Disclaimer: I do not own this stuff.

(A/N) I sorta removed the last bit of the last chapter. Cuz A. It was rushed and poorly done and B. I got some better ideas

Chapter 10: Consolation

Following Zelda's coronation, the country returned to a state of normalcy. Fortunately for Link, Zelda was able to brush aside the aftermath of his little stunt in Castle Town as little more than the guards failing to keep a beast out of the city. Some people were frightened, some messes were made, but it was cleaned up and forgotten in no time at all. Ironically, Telma actually profited from the 'vicious beast' incident with the four-hundred rupees Link had dropped.

Three days after the incident in Castle Town, Link went to Kakariko village before he had returned home to Ordon, along with Ilia and the rest of the missing children. The other villagers had thanked Link for his efforts in bringing them all home. Like Castle Town, the true nature of his exploits hadn't reached their ears, except maybe Rusl, Link presumed. Everyone celebrated with feasting and dancing that went well into the night.

However, in the midst of their revelries, one person was able to see that something was troubling the village's hero.

Ilia could tell that Link's smiles were forced, and somewhat pained looking. He still carried himself as he always would, for everyone else's sake. For Colin Talo, Malo and Beth, who demanded to hear stories of his exploits, and to show them some of the equipment he had aquired, for the adults, who were curious as what places he had been, and for her, to show her the boy…no, man now who she cared for like a brother. But through his visage, Ilia could see the man beneath. What gave it away the most were his eyes. The eyes are windows to the soul, as some people would say, and Ilia could see a wounded, grieving person in the depths of Link's feral blue eyes.

Following the celebration, Link disappeared into his house, and was rarely seen since.

His behavior worried the villages, her especially. Before Link left on his journey, he was a quiet, reserved boy. Over the course of it, he had become significantly more talkative, and much more expressive with words. But now, he had quickly reverted.

Now, after 2 weeks he had not spoken a word to anyone, and rarely left the house. He even missed the birth of Rusl's second child. Now and then, he would make a quick trip to the store for needed supplies, but at such unpredictable intervals, no one was able to ambush him for words.

Rusl, knowing a bit more as to what Link had been through had tried to explain to the village that Link was merely tired and needed a long break, though Ilia knew better.

However, more frequently Ilia had seen Link leaving his house and wandering into the woods alone and unarmed around the hour of Twilight. She had yet to muster up the courage to follow him, but she found his behavior to be extremely problematic. Lately, there had been sightings of a huge wolf around the province, easily as long as Epona, maybe even longer, and a build to match. Link was going into the woods without anything to defend himself with when something like that was creeping about. No one was attacked by the beast, yet, though the village assumed it was just a matter of time. Anytime the wolf was seen, Rusl, being the only one in the village, other than Link with combat experience, would investigate. Every time, other than massive paw-prints, it would turn up nothing. However, it was somewhat suspicious; it was as if the wolf was deliberately letting itself get seen, and then vanish. Every time the situation would simmer down, there it was again.

Ilia took note of her current situation; she was standing outside in front of Link's house. It was roughly three hours past noon, and it was a pleasant day.

Dare I try this? She mused to herself. Although she respected Link's privacy, after two weeks of absence, she had to find out what was going on with him, especially since he had been ignoring Epona. The chestnut-colored mare was currently gnawing on the long grass growing in Link's ill maintained yard. Ilia still washed her without notifying Link, like she usually did, but the horse seemed to be depressed as well, as if she and Link shared another connection beyond that of horse and rider.

Slowly, Ilia climbed the ladder in front of Link's house. Why a ladder of all things, Ilia didn't know. It must have been an absolute chore to handle in the event that Link was tired when he came home. Reaching the top, she crossed the landing to the front door.

Ilia took a deep breath, Okay…here goes nothing… and she raised her hand and knocked on the door.

"Link?" she called out as she knocked again. "Come on…I…want to talk to you."

No response.

