4(WHAT?! An upate? HUH? what's going on!? What ever...) Alright, so I had this crazy idea for a what-if scenario for the new and improved version of Wisdom and Courage, and it's one that I immediately knew I wanted to write in the side stories. Unlike most of these so far, this one will be less inflection and actually have a real plot to it, and I might have to split it up into two parts. And so…
Setting: During Wisdom and Courage, starts in what is chapter 16 (A Shadow In the Sand) of the main story
PoV: Third person, just like the main story!
Characters: Link, Zelda, Veran, Impa, amongst others, but those are the main ones
Pairings: LinkXZelda (of course)
Genres: Angst (BIG TIME, so if you don't like really, really angsty stuff this may not be for you!), romance, drama, action, tragedy (but not the traditional kind of tragedy in which someone dies… you'll see), hurt/comfort
Summary: Though Veran had warned him against it, after the hookshot was knocked out of his grasp, Link found that he had no other choice in obtaining the last Fused Shadow than to touch it firsthand. However, (unlike in the real story), he is unable to resist the dark relic's great power and is transformed into a fierce, feral (wolf-like, cause TP references) beast. Enraged that the hero had taken the Fused Shadow for himself, Veran decides to send Zelda to face him, hoping that she can get through to him so the dark relic will leave him and she can have it for herself. However, as the princess battles what she believes to be nothing more than a mindless beast, she quickly discovers the truth, and she is absolutely determined to return Link to his old self, no matter what. This one has like, a TON of Twilight Princess references, and in a way, parts of its plot may also seem similar to Light and Shadow, but this was just a fun little thing I wanted to do and my mind wouldn't shut up about it so…
So, there you have it! Enjoy! (oh, and yeah for stupid, cliché titles, since I couldn't come up with anything else for this! (but seriously, the plot of this has actually nothing to do with the actual story of Beauty and the Beast (don't hate me for this please (Ok I'm done!))))
Wisdom and Courage: Beauty and the Beast (Part 1)
Time was running out and Link knew that; the band of Gerudo warriors was almost upon him and he wouldn't be fast enough to reclaim the hookshot in his weakened condition. But the hero knew he could not leave the temple without the last Fused Shadow, lest Veran make both him and Zelda suffer gravely for it. Quickly, Link glanced towards the dark relic warily, remembering what the sorceress had warned him about earlier: "Touch just one piece of it, and literally anything could happen; it could drain your life force and kill you within a matter of minutes, its power could make you lose your mind completely, or, worst of all, it could transform you into a hideous, raving monster…" If any of those horrible things were to happen to him, the hero knew that there would be little to no chance of recovering from them, but he knew, for the princess's sake, that it was a risk he just had to take. All he could do was hope and pray that he would somehow survive what he was about to put himself through.
And so, as the Gerudo warriors were still rushing towards him, Link closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, bracing himself for whatever was about to come next. And then, in a movement so quick it could not be stopped, the hero placed his hand upon the icy stone surface of the Fused Shadow, feeling the ramifications of doing so instantly. All of the Gerudo women instantly stopped in their tracks as they heard Link let out an ear-splitting cry of pain and as a thick cloak of darkness covered him, completely obscuring him from view. The ground beneath their feet began to shake, causing the integrity of the ancient room to begin to waver. As much as Nabooru wanted to keep the Fused Shadow safe as well as help Link, she knew that it was too late for either of those things now and so, with a heavy heart, she ordered her warriors to retreat from the temple entirely, but not before she cast one last, saddened look at the hero, knowing that he was already lost to the great, dark power of the forbidden relic.
A rush of incredible power, mixed with a pounding, rippling pain, coursed its way through every part of the hero, the immense darkness draped over him completely blinding him as the wicked voice of the Fused Shadow spoke to him again from inside his own mind: "Yes, hero…" it said with evil triumph in its tone. "That's right… The power of the Fused Shadow is yours now… Take it, just as it is taking you. With its might, you shall be unstoppable, you shall be strong, you shall be… a BEAST!" The voice let out a cruel laugh as the dark relic made a heavy flash of pain fall upon Link, who was unable to move at all, much less take his hand off the Fused Shadow, which felt like it was starting to fuse its way into his skin. The hero screamed in agony, having never experienced such immense pain before in his entire life as he collapsed to the ground, still trapped in the inescapable void of darkness around him.
