A/N: In case you didn't notice chapter 39 name is different, that's because I replaced the note, so if you haven't read chapter 39 make sure you go back and do so otherwise you'll probably feel a little lost. I put this note here because chapter 40 got a hit about an hour after I posted it but still 0 hits on chapter 39.
Chapter 40
My eyes felt heavy as I opened them, just barely enough to see Midna still weeping, I laid there a moment breathing lightly as I watched her weep. As I felt my strength return to me I quickly sat upright, Midna looked up and stopped crying from pure shock. I lifted my arms above my head, stretched until I heard a light pop and let out a relieved sigh and turned to look at Midna. "Sup?" I said casually, she blinked, I suddenly felt a hand hit the side of my face and then Midna threw herself at me hugging me tightly.
"Idiot." she mummbled into my shoulder and I felt a few more tears leave her face and soak right through my shirt.
"I know." I said and put my arms around her, as I heard startled yelling from afar it became apparent the others had seen me get up. "Maybe I should have played dead for more then a couple seconds." I said seeing the mixture of emotions on the faces that approached me. Lana, like her mother was crying but looked over-joyed to see me alive. Aidan, as expected looked ready to kill me again for such a stupid move. His anger quickly faded however as Lana hurled herself at me and hugged me so hard I was having trouble breathing. "Lana... choking..." I wheezed and she loosened her grip but refused to let go until I finally decided to stand up.
"Um, if you don't mind me asking, weren't you just... you know... dead?" Link said looking rather confused.
"I dunno did any of you check to see if I had a heartbeat?" I said and they all stared for a moment seeming rather shocked, I sighed. "Yes I was bloody dead."
"Then how are you-"
"Alive?" I cut Link off and he nodded. "Well to make a long story short, I met Midna's dad and he put my soul back in my body since I couldn't."
"What?!" Midna exclaimed and yanked herself to her feet using my arm. "You met my father?! What did he say?! How did he look?!"
"Minda... he was kinda you know... a soul... like me, so he was dead. But I mean for a dead guy guy he looked fine... I guess... I don't know what to tell you... well... mmfhrm." I closed my mouth and mumbled nonsense as I nearly called him a jerk.
"What?"
"Nothing..." I said pulling my arm from her grasp. "Let's clean this place up then shall we?" I said walking over to the mess my crystals had made of the top floor of the castle.
"No you don't!" Midna said jumping on to my back and wrapping her arms tightly around my neck, causing me to gag slightly and stumble, "Tell me what you were going to say!"
"Ack... okay, fine." I said nearly losing my balance. "He said he'd bind my soul to my body as long as I protected you and the instant you die my soul will leave my body, in other words I live as long as you do." Midna slid off my back at this.
"Your not telling us something more." Midna said glaring at me.
Midna, trust me you really don't wanna know what your father said, I thought and it was clear she had heard it as her glare grew more intense. I'm not saying it out loud... but I'll tell you... he struggled to call Aidan and Lana his grandchildren, he said... he said their blood is tainted.
A sad look crossed Midna's face but I received no reply, "Well father, did he say more?" Lana said interupting the silence.
"No, but I have a question... did anyone take the time to search Ganon for the last pieces of the mirror of twilight?" I said and I saw a few eyes shoot wide open.
I sighed but heard a voice behind me, "You mean these?" I turned to see Kris standing there with the last two chunks missing from what I had collected, she had a big smirk on her face.
"I should have guessed... but why do I get the feeling your not gonna just hand them over?" I said and her smirk grew into an almost sinister grin.
"You'd be right, you can have them back once you help clean up the castle and then I'd like to ask you a favor on top of that." she said and I sighed. Without a moment's hesitation I walked over and grabbed hold of the biggest chunk of what was left of the room I had blown to pieces and was just about to lift it when I felt a hard tap on my shoulder.
"What do you think you're doing, you just got up after... being dead." Midna said and I noticed everyone staring.
"So?" I said turning to face her calmly.
"So you shouldn't be lifting giant hunks of stone!" she growled at me.
"Midna, I'm fine... we need to get this done quick and next to Adonia I'm probably one of the strongest here."
"Yes, but Lana, Lilith and myself can use our Twili magic to lift this just as easy." she said seeming quite angry that I had essentially called her weak.
"Look, let's not argue, let's just get this done so we can head back to the Twilight okay?" I said and at this I heard Lana clear her throat quite quietly from behind me. I turned and she flushed a bit red then spoke up.
"Um... father... I... I was just wondering-" she stopped dead and her face turned an even darker red.
"Ah, you were wondering what we'll do about Link then?" I said and she nodded her face maintaining it's red colour. "Tell you what, let's clean up this mess, I'll find out what Kris wants me to do for her, then I'll have a chat with Link and see what he wants to do... ouch." I felt something jab me in my back pocket and reached in feeling a familiar cold piece of metal I pulled out the amulet Midna had given me long ago, and that I had seen an image of Midna's father wearing.
"You still have that?!" Midna said and I nodded.
"Here, take it." I said and held it for Midna to have.
"I gave it to you because I trust you Chris, if I were to die I would want you to take over ruling the Twilight for me." at this I thought for a moment then turned to Lana, grabbed her hand and put the amulet in it before closing her fingers around it.
