Title: Dark Link

Ch: 2

Written By: Emerald Padparadscha

Daylight came, and Dark Link was still sound asleep on the hay. When Malon had walked in, she had gotten the surprise of her life to find him sitting there. He was what appeared to be a shadow, and yet she could see him almost full form as any Hylian would be. His features weren't very distinguishable, still in a shadowy manner. Unsure as to who he was or why he would be here sleeping on the hay, she took out a pitch fork and poked him lightly, just enough to try and get him awake.

Jarred out of his sleep by the unexpected touch, Dark Link jumped to his feet, unsheathing his sword in the same maneuver. Malon found herself standing with the shadow sword's tip almost touching her throat. It was then that she could see his eyes, glowing red as they were, and she could just make out his features. It was then she knew who he was. Link had told her stories about his adventures, and she knew that this could only be...

"You're Dark Link..." She said. "...aren't you?"

Dark Link didn't grace her with an answer. He just nodded in reply. A name did come to mind, however. Malon. Perhaps Link had known this girl? He felt another name come to mind. He supposed it was associated to this girl. Talon. There were feeling surrounding those names, too. The feeling surrounding Talon's name wasn't much, more of a humorous joke that could still be laughed about. The name around Malon's, however... Dark Link could sense that Link probably liked this girl more than as a friend. That was what the feelings told.

"I'm...Malon." Malon took a deep breath, hoping it wouldn't be her last. If Link's stories about Dark Link was true, then it was himself, yet as evil as Ganondorf could make it. "I've heard about you, but I won't say anything to anyone if you want to go."

This girl is smart, Dark Link thought. He removed his sword from where it was pointed and sheathed it, walking toward the door. He placed his hand on the door knob and turned it, opening the large wooden door, letting the sunlight flood in. However, as soon as a ray of sun touched him, he felt pain. Immense pain that he hadn't felt before when he had first awakened in the water a day ago. The sunlight had not hurt him then, so why did it hurt him now? Sunlight invaded his vision as well, temporarily blinding him. He shut the door and backed up quickly, soon feeling the wall against his back.

When his vision finally cleared so he could see clearly again, he saw Malon looking at him strangely.

"You can't go out into the sun, can you?" She asked. "It's probably because you're a shadow. I've never known a shadow to last in the sun very long."

He knew that she was right. It had been close to dusk when he had awakened, and he had felt the pain when the sun had touched him before it had grown dim in the sky. That meant he could only travel at dusk and night. Movements from Malon caught his attention. She was doing something that was the last thing he expected someone to do. There were a few windows in the stable where sunlight could come through, and she was walking around, closing the shutters on the windows. His confusion only grew larger at this.

"I don't like to see anything in pain, even evil beings like you." Malon walked over to the door. She paused with her hand on the door knob, looking down at the floor, as if she wanted to say something more and couldn't. Finally, she opened the door and walked out.

Dark Link couldn't understand. Or, more firmly, he was made to where he shouldn't understand. His life was young in the world. At best he was only a year old or so, and the only understanding he had that he could be sure of was that he was meant to fight. To fight and to kill Link. To watch her do something that meant that meant caring made him feel...

A strange feeling inside. He didn't know what it was, nor could he find the thoughts that accompanied it. This feeling didn't come from Link's memories. They...

They...those feelings...they were his own...?

Never had a day been longer. It was his first actual experience with a day, he supposed. The time in the Water Temple that passed meant nothing. Time was nothing, and he was nothing to time. The two refused to care about each other. Or, to the point, he refused to care about time. He refused it. To him, time was something to be loathed and to be rid of.

Malon had not come into the stable the rest of the day. Dark Link was grateful for that. If she had come in...that only meant more of the feelings that he didn't want to feel. When he felt them, he felt unlike himself. Unlike the creature that was to fulfill his destiny. No. He had a destiny, and he would carry it out. He stepped outside the door, feeling the shadows of the night creep over him, moving through him like an old friend that had been long forgotten only to have been found once again years later. He was a shadow amongst shadows. That was how it was to be.

It was that night Dark Link found that if he walked just so he made no sound, and it was his silence that kept the Stalchilds undisturbed in their eternal graves. It was not too long before he made his way finally to the immense wall surrounding both Hyrule Market and Hyrule Castle. It was easy, making it up and over the wall, and even easier to move through the marketplace streets without being noticed, even by the nighttime dogs that seemed to trot everywhere. Out in the dark, two young lovebirds cooed words of devotion and promise to one another, ignorant of the silent being that crept among the shadows toward the dirt road that led to the main gates of the castle...

Dark Link knew he could have saved time and walked through the very midst of the guards without any hesitation, for he knew by sheer ingrained knowledge that Link was the only one who could cause pain to him, the only one who could defeat him. All other weapons, save those of magical extent, would pass right through his shadowy form. That is, if they were lucky enough for him to stand still long enough for that to happen... If their lives would be long enough for them to see it...

Yet, instead, he slunk past the guards, through the small garden field just outside the gates, and over the moat, moving up through an open castle window and into the empty hall beyond. The hall was dark. Night had far from disappeared. This was to Dark Link's advantage. He would not be noticed as easily, if anyone cared to notice him at all. The sound of footsteps behind him alerted him, and he hit in a corner, fitting in perfectly with the rest of the shadows. The footsteps were too light to be a guard's. Someone else..

