Chapter 15: The Mirror

She couldn't remove herself away from him. The way he was holding her, the strength and security he was giving her, her mind and body were craving it. She didn't even get this worried when Sesshomaru did the same thing to Inuyasha. With Link, there was a new fear of losing him. It had been weeks since they had met, but in those weeks, he had shown her something completely different.

She could not fool herself. She was feeling something for him and almost losing him was the push she needed to come to terms with it. The likeliness of it happening were slim to none, so she let herself enjoy his strong embrace for now.

"I didn't notice him leave. I was able to stop the bleeding but we couldn't move you yet. I passed out soon after. Sango told me when I woke up that he had left after what happened… Miroku went to look for him and then Sango left with Shippo. I haven't seen them since."

She swallowed as she could feel his heartbeat against his chest with her ear, "You were still not out of the woods, so I just kept healing you as much as I could. I wanted to go find him, but you were my priority."

He had many questions, he just wasn't sure how to bring them up. She finally moved so she could sit next to him instead.

"I'm the reincarnation of Kikyo, Inuyasha's first love. She was brought to life because a witch decided to steal my soul, but only half went to her."

He blurted out the question before he could even think about it, "Do you love him?"

Her eyes welled up in tears as the harsh words from a few days prior echoed in her head, "At one point. At least I think I did. He's my best friend, so I guess I do in a way. Now… I feel lost. I know it wasn't himself saying those things… but they were so true. I could never be Kikyo," she sounded so small as she said it, "I'm not as strong as I think I am."

He shocked her as he had suddenly shifted, grabbing her by the shoulders and pressing her against the wall.

"Enough with that! You need to stop with this self belittling! You just saved my life Kagome. You think if you were weak you would be able to do that? Of course not!"

He traced his thumbs over her cheeks to wipe her tears, "You are so much more than what you give yourself credit," his voice and eyes softened, "What can I do to show you what I say it's true?"

He was breathing heavily as he held her face. As much as the urge was there to kiss her and hoping that would remove any negative thoughts of herself, he couldn't. It wasn't the right time. They were in a godforsaken prison filled with ghosts and skeletons and more than half of the group was currently gone.

He leaned his forehead against hers as his hand moved to the back of her neck, "Stop self destroying. None of what happened is your fault. Him getting possessed isn't your fault. Him saying those things to you are not your fault. I'm not familiar with how Kikyo is, but I can guarantee she will never be the woman you are."

She let out a barely audible gasp at his words, "You're not the only one that has barely maintained it together the entire time we have been here. I've heard the voices. Don't you think I feel guilty about this whole thing? It's my fault the children were captured. I should've been able to save them. Colin almost died. If I'm supposed to be this big hero, how come almost everyone I care about has been at the brink of death?"

She shook her head, "It isn't your fault Link…"

"Then what happened isn't yours either."

He saw the hesitation, but he didn't move as he saw her hands went to his neck and then pulled him into a tight embrace. He quickly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her as tight as he could.

This hug wasn't just for her, it was for him as well.

Sango sighed as she came back from the corridors she had just searched. They had been looking for Inuyasha, but the half demon was able to leave without a trace. Shippo had lost his scent, so now it felt they were walking around in circles.

She wasn't an idiot. She knew that by the way they all looked at him and seeing Link almost dead is what made him leave. She had been terrified, but not at him. Whatever that sword was, it had been powerful. It had been evil and it just brought up more the reality of how dangerous this world could be. She couldn't hold it against him. It would make her a hypocrite if she did. She needed him to come back. He couldn't leave them.

Besides, he had been injured during the battle too.

"Nothing?"

She shook her head at him.

"I think we should go back. They may need our help."

She gawked at him, "We can't leave him Miroku!"

"Sango, love, I understand. But we need to also finish what we came here for. He will come back."

She still didn't like the idea. Shippo jumped on her shoulder from Miroku's and gave her a pat on the cheek, "Let's go."

"Me and Midna will go in. Stay here with Kirara."

She snapped, "No! We don't even know what's behind there."

He sighed, "With more reason. Besides, you used too much energy on me. You can barely walk Kagome."

She huffed, but she knew he was right. After they had control of themselves, they had continued on. Midna had found the key to the last room of the prison, but the entire time, Kagome had to be on Kirara's back. The woman didn't have much balance as she had stumbled a couple of times.

"You have that thing you found right?"

He nodded as he knew she was talking about the spinner weapon they had found. He had tried it a few times and he couldn't help but like the mechanism of it. He had a feeling he was going to have to use it in there.

