Chapter Text
Stone columns stood half-broken and crumpled all around the dark and desolate place. A fitting tomb for the things of nightmares; of horrors and terrors. But it wasn’t intended to be a tomb, merely a hiding place for a relic of great power.
His own tomb wasn’t so barren as his current surroundings—his followers had made sure that it retained all of the splendor and glory fit for a king. Or a god, but his memories of that time had long since faded, and all that remained were his feelings of fury and a clear image of that hero in green standing over him wielding the upstart goddess’s sacred blade. He had lived many lives since that moment the Sky Child defeated him, and in each one, another child in green would stand before him and match that one memory precisely.
It had been so long; so many different eras and timelines that he’d lost count of just how many heroes the goddesses had sent to put a stop to his plans. Their faces all seemed to blend together in his broken memories, and they usually coalesced to fit whatever current brat was running about.
The last one had been a scrawny, brown-haired child who looked like he was barely weaned from his mother’s milk. The fact that the goddesses continued to send children after him was the greatest insult to his pride. After the Sky Child, most had lacked any training with weaponry at all—the hero he met on multiple occasions prior to the current hero was perhaps the most annoying example. Not that he was going to complain too loudly about some of that era, that child’s inexperience allowed him to hold onto his power much longer than he would have anticipated from an older hero.
He’d watched from beyond with glee when that particular hero finally perished. A similar feeling to the one building inside him currently.
Along the walls, the torches in sconces flickered to life—someone had entered the dungeon.
At last. If he'd had a corporeal body, he would have grinned—a difficult thing to do in the body of his most recent incarnations, but that was all about to change.
Time was a tricky thing to perceive as a being from the other side; but he knew, somehow, that he’d been waiting patiently for six whole years for the chance to meet the Hero of Hyrule face-to-face once again.
The voices of spirits of both foul and fair nature whispered and screeched to unhearing ears—the living always were mostly deaf to their ceaseless moaning and groaning. But he could hear them repeating the same words as they had for the past six years. A fragment of an ancient poem or song—he had no idea but every time it was the same four lines.
The reddest eyes of the darkest night,
Broken to forge the flames of vying light.
With courage proved through a blind man’s sight,
The hero’s breath unwinding.
He hadn’t cared enough to think up any meaning behind those verses, but the last one stood out to him, and he found himself repeating it to himself over and over again. The hero’s breath unwinding.
It was almost as if it were a line from a prophecy meant just for him. A message telling him that his time had finally come. That it was finally time for him to bring the hero of courage to his knees once and for all.
He could hear the sounds of battle after battle as the hero made his way through the dungeon in search of a piece of the Triforce to wake a princess from a centuries-long sleep. How quaint. If he had eyes, he would have rolled them. His spirit drifted through the halls of the dungeon until he finally reached one bathed in a deep, sinister, purple light.
The Hero of Hyrule wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his sword arm as he cautiously searched the room for enemies. Again, he was filled with the urge to grin because the child wasn’t going to find any—not with his eyes at least. Everything was going according to plan. As soon as the hero began to relax, the shadow beneath his feet shifted and tore away from his body. The shadow launched an attack immediately in an attempt to catch him off guard but the hero had always been too sensitive to bloodlust and blocked the blade instinctively.
The boy had grown considerably in the past six years—although his height still left nothing to be desired.
His own anxiety grew as the fight dragged on and the hero remained uninjured. The shadow had assured him of a victory. If he were to be cheated of it once more…
“Ahh!” The hero cried out in pain and his anxiety disappeared instantaneously. The shadow had succeeded in bringing the boy to his knees. “No!” The child tried so desperately to keep pressure on the gaping wound on his side, to keep all of his blood within him but it was far too late for that. Several droplets had already hit the ground and soaked into the dust under the hero’s knees. However, it wasn’t dust; but his own ashes spread out. He had only needed a single drop.
