Hm. Well, that's interesting. 23 hits, one favorite and one alert, but no reviews. Can't say I've gotten that combination before. Anyway, it looks like the plot bunny hasn't shut up yet. Here's the second chapter. Time to clear a few things up, while of course making others even stranger.
Sheiks' shadow was little more than a gray smudge by his feet the first time they met.
Dark himself was very nearly insane. He couldn't say how long he'd been in the Water Temple, sealed inside that blasted Room of Illusions. When Ganondorf first laid his failed plans for the conquest of Hyrule, he'd used his magic to summon Dark from the shadows, and sent him to the Water Temple to begin a quiet takeover.
Or at least, that was what he'd told Dark he was to do. He'd never told him that the Room of Illusions would know him for what he was, and would trap him there. The room spoke to him. It told him that it knew what he was doing, and it wasn't going to stand for it. It couldn't destroy him, but it could seal him until the Hero came to finish him.
And so he found himself stuck there, in that blasted white room with that blasted dead tree waiting for a blasted Hero he knew would never come. Dark knew the Hero would never come, for even in his Time Before the Room he had been aware of the Hero, even if he hadn't had the desire to act against him. He had always been aware of when the Hero awakened, and when the Hero died.
This Hero was already dead.
Dark had taken to pacing the Room of Illusions. He would travel from one door to the other, around the tree and towards the mists. He always hoped the mists would part one day and let him pass, but they never did. When he'd tried every inch of the room he'd practice tirelessly, for how long he never knew, still preparing for a Hero who would never come.
Would Never Come.
So when the door quietly clicked, and the mighty stone slid open, Dark thought for sure he'd finally, totally lost it. The Hero was dead. Dark began to laugh.
"What is this?" He cried, "has this blasted room found a new way to torment me?" He could almost hear the mists chuckling at him.
Screaming with rage Dark threw himself forward, but the other was faster. Slim, strong hands grasped his, slamming him against the wall and holding him away from the water, away from any shadows he could sink into. Dark struggled and kicked, screamed and railed, but the boy held fast with something more than his strength.
His hands released Dark's and only then did Dark realize that his captor had cast a spell on him, suspending him in the air. Dark roared with anger, screaming and cursing, swearing violent oaths.
"Be silent, Dark Link." The voice was a smooth tenor, much different than Dark's own, far too different to belong to the Hero. The Hero Who Was Dead.
Against his will Dark fell silent, and his protests stilled. In that moment of forced calm he finally met the invader's eyes, startled to find a single red Sheikah eye thoughtfully appraising him. The Hero Who Was Dead did not have Sheikah-red eyes, could not, because Dark himself did, or something close to them. Dark frowned, then scowled deeply as the small one's words sunk in.
"Dark." He spat.
"Hm?" The invader peered up at him from under his blond bangs. "I beg your pardon?"
"I cannot be Dark Link when Link is dead. It has always been that way, Sheikah. You should know that already." Dark snarled. The invader nodded, as though he had expected this. Had Dark known Sheik better at the time, he would have seen a brief flash of pain on the Sheikah's face.
"Yes, the Hero of Time, Link is dead. If he had been alive, I doubt I would have been able to defeat you so easily." Dark snarled as the invader paced around his suspended form. "Actually, that's why I'm here. The Hero died because he was old. Queen Zelda will soon succumb to the same fate. When she dies, much of my power will go with her, and I will no longer have the strength to free you."
Dark stilled, glaring suspiciously at boy now peering up at him. Free him? "She asked me to come, you know. She didn't think it wise to leave you here in the temple with the reconstructions imminent. If you like, I can return you to the shadows."
Back to the shadows meant away from the mists of the blasted room, but it also meant back to the other Dark, Dark Zelda. And as much as the Hero had always loved his Zelda, Dark had always hated his (at least, he thought he did. He'd been cooped up with the mists for so long he couldn't be certain any longer).
"Keh, to deal with that bitch again? Fuck you.." He sneered at the little Sheikah, who, much to Dark's surprise, only seemed amused by his response.
"I think you will find that Dark Zelda is no more." The Sheikah boy extended his hand.
The mists damn near danced when the dark finally left. Their taunts of someday finding a way to destroy him echoed in his mind.
Sheik's shadow was darker now, larger. It seemed to swallow Dark as he leaped across it, seizing Sheik's hand in his. The Sheikah pulled their destination from his mind, and drawing on young Zelda's power he took them there.
For a moment, Dark almost thought he was back in that blasted room. They were standing in blinding, icy cold whiteness. Only when his panicked mind registered the biting wind and darkened sky did Dark calm, but just for a moment.