He touched her cheek, "Just stay here. Please."

And it was how he said it, that she agreed.

After he left, all she could really do was sit down and wait. She couldn't really hear anything for a long time, but it wasn't until she felt the ground tremble, that she worried.

She had promised she would stay put, but sometimes, some promises were meant to be broken.

Midna was shrieking as she was trying to keep her hold on him. Stallord, the giant fossil of a skull, had proven to be a lot more powerful than what she anticipated. Then again, it had been Zant that personally powered up the old thing. They had been able to defeat it, or at least its lower body. Link had been injured on his side again by one of the undead soldiers that had surrounded the creature in order to protect it. After he had used the spinner to break its spine, it seemed to be dead.

It wasn't until he used the spinner to raise the pillar, that the head came back, more vicious than before.

Link had barely dodged the ball of fire, but it unfortunately knocked him off the spinner and he was at a great distance from the ground. He was too heavy for her to hold in mid air while having a giant head wanting to blast them. She was trying her best, but it wasn't until they got hit again, that she let go. She could feel a couple of burns on her arms as she was falling. This time, they had been at a greater distance from the floor and the fall could be fatal. Link could feel his lungs fill with air at a fast pace as he got Midna and braced themselves.

He never hit the ground. A snarl was heard and a hand tightly grabbed his wrist.

His eyes snapped open as he looked at Kagome. With whatever strength she had, she was able to pull him up, having him behind her as Kirara soared in the air. Midna was panting heavily as it had been a close call.

"I told you to stay back!" he yelled at her as he grabbed her so he wouldn't fall off.

She gripped Kirara's fur tighter, "Be glad I didn't listen!"

Stallord roared loudly, its mouth opening again as it powered up another fire blast. However, the fire cat demon was faster. Link had Midna go back to his shadow as she would be safer and less weight on the demon. She didn't need to be told twice.

"How do we defeat this thing?!" Kagome asked as Kirara avoided the attack. She could feel the heat as it went right by them.

He was looking at the head's movement when he asked, "How fast can Kirara fly upwards?"

The demon roared loudly and did as she was told. Stallord followed them, but indeed, the cat was a lot faster than it was.

He had noticed the gap in its forehead, where Zant had brought it back to life. It was his only shot to defeat it.

As they were nearing the top of the giant pillar, Kagome felt Link's hands removing from her waist. She turned back to look at him, "What are you doing?"

He gave her a wink, when he suddenly jumped off from Kirara's back. With an angry battle cry as Stallord was getting closer, he brought out the Master Sword. He grabbed the hilt with both hands as the sword was facing down. It made contact with the gap on the fossil's head and it shrieked in pain loudly. It started to thrash around, like a wild bull. All he could do was keep a hold on the sword to not risk being flung away. As it crashed on the stone floor, it skidded towards the edge. Link dug the sword deeper, in hopes that maybe it would stop it before it fell off and possibly be crushed by it.

The direction of the head was shifted as a giant boomerang slammed against it. This gave Link the chance to dig it deeper and as it shrieked one last time, it finally stopped moving.

He was panting heavily as he removed it from the skull and finally got off. He saw the way the bones started to crack, to soon dissolve into ashes.

He couldn't help but give Sango a grateful smile as her and Miroku both got off from Shippo as he reverted to his normal form. Kirara then landed by them, Kagome happy to see them well. As she took in that it was just them three, she felt the disappointment settling heavily in her heart.

Miroku was struggling as he tried carrying the spinner, "We found this at the bottom. Thought you might need it."

Sango went to Kagome and hugged, "I'm sorry, we couldn't find him."

The younger woman shuddered as she tightened the hug, "He's okay. He's got to be."

Thanks to the spinner, he was able to scale the area all the way to the top, the others following on Kirara. When he finally reached the exit, they were all met with a starry night. The new area reminded Kagome of a coliseum. There were seven tall slim pillars, each of them with a different symbol, but it was noticeable that one was broken.

Five shadow beasts appeared, but between Miroku, Sango, and Link, they were soon dead. The final destination was at the top of the statue that resembled a woman with a crown. Link then saw the opening in the center and used the spinner. They could all hear the clinging of metal and chains and the groaning of the statue they were standing on lowering itself. Midna appeared then, anticipation and anxiety mixing into one as she saw the chains that were attached to the seven pillars were pulling out something from underneath the sand.

From one side, a giant rock came out of the sand first, wrapped tightly in the chains. In the other, they saw smaller chains pulling something out of the ground.

