"Who are you?" Ganondorf demanded of the phantom.

The dark figure's mouth split in a grin. "Isn't it obvious?"

Ganondorf raised his sword in a guarding position. "Are you the spirit of my ancestor, still causing trouble in this world?"

"Of course not," it said with a haunting laugh that echoed throughout the room, even though Ganondorf's voice stayed firmly put beside him. "I'm you."

Without warning, the phantom sliced his sword in an arc, nearly breaking Ganondorf's guard. It whirled round and with the force of its movement, thrust the butt of its sword into Ganondorf's chest, throwing him backward. "Actually, let me rephrase that. I'm you, only better."

Ganondorf rose quickly, making his own swipe at the creature, but the phantom swept out of his reach like smoke. "I'm no fool, creature. You're some creation of dark magic, and I'm immune to your mind-games."

The shadow flashed past Ganondorf and the Gerudo bit back a surprised gasp as a sword moving almost faster than sight sliced his right arm. Laughing, Dark Ganondorf said, "You need to worry less about your mind, and more about your body."

Snarling, Ganondorf made a pass that would have felled a Goron, but still missed entirely. "It matters not who or what you are. You're in my way, and therefore you will perish!"

--

"Are you lost, pretty Princess?"

Zelda whirled round to see no one, only her shadow beside her. And yet it was her shadow that spoke. "What on earth?"

"You must be lost," said the shadow. "I can't imagine you would be able to find the way to the altar by yourself."

Startled, Zelda demanded, "You know about my quest?"

"Of course I do. I have Wisdom." The shadow stepped closer. "I am everything that you are not."

Zelda's eyes narrowed. "There's no need to be insulting," she said slowly, not sure what level of a threat she was dealing with. Better to let the Thing think she really was stupid. "I have Wisdom also."

"Then you would have given up already," the shadow said simply, as if stating a fact. "You're too weak for this quest. You know it, don't you?"

"Leave, Shadow," Zelda ordered, realizing what it was trying to do. "You have no business here."

Dark Zelda laughed. "The only thing more pathetic," she said with relish, "than a Princess who gives futile orders, is a Princess who never was and acts like one anyway!"

--

Link could feel it before he saw it, a black shadow creeping over his heart. He circled slowly, not wanting to offer his back to whatever it was that watched him, sword and shield raised. Link strained his ears for some kind of sound, footfalls or the squishy slide of some tentacled monster.

When the voice finally spoke, he nearly jumped out of his skin. "Hello again, little warrior. You've shrunk since I saw you last." He could hear the echo of laughter in the speaker's tone.

"What are you talking about?" Link demanded. "Who are you and what have you done with my friends?"

"Your friends?" Harsh laughter echoed throughout the room. "Your eternal foe, and the ice queen? You mean them?"

Link snarled, as viciously as a ten-year-old can. "Show yourself!"

More laughter. A dark spot in the corner of Link's vision grew, stretching into the shape of a young man. A young man with very similar clothes, also armed with a sword and shield. The shadow's red eyes glittered. "Hello, Hero. It's been a long time."

Scowling, Link said, "I don't know you. And I don't want to."

"Oh, you'll get to know me eventually," Dark Link said with a mischievous grin. "It's inevitable, for one in your line of work. At some point, the darkness will consume you."

"Stop talking about stupid stuff." Link spoke with force, despite having neither the eloquence nor the vocabulary of Zelda or Ganondorf. He swiped at the shadow. "Get out of my way!"

Dark Link melted away from the blade like smoke, reforming on Link's other side. "Hmmm…" he said slowly, with a critical eye. "My, my, you've got a long way to go. You'll never get out of this room at that rate."

Link's eyes flicked about the room, searching for a switch or some other method to exit without dealing with this monster. "Oh, it doesn't work that way," Dark Link said brightly. "In order to get out, you have to really want to get out. You have to be willing to do anything."

"What do I have to do?" Link demanded, knowing he wouldn't like the answer.

"Give me one of your friends," said Dark Link. "Sacrifice one of them, so you and the other can go on."

"I won't!"

"No? Not even the Dark Lord?"

