Author's Note: I realized that my writing style focuses more on the interactions between other people than actual plot, and I'm gonna embrace that, while at the same time trying to fix it. Prepare for a lot of worldbuilding and some more detail. So. Also the OCs. I'm gonna keep bringing up Jennifer and her life, and it's gonna play a bit of an important role in the story. Sorry.

Also, warning for graphic descriptions of acid wounds.

Kobi Ren, aka Poine of the Streetside Heroes, noticed that Tony Stark entered the laboratory with much more vigor than necessary, for someone who had been asleep the whole morning and well into the afternoon. At his side was Pepper Potts, his assistant and on-and-off girlfriend. He had mad respect for someone who could assist a guy like that.

"Good news, we figured out what was going wrong!" Stark exclaimed instead of greeting everyone. Ren rolled his eyes.

'At least Banner had manners,' Kobi thought to himself, reaching for another cup of coffee grouchily. He happened to like keeping a sleep schedule, unlike these maniacs. Maybe that was why he was a vigilante and not a hero. He was at least able to keep his own schedule.

"Pepper, if you would," Stark said as he ceded the floor to his partner. Kobi noticed a small notepad and a few of Goldwings' journals clutched to her chest. Had she been doing research?

She cleared her throat and spoke with certainty. "We have been trying to open a portal for days, and we haven't found much success. I believe this is because the way we have been approaching this portal is by thinking that magic is the same universally, and a "monster"'s powers can power a portal created by a Twilian. That isn't true, and unfortunately might never work. According to the journals, most magic, like that done by a Twilian, requires a soul to move and shape magic. Without that, well, it just might not work. As Dr. Banner's research has shown, the monsters do not have a soul, with the exception of the shadow monsters. And, well, some of those have been seen using magical attacks."

Eupheme, Collet, raised her hand to ask a question. "So is our research being discontinued or not?"

Stark took over. "Until further notice, kinda? We need to focus on what the hell those Shadow Monsters are, and why they have a soul."

Kobi got a sudden flash of insight. "It's because they aren't normal monsters, are they? Just… something overloaded with a type of magic."

Tony smiled wanly. "Yup. And, until we can figure out how to reverse it, we can't open a Hylian portal."

Finn spoke up, "But what about an Earthen portal? We've got Dr. Foster's work nearly proved, and a lot of stuff we can still use."

He nodded. "And that's what I came here to announce. You three are going to try to build something like that, which doesn't need a wishy-washy magic caster to use. It's officially a new project, starting from an old one. Good luck with that."

And he was gone.

Kobi thought for a minute. "… Operation Aperture Labs in progress!"

…/…

Jen hissed as Link dropped her into the spring. He murmured an apology, helping her take off her bags and shed the ruined layers. Jen spat a curse as Link pulled off her heavy outer layer, which had partially melted, but protected her from a good chunk of the acid. The fabric landed in the water and drifted with the current, and the chain mail sank out of sight. The white long-sleeve undershirt had holes in two places on her left side. The acid had bitten into her upper arm, where there was no protective armor, though her side was also affected. The burned skin was pitted where the acid had bitten through, glistening a lurid, raw pink.

"Yarie…" Link murmured, hands hovering above the gruesome wound. Jen averted her gaze and swallowed nausea caused by pain and the sight of her own mangled skin.

"It looks worse than it feels. Could have been deeper," she assured him weakly, "Just don't look at it."

Midna rifled through Jen's bag, coming out with a pair of scissors. She glared at Link, who looked like a statue.

"She said don't look. Didn't your mother tell you not to stare?" Link shook himself, and obeyed, walking over to a different part of the small clearing.

"Thanks," Jen said quietly as Midna carefully cut the shirt off, "Didn't know you knew any medical stuff."

"I don't. It's just obvious that you need to get this off," she replied, pulling half of the undershirt off and cutting holes around the parts melted to her wounds, "It's going to interfere with the water."

Midna set down the scissors and carefully, slowly, pulled the remaining bits of fabric away from the wound. Jen gasped in pain and squeezed her eyes shut as it jostled the sensitive flesh, allowing the water of the spring to reach cold fingers into the burning wound. A few minutes passed, and the water began to numb it, slowly, and she began to examine the damage.

