AU Where Shadow's death is not a final death- he's something between dead and alive, and trapped in the darkness. He needs Vio's help to get out, before a fate worse than death catches up to him...

Primarily going to be Vio x Shadow-centric; if you don't like it, don't read it! (Might eventually contain hints of Blue and Red, if you look closely ;D )

Vio stared blankly at the ceiling of his room in the morning, sighing softly. He'd had one of the dreams again... One about Shadow. Once they had been very rare occurrences- perhaps once a month, their shadow would appear in his dreams. Now it was several times a week, almost nightly.

He was always the same in the dreams- he was always trapped. Something was always wrong, without exception, and Vio could never get to him. Shadow was always in pain, reaching out for help and then suddenly disappearing, like a candle extinguished. Vio always woke up in a cold sweat, shivering. It had to mean something... But what, he couldn't say.

He stood up, making his bed distractedly, and found himself staring at the shadow he cast on the floor. Once or twice since they had defeated Vaati he swore his shadow had waved at him, but it hadn't done anything for the longest time. Perhaps it had all been a figment of his imagination- that was the most logical answer. Even in their world where magic was not uncommon, the 'dead' coming back to life was unheard of.

Though it struck him that Shadow might not be dead; he might be out there somewhere, existing in some way... They had not seen him die, per se. True, he had disappeared in the light, but stranger things had happened. It was sadly unlikely, though... It was a shame; Vio missed him. Towards the end, when they were actually allies fighting on the same side, Vio liked him. But then he destroyed the mirror, and in theory so with it went his life...

Not his memory, though- that, at least, was sufficient enough to inspire the nightly dreams. But why now? Vio rubbed his forehead, realizing he'd been staring at the floor for almost ten minutes. "Stupid..." He muttered, sighing and making his bed before starting to get dressed. He glanced briefly in the mirror over his dresser, his heart almost stopping as he caught a glimpse of something in the corner of his room- when he whirled around to get a direct look, however, he saw nothing. Another check of the mirror revealed the same conclusion.

"I'm going crazy," He deduced with another, slightly more annoyed sigh, heading out of his room without a backward glance. If he had looked back, he would have seen that his shadow was still frozen in place on the floor in the same spot he'd been fixated upon.

.-.-.

.-.-.

"Did you guys ever wonder what might have happened to Shadow?" Vio asked during a lull in the conversation after breakfast. Green shrugged, raising an eyebrow.

"Not really, no. I mean, he sort of died in your arms. Doesn't leave a whole lot up for debate, huh?"

"He did not die in my arms, I was kneeling beside him and he disappeared into the light," Vio argued, folding his arms over his chest. "That does not automatically mean he died."

"Well, technically speaking, if a shadow fades into light it's as good as gone," Blue pointed out, taking a drink of milk.

"Why do you bring him up now, Vio?" Red asked, trailing his fork through a puddle of syrup on his plate. "That was almost a year ago..."

Vio shrugged, not willing to let on about his dreams. "Curiosity. I wish to know if that was really the last we'll ever see of him..."

"Well, death is final," Blue said plainly. "I don't think it's really possible for people to come back once they cross over."

"Yeah, maybe not..." Red agreed. "Do you miss him, Vio?"

Vio gave a small, noncommittal jerk of his head. "I suppose. We didn't exactly spend quality time together or anything, but..." He considered bringing up his paranoia, but dismissed it. If there was ever anything unnatural, paranormal, or just downright strange going on, it was usually Blue who was the first to become aware of it. If his sixth sense hadn't picked up anything, then there was probably nothing the matter.

"You gonna go back there, Vio?" Red piped up, distracting Vio from his musing.

"Where?"

"You know, back to the last place you saw him. Or wherever you put that marker for him- was it at-"

"I might, yes," Vio cut him off shortly. "I'll be leaving now. Thank you for making breakfast, Blue, I'm glad you didn't burn anything." He got up and put his dishes in the sink, ignoring the glare he got from the other Link. He left the house, taking with him his bow and his sword out of both habit and precaution.

Perhaps it was a bad idea to return- Vio had, after the hype about the whole ordeal had died down, returned to the site where the Sky Tall Tower had been. (The majority of it had been destroyed between Vaati's fits of rage and Ganon's power, but parts of it were still standing.) He had found an area in the woods nearby, and had set up a small headstone in memorial to Shadow. It was not much, and there had been no body to lay to rest, but he felt better at least doing something.

It took him a while to get there, and an equal (if not greater) amount of time to locate the area, for things had grown in his absence. Eventually he found the site, though, and stood blankly before the cold gray stone. "... Hi, Shadow."

He shifted his weight from foot to foot, unsure of his exact reason for being here in the first place. "I'm not sure what drove me to come back here today," he admitted, tapping his foot on the ground. "I suppose I just sort of wanted to... check up on things." He was fidgeting quite a bit today, and he made himself keep still.

"You've been on my mind a lot lately; rather without my permission, to be honest. I can hardly control my dreams, after all." He snorted, sitting down cross-legged before the headstone. "That alone wouldn't be that unusual, but... Ah, how do I put this without sounding like a fool?" He folded his hands, thinking for a minute. "Did you actually die?"

"Because some nights I swear I hear you..." He paused for a long moment, and then felt the need to elaborate. "You never really say anything, but you breathe. I know it's you- or at least, I think it is..." The night after he had fought and 'killed' Green, when Shadow and he had victoriously drunk together and he had made up his mind to break the Dark Mirror, Shadow had fallen asleep in front of him early on.

He had watched him for the longest time, certain it would be the last time he saw him. He'd taken the time to really look at him, trying to burn the small details into his mind. Little things: the inward-turned position in which he slept, suggesting he always felt the need to be on the defensive; the way his brow never totally unfurrowed, as though Shadow was constantly on-edge and perhaps just the slightest bit worried; how he fell asleep so easily, seeming completely exhausted and rather unlikely to simply awake for anything less than a bomb going off; and of course the way he breathed. Shallow, quick breaths, like someone who's either nervously excited, furiously angry, or afraid for their life.

It was hard to describe exactly, but on the longer breaths he also sort of... growled. It was not the correct word for it, because for all his extensive vocabulary Vio couldn't place the most accurate term, but there was some low noise that Shadow occasionally would make when he felt some emotion strongly. It sounded as though it came from either the back of his throat or his chest, a very low noise that was almost impossible to hear unless you sought to notice it. Vio had never heard it before, and never again- not until recently, that is.

"I can't imagine who else it would be- I stopped sharing a room with Green ages ago, so I know it's not him. And I've held my breath, and I still hear you. Am I mad?" Thank the Goddesses he received no answer. "I assumed as much. I sort of..." He paused, reconfiguring his words. "I just wanted to see if things had changed at all. I don't know what I expected, to be honest." He gave a short laugh. "One can't easily come back once you've crossed over."

He got up, walking to the stone and resting his hand on it. "Well... If you are still around, you should drop by and say hi sometime." He gave a slight smirk. "Save me the trouble of figuring out the answer to the question on my own. If you're not... Miss you." He patted the rock, turning his back on it and starting on his way home.

Wow I'm back to uploading things on my fanfic account? o.O Yikes. But yeah- I've had this one sitting around in my documents for a while- I periodically go back and forth to write more on it, and have gotten enough amassed by now that I'm confident in posting it :3 I hope you guys all like it!

Stay tuned for more! ;D

-Artimus-Maora