The Revival of Shadow Link

38:

I remember right before I drifted off, thinking about Briar and wondering where she could be, I had spent so long by myself before meeting her, she had helped get me out of my prison, and she had given me a weapon that I had lost to Desiderium only to be replaced with a knife that cut my Vio open.

Just thinking about the awful stuff that had happened made me shiver and it still does. Even as I write this so all of you weirdos can read about the intimate moments I had with Vio, I still occasionally get nightmares that have me clinging to Vio in bed until he wakes up with bruises. Sometimes, Vio wakes up in the middle of the night and refuses to come back to bed, doesn't sleep for days, and eventually crashes. Sometimes one of the others will just randomly mention a nightmare they had a couple of days ago and we'll all laugh nervously until our laughter turns into a terrified silence that seems to stick around for a long time before we all decide to just do something together instead of going back to sleep where only bad dreams await us.

I was back in the cell, except it was a different cell that just looked a hell of a lot like the last one. I wasn't restrained, but it felt ten times colder, I was covered in blood and scars, and I was walking back and forth.

"What...could you possibly have to gain?" I shouted, so much emphasis on the word "possibly" it seemed like for a minute, this wasn't actually a dream.

"That isn't any of your concern, what about what you have to gain?"

Oh, that damn grape.

"What do I have to gain?" I snarled.

"Everything you had before."

"Oh, yes, I will gladly help you reverse time and go back to working for you because that's the only way I can ever get out of here."

"Your sarcasm isn't appreciated, boy. I really mean everything, I mean...I'll let you spare him."

I froze and looked at him in his freaky looking red eyes. "Why don't I believe you?"

"I'll let you do much more than spare him, you can do whatever you want to him. You're so head over heels, so angry, I doubt you have it in you to off him though."

"And goddesses fucking forbid you do your own dirty work."

"Do you want him to live or not?"

"Say I'm actually believing you, I'm actually considering this, what's going to change?"

"If you step out of line I will kill you and him without hesitation, but that isn't too much of a difference, isn't it? It can't be too much of a surprise for you either. I'm offering you his head."

"I don't want his head."

"Then I'm offering you him. And you get to kill the other three however you want, you can have their heads. Unless you end up changing your mind about him."

"I wouldn't ever change my mind...what makes you think I want the other's dead?"

"Well, I thought that you would want to make sure no one got in your way. You don't want any of the others to take him away from you, do you?  If anyone could get him away from you, it'd be them. And you don't want that to happen."

"He'd never forgive me...I know he wouldn't."

"Oh, but he would. And even if he didn't...he'd be with you, you could do whatever you wanted with him, it won't matter whether he forgives you or not in the long run. You'd be all he had."

"If I were to accept...how the fuck would I know you're actually having intentions of keeping your promise?"

"The same way I know you're keeping your end of this deal; I don't. I can guarantee that I mean it when I say I will kill you both."

"You have no reason to actually do it, you're lying."

"I'm letting you allow him to live, I'm giving you a second chance to hold onto him, so as long as I get another chance to conquer Hyrule. You're getting out of your cell, you're escaping torture, I am allowing you to keep the hero you've been courting for so long, make a decision; do you want him or do you want this?"

"...What do you want me to do?"

"Shadow! Wake up!"

Vio stood over me, clutching his side. 

"Something's wrong."

And then we both heard it, screaming. Loud inhuman screeching, followed by shouts for help, nonverbal noises of pain, as if all the clouds in the sky had started yelling.

The sky went black, there wasn't a bit of lght and the others wee nowhere in sight.