I lied again. This chapter doesn't have Zelda or the brothers in it. I wrote this part out, thinking it wouldn't be as long as it was. then i considered continuing on anyways and submitting everything as one big chapter... but piecing it together now, I think is is much better as a stand alone chapter.

Midna Hytwilian, it's Vaati, what's not to be turned on about? And believe it or not, as much as I end up doing it, I'm not too crazy about Vaati and Malon as a pairing. XD My mother is a morning person, and a few are my friends are morning people. I am utterly baffled by it, but they are. It scares me. D:

fleets, pfft, Vaati wants sex NAO, lol. Anyways, I'm curious about my own story too. Because I only have that very vague outline going on. No clue what else I'm gonna do with it. D: I actually may not start on it immediately after I finish this one, simply because I really have no idea what else to do... Romance as a primary genre is not usually my thing, so it's kind of difficult. But challenging, because I;m going against my element. Ooooh, fun stuff. 8D And the answer to that last bit, this chapter answers all.

So yeah, I'll talk more at the bottom.

Things became awkward again. Link and Gufuu were back in the same room, both doing everything in their power to ignore the presence of the other.

Link was… rattled, to say the least. He had just walked in on two people about to have sex. All he had wanted was some water… it might've just been a better idea to open the window if he had known he'd walk in on… Somehow or another, though, he managed to drift back off into dreamless sleep.

Vaati on the other hand, was very upset. Worst of all, he couldn't exactly show it since he was pretended to be Gufuu. If he had been tempted to murder Link in his sleep before, he definitely wished to do it now. But he had to remind himself that he needed Link alive. Just for the moment. After he got what he wanted, then he would waste no time in disposing of the brat. But his plan wouldn't work if he killed any of the Triforce Bearers before he had the Force. It was the one terribly irritating part of this whole plan.

Despite how much he attempted to abate his anger, it wouldn't drop. He glared at the sleeping form of Link over his shoulder. He trembled with rage. Vaati really wanted to hurt him…

And perhaps he could. He shifted position, so he was fully facing Link… because Vaati had now noticed that this Link was two. Perhaps he hadn't known it, or maybe he did. Whatever the case, this sort of "split" in Link was caused by outside forces. Probably from one of his little missions to get rid of Ganondorf. The point was that Vaati was very familiar with this split. Because he had used the other half of the split (or something very much to the like of it) many, many centuries ago for his own interests… he could use it again now.

The wind mage grimaced. He couldn't do it himself… there was the possibility that the Link currently in charge would find him out. Mind magic was a tricky thing. If one opened the door to someone's mind, that someone could open the door to the other's mind. He couldn't take that chance and he didn't have an object such as the Dark Mirror to help him this time…

But there was more to this than just his own spite now. Going through with giving the dark a step up could help him in the future…

He reached into his pocket, glad for once that he brought the useless cur along. The enchanted glass bottle seemed to almost glint in the darkness, but not so much that Link stirred in anyway. That and there was darkness within the bottle. A miniature Poe was inside, looking up eagerly at his Master's face. Vaati uncorked it and Poe flew out of the bottle. His lantern, floating eerily around him, was dimmed so that barely any light escaped it.

"Master Vaati!" Poe said happily in a hushed whisper. "Your wish is my command, what do you need me for?"

"I don't need you, Poe, you're just a very good scapegoat." Vaati hissed quietly.

Poe's grin widened, and maybe it was a trick of the light, but it almost seemed as if a slight flush came over the ghost's face. "Oh Master, you're much too kind…"

"Very true." Vaati agreed with a nod. "But need to focus on business… You see the boy there?"

Poe looked over to Link and his strange red eyes seemed to widen. He looked back and forth from hero to villain before saying, "M-m-master that's-"

"Yes, yes, I know! You don't need to state the obvious!" The wind mage snapped angrily. "We cannot kill him yet, but we can make things a lot more difficult for him. And this is where you come in. He's already been touched by darkness… his own shadow. You remember Shadow, right?" Vaati grinned evilly.

