Hey guys! LoneRider here. First off I must apologize for taking so long to come up with the next chapter. I was too busy with college work and finals approaching, so I had absolutely no time to write. Secondly, writer's block is the worst! Finally when I can sit down and write, I have no idea how to start the chapter and go with it!

Anyways, to jog your memories, Link and Darian were fighting Zant when Caedin finally shows up! He attacks the duo with one spell, knocking them out of the fight. He then takes Zant and leaves.

Enough of my rambling, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 13: All Part of the Plan

Drimani was in the middle of going over some plans with the Medeus, Ashei, and Rusl when a soldier ran into the room, out of breath. He stood up and gently acknowledged him to speak.

"My sincerest apologies General, Captains, but we have a bit of a situation," the soldier panted.

"Woah, take it easy there soldier," Drimani smiled. "Take a deep breath and then talk."

"I think you need to see this for yourself General…" The soldier answered. "It involves your brother and…"

"Darian?" Drimani cut him off. "Why didn't you tell me? Lead me there at once! Medeus, Ashei, Rusl, the meeting is over, take the rest of the day and rest up." After the three nodded their heads, the General followed the soldier to the front of the gates. He gasped at the sight. "What in Goddesses name happened?"

"Drimani…" Darian said weakly. "Zant… He was here the entire time… Then Caedin came… Attacked us…" He and Link were supporting each other while Zelda was looking out for them. Drimani looked at him and Link in horror; the two looked extremely weak, as if they fought a war all by themselves.

"It is true…" Link supplied. "Zant was looking for a way to ambush me when I left the castle. Darian intervened and we were fighting Zant on equal terms until Caedin arrived. One spell did this to us…"

"One spell did this?" he asked incredulously. When Zelda nodded, he frowned. "Well this certainly puts a damper on my mood. Things were going so smoothly too…"

"Drimani, there's one other problem…" Darian trailed off. When Drimani did not speak, he continued. "Zant was here the whole time, and we have reason to believe he was listening to your plans and battle strategies."

Drimani sat in thought for a time, and then motioned for the others to follow him to his study. "Can one of you get Midna please? I have much to discuss with you all." Zelda hurried out of the room, and he turned to face Darian and Link. "So gentlemen, you both like you fought a war by yourselves. What kind of spell did Caedin hit you with?"

"We don't know…" Link said. "All we know is that it was made of pure darkness and struck us with such force it took us out."

"One spell Link… One spell," Darian said, clearly looking troubled. "Even with the Goddesses helping us, we weren't able to put up much of a fight. We need the Bearer of Power, and fast."

"But how can we-?" Link was cut off as Zelda entered the room, Midna close behind. Darian and Link froze when she entered, and the three entered a staring contest, not daring to break eye contact but not daring to speak either. Zelda immediately noticed this and threw her hands into the air.

"Oh you three are such children!" she cried exasperatedly. Midna crossed her arms angrily while Link and Darian looked away. "Seriously! Let this argument go already! Midna you are an idiot for wanting to leave without Link. Link and Darian however, you have to forgive Midna! You saw what could have happened to you both after Caedin attacked!" Midna turned to look at the pair in horror. Caedin attacked them? Darian was the first to speak up.

"Midna… It's not me that you have to talk to. This isn't really my problem, nor am I to judge. After this meeting is over…" He turned to Link. "You two need to talk and resolve everything." Link grudgingly nodded his head while Midna said nothing. Drimani chose this moment to intervene.

"Umm, if you guys are done, I'd like to talk to you all." When they all made themselves comfortable, he continued. "Well it seems that our friend Zant was here the entire time spying on us, and trying to get some Intel for the upcoming battle in the Twilight Realm." Midna gasped.

"Would that mean that we have to change everything? The plans for battle?" she questioned. All but Darian were surprised by the grin beginning to unfold on Drimani's face.

"Oh you mean the plans that he was SUPPOSED to see in the first place?" Drimani challenged light-heartedly.

"What do you mean by that?" Zelda asked suspiciously.

"And now my friends, you get to see the true nature of Drimani's brilliance in war!" Darian chuckled. Drimani looked down in embarrassment.

"Dari you need to stop doing that…" All five burst into laughter at that. When things calmed down, Drimani spoke up again. "Alright. Well I figured Zant was either going to spy on us himself or send a spy into our ranks. Therefore I devised false plans of our strategy in order for them to see. Even our own troops and captains do not know of my true plans. I reveal those on the day we march into battle to surprise the enemy. This is after I survey their defenses and devise the course of action. I like to take things on the fly, and at the same time, there would not be many casualties on our side." Zelda, Link, and Midna all were staring at him with their mouths open while Darian was grinning from ear to ear.

