Huge thanks to grandshadowseal, Guest, shadowcat500, Shiekah Ninja, Ocean of the Moon, delta4phoenix, Guest, and minicoopa411 for reviewing!
To grandshadowseal: Huh, Vaati is kind of like a giant Espeon, huh? I never thought of it like that, but that's a hilarious mental image. ^.^
To Ocean of the Moon: That's a really good idea! Maybe I'll borrow it if I ever do write a follow-up oneshot to this. Thanks for the idea! :D
Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!
It was soon discovered that the power of the Sols allowed the Master Sword to temporarily dispel the black crystal fog, which came in handy for revealing puzzles that it would have otherwise hid. With it, we fought our way through the main building of the Palace of Twilight, soon enough reaching the throne room.
"Zant," Midna hissed, all coiled viper with fangs bared. From what we could see of Zant's face, he didn't seem all that pleased. He probably hadn't ever expected us to get this far.
"Midna," Zant greeted, inclining his head a fraction.
Midna smirked. "Isn't this ironic? Here we are, all thanks to the dark magic curse you placed on them." She gestured to us, and the grins we flashed in return were downright predatory.
Zant's jaw clenched. "You speak of magic?" he asked, low and sibilant, rising to his feet. "Still your tongue, whelp. I'll tell you of both magic and the oppression of ages…"
Midna sneered at him. "You think I don't know our people's history? You're a fool, Zant, and a false king!"
"The people of our tribe were locked away in this world like insects in a cage!" he hissed, his helmet somehow retracting into the heavy collar of his robes with a metallic shink. "In the shadows we regressed, so much so that we soon knew neither anger nor hatred, not even the faintest bloom of desire. All the fault of a useless royal family that had resigned itself to this miserable half-existence!"
I couldn't help but stare. This was perhaps the first time we had seen Zant without that bizarre helmet, and it was downright strange. Zant's features were almost aristocratic, with high cheekbones, a pointed chin, and a narrow jaw tilted in typical noble arrogance. His eyes burned orange like the lava of Death Mountain, turning to flame-yellow where pupils should have been. Under each eye was a dark slash that was almost eerily similar to Vaati's eye-markings, and some sort of intricate tattoo spread from between his brows down the abnormally flat bridge of his nose.
Zant didn't look remotely similar to Midna. At least Midna's eyes had actual pupils. Zant… well. There was something off about him, like a mad dog, not quite foaming at the mouth but dangerous nonetheless. Even as he spoke, his arms raised, twisted, back arching and head rotating like an owl's… until he was contorted in an entirely unnatural position, grinning maniacally.
I leaned toward Midna and whispered, "Was he this off his rocker before, or did he just never stick around long enough for us to notice?"
Midna's lone eye was wide. "He was always a little strange, but no, never to this extent."
With a dramatic whirl of cloth, Zant untwisted himself, threw his arms in the air, and proceeded to jump up and down like a child having a tantrum. I was honestly torn between vague horror and near-hysterical laughter.
"I had served and endured in that depraved household for far too long, my impudent princess," he said, scowling. In a second, he'd leapt off the dais and was in Link's face, spinning away barely fast enough to avoid getting stabbed. "And why, you ask? Because I believed that I would be the next to rule our people! That is why!"
Zant ended his snarling words with a battle stance, but the dramatic speech wasn't done yet. "But would they acknowledge me as their king? No! And as such, I was denied the magic powers befitting our ruler!" As he continued, his bent back until he had almost folded himself in half. "It was then, in the thrall of hatred and despair, that I turned my eyes to the heavens… and found a god." He straightened back up, helmet clicking into place. "My god had only one wish… to merge shadow and light, and make darkness!"
Zant teleported back to the dais, rising into the air. Magic rose, thick and suffocating, sharp around the edges with–
I nearly staggered back. Ganondorf. That was his power, heady and intense and crushing, dangerous as a desert viper.
Somehow, I wasn't surprised that he was working with Zant.
"Dear Goddesses, please tell me my evil speeches weren't that dramatic," Vaati muttered as the room grew dark. Zant cackled, a scarlet array manifesting behind him as he somehow turned the palace throne room into an illusion of the Forest Temple where we had battled Diababa, all that time ago in Faron Woods.
"Hate to break it to you," I said, keeping an eye on Zant where he hovered over poison-magenta water, "but you weren't much better."
Vaati cringed. "Great."
Zant, apparently angry that we were paying more attention to each other than to him, shrieked and shot a barrage of crackling magic spheres at us. Where they hit, turf flew, sparks of power tearing up the dirt.
