Woo-hoo! I'm on a roll! This time, it's a Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess story! Enjoy!...Oh, and of course, none of the canon characters are mine...Just wait 'til I get my hands on that Triforce! (Kidding...maybe.)

Twilit Phantoms

Chapter 1: Shadows of the Past

SHNK!

The sound of the hero's blade sinking into the belly of yet another monster echoed eerily across the lonely span that was Hyrule Field. It had been a few weeks since the Hero of Light had aided both Princess Zelda of Hyrule and Princess Midna of the otherworldly Twilight Realm in freeing both kingdoms from the tyranny of the mad usurper Zant and his master, the evil, immortal thief-king, Ganondorf. He had hoped that, with the corrupting influences of both Twilight magic and Ganondorf gone, the monsters would stop appearing…..But there they were, in exactly the same places he had always found them. This particular group of nasties was a pack of Bokoblins- humanoid goblin-like creatures with either red or blue skin- haunting an area of the Field close to his home of Ordon Village, located just past the Faron Woods. Something was definitely wrong- he could smell it in the wind.

"Stop that," he chided himself in thought, "Stop sniffing the damned air. You're not under that spell anymore. You're a Hylian, not a wolf." He'd had to reprimand himself in this way several times by then, as during his previous adventure, he had been cursed into the form of a large gray wolf, something which had actually helped him along the way. However, when the Twilight left the land, so did the effects of the curse; he was a wolf-man no longer. "What the heck is up with all these monsters still lurking about?" he thought to himself, "Maybe the princess will know, or perhaps the Sages might." Whistling for his horse, Epona, he muttered, "Well, guess I should check up on the village and see if everything's okay."

Getting to the village was a relatively simple task; the real challenge lay in getting his finicky steed all the way through the forest without too many distractions. When he finally got there, however, he immediately noticed something quite strange: someone was in his house! As he approached the structure, set about a meter above ground, carved into the trunk of a large tree, he heard someone humming a song that brought to mind vague thoughts of windmills and storms. The voice was a clear one with a sweet tone, definitely female…..and young. "Well, I guess there's one thing these wolf-senses are good for these days," he mused. Deciding to refrain from drawing his blade, he crept up the short ladder leading up to the entrance, and flung the door wide open.

Swshh!

He had intensely regretted the last bit when he was immediately greeted by a large cloud of dust, which left him coughing and spluttering.

"What the?" he heard the familiar voice say. He was right, it was his old friend, Ilia. She was a head shorter than he was, but about the same age. She was usually a very kind and gentle person, but everyone who knew her knew better than to incite her wrath. "Whoops," she said embarrassedly as she came over to help dust off her wandering friend. "Sorry about that, Link."

"What….What're you doing in my house?" he asked in between coughs.

"What's it look like?" she replied, "I'm cleaning up! You wouldn't believe how dusty and cluttered everything was just yesterday when I came to check up on it!"

Link just stared at her blankly. Her chiding him was routine by now; as for all the good things he could say about her she did have the tendency to nag, but what bothered him more was the fact that she was in here without his permission. Ever since he started his previous adventure, he had used his home as a bit of a weapons storehouse. There were many dangerous things hidden away inside; bombs, arrows, and even the black crystal that had contained the curse that gave him his lupine alternate form. "It's dangerous here," he said bluntly.

Ilia blinked. She had been friends with Link since they were both small, but she could never seem to get used to his curt demeanor. "If you mean all those weapons you have stored away, don't worry," she said. "In fact, those need to be maintained from time to time, y'know. You can't just stuff bombs or arrows away from weeks on end and just expect them to work!"

"It's always worked for me, actually," Link thought to himself as he self-consciously patted his bomb bag.