Out of curiosity, she tried the knob. Much to her surprise, Link had left the door unlocked. Ilia paused for a moment; entering Link's house without his permission would be a major invasion to his privacy, but Ilia was desperate for answers. Reluctantly, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The interior was the same as she had remembered it, the same high ceiling, the same cooking pot over a currently unlit hearth, and the same inconvenient architecture with the sleeping loft being up a ladder.

Ilia's eyes scanned the room when she caught sight of a distinctly human-looking object on the far side of the room, slumped over the desk.

Much to her embarrassment, Link was not wearing a shirt, and his well-toned torso was exposed to her vision. She couldn't help but blush.

"Link?" Ilia said tentatively. He did not answer her call. "Link?" she said again, crossing the distance. The desk was covered with old books, portraits, old food, and other unasserted knick-knacks. When she reached his side, she could hear the sound of his gentle-breathing, indicating that he was asleep. His head was angled at a position in which she could not see his face. As she stopped, she noticed an unframed pictograph face-down on the table, loosely held between two of his fingers on his left hand.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, she slowly reached out to retrieve the object. Ilia's heart jumped when he suddenly snored.

Regaining her composure, her hand reached its goal; the pictograph slipped out easily from Link's limp grip.

Ilia jumped again when Link's now empty hand jerked off to the side, and started pawing at his face in his sleep.

"Midna…love…you…" he groaned.

Ilia cocked her head and stared at her sleeping friend quizzically. Slowly, she turned the pictograph over and examined the image. Looking back at her was a picture of a much-healthier looking Link standing with his arm around the shoulder of a tall, beautiful woman with pale skin and red hair. They were both grinning, and they both looked so happy. Ilia got the sneaking suspicion that she had discovered something.

Ilia was snapped out of her reverie by something growling. Much to her surprise, the source of the noise was from none other than Link himself, still face-down on his desk. To add to that, he started making sounds that was reminiscent of barking, like a dog. Ilia couldn't help but smirk out of amusement as she put the picture back on the desk. Turning around, she slowly tiptoed out of the house, leaving Link alone.

Several hours later…

Link was walking through a field hand-in-hand with Midna. It was a beautiful cloudless spring day, the birds were singing, and the bugs were leaving the couple alone. Both wore a huge grin on the faces as they strolled along the natural path.

They diverted from the main route and went cross country, their hands never losing contact. Tall trees obscured the sun overhead, giving the pair some shade. They walked until they came across a sunlit glade with a babbling stream running through it

Finally, they turned to each other, looking into each other's eyes with a loving gaze. The scene could not have been more perfect. Two lovers, all alone in a beautiful glade, nothing around but nature and their own feelings; Link looked up at her, while she looked down at him.

Their faces drew closer. They could see the pure love in the other's eyes. Their lips were mere inches apart.

Shadow and light cannot mix.

"Link…I…" said Midna.

Suddenly, the Mirror of Twilight materialized behind her, and she began glowing with a pale gold light. Fear hit Link like a battering ram as Midna's hands were yanked out of his by an invisible force.

"I'm sorry," her voice echoed as she dissolved into particles.

"No!" shouted Link as the glade faded to darkness, leaving him all alone…

000

Link's eyes snapped open and he gasped.

He had had that dream before, variations of it anyway. Sometimes they were just walking, sometimes they were cuddling together, sometimes they were about to do you-know-what, but the almost-kissing one is the most common. The way it ends varies as well, sometimes she dies, sometimes she spurns him, and sometimes she disappears.

He found his world tilted on its side, it took him a moment to realize where he was. He pushed himself from his keeled over state to a sitting one, and he messaged his temples with his fingertips and he groaned.

How long have I been sleeping…? He thought as he glanced towards the window. His eyes widened as he could see the familiar golden glow of twilight. That was one of the few times he actually left the house, both for reminiscing and because he felt more alive at twilight.

Rising to his feet, he ambled over to the hole that leads to his cellar. Jumping down and deftly landing on his feet, he grabbed the lantern he kept at the landing and lit it. Why he didn't have a regular light source down here in the first place, he didn't even know. Moving his light about, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

The boyish visage of Link of Ordon had long since faded away in favor of the Link, the Hero Chosen by the Gods. What was once a boy had matured into a man over his long journey. However, dark shadows had formed under his eyes, and his rich tan had faded. The mystery scar he had acquired in the mirror chamber still stood out, even on his pale skin. In this poor light, he could have sworn that the scar was glowing faintly.

