Hello! I told you that the next chapter will be up earlier. I should warn you guys though that this is the longest chapter yet-but it couldn't be helped, because so much happens in this chapter, and a few bomb-shells are dropped. I can't believe I'm already up to chapter eleven with this story, as well!
Thanks to everyone for all the reviews, and I really hope you enjoy the chapter.
Link stared at the dark figure, his battle-lust dying down, to be replaced by a horrible confusion.
On the opposite side of the roof, his doppelganger grinned once more, the rain dripping from his lips, but apart from that small action he seemed to be waiting for Link to speak.
"You can't-" Link finally found the strength to speak.
"I can't be you?" Dark Link cut in. "Use your eyes, Link. I am identical to you. Only difference is that I have a rather…mean streak." Again, the sneer.
Link shook his head, drops of rain flying from his hair. "This doesn't make any sense!" He practically screamed at the dark figure.
Fatigue once again set in, and he was reminded that his body was running on empty. His body swooned slightly.
The figure chuckled, blonde hair identical to Link's shade peeking out from under his dark hood.
"Whoa Link, you sound stressed. Must be something to do with all that killing you've been doing lately." Dark Link gloated, moving towards Link over the slippery roof. "Fortunately for you, I'm in a good mood, so I might as well explain this whole situation."
Link glared at his mirror image, trying to keep his sanity. "Spit it out." He snapped. In his mind's eye, he could picture Scray's body lying unattended on the floor of the house below. Had the poor soldier slipped away yet, or was he still struggling vainly for life, he wondered gloomily.
"Ganondorf, you see," Dark Link explained, "is a smart man. He knew that, one day, you could slip past his defenses, maybe get into Hyrule Castle Town and threaten his castle, however stupid that would be. So he had powerful magic set up. In this case, as soon as you stepped foot near enough to the castle, the magic sensed your presence and activated. At that moment, I came into being."
At his words, Link felt not fear, but relief. For a moment, after seeing the doppelganger, he had feared that he had lost it, and had somehow imagined something that was impossible.
"You're not even human, then," he spat. "How can you be identical to me?"
Dark Link laughed lowly. "I am identical to you, apart from my appearance, by the memories we both share. Once activated, the magic entered your mind, and recorded everything it found there, and gave it to me. I know everything you know. I have all your skills. But I have a number of different beliefs. I believe that Ganondorf is destined to become the true ruler of this land, for instance. I exist to stop you from stripping him from power, Link. And, I have a different name. You may call me Dark Link."
Link frowned. Everything his enemy-this Dark Link, had said sounded true and plausible.
Only, he could not remember feeling anything enter his mind-surely he would have noticed something as it happened.
And then he remembered the strange dream he had experienced, and he groaned.
"Can you sense me, Link?" The stranger in his dream had said. "Can you sense me getting closer?"
That must have been the moment that Dark Link had come into existence- Ganondorf's magic using his memories to make an ultimate nemesis-someone who knew all of his weaknesses.
"I see from your eyes that you understand now." Dark Link whispered, coming ever closer to him. "I'm glad. Now you will die with the full knowledge of who killed you-yourself."
Dark Link stood only an arm-span away from Link now, a confident grin on his face. The grin vanished instantly as Link snaked out an arm, grabbed Dark Link's shirt just below the neck, and wrenched his body forward so that his forehead slammed into Dark Link's head in a sudden head butt.
Dark Link fell backwards onto the roof, and looked up dazed to see the tip of Link's sword hovering before his face. Link had dropped his shield to the roof in order to grab and head-butt Dark Link.
"I am so sick of Ganondorf's filth coming after me," Link raged, glaring down at the fallen swordsman. "I don't really care if you think you're like me, because you're not. When I kill, it's to protect people. You seem to get pleasure out of killing for fun-that soldier you shot was twice the man you are. And tonight, I will avenge his death."
Dark Link blinked up at Link in shock, holding his forehead with one hand, and then all of a sudden he burst out laughing manically.
"That's the spirit, Link," he chuckled, shaking his head with mirth. "Knowing you, I admit that I expected you to be more of a push-over then this." He suddenly looked up at Link, and his smile vanished. "But don't pretend that you kill to protect people, when I know you kill only to protect yourself. You pretend you're acting for the good of the people, but really we both know your actions are purely selfish."
"You can say what you want," Link sighed. "But seeing as you're just a tool of Ganondorf's, I'm not about to take whatever comes out of your mouth seriously."
Now Dark Link's face darkened under a hateful scowl.
"I am no tool." He hissed, and then he smiled slyly. "But tell me something. What did you do when Navi was taken from us? Did you save her?"
"Shut up!" Link yelled, stabbing the sword warningly towards Dark Link's face.
Suddenly, Dark Link rolled backwards, out of reach of Link's late swing of his sword. He bounded up on his feet and drew his own sword, circling Link and laughing.
"What's the matter, did I hit a nerve? Of course I did. Because we both know that you didn't save Navi-you ran. And you've been running ever since!" Dark Link barked.
