Chapter 9 - The True Face
Yet he was not dead.
He merely slept. But this was a sleep that he would not awaken from as he
was...
A child of light, but he could not survive without the darkness - and the
destiny he had tried to avoid so long.
Alena glanced back at Malon, who nodded. "Go on. We both know it's the only
way..." She swallowed, and picked the mask up off the table. Slowly, she
reached down and lowered it onto his face.
"I'm sorry, Link. But Time needs its protector - and I need my hero. Please
forgive me..." A blue light seemed to burn where the smooth wood met soft
skin. Alena jumped back in surprise. She turned back towards her friend,
and took her hands.
The fires of the soul crackled across his body as the transformation took hold. Pure energy bathed him, as his body was filled with a power his mind could not comprehend. In one last electric-blue burst, the last of his old form disappeared. Only the eye of experience could have compared who lay there now to who he had been but seconds ago - tall, proud, and with a rage etched on his features visible even in his sleep.
Link yelled, and woke up someone else.
"Whaa...!" He blinked, and sat up. Immediately, he felt the differences,
felt the solid touch of the armour around his frame. He leapt out of bed
and ran to the nearest mirror, almost afraid of what he would see - but knowing
the truth deep inside.
But to see in his reflection the face he had sworn never to bear again...
Link closed his pure-white eyes and thought deeply.
So. They did it. I can't believe they'd do this to me. Who was it who
put the mask to my face? Who forced me into this form?
But wait... I'm seeing it, but I'm not feeling it, not in my mind... I'm
still thinking like the old me. I don't feel like the Fierce Deity, that's
for sure.
No. I've got a heart.
It's like this is all an illusion, but I know it isn't.
Well. This is me now. It looks like I've got to get used to it.
Unless... no, I can't take the mask off now.
Isn't it better to be in control of my actions, even appearing like this,
than to be as good as dead?
But I'm as good as dead now... the old Link's been destroyed... or has he?
Who am I?
He turned back towards the two women, standing in the corner, and saw fear
in their faces. Neither Alena not Malon could decide who they saw.
"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you, love... don't look so scared, sis...
But tell me, who was it who decided to..."
Malon spoke up first. "We both did. Neither of us could bear to see you lying
there..."
"It was the only way, Link. I hope you can forgive us."
"Yes. No. Of course I do. I understand... but still..." He thumped a fist
into the other palm, surprising himself with his own strength. That was
definitely another thing he'd have to get used to... "I don't know. I guess
I'm just ...disappointed that you couldn't leave me alone."
"How could we? How could I live, knowing you were hardly alive with me?"
For a second, he remained silent. "So it was you, Alena."
"Yes... yes... but..."
"But it was either that or see you die. Alena may have done this to you -
but I told her to. If you're going to blame anyone, blame me, Link." Malon
took a deep breath, her voice cracking. "Don't forget, I heard everything
you were told too. Although I don't want to lose you again... you are the
Guardian of Time, and this was always your destiny... to take up the role
of an eternal warrior."
He turned his back. "It's easy to talk about destiny when it's someone else's.
But it's not so easy when it's your own future..."
"You think it's easy for us?" snapped Alena, oblivious to who it was she
was shouting at. "I'm going to lose the man I love, because of this stupid
thing called fate! Mal's going to lose her best friend for a second - third
time! Call that easy?"
"No... no, I'm sorry." Link sighed. "Come here..." He held both Alena and
Malon in his arms, starting to lift them off the floor as he went. "I'll
always remember you. Always... " He lowered them back down, and gasped suddenly
as a strange pain shot through his chest.
He could feel the future calling. The sixth sense that he had first felt
travelling back to Hyrule was strong and clear in his mind, guiding him to
his destination. Now he was beginning to understand what it was.
It hadn't led him to his home - but to his fate.
He knew who he was, now.
No need to give himself another name.
