Humanity's Inhumanity

Pipes clanged against the ground and against each other as a body crashed into them, seemingly falling from the darkened night sky. The black clothed figure reached a pale white hand out and pushed himself up, groaning all the while. This was an unexpected twist of events, instead of being banished back into that din-forsaken dark mirror, he ended up in what appeared to be a… rundown scrapyard. His ruby red eyes scanned his surroundings, taking in the unfamiliar setting. Obviously he wasn't in Hyrule anymore, but this wasn't the dark world either, that place was more like nightmares and bloodied walls. He took a deep breath and sighed as he took a second to think about how he got here.

His other half, Link, had left his bloodied and battered body in the depths of the Water Temple. It was an intense fight, himself having sustained grievous injuries, but not without dealing some back to the Goddess' Chosen. In the end though, he prevailed over his shadow self, thrusting his sword through the white haired warrior's chest, piercing where his heart should be. He lay in the mirror-like water for hours, waiting for something.

"You've failed me." A great orange haired man towered over the shadow man, his dull yellow eyes bore through him, as if he could see his soul.

If I had a soul

"Sorry to disappoint." The shadow man stated, his voice clear of emotion. His eyes followed the green skinned man as he walked around the floating man.

"You're useless to me now." He stated simply, the evil smirk he wore currently not present on his calm demeanor.

"And what would you like me to do now? Beg? If so, you'd be severely disappointed, Ganondorf." The man spat at him, hocking a glob of spit and blood on his unmarred boots.

"I'm… firing you, you could say." Ganondorf murmured softly. "It seems as if I have to be the one to beat him." He pulled out a mirror with a blackened glass and held it over the prone form of the defeated shadow man. A huge crack marring the glass' surface threateningly.

"After all, only a Triforce bearer could hope to defeat another." He held the mirror over the man and let it go. A flash of dark light, and the only person left was the orange haired man.

That was how he got here he guessed. The crack in the dark mirror interfered with the original destination and somehow he ended up here. He stumbled and had to steady himself against a beaten down car. Black smoke left his rapidly healing wounds in little wisps. Shaking his head, he stood back up to his full height and left the scrapyard.

Only to be stopped as a bunch of children chased another into the scrapyard. It didn't look like they were playing a game, the one kid had nothing but fear etched on his face. The shadow being took a moment to decide if he should intervene. He probably should, but he didn't really want to. On one hand he would be able to vent his rage on the bully, but although he would be performing a good deed. He sighed as he walked after the kids muttering about having to do the 'Hero's' job.

He found the kids quite easily. The messy haired one was cowering in between two cars and the fat one was having difficulty for the child. The shadow man walked towards the children, his footsteps light against the grey cement. He reached out an arm and grabbed the fat child by the scruff of his neck. He lifted him up to his eye level and simply stated. "Your mom's a whore."

The fat kid stared at the man blankly. "What's a whore?"

"…never mind." He dropped the kid roughly and walked past the flabbergasted children.

"How d'you know my mum?" He blinked owlishly at the strange man. His mother would never talk to a freak like this. He couldn't even dress properly! Unlike the freak he was trying to bully.

"I fucked the whore's ass last night. Now get your asses out of here." He growled dangerously. His patience for this moronic child was wearing thin. The fat tub of lard seemed to sense the threat to his being and hightailed his way out of the scrapyard, his friends chasing after him confused and frightened about what just happened.

The black-haired boy slowly clambered out from between the two cars and stood in front of his savior. His baggy clothes seemed to be too big for him now that the shadow man took a proper look at him. His skin was sickly looking, and his hair reached his shoulders in raven black locks. The child's emerald-green eyes seemed to be piercing into his non-existent soul.

"Thank you sir, for helping me. No one has ever tried to help me before." He shyly smiled at the white-haired male.

"Yeah…" He sighed. "Wasn't really helping you as much as I was not helping them." The small boy frowned at his words, but decided to disregard them. This man was nice, he wore strange clothes, but anyone who helped him couldn't be all bad.

"My name is Harry, Harry Potter." Harry brightly told his savior. At this bit the man bit back a frown. What was his name? Did he even have a name? No, he didn't, he was nothing really, nothing but a shadow of the Hero.

"Call me Shadow."

"Shadow? That's a weird name. Why's your name Shadow?" The kid excitedly chirped. Shadow gave a soft groan in annoyment. He and the kid had been travelling for a few days now, they had just reached a forest and were a few hours travel into it, and the kid would not just shut up for Din's sake!

Harry decided he would follow the shadow like a friggen bloodhound after he saved him from his fat-ass of a bully. It took the pathetic child following the shadow man for about two days before he finally gave up and decided to take the young boy with him. The part that annoyed him the worst was when the little shit decided to start asking questions when he didn't have the answers.

"Where are we going? Why is your skin white? Why do you have red eyes? Why were you named Shadow? What's that thing you're wearing? Why is it black? Why do you wear tights? Are the tights? They look kinda like long johns."

