Tears of Twilight, Prologue.

Summary: After destroying the Mirror of Twilight and heading back to her realm, Midna has to recover from both sickness and a broken heart. But when a simple speech to her people goes to something completely new, Midna finds herself wishing that she just hadn't said anything about the world of Light at all...

A/N: Okay, so after I thought of the idea for this story, I wasn't sure whether I should leave it as a oneshot or take it farther and...you know, delve deeper into the story. So, I consulted one of my best friends who writes on another website and she said I should make it have more chapters right away, only hearing the general gist of it. So this will have...hmm...tentatively, it will have about 5 chapters, but I may change that number later on. It won't be too long, but I'll try to figure this out...

Anyway, let it begin...

Twilight.

A word that comes to mind when we speak of the crossing between dawn and dusk. A word used to describe the dying rays of sunlight, the flickering beams of moonlight just starting to appear, the hazy cloud of orange that hovers on the horizon.

Twilight.

To us, it is simply a time, a time in which our world seems to connect to another and life meets death, shadow meets light. A time when Power meets Courage, and their brawl lasts until complete darkness, only to start again the next day.

Let us meet she who rules over the land of Twilight, she who watches these battles between Power and Courage, she who holds herself responsible for events such as this.

Midna of the Twili, let us follow in your footsteps, let us listen to your thoughts and hear what you have to say...

I land safely in the Twilight Realm, even after the Mirror of Twilight's destruction. I close my eyes and curse the goddesses. Why must they make everything so difficult? Why did they create something so dangerous, only to destroy it, especially when it's done so much not only to save Hyrule, but to protect the Twilight Realm, too?

Why did we have to part? Why did it have to be like this? Why? That's my only question!

I choke on my own ragged breath and try to get to my feet, failing miserably and collapsing to the ground. As my tears drop softly onto the ground, I try to look around, but my vision is so blurred I can hardly see over the orange haze of Twilight.

And then, somehow, I fall unconscious.

Trauma, dizziness, I'll never know. I just know that I've come back to my people, in exchange for a terrible price: my heart.

I hear a soothing voice trying to speak to me through the befuddled, groggy seas of my brain. I can't quite understand what they're saying, not yet, but I know that they've been trying to reach me for a while.

I must look terrible, I think unconsciously before finally finding the strength to open my eyes. Beside me stands the tallest Twili in all of the Twilight Realm. Her piercing blue eyes sparkle with renewed strength after a long battle, while I'm sure my own battle left me looking as though I just climbed out of the sewers.

This Twili happens to be my nursemaid, Dawn. She's been with me ever since my birth, and really, she's my closest friend.

I'm just not sure about that now, though. Being a ruler who abandoned her people, there's no telling how many friends I have lost...

"Princess, are you okay?" she asks, laying a cool washcloth on my forehead.

I try to reply to her, I truly do, but the only sound I can make is a tortured moan. My head feels like it's split in two and then mended itself together again, and I can tell that I have a fever.

"No, shh, it's okay, you don't need to speak, Princess. It's okay. I understand. You've been through a lot," Dawn murmurs sweetly, as though she's speaking to an animal rather than one of her own kind. For some reason, however, it doesn't bother me.

"Dawn...you...deserve..."

"To know? I'm sure I really don't, Princess. Whatever happened to you is surely way over my head, no matter how tall I may be. I'm just glad you managed to get back down to us," she replies, combing through my hair with her fingers. I really love and appreciate her, for all she has done to help me in years past.

My bottom lip trembles, and I bite down on it to keep from shedding another tear. Dawn murmurs, "Oh, Princess, don't cry. Please, don't cry." This doesn't help matters, however, as her tone just makes me even more depressed and my mind strays off to Hyrule.

I hear myself whisper his name rather than feel it. I know my lips are moving, but they aren't moving of my own accord, and I cannot feel them doing so.

"Link..."

After a week of intense medical care, in which we discovered that I had come down with some unknown disease that didn't appear to be dangerous and actually was (which was named Hyla), I am finally ready to greet my people for the first time since I left.

"My beloved people, the Twili," I call over the crowd, "I am sorry that I abandoned you during your time of need. It was more difficult for me than you, I assure each and every one of you. Times were hard; I was driven by fear, and anger towards Zant, he who drove me so. I know I should not have left you, but...perhaps it was for the best."

