Myself: Sorry I lied…there is one more chapter after this. I couldn't fit everything I wanted to in this final chapter so I had to split it. It will be better that way.

(pounding at the door)

Link: Open up! We are here to order you to get this story done with already!

Zelda: Don't make us come in there!

Draculina: Really, you don't want us to come in there…

Turalis: Uhh…I got to go… (exits through his bedrooms window)

Chapter 24

Fighting with Shadows

They were woken up later than usual by the two sheikah so that they would be well rested for the coming battles that they would have to face. After breakfast the men went to the room that they used as an armory to check on their equipment one last time while Zelda and Malon changed out of their sheikan battle gear. They felt that the suits would be better to use in fights but they would need to wear normal clothes if they were caught and needed to pass as themselves. Even though they were told that they would not need them, Zelda and Malon packed them anyways. If they had to fight themselves, they wanted to use every advantage they could get.

Malon was nervously pacing around the kitchen after lunch. She said that she would stay and wash the dishes, which was a lie in order to be by herself. Frustrated at walking back and forth she finally sat down at the table and held her head in her hands.

"I can't do this…" she mumbled as she lowered her head to the table.

How do they expect me, a simple ranchgirl to invade the castle, defeat the guards and kill someone who is exactly like, is…me? Malon sighed deeply while massaging the back of her head and didn't notice the lock to the door click open.

"Malon? I thought I would find you in here." She heard the quiet almost noiseless tip tapping of feet across the floor and the shuffling of the chair next to her.

"I don't really feel like company right now Himmels" Malon said quietly. It wasn't true but it wasn't a lie either. She didn't really know what she wanted right now.

"This is about, her, isn't it." Malon lifted her head off of the table and nodded softly. How the sheikah had known that was a different question. The white sheikah moved her chair around to face the red head and touched her gently on her shoulder.

"Malon, I want you to come with me, I have something to show you. Follow me." Himmels got up from the table and walked to the door, opening and motioning for Malon to follow her. The sheikah led her past a few familiar corridors and rooms before she took a sharp left down a passage that Malon hadn't seen before. It led to a spiral staircase leading down even further into the temple. There were very few candles in this part of the building and Malon had to watch her step so she wouldn't trip over something. After exiting the stairwell, Malon was led down another passageway until they finally stopped in front of a large, ornate door that was covered in all sorts of symbols.

"Where are we and what do these symbols mean?" Malon asked as she rubbed her fingers along the grooves along the edge of the door. "Why am I here, I mean, I'm glad that you showed me this weird door, but, what does this have to do with…her?"

Himmels chuckled softly, "You will find that out shortly once you are inside the chamber. Remember you are a sheikah now! Use well the knowledge you have been taught now go inside and find out what this room is all about." The white sheikah pushed open the door and Malon slowly walked inside. She heard the door close behind her as the room plunged into total darkness. Malon walked slowly forward with her hands in front of her as she tried to find her way towards the wall when she heard the sound of footsteps behind her.

"Hello Malon, I'm surprised you even showed up, especially since Cimar isn't here to help you."

Malon twirled around quickly into her fighting stance and reached for one of the knives she kept at her side.

"All ready to fight I see," the voice said again, this time it came from her left side. She turned again and tried to find the source of the voice.

"Come now Mal, am I that hard to find? You should know by now where you hide your shadow…" The voice had come from right behind her and Malon leapt forward and rolled around as she heard the whishing sound of a sword pass right through the spot she was just standing in. She turned again to face her enemy. She knew who it was now. Several candles along the wall flickered to life and Malon could finally see for the first time what Dark Malon looked like. She gulped apprehensively and resumed her fighting stance as Dark Malon circled around her.

