Wow, it's... been a long time. Um. Whoops. In my defense, I have literally never been so busy before in my life. Sorry!

HUGE THANKS to SkyTheShadowWolf, grandshadowseal, SofitheGrape, sarcastickitten, and IwaKitsune for reviewing!

To SkyTheShadowWolf: Ooh, are you talking about Twilight Awakening? That looks interesting! I can already see some parallels to Honor Among Thieves, too. Keep up the good work! ^.^

Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda, etc. etc. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this new chapter! Feel free to send me a PM or leave a review with any questions, comments, or criticisms. Thanks for reading!


"Hold him down!"

"I'm trying!"

"Try harder, then!"

Vaati snarled, the magical chains that kept Argorok bound tightening with a flare of light. His cloak whipped around him as Argorok roared and thrashed in fury. Powerful magic saturated the air, Vaati's wind blending with Midna's twilight and the Sheikahs' shadows. I felt it layering on my skin, whipping through the air, filling every breath I took. To the magical senses, the sensation was most akin to oil over a blade, slick and smooth but with a razor's edge. Harmless, if held correctly, but one tiny slip and there would be blood.

Unifying these different magics... oh, it was a risky move. Their combined form was wild and dangerous, like a tempest or a winter storm. Then again, perhaps this was exactly the point. We needed wild and dangerous to match an equally wild and dangerous opponent. Fire with fire, and all that.

Argorok was certainly fighting us with everything he had, at least. Dragons in general were minorly resistant to magic, which meant that the ones holding him down were using more energy than normal for the same effect. It wouldn't seem like much at first, but the little things added up. Especially with how much energy this was taking already.

I gritted my teeth, pouring as much of my own magic into the purifying circle as I dared. Too much and I would pass out, reserves utterly depleted with an annoyingly long recovery time. Too little and there wouldn't be enough to power the circle. And we needed as much power in that array as we could get. Still, I pushed myself as far as I could manage. This needed to work. If it didn't, a great deal of time and preparation would have all been for nothing.

C'mon, I thought, limbs quivering with exertion. Just a little more. A little more. I can keep going.

Argorok whipped his head around, working the chains around his snout just loose enough for him to part his jaws and spew a torrent of blistering flames. They hit the barrier around him with a flare of heat and light, nearly blinding even with my eyes squeezed shut. I saw Vaati and Midna shield themselves, and Argorok's bindings tightened further in response.

The runes pulsed, magical energy flowing in almost visible waves. The Mirror Shard embedded in Argorok's forehead pulsed back, foreign power clashing against ours. Caught between the opposing forces, Argorok himself became ever more agitated. Which manifested as chaotic thrashing and fire, molten flares of heat and light, so much of it I almost thought it would melt right through the barrier.

"How much longer?!" Dark yelled. It looked as if he was flagging, not quite as magically strong as the rest of us. He was faring better than Link, though, who appeared to be teetering on the verge of collapse. Link had the least magical affinity out of anyone, but he'd insisted on helping out regardless.

Once a Hero, always a Hero, I supposed.

"Another few minutes!" one of the Sheikah yelled back.

Argorok bucked, wings shuddering as they scraped across the dirt. The Shard began to emit a wispy black fog, which hissed every time it came into contact with the array. The smoke thickened, pouring out in a seemingly endless cloud More fire spewed, hot as the desert and twice as unforgiving.

Another chain sprouted from Vaati's palms, clamping the dragon's jaws shut and pinning them to the ground. Beside him, Midna's hair was split into three different sections that acted as manacles around each leg and Argorok's tail. Dark bubbles of twili magic swirled around her, the vibrant orange of her hair almost indistinguishable from the dragonfire whirling around her.

Argorok's metal armor was twisted and bent, most of it stripped away by Vaati and Midna's combined attacks. The Shard was nearly obscured in the haze of darkness, wisps of it swirling in the air currents created from Argorok's flames. The runes shone brighter, hissing like a thousand snakes as they purified the Shard. I dug my fingers into the earth and gulped for breath, feeling strength drain away with every second that passed.

Just a little longer, I told myself again. Hold on just a little bit longer. I can do this.

I have to do this.