"P-Princess, why is that?" someone calls nervously.

Trying to smile, I reply, "I met the divine beast, who came here to our realm not three days ago. Dusk, I'm sure you remember him."

Dusk, the Twili that I address, blinks before widening his eyes and exclaiming, "The hero clad in green! Yes! He was the divine beast?"

"Yes, quite," I say. "He shall be written in our texts as the Hero of Twilight, now and forevermore. I'm afraid, however, that he cannot visit. He cannot come to this world ever again."

"Why?" a little girl asks, so small that I can hardly see her.

I bite my lip again to restrain myself from producing even a single tear. It shouldn't be this hard.

When I feel everyone turn their gazes to meet mine, I finally look back up, meeting them all dead in the eye. "He cannot visit because I have destroyed the Mirror of Twilight, to protect not only our Hero, but us as well."

No matter how I try to clarify, everyone is surprised, and even angry among a few. They even begin to yell. Finally Dawn, who has stayed at my side the entire time, yells, "Silence!"

Everyone is so surprised that they all grow quiet.

Twill, an elder among the Twili, raises her thin, delicate arm and asks to speak. When I nod, she begins, "Princess Midna, things have changed, people have changed, even. Our land is now much different than it was before. But altogether, the thing that has changed most is how you act now, towards us. I remember a time when I worked in the castle, before I retired, when you used to scold everyone, demand that they do it right or lose their jobs, maybe even their lives. Now, however, you have lost your fire. I'm sure that two measly weeks ago you would have killed one of us if we protested like that to you. Today you wait for us to quiet down, and I'm sure you have forced yourself not to cry on multiple occasions. It is not sickness that is eating away at you, is it? What has happened to you, Princess?"

I meet her gaze steadily, and when I speak I can hear my voice ringing through the crowd, bouncing from ear to ear, every word gathering in their thoughts. "The world of Light holds many beautiful things. Flowers just blooming out of their buds, fairies fluttering along in the wind, rain pattering onto the ground and starting new life. Among all of these things, however, there is only one that is truly beautiful. It is the kindness and generosity in the hearts of the people, every single person in all of their land. I have seen it in the princess that I so despised. I have seen it, too, in the Hero of Twilight." Turning my head to look off at the hazed, twilit sun, I blink and feel the tears start streaming down my face, met with no resistance. "Link, the Hero of Twilight, the one who saved my life and all of yours. At first I thought of him as merely a pawn, a chess piece to be sacrificed. But then...But then, when I fell ill from overexposure to the Light, and he was trapped in his sacred form for possibly all eternity, he thought of me first. He took me to Princess Zelda, who sacrificed herself, like a pawn, to protect me rather than leave me to die for all that I did to taunt her, to make her feel ashamed of who she was. And no one could guarantee that we would be able to restore the Hero to his original form, but he saved me anyway. He didn't have to."

I look back at my people, who are all watching with depressed expressions on their faces.

"He could have left me to die. I'm sure that the threat would have gone away after long enough. Zant went mad even before we killed him. I certainly would have died, had he and his princess not helped me." Closing my eyes and ceasing the tears, I whisper, "Hyrule is such a beautiful place..." I open my eyes again and meet those of my questioner. "What is beauty? Is it when something is merely appealing to the eye?"

A murmur spreads through the crowd, banishing the silence. "No," Twill replies almost immediately. "True beauty...true beauty would be how they act towards other people, their kindness, their virtues in general."

"Virtues." I turn my orange-eyed gaze back to her. "Yes, their virtues are what truly define their characters. Tell me, Twill, have you heard of the Triforce?"

She shakes her head slowly, and I tilt my own to the stars above, where light meets shadow, raising a hand up to it. "Back when the goddesses Din, Nayru, and Farore created the world of Light, they felt something was imperfect. None of them could figure it out; not Power, Wisdom, nor Courage. So together, as one decision among the sisters, they left behind a part of themselves, in hopes that one day the people of the Light world would find out what the imperfection was and fix it."

"Do you know what it was?" someone asks.