...Either that was an insanely good illusion, or Zant had actually transformed the entire room to match the Forest Temple. If he hadn't been trying to kill us, I might've been slightly impressed.
With a growl, Vaati leapt into the air and called up a twister that slammed into Zant before he could react. It dragged him down to dry land, holding him there while the rest of us darted in and attacked. Link's Sol-infused Master Sword was the most effective, searing light appearing to burn Zant with every slash.
(That part was honestly a little more terrifying than I wanted to admit. Light didn't hurt me now, but… old memories could be hard to shake.)
Thrashing, Zant made as if to teleport away, but Vaati threw up a barrier similar to those he'd used to trap Zant Masks at the same moment. It clearly strained him, maintaining two separate constructs strong enough to trap Zant with his Ganondorf-borrowed power, but–
Three blades connected simultaneously, and the sound Zant let loose was less a scream and more a shrill, wordless screech that felt as if it was drilling right into my ears. Vaati's barriers faltered, Zant whirled away– and then the world went dark, crimson runes flashing into existence.
Vaati snarled as the illusion returned, this time mimicking the inside of Death Mountain. Link cursed when he dropped down several feet and found himself sliding around on a magnetized platform, floating in a deep pool of lava. It was an impressive illusion, to be sure– there was blistering heat scorching my lungs with every breath, and the rotten eggs of sulfur-scent was almost tangible, but it was still an illusion.
Zant might've been of twilight, but I had been born of mirrors, of dark reflections, of shadows and echoes all twisted up into a single being and given the power to take a thousand different faces as my own. I knew illusions, and all of Zant's tricks were just that. Tricks, and false surroundings.
That didn't mean they weren't annoying to deal with, though.
Zant decided that obviously the best course of action would be to teleport to the edge of the platform and jump up and down to unbalance it. Link promptly shot him in the face, which would've been immensely satisfying if he hadn't teleported away in the nick of time.
Falling into a diamond formation at the center of the platform, the four of us waited for Zant to reappear. It didn't take long– there was a whirl of dark robes, a wild cackle, crimson-dark power sweeping out–
"Gotcha," Vaati snarled, and bone crunched as Zant's face was forcibly introduced to the wall.
"Ooh, that looks like it hurt," Dark observed, a wolf-tooth grin slashed across his face. Zant was howling in pain, clutching his broken nose as blood– tinted orange, which was just weird –dripped down his face.
The room went dark. Zant made a sound of pure rage, runes slamming into existence behind him. If the followed the pattern he seemed to have decided on thus far, then…
"What the f***," Dark said, bubbles rising and voice distorted through the water. We were quick to draw on Zora armor, even the ground rumbled and an enormous copy of Zant's fish-mask rose from seemingly nowhere. "What the f***, what is even the point of this?!"
"Honestly? I don't think there is a point," Link said through gritted teeth. Reaching into a pouch, he pulled out one of the clawshots. "He doesn't exactly seem sane, don't you think?"
Zant, floating inside the mask's hollow interior, whipped crackling spheres of corrupted magic through the water, as swift and sure as if through empty air. Link took aim and fired before the mask could close, metal talons clamping down on the front of Zant's robes. The clawshot yanked Zant into range of our weapons, and even if it wasn't for long, we were able to trap him long enough to deal a good bit of damage.
In the end, the entire battle felt like that– Zant would try to recreate one of our previous dungeons, but he was too wild, too uncontrolled, to really stand up to the four of us at once. By the end, he began to flag, attacks veering wildly off course as his faux-staggering around became real, and–
The illusion of field on Castle Town's outskirts shattered, and we fell back into the Twilight Realm's throne room.
There was a shift, the air itself growing dark for a brief moment, and out of nowhere spun the Fused Shadows that Zant had stolen. In a flash, they returned to their rightful owner, and Midna gasped at the sudden influx of power.
"Oh," she said, soft, flexing her fingers. A skeleton grin stretched across her face, crimson eye wide with delight. "Now, that is something."
Zant, collapsed in an ungainly pile of limbs on the throne, was visibly panting with exertion. "Traitors," he hissed, straightening up, hands gripping the armrests of the throne like lifelines.
Midna sneered at him. "Traitors? Ha! You know why none would accept your rule, Zant?" Her eyes narrowed, bubbles of twilit magic rolling off her fingertips. "It was your greed. The Twili remember what befell our first king, who had the same lust for power, and we refuse to bow to one such as him again."
