The room felt old, and the light was distorted, as if filtered through spider webs. Something was jostling my shoulder roughly, gradually forcing the weariness to abate. My eyes flickered open. Blue eyes stared back curiously, a little too close for comfort. Startled, I squawked and attempted to scramble backwards, but the owner of the eyes firmly clasped his hands over my shoulders and squeezed. Grinning wolfishly, he jerked his head to his left and made a pff noise.

"What are you doing to him?" demanded a familiar voice suddenly. Midna appeared at the young man's shoulder, her arms crossed and hips thrown forward in annoyance. "So you're awake. C'mon, get up. I've got another fairy over there if you need it, but you should be fine; the twilight's settled, as I'm sure you've noticed. Link, don't just stare at him – go polish your sword or something."

The man grunted, apparently irritated, but nevertheless stood and loped off purposefully into some dark corner. I propped myself up slowly and stared at the marble hall, the strange, bronze bell structure near the center, the high ceilings and the beautiful marble staircase that marched up to a pair of carved gold doors – at my startling reflection in the tiles. Midna growled.

"Speak, damn it. I don't need two mutes wandering around here."

"My clothes-" I muttered, voice raspy. The light here stung the eyes and burnt any exposed skin; I raised an arm up against it, but Midna hastily brought it back down, muttering something about shadows and temples. Something nagged at the back of my mind insistently; frustrated, I yanked at the hem of an unfamiliar black tunic, sans holes or bloodstains, about two sizes too big. The grey breeches I recognized as my own, and the grey-washed gauntlets as well, but I didn't remember the leather belt tied around my waist to keep the bagginess of the tunic at bay. Someone had spread out a makeshift pallet of dusty travelling cloaks beneath me. "Whose clothes are these? What happened? Zelda?"

'I am here,' she responded cheerfully, relief radiating from her bright presence. I felt myself sighing mechanically on her behalf. Midna just chuckled irritatingly with her tiny hands pressed against that wicked little mouth of hers. "You spend a few weeks as a prisoner in Hyrule Castle and the first thing that comes out of your mouth..." She rolled her eyes, shaking her head in mild disbelief. "I found the tunic in your pack, and you were holding the belt when I found you. I put your other things-"

"When you...?" An intense feeling of sickness descended on me and I tore the belt off as if it burnt. "This isn't- Midna, that's not mine, that's- that was-"

'Shh. Calm down, Link. You are safe now.'

"That's easy for you to say!" I exploded. The man – Link – spun around to stare from where he crouched by the double doors, gleaming sword and rag in hand. "I just- I was- He-he-!" More than anything in the world, I wanted to sit down and cry. I didn't know why, or what for, but that urge to cry became almost intolerable with the way Midna watched me uncertainly, her visible eye wide with surprise and doubt. "He's dead! Keaton is dead and Ganondorf- Oh my goddesses," I practically sobbed hysterically, hands flailing wildly even as Midna attempted to embrace me. Everything was so clear now. "Din, but he-he wanted me to find you-"

"Link," she said sharply, "leave." And he quietly, suspiciously rose and slipped through the doors without a word. In the meantime her arms wrapped around my shoulders, but the support she offered wasn't enough to keep me on my feet; I sank back to the polished floor, robbed of breath by despair. She held my face in her hands with sad eyes. "Look at me. It's okay. You're safe and Ganondorf can't hurt you here. I- I am so sorry I couldn't find you sooner. He masked your signature and Link's only just recovered-"

I shoved her away, curled in on myself, absently clutching Keaton's mended sheath strap. "He promised he'll find me. You should have left me there. He's going to-"

'We are in the Temple of Time; this is a safe place, Link. Please don't worry.'