"I see that the two sheikah have taught you well. I knew I should have double checked their bodies after I threw them out of that window. I knew that I had killed them too quickly" The shadow laughed quietly as Malon inwardly cringed. My…shadow was the one who hurt them? She remembered seeing the wounds and scratches that had covered their bodies and had thought that it had been either Dark Cimar or Dark Link who had done that. Malon's attention was diverted for a second and Dark Malon quickly too advantage of it. She leapt forward and sliced horizontally from her left with her sword. Malon saw it out of the corner of her eye and narrowly dodged the blow although the swing had cut off a small bit of her hair. She did two backflips in a row before resuming her fighting stance, this time never taking her eyes off of her opponent.

Dark Malon picked up the small piece of red hair and smiled, "Such as pity really that one of us will die today. I thought that you might have made a good slave at first but then I thought that you would probably cry and whimper too much after my Cimar kills yours." Dark Malon charged forward and sliced vertically across in front of her when she was in range. Malon drew her dagger and deflected the blow. A series of horizontal and cross slices followed and Malon either dodged or blocked each of them with her dagger before rolling behind her opponent. She swept her dagger towards Dark Malons back but was blocked at the last second by her opponent's sword. She heard a movement from below and looked down just in time to watch Dark Malon's foot connect with her stomach, knocking her backwards and to the ground. Malon recovered quickly and dodged to her left as Dark Malons swords stabbed the earth where she had just been. Malon withdrew several small sheikah knives from her belt and threw them at her opponent who flipped out of the way at the last second while catching one of the knives in the air. Malon gaped in surprise as Dark Malon brought the knife to her face and smiled.

"Did you think that such a trick will defeat me? I have been training for years for this day and I can not be defeated by an upstart as yourself." She tossed the knife to the ground and reached into a pouch at her belt, revealing several small daggers. Dark Malon smiled and threw the knives at Malon who had finally recovered from her shock. She dropped to the ground as the knives whizzed about her head and rolled to her right as several more embedded themselves next to her head. She got up and started to run around the sides of the room, dodging this way and that to avoid the knives. When she was close to Dark Malon she twisted unexpectedly to the side and struck out with her sheikan knife. The move caught her dark half by surprise and she tried to dodge yet caught part of the blade in her side.

Dark Malon grabbed at her side and looked at her hand that was now covered in blood, and then to Malon who was back in her fighting stance, crouching low towards the ground with her knife held behind her gasping for breath.

"You have finally done it Malon" the shadow said as she sheathed her sword in its scabbard at her side. Dark Malon turned around and started walking away towards the opposite end of the room while slowly disappearing from view. When she finally disappeared completely, the rest of the candles in the room flickered to life revealing the door leading out of the room. Malon sighed in relief and exited the room and smiled at the awaiting sheikah.

"So, how was your experience in the Hall of Shadows?" Himmels asked with a certain amount of excitement in her cheery voice.

"It was…weird. I had to fight against Dark Malon and, I think I won" Malon responded. Inside the room she had been tired from the fight yet the moment she exited the room she didn't feel tired at all. The sheikahs eyes narrowed slightly.

"You didn't win Malon. Everything that takes place in that room takes place in your mind, it was all an illusion." Malon looked at the sheikah in surprise as she continued. "The one thing that the room was designed to test a sheikah at what was troubling their minds the most. The thing that was troubling you the most was if you could actually attack a fellow human being. I have noticed that it has been troubling you since yesterday and I decided to do something about it."

"You mean…all of that was a test to see if I could actually go through with this mission?" Malon asked.

"Yes. And since you are out here it means that you succeeded." The sheikah stopped glaring at Malon and returned back to her normal, friendly gaze which calmed Malon a lot. "Now, let's get back up to the others, it is almost time for us to leave this place. Himmels placed an arm around Malon's shoulder and led her back towards the stairs. When they reached the top, the sheikah looked in both directions before whispering into Malon's ear.

"Don't tell anyone else this but what you just went through was the exact same issue that Draculina had to go through."

