fleets: Eyyy another Sunday update! It's almost like I'm on an actual schedule! :P
This chapter kind of upset me while I was writing it. idk how i feel about that...

btw please let me know if any of the chapters are too disturbing/bloody/etc. and i'll try my best to tone it down (how am i doing with it? too much? too little? just right? I'd like to keep this story to a T rating teen friendly)

Chapter 19: A Hundred Lives for Yours

It wasn't the first time that Shadow Link had explored a dreamscape, as in, he'd had dreams of his own before. He'd also had his dreams visited by outsiders, namely Dethl, but that had been a one-time thing when he'd taken the Nightmare up on a silly dare.

However, this was the first time he'd visited someone else's dreamscape. It was a much more disorienting experience. Because he knew that the dream wasn't real, the dreamscape played strange tricks on him, like flickering in and out of focus when he least expected it. He would sometimes catch impossible objects in the corner of his eye, like an alternate version of himself running across the street together with Sheik and Vaati, but as soon as he tried to look at them properly they vanished without a trace.

He hadn't been sure that simply falling asleep near Zelda would let them have a shared dream, but he'd heard of it happening before from one of Dethl's ramblings. Apparently Dethl had once created a nightmare between some kind of divine whale and an adventurer lost at sea… the nightmare had sounded rather bitter about that story when they'd talked about the strange tale.

Shadow Link looked around, trying to figure out just what kind of dream he was in. He wasn't surprised to see that he was in the middle of Hyrule Castle Town, just as he'd left it a few days ago; this was Princess Zelda's nightmare after all. The sky was grey, but it wasn't because there were clouds out: it was simply grey without any cloud or sun. When he craned his neck towards the deeper part of town, the scenery blurred. Houses farther down the road became unfocused, no matter how hard he squinted.

I need to find Zelda, he thought, and then turned to face the other way back towards the main castle.

Shadow decided to take his chances by approaching the castle. As soon as he took a step towards it, something snapped under his foot. He jumped back, startled, and the color ran out of his cheeks when he saw that he'd stepped on a small stick.

Do you want to know how frightening a simple stick like this can be?

He kicked the stick aside angrily, and continued onwards through the eerily empty streets towards the castle. As he approached the castle, his peripheral vision caught glimpses of things following him. It was impossible to tell what they were, and he could only guess that they were humanoid; any time he stopped and tried to get a look, he could only see a brief shadow darting away, or hear the patter of light footsteps running off to avoid his view before everything became stifled with silence. They only seemed to make themselves known when he was moving. It was an unnerving effect.

"It's just an illusion," Shadow declared, waving a hand around his surroundings. Then, he began to quicken his pace towards the castle gates. "Leave!"

Hushed whispers murmured in response, growing louder as he approached the castle. And as the voices grew louder, the flickering movement at the edge of his vision pressed closer and closer. At first he couldn't quite catch the reedy hiss, but eventually he was able to recognize a few words.

"Liar."

"Betrayed me."

"It's all your fault."

"Alone."

"Shut up!" Shadow Link shouted, and he threw open the doors to Hyrule castle. He slammed the doors shut behind him, just in time to stop a severely burned, clawed hand from grabbing him. He skidded backwards, alarmed by the unexpected hand that he'd narrowly escaped. Before he could catch his breath, a different, familiar voice roared in his ears.

"I had no choice!"

Shadow Link whirled around to see Sheik, no, Zelda, facing him, sword drawn and fear etched into her face. She was wearing her mauve royal princess dress, but had half of her face covered like Sheik did. She was splattered in blood, though it was difficult to tell if it was hers or from an unfortunate victim. Shadow Link watched as she flinched when the whispered voices returned to bombard them with their accusations.

"Hyrule is dead because of you."

"Agnes."

"I want to watch you suffer for what you did to me."