Power surged through him and, for the first time in six years, he was able to feel. His form wasn’t stable but he knew the instant it became visible since the hero’s eyes widened in fright.
“You! No…no! It can’t be!” The hero’s green eyes flared with something more than pain. “Ganon!”
Ganon laughed deeply; though his intended smirk came out more like a snarl. “Game over, boy.” His unstable form flickered; he didn’t have much time so he let it dissolve completely until it was nothing more than whisps of wind. He then surged forward and entered the Hero of Hyrule’s body and his next breath became Ganon’s.
The hero’s mind was stronger than he had expected and fighting to overpower him required almost all of his strength, but he was able to squash the hero’s spirit until almost nothing remained just the same.
Ganon took in a deep breath in his new body and stood up. There was a broken mirror hanging on the wall and for a moment he was able to catch a glimpse of his eyes. His deep red irises faded to reveal the hero’s emerald green ones and his perfect disguise had been solidified.
He smirked finally at his new reflection and spoke with his new, boyish voice, “I have returned.”
That had been nearly half a year ago. Ganon had become completely used to his new body. There was nothing he could do about his shortness—apparently, that was about as tall as Link the Hero would ever grow—but everything else was acceptable. The magic especially.
The Hero of Hyrule was really the only one he fought to have such a high affinity for magic. He ignited a small spell and watched as small orange flames danced across his fingertips. Yes, the magic was a serious plus.
“Link! It’s almost time, are you ready yet?” A shrill feminine voice called out from the other side of the door.
Ganon grimaced and clicked his tongue. He let the magic die out as he clenched his hand into a fist. That had been the princess, Zelda. Or one of them, at least. The one he’d been forced to rescue in order to get the kingdom to believe he was really Link—a damned shame to use the Triforce he’d spent so many lifetimes seeking for in such a manner. Every time she came around, he regretted ever coming up with his plan. Even then, as he cleared his throat in preparation to shout back with a reply, his mind was concocting several ways to assure he’d never hear her obnoxious voice again.
“Just a second!” As comfortable as he’d made himself in his new body, there was one thing he was sure he’d never get used to, how childish his voice sounded. He tried so hard not to cringe every time he opened his mouth to say something. The hero had been sixteen when he fell, why couldn’t his voice have deepen any more than it had?
He glanced in the gaudy mirror one last time—mainly to make sure his irises remained green—before he sighed and made his way to the door to greet the princess. His eyes had stayed green for almost his entire time in his new body, but there was one incident where they had flashed red briefly. Thankfully, the only person to have witnessed it was one of the queen’s old advisors. The elderly really should be cautious of walking up and down staircases, it was such a shame just how easily accidents could happen.
As to what had triggered his irises to turn, he was still wracking his brain about it. Other than a headache that had appeared out of the blue, nothing of note had happened. A part of him worried it had been the spirit of the Hero of Hyrule attempting to regain control.
But that’s impossible. He thought to himself as he opened the door. I crushed his spirit thoroughly. Even with his magic abilities, it would take him at least a hundred years before he is able to undo that kind of damage.
Something soft pressed against his cheek that broke him out of his thoughts. The princess had kissed him and it took everything he had to not gag or push her away. However, his own thoughts aside, he braced himself for his body’s reaction to the action.
It didn’t matter how disgusted it made him, his body felt the opposite as a bubbly feeling erupted in his stomach and his face became as warm as the fire he’d been playing around with earlier.
Puppy love. Blegh. He just had to take over the body of a teenager, didn’t he?
The princess giggled at his reaction as usual. “What’s with the storm cloud over your head? This is a celebration! You should be happy!"
“Sorry, I was just thinking to myself,” he said quickly. “Everything’s fine. Come on. We have a party to get to, don’t we?”
She searched his face for a moment—possibly looking for any hint of a lie—when she didn’t find anything, she shook her head and giggled.
What an airhead. No wonder she ended up cursed for so many years.
“Well, so long as everything’s okay. I just don’t like to see you frowning.”
