I don't know what Green was thinking, but he somehow got us back to the Four Sword Sanctuary with the intention of returning the sword.

We were all a little stunned. We'd just killed Ganon, after all. Ganon, the greatest evil Hyrule has ever known. Ganon, the one who has threatened Princess Zelda more times than I can count. Well, only a handful of the great hero Link's adventures have been added to legend; the rest have been lost in time. All of those times, the hero known as Link has stood against the great evil, sometimes with the assistance of the princess, sometimes without. We're a unique situation, however. Never before has Link had to split himself to fight.

And I had lost a brother…

No. I couldn't think like that. I had to move on with my life. I couldn't just become a cold, unfeeling hunk of rock once again, which I knew would happen if I kept dwelling on sad thoughts. Even as I thought that, I could feel my newfound emotions weakening. I was retreating into my shell once more, trying to save myself the pain of feeling loss for much long.

But I didn't want that. I'd realized that I had friends, and didn't want that to go away with my emotions. The moment that I realized that I did indeed have people who cared about me and when I realized fully that I cared back was the same moment, anyway, connected forever to each other and to Shadow...

"Vio?"

I sat up in bed. It was midnight, 'the witching hour,' as it is known. However, that was a true misnomer. All of the forces of darkness were asleep, too. They couldn't just wander around at night while most other people are asleep, heroes included. They'd miss a valuable chance during the day.

However, it seemed that another was awake. And not just any other. It was Shadow Link.

"What is it, Shadow Link?" I asked. "Is something bothering you?" Indeed, his usual smirk was gone, and he looked rather worried.

"There is something bugging me, Vio," he replied quietly. "Just don't tell Gufuu. You're the last one I trust, anyway. Everyone laughed and told me to go away."

"Why would I tell Gufuu? You're my friend," I tried to smile, but had found it increasingly difficult to play the part of a friend when I was going to betray Shadow anyway.

"Oh, thank goodness I've got someone like you, Vio," the other boy smiled and sat down on the end of the bed.

Too bad I'm betraying you, I thought in reply. Of course I didn't tell him that.

"I'm worried. The heroes are looking for you very thoroughly now. They're all reunited except you," Shadow began. Shock suddenly coursed through me. They were looking for me? I thought that they didn't care! However, I managed to keep my cool.

"Well, Shadow, apparently I'm behind on checking up on them," I said smoothly. Then, however, I noticed Shadow Link's worried expression. "What is it?" I asked him, pretending as though I cared.

"They might fight you," Shadow Link said worriedly.

"Ha! They're afraid of me!" I replied coolly.

"What if they do? They could kill you, Vio!" Shadow Link's voice was rising into hysteria.

"What's so bad about that?" I asked him calmly.

"I'll have lost my best friend, Vio! I'll be all alone again! You're the only one I've ever met who doesn't shrink away from me! No one ever likes the shadow, not even on the evil side. You're the first person to care! I can't lose you, too! "
I was stunned. He really cared about me that much? He was really that lonely? And I thought I was lonely. It seemed that despite the former, I did have friends. He had none besides me.

"Shadow," I said in the calmest voice that I could muster. "Don't worry about it. If I were really your friend, and if I really were to die, I would want you to move on. So don't think too much about it, okay?"

I realized, for the first time, I'd been speaking to him without deception. I had truly felt what I'd said. That was the first time that that had ever happened.

"Vio, I won't stop being worried, but I'm glad I came and spoke to you," Shadow Link got up off of my bed. "You've been such a great friend."

I watched him leave in wonder. I began to feel as if I was waking up. Or rather, my emotions were. For some reason, the thought that people cared about me was making me feel all warm inside.

I finally saw what a jerk I'd been. I'd been acting cold and aloof, and had wished someone would care about me. How could I have been so blind? The people who cared about me, who were worrying about me right at that moment, who were now possibly risking their lives in looking for me had been right in front of me all this time. They cared about me. I just hadn't cared about them. I began to feel guilty. I began to feel worried. I began to feel a thousand emotions. Or maybe they were but one feeling for my friends that was taking a thousand different forms.

Whatever it was, I still don't know. But suddenly, I realized that I was cared for, and had begun to care back.

A tear formed in my eye as I relived the memory. Shadow had no clue that it would be he who left me alone. I wanted to follow my own advice, but found it too painful to try.

