Favorable side

by Gladys Garcia

  "Regardless, it turns out that their judgements of you are actually quite accurate," the queen said, her voice a bit shaky, but still cold as she sidestepped away from him.

  "In all your hatred and anger, you've certainly turned into the monster they feared you to be."

  "Like you're any better," Link said crossly, narrowing his eyes at her. "I know the only reason why you were nice to me in the first place was so you could lure me in close

  to you right before you and your dumb guards captured me."

  "Link, I can assure you that I never had any intentions of imprisoning you," Zelda said with sincerity, remembering what Midna had told her about the guard's continued

  assaults on the hero.

  "Don't lie to me, Zelda!" the hero growled in growing frustration. "I know that the only reason you ever even talked to me was because you wanted to take the Triforce

  of Courage from me and then have me killed!"

  "What are you talking about?!" the queen asked, completely taken aback by his theory. "I never wished to steal the Triforce of Courage from you!"

  "No, of course you didn't," Link said with burning sarcasm. "Because you're so perfect and you'd never get your hands dirty by killing anyone who might so much as even

  think about challenging your rule. But I know the truth. I know that you're really just afraid of me. You always have been; I just didn't know it until it was too late."

  Zelda shook her head and tried her best to hide the fact that she was trembling as he drew his face gradually closer to hers as he spoke, his voice dropping down to a

  sinister whisper all too quickly. "I… I'm n-not…" she began, her voice uncertain and tremulous before she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, knowing that she

  couldn't let him do this to her. "I am not afraid of you," she said, her tone soft, yet calm and firm.

  The hero frowned with visible disappointment upon hearing this, but before the queen could slip away from him entirely, he suddenly gripped her armored shoulder, ice

  spreading from his hand onto the metal as it sent a chill up Zelda's spine. Her eyes widened as she watched him hold his other hand up, a small, flickering flame appearing

  above his palm as it cast shadows upon his handsome face, the Twili markings making him look like a completely different person. For the longest time, the entire

  chamber was locked in a bout of tense silence, their eyes meeting as both of their expressions turned neutral, yet almost vulnerable. And then, as the queen shivered

  under his hold, the hero drew even closer to her still and for a moment, she believed he was leaning in to kiss her before he moved past her lips, his cold cheek brushing

  up against her warm one as he whispered directly into her ear, his breath tickling her neck. "You will be…" he said, his tone strangely soft and sensual and almost hypnotic

  in a way that rattled her to the core, filling her with both desire and resentment for him.

  Link pulled away from her slowly, extinguishing his flame as he noticed her shudder as his touch left her. There was a time that he would have given anything to make her

  feel such passion for him, but now, he found satisfaction in bringing fear to her heart more than anything else. After all, by her rejection of him, she had made him feel

  weak and worthless; he found it only fitting that he make her feel the same way now.

  "L-Link…" Zelda choked, her eyes still wide as she watched him turn away from her slowly. "Y-you… you know that what you are doing is… wrong… don't you?"

  The hero was silent for a long moment upon hearing this, a small part of him strangely wanting to believe her, but the rest of him quickly overpowered it. "The only person

  who was ever wrong in all this is you, Zelda," he said coldly, still not turning to face her.

  The queen shook her head as she took in a deep breath, resuming her collected manner once more. "So… what do you plan on doing now?" she asked, keeping her tone

  stoic after what had just happened. "Keep me imprisoned here forever just so you can watch me suffer?"

  "No," Link said, half glancing back at her. "That would be letting you off easy. Verona offered to let me decide what happens to you, but I figured that she was better at

  this sort of thing, so she's going to instead. But whatever she picks, she said I get to be the one to do it."

  He grinned darkly as he said this, filling Zelda's heart with dread. She could scarcely believe that Link, the very same hero who had given her more affection than she had

  ever felt in her entire life, could now smile with glee at the thought of viciously murdering her. "I hope you do realize that you are nothing less than a traitor to Hyrule and

  its people," the queen said, gathering up her courage as she spoke boldly and icily to him. "You have selfishly turned your back on everything you once believed it.

  Regardless of your feelings for me, your abandoned your very home and everyone within it. I used to believe that you had a good heart, that you had honor and morals.

  But now, I can see that your heart has been blackened by a corruption you willingly let touch it! And whether or not you believe me, if you continue down this road, you

  will die, Link."

  The hero simply shook his head, resolved to not believe a word she said, lest she deceive him yet again. After all, Verona had cautioned him not to listen to her, for

  certainly she would say anything at all to save herself now, including make him doubt himself and his choices. "You can try and convince me of that all you want, Zelda,"

  he said with a bitter sigh, turning fully towards the door once more. "It doesn't mean I'm ever going to believe you."