Poe had the opposite reaction to a grin; a grimace. He remembered Shadow. A terrible nuisance that Shadow… he just seemed to love to annoy and hurt Poe – something which Poe only allowed Master Vaati to do. But that was beside the point, and he knew what his Master was asking. "I'm to go in and… bring Shadow out…?"

Vaati's grin still remained, just a touch condescending now. "You're not as stupid as you appear to be, Poe. That's correct. Now go, but don't bring him out completely. We don't want the Shadow to interfere with us, just Link."

"Yes, Master!"

It wasn't the first time that Poe had done something like entering someone's mind. His lord and master often commanded him to do so in order to obtain information that neither would be able to get to by more traditional means. And being a ghost, it was easier for Poe to do such things since possession was pretty much in the job description of being a poe.

Poe was very careful to stay away from the conscious Link's dreams. He didn't even want to think about what would happen if he was sighted in the hero's dreams. He was very well aware of what Link had done with other more unfortunate poes, and he didn't wanted to be subjected to that fate – especially in one of Link's dreams. Because for Poe, it being a dream didn't matter. He was a ghost, not of the material world to begin with, a dream was just as dangerous to him as the living world was.

He had spent some time wandering around the mind of the hero, really not sure what he was looking for. He'd dealt with the Shadow before, but never actually had to try and look for it within Link's mind. He wasn't going to give up, though. That was out of the question. Master Vaati had ordered him to find the Shadow, so find the Shadow he would. And his search had finally lead him somewhere.

It stuck out like a sore thumb. He didn't know how he could have missed it.

In Link's subconscious mind was a stone building. And not just any kind of stone building, but a tomb.

Poe went right on through, greatly surprised by what he saw inside. It was bigger than it was on the outside – not an uncommon occurrence when it came to the workings of the mind – but that wasn't why it was surprising. The unsettling thing about it was what the room was like. The floor seemed to be one very large, very shallow lake. More of a huge puddle really. Not that it particularly mattered to a being whose bottom limbs had been lost millennia ago. To go with the very large puddle was a fog. It was a thick, white fog that made it difficult to see. He managed to make out the silhouette of a tree, leafless and dead, in what he assumed to be the center of the room.

He heard a scraping noise.

Curious, he warily drifted over to the tree, noting how the fog seemed to dissipate as he got closer.

Poe had found who he was looking for.

The Shadow sat in front of the tree, sharpening his blade with a stone. The Shadow was the spitting image of Link, save for being paler, going with a more monotone black color scheme, and with black hair instead of blond. The Shadow didn't need to lift its gaze for Poe to know he had red eyes.

"I don't take kindly to anyone wandering in here – especially unfamiliar poes." Said the Shadow, bringing the stone down against the blade with an unnecessarily long screech. Perhaps if this were the physical world, that might have been bad for the blade. But they weren't. The blade didn't seem at all damaged or anymore sharpened. In fact, the sharpening thing was probably just for show. The sword already seemed sharp enough to slice a hair down the middle.

"I am here on behalf of my Master," said Poe haughtily. He never liked Shadow and, even with a different incarnation, that wasn't likely to change.

Shadow Link looked up at the Poe for the first time, looking terribly bored more than anything else. "Forgive me for not caring… at all. Like really, I cannot possibly describe how much I don't care. Just say what you want and leave or I'll make you leave. It's shitty enough here as it is without a stupid ghost cramping my style."

Poe shuddered in rage. "Oooh, Shadow, you're always so infuriating!"

The point of the Shadow's sword seemed to instantaneously come within a millimeter of Poe's crooked little nose. The Shadow's eyes were narrowed and he looked positively insulted. With an ugly sneer he said, "First off, don't talk like you know. Second, I'm not a 'shadow,' I'm the Dark. Get it right."

The ghost didn't even flinch at the sword. Maybe it was years of getting after-death threats from Master Vaati or just having dealt with Shadow Link for far too often many years ago, but he knew the sword by his nose was an empty threat. So he brushed it aside and said his reasoning, "Maybe you should listen to this: I do know you, I've known several versions of you. And whether you're called shadow or dark, it makes no difference."

