Prologue: Darkness Falls

A bolt of light streaked through the air towards it's target, the master of darkness, and the Bearer of Power, Ganondorf. "AUGH," the dark figure yelled as his shoulder was pierced by the arrow of purest light. As he rode his black steed towards his opponents on their mount, his focus was lost as the light engulfed his body. His senses remained though, as he felt the sword of the rider on the front of the oncoming horse swing hard into his chest. The force of the blow was powerful enough to finally take him from his own horse's saddle after the long, arduous battle the two had waged on horseback.

Ganondorf hit the ground and rolled to his feet. The wizard turned to see his opponent's horse a distance away from him, turning once more to face him. He saw the princess riding on the back of the horse materialize another accursed light arrow into her bow. Ganondorf clenched his fist as a dark energy built up in his hand. "I won't go so easily, your highness," he growled as he furiously threw a ball of pure darkness at his two opponents.

At the same time, Princess Zelda released her arrow from her bow, aimed squarely at the glowing scar in Ganondorf's chest. The two magical attacks of light and dark passed one another as they flew through the air towards their targets. Ganondorf was not only a powerful wizard, but an adept warrior. He focused his mind as soon as he saw the arrow come into being, and in a single burst, he dodged the projectile and his own went right into the rider's chest. The rider was blown backwards, thus knocking Zelda off as well. One yelled in pain while the other shouted in surprise.

The two young fighters got to their feet, rubbing their sore backsides, as their horse turned to return to her master's side. Ganondorf slowly approached the two, appraising them. One, he knew as Princess Zelda, the Bearer of Wisdom and ruler of Hyrule. She was a user of powerful magic, which he had the chance to use for himself when he possessed her.

The other, however, was previously unknown to him. The other, he only knew about through the reports of his underlings. He was Link, the so-called 'Hero of Twilight,' and more importantly, the Bearer of Courage. Link was the one who had laid waste to his forces over the course of a few months. The lone warrior who beat his minion Zant, liberated the land of the magic of Twili, collected the forgotten magic of the fused shadow and restored the link between the worlds of light and darkness.

"Impressive teamwork, you two. To come this far only to fail at my hands," Ganondorf said with a confident smirk.

Link dusted off his trousers before speaking. "Funny that you say that, considering I'm three and 0," Link threw back.

"Only a fluke," Ganondorf said with a chuckle, "My skills are superior to yours."

"Getting knocked off your horse is a skill. Even I could do that better," Link quipped.

At this point, it would have been easy to simply destroy these two, but the conversation was starting to become amusing to Ganondorf, so he felt like he wanted to keep it going. With a toothier smile he responded to Link's question, "That normally doesn't happen to me, but I'm afraid that when your horse passed by me, one of her hairs fell off and passed by my nose, making me sneeze."

"It sounded more like a 'kyaa.'" Zelda giggled as she straightened her skirt.

"And given how similar you two are in voice and appearance, I'm not sure which one of you was screaming in pain, and which was yelling in surprise," Ganondorf replied with a smug grin. The response he got was another giggle from Zelda, but an indignant huff from Link.

"Did he just call me girly," Link said as he indicated Ganondorf, one hand on his hip.

"I did," came Ganondorf's blunt reply.

"He did," Zelda echoed Ganondorf, "And that dainty way you're standing isn't helping," she pointed out to Link.

"You'd know all about 'dainty' wouldn't you," Link shot to Zelda, now making her indignant.

"Excuse me," she said as she mirrored Link's feminine stance, "I'm one of the most powerful mages in Hyrule! How dainty is that?"

Link took a gentlemanly bow to Zelda as he took her hand in his. "Apologies, dear lady. Perhaps you would like to unwind with a hot bath and a silken gown?" Zelda couldn't help but flush red, knowing how right Link was.

