a bit more. Reese went to slam his foot down into Link, but Link held the knife just so Reese's foot landed squarely and deeply in the tip, causing him to howl.

Link kicked at his kneecap, sending Reese to the ground. Using what luck Link had been given, he wasted no more time. He let out a pained cry as he took Reese's knife to the back of his arm while Link brought his own knife swiftly along Reese's neck before collapsing to catch his breath for a much needed moment.

He spat a mouthful of blood, some actually from a tender cut on his lip, and some that was still falling from his forehead. With a groan, grabbing his ribs where he'd been kicked and letting out a refreshing string of curses, he hauled himself to his feet and grabbed his discarded helmet. Pulling it on caused him to feel the hits to his head again, reminders where the metal pressed against bruises. Stumbling, Link hustled to catch up with his group before they got to Zelda's room. The power of adrenaline was Link's friend, and he wasn't going to waste a second of it.

He'd never moved so fast in his life, taking every step two at a time until he reached the group he was in, the first wave into the Princess' room. Two soldiers stepped into Link's room as he arrived. They'd already taken out her hall guards, and he'd nearly been too late to reach her. But he didn't see Finn among the guards, nor did he appear to be anywhere else. That was either incredibly good because it meant he was alive, or very bad because that meant Zelda was inside without a guard.

"You're late," one of them hissed at him. Link was too far for them to see the damage to his face or the blood on his armor.

Jogging over, and with the element of surprise, Link began to take out the soldiers in the hall with a swift stab into the sides of their necks until the others finally noticed what was happening. He'd managed to clear all but two just using surprise before the last two turned to him, recovered from their shock.

One of them didn't bother unsheathing their weapon, but rather took off down the hall, and Link cursed, knowing that they weren't running, but was going to call the other groups over for support. But he didn't have time to worry, not with one soldier remaining. And he was large, strong, trained. Frightening on a good day, and Link was not having a good day.

With the ease of someone picking up a doll, the man lifted Link straight into Zelda's door with a hard thud before flinging him off to the side, hitting the floor with a hard thump. It would have normally winded him a lot more, especially in his overall injured state, but his adrenaline was going too fast and too hard through him. More than that, seeing the door to Zelda's room opened triggered something in Link that he didn't even know existed, and he moved like he was in the best shape of his life to catch up to the hulking soldier.

Vaguely, he recognized that Zelda was alive and in the corner of her room with Seres, but that was all he managed to see before tackling the soldier to the ground, pulling the man's helmet off before repeatedly slamming it down into his skull and standing to face the approaching footsteps, finally able to have a moment to adjust his grip on his sword.

Five soldiers appeared in the doorframe, and Link felt a string of curses leave his lips before hurrying to take them one-by-one as they tried to filter through the doorway. He was relieved for his luck. Though he didn't escape unscathed, each time he took one down, the path became littered with the dead and harder for them to get inside the room. However, that also made it easier for Link to take them down with minimal effort.

"Finn?" Seres asked in a hushed whisper.

Link turned back to Zelda and Seres. He could see Seres standing in front of Zelda, though Zelda held Seres, a knife ready in her hand. Seres looked equally ready to fight, though she was without a weapon.

He pulled off his helmet and let it fall, feeling relief without the pressure of it squishing on his bruised head, breathing heavy as he tried to catch his breath, hoping his adrenaline wouldn't run out before this was over, because when it did, he would be in for a lot of pain, and not one for a lot of movement.

"Sorry I'm late," he breathed, pushing back his bloody hair. From the look on Zelda's face, he wasn't entirely sure she knew who he was. That didn't make him feel good about how many hits he'd actually taken. "Miss me?" he managed, smirking as he watched Zelda's expression turn from determination and fear, to absolute confusion.

"Link?" she balked.

There were more footsteps approaching, and Link glanced to the door before stealing one more look at her.

"You're not going to believe the day I've had."