-Before Time-

Ghiradrim remembered it well, his paradise.

Twilight was chaos.

Chaos was anarchy.

Anarchy was fun.

He remembered how lowly he started. Barely a speck, but he had something other specks didn't have. He understood weakness. It was a small advantage, but it was enough to bring him ahead. He consumed his peers and rose, and grew. Their power was added to his own. Their advantages, their strengths, all the things that made them special became a part of him. He evolved. With each meal he evolved.

He was one amongst countless trillions who rose from the primordial goop and threw themselves with abandon upon anything they found in their hunger. He was one amongst millions who grew. He was one amonst thousands that stood. He was one amongst hundreds that feasted. He was one amongst five that led.

Wrath. He was as powerful and straightforward as they came. Always angry. Always fighting. Ghiradrim remembered him also to be honorable and without deceit.

Despair. He was as slothful as he was a constant. All things decay, all things die, all things despair, all things face in the inevitable. Ghiradrim also remembered him and his Twilight to be content in inevitability and yet have the strongest of wills to endure.

Ambition. He was always shifting from one thought to the next, always plotting, always counter-plotting, always questioning and analyzing and anxious. Ghiradrim also remembered him as being the smartest and most fun to toy with.

Anarchy. He was a prideful loner and despised everyone as much as they despised him, but Ghiradrim respected him for his fierce independance. He accepted no pack.

Then there was Depravation. The innate corruption of lesser beings. Their flaws. Their weakness. He was weakness itself, and so he was weak himself. Depravation was considered the weakest among them, but in their folly and pride... where did that get them?

When the Triple Goddesses came, what did their power do them?

When Courage slew Anarchy, what good was his pride?

When Wisdom slew Ambition, did not his plots fail him?

When Courage and Wisdom together slew Despair, was he as inevitable as he claimed?

And then there was Wrath...

Ghiradrim still remembered it. That battle. As their brothers fought, Din had formed of herself one who was mightier than the others. Power, they named him. Power who was to equal the mightiest among them. Yet, equal did not mean victor. Power was valiant and mighty, and he had the advantage at first, but as he fought, he came to understand the true feriocity of Wrath. As Wrath fought he grew stronger. Every wound fueled the monster, every cut and gash spurred it onto greater strength. The longer it fought the greater it was. Power very well might have been able to fight for eternity, but Depravation snuck in and aided his brother. He poured thoughts and weakness into the mind of the Divine's greatest. He instilled doubt. He invited weakness.

Were the Divine to directly step in, all would be lost, and so Depravation made a plan.

To understand Wrath, Power had to understand what Wrath was and how it had grown to be strong. Then Deprevation invited a thought. It was a single thought. A single idea. But it was enough.

What if Power could do the same? What if Wrath's power, was Power's power?

In a moment of weakness, Power did not fight Wrath as he had before, and fought him as one of his own kind would.

He consumed him.

It lasted a moment. It lasted an eternity. Wrath and Power fought and wrestled with one another, coming closer and closer until in a moment they seemed to become one.

The darkness of the Twilight fell from the sky as rain. The realms peeled themselves apart. Din showed her face onto the world and searched for him. She was angry with what he had done to her servant. Deprevation fell to the earth and felt her wrathful eye burn his black-flesh white. It burned more than anything he had ever known, and in his agony, he fled. He burrowed himself deep to lick his wounds.

Deprevation. Jhinn. Fortuna. Demon. Cintamani. Syamanta. Ghiradrim. It mattered not what the mortals called him. He was the weakest in the prior age, but now he found himself the greatest of the next. He vowed to himself he would have his due. He would show all of them their weakness, just before he consumed them.

-Present-

Ghiradrim screamed as something ancient pierced his back and cut a swath from hip to shoulder. His bladed arm fell fell to the ground, cut from his body. He reacted instantly, turning around and grabbing Link's hand where he held the glaive. His eyes widened in recognition and surprise.

"You!" Ghiradrim hissed. Link looked back in surprise, caught off guard by the thing's reflexes, and tried to pull back, but the monster's grip was iron. Link tried to use his gift, and his triangle lit up under the creature's grip, but the creature merely smiled.

"This isn't my first time, Courage."

The monster's remaining arm and hand turned black and split into thousands of thin needles, all aimed at him. Ghiradrim flinched in pain and a sickening crunch exploded from his chest as a large black fist burst out of his torso. Black blood fell from Ghiradrim's mouth and his eyes turned down towards the hand.

"Link, I need to borrow something." Ganondorf said.

"Take it!" Link replied.

The triangle on Link's hand flared briefly before disappearing entirely. A second triangle flared on Ganondorf's hand, he clenched his fist. Red and green fire exploded all around them and out of Ghiradrim's mouth and eyes as Ganon aimed the singularity inside the monster's rib cage.

Ganondorf and Link were both thrown by the explosion. They collapsed where they landed. When the fire and smoke fell, in a small crater, stood Ghiradrim. Ganondorf hissed at the sight of the monster standing tall. He could barely move, but could only lay where he was, numb. That attack was his final card to play.

Ghiradrim's eyes rolled up and into the back of his head. His jaw hung open, screaming silently in pain. Black blood poured from his chest and down his back and he was missing an arm. Unlike before, these wounds were not healing. Unlike before, this seemed to truly hurt him. Ghiradrim fell to his knees. Ganon grinned.

Slowly feeling returned to Ganon's legs. Slowly he put a foot down and braced his weight onto it. He fell onto his face the first time, but on the second attempt he was able to hold his weight and crawl forward. He cast his eyes briefly towards Link. Link was unmoving where he had fallen.