Link and Ganondorf both had a chuckle at Zelda's flustered look, but the dark wizard needed to cut this all short. With a burst of magic, he manifested a barrier of pure darkness around Link and himself. Zelda and Epona both backed off as the dark walls burst up in front of them. Seeing Link separated from herself, Zelda manifested another light arrow into her bow and fired at the barrier. However, what happened was that the arrow simply burst into a flash that momentarily blinded her. When her vision cleared, she saw the two men staring each other down, swords drawn.

"You can't beat me, boy," Ganondorf said, his voice losing any of it's previous joviality, "I am the bearer of the Triforce of Power! I am power! And in the end, wisdom and courage always give way to what they can't overcome."

"That's not true," Zelda yelled from her side of the barrier. Ganondorf only flashed his beastly smile when he heard her.

"Isn't it," he inquired, "Link: how could you have overcome your trials and tribulations on courage alone when you were vastly outnumbered by opposing forces? Was it not power that helped you past them all?" Ganondorf turned his attention to Zelda, "And Zelda: when Zant invaded your castle, was it your wisdom that drove back his forces? Oh, I'm sorry. You surrendered. And why was that? It was because you lacked the necessary power to protect others."

Link clenched his sword at Ganondorf's words. In a way, he was right. But if one only valued power, as Ganondorf and Zant had, things could only turn bad. "Is that what you did," Link asked the Gerudo king, "Did you turn your back on things like compassion and reason just to become stronger?"

Zelda saw Ganondorf's face change slightly when Link spoke. She saw that somewhere behind that darkness, there was someone who wanted back into the light. She placed her hand against the barrier as she pleaded with her enemy, "Ganondorf, we're all bearers of the Triforce. We should be working together. Be united. Just now, the three of us were all behaving so harmoniously. Do you really want to just throw that aside for personal gain?"

Zelda's words touched something deep in the core of Ganondorf's soul. He couldn't deny that there was a part of him that enjoyed their idle bantering, but the larger, more dominant part of him wanted nothing more than to rule over others. With a beastly roar, he flared his magic into the wall in front of Zelda, knocking her backwards.

The Bearer of Power shouted at Link, "Time to end this!"

"Bring it, Pig-Head," Link yelled back.

The two swordsman shouted their war cries as they dashed towards one another, weapons drawn. Each sought to strike first, Link with his shield on the ready. Ganondorf made the first swing, a powerful horizontal cut intended to shatter Link's defences. Link brought his shield up instead to absorb the blow. He cried out in pain, shield-arm momentarily paralyzed, and forgot his attack.

Ganondorf grinned in anticipation and pressed the attack. He swung his sword again and again, only to have each blow deflected by Link's shield.

Link saw his enemy's eagerness and took advantage of it. With a shout, he sidestepped away and Ganondorf's blow wedged into the ground. Link, pressing his advantage, stepped on Ganondorf's enormous blade. While he was putting his weight on the sword, he had his own weapon drawn back for a jab at his hands. As he lunged his sword forward, Ganondorf released his sword, quickly backpedaling to safety.

Ganondorf grabbed Link's arm and punched him in his ribs, the heavy impact knocking all of the breath out of Link. As Link recoiled from the blow, the larger man threw him against the sides of the barrier, making Zelda gasp in horror.

Zelda wished she could do more than just stand by and watch the battle. She pressed her hands against the barrier and built up her light magic. Her hands glowed with a golden light as she concentrated her power to break in. All that happened was that the light magic deflected to the side. She backed away from the wall, wracking her brain for an idea to get in and help Link.

Pain shot through Link's entire body when he impacted the dark wall. His senses snapped to alert when he saw Ganondorf leaping through the air, his fist encased in dark magic to smite him on the ground. Link, mustering his strength and rolled away from the leaping Master of Darkness.

When Link ended his roll, Ganondorf landed in a crater made from his almighty punch. His roll luckily ended near the Master of Darkness's back, so Link sprang upwards with a spiraling jump, swinging his sword to strike Ganondorf's back. The first blow struck. Then a second blow hit home with a satisfying cut.

