Breaking Away from the Darkness

part one: darkness

a/n - TW: abuse. censored name-calling, hitting, etc. shouldn't be that graphic, so I didn't mark it as mature...please leave a comment if I should. stay safe <3

                                                                                        

"Get up, you worthless piece of ****!" However short he was, when the mage Vaati got angry, he always towered over the shadow boy cringing on the ground. Wind blasted around them with complete fury as he glared down at the teenager, foot and hand poised to strike again. "I said get up, you blockhead!"

Shadow Link lay on the floor of the throne room, completely helpless in a quickly-ebbing tide of crimson that clashed against the palace's violet stones. He clutched the sides of his head to protect his face, but this left the rest of his body exposed to his master's kicks and slaps. I've barely done anything wrong! he wanted to cry out. All I did was check on my friends...

He had just been looking - just looking - at the people he used to know, watching them through a puddle similar to the Dark Mirror he had used to spy on them before it was shattered. He missed them. But in the process of this he had been caught by one of Vaati's other dark minions, brought back to the castle, and thrown to the ground to be punished. Now Vaati wanted him to stand up, just so he could beat him back onto the cold, hard floor. But he couldn't bring himself to, physically or mentally.

"Shadow Link!" The five-foot villain leaned down and shouted the poor boy's name directly into his already-pounding ears. "I SAID UP! Up! Up!" With every command another strike was administered. It hurts...it hurts so much....!

"Master Vaati!" The boy finally managed to cry out in the midst of his great pain. Weakly stretching his arms across the floor in front of him he attempted to claw away from the man's rage. "Please!" He had no strength to move, no strength to cry, no shadow powers at his command; Master Vaati had taken all of these things away from him. He had taken his entire essence.

"I TOLD YOU TO STAND UP! Are you really asking for more punishment?!" Vaati continued to scream, his voice taking up the entire room. The blazing hurricane only added volume to his words. Shadow wanted to retort, Does it really matter whether I am standing up or lying on the ground? You'll continue to beat me anyway. Even if he could though, it'd be an awful idea.

I have to try, at least...he might actually kill me this time. Wheezing and dripping red, he pushed part of his body up onto trembling arms, letting his legs remain on the floor. For once Vaati and his winds relented; Shadow struggled and struggled, and he finally managed to stand, even if he had barely made it. He almost immediately dropped to his knees but refused, fearing worse consequence than if he continued to stand.

His master approached him, seemingly unaffected by the boy's state. "Good. Now get out of my sight. Clean yourself up and I expect you back here within 15 minutes." His tone was icy and dangerous, full of even more malice and spite than the words he had yelled amidst the hurricane. "Do not disobey me again." His beady red eyes stared into the boy's broken blue, and with a wave of his hand Shadow had been carried by winds into his sleeping quarters.

As soon as he was unceremoniously dumped onto what you could hardly call his bed - a thin rug on the floor - he collapsed, still bleeding. His face and torso stung and he ached everywhere else. Groaning, he dragged himself towards the nearest support, a chair. Slowly he propped himself up, managing to place himself in the seat, and sat for a few minutes, clutching his stomach as he rested. Take deep breaths...1...2...3...

He missed the other Links.

They would've never treated him like anything close to this. Not Blue, even at his angriest. Heck, not even Ganon. Ganon would've simply ignored him after telling him what to do, and if he did screw up, probably would've only hit him once and left him alone. Lord Vaati was cruel and proud, always imagining himself higher than the Gerudo king. Shadow always snickered at the thought - one day, Vaati would be smote by Ganon for thinking such things.

But right now, he couldn't focus on that. He had to clean himself up. Standing up with an immediate and intense throbbing all over his body, he hobbled towards the room's exit to find some sort of rag to staunch his wounds, and perhaps wipe off some of the fresher blood that stained his clothes.

The Dark World wasn't named just for blackness that covered the entire world, blocking out any semblance of true light or hope. It was named for the cruelty and oppression the shadow creatures that lived there endured through, ruled over evils like Vaati and Ganon. But one day, Shadow vowed, he would escape. One day, he would be free, and Shadow would see Green and Red and Blue and Zelda again.

And, one day, he would find Vio.