Author's Note: Last chapter was updated because I forgot to mention Midna has a fang on the top left row of her teeth and now includes a line that mentions the fang.

Author's Note: This chapter was updated to fix some grammar issues.

Born a Weapon

A Twilight Princess Fan story

Chapter 8

Recovery

Above Ordon spring, several black squares formed in the spot they had been in previously, but instead of red markings, they were blue, like the markings on Midna.

Black squares rained down from the opening to form into Link in the shallow water of the spring.

Link quickly glanced around to see where he was and then down at himself.

Great, I'm still a wolf, he thought to himself.

"Oh, that's right. I forgot to mention one thing…"

Link looked at his back, expecting to see Midna sitting upon it, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Though you may have left the darkened realm, you haven't transformed back to your former self… and you won't anytime soon!" Midna continued as Link searched the spring for any sign of her. "Now why could that be?" She was definitely close to him… it sounded like she was right next to him, but where was she? "Eee hee hee!" Midna giggled, and Link heard it coming from… below him? "See you later!"

As Link examined the ground below him, contemplating digging it up to see if Midna had somehow gotten underground, he noticed something odd about his shadow. He could see his shadow casted on the floor from the light, but also Midna on his back. However, when he looked at his back, he did not see her there.

"I see you now!" Link said to her as he began pawing at his odd shadow in curiosity.

"Hey! Quit it!"

Suddenly, his shadow floated up from the ground and formed into the small impish form of Midna. She was pitch black aside from her one eye, and she seemed transparent.

"Well, you really are more observant than I thought!" Midna said. Her response from Link was silence as he slowly raised his right paw and held it inches from her body. "What are you-" Before she could finish her sentence, Link pushed his paw forward, and it passed through Midna as if she wasn't there. Link's eyes widened in surprise as he repeatedly passed his hand through her non-solid body. "Hey! Knock it off!"

Midna attempted to push his paw away with her hands, but they just phased through it uselessly. Fortunately, Link respected her wish and returned his paw to the ground.

"Well, as you would say, that's a neat trick… I wasn't expecting that!"

"Eee hee hee! Did you think I'd disappeared?"

"No, I could hear you talking, so I knew you were still here."

"So, um, what next?"

Link glanced through the floating girl to the spring water behind her.

"Now, I deal with my injury before I die from blood loss or something."

"How are you going to do that?"

"Like this."

Link walked straight through Midna, earning a started yelp from her, and headed to the water.

"Stop going through me!" Midna demanded, "it feels weird!"

"Never thought someone would ask that of me, but ok, I'll stop."

Link laid down in the water, making sure his wound was completely submerged in it.

"How is this going to help?" Midna grumbled.

"Magical Anti-Die Water!"

Midna stared at the wolf in silence for a few moments.

"What?" she asked, wondering if he had gone crazy.

"I've been told this water is blessed by a light spirit named Ordona. It has magical properties that can heal wounds. Take a look at my cut, you might see it close."

"I'll take your word for it…" Midna said with a look of disgust. The adrenaline of the moment had pushed it out of her mind before, but the cut was pretty gruesome looking. She preferred not to see it again.

"So… did you teleport me here?" Link said in an effort to make small talk.

"Yup!" Midna said with a smirk, "I used that portal up there!"

Link followed Midna's finger with his gaze as she pointed skyward. He had caught a glimpse of the portal after he was teleported to the spring and noted it was blue instead of red now, but when he looked up, he saw nothing.

"I don't see anything."

Midna looked up to where the portal was only minutes earlier to see it gone. She tried to reach out to it with her magic again but couldn't reach it.

"That's weird… it's gone…"

"And I'm pretty sure it was red before."

"Red?" Midna asked, turning her gaze to the ground. "I shouldn't have been able to use it then…"

"Why not?"

"It would have been under someone else's control, signified by the color. The one in control can make it whatever color they want" Midna clenched her fists in anger. "And red is used by Zant…"

Link could clearly see that Midna had a special kind of hatred for Zant. He wondered why she seemed angrier than Zelda, who had her kingdom stolen from her by him, but decided to change the subject before her anger pushed her to do something, like bug him to do more things.

"So, why are you pitch-black? And transparent? And did you steal my shadow?" Link asked as he noticed he couldn't see his shadow anymore.

"I didn't steal it!" Midna said as she rolled her eyes, or eye, it was impossible to tell with one of her eyes covered. "I just… used it… without permission."

Link would have facepalmed at her statement, but he was a wolf and too intrigued by the shadow magic.

"So, what did you do with it?"

"I merged with it."

"Wait… are you telling me… that you're my shadow now?"