Ganondorf winced from the two cuts, but his powerful body had endured much over his decades of training. To him, these attacks were simply irritating. Before Link's third cut could be dealt, Ganondorf retaliated with a vicious backhanded blow that once again sent Link flying.

The Hero landed with a solid combat roll backwards sliding his feet into the ground, skidding to a halt. Link looked up to see Ganondorf retrieve his sword, with a look of annoyance on his face. Link rushed at the Bearer of Power, and as soon as he was close enough, Ganondorf swung his sword again. Link nimbly dodged the attack and got one of his feet on his opponent's knee.

Using his momentum, he vaulted over Ganondorf, and spun like a buzzsaw as he executed a Helm Splitter technique. Ganondorf shouted in surprise from the attack at an unexpected angle. Blood trickled down to eyes, staining his vision red and enraging the madman. Ganondorf lunged, swinging his sword wildly. Link parried the wild attacks with his sword and shield awaiting the opening he needed to end his opponent.

Link decided to go on the offensive. With all his might, he returned the fury Ganondorf had given him, gradually breaking the wizard's defenses. Link found the opening he had been looking for, and delivered a powerful spin attack that sent Ganondorf flying. Before Ganondorf even landed, Link jumped into the air after him, his sword raised high and pointed down. Link's sword found it's mark in the air. He pierced Ganondorf's glowing scar, and drove his sword deep into his body when they landed.

Ganondorf spewed blood from his mouth on the sudden impact. The dark barrier dissipated, and Zelda and Epona both rushed to Link's side. Before the could reach him, Link withdrew his sword and somersaulted back to them. With a heavy sigh, he and Zelda both watched as Ganondorf weakly got back to his feet.

The two hylians couldn't help but feel a slight pang of pity for their enemy as he held the gaping wound on his chest. Zelda almost had the urge to go over and help him. But their good will was put aside when they saw the hateful glare Ganondorf was giving them.

Ganondorf agonized over the fatal injury he had just sustained. Through his pain, his mind was filled with nothing but thoughts of how he would destroy the next incarnations of the Golden Goddess and her Chosen Hero. Then he saw something that nearly killed him on the spot.

Looking past Link, Zelda, and their horse, Ganondorf saw someone he never expected to see again. Past them, he saw a figure in dark blue robes, with unnaturally long arms and a deathly pale blue face with eerie, inhuman features. It was his minion: the usurper king of the Twili, Zant.

Zant stared at Ganondorf the way he had always done before, though the smile on his face was no longer one of quiet admiration. Now it was a complacent grin of satisfaction, as if some grudge between the two had just been settled. His smile sent a twitch of fear through Ganondorf's mind, and he understood why Zant had come back to him.

Zant was here to remind Ganondorf that if he had held up his end of their bargain, and resurrected him, he could have been there to save him when he was needed. Regret welled up in Ganondorf's mind as Zant reached out his long arms and clasped his hands on Ganondorf's head.

Neither Link, nor Zelda seemed to notice any of this. It was as if Zant was completely invisible to the two of them. Ganondorf watched as Zant's smile grew steadily more malicious before he suddenly jerked both of their heads to a sharp angle. Two loud snaps sounded, but only one was heard by the hylians.

Another discharge of blood came from Ganondorf's mouth, and he laid down dead on the ground. Link and Zelda both let out a relieved sigh as Link sheathed his sword and gave Epona a small pat on her side. "We've done it, Link," Zelda said to her companion, "We've ended it all."

"Hylians...so short sighted," Zant said disdainfully, as he slowly cracked his head back into place. His voice was unheard, but he was about to make his presence known. Using his powerful magic, Zant tore and unseen hole in the fabrics of space to make a portal, stronger than the previous ones used by the Twili. He grabbed Link by his shoulders and pulled him into the gaping maw of twilight magic.

Link only had time to shout as he was pulled off his feet, and his world turned to black. "Link," Zelda shouted as he got sucked into the portal, making it the last thing Link heard before the portal faded. Zelda could do nothing but mourn for her lost friend.