The Revival of Shadow Link

19:

After thirty minutes we were out of the hole, and Green was insisting we set up camp because Vio was insisting that I was injured and needed some form of medical attention, because he saw me wince when the stupid hook shot made me frigging rocket out of the hole and made me roughly land on my feet only to fall flat on my face.

But I allowed Vio to grab me by the wrist and drag me to his tent. ("We should leave them alone for a couple hours," snickered Blue. "Give then some privacy." At least Red hadn't understood what he meant by that.)

"Strip," he commanded the moment we were alone.

"My, Vio, you're so forward," I said, not willing to take off my tunic.

"I'm not trying to seduce you. I'm trying to get that off of you so I can clean your wound without your clothes in the way. Now take them off before I do it for you."

He had done it for me before. I could easily see him doing it again. And he probably would, since my hand was just hovering over the belt, because I couldn't remove my tunic.

"Shadow?" Now he sounded concerned and I didn't know why I couldn't do it, it was just an ugly scar, nothing else. "Is something wrong?"

I remained silent because I didn't want to say anything.

"Look, Shadow you don't need to be shy, I've seen this before." He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me closer, moving his hand to my belt. "It's not a big deal, I just need to treat your wounds and then you can put your clothes back on and we'll pretend this never happened, okay?" He removed t he belt and slipped off my tunic, before getting rid of my white undershirt.

He turned me around and gasped in horror, and I felt his hand on my back, inching towards the ugly scar. I heard him swallow and I knew he was touching it now.

"Vio," I said, feeling scared and vulnerable. "Please, just...hurry up."

He raised his hand off if it. "I'm sorry."
I felt him run a cloth or something over the injury and holy hell, did it sting.

I hissed in a breath and he continued to rub at it. "Deep breaths," he whispered. "I need to clean it so it doesn't get infected."

I shuddered and I swore I could feel his gaze on the scar.

"Vaati..."

I felt him grip my hand when I trailed off and I started again. "All who are loyal to Vaati have that on them. He usually watches while people do it to themselves, or if they show any hesitation, he'll do it himself. I used to have one on my forearm."

"Used to?"

I swallowed and squeezed his hand. "He had handed me a knife to carve it on, I just thought it was a regular knife; it wasn't. I think when my loyalty towards him started to waver, the scar did too, and it vanished, and he noticed and he was pissed. He claimed that that was why Hyrule hadn't been in his grasp yet, he claimed that the heroes had rubbed off on my and now that the purple one—you—was spending so much more time with me, I was forgetting my place and by then he had stopped screaming at me and he was breathing heavily. I remember him closing his eyes and sighing, saying that it had been his own fault he allowed me to forget it, and that he simply had to remind me of it.

"And then he got closer, and..."

Vio had gone strangely silent, giving me a chance to speak. I realized that I had started shaking and although I really couldn't get myself to stop, a part of me felt like I was going to vomit if I went into detail about what had happened. Because there was no way I could recount to Vio about how I had begged him to stop when I felt the knife plunge into my skin and I could feel it twist and he just seemed so damn proud of himself because I wouldn't fight back, I couldn't fight back. Because I didn't know how to, and trying to would almost certainly end up with me feeling even more powerless until I just came to the realization that I was doomed to suffer like that. That there wasn't much I could ever do and I would always be the evil bastard people thought me to be.

And that was why Zelda's words meant to much to me. Because someone for a change insisted that I didn't have to be like that.

"I remember hi stepping back and throwing the knife in front of me, telling me that that scar would be permanent. That there was no way I'd be able to get it off and he grinned and just told me that I was on thin ice and he wasn't scared to get rid of me. And then he told me to leave."

"And when was this?" He asked quietly.

"The day before you tried to..."

I really felt like I was going to vomit, and I really couldn't utter the words "break the Dark Mirror" but he seemed to understand.

His breathing was even, but I swore I could see his hands shaking and I started wondering why I even said that. He didn't need to know, he never would need to know, I shouldn't have let him know—

He stitched it up and got his feet, offering me his hands to help me get up. They were shaking.

I grabbed onto him, letting him help me, trying to believe that he wouldn't hurt me, that I could trust him. That if I could tell him this, I could trust that he wouldn't murder me in my sleep tonight.

"But didn't he already try to? Did he deem you unworthy of the effort? I don't blame him."

He has no reason. He wouldn't.

I curled my hands into fists, bringing them out of Vio's hands, but he placed his hands on my waist and pulled me close, saying in a voice that he was trying to keep even despite the obvious way he was shaking.

"Shadow, it's okay now, and it's going to be okay, it'll always be okay, because I'm never going to let anyone hurt you like that, ever again. You don't deserve that. We will stop him, he will lose. I will make sure he never lays a finger on you again, the others will too. It won't happen again, because you don't deserve to go through that again."

The voice laughed. "He doesn't mean it."

"Shut up," I said, and I didn't know who to anymore.

Vio looked alarmed and cupped my cheek. "Shadow, please tell me, is something wrong?"

"I-I-I..."why couldn't I talk.

"I'm not going to shut up, I think you need to hear this, I'm going to tell you until you understand it, because I love you, Shadow, and I want you to know that. Seeing you like this hurts me. And I know it's selfish to make your struggles about me, but I can't bare to see you like this, please just let me help you."

"He wants to help because he wants to hurt you."

I stayed silent.

He kissed my forehead. "Let's get you another tunic."

He handed me a white undershirt and I put it on.

He was still staring at me. "I've never been good with these things." He sighed and stepped closer.

"I can't wait for the inevitable. He's going to hurt you, because he's lying to you. He wants to get you, he hates you."

I took a step back.

"Shadow, I—"

I turned around and ran out of the tent, trying to ignore him calling after me.

"Shadow, wait! Please! Come back!"