Chapter 16: Shadow Link in the freeze

Author's note: Thank you to "A Fan" for being my second reviewer!

And to Rider of the Whales? A special shoutout. Thank you so much for your review. It's great that people are actually letting me know that they like it! Thanks to the unusual amount of enthusiasm, I'm posting this one early

Shadow Link: Please review! I'm sick of being a villain. And emo.

Link: Shut up and play your part. I'm sick of being demonic towards you!

Shadow Link: It doesn't seem like it. Maybe you're just jealous because the first detailed review was a fan of mine.

Link: Don't get all arrogant now. I bet the next reviews will be all 'I love Green (me)!'

Pain…

Loneliness…

The urge to tear into himself…

Shadow Link was accustomed to it all by now.

How long had the freeze been going on? He didn't know. He also didn't care much. It was just agonizing, what he'd been through! All of the pent up emotional suffering of his previous lives was boiling up again, hurting him. The issue that he as Shadow Link wasn't exactly a natural creature was troubling as well.

He knew he was dying. Vio and Dark Link were trying to separate, yet had become the same, and that was weakening Shadow Link. He felt weaker with every passing year. It was barely noticeable, but his Vio side did it. A Nayru-brain through and through.

On top of that, Ganondorf and Bellum had thought it was funny that Shadow Link was assigned to work with Zant, the psycho of the bad side. Shadow Link was embarrassed beyond embarrassment that his working partner was Zant. Zant was always shrieking and flying around like a crazy person. At lest Shadow Link didn't do that. Besides, Zant wasn't truly evil, just insane.

His work wasn't very fun either. He was supposed to basically mess up Hyrule, which was beyond boring. Setting fire to houses with no one inside became mundane. Letting monsters loose in towns was amusing for about the first five minutes. And undoing puzzles? Forget being boring, it was mind-numbingly dull. Zant found their work fun, but Shadow Link hated it. If Shadow Link would just be appreciated, he would get much cooler work. This was just downright boring. It also gave his different sides time to try to fight instead of being fused more deeply.

As a result, Shadow Link felt as though every day was a civil war with himself. And that was never pleasant.

That day, Shadow Link was sitting by the bank of a small stream that passed where he usually hung out. He'd sit under an old, dead tree by the bank of the stream and think for days at a time. Well, he supposed that it was days. During the freeze, there was no real distinguishing factor between day and night. And no one exactly bothered keeping time. They were either busy, frozen, having too much fun with wild parties, or Shadow Link himself.

Shadow Link sighed. Because of Bellum's evil, he tended to be in dark moods often; sadness, anger, spite, pure rage, and the like. He hated all the emotions, which just gave rise to more dark feelings, building up his anger, his hatred of his clones, his power, his veil power. Yes, the veil power that ran through Vio's veins, the veil power that longed to be evil, to be with Bellum! Vio was the Hero of Twilight! The most powerful of them all! Yes! The others didn't appreciate him! They didn't care of his veil power, the power to split souls or to fuse them together! They didn't care that he'd become a wolf through being veiled to the statue of the sacred beast of the Twili! They didn't care about his shock when his beloved companion, Midna, had left. They didn't care that he'd been forced to marry Ilia when another wanted her! They didn't care that after her premature death in childbirth with their third child, he'd lost his capacity to love, he'd spent the rest of his short life wondering what Midna had said. Of course, they didn't know the tragic end that the Hero of Twilight finally came to: dying in the Arbiter's grounds, in the mirror chamber, alone in the world. He'd picked just the time when Ganondorf was returning; they'd actually both been in the mirror chamber at the time. At the time, Vio as the Hero of Twilight had had his guard down, didn't see Ganondorf when he emerged from the shadows, had never realized until the sword of the sages was in his gut.

Death had been slow and painful. He could've called on the power of the Triforce of Courage to save him, but didn't care anymore. He had lost his will to live, and all he wanted was for Ganondorf to leave. He'd felt like that at the end of his previous life as Vio: Hero of the Four Sword. He'd never had a pleasant life as either of his incarnations, and Ganondorf's laughter echoing through the chamber was making his death even less pleasant. However, Farore pitied her champion in those last moments and had brought Midna, now the queen of the Twilight Realm, to Hyrule one last time. Midna had driven Ganondorf away, at the cost of her own life as well when the now-cursed sword of sages had found its way into her stomach as well. However, she managed to fight Ganondorf hard enough for him to have been more than willing to run from the mirror chamber.

The two had then lain side by side in the mirror chamber, their blood mingling, Twili and Hylian as one. Vio had been first to go. It was said that Farore herself wept at the Hero of Twilight's death. However, she was in time to save Midna, to turn her into a Shadow Guardian, though Midna was never truly happy. She'd never told her beloved hero what she'd wanted to tell him. She'd never been allowed to join in any of the other of the Links' missions. Not that any of them were Vio anyway. Vio had suffered a tragic death and had lost his best friend two times too many.

All of these past tragedies were turning into fuel for the fire that now burned within Shadow Link. His other side, Dark Link, hadn't ever had it well either. He'd come, time after time, intending to be evil, until Four Swords Adventures. He'd then lost his life in a very different way: for the side of the good. And what was his reward? Being turned into a Shadow Guardian! Having his powers amplified slightly! Pathetic! They would've amplified anyway.

Shadow Link felt so sad, so angry. He wanted to fight! To used the combined might of Vio and Dark Link to their greatest abilities.

Alas, how could he fight his greatest enemy when his enemy was himself?