"Father?" she said staring astonished.
"As Midna said, whoever has this is next in line to rule and I think it should be you, and besides, the spell your grandfather used only lasts so long as Midna lives, so in all senses you are next in line Lana." I said smiling and feeling a slight irritation in my rear end still I reached into my back pocket once again and found something I had forgotten I had grabbed previously.
"What is it?" Midna said noticing my hand lingering in my back pocket.
"Huh? Oh... nothing, just thought I felt something there." I said smiling.
"Thank you Chris," Midna said and I stared at her confused for a moment, "You saved my life."
"No I didn't... I failed to... I couldn't do anything but watch while Ganon killed you, and only afterwards was I able to kill him."
"Don't talk like that, you rendered Ganon completely defenseless and then brought your son, your daughter and me back to life at the cost of your own life. And no matter what, always remember that you saved us... and even if you hadn't we'd still all love you." she said and I cracked a small smile at this.
"Um... Chris?" Midna said as I moved to start cleaning up again and I stopped once more. She looked around and saw that no one was near as Lana had wandered over to start talking with Aidan and Lilith. She continued, "Chris... I'm worried... you know, about... the baby."
"What... why- oh... right, well it should be fine... I think." I said remembering that Midna had died and the child along with her.
"How can we be sure though?!" she said and tears were welling up in her eyes again.
"Midna... look, we can't right now... only time will tell. But if it wasn't meant to be then it wasn't and if you really want we could always try again-"
"Yeah you'd enjoy that wouldn't you." she said and I felt my face get hot and then shook it off.
"Midna that- okay, yes that's true but that doesn't mean I'd wish this child dead simply so we could try again. In a couple weeks, if not less we should be able to tell though, and if the baby is fine too, then that's fantastic." I said smiling as I pulled her in and kissed her on the cheek. "Now we should probably start cleaning so we can get home some time this year." I said and she giggled just as she had done all those many years ago when things were simple.
10 years later
Carefully now... carefully, I thought slowly tipping the small flask of a bright pink solution over the strange green solution I had produced several times now. One, drop and not a single one more, don't want another accident, I thought and the pink solution reached the edge of the flask. SLAM, the door behind me had flown open and hit the wall causing me to jump and half of the pink solution dumped out into the green, which instantly changed a swirling red-black mix I had seen several times now. "Son of a-!" I shouted and shot a huge freezing blast at the solution and ducked as like my previous attempts it exploded shattering the ice. I pushed my chair out and turned on my heel, ready to scream at whomever had interupted me. I was forced to look down however as there in the door stood my always energetic, nearly ten year old daughter Miranda, whom Midna had allowed me to name as she named the other two without me. I wasn't sure why I chose Miranda, it just seemed to pop into my head and fit. "Sweety, what did daddy tell you about bursting into rooms like that?" I said recalling the fact she had been the cause of another several previous explosions.
"Sorry daddy, but um..." she paused for a moment.
"Did you need something?" I asked squatting down to look at her eye-to-eye and she shook her head.
"I forget why I came up here... oh, wait! Mommy told me to come get you, she made a special dinner and she wants the whole family there!" she exclaimed in her always cheery tone. I hadn't the foggiest clue where she got her energy from, I had been energetic back on Earth when I was young but my surplus of energy faded as I moved through the years, until I became rather droll actually. Midna never seemed the 'happy-go-lucky' type and I assumed neither Aidan or Lana had displayed such energy as Midna seemed overwhelmed by it too.
"Alright well go tell mommy I'll be right down after I clean up... a little mess I made." I said glancing back at the shattered beaker.
"Sorry daddy," she said and I looked back to see her casting an innocent look my way.
"It's okay... just knock from now on!" I shouted after her as she ran off down the hall. I sighed as I cleaned up the debris from the desk which I had seen a few hours of at least once a week for the last ten years. It seemed so long ago and yet I could recall it like yesterday that Kris had told me that our abilities still affected each other somehow, and since all my own were offensive and duplication based all she had were defensive and illusionary based skills. I remembered commenting on how much that must have sucked and how I had received a slap from a Midna who had turned out to be one of Kris' illusions. I recalled Kris asking me if it would at all be possible to make a solution that would grant her the ability to make a copy of herself that could stay with Basha when she decided to leave. Five years later I had told her it was possible but the ingredients I needed were rare and a few dangerous, a long with a couple I was completely uncertain whether I would need them or even if some of them exsisted. It had been only a few weeks ago I was sure I had perfected the solution and had since nearly run out of one of the ingredients to form the very volatile pink solution that had caused explosions, the first of which nearly sent a glass shard flying through my skull. I put the flask with it's remaining solution carefully on the highest shelf, not that it mattered as from a young age Miranda had displayed great talent with Twili magic and could easily attain anything off high shelves if she really wanted to.