Link glanced around until he saw what he was looking for: the Hero's Tunic. Unfortunately for Link, he had grown a lot in the past year, both in height and in build, and a lot of his old clothing didn't fit him anymore. Since no one was really ever in his house, he just went shirtless, and left on a pair of sandals and the leggings from his hero clothing.

Slipping it over his head, he made another quick take of his cellar. All of the gear he had acquired was being stored down here, except for his bombs. Although Midna would commonly accuse Link of lacking any and all logic, he at least had the common sense to not pack at least 250 pounds (Thank the goddesses for that magic satchel) of explosives in his basement. If any of them malfunctioned and detonated…well…that would be bad. Instead, he had hidden them deep in the forest, in a place only he knew how to get to.

His shelves used to be lined with empty crates and old barrels, but now his bow and quiver were on one shelf, his clawshots were sitting in a corner, the ball and chain and iron boots were sitting on a bottom shelf…everything was here, except for his sword.

Its purpose fulfilled, he had put the Master Sword to rest once again in the Temple of Time, like the Hero of Time before him. He was now a hero without a sword. Sure he had plenty of other ways to fight evil, but none of them quite had the efficiency of the Master Sword.

Right before he reached the ladder, he turned and grabbed one object off the shelf; the small glittering piece of the mirror he had salvaged. He felt some strange comfort carrying this thing around with him, especially at twilight.

Finally, Link climbed the ladder from his cellar, crossed the living room, and exited the house.

Cool, evening air hit Link as he walked outside. He breathed deep of it for a second and jumped down the ladder, breaking the fall with a roll.

Who came up with a goddessdamned LADDER to get into the house? Isn't there such thing as a door on ground level…? He mused to himself as he brushed dirt from his knees.

He murmured something in acknowledgment to Epona as he passed her, she whinnied in response. Link walked briskly down the path to the spring.

Little did he know he was being followed.

Sand crunched underfoot as Link approached Ordona spring. He sat down cross-legged. The gentle, cool water in the spring licked at his kneecaps as he sighed sadly. Absentmindedly, he watched some of the fairies fluttering about. Simply getting them here was another thing he accomplished with Midna, though it wasn't easy. The Cave of Ordeals was...unpleasant to say the least.

-flashback-

"Link, behind you!" Midna screamed.

Link could hear the whoosh of air before he saw the massive blade arcing towards his neck. He deftly ducked under it and somersaulted to the side, lashing his blade out and catching his opponent on the shoulder.

The massive darknut grunted as its shoulder plate was dislodged from its body. It didn't seemed fazed, however.

Link had gotten himself into quite the situation. Out of curiosity, he had deigned to explore the tunnel hidden under the Bridge of Eldin fragment, much to Midna's disdain. What met him was a ruthless gauntlet of monsters after monsters after monsters. It was easy at first, just a few bublins here, maybe a handful of keese, but now, it was getting ridiculous.

Having to face one darknut was harrowing, but three at the same time? It was downright ludicrous.

Link was spending more of his time ducking, somersaulting, and running than he was actually attacking. The combined effort of three darknuts was like a relentless storm of whirling massive blades, striking with the fury of a storm.

"To the right, Link!" said Midna. Link dodged the blade sailing at him from the designated direction with a backflip, catching a darknut's chestplate in the process.

"On your left!" she shouted again. Link somersaulted between his assailant's massive armored legs, and got it good in the back with a stab from his sword. The monster made a pained groan as it felt the blessed steel enter its back. Midna shouted again as it made a sweep with its sword behind it. Partially immobilized by his sword being lodged into the enemy, he was unable to dodge this one as the flat of the blade collided painfully with his side.

Link, and his sword were sent flying, landing with a heavy thud some distance away.

"Link!" shouted Midna as his assailants closed in.