They can call me anything they like. They can call me Oni if they want,
use any of my names. But I'm who I am. Fierce Link...
Link sprinted out of the doorway. He grabbed the sword lying in a corner
as he ran, and saw its twin blades twist and coil around each other. This
was the weapon he had carried for ten years as a part of himself... but something
felt wrong. Subtly wrong. The helix sword felt no more important than the
Biggoron's blade he had once used. Now he came to think about it, he really
did not feel right. The armour around him weighed him down as it had during
his recent travels, rather than being an almost-unregarded presence. He felt
like his body was a size too big for his spirit, too... None of the energy
he had once known followed his movements.
But there was no time to think about that.
Destiny was calling, and it wasn't going to wait any longer.
He ran on into the night.
-
"Come on! Where are you? Come on out and face me!" Link raged, as his heart
threw itself into a battle that had not even begun.
"At last... we meet, fierce one." A figure moved out - cloaked in shadows,
as well as the more usual sort of cloak. Only two red-brown eyes showed through
the brown-and-navy robes, ornate with strange swirls and patterning.
"You know who I am - but who are you, then?"
"Your destroyer. One who will claim the powers of time for his own, while
its protector lies defenceless..."
"You really think so?"
"I've already begun. Even now, I have tapped the hidden powers, I have altered
the river's flow... and you couldn't do anything about it."
"No. " Link fixed his adversary in his burning gaze. "You have no right to
twist time to your own ends. I am its guardian! I will not let you get away
with this..."
"You think you can stop me?" On cue, the stranger fired a volley of energy
bursts straight for Link, who leapt out of the way just in time. He swung
his sword, intending to send a blast of his own back - but nothing happened.
It was as if something was holding back the powers he should have used.
Something's wrong.
He was forced into a wild backflip to avoid the next attack. Despite his
heavy-set appearance, his adversary moved with a surprising turn of speed,
and a confused Link found himself in a corner. He held his sword in the defensive
position, to block the blows as best he could...
I've put on the Fierce Deity's mask... what's wrong? Why haven't
I...
A voice in his head, his own but not his own, answered his question.
...You think you have become something you have not. But the mask is only
a tool, remember? The rest is up to you...
As he tried his best to attack the mysterious opponent, he could feel something
inside him. One point of pure power, locked deep within his heart, darkness
trapped within the light...
He reached for the darkness and caught it tight.
Instantly, the hidden rage flowed through his body, as he unlocked the secrets
within.
How could it be, that something could both hurt and soothe, curse and bless
at the same time? Pure power coursed in his veins, transforming though the
changes were complete.
Suddenly, a pulse of light...
-
Whiteness...
"Where am I?"
"Safe in the Sacred Realm," whispered a voice he recognised as Nabooru's.
"Link... the Fierce Deity is about to take over your body again. We can save
you..."
"No, you can't. Because that's who I am. The only person taking over my body
will be myself. I'm sorry..."
"You want to be trapped in the darkness?" That one was Ruto.
"I don't want to. But I'm not going to. It's not a prison... it's
a key."
"But that means..." Saria, shocked.
"Yes. That's right. Let me go. Let me face my destiny..."
Whispered farewells, voices he would always remember...
-
As suddenly as it had began... it ended.
The warrior surveyed the scene, darkness and light in perfect balance. Now
he knew the truth. A child's mind could never have handled these forces...
and there were powers here that the child had never imagined existed. Not
even that split-personality, the false 'Oni Link' who had lived ten years
believing himself to be more than just a shadow of his true self, had ever
touched on this...
...The chaos does not control me. I control it... It is part of me, and I of it...
Unconsciously, he raised a hand to his face. He knew now that it would be
easier to pull off his left arm than it would be to pull away the mask...
For there was no mask there, if there ever had been.
The Fierce Deity's Mask had been destroyed. It was his true face now, as
much a part of him as anything else.
Only Fierce Deity Link, Guardian of Time, remained.