It was good thing I was already down on one knee, because I was pretty sure that if I was standing I would have fallen over half a minute ago. As it was, I felt my entire body trembling with the effort to just hold myself up. I couldn't even fly or lift some weight off my legs because that would have taken magic that I couldn't afford to spare.

Argorok roared and raged, thrashing as much as his bindings allowed. Vaati and Midna redoubled their efforts while the rest of us- taking cues from the Sheikah -threw the last of our power into the array, eradicating every trace of tainted magic in one final push. I felt a wave of magic build like water against a dam, battering against floodgates as pressure mounted to the breaking point and then-

Argorok reared his head, the Shard breaking free with an earsplitting CRACK and a pulse of light before he collapsed. It thudded to the ground beside him, still emitting a faint glow. Vaati and Midna sank to the ground, letting Argorok's bindings dissipate in a swirl of wind and twilit bubbles.

I gasped, body finally giving out as I let myself become little more than a pile of limbs and exhaustion. The ground was completely fine to sleep on, now that I thought about it. There was grass, it was relatively soft, no monsters... and besides, moving would take so much effort.

I didn't even notice when I passed out.


("He's an idiot," Vio said, glaring down at Shadow's unconscious form. The people who were still functioning after the ritual had moved those who weren't back to the Palace, placing them back in their rooms to recover. "Pushing himself to the point of complete magical depletion? For someone whose body was literally made of magic, that was one of the worst things he could have possibly done."

"He's not made of magic now, though," Green pointed out. "He's all flesh and blood this time. Well, mostly, anyways. Not really a shadow any longer, eh?"

"Nope! Shadow's just about hylian now, like us!" Red chirped, looking entirely too cheerful for the situation.

Blue grunted. "He did good, helping take down that dragon," he admitted, though every word sounded like it almost pained him to say. "He ain't too bad of a hero, this time around."

Vio looked back down at Shadow. "Yes. He has done well for himself, hasn't he. The only thing now would be to curb his thieving habits..."

"Ha! Good luck with that. He's a kelp- klep- whatever you call those people who can't stop stealing stuff," Blue scoffed. "Did you see how he pickpocketed Shaide yesterday? And the kid didn't even notice! What kind of Sheikah is that?"

"The term is kleptomaniac, and remember that Shaide is still in training," Vio sighed. "And remember that Shadow is very, very, good."

Green rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and I don't know if we should be proud or disapproving..."

"Hey, hey!" Red cried, pointing. "Look, he's waking up!")


Ow.

Everything hurts.

...Why does everything hurt?

Coming back to awareness was a gradual process, the feeling somewhat akin to waking up from a deep sleep. Bits and pieces of memory floated around inside my mind, not connecting until I was awake enough to think through the bleary haze. My body felt like stone, immobile and unresponsive, incapable of so much as twitching. It took far more effort than usual to simply open my eyes, though I immediately wished that I hadn't and promptly shut them again.

Aargh. Light. It burns.

Not the way it used to, no, not like when it seared like fire and burned scars into the magic that kept me alive. This time it was more like an I-drank-far-too-much-last-night-and-I-regret-because-hangover sort of way than anything else. Which was arguably worse, depending on who you asked.

...Now that I thought about it, simply fighting Argorok instead would have been much simpler. Destroying was always easier than creating, after all; killing was always easier than healing. Except that then Argorok would have been dead and one of the last connections I had to my first life would have been gone forever, not to mention the already-dwindled dragon population.

Right. That was why we'd decided against just battling Argorok in the first place.

...Still, that didn't mean I didn't feel like s*** afterwards.

I peeled my eyelids open with agonizing slowness, squinting at the watery sunbeams filtering in through the room's small window. It took a moment of staring at them in incomprehension before I managed to work out the time; somewhere around late afternoon based on their angle. How long had I been out? Last I'd checked it was barely dawn.

Okay, let's try sitting up. Can't be too hard, right?

Wrong. My mouth felt as if it was sealed shut; prying my lips open reminded me how dry and cracked they were. Twitching my fingers or wiggling my toes seemed to be the limit of what I could do beyond that. Forget lifting my torso; I couldn't even lift my head.