I tidied up my notes and closed the door on the way out. Midna never seemed to enjoy my little sessions in my study, I could have sworn she told Miranda to go slam my door open just to interrupt my work sometimes as she knew I could not stay mad at her for more then maybe five seconds. I cracked my knuckles and stared briefly at the thick dark ring around my finger that Midna had insisted on getting for me when I had taken the stone from my back pocket and cut a gem off it to fit a ring for her, that was made of the same strange black material the Twili used and was on my very finger. The gem I had found was quite stunning really, the way it seemed as black as night, until the light that always lit up the Twilight hit it and it sparkled like a sunset all in itself. Then the metal that both Midna and my own ring shared was deep black, durable, and did not seem to expand or contract very much according to temperature. Oddly enough however the stone I had found when the combined air, light and shadow elemental had smashed me deep into the ground amplified Midna's Twili magic. It had taken nearly a year for me to get the stone cut into an appropriately sized gem for a ring, and it had taken slightly longer for Midna to sort everything out in the Twilight, when she finally told me everything was in order I asked her how she felt about a little 'do over ceremony' to make up for the first wedding that I said defiantly had not gone as planned. When she asked what had brought it up I gave her the ring which she hadn't taken off since.
Then there was the fact my diminished light magic, combined with the dark magic of my old body, had changed me quite a bit. With each passing year I spent in the Twilight realm my skin seemed to change closer to the same shade of blueish-grey that Midna could quite beautifully pull off. I thought it looked rather unappealing on me but Midna claimed I was still handsome at any mention of it.
I turned into our 'family' dining room, which had previously been an unused room that Midna had wanted to be our dining room, she got her way of course and now in the middle sat a decently large round table with a chandelier hanging high above. Midna was standing at her seat, examining her meal, which looked much better then her first attempt at a full meal when we had come back. I had told her most honestly that she should speak with some cooks about making 'even better' food, I had somehow snuck my way around being hit for calling her a bad cook, possibly because I never told her that that first meal tasted like burnt wood. I had still found myself unable to identify the food but found most of it delicious. Not too surprisingly Lana was already seated next to her mother, she was always prompt, and dragged Link, whom had been convinced to move into the palace barely a year after we had left the light world, everywhere with her. We had left the mirror whole, for reasons that I was not told. Instinctively I pulled up a seat next to Midna who looked happily down at me. "Where's Miranda?" I said noticing my young daughter was not at the table.
"I sent her to go find Aidan and Lilith, and of course make sure they wash up before coming down." she said raising an eyebrow at me.
"Uh... scuse' me." I said getting up and walking out into the hall I engulfed myself in hot flames for about two seconds then walked back into the room, Link had a small smile across his face and was clearly holding back a laugh, while Lana and Midna looked clearly un-impressed with me. "What? It's ten times better then washing my hands with water." I said and Link chuckled but stopped short as Lana glared at him.
"I really wish you'd just do it normally, I mean Miranda may get ideas from it." Midna said crossing her arms as I walked back to my seat.
"I'd never do it in front of her, it's dangerous for me to do that near people even, otherwise I wouldn't have left the room... and besides Lana is the only Twili that can use magic outside the norm." I said leaning my chair back but felt it snapped forward as Midna flicked her finger at the legs. "I really wish you wouldn't do that."
"So Miranda told me she accidentally made you blow something up again?" Midna said ignoring me and seeming rather calm.
"Yes, she barged into the room just as I nearly finished the elixir for Kris... again." I said watching her reaction carefully but she didn't seem to have any reaction at all.
"That's too bad, I wish she'd knock... how are your supplies?" she asked and I looked at her for a brief moment before deciding what to tell her.
"Pretty low, I might have to look for some more soon." I sighed and suddenly Miranda came skipping into the room before hopping up on a chair next to me, reaching over and grabbing my arm to tug on it. She had done this for years, and it had always meant that she wanted a hug. I, of course, didn't deny her that as Aidan and Lilith meandered into the room chatting quietly with each other.
"You two are late." Midna said sounding rather peeved.
"So was Miranda!" Aidan retorted pointing at her as I released her from a hug and turned back to face the table.
"No, I sent her to get your father and when you weren't here yet I told her to go get you." Midna defended Miranda and I let out a deep breath as this always seemed to happen when Midna made one of her family dinners. Aidan, Lana and Midna all began to speak at once and I felt my eye twitch slightly in frustration at this argument that never seemed to stop.
"Oi!" I said loudly cutting off everyone and the room fell into silence, "That's better... now Aidan, Lilith, sit." As I said this they moved to the last two empty chairs and had a seat completing the circle. Midna was next to me, to my left was Miranda, next to her was Lilith, then Aidan, Link, and finally sitting next to Midna on the opposite side of me was Lana. "Now, as your mother worked very hard on this dinner I suggest we eat before it gets cold." I said and Aidan looked down at the table. "But since your mother also only ever stands next to the table when she has something to say, perhaps we should listen first?" I said turning to Midna who shook her head then sat down.
"It can wait until after, thank you Chris." she said and kissed me lightly on the cheek. The dinner went very peacefully, everyone talked of what they had done recently, Lana and Midna talked of what the people wanted or seemed worried about, Link and I trying to pay attention but both found politics rather droll. I found myself distracted by Miranda who always told the wildest stories of creatures she encountered in the halls, Lilith listened as well as she spoke of her most recent encounter with a bird-like cat that had tried to bite her.