Malon cast a surprise look back at the Himmels who was giggling softly. "She thought that she wouldn't be able to hurt anyone if she was needed to but after just five minutes in that room she stormed out of it in a rage and knocked out every single guy she passed all the way to her room." Malon started to giggle silently as well at this point. I didn't know that Draculina had the same problem I have?

"Did she really do that?" Malon asked as Himmels nodded back gleefully. "Yes she did. Apparently the illusion for her was one of the male sheikah trainees tried to hit on her so in response to the room she beat every single male sheikah she could find to scare them away from her." Both women were laughing loudly now as they rounded the final corner to enter into the main hall. They stopped suddenly when a black suited figure darted in front of them.

"Did you take her to the room?" Draculina asked her sister as Malon stifled her giggles.

"Yes I did."

"Did you tell her about anyone else's trip in there…lets say someone like…myself?" Himmels started to laugh uncomfortably under the gaze of her sister who was glaring daggers at her.

"Not really. We just talked about deku scrubs." Deku scrubs? Malon smacked herself mentally. Next time I lie I have to make up something better than deku scrubs. Draculina refocused her gaze on Malon who smiled back at her. She turned around and snorted in anger while muttering under her breath. Malon could make out what she was saying though. "Deku scrubs my eye! Himmels is going to find herself in front of a group of deku scrubs now…" Malon looked over at Himmels who was suppressing a giggle as her sister walked off towards the rest of the group.

"Everyone else is already prepared for this mission. Your extra weapons Malon are over there on the table. Put them in your pack and stand next to Cimar." Draculina ordered and which orders Malon quickly obeyed. When she was standing with Link, Zelda and Cimar, Draculina started giving out last minute instructions.

"After we arrive at the temple of time we will wait for twilight to come before we leave the building. Once we leave, we have to make it to the gates of the castle where Himmels and I will create a distraction for the guards. The four of you will then sneak into the castle and your shadows in teams. Link and Zelda, we suspect that Dark Link and Dark Zelda will be in the throne room. They were crowned King and Queen of Hyrule the day you were captured so they will most likely be there signing decrees. The instant you see them, I want you Zelda to say these two words, confortius revalis. This should destroy the illusion and will reveal them as who they really are. Do you understand?"

Zelda and Link nodded as Zelda mentally repeated the words in her head.

"Now you, Cimar and Malon, we suspect that Dark Cimar and Dark Malon will be in their room or in the training room. Cimar, it will be your job to destroy the illusion surrounding the pair." Draculina finished talking directly at them and instead talked to them collectively.

"If you have any luck, once they are revealed as who they really are you should be able to have the castle guards help you in defeating them. Once they are gone you have to find the black stones that they keep on their persons at all time and destroy it. With it gone, they can no longer be brought back to this realm. Any questions?"

Nobody raised their hands and Draculina nodded to Himmels to speak.

"Is everyone ready for what they have to do?" Everyone nodded. "Great, Link please play the prelude of light on your ocarina on the count of three." Link grabbed his ocarina from his pocket and held it to his lips.

"One"

Cimar, Malon and Zelda grabbed a hold of Link so they wouldn't be left behind.

"Two"

Both sheikah grabbed harps from their packs and held them ready to play.

"Three"

The notes from Link's ocarina and the two sheikah's harps filled the chamber as they played the prelude of light. As the last notes lingered in the air the six of them felt themselves being pulled through the air, the chamber below them disappearing from view. Malon whispered a silent prayer to the goddesses that everything would go smoothly from there.

The six people touched the ground of the temple of time and opened their eyes.

"They have arrived just like the queen has said. Come on men, kill the traitors to Hyrule!"

Malon quickly looked around the room and gasped as she saw dozens of troops from the hylian army rush into the room.

"Ok, time for plan B people. Attack the guards and try to make it to the castle as quickly as possible. Go!"

As dozens more guards pored into the temple of time, the six people readied themselves for the battle ahead.

"I guess we could call this a little flaw in the plan." Cimar yelled over at Himmels as he bashed in the helmet of another hylian guard and threw the man towards his comrades knocking all of them over.