"Oh, Midna," Zant bit out, "you foolish Twilight Princess. Your curse can never be broken, for it was placed upon you by my god! You will never regain your power as leader of the Twili!" His head lolled up, lava-orange eyes burning in the dim light. "Already, he has descended and been reborn in this world… and as long as my master Ganon survives, he will resurrect me without ceasing!"
Vaati swore under his breath, and wind swirled invisible blades around his feet. "Oh, no. That is not good. Necromancy? Seriously?"
...Well. That explained how Zant had been able to come back after so many blows that, by all rights, should have been fatal. And how his body twisted into such unnatural positions.
Dark growled, lifting the blade of his sword. Except, before he could move–
Midna's hair arched up like a striking snake, vibrating with wordless fury. Fast as a thought, it hurtled forward further than I'd ever seen it extend, twisting into deadly spears of gold-tipped black and orange. Zant shrieked as he was impaled and writhed on the throne, flailing as he tried to break free, but–
Midna was stronger, and Zant imploded into dust as Midna's hair withdrew into her normal ponytail.
There was a heavy pause. "Wow," Link said, sounding breathless. "I did not see that coming."
Even Midna looked stunned by what she'd just done. "I didn't either," she admitted, looking at her hands. She reached behind her head to touch her hair, expression slack with shock. "And that was only a fraction of the power that's in me now, I think."
I stared at her. Looked at the throne, empty but for a scattering of black specks, and back at her hair. "Ah," I said, only half-joking as I edged away a couple inches. "Remind me not to make you mad."
"...Well. I may not have been able to take Zant's evil power," Midna mused, "but this is the magic of my ancestors. With this, maybe I could even return what Zelda gave." She paused, thumb rubbing over the back of her hand before they dropped to her sides. "But first, I need to take care of my people."
We hadn't noticed it before, but time seemed to pass… differently, in the Twilight Realm. Or perhaps it was only that it was more difficult to tell. Midna's world was perpetually shrouded in the muted shades of dusk, the skies an ever-shifting expanse of sunburnt color and inky clouds. There was no defined sun, not like Hyrule had, but more of a general impression of lightness that traveled across the sky in a long, slow arc.
Midna had been right about one thing, though– it was beautiful.
There was something calm about the twilight, all those smooth colors and dim lights. Twili architecture favored sleek lines and rounded edges, as opposed to Hyrule's rough bricks and uneven cobblestone. Magic hummed in the air, shifting in invisible waves and currents as Midna set about purifying her kingdom.
The four of us– Dark, Link, Vaati, and I –generally just tried to stay out of her way. We didn't know the language, so we couldn't talk to anyone, and any of the other royal staff that could've possibly spoken Hylian were either dead or still missing. The kingdom was a mess, and Midna was determined to set as much right as she could.
Perched atop the Palace roof beside me, Vaati sighed. "I should probably get to work on a translation spell or something. I'm getting kind of bored."
"Yeah," Dark agreed, sheathing his freshly-cleaned sword. "And I think we've basically gotten rid of all the monsters, too."
In the distance, a twilit kargarok fell with an arrow in its eye. Link lowered his bow and nodded with satisfaction. "No, now we've gotten rid of all the monsters." Folding his legs, he dropped to sit next to us. "A translation spell would be nice, though. I wish we could help more with the refugees."
I looked over to where Midna was speaking with a crowd of Twili, gesturing with both hands and her hair as she directed people in a hive of activity. After a few minutes, they dispersed into smaller groups and seemed to be taking stock of each other.
Midna, however, warped into a flurry of twilit squares and reappeared in front of us. "Hey!" she snapped, "what do you all think you're doing? You can't slack off now!"
"Well, what are we supposed to do?" I shot back, though there was no real heat in it. "We can't talk to any of them, and we cleared out all the monsters both in the Palace and out here." A beat of silence. "And I'm starting to get kinda hungry, too."
Midna took a moment to think about it, lips pursed. "Fine. I'll see if I can scrounge up a translation spell later, but for now, we need more supplies. You don't need to speak the language to go search the Palace for food, right?" She nodded at the huddled groups of newly-purified Twili. "They're hungry, and I need to find wherever the rest of my people are hiding. That means venturing beyond this area, but I can't do that until I'm sure that they'll be taken care of.
"Speaking of which– Link, could you come with me? It would help if you transformed, too. They desperately need some moral support right now, and seeing the Blue-Eyed Beast of prophecy would help. I'll have you carry what supplies I've found so far."