"My, it seems your father should patrol the halls of the palace more often, what with all your encounters with these creatures." Lilith said and we chuckled lightly as she said I wouldn't need to, that she had taken care of them all with her magic. I had no doubt that if any of her encounters had been real she could have taken care of a vast majority of them, but a couple had worried me when she spoke of creatures that sounded like moblins, on one occasion a shadow beast, and most of all a woman that as she described it I could almost have sworn it could have been Kris. I was on the last bit of what I had always told my mind was steak despite distinct differences, such as black bones, and had just popped it in my mouth, the fork still hanging out my lips as Midna stood up. Everyone went silent and turned to look at her. The fork still hung in my mouth and I looked rather goofy as I looked over at Midna.
"Now, as Chris said, I do have something to say..." she paused as I pulled my fork from my mouth and set my hands on the table as she continued. "I have decided I want to take a vacation, with Chris and most likely Miranda as well." she said and I felt the 'steak' in my mouth, which was under chewed, slide down into my throat. It went down hard as I beat my chest a couple times. Fearing choking I flared fire in my throat and felt the meat no more but coughed up a puff of smoke much to Miranda's amusement. There was a bit of a ruckus as several people began complaining or commenting on it around the table until I slammed my right hand down, still clutching the fork and silence fell once again. "Now yes, I know it seems sudden, but I want Miranda to see some of the light world before she gets older and though I don't doubt me and Miranda can take care of ourselves, I want Chris with me as not only added safety but so we can spend some quality time with each other and Miranda."
I set my fork down, a little harder then necessary and got to my feet now. "Midna, that didn't turn out very well last time plus-"
"This time's different, while we're away I intend to leave Lana in charge, last time the servant I left in charge had trouble for one day that he had lost the instructions I gave him." Midna said and I felt everyone at the table looking at me for my response now.
"Midna, I know that, but... I've spent nearly ten years researching and making this damned elixir for Kris and how to duplicate myself perfectly as well, and you know that I have to go-" Midna looked down at the ground and cut me off again.
"Yes... I know you do... but, I still don't want you to. I know you said it will be like you never left at all, that the part you leave here will act, think and be exactly like you but it'll just feel different!" Midna said her voice growing louder and her eyes growing watery. "That's why... that's why I always told Miranda not to knock, I was hoping she'd interrupted you... I'm sorry Chris." she said and for half a moment I felt a small burst of rage near the surface but with a heavy sigh it sank back down.
"It's fine Midna, when do you intend to take this little vacation?" I said moving away from the table and pushing my chair in.
"In three days." she said sounding almost depressed.
"That'll do perfectly, by that time I can have the elixir to Kris, make my copy, and be gone." I said and Midna suddenly broke into tears and ran from the room. Everyone watched as she left sobbing and slammed the door behind her, then they all looked at me anxiously. "Same reaction she had about five years ago when I told her I was starting to make progress on the elixir, she'll be fine." I said and took note that several people still had food on their plate, "Now finish your dinner, and Miranda eat... whatever those red things are... Midna told me their good for you." I said recalling Miranda telling me they could make her sick. With that I left the room, pulling the door so it stopped short of closing behind me and walking quickly back up to my small study I closed the door and moved quickly to mix the ingredients I would need. I rushed around the room, grabbing this and boiling that until I had my final mixture that needed a mere single drop again. I grabbed the flask of the pink liquid once again and held it high above my beaker and stopped. Something inside of me had simply told me that I could finish the elixir in the morning, that with a couple spells I could protect it and finish this ten year project several hours later. I trusted my instinct and put the flask back on the shelf, moving the beaker up next to it I made a large blocker of crystal and shoved it on the shelf surrounding the two mixtures. I then coated the entire shelf in a thin durable layer of crystal, exhausting what remained of that power for today I let out a heavy sigh, turned and left my study heading up towards Midna's throne room. I had never really recovered my power with the crystals after I had blown up the castle but I had enough to protect that shelf at least for several hours.
I wasn't sure what had possessed me to go to the throne room but I did and to my surprise I found Midna sitting on her throne, weeping into her hands, her elbows resting on her legs. I swallowed hard as I felt my stomach tie itself in a knot and knocked on the already slightly open door. The knock echoed loudly across the rather large room and I heard Midna sniff loudly and saw her quickly wipe her face before proceeding to say, "Come in." I pushed the door wide open and took one step into the room before Midna saw it was me and I froze as she set a glare on me that felt as though it pierced through my flesh and into my heart. "Oh... what is it Chris?" she said continuing to glare at me.
I gulped down nothing but air and tried to compose myself, "Midna... I'm very sorry... but you know as well as I do why I have to leave." I said and she sighed loudly enough for me to hear across the room and motioned for me to come in and close the door. I walked up next to her, my footsteps echoing through the room's eerie silence. "Can you tell me why you're so against the idea of my copy? I told you it will be like I just left and came back, and you don't have to worry about my other half, it'll remember saving this world but nothing of you." I said reassuring her of this again.
"I know, you've told me all of this several times before." she seemed to squirm uncomfortably in her throne before continuing. "It's just that... well, while Ganon was in your body I... wasn't... tempted to... you know." her face turned red and I felt mine imitate hers.