Finally, the statue had finished lowering and the chains stopped moving. The giant rock was no way the magical mirror they were searching for. Kagome looked at the smaller platform that had come out of the sand, an uneasy feeling settling in her stomach as she looked at the strange metal stand on it.

Her suspicions were right as Midna flew over and let out an anguished cry.

They indeed found the Mirror of Twilight, but it was broken, a sole piece remaining in its stand.

The imp crumbled to the ground in front of it, shock, sadness, and disbelief creating a furious rage. Hot tears started to come out of her eye. How?

How could this have happened?

She had counted on the mirror to finally put a stop to Zant. It was their last hope, but it was now gone.

Link couldn't take hearing her cry. He wanted to go up to her, wanted to comfort her. But how could he do that? He had never seen her so hopeful, not even when they gathered all three Fused Shadow pieces. All that hope became ashes of the past now.

Miroku inwardly cursed. He had been hopeful that the mirror would take them also home besides solving the situation in Hyrule.

"K-Kagome?"

The young woman looked down at him, "Yeah Shippo?"

The small kit's voice was trembling as he pointed upwards, "W-Wh-Who is that?"

Link heard him clearly and quickly unsheathed the Master Sword as he followed where the kit was pointing. They all looked to see five glowing figures standing at the top of each pillar.

As Link was carefully looking at every single one, the symbols on each post finally made sense in his head. Sango saw him putting the sword away, making her lower her weapon as well. If he wasn't defensive, it meant they were not a threat.

"The sages…" he said as he looked at the spirits astonished.

"A Dark entity lurks in the twilight…"

"It houses an evil power…"

Midna got up from the ground and went to float next to Link, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"You who are guided by fate… You who possess the crest of the goddesses… hear us…"

"At the command of the goddesses, we sages have guarded the Mirror of Twilight since ancient times. "

"You seek it, but the Mirror of Twilight has been fragmented by mighty magic."

Miroku spoke up, "So you know who did this?"

"That dark magic is one that only he possesses…"

"His name is..."

"Ganondorf."

Link felt his heart stop and fall to his stomach at the mention of the name. He felt himself growing cold and he could feel his left hand slightly trembling. Kagome and the rest noticed, an unsettling feeling being shared between them as they had never seen Link react like that before.

"Who is he?" Kagome asked Link, but a sage answered instead.

"He was a leader of a band of thieves who invaded Hyrule in the hopes of establishing a dominion over the Sacred Realm. He was known as a demon thief, an evil magic wielder renowned for his ruthlessness… "

"But he was blind…."

"In all of his fury and might, he was blinded by any danger. Thus was he exposed, subdued, and brought to justice…"

"Yet… By some divine prank, he too, had been blessed by the power of the goddesses...Without any mercy, he killed one of us…"

"We were left with no choice but to vanish him to the Twilight Realm…"

"The evil power he possesses, it's possible he passed it on to Zant."

Midna was angry, "So you said screw my people and threw him to my world?!" she scoffed as she sat down by where the remaining piece of the mirror was, "And until now you're figuring out where he got his power? It's too late…"

"Only the true leader of the Twili is capable of destroying the mirror. Zant was merely able to break it into pieces. Once broken, the pieces became fragments that now reside in different parts of Hyrule."

"One is in the snowy mountain heights…"

"One is in an ancient grove…"

"And one is in the heavens."

"You… who has been chosen by the goddesses alongside this group that was brought to Hyrule should be able to gather all three pieces."

"But… you must be prepared, for a dangerous power resides in each fragment."

And just on how they appeared, they were gone.

Link swallowed the heavy lump on his throat as he finally went to sit down at the steps of where the mirror belonged. He took off his cap and ran both hands through his hair. His gaze was straight ahead as everything was still sinking in. Kagome was careful as she sat next to him.

"...Link? Are you okay?"

He answered too quickly, "Yeah."

She nudged him, making him look at her.

He was trying to hide it, but she could see the fear.

"You seem to know who this thief is," Miroku inquired, hoping they could gather more information.

"Ganondorf… he's the embodiment of evil. Even my tribe is well aware of his tyranny that he created," Midna looked at Link, "The hero alongside the Master Sword is the only thing that could defeat him."

Link sighed heavily, "It's been an ongoing legend with him. I… I really thought the Hero of Time had defeated him hundreds of years ago… guess not."

"He must have grown in power if he was able to control Zant and give him that much power," Sango said.

Miroku crossed his arms as he thought of it, "It's not just Zant anymore… it's him as well."

"I'm gonna have to fight him."