"Vio! What's wrong?" came a voice behind me. I whirled around, realizing that the tear had fallen across my cheek, to face Red. Of course it was Red; the other two were in front of me. He was looking at me in confusion and slight pity.

"N-nothing," I replied, trying to sound cold, something that was so easy for me once.

"Oh, there's something wrong," he stepped forwards. "You're crying."
"I have something in my eye," I explained calmly. There. That sounded like the old Vio. Too much for my comfort.

"Vio, you've been different since you got back from spying on Gufuu and Shadow Link," Red looked more serious than I had thought was possible for Red. "You've been talking back less, for one."

"Green is less of a tyrant," I replied stubbornly.

"You've been less short with Blue."

"Blue's been too busy prying you off of him constantly to worry about being patronizing towards me."

"You've wiped that smirk that you had earlier off your face. I mean, you still look a lot like Shadow Link, but by the end, neither of you looked so smug and acted so 'I-know-something-that-you-don't-because-I'm-so-much-smarter."

That pulled me up short. I look like Shadow?
"I look like-"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. You look more like him than you look like any of the rest of us."
"Really?"
"Yep. You have the same facial structure. Your body types are the same. Your hair is a different shade than his, but in the same style. And your eyes are so similar that it's creepy!"

"O-our eyes?"

"Yes. The weird thing is that with the rest of us, we can tell if we're a fake. If we had Shadow Link pretending to be one of us, our eyes were those cool, calculating ones that Shadow's got. Besides, they were grey, while everyone else has blue eyes."
"Go on, please." I was a little bit shaken up. I'd never seen myself in a mirror, and no one had ever told me what I looked like. I automatically assumed that I looked just like Green, Red, and Blue. I mean, each of them had a different shape to their eyes, but otherwise, they looked almost exactly the same. Well, Red was shorter and Green was slightly less muscular than Blue, but otherwise were the same. Each had the same hair color and style (which was slightly different than Shadows, and apparently, mine), same eye color (sky blue), same everything (except aforementioned height and build). And I? It sounded like I was different.

"With you, on the other hand," continued Red, "we can't tell when you're real or fake. You're probably easier to copy than the rest of us, being so similar to Shadow already. However, even with Shadow's similarity, we'd be able to tell you apart if your eyes weren't the same as Shadow's."

I closed my eyes, shocked. I was thinking suddenly of Shadow Link. I looked like him? I had his hairstyle, his body type, his eyes? I was the outlier?

Maybe I was isolated from the others after all.

Tears began to pour from my eyes for the second time that day, not as hard or quickly as Red usually cried, but I was crying all the same. I was different from the others, apparently, and didn't like it at all.

"You really cared about Shadow, didn't you?" Red said quietly. "Like if Blue were to die?"

"Yeah, except Shadow and my relationship isn't-sorry, wasn't-romantic. You said that you loved him yourself!" I smiled slightly through my tears.

"Nah, ours isn't romantic either," Red replied gently. "I mean, I love him, but not in a romantic way. So yes, it's the same. Gah, it's hard to imagine. I'm going to start crying!" Indeed, there was a tear in his eye.

Suddenly, he curled his arms around my trembling form. It was a touching gesture, and I felt the caring behind it. I always knew that Red was capable of deeper emotions than the rest of us. However, I didn't realize that he was so mature behind his emotions. How shallow and blind of me! The more I saw of who I'd been, the more ashamed of myself I became.

When I finished crying, Red smiled at me and grabbed my hand, pulling me along with him as he returned to the others. Though he didn't want them to realize that I'd been crying, he didn't want me to feel excluded either. After all, I'd just how different I really was.

"Don't tell Blue," Red whispered.

"My silence is yours," I replied. I had a sudden feeling that Red and I would become great friends. I mean, no one could replace Shadow for me or Blue for him, but we could at least be close.

Author's note: A few things. First of all, for fans of my story Four Swords, Four Shadows, part of the inspiration of the story was how similar Vio and Shadow's eyes were in the manga. I was looking at that one day, and then I just imagined "what if they were the same person? (another [spoiler] note here: they won't be the same person permanently)" Then I thought of the bit with Zelda, and then, FSFS was born. I mean, look in the manga! Tell me if I'm imagining things.

Also in this, Red and Vio are close friends in this, another FSFS tidbit.

And I'm sorry that this took so long to write!