"Oh... yeah..." there was complete silence for half a moment then I realized what she was saying. "Wait, so your worried that being with a copy of me will be like cheating on me?!" I said and her face turned even redder. "Midna, don't think of it as a copy, I know that's what I've called it but after looking over the only way I'll be able to do this it's practically me just leaving behind the part of me that belongs here... that belong with you." I said and ran my fingers gently through her hair and she cracked a small smile. "There you go, I'd hate to think that I'd never see you smile again." I said sitting down on the arm of her throne.
"Did you lock the door?" she asked and I blinked curiously at her.
"Uh... I think so, why do yo- whoa h- mmph!" I yelled out as Midna yanked me toward her then was cut off when her lips pressed against my own.
I exited the throne room the next morning, only knowing it was morning because living here just seemed to attune your senses to tell you what time of day it was, if there really wasa time of day. I closed the door behind me, quietly so as not to wake Midna. It had been hard enough moving off the throne and out of Midna's loving arms with my back sore from sleeping on that bloody rock hard chair, though I wondered if it was maybe something else that was causing the pain. My thoughts were interrupted however, as Lana came walking down the hall looking slightly worried. "Morning Lana, what's going on?" I said as she nearly ran right by me.
"Where's mother?" she asked hurriedly, almost bouncing on the spot as though she needed to use the washroom.
"Uh, throne room... hey, knock first!" I said unable to recall how dressed Midna was when I left her this morning. I stretched and groaned as my back popped several times, "Gotta go finish up that elixir, I'll give it to that postman guy, he'll get it to Kris, just gotta..." I paused and yawned, "...gotta, write her a note. Just to make sure she uses it right... I still find it odd she doesn't actually drink it herself... but that's what everything I looked through concluded so..." I stopped at a meeting of four hallways and looked down the one to my left. It stretched out a long ways, and grew darker as it went, I looked straight ahead and saw more of the same. Then I turned to my right and at first saw the same as before, an empty dark hallway, but as I stepped forward to head for my study I could have sworn I saw something dash across the hall. I stopped and stared for a moment, no movement seemed to occur again. I rubbed my eyes, blinked a few times and watched for a moment more before shrugging it off as a trick my eyes played on me. I walked quickly the rest of the way to my study, occasionally glancing back to ensure that nothing was following me. "Ah, that's right... I won't be able to use the postal service." I sighed as I closed my study door and locked it tight to ensure no interruptions this time. "I forgot how hard he is to find unless he has a letter for you... guess I'll have to try teleporting by Twili magic... hopefully I don't come out completely scrambled like Midna said she did her first time trying." I said recalling Midna going on about how since I looked more and more like a Twili I should be able to move about like one. I couldn't help but notice every time she told me this I did not have any glowing markings on my body, so I doubted that I could even use the same magic as her.
I checked over my notes one final time to ensure that leaving the solution overnight would not have caused problems, I could find nothing wrong with it and removed the protection from the shelf and pulled down the beaker and flask. "Now then, just one drop." I reminded myself and carefully tipped the pink liquid slowly over the beaker. Just as the liquid reached the edge I stopped, put the flask down, moved to the door, unlocked it, opened it and looked both ways down the hall outside. There was nothing there but I felt a strange sensation I shouldn't trust my eyes entirely. I put my hand to the wall and using a small amount of dark magic and quickly closing the door the wall extended over the door. "That should do for now... I just hope I can get out on my own this time." I said recalling the last time I had tried this on a different door, Miranda had actually been the one to rescue me, at the time she was no more then four. I walked back over to the two solutions and found that the solution in my flask was purple rather then pink. "What the..." I grabbed the flask and examined it, but as I looked at it I spotted the pink liquid back on top of the shelf. "Odd..." I said putting the purple liquid back on top of the shelf and retrieving the pink one. I looked around the small room half expecting someone to jump out at me but could see no sign of anyone at all. I turned the flask rather quickly until the fluid came to the edge, then slowly, carefully I managed to get a single drop to fall into the beaker and I turned the flask back upright just in case.
There was a small puff of smoke and the green liquid turned a bright golden colour that I found myself in awe of. I shook it off quickly however and checked my notes, the colour seemed correct so I quickly grabbed a canteen I had been saving just for this. I carefully poured the solution into the canteen and screwed on the lid. "Perfection." I said and smiled happily but heard a curious noise from behind me. I turned around to see cracks of the dim hallways light beginning to appear below the door. I actually felt frightened that it had been whatever I saw dash across the hall earlier. Then as the light under the door became full to my shock there was a knock at the door. Three light knocks that sounded as though they were no more then three or four feet from the bottom of the door. I realized it must have been Miranda removing the overgrown wall, "Enter." I said and the door flew wide open to reveal that I had been correct. As the door slammed against the wall however I heard several glass containers behind me rattle and wobble. I wheeled around and found myself too late, the flask of purple liquid I had placed slightly too close to the edge was already falling, it almost seemed to move in slow motion as I moved to catch it but was too late and the second the glass shattered I felt myself thrown back.
"Ohmygoshdaddyareyoularight, I'm sosososososo sorry!" Miranda was speaking so fast it reminded me a little of the super speedy Twili that I had fought, but couldn't recall her name any more. I had once tried to recover them but could not and felt sad that I had lost even three more Twili. "Are you alright?!" she repeated slightly slower shaking me a little.
