Link grumbled dejectedly under his breath and kicked out violently at a rock in the water. As the burst of pain alighted in his toes, he let rip a string of the foulest words he knew, obscenities the koriki had whispered around a campfire when speaking like hyrulians. Today was not going well. The last time he had been here in this wasteland the battle had almost killed him, and now he was back. All around him water stretched for miles broken occasionally by the randomly placed rocks and weeds. With a last heaving sigh, he began to walk through the dense clinging fog and swampy yellowing water to an enemy he knew had only just started walking to him as well. His exact opposite and complete double, his Shadow.

Letting out a small huff of air, he finally looked up to see the tall, wiry tree which signalled the start of their fun as Ganandorf had put it. Any second now the monster Ganon had created, or enslaved if that were the case, would come out and attack. Still wearing a slight grimace he prepared himself for the beating of his time warped existence. A quite sniffing could be heard on the other side of the tree, and he looked around with caution for any tricks or traps that may have been laid prior his entrance. It wasn't beyond Ganon to fight dirty and he had taken on two or three enemies at once before, but Dark Link was another thing entirely and he hoped to fight on fair ground with him if he wanted to minimise injury. Suddenly the sound of a rock skipping the water caught his ear and in a reflex he had rolled backwards and thrust forward his sword in defence. On its third skip the rock plopped heavily into the water. But the sniffing continued, and no-one attacked. Growing bored and a little stiff from his position he stood up and stepped closer to inspect the noise. Now he thought about it, the sound was more of a sniffling than sniffing, too jagged to sound right. Link at this moment reached the tree, he'd never gotten this far before and was surprised Dark Link hadn't already attacked him or jumped at his face as he peered around the corner. But instead of an attack he saw Dark sitting on a rock, it was rather bigger than the others and Link didn't remember from his previous visits, and cupping his face in his hands. Link became uncomfortable far too quickly after noticing the snivelling was from Dark, what did you do when the enemy started crying? But coming to his senses he berated himself the moment of weakness and took an offensive position. He cleared his throat and spoke.

"Dark? The battle?" it was obvious he was trying to make his voice sound older and battle rounded but it kept coming out as a weedy imitation, oh how was a boy to feel, when his masculinity was at stake?

But the shadow only turned to confirm it was his enemy before looking away again, still seated.

"Take it, Link," he murmured only loud enough for Link to actually hear it with the aid of a passing wind.

"Take what?" Link asked, now so overcome with curiosity he took down the offence.

"My life,"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?"

Link's reaction left Dark taken back.

"YOUR LIFE!? FOR ONE: I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW, AND TWO: YOU CAN'T ASK ME!" he continued to rave.

"WELL EXCUSE ME FOR BEING A LITTLE ANGSTY, I JUST GOT FIRED!"

"Huh?" Link was puzzled by this but he swore he'd seen Dark Link began to colour slightly on his ashen cheeks.

"Well, uh, yeah Ganon laid me off,"

There was silence.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Link finally said.

"Not really," Dark Link's tone made Link blush at his confusion and reminded him of a 'Duh!' instant.

"At least he didn't kill you, which is what I'm sure he normally does," Link griped still embarrassed by Dark.

"You don't understand," Dark Link was almost moaning, as though the words caused him pain "This is all I have, I was made to kill you. No job? No life. This is worst than dying," Dark now turned to look deep into his eyes and the darkest red met a pure azure "Because I have to live through it,"

"Dark," Links throat was dry with emotion he couldn't think of anything useful to say.

"One day," Dark Link suddenly started talking again with a far away expression on his face "One day, if you live, your quest will finish; and you'll travel far and wide to meet death once again to know that there are only two answers: forward or stop. And it's all because you no longer have a life, this imitation will fade though and then you'll be left empty. Just like me,"

Dark's words were so unquestionable, that they held an eerie knowing to Link which made him shudder but he shrugged it off.

"Stop being so ing depressing," Link screeched in pure frustration "If your life were truly over you'd have tried it all already, done everything. You just found out your immortal and can do what you want for the rest of eternity and you're moping!"

Link continued to rant in that fashion and began pacing up and down the length of the tree to burn out more of the aggravation sooner. Dark Link watched in mild interest as the words sank in, it was true he was free, to do anything. But what did he want to do, what did he want? And then it came to him.

"Uh, Link," he piped up making the very red-in-the-face hyrulian pause and turn "I would very much like to see the rest of this adventure from your side and if you survive maybe more of your world,"

"O-of course?" Link stumbled over the phrase in absolute shock until it actually sunk in "With me! Why?"

Dark Link shrugged and gave Link a predatory smile showing two sets of sabre sharp teeth.

"'Casual Interest' really, so how about it?" with those words said he began to walk away from the tree.

Link was ground to the spot by shock for quite a time, only staring after him and when he started to move again he had to run to catch up.

"Yeah," he said, slightly unsure and staring into his shadows face for a trick.

Right now he felt so comfortable with him but was it just another trap?

"Yeah?" Dark had that self assured, smug look about him and was trying not to smirk at Link's bewilderment, suddenly he turned to face him "Good. Cause this place is kinda boring me, how about we go back to the temple,"

"I don't know how," Link answered, he'd never left without fighting Dark Link before.

"Well, that's why you have me,"

Dark led them forward at a march but Link couldn't see them getting closer to anywhere, he didn't understand fully why he was following his enemy but put it down to nothing better to do.

"So who gets 'Link'" Dark Link suddenly asked, breaking the silence Link hadn't noticed was building.

"What do you mean that's my name," Link argued but Dark just set him a smooth glance and he shut up in embarrassment.

A smooth eyebrow arched on his ashen skin.

"Well that's kind of my name too so I think we might have a problem with that," Dark Link mused.

Link thought for a minute and set a grimace on his face. He blanched before heaving a sigh: "I guess you can call me Green, but your Dark from now on,"

"Oh sure," Dark smiled another toothy grin, unnerving Link even further "Suits me just fine,"

It struck Link that someone who had just been contemplating death should not be this cheerful

Author: But chalk that up to bad writing lol ;3