  "Well… then at least believe this…" Zelda said, her tone sounded wounded as she stepped closer to him, and on a moment of sheer impulse, she reached for his hand and

  took it, disregarding the risk it was to even touch him considering his powers. Out of largely surprise, Link turned around to face her, glaring at her still, but remaining silent

  as he waited expectantly for her to speak. "Verona did force me to lie to you about my affections for you. And if she never had, then I would have been able to tell you

  the truth… I would have told you that… I… I do love you, Link… Honestly and truly… I have loved you all along… Or at least… I used to… before…"

  Link rolled his eyes slightly upon hearing this as he let out a disgruntled sigh, knowing that she was only playing him yet again. However, unlike the last time she professed

  any sort of affection for him, he wasn't about to even think about buying it this time. Too disgusted to even say anything, he pulled his hand out of her grip, giving her a

  look of absolute hatred that made even the air around him feel colder.

  "But… I suppose that is not enough…" Zelda whispered, her heart aching as she realized that she had lost him before she even had a chance to really have him. "Is it?"

  The hero turned away from her one last time, unable to meet her light blue eyes as tears began to form in them. He would not allow any amount of tears or pleading to

  persuade him now; thanks to her, his heart had turned to ice and no amount of affirmation could hope to break thaw it now. "No…" he said hollowly, opening the cell door

  as he prepared to take his leave, unable to bear being near her any longer in light of the pain that still lingered inside. "It's not."

  The queen finally let out her pent up sob as the door slammed shut, leaving her trapped and alone once more. She had known that he wasn't going to believe anything

  she said all along, but after the harsh words that had been thrown back and forth between the two of them, she couldn't help but desperately pine for the long-gone days

  when they had been on good terms with one another, when they had mutually enjoyed each other's company. Before their once beautiful bond had been poisoned and

  ultimately broken.

  Unable to contain her sor
row any longer, Zelda rushed towards the door that Link had just exited out of, wishing that he had stayed and actually listened to her. But now,

  because of the pain that she had caused him, he would continue to believe that the Queen of Shadows was actually on his side. He would continue to think that his spirit

  was safe until the very moment that Verona had consumed it entirely.

  With tears streaming down her cheeks, the queen leaned against the door and slowly sank to the ground, her heart breaking as she knew that the hero was all too quickly

  going to meet his end, most likely before they could ever hope to reconcile. She wanted nothing more than to save him from the darkness that had already entered his

  heart, from the twisted prophecy that had already come to pass, but she knew she could do little for him now. He had chosen his path. And in choosing such a dark path,

  he had chosen his own destruction.

  However, what Zelda couldn't see as she poured her sorrows out was the ice that had completely engulfed the other side of the door, all of it converging around Link as he

  sat against it in the same position the queen was. Though he wasn't crying like she was, he couldn't help but feel just as low as she was. He refused to believe that he was

  feeling any form of guilt or remorse over what he had said to her, he couldn't help but feel a sense of longing. Even though he knew it was too late to change the past,

  there were so many things he would fix if he could. Perhaps Zelda had always transpired against him, but if he could go back, Link knew he would try his best to convince

  the queen against her treacherous plans so that they could have built a friendship, perhaps even a romance, built off of something more than lies and deception. If he

  could change the fates, then he would have made it so that she had never desired to hurt him in the first place. And maybe if he had, then maybe they would be lovingly

  embracing right now instead of filled with disdain for one another.

  However, Link was quick to shake such romantic notions from his mind. What was done was done. Zelda had broken his heart and there was no going back. She had

  proved her heartlessness, and he had every intention of proving that he could be just as heartless, if not more so.

  And yet, both the queen and the hero, both wrapped up in despair, betrayal, and heartache, knew that no matter what could have possibly happened in the past, present

  or future, there was no possible chance they could ever truly be together.

  Zelda was slowly finding herself growing used to being held prisoner. It wasn't something that she liked to admit, but she knew it was true. After all, this would mark the

  third time she was a captive against her will in a matter of mere months, an unprecedented record for anyone, especially a queen. However, the first two times she had

  been imprisoned, she had been locked away within her own castle, caged in her very own home, the first time by Zant, and the second time by Verona. Now, she was

  trapped in a completely foreign realm, unable to see or hear about what was going on in her own kingdom, which was no doubt in a current state of turmoil after the

  tragedy that it had just faced.

  It was nearly impossible to judge the passing of time in the Twilight Realm, something that frustrated the queen as she sat upon the stone slab that was her bed and

  glanced up out the high window into the golden shadows outside. The Twilight had a strange surrealness to it, one that both beckoned and repelled. Light dwellers didn't do

  well in its unchanging, brittle atmosphere, something that Zelda knew as she felt her energy slowly drain from her by simply being within it. How Link was able to

  apparently handle it without it weakening him, she didn't know. Perhaps it was just a part of the darkness that Verona had successfully planted in his heart, darkness that

  was slowly twisting and corrupting what was once so pure and kind.