This is just pathetic, I thought with a mental sigh. C'mon, seriously. Just gotta keep trying. Stubbornness always works eventually.

Eventually being the key word, as it took me another ten minutes of regaining movement at a frustrating snail's pace to sit up at last. Another minute was spent making my voice work again, since the first thing that came out was a hoarse, unintelligible sort of rasping croak.

Well. That was embarrassing. Good thing there wasn't anyone else around to hear it.

...Actually, for that matter, where were the others? Was I the last one awake? The first? The only one who had passed out at all? All I knew was that I had spent almost a full day unconscious at the least, which really wasn't much information to go on. The last thing I remembered was collapsing after the Shard was finally purified out of Argorok, the last thing I saw being grass and dirt. Which wasn't that helpful either.

Staring down at the bed, I decided that pushing back the blankets would take too much work. Instead, I opted to slide into one of the blanket's shadows, making my way towards an upright position from there.

Problem was, my magic didn't get the message.

I frowned and tried again, to no avail. Every time I tried to tap into that well of magic I'd always had, I somehow ended up with nothing. It was like trying to drink from a dry river, or reaching for a trusted weapon only to have your fist close on empty air. Trying too hard was like poking at a pulled muscle, tender and edging on painful. The sensation was... unsettling, to say the least.

Did I seriously use up all the magic I had? I wondered, trying not to panic. For as long as I'd lived it had always been there, comforting and reliable. To have it so completely and abruptly absent just felt wrong.

Well, f***.

Great. Now I was actually going to have to walk.


"For f***'s sake, why does this place have so many stairs?!" I growled, taking a second to lean against the wall of yet another staircase. Normally, these weren't problems. I considered myself pretty fit from fighting monsters and running all over the kingdom, and if I felt lazy I could always fly or use the shadows.

Having all my magic drained had affected me physically as well, however. I was out of breath far sooner than normal, it felt like my legs would give out at any second, and to top it off I was sore all over. If this was the consequence for wiping out my magical reserves, then I'd make sure to never run this dry again. Why was it affecting me so badly, anyways? I'd seen Vaati push himself to the brink during his studies or experiments before, and he had never been so weak afterwards. What was different with me?

Maybe Vaati would know. Once I figured out where he and others were, that was...


"What the- Shadow, you're awake?" Dark looked surprised, like I was the last person he'd expected to see, and oddly concerned. "Wait, why aren't you resting?!"

I rolled my eyes and tried not to collapse as I sat on the nearest chair. I don't think I really succeeded. Stupid legs wouldn't stop wobbling...

"Why do you think? I woke up and nobody was there. Went to make sure you hadn't all gotten killed or something. Besides," my stomach growled as if to accentuate my point, "I was hungry." So hungry that I would eat the toughest bullbo without complaining, which... was hungrier than I'd been in a long time.

Weird. Had using up all my magic really affected me that much? Being so weak was starting to get real annoying. I knew the long recovery time would be bad, but I hadn't known it would be this bad.

"Oh! Um, I think the stew might have just finished..." Dark whirled and strode to the other side of the room where a large cauldron hung over a low fire. I watched as he took the cover off, grabbed a bowl, and scooped up ladlefuls of thick brown stew, chunks of meat and vegetables floating inside.

I had to stop myself from devouring the entire thing in a minute when he brought it over, instead eating just slow enough that I wouldn't get a stomachache afterwards. My appetite had been fully awakened by the delicious scents of the kitchen, so my mental assessment was upgraded from "hungry enough to eat a bullbo" to "hungry enough to eat a herd of bullbos".

Dark, who seemed to have anticipated this, got up and filled another large bowl for me. That one was polished off at the same rate as the first, and only after I'd gotten halfway through a third bowl (those things were huge; where was I even putting all of this food?) did I begin to slow down.

"Wow. Vaati wasn't kidding when he said you'd be hungry," my brother remarked as I finished the third bowl and leaned back with a relieved sigh. "Good thing we've got much food now. Want any more?"

I squinted at him, the first tendrils of suspicion snaking into my thoughts. I hadn't noticed it before, too preoccupied with my own hunger and weakness, but... he was being strangely nice. It was bizarre. And he looked worried, too- smile just a bit too strained to be natural, face tight, shoulders tense, and eyes focused on me with alarming intensity.