I coughed and saw a small cloud of what looked like soot leave my mouth. I shook my head and more of the same fell away, "Yeah, I'm fine sweety... I know we only told you knock from now on, but could you maybe tone down opening doors too?" I laughed as I said this and she nodded with a smile.
"Yeah, sorry... I just always feel like entering a room as happily as I feel." she said and I stared for a moment.
"Where do you get all this energy from?" I said and she shrugged.
"Dunno, ever since we went on that family vacation I've felt energetic." she said smiling and I blinked twice and stared again.
"Miranda... that was... you were only a little over a year old, how do you remember that?" suddenly she had a confused look on her face.
"Remember what daddy?" she said and I shook my head lightly.
"N-nothing... you should go get your mother to make you some breakfast, I've got something I need to attend to." I said and she nodded happily and was off. That was odd...
What was honey? Midna's voice echoed through my head and I nearly jumped as it had been a while since me and Midna had spoken like that.
Miranda just told me she's been energetic since the family vacation and-
She was barely one, how does she-
I know I asked her how she remembered, the weird thing is she suddenly looked confused and asked 'remember what'... oh, by the way would you mind if I took Lana into the light world so she can help me get this elixir to Kris?
I suppose... just be back in time for dinner, okay? I'd like to have one more family dinner before... you don't think there's something wrong with Miranda do you?
What?! No, she's perfectly fine, I mean you have to consider her father, I'm a bit odd aren't I?
Yes, yes you are... but anyways I'd appreciate it if you could try and teleport alone, Lana knows what to do if it messes up so take her and see how it goes.
Okay, I'll be back for dinner, where is Lana at?
Right here in the throne room, we just finished speaking I'll ask her to wait for you... and then I need to go make Miranda some breakfast apparently.
Oh, yeah I kinda told her to come find you... oh do you think you could come to the throne room again afterwards, I'd like to say goodbye properly before I go.
What?
I just mean I'd rather say goodbye in case I get hung up in the light world and am late, but I'll do my best to be on time.
Alright, fine, I'll be there after I'm done making Miranda's breakfast.With that I left my study, and proceeded quickly back to the throne room. I told Lana what I'd like her to help me with, she happily agreed and asked if she could meet me in front of the exit to the Twilight in about ten minutes. I agreed but told her to hurry as we had to be home in time for dinner. Midna came back shortly after and as usual gave me far more then I needed to take along for my trip, extra clothes, more then enough food and lingered as I gave her a goodbye hug. After Midna finally let go I found nothing to do for the remainder of the ten minutes I had to wait for Lana and simply spent them pacing in front of the glowing circle that led into the light world. At one point I got bored enough to start playing a little air guitar to a song in my head but the song quickly vanished and I was left standing there like an idiot. Finally I let out frustrated sigh and plopped down hard on my back just as the door to the palace opened and out came Lana, to my surprise Link was following her. "Why is Link with you?" I called out and she looked back at him, he shook his head and she jabbed him lightly with her elbow.
"I... I wanted to see how the light world is doing." he said and I smiled.
"Feeling a bit homesick?" I said and he scratched the back of his head. "Well, let's be off then, if all goes well we can be done with some time to spare and maybe Link can visit his old home." We approached the exit to the Twilight and I felt my whole body pulled to pieces and suddenly come back together in the bright light of the desert sun. I covered my eyes to block the rays as my eyes adjusted to the sudden light change. "Alright, now for the fun part..." I said remembering Midna had asked me to try doing it myself.
"Just relax, and focus on your destination, it's difficult the first time but quite simple once you get the hang of it." she said and I nodded as I relaxed and focused on Kakariko village, I felt myself dematerialize as always and a few seconds later felt myself reassembled in the equally bright sun of Kakariko, differed only by the slightly cooler temperature from the dessert. I realized something felt off however. I heard Link gasp sounding slightly mortified as well, I looked down to see I had somehow managed to separate my upper and lower body, my legs were standing about twenty feet away. Lana quickly moved in between me and my legs and I felt myself disassemble and reassemble once more. I looked down and saw my legs and let out a relieved sigh. "I only managed to lose a hand my first time." she laughed and Link looked quite pale.
"Well uh, I've been stabbed, burned, frozen, and otherwise maimed, but I gotta say that was new." I shuddered. We proceeded down the road, Basha's home, which Kris had helped her make much larger, was already easily visible up on top of the cliff it had always sat. Supposedly Kris had somehow managed to siphon some heat from Death Mountain and make a sort of 'hot tub' though I highly doubted this.
"You should try sinking into the shadows, it's quite an effective way to move quicker." Lana said and I shook my head.
"No, one new experience is enough for me today." I said rubbing my hand against my waist line where I had severed myself.
"Your problem with teleporting is you focused on two separate spots, or more, and part of you ended up going to the first spot you thought of, the second to the second, had you thought of more places we'd have to pick up a lot of pieces, I suppose I should have explained it a bit more before I let you try." Lana said turning red.
"It's quite alright, I'm just glad you put me back together... so... uh, what would happen to Link if he got split like that?"
"He'd die." Lana said quite calmly as both me and Link stared at her astonished at her utter calmness. "Oh, but don't worry, it's nearly impossible to split a light dweller, their harder to move because their body likes to stay in one piece but in the long run it makes it near impossible to mess up, however if you do it wrong they could end up somewhere else all together."
