A/N: Welcome back! I was so happy to see there's still interest in this story! I still get notifications for the original, I've never had the heart to delete it, but I worried people wouldn't care so much about the rewrite. So, thank you for proving me wrong. Also, sorry for the cliffhanger last chapter! (That was, like, incentive for me to get this chapter out quick) So let's get going with it.

How did I get here? Claire thought, her hands almost numb from how tightly they were clenched, holding on through sheer force of will. She knew she had to do something, literally anything, because if she stayed here as she was, she would die.

Loosening her grip on one hand just enough that she could creep her way up the rope, Claire managed to raise herself a few inches higher... when her 'solid' grip on the other rope slipped. Claire felt her body go weightless for a sickening split-second of freefall, and she lost the few inches she'd gained as she felt her wrist slam into the base of the rope, and the bridge wobbled.

"Yep! This is hell, I'm in hell, confirmed!" she squawked, no room left to care about the tatters of her dignity when she was probably about to die.

Minutes earlier...

Too dazed to fear, and oddly detached from her body in the wake of everything she'd seen – what had she seen? Every time she tried to reach for the memories, they retreated; slippery like oil, to her muddled thoughts. Claire registered a deep, rasping blare of a horn. Such a specific sound, and one Claire was familiar with even now. Part of her even expected the Twilight Princess score to pick up, like it always did in the cutscene in the game. Confused when, rather than any of the video game noises she'd been waiting for, her uneasy perch jolted into motion. Oh, and it was so much worse when they started off at a gallop.

Oh, God... she realized what was happening, and where exactly she was. The pain in her injured leg flared with every step, the bulbo's gait was nauseating –she definitely had a concussion– and its coarse fur bristled against the side of her face. In the same moment, she realized this can't happen.

I can't help Link if I get locked in Kakariko, or worse! Claire thought desperately. The Bulblins weren't particularly efficient when they tied her up, she thought, because it only took a few seconds to free herself. It felt far too easy, even with her vision pulsing in time with her throbbing skull.

Making a split-second decision –there was no chance to think, she didn't have time– Claire flung her legs up behind her to get enough momentum to roll off the bulbo's back. However, she also managed to overshoot the narrow planks and throw herself directly off the Ordon bridge.

Snagging two of the ropes holding the bridge together before she could fall to her death, by some god-given stroke of luck, Claire bit her tongue when the slack in the rope drew taut and harshly jerked in the other direction. Quietly, a small part of her was relieved that she hadn't eaten much that morning, or she would've lost it all staring into the nothing below her. She doubted it was truly bottomless, but she wasn't interested in finding out for herself!

The bulbos' hoofbeats faded, her escape apparently going unnoticed, or maybe she just wasn't necessary. Claire just kept dangling, bleary and petrified. She wasn't sure if she would be able to pull herself up, if she would be able to grab on again if she relaxed for even a second, but... she had to do something. Literally, anything, because she would die if she stayed here.

Oh, god... okay, I think I can do this. If I just work my way up slowly... Claire managed to eke her way upward, less than an inch at the time. If she could just get the planks level with her middle, she could swing her good leg up and pull herself to safety. She just... had to make it there, first. She managed to shimmy herself up a little more when the rope slipped against her glove. She dropped down an inch or two, and swore.

"Damn it, come on!" she hissed between gritted teeth, breaths coming in short puffs as she did her best not to panic, trying once more to save herself. Instead she slid to the very bottom of the rope with a jolt and a painful impact with the planks at the base, her exposed fingertips burning and her stomach threatening to rebel.

"I don't want to die!" Claire shrieked, no room left for thoughts of maintaining a brave face. Her fingers were slipping, she was going to fall to her death before she could even meet Midna–

"Claire!" Like freaking magic, Link was there. She felt his footsteps shaking the bridge, nearly enough on its own to make her lose her grip. Link reached her with moments to spare, his hand closed over Claire's wrist, and she forced herself to drop the rope so he could pull her up.

It was almost offensive how easily he lifted her, like she was nearer to Malo's weight than his own. What business does he have being that strong, she thought, but there was no time.

