author's note: This fic was written by request. It took a while for me to finally get around to it, but I hope my story makes up for it!

Part 1 - The Hero of Twilight

Chapter 1 – The Ghost

No, try again.

The Ordonian braced himself for another onslaught of sword fighting. His worn-in leather boots had nothing to grip and he found himself once again blown backwards, feeling a moment of weightlessness before landing heavily on white ground. This in-between, with its misty white aura may seem dreamlike, but the damage to his body was oh so physical.

You must put trust within your blade.

Link picked himself up and shuddered to his feet, leaning on his sword for balance. He wiped the back of his gloved hand on his face and detected a smear of red on the gauntlet. He blinked sweat and tears out of his eyes. The Shade raised his blade again and Link brought up his sword to block, but his fatigued reflexes landed him again on the ground. He struggled to stand and his abdomen screamed. He looked down and saw a deep red gash in his tunic.

The green hero reached into his satchel and pulled out a fairy. She hummed around him and had him healed within moments. He stood again though the new skin that had closed his wound still felt tight. His jaw clenched with the determination of showing no weakness.

"Why are we still here?" he asked aloud, his voice seemingly swallowed by the nothingness that surrounded the heroic pair. "Ganondorf has been defeated; Princess Zelda is once again on the throne."

There is an eighth hidden skill. I cannot teach it to you. It is something that must be self-discovered. Doing so will bring you closer to your past self, and that is needed in this world where Twilight still lingers. Though evil may sleep, it does not die. The same is true of many things.

The Ordinaian heard the Shade's voice as much in his mind as in his soul. The skeleton before him had been his mentor throughout the toughest ordeals of his journey, but now it seemed that the fight was not yet over.

Though he was strong, throughout Hyrule he had always been guided enough to know what he was fighting. Now it seemed that his enemy was a reflection of himself. How could he be expected to guard against that?

Again.

The Ordonian did not wait to be attacked first. He jumped forward towards the Shade. He had followed the elder's instructions perfectly and was mid-attack when his jump strike was immediately stopped by the Shade's shield. The green-clad hero flinched and felt a tiny shift in air currants before he felt an immediate searing heat in his back that simultaneously spread throughout his upper body in a vice grip of pain. The hero stumbled and fell forward, blind from the pain before he lost consciousness entirely.

If you cannot learn, then the world needs a new hero. I am sorry it had to end like this…..

Link opened his eyes and saw the Shade standing over him. His blade was raised over his head and the red eye recessed deep in his decayed skill glowed with the same bloodred colour that was pooling around the Ordonian hero. Link recognized the stance of the first hidden skill - the ending blow – and thought about the countless enemies he had dispatched with the attack. He was sickened by the Shade in front of him, and the fact that he was to die such a meaningless death. He realized with a jolt that he had used his last fairy. Now there was nothing to stop the sword's attack.

The boy realized that this was truly the end.