  But Zelda knew she had been partly responsible for what had become of the hero too. She couldn't stop thinking of what he had said to her the previous day, of how he

  had accused her of not caring for him enough to try and find a way out of Verona's 'bargain'. And perhaps she hadn't cared enough; perhaps, in all of her uncertainty

  about the newfound feelings she had for him, she had not tried hard enough to come to a real solution. She had the Triforce of Wisdom; certainly, if she had thought hard

  enough about it, then she could have come up with a way out, a way to bend the rules of what the Queen of Shadows had expected of her. And, maybe if she had, then

  Hyrule would not be crumbling into ruins, maybe Verona would have already been vanquished, and maybe, just maybe, her and Link could have actually had a chance to

  be together.

  But it was too late now. Zelda had failed in both her duty to her people, her duty to her hero, and her duty to her own heart. She had betrayed all three of them, each in

  different, irreparable ways. And now, she was paying the price for it, as was her entire kingdom. She was imprisoned, her people suffering, her hero deceived and slowly,

  unknowingly dying, and her enemy reveling in it all.

  And yet, despite all of the hopelessness that had been accumulating in the queen's heart, she knew that she could not give up yet. As long as she was able to, she would

  fight, against her captors, against the shadows, against even fate itself if she had to. And, if she had no hero to save her any longer, then she would just have to save

  herself.

  With hardened resolve, Zelda slowly rose to stand, barely making a sound as she stepped towards the thick door that barred her escape. She knew trying to use the

  window would be out of the question; even if it wasn't barred off, it would still be much too small for her body to fit through, and besides, she wasn't even sure if there

  was solid ground on the other side of it at all. The last thing the queen wanted was to escape only to eternally fall through the depths of the unending Twilight. Though the

  door itself had no way of opening from the inside, Zelda wasn't about to let that stop her. She placed her hands against the firm wood of the door as she carefully

  inspected it, glancing out of the small window to see the hallway lined with other cells similar to hers. The queen didn't know if any of them were occupied, but she was

  relieved to see that the hall was empty of any guards that Verona might have thought to station there. However, the door itself was impenetrable. Zelda sighed in

  aggravation as she reached her hand out of the window, straining as much as she could to reach for the outside handle only to come a few inches short of touching it.

  She figured that it wouldn't have done her any good anyway; certainly it was locked on the outside, even if there was no way of getting out from the inside. Or so it

  appeared.

  Deciding that trying to use the door was useless, Zelda searched for an alternate option in the brick walls of her cell. They weren't composed of rough stone like the walls

  of Hyrule Castle were, but rather a smooth, cold black marble, meshed together by an almost seamless type of mortar. The bricks themselves were quite large, and, the

  queen reasoned, that if one of them were to be removed, it would create a hole just big enough for her to squeeze out of.

  Though Zelda knew her powers were useless in this cell, she didn't need them anyway. Instead, she smiled slyly to herself as she reached a hand to her ear, feeling the

  sharp tips of her Triforce-shaped earrings as she took them off. Even if Verona and Link thought themselves so clever, they had clearly faltered in failing to strip her of

  these golden accessories, which could certainly could be used as weapons, albeit weak ones, or in this case, a means of escape.

  After checking to make sure the coast was clear outside, the queen got to work at chipping away at the mortar around one of the marble bricks
using the tips of her

  earrings. She knew it would be a slow, monotonous process, but if it could lead to her eventual escape, it would be worth it. As she worked, Zelda formulated a plan

  concerning what she would do once she was free. Of course, her first act would be escaping from the Palace of Twilight with the aid of her powers, which would hopefully

  be returned to her once she got out of her cell. From there, she would do her best to figure out a way out of the Twilight Realm altogether; she knew well the Mirror of

  Twilight was not an option anymore, so she would have to rely on some other form of magic to get back to Hyrule, but she would search relentlessly until she had found a

  way. Anything to escape from these miserable shadows and return to the purity of the light that she was the destined ruler of.

  It took a few hours, but Zelda eventually managed to whittle away at the mortar on each side of the brick until she soon felt it begin to budge. With a small smile and a

  prayer of thanks to the goddesses, the queen rose to stand from her kneeling position and pushed her weight against the heavy brick, shoving it outwards with all her

  might until at last, it fell out of place and crashed onto the ground in the hallway. The queen cursed under her breath upon hearing how loud it was, knowing that it would

  certainly alert someone, which meant that she didn't have much time. Not wasting a single moment, Zelda slipped through the hole in the bricks she had made, emerging

  in the still-empty hallway on the other side. Upon leaving the cell, she instantly felt a burst of energy course through her, no doubt her magic as she glanced to the back of

  her hand and noticed the Triforce of Wisdom shining blue once more. And even if she didn't have the Bow of Light in her possession, she felt more than prepared to make

  her escape attempt.

  The queen's heart pounded with adrenaline as she raced down the darkened corridors of the dungeons, having not a clue about where she was going as she searched for

  a flight of stairs that would hopefully lead her to the palace's main floor. All the while, a dim golden burst of light surrounded her hand, in case she needed to use it against