The spring was healing the wound slowly, and her muscle system wasn't nearly as exposed. In fact, she was feeling pleasantly bubbly, almost light-headed in a good way.

The damage wasn't extensive, but it hurt like hell. Her weak attempt to protect herself with magic had saved most of her body, but where it had gotten through, along her arm and side, it left deep marks. The water around the wounds was stained lightly pink. The spring worked quickly, however, and the outermost edges of the injury she could feel on her chest, just above her stomach on her ribs, was healing into ropy scars, like it was months old instead of minutes.

Midna had pulled off all the clothes on her upper body, and embarrassment flashed briefly through her. For the sake of modesty, she asked Midna for her bag, pulling out an infinity scarf and wrapping it around her chest.

"Alright, you can look now," she yelled as she decided she was decent.

"Yarie, I'm so, so sorry," Link told her for the third time.

"It's fine, really. I'm just happy that Midna took a hint for once and did something without us asking a million times," she replied, flinching when she twisted the wrong way. She dipped lower into the spring, watching it turn slightly golden in color in the early afternoon sun.

"Your skin looks like chopped bacon," Link pointed out.

"Haha, yeah, accidents happen," she replied blithely, "I know you're feeling guilty about this, but buddy, blame the plant. Also, the healing water feels amazing. I think there's some sort of painkiller in this."

"You could have died!" Link shouted, "And it would have been my fault!"

Jen blinked in slightly hazy confusion. "No it wouldn't've. What were you supposed to do, shield me?"

"Yes! Or gotten you out of the way, or… I don't know!" he exclaimed, "But I didn't and you almost died!"

Jen processed that statement, and then shook her head. "Hah! A bit of acid like this isn't lethal. The armor I wore did its job, though…" She looked morosely at the water where it drifted off, "I really hope the spring works on clothes, too…"

Midna's crowing laugh sounded from Link's shadow. So that's where she'd gone. "I think the springwater's addling her brain!"

Jen splashed in delight, "It's the good stuff!" Midna only laughed more.

"But you're… sure you're alright?" Link repeated. Jen splashed some water at him.

"I am. I also remember you got bit. Soak that. Baba aren't venomous, but their mouths are so gross. If you die of skin rot, I'm gonna be mad."

Link hesitated a moment, but obliged, pulling off his shirt and boots as well, wincing slightly as he aggravated his own wounds. He sat next to her with the water up to his neck. Jen watched with interest as his wounds healed almost instantly, much faster and more effectively than hers had. The two soaked in the water for a while in silence, broken only by Jen gently swirling the spring.

"You know, Hylians, and especially you, are a bit more magically protected from wounds than… well, me," she suddenly spoke, "But I don't know if that would have protected you from the acid."

Link quirked an eyebrow at her. "How?"

She gestured vaguely with her uninjured arm. "Have you ever fallen off something really tall, and just … walked it off? Sat down, drank something, and felt better?"

Link considered the question. "No, but once, when I was really young, I got knocked over by a goat. Does that work?"

She splashed an affirmative. "Better than my example, actually. You got hit really hard, and you should have broken something. You felt sore, in a way that lingered, but nothing beyond that, and it healed the next time you ate something filling. Sound familiar?"

He nodded.

"Hylians rely heavily on the magic around them to create a physical shape. That's why the soldiers in the Castle were wisps. They didn't have access to the right magic. No magic, no shape. In the same vein, if a Hylian gets hit, the magic already stored in you will to go supporting the injured appendage, so you can use it until you can find something that heals you. For some, for most, this ability is weaker, and it'll only protect them from paper cuts or at worst a broken finger. But for you…"

She trailed off for a moment, watching her fingers wiggle underwater, "For you, it might be that you can fall from a height that would kill anyone else, literally anyone else, and you'll get up feeling exhausted and near death, but no actual damage. It's a power from the Triforce of Courage. I call it the Aura of Protection."

"So I could've taken the acid just fine," he concluded bitterly, "That it should've been me, not you."