As Ilia finished the sweeping, Link began his usual routine of unpacking things he thought were unnecessary for the task at hand. For example, if he was about to venture into the Zoras' Lakebed Temple at the bottom of Lake Hylia, he would usually leave all his normal bombs at home, opting instead for the amphibious Water Bombs. This time wasn't really all that different, though he mainly only had to empty his pockets of some extra Rupees, the crystalline currency of the realm. Rearranging his gear, he noticed something odd on his desk- some sort of black powder."Strange," he thought, "Doesn't seem to be explosive powder…..And there's no way Ilia noticed that stuff, either." In fact, he surmised, he himself hadn't noticed it until after he had finished putting things away. Bending over to get a closer look, he failed to remember that he had recently installed a small shelf over his desk, and slammed his forehead directly into the edge of it. "Augh!" he cried in pain, as out of the corners of his eyes he saw something fall from the shelf onto the pile of black dust: the Wolf Curse Crystal, as he liked to refer to the crystal whose now-dormant magic had previously transformed him. To the great surprise of the two friends, a crimson spark was produced when the crystal struck the dust pile, accompanied with the sound of electrical crackling. In the next instant, the mysterious glyphs on the crystal began to glow once more, signifying it was active. What was even more distressing, however, was the fact that the dust pile had sprung to life. No longer was it simply an idle clump of powder on the desk, but rather now it was a small cloud, fiercely swirling and shaping itself. Eventually, it formed a statuette about the perfect size for use as a large paperweight or a small trophy, though in Link's opinion someone would have to have rather questionable tastes to want to use it for either. It was a rather unsettling figure, a humanoid demon with whips extending from its clenched fists and what seemed to be a chestplate with the image of a pair of eyeballs carved into it. Its body was contorted in a manner reminiscent of both dancing and attack.

"Yeesh, that was creepy," Ilia muttered as she moved to pick it up.

Link was so deep in thought that he failed to realize what she was doing until it was far too late. "Ilia, no!" "What's the matter?" she asked, oblivious to the statue's ominous aura as she held it.

"Hey look, it's got an engraving on the base….Hm, 'Majora,' huh? What kind of name is that?" she laughed derisively. Suddenly, as if angered by her remark, the statue's eyes began to glow with a fierce crimson light. Just as suddenly, the entire statue began to glow and, returning to its dust-cloud form, forcibly entered Ilia's body. "Aaaaagh!" she screamed, then slumped over.

Link's hand immediately flew to his sword, but he froze. He had dealt with cases of possession before, but he felt uneasy about doing so without the aid of the Master Sword, the legendary Blade of Evil's Bane. What if he hurt her permanently with his ordinary sword? What if he hurt her and the evil spirit stayed with in her? What if—"Stop it, stop it!" he commanded himself mentally. "You won't be of any help if you doubt yourself like that!"

Before he could formulate a plan of action, however, Ilia's slumped form began to quiver, as if there was something about this whole situation that she somehow found incredibly amusing. "Heh heh heh…..ha ha hahahahahaha!" As she laughed, a black aura erupted around her, swallowing her. When it finally receded, she was wearing the exact same armor the figurine was.

"I-Ilia?" Link called, approaching her slowly as he readied his shield instead of his sword.

Slowly, Ilia turned around, though Link could clearly tell she was not herself. Her sclera had turned a hideous orange-yellow, and her irises turned emerald green. Her mouth was stretched into a mad grin, almost literally ear-to-ear, with her own teeth replaced with sharp, jagged fangs. "Heheh, sorry, that name doesn't ring any bells," she said darkly, "But why don't you play with me a bit? She might come out!" At this, with a horrible squelching sound, the twin tentacle-whips burst from her forearms, and she charged.

"Dammit," Link thought. "There's no way I can take her now. I need to get away from here, and I need the Master Sword!"

"What's the matter?" the demon possessing Ilia gloated, "Too scared to hurt your girlfriend? Ha! Some hero you turned out to be!"

Running through the forest while letting "Ilia" chase him, Link made a beeline for the Sacred Grove, the hidden part of the Faron Woods where the Master Sword slept. Hastily grappling across the chasm with his Clawshots, the hero prayed to all the gods and goddesses he knew were part of Hyrule's pantheon to not run into…Him.

