A/N: So it seems my last chapter hit my readers pretty hard. Well anyways, here is Chapter 7. Enjoy!

Chapter 7: A Villain Revealed

Link looked to the sky of twilight covering Hyrule. They had been traveling for what seemed like ages, but Link managed to keep pace. It was all he could do. It was what he must do. For without going into the twilight realm to confirm what the twili had said was true, he could never rest. Not without knowing it to be fact he had himself seen. Dawn was about to break, and Link was tired and sore. His paws hurt; he wasn't used to walking all this time as a wolf since three years ago. Finally the twili stopped. The twili who had told Link all about what happened to him, who called himself Erandur, turned around.

He looked down at Link and said, "You have shown determination beyond that of an ordinary human. Recieve this."

He started to mutter some strange words as Link felt a strange feeling overcoming his wolf body. Then Link's head started hurting, and he howled with pain. He closed his eyes as the last thing he saw was the sun rising over the Hyrule of the future, and the twilight fleeting from the sun.

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Link awoke and found himself to be in his normal form. His head throbbed and his hair was drenched with sweat. As he looked up, he saw a huge monolith building floating in the air, surrounded by the serene glow of orange and black dust of twilight. Link was back in the Twilight Realm. He was surprised to find that he was seemingly alone.

Suddenly he felt a firm hand on his shoulder, helping him up to his feet.

"Ah, good. You're awake." Erandur stood next to him as he got up slowly.

"If all you had to do was put on that spell or whatever it was on me," Link said, "then why did I have to travel all that distance?"

"Well, we would have had to wait for daybreak anyway. Second," Erandur smiled as he paused. "I just wanted to make sure my brother could trust you." Erandur than started to walk up the stairs to the palace. Link gritted his teeth as he followed the twili up the stairs to the entrance to the palace gates, shouting,

"And who's your brother?"

"The King!"

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Zelda was sore, and so was her army. She hoped that the possible information they could get out of this creature was worth it. King Bulbin sat in the throne room of the Princess of Hyrule. Zelda remembered how they tracked him and fought his forces in the desert. When Zelda and her army showed up, she wanted to talk peacefully. The Bulbins however, didn't want any part of peace and attacked on site. The presence of Zelda's army was unexpected however, so the Bulbin warlord's forces were ill prepared compared to the vast number of Zelda's soliders. She cursed. Now BOTH armies which may have to work together, were weakened. "He better have the information like Darbus suspects he does," Zelda thought angrily.

"So why am I here?" the huge Bulbin questioned, "What is it that you want from me?"

"We need to establish peace between ourselves first off. Then we need information," Zelda said.

The Bulbin laughed. "What do I know that you not know?" he questioned, barbarically. "Second, what am I supposed to do when you show an army in my face and ask for me to go with you?"

Zelda sighed. She would have liked to have approached more gently, but time would not have allowed it, and she knew going alone would have been a mistake.

"Look, we need info that only you may know. Tell us what we need and you will be free to go," Zelda said with urgency.

The warlord snorted.

"Fine."

"Good," said Zelda, "Tell me, do you know anything of the random rouge attacks that have been occurring of late?"

The Bulbin frowned. "Yes, twice they have attacked our villages. Why?"

"We need to know more about them. How many of them there are, who their lead by, what they are…"

King Bulbin put his hand up at the last part. "That I know," he said, pausing. "These things," he said, with snide and hate in his voice, "are mere shadows. They are what you would call the souls of the dead who refuse to leave the plane of the living. All of them, mere shades of their former selves in the world."

Zelda looked in horror. She could only imagine what kind of power these things wielded. "But the forces we fought were mostly human, if not all human."

"Zelda," he said, "You pretty Princess, but you not know much about war."

Zelda was taken slightly aback with how blunt the warlord was.

"They show weakness to trick you, but Bulbins get no such treatment. I see how they fight… it won't be good Zelda."

He then started to walk towards the door. Darbus and Gor-Coron got up and stood in his path, blocking his exit. The Bulbin looked as though he would start a fight with them, but Zelda intervened.

"He can go," she said. "But first you must tell us who leads this force."

He didn't even turn around as he said, "Only people who have experienced life and death many times could possibly lead an army of undead souls." With that, he left through the door.

"Life and death many times," Zelda thought.

She quickly shrugged off the nagging thought of who it could be and put it behind a door in her mind labeled 'do not open.'

"After all," she thought, "it's impossible… I hope."

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Link and Erandur walked silently through the halls of the Palace of Twilight. Link couldn't help but notice the stares he got from the other twili around the palace on business or whatever it was the twili did. Then Link noticed something odd. There were bedrolls laid out, and many twili were lying on the palace foyers floor, still sleeping.

"Erandur, why are all the twili inside the palace cramped up like this?" He continued to walk as he responded.

"When the goddesses made this world for our exile, they were not generous when it came to space. If our world intersects with that of the world of light, our world shrinks, so much so that only our palace remains on this plane. However, when our world has no influence on yours, the world is big and has forests and valleys as all lands do. In a way, this was how the goddesses discouraged us from interacting with the world of light."

Link couldn't help but ask. "If that's the case, then why are you invading Hyrule?"

"That is not for me to explain," Erandur said curtly. Link saw that he had stepped too far, and was approaching dangerous territory. Somehow, it was a sensitive matter.

"At least that explained why there we no twili outside," he thought. Link and Erandur continued along the path, still approaching the throne room. Link wished he could get there faster, his mind was still churning over what he had been told.