"Dark-" I hated how rough it sounded, so I coughed to clear my throat and tried again. "Dark. What's wrong?"

"What?" His eyes, which had been lingering on the empty bowls, snapped up to meet mine. "What are you talking about? Nothing's wrong."

I raised an eyebrow, not in the mood to play word games. "Don't lie. C'mon, what's going on? You're worried." A thought occurred to me, and I felt a spike of fear as I asked, "Is it something with Vaati or Midna? Link? The Sheikah? They're okay, right? You're okay?"

"No, no, they're all fine. I'm fine," Dark hastily assured me. "They're all outside with Argorok now, actually. I think they were trying to figure out something to stop Argorok from ever getting possessed again, last I checked."

"Okay..." I drew out the word, still skeptical. "Then why are you upset?"

Dark hesitated, expression twisting. I barely had time to recognize the impending explosion before he burst out, "Because the only one who isn't fine is you!"

My mind stopped. I stared at him, blindsided. "...Hold on, what?"

"You could have died, Shadow!" Dark snapped, and with a sudden jolt I realized that the unfamiliar expression he wore was terror. "Nobody realized until now, but your lifeforce is far more closely tied to your magic than anyone else's. Vaati's theory is that it's because you were literally created from pure magic in your first life. Even though you're hylian now, he thinks that your body's dependency on magic is a holdover from that." He dragged a hand down his face, looking haunted. "All this time, when you've been making bombs and flying and using the shadows and if you do too much you could die!"

...Well. That was... quite a revelation. It would certainly explain why I'd been feeling so weak before, though.

"Hold on," I realized, "that's just the same risk that all magic-users take. I already knew that!" Using magic took energy, same as anything else. Pushing too hard could lead to death, just like fighting without magic.

"No, you don't get it. It's worse for you. Others, there's a chance that they could live. Their lives aren't nearly as tied to their magic as yours. But you- Midna and the Sheikah said that your magic is like your blood. You literally cannot live without it. I mean," Dark ran a frustrated hand through his hair, making it stick up in all directions. "Look. You know what the highest punishment for a mage is, right? Besides execution?"

Oh, yes. I knew. We had only ever seen one ceremony for a magic-using criminal that didn't end in death, and it had been terrifying. All three of us had imagined ourselves up on that platform, screaming as the Princess' Light burned magic out in a vortex of power and agony and-

"Yeah," Dark said, voice hollow. "Their magic is taken away. Permanently. But," he narrowed his eyes, "they usually survive afterwards. With you, the thing is... you wouldn't."

I blinked. "Oh."

What was I supposed to say to that? It wasn't as if I could simply stop using magic. That was my primary way of fighting. My primary way of life. Just making my way down to the kitchen the normal way had made me realize how much I depended on magic, something that I didn't even notice until it was gone.

"Then," I decided, "that just means that I have to be more careful, right?"

Dark stared at me. "How are you not more freaked out by this?"

I sighed. Really, he was making a much bigger deal out of it than he needed to. "To be honest, I don't get how you're so freaked out. This is still a step up from before, y'know," I reminded him. "My lifeforce used to be tied to a freaking mirror. That was controlled at the whims of a madman, no less. This is much better than that. I mean, at least this way I can make my own decisions. And," I cut him off as he moved to protest, "let's be honest. This isn't really going to change anything. I'll be more careful, sure. I was probably too reckless before anyways. But, c'mon. You're more worried about this than I am."

"I don't understand how you aren't," Dark sighed back. "Shadow, you're my brother. When you didn't wake up for over a day-"

"Hold on, I was out for that long?"

"Yeah, get why I'm so freaked out now? Anyways, you scared me. Seriously. I know Vaati sure wasn't fine either, and Link was worried, even Midna in her own way. And I'm pretty sure the Sheikah were sorta sympathetic. I think. It's hard to tell with them." Dark tapped his fingers on the table, frowning. "But, yeah. Don't do that again, ya hear? If you die from something as stupid as overexerting yourself, Vaati and I will break into the underworld and steal you back ourselves."