"I saw you get shot, what–"

"I got shot, but we have to go," Claire insisted, making for Faron despite the bolt of pain through her thigh with every step. Link quickly overtook her hobble-step-jogging, but Claire knew he wouldn't get far. Panic and adrenaline clouding her thoughts, she nearly ran into his back before realizing he'd stopped moving; as it was, she only stumbled into his shoulder when she put too much weight on her bad leg to stop moving

They couldn't make any further progress under their own power: the narrow ravine that led into Faron was entirely blocked, the dark barrier in their path seeming to reach into the very heavens. Shadows were licking at the edges of it, like the twilight was leaking into the world of light, or siphoning the light out.

"What... What is this?" Link whispered haltingly, approaching the dark barrier. Claire did her best to keep in step with him now, a hand on his forearm for balance as they inched closer. Knowing what was coming didn't make the compounding dread any less smothering.

What would happen to her, in lands afflicted by twilight? What if, despite everything, she was killed before she could make it to Hyrule Castle?

When they were close enough to touch, dark orange-gold patterns floated out of the black and to the surface of the wall. All at once it rippled like a stone thrown into a calm pond, and clawed appendages burst from the disturbed area – in seemingly the time it took to blink, one had snagged Claire by the throat. The last of the air in her lungs was stolen by her terrified scream as she was dragged into the black.

Claire knew the other hand must've snatched Link, but she couldn't hear him. Couldn't see him through the darkness engulfing her. The last sensation she lost was Link slipping out of her grasping fingers. And for a few horrible seconds Claire lost all sense of where she was, suffocating in the claustrophobic darkness crowding around her so close, she feared her bones would give way if it squeezed her any tighter.

No sooner than the thought occurred to her, Claire found herself subject to gravity's whims once more. It was really too bad that that revelation clued her back into her big problem: the claws squeezing around her throat, tighter by the second.

How many times have I faced my death today? I should start high-fiving him when I pass by, Claire thought hysterically. Dark spots danced in her eyes as her lungs screamed for air, and the shadow beast's grip only grew the harder she fought. It seemed otherwise unbothered by her attempts to kick free.

Somewhere in the back of her consciousness, she knew Link was similarly fighting for his life. When she managed to see him out of the corner of her eye, he looked all... wrong. Black lines crept along his skin, just below the surface. The twilight was trying to take its hold on him.

Come on, any day now, Claire willed the Triforce's light to manifest itself, her last clear thought as she could feel herself fading again, and it really couldn't be good to be knocked unconscious twice in the same hour...

Maybe it was perfect timing, maybe someone out there was listening to her, but in seemingly the next moment –goddess knew how much time had passed, Claire certainly didn't– the world erupted unto pure, blinding golden light. Their assailant recoiled with an ear-piercing shriek, tossing Claire and Link away like discarded dolls as it retreated from the harsh light.

All sense of where she was disappeared until she was rolling painfully to a stop in the deep grass a few feet from Link. The world continued to spin after Claire did, everything hurt, and the very air against her skin felt wrong.

Get up, you have to get up, get to Link, hurry.

Pushing onto her elbows, Claire dragged herself off the ground in Link's direction. His affliction had only worsened with the Triforce's cleansing burst, his face set in pain as his everything seemed to shift beneath his skin in a nauseating roil through his body.

Claire didn't know what she'd expected, but Link's first transformation was something out of a nightmare. When he threw his head back with an agonized scream, the sound seemed to congeal in his throat as his vocal cords moved and stretched. The wolf burst from his Hylian skin like an overfilled balloon, the cracking and popping of bones reordering themselves overlaid by Link's ever-deepening cry. His teeth had elongated, fingernails grown into claws, ears shifted to the top of his head.

The scream gurgled and tapered into a beastly growl as Link lost consciousness, sagging into the dirt on four legs rather than two as the strain took its toll. Claire would've spared more thought to just how horrifying that had been to witness, if she would think anything around the pounding in her head. The flood of oxygen had been just as overpowering as the lack of it was, but that didn't explain everything: why had she not transformed, or turned into a spirit? What was going to happen to her?

Voice breaking on a hitching sob, Claire made it another two feet before she couldn't move any longer – that was when things really went wrong. Little flecks of twilight were gathering on her body, like ash or snow. When she had the presence of mind to try and brush them off, they only spread to her hands.

