The Legend of Zelda: A Dark Future

Chapter 2: A New Friend

A few days had passed since the incident at the company. Link found himself laying in bed after another sleepless night. He rose from his bed as the sun started to peek through his window and got dressed, throwing on some pants and a shirt and heading out of his room.

When he got into the living room, he heard something thud on the floor in Chaple's room, "What the..." He walked over to the door to Chaple's room and reached for the knob, hesitating a moment. He took a deep breath and grabbed hold of the doorknob, turning it and opening the door slowly. When he walked in, he saw the sword laying on the ground, "How did you fall?" He looked up and saw that the window was open, "Breeze must have knocked it over...but I didn't open that window." He quick walked over and stuck his head out of the window, looking around, he couldn't see a trace of evidence that anyone had entered or exited the premises. He shrugged and sighed as he pulled his head back in and shut the window, making sure that it was locked this time. He then turned and walked over to pick up the sword, as he held it in his hand, he hit the button to extend the blade then swung it a couple of times, "This could have been your best, bro."

As he turned to set it back on its stand, he was suddenly confronted by some small, flying, humanoid...robot? He jumped back in surprise at the little being in front of him, "What in the... what are you? And how did you get in here?" The tiny being didn't answer at first, instead it just stared at Link for a moment before it finally answered, "Confirmed identity, Link Nasir. I am a pocket AI for information and navigation as well as storage, dubbed the Navigational Assistant and Virtual Interface, but you may call me N.A.V.I. for short. Chaple sent me out to map out all of Hyrule not too long ago. Is he out, I must alert him of my success." Link looked at N.A.V.I. questioningly before looking down, "Chaple's gone... he's dead. Just the other day there was some accident at the company. He went in to save the princess but... he never came back out. That sword is all that was left."

The little robot turned and looked at the sword, floating along its length, inspecting it, "This sword saw use recently. Just within a few days." Link nodded and set a hand on his side, "Yeah. Chaple had presented it to the princess." The little robot shook her head, "No, this sword experienced real combat. Something must have happened in the building." Link's eyes widened and he thought to himself, "Could it really not have been an accident? Someone caused this?" He looked down at the robot, "N.A.V.I., can you connect to the security feed in the building and pull up the videos of that day?" N.A.V.I. turned and looked up at Link, "Well, of course. I already am connected. Chaple made sure to connect me so he could always keep an eye on his lab, even on the go." Link sat at the desk, still looking at Navi, "Good. I need you to pull up every camera feed you can access from the other day around 3 p.m."

The robot nodded and closed its eyes, opening them again to reveal they were glowing a light blue and a holographic screen, just a bit bigger than Link's face, was created in front of him, with numerous camera feeds. Link looked through them intently for a moment when he finally pointed to one that had Zelda on it, "There. Pull up that one and follow the princess until the explosion goes off."

As they watched, the video began to get shaky and rumbling could be heard. There was an explosion in the building and the two began to wobble as they held their balance. Suddenly, the wall exploded inward and knocked Impa into another room. The camera feed began to get static but managed to pull through, "Navi, keep this feed up but look for Chaple as well." Navi nodded and there was another, smaller screen in the corner flipping through all of the camera feeds, "I found him!" Link nodded, "Good. Play them side by side. Follow Chaple's progress." The camera with Zelda was still covered with smoke and couldn't see through. The feed of Chaple showed him running through the halls with the briefcase still, until he ran into a Lizalfos, N.A.V.I. exclaimed "I knew it. That was no freak accident. It was an attack!"

Chaple had pulled the sword out of the case and pushed the button to extend the blade, throwing the case away and began fighting his way through halls. Zelda's feed was finally starting to clear, she could be seen laying on the ground, she had probably been knocked out temporarily. Chaple's feed kept flipping as Chaple ran passed multiple cameras in his rush to find Zelda. Link turned back to Zelda's feed and squinted, there was a figure walking down the hallway towards the princess, who had finally come to her senses, "N.A.V.I., zoom in. Try to get a close up on the face." She nodded and the video would zoom in and focus on the figure.

The figure appeared to be a male. Very tall and muscular, he had powerful orange eyes and burning red hair that went down to his shoulders. Link looked closely, "He almost looks like the figure I saw on the way there. Who is he?" He looked to N.A.V.I., "Pause it. Can you get an ID on that man?" The video would pause and after a moment, N.A.V.I. chimed, "I'm sorry. This man is not identifiable in any census." Link growled and slammed his fists on the desk, "Dammit! Resume playback of the feed."

The camera feed kicked back on and the figure grew ever closer to Zelda. He was unsure why, but deep down he felt a burning hatred for this man, like something that had been building up for years even though this was his first time seeing the man. The man had picked up Zelda and Link almost jumped out of his chair watching it. The man turned to leave but then stopped and turned back around what was... Link had been so focused on Zelda that he completely forgot about Chaple's feed, he looked over and sure enough, there he was. He had arrived in time to confront the man before he could leave with the princess. Link then watched in horror as the man raised his hand to Chaple where a bright ball of magic formed and fired, at the last second he looked away and closed his eyes. The camera broke and the feed stopped.

N.A.V.I. shut off the the hologram and flew up to Link, touching his cheek gently, "I am sorry, Link. But he died a hero. Trying to save the princess. You should be very proud of him." Link took a deep breath and then exhaled sharply, looking to Navi, "I am. Thank you. But we still need to figure out who that man was and what he wanted with Zelda. We can't let his sacrifice be in vain. NA.V.I., is there any way to find out the identity of that man?" She turned around and put a hand to her chin to mimic thinking, searching through every database she had been programmed with, "According to old Hylian lore, deep within the forest was an all-knowing tree known as The Great Deku Tree. If the legends be true, he may have the answers for our questions." Link looked at her in disbelief, "A legend? We're going to chase down a legend? You've got to be joking." He turned to leave but looked a picture of his brother, "Even though he was a scientist, Chaple always loved the legends of old. Fine. For him, we'll go to the forest and find this tree. We'll have to get ready first, the forest is on the other side of Hyrule."

And with that, he walked out of the room, with N.A.V.I. flying beside him, to prepare for his journey.