Hello my dearest friends! The second and final part of DD is up! Dun, dun, duuuuuun.

Hm, that could be considered a pun, no? Anyway, hope you like! XD

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Part 2

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What was this plan anyway? I asked Sheik, and he looked bewildered. "Didn't Zelda tell you?"

"If she thinks only I can handle it, it basically implies, go, see, destroy. Hardly worth asking about now, is it?" I turned back and slashed at the cloud of keese chasing us and two cried out and exploded.

Sheik sighed. He randomly swung the stick backwards. Shriek. Boom. "She's reckoning that this place is run by a fanatic. He's been robbing jewels and artworks and everything else that resembles 'pretty'. Including potted plants. She reckons further, what with the number of monsters and criminals pouring from this area, that this man's trying to steal her kingdom next."

"I hate," swing slash shriek ba-boom. "Crazy dangerous freaks."

And it made sense, really. Tektites and keese were fugly but as we got closer to the middle room the enemies were growing prettier, and themed. First we went past what I'm guessing was the pale themed enemies like, Like-likes with their silky skin, metal spiked balls I saw only in the water temple, and white wolfos. The wolfos were quickly dispatched; the others we ignored and ran because the Like-likes were useless without sand to impede their prey and the spiked balls couldn't move that fast without water. Then there was a tribal themed block full of armos and beemos, more keese and dodongos. These were a tad harder.

But where did this evil-person get them from?!

"Monsters are surprisingly easy to tame," Sheik explained as we finally reached a regal looking door, "If you don't lose an arm or a leg to them first."

"I repeat; I hate crazy dangerous freaks."

Sheik kindly kicked the door open for me. I was getting tired. Curses…

Gold. Gold, gold, gold. And lots of sparkliness in all shades of the rainbow. I gaped.

Princess Zelda's Throne Room was modest. I knew that. But it was still awe inspiring, with the giant stone statue of the Triforce and the patron goddesses swirling round it, and the wide expanse of space, the carvings sprawled across walls and the impossibly high ceiling.

But this… this throne room inspired true awe. Awe of tackiness. It was disgusting with its impossibly gilded walls of marble and sapphires and druses and rubies and emeralds and topazes and amethyst and goddesses knew what other jewels, sparkling and twirling through molten designs of silver and bronze and oh Nayru even the Darknuts and Iron knuckles that was guarding the place were decorated.

I was scarred for life. Well, okay, maybe not but definitely for a week.

"Ah, welcome,"

That voice scarred me for real. It was poisoned sugar, rotten honey, a sickness wreathed in flowers. A shiver raked my spine as I met eyes with the one that had locked us up, sitting himself on a throne of extraordinary wealth and bad taste, a throne of the creamiest pastel shaded velvet and other materials that looked distinctly expensive and gaudy.

He was beautiful. Yet he wasn't. He had a chiselled jaw, carved by the goddesses, sunlight dusted his skin, his hair stolen from an angle's head flowing and curling down his broad shoulders like a river of desert-hued feathers, eyes bright as stars. But his features were… blurry. Shifty. I couldn't tell whether his eye-colour was red or blue, it kept flickering in the light, so it was always a weird shade of purple. His nose hardly existed, a mouth without lips. He was an evil divinity, a benevolent nightmare, a terrible piece of heaven. I couldn't stop looking at his face, even if it made me sick with euphoria.

It looked familiar…

"Lin!" Sheik caught me (I'd fallen?) and my weapon clattered to the floor. I looked at him, at his face that was disfigured with that sickening mass of pulp that shouldn't be categorized as skin, it was a disease, a plague, he shouldn't be allowed to be seen because he was so hideous-

Hurt, plain and simple, crossed his expression, and he must've seen my thoughts in my expression and I was horrified with myself. I stumbled and staggered to my own feet, shaking with dismay. Since when was I so… vain?

"Are… are you alright?"

I gulped, my reply shaky. "No, I'm not."

The man on the throne laughed, and the shivers violently attacked my whole body with pleasure. Everything about it seemed familiar, enticing, wrong. Nothing had ever affected me this way. Why? Why now? I hugged my shoulders so tight I think I bruised them. I felt Sheik stepping around me, picking up my sword, protecting me from this… this…

Deity.

