#corrupt link

Zelda wishes the woods were alive. She wishes for the telltale signs of life: the rattle of a bush, the hiss of a snake, even the scream of something inhumane–but all is still and eerily silent. And even then, she feels a set of eyes watching her every move, and she grips the sword tighter. She tries to convince herself she’s alright. That there really is nothing in the trees, and that she is only feeling the remnants of the Calamity’s curse on her kingdom. For a while, it works. She can ignore the feeling.

And then, the whisper of something so close, she swears she can feel it’s breath on the back of her neck,

“Zelda.”

And she knows better. She’s heard tales of what this mist can do, what these woods can do to anyone it deems unwelcome, and she knows that there is nothing that could call for her that was worth looking back. To look back is to acknowledge it, and to acknowledge it would mean she’s already dead. But it repeats, urgent and soft, and she knows that voice. She knows it well; she knows what it sounds like when it’s happy, when it’s sympathetic, when it’s putting on a mask of indifference and neutrality for the sake of the world around them, when it’s trying not to crack under the weight of all the pressure, and she turns around.

There’s a figure in the shadows. It’s nowhere near close enough for her to feel, but it calls out again and she feels something touch her. Goosebumps rise on her skin and she shivers, but the touch is soft and she is weak, and she whispers back to it before she can even think better of it,

“Link?”

He’s there, though a part of her knows it can’t really be him. But he’s there, standing just between the trees, the most relaxed she’s ever seen him. His posture is still that of a rigid statue, a perfect soldier, but the dark circles under his eyes seem faded and when he offers her a smile, she feels her heart shatter in her chest. The tears she thought she’d cried out well up in buckets and she presses a shaking hand to her mouth.

“Zelda,” he repeats, his voice as gentle as she remembers, and he doesn’t say anything else as he holds out a hand to her. She’s shaking too hard to move, but she slowly extends the Master Sword towards him. What else would he be reaching for?

But he tilts his head like a confused pet and she pulls the weapon back to herself with a watery frown. He says her name again, and it hits her what he wants. She reaches her free hand out to him, her fingers shaking so hard they are blurry–or maybe that was just the tears, but she halts just centimeters above him.

“I can’t,” she whispers, raising her eyes to his. “You are– I know what you are.”

He tilts his head the other way, prompting her to continue, but she can’t because she doesn’t know. He looks so real, and her heart wants nothing more than to cry out to him, to curl up in his arms and let the mist swallow them both because Hyrule was long dead anyway, and she can’t bring herself to give in because he isn’t real. But there’s something about him that is, and that’s what scares her most.

“Zelda,” he says, raising his other hand so that both are outstretched towards her. He’s so open and welcoming. The woods are cold and unforgiving and she’s shivering. Or trembling. She shakes her head again, wiping furiously at her eyes, and she stumbles backwards when he takes a step forwards. He looks so sad, so vulnerable and confused, and he says her name again.

He’s a broken record. He hasn’t said anything else. Only her name, over and over, in a soft whisper that was intimate and warm and reserved for her, and she wants to fall apart. She wants to let him bid her into the gentle sleep of eternity that came when the mist got too close. Why? Why is this what her hero had become?

He steps forward again and her foot hits a root, sending her backwards until her hands skid against the ground and mud digs into every crease of her palm and under her nails.

“Please,” she whispers out, and she can’t muster the strength to stand. “Please, I just need to return the sword.”

“Zelda.”

She’s tired of her name. It’s not her name anymore–and yet, when he says it, she can never really deny him.

“Link,” she sobs, and he frowns. He’s still outstretched to her, but he’s not pursuing. Not forcing. A gentle coercion, a soft call from the depths of the magic veiling the woods, and he wants to take her into the mist. He wants to pull her closer until she drowns and she knows this. She knows whatever had happened to the soul of her hero had butchered it until only this remnant remained. And he looks so promising. He looks as if he can give her comfort and happiness and all of those things she’d never known. And to accept that is to accept the mist, to abandon the sword and her kingdom and the gods of old that gave her this boy and then took him away.

“Zelda.”

He looks sad. She doesn’t know if it’s real. If he’s real. He crouches before her, his hands so cold but achingly gentle when they cradle her face, and his eyes are so hollow. He wants to pull her under.