"You are no longer the pure-hearted hero you once were…" the voice said with a hint of mocking in its mysterious tone. "You have let the dark power of the Fused Shadow enter your heart and soul; it has rooted itself there, and there it will forever stay. You are becoming a creature of darkness, and from this moment on, you shall have but one purpose in life alone: to cause destruction and devastation wherever you go!"
The incessant laughter of the voice was all Link could hear as he felt his body begin to change slowly and painfully. In anguish, he cried out as his bones began to grow and shift as his shape changed completely. His Hylian form was starting to lose itself to a lupine one; flesh became fur, fingers morphed into claws, and teeth sharpened into fangs. The hero doubled over on all fours, unable to pick himself up into an upright position, as he felt his sense of self and consciousness begin to wane, symbolizing that the dark relic was claiming him on the inside as well as the outside. The last thing that Link was capable of thinking on his own free will before he lost control of both his mind and body completely was that he had utterly failed Zelda, and now, he was paying the ultimate price for it.
And, as the Fused Shadow finished transforming the Hero of Time into a dark, mindless beast, his human screams of pain eventually turned into wild howls of agony all the same.
The moment Zelda opened her eyes, she knew she was dreaming again, but she didn't care the moment she saw Link standing a few feet away from her, his face twisted into an expression of severe pain as he looked at her with pleading eyes, both arms wrapped tightly around his chest as if he was concealing a wound.
"Zelda!" he cried out to her in desperation, his voice weak and strained. "Help me! Please!"
"Link!" the princess called back to him, her eyes widening in fear as she began to run towards him to grab onto his outstretched hand. She had no idea what was wrong with him, but she knew that whatever it was, she had to get to him and help him in any way she could. However, much to her dismay, she found that with every step closer she got to him, the larger the distance between the two of them would become. Zelda was almost in tears by the time the hero's image began to fade, causing her to panic even more.
"Zelda!" Link called out one last time as he faded away completely, letting out a heavy cry of agony as he did so, one that haunted the princess's mind as she collapsed to her knees, knowing that she had lost him.
"No!" Zelda cried in misery as tears started to fall from her eyes. "Link…" She remained in place for what felt like hours, never feeling more alone without her hero beside her, until she glanced up and saw something that made her gasp in shock and fear. Floating only a few feet away from her was an ancient relic that she had read about in her studies, one that had almost caused the destruction of Hyrule before it was founded: the Fused Shadow.
"Wake up, princess!" Veran's voice was what the princess ultimately awakened to, giving her no time to mull over her disturbing nightmare. Tentatively, Zelda opened her eyes to find that the sorceress was standing right in front of her, a dark, furious scowl painted on her face. However, before the confused princess could even say a word, Veran cut her off, holding a hand up as a magic glow formed around it. "I require your assistance with something…" she said sharply as she snapped her fingers, completely blinding Zelda for a moment or two.
When the princess's vision cleared, she found that she was once again in a space filled with darkness, but, much to her surprise and relief, her wrists were no longer chained to the wall as they had been before. Turning around, Zelda saw that Veran was standing a few feet behind her, not facing her as she looked into a narrow open doorway that led into another shadow-filled room. For a moment, the princess tried to see past the sorceress's tall form to see what she was looking at, wondering why she had been brought to this unknown place, but before she could ask any questions, she was interrupted once more.
"Tell me, Zelda," Veran said cryptically, still not turning to face her. "Have you ever heard of an ancient relic called the Fused Shadow?"
Zelda gasped immediately upon hearing this, remembering her dream and what had appeared at the end of it. Fear filled her as her mind desperately tried to figure out the significance of the sorceress mentioning it now, but when she couldn't think of anything, she simply nodded numbly in response to Veran's question.
"Good," the sorceress said, still clearly angry as she finally turned around. "Then I won't have to explain that much to you. I need your help in taking care of a little… issue that has just impeded my plans. Right through this door is a mindless, rampaging monster, one that I believe only you will be able to properly take care of, princess."
