MindTrap

Chapter 5: Breakout

Nayru watched, a silent voice in the heavens. Below her - if that was the correct word - Hyrule, Termina and all the worlds stretched out to infinity.
Mortals' souls were visible to her view, as well as physical bodies. Not personalities as such, but patterns. Each exquisite in its own way. No matter whether the mind it represented was good or evil, the brilliant tapestry of colours shone through. Yet almost all had their clear imperfections, rips and tears in the weave - human errors and faults.

Except one.
Her brother's stood out from the myriad minds. No colours here, no shades. Just a pattern of black and white, light and dark. The darkness was dominant over the light, surrounding it on every side - yet by that, it made the pure sparkling whiteness all the more visible. A perfect, multi-dimensional symmetry and a flawless pattern.
No - not quite. If she peered more closely towards Oni Link's heart - hidden deep inside the perfect forms were signs of an imperfect fusion. The threads of the immortal's spirit tangled and twisted around those of a simple human, a child who had been destined to die - no, had died. There, too, were the scars she and her sisters had inflicted themselves as they severed his bonds to the divine realms and tore his power away. The branding there would have gone unnoticed if she had not been looking for it - but slight as it was, that human presence within meant that he would never return to their realm on his own. His eternal exile would continue - even if the Fierce Deity whose life it now was to live was not the same as the one who they had chosen to force away.
If she had had a physical form at that point, a tear would have escaped her eye at the thought.
We have wronged you, Oni'kara... if you ever... if you can ever forgive us...

Even as she watched, something changed. Slight trembles and shocks ran through his mind-patterns. The fragile balance was being disturbed.
Slowly but surely, the darkness was invading the light.
What... what is happening to you?...

-

Link stirred. When he came to, he was in a prison cell. It closely resembled the ones from the Gerudo fortress, except there was less light. There were no windows here, and only the flickering illumination of torches against the walls. At first glance, there was no way out. No. Hang on. He could see something. A gap above the doorway. If I... He stood up.
Hitting his head on the ceiling.
He swore loudly, but stopped as soon as he realised the implications. Smiling, he looked down at himself. Back to - hah - normal... but what's normal, now, anyway?
And what do they want with me? Why am I in here?
He waited for a while to see if anything happened, before starting to plan his escape. There wasn't room to swing his sword in here, but if he could just get his dagger between the stones, surely he could lever them out...
Then he realised that was mortal thinking. Link began to focus, sensing for the boundaries between the worlds. If he could just find that they overlapped in this cell, he could break out that way... Yes... ah, no. The cell was sealed in as far into the dimensions as he could sense. Must be in a mountainside, or something. Explains why it's so dark. Back to plan one. He began to chip into the walls and bars of his prison. They were stronger than he had expected. It looked like it was going to take some time.

Before he could restart his attack, the cell door opened with a creak. Link span round, weapon in hand. A Gerudo woman stood in the doorway. She looked familiar - and embarrassed.

-

"Why, you..."
"I was such a looker, then, wasn't I?..."
"Ha! I was always..."
"Ssh! He can't know!"

-

"My apologies for this misunderstanding, lord Lalandin." That word again. "We were told to bring you here, but we had not realised... But my master wishes to see you. If you would please come with me..."
Link narrowed his eyes, not trusting her one bit. "Who is your 'master', then?"
"Why, the King Ganondorf, of course. He was very anxious to meet you again. He asked me to send his apologies over what happened - I had no idea that you two were friends when he asked us to bring you here..."
"Friends? Never!" Link half-spat. "What do you mean?"
The Gerudo shook her head. "But I thought... With what you've done for him... Please. My lord, if you would..."
Grudgingly, he nodded. If he was to meet his old enemy, he would have the advantage easily... whatever he was doing here. Surely, this was not the timeline he had so recently been in.
And if it is... what does that mean?
And if, for whatever reason, Ganondorf was truly treating him as a friend... He had to find out. "Fine. Lead the way - what's your name, by the way?"
She paused. "It's Katina. And, of course, I know who you are. Who doesn't?"
I don't. Silently, he followed the elegantly-dressed Katina - a high-ranking servant, he guessed - upwards through a maze of corridors. As he progressed, the surroundings gained a sort of spartan, vicious splendour. Faintly, in the distance, organ music played.
Eventually, his guide paused. "He's in here, lord Lalandin." I am going to get so sick of that name, if anyone else... Katina pushed the door of a great hall open.
"Your highness? I brought him..." she called out.
Link looked on as a figure at the hall's far end turned round to meet him. As he had been informed, it was Ganondorf - the human, not the monster. Although that's just words.

What was more disconcerting was that the Evil King seemed genuinely pleased to see him, and not just as a third Triforce piece.

Ganondorf grinned strangely, an excitement radiating from his mind, as he strode down the hallway. "Oni!" he laughed. "You must forgive my servants' rough treatment of you - but it has been so long, old friend. Seven years since I saw you, and never a word."
"You can call me Link. And since were we ever friends?" he replied, coldly.
The Gerudo king raised an eyebrow at the Hylian immortal. "And since when were you so quick to compare yourself to my old rival? I know you started off the same, you told me enough times - but you've proved yourself my ally ever since you freed me from that accursed prison. Why, then, do you use the name of that hated shadow of what you were? I thought you changed time, not changed with it..."
His expression did not change. But inside, Link felt sickened by the implications. He's saying I freed him from the Sacred Realm? No... This can't be.
This is... how... why...
Twinrova!

All of a sudden, it became clear.