"Okay, I've heard enough of this..." I said speeding up and reaching the top of the cliff before the others. I could hear muffled voices and the occasional giggle and splash from inside and promptly smacked the wall with an open palm as hard as I could as I proceeded toward the door and rapped hard three times. "I'm gonna give her the elixir, quickly explain it, then we're gone." I said and as Lana opened her mouth, likely to ask why, but the door opened. I turned back to face the door and found myself face-to-face with Basha, who was dripping wet and simply had a towel wrapped around herself. "HEL-LO" I said and quickly turned my gaze away as the door slammed shut. There was silence outside but muffled voices could be heard arguing quietly inside. Suddenly the door opened again and Kris was standing there dressed in her normal outfit, but it looked like she hadn't taken the time to dry off as several damp spots were on her shirt and appeared to be spreading rather quickly.
"Well hey there Chris, long time no see." she said smiling an over-enthusiastic smile.
"Yeah, yeah hey Kris, I know it's weird greeting yourself, hahaha." I laughed sarcastically knowing she was trying to use the same joke she had used every time I came here. "Your elixir is done." I said holding out the canteen she took it and stared for a moment looking as though she couldn't believe it.
"Wow that was faster then I expected even." she said and grabbed the cap and twisted it once.
"Don't drink it!" I bellowed and she stopped dead nearly jumping, her eyes shot wide open. "According to everything I've read..." I paused and pulled a folded page out of my pocket I had written after perfecting the formula for making the elixir, "...you don't drink it, someone you want the part of you left behind linked to has to drink the elixir. Then you must do exactly as that page instructs, I warn you it will likely be slightly painful but if you truly want this you'll survive." I said and turned around before remembering one last thing. "Oh, and make sure whoever you want to be linked to drinks that right before you follow the instructions, I'd suggest studying them over a couple times, the elixir will only work for twelve hours, after that it'll fade and if you make a copy it will simply fall apart." I said and started to walk away again.
"Thanks... I know you didn't have to do this, you could have simply copied yourself and left, but you actually spent years working on a way for me to leave part of myself behind." she sounded happy but almost sounded like she was going to cry.
"Blah, don't go getting all emotional, I only did it because it felt like the right thing to do... the fact I got to see my new daughter grow up a bit was nice too... and Midna... ah, I'm getting all sappy on myself." I said and walked around the corner of the house, slid down the cliff, stopping each time the path came below me and walking to the next slope. I stretched and yawned looking around at the utterly quiet town. I've got to leave... soon... I've managed to hide this pain this long but one more day and it may overwhelm me. I winced as the pain throbbed through my whole body, I looked up to see Lana and Link had not left, and were obviously still chatting with Kris. Indeed I had endured a lot of pain, and had hidden it quite well, it seemed at first like nothing more then a twinge, a random sharp pain, nothing I hadn't felt before. But after a few years it seemed to amplify, then after a few more years it started to get worse by the month, then the week, and lately it seemed to be getting worse every day. I took several heavy breaths grasping my shoulder and took one final deep breath as the pain subsided again. I stood there panting slightly as I recovered and nearly jumped half my own height as Lana popped up right in front of me. "Ah, jeez... don't do that!" I said grasping my rapidly beating heart.
"Sorry father, I couldn't resist." she said smiling.
"So you do have a sense of humor... Aidan said you seemed really down lately." I said and she suddenly looked down at the ground. "Oop, I'm sorry...... you know... if there's something bugging you, you can always tell me or your mother, right?" I said and she nodded.
"I know, it's just..." she stopped as Link came sliding down the cliff as I had just done. She was staring at Link, who was the only person besides Miranda that the last decade had showed any signs of time passing on, my guess was that my similar magic to the Twili's along with Midna's father had practically made me one of them, making me stay young just as they did. Link however, was still one of the light, and he had no Twili magic to speak of, and therefore, aged as any light dweller would. I realized she must have been worried about him aging like this and suddenly wanted a private word with her.
"Lana, would you mind terribly if I went back home for now, you can take Link to Ordon for a while, I just need to go have a chat with your mother this afternoon." I said and she stared at me for a moment.
"Uh... okay." she said moving towards Link.
"Ah, we can leave Link here, you can come back and pick him up after you make sure I get back to the mirror chamber in one piece." I said and she looked at me for a moment and must have realized I wanted to speak with her alone.
"Okay, Link I'll be back in a couple minutes, you wait here for me." she said and Link seeming very confused just nodded as me and Lana dematerialized in front of him. I managed to keep myself pretty well together this time, my left ear seemed to have displaced itself on the opposite side of the chamber. Lana told me how to move it back where it belonged and I did so very cautiously and she applauded me as it worked perfectly.
"Alright, Lana... I saw how you looked at Link, I think I know why you're so down." I said and turned to her.
"Ah, I was that obvious was I?" she said rubbing the back of her neck as her eyes watered slightly. She had always said it was a habit when she was stressed, I found this funny because I had always done it up until the day my PS2 fried me and set me out on this crazy adventure. I never understood how this place and Spira had been linked but summed it up to the fact I had gone home to Earth first before being taken here.
"Well, you looked concerned for him and it's clear he's aged... but look, you must have known this would happen when he proposed three years ago."