Zelda gave her a look of complete and utter confusion. "What?" she asked, absolutely puzzled as to why Veran thought she would be capable of taking care of a raving monster all on her own. "Why me?"
"Because," the sorceress snapped impatiently, her red and yellow eyes fierce with fury. "I'm certain that you, of all people, would want to save your beloved hero more than anything else, right?"
The princess gasped in horror, remembering the look of fear and pain she had seen on Link's face in her nightmare. "What have you done with him?!" she demanded, hoping that he was unhurt.
"I haven't done anything to him that he has not already done to himself," Veran hissed with ire, though Zelda could not figure out where the source of her anger was coming from. "But if you wish to save him then please, be my guest. He's right in there… Oh, and you'll need this." Snapping her fingers once more, the sorceress made the princess's bow and quiver appear in her hands, which Zelda warily took. Veran stepped out of her path as the princess approached the next room, where, as she had been told, both a violent beast and her no-doubt injured hero awaited in the shadows.
As Zelda entered into the room, the door shut behind her, but she figured that Veran would still be watching her all the while. At the same time, however, she was still quite confused. Why would the sorceress ask her to take on a monster just to save the hero, aside from the fact that she needed both of them alive in order to obtain the Triforce? Why couldn't Veran just fight the monster herself? She certainly seemed more capable of doing so when compared to Zelda when all her magic was considered. And why did Veran even bring up the Fused Shadow at all, without explaining what it had to do with the current situation at hand? But all the same, the princess knew that she had no time to mull over the sorceress's strange methods now; Link was counting on her and she refused to let him down under any circumstances.
Zelda stained her eyes to see within the thick darkness filling the room, trying to make out the shape of the hero more than anything else. Worry for him filled her and so, completely forgetting about the monster that Veran had warned her about, she dared to call out for him, desperately hoping he was well enough to answer her. "Link!" she called out loudly, her voice echoing throughout the large chamber. "Where are you!?"
She was silent for a moment as she waited and prayed for him to respond, but instead of being answered with the sound of his voice, she was greeted with another sound entirely: the sound of a low, feral growl coming from right behind her.
With fast, yet frightened reflexes, Zelda spun around to face the monster, her bow already knocked with an arrow and ready to fly. However, she gasped his shock and terror upon seeing the creature face-to-face, knowing that it was not what she had been expecting. It looked remarkably similar to a wolf in appearance, aside from the fact that it was twice the size of a normal one. Its thick, coarse fur was nearly pitch black in color, though it did bear a strange white marking on its forehead, one that seemed to glow in the darkness. Its sharp, deadly teeth were bared as it snarled at the princess, its piercing, glowing red eyes holding her in a blood thirsty glare. For the longest time, Zelda stared into those eyes, somehow seeing past the outer ferocity of the creature and finding hints of actual emotions in them such as pain, fear and loss. But she had no time to sort them out as the beast barked aggressively at her as it snipped at her, though she had the good sense to move out of the way before it could bite her. With her arrow still poised, Zelda began to carefully circle the creature, which had its crimson gaze trained on her every move, as she tried to come up with a strategy for defeating it, hoping that it had not wounded Link too badly.
After several minutes of no sudden movements, the princess gradually and steadily began to raise her bow, aiming the tip of the arrow for the monster's forehead. However, somehow the beast was able to anticipate her attack, for the moment she let the arrow lose, it dodged out of its path narrowly, charging for her instead and growling wildly all the while. Zelda's eyes widened as she quickly attempted to fire another arrow at it, one that, while not injuring it much, managed to barely catch one of its legs and elicit a small cut, one that only infuriate the raging monster more. Panicking, the princess backed up away from the beast as it stopped running towards her and instead approached her more slowly, eyeing her as its prey. Once more, she tried to launch an arrow at it, but the monster had clearly been expecting this as it finally pounced, bridging the short gap between the two of them, and used its large paw to knock the bow clear out of her grip, its razor-sharp claws tearing across her arm painfully. Zelda cried out in pain as she gripped her bleeding arm and backed up into the wall behind her, finding that she had foolishly allowed herself to be cornered.