The princess's sword trembled, on the verge of a breakdown. "Please, no more…" Zelda whimpered, and it was then that Shadow realized that the voices hadn't been speaking to him, but to the princess. He was overcome with surprise at the sight – the guilt-ridden, defeated princess was such a stark contrast to the cool, stoic Sheikah warrior who he'd come to know over the past several days. He understood, then, the emptiness of the castle and the endless silent grey: Loneliness. Perhaps they'd had more in common than he'd given her credit. He picked himself up from the hard marble floor to approach her.

Sching!

"Whoa!" Shadow Link darted backwards, his neck just missing the blade of the dagger that had flown straight towards his head. He skidded to a stop, and he drew his sword just in time to deflect another flurry of daggers thrown towards him with an intention to kill. "Hey, stop that!" he cried. Zelda was no longer cowering from the disembodied voices, and was now glaring at him with killing intent. However, the burning gaze was borne out of fear, and she looked more like a cornered beast than a hunter.

"You," she hissed, though her voice wavered slightly, "You're not real. You've only come back to torment me, traitor." She was so imposing and so unlike the normally warm, compassionate princess of Hyrule that for a moment Shadow Link wasn't sure if Sheik was Zelda in disguise or in truth, the other way around.

"I… what?" Shadow Link faltered, sidestepping in a wide circle around Zelda to avoid the reach of her sword. He reluctantly brought his left hand to the hilt of his sword, in case he was forced into a fight. "Zelda! I'm here to save you!"

Zelda's response wasn't what Shadow had hoped for. Rather than listening to him, the corner of her eyes wrinkled with a snarl. It was the wild, desperate look of someone who'd seen death and survived it. Without warning, she vanished with a flash of magic, and Shadow Link barely had time to react when he sensed a presence behind him. He whirled around, swinging his sword up in front of him to block an incoming blow. It wasn't fast enough to match Zelda's expert speed, and her blade slid along his to hit the side of his rib. Any slower, and it would have hit his heart.

Zelda clearly wasn't wasting time – she was fighting to kill. "You won't trick me again!" she declared as she readjusted the grip on her sword.

"I don't want to fight you!" Shadow gnashed his teeth in frustration. He held out his sword to shield himself with one hand, while the other pressed against the cut he'd suffered from the previous attack. Thankfully, it didn't seem very deep, but it stung like Gohma venom. He edged a few steps away from the princess who continued to stalk him, waiting for an opening. He'd recalled briefly fighting the princess before, when they'd met by accident at a crossroads in Hyrule field. She'd been a fierce fighter, then, but hadn't been driven to such desperation like a cornered animal like she was now. This was feral. The nightmare had taken a toll on her. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I know it's too late to apologize, but let me help you out of this place," Shadow tried reasoning with her again, a bead of sweat rolling down his nose. Even with her heavy, layered dress, the princess was strong, and she hadn't even used any of her famed magic yet. Shadow Link knew when he was outmatched.

The princess said nothing, only observing him with a cool gaze full of suspicion. Thinking that he may have reached the princess somehow, Shadow Link lowered his sword slightly by a few centimeters. The movement was enough to catch Zelda's attention, and her eyes snapped away from Shadow Link's face to his sword. In an explosive instant, Zelda dashed forward, aiming to strike at his neck once again.

Shadow Link had been somewhat prepared this time, and he ducked into the shadows as the sword passed over him. Zelda's reaction-time surprised him, however, because as soon as she noticed that he'd dodged her attack, she threw a flash bang on the ground where Shadow had hidden. The light dispersed all of the shadows in the room, forcing the Link lookalike to materialize once again while wincing from the brightness.

"Even if it's just you, I wanted to save you Sheik."

His shoulders slammed against a pillar, and he was pinned in place by an arm digging along his collarbone and the blade of a sword pressed against his neck.

Importantly, he was miraculously still alive.

For a moment, Shadow Link wondered why Zelda hadn't killed him immediately like she'd been trying to earlier, and from the way crow's feet appeared along her forehead, he could tell that she was wondering the same.