With an animal growl Link lunged at Dark Link, and their swords clashed together in the rain. Link leaned his weight against his sword, so that Dark Link's sword was forced backwards, towards his neck.
Dark Link gritted his teeth together, pushing back and straining, but Link's anger gave him extra strength, and the swords remained locked in place.
Link glared into his mimic's blue eyes, and then suddenly drew in a surprised breath as he noticed that a change was coming over Dark Link. The blue in his eyes faded, slowly replaced with a deep red color. Blonde streaks of liquid ran down Dark Link's body, and it took Link a second to realize that the blonde color was coming off his hair, as if a dye was being washed off the hair by the rain. The blonde strands vanished, to be replaced by a deep black color, which spread until it covered all of Dark Link's hair.
Then, with a smug smile, Dark Link leaned forward, and the swords moved so that now Link was struggling to keep both swords from his body.
"And the transformation is complete," Dark Link whispered through half-closed eyes. "Now my abilities are at their fullest."
With ease, Dark Link kicked a foot out, catching Link in the mid-section, and at the same moment wrenching his sword away from Link's.
Link fell backward with a startled cry, and had to catch onto the tiles of the roof with his hands to stop himself from falling off. He stood up slowly, balancing on the edge, and was about to lunge his sword at Dark Link again when movement from the ground caught his eye.
He turned to see Rupert hurrying towards the house with several other men, their swords drawn and their faces pale.
Link cupped his hands to his mouth like a megaphone and shouted down at Rupert. "Rupert! Get inside and help Scray! He's dying!"
Rupert looked up at Link in surprise, but thankfully the tall man did not hesitate, and instead ducked his head and ran into the hole in the side of the house.
Link looked back at Dark Link just in time to deflect a wild stab that had been aimed at his eyes. He side-stepped, moving away from the edge of the roof, and parried blow after blow from Dark Link's sword.
Dark Link's sword snaked past Link's defenses to deliver a nasty cut to Link's cheek. Link responded by using a foot to kick his shield up from the ground, grabbing it in mid-air, and butting it against Dark Link's face, causing the evil version of him to reel away momentarily.
But Dark Link came back straight away, and cut at Link's left hand, causing a red gash to appear and forcing Link to drop the shield once more.
Grabbing the stunned Link, he thrust his head into Link's, and then with a flick of his sword un-armed the falling hero, sending the Master Sword clattering off of the edge of the roof.
Link hit the roof hard on his back, his breath knocked out of him in a sudden whoosh.
He stared up, panting, as Dark Link held his sword against his neck.
"Had to pay you back for head-butting me the first time," Dark Link said calmly, rubbing his forehead with a hand. His red eyes flashed menacingly, and he grinned wickedly.
"How's it feel to be beaten by your better-half?" He mocked.
Link shut his eyes, each breath he took causing him pain.
He was too fast, he told himself grimly. And I didn't have the energy. And…maybe what he said was true. Maybe I did kill Navi. Maybe I am selfish.
He opened his eyes again, squinting from the rain that fell down on his face and looking up into the eyes of Dark Link.
Then, a strange, disbelieving, but calm look came to Link's eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Dark Link demanded, a slight fear crossing over his features.
Link didn't answer, but continued to watch the single tile float slowly in the air just behind Dark Link's head.
Sensing that something was amiss, Dark Link turned ponderously, and at that moment the tile swung back and crashed into Dark Link's head, shattering on impact.
Dark Link cried out in pain and stumbled back, and Link rolled forward and struggled to his feet, turning around to watch as his enemy grabbed at his head in pain.
"Link!" Dark Link screamed, a thin stream of blood dripping down a side of his face, staining some of his black hair red. "Link! What did you do? What kind of trick is this?"
Dark Link watched as Link turned his head slightly and smiled thankfully towards the distance, at nothing. He opened his mouth to shout at him again, but stopped as he noticed another tile floating up from the roof just in front of Link. It paused in the air, and then shot forward towards his body. He rolled to one side quickly, dodging the tile, but as he stood up again another tile struck him in the middle, causing him to double over in pain.
"How are you doing this?" He yelled, confusion in his eyes as he looked at Link.
Link turned to Renna, who stood on the roof next to him holding another tile, ready to throw it at Dark Link.
"Guess he can't see you," Link whispered at her. Renna turned and gave him a wink, her red eyes flashing.
She threw the tile at him, but Dark Link rushed forward and slashed at it with his sword, causing it to shatter. He ran at Link, who side-stepped out of the way of the rushing swordsman. But Dark Link didn't turn to go after him, and instead slashed his sword wildly through the air where he estimated was the point of origin of the tiles, figuring out that something invisible was attacking him.
But Renna was no longer standing there and instead had circled around to Dark Link's back. She brought down yet another tile on the back of his head with all her might, and Dark Link staggered and screamed in fury.