"Mmm, nah. It'll protect you from the cut of a sword, or the cold of winter, but I don't know about that acid. Some magic attacks can cut through that like butter. Sometimes worse than that, because your magic tries to protect you and just leaves you exhausted and injured. That acid felt… kinda magical." She giggled, like it was the funniest thing. Maybe it was funny, translated to English.

She swallowed. "Also, I was the one with a twisted ankle stuck in the floor. Not you. There's literally no way you can see that coming."

"…I'm still sorry," he insisted, "I had a shield, I could've-"

She groaned. "It would have melted, and I'd have to un-fuse you from the stupid thing. The acid bit through anything organic. That's what weakened the wood enough to make me crash through it. Shut up with your "what-ifs". What if the situation was worse because you took the hit? Just hush."

A few minutes later, she poked her upper arm. A heavy net of scar tissue remained, but nothing more. Same on her side.

"Well, this might be all the Spring can do," she murmured, "Now, where'd my clothes get off to?" She stood up, stretched to test her mobility, and settled.

"Thank you, Faron, for healing me from the wounds inflicted by the Twilit Baba." she said with a bow.

"Heroes… I am grateful to you, and glad to be of service…"

"Oh shit he's responding," Jen murmured. Link stepped up.

"What must we do now?" he asked.

"Leave these woods… go west… to the land protected by Eldin, still cast in shadow… there you shall find those you seek…"

"Death Mountain, and Eldin Province," Link mused.

"Brave heroes… free the lands… and may the goddesses bless you... I depart one more gift…"

From the spring rose a familiar purple jerkin, as well as white underclothes and black gauntlet. The current carried them to the edge of the spring. Then the golden light faded, as if it was never there.

"Hell yeah!" Jen cheered, picking up her clothes, miraculously dry, "Oh wow, Faron's a really good seamstress! Not a mark on them!"

She made Link turn around again as she put on a bra, and then the long sleeve shirt, chainmail, and outer tabard. She noticed it was a bit stiffer than it had been.

"Leather?" she asked herself. The color had not changed at all.

"Someone's been listening to you talk about how fragile you are," Link teased as she slipped it on and tested her mobility. Then she slid on the gauntlets, miraculously repaired. She took the time to slide insoles into the boots, smiling at the comfort. She checked her outfit. The chain mail went a little longer than before, now mid-thigh instead of slightly past hip-length. The tabard still covered it, though it split off in three places to make sure she could still move. The hood was cloth, still, same with the middle section. The bags fit the same.

She bounced on her toes slightly, picking up Chiku and running through a few rounds with herself.

"You're just jealous. Now, ready?"

"Are you sure you're feeling okay? No pain?" Link asked, stopping her.

"Yes, I'm fine, but we've spent enough time here. Death Mountain is days away, and we need to move."

Midna appeared. "I hear Yarie got a tactical upgrade."

"Yes, my tabard's main body is now leather now can we please gooooooo," Jen begged.

"Excited to return to the world of shadows? Me too. Who knew we have so much in common?" Midna taunted. Jen just groaned aloud, stomping loudly as she walked backwards as if to say "are you coming?"

Link's footsteps followed her as he jogged to catch up. She reached the tunnel out to the deeper woods and smacked into something hard. She jumped backward, twisting herself so she could see what she just hit.

Her heart stopped.

In the shadows at the entrance to the tunnel to deeper Faron Woods stood a menacing figure wearing a pointed helmet and pauldron, and intricate dark robes decorated with cyan-green snakes.

Zant.

She drew Chiku to an aggressive position as Link drew his sword. He didn't twirl it. The bulbous eyes on Zant's helmet betrayed nothing. Jen fought a hysterical giggle at the almost comically huge nose dominating the center of the helmet. For a heart-pumping second, they had a standoff, each daring the other to make the first move. Jen ran through the ways they were utterly fucked.

The spring began to glow gold as Faron took offense to the interloper. He bellowed with rage, glowing like the sun. Zant didn't move, and a wave of power knocked the two heroes and the Spirit down. Link's head hit a rock, and he went down hard. Jen struggled to her feet, using Chiku as a staff, as Zant began to chuckle.

