A/N: Hey y'all! It's ben what, six months? Longer? Since I updated this story. I lost a vital poece of ADVENTISIS *cries* so I might be taking that down. But, here's the next chapter of Demon Light, Angel Dark!

Vaati: I'm glad you decided to pair us up better. I was worried for a while.

Shadow: (twitches)

Ahehehehe~

Demon Light, Angel Dark

CHAPTER FIVE: In which the Elements go Wild

"Oh no… NONONONONO… Violetta, Wake UP!"

Varan tugged at his sister's tunic, trying to wake her from her stupor. The sandstorm that he saw on the horizon was threatening, dark and bleak. The sun was setting, and they didn't have enough water or energy to make a run for shelter.

"Varan? Oh no! Not a sandstorm!" Violetta was nice enough to wake up, at least. She looked around and he could see her ears droop. Suddenly, he wished he was back home training with Saria, who was going to eventually give him her post and go retire somewhere. If he lived. Damn his sister and her element given quests…

"What'll we do, Varan? If worst comes to worst, I'll shelter you, but… oh, what would Grandfather say!" Violetta hugged him, and he let her. His sister was overprotective but it was fine.

But he could see something wrong with the front of the storm…

"You're saying we have to save them?"

"By Din, I'm not used to this."

"But it's our job now! We can't just let the kids die!" oddly enough, Vaati was on the first line of defense this time. Shadow sighed and nodded, and Ganondorf merely shrugged. With a grin, Vaati reached out to the storm, calming it… and for some reason, managing to transport himself into its heart. There, he calmed the winds and from the center in, sand dropped back to the desert with the sudden calm.

Wrapped in what was now no more than a dust devil, Vaati descended to the desert below and ran as fast as possible to where the startled duo stood.

"Are you alright? You look dehydrated… Come with me."

"Are you Vaati? You don't look like him…"

When Vaati stepped off the air cushion with Violetta and Varan, Ganondorf barely spared a look, being busy staring with alarm at his silvering hair in a mirror (not the dark mirror though). Shadow was nowhere to be seen.

"Ganondorf, where's Shadow? He's the one who saw them first; he should see them in person!

"Don't know. He left to go see if the horses were alright. Are… are you okay, Vaati? Your hair is all bleached…"

Vaati stole the mirror for a split second and laughed nervously. His hair was half and half now, blond and lilac. And his eyes were a bluer purple.

"Zelda must be terrifying by now. Well, I'm off to find Shadow, and you two kids are coming with me!"

"Huh? This Shadow, he is the same…?" Violetta blinked up at Vaati with deep purple eyes and the former demonic minish shuddered. She had a penetrating stare, the type that read and counteracted every thought or action days before it was put to plan. A stare that Shadow had brought back to the tower with him for no apparent reason one day in the month long Four Sword Battle. She was definitely Violet's grandchild.

"There was only ever one. Come on, hurry up. Stables are this way."

Anope or Agro, Epona's male dark side counterpart, was undoubtedly Shadow's closest friend. In fact, he went to the horse's side often to avoid the other two powers in a bad mood, or random descendants of his onetime best friend.

The latter was the reason he was brushing the horse for the third time today, getting amused snorts from his animal friend (who was smart enough to know that Shadow was avoiding something). But it was hard for him to hide anymore; what with the fact his surroundings seemed darker, always, in this form as Sterrig (1).

"There you are! Shadow, meet Violetta the Oracle and Varan, forest sage-in-training." Vaati's voice startled him, and he nearly dropped the horse brush when he looked up and saw only Violetta's eyes for a split second.

"By Din… you're the very image of your grandfather…"

She smiled at that, just a little, and the resemblance grew. Shadow frowned and looked down.

"Well, hello I guess. I'm Shadow Link, but if you like y'all can call me Sterrig."

"It means Starry. Interesting name choice… represents the light that can shine without truly being light, the gem of the midnight sky. Grandfather says it suits you now." She chuckled, eyes having gone unfocused for a moment in the middle of her speech. Shadow's eye twitched. When her eyes were lost like that, her voice deepened in a familiar way, one that scared him. Behind her, Vaati grumbled.

"Rubbish. It's a terrible name. Shadow is best off as Shadow, so we can all remember him. Besides, he's not the gem of the night… that title belongs to ME, from BEFORE his time."

"So, Violetta… you speak with him?" Shadow just completely ignored Vaati, a move the other copied.

"He speaks through and to me. I'm his voice in the mortal realm when he's trapped in the sword. I know all about YOU Shadow… I know your strategies, I know your weaknesses, I know your favorite pastime is getting drunk and I know you're gay, I know your favorite color is periwinkle blue, you love animals when they are capable of taking care of themselves, you used to have a pet dragon… I know much. Unfortunately, I don't know much about anyone else, or this part of the world. Heh…" Violetta smiled in embarrassment and those know-it-all purple eyes gleamed triumphantly, making Shadow back off.

"Sis, stop scaring him. Didn't we have an errand here?" the Kokiri boy shifted the sword that was slung over his shoulder, uncomfortable in its presence.