"Pretty much, yeah, but all I can do is hide in it or come out like this," Midna said, gesturing to herself. "But if I get too far away, your shadow will jump back to you, and I won't be merged with it anymore." Midna looked through her arm before adding, "Never done this before. It's weird not being solid."

"Well, becoming my shadow is cool and all, but why did you do that?"

The shadow girl crossed her arms in an almost pout-like stance.

"Because your stupid sun is dangerous! And really bright! Not that being a shadow helps with that…"

Link raised one of his eyebrows and stared at the girl before glancing into the sky. The sun was beginning its descent, but it wasn't twilight yet. "Is… that something with people from your dimension?" He asked, returning his attention to Midna.

"Yes…" Midna replied in a grumpy tone.

"So, people from my dimension turn into spirits in your dimension, and people from your dimension get killed by the sun in my dimension?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"Are you a vampire?"

"What?! No!"

Midna facepalmed at Link's comparison to the bloodsuckers from stories as Link let out wolf laughter.

"Are you done yet?" Midna asked.

Link checked his side to see the wound had stopped bleeding, but it had yet to close.

"Nope!"

"Augh! Well hurry up!"

"I have no control over how fast the water heals me! Why don't you just relax and rest a bit? You look a bit tired. Using all that magic must be tiring."

Midna had done her best to hide it, but she was drained from all the magic she used to help Link get through Hyrule castle. She happily obliged his request but tried to seem reluctant while doing so, and

before long, the shadowy girl had fallen asleep on the ground. Link took one last look at his wound before falling asleep himself.

"Time to get up, Link." Called that voice again, constantly pestering him to do this and that.

"What crazy shit are you going to make me do today?"

"Today's going to be a bit different."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Get up, and you'll find out."

"Maybe I don't want to do crazy things today. Maybe I want to sleep in."

"Doesn't matter, you have no choice, now get up."

"You can't control me…"

"Would like to put that to the test?"

Link awoke with a start. He quickly shot to his feet and fell forward because of his new body having different balance than his old one. He landed harshly on the ground, splashing some water about, and let out a growl. Who was that voice? It was the second time he had heard it in a dream that felt real and familiar. Whoever it was, Link didn't like him. Even though he didn't even know him, he found himself hating the man the voice belonged to. And why did the dream feel so familiar? Could it be… a memory?

"What was that for?!"

"What?"

Link turned around to see an irritated Midna standing next to him.

"I was having a nice dream! While taking the rest you suggested! Then suddenly, you splash water on my face! Er… through my face…"

"Oh, sorry… didn't mean to do that."

"You seem really spooked. Did something happen?"

Link turned his gaze away from her to the ground.

"Just a nightmare… I'm fine."

The way he said that caught Midna's attention. It sounded like he wasn't telling her the whole truth. But what else would there be to tell? He was asleep, so all he could have done was dream. Suddenly, Midna noticed she was having trouble seeing more than a few feet in front of her.

"Hey, why is it so dark all of a sudden?"

Link looked to the sky to see the sun had traded places with the moon. It seemed to be early in the night but late enough that the sun was nowhere to be seen.

"It's night…"

"Night? What the heck is night, and why is it so dark? I can't see more than a few feet in front of me!"

"The sun has set, and the moon has taken its place, but it's not super dark."

"I can barely see! What do you mean it's not dark! Wait… did you say the sun is gone?"

"Until morning, yeah? Do you not know what night is?"

"There is no night in my world! The light never changes! but if the sun is gone…"

Midna suddenly dissolved into a pitch-black puddle at Link's feet that took the form of his shadow before Midna came flying out of it in full color, leaving the shadow behind.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Link screamed at her.

"OW! Be quiet! I think my mind eardrums are bleeding."

"You said the sun was deadly to you!" Link emphasized.

"And YOU said the sun was gone! Remember?"

"Midna! You're in moonlight! MOONLIGHT IS REFLECTED SUNLIGHT!"

"WAIT WHAT?!"

Midna immediately dove back into Link's shadow, she had no idea what the moon was, but if it reflected sunlight, she wanted nothing to do with it.

"Why didn't you warn me?!" she demanded.

"You didn't tell me you were going to jump out of my shadow!"

Midna then realized that she hadn't even come close to dying. In fact, the "moonlight" as Link called it, didn't even hurt.

Link saw Midna's hand quickly come out of his shadow and then fly back in, only to repeat the process slower, before staying out of the shadow in the moonlight.

Slowly Midna floated out of Link's shadow, and she franticly checked herself over.

"I… I think I'm fine… does anything about me seem weird to you?"

Link examined the floating girl closely.