"So these are the two heroes that the Light has produced, the ones meant to stop me."

He glanced up to where the Light of the Spring hovered in mid air, with no one to guard it. With a wave of his hand, it dropped, and all of their hard work went to waste. Black shards appeared as the world turned hazy.

Chiku disappeared into her bag, sending Jen stumbling as the transformation took hold. Her joints cracked, and spots appeared in her vision, forcing her to the ground. Midna appeared, looking furious, but she didn't say a word. Zant's helmet clicked unsettlingly as he cocked his head.

"My princess… you went so far away, and now you've returned? I thought you abandoned your people."

"I abandoned no one!" she shouted. Then she choked on a shriek of surprise as she was hoisted into the air.

"Lies… And now, you seek this?" Something flew away from Midna like it had been plucked out of her hand. The fused shadow they had spent all morning hunting down hovered in front of Zant, "Such a weak thing… What hope could you possibly have that it would work? You are a traitor, Midna, to me and to my kingdom. My power far exceeds anything you can scrape together!"

"A man who abuses the magic of the tribe, a king?" she laughed, "Even I would be better. You call the twisted power of your own creation our old magic? It's a joke!"

Zant threw her to the ground immediately, but her words rang loudly between them.

"This power is granted to me by my god! It is the magic of the king of Twilight and you will respect it!"

Jen couldn't make any words. Her new vocal chords and teeth got in the way. She couldn't move, either. But she hissed, long and slow and building and by the end it turned into a snarl. Zant turned to her.

"My god told me many secrets, he has imparted upon me… such great knowledge."

Link snapped awake and jumped at him with a snarl, and Zant caught him in mid-air. He reached for Link's paw, where the Triforce glowed.

"Such great power…" he murmured, "…bequeathed upon your hero. Greater than that stupid old relic."

He threw Link aside, and pulled Midna into the air again.

"Do you not recognize that mark? The sign of the light-dwellers, those who oppressed our people? You know you will never be one of them, that you will never be more than a shadow in their world! Unless…"

He pulled her closer.

"If we can make their world ours… Light and Darkness can meet at last. Our tribe can rise again, and sweet darkness will blot out the harsh Light!"

The helmet's mouthpiece clicked up.

"That is why I need you. Not just for me, but for all our people. Lend me your power."

Midna thrashed, and freed herself from Zant's grasp, turning on him with bared teeth. Zant raised his hand, ready to strike her down. Jen found the strength to move, swiping Midna out of the air and dancing back to Link, to protect them both. She snarled like a feral thing. Zant cocked his head at her. Jen was struck by the image of a bird, observing a worm before eating it.

"Ah… and you. Neither Light, nor Dark, yet you seem to be tied to both. Your world, cast in pure Darkness would be… perfect."

She needed to focus. This was bad, really fucking bad.

"G…o…T-to… H-ellllllll," she rasped, forcing the syllables around her crooked teeth. She grinned at him, displaying as many teeth as she could. Zant roared, and she jerked up, then down.

Something in her left wrist screamed as she hit the ground. She wheezed as tears filled her eyes. Zant continued.

"As much as I would love to kill you all, I find that you are… necessary. My god taught me much, but I learned from everywhere I could. Be grateful, for you shall witness the beginning of the Rebirth of Twilight."

Jen did not want to witness jack shit, but she had no say in the matter. She roared, but Zant threw her to the side. She struck the ground and rolled. Pain rushed through her limbs, pinning her to the ground.

She heard Midna scream, but when she opened her eyes, the ground disappeared from under her. In moments, the Spring was left behind, and she found herself in a wide room. Jen landed hard on her injured side, and nausea rolled in her gut. Pained gasps guided her to Link's side, and she wrapped an arm around his neck and held the other cradled to her chest.

"Please be okay, please be okay," she begged to anyone who was listening as Link's eyes blearily opened. She felt like she could cry.

Heavy footfalls echoed around the room. Jen lifted her head to see Zant hauling Zelda by her arm out of a side passageway. Her face was a cold mask which could have hidden anything from fear to fury. Midna floated behind him, arms pinned to her side as she struggled as much as she could. Jen made a noise from low in her throat. Whether warning him not to get closer or trying to reassure Midna, she didn't know.

