AN: I apologize for posting this so late, but it's still Saturday! Woot! I got strep throat, and I literally almost passed out and didn't post this at all. Small victories, my friends!

Also, do you like how long these've gotten?

Hope you enjoy~


It was the kind of hoodie weather that made you glad to be outside, wearing your favorite hoodie. Groose was passed out in the back of the truck. Sheik had insisted they get up before dawn to drive out here, and Groose drove. Sheik could have napped on the way here, but he was too busy planning in his notebook. They'd found the perfect spot at Lake Hylia, with mountains in the distance and plenty of trees and underbrush for kindling. They parked the truck near a flat area someone else had already camped in before, Groose took a nap, and now Sheik looked around with his hands in his hoodie pockets. It was a royal blue hoodie, with the red Hylian phoenix on the back. His breath came in faint mist. Everything was grey, but the sun hadn't risen yet.

It was easy to pretend out here. Pretend that the world didn't exist, that they were secretly I another world where everyone knew him as a boy, and no one could ever find out—I don't have to think about it! There were no tabloids, no reporters, no school bullies, no expectations, no responsibilities, no gossip, no tests, no doctors, no therapists, none of that crap. Just him, his friends, this lake, and the open sky big enough to hold all of his dreams of the future.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. A little irritated he couldn't turn it off yet, because he was waiting for the rest of them to show up, he pulled it out and read the text.

Link: where r u

Sheik grinned and dialed Link. "Hey! We're up the camp road just a bit, past the bridge and then take a right at the fork."

"Alright."

"Is Aryll with you?"

"Hey, Aryll, say hi!"

Her voice came happy and melodic, "Hoooooy!"

It made Sheik smile.

"Shadow's here, too, but he's passed out in the backseat," Link said, sounding particularly pleased. Sheik realized it was probably because Shadow had made a habit of disappearing at random times for hours or even days since his dad's arrest. It had kind of freaked both of them out.

"See ya soon, Link."

"Yep!"

He hung up. Link and the others had to come later because they wanted to wait for Aryll to wake up at her normal time. They weren't sure how long she'd be able to handle the sudden change, especially since it was Saturday—Aryll's day. Sheik was pretty excited about it himself, really. He'd only ever been included a few times. Aryll knew him, but for her, understanding he was the same person as Zelda was a bit over her head, so as far as she was concerned, she didn't know him at all. They'd only met during summers, and when Link and Aryll moved here, he had almost immediately began dressing as a boy. He was looking forward to getting closer to Aryll.

Granny's oldsmobile appeared in the clearing five minutes later, and Aryll barreled out of the back seat as soon as Link opened the child locked door for her.

"Ooooh!" she said, looking around happily. She put her hands in the air and ran in circles. "Camping! Camping! Aryll's day camping!"

"Sup Sheik!" Link called. He was wearing his Granny's green triforce hoodie and blue jeans. His wavy blond hair was almost past chin length at this point, and Sheik wondered if he'd put a comb in it at any point in the last week. He didn't care. He ran over and threw his arms around his friend.

"I'm SO glad you're here!"

Link laughed. They let go. "Yeah, we weren't sure Aryll'd be up to it, but Dad took us camping ALL the time, so I think she'll be okay with it. She's actually really excited."

They both watched Aryll explore the area. She was squawking at the air, and to both of their amazement, two seagulls suddenly appeared as if from nowhere. Link's mouth dropped open. "Did they follow us here?" The seagulls landed at Aryll's feet and squawked back at her, and she pulled out seeds from her pocket and continued her exploration, the seagulls following her and her treats.

Sheik shook his head in awe. "How does she DO that?"

Link shrugged. "Wanna help with our stuff?"

"Sure!"

As they walked to the car, Sheik waved inside it. "Hey, Granny!"

Granny waved back with a smile.

Sheik chuckled at Shadow's askew form in the backseat. Now that Aryll was gone, he'd extended to fill the entire space. "He's almost as lazy as you are, Link."

"Hey! I'm awake, aren't I?"

Together they carried the tent, sleeping bags, propane grill, firewood, and all the other necessities they would need from the back of Granny's car. They set up the fold out table and Link carefully set Shadow's guitar case on it. Then the cooler and food stuffs. Link walked back to the car and rapped on Shadow's sneakers. "Okay, bro, time to camp! Get up!"

