Again, I realize some of you may think I have died over this past month because of my absence, and I apologize. I've never had such a hard month before. I'll let you read, and there'll be more author's note for you to read at the bottom.

Chapter 26: The Madness Begins

As my body particles of twilight dissolved into the sky and we began to head for the rendezvous location, I heard the heartbreaking sound of a young girl crying.

"Don't you dare touch him."

Midna glared at the snide smirk that graced Ganondorf's face, who was on the other side of the black magic prison bars. The Dark Lord only grinned wider at Midna's response to his threat. "But what if I killed him without touching him?" said the amused Ganondorf, pointing at the unconscious form of Zant's Goron body slumped on the ground in the cell behind him. "Sure, the giant Goron costume will get in the way of an instant kill, but I will eventually get to him. If only he had taken the body of a Twili. After he loses this body, he won't be able to possess another one for another decade." He laughed when he saw Midna's eyes widen with worry. Her heart ached to even look at Zant right now.

Ralis whimpered like a housedog in his cell, crumpled up in a corner as though if he took less space up, the less danger he was in. His cell was across the hall, beside Zant's.

"Fine, don't you dare kill him," Midna rolled her eyes, which had long turned crimson when Ganondorf dared to show his face around her. Ganondorf had spent more than enough time taunting, threatening, and toying with them all. He had even gone so far as to release his pent-up rage when Zant had laughed at the Dark Lord. Tears rushed to her eyes when she thought of the horrible, horrible images.

"You know, I don't think I should kill Zant," Ganondorf announced after a long pause, his mocking face now thoughtful. "It is always more fun with enemies. Fun is a crucial element in war, after all."

Relief flooded Midna's mind.

"But this pathetic excuse for a Zora King…" said the villainous man, regaining his sardonic grin as he turned to Ralis's cell, "is… expendable."

And the flood was drained, far too quickly.

Midna tried to ignore Ralis's crazed scream as she desperately thought for a way to dissuade Ganondorf. "While I'd agree that Ralis is as useful as a lump of stone… I wouldn't kill such an important Zora," she said coolly, sounding offhand as if talking about the weather.

"Oh?" Ganondorf's eyes sparkled with mirth. "Now, why is that?"

"Since fun in war is so… crucial," Midna said in a sarcastic tone, "you shouldn't really kill anyone until real fighting is involved. That's just cheating, you know? First and foremost, he is one of the Chosen Heroes. Surely you would not kill one of us! And if there's chaos among the Zoras because you kill Ralis and they are unable to partake in the war, that's one less race to fight."

"And if there is chaos, that's fun to watch as well. To observe Hyruleans panic and worry like threatened ants is every bit as entertaining as fighting an enemy of equal strength. But the Zoras are so organized in terms of politics, I'm sure Ralis's dear son should be able to take up the standard."

"Nolva is only a little kid!" Midna blurted, ignoring Ralis's grunts of protests. "That little newly-hatched fish can't possibly become King!" Again, she ignored Ralis's matching unbelieving look and slack jaw.

"It does not matter. The Zora government is harsh, my little Midna. As long as he is of age, he is eligible to be the new King of Zoras. We three all know this, as all royalty do. Am I correct?"

Midna tried to speak but found she could not defend Ralis any longer with her words. Her sharp tongue had long since dulled. And she knew magic would be less than useless; the magic would deflect off the bars and backfire at the Twilight Princess. "You aren't actually going to kill Ralis, are you? That's… such a low blow from such an acclaimed villain!" she even tried, so desperate that she tried flattering the man.

Ganondorf's lips twisted in a cruel smile, only amused by her frantic attempts. "Just watch."

The bars dissolved into the air at Ganondorf's command. The Gerudo King slowly unsheathed an ebony black blade as he stepped toward the cowering Zora King.

And the Twilight Princess could do nothing but what he had told her to: to watch. In horror.

He raised the sword.

Marutha directed the four of them to rain down on the camp unexpectedly, scaring the scores of Hylians, Twili, and Zoras around them to the point of frantic screams breaking out. When Link's body fully materialized and regained volume and colour, Telma's beaming face was already there in front of them. Auru's calmness comforted him as well, hinting that nothing had gone wrong. Also, Rusl's grin was welcomed by Link, and he revelled at how familiar it was. The knowing look of Shad's gave him relief, too. Just the mere sight of the Council allowed Link to relax his tense, braced muscles. And he was grateful that the Resistance had intercepted their arrival so soon.