"Midna is gone…" he thought to himself, wincing, as though he did not want to believe it. He could feel his emotions welling up inside him again, when he figured something out.

"Are you Midna's son?" he blurted out.

Erandur stopped and turned around. He could tell just by the look on his face that it was true.

"Yes," he said, "She was my mother, and I loved her dearly. Me and my brother who is the current King both loved her, she was a great woman. This is more than I could say about my father," he trailed off.

"Who was your father?" Link asked, finding an odd comfort in the fact that he didn't think highly of Midna's husband.

"He was a scumbag," he said through gritted teeth, clearly upset just thinking about him. "He just used her for what he wanted. I won't go in to details, but my Mother never even wanted to be married to him. It was a forced marriage by the counsel. She needed heirs to the throne and she unwillingly picked him as a suitor. When we were born, my mother was constantly busy with us, as he practically ruled the Twilight alone. Things got bad for the twili, and fast. He almost eradicated all the good work my mother had built up. The counsel finally intervened at my mothers request when she found out all he had done, and they accepted her as a Queen with no spouse."

Link felt a little better. Even though she was gone, and nothing could ever fill that void, he at least knew that she unwillingly accepted marriage. Link started to think more about it though, and he had to know more.

"Why didn't she want to get married?" Link asked, hoping for a way to confirm his suspicion. Erandur sighed as he started walking again.

"She never did say. She just said that her heart was somewhere else, and no matter what I did she wouldn't say anything else about it. But if I had to take a guess…" he started to trail off again.

"If I believed in some of her tall tales, I'd guess she loved the one she deemed, The Hero of Twilight. She spoke so much about him, how he was strong and brave. She even described how he looked. His blue eyes, his long elf like ears, his…"

Erandur stopped. He turned around and looked at Link, a funny expression on his face,

"What?" said Link, captivated and wanting to know more.

"Nothing," he said, clearly shaken. Erandur then started to lead Link to throne room again, silently thinking to himself if what he thought to be a tall tale was walking right behind him.

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Link was thinking hard as well. But his thoughts were muddled with happiness and despair.

"She felt the same way," he thought, "and she's gone." He felt a small tear trickle down the sides of his face. He quickly wiped them away, forced to keep in his emotions inside yet again. He would welcome the day that he could finally open up to someone. But he had always hoped that someone would be Midna.

As Link and Erandur silently walked along, thoughts to themselves, they finally got to the floating platforms that led to the throne room. When they reached the top, Erandur was stopped by an elder twili. He looked very old and his face was wrinkled with that of those who has seen many years.

"Erandur, thank the kingdom your OK. When you didn't get back in the palace in time, we thought…" the elder twili then saw Link approaching off the back of the floating platform. He stood wide eyed with shock.

"I'm here to take Link to see the King," Erandur said, acting as if nothing was odd about the elder twili gawking at Link.

"Erm, your what?" the elder asked. "Oh, I see. Go ahead; the King has been waiting for your return anyway."

Link and Erandur were quick to enter the throne room as they left the stunned elder behind. Erandur threw open the stone throne room doors to reveal one of the most magnificent rooms Link had ever had the privilege of entering. The walls were marked in ancient twili symbols in many facets of colors, and the floor had a fine silk red rug leading to the throne where the Twili king sat. "It's an improvment over what Zant did," he thought to himself.

"My brother," the King said ecstatically, clearly showing relief at his well being. "It's good to see you're OK."

"Hello your majesty," Erandur said, "I have good news. I found a stray warrior that I think you'll find more than willing to help our cause."

Link emerged from behind Erandur and politely introduced himself.

"Hello. My name is Link," he said.

The King looked at him, almost as stunned as the twili elder was. "Could it be," he whispered under his breath. He shrugged it off as he started to speak.

"Well met Link," he said smiling. "It seems we share the same name, you and I."

Link was taken aback by this news.

"That name has great meaning to us, in the past and present," Link thought, remembering Erandur's words when he told him his name was Link. He was surprised he hadn't seen the signs earlier.

The King was now studying him very intently; almost scrutinizing him like the mysterious woman who led the rebels scrutinized the Master Sword. Finally he seemed satisfied with whatever he saw in Link and started talking to him.

"Warrior, my mind tells me that you know much about the Twili, and wish to help us." Link looked dumbfounded, again.

"Let me guess, it runs in the family," Link said as he wondered if Midna could ever read his thoughts.

"No, it shouldn't even be something we can do, but with the way the Twilight and Hyrule is interacting, strange powers have come upon us."

Link glared at him. "Then why are you invading Hyrule?"

"We aren't," he said vehemently, "A dark force is tampering with the boundaries of shadow and light, and it has made our worlds collide." Link looked grim.

"A dark force that can make the boundaries of light and shadow wane," he thought. Then it hit him.

"You CAN'T possibly mean…"

The twili King gave a sad nod. "Yes, it appears an old enemy of Twilight, one that single handedly brought chaos and ruin to our world is at it again. How you know of him is beyond me, but the name brings memories of chaos to those long parted."

"I know him well," Link said as he realized the gravity of the situation. "The common enemy," Link thought, remembering Othae telling him about the history of the rouge band, "The Great King of Evil… Ganondorf."

A/N: Ah, I can hear it now. The throng of angry readers who want an original villain. Well, I'm not that creative. Besides, it made sense to use the old diehard in this case.