Chap 20: A New Era
(A/N) Hello everyone! I've been posting like crazy with the intent of drumming up views, which sadly hasn't been working as planned. I have no more reviews and just a few more views in general than I did previously. I wish that, when I started, I was as good as I am now. Sadly, that isn't how things worked out, so I have to move on from there. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the 20th chapter of I'm Sorry!
Italics means thoughts, someone is speaking sharply, or someone has spoken Hylian. It can also mean a flashback. Bold means an author's note or some sort of text, which I will seldom use. Underlined text implies importance. I am unlikely to remember that. Have fun!
Oh, and I don't own any piece of The Legend of Zelda. I own, literally, more air than Zelda.
"Alright, men! This is what we've been waiting for! Dimesia is just beyond those walls, and we all know her weakness! We all know just how to take her down, so whoever gets in there needs to have a buddy with them. Or, y'know, three or four. Let's go get her!" Captain Dominic Shepard shouted. A hearty yell came forth from every soldier there. Dom kicked the door down and sliced the first Moblin he saw, with the others pushing him forth. The Moblins screamed, the soldiers screamed, everything was screaming it seemed. Link and Dark Link were currently exploiting a weakness in Dimesia's design of her fortress.
Dom and the soldiers he was put in charge of were doing their best to hold back Dimesia's army while the two Links went through Dimesia's design flaw. They were holding their own, but their numbers were slowly dropping while the Moblins seemed to stay the same. It was disheartening to see how many Moblins they were up against, but they managed to keep morale up.
"No! Isaac!" Dom heard Rex shout. He instinctively turned around and that cost him a finger. He shouted before bringing his mighty axe down on the Moblin that took it with greater ferocity than ever. He was a beast unchained, an uncontrollable flame of pure anger.
"You ready?" Link asked Dark.
"Born ready- except I wasn't born."
"Right," Link said before jumping down the two stories to Dimesia's design flaw: an unbarred window. He hurt his ankle a little, but it wasn't anything that would slow him down. Dark jumped once Link moved over and rolled, mitigating the damage he took. "Show off," Link said. Link cut the window in half and they removed the glass, entering in silently. Dark took the lead, as he was functionally expendable. He'd always proclaim how he felt loved when they said he was expendable.
They slinked down the hallway, eventually coming across a room that smelled like rotting meat. They wanted nothing more than to get away from it, which they did. They continued slinking and sneaking down the hall, which was abnormally long, and eventually came across the same odor. "What the hell?" Dark whispered. "Multiple rooms with the same purpose?"
"Let's go the other way. I've been in a similar situation."
"If you say so."
They turned around and began slinking and sneaking in that general direction, which worked fantastically because they didn't come across the room again. Instead, they came across the room Dimesia slept in. Peering in, one could see the sporadic use of pink, blue, green, and white. It was a crazy room for a crazy girl.
"What're we looking at?" asked Dimesia.
"WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU?!" Link shouted before drawing his sword. Dimesia was on him in that time, pinning him to the ground while licking him up his cheek.
"Don't curse, it makes my father angry." Dark Link brought the hilt of his sword down on the back of Dimesia's head, giving her a small cut. "That was a bad idea…," she stated firmly, "I was going to let you two go. Now I have to kill you both for hurting me." She turned to face Dark and Link rolled onto his side, flipping her off of him. She grunted when she landed, the blood really beginning to flow. Anarchy was what she wanted, and she may not even be alive to witness it.
Dimesia drew a short sword and Link drew his Gilded Sword, both looking into each other's eyes. They stared for five seconds before so much as even twitching, locked in a mental battle that Link just couldn't help but win. He smiled and dashed forward, side-slashing with his sword. Dimesia blocked and countered by stabbing at Link's midsection. Link dodged and Dimesia brought the blade up, slashing Link's cheek. The blood dripped down to his chin before dropping to the floor. Link just smiled before spin attacking, a move Dimesia just barely blocked. Dark used this opportunity to land a cut on her arm. As small as it was, it was devastating. She was already injured from her head wound, and now she had this to deal with.
