Medli sat back in the cave, her arms wrapped around her knees. She knew that if she'd gone into the tower that she'd only be a hindrance, but it felt horrible to be left behind.
Sage…
She sighed and let her head hang down. She wanted to do something to help.
Young sage…
Medli lifted her head and looked around. She thought she'd just heard someone speak. A distant, pleading voice.
"What?" she whispered. "Are you calling me?"
Oh young sage of distant times, please come to our aid.
"Who are you?"
Like you, we are sages that keep peace in the land. Ganon holds us captive.
"Where are you?" she asked, standing up.
We will show you where we are. Follow our lead. We know a way where you will not be seen.
"Right. I'm coming."
Medli felt a gentle tug in the back of her mind, leading her. She followed its guidance out of the cave to the plane of scattered stones. Following the route taken by the others, she ducked from boulder to boulder, hiding from the tower's view.
When she reached the base of the heavy stone tower, she felt herself guided upwards. She spread her wings and took to the air.
Following the invisible path, she ducked beneath a window, circled the tower to avoid a guard, and landed on a ledge to hide from a flying bat monster. She slowly circled higher and higher around the tower before she felt herself guided towards a window. It was narrow, but she was small enough to wriggle through it and plop onto the floor.
She stood up and her beak fell open. In front of her were six cylindrical glass tanks filled with translucent blue fluid. Suspended in each of the tanks was a motionless figure: A large man dressed in red, a woman in a blue suit, a young girl dressed in green, a Zora woman, a Goron, and a woman from the desert.
Medli knew instantly who they were. She'd learned about them when she'd awoken as the earth sage. These were the six sages who had sealed Ganon away long ago.
She clenched her fists and nodded, determined. She was going to help them.
…
Navi zoomed through the slightly ajar door and into the broom closet. It was in this closet that Shadow Link and Midna were currently hiding with the pale, unconscious Link. His left arm had been splinted to prevent further damage.
Navi sank to the floor, panting. "It almost ate me! That stupid bird almost ate me!"
"Did you find her?" Midna asked.
"Yeah. Yeah I did. This girl is being held a few stories below us. But there were guards."
"What kind of guards?" Shadow Link asked.
"I couldn't stay to look at him. That was when the stupid bird monster saw me and tried to grab me. But that girl was there."
"Do we know who she is yet?" Shadow Link demanded.
"She looked like she was a Gerudo," Navi said. "She's about Link's age. And her name's Nabeen. That's really all we know about her."
"And so she's supposed to help us deal with this dead weight then, is she," Shadow Link mumbled, prodding Link's shoulder.
"Apparently."
"Back to the original question," Shadow Link said, "How do we get this guy to where the girl is? Can't we just leave him here while we go find the girl?"
"We can't leave him alone in a closet," Midna exclaimed. "THey'd just find him again.
"And Vaati told us to get him free first," Navi reminded him. "We're best off taking his advice. You'd better just carry him. At least we're going down instead of up."
"Yeah, and because we're going down, I'm more likely to fall head-first down the endless flight of stairs. And that still doesn't answer my question. Everyone's going to see me carrying Link around. There goes our disguise."
"Just drape your cloak over him. The monsters act weird enough that no one will notice." Midna shrugged.
Shadow Link stared at her.
And so, a few minutes later, Shadow Link could be found staggering down the spiral stone staircase looking oddly hunchbacked beneath his cloak. With Link draped across his back, he had to be very careful with every stair he descended. Falling was a very real danger. Navi bobbed ahead of him, leading the way. Midna was once again hiding with her shadow disguise.
Shadow Link was very glad not to meet any other enemies on the stairs, awkward as his position was. And he was grateful when Navi flitted through a door away from the spiral stair. A minute later, they stopped outside of a heavy wooden door.
"She's through here," Navi whispered. "Are you ready to fight?"
"Of course not," he hissed. "I'm completely exhausted! And I have nowhere to put this guy!"
"Sissy," Midna said, appearing once again.
"You're the one who keeps hiding!" Shadow Link said, a little too loudly.
"Shush. If you're ready to blow our cover with noise, then open the door and start fighting!"
And Midna reached out and pushed the door open.
Like all of the other rooms, this one was made of gray stone. Lights flickered from the ceiling. To the far end of the room there was a strange mechanical device with a large glass tank sitting on top of it. Floating inside the liquid-filled tank, her eyes closed and her hair drifting about her face, was Nabeen. She was a very pretty Gerudo girl, wearing the typical dress of her race.
In front of the tank was a table with chairs around it. There was a single person sitting at one of the chairs. He was wearing a black robe with blue markings on it. It was impossible to see what his face looked like because he was wearing a tall, pointed helmet. The front of it was featured like a face, complete with tongue sticking out.
Midna took an involuntary step forwards and clenched her fists.
"Zant," she growled, gritting her teeth.
The man with the helmet stood up and faced them. He gave a low hissing laugh. "Well, well. What an unexpected pleasure. A visit from the Twilight Princess herself."