"I can't not worry." I couldn't concentrate enough to reply telepathically, not with my thoughts so scattered. "You should have let me die-"

"Listen to yourself!" She shook me gently. "You're trying to convince me that I did the wrong thing in saving your miserable life. Cut it out and look around you- None of us would be here if it weren't for you. You bought us time. You saved his life. You saved mine, and we're going to rescue Zelda, too. I'm sorry your friend died, but the point is that you lived and-"

"He wanted you to find me. He's going to kill us all," I moaned. "He's going to find you because of me. He's going to kill everyone and-"

Her ponytail landed a punch that caught most of my nose and part of my eye and sent me sprawling across the floor, stunned. "Get a hold of yourself, kid!" Grasping my shoulders tightly, she tugged me upright until I wobbled embarrassingly on feet left askew by her blow. "Just listen to us! You're working yourself up over nothing-"

Zelda added a forceful, 'Let him find us. Link will defeat him.'

And I'll just sit here and watch, the facilitator in all of this. Clutching my face, I glared at Midna. I didn't want to admit it, but the punch managed to knock a bit of sense into me again. I understood that Dragmire's words were real and not just an empty threat; he planned to use me as a trace. He'd find them by the shadow they cast. Brilliant. The bodies were really stacking up on my account, from the countless monsters to the detachment of guards to half the village – and now that the tally included Keaton, I couldn't let it extend to Midna and Link as well. I turned the leather over in my hands, that penetrating guilt burning a hole through my palms from the inside out, but maybe the girls were right. Dragmire wanted Link dead for a reason, so he had to be some form of trouble. If he's so skilled, how did he end up captured in the first place?

"Does…" I swallowed thickly. There was no dignified way to recover from that breakdown, so I decided not to bother. "Does Link know… about me? Who I am? What- Why did it take you so long to find me?" She sighed heavily and dropped her hands from my shoulders to her sides, and I took it as a no and maybe as a trace of guilt. "Why haven't you told him? What's he think, that I'm just one of your creatures, one of your Twili? What happened?"

Midna laughed bitterly. "The whole story? Melodrama and chivalry." She settled herself into a cross-legged position mid-air, stretched luxuriously, her eye scrutinizing, suddenly hard and challenging. "We'll talk later, I promise."

"What?" You can't be serious, I wanted to scream at her. You can't just leave me in the dark! "I- I was there for three weeks- How did you- I-I need- Is this permanent?" I shoved a hand under her nose, wriggling the ghastly fingers. The skin appeared nearly as pale as death. "Is this real? I'm supposed to walk around like-" I almost backed away, her look was so murderous. Spinning around, I flinched at the sight of the compact figure slouched expectantly in the doorway, silently curious and coincidentally curiously silent. Link snuffled, cast a sideways look at Midna – and when he began to approach us, ears perked, I knew I was in trouble. Big. Trouble.

"Now is not the time to discuss our little misadventures," she hissed at me, her eyes flitting almost fearfully to him. "You will sit down and shut up, and listen silently if I have something to tell you. The situation is too fragile for you to come between us and run your mouth. I didn't rescue you-"

'Link,' warned Zelda.

"Sure took you long enough to make up your mind about that," I countered heatedly. "Do you have any idea what I had to go through, just to protect you? What games am I supposed to-"

Snarling, she lunged at me and bowled me over, her tiny hands pinning my shoulders to the tile floor. "Link, don't do this-" I opened my mouth again but her effing ponytail slammed into my face a second time, this time only catching my cheekbone. Damn, that is going to leave a mark. I lashed out and knocked her backwards; she shrieked, eye blazing, ready to pounce again.

"I deserve to know just what the bloody hell is going on!"" I shouted at her, dragging a dark sleeve across a bloody nose. Staring incredulously at her handiwork, I found myself stupidly facing a nearly rabid imp. "If you don't tell me, I'll go to Link and-"

"And what, stand there impatiently while he plays charades with you?"

Said person had put a hand on her shoulder, seemingly redirecting all the fury in her. He didn't look particularly pleased with our little exchange, and even less amused by Midna's last comment, though he refrained from any sort of defense or complaint. I stared, amazed, as she bared her teeth one more time in warning before turning away into a convenient pool of shadows. I could still see her sulking and throwing a tantrum, could feel Zelda redirecting her attention. He sat down on the floor with that intricate sword of his balanced across his knees, cloth in hand. Then he took one glance at me and offered the cloth with a vague gesture at my face.