Himmels's laughter could be heard over the din of battle. "Don't you like this though, this is fun!" The sheikah grabbed the arm of one of the nearby guards and used his own sword to battle his fellow guards before she twisted behind him and slammed her elbow into his back. She rolled quickly to her left and joined up with her sister and helped her with a group of eight guards who had surrounded her. The guards charged forward and the sisters waited until the last second to make their move. They leapt deftly into the air and threw a pair of deku nuts into the center of the group, blinding them all with the following flash. Within seconds of landing all eight of the guards were lying on the floor unconscious as Himmels and Draculina moved on to their next victims.

"How are you holding up Mal?" Zelda asked as she slammed the hilt of her sheikan daggers into the spine of one of the guards, knocking him out instantly. As soon as Zelda and Malon had seen the guards running into the temple of time they used a simple sheikah spell to change into their sheikah garb so they could battle better. The two were leaping in and out of the battle, knocking out guards quicker than they could take a swing at them.

"Zelda wait! That one is mine!" Zelda stopped one of her kicks aimed at the large guard in front of her and watched as the guard flew sideways through the air as Malon's foot made contact with the guards head. He crashed into a group of guards mid flight and then crashed into the wall. As he tried to stand a vase on a nearby platform tipped over and crashed onto his head, knocking him out cold. As they sprinted through the battle, Zelda looked over at Malon who was smiling wickedly.

"Why did you want him so badly? She asked.

Malon grinned even more. "That guy once tried to hit on me a few months back. I owed him one." The two red and blue figures continued their assault through the waves of guards that came crashing through the entrance of the building, finding new targets to meet their wraith.

"Hey Link; I thought you trained these guys yourself? These guards stink!" Cimar had just parried a thrust from one of the guards to his front and then used the man's sword to block an attack from behind before smacking the two guards heads together.

"I only trained a few of them, not all of them. I'm kind of glad that I only trained so few." Link reached into one of his belt pouches and produced a boomerang that he hadn't used in forever.

"Let's hope this still works." He chucked it into the crowd and watched as it knocked aside the guards that were trying to sneak up behind Cimar as he battled a group of soldiers near the pedestal of time.

"Thanks Link, I owe you one!"

"No problem" Link yelled back as he grabbed the arm of a nearby soldier, jumped behind the man twisiting his arm in the process and slapped his sword against the man's back with such force it sent him flying across the room. Without hesitating for a second, Link bent down to the floor and charged his magic into the master sword. When he felt the energy start to crackle within his blade, he released it into his trademark spin attack. Just the wind from the attack was enough to send all of the guards around him flying backwards and it cleared a large space in front of the symbol of the triforce on the ground where they transported in.

"Cimar turned as he felt the rush of air pass by him and turned to see the aftermath of Link's attack. An idea formed in his mind and he decided that it would probably be their best chance of getting out of here quickly and to the castle. Quickly scanning the room, he saw that Zelda and Malon had joined together with Draculina and Himmels and were rampaging through the guards near the entrance of the temple.

"Mal, Zel, Hims, Draky, Link over here!" He yelled. In almost an instant they were all in front of him.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?" Draculina roared at Cimar, frightening the guard that was about to attack her. The man dropped his spear and dropped to the ground pretending to be dead, even though his body was shaking in terror.

"Later Draculina just stay near me you guys." Cimar closed his eyes and when he opened them, they were glowing a bright blue.

"Uh, Cimar what are you doing?" Link asked as the group formed a circle around Cimar. The guards were starting to surround the group although they stayed twenty five feet away from them since they did not want to meet the same fate as the scores of their fellow soldiers whose unconscious forms littered the ground.

"Cimar, whatever you are doing could you hurry it up?" Malon asked, a little bit of fearfulness in her voice. The guards had lowered their spears and seemed to arrive at the decision to charge them all at once.