He swirled around with his sword in frustration, but, hitting nothing, he suddenly ran across the length of the roof and bounded across a gap to land on the roof of another house. He turned back to Link, one hand clutching his head.
"So much for playing fair, huh Link? I don't know what you just pulled, but next time you won't be so lucky!" Dark Link called over. He then ran unsteadily over the roof-tops, quickly vanishing behind the sheets of rain into the darkness.
Renna ran over to Link and put her arm around his shoulder, trying to give his body some support. It wasn't the same as being held up by an actual person who was all physically there, but Link felt a slight buffer regardless.
"Thanks, Renna," he coughed, as his head pounded dizzily. "Thanks for saving my life again."
Renna pulled a face. "I didn't do much. And, if I could have gotten here sooner, you might not be so beat up."
Link retrieved his shield from where it lay on the roof, and then Renna helped him over to the edge of the roof, where he bent his knees, preparing to jump down to the grass below.
"Link…why did that guy look almost exactly like you?" Renna asked quietly. "Is he your brother or something?"
Link laughed hollowly. "Brother? No. I have no family. He was…well. Would you believe he was an evil force of matter and magic sent to take me out?"
Renna gave him a look. "Of course I believe that. Look who you're talking to." She said, smiling.
Link chuckled slightly, and then his addled brain remembered Scray. He turned to Renna.
"Do you mind keeping away from me until I'm along again? I don't want any distractions." He took a deep breath. "It's Scray. That guy-he called himself Dark Link-shot him through the chest with an arrow. I think he's dead." He said softly, looking downwards.
Renna looked away from him, shutting her eyes quickly in a look of pain. "No…" she whispered, almost to herself. "Not Scray as well. When will this stop?"
At that moment Rupert came running up from the distance, his sword still drawn. Link figured that must mean that Rupert and the men he had with him had already retrieved Scray's body and left the house, if Rupert was just now returning.
"Link!" Rupert called up. "Are you okay? We heard the fight coming from the roof when we went into the house, but we had to take care of Scray. Who were you fighting?"
Link dropped to the wet grass below, mud splashing up from the sodden ground. Seeing the Master Sword lying in the mud, he picked it up and turned to Rupert.
"The person I was fighting is gone now." He said to Rupert quickly, who was gazing at the ruined house in shock, as if seeing it for the first time. "The Re-dead attacked us while we were in the house-I guess you saw the bodies. But you said you had to take care of Scray. Is he…" Link found he couldn't finish the sentence.
Rupert bowed his head, and Link's heart sank.
The soldier rubbed at his beard tiredly, before he finally spoke again. "Scray's not dead yet. But…it's not looking good. He's lost a lot of blood, and the arrow might have hit a major organ. We have a doctor tending to him now, but he's very inexperienced." Rupert said with a sigh.
"I'm so sorry, Rupert. I should have done more to protect him." Link started, but Rupert cut him off with a curt hand gesture.
"Say not another word!" He cried. "The fault lies with me. I shouldn't have let the sick house be unguarded. I thought he would be safe there, because the Redead had already attacked once tonight, and they're not usually so ordered and adept at working together."
He bowed his head once more, and Link saw a man who was almost at the end of his rope standing before him.
A movement caught his eye, and he looked to his left to see Renna gliding forward slowly, towards Rupert. He could have felt annoyed that she had not listened to his request to stay back, but she moved with such purpose that he could only feel curious at what she was doing.
She stopped in front of Rupert, and raised a shaking hand to gently stroke the side of his cheek. Rupert shivered and looked up suddenly, looking around at the air as if he sensed something.
"Daddy…" Renna choked, crying softly. "Please don't be sad. You're stronger then this."
Her tears fell to the ground with the rain, but Rupert, oblivious to his daughter's presence, only stared about him with increasing confusion.
Her father. Link thought, with a sense of melancholy. Now that he looked, he sort of saw a resemblance between the two of them. He remembered how Rupert could, at times, joke and seem at ease with everything, but at other times could have a dead, depressed look in his eyes.
"Link…" Rupert murmured. "I suddenly feel ill at ease, but for what reason I cannot say. I have to leave, and check on Scray."
He turned slowly, hesitating somewhat, and began to walk slowly away from the wrecked house.
"No!" Renna cried, after her father. "Don't go!"
Rupert seemed to pause in his next step, but kept on walking still.
"Wait!" Link shouted, and Rupert turned back, a questioning look on his face.
Link hurried forward, and said to Renna out of the corner of his mouth, "Tell me now what you want to say to your father."
Renna nodded, the tears still falling, and the two of them walked up to Rupert.
"Rupert," Link began slowly. "I need to tell you something that will sound crazy."
He glanced at Renna, who began to speak her message.
"I have a message for you from…from your daughter, Renna." Link repeated the unheard words to Rupert.
The man rocked back like he had just taken a blow, and he glared with a mixture of anger, sadness and hope at Link.
"How do you-" He began, but Link interrupted him.