As he began to hear the upbeat notes of a horn, Link froze. "Aw c'mon!" he groaned. He had made several previous trips to the Grove before, and on every one, he was accosted by the sinister, yet playful imp known simply as the "Skull Kid". The imp always wanted to play, and the game was always a deadly version of hide-and-seek, with the Skull Kid sending out wave after wave of human-sized puppets with razor-sharp claws. Link would always have to strike him three times to "win" and get the imp to leave him alone. Needless to say, it was quite a time-consuming ordeal. However, almost immediately it seemed like his wish had been granted after all, as the tempo and volume of the notes both died down gradually. "Thank the gods," Link sighed. "I don't have time to deal with that guy right now!" As he continued to make his way deeper into the Grove, he checked for signs of his possessed friend. Chances are, if he was lucky, he left her stranded on the other side of the chasm, where she would hopefully wait for him to come back and continue their "game". Much to his annoyance, however, he met yet another distraction ….By running right into her.

Whap!

"Ack," Link grunted, assuming some sort of bug flew into his face, and raised his hand to strike it.

"Aiiiiieeeee! No! Don't kill me, please!" came the high-pitched plea.

Either Link was able to talk to insects now, or this was no insect. Peeling the offending….whatever-it-was off of his nose, Link held it in front of his face so he could get a better look. It seemed to be a fairy, only with a blue glow as opposed to the pink one he was used to seeing. "Are you….Are you alright?" he asked. He figured it couldn't hurt to ask. After all, no one was behind him anymore, and he felt guilty about having nearly killed a fairy.

"Y-yes," she said, "I—Hey!"

Link winced. Somehow, something about the way she shouted "Hey" bothered him."Y-yeah, what?" he asked gruffly.

"Hey, listen," she said again, "Is your name…..Are you Link?"

Link blinked. "Uh, yeah, I—"

"Oh gods am I ever glad to see you again!" the fairy screamed as she began to fly around his head in circles. "My, how you've grown! And this time without time-travel, too!"

Link rolled his eyes slightly. "Uh, I don't mean to be rude," he interrupted, "But time-travel? I think you have me confused with another Link. I've only jumped through time once, and I sure as heck didn't get taller because of it."

At this, the fairy sounded devastated. "Oh," she muttered. "I, uh, see. Sorry to bother you."

"Nah," he said, "It's fine. Hopefully you find this friend of yours who has the same name as me, huh?"

"He's…..He's dead," said the sprite dejectedly.

"Oh," Link said, making a mental note of the awkwardness of the situation. "Okay then….Well, sorry about that. I'll be—"

"Wait! Don't go!" the fairy said, flying to him again.

"What now?" asked Link exasperatedly.

"Look, I'm sorry about your friend, uh…."

"Navi, my name is Navi," the fairy said.

"Okay, look. I'm sorry about your friend, Navi, but I dunno what I can or should do about that. I—"

"No, this isn't about him," Navi cut him off. "Someone else I know is still alive, and she's in mortal peril! I was just looking for the Link I knew because I know he could've handled it. But looking at you, there's not that much of a difference, so…."

"So you want me to help your friend?" Link asked. "Yes!" Navi replied urgently. "Alright, I will. Only thing is, I'm already trying to help someone right this minute," he began while continuing on his way to the Master Sword, "But once I get done with that, you have my word that I'll help, alright?"

"B-but she needs help now!" Navi whined.

"So does my friend!" Link retorted. "Ugh," he groaned. "Why's it so cold?"

"Oh no!" Navi squeaked.

All around the duo, the forest was dying. Green leaves turned to fall colors, then completely brown. The grass underneath their feet began to dry up and turn yellow. The trunks of trees were twisted and contorted into crazy shapes, some even resembling monsters.

"The forest…..What's happened?" Navi demanded of no one in particular.

Seeing the Master Sword, Link drew it from its pedestal and turned back the way he came. "I dunno, but I'll add finding out to my to-do list. If you wanna tag along, be my guest."

Suddenly, Navi flew in his face again.

"Wouldja stop—"

"Hey, listen! The ground there got weak when the forest dried up just now! If you take another step forward, you'll fall!"