-

"He's on to us!"

-

"Seven years..." Ganon interrupted his thoughts. "Seven years since our pact. Hyrule is mine, Termina yours. Twin worlds of darkness and perfection. The way it should be, Oni'kara."
"No!" Link lunged forwards, and seized the Gerudo by his collar. "Don't call me that. Don't even think you know me... but I know you. You're... an illusion. A shadow. I don't know what that pair of witches are up to... but they will never get my assistance like this." Raging, he threw Ganondorf across onto the floor. "I've got no time to waste on you. You don't exist." A hysterical laugh escaped him. "It's all so obvious, now... it was all a trick! Ever since... that mixed-up dream... I'm still dreaming!" He turned his back and walked away.

A voice interrupted him. Not Ganon's, any more.
"You're leaving me? Again?" Link snapped back round. Where he had thought he'd left a desert warrior, lay the exact opposite. And a final proof that this was not real. A lump caught in his throat. "How... you abandoned me before, you left me away from my home... and you're going to leave me alone again!"
He closed his eyes, blazing white with emotion. "No. I didn't abandon you. Wherever you are, you're safe. Because you're not here with me."

Link began to run. He had no idea which way. All he knew was that he had to get out of this maze.
Any direction. Anything would do.

But... what am I trying to escape? The only prison here is my own mind...
Trapped in my own consciousness... the only cage that could ever hold me...
Think, dammit, Oni'kara... he silently cursed, unconscious how he had just referred to himself. You can break through the boundaries of the universe, but not through your own thoughts?

"There's a way, you know," someone called to him. Sheik - the original, or so it would seem. The face he saw was more like his own in shape than Zelda's, except for the eyes. "You are what you think you are. And you are where you think you are. Running won't help." The Sheikah's advice seemed fair enough. But why was the idea coming from his form, rather than someone else's? "Everything here is a symbol. Everything an illusion. Everything a mirror. Think, brother." Why did he just call me... But the logic was clear. To escape this world - he had to escape it as any other.

Mentally, Link began to search for the boundaries of the worlds. Silent, he raised his hands outwards, searching for one in particular. The real world.
There it is! A faint shimmer in the air outlined a gateway.
He stepped forwards.

-

Twinrova watched, almost powerless. A faint glow began to flicker into Link's eyes.
"We've got to stop this! If we've got any chance... full power! Now!" Koume yelled. She fired a shining red flare towards the sleeping deity.
Kotake joined in. "Don't have to tell me! We've got to seal him in! If he's gonna destroy our power - he's gotta destroy himself first!"

-

The gate closed as Link stepped through -
and left him falling into an abyss.

This is wrong! I can't...

"You won't escape us like that, lalandin..." the witches' voices echoed.
"You bet?"

Softly, he landed on an invisible plain in the void. Surprised, he looked around for any sign of life, but there was none. Except...
Shadows formed and danced around him. Every enemy, every nightmare, Link had ever faced poured out of the cracks in his subconscious to torment him.
Twinrova were taking no chances.

There's nothing here you haven't seen. Nothing you haven't won over.
(Just not all at once.)

They crowded in, dark and terrible. Ganon laughed and Majora shrieked. Twinmold and Volvagia twisted in the skies, while armies of minor enemies - Boes, Chuchus, Tektites and Stalchildren - packed in, leaving no room to move.
Wildly, he reached for his sword. He swung in random circles, forgetting all techniques, in a vain attempt to keep them at bay.
Even as he attacked, something struck him that had never before. Something had come through from his mind apart from the monsters - a memory.
A name...
Usually, Link had never bothered with giving swords names. Why? They were only tools. Until that point, only the Master Sword had had another title. Not even the blade he carried now had been granted one. But here, in his mind -
The Sword of Eternity, he thought, watching the blue flares crackle along the blades.
It's... something else, too... What is it?
Still, there was no time to pause. He leapt backwards over a Dodongo's burst of flame, blade scoring through the lizard's armoured scales, before striking behind him on instinct. A piercing howl indicated that a Wolfos had just collapsed.
Link's conscious mind virtually switched off. Only his battle-ready core, the Fierce Deity, had any hold. Spinning, ducking, weaving through the melee - no opponent created here in his mind was any threat.
One by one, they all fell.
As one by one, he smashed through the witches' controls on his mind.
His own, too.

After what could have been eons, the last opponent collapsed. He was alone. Lost in the void and the darkness of his own thoughts.
How... how do I get out, now? How do I escape my own soul? I've got to wake up...
Search for the light...

Something was coming into view. It shimmered brilliantly, gold - and silver? White gold.
The Triforce. The Golden Power. Complete. At its heart, a final triangle.
My power, Link realised in a flash of insight. Not my sisters'...

One leap took him too it. Silent, he held out the Sword of Eternity. It seemed almost magnetically drawn to the glittering artifact, streamers of light connecting the two.
Suddenly, he knew what to do.
With a yell, he thrust the sword in through the silver-coloured triangle's heart.

Currents of pure power surged up the blades and into his body - or his illusion of it, at least.
The last seal on his subconscious mind was fractured. Ancient, archaic memory spilled through and seared his mind.

Link screamed out loud.
The Fierce Deity's mind could not hold onto this new - old - knowledge as well as his hero's personality.

Something was going to have to give.
And the memories of eons had more force behind them than those of a simple twenty-four years.

Who... who am I?
I am... I am...
Link...
Oni...

-

His eyes flared brilliantly.
"We're done for..." whispered Kotake.