"And there you have it!" Darian laughed. "That is the way Drimani leads the armies back home. And for good reason! The previous generals all lost and suffered heavy casualties due to their strategizing, which usually fails."

"May the Goddesses let their souls be at peace," Drimani murmured. Taking a breath he continued. "Now then. Ladies. Gentlemen. The troops shall be ready for attack within one week. We shall go on ahead and scout the area to see what kind of defense Zant has set up. When all is ready, we shall attack and take back the Twilight Realm for our Twilight Princess."

Midna smiled weakly. "Thanks. I really must thank you guys for doing this… I thought about going back and fighting Zant myself but I guess I'll have to rely on you more than I thought…" she trailed off.

Zelda put an arm around Midna. "It's no shame in asking us for help dear Midna. You must realize that we are all involved in this war, and in what better way than to fight alongside one another to protect our realms?" Midna looked at her and laughed slightly.

"You may be right Zelda…"

"I am right," Zelda responded, showing her Triforce. "I am right ALL the time." This earned another bout of laughter from the others. "Well then dinner shall be ready within two hours. I believe two of our number need to discuss things," Zelda finished, pointedly looking at Link and Midna, who shifted uncomfortably in their seats. When she gave them a glare, they rose and left, leaving her with Darian and Drimani.

"Zellie, remind me to not get on your bad side," Darian said quietly, earning him a mischievous grin from the Light Princess.

"Oh I haven't forgotten about your pranks on me yet," she replied, causing Darian to tense slightly and Drimani to twitch.

Link was quietly walking back to his room, Midna following him. Neither said a word to each other as they approached the door, and even after they walked into his room not a word was spoken. Link was staring out of the window while Midna was sitting on his bed, watching him intently. Finally he broke the silence.

"When were you going to tell me?" he asked. It was not directed at her in a rude way, but his voice was sad.

"I…" Midna started. "I was going to tell you after we had defeated Caedin and restored peace to the realms. I didn't think you would have wanted to leave here. Your friends, your family…" She stopped as Link held up a hand.

"What about asking me about my opinion for a change? It wouldn't kill you."

"I just thought…"

"You thought wrong okay?" Link said sadly. "Unless you don't want me around anymore, and in that case I'll stop bothering you. But at least tell me." He turned to look out of the window again, and Midna instantly felt a pang of guilt. She realized she should have told him sooner or even more, asked for his opinion on the whole thing. Even more, she knew she was wrong about the whole thing. If she wasn't so stubborn… The Twilight Princess began to tear up as she rose from the bed and walked over to him.

"Link… I'm sorry." Midna murmured while placing a hand on Link's shoulder for an instant. She then turned to walk out of the room when he spoke.

"Are you actually saying I'm right?" Midna turned to see Link giving a small smile at her. She ran at him and hugged him tightly while crying on his shoulders. "Midna, take it easy. I forgive you. That is if you will allow me to come with you to the Twilight after this is all over."

"Always Hero. I have no doubts anymore," Midna responded, still holding on to Link while he hugged her back. They stayed like this for only Goddesses knew, until a knock on the door broke them out of their state. They turned to see Darian smiling at them.

"Everything has been worked out, I presume?" he asked.

"I believe so my friend," Link answered, while Midna simply smiled.

"Good. Zelda told me to come tell you both that dinner is ready."

"Actually, Dari, can you tell Zelda that we will just go into town later? We still have to catch up on a few things." Midna spoke up. Link looked at her, surprised. "What wolf-boy? You need to tell me of your encounter with Caedin."

"Ah, yes. Okay I will. Dari, don't worry about us, go on down. I know Zellie is expecting you." Link smiled.

"Alrighty, just don't starve on me," Darian joked before leaving the room. Once he closed the door, Midna turned to Link and gave him a scrutinizing look. Link noticed her ruby eyes were on him and he sighed.

"You really want to know, don't you?"

"Yes. And don't cut corners. Tell me everything." Midna answered, not letting up on Link in the slightest. Link smirked.

"You expect me to tell you everything when you kept secrets from me?" he challenged light-heartedly. Midna slapped his shoulder, clearly hurt.

"I'm sorry! What more do you want?" she said softly, turning away.

"Oh don't be like that. I said I forgave you. And I was only joking. Anyways, where to begin…" Link rubbed the back of his head before launching into the story, from when he stormed away from the castle. Midna listened intently, trying to not only gauge Zant's strength, but also Caedin's.

"… And Darian suddenly was granted full power from the Goddess Mudora!" Link was saying.

Midna was thoroughly confused. "You lost me just now wolfy. How did that happen, exactly?"

"I have no idea… I do not understand it myself. Apparently Mudora granted Darian full use of her power and became much more powerful, even altering his appearance. Farore, too, granted me her full power as well, both Goddesses wanting us to take down Zant before he grew too powerful." Midna stared at him, wide-eyed. Full power of the Goddesses? How can this be…? She wondered.

