A/N: I am such a liar. I started this chapter Monday night. xD


'Kimi no chikara ni naritainda

Tatoe kimi igai no subete no hito wo

Teki ni mawasu toki ga kite mo

Kimi no koto mamori nuku kara.'

-High and Mighty Color "Ichirin no Hana"

Much to Epona's dismay, Link urged her through the vast area of Hyrule field as the full moon hung over them in the sky. Nighttime meant dangerous enemies; Of course the field had stronger monsters that came out once the moon floated into its spot. Zelda spent most of the ride sniping out distance enemies with her light arrows while Link slashed at enemies that would suddenly pop out of nowhere. All three were exhausted when they finally made it into Faron Woods.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Link murmured as he rushed Epona past Coro's quiet shack. "I'm guessing that if King Bulbin was telling the truth, then we should expect some company."

"Not a problem." Zelda replied softly as she notched another arrow. She detected a bit of movement over Faron's spring as they began to exit the tunnel and drew back her bowstring, wincing in the process; The action did not go unnoticed by Link, who had glanced back at her.

'We really need to get healed before we go any further but not before we get to somewhere safe.' He thought to himself as the light arrow struck a Bublin standing atop the cliff wall beside the spring. "Nice eye." Link remarked to the princess as they passed the spring and continued down the bridge leading to Ordon.

They passed the Ordon spring and Link's house just fine, but when they reached the village, they were faced with the worst. What was left of the houses in the village was bits of charred wall and ashes in their centers where artifacts had no doubt once stood. All over the place, there was a Bulbin. "Damn it!" Link shouted as he pulled back on Epona's reigns and jumped off with sword in hand. He could not and would not hold back the anger bubbling just under the surface of his skin.

"Link!" Zelda tried to plead in an effort to keep them unnoticed although there had been guards watching anyway. Archers standing at the top branches of trees let loose fire arrows aimed at the princess, who was an easier target than the swordsman on the ground. Much to Link's relief and surprise, Zelda conjured up a temporary, blue barrier that caused the fire to flicker and die and the arrows to fall harmlessly to the ground.

"Great, the Princess can perform magic." One Bulbin grumbled, causing both Zelda and Link to stare. Sure, King Bulbin could speak, but he was their leader. They had both thought that Bulbins were lower beings, incapable of organized thought.

"That means she can get to the remaining villagers! We must quickly get to them!" Another Bulbin shouted as he ran toward the ranch, revealing how small their brains really were. Link and Zelda exchanged meaningful glances.

"Go. I can at least hold of this horde of underlings. Go!" She shouted at him when Link showed no signs of budging. Finally, he nodded, remounted Epona, and ran over a few Bulbins on his way to the ranch. Zelda smiled softly as she stood on her own. "This should be... fun." More arrows were shot at her, but she disappeared with a gust of wind.

--

Link patted Epona's neck as she hopped over the closed gate. There was a rather large group of Bulbins standing at the closed doors of the ranch, trying to wrap their small minds around how to get the door open. 'I seriously hope that there is something blocking the door that's making it hard to open the doors otherwise I have even less respect for those monsters.' He thought to himself as he urged Epona to move faster and trampled the Bulbins to death. "Huh. You'd think that they'd have more guards than this." He remarked to himself as he knocked loudly on the door. "It's Link! Please, open the door!"

He heard the buzzing of voices behind the door as it opened a little. "Link?" A raspy voice whispered. Link could not make out who it was. He gave a friendly nod as the person got a good look on him. The doors closed again and there was the buzzing of voices once more. Then, the doors swung open.

"Link! Oh, m'dear, we were so worried about you!" Sera, Beth's mother, cried in a dry voice. She embraced him tightly. "We knew that you would return to us!" Sera said with tears running down her dirty face. Slowly, more people came out. To Link's relief, many were inside of the barn. Instant guilt plunged Link. 'I shouldn't have left for so long. I shouldn't have left at all.' Talo and Malo were clinging to their parents although they both wore relieved smiles.

Link glanced at all of the dirty Ordonians to see who was missing. Colin, Uli, Rusl, Ilia, and Bo weren't there. He swallowed hard but managed to say: "I'm so relieved you all are okay, but... what happened to the others?" The relief on their faces washed away to reveal guilt.