Link sliced downward and Dimesia dodged, bringing her back against the wall. Dark stabbed forward and Dimesia teleported behind him, grabbing him by the head and throwing him out the window. He landed on his sword and was immediately immobilized. Link gasped before dropping his sword and tackling Dimesia out of the window. Having used all her magic energy, she had no ability to teleport away and landed on her shoulders, dislocating one. She stood and punched at Link, who dodged and countered by kicking her in the stomach. The Moblins and Hylian soldiers ceased their fighting to watch Dimesia and Link battle.
Dimesia popped her shoulder back into place and threw a right hook, hitting Link in the jaw and knocking him down. Link groaned and Dimesia kicked him in the ribs, breaking two. She then grabbed Link by his neck and picked him up, choking him while he kicked at her. He connected with a kick at her solar plexus and she dropped him. He writhed around on the ground holding his neck while Dimesia attempted to regain her breath. He got up and, coughing, kneed Dimesia in the face, breaking her nose.
She fell on her back and Link jumped at her. She kipped-up and kicked Link out of the air. Link held his gut while groaning on the ground and Dimesia sauntered over to him. She stood just above him and looked down at him, just before she stomped on his sternum. It broke under the pressure around the fifth stomp. Link coughed up some blood and Dom rushed to the front of the crowd. "Link! You need to get up! You need to win this!"
Link just looked at him with a look of pure agony on his face. Dom drew a small crossbow he always kept on him and fired a bolt at Dimesia. It hit her in the shoulder that had been damaged. She screamed and Link kicked her in the ribs, breaking some of hers. Dimesia ripped the bolt out and shoved it into Link's gut, knocking him to the ground for good. She limped to Link's dropped sword and picked it up.
Link looked up to find Dimesia standing over him once more, Gilded Sword in hand. She brought it up and then stabbed down, piercing Link's stomach. He screamed and the humans gasped, shocked their general had lost the battle. Link lost consciousness. She left the sword in the ground.
"See?! Nobody can defeat me! I am the strongest fighter in the entire universe and you all kn-," she was cut off by Dark Link's katana piercing her heart. Dark was holding his wound and gasping, but alive. She fell to her knees and began gasping for air. After about seven seconds of that, she finally died.
"Link!" Dom, Isaac, and Rex, and Dark shouted. They all ran forward and Dom picked Link up. Upon Dimesia's death, all the monsters summoned by Dimesia disappeared. They were unimpeded while they sprinted to the hospital in Castle Town.
Dark could feel it. He could feel himself dying. It wasn't a matter of "if"; it was a matter of "when". The doctor came out of the operating room, his hands covered in blood. There was an awkward silence for about ten seconds. "How is he?" Isaac finally asked.
"He's… his injuries… I'm so sorry…"
Isaac, Dom, and Rex all broke down crying, thinking about how they'd never see him again. Dark was too busy crying over how he'd never see Ruto again. The fact that he legitimately loved and cared for Ruto was incredibly uncharacteristic of Shadows especially shadows of people so loving and caring. "Sir, can I borrow your stethoscope?" Dark asked between sobs. The doctor handed it to him and left the room, feeling himself begin to slip.
Dark put the stethoscope to his chest cavity and heard a slight "bdump, bdump, bdump". He dropped the stethoscope and turned red. He had a heartbeat! Shadows have no heart, and therefore don't have heartbeats. Why do I have a heartbeat? Dark thought as the sobbing continued from Isaac, Dom, and Rex. The drinks would be in remembrance of lost loved ones today, but none more loved than Link. In the end, Link was the one that fell, making Farore's prediction true. Link's friends entered the room to find Link, lying dead on the table. He looked peaceful, as if this was the first rest he'd gotten in the last year. Link may have been gone, but he was certainly not forgotten.
And that concludes our story. Stay tuned for the epilogue! I hope you enjoyed the story. It's been going since December of 2012. Dark Link's heartbeat scene was inspired by Daft Punk's Human After All, one of my favorite Daft Punk songs. I want to thank an early fan of the story, khheroxassory, for hopefully sticking around this long. I want to thank Norkix for keeping me going throughout this adventure, and I want to thank you, the reader, for making this a thing. Anyway, please review, it lets me know whether or not this sucked. It also lets me know if it ruled, which I'd love to hear about. I hope you don't have any questions, because that means I did a good job as an author.