Zant bound them all to the floor, taking blood from Zelda and Link. Zelda simply glared ice at him, and Link snarled and barked. Jen looked around, recognizing the throne room. They all faced the red throne, though the statues of the three goddesses and the triforce had half-fallen.

"Now, bear witness!" Zant cried as the air began to hum. Gold sparks danced above the throne, and Zant began to chant. With every deep syllable, the sparks doubled, swirling in a frenzied dance that followed his rhythm. Magic crawled along Jen's skin, behind her ribs and around her guts, and she began to shake, desperately wanting to stop the chant, throw off the magic. Something, anything!

Zant poured the vials of blood into the air, and they hovered, joining the sparks. A cyclone of magic whipped up anything not tied down, sending rubble flying everywhere and making the windows shake. Jen squeezed her eyes shut and screamed in frustration, fear, and rage.

When her throat started to feel raw, the cyclone came to a frenzied pitch, and just stopped.

She opened her eyes and immediately wanted to shut them again. Standing in front of the throne, with Zant at his feet, was an outrageously tall man wearing black and gold armor. His orange hair burned like fire in the yellowed haze of Twilight, and his green-tinged skin looked pallid grey. Her heart thumped in a rapid pace of "oh shit oh fuck oh shit oh fuck".

Zelda looked calm. "Ganondorf."

"Princess," he greeted back. Tension crackled between them.

Midna, with a final scream, pulled herself loose from Zant and sped towards them. To do what, Jen didn't know. Warp them away? Try to fight Ganon? She had a feeling that even Midna herself doesn't know.

"Such defiance. She could have been a very powerful ally." He clicked his tongue as if chastising a wayward child, "But she could never learn to bow to a superior."

With a flick of his fingers, Midna crashed to the ground, encased in a crystal. She snarled in frustration as her energy bolts melted ineffectually against its surface. Link found the energy to snarl.

Ganon smirked. "Hero. I thought Zant had you locked in a cage, where you belong. No matter. You won't be a problem for much longer."

Link barked harshly, but he didn't move.

The Demon King frowned. "Be silent."

Link's barking cut out, and a golden chain wrapped around his throat. Jen shrieked in outrage.

"Ah. You."

He flicked his fingers, and Link, Zelda, and Midna slid across the floor, leaving her alone in the middle of the room. Slowly, like a puppet, Jen rose. Panic flooded her as she realized she was no longer in control of her own body. Fighting her own limbs, she walked slowly across the room to Ganon. Up close, she could see the burning yellow of his eyes and the easy sneer on his face. He gripped her face with a hand large enough to wrap around her skull.

She forced a growl as he observed her appearance.

"Show respect to your king," he ordered as he grabbed her injured wrist. A pained shriek tore out of her throat. Something about her made him grin.

"You could make a good servant, if properly trained and broken in. Maybe your world will be the same."

He let her go, and she flew back to the others, landing hard. Her limbs forced her to kneel, and to her panic she realized everyone else was kneeling as well.

"Zant, my loyal servant…" he addressed him. Zant, disgustingly, perked up like a dog being shown attention.

"My loyal servant, you shall have the honor of leading my armies as they re-conquer what you have allowed to fall. We shall break any resistance before us, and know that you shall share in that glory," Ganon declared. Jen can't see Zant's expression through the mask, but she has a feeling that he is a little disappointed.

'Take that you little shit,' she thought nastily, feeling a thrill of satisfaction, 'False gods make disappointing promises.'

"Do not be disappointed, my loyal general," Ganondorf consoled him, as if sensing his mood, "For you shall wield my power with your own!"

As he spoke, he raised his fist. The Triforce of Power appeared, and began to glow. Immediately, the shadows around the room lengthened, and from them rose dozens of monsters of all types. They hooted, screeched, and cried in savage joy, all facing their master. Zant looked awed, and bowed low at Ganondorf's feet.

"Take them to secure rooms around the castle until you develop a way to seal them permanently. I do not want them to escape," Ganondorf commanded.