"Heh, you really are strong," Shadow Link chuckled softly, flashing a crooked smile. He watched as Zelda's blade dug closer into his neck, and he knew from the way she narrowed her cool blue eyes that this was it. This was the end. She was going to kill him, like she'd meant to when they'd first met. Perhaps in retrospect that would have been for the best, so that he wouldn't have made the mistake of bringing Dethl into the Light World. "I'll come back and save you, Sheik," he said sadly, waiting for her to end him, "even if it takes me a hundred of my lives in exchange for yours."

He felt the cold steel dig into his neck, and it shifted slightly when Zelda's hands trembled from gripping the hilt of the sword so tightly that her knuckles had whitened. He waited patiently as she continued to glare at him in both fear and anger.

However, she never drew the sword across his neck. After a while, her glare dissipated into surprise, and although she continued to keep the sword pressed against his neck, her clawed hands relaxed their grip.

Her next words brought him no end of relief. "Shadow Link… you're real?" Zelda asked in a hoarse whisper. When he nodded, Zelda took a staggered step back, and her sword fell to her side. Now her gaze no longer held anger, and all that remained was the fear. "But how? You shouldn't be here…"

Shadow Link rubbed his neck, a faint spider line of red appearing where the blade had been pressed against it. It stung a little, but he was grateful that he'd finally managed to reach Zelda somehow. Still, he kept his distance from the princess, as the other's shoulders were still somewhat tense, and her eyes still had that look of a desert wolf. "You know, I'm impressed that you figured out that this was a nightmare. Most people under Dethl's spell never realize that they're trapped in a dream. Must be that Triforce you carry, huh?" He tried to smile reassuringly, while Zelda's expression dimmed when she retreated back into her own thoughts. He reached out with a hand, but stopped when he saw Zelda's shoulders tense. Instead, he sheathed his own sword in an attempt to demonstrate that he wasn't a threat. Really, it was silly of her to even treat him like a threat when he'd been so outmatched by her. "We're sharing dreams now," he explained, and then laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood, "It's too bad; it could have been poetic if they weren't the nightmarish kind."

Shadow Link's attempt to reassure Zelda seemed to have some effect, and the princess's panicked expression of fear was eventually replaced by an expression he'd seen Sheik wear often: analytical and shrewd. "What are you planning?" she asked sharply, though not unkindly.

"Look, I know you have good reason to hate me after what I've done, but I realize now that I made an awful mistake. I'm getting you out of here." At this, Shadow sighed, and his gaze wandered back towards the castle doors where he'd come from. It didn't go unnoticed by Zelda that something had changed in the way Shadow held himself. It was a subtle difference, like how he couldn't seem to maintain even a fake, sarcastic smile for long, or how the taunting, mischievous glimmer no longer lit up his face.

He, too, looked like someone who'd seen things no one ever should. "Shadow, what's happened to you?" the princess asked.

The shadow's breath caught. "I… don't want to talk about it," he said quietly. "Just… try not to be so surprised when you see other Shadow Links running around when I get you out of this nightmare, yeah?"

Zelda didn't press any further, and simply nodded once in response. Shadow Link was thankful for the gesture. Besides, neither of them had to explain what they had been through since they'd last met. They'd seen enough nightmares of their own to know that explaining what it had been like wouldn't help either of them.

"Follow me." Shadow Link tilted his chin towards the stairs that led to the upper floor of the castle. Zelda frowned behind the cloth that hid her face, curious about what idea Shadow had in mind to leave the nightmare. She'd tried to find a way to escape ever since she'd ended up in this nightmare world, but she hadn't succeeded so far. The floors on the upper section of the castle didn't lead to anywhere important.

Shadow Link stopped halfway up the stairs when he noticed Zelda was watching him quizzically. He knew what her unspoken question was asking. "So uh… I actually don't really know how to escape nightmares," he admitted. "At least, not for certain."

"But you have an idea," the princess supplied.