Link continued. "We were able to corner Zant, but that was when Caedin came…" He trailed off, remembering full well how that encounter began. "Midna you wouldn't believe it. When he appeared, the air all around us grew extremely cold and we felt like we were looking into a tunnel that had no end in sight. It got that bad." The Hero shivered once, knowing how powerful Caedin really was. "Caedin came to pick Zant up and take him back to wherever he was going. Darian and I did not stand a chance, even with Farore and Mudora assisting us. One single spell from Caedin knocked us out…" He finished, while noticing Midna was looking at him in horror.

"Link… One spell?" She was too shocked to continue talking.

"Yes. One spell…" Link answered. Noticing Midna was still scared, he tried to brighten things up. "Midna, you shouldn't worry. Dari and I survived. We're fine now."

Midna smacked him on the shoulder again. "I shouldn't worry? I SHOULDN'T WORRY? You just fought a battle for your lives, and some nut almost KILLED you, and you're SAYING I SHOULDN'T WORRY?" The Twilight Princess was practically screaming, tears forming once again. She could not comprehend why the Hero she longed to be with would ever tell her to stop worrying. In her mind, although she would admit it to very few people, possibly only Link, Midna could never stop worrying about him. "I almost lose you to a madman, especially after we said words… Fine, I said words I should never have said, and all you can say is 'stop worrying'?" Link stopped her from saying anything else with a tender kiss on her lips. Midna could not, or rather WOULD not, fight it as she kissed him back, trying to convey her point to him through her gesture.

After some time, they pulled away from each other, and Link spoke up. "Midna, I didn't want you to worry about me too much, especially regarding something that already happened. Personally, I'm glad we did fight Caedin." Midna glowered at him through her tears, but Link did not back off. "I'm glad because we got a chance to see just how powerful he really is. And also, we realized Zant could be defeated rather easily when we become one with the Triforce." Midna realized what he was saying was true and let up on her glare.

"Fine… You're right. It was all for the best. But please don't run off like that again. You were lucky Dari came at the time he did." At this, Link laughed.

"Yes, Dari always intervenes at the right moments… Well for us anyways, our enemies must be sick of him by now. Besides, I won't run off again… Zelda kind of smacked me when she got to where we were." Midna giggled.

"Well good! Because if you do that again, I will personally smack you senseless!" This earned another laugh from Link, and Midna herself laughed for a time.

"Very well Your Highness," he sniggered. He then formulated an idea. "Hey Midna… Remember how we were supposed to prank the other royal couple?" The Twilight Princess put on an impish grin.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked.

"I shall tell you while we eat dinner. Personally I'm starving. Let's go into town."

"Awwwh but I'm too lazy!" Midna whined.

"You're getting up or I'm carrying you. Let's go!" Link persisted, tugging on her arms. She finally relented and allowed herself to be pulled to a standing position.

Two hours later, The Hero and Twilight Princess were finishing their dinner and had a few rounds to drink at Telma's, although the drinks were considerably weaker this time.

"Can you imagine the look on Zelda's face? That would be priceless!" Midna was laughing.

"I think we would give the poor Princess a heart attack with the prank… I say we still do it!" Link responded in kind. "So you know of the plan right? Can you actually perform the right spell?"

"Wolfy don't doubt my spells." Midna growled playfully.

Link put up his hands in mock surrender. "No no. You're right. I shouldn't doubt. After all what could go wrong? Only a bunch of things, right?" He joked. Midna cackled with laughter. It was clear they were both slightly intoxicated, but not nearly as badly as last time.

"Don't worry! Everything is just fine! We should be able to pull this one off!"

"Alright then," Link answered. "Come on. Let's go back to the castle before the others start wondering where we are."

"Such party poopers," Midna complained, sending Link into another fit of laughter.

"You shouldn't say that about Dari, you know! We were the ones who pranked you both, remember?" Midna once again smacked his arm.

"I haven't forgotten." She said, baring her teeth. Link chuckled.

"Alright let's do this. Tomorrow morning, early in the morning, right?"

"That's the plan!" Midna finished.

"Where could they be? It's way past dark!"

"Zelda, relax! They can take care of themselves! Besides, you're not their mother."

Zelda and Darian were relaxing after dinner and it has been a few hours since Link and Midna left to get dinner. Zelda, predictably, was starting to get worried, while Darian completely trusted Link to not get himself hurt. They were caught off guard by familiar laughter, and both went to the door.

"Ahh, Link, Midna. Welcome back!" Darian smiled. Link clapped him on the shoulder.

"Good to be back. It's only been… Uhh… 2 hours!" This drew laughter from both the Night Guardian and Twilight Princess, while the Light Princess looked disapprovingly at the pair.