Tapping the ground ahead of him with his toe, Link found her claim to be true when the part he tapped fell away immediately.

"I can see the safest route," Navi said, "But you'll have to trust and follow me!"

"I think I'd rather use this," Link thought, reaching for his Wolf Crystal. Grabbing it, however, he was annoyed to find it had gone dormant yet again.

"Low-level Twilight magic like that doesn't work when you're this close to a Guardian Fairy, silly!" Navi chided, "Now c'mon!" Seeing no other choice, the hero followed the fairy.

Eventually, they had come to a clearing with a single stump. Link recognized the place as the location of his last battle with the Skull Kid. Glancing at the stump, he was shocked to see the seated form of his old "friend". Bracing himself for another "game," he immediately drew both his shield and his blade. However, upon closer inspection, the figure appeared to be just a wooden statue, at least from appearance.

"Let's go, Link," Navi said quietly.

Link couldn't help but worry for the Skull Kid. Though he had largely been a nuisance, Link bore him no ill will and certainly disliked seeing him like this, if that was even him and not some substitute. Once they arrived at the chasm again, Link found more nasty surprises waiting for him. First, a twisted tree had ended up blocking the entirety of the cliff on his side of the chasm, and worse, on one of the branches, there was a shred of what looked and smelled like Ilia's tunic, meaning that unless the tree managed to transplant itself across the chasm, she had been here.

"Ew," Navi groaned, "You actually smelled that? Even if it's only a part of her top, that's—"

"Creepy, yeah, I get it," Link cut her off as he sniffed the air for a scent trail. Finding it, he ran headlong in that direction, only changing his course slightly when Navi warned him of unstable ground.

When they came to what seemed to be a mammoth tree, Navi immediately flew in front of Link. "I was going to say that we would need to help the forest before we could help your friend, but it looks like she's here anyway."

Link simply nodded and unsheathed his sword. He hadn't realized it while he was running, but somehow he had arrived at the very first dungeon he had ever visited: the Forest Temple. Making quick work of any enemies or booby traps that stood in his way, he followed Ilia's scent trail directly to the chamber that had once been home to the gargantuan beast, the Twilit Parasite Diababa, essentially a massively enlarged version of a Deku Baba, or the resident man-eating carnivorous plant monster. Now, however, its only occupants were his friend and….The Ancient Sage of Forest.

The apparition of the Sage was doing something quite un-sagely: writhing in pain, holding his head in his hands.

Though Link wasn't sure whether the Sages were even actually alive or some sort of species of ghost, it clearly sounded like the one in front of him was dying. It didn't help matters much that his friend, in hushed, sibilant tones, was urging him to "give in to the temptation and transform"."Ilia!" Link called.

Startled, she turned around, her eyes and face returning to normal. "L-Link….." she gasped, before her features twisted again. "Wahahaha!" the demon roared with laughter in Ilia's voice, "So that's the name of this body! Now, have you come to finish our little game?"

"As a matter of fact, I have," the hero thought to himself.

The monster faked a yawn, saying "Ugh, why are you always so terse? It gets so boring!" As "she" said this, she shot many small fireballs at Link, which he deftly blocked with his shield, even swatting one or two away with his blade.

Utilizing the battle to mask her movements, Navi flew next to the Sage. "Hey," she called, "What's happening? Are you alright?" The Sage froze.

"Hsssssssss!" he uttered.

"Aha!" exclaimed "Ilia". "I knew he couldn't keep that up forever!"

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," Link thought.

Just then, as if it were some bug crawling out of a shed exoskeleton, a monstrous form burst from the body of the Sage, leaving it a withered husk.

"By the goddesses," Link murmured in utter shock.

Leaping onto the creature's back, "Ilia" began to cackle with glee. "Hahaha! Looks like I win, hero! Better luck next time!" she howled.

"Link, hurry!" Navi told him, "That's still the Sage in there! She's just….corrupted him somehow! I think it's Twilight magic, but it's a lot stronger than what I can handle on my own!"