It was by Din the most infuriating thing he had ever encountered, and he had to deal with Ganondorf daily commanding him around. Until the green skinned bastard stuck him in the Water Temple to wait for the Goddess' Chosen. God how he hated both of them.

The shadow finally snapped and spun around, lashing out to grip the boy's throat, pinning him against a tree. "I'm a twisted distortion, I'm nothing but a broken reflection of the chosen, filled with hatred and anger towards the coward I was born from. I don't exist in this world. I am a shadow." He growled dangerously. "Now. Stop. Asking. Questions!" He let go of the frightened child's neck and let the boy fall ungracefully into a heap on the forest floor.

And that's all I'll ever be

He was nothing but a shadow, a ghost of the Hero of Time, the Goddess' Chosen One. He hated that. He wanted to be his own person. Shadow brushed his white locks out of his eyes, his all too familiar strands of hair. The shadow man clenched his leather covered hands, his fingertips turning somehow whiter than before.

The shadow man shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and continued to walk on. "Let's continue." He wanted to find some cover before the sun came up.

Harry quickly clambered to his feet and rushed after the rapidly retreating shadow, not deterred from following the grey haired man.

Glowing yellow eyes followed them from a short distance.

The shadow man stopped abruptly and Harry almost ran into him. With a confused look on his face he opened his mouth to speak- only to have the shadow hold his hand out and prevented the boy from voicing his thoughts. He raised his hand to his lips in a shushing manner. The shadow man held out his right hand, where dark smoke began to amass and form a sword, a black version of the Master Sword. He raise his left arm up and again, smoke collected and assembled itself into a black shield with a shiny reflective surface.

Harry's jaw hit the floor, his mouth wide open in shock and awe. "That's amazi-"Only to be shushed again by the dark entity. He frowned at the older man and was about to say something when a deep growl reached his ears. Harry's face paled and he turned around only to see a hideous looking thing.

It appeared to be a lion at first, its once proud golden coat now patchy and dirty, but it couldn't be a lion, for a giant scorpion tail resided on its behind, looming ominously over its back with a strong acid dripping and causing the forest floor to hiss dangerously. The thing that shocked Harry the most, was not the body nor tail of the lion, but what the lion had for a face. A man's face, twisted in hideous agony glared at them, most likely for trespassing upon its precious territory.

The monstrous sight didn't faze the shadow man in the slightest as he stared down the ugly creature. He'd seen worse before he was separated from his host.

"M…. Mine….. My…. For… FOREST!" The man screamed in anguish as he stampeded towards the mismatched duo, scorpion tail flinging around wildly. The shadow man pushed Harry hard to the side and held up his shield, bashing it into the Manticore's face. The scorpion tail shot forwards, intent on piercing the shadowy warrior in front of it only to have the tip sliced off.

The Manticore screamed in unbridled pain and swiped its giant claws at him, only to miss as he jumped on the quickly moving paw and swiped his sword smoothly, cutting through the paw and causing blood to spray from the stump of an arm. The monster was furious and slammed its scorpion tail into the gut of the shadow man and knocked him over, causing the air to leave his shadowy lungs. The lion-like creature ambled over to the downed man and laid its claw over the shadow's throat.

"Stop!" Cried Harry. "Leave him alone!" He couldn't stand it! His savior was just beaten and was about to die! He ripped a good sized stick off a felled tree that was destroyed from the giant monsters scorpion tail. The stick proved to be useless as the Manticore just swiped his only front paw at the young child, carving his chest open and giving the shadow being time to get back up.

The shadow man took the distraction Harry provided and plunged his sword into the back of the monsters head, killing it almost instantly. Not far from the Manticore, Harry lay on the uneven forest floor, bleeding out.

The shadow man sighed and picked up the unconscious child. He placed his finger over the wound and shadow threads sewed the Harry's wounds together. There, now the child wouldn't die.

He laid the child down and walked over to the dead Manticore's corpse. With one swing of his shadowy sword he cut one of its sharp claws off and made it vanish in a wisp of smoke.

The shadow man roughly picked up the child and tossed him over his shoulder.

Maybe I should train this pathetic kid

He slowly walked off, leaving the dead carcass behind. Crows flying overhead swooped in and began their violent and bloody feast.

Harry woke up with a pained gasp. It felt like he was trampled by a herd of buffalo, feeling his stitched up chest, he guessed he wasn't too far off. That thing last night had to have been a Manticore. He read about them in a fantasy book in the library about a year ago, but how could such a thing exist? He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

He looked around and saw the shadow man attempting to make a fire but failing miserably. Harry took a deep breath and noticed the area around him smelt coppery, it was a smell he knew well from living with his relatives.

Blood

He looked around for the source of blood, other than his own chest of course. He noticed a small pile of dead skinned rabbits, enough for the both of them, beside the shadow man. So that's where it was coming from so strongly. He smiled softly. So the seemingly emotionless man, except for the one time he snapped, did have the ability to think about others, even if it was only food. Usually it was Harry who hunted the rabbits and other small wildlife for food for the both of them. He had experience from when his Uncle wouldn't feed him and kicked him out of the house, it was the only reason he survived this long.