"They came, and we were so unprepared, Link..." Pergie, Talo and Malo's mother, practically pleaded. "Oh, Goddess'... Rusl was so brave, he rushed right on ahead to fight, but they knocked him out and dragged him away. Well, Colin saw this, so he ran after them and managed to get captured; His mother was not far behind him. We only managed to save the baby from the arms of a monster about to kill her..." Pergie's voice broke and she could continue no more as tears fell from her eyes.

"Bo went after the monsters and started waving his hands around like a crazy man like he could defeat them with his own, bare hands." Jaggle continued as he stroked his wife's back. "Ilia ran after him and they were captured together. Then, a man claiming he had been sent by Telma said that he needed Rusl. When he noticed a gang of those monsters surrounding Beth, he swept in and saved her, but was struck by an archer monster in the heart..." Link's hands were clutched in his fists. Damn that Bulbin King...! Suddenly, a loud, piercing scream sounded in the night air and Link started.

"Zelda..." Link whispered, frightened. "Stay right here! I'll be back!" Talo made to go after him, but Link stopped as he threw back the gates. "I mean it! This time, the enemies are more dangerous than a bunch of demonic plants." With that, he ran back into the village. In the very center of the town lay a motionless Zelda with one arm across her stomach and the other over her head. "Zelda!" He shouted and unsheathed his sword as the Bulbins closed in on her. "Get the fuck away from her!" With an easy spin of his sword, he took out the lower-class monsters who disappeared in puffs of black smoke.

Link bent down over Zelda and cradled her in his arms. "Oh, Goddess', please... Please...!" As if he had spoken the magic words, Zelda's eyes fluttered open to reveal her cobalt orbs. He mentally thanked Farore, Nayru, and Din as he shifted her a little in his arms. "Goddess', Zel... You're alright."

She smiled weakly. "I'm sorry for worrying you. There were so many... I was so worn out... Then, in the middle of my Farore's Wind, they got me... I'm sorry..." Link promptly shushed her.

"Don't apologize; You didn't do anything." He said as he looked around. It looked like Zelda had actually managed to take care of all of the monsters aside from the ones he had killed. "Good goddesses, Zelda, you sure did do a job on those beasts." Zelda's smile became a little more pronounced.

"What can I say? It pays to practice." From the other side of town, the other villagers began to slowly make their way toward them. They whispering upon spotting Link and Zelda in such a compromising position.

"They're talking about us, Link." Zelda said with a blush. He waved her off with his hand.

"Let them talk."

--

"So... you're going after them, Link?" Jaggle nervously asked the swordsman about two hours later. Link nodded slowly.

"Yes. I have to find out what's happened to the others, and I need to find out what's going on." He replied as he glanced around at the village. "I'm sorry, I feel so bad for leaving you..."

"It's okay, Link!" Talo called from the tree above Beth's house. "I'm going to be lookout again!" Link smiled a little in memory of the time Talo had appointed himself the lookout of Kakariko village during the war with Zant and Ganondorf. Come to think of it, that wasn't too long ago. Link still hadn't found it in his heart to tell the villagers, his friends, that he could not find Ganondorf's remains where they should have been; He kept convincing himself that some vulture had picked away at the remains.

"I'm trusting you, Talo!" Link called up to the young boy sitting in the tree who grinned and gave him two thumbs-up. He shifted his attention back to Jaggle. "Are you sure that you are well-armed?" Jaggle waved him off.

"Good enough, my boy. Don't worry about us! If you can put an end to this madness, then you won't need to save us, so don't place your thoughts near us! Just concentrate on whatever started this up and find the others." A small, knowing smile crept onto Jaggle's face. "And be sure to take care of your girlfriend." Link's face turned magenta.

"She's not...!" Link tried to argue but was cut off short as Zelda called to him.

"Link, are you ready?" She called from upon Epona. Both of them had soaked in the spring for a little while and now they felt like one million rupees. He nodded and climbed onto Epona. "Take care!" The Princess called over her shoulder, blushing as the villagers bowed.

--

In the part of Hyrule field nearest the Faron Providence...