"Fi mo mints," Shadow mumbled, yawning.

"No!" Link grinned. The lake air was getting into his head. "Get up now!" He dragged on Shadow's feet, pulling him out.

"ACK!" Shadow grabbed the seat before Link could pull him completely out. "Okay!" He lightly kicked Link off of him.

Link laughed joyfully. "We got a tent to build!"

"I've never built a tent," Shadow admitted, sitting up and grabbing the door roof.

"That's why we're doing it together! Come on!" Link jogged away.

Shadow followed him, shouting, "I JUST CAME HERE TO PLAY GUITAR UNDER THE STARS!" but he actually felt a little interested.

He and Link cleared out an area of twigs, rocks, and anything else that might dig into their backs at night. Aryll decided she wanted to help, and somehow managed to carry the tent case to them all by herself.

"Camping!" She shouted.

"Thanks, Aryll!" Link opened the tent case and spilled out its contents unceremoniously. Bars and cloths went everywhere.

"That was super inefficient," Shadow noted with his hands on his hips.

"What, are you Sheik now?" Link began gathering the rope, which was hopelessly tangled. His face was filled with glee as he quickly began untangling it.

Shadow grinned. "Sorta like a puzzle."

Link grinned back. "Yep! Uh." He pointed at a large square cloth. "That's the base, and those are the pegs. You gotta stretch it over the ground and then peg it down using those holes. See?"

Shadow rolled up the sleeves of his keese wing hoodie—instead of angel wings, it had keese wings. "I got this, bro!" The cold bit his arms, and he regretted everything. He rolled his sleeves back down. "If the cold doesn't kill me."

"It's not THAT cold."

"Says the outdoorsman to the hospital patient."

Link suddenly dropped the ropes and came to Shadow's side. "Are you ok? You don't have to do anything. You can sit down if you need to."

Shadow became sheepish. "It was a joke. I'm sorry."

"Oh." It took a second or two, but Link returned to his cheerful self. "You got me, jerk!" He punched Shadow's arm lightly and went back to his task.

He could have felt babied, but Shadow didn't mind. Link had really quickly forgotten about it, obviously. He was just happy he was able to be out here, hanging out with his friends—wait, no, his family.

What the hell? When did that become a thing? It used to just be him and his dad, but then Link and Aryll moved to Hyrule, and then they found out they were siblings, and then Shadow went to live with them! It was crazy to think about. For a second he imagined what would have happened if his dad had been arrested before he found out he had family. He decided he had a lot to be grateful for. It scared him, though. What would he have done?

He spread out the tent's base and found a hammer. "Okay, now what?" he said to himself.

Pitter patter pitter patter.

He looked up and found Aryll had hurried up to him. She held a tent peg out to him.

"Oh! Thanks, cutie." Shadow took the peg and hammered it in. Aryll handed him pegs and he hammered the tent base down. "Say," he said. "Where's Gramma?" Aryll pointed, and Shadow looked and found her sitting in a camp chair next to the fire pit. She was already napping. "That's funny. I always thought she was a morning person!"

At the fire pit, Sheik was struggling to get the fire to light with matches. The morning breeze was just a bit too strong. "Ah, forget it!" He sparked up some magic and the wood fired up instantly. Sheik jumped into the air. "Woohoo!"

Groose, standing next to the table, glowered. "I thought you said no cheating?"

Sheik flushed red. "This isn't cheating."

"Magic isn't cheating." Groose cracked another egg into the pan on the table.

"Uh—I—sh-shaddup!" Sheik laughed, grabbing a poker and crouching back down to poke at the fire. "It's as natural as Nayru's Love."

Groose imitated him mockingly, pouring an inordinate amount of hot sauce into his eggs.

Sheik just chuckled some more.


The Natural History Museum of Hyrule was Castle Town's largest tourist destination. It had concrete pillars and stonework paying homage to temples of the past. There were sections for each of Hyrule's many regions, with the lengthy histories of each. One could spend countless hours there. There was one exhibit in particular that Vio was interested in, but he had to wait for somebody.

That somebody appeared a moment later. Midna jogged up to him, punching a button on her fitbit when she reached him. "What's up?" she asked, breathing heavily, hands on her hips.

"Taken up running?" Vio asked.

"Yeah, what about it? Gotta be fit to run a country."