Dark had not moved one bit, but he still kept his ugly expression. "It does make a difference. A Shadow doesn't truly exist. But the Dark, the Dark does. I am the embodiment of this boy's dark side: his worst thoughts, urges, temptations. Everything of him that is his ugliest and most horrible desire is me. I exist, even if only in his mind."

The staring match to end all staring matches took place between Poe and Dark, and it ended in a stalemate.

"So how does Darkness come to be?" Poe asked, mildly curious.

Dark sat down and again when to sharpening his already deadly edged blade. "A curse laid upon a temple birthed me, if that's what you're asking. My type Darkness is normally dispersed throughout the mind, but the curse made my existence possible. Eventually, it swelled up so much that I was able to take a form outside of the mind… but I was beaten and now I'm trapped in here – festering… and that's what I'll always do. The kid overcame his Darkness…"

He didn't so much as glance at Poe as he said this, but the ghost heard what he needed to. A crooked smile came upon his incorporeal face. "But my Master has the power to give you a life outside this boy, if you so desire."

"Bullshit."

Poe was flabbergasted. He expected refusal, at first, but not so directly. Just like Shadow he supposed, even if it wasn't technically Shadow. Mustering up his civility he continued, "It isn't so, my Master really can. He's the great Wind Mage Vaati, capable of just about anything!"

"Never heard of him, so he can't be that great now can he?" Said Dark dully.

That was just insulting right there. Vaati… not that great? How dare he?! The insolent little dog! Poe took a deep breath, just to calm himself. It wasn't like he actually needed to breathe so… "Because he is of a different generation, older and before your time. But he is powerful, and if you help him, he'll be sure to relieve you of this husk."

"Always a catch, eh?" Dark drawled, giving the ghost a cursory glance before paying full attention to his sword again. "Even so, I don't believe a word you say."

"You are just aggravating!" Poe finally snapped.

Dark looked up fully at the ghost again, beaming. "Thank you, I do try." But then he got a little more serious. "But let's say I have the slightest inclination to believe what you're saying…"

The ghost mumbled something very angrily in the more ancient form of Hylian before saying, "I can actually help your influence on Link. Not too much, because I'm not nearly as powerful of Master Vaati, but enough so that you can interfere with Link. Maybe even take on appearance in his eyes, and not anyone else's."

The Dark's eyes widened a bit. "You can do that?"

"Well, there needs to be a trigger from Link's end-"

"Dark scowled.

"But given the way the Master's plans are going, I expect the trigger would be soon." Poe made sure to say it very confidently. And it wasn't difficult because it was true. Master Vaati's plan would surely succeed this time, and if what he had heard from Master was accurate, there were outside factors that could emotionally hinder Link. Those outside factors would more than likely be the big trigger that would allow Dark the freedom to mess with Link.

Dark's expression became serious again. He was thinking it over… "I want it."

"One condition," Poe announced.

The black haired Link glared. "And that is?"

"Just your word that you will do everything within your power to make Link absolutely miserable when the trigger is pulled."

Dark smiled. "It's a done deal then. Tell your Master I expect to keep his end."

Poe smiled back before taking his leave. Master wouldn't keep his end, of course. But Dark was obviously so desperate that he was willing to trust anyone if they said they could get him out of the goody-goody that was Link. Especially if they allowed him freedom beforehand. And if there was one thing that Link and Dark shared – it was naiveté. It was always the people who seemed trustworthy that were, in fact, not trustworthy at all.

Hmm, so yeah, this chapter was originally intended to be a piece of a larger chapter. Didn't work out like that. . So yeah... nothing much to say about this chapter. It obviously wasn't in the original. Ah... yeah... again, not much to say.

Anyways, semester is over, no classes during the summer. I should be able to shell out an update every week now. If I don't, it's because my mother has dragged me along to do some free labor at her job and is keeping me busy. Given how incompetent I am at what she assigns me to do... I don't see that happening too much. So YAY! Weekly updates are back on! Saturdays are the day to look for! 8D