“Well, that’s an awfully hostile way to greet someone who came to offer you a way to save the scraps of your kingdom.” He said dryly and Zelda looked back up at him sharply as he made his way to the chair opposite from her.

“You mean trick me into giving you something you want?” Zelda asked and the demon laughed.

“If that’s what you’d like to call it.” He said, pulling the chair back and taking a seat. “I have Castle Town under siege. At any moment I can say the word and have it razed to the ground.” He said, giving her a look like he’d just locked her into a checkmate in an invisible game of chess on the table before them. Zelda glared at him. “Or- I could call it off entirely.”

Her heart both sang and dropped into her stomach at this. So he was here to trick her. Wonderful. But- If it meant saving her kingdom, she would do whatever it took. Even if he wanted her head on a platter, she’d do that if he promised to end the attacks on villages and innocent people trying to live their lives.

“What do you want from me?” Zelda questioned, less harshly this time. Escape be damned, if she could at least do this one thing for her people-

“Marry me. None of your people will respect me as a ruler without a legitimate claim. If I marry you, then I will gain the right to rule.” Zelda stared at the demon dumbfoundedly. Was he serious? Just like that? When he had quite literally just admitted that he was doing so as a grab for power? As if she would-

She could trick him into allowing her into his quarters if she agreed. She would have easy access to the Master Sword then. She’d just have to lay with him- The thought almost made Zelda want to retch right there. If she gave herself to him under the guise of giving into his advances she could take the sword while he was asleep. It- Wasn’t the best situation, but- If she closed her eyes it could at the very least be Link in her head. And then she could kill him with minimal fuss. Zelda took a deep breath and closed her eyes, struggling with the idea of this plan. It seemed simple and yet-

“Think about it, Princess. I get what I want and you get to save your people. And you’ll get to be married to the person you love in a sense.” He edged her on, trying hard to convince her to accept his proposal. Oh- He really wanted this didn’t he? The demon who hadn’t even bothered to tell her his name since he had taken over Link’s body all those months ago-

“That’s-” Zelda stopped, unsure what to say still. She wanted the violence to end, but- She also didn’t want to use her own body in such a way. It was low and manipulative. But she had been being manipulated this entire time, so why should she care if it was or not?

“Come on, Princess. How many more innocent people have to die before you swallow your pride and submit?” He taunted her again. Oh, she wished she could slap him again right then- Her unease was cut through with anger. How dare he question her loyalty to her people- She’d show him.

“Fine.” She answered finally. “On the condition that you stop all violent activity against my people by this afternoon, I will agree to marry you.” He grinned wickedly.

“Consider it done.”

The demon was beyond pleased with himself and his guards had celebrated loudly for the rest of the day and well into the night at this ‘victory’. Oh, if only they knew the hell they would pay when Zelda got a hold of the Master Sword. Of Link’s sword. She’d make them wish that Link had killed the demon when he came to the fortress in the first place. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and she was a goddess and was fucking livid.

It was late the next evening when Zelda exited her chambers, padding her way barefoot down the hallway to where she knew the demon slept. Her heart was thudding loudly in her ears as she approached the door between her and the demon. Was this really about to happen? Would he be rough with her? Would she bruise? Would he talk down to her like she was nothing but a whore or would the tiny remnants of Link that remained in his behavior towards her come through and he would be gentle with her during her first time? She steadied herself before opening the door to the demon's chambers.

His crimson eyes fixated on her from where he was laid out over his bed that was much like her own. Odd that it wasn’t more lavish, but she supposed that wasn’t important.

“Oh? And to what do I owe a visit from my wife-to-be?” He teased her, propping himself up on his elbow and draping his other arm across his midsection. Damn him- He knew that was something LInk would do when she got his attention. Zelda slipped in and shut the door behind her.

“I’m- Tired of resisting.” She said, making sure that her voice had a tiny whine at the end of it. Like she was close to tears. Lady Impa would have been proud of her acting skills right now as the demon was eating it up. He raised a brow at her and smirked, gesturing her closer with a curl of a single finger.

“Are you now? Well, it’s about time.” He said, sitting up and watching her as she made a show of hesitantly locking the door behind her and ever so timidly making her way to the bed. “Don’t be shy, I won’t bite… Not that hard at least.” He teased, chuckling darkly and Zelda blushed.