Did he mention how much he hated her overly positive attitude? Because he did. So very much. Even so, he put on a smile—which was so much easier to do now that he didn’t have a snout taking up half his face—and offered her his arm just as those damned etiquette tutors had instructed him, seeing as he was acting as her escort for the evening.
She took it excitedly with a giant grin on her face and started to drag him towards the ballroom.
Ganon had tried everything to get out of attending the ball. It was being thrown in honor of his humiliating defeat a little more than six years ago at the hands of the hero he now had possession over. Talk about a slap to the face. Every time he’d been taken down by children his pride had taken so much damage. Like that young Hero of Winds from another timeline altogether. He still remembered clear as day how it felt to be impaled right between the eyes. The utter humiliation. And to think that that hero wasn’t even one chosen by the goddesses.
The princess nudged him. “There you go again. Storm cloud. Are you practicing a new spell?” She joked.
He forced another smile. “Maybe I am, we have been experiencing a bit of a drought lately.” As soon as the words left his mouth, his smile became real. That drought had been his doing. It was a spell he’d found in a book just lying around in the castle library. The book was written in a language no one could read any longer, they must have kept it solely for the aesthetic of having such an ancient book around. But to him? Oh, it was a goldmine of knowledge.
Link’s magic power had so much potential but—like it was always the case with the heroes—he’d had no one to properly teach him how to utilize it. Ganon was going to carefully cultivate his power to poison the entire kingdom. Starting from the top.
Nobles were already corrupt individuals—that was a fact that had remained true for millennia—if he could just use that corruption and maybe add fuel to it, Hyrule’s government could crumble in a matter of months. And he’d already begun to plant the seeds of resentment among the people of lower status by sending whispers through the streets. Lies and twisted tales of greed and cowardice intertwined with one name in particular—a name that had always been spoken with such admiration.
Zelda.
It didn’t matter which one, if he could succeed in making the people doubt and lose faith in their beloved leaders, well, a revolution would soon follow.
And who would the people—starved and afraid—turn to in their hour of need to help guide them back into an era of light once the goddess’ bloodline was no longer in the picture? Why, none other than the little hero in green who’d rescued them all from an evil villain’s clutches. A boy who had come from nothing just as many of the citizens of Hyrule had.
They would raise him onto their shoulders as a savior sent from the heavens. And raised up high, from that vantage point, that would be the most perfect spot to launch the coup de grace. One final arrow to the heart of Hyrule.
Ganon would, at last, regain his seat of power and he would use that to crush those insignificant Hylians beneath his boot as if they were nothing more than beetles scuttling across the dirt.
They were going to fear the very hero they praised so highly.
At the mention of the drought, something changed in the princess' face. For just a moment, she became serious and solemn. But that only lasted so long before her cheerful disposition was back and she was tugging on his arm once again.
“Come on, Link. Tonight’s not the night to be worrying about work. I’m here to make sure you have fun for once.”
Oh, joy. Ganon groaned internally as she pulled him onto the dance floor. He hated dancing and the hero's body wasn’t any good at it so that just made the whole experience unbearable. And when the princess started talking and talking, Ganon was about ready to throw away six months of vital undercover work and go ahead and blast the whole castle to smithereens.
Remind me why I’m doing this again? He gave the princess what he hoped looked like a warm smile. One that the princess returned as she linked their fingers in preparation for the fast-paced dance that he barely knew the steps to. She seemed so happy even as he tripped and stumbled throughout the whole thing—honestly, it was revolting.
That’s why. He mused. Because these idiots truly believe I’m Link, and the more they trust me, the more painful my inevitable betrayal will be.
Everyone else seemed just as joyous as the princess. As the final notes of the song faded into the next, so many people stopped him just to shake his hand; congratulating and thanking him for saving Hyrule from the reign of that ‘horrible demon’. As annoyed as he was with the pests, he had to stop himself from grinning at the compliment. Horrible demon. I like the sound of that.