"Yes, my Lord. As you command," Zant promised. Ganondorf smirked.

"Good. But for now, I shall rest, and prepare to spread the word of my return, to this world and the other. I trust that you, Zant, can execute my will?" he asked, pointedly, almost testing Zant's loyalty.

Zant did not rise until he finished speaking. "So it shall be done, my Lord."

Ganondorf laughed like the rolling thunder of an oncoming storm, sending chills down Jen's spine. He marched up the few steps to the throne, sitting on it like it had been his all along.

A low whine filled the air, and Jen heard something break, like the shattering of glass. Midna rose, shadows of her own wrapped around her, free from the crystalline prison, and she screamed. She flew at Ganon like a dark fairy, intent on murder. Zant intercepted her, inches from Ganondorf's face, with a black blade. She turned her rage upon the bodyguard.

"Do not touch them!" she screamed, throwing everything she has on his blade, "Murderer! Bastard!"

Zant grunted with the effort of repelling her attacks, and shrieked as he tried to hit her with an attack of her own. Midna yelled in fury as she summoned a wave of Darkness and knocked him down, nullifying the attack. Jen felt a swell of pride, howling in approval as Midna attacked Zant, weakened, and held her own.

"Enough," Ganon stated. He stretched out one lazy arm, charging up a ball of gold light. Jen couldn't even warn her before it struck her in the back. A scream of pain choked itself to a wheeze, and she dropped.

Zant pulled her into the air, and bowed low. Midna hung limply, as if crucified.

"I… I am so sorry, my God, my King, I underestimated my enemy."

"Ensure that she does not do so again," he growled. Zant nodded quickly, and both he and Midna vanished. Jen's heart sank.

"Now. Sleep."

The word buzzed in her ears as her consciousness obeyed.

…/…

Zelda wakes up in her rooms, and she wants to scream. She wants to cry, to break everything she could lay her hands on and burn down the castle with Ganondorf's smirking face with it. But she can't. This is the second time she has been imprisoned, in her own goddamn room, and now she has no patient hope that rescue would be on its way.

This whole adventure was already off script. It had set the script on fire, and pissed on the ashes. It is up to her to figure out how the legend went from here. Fate be damned, she is the Triforce of Wisdom, an equal to Power and Courage. She is the leader of a sovereign nation, and her people need her to act.

In the deepest corner of her closet is an outfit she had trained in for years, like all the Princess Zeldas before her. It is a dark blue bodysuit with protective padding and armor, and wraps for her head, arms, and legs. A knife is strapped to her back, where she can easily reach it. The battered half-tabard displayed a red eye with a teardrop.

The Sheikah robes are a last-ditch effort, but this was a very last-chance scenario.

She quickly fills a bag with emergency supplies, slides her bow over her shoulder, and slips out the window into the haze of Twilight, leaving her dress and hood facing the streets below. By the time the guards figure out it isn't her, she will be long gone.

She tiptoes across the rooftops, hugging the towers. Her toes find grips as she scales them, looking for the Hero, or the Goddess-blessed, or Midna. Goddesses, she hopes Midna is okay.

Silently as a thief, she unlocks a window to a room three levels below her tower, and slides inside, landing without a sound. A passing Moblin receives a knife to the throat as it tries to blow on a hunting horn. It dissolves into nothing, but the horn remains. Zelda considers it, then takes it with her. If nothing else, it could be a good distraction.

She slips into the corridors, intent on finding what she came for.

Link wakes up livid.

Memories filter in slowly, like he's being shown pictures. Zelda, forced to bow to the invader. Jennifer, deemed useful only as a puppet or a tool. Midna, goddesses, Midna. The fight she put up, only to be put down. If anything has happened to any of them, he will make sure both Zant and Ganondorf die on the end of his sword.

He can't even snarl or bark. Ganondorf's spell clinks around his throat. He takes only a moment to think about where he is. It's not the dungeons, and for that he's almost glad. If he woke up there, he might have snapped. But then again, if he did, he would know how to get out.