"What would I be looking for?" He asked as he circled around to look at her back.

"I don't know," Midna said over her shoulder to Link, "I know that the sun in this world burns me, so, look for burn marks?"

Link circled around Midna a few times looking for any sign of burning. He didn't see anything different, but he did notice what he initially thought was white on her body was actually a very light blue.

"I don't see anything different about you, but this is the first time I got a good look at you." Link said as he came to a stop in front of her.

It then hit Midna that she just let Link scan every part of her body in detail, and she quickly turned as she blushed in embarrassment. How did she not realize that until after?! She had been so worried about the effects of the reflected sunlight that it didn't occur to her!

"You ok?"

"I'm fine!" She snapped at him.

"Woah! Did I do something wrong?

Midna noticed that Link didn't seem to care that he had examined a girl so thoroughly. In fact, Link didn't even realize what he did until he tried to figure out why Midna was suddenly acting strangely and saw her blushing.

"OH! Uhm… uhh… sorry?"

"Whatever!" Midna said, spinning back around to face Link. "Just… forget about it, and let's never speak of this again!"

Midna floated away from him and stood in the water. The water felt surprisingly nice on her feet, so she sat down in it and looked in the sky to distract herself and saw a big white circle where the sun was.

"Is that… the moon?"

Link was relieved Midna was distracted so easily, and he sat down on her right, looking into the sky with her.

"Yup!"

"What is it?"

"It's a big ball of rock that orbits our world."

"Orbits the world?"

"Yeah, you know, in space."

"What does space have to do with anything?"

"Its… space… the empty… space… that surrounds our world and extends as far as people know, and is filled with stars and other planets."

"Stars? Planets?" Midna said with genuine curiosity as she looked to the wolf for knowledge.

Link turned his head to face Midna as he realized she had no grasp of the concept of space, stars, or planets, and Midna could tell he was going to take a while to explain it, so she removed her strange headpiece and set it on the ground next to her on the left. Without the helmet, Link could see her other eye and the rest of her face. Her upper face above her nose was black, while her nose and below was a light blue.

"Stars are those little glowing things in the sky. They're big fireballs really far away. Some of the glowing things are also other planets like Earth, but with different conditions that make it impossible for people to live on, like no air."

Midna looked at the "stars" with newfound wonder.

"The sun is a star, just a lot closer than the other ones."

"And that orbits the Earth too?" Midna asked as she turned to face Link.

"No, the Earth and all the other planets around here orbit the sun, but the moon orbits the Earth."

Midna looked back up at the sky, examining the large rock in the sky and the tiny lights.

"There are no stars where I come from…"

Link wasn't sure what to say to that, so they just sat in silence while Midna enjoyed the view, and Link examined his reflection. Link was a very large wolf he noticed, about half of his height as a human, which would mean Midna was also about half his actual height. His fur was made of two colors, white, and he wasn't sure if the other was black or very dark green. He still had blue eyes, and his face was mostly white fur aside from his forehead. His forehead was black or very dark green, but white fur was mixed in to make a very fancy-looking design. The rest of him was mostly black/dark green on the top, with some white coming up from the bottom, and his stomach was completely white. Link looked like someone had deliberately made him look fancy, but he was glad that he didn't suddenly have jewelry like earrings or something like that.

Link was enjoying not being pestered by his magical companion, but after a while, Midna realized that they had spent quite a while just sitting in the spring. She was about to yell at Link to get moving and stop wasting time, but Link surprised her with what he said when he spoke up first.

"Ahh man… What am I gonna do?" Link asked nobody in particular as he leaned forward and laid down in the water. He could tell Midna was looking at him and waiting for him to elaborate, so he did.

"I stumble into the village right next to this spring to find kind people caring for me, and they let me stay until I get back on my feet. And just a few days later, bulbins attack, kidnap two of the people who have been so nice to me, I get pulled into another dimension, and turned into a wolf!"

"Wait, I thought you were pretty close to those two, are you not?"

"No, I just met them… three days ago? I think it was three."

"That's… not long."

"So you have days in your world but not nights?

"A day is just 24 hours, right?"

"Well, yeah… but here day also means when the sun is in the sky instead of the moon."

"If you just met them, then… why did you come running after them like that?"

"I guess I was trying to be a hero, pretty stupid of me. I try to help, and I get turned into this…"

What Link said seemed to strike something in Midna. She turned away and seemed to breathe heavily in an attempt to calm herself down.

"So, what do you plan to do? While we're sitting here, the twilight continues to expand." Midna said as she turned to face Link after her breathing evened.

"It's expanding?!" Link cried, jumping to his feet.

"Yup! You better find your friends before it covers everything!"