"It's late. You should not have been so reckless…"

"Relax Zelda! We were just getting dinner!" Midna giggled.

"And another round of drinks, I presume?" Zelda responded, pursing her lips.

"Darian, you've got such a prude of a girlfriend…" Link said, causing Midna to howl with laughter and Darian to smirk slightly.

"Hey hey, that's my girl you're talking about," he said, but he still had a smile on his face. "If you don't mind me asking, what was so funny that made you guys laugh so hard?"

"Oh we were just reminiscing about old times and old adventures!" Midna said. "Link, remember the time that you thought you defeated that huge spider? Arma… Ar… What was that spider's name again?"

Link facepalmed. "Oh Goddesses… Armagohma…"

Darian smirked. "What happened?"

Midna was trying so hard not to laugh. "Well Link bashed Armahoga.. Argoh… Whatever! The spider thingy! He smashed it with the huge statue thing and it exploded. Link thought he defeated it, and he did the fancy sword thing where he twirled it before putting it back in its sheath, but then looked and realized he didn't defeat it yet!"

"Hey! To be fair that thing exploded! How was I supposed to know it would explode only so I would see a huge eyeball staring at me with about 50 spiders surrounding it?" At this, even Zelda laughed.

"I can't believe you did that!" Darian said, rolling around laughing and Link couldn't hold it anymore and he too burst into laughter. Once they all settled down, Zelda looked at the others.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, so I should head to bed."

"Agreed. Night guys," Darian said before he and Zelda retreated to the room. Link and Midna hurried back to their own room and closed the door.

"I thought we were caught for sure!" Link said. "Nice save!"

"Thanks wolf-boy!" Midna replied. "We too should sleep. We have a prank to pull in the morning!"

"Agreed!"

The following morning dawned bright and sunny. Everything was still quiet as people were just starting to wake up. Drimani had just cleaned himself up and opened the door when he was scared senseless. He opened his mouth to alert the others when one of the two figures he saw made a shushing sound and pointed to the other who flashed a thumbs up. Drimani caught on and smirked. Oh boy, this was going to be a good day.

Meanwhile, the two figures crept to Darian's bedroom where they knew he and the princess were supposed to be sleeping. One of them turned to the other.

"Are you ready?" The other only grunted an affirmative. That was when it all began.

Darian and Zelda were suddenly rudely awakened by very loud screaming. "AAAHHH! HELP! HELP! DARKNUT! I NEED HELP NOW! HE'S GOT ME TRAPPED! GUYS HELP!" The door to the room flew open. Midna had her back facing the room and was shooting bolts at the second figure, a hulking monster in black armor with a helmet that covered its entire face. It was grunting and slowly advancing on Midna, whose spells seemed to have no effect on the armor.

Darian fell off the edge of the bed in fright and cursed at the fact that he left his whip on the other side of the room. Zelda, meanwhile, clutched at her heart for a few moments. Pandemonium reigned as neither of them knew what to do as the monster slowly lifting up a large claymore, intent on cutting Midna down.

"NOOOO! KILL ME INSTEAD!" Darian yelled and launched himself at the Darknut, only to be punched back onto the bed. Zelda tried launching her light arrows, but they merely glanced off the armor.

As the two became more and more frightened, being out of options, the Darknut suddenly bent over and made a deep chuckling sound, which soon turned into all out laughter. They looked at Midna, who was clutching her chest and rolling on the floor laughing. Eventually the spell subsided and instead of looking at a massive Darknut, Darian and Zelda were staring at none other than Link, who was gasping for air due to his prolonged laughter. Drimani poked his head in the room and ended up laughing himself before leaving the room to get breakfast.

Darian's shocked face turned into one of pretend rage. "LINK I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" he yelled, but when Link took off, Darian chased after him, laughing like a maniac. Meanwhile Zelda's reaction was not so pleasant. She looked at Midna dangerously.

"Midna I CANNOT believe you just did that! Prepare yourself!" She said in a deadly voice, readying another Light Arrow. Midna herself took off running, screaming at the top of her lungs, but having fun nonetheless, Zelda chasing after her.

A random soldier who woke up and stepped out into the hallway saw the Hero being chased by the Night Guardian. He rubbed his eyes, not believing what he saw, only to to watch the Twilight Princess running for her life, being chased by the Light Princess who was aiming an arrow at her back. The poor soldier thought he was dreaming or worse, having hallucinations, when a third sight (Drimani carrying breakfast back to his study, staring nonchalantly at the scene) made him lose consciousness. Drimani sighed. Poor soldier, he thought before setting the breakfast down and dragging the soldier back to his room.

Link and Midna strike! That was a nice chapter to finish, once I got going. I hope to have the following chapter up soon! R&R please! And thanks to all the faithful who have stuck by the story!

-LoneRider547