"Your daughter says: 'You have done all you can for the people of Hyrule Castle Town, and for the memory of me. I don't want you to stay in this hell any longer, nor any of the other townspeople. Go, and start your life over one more time. I know it will be hard, but you and I survived after mum left us, and now I know you have the strength to live your life after I am gone.'" Link intoned gravely, struggling to keep his voice from breaking.
The tears had begun to fall from the soldier's eyes, as he continued to stare at Link in disbelief.
"'So please…Rupee. Please leave before there is more death, and give up trying to bring my broken body back from the castle. If I know that you're safe, I can die in peace, and I can die happy. I love you.'" Link said. He should have felt weird telling another man all this, but in his heart he could see that both himself and Rupert knew that the words came not from him, but from Renna.
Rupert tried to choke back the tears, as he struggled to speak.
"A part of me…is saying that this is impossible. But, somehow, I have always sensed a presence around me ever since my daughter was taken from me." Rupert managed to say. "You saw my daughter?" He asked.
Link nodded grimly. "I'm sorry I can't offer more proof." He muttered.
"You've offered proof enough. You're new to the town, so you could not possibly know about my dead wife and daughter. And, you said 'Rupee'…that was her pet name for me that only the two of us used." He said, and took a deep, shuddering breath. "So she's really gone, then. Link…if you somehow see my daughter…or…her ghost, or in whatever form she came to speak to you, tell her that I love her."
Without another word he turned and walked back towards the distant buildings, his shoulders hunched in sorrow.
With a wrenching cry of anguish Renna fell to the ground, sobbing, and Link knelt to rest a hand on her shoulder, feeling miserable.
She turned and hugged him tightly, so that he could feel a slight sensation of her body, and she wept loudly.
"It's not fair," she said in between racking sobs. "I only wanted to live a simple life with my father! Why did Ganondorf's men take me, and the other townspeople? Why? How could one man do all this?"
Link shook his head mutely, anger flashing in his eyes.
"Do you think he'll listen to you, and leave this place?" He asked her.
She cried louder, digging her fingernails softly into his shoulder. "Who knows, with that stubborn ox? But…at least he seemed to believe you, right? I thought he might. My father has always been pretty open-minded about the supernatural and stuff."
The rain fell down Link's neck to his back, making him shiver. Renna noticed this and stood up suddenly, wiping her eyes and trying to stop sobbing.
"Let's go…I want you out of the rain, at least." She ordered, walking towards the same buildings her father had headed for.
"Are you going to be okay?" Link asked, jogging to keep up with the ghost.
"Not really. This isn't exactly something you get over easily, even when you're dead." She muttered.
"You're not going to disappear suddenly?" He asked, his body sending out painful spasms from all over the place as he walked.
"Not yet." She said.
Renna led him to another small house, and he opened the door and stumbled in. Several people were crowded around the main room of the house, among them Rupert, who knelt at the side of a bed where Scray lay, his face deathly pale. The arrow had been removed from his chest, and his body bandaged. A doctor stood near-by, shaking his head to another man.
Link walked over to the bed and looked down at Scray. He was still breathing, he saw with a shock, but it was labored.
Rupert looked up at him, his face still tear-streaked.
"There's nothing more we can do for him now. The arrow managed to miss his major organs, but the internal damage is still great, and he's lost too much blood. He'll slip away during the night." He told Link.
Link bowed his head, and Rupert stood up and gave him a look-over.
"You're not doing so well yourself," he muttered, and beckoned to the doctor, who was but a young man with a long face.
"I'm fine," Link tried to say, but the doctor made him sit down and before long he had patched up the nasty cut on his cheek, stitched up the cut on his hand, and bandaged a number of other wounds.
"Get some sleep, Link!" Rupert ordered. "I know you haven't slept much since you've been here. But before you do, eat and drink this." And he pushed some buttered bread and a jug of water into his hands.
Not protesting even in the slightest, he devoured the bread quickly, and drank the whole jug of water so fast he almost choked, and had to be pounded on the back by Rupert.
"Make sure you post guards around the houses," Link warned Rupert. "Be on the look out for a swordsman who looks…well, a lot like me. He might attack again, and may be able to control the Re-dead."
Rupert frowned, but told Link that he would do just that. Link wasn't sure if he believed him about the swordsman, or if he just thought that he was rambling from lack of sleep and exhaustion.
He dimly heard Rupert say something about there being a bed in a side-room. Stumbling away from everyone standing around and whispering, he entered the room, saw the bed, and barely managed to reach it before his body collapsed on him. Letting his sword and shield drop next to the bed, he fell on the pillow and sheets and was asleep before any other thought hit him.
For the remainder of the night, Rupert and several of Scray's friends stood watch over Scray's body. Just before dawn however, weariness took its toll on the men, and, with the knowledge that they could do nothing more for their friend, they began to drop off to sleep one by one, until only the doctor and Renna remained awake, the ghost unseen by all, hovering in front of Scray's bed.