"Yeah, but… I think it'll be better for me to explain once we get to where we need to go."

Again, Zelda didn't press any further, but she couldn't help but have a nagging feeling that this nightmare was about to get worse before it got any better, especially since Shadow Link hadn't been able to look at her when he'd spoken.

"Down the hall here, this leads to one of the castle towers, right?" Shadow pointed down the East Wing, a long narrow corridor branching into several different rooms and more hallways. The real castle had polished armor and scenic paintings along the walls, but its nightmare counterpart was empty and grey like the rest of this world. He slowed to a stop when he noticed that Zelda stood frozen just before the last step of the stairway, the panicked fear returning to her face. Shadow walked back for her in concern. "What's wrong?"

Zelda bravely tried to appear fine, but she couldn't hide how she had to steady herself against the railings of the stairwell. Her other hand raised her sword slightly in defense against a threat that Shadow couldn't see. "I can't. I can't go through there."

"Why?"

Zelda didn't respond, and only shook her head. Her expression took on that dimmed look again, of someone reliving something traumatic.

Shadow Link sighed, and then peered into the hallway. The longer he looked at it, the more distorted it became, and there was an illusion of it going on forever into murky darkness. "Alright, maybe we can find a different way up," he said gently. "We just need to find a way outside to one of the balconies. The higher the better."

At this, Zelda's head snapped up towards him, her eyes wide and fearful. "We can't. There's no way out of here." When Shadow Link furrowed his brows, she continued, "We're trapped in this castle. I know. I've tried to leave but all of the doors lead back to here and…" she trailed off, glancing at the hallway that Shadow had been pointing to, "Shadow I cannot go through that hallway."

"But you don't know what's at the end, do you? Did you make it all the way to the end?" Shadow asked.

Zelda hesitated. She knew what Shadow Link was getting at, and her fears didn't want her to answer. However, the rational part of her knew what they had to do. The princess shook her head again, and she gripped her sword tightly. "I cannot go there," she repeated, but less confidently this time. A hand touched hers, and she reflexively swung her sword up. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw that she had her sword pointed at Shadow Link, who had approached her out of concern.

"I said I'm getting you out of here," Shadow Link pushed the sword away from his neck, and then clasped Zelda's hands in his. He could guess what kind of nightmare Zelda had experienced, since he, too, had once challenged Dethl to alter his dreams, and he didn't blame her for being so distraught by it. Thankfully he was just a visitor in this nightmare so it didn't have quite the same hold on him as it did on the princess, but its effect was dreadful to watch. He'd never imagined that anything could break the willful Sheik like this. "I won't force you to go down there with me, but I have to at least see if it'll lead us outside. Can you wait for m-"

"No!" Zelda shouted. Then, realizing how distraught she sounded, Zelda calmed herself, though she kept a grip on Shadow's hands as though afraid of being left alone. "No. You're right. I… we have to try. Just don't leave me here," she added, hanging her head. She pushed Shadow Link aside, although she continued to hold his hand, and led the both of them towards the hallway that she feared. She stopped for a brief moment, preparing herself, and then took a step through.

As they walked farther and farther down the hallway, Shadow Link noticed that the walls gave the illusion of becoming closer and closer together, so that it felt like the hall was only as wide as their shoulders. When he glanced back towards where they came, he could no longer see anything but another endless hallway that disappeared into murk.

The whispered voices came next. They sounded like the same ones that had stalked him through the castle courtyard, and he remembered with a small shudder the burned, shriveled hand that had clawed at him just as he'd shut the doors. They seemed to come from all around them, through the floors and the walls, and they grew louder as they continued forward into increasing darkness.

He bumped into Zelda who'd stopped in her tracks. "Zelda?" he asked, "Sheik?" He felt her fingers leave his as she clutched her head, curling over onto the floor. The sword she'd been holding in her right hand clattered to the floor, and she began to mumble to herself, dazed.