"I'm fine! I'm okay!" Link said with a somewhat amusing dazed influx entering his voice as he scrambled to his feet, dodging a would-be-fatal downward swing from another opponent.

Fortunately for Link, when a being a strong as a darknut swings his sword in such a fashion, they tend to wind up getting their swords lodged in the ground, and this fellow did just that. It grunted in exertion as it tried to withdraw its massive iron blade from the ground.

Link seized his chance and rushed the immobilized darknut. Bringing his sword high, he brought it down on inside of the darknut's elbow, a more lightly armored portion. The blade made its mark, and cut through the darknut's arm like a knife through hot butter, severing it at the elbow.

The darknut made an inhuman scream of pain as its swordarm was lopped off. Black blood spilled from the gaping hole, pooling on the ground. Link lashed forward and drove his sword into the tiny gap between the monster's helmet and its massive armored torso. Its cries were cut off with a gurgle as the blade pierced its neck, ending its life.

"BEHIND YOU!" Midna screamed as the darknut was falling. Link abruptly remembered that there are currently still two huge armored enemies out to kill him the hard way. Link tried to get out of the range of the incoming blade, but was two late as the massive sword cut open his shoulder, a scarlet spurt spraying the stone. Link screamed in pain as his flesh was cut and he sunk heavily on one knee.

"Link! GET UP!"

The pain and loss of blood was quickly darkening his vision, but he pulled through.

"Midna! Blue potion!" he barked at her as he scrambled away from the remaining enemies. Midna closed her eyes briefly as the bottle of blue liquid materialized in front of her. She sent it sailing towards Link and he snatched it out of the air, downing the bitter liquid in a single gulp.

"Thanks!" he shouted as the potion took effect. The pain in his back dulled, and renewed energy was flowing through his veins.

One of the darknuts was still slowed from Link stabbing its back, Link could tell from its stance, while the other one was missing quite a lot of its armor. Link went for the crippled one first.

Link ducked beneath its clumsily executed swing and rolled behind it. Link managed to get another vicious stab into its back, and it howled in pain. It sunk down to its knees, and Link took a powerful horizontal swipe at it, beheading it. A nasty spurt of black splattered Link's tunic.

"Argh…that's going to take awhile to clean…" Link quipped as the headless stump hit the floor. One darknut to go.

After its brothers were defeated, the final darknut did something unexpected; it leapt back through the air and hurled its weapon at Link. Link barely had enough time to duck under it as it whipped overhead and hit the wall behind him so hard that the blade shattered.

The final darknut drew a smaller sword from scabbard on its belt, and charged the hero in a flurry of fury and iron. Darknuts were known to resort to such measures when they were backed into the proverbial corner. This…Hylian had dispatched two of its brethren, and he was still standing.

The next few minutes consisted of a vicious onslaught of jabs, slashes, parries, and dodges. Neither warrior was gaining ground. Any attack Link made would be deflected by the darknut's blade, and inversely every strike the darknut would attempt would find itself in Link's shield.

"Link, you idiot! Use your secret techniques!" Midna shouted overhead.

Link grinned dumbly, "Oh yeah…" Promptly, he threw his shield forward into the darknut's face. It did not expect such an attack, and the darknut took the shield bash full on, grunting and staggering back. Topping off the technique, Link leapt high overhead and performed a helm-splitter, rending his opponent's skull.

It worked. The final darknut dropped to the floor dead, its skull hacked open.

Link keeled over with his hands on his knees and panted heavily as the effects of the blue potion were wearing off and he got hit with the full force of his fatigue. Blearily, he surveyed the battle he had just won. This was without a doubt his most vicious battle; it was rare enough to hear of adventurers that managed to take down a single darknut, let alone three.

"Damn, I'm good…" he said as he regained his breath, and Midna hovered to his side.

"A moron, is what you are," Midna groaned, cupping her hands to her face, "What exactly is the point of all this? We have all the mirror shards, why are we here and not the Twilight defeating Zant?"

Link cringed slightly, he did delay their quest. "Well, you see Midy…" he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and oriented himself so they could see the three defeated darknuts, he gestured at them, "If we can defeat these guys, Zant won't stand a chance."