"Stop that," Sheik growled, "It's annoying."

The Spirit laughed. I loved and loathed the tune. It was going to be a theme of my dreams, both good and bad, for a while. "I've always hated your eyes…"

"Lin," he hissed urgently, nudging my shoulder, "It's an illusion. Whatever you see, don't get sucked in."

Easy for him to say. "What do you see?"

"Sometimes a goddess. Sometimes my face, only better. Sometimes… his true form."

"What's that?"

"My uncle's decrepit mug."

I froze, shock causing through my muscles. Did he just say…?

"Hi, Uncle Vhighew." He said forcefully casually, "Still into cosmetics, I see."

"And your eyesight's still too good for my liking, Tharlaigh." He sighed, so disappointed that I felt embarrassed that I was even associated with this red-eyed freak, "How's your life been, since we last parted?"

"Ruined, thank you muchly." Sheik's tone held the same sort of poison, a toxic sweetness that was filled with sarcasm. I cringed. "But I like to think my personality improved since then."

Vhigh… Veev… his name was delightfully impossible to pronounce, like an exotic drug. I wanted to go to him, let him kiss my hand, gaze into his…

I frowned, half confusion, half revulsion. Kiss my hand? What happened to my personal bubble? Why would I want to look at his face, it was a blur, a puzzle of… body-parts.

I straightened up, slowly. Kept my eyes on the gaudy, disgusting walls. It really was extremely bad-taste, though it was sparkly and pretty. I could vaguely hear Veeth… I decided to call him random names that sounded like something out of my vocabulary. It seemed discrediting him helped me concentrate. Beaver was a good start.

I snorted, amused. It interrupted Beaver's monologue.

I could feel his gaze on me. I concentrated on the wall I was staring at. "My, my, I didn't notice this girl with you…"

"Think about it and I will kill you, bastard," Sheik snapped, completely shielding me.

"Here I was, thinking only males had attacked my haven," From the corner of my eye I saw Bee-fur move an arm in my general direction, and I fought the yearning to run to him, kneel at his feet and offer my sword-hand to his service. "She's a beauty, nephew."

"Lin," Sheik's voice filled with panic. "Lin, don't. Don't be tricked. Please."

I was rigid, my muscles hurt. Beaver. Bee-fur. Ze-view. Phe-ewe. Vivir. She-spew. Making fun of a hopelessly enticing person was unsurprisingly hard.

"Don't you see, Tharlaigh? She's under my spell." The smugness crawled over my skin. I felt Sheik's gaze on me, wide and horrified. "Come my dear; you know you wish it."

I turned to meet his gaze, to tell him no, to snarl at him and fight it, but his blurry face had settled to a shape and smiled, beauty incarnate, with one eye the hue of cherries, the other a cutting of a clear spring sky. It was a mixture of Link and Lin and Sheik, flaws and blemishes destroyed, an image that was wrongly perfect in its divine, magnificent mortality.

How could I say no to such a man?

I swooned and took an easy step, a start to a run that would've put me right next to him, to kneel at his feet and bask in his glory. But Sheik cried out and twisted into my path, eyes wide with fury and sword at the ready.

I dived at his right hand and wrestled for the sword but then I switched tactics and snatched at the stick. I swung and he parried with the flat of the blade and the fight was on.

We were both at a disadvantage: I had a weapon that I couldn't use and he had a weapon that could/would mortally injure me. He didn't want that; I knew and was confused. How could he not want to harm me when he was refusing to let me get near my… my…

My mouth screeched and attacked blindly, spurred on by my master's delighted laughter as Sheik mouthed obscenities under his breath. Many times my rod whacked his torso and legs, while his weapon came nowhere near me. He was in the way, in the way of me… me what?

"Damn it Lin!" I could hear his desperation as the stick nearly impaled his left eye, "Snap out of it!"

I lunged and whacked at his head and he ducked and his hair flew and the right side of his face escaped to sight and my stomach lurched at the mass of deformed skin that looked like the muscle of a monster in its final spasm of death, a plastered curse of pain.

Instinct and the sheer obviousness made the connection. His life had been ruined by his uncle. His uncle loved beauty. Sheik could see through his illusions.

The Bastard was responsible for the scar on Sheik's face.