"What...?" she croaked, holding her hands up in front of her face. Everywhere the flecks touched, her skin took on an unnatural black sheen like scales, and they were spreading. Everywhere that blackened, her veins and everything beneath seemed to glow with an unnatural fire. Smoldering shadow, rather than burning light.

This is wrong... Claire thought, feeling disconnected from her body. This isn't supposed to be happening to me, this is so, so wrong!

Like a switch was flipped in her head, Claire became very, very afraid. It overrode everything else as the darkness spread. It crawled up her limbs, spurred by every twilit particle she tried to destroy. A scream bubbled out of her damaged throat, and she kept batting her arms about uselessly as the not-fire continued its lazy crawl up past her elbows and knees. Distantly, she knew that screaming would only attract more trouble her way, it wouldn't stop whatever was happening. In the moment, all she knew was fear of the darkness slowly consuming her. It reached the tops of her thighs and shoulders.

I don't want to turn into a monster, she thought desperately, I want to help Link!

Vision doubling, Claire lost the energy to scream as she slumped into the dirt. She would either be consumed by the darkness and die, or she would be transformed by it into... something, who knew what. Goddess willing, the beasts would take her to the castle, or simply leave her here to find shelter until Link came back with Midna. For now, Claire squeezed her eyes shut and played possum as she succumbed to her body's weakness.

She felt the darkness creeping up toward her collar. This was the moment. When it reached her mind, she would either die, or... well, what else could happen? Link was turned into a beast, but seemed to retain his same mind. Maybe Claire could allow herself to hope for the same.

The darkness reached her jaw, and the cradle of her skull felt oddly cold, for all that it looked like the dark was burning her. Claire noted the woods around her had gone silent. She wondered where the shadow beasts had gone, and why they hadn't taken her. She couldn't hear Link breathing beside her, they must have taken him.

The darkness overtook the tips of her ears and nose, and the only thing she really registered about that change –beyond the cold– was an odd sense of disconnect between her sense of touch and the world around her. Like an extra layer between her and the rest of the world. The darkness and not-fire finally invaded the forced blankness behind her eyelids, and there was a sense of finality to it.

The thing is, Claire had already confronted the possibility of her imminent death at least three times this morning alone, she was burnt out by all the other signs of her imminent doom. She couldn't even muster the energy to be relieved that she seemed to still be in her right mind. Couldn't bring herself to think beyond I didn't die, what next?

The universe, it seemed, had the answer for her.

"Hmph. What are you supposed to be?" a simpering voice mused, somewhere over Claire's head. Claire's eyes snapped open. That voice, it had to be– and if it was her, then–

In light of, well, everything that just happened, she reacted without thinking beyond oh, there's only one person that could be.

"Midna?" she blurted out, heedless that she wasn't supposed to know Midna even existed, like an idiot. The titular twilight princess had a reasonable reaction, in hindsight. In the moment Claire realized she probably should have kept her mouth shut, she wasn't thinking much of anything at all as she abruptly found herself seized by one ankle and dragged into the air with a yelp. Before she could process beyond her forcible reorientation, Claire found a glaring eye in her face. Oh, shit...

"How do you know me?!" a very familiar twilit imp snarled in her face, blood-red eye wide with panic and fury.

"Princess, wait! I'm not your–" Claire's plea was cut off with a frightened screech when Midna flung her upwards, catching her in midair with an iron grip around her ribs. "–gh, enemy, I'm not your enemy!" she wheezed desperately. Her arms were being crushed into her sides, and already she could feel her lungs fighting for air once more.

"Answer my question, or die," the imp warned. Claire floundered; what could she say that wouldn't make her sound like a liar, or a crazy person? Midna's glowing hair-hand squeezed tighter around her ribcage, impatient. The black spots in her vision came back.

"Ah! Okay, o-okay! I'm Claire, I'm... not from Hyrule, or-or any place you would recognize, but I– swear, I'm not your enemy!" Midna watched her struggle dispassionately; she was going to kill her. "P...Please," she gasped, feeling her ribs beginning to creak under the relentless pressure. The twili was merciless in her hold as she weighed the decision before her. Once again, Claire felt her ribs threatening to give out and she choked on one last desperate noise– she'd long since run out of air to speak, it was the most she would muster.

Midna abruptly released Claire, and the short drop to the ground had her knees buckling beneath her as air flooded back into her lungs. She wasn't in the clear yet, though.