"I thought you didn't care about your weight?"

"Are you kidding? I've gained twenty pounds!" She flexed a meaty bicep proudly. She sighed. "Honestly, my body's the only thing I can actually control right now. I'm proving to Zant you don't have to be a twig to be healthy. And I don't want little Twili girls to think you have to, either."

Vio raised an eyebrow, unconcerned. "Such a good princess."

Midna rolled her eyes at him. "So why are we here?"

"There's something I'm looking for."

"What is it?"

"The Master Sword."

Midna's face became fierce in warning. The last thing she needed was to get involved in more Hylian crap! "Why don't you bring your boyfriend?"

"We're not on speaking terms."

Caught off guard, it took a moment for her to recover. "Why?" Realizing she would only get a sarcastic reply, she added, "Why me, then?"

"I need to ask you something."

She shook her head. "I can't, Vio, you know I can't."

He lowered his head slightly, so she couldn't see his eyes behind his glasses. "What if I told you I could help you get rid of it?"

"Rid of what?"

He folded his arms, left hand visible over his arm. His Triforce birthmark was obvious now more than ever, but he still tapped his finger on his arm to emphasize it.

Midna's own hand twitched. She thought of that cursed Hylian symbol occupying her hand beneath its glove. "You really think you can?"

Vio nodded.

Her heart was pounding. The Lorule Triforce of Power resided in her, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Her council had forbidden her from sharing any more secrets of the Twili with Vio or with the leaders of Hyrule without their consent or knowledge, but if Vio could really rid her of this curse . . . "Okay. I'll help you."

They walked into the museum together, paid for entry, and Vio led them through the exhibits following a map. Vio asked as they went, "What have you learned about the Shadow Realm Krad is from?"

Midna shook her head. "I don't know," she said in a grave tone, "We can't find anywhere it might exist in or near the Twilight Realm. We have no way of knowing how things are right now, but we had pathways to Lorule, for example, because they, too, are in a dark realm, and also the the Dark World, and even to Termina. But we can't pinpoint any place, explored or not, that Krad's existence would make sense coming from. We can't locate his world."

"Meaning?"

"It's closed off, disconnected, or it's somewhere else entirely."

"What does that mean?" Vio tried to hide his impatience.

"It MEANS, smartass, if we open a door to that realm, we have no idea what we're opening ourselves to. Not every realms is all roses and daisies. Closed off realms exist for a variety of reasons, but the most common is imprisonment."

"Like the Twili?"

"Exactly like the Twili."

"So we could be opening the way to a realm much like the Twilight Realm, with reasonable people and a law-centered government."

"Or to a place ruled by anarchy and violence. Or . . ." She quieted.

"Or?"

Midna took a silent, deep breath. "Some places are never meant to be opened."

"The Hyrulean council means to open it, don't they?"

"If they open it before knowing what's on the other side, they're all fools."

Vio pressed her for more information, but it was clear she would say nothing more in a place this public.

They came into a exhibit that was separated and soundproofed from the rest of the museum. It was dimly lit around the walls and corners, a spotlight imitating sunlight shining down to the center of the floor. An octagonal dais sat in the floor, in the center of which was a pedestal, a sword in it.

"That's the Master Sword?" Midna asked, nonplussed.

"I don't think so," Vio answered.

"It's too obvious, wouldn't people try to steal it?"

He shrugged. "No one can, but people would certainly try. I don't know how many people actually believe in the old legend anymore, though."

"Well I do."

"At this point it's a fact for both of us."

"So why are we here, if you already know it's fake?"

Vio regarded the sword intently. He stepped over the rope barrier.

"Vio!" Midna whispered urgently.

He ignored her, walking up to the fake sword and placing his hand around it. A hum filled the air, followed by the loud cracking of stone.

Midna was clapping sarcastically. "Ha. Ha. Okay, Mr. Legendary, get out of the exhibit before a guard sees you."

Vio let go of the sword and turned around, his right hand shaking. Midna saw that the Triforce on the back of it was glowing.

"Wait," she said. "What?"

"This isn't the sword," Vio said, shakily. "But something happened."

"Maybe it's a switch?" Midna suggested. "Maybe a button that opens the way to the real sword?"

Vio was still staring at his hand. "Right, but where?"


