Chapter 9

Chapter 7

Zelda looked out from the top of the hill on which she stood. From here she could see the darkness slowly making its way toward her. It would only be a matter of a few more weeks before the power of her part of the Triforce would give way Ganondorf's dark presence.

But, suddenly, Zelda noticed something odd happening to the darkness. It was not approaching anymore. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The darkness was receding, and the barrier that the Triforce made was expanding...

Before Zelda could make anything of this, a Hylian soldier ran to meet Zelda where she stood.

"Princess!" he called, halfway up the hill.

"Yes? What is it?" she responded, turning to him.

"The Hero of Light has returned!" the soldier said, catching his breath.

"What?!" Zelda cried in bewilderment.

"We found him unconscious along with another strange humanoid being which we have confirmed is not part of any species within the Light Realm." he reported, standing up straight now.

'Could it be...Midna...?' Zelda thought to herself.

"We also discovered a strange cubic device within the same general vicinity. Our scholars have taken it for inspection." the soldier continued "The other two are now in the Recovery Tent and are expected to make a full recovery."

"Please escort me to the Recovery Tent. I wish to see them both for myself." Zelda ordered, and the soldier took off back down the hill.

Zelda started after him, stopped, and looked back at the still expanding barrier.

"He really is back..." Zelda said to herself "Goddesses, how much safer I feel!" Then she turned and continued after the Hylian soldier.

Zelda entered the Recovery Tent, and asked that the remaining nurses please leave. After the last of the nurses left through the flap in the tent, Zelda was left alone with the two newcomers, Link and Midna, each lying on a separate, elevated cot, and sleeping soundly.

Zelda strode to Midna's side and said, morosely "Oh, no...Midna, not you too...I hope our connection is still strong enough..."

Zelda laid her hand down on Midna's forehead. White magic flowed from her hand to Midna and when Zelda lifted her hand, Midna's eyes fluttered open and she turned her head to look at the other Princess.

The first words issued from Midna's lips were "Z-zelda...this is all my fault!"

"What? Midna, calm down and tell me what's happened." Zelda said, calmly pulling up a stray stool next to Midna's cot.

Midna began to tell of their adventures from Link's second, abrupt disappearance from the Twilight Realm up to their narrow escape with their lives from the 'Dark Master', Mordrid.

"So, as you can see...if I hadn't have left...Link never would've been forced to choose me over Hyrule..." Midna said, sitting up now.

"I don't think..." Zelda started.

"And what's more is I encouraged his leaving his home! I had not right to take away what the Light Realm needed most: their Hero...their Hope...their Light." Midna said, beginning to sob, and drooping her head onto her chest.

Zelda drooped hers too and looked quite disappointed. However, after a moment of thought, she abruptly lifted her head, placed a determined look on her face, and said, robustly "No more. No more of this beating yourself up for this. I won't hear another word of it!"

"Princess..." Midna said, looking up, a little bit shocked by Zelda's behavior.

"You could never have seen that this would happen! You were doing what was right for all of us by destroying that Mirror, and you know it! The only one who should be blamed for all these recent events, is the man who started it all in the first place! This man you call Mordrid, is the one who should be blamed, not you!" Zelda cried out in fury.

Midna sat there for a few minutes looking awestruck, before regaining her composure, smirking, and replying "You're right...like always. Though I've never seen you so worked up."

"Well, as you know, I always defend the falsely accuse, and seeing as you were accusing yourself, I felt I needed a stronger tone." Zelda said, smiling back at Midna.

"Hm, well...I guess the question now would be...what next?" Midna asked.

Link suddenly stirred in his cot. He opened his eyes, sat up, and looked over at Midna and Zelda. He felt an odd tingling on his hand and looked down at it just in time to see the Triforce insignia on his left hand fade.

"Oh, good, you're alright! Are you well enough to listen?" Zelda asked, watching Link closely.

Link nodded.

"Good. It's best your heard this as well." she said "We've discovered our enemies' motive and how they managed to bring back Ganondorf and, as I'm told, Zant as well."

"That's great! How did you find all that out?" Midna cried joyfully.

"That would have been my contribution." a voice said, and the Sage appeared in the Tent "Pardon my intrusion, but I felt that an explanation would be the very least I could do."

"Yes, there is good and bad to this. The bad is that this is the last Sage in the Light Realm. The good is that he was able to, by going through every last bit of text he could find, encounter how our enemies have returned and what they intend to do." Zelda explained.

"'From your origin, you are born; and so you shall return.' This is an old Hylian proverb that has confused many scholars of high intellect." the Sage began.

"That's a Twilian proverb, too!" Midna said.

"Ah, then I believe that would further prove my theory correct. You see, when we are born, our souls are given certain light affiliations, which are specifically decided from what Realm we are born in. But, as we grow older, and depending on the actions we make in our lives, our souls are more likely to change their light affiliations. We do not know what light affiliations ours or others souls are, but, depending on the actions taken within our lives and the paths we choose to take, we can make accurate guesses.