Well, along with the Resistance came the signature frown and glare on Ashei's face. But what did it matter? It felt good to be back with the Hyruleans, away from the eerie forested woods of the Sacred Grove, even if it was calm and purely magical. The quietness was both its appeal and its undoing, and the even deeper Kokiri Forest was unearthly as well, what with the immortal children and life-sustaining pureberry. To be back in the Hyrule Fields eased his heart. This was where he belonged. This was his home.

"Well, honey, you all made it back in good time!" Telma laughed in her hearty voice. "I suppose you retrieved the pureberry?"

Ashei scoffed behind the Council's leader. "I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't," she sneered, not bothering to keep her voice low. "After letting the other three Heroes be captured by the Dark Lord, I can expect them to betray us and have justification for it."

Link's blood boiled like it boiled when he discussed Zelda's death, just as fiercely and quickly. He restrained his anger, though, and ignored Ashei's wrinkled nose as he spoke, "Yes, we have the pureberry, in the possession of our Twili medic. Marutha?"

"Yes, Hero. Here is the blessed fruit of the Deku Tree," Marutha replied, her calm tone comforting us all. Navi huffed at the absence of privacy on Marutha's part, and Shad naturally launched a barrage of questions at the Twili. Completely ignoring Shad's frantic attempt to wrestle information from her, she snapped her fingers, and the pureberry appeared in the air in front of them, having materialized at Marutha's will. All people unconsciously leaned forward a bit, even Navi, who was used to the pure scent of the sacred fruit. It smelled even more appealing when Link was a human.

"Amazing," breathed Telma, her eyes looking distant, as though she were in a dream.

"Pureberry…" Shad muttered, taking a book out of his many pouches as though he were a warrior unsheathing a sword. He snapped it open, scanning the pages with expert eyes. Triumphantly, he read out a passage in a storytelling tone. "Pureberry: a sacred fruit which is grown to keep a forest fresh and alive. They have long faded into existence, however, due to the eventual loss of the line of the Deku Trees." He stopped there and looked up in fascination at the ringing fruit, then at Link, Zelda, and Marutha. "Did you kill a forest by taking that pureberry?!"

"NO!" shouted Navi, her childish, high voice annoying in their ears. "You've got it all wrong! The Deku Tree–"

"Hey, where did we get the little flying insect?" Ashei asked, flicking her hand at Navi as if the fairy were a bothersome fly flitting around them. "It's like a buzzing bee; annoying, loud, and a pain to everyone around it." Link struggled to hide the smile that threatened to break out on his face. Although Ashei was an insubordinate freak, she was dead right about some things.

"I'm a Kokiri fairy, not a bee! And I'm a she, not an it!" Navi said in her whiny, indignant voice. "I'll have you know that I'm the personal favourite of the Great Deku Tree!" She smiled with satisfaction as the others looked at her, agape. Even Link and Zelda had not known. "That's right!" she said proudly. "I guess you can call me the ambassador of the Deku Tree and the Kokiri!"

"Pray tell, what is Kokiri?" Shad asked her, his eyes shining as he spoke.

The Princess, who had been silently fuming beside Link, now shouted impatiently, "Order! We have to figure out our next course of action!"

"Thank you," Link murmured to her with a grin.

"Alright, the Princess has spoken!" Telma exclaimed with a laugh. "Shush, Shad and… firefly."

"Firefly?!" Navi exploded. "Didn't you just hear what I said?! I'm an ambassador of the most important tree in Hyrule! You ought to–"

Link turned to Marutha, and mouthed to her, "Some help, please?" Marutha looked only happy to oblige as she flicked her wrist at Navi, another bubble trapping Navi's words inside. "By the way, the wonderful ball of energy is Navi," he said dismissively.

"Wonderful indeed," Rusl grinned.

Navi continued to babble inside her bubble as Marutha spoke. "The way this will work is as follows," Marutha said, her tone calm and serious. "Since the pureberry is so sacred and it clears all decay from its surroundings, we will remove the time freeze from the Ordonian girl and immediately feed her the pureberry."

Link inadvertently flinched at the mention of Ilia again, paining at every mention of her. Zelda, ever sensitive to Link's emotions, immediately placed her hand on his comfortingly, as though it were a reflex. He looked at their linked hands, surprised, and looked up again to look into Zelda's cool midnight blue eyes, kind and caring. He smiled sadly at her, and her face mirrored his. They looked back to Marutha, who began speaking again. "Know that there is danger to this. During the time her body digests the pureberry, the Skire will likely be attacking her flesh. After all, Princess Midna froze her when the Skire was attacking; it will probably resume the attack at once. She could die during this period of time, but that is a risk we shall have to take." Link winced again, unintentionally squeezing Zelda's small hand.