After breakfast, everybody went to the lake to swim. By then the sun had been up for quite a while, and the whole area became hot. Aryll had a snorkel and swam about looking for big fish. Granny walked along the bank, her feet in the water. She hummed as she walked with a smile on her face.

The boys were having a splash fight until Link decided to climb to a height way up the bank and jump into the water. "LOOK OUT BELOOOOOOOAOAAUGH!" He bellyflopped.

Sheik shielded himself from the splash with a laugh.

Link broke the surface. "YEOWCH!"

"That was EPIC!" Sheik laughed.

"Aw, come on, Link," Shadow goaded, "watch a REAL master."

Sheik splashed at him. "Feeling cocky, Shadow?"

"Yes, my prince!" He got out of the water and made his way clumsily up the path. It took him twice as long as Link to get up there.

"Any time now," Link called.

"SHADDUP! I have a bad heart!"

"Have you ever hiked in your life?"

"I'm too fashionable for hiking!"

Groose yelled, "I support you, man!"

"I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FEEL ABOUT THAT, GROOSE!" Everyone below laughed, and Shadow finally made it to the ledge. "Oh, SHIT, that's high!"

"No backing out now, Shadow!" Sheik called.

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap!" Shadow backed away from the edge, out of their sight.

Link was making cuccoo noises.

Shadow came careening back into sight, screaming at the top of his lungs. He leapt off the edge, managing to overshoot everybody. He flailed like a dead animal and screamed like a banshee, but landed on his feet.

"Whoa!" Link said when he surfaced, sputtering. "You got some distance!"

Shadow coughed. "That was, like, more running than I've done in a year. And I'm actually SAD about it."

"Well, yeah," Sheik broke in. "You're not exactly allowed." He grinned. "But that was AWESOME!"

Shadow dunked under the water and swam up to Sheik, surfacing to say, "How 'bout it, prince?" He waggled his eyebrows and bared his dog's teeth. "Up to the challenge?"

Sheik grinned. "You bet!" He swam to the shore and hurried up the bank.

"That was altogether too confident," Shadow said to Link and Groose.

"Yup," said Link, saying nothing else.

"He's got something up his sleeve," Groose agreed.

Sheik made it to the edge, and looked about, gauging the distance to the water with his hands on his hips. He waved his arms back and forth, as if warming them up. "You guys ready for this?"

The other whooped.

Sheik took several steps back, and got a look of utter concentration on his face. With measured movements, he strode to the edge, then leapt off. He did a twist flip in the air, feet tight together, arms propelling him around before ending over his head as he finished with a graceful dive. The other boys didn't even feel a splash.

"WHAT?!" Shadow shrieked while Sheik was still under the water.

Sheik surfaced and pushed his hair out of his face.

Shadow jumped on Groose's back. "Um, excuse me, WHAT?!"

"I took diving lessons as a kid," Sheik explained. "I haven't done that in a while."

"That was groovy!" Groose said. He shoved Shadow off of him.

Link was looking at Sheik, then the ledge, then back at Sheik in awe. "Your form hasn't changed! You haven't done that since Outset, have you?"

Sheik grinned and laughed. "Nope!"

Shadow gasped at Link as if stabbed in the back. "You knew?! Why didn't you prepare us!"

"I wanted to see your reaction," Link admitted with a cheeky grin.

"Oh YEAH, no big DEAL, we're just in the presence of the ocean god!" Shadow waved his hands emphatically at Sheik.

"Aww, stop," Sheik said, blushing. "It was nothing!"

"Oh my GOD, I feel so much worse about my own jump."

"Don't feel too bad," Sheik said cheekily. "After all, we can't ALL be royalty, can we?"

"That's it!" Shadow jumped onto Groose's back again, shouting, "Revolución!"

Sheik half yelled, half laughed as he turned and began freestyling away, too fast to be followed.

"After him!" Shadow yelled.

"If you didn't have a bad heart," Groose said, "This would be going VERY differently." He began swimming after Sheik with Shadow on his back.

Link was already ahead of both of them, the second fastest swimmer in the group.


They ended up at Vio's lab a few hours later. The whole place smelled of formaldehyde and bleach. It made Midna gag. "Okay, so I've helped you," Midna said. "Now how do we get this thing off of me?" She gestured her hand.

"Well," Vio explained, putting on his purple lab coat. "It's actually pretty simple. You can either have it taken from you, which would involve you dying, or you can eject it yourself."