Midna snorted, "But now I suppose we have to wait for you to recover before we go?"

Link smirked, "Not really," he released her and showed her his back; the wound he received had already healed over, thanks to the Triforce, "But if you really want to…"

"Hmph…stupid wolf…"

-end flashback-

Of course, they did crush Zant when they finally caught up to him. Fully prepared, Link and Midna had no problem reducing the usurper king to dust. Link found it to be a bit of a letdown, surprisingly. Their earlier encounters had him see Zant as an ominous figure, but in person…? When your opponent acts like a rabid cucco, they tend to lose their frightening edge.

Back to reality, Link held up the mirror shard he was carrying. The way it reflected the light from the spring was eye-catching, to say the least. Coming out here, alone with the mirror shard gave him some sort of inner peace, as if he felt closer to her…

He held the shard close to his heart. The glow from the shard grew brighter.

"Midna…" he said to no one, "If you can hear me…I just want you to know that I miss you…I miss you so much…."

He was suddenly shaken from his musing by the sound of footstep behind him; his posture went rigid; alert.

"Link?" the voice of Ilia came to his ears, "Who were you talking to?"

"I…no one…" he grumbled, not turning around to look at her. Hastily, he stacked the shard in a pouch on his belt.

Ilia drew closer and took a seat next to him; Link still didn't meet her gaze.

"Link, what is troubling you? What happened to you on your journey?"

"It's none of your business," Link snapped, "This is my problem…"

"Link…" her voice was hurt, "You don't have to face this alone…" she placed a hand on his shoulder. Link turned away from her. "I hate seeing you like this, I want to help…"

"Why would you care?" Link groaned.

"Link," she said more sternly this time, "I care because you're my friend, I care because I look up to you, the children look up to you, I care because you're like my brother," her voice went quiet, "I want to see the boy I knew a year ago."

"As if you would remember…" Link said bitterly, realizing his mistake too late. Ilia slapped him hard on the back of the head. "Ow!" he said, finally turning to her and meeting her gaze, hurt present in her eyes. "I…guess I deserved that…" he ruffled his hair briefly, trying to restore it to its pre-slapped state. "That was out of line, I apologize."

Ilia made an exasperated sigh, "You should be apologizing for how worried you've gotten all of us, we rarely see you around, you come out here alone, when there is a beast loose in the woods…"

"Don't worry about the wolf, Ilia, I can handle myself," something that looked remotely like amusement flashed through his eyes.

"Now, are you ready to tell me what you're problem is?"

Link swallowed once, then averted his gaze, staring towards the spring, "On the journey…I…lost someone…" he said with much hesitation.

Ilia cocked her head, remembering the picture of Link and the tall woman, "Who?"

Link was silent for a moment, "I…she…she was my companion. She was with me the whole quest…"

Ilia gave him a quizzical look, "You…had a companion? All the times I saw you, you were alone."

Link laughed, "You wouldn't have seen her unless she wanted to be seen," he cleared his throat, "Anyway…we went all over Hyrule together…but eventually…I think I fell for her, but then…" he cut off, he was shaking, "I don't want to talk about it…"

Ilia nodded, "It's okay…I understand," she wrapped her arm around his shoulder, "She was a lucky woman to have had you."

Link smiled, for the first time in two weeks he had a real smile, "Thanks Ilia…I really needed this chat…"

Ilia smiled back, "See? That wasn't so hard, was it? It feels better when you talk to someone about it."

Link chuckled, "Yeah, I suppose you're right."

"What do you think you are going to do now?" said Ilia.

Link shrugged, "I have some ideas…"

(A/N) Here you go! Review plz!

As you may have noticed, I scrapped the last part of the last chapter. Upon rereading it (+a little constructive criticism) I noticed how poorly done it was. A little thinking later, I realized what I originally had planned would be more for a crack fic, not something serious like I've been doing, so I've scrapped it.

Sudden burst of ideas later, I get this done.

Random writing gripe: Keep bold text out of the body, it's lame!