This chapter STILL isn't going to be the last one...I think there will be two more chapters after this one—perhaps three, but more likely I'll keep it down to two. The next installment (the final one!) is either going to be Mercy's Shadow, Death's Shadow, or War's Shadow...I'm taking votes! :D

With that said...enjoy.

"With your life on the line...will this fire consume or refine?"-Justice & Mercy, by Flyleaf

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I heard the clamors of commotion out in the hallway. "Open the door, Princess Midna!" A new batch of guards was out there. "Midna, are you hurt?" The guard pressed. "You cannot hope to fight him!"

The door shook as the guards outside tried to open it. It was futile, however, and Dark sent an energy barrier expanding over the door. No amount of force could ever hope to open that door.

I gulped, nervousness and adrenaline boiling up in my blood. Dark looked at me and grinned, quickly flashing a movement that blurred in my vision. A bolt of shadow magic fired at me and I dodged part of it—the rest of its force hit me in the side, knocking me to my feet.

"Ugh," I moaned, yanking myself to my feet. The large force of shadow magic tried to internally damage me, meeting with the Light Magic inside of me. The feeling was sickening, and my expression faltered. Dammit all! C'mon! I screamed at myself mentally. Use your power, for Din's sakes! I tried to summon the Light Magic to the surface of my body—to push past the barrier of my skin—and it wavered, like a tinkling of a fairy...

Dark lunged at me, electrifying me with Shadow Magic. It jolted against the Light Magic inside of me, tearing me in two once more, and I screeched. Dark grabbed me by the throat and pinned me up against the wall.

"Now can you see?" He demanded. "Light and Shadow can never co-exist in a weakling such as yourself!"

I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath. I told those words to my body, ever so calmly ripping through the memories of my time in the Light Realm. Can't be, can't be, Light and Shadow can't co exist. I finally got to the memory of Link's face at the mirror chamber as Dark pulled me through the portal...can't co exist.

And then, two things happened. Both of which I felt. One was the Light Magic inside of me, and the other was a spiritual form entering the room. The Light Magic in my body broke past my skin, openly flowing—defying Dark's words. He jumped back from the voltage shock, and I grinned impishly. "You're wrong, once again, pathetic fool," I laughed.

A vase came flying at Dark from the other side of the room. It hit him head-on, the glass shattering in an explosion of shards.

Dark was on the floor for all of two seconds, but it was long enough for me to look across the room.

Tetra grinned at me in her translucent beauty. "I told ya I wouldn't leave you."

Dark jumped up and turned to her. "Oh, how pathetic. The dead mother of the Hero, trying to fight the forces of evil." He then turned to me. "You fight me with Light Magic and expect it to mortally injure me...but Midna, you forget." He held up his right hand and the Triforce of Power awakened, glowing in its force. "You cannot fight fire with fire, you forget."

Tetra hissed from across the room and hurled a wave of Light Magic at Dark. He easily dodged it, however.

"And now, I shall finish both of you pests once and for all—with a power none of you could have ever sensed possible."

I raised an eyebrow. "Go ahead and try."

"Ahh, my Midna. It is you that showed me this power, though. Do you not remember injecting Link's Triforce with Shadow Magic?"

Tetra gasped in anger from across the room. I looked at her face—the face of betrayal—and tried to plead with her. "If I didn't do it, Dark would have killed him! I had to do it-"

"How could you ever be so damn reckless?" Tetra yelled, fury in her features.

Dark rolled his eyes and pulled the Fused Shadows out of his Shadow Storage.

"NO!" I roared. "Tetra, stop him!"

I lunged for Dark, firing off wave after wave of Light Magic at him. Tetra did the same from across the room, and I met with his barrier.

I'll either get those Fused Shadows or die trying, I thought. I made contact with the barrier and an electric pulse shocked me, but I did not let up my force.