He tried to get up but his chest flared in pain. Harry fell back onto his back and hissed in frustration. The shadow man finally took notice of Harry's awareness of the world upon his hiss.

"Lay down, rest." The shadow man commanded the raven haired boy, his voice booking no argument. "What happened to me?" He tilted his head sideways, in a questioning manner. The shadow man leveled his ruby red eyes at Harry. "You attempted to attack a monster with a stick." He pointed at the giant sewed up wound. "And it left you with that."

Harry looked back down at the giant claw marks and smiled widely. "It looks pretty epic right?" The shadow scoffed at that, his uncaring expression changing into a small frown.

"Wounds are not epic. They are nothing more than a reminder of the mistakes you made. Nothing more, nothing less." The shadow stated unemotionally. He turning to gaze into the newly started fire. Shadow grabbed two rabbits and began to roast them over the fire after piercing them with a sharpened stick. Harry looked at the motionless form before deciding to voice his thoughts.

"Can you train me to use a sword like you?"

Since he saw the shadow man face the Manticore, he had a flaming desire to be strong like him. The shadow man faced the thing like it was nothing, until it finally got a lucky shot in. He wanted to be strong, like the shadow in front of him. Strong enough so the Dursley's wouldn't ever be able to boss him around again. Harry clenched the cloth of his pants tightly and unwaveringly stared at the dark soldier in front of him slowly roasting rabbits.

"No." The shadow stated simply. He tossed a cooked rabbit onto Harry's stomach, who groaned in slight pain. "But I can show you how to kill." The Dark World inhabitant scrutinized the young boy in front of him. "Eat. We begin when you can move."

It was two days later when Harry's wounds healed completely, leaving behind three large scars stretching across his chest. It was peculiar how fast the child healed, mused the shadow being. He assumed it was due to some internal magic at work. Link, and therefore himself, were the same way. Anyways, it was time to impart his fighting skills unto the young child who stood before him.

"Mental discipline." He started. "Is a big part of being able to fight, if you do not have the mental discipline required to fight, to take a life, you will not go far down this path. I will teach you how to wield your sword as if it is a part of yourself. I won't teach you combat styles or katas, simply, how to become one with your weapon. I will teach you how to interchange fighting styles smoothly." The shadow man took a deep breath and continued his speech. "This won't be easy. I'll beat you into the ground over and over. I'll make you want to give up. Fighting isn't kind and neither am I."

"Are you ready for this?" He asked in a dead whisper. "To learn how to kill?"

"Yes."

The shadow man stared into Harry's determined eyes, analyzing him, judging him. "First you learn how to control your inner magic." The shadow stated unemotionally, carefully gauging Harry's reaction to the statement. He was not unsurprised by Harry's reaction.

Harry had lost his determined composure and looked at the shadow entity gobsmacked. "I have magic? I thought magic didn't exist! How do you know I have magic?" He questioned him when he regained his composure after a couple minutes.

The shadow raised a leather clad hand to silence the boy. "Yes magic is real." He said in that same damn unemotional tone of his. "And yes, you do have magic, how else would your wounds heal so fast?" He sat down with a soft sigh, crossing his legs and placing his hands on his knees. "Now sit like me, close your eyes, and find the magic inside your very being. You'll know when you've found it."

Harry sat down in a closely similar position that the shadowy being was sat in. He closed his eyes and concentrated on finding the hidden power within himself.

Darkness, nothing but Darkness. He turned around, scanning his surroundings. Darkness, more Darkness.

A faint flash. He ran towards it. The everlasting Darkness seemed to suffocate him as he continued to run. It almost became too much, he couldn't breathe, his consciousness was rapidly fading.

Suddenly a dark light flashed again and banished the darkness away from his being. Harry could see it, his core. It was black, and pulsated purple ever so slowly.

It floated above a cracked concrete flooring. The surrounding walls covered in graffiti and chipped, as if it was centuries old. Moss covered the same concrete above him and hung down overhead.

Harry walked up to his gloomy looking magic core. Suddenly stopping "What do I do with it now?" He wondered aloud. Harry took a few moments to think his options through before reaching out and grabbing the thing.

Or at least he was going to grab it. As soon as he touched it, his hand started sinking into the darn thing. He tried to rip his hand free but it was all in vain as the orb pulled him into it.

"Come the heck on!" He cursed loudly, grabbing his arm and attempting to wrench it free. "I did not sign up for this!" His core pulsated one last time, this time almost completely lighting up the room before the Darkness quickly engulfed it again, the orb finally succeeding in absorbing Harry.

"Agh!" Harry awoke with a start. His head hurt, like a lot, and his heart was racing. "Wasn't I just absorbed by that weird orb thing?" He asked aloud. A dark chuckle rang out behind him, startling him once more. "That tends to happen when one finds their magical core." He chuckled again.

My brain is infested by story ideas… Don't blame me for all these stories I've started and haven't continued which I will begin to do after I upload this chapter… Blame my brain!

I hope you all enjoy this idea! Rate and Review!