"Talk, while you still have a jaw. I'm only going to ask you once more, how do you know my name?"

Claire wasn't going to waste the opportunity, lest the princess change her mind. "The world I came from had... a series of legends about Hyrule. You're... a central figure in the one called Twilight Princess; you're the princess of Twilight, and you're here because you want to recruit the divine beast to gather the Fused Shadows and overthrow Zant, the usurper king." She wasn't prepared to lie, knowing her life was on the line, but she wondered even now if she should be telling any of the 'characters' from the story about any of this.

Midna considered Claire– she didn't know what the imp was seeing. She could count on her fingers the number of times she'd seen her own reflection since coming to Hyrule at all, never mind the transformation: What had she become, beyond the barrier of Twilight?

"...And what do you want from me?" Midna finally asked, and Claire nearly rolled her eyes.

"Bold of you to assume I'm in a position to make demands of you, princess. I want my life, and I want to help you take back your kingdom. If that sounds too altruistic, it isn't; save the Twilight, save the world of light. You can't do one without the other, thus, everyone wins. Even if I wanted more, we don't have time to hash it out."

Midna's demeanor was immediately suspicious. "...Why?"

"Because we have to get to Hyrule Castle. The wolf the beasts took, you know what he is, yes? You know that you're going to need him to reclaim the Fused Shadows."

Midna's visible eye gleamed, once again catching the mention of the sacred twilit relics.

"And how do you know about those, hm?"

"Am I speaking in tongues?" Claire retorted, irritated. "I literally just said I'm familiar with you because of a story about this era, and you're asking me how I know about the Fused Shadows? Really?" Maybe she was overreacting and being snappish, but it had been a damn long day – and it surely wasn't even late afternoon yet. (Keeping track of time in the Twilight was going to be a huge pain, she could already feel it.)

Something in her sharp response had amused Midna, she could see it in her eye, but Claire wasn't about to ask.

"Alright, have it your way, Claire," she said, the heavy emphasis on her name told Claire exactly how authentic Midna thought her name and story were. Given what she turned into, in the land of shadows, she found she couldn't really blame her. "Next question: Say that I believe you're not an agent of Zant's; why should I let you tag along? What's stopping me from killing you here, and saving myself the headache later?"

Right, she wasn't out of the woods yet... Think, Claire, think! How to present this, what to... No. No, I can't do that, no way. Link would never forgive me if he found out...

"Well, I know where each of the Fused Shadows rests, and what needs doing to claim them for yourself. And..." Claire swallowed thickly, fighting a wave of nausea at the thought of her next words. You have to, there's no other choice. "...I know how to secure Link's– the divine beast's – cooperation," she admitted, far slower. Midna waited expectantly. "...You may have seen the monsters leaving Ordon with a handful of kids?" A nod, and Midna waited.

"That's it? Some kids?" Midna almost sneered, her smirk wicked in the turning shadows.

"He's like their older brother, in all but blood. He'd do anything to bring them home safely to their families," Claire said, hating herself the longer she spoke.

"So... what? Are you proposing a hostage situation?" Midna asked, seeming entertained by the idea. Claire did her best to nip that in the bud before it could become a really bad thought.

"No. I'm saying you should exploit the hostage situation already at hand. Convince him the only way to save his family is with your help." Because it's true, she thought, a ball of lead beginning to form in her stomach. Guilt, she decided it felt like. Who was she to manipulate the situation like this, in a way that benefited her?

"Hm... Alright, Claire. Let's see if you're true to your word, hm?" Before Claire could speak a word of agreement, or in her own defense, she was bodily seized once more – this time Midna held her by the throat. "But if I find out you've been lying to me, if you cross me ever, you won't live long enough to regret it. Do we understand each other?"

"C-Crystal clear," she gritted out, and Midna released her.

"Good."

"...Great talk, can we please go?" Claire would really rather not take the chance and found out they were too late to save Link because they dawdled on a pointless interrogation. "If needs must, you can question me while we walk. I don't care. But we shouldn't stay here," she emphasized quickly. This was too close for comfort to where she remembered Shadow Beasts spawning from a portal, and she didn't feel like lingering to see if they were around just yet.

Claire started walking north – even discombobulated as she was, she remembered 'away from Ordon' was north, through Faron.