"If she should survive the attack while it lasts, the girl will most likely be safe. However, even the holy pureberry, grown inside the Great Deku Tree's hollow insides, cannot completely purge the experimental viruses of our race. It can only repel the virus." A hint of regret entered her tone as she spoke her last sentence. "When the pureberry makes it to the area of her body which holds the Skire in, the Skire will flee her body. Unfortunately, that process is not a pleasant process at all; it will flee through her mouth, which means she will be vomiting the Skire from her body. That could damage her internal organs further, namely her thin throat."

"This is when we must be the most diligent. I do not know the details of the Skire, whether it is aggressive or not. I have not dealt with the Skire; it was an experiment of the crazed Twili, at the direction of Ganondorf. But from past experiences with viruses, I know this: the Skire will most likely regain its composure in short time, and it will look for another to infect. We must capture the monster-virus in a container…" She snapped her fingers once more, and she held her hand out. Out of the air dropped a cage that wasn't metal, but composed of swirling, bright magic. "In a container like this. The bars are made specifically so that all dark magic will not be able to escape it. I will hold the cage in front of her mouth, but just in case the Skire somehow escapes, you should stand by for caution. All clear?" When no one answered, she spoke, turning to Zelda and Telma, "Now, when shall we extract the Skire? I will do it whenever it is convenient." Zelda quickly removed her hand from Link's; the others might suspect something.

The Princess and the Councilwoman made eye contact, and they seemed to talk telepathically, through their minds. They knew what the other was thinking, and they spoke their thoughts: "Now."

The Zora Prince finally had Sybil in sight now. He fought his way past the Zoras that were trying to get his attention by telling him that he was great and so on, the horrible stuff royalty had to endure. Once he had passed the sea of blue Zoras, he charged right into his older friend. After they crashed, they fell to the ground, but Nolva didn't care and began to speak. "Sybil! The river was frozen, plugged, and they only made a dent on the ice, and I had to do something! So I tried to attack it with my staff, and it didn't work, it just bounced off really! Then I was going to turn away from the river, but–"

"Hold on, Nolva!" Sybil exclaimed at the flustered young Zora prince. "I don't understand a word you're saying! Slow down, take deep breaths like I taught you."

Nolva gratefully obliged, releasing his breath along with his crazed thoughts. He inhaled the fresh air of the Hyrule Fields again, and exhaled once more. After a few more repetitions, he began to speak, though cautiously now. Sybil may have been a trustworthy friend, trustworthy enough to hold the secret of his telepathic powers, but how would she react if Nolva told her he could control water?

Slowly, Nolva explained to her what had transpired at the river, describing every detail of how he had directed the water to flow. Sybil listened with a blank expression on her face, and Nolva could discern nothing from her face. When Nolva ended his long rant, Sybil looked silent and pensive. "Water… You can control water?" she managed to say, in a quiet tone.

"Yes. The water called to me, Sybil; it didn't even know a language, yet it managed to convey a message to me. And I couldn't ignore it. It was so insistent, and even now I can hear the water deep below the ground, under our feet, whispering up to me, telling me of its presence. It's such a strange sensation. And if I tell it to go somewhere, churn against something, or maybe even evaporate… it'll do whatever I say. I can control water in any way I want!" Nolva tried to describe his ability to Sybil, trying to make her understand.

"How does it convey its message to you?" Sybil asked, her hidden curiosity revealing its existence. Her bright, quick-witted eyes were sparkling with excitement. "How does it feel when the water speaks to you?"

"It…" Nolva searched desperately for a way to make Sybil understand how it felt, how strange it was to connect with the spirit of water. "When I connect with the water spirit, it's just like telepathy with another person, but yet it's so different… The spirit's language is more powerful than any words known to Hyruleans. It seemed so much more expressive, and when I connected to its mind, it felt like a wise entity, a silent but knowing god. I don't know how to explain it to you…" Nolva trailed off, realizing he was babbling uselessly.

"So, you tell the water spirit what you want it to do?" Sybil persisted, wanting more information. Nolva felt familiarity at this energy of Sybil's; she had acted this way when he had first, very reluctantly, told her about his telepathic powers. Nolva suddenly faltered, memories flooding back to him. He had seemed so much younger back then, a foolish whelp. Now he felt mature and serious, due to the hardships the shadow beasts had placed upon the land. And now, his father was working with the man who had started everything.

"Nolva?" Sybil asked again for the third time. "Is something troubling you?" Her voice was painted with worry, sounding as though she were his mother. He only wished she were his mother; any Zora lady would suffice against the harsh Queen.

"Huh?" Nolva spoke absent-mindedly, wondering how he had so suddenly spaced out. "Oh, what did you say?"