She watched as the young man's breaths grew more and more shallow, and she knew that it would not be long until he succumbed to death. She wondered if, when Scray's soul left his body, she would see it depart, but told herself that it was unlikely.
With one last shuddering breath, Scray's chest fell, and then remained still. She watched the doctor move towards Scray, check his pulse, and shake his head to himself. He was gone.
Renna bowed her head, too emotionally drained and dead inside to even cry. If Scray had held on for a little longer, she thought, he might have pulled through..
She clenched her fists, suddenly angry. She looked down at Scray's body, and in her mind's eye she saw herself as a young girl of only five years of age. She was on her knees outside her house, and was crying, a bird lying motionless on the ground before her. What had happened next she still could not explain to herself, but she suddenly knew what she had to do.
Steeling herself, she rushed quickly at Scray's body.
Rupert awoke to pandemonium. People in the room around him were crying out in surprise, pointing and backing away from Scray's bed.
Bleary-eyed, he sat up from where he had been sleeping on the floor, and stumbled over to the doctor, who was looking down at Scray's body with an alarmed expression.
"What's happening?" Rupert demanded.
"He passed away…" the doctor mumbled, shaking his head, perplexed.
"Oh no…god no." Rupert moaned, feeling his heart fall. He had been expecting that Scray wouldn't pull through, but it still came as a heart-wrenching shock to him.
The doctor grabbed his shoulder. "He passed away, yes, but…I just saw his body spasm alarmingly. I've never seen anything like it. He still has no pulse, so there's no explanation for it." He said.
Another villager, backing away from the bed, said fearfully, "He jolted up about two feet in the air!"
Rupert shook his head, staring down at the soldier, and then right before his eyes he watched astonished as Scray's body underwent another spasm, shaking forcefully. It was almost as if he was being struck by invisible lightning.
"Whoa!" The doctor shouted, feeling once more for a pulse in Scray's arm. He then grabbed Rupert's arm in disbelief. "Look! See how his chest moves now! But I'm feeling for a pulse and I'm still finding nothing. Somehow air is being pushed into his body-look, his mouth is opening! Amazing!"
The other men in the room made warding-off gestures and stayed as far as possible away from the bed, but Rupert leaned forward and brushed his arm through the air over Scray's body. He felt nothing solid there.
Again, Scray's body leaped up on its own, and then again, and again.
"What's happening to him?" Rupert shouted to the doctor in panic.
"I don't know! Maybe it's some kind of dark magic! I don't like this." The doctor shouted back, but he looked more interested then fearful.
Scray jolted one more time, and then Rupert's heart leapt to his throat as, impossibly, the dead soldier began to take gasping, wheezing breaths, his chest rising and falling.
The doctor's jaw dropped, and he turned to Rupert ashen-faced.
"He's back!" He said in disbelief, feeling Scray's pulse jump to life.
Exhausted and drained, Renna floated weakly through the wall, leaving the house as the villagers all clustered fearfully around Scray's bed.
Link awoke and stretched, sitting up in bed and gazing around him groggily. He must have slept deeply, because for once he didn't remember having any dreams. Light streamed into the small room he was in via a small window in the wall, bur the rain still fell outside.
It's still raining? He thought to himself incredulously, and he wondered how long he had slept for.
Before getting out of bed, he tried to remind himself of what had happened, and what needed to be done next.
Okay, so I passed on Renna's message to her father. I fought some psycho version of myself, who would have killed me if it hadn't been for Renna. Where did I leave Epona? Oh yeah, I stabled her right near the entrance to Hyrule Castle Town. What am I doing now? I have to get the villagers away from this place, don't I? Which means going into the castle to rescue the prisoners. Renna promised she would help me. This was how his jumbled thoughts went.
Suddenly with a pang he remembered how he had left Scray the night before, on the verge of death. He hopped out of bed, his body feeling stiff, and quickly walked into the main room of the house. It was deserted, apart from Rupert, who was sitting on a chair near the bed where Scray's body lay.
Link ran over to the bed, dreading the worse.
"Is he okay?" He asked Rupert. Rupert looked up at him…and grinned widely, causing Link's spirits to soar.
"I think he's going to make it. It's…it's amazing, Link. He died last night, and yet as we watched he was returned to us." Rupert said in wonder, looking at Scray, who now seemed to be breathing more easily.
"He died?" Link asked, puzzled. "And when you say he was returned to you, do you mean that the doctor brought him back?"
Rupert shook his head. "The doctor didn't touch him. I still don't know if it was dark magic, a miracle, or what that did it…but I think I sensed my daughter's presence at one point…though maybe I am just being hopeful and imagining things." He said, standing up from the chair.
"Things need doing around here now. I need to help prepare for tonight, especially as the danger appears to be growing for us. Today I tried to convince the villagers once again to leave, but they refused. Anyway, if you'll excuse me…" Rupert said, and headed to the door leading outside.
"Wait," Link called, and he paused at the door. "Tell me something…have you changed your mind about staying?"