"Everyone's dead. Everyone's dead…"

"Hey!" Shadow Link shook her shoulders until the glassy-eyed look gradually left and her eyes regained focus again. "Stay with me," he insisted, and then brought his hands up to her face, forcing her to look at him when the whispers grew louder.

Zelda eventually nodded shakily, and she allowed Shadow to bring her back on her feet. She picked up her sword from the floor, and she began to walk forwards, this time being led by Shadow Link down the empty, endless hallway. She still flinched a little when the accusatory voices began to rise until they were nearly shouting, but Shadow made sure that she continued to follow him forwards. Any time she pulled back, he gave her arm a light tug.

"You're not alone anymore," he said, and then quickened his pace when he saw a faint light flicker through the darkness ahead. And neither am I. He felt her pull back a little for a moment, perhaps surprised by his words, before she, too, quickened her pace to match his. The nightmare became more disturbing in a last ditch attempt to stop the two of them. The grey walls vanished, replaced by rows and rows of standing corpses, their sockets empty and black, and their mouths open in a permanent scream. Some of them cracked their necks as they passed, and others tried to reach for them as they whispered unintelligible words. However, nothing slowed Zelda and Shadow Link, emboldened by each other's presence.

Eventually they made it to a door on the other side, light pouring through its cracks. Shadow Link slammed it open and they leapt through it. As soon as they did so, the doorway vanished behind them, and they found themselves atop the roof of Hyrule Castle. The two of them blinked, and then exchanged surprised glances with each other.

"We made it…" Zelda said in quiet awe. Shadow nodded in response, speechless, and then they chuckled to themselves out of relief. They continued to laugh until the sky suddenly turned a darker shade of grey, and rain began to pour. Their celebration was cut prematurely when reality settled in, and Shadow was reminded of what still awaited them.

The brief smile disappeared from Shadow Link's lips as he remembered what they had come here for. It was strange that the door had led them exactly where they needed to be, but dreams had a funny way of doing things like that. He took a deep breath, and then turned towards Zelda whose expression had become solemn. Their fingertips still touched, both afraid of being left alone in the nightmare. "So I've actually been in one of Dethl's nightmares before," he began, "and I remember them telling me that they don't like unnecessary death because nightmares end when people die."

Shadow Link trailed off, and then stared out at castle town in the distance, beyond the castle gates. He couldn't bring himself to keep his gaze on Zelda, whose blue eyes had widened in surprise when she realized just what it was that he was suggesting. He'd expected her to pull away, but instead she gave his hand a small, understanding squeeze before she, too, stared out at the town, murky and grey from the rain.

Shadow bit his lip, and then began to talk again if only to fill the heavy silence. "Have you ever noticed how you never actually die in dreams? Most of the time you wake up just as you're dying." There was a small movement next to him; a nod from Zelda. She knew what he was going to say. "I was… I was thinking-"

"Stop, Shadow. Don't say it."

Shadow Link hung his head when Zelda stopped him abruptly, his lips pulled back in a grimace. He brought a hand up to his face, pressing the cool rain against his skin. "I'm sorry I don't have a better idea," he mumbled, his voice full of shame.

Even so, Zelda still didn't pull away from him. She watched the silhouette of a large, monstrous creature slithering through the streets of castle town in the distance, her eyes losing the hardened glint and instead softening with resignation. Instead, she asked quietly, "Why did you come back for me?"

At this, Shadow Link broke into a laugh, cracked with sadness. He remembered all of those times when he'd told Sheik that he didn't believe in friendship, and all of those moments when he'd pitied the idiots like Fuu who thought that they were real. I'm the biggest fool of them all...

"Because that's what friends do, right?" he flashed his usual, crooked grin. Then, he peered over the edge of the roof where the ground was about two hundred feet below them. The rain droplets fell past him and splashed on the shallow puddles below. "I'm sorry I-" he began again, but Zelda squeezed his hand harder.