I look over at him and smile. "Of course I do. The imperfection was perfection itself. These three sisters knew nothing but perfection, and so when they created this planet, they felt that it was wrong somehow. The Triforce, in fact, solved the problem quite nicely." I lower my hand to pick a small, pale orange flower and twirl it in my fingers. "War broke out to take control of this sacred triangle, each of the three sections blessed by the three sisters. When these goddesses realized the trouble they caused, they separated the triangle and blessed specific people with each piece."

"Who?" Dusk asks.

I close my eyes and breathe the fragrant scent of the flower. "Din, the goddess of Power, blessed the Dark Lord Ganondorf with the Triforce of Power, which gave him both magical and physical strength, able to overwhelm almost anyone in a battle. But, naturally, he was overly brave. So brave, in fact, that he became foolhardy, and it was his downfall. I no longer know where the Triforce of Power is.

"Nayru, the goddess of Wisdom, blessed Princess Zelda with the Triforce of Wisdom. Because she was naturally intelligent, Zelda became truly wise, the smartest person in all of Hyrule. She had more bravery than her knights, but not as much as would fit her, and her level of power was pathetic, really. She had a great magical prowess, but all in all, she was not very strong.

"Finally, there was Farore, the goddess of Courage, who blessed the Hero, Link, with the Triforce of Courage. Link towered above everyone with his Courage, and his strength surpassed all but Ganondorf's. Likewise, his intelligence was second only to Princess Zelda's. All in all, he was the strongest, bravest, and smartest man in all of Hyrule. Of course, even after blessing all three of these people, separating the burden, Ganondorf was the one to cause problems. He wanted total control over the Triforce, which by now was no more than a legend and a birthmark. He began to hunt down the Triforce's possessors." Turning my gaze down to Dusk, I say, "Naturally, the princess was the damsel in distress, of course. So that left Link to save the princess from the villain and live happily ever after, correct?" My expression becomes bitter and regretful. "I'm afraid I have fallen in love with him, and will give my heart to no other."

Dawn whispers, "Princess, then why did you break the Mirror?"

For some reason, I feel anger instead of sorrow, and I snap, "I had to protect Hyrule. There was no other way! I didn't think it mattered if they were safe while I suffered, do you understand now? If our lands are both safe, I don't care what happens to me! I won't go back to that heartless queen, never again."

Silence once again replaces the noise. I hear sobbing, and when I look back at the Twili, I see that they're all crying. Crying for me. Crying for what I have done to protect them, to protect both of our worlds, with the cost of my happiness.

I watch something truly amazing happen: their tears are running with each other, sloping lightly uphill towards me. My eyes widen, and I exclaim, "What...What's happening?!"

"We have all wished the same thing, Princess," Dawn replies, wiping her own tears from her face. "We have wished for you to return to your Hero, and so it shall be."

"No..." I choke out. "We can't leave something like this for our enemies to use!"

Twill calls, "We aren't. Our minds are as one, we Twili. Together we have wished for you to return to the world of Light. Our wishes are a one-way ticket to your happiness, Princess."

"Go through the portal," Dusk urges me. "Go to the one you love."

"I can't leave you all here without a ruler!" I practically scream, my desperate cries creating my own tears, which open the portal completely. I want to go, I really do, but I can't leave them...

Dawn places a hand on my shoulder and murmurs in my ear, "We will not remain. This land will fall apart, and we're glad of it."

"Dawn..."

"Now go, Midna, before we decide to change our minds!" she exclaims, giving me a gentle nudge towards the portal.

I fall directly through their sheet of tears, screaming the whole way.

"You can't do this to yourselves! I don't care what happens to me! You can't do this!"

Twill's voice echoes through the bridge to Hyrule. "Midna, just know that you carry our wishes with you, and that we all love you. Have you ever thought, just once...that maybe we care?"

I land on a grimy floor, in front of a mirror. I watch as all of my people shred to pieces, disappearing. I take hold of the wooden frame and wail, "You can't do this to yourselves! Please!"

I hear heavy footsteps on a ladder, and a familiar voice whispering, "Midna? Is that really you?"

Before I can process all that's happening, the mirror I'm clutching in my arms shatters into millions of pieces, just like the Mirror of Twilight did, cutting my hands and face. But I don't care.

I don't care what happens to me. My people are all dead, gone forever. They killed themselves for my sake.

I...what am I supposed to do? How could they just...do this to themselves...? For my sake?

I have to do something about this! A queen can't abandon her people, even if they ruin themselves like this!