"Myself? I could have gotten rid of this ages ago?!"

Vio shook his head. "It's way more complicated than that. Only a few princesses in the past have managed to do so, and that was the Triforce of Wisdom. It's only the second hardest to transfer from person to person. The Triforce of Power is greedy, and will always stick to its owner more powerfully than the others."

Midna's eyes flashed. "Well I have the power of the Twili! Watch me kick Hyrule out of my veins!"

Vio frowned scornfully. "You do know you're all descendants of Hyrule, right?"

"Of sorcerers and Gerudo, you mean," she corrected. "Hyrulean rejects. We didn't belong here, according to them. I'm no more Hyrulean than Demise itself."

Vio looked impressed. "That's a bold statement."

"It's true."

"I have to concede that you're right." He almost looked jealous. He put on his gloves. "The most effective means to rid yourself of the Triforce is to find someone to transfer it to."

Midna stared at him warily.

"I don't want it," he clarified.

She relaxed. Not that she was entirely sure she wouldn't give it to him, anyways, but the guy still frightened her, and he already had one piece of the Triforce to play with. "Why do you want it, then?"

"It's a trade. I help you if you help me."

"Don't be stupid, Vio. I know you better than that."

He used metal tongs to pull a beaker full of a vile-looking liquid out of a cooler. "You're right. I need your Triforce piece." He set the beaker on a counter. "But not for me."

"For what, then?"

"Shadow."

Midna didn't say anything. She didn't react. She just waited for him to explain further.

"It's always confused me," Vio said, "How Shadow has remained alive despite everything. Tetrology of fallot, heart failure. Yes, his father used a shadow being's heart to keep him alive, but he should have been dead long before that, and that solution never should have been as effective. So I realized, it must be because of the Triforce Shadow holds. And yet, he still had that heart attack. He's still at death's door. Even his Triforce is failing him."

"So you need another?"

He nodded. "I thought at first of extracting my own, of course." He snarled in distaste. "I have no need of it. I also thought of using his father's Triforce, since he also has the Triforce of Power."

Midna's eyebrows barely rose. She had long suspected that. It wasn't a big reveal to her, honestly.

Vio continued, "but then I realized that most likely, the Triforces of Hyrule and Lorule are not compatible. Ganondorf holds the Power piece of the Hyrulean Triforce. Shadow holds a piece of the Lorulean Triforce." He looked at her.

Her voice held a bit of sympathy. "You want to use my Triforce piece to keep Shadow alive?"

"Yes."

"How long will it work, though, if his own is already failing?"

He glanced away. "Not long enough." His voice was strangely quiet. "His own Triforce only kept him alive for so long because of Krad's heart. Now that is failing, his Triforce isn't enough. The Triforce can only aid what is already alive, and his heart is dying. He needs a new heart."

"Sheik told me he's at the top of the donor list. As soon as a donor heart's available—"

"It won't be enough!" Vio yelled.

Midna had never seem him so stricken before. About experiments failing, maybe, but not about a person. "What do you mean?"

"I have to be certain. It can't just be any heart."

Midna's blood froze. "You can't . . . You can't be thinking of murdering somebody, can you, Vio?"

He turned away from her, retrieving a glass from a shelf. He cautiously poured some of the vile crap from the beaker into it, then mixed other weird stuff into the glass that Midna didn't want to know about. Then he took the glass, turned back around, and held it up to her.

Midna leaned away. "What?" She eyed him with half closed eyes and raised eyebrows.

"Usually," Vio explained, "Somebody would need to spend years training themselves to harness the Triforce before ever being able to manipulate it. You and I don't have that time. This is an alternative."

Midna gulped. "You sure it will work?"

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

His mouth twitched.

"I know, I know, how dare I question your intellect." She grabbed the glass and pulled it toward her. He had used tongs to pull that beaker out of the cooler. And now she was going to drink some of that?

"It's only dangerous to Hylians," he explained, seeing her glance at the beaker. "It's harmless to Twilis."

She nodded, only half convinced. "Okay." What the heck was she doing? She didn't trust this guy! He could be stealing her heart! He could murder her!

No, that couldn't be. She had a Twili heart, even she knew that would never work inside a Hylian, Triforce or not.