"He's not like that," Link stated firmly. "Maybe his ancestor was bad, but there's nothing wrong with this Ganondorf."

Dark Link leaned in close. "You know he's responsible for the raid on your home village, don't you?"

Link swiped at him again, and had just as little effect. "I'm not stupid. It was the Kardosans that attacked us."

"Hah!" Out of nowhere, a table and chairs appeared. "Sit down, little boy. Come on, I don't bite," he said as Link stood with his sword ready. "I'll tell you a story. A story that has many different versions, but certain things are always the same." He smiled wide. "In the story, there's a little boy just like you. Poor little boy…a pawn in the hands of the Goddesses…"

--

"Pathetic."

Ganondorf struggled to rise from the floor, blood running down the right side of his face. The dark phantom above him stared down with deep contempt. He clenched his hand around his sword, waiting for the creature to move nearer, but it did not.

"You're a poor specimen of a King of Evil." Dark Ganondorf's voice rumbled throughout the room. "It's been so many years since my name has brought fear to this world. The dark power we wielded has been diluted into almost nothing."

Ganondorf managed to dodge out of the way as a blast of black energy flew toward him. He summoned a ball of fire and hurled it, missing the monster by a wide margin. "Your regrets are no concern of mine, monster," he snarled. "If you choose to live in shadows of the past, it has nothing to do with me."

"It has everything to do with you." Dark Ganondorf stepped forward slowly, deliberately, "You are merely a vessel for the dark power that I wield."

"You speak as if I am the shadow. But I told you…I am immune to your mind-tricks."

"Fool," Dark Ganondorf said smoothly. "There have been many vessels over the years, but only one King of Evil. I am the Darkness, the plague, the bitter wind. I devour and defile all before me. There is no sword that can cut me, not magic that can banish me forever. I can be imprisoned, but I cannot ever cease to exist."

Quick as thinking, Dark Ganondorf's hand shot out and grasped Ganondorf's neck. "There is no need for a struggle," he said as Ganondorf attempted to wrench himself out of his grasp. "Whatever you desire, I will desire it too. I am the Promise of all you stand to gain. Admit it," he said in a voice suddenly silky-soft, "Is there not something you want in this life? Protection for your people? Surely you have at some point thought about the Purpose of your existence? I can make all your dreams reality. Your soul calls to me. We have always been together, you and I."

Ganondorf summoned a ball of energy and thrust it hard into the shadow's abdomen. Dark Ganondorf cried out in surprise and dropped him, stepping back a few paces. His blood-red eyes narrowed. "I see your past glory has been hidden from you," he said. "No matter. I will open your eyes for you…and then you will see your true destiny." He raised his hand, a deep-hued glow radiating from it. "I will show you what it means to wield the Power of the Gods."

--

Zelda ran her hands against the walls, trying to block out the speech of the Dark Princess beside her. But her words seemed to seep into her brain, like poison.

"It really doesn't matter," said Dark Zelda. "You can just sit and wait if you want…it's a lot easier. You know either the Hero or the Dark King will come for you. That's the way it always is."

"I'll find my own way out, thanks, Zelda muttered through clenched teeth.

Dark Zelda sighed a tiny little sigh. "That's not how it works," she said carelessly, as if explaining to a small, dim child. "You either control or are controlled. Either you use Link as your pawn, and manipulate him so he'll save you, or you let the Dark King take possession of you…mind, body, and soul."

"Link's my friend," Zelda insisted, "and I don't think Ganondorf cares about that sort of thing." She rapped her knuckles on the walls, the sound all too solid.

Shrugging, Dark Zelda said, "You can't fight destiny. Oh, you can work with it here and there, bending the rules a bit, but it all comes down to the same thing in the end." She danced a little pirouette over the misty floor. "You use Link, or Ganondorf uses you. Someone will have to endure the rape of their innocence…better make sure it's not you."

"Shut. Your. Mouth." Zelda swung round to face her tormentor. "You're a…a stupid bitch, that's what you are!"

Dark Zelda's eyes widened ever so slightly. "Oh, my! Such language from a pretty princess!"