"Well, if you could tell me where and how to strike that thing, that'd be gr—"

"Slingshot bullet or arrow to the eye to stun it, then repeated slashes to the eye until it's dead!" Navi replied shrilly.

"Sounds good to me," grunted Link.

After what felt like an hour of intense fighting, he had finally subdued the monster. It hadn't been easy, given that Ilia, or rather "Majora," as Link assumed the demon was called, had put up almost as much of a fight, attempting to bind and swat Link with her whips whenever he got close. Throwing the whirlwind-inducing Gale Boomerang as a distraction for "Majora," Link dealt the mammoth bug the finishing blow. As it disintegrated in an inferno of magical flame, he made sure to strike at "Majora" as well. Fortunately, it did not move to counter his blow, for either it was too stunned by the force of the final blow, or was simply dumbfounded that its new companion had been so summarily defeated before even being able to leave the chamber. Offering his dear friend a quick, unspoken apology, Link thrust the Master Sword through Ilia's abdomen, impaling both her and the demon in one fell swoop. When the dust cleared, there were two statuettes on the ground; the one that contained Majora, and the other, which was engraved with the name "Parasitic Armored Arachnid: Queen Gohma," containing the giant bug Link had just vanquished. However, much to both his and Navi's confusion, the forest didn't immediately heal itself. In fact, by then it was as if the very air had died. In a sudden rush of inspiration, Link rushed back to the Skull Kid's clearing. It was his hope that, given that it played some sort of guardian role for the Grove, he might have some connection or other to the forest as a whole. He arrived at the clearing just in time to see the Skull Kid, having been revived, remove its mask…..Only to reveal , in a swirl of fallen leaves, the form of a young girl of about twelve or thirteen years of age with green hair and matching clothes.

Seeing this, Link's jaw practically hit the forest floor. "Y-you mean I've been smacking around a girl?" he demanded.

"Er, yep," Navi replied. Flying over to the girl, Navi greeted her. "Saria! Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," she noted shakily. "Navi….Did something happen at the Temple? I've got this strange feeling…."

"Yes! Something terrible has happened! The Sage of Forest is dead!"

"Wait, he…what?" Saria replied in shock.

"Yeah, and even with the help of Link here, I couldn't help him!"

Saria blinked. "L-Link?" she exclaimed, staring at the Hero of Light.

"Uh, not our Link, unfortunately," Navi muttered.

"Yeah," Saria said wistfully, "I'd wager not." Walking up to him, she stuck out a hand. "Hey! I'm….Well I used to be that Skull Kid who'd always harass you…..Sorry about that. My name's Saria."

As he shook her hand, Link replied, "Please tell me those sadistic games of tag were your way of making sure I was worthy of wielding the Master Sword and entering the Temple of Time."

"Wow, exactly!" she exclaimed, "If someone ddidn't test you, how would you have known whether you were ready?"

"Yeah, I guess. Now c'mon, let's get to the temple!"

As soon as they arrived at the temple, the trio made their way into the chamber where Link had previously battled the demons. Now, however, there was a glowing green glyph in the center of the room.

Almost as if in a trance, Saria walked slowly to it.

"That's a good thing, right?" Link asked Navi.

"Yes! A very good thing, in fact….Watch this!"

As soon as she stepped onto the glyph, which contained the crest of the Forest Sage, a blinding blast of green light erupted around her. Link could feel some strange aura expand in a circular wave, like a blast radius, from where his new friend stood. As it passed through the forest, it healed and corrected whatever it touched. Most notably, the tree that blocked the exit from the Sacred Grove righted itself. When the glow receded a bit, Link opened his eyes to look at Saria again. By now she was surrounded by a visible aura of green light, with even her eyes glowing a solid green. She looked like she had aged a few years, and gotten longer hair. Her tunic and shorts were replaced by garments formed of woven leaves, and her feet, once clad in boots, were bare. As she remained floating there, motionless, she suddenly issued what appeared to be a dire warning:

"He who returned the light to this land shall be the one to cast it back into eternal darkness!"

Dun dun DUUUUUN!

What's up with what Saria said? What the heck is going on in Hyrule? Come back next time to find out!