She brought the glass to her lips, took a last shuddering breath, then downed the whole thing. It tasted as vile as it looked, but she forced herself to not stop until all of it was gone. "GAAAAAAAH!" She yelled after, sticking her offended tongue out. "Gross! Gross gross gross!" She wiped her mouth and spat, not caring about the pristine floor of Vio's lab getting dirty.

"How do you feel?" Vio asked.

"What?"

"I asked, how do you feel?"

". . . What?"

She felt freezing, and yet sweat beaded on her skin. Vio began to quaver in her vision, and so did everything else. She felt intense pressure on her chest, but from the inside out. She bent double and clawed at it, screaming. Her chest felt ripped open, and then suddenly she felt as if a giant ball of energy left her. She stumbled back, falling to her backside on the concrete floor. She held herself up with one hand, the other crossing her forehead. She felt exhausted, but she wasn't freezing, sweating, or in pain anymore. It felt like the end of a flu.

She glanced up. Vio was encased in light. The light came from between his hands, which held a container around the source of light. It took Midna's eyes a few seconds to adjust to see that the object was a silver triangle, hovering in the air. Vio had it captured in what was probably a magically enhanced glass vial.

Midna ripped off her gloves, staring at the back of both of them just in case. Her heart raced. Relief washed over her.

The symbol was gone!

She was free!

"It worked," she breathed. "Vio, it worked!"

Vio was putting the canister into a hole in the wall. "Of course it did."

She jumped to her feet, almost falling over from dizziness, but caught herself. "Oh my gods and goddesses, IT WORKED!" She grinned widely, throwing her empty hands in the air. "Oh my goddess . . . Thank you, Vio."

Vio cocked a brow at her. "You know I didn't do it for you."

"I know. I'm still grateful you needed it enough to get it out of me."

"I didn't need it," Vio said, whiny. He was rushing around putting everything back in order, just like it had been before they came.

"Yeah, but Shadow apparently does. You actually care if he lives or dies?"

Vio didn't retort immediately, which, to Midna, was all the answer she needed. Vio finally said, in a shaky voice, "I don't know."

Midna approached him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He stopped rushing around long enough to glance at her darkly. She smiled. "Hold on to that, Vio. That's your humanity."

His face relaxed, ever so slightly, eyes brightened, but frightened, and thoughtful. "Hm." He turned away from her nonchalantly, going back to cleaning.

She chuckled. "Anything else you need?"

"No. You've been quite helpful, Midna."

Nodding, she turned and went to the stairs. She stopped at the base of them. "Hey, if you really hate having the Triforce so much, why are you looking for the Master Sword?"

He shrugged at her plainly. He replied honestly, "Curiosity."

"I see." She understood curiosity. She went up the stairs and left the lab.


Malon dumped the last wheelbarrow of horse dung with a heavy sigh. She was finally done cleaning out the horse's stalls. She hadn't slept yet. By the time she got home from working at her uncle's Milk Bar, it was time to tend to the animals. Farming was an early morning thing. With having to work the farm and the bar, she was too tired any more to actually enjoy the animals. She couldn't wait to curl up into her bed, but she missed singing to Epona. She forced her exhaustion out of the way, knowing she would probably wake up with a cold tomorrow, but she didn't care. She felt dead. She needed to see her animals happy.

She leaned on the fence and watched the horses frolic about. Without her, they'd be stuck in their stalls all the time, rotting and getting diseased and dying. Ingo would never bother to take care of them. Seeing them leap about and roll on the ground made it worth it to her. She'd take care of them for as long as possible.

Epona trotted up to her, nickering excitedly.

"Howdy, girl," she said, scratching Epona's nose.

Epona flicked her ears. Then she leaped away, glancing back at Malon.

"I'm too tired, girl. I'm sorry."

Epona tried a few more times, but eventually gave up trying to play and galloped away.

Dang, she's gorgeous! Malon had never seen a horse as pretty as her. Or as powerful. Or as painfully stubborn. Her leg still ached sometimes. She wondered if Epona's grandmother, the horse that Malon's own mother rode in barrel races was as pretty as Epona.

She heard footsteps behind her, and turned around. Midna was walking up the lane from the main house. She waved brightly.

Midna waved back, relieved it was her and not her uncle or somebody else. She was surprised and pleased to see that Midna had a bounce in her step. "You look happy," she noted as Midna arrived.