I snapped out of it. But I kept fighting, my face contorted with fury. It was no different from the expression I'd worn in my trance, so they didn't even realise I was back to normal. I felt terrible for attacking him, but Sheik was my only outlet for concentration, and I needed to work out how to defeat this wizard.

Attacking him head-on would be a bad idea. The round room was ringed with (decorated) Darknuts and Iron Knuckles; if I suddenly changed tactics, we'd be dead. Take out the wizard before the things can react. Or take them all out at once. But how do I do that?

A spell, lingering from one of Zelda's boring lessons floated up my memory, vague on details but the end result had fascinated me…

I lunged, so close to him that one swing of his weapon could've killed me. He hesitated and I made my face look sorry, tried to express it in every contour of my face, every line, I begged my eyes to shine like they supposedly do with my mental apology, and maybe he understood because his muscles slackened and I easily got the pressure point Impa had demonstrated to me between the neck, jaw and skull.

I whacked the butt of the stick against the pressure point. I knew the pain of it. It'd felt like a thunderbolt through every joint, a paralyzing force that refused power to be exerted against bone and gravity, making you thunk against the floor, conscious but unable to move for at least two minutes.

I dropped the stick and ran, ran as fast as I could to the wizard, keeping my gaze to the floor. I kneeled at his feet, blindly, reverently clasping his hand, and I was a lost at what to do. Seriously. I'd dropped my freaking weapon.

"My dear," he cooed, raising his other hand to pat me. I shivered in revulsion. I could feel his magic like a film of slime over his hand.

My mind dimmed. No… I needed to remember what Zelda had said…

"Such a beauty you are, such a waste to be put in a dark and lonely cell. What do you say to a life of luxury at my side, eternal youth, the prettiest jewels and dresses and servants? Oh yes, you'll have a mountain of servants soon, with the Hylian crown to accompany your pretty head."

Ah. So he really had intended to take over. Jerk. Wait, taking over…?

The Triforce isn't a fountain of power. It draws on the environment, on life and everything, taking it in and converting it to use as its own. This is why Ganondorf's-rule-that-never-happened was so destructive. So, if you're ever stuck in the mud, just hope that it'll be in a place swamped with magic.

I grinned. I was definitely swamped.

The hand on my head lifted and came into my vision. He touched my chin. He touched my chin.

In the space of time he made me look up every pore of my body mind and soul flared open and my Triforce piece burned and I was swallowed drowning stirred burning wrenched spinning churned bursting with magic-magic-magic I was the sun, I was the tide, I was time, and I looked at him and saw that he was old, he was wrinkled like papyrus, hair grey, teeth yellow, his eyes wide and dark and doomed.

I smiled. "Nayru's Judgement."

And then I blacked out.

…

It hurt. It felt like the worst, terrible flu. Only it permeated in the very marrow of all my bones, my legs and toes, arms and fingers, spine and ribs and skull. Somebody shook my shoulder.

"Lin. Lin. Wake up. Please. Wake up. Come on."

I cried a few tears. Gods it hurt. I opened my mouth and it was dry as the desert. I went for nodding instead of speaking. My head felt heavy with sweat.

I heard him sigh. It sounded stressed and strained. "You insane woman."

I felt his hand raise my head off the floor and a makeshift pillow was slipped beneath my hair. It felt warm. "Than's."

"Your welcome. How are you feeling?"

I raised my hand a little and made an iffy gesture. Sheik scoffed. "I'm not surprised."

"What happn'd to th' bastard…?"

"I think you froze him."

A sickened jolt went through me. Guilt. Great. "I… I k-killed him…?"

"Nah, you just froze him. In time."

I made my face say, 'Oh please.'

"Take a look, if you don't believe me."

I shook my head; I didn't want to open my eyes for a while. It felt they'd been covered in lead. "Tired."

"You… want to get back to sleep?"

I nodded.

"…Go ahead. I, I'll keep watch. We'll be okay; you froze the surrounding guard with him. Just wake up, alright?"

Just how much magic had I used? I couldn't care. I couldn't even reply to say 'sure'. The pain was like a drug. It slipped into my mind and beat a rhythm till I fell, fell for so long that I knew true darkness.

…

I felt better by a smidge when I opened my eyes. My head was nestled on and against something squishy and warm, and it was blue. A thin blanket-thing was draped across my chest, and a warm, reassuring weight against my arm.