The monster stepped up to her with dangerously slow movements, its teeth looking sharper and deadlier than ever. All the princess could do was watch it near her with wide eyes, hoping that it would end her quickly and relatively painlessly, but knowing that she would most likely not have such luck. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as she realized that Veran had obviously sent her into a trap, a trap that she had most likely forced Link into as well. But even as she was about to meet her death, something still bothered Zelda: the hero was nowhere to be seen at all, much to her concern. Certainly, the sorceress wouldn't have sent her in here to supposedly "save" him if he were already dead, would she?
"Link!" Zelda cried out one last time, closing her eyes as she strained to make her voice as loud as she could. "Link, please! Answer me!" She let out a tearful sob upon still receiving no response, her heart breaking as she realized that he was most likely already dead, and that she was about to join him. "Link…" she whispered tearfully as she shut her eyes and waited for the inevitable. "Please…"
However, no more than a second later, Zelda began to feel a sudden, familiar burst of warmth on the back of her had. Tentatively, she opened her eyes to find that the beast was still standing before her, still snarling as it had been before but surprisingly not attacking her as she thought it would be. Carefully, as not to arouse the creature's senses, the princess cast a subtle glance down to her hand to find that the mark of the Triforce of Wisdom was glowing upon it, as it always did when it was resonating to another piece of the golden relic nearby. But it was only as she happened to catch sight of the same glow appearing on back of the left paw of the monster did she understand why.
Shocked into speechlessness, Zelda stared at the mark of the Triforce of Courage for what seemed like ages, trying to wrap her head around the implications of it and wishing with all of her heart that it wasn't true. But ultimately, as she looked directly at the beast once more and saw that its eyes had changed from their malevolent, glowing red into the same vibrant sky blue she had known for years, despite the fact that they were still the eyes of a wolf and not a human, she realized that it was, even though she had no idea how such a thing could have happened.
Slowly and tentatively, the princess reached a trembling hand up and placed it against his forehead, her heart breaking for him and whatever possible tragedy could have led to such a monstrous transformation. Tears began to fall from her eyes once more upon truly seeing the recognition in his eyes as he stopped growling and pressed his head against her head, acknowledging that he knew her and trusted her, even though the rest of his senses and consciousness were still trying to break free from the control of the Fused Shadow.
"Link…." Zelda whispered as she covered her mouth with her other hand to suppress a sob, knowing that this was not how she wanted their long-awaited reunion to be. "What happened to you…?"
"What?!" Veran's angry voice shouted from the other side of the room as she watched the two of them, her hands curled up into tight fists at her sides. Zelda let out a frightened gasp as Link spun around quickly, resuming his bitter snarling as his new violent instincts took over again in the presence of their common foe. "I can't believe this!" the sorceress went on, ignoring the hero as she glared at the princess. "You were supposed to free him from it and then, the Fused Shadow would have been all mine! I should have known that your simple affection for him wouldn't have been enough to tear it away from him!"
"What… what did you do to him?!" Zelda asked, still in slight shock as she tried to make sense of it all.
"I already told you," Veran rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I didn't do a thing to him. He did this to himself. I'm sure you've heard of what the Fused Shadow is capable of, of how its power is never to be allowed into the hands of light dwellers. Well, I thought that your little hero would have known better when I send him out to gather them for me, but clearly, he didn't. And now, the last piece of the Fused Shadow is rooted deep within his soul, trapping him in the beastly appearance you see before you."
The princess's eyes widened as she looked from Veran to Link, completely appalled by what she was hearing. "You sent him to get the Fused Shadows, knowing that this could happen to him?!" she asked bitingly, wanting to destroy the sorceress right then and there for doing this to the hero. "I swear, Veran, you better return him to normal right now, or I'll-"
"Don't you think I would have done that already if I could?" the sorceress retorted hotly. "I hate to break it to you, princess, but I can't. Believe me, I'd love to rip the Fused Shadow right out of his body and claim it as my own, which, in turn would restore him to the handsome young hero we both know and love, but even I don't know how to do that! I cannot simply kill him to get the Fused Shadow to leave him, otherwise I'd be forfeiting a piece of the Triforce, something that I absolutely will not do when I am so close to obtaining it. I had thought that you would have been able to help him break free from its spell over him, but clearly you failed at doing that. And so, now I'm forced to find another way of going about this. At the moment, neither of you are of any use to me, and so I will let both you go… for now."