"When you direct the water, how do you direct the water? Do you tell it our own words, or do you tell it in that wordless powerful language the water spirit used?" she reminded him.

Nolva fell into a pensive state. "I don't know. I just… told it to. I can't explain it to you any better than that."

"Now, show me. Show me now how you can control water!" Sybil exclaimed, heading towards the river already. The delight in her eyes was so bright and eager, Nolva almost felt worried that he wouldn't be able to fulfill Sybil's wishes.

"Wait, we don't have to go anywhere. Just wait here," Nolva protested before Sybil could zoom away. She paused, and looked at him questioningly.

Nolva let his mind connect to the whispering water in the ground below him, and the water cried its hello to him. The Prince rolled his eyes, ignoring the greetings, and focused on finding all of the water spirits in the ground beneath them. He was amazed at how much water was underground alone; it was even a struggle to keep track of all the spirits. Finally, giving up on telling individual orders, Nolva shouted to everything around him, even silencing the water spirits.

An indented circle in the ground appeared around Sybil, startling her to the point of shrieking. But before she could run away, Nolva had directed the water to leap through the indent and spray into Sybil's face. Sybil, contrary to her earlier reactions, laughed in delight, refreshed by the spray as any Zora should be. When the water returned to the ground again, rushing back to the depths of the dirt below them, Sybil turned to Nolva and hugged him. "Sybil! It wasn't that–" Nolva began to say.

"That was amazing!" Sybil cried, giddy by the display of the fountain. "You know, there are endless possibilities with this kind of power! Oh, Nolva, I'm so proud of you!"

Relief that Sybil hadn't been alienated filled Nolva. On a sudden impulse, he said, "Thank you, Mo–" Then he cut himself off, wondering with horror about what he had been about to say.

Sybil looked at him with a slightly open mouth. "W-What did you…" she began, then swallowed heavily.

His mind raced. Why had he done such a thing? How could he have said such a foolish thing? "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I… I never meant to say that. It just came out. Please, Sybil, forgive me!" Nolva cried, babbling every stray thought in his mind that included an apology in it.

Sybil's face relaxed ten-fold, and she said with a sigh, "It… It's okay, Nolva. I did sound a little too motherly there, didn't I?"

The Prince looked at her carefully. Although Sybil had relaxed, there still remained strain in her face, unnaturally creasing her forehead. Surely it was strange for him to have almost called her Mother, the reaction Sybil had was far too extreme to be normal. Nolva decided not to address it, though.

But he still wondered.

When Zant woke, the first thing he did was leapt to his feet, which was a feat to complete in his Goron body, and look into the opposite prison cell at Midna. His eyes widened as he saw her state. The Twilight Princess, usually standing tall and proud, was curled up in a ball, rocking back and forth on the cold floor as though trying to comfort herself. Her body shook with her suppressed sobs, and she stared blankly at the prison wall ahead of her, not even seeing it.

"Midna?" Zant spoke quietly, and even with his low voice, Midna started at his words. She stared at him coldly as though he were one of Ganondorf's minions. Zant almost let out a yell at her eyes; the sclera was almost white, and her irises almost pink. What had transformed her to this dreadful state? Zant wondered with alarm. Suddenly, her eyes flicked to Ralis's cell, then gave a shaky cry, turning to face the corner of her cell.

"Midna, what in the world…"

"He killed him, Zant." Midna's words badly matched her tears; her voice was angry and harsh, but broken by horrible, horrible sobs. "He killed him! With a single blow." Midna continued to sway herself, left to right this time, muttering to herself like a person afflicted with paranoia.

Zant couldn't understand what she meant. Who had killed whom?

"I don't–"

She looked at him again, her eyes frightening him again. "Of course you don't, Zant. You can't see through the side walls. But I can see it, Zant. I can see him now. And oh, if only you knew what I saw. You would thank every god in existence that you cannot see him." Another choked wail came from her throat, and sobbed in the corner of her cell. Zant stared at her with pity; never had he seen Midna in such a state.

"Midna, give me a straight answer. Nothing–"

Then he cut himself off.

For he had belatedly realized why Midna was so dreadfully transformed.

So.

Another short chapter and my only excuse is that I've had a hard month. *sighs in shame. And I'm sorry if sections of it are really choppy; I'd always do a little bit at a time.

Sigh. Even this author's note sucks.

Part of the reason this story has died down a little bit is because I'm bursting with so many ideas for my other story. Again, I am very, very sorry, but please be patient with me. I promise I'll get things up and running again!

Please review, as I really could use my faithful readers' support right now. :)