It was the way Link said it that made Kagome grab his hand. She looked at him and then at Midna.

"We are in this together."

"Well, we can't be searching for the pieces in our current state," however the imp looked pointedly at Link and Kagome, "I'll take you back to Kakariko."

"What about Inuyasha?" Shippo asked.

"I'm here kit."

Kagome gasped as she got up and turned around. Sure enough, he was standing there and avoiding eye contact with her. She so desperately wanted to run to him, but her feet were not listening to her. They remained still. Miroku walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, ignoring the other man's flinch.

"Glad you're here."

He didn't say anything. They both walked towards the rest as Midna got ready to get them out of the desert finally. Link was looking at Inuyasha the entire time, but he was also avoiding looking at him. Kagome's heart sank at her friend's silence.

This was not going to be easy.

Ilia couldn't sleep, so she had decided to take a night stroll around the village. It had been weeks since she saw Link and the rest, and she couldn't help but worry. The children were not as much, as they had tremendous faith for the hero. But Colin would be the only one to really voice how he felt when he was alone with her. The young boy admired Link greatly and was in hopes of growing up just like him. Colin would speak with such familiarization about herself and Link, that it made her hate herself for not remembering.

Even though she was supposed to know who he was, she wanted to get to know him more. She felt driven by him, like a moth attracted to the light.

She was leaving the Zora's grave and rounding up the corner of the dirt road when she heard voices. One of them making her heart flutter.

"Miroku, seriously. I can walk."

Miroku grabbed Link and placed his arm around his shoulders to support him. Sango did the same with Kagome and they all started walking towards the inn. Ilia could see the wound on Link's side and immediately rushed to him.

"What in the world happened?" her green eyes were wide as she took in their state. They all had dried up blood on them and their clothes were covered in sand. Link grunted as he could feel the fatigue finally settling. He was surprised to see her, as it was still the middle of the night.

"Can you just help us get the room ready?" Sango asked quietly, worried that they would end up waking up everyone else. Ilia wanted to say something else, but she just nodded.

She was careful about opening the inn door for them and ushered them in. The small fox demon was already asleep and surprisingly, it was Inuyasha carrying him in. They made their way up stairs into the first room that was open. Kagome mentioned that she felt really dizzy and needed to sit down, so Sango took her to the bed and left to find her some water. Miroku had Link sit next to her while him and Ilia could find some bandages for his side.

As the young girl was helping the monk, she whispered, "Does this always happen?"

Miroku looked at her confused, "What do you mean?"

"Him being like this. Injured. He's always putting himself at risk."

He gave her a smile, "Not really sure what to tell you. All I can say is, it's not on purpose."

She felt herself blushing but did not say anything else. Renado was already in the room where Kagome and Link were, most likely woke up from the noise. The raven-haired girl seemed annoyed as Link kept insisting to Renado to take a look at her first instead of him. It wasn't until Kagome gave him a look that he finally complied and started to remove his top for Renado to stitch up the side. Ilia's eyes widened as she saw the bruising on his right shoulder and the made up bandage. Then there was the cut on his left side as well.

What made her feel sort of sick was the traces of a deeper wound in his stomach. Link couldn't look at anyone in the room as Renado started to stitch his side. Ilia eventually felt like she was prying, as she was just standing there without uttering a word. She decided to go to her bed. Kagome had long laid behind Link, sleep finally taking over her body completely. Miroku and Sango figured they were in good hands and retreated as well. No point in waking up Kagome to move her.

"She's pretty worried about you," the older shaman commented when he heard the door close.

Link winced as he felt the needle going through, "I know."

Silence filled the room, only on occasions Link's groaning cutting in.

"The wound on your shoulder, arrow?"

He nodded quietly.

Renado looked at him and then at his side, "And this?"

"Uhh… undead soldier?"

Renado stopped and gave him a look. Link sighed as he said quietly, "There's some stuff that no one has seen out there."

The man decided not to pry further. He was aware that the young hero was traveling and battling all sorts of creatures, some that he would probably have a hard time believing. He had Link stand up to finish up, but his dark eyes traced over the abdomen of the hero. The scarring was noticeable and the skin still had horrible bruising. Then there was the fact that on his back, he still had the same bruising. He had only seen this twice in his life time and both times, each person had died.

"Son… this bruising… the scar… what happened?"

He was looking at Link's face waiting for an answer. The hero's blue eyes turned darker and more somber as he quietly answered, "Just horrible luck."

"... You shouldn't be alive."