Holy Hylia above, she was really about to do this. She didn’t have to fake the nerves as she crawled into his bed and let him touch her and disrobe her. The tremor in her hands as she started to touch him back was as real as the situation she was in. For all the demon’s aggression towards her in the past, he made sure to at least attempt to soothe her nerves, but every thought she had was plagued by the knowledge that this wasn’t Link like she was trying to pretend it was. This was a demon.

Thankfully, Link, or at least his physical body, was also inexperienced and wasn’t able to last too long. It had felt… Alright. Zelda would have been much more relaxed and emotionally fulfilled if she had been with Link instead of this spirit piloting his form.

“See, that wasn’t so bad.” THe demon rumbled into her ear when they were finished. He laid against her back, holding her naked form against his own. “I even made you finish~” He had, in fact, not done so. She had faked it to stroke his ego a little bit more into relaxing. She had been trying to focus on anything other than the demon the whole time: her plan to escape, going home and celebrating the end of the war, mourning everyone they had lost, mourning Link- But it was done now at least, she could turn her attention to her next step.

Of course, he didn’t make it easy.

With his arms around her waist and his face pressed against the back of her shoulder, it would be very hard for Zelda to get up out of the bed without waking him up. Especially because the way he held her wasn’t just a loose hold, he was gripping her firmly. Fuck, this may have been a mistake.

Though- She did have time to look around the room now. She didn’t know where exactly the sword was located or hidden, so she glanced around the parts of the room that she could see. There were weapons and baubles everywhere, but finally, Zelda was able to make out the golden triforce on the scabbard of the Master Sword in the corner of the room, concealed partially by a few other weapons.

Zelda shifted once. Then twice. Then a third time to see if the demon was awake or not. When he didn’t respond to her shifting in any way, his grip even loosening unconsciously around her, she knew it likely was safe to try and get up. If he woke up she could say she needed to use the bathroom or to… clean up from their activities. Carefully, Zelda squirmed and twisted from the demon’s grasp, finding the dress that she came in, not liking the bite of the cold air on her bare skin before picking her way carefully over to the corner where the Master Sword was.

There was no way this was going to be this easy- Surely this demon wasn’t so oblivious to think that she would just- Sleep with him without an ulterior motive. She had resisted doing it for months now, that wasn’t just going to change overnight.

She gripped the hilt of the Master Sword and carefully tried to move it from behind the other blades trapping it against the wall. Finally, Zelda was able to pull the hilt from behind the other blades and then carefully extracted the scabbard and blade from the tangle of weaponry.

That’s when a movement caught Zelda’s eye and she looked at the stack of blades on the wall. One of the swords crossguards caught on the Master Sword’s own crossguard as she freed it and it tilted precariously to one side, then started falling, falling- And clattered loudly on the ground, hitting two more on the way down, adding them to the noise as they also clattered against the stone floors.

Zelda whipped around to face the bed- Sure enough the demon’s eyes were open and fixed on her in a dangerous way.

“And what exactly do you think you’re doing Princess?” The demon questioned as he got up, not bothering to put clothes on as he put his feet on the ground and began making his way to her. This was bad! Very bad! But she had the sword! She had no idea how to use a sword, but! How hard could it be??

Panicking, Zelda yanked the blade out of its scabbard and sent a quick prayer to the Goddesses to help her as the demon paused in his advancements. Then he started to chuckle.

“Ohoho, is this really what you want to do, Princess?” He taunted, narrowing his eyes at her. “What are you going to do? Kill me? Kill him?” He said, edging around her, trying to circle so that he was between her and the door. Zelda stepped closer to the door, keeping her back to the wall and the point of the Master Sword towards the demon’s chest.

“You think this is all a game. You want to use me and him like pawns. It’s going to end. Tonight.” Zelda said. The demon tilted his head to one side and scoffed.

“Perhaps it will.” He said, raising a hand as a myriad of shadows congealed into the form of a blade not unlike the Master Sword but pitch black. “I should have guessed that you weren’t going to concede that easily, but- You put on a convincing show. You were rather determined to do this, weren’t you.” He said, gripping the blade tightly. Oh shit- Oh shit, they were really about to fight weren’t they? Oh this was bad- This was a horrible plan, oh goddesses help her-

The demon swung and by some divine fluke, Zelda parried the strike. How? She wasn’t entirely sure. She’d never used a sword in anything other than formal ceremonies before, by all means he should have just stuck her like a pig- Another strike and she parried again, her feet taking her back half a step, but she wasn’t dying yet so that was fine.