Link wouldn't let the fate of Hyrule castle befall the villagers who were so kind to him, and ran toward the exit to the spring while Midna grabbed her helmet and placed it back on her head.

"Listen, there's another thing I forgot to tell you…" Link skidded to a stop and turned to face Midna as she hovered towards Link, "Don't think you can just run off and save your friends, because you can't."

"What do you mean I can't?"

"Just beyond that bridge, the land is covered in twilight. Last time, a Shadow Beast pulled you through the curtain of twilight… But if you want to go that way this time, you'll need the cooperation of someone FROM the twilight… like me!"

Link had a guess where she was going with this, and he didn't like it at all.

"So, you really have no choice but to do what I say!" she said with an evil grin.

No choice… that was what the man in his dream said…

'Doesn't matter, you have no choice, now get up.'

"Saving your friends and all that… Well, that'll depend on your actions…" Midna continued.

The voice echoed in Link's head, and anger welled up inside him.

"Because you can never trust words, you know." The magic girl finished.

And now, this imp before him was telling him the same thing…

Midna had been looking into the sky as she informed Link that she would have to do what she said if he wanted to help his friends, but when she finally looked at his face, he looked ready to tear her to bits. Midna instinctively flinched at the threatening stare and growl Link was giving her.

"Woah!" she said as she floated up so if he did snap, he couldn't reach her, "What's with you? You were so calm a second ago!"

"Oooh geee, I don't know!" Link said in a surprisingly calm voice that creeped Midna out because he looked so agitated, "maybe it has something to do with the floating girl, TRYING TO TAKE OVER MY LIFE!"

Midna instinctively tried to cover her ears but was quickly reminded that Link was talking in her head when it did nothing.

"Do you have any idea the hell I was put through by the last person who told me I had no choice?! Do you have any idea what I went through to get away from him?! No! You don't! And I'll be damned if I'm going to let you do the same thing to me! You! Don't! Control me!"

Midna just stared, completely stunned by his outburst. Link had actually shocked himself, he had no idea why he said any of that, but he didn't show it.

Several moments passed before Midna even calmed down enough to think about what he said. She would never admit it, but he was scaring her with that crazy outburst, especially because he was screaming louder than she ever heard anyone yell before; likely because he was yelling telepathically, so he could raise his voice as much as he imagined it.

When Midna did regain the ability to think, she realized she was on very thin ice. Clearly, someone else had tried to take over his life much like she was now, and they had put him through hell. That would explain why he was so calm before, patiently answering her questions about the moon and the stars, and immediately became enraged when she tried to make him her servant.

Midna tried to think of some way out of this as the dominant one, in charge of what happened, but she didn't see any way to do that. Especially while not provoking him to attack her.

"Ok…" She said reluctantly, thinking maybe later she could try again. "You're not my servant… and I won't try to make you one."

Link stopped growling at her and stood upright to show he had calmed down. Though he was still pretty angry, he wasn't at risk of snapping and attacking her anymore.

"All right… Now, any ideas for what to do next?"

She was a bit hesitant to even suggest he do something, but she stuffed down her hesitation and spoke up.

"We probably shouldn't go running around unarmed. Do you know where any weapons are? Like a sword or a shield?"

Link thought back to when he awoke in Rusl's house after being healed. There was a sword in his house, but it was Rusl's. Link didn't want to just wander in and take the sword, but then he thought about what the villagers might do if he didn't take the sword from them. They might go running off in an attempt to find him, Colin and Ilia, and could get killed or seriously injured in the process.

"I know where a sword is, but not a shield."

Midna slowly lowered herself down to Link's eye level, ready to move if he jumped at her.

"Well, it's a start at least."

"Do you know how to use a sword?"

"You just… swing and stab at your opponents, right?" Midna asked.

Link wasn't sure if she was being overly confident, if she was teasing him, or she actually thought that was all it took to use a sword.

"There's a bit more to it than that…"

"Do you know how to use a sword?"

"Nope, so if we find one, we'll just be two idiots with a dangerously sharp and pointy metal stick."

"That doesn't sound encouraging," Midna said as she crossed her arms.

"No, but even an idiot with a sword can do some damage. But I don't have hands, and that sword is way too big for you."

"Hey!" Midna said, slightly insulted.

"Sorry, but it's true." Link said before heading toward Ordon Village, "well, it still might come in handy, so let's go get it."

"Ok," Midna said as she entered Link's shadow, "I'm gonna hang out in your shadow, in case anyone sees you, they might freak out less if there isn't a floating… imp… with a wolf."

"Let's just hope nobody is observant enough to notice there's one riding my back in my shadow."