I wasn't sure how to reply to that, so I said nothing. Still, Dark's words were touching, in a sappy sort of way that made me vaguely uncomfortable. We weren't exactly the sort of people who liked to open up and talk about feelings or emotional stuff. It was more like we just sorta knew. No need to say it out loud. For Dark to be so honest... I must've really rattled him.

"Thanks," I said after a moment, and I guess he knew what I meant because he let himself relax and settled back into his normal self.

A comfortable silence fell between us. I sipped at a cup of water while Dark got up and made sure the stew didn't burn. With a full stomach, warm surroundings, and still-recovering energy levels, it was no surprise when I began to doze off. The background noises of Dark moving around the kitchen, the fire crackling, and wind whistling by outside lulled me into a half-lucid state of mind. It was as if I was teetering on the edge between wakefulness and sleep, eyes slipping closed and thoughts fading as I felt my mind drift away...


"Get off me, you big lump of fur!" I laughed, attempting to push Vaati off my legs. He flicked his tail and stubbornly refused to move, instead letting out a theatrical yawn accompanied by a deliberately lazy stretch.

Shaide, perched a few feet away on the rubble of a collapsed wall, let out an amused huff. His hood was down, letting the wind blow his hair into a tangled mess, which I secretly thought looked rather like a thornbush. The other Sheikah had situated themselves in various nooks and crannies within the small garden, crouching in niches set into the walls or sitting up in the stunted trees.

The garden itself, while modest, was one of many dotted amongst the floating structures that the Oocca cultivated. They were a primarily herbivorous race, much like cuccos, meaning that the fresh vegetables and grains that they'd somehow managed to grow in this climate were quite nutritious and of surprisingly high quality. Being among some of the most well-defended locations in the entire City, the gardens were also good places to relax without fear of monsters attacking.

Link, overjoyed at the chance to show off his ranchhand roots, wandered around the greens and chattered into Midna's ear about all the different plants that he recognized, occasionally wondering aloud at which farming technique was being used or how certain things were being made to flourish. It was almost endearing, really, how boyish and excited he sounded.

I almost forgot he grew up in a farming village, I thought with amusement, and watched him lean down to prod at the stalk of some almost-ripe grain. Another day or two and it would be ready for harvest, just in time to be stored away for the winter that was nearly upon us.

Dark wandered over, twigs and leaves caught in his fur and dust coating his paws. A full-body shake removed most of it, except for a few stubborn burrs that still clung to his ear. For those, he had to sit down and scratch. Once removed, he proceeded to flop down beside me, pressed up against my side.

I reached over and rubbed behind his ears, chuckling at the way he leaned into it. If he was a dog, I was sure his tail would've started wagging. As it was, his eyes went half-lidded and he let his jaw hang open with his tongue lolling out in a wolfish grin.

"You guys worry too much," I grumbled without any real heat to the words. "I'm not going to blow away if you don't hold me down, y'know."

Vaati shot me a flat look. I beg to differ, his expression said, and arranged himself even further over my legs.

I winced. "Vaati, c'mon. You're starting to cut off circulation."

My only answer was a huff and a flick of his ears.

"Dark, back me up here!" I tried to turn to him for help, but it backfired when Dark got a mischievous look in his eye and draped himself over what little space that Vaati wasn't already occupying instead. I cursed at him, jabbing fruitlessly at both my brothers as they just about smothered me.

Giving up, I lay back on the grass and tried to get as comfortable as possible. It didn't look like my brothers were cooperated, and they seemed determined to squash me in a pile of fur. Well, they made pretty good blankets, at least.

Link noticed the commotion and moved to stand over me, unable to hold back snorts of laughter. "Wow, guys," he said, trying for a straight face and failing miserably. "New meaning to the term 'dogpile', huh?"

I rolled my eyes and tossed a handful of dirt at his boots. "Ah, shuddup. Not like you're being any help."

Link grinned. "Oh, really?" he said, expression matching Midna's like a mirror, and I had a split second of realization before his form blurred and all of a sudden there was one more enormous canine in the mess.

"Hey, get off! I can't move!" I flailed underneath the pile of two wolves and a panther, cursing.

The three of them, chuffing in animal humor, ignored me.