"Thank you, Shadow," she stopped him with a small smile of her own, "We'll get through this."

He nodded. Then, he took a step forward when Zelda inched closer to the edge of the roof. They stood there for a while longer, still holding each other's hands, while only the sound of rain pattering on the rooftop tiles filled the silence. "Dethl said people fear the pain associated to death more than death itself," Shadow walked forward so that his toes were hanging off the tiles. He finally brought himself to look at the princess again, and he grinned when he saw that her expression mirrored his own. Fear. "Dethl's full of shit," he chuckled.

Perhaps out of nerves, Zelda brought a hand up to her face, tugging at her face mask to muffle her laughter though her shaking shoulders gave her away. She beamed at him in the same, familiar way that Sheik had done back at Death Mountain, and she closed her fingers around his tightly. "You're all right, Shadow," she said.

Then, the two of them stepped off of the roof and fell gracefully to their deaths, never letting go of each other's hand as the ground rushed up to meet them.

fleets: no vaati this time. sorry.

i suppose the whole 'leaving dreams through falling/death' could have been inspired by Inception. I think. I don't really remember. I didn't really like that movie.

i have a headcanon that sheik is a much better fighter than link (and by extension, shadow link). don't mess with 'em!

it's killing me that i have to keep my mouth shut about what i have planned because the spoilers get more spoilery...

Kira Akuma: I can say with high confidence that Dethl in this story has zero redeeming qualities...

Ai Star: Thank you! :D I can't wait to get back to writing him again hopefully soon!

fanakatsuki: I guess Dethl's living up to their namesake 'Nightmare' :s I'm pretty horrified by them even though I'm the one writing them...

AquilaMage: Thank you! I hope it wasn't too disturbing (I don't want to scare any readers away...). I've always been afraid to write a Hyrule that was actually badly attacked, until now. I still cringe when I have to describe a destroyed town because I feel bad for the fictional characters haha whoops
I was pretty upset when I was writing this chapter mostly because I felt guilty about all of the awful things I was making Shadow and Zelda/Sheik go through :(((
And yes, I understand what you're saying! That's what I was trying to go for with that scene (as well as a setup for Twinrova meeting), so I'm really happy you caught that :D

Serpent Tailed Angel: You did! :D hnggg I love KotOR a lot - really, really great RPG with an amazing antihero/villain depending on how you play it.
She might not facilitate a lot of plot movement, but her situation's pretty key in character building :) I'm going to try and avoid the 'helpless damsel in distress route' because i like Sheik/Zelda too much for that (hopefully I don't screw up?)
I did go with the 'magically remember everything' route with Gale in AI/OA, and I was afraid it'll end up being too much of an identical story if I did that this time. I think you'll like what I have in mind (I hope!)
I'm crossing my fingers that this story won't be as predictable as it could be (there's a lot of obvious cliche'd plot directions I could send this story to, and I'm hoping to avoid them. Or if I don't, then at least they'll be presented in a way that's satisfactory. We'll see if I can actually deliver...)

Vesperupus: I didn't think my words would do Zelda's nightmares justice in really capturing the horror, so I (cough cheated cough) and left out huge chunks of it. She's pretty traumatized though...
Good questions though! :D I'm on the strugglebus not to answer them because they're majorly spoiler ;)

Lord Siravant: You know, if Dethl reappears in another Zelda game, Nintendo might have to remove the 'family friendly' label on the franchise :P
Rest in Pieces indeed! Many, many pieces.

I lurve it: Vaati is Not Very Nice when he's upset. It was a pretty jerk move on his part to abandon Sheik, huh... D: (but Sheik was a jerk to him first, yeah!)
Good thing Sheik/Zelda has other friends they can count on! :D

FFfffffFFF oh man oh man I have so many pairing feels right now i'm such trashlord... and the sad part is I can't even share my little ideas about any of the potential pairings in this story (keeping it purposely vague here :P ) because I think this story should be completed before I do (cries)