Rupert hesitated before answering. "I can't go. Even if it's true that my daughter wishes it. I can't just give up now and save myself, leaving all the villagers behind to be condemned to death." He left then, and Link, sighing, turned around and with a shock noticed that Renna was sitting gloomily at a round table in the corner.
"You slept for ages…" Renna admonished, as he sat down at the table opposite her.
"Did I?" Link muttered, a lot of his attention focused on the food and milk he now saw on the table: cheeses, bread, and fruit were heaped in the middle.
Renna laughed. "Go ahead, eat." She offered, and Link dug in.
"But yeah, it's around four in the afternoon now." She stated.
Link almost choked on the bread roll he was devouring. He had not realized he had been out for so long!
"Not that I can blame you or anything," she went on, and Link noticed once more how moody she looked.
"What's wrong?" He asked her. He looked towards Scray's bed. "And you didn't happen to have anything to do with the strange happenings of last night, did you?"
She smiled slightly, seeming pleased with herself. "I might have." She admitted coyly. Then she shook her head, and the smile disappeared. "I've just been thinking. I know I promised you that I'd help break you into the castle, but…now I don't think it's a good idea at all."
"Why's that?" Link asked, pausing in the act of eating some cheese.
"Because I'd be able to get you in okay, but after that you'd be stuck in there, with the prisoners! I can't make everyone pass back out through the walls, and I'll be weak because…well, just because. You'd have to get back out through the castle itself, and that's suicide!" She said unhappily.
Link stopped eating, thinking about the situation.
"I know it's going to be hard," he said finally. "But I think I'm willing to risk it. Ganondorf won't be expecting someone to get past his defenses like we will, so we'll have the element of surprise on our side. And you must have heard your father just then-he said he wasn't going leave the town unless everyone else leaves as well, and the only way to do that is to get the prisoners out."
"Yes, but you'll die, Link! So not only will the prisoners remain in the castle, but Hyrule will lose its best hope for getting rid of Ganondorf! It's crazy!" She wailed.
"I have to try. Besides, when we get in there, not only will I hopefully have a number of villagers to help me a bit, but you'll also be able to scout ahead through the walls, won't you?" Link asked.
Renna shook her head sadly, her eyes downcast. "I might…have to leave you once we get in the castle." She whispered.
You're still not telling me something, Link thought, studying the ghost. He looked out a window of the house, and noticed that the light outside was already growing dimmer. Looking back at the prone form of Scray, he made his decision.
"I'm doing it." He told her. "Right now. It will be night soon, so the Re-dead will probably attack again. And now I also have that Dark Link to be worried about. The villagers are all dead tired, so I can't see them lasting much longer, and I don't want anything to get to Scray again. He's fought hard to stay alive, so I'm not going to fail him this time."
Renna blinked at him, and then lowered her eyes, thinking about what he had just said. She looked up again and then nodded, adding, "But it's your funeral…"
Link nodded and concentrated on finishing eating. He would need all his energy, and did not want what happened to him last night-the crippling exhaustion-to happen again.
Renna looked out the window at the town outside, her mood sad and reflective.
"I used to be happy here," she said suddenly, making Link look up at her. "Even when it was just my dad and me."
"How did your mother die? If you don't mind my asking…" Link said tentatively.
"I don't mind. She passed away from a disease when I was just eight. She had been sick for years before-hand though, so we had been told to expect her death. Still, when that day finally came I was devastated. I still am, really." Renna said, sighing deeply.
"You haven't…seen your mother around or anything after you passed over?" Link asked, choosing his words carefully. "I guess you haven't passed over completely yet though. I don't really know how the whole thing works."
"I don't know how it works either." Renna admitted. "But no, I haven't seen her."
"This might sound weird," Link said spontaneously. "But…I wish you weren't dead, Renna. What's happened to you and your family is awful."
Renna smiled grimly, and an odd look came over her face. "Thanks. Link, I should tell you something before we go. I…no. Never mind." She trailed off, looking away from him.
Link got up from the table, grabbed his equipment, and took one last look at Scray, partly to check if he was still breathing okay.
"Let's go, then." He said.
They traveled through the town until they reached the castle, meeting no resistance along the way. In fact, Link was surprised to see that the perimeter of the castle was completely unguarded. But then he figured that Ganondorf didn't exactly need any security outside the castle's walls, as inside it was likely to be set out like a gigantic death-trap.
He tried to remember the castle as it had looked during the previous king's reign: organized and structured, with white stonework built over lush green grounds. Now that Ganondorf occupied the castle, it was a distorted opposite of its former self, now twisted, dark black, and lying on dead earth.
Renna led him over to a wall of the castle and then turned to face him, her expression apprehensive.
"Are you ready?" She asked him.
"Yeah. Anything to get out of the rain," Link joked, when really his stomach was turning with a sense of dread.
Renna wrapped herself around him, and he walked forward into the wall, feeling the same weird sensation he had felt the last time he had walked through a wall. This wall was thinker though, and he kept walking for some time before he passed through to the other side, where he found himself in a deserted corridor, the carpet beneath his feet a bright red. Flaming torches lined the walls.