"Thanks," I muttered. When I settled down next to him, he smiled faintly at something and winked. I wanted to apologize to him for my earlier behavior but I didn't know how to bring something like that up when I just wanted to forget it. I also didn't quite know how to handle a stranger winking at me. I awkwardly brushed my fingers over my face, tracing my mouth absentmindedly as I studied him. He had dirty blond – nearly brown – hair and a hat like mine, sharp blue eyes, age somewhere close to my own. We were about the same size, really; I hated to think of it, but if I stood next to him in my transient form, I really did look like his animated shadow. Except, instead of the shadow being silent, it was the other way around. I still felt bitter. "Can you talk?"

His flat stare clearly said, "I am not amused," but he nodded anyway.

"So you just don't like to."

He tossed his head this time, a careless shrug. So he wasn't really a mute, as Midna had claimed. I distantly remembered her explaining his strange laconic attitude, but in person, it seemed excessive, almost unbelievable. Sure, Midna could apparently read his thoughts, but with what did that leave me, or anyone else? Charades, as she'd said? Sighing, I tossed the bloodied cloth aside and took to examining the results of the twilight once again.

It was a sick fascination, really; first I looked into the shiny marble tiles, then into the back of Link's proffered shield. I touched my hair, still uncertain if it was real – surely no one had this as a legitimate hair color. But then again, was anything about me legitimate anymore? Someone, presumably Midna, had cleaned me up a bit somehow, which was kind of disturbing to think about, given that I had fresh clothes and the grime from the dungeons had been washed away. According to my reflection in the shield, I was a walking corpse – complete with grey pallor, as the sticky black had retreated – with the bonus of red-orange eyes that upset me somewhat, since the green had been my last connection to my mother. I wished Midna would simply explain everything now, from the twilight to how I was supposed to react to Link to how he got into the Zant predicament in the first place. None of it made any sense to me. Frustrated, I turned to Zelda.

You know, I held on because of you.

'I hoped you would.'

I meant to say something more meaningful after that, maybe as a form of punctuation, but I couldn't finish the thought. She hovered expectantly for a moment before dissipating to her usual intensity, just a hint of light in the periphery. Desperately I wanted answers. I didn't know the words. So I allowed myself to dissolve, subconsciously copying Midna's primary defense mechanism to Link's chagrin. As if in response, she exploded out of his shadow and brushed his face with her fingers.

"C'mon then. We should finish up here before you get too fidgety."

I watched him grin and take a step towards the staircase to the doors, but I materialized in his path. "Wait." He nodded, a tiny incline of his head. "Midna, what happened while I was... locked up?"

A deep breath later, she let out in an unbroken stream, "After I shut the door, we managed to patch him up without any major complications, but I couldn't sense you from here until a few days ago, when you started relying more on the twilight. Zelda helped screen a warping trip. I brought you here." She paused briefly and her mouth quirked; whatever was about to come out of her mouth, I knew I wouldn't enjoy it. "We're changing your name. And Link says thank you for helping us." Link thrust a hand at me in response to Midna's narration; I shook it, hesitantly, then joined him in staring determinedly at the still-irritated imp.

The look on his face told me all I needed to know: she hadn't told him anything aside from some ridiculous lie about my origins and why she had to disappear to save a supposed stranger. Zelda's light flickered in another, gentler warning, implying some sort of suggestion about patience. Patience. I knew she could feel my anxiety. But I also knew that I was entirely too worn out to deal with the situation anymore, the fire in my veins reduced to embers. I'd held on all this time just to give up now with a tiny sigh. "Fine. What's this about my name?"

Link's stare never faltered. Midna, however, forced her glare onto me instead, her fang glittering in the eerie light. "I can't go around with two Links. And he was here first, so you need a new name." She cocked her head. "You're like Dark Link – the true twilit version. You've even got a hat and a sword… well, Link's other sword." I noticed that she didn't say "the hat" or "the sword," and wondered if the unspoken 'Third-Wheel' option trumped 'Dark Link.' His eyes narrowed at the mention of his sword, but didn't comment until, suddenly:

"Sh-shadow," Link added hoarsely. I'd never heard him speak before but the stammer surprised me. Maybe speaking made him nervous, because he stuttered; he'd already admitted that gestures and noncommittal grunts were more his thing. And then what he'd said crashed back into my thoughts, and I abandoned my pondering of his speech capabilities, because he'd repeated him and the last thing I wanted to do was relive that dark, dank time.