Midna put an arm around her and leaned on the fence next to her. "Hey babe! You know what? I AM happy!"

Giggling, Malon asked, how come?"

Midna jumped a few feet away. "See if you can guess!" She made several poses. "Do you notice anything different?"

Malon laughed loudly at all the crazy poses and the funny faces Midna made with each one. "I don't know!"

Midna held her hands against her face, palms away from Malon. "Nothing at all?"

"You're not wearing your gloves? Hahaha—wait." Malon stepped away from the fence and grabbed Midna's hands. She stared at each one, then looked at Midna, who was grinning happily. "That triangle thingy! It's gone!"

Midna jumped away and did a cartwheel. "RIGHT?! IT'S GREAT!" She sprinted across the grass like a filly.

"Yeehaw!" Malon punched the air and chased after her.

They stopped behind the lean to on the other side of the corral, away from the house and the main barn. Their secret place. There were haystacks inside and next to it, for the few horses who preferred to eat alone, and away from others. Midna and Malon hid behind a haystack and sat on the ground.

"So that's a great relief, huh?" Malon said. She was braiding hay together in her lap.

"You bet it is!" Midna said, hugging her knees happily. "One less thing I gotta worry about. I mean, I'm still expected to marry Zant when I'm a grownup, but . . . after getting rid of this thing, ANYTHING seems surmountable!" Midna scooted over to be next to Malon. She put an arm around her shoulders and began to play with her red locks. "Queen Midna and Lady Malon. How does that sound?"

Malon blushed. "I dunno about that. I'm just a farm girl, Midna."

"You're more than that to me."

"But I don't know as I wanna be in the spotlight like that, you know?"

"But wasn't your mama? I mean, she was the greatest barrel racer in the whole world!"

Malon chuckled. "That's a whoooole different story than being the Twilight Princess, and you know it."

Midna sighed. "I wish I could run away. Just forget everything."

Finished braiding, Malon placed the hay crown on top of Midna's head. "You know that ain't true, either. You LOVE being a princess."

Midna smirked. "You got me, beautiful." She got to her feet and posed. "Power, fame, beauty! I've got all three!"

"Woo, three hips for Princess Midna! Hoorah, hoorah, hoorah!" She rearranged her legs into a crosslegged position. "I got a question, though."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"How did you get rid of the Triforce?"

Ducking her head slightly, Midna's face became a mask. "It's better if you don't know."

"Why? Someone might murder me to find out where it is?"

Midna didn't say yes. She didn't say no, either.

Sighing, Malon sat back. "All that power, though. Couldn't ya have used it?"

Midna smirked, showing her spiked teeth. "I have the power of Twilight! I don't NEED Hyrulean power!" To prove her point, she brought up her magic and used her hair to smash into a giant haystack. Her magic made it explode, but didn't stop there. It expanded to every haystack near it, and past them to the lean to. The wood beams splintered into a million pieces, and there was nothing left of the boarded roof but wood chips. Hay and wood chips landed on the ground in a wide semicircle away from the two, all that was left of the lean to.

"MIDNA!" Malon screamed. "WHAT IN TARNATION?!" She grabbed the Twili girl's arm and turned her around.

Midna's face was as shocked as her own. "I—I didn't mean to. I don't understand." She gaped at the destruction. She had only meant to tussle that one haystack, not do this! She stared at her hands. "That was just a nudge! I'm sorry, Malon, I swear I didn't mean to do that!"

"What the hell happened?" Malon could tell it was an accident. "You have such good control over your powers, Midna."

Midna nodded, still terrified. What if Malon had been in the way? Or anything alive? "Why am I suddenly more powerful?"

"I dunno," said Malon, against feeling her exhaustion. She irritatedly started picking up the debris. "But yer gonna help me fix this lean to before my uncle wakes up!"

Midna blushed in embarrassment. "Yes, Ma'am."

They went to the lumber yard and got new lumber to rebuild the lean to with.

"Din's Fire, there goes my savings," Malon whined.

"I'll pay you back, I promise!"

"I know you will." Malon's fear of Ingo was all that was keeping her awake. "I'll just tell him the lean to fell over. He'll believe that."

Midna cursed silently. The last thing she wanted was to get Malon in trouble. "I'm sorry."

"It's awright, just figure out what's wrong with yer powers!"