"Keep going forward, and don't stop moving!" Renna said warningly. "We don't want to get spotted."
Link nodded and quickly passed through the wall ahead of him. From that moment on he followed Renna's instructions, though the ghost often had to guess the next direction to go, and they had to double back through walls a number of times.
They passed through multiple rooms, corridors and balconies, all which seemed interesting to Link, though he dared not stop to take a look around.
After Renna led Link down to the basement of the castle, they finally emerged in a dingy and dark stone corridor. Renna suddenly moved forward, away from Link, and collapsed onto the ground.
"I'm too close…" Link thought he heard her whisper to herself.
"What's wrong?" He asked, concern in his voice as he noticed that her body was once again flickering out of existence.
"I need to go, Link. I'm sorry. It's been real fun. Well, not all of it, but you know what I mean. Keep going down this corridor, and you should get to the prison. Don't die, okay?" She said, her voice fading along with her body.
Then she was gone, and Link was left standing alone in the cold grip of the dungeon. A part of him couldn't believe that she was really gone for good, but he made himself walk along the corridor, trying to concentrate on his current objective.
The corridor kept slanting downwards, and finally he walked around a corner and found himself standing in front of several cells, all crammed with people. His heart leaped-he had been worried that Renna had taken a wrong turn or something, but it appeared her directions were spot-on.
"Who are you?" A man demanded, pressing himself up against the bars of his cell to get a better look at Link.
Link started forward, and was about to answer the man when he felt a familiar pull. He stopped, and, looking to his left, noticed that there was an open doorway there that led into a small room.
He turned and walked into the room, ignoring the startled cry of the man in the cell.
Inside the room, which he recognized immediately to be some sort of torture chamber, a vertical rack stood in the middle of the floor.
On the rack, a skinny girl hung vertically, held up by strong ropes which bound her wrists and ankles. Her hair was matted, and hung over her eyes, and she was dressed only in rags which revealed her bare legs and mid-section, which were covered in cuts and gashes. Dried blood clung to her cheeks and body.
The girl looked up slowly as she became aware of his presence.
"Sir…" the girl croaked weakly, her voice dry. "Help me…"
Link moved forward with the intention of cutting the girl free, but the girl's eyes went to his sword, and before he could reach her she spoke up again.
"Please…kill me." The girl pleaded.
He paused before her, wondering if he had heard her right.
"Kill me." The teenage girl repeated. "Before they come back and start their tests again. I am close to death anyway…so please, kind sir…"
Link could see that the girl did indeed look on the verge of dying. He doubted if he could get her out of the castle alive.
The girl closed her brown eyes, waiting for Link to strike, and he studied her face thoughtfully.
His sword swept forward, and the girl gasped as it cut through not her skin, but one of the ropes supporting her arm. Her left arm dropped to her side, and her eyes flew open.
"What are you doing?" She snapped at him. "It's over for me."
Link shook his head grimly. "No, Renna." He said. "I recognize you."
The girl lowered her head. When she looked up, her face was still pained and drawn, but she managed to smile slightly.
"I'm impressed. I don't look that much like my spirit form, you know." She said softly.
Link looked at Renna, a hundred questions gathering in his head and feeling lost and muddled.
"What's going on?" He asked, his voice tinged with anger.
Renna sighed, using her one free hand to brush her hair away from her face. "I lied to you, Link. Not about everything, but about a lot. I lied to you about being a ghost. I'm not dead. Well, not yet, anyway."
Link rubbed his forehead tiredly. "How can you not be a ghost? You had no body…you could float through walls. No-one could see you!" He cried, his confusion absolute.
Renna took a deep breath. "My whole life, I felt different. Starting from when I was five years old, weird things started to happen around me. I began to have out-of-body experiences, where I would suddenly find myself floating over my own body as I slept. When this happened, no-one could see me…unless I wanted them to."
Link listened without saying a word, hoping to himself that Renna had a good explanation for lying to him.
"I began to experiment by traveling further and further away from my body, and soon I realized that I could walk right through walls, but at the same time I could still have an impact on physical objects around me. Some people I tried to touch while in my spirit form would suddenly jump as if I jolted them, and I soon found out that I could give off a slight, lightning-like shock if I wanted to. I used this power one day to bring a dead bird back to life." She went on.
"Then, one day my powers just left me, and I grew up relatively normal. My mum died, but I somehow got past that. And then, Ganondorf's men kidnapped me. I was brought before a witch in the castle, and she told the guards that I had a special power within me. Ever since then, they have been performing tests on me, to try and draw out these supposed powers. For months, nothing happened. I didn't even really think that I still had any powers, and had just imagined the whole thing as a little kid." Renna said, sighing, her face still pained.