Yes. Someone else. Someone else that was none other than Princess Zelda herself. She held a torch in one hand and a book in the other. It was not the book nor the princess that made his mind turn. It was the torch. If the light of the torch crossed him, it would not force him to move like it did the other shadows. He wanted to find Link by surprise, not by force this time. He waited as Zelda passed by... But the torch did not come his way. Luck. No. He did not believe in luck. It was fate at work. The princess wandering the halls at this time of night was...interesting to say the least. There was no drawing force leading him to Link, so Dark Link had to find him on his own, yet maybe Zelda would come in handy...

Dark Link followed her discretely as she made her way down the hall and to her room. The two guards standing outside her door didn't see Dark Link as he followed Zelda through the double-door entrance to her bed chamber. Once inside, Dark Link found his way to a corner to hide once again in the shadows. The two occupants of the room...

Zelda sat down on her bed next to her blond friend. He had come to her in the dead of night asking her many strange questions she had little idea of how to answer, but she would not fail him in his search. The castle library had many books that held many answers. She may have found one that would help him on his search for the truth of what had happened only days before. Many days had passed for him, yet only three had passed for Hyrule.

She opened the book and pointed to a particular page. On the page was a picture of a mask. "Is this the mask you were speaking of, Link?"

Link nodded solemnly. On the page was a detailed drawing of none other than Majora's Mask. He had thought himself gone from this future forever when he had placed the Master Sword in the Pedestal of Time for the final time. Yet, when he had returned from his adventures in Termina, he found himself once again a grown-up in this time, Epona once again a grown horse, and the world only three years older than when he had defeated Ganon. He placed all the blame on Majora's Mask. No other power in Termina could have returned him to this time.

"I was sure Majora's Mask was only a legend, as many of the masks you spoke of were." Zelda said, placing her fingers on the page gently. She smiled. "I suppose I should have learned by now to keep nothing in legend."

"It had to have been the mask that returned me here." Link tightened his fist, looking at his gloved hand as he did so. If he could have seen his knuckles, he knew them to be white. "I don't understand why or how, but I know."

Zelda took his hand in her own. "The power of the Sages can send you back to your time, even without the Master Sword in hand."

Link looked at her hand. "I don't want to be sent back. Not until I find out why I'm here. If there is a reason, I will find it. I have a purpose here."

Dark Link felt it when Link's feelings of purpose flooded through him. The connection between him and the Hero of Hyrule felt deeper than hed originally thought. Link's own sense of duty was nearly overwhelming! He had no idea that something besides hatred could possibly be of such a strength as this! It made him...think over his own sense of purpose. If Link ended up destroying him once again, then what would happen? Would he still go on to reform only to try and kill again, or would he disappear forever back into the waters and magic of the Water Temple that Ganondorf had created him from? If he indeed destroyed Link, then... What could he do afterward? He had no...purpose...other than to kill...

He existed only to kill...?

No... There had to be more to it than that! He lived, didn't he? Living things have more purpose to their lives! Yet, he didn't live... No. He didn't live. He was a shadow. Link's shadow. An echo. Echoes had no other purpose than to return, to drown out the force that created it. Dark Link felt it when the hilt of the Dark Master Sword slide from his now limp hand. He had to have more purpose than just to kill. He had to... If not, once he succeeded in his purpose, what of him then?

Link leapt do his feet, putting himself in between Zelda and the unknown invader. The Gilded Sword, which he had been able to keep after his adventures in Termina, was unsheathed quickly and in his hand. This action brought Dark Link back to his senses. He gathered up the fallen Dark Master Sword in his hand, securing it in his grip as he started to take a step foward into the dim light of the room. His thoughts caused him to stall before he could take that crucial step. He had to know what would happen if he killed Link... He had to know what would happen to him!

Dark Link forced the sword back into the sheath and ran to the only window of the room, crashing through the thin glass and falling downward feet first toward the moat.

Unable to remove his attention from the window, Link barely heard it when the guards pulled the doors open and entered into the room. Had he seen what he had thought he had...? It could be! He had killed... He had killed it, hadn't he? Surely he had!

Zelda motioned toward the window to the guards. "He jumped through the window. Outside in the courtyard, quickly!"

The guards nodded and turned around, running out of the room and down the hall. No doubt the guards below had already been alerted to the presence of the unwanted intruder, and it was no question that several guards would probably be searching the marketplace as well if the intruder could not be found around or in the castle. Zelda turned to Link, who still stood there gripping the Gilded Sword tightly. She used to muse how much it looked like a short sword in his hands, yet now it looked like a deadly weapon ready to strike.

Yet the owner of the sword was far from ready to use the weapon as it was intended. His appearance was nothing less of looking as if he had been struck by some shock.

"Link?" Zelda touched his shoulder lightly. Nothing. No answer. "Link, do you know who it was?"

Link found himself nodding, though his mind wanted to scream a different answer. He thought he knew who it was. Whether or not he knew for sure was questioning. He sheathed the Gilded Sword, walking over to the window and placing his hands on the window seal, leaning over and looking out it down to the moat. Though there were many lights lighting the castle courtyard, there were still many dark, shadowy places that he -no, it- could still hide in.

"Who was it?" The princess prompted him.

"I think it was..." Link started to say. It took him a full ten seconds more before he could answer. "...Dark Link."