His new prison, at least, is ironically welcoming. The room is lavishly decorated, and filled mostly by a massive bed with bright sheets. Little knick-knacks line the walls on dark wooden shelves, and a tapestry covers one of the walls, depicting a boar hunt. So, probably the room of an in-house royal, or a guest suite. A chest sits alone in a corner, and the dust is slightly fresher around it.

With a bit of exploration, he finds that the chest can be pushed aside, revealing a trap door. He goes down the musty stairs, wincing at the scent of old stone, careful to try to pull the chest closed behind him in case a guard comes in to see where he went. The tunnel is dark, but as an animal he can see where he's going.

The passageway goes behind the wall, and deposits him in what looks like the kitchen. A wisp cowers under the still-set table. He dismisses the message as the scared last words of a kitchen boy, then feels a pang of guilt. The wisp is young, too young to be afraid for his life. But so's he. So's Jen. So's Zelda.

Link finds his way into a passage lined by suits of armor, patrolled by a pattern of glowing wisps. He extends his senses, and finds ghost-like creatures with a scythe and a lantern. Despite their ghostly appearance, they die to his teeth just the same. None of them even know he's coming before they're already dead.

He pushes on, intent on finding his prey.

Jen wakes up lying on her stomach on cold stone. She sits up quickly, though hisses in pain as her limbs burn in protest. She sucks in a breath through her teeth, waiting until the worst of the pain passes. Concern for Link and Zelda flits through her thoughts, though it's almost drowned by self-pity. Her clothes pinch in odd places, and her shoes hurt.

She takes off her boots, and discovers that her toes are lengthening, and growing claws. It's harder to remain on her full foot; it's more natural to bounce on her toes. Her skin is starting to feel firmer, and her body hair is thicker. Light bumps are appearing on the black patches on her body, alongside thin silver marks. Her hair extends down her neck, like a horse's mane. Her ears feel firmer, broader as well as longer. Her teeth are still a nightmare.

She puts on the scarf-bra to help ease the pressure caused by the sports bra on her chest, and slides on a pair of short pajama pants. She ties up her hair as best she can. Her clothes go into her bag, which goes around her waist. She attends to her injured wrist by putting it into a splint.

Jen begins her escape plan by checking the window, jumping as a keese flies past. So, in the air. Probably a tower. The obvious exit would be the window, and she shoulder-checks it. It doesn't even rattle. She grits her teeth, and looks for something else she can try. The haze of twilight makes it difficult for her to make out details. Her head feels like it's been stuffed with cotton.

The room is mostly empty, with the exception of a bookshelf and a bed, plus miscellaneous instruments, probably for magic. So the wizard's tower? There hadn't been a court magician for Hyrule in a long, long time. Magically reinforced, isolated… oh yeah, good place to stash someone.

The door is locked, and when she jiggles it, it slams in reply. So. Guarded. She sighs, and checks to see if anything is not nailed down.

Answer? Pretty much everything.

Jen shoves the bed with all her might, checking for a secret exit. Nope. Just dust bunnies. Still, she pushes it in front of the door. Might as well make it tricky to prevent her escape.

The cabinet filled with magic stuff rattles dangerously when she pushes it, which is promising. She carefully moves the cabinet in front of the window, and then shoves it over. The corner crashes straight through, forcing the lock open. She cheers.

A confused grunt outside sets her heart pounding. She climbs up the remains of the shelf and out the window. She swings her legs over and uses her claws to cling to the tower. She slides over the edge just as the bed falls to the side, letting in the guard. There is a moment of confused grunting, and Jen carefully moves away from the window. A horn blasts three short notes and a fourth long one, echoed around the castle. An alarm.

Clinging to the tower, she wills herself to vanish from sight, and continues climbing down, ignoring her agonized wrist with a little bit of healing magic, intent on finding her friends. She hits the rooftop below her, and carefully looked for an open window, or somewhere she could enter. She almost gives up on finding an entrance anywhere but the courtyard when she finds an open window, which leads into a dining room with a long blue tablecloth on the table. A Darknut barks orders to a small troupe of Bokoblins, who salute. Half of them dash out the door, and the rest set up a patrol. The Darknut leaves, presumably to order around some others.