An evil grin spread across Midna's face. "Don't worry about this fight, Shadow Link." She raised her fist before her. "This is a rematch I've been waiting for. You just worry about freeing that girl and looking after Link."
Shadow Link raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever."
"Watch yourself. The sparks are gonna fly this time," she said, grinning and narrowing her eyes in anticipation.
She floated forwards towards Zant and landed a few yards in front of him.
"I thought you figured out that Ganon was just using you," Midna scoffed. "Are you really stupid enough to follow him again?"
"Your taunts won't affect me, Midna. Or have you forgotten that you once nearly died at my hands?"
"And have you forgotten that I once killed you?" Midna snapped.
"And yet here I stand, alive, because of the power of my master. And you no longer have the Fused Shadows."
"That may be, but that curse you placed on me is long gone. I have my own powers back. The powers of the Twilight Princess." She held out her palm and a flickering ball of orange and black static sparked to life. Zant raised his arm to make a purple and black sphere of flame. Both of them launched their attacks at once. Midna flipped out of the way, landing several feet to the side. Zant had deflected Midna's attack. Shadow Link had to fall to the floor to avoid the attack.
He rolled to the side, behind a part of the machinery that kept Nabeen trapped in the class tank. He set Link on the floor out of the line of fire of the two fighting Twili. For good measure, he draped his cloak over Link.
Navi settled on Link's shoulder. "I'll keep an eye on him while you go help that Gerudo girl."
Shadow Link peeked out from behind the machine, looking for an opening to run towards the tank to free Nabeen. He quickly withdrew his head as a fragment of wood shot in his direction. The table had just been blown to pieces and the chairs scattered across the room. The two were darting around the room, shooting curses at each other. It was impossible to tell who was winning.
Shadow Link rolled out of his hiding place and drew his sword. He stood and faced the tank, wishing that he had a club. He swung his blade at the tank, but it bounced off without leaving a scratch. There was some sort of magic in the glass.
Shadow Link ducked beneath another stray attack and then sank his sword into the machinery. It started to crackle and spark. He struck again, and then a third time. There were a few loud pops and bangs and then the lights blinking among the buttons faded. He raised his sword again and swung once more at the glass tank. This time it cracked. He used the sword hilt to pound away at the crack, making it grow.
As he hammered away, Midna blocked one of Zant's attacks and finally one of hers connected, striking Zant's shoulder. He stumbled slightly, but straightened up a moment later.
"You keep strange company, Midna," he hissed softly. "Do you really think that Shadow Link is on your side? Has he given the Triforce back to the real Link yet?" He blocked another attack from Midna. "You know it's true. He'll never return the Triforce. If he gives the Triforce away, he'll turn back into a shadow. He cares too much about saving his own skin to return the power. You can't trust him. And this girl you're here to save? Why do you think she'll help you? She's…"
"We're in the middle of a battle," Midna snarled. "You should PAY ATTENTION!"
She launched herself forwards, making a golden spear of light appear in her hands. Zant didn't react fast enough and the spear drove into him.
Zant doubled over and gave a hollow chuckle. "You won't win, Midna. You've as good as lost."
He sank to the ground and dissolved into particles of twilight.
Midna landed, panting heavily.
Shadow Link was still pounding against the glass with the hilt of his sword. It looked like the whole thing was about to break. Zant had been speaking softly enough that Shadow ink hadn't heard any of it.
He slammed the hilt down one last time and the front of the glass shattered, sending thick liquid pouring out over the machine and onto the floor. The girl came tumbling out of the tank. Before Shadow Link could jump out of the way, Nabeen's body crashed down on top of him and the two of them sprawled to the wet floor.
Growling and cursing, he pushed the unconscious girl off of him and sat up. He saw Midna staring at the floor where an empty helmet remained.
"Oh, you killed the guy," Shadow Link said. "Good."
Midna slowly turned her gaze to him. There was a pained expression on her face.
"What's wrong?" Shadow Link asked. "Was he not someone that you wanted to kill?"
"No. Everything's just very complicated. What about that girl? Is she OK?"
"I guess. She's still asleep. Luckily we didn't fall in the broken glass."
Shadow Link lifted the girl over his shoulders and carried her over to what remained of the table top where she wasn't in danger of being cut. He then went and got Link out from behind the strange machine. Navi followed him as he set Link next to Nabeen.
"I think I know why we were supposed to get Link first," Navi said. "Ganon wasn't worried about Link escaping because he's under a curse. But this girl Nabeen is more heavily guarded. Someone will notice sooner if anything happened to her. We won't be safe here for much longer."
"How observant," Shadow Link scoffed. "So, she's not awake. What do we do? I can't carry them both out of here."
Shadow Link's eyes strayed to Nabeen's wrist. There was a faint mark on the back of her hand. He stepped forwards and grabbed her wrist.
"What are you doing?" Navi exclaimed.
"Look at this," he said, holding her arm up and showing them the back of her hand. The faint mark of the Triforce was there, with the top triangle showing up the darkest. The Triforce of Power.