The blue was breathing. Aw, crud…

Obviously deciding to volunteer his lap as my pillow displayed his imbecilic regard to my issues. Did Sheik not understand the concept of personal space?

Damn me for being too tired to move; I couldn't even wake him to demand what he was thinking. I frowned at his face, angled down towards me in his sleep, which explained why he hadn't noticed that I was back with the living…

I couldn't believe it. There were salt-tracks down his face. He'd been crying.

"Sheik…?" I coughed, making my voice less of a whisper. "Sheik!"

He jolted and gasped awake, looking haunted as he blinked. A laugh burst from him when he saw me, and he sounded so relieved when he cried out, "You're alive!"

"You…" I winced at my headache, "You thought I was a goner?"

He looked affronted and amused at my incredulously hurt tone. I mean, honestly. Talk about faith. "Look at what you did, and then judge me, Hero."

I frowned at him—Hero my arse—and looked away to stare at the gaudy throne-room, that… holy gods what happened!?

There were spider-web fissures in the marble, and dust on the gold. The other precious metals were rusted grey and green and red, and the jewels imbedded in the patterns were dulled and milky. It looked like fifty years had passed. But what made me stare and stare the most were the crackles of cobalt crystal that sprouted from the Bastard and all of his minions, icily eternal.

Dread coursed through my guts. "You said I didn't kill him."

"And you didn't. That's solid time."

"Sheik, that's not funny."

He rolled his eyes. "Sheikah like me see things, Lin. Some see a grey veil round people when they're about to die, others a gold string round their ring finger when they're near their true love, but me, I see magic and their nature. And that crystal there," he gestured with his chin, "Is the most impossible example of Time Magic I've ever seen."

"But Nayru's Judgment's got nothing to do with time," I tried to get up, to walk myself to his gaudy throne and touch the crystal, to make sure it's real, but Sheik pushed me down. "I was supposed to trap him in a crystal, that was it."

"I think you tapped into the Triforce a tad too much," Sheik tutted, shushing me when I tried to get up again, "You… you looked pretty bad when you collapsed. I was worried."

"How bad?"

"Ever seen a person in the last stages of turning into a Redead?"

I had. A shrivelled husk of what was once a person, pale as a maggot, possessed by a banshee. I shuddered. I remember giving them fairy water to drink, and it had cured the curse, but the man hadn't been strong enough to live. He'd gone with a smile, though. "That bad."

"Oh yes. Now come on, let's get out of here. Can you stand?"

Of course, I said yes. Of course, I couldn't.

I felt like a child as he hitched me onto his back in a piggy-back ride. I tried insisting that I could walk if he'd just lend me his shoulder, but no, no, I'd used up too much magic.

Oh, as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. I couldn't even lift my arms; they dangled uselessly as Sheik carried me away. He said he knew where our weapons were. And the pigeon coops, to tell Zelda our mission was over. He knew his uncle well enough to assume that he'd placed our stuff right next to one of the doors that led to the dungeons, to taunt us with the knowledge that we'd missed them in our hasty escape. Bastard.

I nestled my head against his hair, and breathed in deeply; I was surprised with myself. It seemed my inhibitions towards physical contact evaporated. Well, with Sheik, anyway. I guess being tied up caterpillar style with said person does that to you.

He smelt… muscular. Something dusky along with the warm bread-stove smell, a scent I was familiar with because of the long hours in the training yards. It was the one thing that my Hat disguise couldn't create or imitate. It was nice.

"Lin?"

"Mm-hm?"

Sheik seemed to hesitate before continuing, "What… what did you hear, when uncle and I were throwing threats at each other?"

I uttered a shrug-grunt. "Not much. Busy trying to stay sane."

"Ah," he sighed, "That's alright. Good, actually. Embarrassing, you know, family quarrel. He isn't new at being a villain, but he's quite lacking in the whole Evil Overlord section. You would've been bored to death with his cliché monologue."

I chuckled. "Sheik…?" my voice was less of a croak. Yay.

"Mm-hm?"

"Thanks."

He snorted. "For what?"

Grunt-shrug. "Without you I'd still be stuck in the cell, or trying not to be caught by soldiers or looking for weapons, or… I, I really was tricked. That spell got to me, and you snapped me out of it."