The larger Twilight monster lunged forward, shaking the ground, throwing Ganon and Link aside, and in extending its jaws wider than should have been possible, swallowed Ghiradrim whole. In one of its pus sacs fell a body. It turned its attention south and threw itself forward through the trees. Its stomps shook the ground and the trees were knocked down and trambled before its hide. The other Twilight of the pack looked briefly to Link and Ganon, hissed, and raced after it.

A moment of silence passed. Nothing more moved. The enemy had retreated.

While it may have seemed like a victory, Ganon cursed under his breath. The monsters still had Malon!

"Link!" Ganon exclaimed. Ganon put his second foot down and braced his weight on it, he stumbled and leaned against a half-broken tree, but he managed. His legs shook for the numbness coursing through him. Whatever Ghiradrim had done to make him numb, it was proving to be temporary.

Ganon rushed his way towards where Link had fallen. A log had fallen over him and Ganon pushed it aside to reveal the young man had fallen into a crevice in the ground.

Link was scarily pale and blood was openly pouring from hundreds of wounds across his body. It reminded Ganon of what he had seen back in Mitagi.

"By the Realms..." Ganon whispered. "What happened to you?" The larger man took hold of Link's shoulder and started to pick him up, but his gaze fell on the back of his hand. Two triangles were lit. Briefly, Ganon's attention shifted between the triangles and Link and his brows furrowed.

Could it be connected?

Link's triangle flared to life again, and Link gasped. His eyes snapped open, his color returned, and he leaped up, only to stumble as his body was seemingly numb too. Ganon watched him leap about in concern.

"What-Where... Where'd he go?!" Link asked. He picked up his spear where it had fallen and spun around, searching for the enemy.

"The big one took him and fled. That way." Ganon motioned towards the obvious path of broken trees and crumbled earth.

"And Malon?"

Ganon shook his head sadly.

Link clenched his teeth and searched down the path, but the monsters were gone from sight. "Then we go after them!"

"Not yet."

Link spun around, "What do you mean, not yet?!"

Ganondorf looked around. His home was torn to the ground and in a puddle of some liquid that hissed. The land was trambled by multiple sources and was covered in corpses and blood. Over in the crater was... a sword oddly enough. Ganondorf picked it up and examined it. It reminded him of Harken's blade for some reason. It lacked a handle, but he could turn it into a fine blade later.

"Thats your ward!" Link yelled.

"She is my daughter!" Ganon corrected. "I formally adopted her the year before we marched to war against Zhao! I know very well what is at stake!"

"Then why-"

"Because this foe is proving to be beyond what either of us could have expected. Both in his might and reasons. I tried the straight-forward approach and this is where it has gotten us. He is wounded. He will fight dirty. We will hunt him down and finish him, but first we must concolodate what we have rather than blindly rush into the unknown... as I did." Ganon nodded towards the trail. "Not like we don't have a clear path before us as it is."

Link looked between Ganon and the path. Ganon knew Link well enough to know they thought much the same way. They were both straight forward and simple. They both were the kind to rush headlong into the deepest part of the fray, against the biggest foe. While Ganon was this way from barely contained fury, Link was less experienced and mature.

"Fine," Link sighed. He roped his arms together. "What is your plan?"

"I don't have a plan, yet. But the Twilight are fleeing into Fae territory. It would be wise to regroup with the Fae and take him on with a more organized force." A sound drew Ganon's attention and he looked to see Malon's mother was alive and well, albeit struggling to descend a hill amidst the destruction done to the landscape. "Thanks for protecting her."

Link gaped, and Ganon looked back. Was this young man insane? "What?"

"This is the first time you've thanked me... for anything."

Ganon blinked. Truly? In hindsight he had never thought much of his counter-part, but then the events of late had left him... melancholy and seeing his fellow 'Destined' from a different point of view.

"Whatever." Ganon grunted. Seeking to change subject, he asked, "What was that about?"

"What?"

Ganon looked down at him heavily. "I had used your power, your mark, to create an explosion greater than any I have used before in this fight, while keeping it from harming either of us. Yet I still find you as still and pale and deathly as a corpse. I know my power did not harm us, and it does not pass my notice that returning your mark to you immediately restored your life... and lively energy. So I ask you again, what was that about?"

Link stared up at him for a long moment. He gulped and looked away, but still Ganon gazed down at him, waiting.

"Well..."

"Yes?"

"Its only happened a few times," Link said. "The last time that bastard from Mitagi ripped it from me before Zelda told me you had returned it. But when I lose my mark, I do as you say. I become extremely weak. Wounds sprout all over me, both my scars and ones I don't know I've ever had. I... feel like I'm dieing."

"Zelda had lost her mark as well for a time, but the impact on her wasn't as intense. She looked sickly while you have looked like a corpse." Ganon commented.

"I don't know! Okay, I don't know! It just does that." Link exclaimed. He furiously ran his fingers through his hair. "It just feels like I'm a soulless corpse, where the weight of my own body is crushing, I lose all feeling, and I have the faint sense that I'm bleeding all over my front and back. It's shit! Why don't you try it and get back to me on what it's like!"

"I did." Ganon narrowed his eyes briefly. He didn't understand Link's outburst. Seemed he had hit a bit of a nerve in the young man.

"Oh..."

"It was as if my soul and body were ripped apart. I even went so far as to give you and Zelda your marks back, while mine was still missing, and it left me... hungry and tortured, as if I didn't belong in this reality. My body became a corporeal shadow."

"A what?"

"A..." Ganon shook his head. "Never mind. It doesn't matter." Ganon looked down towards the path the Twilight left behind. "We need to regroup and finish this."