"Why?" Zelda asked suspiciously, not trusting the sorceress as much as she was infuriated by how she had used Link in such a cruel way that ultimately ended up stripping him of his very humanity.
"Because I have no time to babysit you or that foolish little dog of a hero!" Veran snapped hatefully, which only made the hero snarl at her even more. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must be on my way to figure out a way to fix what your hero ruined! Have fun with your little pet, princess…"
For once, the sorceress didn't exit on a wicked laugh as she usually did, but she vanished in a burst of flame nonetheless, leaving Link and Zelda alone in the darkness of the room. The hero, who had mostly recovered his awareness from the power of the Fused Shadow still infecting his body, stopped growling and turned around to face the princess, sitting before her and gazing up at her with a look of genuine fear. Even though he was unable to communicate verbally in his current form, he had still been able to understand what Veran had said and he was able to think clearly enough to understand the implications of it all. He knew well that he was trapped within this monstrous form, with no foreseeable way out, meaning that he could very well be doomed to spend the rest of his life like this, all because of his own impulsiveness and haste. A part of him wished that he had just left the Fused Shadow alone, knowing that dying as himself from the sorceress's curse would have been far better than being condemned to living out the rest of his days as a feral, hideous beast.
Zelda looked down into her hero's lupine eyes and was unable to hold her tears of sorrow back, knowing that there was little hope for returning him to the way he used to be. She knew that, out of anyone else in the world, Link deserved such a cruel fate the least. But all the same, the princess was resolved to help him in any way she could. She was not about to abandon him in his time of need; she could tell from the lost look in his eyes that he needed her now more than ever, and she was going to stand by him until they found a way to reverse this.
As the hero and the princess gazed into each other's eyes and wished that things could be the way they used to be before any of this mess started, Zelda simply sighed and knelt down to Link's level, placing a gentle hand on the side of his head as she placed her head against his and closed her eyes, something that he did as well. "Link…" she whispered tenderly, hoping to soothe both of their frayed nerves. "I am so sorry that this has happened to you… But I need you to know that no matter what happens, I will always be here for you. I will not rest until we find a way to return you to normal. I will do whatever it takes to save you, just like you did whatever it took to save me. I will go anywhere, do anything, and continue on for as long as I have to and then some if it means I can have you back someday. But I promise you this, above all else: I will find a way to fix this, even if I die trying."
To be continued...
Ok, so... some pretty intense stuff... Don't I just seem to love putting Link through the torture in any way I can? Although, this is technically a new kind of torture than my normal fare and I must warn you that it will get... uh kinda worse/better/idk what to call it, in the next part (and yeah, most likely there will be a third part, maybe even a fourth. This is really kinda a mini-story so...) But whatever! In case you're wondering where i came up with this somewhat crazy idea, blame Twilight Princess. I was playing it the other day and I was at some part with the Fused Shadows or whatever and I noticed that for some reason, even though its said to be an incredibly dangerous artificat, Link never seemed to be affected by it, which I thought was kinda lame. I mean, I did incorporate the Fused Shadow having a somewhat corrupting presence to them in the main narrative of W&C, but in there, even when Link touches it, the Spirit of the Hero prevents him from being too adversely affected by it. But not here! So yeah... next time, we're gonna have Link and Zelda out looking for a way to return the hero to normal (though there will be quite a few unexpected surprises along the way, LOTS of angst, drama, action, romance, whatever u like). Oh, and one more thing, if you're wondering what Link's beast form looks like here (since I will most likely NOT be drawing it), just picture wolf Link from TP, but a lot bigger, more wild looking and with almost completely black fur, since his transformation came about from the Fused Shadow so... yeah... Thanks for reading! don't forget to REVIEW! :D Until next time!
