A/N: Just so you know, this is rather AU, but please read it. I am going to put a lot more time and effort into this fic than my others. The main shipping is Midna/Vaati, and I might get a boyfriend for Zelda. Written mostly in Zelda's POV, but I might add some of Midna's, Link's and Vaati's somewhere. Character deaths, but only one that will happen in the story timeline. Sort of a Twilight Princess/Majora's mask type setting. It may sound like it, but it is NOT a Midna/Zelda Yuri.

Disclaimer: I do not own Zelda. If I did, this'd be a game. And Midna'd be in them much more.

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Ten years too late

Chapter one

The man with the crimson eyes

"And what if I don't accept?" The boy scoffed. The Great Deku tree felt a bout or sadness pour through his dying roots. He had no other option. If Link wasn't going to save Hyrule, he would have to be dealt with seriously.

"Well, that is rather sad, not only for me but for ye too. Link, as ye do not accept, Hyrule will have to live out ten years o' bad luck. Many lives will be lost. Great Cities will burn down, and Evil and Darkness will reign. That is, until thy ultimate cataclysm, which is the Moon crushing our land and destroying it forever. You have just killed yerself Link. Because I hereby cast thy curse upon ye. Ye and all of Hyrule..."

~Nine years later~

It's that man again. Ganondorf. He is probably going to make me carry out another one of his ghastly deeds. I cannot murder another innocent life in fear of my own... But executions are a regular thing in our land now... And despite my weak stature, I have to carry out most of them. I'm his lackey. I, alongside two of my dearest friends, one who was tragically killed two years ago, used to rule this golden land. Now, because of our own sins, I have to suffer... Ganon and his minions have taken over. We are a Twilit wasteland. Most of our treasuries have been destroyed, and many good lives taken. It's a common thing now, as it has been for nine years. Only three people in Hyrule know what is going to happen in the end... We all die. Those three people are the accursed one, I and my best friend, Midona. Miss Ruto did know, but she was killed because she got pregnant with one of the Zoran guards. He was killed too... I fear for my own life each and every day. I hope that I am one of the few who will live to the day of worlds end. If not, I hope that Midna does. Although, she's been acting a bit odd recently. If she isn't careful, she going to get herself shot.

"Ooo Zelda..." Midna sighed, lost in her own world. If anyone could keep a smile on their face in times such as these, it's her. Although, she is not an optimistic. When something upsets her, she will get worked up about it. But she's lost more than me. She even lost her true self...

"What Miss Midona?" I asked, not looking up from my latest forced assignment (peel sixty barrels of potatoes for the great feast that we slaves aren't invited too.)

"I saw him again today..." She cooed. I looked over my shoulder to see what she was doing. The three foot imp was lying on her bale of hay upside-down, not even starting her own FA. She looked as if she were in a trance. There was a glazed look in her ruby red eyes. I felt a rush of worry for her surge through my veins. Worry for her sanity, and for her life.

"Who's 'him'? And Midona, please do your job, if I lose you, I may go insane." I walked over to her and lifted her up by the collar of her rags. Even her breathing was strange.

"Oh, you know, the man. The one with the crimson eyes."

I placed her down and pointed to the grapes that needed turning into wine. She hopped into the barrel and started crushing them with her tiny feet. I thought her job would shut her up, but I was wrong.

"I like him you know. He gave me a rose."

"That's nice Midna. Maybe, he might set us free." The man she was on about was one named Vaati, and he was one of Ganondorf's most trusted minions. He was about seventeen and was rather good looking. He wasn't hard on us when he gave us our jobs, unlike the rest of them. The woman called Veran would whip us. I spent hours one night tending to Midna's wound that the whip had inflicted upon her. It was al swollen and oozing yellow pus. Midna was sobbing in pain. I felt it too.

"I hope so... Zelda, I feel weird..."

"You're acting it too."

"I think I'm in love with him."

I was silenced. I knew that Midna did like him a lot, and I'm sure that he liked her too, but I would have never though that a romance was blossoming.

"Midna, please heed my words and be careful for Din's sake. Remember what happened to Ruto?"

"Zelda, I'm not going to get pregnant." She affirmed. I heard her pop a grape into her mouth and spit out the seed. Actually the seed hit me on the back of my head.

"Ouch. Careful where you spit those Midona-chun. Anyway, back to boy business. What is the point in falling in love now, when we're going to die in a year?"

"Six months actually."

"Even worse."

"I hope there is some way to stop this Zellie... I don't want to die before I reach puberty..."

"You haven't reached puberty yet?" I was rather shocked. Midna was older than me, and I was eighteen in a month. She just giggled. Her laugh was such a sweet one; it was hard not to smile on the rare occasions that she used it.

"Silly Zelda, I'm still a baby in Twilian years. I won't start puberty until... Well, if we do stop the Moon, you'll be dead when I do."

This news saddened me. I wanted to die with my best friend, but if we saved the world, that would be impossible. She could live five hundred years.

"Actually, you need to re-calculate there Mid. If every fifty years for a Twili is ten years for a Hylian, then you'll be about sixty, and hopefully I'll still be alive then." Midna shrugged and half heartedly leapt out of the wine barrel.

"Maths isn't my strong point Zellie... Anyway, I'm done." She said plainly. I was yet again, baffled by her effort, as she wasn't big and there were so many grapes. It never took me less than half an hour to mush grapes on my duty. I had to de-seed them first.

"How did you do that Middy?" I asked.

"Well, I do eat a few, and I can de seed them with my feet." She whispered. Her face went beetroot. It was normal for Midna to eat her jobs. Out of everyone imprisoned, she was probably the fattest, and she merely had a little paunch. You could see my ribs, even when I didn't breathe in. And I was rather well nourished too, as Midna shared her snacks with me.

"Midna, you may as well let me try some." I told her.

"You like grape juice?" She asked me. We women could only do the first part of the job when it came to cooking.

("Seeing as ze girlz haf more strength that ze boyz, ze girlz vill prepare ze food and ze boyz will cook eet." One of the guards had told us. A Rito named Medli had protested, and her best friend, Aryll, had to execute her for it. If Midna was to be executed, I wouldn't be her executioner. I would have risked my own life.)

"Well, no, but I'm ever so thirsty."

"Well, take some, but make it quick." She snapped. I cupped my hands and dipped them into the purple liquid. It was cool to the touch and barely rippled as I pulled my hands out and quickly drank. It was so fine, so delectable, that I took some more. But something stopped me in my tracks.

"Drinking the wine Miss Zelda?" a cool voice asked. I looked up and froze. It was Vaati.

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A/N: I hope you liked. I will be updating LoaL: ToC soon, and TR as well. Don't know about my others, I'll try to. Review please, I hope you like this story, I out my all into it.