Chapter 63: Defiance

Along the way over to the chamber of the gods, we had to tell the other hylians exactly what happened underground. At times, I had to slip a question to future Link regarding whether we should tell a certain thing, or not, but he seemed alright with telling them everything. Slave Link slept for most, if not all, of the way. It was understandable, considering that he had held watch. I also knew that he wouldn't have volunteered to do that if he didn't have something very heavy on his mind, so I had tried to watch out for that. However, he never let on to what it could possibly be.

It was distressing, to say the least. Both future Link and I had to get it out of him, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to wake him up simply to ask. After all, if there was ever one place that we knew that he felt safe, it was in his dreams. When I told that to future Link, he said something about it being 'cliché' (whatever that meant), but true. The sealing factor was when we saw that he wasn't having any sort of a nightmare (it was always a little bit hard to tell with him, but we were still fairly certain).

Eventually, though, we did reach the chamber of the gods. It may have taken us about half the day, but we still made it there rather quickly. No matter what, we had to wake slave Link up at that point. Thankfully, he had always been the easy one to wake up, so it wasn't much of an issue. What struck all three of us as 'a little odd' was the fact that Zelda asked us eat something before we set off, and then she left the three of us be.

However, I quickly realized why she had done that when future Link asked slave Link about what dark Link had said. Future Link then went on to say that he understood if slave Link didn't want to say it in front of Zelda, but that both he and I wanted to know. Slave Link paused for a moment at this, but just ended up shaking his head in the end. I tried backing future Link up, but slave Link basically just refused to talk about dark Link, other than the fact that we had to find him and stop him. It was then that we actually finished eating and had to move on.

So, future Link and I grabbed the supplies that Zelda provided to us, and all three of us headed off into the chamber of the gods. Slave Link came with us just in case dark Link was there. After all, it was actually pretty likely that he would appear, all things considered. In which case, we would need the extra help.

When we got to the center room that connected each of our dimensions, we saw dark Link standing in the center, holding the threads of courage, power, and wisdom! Personally, I had almost forgotten about the threads. However, it seemed that dark Link hadn't. He then melted away, leaving the threads. Obviously, he wanted us to sew time back together right then and there.

However, despite our promises, we knew that we couldn't! Yes, despite the fact that we actually had the ability to do it, all three of us knew that it was too dangerous. Therefore, I stepped forward, grabbed the thread of power, and then stepped down in the direction of my dimension. Future Link quickly did the same, except that he grabbed the thread of wisdom and stepped down towards his dimension. Then, it was slave Link's turn.

Slave Link walked up to the last remaining thread, then stared at it like he was contemplating actually taking it. He then looked around, like he was looking for something, not making any eye contact with future Link or me. Afterwards, an expression crossed his face that I had never seen cross his face before: defiance! I got a little scared for a moment, but then slave Link violently grabbed the thread of courage and looked around a little bit more. His defiance was directed towards dark Link!

He quickly stepped down and back towards his own dimension, with a look of his face that was VERY difficult for me to read at the distance that I was at. However, once he looked up, his expression changed completely! My eyes went to where he was looking, and I was very surprised by what I saw: William! It was the slave trader, with his horrible, glowing red eyes. Yet, that only meant…

I turned around and saw none other than Shaun the guard, his eyes glowing the exact same blood red hue. It honestly felt like he was staring into my very soul with those eyes! I managed to steal a glance towards where future Link was, only to find that he was faced with that guy named 'Ethan', who was in the same condition. A small chuckle came out of each of the men before they all turned around and ran off into each dimension.

All three of us had started after the men, but then we stopped. The other two weren't coming with me, and neither of them had to other going with them. We were actually separating! However, all that we did as a 'see you soon' gesture was nod towards each other. After all, it was all that we could do if we wanted to catch the possessed men.

So, we each headed off back into our respective dimensions; alone…

*sigh* Well, there we go. S. Link didn't exactly take dark Link's words too well, did he? Where will this go? What will happen now that the Links are separated? Please review, and I'll see you all next week to find out!