"No. I'm not your shadow," I insisted, a nearly desperate note tingeing my voice. The thought had crossed my mind earlier, but I couldn't bear to hear it spoken aloud like this. "I'm a person too-"

He looked vaguely surprised at my assertion, but Midna interrupted instead with, "It's a great disguise. You know it's true. You're either 'Dark' or 'Shadow' from now on, so choose wisely."

She's serious about this. Damn. So much for the, 'But I'm a human being, too!' argument. "So what, I'll either be Dark, or DL, or Shadow… or Shad, for short. Or something else equally stupid?"

Despite Link's snickering, Midna tossed me her amused expression. "You're Dark Link, then. We'll come up with a nickname later, since you think that's such a cumbersome mouthful. Link, meet Dark Link. We can pretend he's your evil twin."

We shook again, but he didn't look at all serious about it. Rolling his eyes and making that weird snuffling noise again, he waved at Midna and jerked his head towards the door I blocked. The angry glint had resurfaced in his expression. Zelda subtly murmured to let him pass while Midna told him, "I'll be there in a minute, but we aren't going to discuss what you want." He vanished inside the next room without comment. She instantly turned on me, her hair rising above the stone headdress and flexing its fingers suggestively.

"I haven't told him," reiterated Midna through gritted teeth, "about anything yet. About how we met. About what happened. About how twenty years have mysteriously passed and he still looks like an eighteen-year-old boy. As far as he's concerned, you are the by-product of some terrible magic."

I stared. "So I have been demoted to some creature! Why the hell haven't you told him? Just when are you going to tell us everything, because I sure as hell would love to know. Look at me, Midna." I held up a hand, spread the fingers, clenched an unnaturally white-grey fist. "Look at me. I've endured all of this shit for you, and you can't even tell me the truth! And the same goes for him – is this how your treat your friends?"

"Link." That pleading tone had covered her words in honey, but I refused to listen reasonably. "Link, I can't do this to him so soon. And once he finds out Ilia is your mother, and she's dead… That all his friends are dead, that Ordon suffered a massacre- Think of him. Please. He needs to acclimatize to his routine again. I will tell him, and you, when things have calmed down… but not right now."

I shook my head. "When we get out of here – and I mean, as soon as we get to the end of this place, we're going to sit down and have a nice little chat. Otherwise I'll tell him everything I know. Everything."

"You can't tell him." Flashing dangerously, her fangs bit down hard on her bottom lip. "Please. I promise. We will talk, when it's safe. Please, you can't tell him. He'll be devastated, and I don't want him to hurt like that, not-"

Something shifted loudly, and we both looked up to see Link giving us a solid glare from the top of the flight of stairs. Midna spun around angrily, snapping, "I said we'd be there in a minute!" Then to me, "You will say nothing."

Deciding that I wouldn't get much else out of her in this state, I let it go and followed her to where Link stood, impatiently twisting his sword in his hands. I drew my own, just in case his fidgeting might be a veiled warning. When I looked over my shoulder, back to an entrance I never traditionally entered, I realized I had no idea where I was, aside from some vague descriptions and similarities to that clearing. The place seemed like a cavernous entrance hall, with an empty area directly preceding a short staircase that led to an upper landing lined with long-empty braziers. Two alcoves, one of which housing a strange statue of some sort, flanked the double doors; the entire room had a warm feeling to it, a kind of aura reinforced by the bronze, cream, and gold of the unintelligible carving-inlaid architecture. That terrible, burning ethereal light from the clearing, albeit considerably less intense, pervaded the place.

"Hey, guys…" Link had been poised to open the door again; Midna peered at me from his shadow. "What exactly is the Temple of Time?"

I saw Midna's mouth open, but it was Link who replied instead, simply stating with that curious stammer, "Mmm-m-magic." He slipped through the doorway with Midna in tow, leaving me to hesitate on the other side.

Zelda...

'Yes, Link.'

Never mind.