Ganon was able to break free from the princess and hide amongst the crowd of partygoers. He had been forced to go to the stupid celebration ball so he’d planned on making the most out of it and dancing was not part of that plan. Although, he knew his disappearance would upset the princess—not something he had been aiming for that night, but a nice bonus that made the suffocating atmosphere a little better.
He’d planned to meet with one of the guests. A wizard who—according to rumors—had formidable knowledge of magic that affected the mind: memory alteration, mind control, and possibly so much more. If he were to gain access to power like that, that would make turning the people of Hyrule against each other that much easier.
The wizard was only a few paces away but someone stepped right into his path making him stumble a little to a halt. He bit back a snarl and cleared his throat as an excuse to cover his mouth. He plastered on a smile and apologized for nearly running into whoever it was that dared to interrupt him. The smile fell a fraction when his eyes landed on his other major headache.
“Link,” the queen, the other Zelda, said. She had a soft smile on her face that made Ganon want to throw up. “I do hope you’re enjoying yourself. When my sister told me that you had not wished to attend tonight’s ball, I was a little concerned. You used to so look forward to the celebration.”
Of course, it would be something like that. Ganon bit the inside of his cheek but kept his facial expression calm. It drew a bit of blood as punishment to the body he had possessed. He had only been told of the ball a few weeks ago when the princess refused to leave him alone about how she thought he should wear his hero’s tunic. So, there he was, wearing that cursed color that still haunted his dreams most nights.
“It’s not that I didn’t want to come, Your Majesty,” he lied smoothly. His blood pressure was rising steadily. The wizard had only agreed to stay at the ball for a short amount of time. If the queen caused him to miss his window of opportunity to meet with the man, he had no idea when his next chance to meet with him again would arise.
But it wasn’t as if he could just leave the conversation without a valid excuse. He hated court etiquette more than anything. “I’ve just been preoccupied with the many missing peoples’ cases. I didn’t want to take time away that I could be working to find them. If it’s a matter of a series of kidnappings like we think, those people are out there relying on someone to save them.”
Gag! Such heroic words tasted so foul on his tongue. But they were easy to say thanks to his new body. Besides, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t spent lifetimes listening to the same heroic jargon from obnoxious children swinging swords around as if they were toys.
The queen gave him a sympathetic look. “I know you’re worried.” She ruffled his hair. “You have such a good heart, that’s why the goddesses chose you to save me all those years ago.”
A good heart? If that’s the only requirement the goddesses have for choosing their heroes, then maybe that’s why they always send children after me. A Hylian’s heart only grows darker with age.
She continued with a more serious tone of voice. “I’ve told you before, there’s no need for you to stress so much about it, my knights are searching diligently night and day for those missing people. I have every faith in them that they will find each and every one of them in due time.”
Ganon never could get a good read on the older Zelda, so he had no idea if she was just as airheaded as the princess or not. Some days, he truly thought she only pretended to be like that; but when she spoke of the missing Hylians, she sounded so earnest that he had a hard time believing it was faked.
In truth, he really didn’t care about the missing people—he knew exactly what had happened to them all anyway. His followers had needed people for something and needed someone in a position of power to turn a blind eye. What they used the people for, however, he never asked.
Over the queen’s shoulder, he noticed the wizard nod his head to someone as a way of saying goodbye, and the man vanished right before his very eyes. People nearby all clapped and oo’d and ahh’d at the display of magic. He felt his eye twitch before he could mask his irritation fully with another pleasant expression.
The queen smiled brightly at him. “Well, I won’t keep you any longer. I—” Her voice was cut off suddenly by a frantic cry from one of the knights.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”
Ganon contemplated using the commotion to slink away to find a hiding place for the rest of the evening, but the urgency in the knight’s voice piqued his interest so he remained where he stood for the time being.
“You’re making a scene, Sir. What is it?”