"During one of their torture sessions, however, the pain became too great. I felt myself starting to pass out, and then all of a sudden I was above my body, and the pain dimmed. I fled the castle, reveling in my new-found freedom. But it was also hard keeping myself in my spirit body, especially when they began to torture my physical body in more painful ways. The pain would act as an anchor to my real body, and I would sometimes have to return to my body."
Link was beginning to understand. "So, when your body started to flicker, that was because you were being tortured?" He guessed. "And what about when we left the Temple of Time? You started screaming in pain, and you said that you were reliving how you died. When really-"
"I was being tortured right there and then." Renna finished for him.
Link shook his head. "But…why the act? Why did you pretend that you were already dead?"
She bowed her head. "Believe it or not, I wanted to protect you and everyone in the town. Before I saw you in the graveyard, I had tried speaking to the other townspeople, to warn them away from the castle, because I knew any rescue attempt would be futile. But no-one could see me! So, when I found out that you could see me, I decided then and there to pretend to be dead, as a way to make everyone leave the town. Not only that, but I really wanted to speak to my father, and I knew how much he believed in the supernatural."
"And why did you suddenly vanish on me back there?" Link asked.
"Because I was getting too close to my physical body. If I get too close, I remerge with it." She said.
She looked up at Link, suddenly angry. "But you didn't listen to me when I warned you about coming here! Ganondorf's security is so tight that you'll never get back out, especially with a bunch of half-dead prisoners with you. That's why I wanted you to kill me-I'm ready to die now. There's no way I have the strength to make it out of here."
Unable to help himself, Link started to laugh. "What, and you expect me to kill you now, or just leave you here? I told you just before that I wished that you weren't dead, and now it appears that you aren't."
His sword slashing through the air, he cut through the remaining three ropes that bound her, and Renna fell forward with a cry into his arms.
"Stop!" She panted. "I won't even be able to walk! You idiot…" Her last words were whispered into his shoulder, her voice tinged with frustration but also fondness.
Link felt a sense of renewed strength and warmth flow through him. Someone he had thought was dead and gone was now alive, and he knew he would either fight his way out of the castle, or did doing so.
"We're getting out of here." He told Renna.
Okay, so much to get through.
Firstly, Renna's not dead? Yeah, she's alive. And Rupert is her father…I want to say though that I had always planned for Renna to be alive-if you look back at the previous chapters, you'll be able to understand Renna a lot better now, hopefully.
Anyway, I didn't just decide this at the last minute. "Oh, Renna's such a cool character, too bad she's dead…wait! I'll just make it so she's alive somehow!" Hehe, no, that's definitely not what I did. I tried to explain things as well as I could at the end, but there's probably some stuff I left out that will be included in the next chapter.
I'm glad a few of you really wanted Scray to live-I had planned for him to survive getting shot by Dark Link (I mean, it was a pretty cheap thing to do…), so that's good.
Oh, and you probably noticed that I decided to change Dark Link's appearance-thanks Lao Who Mai for bringing that to my attention! Because I've only ever seen Dark Link in the Ocarina of Time, and he was just identical to Link, but black all over. When you said that he was meant to have black hair and red eyes I was all "huh? Say what?" Then I checked around for some pictures of Dark Link, and a lot of them had him with black hair and red eyes, so I decided that it was probably a better look for him, and changed it (sneakily) at the start of this chapter.
Yumi dolly, I think you're right when you said that Malon's meant to have blue eyes. When I first started the story, I tried to find out what colour her eyes were meant to be, and the first site I checked said brown. So, I used that. Later I realized that in the game she actually had blue eyes, so whoops. That's a mistake, then. At some point, I will go back, edit all the previous chapters, and fix a lot of mistakes like that. In future chapters, Malon will have blue eyes.
Lt. Doom, I will probably use all the magic you mentioned in your review sometime later in the story, or if not I will use it in a different story in the future.
And hey, the story's now on a whopping 87 reviews! That's pretty close to 100 reviews, which would be a huge milestone for me. So yeah, if you guys and gals could keep reviewing that would be great! Oh, and looking back at all the reviews for all the chapters, for some reason chapter 4 is only on 4 reviews, while all the other chapters have anywhere from 6, up to 17 reviews. Huh? That's a bit odd. So it would be awesome if, for those of you who have read chapter 4 (all the way back then), but who haven't reviewed it, to go back and leave one. Oh, but if you do, try not to put any spoilers from later chapters in there. Thanks…
Finally, Link's Trials will be coming to an end kind of soon. I've written like 56,000 words for this story, which seems like a lot to me. I'm not saying it'll end right away, because there's still so much I have to write about (and Link and Malon haven't even had time together for ages!), but maybe in around…hmm, another 5 chapters or something, I'll have to end it. It depends though!
And that's it. Sorry for yakking on. To be honest I'm a bit worried about your reactions to the changes I've made-some of you might hate the fact that Renna is not actually a ghost, which was kind of a cool thing. But it's not like she's a normal human or anything either, so…yah. And Dark Link shall return, of course. Duh. Leave a review, and see you next chapter!