“What-?” The demon furrowed his brow and eyed her, clearly seeing the surprise on her face. “Stop doing that!” He snarled as he struck again. Once again, Zelda blocked. The demon snarled at her now and began rapidly trying to strike her. And as if the Master Sword had a mind of its own and control over her feet, Zelda blocked, parried, and pivoted away from each strike, much to the annoyance of the demon.

When Zelda thought that there was going to be no end to this cycle of strikes and deflections, she saw an opening. The demon raised his sword up as if to bring it crashing down upon her head- and left his entire abdomen open. Zelda pointed the tip of the Master Sword directly at his stomach and stepped forwards, putting her weight and everything she had in her behind the thrust.

The sickening sound of the blade cutting through flesh and sinew was far louder than Zelda had been anticipating and she let go of the sword, staggering backwards as she processed what she had- somehow managed to do. Waves of nausea overcame her as she heard the noise on repeat in her mind. Goddess above, what did she just do? The demon stared at the hilt of the sword as it stuck out of his midsection. The sword was buried so deeply into him the tip was also sticking out of his back.

Then a barrage of disturbing noises and gargles exited Link’s mouth as the demon shuddered, dark black liquid beginning to drip freely from his mouth, nose and eyes and then evaporating quickly away into the air like black little puffs of smoke. He dropped the jet sword, which also faded into smoke before it hit the ground.

“Damn, you- No! I-” The demon gargled out and more and more of the shadowy smoke began to leave Link’s body. Zelda watched in horror as Link’s charcoal grey skin lightened and his ash colored hair grew golden brown again and as his body wretched the last of the shadows out, crimson eyes blinked shut and finally opened blue once more.

Zelda could have cried seeing that beautiful blue.

“Is that all you can do, Princess? Is your burden finally too much to carry? I expected more from you.” Zelda looked up at Link- But it wasn’t Link.

Link’s eyes were as clear and as blue as a bright spring day. Unlike the glowing crimson eyes that stared at her now. Not Link moved towards her, boots crunching on the rubble covered floors as he drew near to her, the Master Sword in hand. It had yet to reject it’s wielder, which confused Zelda more than anything. The sword spirit said to dwell in the blade shouldn’t have allowed a fel creature to touch it, and yet- Maybe it was still him.

It moved and looked and sounded like Link. Her Link- The one friend she knew she could confide anything and everything in and he was there in all, but presence as this- Whatever it was controlled his body. Could he still perceive what was happening? Was he fighting for control? Was he gone completely? Tears pricked at Zelda’s eyes and she looked down at the ground again.

“It’s bad enough you took him, don’t taunt me. Get this over with.” Zelda said. The creature- Link, stopped and processed this demand for a split moment.

The demon laughed at her.

“That you think I’d kill you is funny. No- I don’t intend to do that. At least not anymore,” The demon said, grabbing her chin and making her look up at him. “You can thank your Hero for that. Despite my control over his body, it seems I’m having more difficulty than I had expected getting rid of his convictions and… <em>bonds</em>.” Zelda blinked down at the floor and looked up slowly at the demon.

“If you’re not going to kill me then tell me what you plan to do with me?” Zelda asked and the demon smirked at her.

“Don’t you worry your little head, Princess. I can see every little thing your Hero knows about you and everything he feels. It was a little jarring how much- love he has for you. It’s disgusting, really, but- Lust, however- Well, that one I can handle.” The demon said, smirk turning into a sly grin as he began circling her. “It’s easy to see why he feels this way-”

“Enough!” Zelda cried out and turned to face the demon, getting back up to her feet despite her shaky legs. “You’ll never be able to replace him!”

The demon’s little grin turned into something far more wicked than she had been expecting and he was in her face suddenly. She stumbled back a step, tripping over the debris littering the room again and falling backwards. He looked down at her, crimson eyes flickering with things Zelda couldn’t read- He leaned in and caught her chin with his hand, holding her gaze steady.