"Take Ganondorf for instance. He was clearly born in the Light Realm. But, even though he was killed here, he is still alive. Why is this? I believe that since his chosen path has been one of darkness, so must also be his soul. So until we kill him at the right time, he'll keep coming back and back from the darkness.

"So how do we finish him off for good? Simple: defeat him in the Dark Realm!" the Sage concluded.

"Wait, the Dark Realm? You mean the Twilight Realm, right? Ours is the Realm of shadows..." Midna interrupted.

"No. The Dark Realm is a Realm all its own. The Twilight Realm is the Realm in between; the mixture of Light and Dark." the Sage explained "Now, there's another thing. There's another Realm: the Anti Realm, with no light affiliations. Here one is immortal."

Link's eyes widened in horror. If any one of those psychos learned of the Anti Realm...

"I can see the fear in your eyes, Link. If any one of our enemies should learn to harness the Anti Realm's power...we're all doomed." the Sage said, drooping his head.

"Well, that helps!" Midna said happily "Let's get on it!"

"We would, but we're currently unaware of any way of getting to the Dark Realm. We only just learned of its existence. We've tried, but there's just no way..." Zelda said, until a Hylian soldier burst in and interrupted.

"My apologies, Princess, but our scholars have discovered something about the machine that arrived with..." he said, then saw the awoken Hero and the other strange being "...uh, those two."

"It's our Realm transporter; crafted by the Velo tribe of the Twilian Realm...Goddesses, I hope they're alright..." Midna said, gloomily "Anyways, it won't work because it wasn't finished before we were attacked."

"Yes, but our scholars discovered the missing component! Come, quickly!" the soldier said, running out the tent flap.

"You two stay here, and I'll..." Zelda began, but when she turned and saw Link and Midna both hopping off their cots with the simplest ease, and stood ready to follow, she added "...or not..."

The four followed closely behind the Hylian soldier to a large tent which, upon entering, they saw the transporter with the Ordon Sword stuck into it.

"You fools!! What have you done?!" Midna yelled immediately, almost charging the scholars standing around in awe of the machine.

"Wait." the Sage said, holding out his arm to hold her back "Look."

The transporter was glowing brightly, illuminating the sword especially. And then, it went completely black and the cube disappeared, leaving only the sword.

"Great, now can I go knock their heads together for their stupidity?" Midna asked the Sage, obviously not impressed.

"I'd hardly call it stupidity, ma'am. The transporter's power has been transferred to the sword." said one of the scholars "I believe it is yours, yes, Hero?"

Link nodded.

"The Sage brought it back with him, when he returned with Zelda. When we brought that machine in here, the sword leapt from its place on the wall and, without any hand guiding it, save for Destiny's, plunged itself into the block. We watched it for a while and assessed that the machine was transferring its magic into the blade." the scholar explained, as Link picked up the sword that had changed, not only by power, but in physical form as well.

"It is no longer the Ordon Sword. Shall we call it, the Realm Sword?" the Sage said, chuckling.

Link smiled; he liked the idea of that, actually.

"Now we've got everything we need!" Midna said, gleefully, but immediately reverting to asking "Or...well, wait. How does the blade work?"

"Hm...good question. Link, try swinging the sword." the Sage suggested.

Link hefted the sword and swung with all his might. After a few moments...nothing happened.

"Uh-huh...Midna, you try." the Sage said.

"Huh?" Midna asked a little surprised, but Link put it in her hand anyways "Well, if you say so..."

Midna gave the sword a good swing. A sound like tearing cloth could be heard and there was a portal right where Midna had swung.

"Whoa!" one of the scholars shouted in awe "Where does it lead?"

Link nodded at Midna, who nodded back, and the two leapt into the portal without hesitation.

"No! Link! Midna!" Zelda cried, but no sooner had the two left, then they returned through the same portal.

"Yep, it goes straight to the Twilight Realm!" Midna said "Let me guess, the sword opens a portal depending on the light affiliation of the user's soul, yes?"

"So it seems..." the Sage said.

"But, how do we get it to take us to the Dark Realm?" Zelda asked.

"To say honestly, Princess, wouldn't it make more sense to be rid of Ganondorf first?" the Sage asked.

Without warning, a small sucking noise was heard by all, and they turned in the direction of where the portal had been; for now it had disappeared.

Midna was first to react, laughing "Ha! At least we won't have to worry about figuring out how to get rid of the portals!"

"Indeed." Zelda agreed, and said to the Sage, after a second for thought "I think you're right. We should send Zant and Ganondorf to the Dark Realm, and cut off any other way of returning here and the Twilight Realm, save for the sword. When we find someone who will open the way to the Dark Realm for us, then we can go and strike down Ganondorf, Zant, and whoever this Mordrid is, once and for all!"

Everyone stared at Princess Zelda for a moment, surprised by her fiery determination, but they all turned, nodded to each other, and all unanimously came to a conclusion: the time for a counter strike was now.