Link grinned and headed towards the stairs. "Sure, I don't mind. I'll meet you in the plaza."
Vaati got to his feet, boots scraping against stone. "I might have a translation spell in mind, actually, but it needs some tweaking to be more permanent. Might be faster than waiting for you, since you've got so much other stuff to do."
Midna nodded to him, grateful. "Good. You get to work on that. Dark, Shadow, go search for supplies. You should be able to recognize blankets, bedrolls, tents, that sort of thing. They look essentially the same as those in the Light World. Food is fairly similar as well, but anything you don't recognize, just leave it. All the traps have been cleared, right?"
"Probably?" Dark glanced over some empty nests, formerly belonging to a flock of twilit keese. "I mean, if not, we can take care of ourselves."
"Good." Midna pointed at the back of the Palace's central building. "Main kitchen should be over there. Hopefully, Zant won't have completely cleared it out."
"Well, worst case scenario, you bring us back to Hyrule for a quick trip and we raid Castle Town's market," I suggested as I adjusted my hat. "I mean, you can eat Light World food, so everyone else should be able to as well, right?"
Midna hesitated. "I'd prefer to save that as a last resort."
"Fair enough." I grinned at her, making shooing motions back towards the crowd of Twili in the plaza. "Go on, we'll be fine. Do whatever princess-y stuff you need to do."
"You know, you really should show some more respect." Midna smirked, crossing her arms even as she floated away. "I am the ruler of this world, after all."
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, it's not like any of them know what we're saying anyway. Now seriously, go on. If your booby-trapped palace eats us, just know that Vaati will take revenge."
"I'm sure he will," Midna laughed, and went.
In the end, we did not get eaten by Midna's palace. A nesting twilit baba serpent did almost take a chunk out of my arm, but that didn't really count. The kitchens and storehouses had been almost completely ransacked, unfortunately, but…
"This will hold us over for a short while, at least." Midna pursed her lips as she surveyed our finds. "I can only hope most of the outlying farms survived. We're lucky that it's been such a good harvest this year, or there wouldn't have been nearly this much surplus left after Zant and his monsters gorged themselves."
"That's good." Vaati trotted over from where he'd been communicating with a nearby group of Twili, three black stones on strings of leather dangling from one hand. "I think I've just about got the translation matrix down, too. Here–" he passed out the pendants, and as I received mine, I examined the tiny runes etched into its surface. They were so small that they were only visible when I angled the stone to catch the light, more complicated than I could understand.
"How does it work? Do we just put it on?" Dark squinted at his. "And where did you even get these?"
Vaati indicated the matching pendant that hung from his neck. "Just put it on, yeah. And those are actually just rocks I found on the ground and polished, which is why they're shaped so irregularly. As for the cord, I just borrowed the leather from an extra pair of gloves I wasn't using."
"Huh." Dark slipped the cord over his head, tucking the stone beneath the collar of his tunic so it wouldn't dangle. "How well does it work?"
Vaati shrugged. "Not perfect, but it's a start. I noticed there were a few words that just didn't translate, and some of the phrasing sounds strange, but otherwise we should at least be conversational now."
"Better than nothing, that's for sure." Link rubbed the stone between his fingers, glancing toward the Twili that Vaati had been speaking with. "Does it need to be touching skin, or-?"
"No, no. It just needs to be close enough to draw on your ambient magic, so as long as you're wearing it, the spell should be active." Vaati looked over at Midna. "Mind testing it for us?"
Midna blinked, curiosity in her expression. "Sure," she said in Hylian, and then, "do you all understand this?"
We replied with affirmatives. It was strange, how the spell worked– I could almost hear the echo of what the Twili language sounded like to my Hylian ears, but at the same time I could understand it as oddly-accented Hylian. Not impossible to deal with, but it would definitely take some getting used to.
At least we had time, though. After all, Midna wouldn't leave until she had marshaled her kingdom into some semblance of order, and we figured that would be at least another week. Midna had already mentioned plans to find some of her more trusted advisors– the surviving ones, anyway –and appoint them as a temporary ruling council in her stead so she could rejoin us in taking down Ganon and freeing Zelda.
What was more, we were on a separate time limit as well. Zant had said that Ganon would bring him back as many times as was needed, but we had no idea how long that would take. Vaati estimated that a ritual of such power would take at least a week and a half of preparation, but… well, it was best not to risk it when Ganon was involved.
Before that, though, we had a kingdom to help salvage.
"So," Dark asked, turning to where tents were being unfolded and rations were being distributed, "what should we do first?"