She carefully sneaks around the guards, killing them one by one with one hand over their mouth and another into their back. Then she slides through the door the Darknut left open.

She finds herself in a corridor, and hears soft footsteps. She wills herself invisible, and hides in the corner. Then she hears slight snuffling.

'Shit, it's got my scent!' she screams internally, preparing to kill whatever it is that's tracking her.

Her heart calms when she recognizes the ash grey pelt of Link. She drops her invisibility, running to greet him.

"Link! You're alive!" she exclaims. Link's tail begins to wag, and he comes in for the closest thing he can give to a hug. Jen wraps her arms around his neck and squeezes quickly, pulling back to inspect him.

"You okay?" she asks. He nods, then makes a face like a grimace, and lifts his neck, exposing a gold chain.

"The silence curse… it's still active?" she whispers in concern, testing the chain. It doesn't budge. She swears.

Link's head suddenly shoots up, and his ears go back. Jen rounds on the source of Link's distress, and sees a figure in dark blue, with a scarf covering their lower face and the Sheikah eye on their front. Their long blonde hair is tied back in a braid, and their bangs frame their red eyes.

The figure puts their hands up.

"I am not here to harm you. I am a Sheikah, a guardian of the crown. Princess Zelda sent me to find you, to recover Midna."

"We can trust them. The Sheikah are what they say they are," she whispers. Link's silent growling stops, but he still looks mistrustful. Jen nods once, for both of them.

"Good."

The Sheikah turns, and beckons for them to follow. "Time is sort. Midna is in need of your help. She's being held deeper in the castle. Hurry."

The pair follow them around and past guards, and sometimes through them. The castle is huge, and remarkably maze-like. Jen finds herself lost quickly, and hopes that Zelda will be able to lead them out later. She grew up here, after all.

The Sheikah finally stops in the middle of a hallway, feeling the wall. They find a crevice, pulling it open to reveal a door shaped like the wall. They beckon them in, and close the door. Torches automatically ignite, leading down a spiral staircase. Link looks at Jen, then back at the Sheikah. Jen nods, and leads the way, trying not to slip and fall to her death. Link's nails click on the stone, but that's all the noise he makes.

Midna is where the Sheikah says she is; at the bottom of the stairs is a lab filled with dark materials. The books lining the wall press on her consciousness like a physical weight. Stones and pendants call to her attention, promising dark power.

Hovering on the wall, like a dark ornament, is Midna, suspended in a crystal. Wires cling to the crystal like Diababa had clung to the Forest Temple. The parasites pulse like a heartbeat. With every beat, the color in Midna's skin lightens. Her face is drawn as if in pain, though the hint of her fang suggests more of a snarl.

"What's wrong with her?" Jen demands, rushing over to the wall.

"She's dying."

Link looks desperately at Midna, Jen with him. The imp's expression seems to crease with sadness.

"No, no no no! She's not going to die!"

"Zant decided she was too much of a thorn in his side alive, and he locked her here, in stasis," the Sheikah continues as Jen starts to fruitlessly throw different objects around the room at her crystal, "He plans to take her to the Light Spirit soon, once he has drained her of magic. If she doesn't get help soon, she will die."

Link's presence, warm and solid, vanishes from her side. She aches for his support, but can't bring herself to leave the horrible scene in front of her.

"Don't be sad…" they murmur, putting a hand on her shoulder. They lean closer, almost kneeling. It's too close, and the hand leeches the warmth out of her soul, "It will be alright. She will join the Light Dwellers she so loved."

A helmet clicks into place right next to her ear.

Author's note, part 2: Shoot, quite a lot just happened! Let me know if it was too fast, because this chapter had a ton crammed in for just 6.6k words. So, the use of present tense was on purpose, to get a sense of wrongness to that part of the chapter. Also, did I just try to explain the IRL physics of the heart system? Yes, yes I did. I'm gonna love writing Zelda. I did not like how passive she was for most of the game, though I think it was because of a threat like "Try anything and your kingdom gets it". Well, this is the worst case scenario, and her kingdom's gonna get it no matter what she does.