Dark did not put the Fused Shadow helmet on his head, but rather he started to shrink them—so small that they could fit in his palm—and he grinned. A dark Twili power radiated off of the Shadows, and he hovered it about his Triforce.

Like lightning flashes, dark beams of Twili magic pulsed throughout the Triforce. The tips of the shrunken Fused Shadows touched the glowing Triforce—

A high pitched keening sound filled the room as Tetra broke the barrier. The gust of her spiritual energy threw Dark off his feet, and the Fused Shadows slipped from his grasp.

I grabbed them and threw them into the safety of my Shadow Storage. Tetra's eyes were huge. "I wasn't allowed to do that, I wasn't supposed to interfere physically." Her expression was that of horror and pain, and I couldn't comprehend her words—why wasn't she supposed to interfere? "GO, Midna! He won't be down for long!"

Dark writhed on the floor and Tetra's spirit struggled to use spiritual force to hold him down. "You wench!" He screamed.

"Tetra—"

Tetra looked at me, the fierce determination in her eyes overpowering all the other emotions. She very softly murmured a spell, and I felt the weight of the Mirror pieces transfer into my Shadow Storage. "Thank you, Tetra. I won't let you down."

I darted from the room, breaking down the door in the hallway. Two very shocked guards looked at me. "Princess Midna—"

"Restrain Dark at all costs! Vicki Va'Hi is in charge while I'm gone! Do you understand?" My voice was frantic, and I didn't wait for a response. Vicki Va'Hi was a very skilled archer who had pretended to be a man in a previous war, so she could be on the front line. She was engaged to a man on the council and she would know what to do to restrain a war from breaking out

My feet hammered down the hallway and I was almost to the Palace doors. So very close to freedom. I heard bolts of magic, screams, and explosions behind me—fear struck me, hard and cruel, and I knew I was nearly out of time.

"Not so fast!"

Abby stood in front of me, sword drawn, blocking the doors.

"I don't have time for a cheap smelling whore like you!" I hissed. There was no time for tactics—it was time for a hard, fast, and dangerous type of combat. I lunged at her at the same time she lunged at me, and I felt the pang of her sword hitting my skin. I tried to wench it away from her, but to no avail—she clung to it like a lifeline.

I had no time to use the Fused Shadows—my only real shot at Twili Magic—and so I let the current of Light Magic flow over my skin. My stomach spun and my vision blurred—tearing me in two, again. But I didn't care.

I hit her with a hard, long wave of the magic, but she was just as fast. Her sword pierced my side and I screamed in agony, but I couldn't let up.

Abby fell to the floor, the Light Magic subsiding. So even the Twili immortals aren't immune to Light Magic, I thought.

"Oh, Midnaa!"

Dark's voice.

I flung open the Palace doors and raced across the courtyard. Black rain splashed down and I felt the blood pool in my side, where Abby had hit me. The courtyard was empty—hauntingly empty.

I heard Dark's voice echoing in the distance. I gulped—I heard no pursuit behind him. Was it possible that he could have killed Tetra's spirit ?

And what had she said about her not being allowed to interfere?

I had to ask her—I had to get some answers.

Dark's footsteps sounded in the palace, and I sprinted across the courtyard. There was no time to mess around, or see if Tetra had made it. Dark would catch me soon—panic struck me at the thought of that, and determination to finish what I had started filled me.

I reached the mirror pedestal quicker than I would have expected and my side throbbed.

I pulled the mirror shards out of my Shadow Storage—I had no time to mourn what could have happened to Tetra—and threw them into place.

A clinking sound echoed across the courtyard, and a bolt of magic thrust me to the ground. The Shadow Magic was bitter in my body and I gagged, struggling to my feet.

A white and holy light erupted from the mirror, and a staircase appeared.

Dark roared from across the courtyard.

I had no time left to think, to wonder, or to worry. No time left to feel pain, no time left to feel sorry. I raced up the stairs and lurched through the portal.

Everything went black.