She could not believe it had worked. What luck she had! Or, what strength. Already, she had shaken down a few monsters that she had found were in large amounts again. Her strange, uneasy feelings from before had not been wrong. The monsters had confirmed that a new evil had arisen and the "foolish princess and insulant hero" were already working hard to take down this evil. Of course, after the brief chats, she had rid the light world of the beasts with the snap of her fingers. Well, pretty much.

Now was a matter of waiting. She had no clue where in the world Link and Zelda could be. "Wait no more, Princess." Midna whirled around, fully expecting to see Link, and she did: The Dark Link. She scowled and her hands balled into fists. His voice was so similar, only raspier.

"Hah. I see a Link but certainly not the one I wanted." She mused as a dark ball began to glow between her two hands.

"My, my. You certainly are beautiful in your true form. What a shame that your remarks don't hit home as hard as they did when you were a lowly imp." Dark Link shot back with a sneer. With no warning at all, he was blasted backward by the ball of dark energy.

Midna put a finger to her lips. "Oops. Was it uncalled for that I attacked you whilst you went about your meaningless rant? How clumsy of me." Dark Link glared his shining, crimson eyes at her.

"If that's how you want to play, fine. Playing dark has always been easier." Without a warning, he disappeared and Midna was left in the field by herself. Or so she thought. Dark Link resurfaced behind her and slashed his black Master Sword at her back, but she quickly turned about and caught it, slashing a deep cut into her hand.

"I am ruler of the Twilight; Such pathetic attacks will not surprise me." Midna grinned as her hands became black with dark magic and pushed the sword and Dark Link away from her. "You have been locked away for too long; Your power is shoddy." The Princess remarked with a sneer. As she finished her sentence, the Dark Link before her fell into nothingness while she felt a sharp pain across her back; Midna yelped in pain and fell to her hands and knees.

"Yes," Dark Link hissed from behind her as he licked the blood off of his blade. "but replication spells are simple." He held up his sword above the point of where her heart would be. "Goodbye, Princess. I suppose that this proves, after all, how useless you are in the light world." There was a flash of light in the distance and the sound of an arrow whizzing through the air. It pierced Dark Link's shoulder causing him to scream in agony, pull it out, and throw it to the ground. "What is this?" He demanded as he stared at the blood running freely from his shoulder.

"Hyah!" A male's voice grunted. Epona neighed in protest as she sped up toward Midna and Dark Link.

"I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it," Zelda whispered so quietly that Link had barely heard her.

"Midna...?" Link called out to the woman kneeling on the ground. He pulled back on the reigns as soon as they were feet within Midna.

The Twilight Princess looked up at them with a look similar to the one Link had last seen from her. Her eyes were wide and her lips were twisted in a smile and both Link and Zelda felt a great increase in their spirits. "Oh, Midna!" Zelda cried as she jumped off of Epona and ran to her fellow Princess' side.

"I... can't believe it." Link murmured more to himself than anyone else as he stared at Midna as if she would disappear at any given moment. "You... split the mirror." He stated to her in a monotone voice. Midna nodded slowly and answered in the same monotone voice.

"Yes. Yes, I did." The two being so out of whack barely paid attention as Dark Link vengefully swung his sword at Midna. Zelda managed to conjure a flimsy Nayru's Love spell that blocked the attack, cut into Dark Link, and knocked him back.

"Can we focus on the task at hand and worry about the details later?" Zelda asked as she blew a piece of golden hair out of her eyes. The other two nodded and rose to their feet.

"Shit, this doesn't look good." Dark Link remarked to himself as he clutched his bloody arm. He stuck two fingers from his left hand into his mouth and blew twice. The ground shook a little as bulbins and their bulbos rode in from the distance. "They killed your leader! Get them!" Dark Link commanded, pointing at Link and Zelda.

"Definitely not good!" Midna cried as she stared in horror at the many angry bulbins charging at them. "There are too many!" She glanced around to find Link looking just as worried as she was but Zelda with her eyes closed. "Zelda...!" But in a flash of light, they were whisked away.