"Just a few more seconds…" Cimar whispered as sweat started appearing on his face. The glow in his eyes turned even a brighter shade of blue and made it seem like azure flames were coming from his eyes.

The guards started to advance slowly their spears leveled in front of them.

"If you don't do something soon I will put you into so much pain your mother will wish she had never been born" Draculina growled as her eyes darted back and forth at the approaching guards.

"Fine, everybody down on the ground, NOW!" Cimar yelled as his body began to glow the same bright blue as his eyes. The five people around him obeyed instantly while the guards started looking at each other and started to back away. As the glow intensified, several of the guards at the rear of the group dropped their weapons and started to flee towards the exit. They never made it.

Cimar screamed causing the rest of the guards to drop their spears and start scrambling over each other to the door but it was too late. Cimar raised his hands in front of him and released the energy that he had used from the Ameon. The results awed the five people on the ground below him and brought an wicked smile to Draculina's face. A gigantic shockwave that glowed a bright blue pulsed from the spot where Cimar stood. The wave of energy knocked all of the guards against the walls of the temple of time and flung them about like rag dolls. A second pulse knocked down all of the remaining guards that started to stand and again flung them towards the walls. Cimar dropped his hands to his side and gasped heavily as the five people slowly stood up and surveyed the damage. Guards lay scattered against all of the walls of the temple of time. All the lucky ones were knocked out cold by the twin blasts while the few who weren't moaned in pain on the floor or against the walls.

"Link…green potion please…" Cimar gasped as he kneeled down on one leg to rest. Link retrieved a bottle from one of his pockets and handed it over to Cimar. He gulped down the green liquid greedily, emptying it in one gulp. He coughed a small green mist as he finished and handed the now empty bottle over to Link who placed it back into his pouch.

"Cimar?" Cimar looked stood up and faced towards Draculina who he could tell was grinning from ear to ear. "Yes?"

"I forgive you for calling me Draky only because of that joy that you just brought to my life right now. I haven't seen chaos like that in a long time." She patted him on his shoulder and started walking towards the entrance of the temple of time. As they exited out of the building, Draculina put her hand in front of Cimar and stopped him as she whispered something to him.

"Although, if you call me Draky one more time you will find out the true meaning of pain and even Malon will be saddened by your loss." She walked away from Cimar who stood rooted to the spot for a few seconds before he followed after the rest of the group.

They sprinted through the shadows away from the temple of time as a crowd began to assemble around the building. Apparently Cimar's little display, the sound of a battle going on and the huge amount of soldiers brought in almost the entire populace of Castle Town. Himmels led them atop a hill to the right of the path leading to the castle as another group of soldiers ran down the path towards the temple.

"We made it out just in time it seems. Those men down there are the ones I trained." Cimar glanced down and recognized several of the men jogging past them and grinned. "Well then, I'm glad that we made it out just in time then." The group nodded in agreement and quickly ran towards the castle. They approached a ridge above the castle and looked down on the impressive structure and walls.

"The secret entrance to the castle is right below us. From now on, stay together in a group. They know that we are coming and are most likely expecting us. Be prepared for anything to happen." The group nodded in agreement and followed Draculina down the hill. Draculina led them to small grove of trees and directly to the walls of the castle. She patted down the wall until she stopped and pressed her hand against the stone. They heard a small click and watched as the wall swung inward and revealed a staircase.

"Now comes the hard part, I hope you are all prepared for what lies ahead." The group followed the black suited shiekah into the stairwell and walked straight toward the toughest battles that they will ever face in their lives.

Myself: I bet that you weren't expecting that huh? I promise that the next chapter will be filled with tons of fighting so ready yourselves for it.

Link: It better be or else you will not be leaving this desk for the rest of your life, now start typing!

Myself: (starts to mope) It's not like I can do anything else since you all are pointing your swords at me. Don't forget to review as well. Reviews mean faster updates. It has been scientifically proven to do so. See you all for the final chapter.