Link remained quiet as Renado finally finished. He didn't even bother putting his shirt back on as it was filled with sand. He carefully sat on the bed, not wanting to wake up the woman that was softly snoring.

"I know."

Renado stood and looked at him, "Then how?"

And if he hadn't been paying attention, he would've missed Link's eyes diverting to the side, right where Kagome was.

He wanted to ask more, but he saw the fatigue in the young man's posture that he decided not to push it. Whatever she had done, it had saved him. He bid him goodnight and left him alone, softly closing the door behind him.

When she woke up, every single of her muscles was throbbing. She was sore and her head was killing her for the lack of sleep the past few days and the amount of energy used. She had pushed herself too much. Link hadn't been wrong when he mentioned she looked like she had not slept in days. After passing out after the first time she healed him in the chamber, she was unable to get sleep. She was worried about him, about Inuyasha leaving, and then about her friends going to look for him. The moment she had sat down on the bed, her body finally had enough. She had heard Link's voice saying something, but she was so exhausted she couldn't make out the words.

Her lips were dry and her throat felt like sandpaper. She wanted to snort at the irony. She shifted on the bed and that's when she felt an arm tightly wrapped around her middle. She froze, panic settling until she recognized the aura.

And that's when it hit her.

They had fallen asleep on the same bed.

Part of her wanted to jump off from the bed and run. The other part of her wasn't letting her. Her heart beat started to go out of control and she could feel the heat rising on her face. She was so close to him, she could feel the warmth of his bare chest. He was still sound asleep but he had a lock on her.

She was both physically and emotionally exhausted. She didn't have it in her to move. She felt him moving and she suddenly felt his nose right at the crook of her neck. Her heart skipped a beat and she did the only thing she could.

She closed her eyes again and fell asleep.

"It's been a day already," Ilia carefully voiced her concern as the children went outside to play after breakfast, "Shouldn't we check on them? They need to eat."

Sango shook her head, "All of us are tired, but they probably received the biggest toll. It's better for them to rest and regain their strength."

"I just don't understand," the girl stubbornly said, "What's really going on? He's always putting himself in danger, making these kids worry. His wounds…" she trailed off, unsure how to continue her rant. Miroku sighed, as she had brought that up the first night they were back.

"I don't go looking for trouble, it somehow finds me."

Her eyes went wide as she turned her head, to see him standing by the doorway with Kagome behind him.

She was embarrassed that he heard her, so she quickly excused herself and left the room after putting her dishes away. He wanted to go follow her and make her understand, but they all had bigger things to worry about. Now that it was evident Ganondorf was part of the doom that had fallen on Hyrule, the situation had grown worse. The only reason why he was able to actually sleep well was because Kagome had been next to him. If she hadn't been, he probably would've had nightmares about the thief.

Then there was also the worry about Zant. He had yet to tell the others his exchange with him. When he had first gone into the final chamber where Stallord was, Zant had been there. The fiend had been surprised he was even alive. As they had exchanged words, Kagome's name was brought up. Zant had a personal vendetta against her now, and that worried him. They needed to fix the situation as soon as possible. He couldn't risk something happening to her.

Both feudal warriors however, could take in the better spirits that the other two had. They still had dark circles under their eyes, but they seemed better. Not just physically, but emotionally as well.

Miroku smiled at both of them, "How are you feeling?"

Kagome smiled back, "A lot better actually. My head doesn't hurt as much."

Sango pointed with her head, "How's your side?"

Link grinned as he grabbed an apple and sat down, "Sore but better. Should be fine soon."

Miroku nodded, glad to know that his friends were feeling better. Just like them, him and Sango were still tired, but even a good night's sleep was able to bring back up a lot of their strength.

"We need to discuss where we are going next. We need to find those pieces."

Link swallowed the chunk he had in his mouth, "Snowpeak is the only 'snowy mountains' that I know of. I've never gone there myself though."

Sango leaned in, "Maybe the resistance knows something? I mean, Auru knew about the desert. Maybe one of them can help us to be sure."

"I just know Snowpeak is by the Zora's province," Link continued, "But we should go. I'm sure Telma is also worried. How long were we gone anyways?"

Both Sango and Miroku winced.

"We were gone for three weeks," he answered.

Kagome's eyes went wide, "Seriously?"

"It didn't even feel like it," Link carefully said as the look in his eyes changed.

Kagome nodded, agreeing that time had gone by too quick. Three weeks in the desert combined with the prison? Now she understood Ilia's anger.

However, there was still one more thing she needed to take care of before they could go anywhere.

"Sango… where is he?"