"Oh, that's right! Grandfather did tell me that his brother told him that there's someone here that can and WILL wield the Four Sword. Wind element. I figured, well, the only person who has wind power that strong other than my great uncle, is Vaati. And it's the Minish blood in people that the sword reacts to." She grinned at the minish mage, who frowned and looked around him in sudden fear. Shadow decided to step forward, shaking his head.

"Vaati isn't the best choice. He was sealed in that sword for a good long time, and then was sealed to his tower for hundreds of years more. He's afraid of it now. But… why him?" Shadow stared at Violetta, who staggered suddenly and became unfocused. Her voice trembled.

"You doubt that what the Wind Elemental senses is true. Take my word for it that he would not lie. And don't doubt my Oracle either. She is my grandchild, and she knows what she is speaking of. Would I lie to you?" the voice was otherworldly and cracking, dark and deep like an earthquake, but it still carried the air of Vio's rich, warm, farmland-type tones. Shadow shook his head and backed down, and Violetta nodded then fell down, dazed.

"Ugh… my head hurts. Why him you asked? I don't know." She had no memory of Vio speaking through her, like most Oracles when their god actually speaks through them. This sealed the deal.

"That's it, I've had enough. If HE is going to be part of this, I'm leaving! Y'all can take care of the Zelda and Link issue on your own!" With that, Shadow leaped onto Anope's back and the horse fled the stables. Vaati stared after him, but no one stopped him from leaving. They knew he would be back, when he calmed down.

He let Anope have the reins, and the horse carried him into Hyrule. Soon, due to the magic of such creatures as the wild Anope, he was in the city. People littered the streets, all seeming frightened at the sight of him.

"S-s-sir Link, are you here to take another one of us into that castle, never to be seen again?" One child worked up the tenacity to speak to him, and Shadow's eyes widened in shock.

"I am not Link. You may call me Sterrig, and I want to make sure Link doesn't hurt anyone ever again. What has he been doing?" the child smiled weakly and shook in fright.

"W-w-well, Sterrig… Sir Link has been taking people off the streets and dragging them to the castle, and they are never seen again. He took my sister last week… w-w-we tried to stop him, we did, but…!" As the child began to cry, Shadow slipped off Anope's back and held him, shushing him and assuring him it was alright. People began to gather around, wondering what, if anything, to do.

"Th-thanks… there's a story around that name, you know. Sterrig, they say, is the star of hope that shone from the dark tower of a terrible demon just before light returned to the world. But it's just a story..." one adult, a battle scarred veteran, stepped up and separated the two.

"Aye, quite the story. A good name for one fighting our corrupted princess to take… or so I assume you are, Mr. Sterrig?" the man stared down at Shadow with mistrust. To the side, other adults swept the child back in fear.

"The princess is not my concern. Link is my concern. Link and whatever demon he may be trying to bring back to this world. I am not calling myself Sterrig. By the legend, I AM Sterrig."

The murmurs from the crowd fell on the enraged ears of Link, who was just beginning his search for the last needed sacrifice to bring back the Fierce Deity.

When Shadow didn't return in time for Vaati to figure out the puzzle of how to give the four Elementals their true form, he shrugged it off. The Four Sword lay, placid, in his hands as he smiled at the four pure elements. Slowly, they condensed into the forms of the four Links, even though each had taken the liberty of showing their mark on their face.

Red, the Fire Elemental, seemed weak and was still half flame. On his left cheek was the symbol of a flame. He fell down as soon as he gained a true form, luckily entirely on stone.

Blue, the Water Elemental, was quick to help Red as usual, his own form strong with the symbol of a bubble on his forehead.

Green, the Wind Elemental, was surprised to say the least that Vaati had woken them. He laughingly greeted his peer, the symbol of a breath of wind across his eyes.

Vio, the Earth Elemental, looked around in expectation before sighing and dissolving back into a low-lying fog of crushed amethyst. It was clear he wanted Shadow to be there.

"So, where is the illustrious Shadow? We thought he would be with the other two powers?" Green smiled as he said this, and Vaati was about to smile and answer that he was out when a voice, thick with evil but recognizable as Link, echoed from the air.

"We have the Star of Hope. If you want to see him alive again, you will give us the maiden Violetta, as well as all six Sages in training. Resistance is futile."

A/N:

I felt the need to explain this. Shadow is still a being of darkness, but appearances certainly can be deceiving: his eyes, hair, skin, and clothing all seem bright at first. But like a star in the midnight sky, there has to be some darkness to him (to me, all stars are darkness element, or else they'd shine WITH the sun and not against it). His undershirt and tights are black as night, and anything around him is cast into shadow to keep him shining. In essence, this is what a fallen star looks like when it takes human form, and if you read farther you'll see that Sterrig is literally the name for what the people thought was a star fallen to aid the Links.

(in truth, it was a shadow rising to shine and help the Links, as Shadow has been Sterrig before, moments before his death atop the Tower of Winds.)

This explanation is not in the story because I could not work it in except in pieces here and there.