When Midna opened her eyes, she found herself sitting in water that seemed to stretch forever. Link was beside her and Zelda was panting and bent double. "Where are we?" Midna murmured as she glanced around. It was so bright with light that she was surprised that she wasn't being destroyed. Of course, both she and Zelda knew that she was retaining a tad bit of light that allowed Midna to exist in this world, and this new area, without pain.

"We've been here before..." Link mused as he climbed to his feet and steadied Zelda. "You transported us here during the fight with Ganondorf in a last ditch effort to save us and give us the tools we needed to defeat him." He said to the princess, who smiled in return.

"Yes. It is the light realm, a very pure place." Zelda stated as she stood up to her full height.

"You've got that right," Midna said as she stared at her once injured hand. The skin had resealed over the cut as if she had never been hurt in the first place.

"I can take us back; We only needed a few minutes, but I'm not sure if I will be in a remotely good condition when we return." She murmured more to herself than anyone else. It was true, too. The Princess looked terrible; It must have taken a lot of energy to get to the light realm. Link placed Zelda's arm over his shoulder.

Midna sighed at them and rolled her eyes. "Ah, humans, so weak." She joked with an impish grin that no longer fit her. When neither of them said anything, she spoke again. "Explain to me, please, what exactly has happened here." Zelda and Link exchanged looks.

"That's a good question," Link replied, shaking his head. "We didn't really know anything was wrong until earlier when an archer bulbin fired at us on the Bridge of Eldin, like old times." He added with a small smile. "Anyway, we just figured it was a lone, crazy beast, so we ignored the fact that it had been there. Then, when we came back from the Hidden Village," At that, Midna gave him a strange look, and he answered with a look that said, 'I'll explain later.' "We found Castle Town being burned to ashes. We tried to help the villagers put out the fires and Zelda went atop the Goron's shop where she found the bulbins responsible. Then, she slipped, I guess, and Dark Link must have rescued her. After I went after her and found them on the rooftops, King Bulbin and his army bombed the castle to the ground..." He was skipping over the details of the sewers, which Midna needn't know.

"Then I wanted to check Ganondorf's remains," Zelda finally spoke up as she shifted her weight a little. Midna gave her a quizzical look, but Zelda didn't give her an answer.

"And?" She prodded with arms folded across her chest.

"And..." Zelda murmured, uneasily. "There wasn't anything there. His cape was gone... Every trace of him had just poofed. I know Link killed him; The triforce symbol disappeared, your curse broke..." She trailed off and shook her head. "Anyway, King Bulbin attacked us with his boar, and we killed him." Midna raised an eyebrow.

"Obviously he was part of something... Did you ask him?" Zelda nodded.

"Of course." She replied and proceeded to explain what King Bulbin had said; Midna let out a low whistle.

"So, he basically told you that he, and his army of morons have been harassing many provinces? Did you guys check it out?" She asked, hands on her hips in that typical Midna fashion. What really worried her was the fact that the Bulbin leader had said that Link was "no longer the stronger side."

"Well, we checked out my village." Link said, an angry edge to his voice now. "There were so many. Zelda let me find the villagers while she took out the Bulbins. As it turned out, Ilia, her father, Colin, and his parents were captured. I have no clue where they are." At that moment, Midna let out a laugh that was so much different than her impish one. It was actually a rather beautiful sound with an alto tone. "What?" The swordsman asked, slightly frustrated.

"Well, well, well, Linky," Midna said with a wink. "Where would the best place, that we've been to, to imprison people? Who knows how many... More than five, at least." She waited for him to think on it.

Not the temple of time... That was nearly impossible to get to aside from the fact that it was on sacred ground. Not snowpeak... Yetta and Yetto would never allow it, of course... Not the Lakebed temple... Where...? Then, suddenly, it hit him. It would be in an isolated place where the enemy ruled. He looked up at her so fast that his neck practically snapped. "Arbiter's Grounds."

Midna smiled. "Exactly."


A/N: Not too long of a chapter... sorry. xD Yus, Midna is back. I was going to bring her back in a more exciting way, but I couldn't think of anything, so I left it like this. :3 Next chapter: Return to Arbiter's Grounds! God, I hated that dungeon with a fiery passion. No joke. Read and review if you want more chapters! ;D