"Link!" He called. He couldn't hope to see a foot in front of him in the blizzard. He heard Sheik suck in a breath; of course, his Sheikah eyes would have no such problems with the weather.
Sheik fell to his knees beside a lump in the snow, frantically digging with his bandaged hands. Dark fell beside him, scooping out handfuls of the ugly white while the wind howled around them. They worked in silence, digging, digging.
Dark's hand clasped something solid and he pulled. Shiek reached out to help, pulling a limp form from the snowdrift. His lips were blue, eyes closed. He wasn't wearing much more than a white undershirt, spattered red with his blood. Dark held him close as Sheik shrugged off his cape, feeling for a pulse that was barely there, weak and thready like a bird's.
"Only a fairy can save him now." Sheik murmured as he wrapped Link in his dark cape. To teleport with the boy in his current state would be madness. He could not survive it. Gripping Dark's arm Sheik half-carried, half-dragged them to the shelter of a cliff, out of the wind before taking off in search of a healing fairy.
Dark's eyes remained fixed on Link, so young and vulnerable. He wasn't much older than five or six, if Dark had to hazard a guess. He untucked the cloak, intending to wrap it around them both and share his body heat with the child, when he let out a hiss.
Someone had bound his little wrists and ankles together, trussed up like a pig for slaughter. Dark drew his dagger to cut the ropes, growling darkly when he saw the red, chafed skin of his wrists. The fingers of his right hand were nearly white with frostbite, the tips turning an ugly purple. His left hand had been completely mangled, the Triforce nearly unrecognizable.
Dark held the limp child to him, gently tucking his hands and bare legs between them, hunching over him to protect him from the cold. "Come on Link, open your eyes." He whispered. "Hyrule needs you, Link. . .Vio, I need you."
Dark's heart fluttered when he heard a soft groan, the boy's tiny eyelids slowly fluttering open. Azure eyes met his, and for a moment they didn't belong to the child. For a moment they were much older, flecked with violet.
"I knew you'd come if I called, Shadow." Whispered a voice that was not five years old.
Dark Link's face slowly broke into a grin as tears pooled in his eyes and he began to laugh with relief. The boy's eyes slid shut again, his head lolling back onto his dark's chest as Dark Link held him. Time seemed to stand still in the swirling white, as Dark Link strained to listen for Sheik's return above the howl of the wind. Link didn't stir again, but Dark Link knew he would live, knew it with every fiber of his being.
A little ball of pink fluttered in front of him, and Dark Link instinctively flung one hand up to shield his face with a cry, the other clutching tightly to the child he now knew was Vio incarnate. The fairy darted under Sheik's cape, fluttering around the boy. Sheik pulled the cover back, watching as color returned to his face, his hands righted themselves, and his pulse thrummed steadily under Sheik's practiced fingertips.
"Thank you, fairy." Said Sheik, bowing gracefully while still kneeling beside their new charge (something Dark Link was sure only Sheik could manage). The little fairy chimed at him as she fluttered out from under the cloak, her light causing Dark Link to hiss.
"Let's get him home." Sheik murmured, hand on Dark Link's arm.
It was only when he felt the strange dissolving sensation of the teleport that a frightening thought occurred to Dark Link He tried to call out to Sheik to wait, to stop, but he couldn't. They landed in the Dark Realm and Dark Link grappled with the little bundle on his lap, fearing shooting through him. A creature of light could not maintain his form in another realm. Other Links had changed; once he'd become the Divine Beast, a wolf, another time a bunny (that particular incident had amused Dark Link to no end. Green with a hint of Vio had never struck him as the bunny-type, but then he hadn't figured that odd combination of Red and Blue would turn out to be a wolf, either).
Dark Link finally pulled back the cape from Link's face, only to see the boy sleeping peacefully. Something around his neck glittered and Dark Link turned questioning eyes to Sheik, who only smirked. "Unlike you, Dark Link, I plan ahead. It took me almost a year to track the Moon Pearl down for him."
Dark Link smiled at the amendment to his name, and what it meant. Link shifted in his dark's grasp, blue eyes slowly blinking open. He peered around in confusion, brow furrowed. Slowly, he lifted his eyes to the man who held him close, and watched him anxiously. "Who are you?" His little five-year-old voice asked softly.
Vio's spirit had retreated, Dark Link saw, but that was fine. He'd be back. Dark Link felt a smile spread over his face. "I am Dark Link, your shadow."
The boy seemed to consider this for a moment. "Shadow." He said finally, laying his head back down to sleep. He was so warm, so tired, and safe.
Sheik stared out over the horizon, towards a swirl of darkness that seemed to grow by the day. He only hoped they had enough time.