"Nonsense. All I did was uselessly shout and curse."

"You made me see him for the bastard he was, Sheik."

"And… that is?"

"He was the one that did it to you, wasn't he." I nudged my face against his, "Your scar."

He flinched. He sighed and muttered something before nudging me back. "I thought you weren't listening to our conversation."

"I didn't." I shrugged for real, this time. "I guessed. I'm good at puzzles."

He sighed, and was quiet for a long time. I worried that I touched a sore spot of his past (in retrospect, no duh) so I hastily apologised, and he sighed and shook his head. "You're right, of course. Only he tried to blind me, and I happened to dodge his blast, but… just not quick enough. It was nearly ten years ago."

"Bastard," I muttered, and his chuckle was sad.

The rest of the walk was quiet; I nestled my face against his and breathed in his scent. I liked it a lot, and he was warm, and he didn't jostle me once and my feverish-bone discomfort slowly ebbed. I should practice my magic. I hadn't used so much, ever, and I had no control of the Triforce at all…

"Here." He un-shouldered me and I slid against a wall and I was sitting down, tired and limp as a rag doll. He crouched in front of me, and he smiled, brushing my fringe away from my eyes. I flinched; I wasn't that used to his touch. Heat bloomed in my cheeks as his fingers lingered on my forehead. "We'll take a break. Seems the guards've run, and the bastard and his minions aren't going anywhere for a time. We're safe."

"Oh god," I moaned, "Can we get my Hat back?"

He chuckled and looked at me and a grin so wide and malicious grew on his face that I was slightly worried. "You can, if you want, but you'll find me stopping you,"

I gawped. He kept grinning. "Why?"

He shrugged. "I like working with Lin rather than Hero."

"But that H-"

"Do you believe in love at first sight?"

I struggled with his randomness before relenting with an exasperated "What's that got to do with anything?!"

"I was wondering because," he took my hand and to my greatest horror, shock and shame, kissed it. My heart ran away. "I think I've fallen in love with you."

My thoughts: Blank. It took me a whole of three seconds to respond. My hand shook in his grip. I blushed because I didn't even have the strength to pull it away. "Oh please!"

"No, seriously." His tone was nowhere near serious.

"You can't fall in love just… just like that?!"

"Well, no," he conceded, finally uttering some sanity, "But you forget that I've been spying on codename Garden Girl for a few months now, and I've been acquainted with Hero for longer. I know your ethics, I feel the time I spent with you on this mission is the best I've had with another woman, and," his insane smile came back, "Your issues amuse me like nothing else."

My head swirled. My heart came back, fluttering drunk. I just looked at him, smiling at me, with my favourite shade of cherries shining in his gaze. Curse him for that advantage.

"No. Wait. You said love at first sight." I was determined to stop him from this madness. Love me? Me? "How does looking at my manly-girl face, with tear streaks all over and a bruise at my jaw make me so special aside from looking banged up?"

"It wasn't me looking at you that did it," he protested, adding smoothly, "Not that you don't look gorgeous. It was more you looking at me, without… without anything."

My brain was about to implode. Love? Me? Gravity swooned at the notion. "…You're making no sense."

"Lin," he sighed impatiently, "How often does a girl look at this face without screaming, or flinching or gasping or whatever, really? This scar drives people away before they know me. Yet you, you, just looked at me, and nothing. You have thus far made me feel normal. Do you know how much that means to me?"

What could I say? What could I say to the eyes that shone as they gazed into mine, at the lopsided smile that I was drawn to, the scar that both fascinated and interested me, that somehow couldn't look ugly anymore, not when he was the one wearing it. I was shocked, and he kissed my hand again. The skin burned at his contact. "I am determined to win you over for this, Lin. Be warned."

"I'm not going to be able to rest because of this, you realise?" I muttered bitterly as he sat next to me, a companionable but respectful distance away. I could still feel his presence in the air, like a blanket of sunlight, or a cool shade.

That grin again. Curses. "Care to use my shoulder?"

"Nope."

He laughed. "Damn."

Okay, the cuteness seemed short so I tried to make it prolonged and more cutsey. I hope i didn't epically FAIL. Review! (heart)