The knight was practically shaking in his boots from fright. “My men and I were patrolling the woods when—” the knight gulped and gripped his hair wildly. “It—it just appeared from out of nowhere! I’ve never seen anything like it in my whole life, I swear!”
“What is it?” The queen demanded in a harder tone than before. That had broken the knight out of his daze and he snapped to attention again.
“I don’t know, Your Majesty. It was taller than a horse but smaller than a house. It was thinner than a piece of paper but it stood tall and didn’t bend or shift from the wind. It looked like…like a puddle of magic stood up on its side, Ma’am.”
A puddle of—did the guy hit his head on the way back to the castle? He must have, to come up with such a crazy story like that. Well, this was a waste of my time. Ganon turned to go find that hiding place when he realized all eyes were on him.
Oh. Oh, no.
Dread filled his stomach the very instant the knight’s eyes landed on him.
“Oh! You, sir. You’re the Hero of Hyrule, are you not?” The urge to deny it was great, he had too many things to get done. Getting dragged into anything even remotely heroic was at the very bottom of his list of desires. But his mouth betrayed him.
“I am.” The knight looked about ready to keel over from relief at his words. He knelt before Ganon—a sight he enjoyed to see no matter the circumstance—and pleaded with all his heart.
“Sir Hero! There is an evil in the woods. As a knight of Hyrule, I beg for your sword and shield to be used alongside our forces in case a great villain appears to do us harm!” A great villain already stands before you. If you only knew, then you would bow your head even lower. “Please, you must come with us at once!”
The queen was silent for a moment, she then shared an undecipherable glance with the princess before clasping her hands together.
“Oh, Link, you must go with the knights. I can sense a darkness in the forest.”
What? What the hell was she going on about? He couldn’t sense a thing. And if her senses were that sensitive to dark magic then she would have figured out who he truly was the second he took over the Hero of Hyrule’s body. “I fear what you might meet there; if Ganon were to return on tonight of all nights…” she gasped and covered her mouth—her eyes shined with tears that he still had no idea if they were real or fake.
The queen turned to one of her attendants. “Go, fetch the hero’s belongings.”
Wait.
She waved down a servant. “Please prepare enough food and drink and potions for a journey. Who knows what dangers lie in wait for our hero in the forest?”
Wait!
Ganon opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off with a tight hug. When she released him, the princess pulled him into a hug of her own. He cursed the hero’s hormones for the hundredth time as his heart began to race at the princess’ close proximity.
Before he knew it, he was being ushered out of the castle—his sword and shield were shoved into his arms as well as his bag. The people cheered and sent up prayers for his safety as he walked past.
“Thank you, Hero of Hyrule,” the knight from before said for the twelfth time in the past ten minutes as they walked down the forest trail. “You have no idea how honored I am to be able to stand side-by-side to the brave soul who risked his life to save us all twice over.”
Ganon nodded only half-listening. The knight had started to say something else but when Ganon’s stolen green eyes landed on the ‘puddle of magic’ he raised a hand to cut him off finally.
Well, well, well. He felt a slight smirk tug at the corner of his mouth as he gazed at the large, purple portal standing before him. He was suddenly glad he hadn’t run from the ball after all. Such a familiar magic.
Ganon reached out a hand—ignoring the shouts of warning from the cowardly knights—and laughed when his fingers passed right through it but did not come out the other side. A portal alright. And he recognized who’s magic it had been instantly.
“What have you done, you hero’s shadow?” He whispered too low for anyone to hear him.
A sudden memory came rushing back to him of a time long, long ago. Where he stood as the king of the Gerudo in the back of a temple, watching as a child dressed in green drew the goddess’ sacred blade and vanished from sight. Ever since that day—no matter which timeline he existed in—he could still feel an echo of time traveling magic coming from that temple whenever he’d pass it by.
That same magic could be felt radiating off the portal.
He took half a step forward but was stopped by a hand grabbing his arm roughly.