"Are you a tracker, as well? How do you know where to go?" Midna immediately challenged her, though the imp floated at her side all the same.

"Deductive reasoning, and a bit of foreknowledge. They're going to take him to Hyrule Castle, to the dungeon."

"Why go through all that effort, rather than kill him?" Claire slowed specifically to give an irritated look to her companion. As if Claire was supposed to know!

"...If you wanted to seize power of a supposedly goddess-blessed kingdom, would you kill your enemy, knowing that he would be reborn and eventually grow up to defeat you anyway? Or would you keep him under watch, to make absolutely sure he couldn't interfere with your plans until it was too late to stop them?" Claire had often wondered the same thing when playing through the game, and that was the only explanation that made in-world sense to her. "I'm only guessing, though, which is why I think we need to hurry. I don't know if they plan to kill him in the future, and I don't want to find out when it's too late to save him," she concluded, picking up the pace with the reminder.

This is a very real world, who knows how different it will turn out from the story I know?

Claire couldn't help but worry.

Years spent taking back-alleys and shortcuts home from school to evade bullies were paying off in spades, as Claire worked to navigate the twilight-infested Faron province. It wasn't just the odd twilight flecks moving into the sky, like some kind of glitching rain, nor the animals and hostile plants that were transformed. Everything, down to the blades of grass, appeared to be a jagged, blackened caricature of itself. Regular insects appeared both shriveled and oversized. Wildflowers, like the ones the kids had adorned Claire's head with, looked brittle like charcoal.

It was so much more than anything Nintendo could have made up, and yet somehow exactly what she would have expected of a world transformed by shadow...

They passed a rundown-looking hut with a cooking pot over the fire pit – it had certainly seen better days, shadow infestation aside – and had nearly reached greater Hyrule Field when they met any resistance: two twilit bokos, patrolling the entrance to the forest. Claire hesitated.

"What, are you scared of those?" Midna scoffed.

"Get off my back, I don't have any w..." Claire stopped. "I do have weapons! Are you kidding me, I can't believe I forgot, I'm an idiot..." she grumbled to herself. She had weapons in her bag. Her bag, which she had somehow managed to keep hold of during all the upheaval. Claire almost slapped her hand up to her face, but the sight of wicked claws where her fingernails were supposed to be brought her up short, and she thought better of it. Just in case.

"So now that we've established your idiocy, do you want to prove that dragging you along is worth my time?" Midna asked haughtily, once Claire was armed. Huffing once, she opted to stay silent. If Midna knew she didn't even know how to use her weapons, she doubted she'd hear the end of it. How different could they really be from the training batons she'd started learning with, before all this? Aside from them being blades, and ending in deadly-sharp points, she thought sardonically.

Without giving herself more time to think about it, Claire lunged for the nearer boko. Twin blades flashed in the dim twilight, and she aimed for the creature's exposed neck: its gurgling attempt at a screech of pain would surely keep her awake later, but in the moment all she knew was stark relief. She wasn't useless, she could do this!

Now she just had to do it again, without the element of surprise this time. The first boko's execution hadn't gone unnoticed for long. The second boko swung its club, Claire strafed to one side, and time seemed to slow as she watched the club's handle slide down the flat of one of her blades and swing wide, leaving an opening for her to go for something vital; even in the twilight, it seemed bokos' insides were still in the right places.

It was a dark sort of relief, that Claire didn't have to rely on hitting some magical damage threshold to deal with monsters; they died, like any other creature.

"Well, I guess you're not completely useless," Midna sniffed, drawing her back out of her thoughts.

"Thank you, that's such a ringing endorsement. Shall we?" Claire mock-bowed, waiting til Midna floated on ahead of her to make a rude gesture at the princess's back.

If Midna's personality was true to the game, especially in these early 'chapters' she would have to make it through, Claire was going to be in for a hell of a ride.

A/N: Back-to-back updates, practically! Can you believe this story has 30k+ words now? And we still haven't technically made it out of Twilight Princess's intro yet! Thank you again so much to those who've left reviews for me, I love seeing that people are still interested in what I'm putting out here. Next chapter, Claire finally makes it to Hyrule Castle. What's Link's reaction going to be, to whatever it is Claire became? Will Zelda have any useful information to offer? You'll have to wait and see!