It plagued Midna the whole time they spent building. She used her powers to help, but she found she had no more control over them. Or rather, it took a lot more effort, because there was so much more than there had been! It took a while to adjust, but soon she was able to control them as easily as before, just with . . . A LOT less effort. It was like suddenly every push was a shove, every flick became a strike. Every motion she made with her magic was intensified.

As they finally finished, Malon's bad mood evaporated. "Looks like you're gaining control again!" She smiled at Midna, who shook her head.

"I'm way more powerful than I was, Malon," Midna said seriously.

"What d'ya mean?"

"I mean I am way more powerful." Midna looked back. "I could . . . I think I could smash every one of those buildings, if I wanted to."

Malon might have been scared, but she knew Midna would never do something like that. Instead, she worried about how pale Midna was. She'd been so happy when she first arrived, and now here was another damn problem! Why did the universe keep throwing tripe at her girlfriend?! "Is that so much a bad thing?" she asked, trying to throw a positive spin on it.

"This only happened when Vio removed the Triforce," Midna said, her expression getting darker and darker. She gave Malon a fiery look. "That means the Triforce was suppressing my powers."

"Why would it do that?"

"I don't know." Midna began to shake. Malon pulled her into a hug. "What does this mean, Malon? Why did I have the Triforce? Why was it suppressing my powers? What if I'd hurt you?!"

"Shhhh, it's ok, you didn't hurt me."


"FINALLY!" Shadow lamented as he sat in his camp chair with his guitar in his lap. His whole body ached with exertion. Not in a bad way, but he definitely exerted himself more than usual. Groose was making dumplings while the others cooked said dumplings over the fire on skewers.

"These are amazing," Sheik said, a half-eaten dumpling in his mouth.

"I told you!" Shadow exclaimed. "Vegan dumplings are bomb!"

"Want me to make you some while you play?"

Shadow stared up at the stars, laying limply. He hadn't played a single chord. "I might be too tired to play, guys."

"Awww, I was looking forward to it."

"Oooooookay." Shadow sat up in his seat laboriously, but he grinned. "Hmm, need a better seat." He moved to a log so he could hold his guitar properly. "AHEM!" He began fingerpicking a G chord.

Aryll clapped her hands. "Seagull seagull!"

"I don't know that song," Shadow said. He turned to Link. "Is it that one your friends from Outset played?"

Link shook his head. "No, it's a song mom wrote a long time ago. I think it's why she likes seagulls so much."

"Oh. How does it go?"

"Uh . . ." Link thought about asking for the guitar, but then decided to just tell him. "I think it's a C chord, strum one, two, three, silent four, then A minor, D minor, and then G. Same strumming pattern."

Shadow followed the instructions, after a while and a few corrections from Link, he got it down.

Aryll was humming and throwing her feet under her chair.

Link left Shadow's side and sat back down next to Aryll, smiling at her. Then his face fell and he asked, "Aryll, are you crying?"

Sheik set down his skewer. Groose stopped making dumplings. Shadow would have stopped playing, but Aryll stared so intently at his guitar. There were tears on her cheeks as she said, "Mommy. Daddy."

Link jumped up and went to the tent, coming back with a fuzzy blanket. He sat back down, then laid the blanket on top of him so that it covered everything but his head. He held his arms out at Aryll. She jumped into his lap and he covered her with the blanket, hugging her through it tightly, the only way she'd let him. "I miss them, too, Aryll."

Sheik went over and sat at Link's feet, also hugging Aryll through the blanket. "I miss them, too."

Granny also got up and sat on the other side, hugging both Link and Aryll. She was also crying. "I miss them too. They're so proud, so proud!"

Groose went and sat next to Sheik.

Shadow kept playing, and then Sheik started to sing the words. After a minute, Link joined in, and Aryll hummed along.

So you're all alone tonight

You've got nothing left to lose

Just watch the seagull's flight

They'll lead you home/

So you're friends are all gone

And you don't have a place to sleep

You're afraid of what you've done

Follow them home/

Seagulls fly where they want

Their homes are all together

Seagulls fly where they need

Their hearts are all together/

So you think you're done

You've got nothing left to say

Just follow the seagulls

Do as they do/

Seagulls fly where they want

Their homes are all together

Seagulls fly where they need

Their hearts are all together/


AN: Don't accept strange drinks from people you don't trust, y'all! 8D