"You just said I'm not a princess," Zelda spoke low, her anger bubbling below the surface. "And Link's not a pawn, and Ganondorf's not an evil king." The mark on her hand began to glow. "Our lives have been broken from the beginning…broken, but now able to be built into a different shape. Into whatever we want it to be."

The mark flared, and suddenly a golden bow appeared in Zelda's hands. "This is what I think of your destiny!"

--

"Zelda wouldn't do that."

Dark Link laughed. "Oh no? She's done it to every one of us since the beginning of time. Since the first Link fought the first Ganondorf."

"This is stupid. You're stupid!" Link drew his sword.

Grinning, Dark Link said, "Why don't you save your rage for the Dark Lord? It's more useful that way. I know you want to slice him…kill him…taste blood and death!"

"No!" Link swiped at him.

"I'll come for you eventually," Dark Link said in low, dulcet tones. "When you finally stop denying yourself. When it becomes too much…the dying, the disappointment…"

Link covered his ears. "I'm not listening to you."

"I'll be there for you, to comfort you, to help you. Don't you see? We all snap in the end. We all face some point when we can't take it anymore. When the Light is too bright and we welcome the Darkness. If you spend your entire life among hatred and blood and gore, eventually you embrace it. You embrace it or you go mad." Dark Link's laughter suggested that this had happened already. "Come! Your weakness is my strength, little boy. There is none stronger than a Dark Hero, a twisted savior, the one who will pass Judgment with his sword, split Good and Evil and make even the Gods tremble before him!"

Link uncovered his ears and gripped his sword. "I said, I'm not listening."

--

"What are you doing?!"

Dark Ganondorf stared with wide eyes at the sword that protruded from his ribs. "Why…why are you doing this? Kill me and you destroy yourself!"

"You're not me." Ganondorf pushed the phantom off his sword with his boot. "This world is not yours. This body is not yours. You're just an echo of past failures. And why should I listen to one who perpetually fails?"

The shadow fell to its knees, fell laughter echoing around them. "I may be crippled, but I'm not dead, fool. I can never die. I will always be here. I will come for you eventually."

"Fine." Ganondorf sheathed his sword. "Then I'll be the one to leave." He strode purposefully away from the crumpled shadow.

"Come back!" Dark Ganondorf shrieked after him. "Why, in the name of the Gods, are you abandoning your Power? Your Destiny?"

Ganondorf smiled slightly as the fog began to clear around him. "I make my own destiny."

--

The arrow sparkled for a brief moment in the middle of Dark Zelda's forehead, and Zelda had a sudden flash of memory, a bright jewel worn by a dark man, an evil voice shrieking in pain. But now it was a girl's voice, or a twisted version of one, her own voice tainted by the same Evil her ancestors had always fought.

And then it was gone. Shadow, arrow, bow, and fog. She found herself standing in the empty room, with both Ganondorf and Link standing beside her.

"Are you all right?" she asked them both. None of the Three bore any sign of the wounds inflicted by their Dark counterparts, internal or external. Her companions nodded. All of them knew that the words spoken with their doppelgangers were theirs and theirs alone.

"Well done." They turned at the sound of a soft, sibilant voice. A ghost stood before them, not a dark shadow but a fish-woman in an angelic bluish-white light. "You have banished the shadows to the darkness once more."

"I suppose that means they will return again," Ganondorf grumbled.

"Not in your lifetime…at least if you stay on the same path," said the Zora ghost. "I am Ruto, once a queen among my people, once a Sage and friend to the First Hero." She smiled at Link, though didn't seem bothered by his blank stare. "The Light of this world has grown weak, and so Shadows have been given new strength. You will face more of them in the next part of your quest…shadows of this country and the ills has its suffered, rather than your own."

"Is that a warning?" Zelda asked.

"Of sorts," said Ruto. "But I have faith in you. You closed your ears to your Dark Sides here, so I believe you will shun their calls later on. He who is forewarned is forearmed. But you must still be careful…there is great power in bitter memories."

Link dug into the travel pack, bringing out the Water Sigil. "Do I give this to you?"

She nodded, and took it. "Good luck to you!"

And then they were back on the shore of the lake. Ganondorf squinted out over the water. "I'm not looking forward to the Shadow Temple."