“Wait, sir! You don’t know what that is! It could be a new type of monster for all we know!” A different knight from before scolded. Ganon ripped his arm free and stared at the portal once more, ignoring the warning.
His curiosity for what one of the heroes’ shadows was planning was getting the better of him. If he was dealing with time travel, then he could probably make it so when he returned, it would have been as if almost no time had passed at all. Meaning, he wouldn’t have to give up his plans of destroying Hyrule.
No longer paying any attention at all to the noisy knights, he stepped right through the portal and out into another time.
So, where—?
Ganon made it two steps before he nearly collided with another person. His innocent act was instinct by then, and he’d had an apology ready to go on the tip of his tongue. That is until he looked up at the person he had almost run into.
His mouth dried up and his blood ran as cold as the golden sword strapped to the person’s back. The same golden blade that he very vividly remembered ending his life three times over.
That red tunic and blue cap.
That face with narrow eyes narrowed even further into a scowl.
That voice that had mocked him viciously during their third time meeting.
“Just how many heroes do the goddesses need?” The cursed and damned and every other insulting adjective Hero of Legend stood before him nearly unchanged since the day the hero cut him down in Lorule all those centuries ago.
Ganon could do nothing but stare at him dumbstruck. How? I watched you die from beyond the grave. I celebrated your death as wholeheartedly as the people of Hyrule celebrated mine. You upstart! You—you lapdog of the goddesses! HOW?
“I feel like there’s a joke in there somewhere,” a voice called out to his left. Another familiar voice that sent chills and fury down his spine. The pretend hero—the self-proclaimed Hero of Winds.
I granted that child mercy. I had his life in my hands and I spared it only to meet my end in such an undignified manner! His grip on the hilt of the Hero of Hyrule’s sword tightened at the memory.
The child grinned. “How many heroes does it take to take down a shadow?”
“How about: how many heroes does it take to keep Wild from burning down an entire forest again?” Another hero he recognized pointed to one he did not.
The Hero of Twilight and…a hero from my future? Ganon didn’t want to think of the implications that had on his current plans.
They were all there. Each hero that he thought he’d long since forgotten their faces but no, looking at them, he remembered each and every one except for the one the Hero of Twilight referred to as Wild.
The Hero of Time—a grown man now whose age still didn’t match. The little hero that wielded the Four Sword. Even the hero from a disconnected time altogether.
But if all of the heroes were present, then…
“Hey,” Ganon froze at the sound of a voice he hadn’t heard in millennia. Fragmented memories came to him that hurt his soul to recall. That same memory of those piercing blue eyes filled with anger. When he turned around, the Hero of Hyrule’s eyes set their sight on the enemy that started it all. All of his suffering. All because of that Sky Child.
He was a little older but still wore the shade of green from his nightmares. His eyes were no longer filled with rage but with mirth instead, as he nudged the pretend hero.
“Since we’re all named Link, how about: how many Links does it take to forge a chain?”
The damned heroes all laughed at the weak attempt at a joke. Ganon felt a sort of primal rage and bloodlust build up inside him and, while he knew he shouldn’t let it out and break his disguise, the desire to expose his true self and kill them all where they stood while their guards were all still down was very, very strong.
His body refused to act in accordance with his will, however. When he willed his arm to bring his sword down onto the Hero of Legend, it ignored that demand and instead, brought his sword up to sheath it onto his back. When he attempted to force any magic at all to come out of his hands, not even a spark came out as he extended his hand to offer up a handshake.
The Hero of Legend looked down at his outstretched hand with caution before he clasped their hands together in greeting.
Ganon never thought he’d wish to be back in his beast form but since he couldn’t move at all how he’d tried, all he wanted was to growl and snarl and bite as he had been able to do before. His mouth did move, but only to smile a smile that felt scarily more real than all the ones he’d given both the princess and the queen.
“Hi,” his voice said without his permission. “I’m Link, the Hero of Hyrule.”