"I did... I just thought... I thought maybe if he lived in the Twilight long enough he would adapt some of our magic and... or at least the place itself would slow his aging maybe but..."
"But you know it won't happen... my case in unique... strange to even me... and unique in all the history books of the Twilight."
"I just... I just keep imagining him lying dead, while I'm still looking as young then as I do now... this magic is a curse!" she said and started crying.
"I disagree... though living much longer then the one you love may seem a curse, even if, and when Link does pass on... you must keep living, strong and courageous, if not for your own sake then for the sake of his memory..." I said and she looked at me like I had just said something completely ingenious.
"Father... you always seem to know just what to say." she said and hugged me.
"Alright, I just complained not five minutes ago that Kris was getting all sappy and now you are too." I said after a moment and she chuckled moving away from me. We stood there a moment and then I remembered something, "Oh, Lana... um... listen, tonight at dinner, you mustbe there by the way, I'll have an announcement... I want you to take this and give it to me when I stand up." I said handing her a strange little box I had messed with while trying to make that elixir.
"What-"
"Don't open it! That's for me to do later... you'll find out, I just feel it would be safer with you for now. No peeking, there's more in there then you'd think. One of my failed attempts at an elixir somehow extended that box." Lana shrugged and stowed the box in the black book bag she used to carry everything, most commonly books of course. I pulled her close and hugged her tightly, "Goodbye Lana." I said and without turning back walked past the mirror, giving it my usual light tap, a bad habit I had picked up to ensure to myself that it was indeed there, up onto the glowing stairs that appeared as I approached and felt myself pulled back into the Twilight.
"Alright, can't think... gotta do this without thinking... that's gonna be hard... I could just close my mind off from Midna for now... that sounds wise as I'm going to have to do this just right." I said and focused for half a second and closed my mind. "Okay, my thoughts are my own." I said reassuring myself I walked off, away from the palace so that I was hidden but not too far. It's now or never, I thought and laid my left hand over the middle of my chest, I thought hard of my goal and suddenly felt my chest tense up and my heartbeat accelerate. I stood there waiting for the second step, I had tried this a couple times to prepare myself and the first three times it had caused me to pass out. Suddenly it happened, it felt like my heart was going to explode and my entire body vibrated as I tried to stay awake. I had to move quickly or I would fail, I tensed my hand so that my fingers were the only things pressing against my chest and felt the pain ease slightly. I moved my fingers up towards my neck and recalled the book saying to remove the concentrated essence of yourself through your good arm. I moved my fingers toward my right shoulder and could almost feel the so called 'essence' moving right behind my fingers. Fast like a band-aid or slow and steady? I moved my hand quickly to the edge of my shoulder and shuddered slightly as a sharp shot of pain moved along after it. I tried moving slowly down onto my upper arm, it felt like someone was pressing a metal ball against my skin and pushing hard as they dragged it down my arm.
It was more an annoyance then pain so I moved slowly down my arm, beginning to pant heavily as the effort drained me. Gotta focus, every memory, every thought, every emotion... every bit of me that belongs here with Midna. As I reached my wrist the ball that had been in my arm felt as though spikes were now protruding from every side as I dragged it those last few inches to the palm of my hand. My fingers now sat on my hand, at the bottom of each matching finger and of course my thumb. "Al...most... there," I panted and noticed I was feeling rather dehydrated. I closed my fingers quickly and felt them latch onto something, I pulled and a long red line came out from my hand, and as I pulled it out it seemed a thread was being laced from my hand, until it seemed to droop and almost drip like a liquid. It stayed connected however and I pulled it out to the length of my arm span with one long tug, then as it was still barely connected I gave a little pull with my left hand and the thread severed from my hand. The book had not specified exactly what to do next so I acted on a whim, I held it above my head, the thread was as long as I was tall, I slowly placed it, making it curl on top of itself, on the ground in front of me. Once I released the thread it suddenly changed from a solid to a liquid and melted down into a puddle before reshaping itself into a humanoid figure, it was too small at first but as it took shape it also seemed to grow, until finally it looked exactly like me, except one thing. "Why are you in nothing but underwear?!" I said and the other me looked at me.
"Oh, I think know why, the boxers you were wearing when you came to this world, your wearing them aren't you?!" the other me said and I stared.
"Uh... yeah how did you know?"
"Because only the parts of you that belong in this world moved to me, your outfit changed a few times, quite a few since you came here."
"So you mean to tell me... never mind... I brought a spare set of clothes, Midna always makes me, say you lost the spare set since they look the same anyways." I said handing the spare set of clothes to my mirror image who took them and put them on and I started to grow confused at who was who before I noticed something. "Here, you best take the ring." I said pausing as I went to remove the ring. I felt my eyes watering and shook my head to try and stop it.
"Hey, go ahead, take a moment, I get it." my look-a-like said as he fixed up his outfit a bit. "Hey, your skin is back to normal," he added gaping at me.
"Yeah, I gave you all of my powers, save for the powers I got from that weird... thing."
"Oh yeah that thing, so your not technically a Twili anymore?"
"No."
"Okay, well you'd best get going before that pain comes back again."
"You won't get it."
"But you will, like you told Midna, I'm you... I can't imagine hurting her but I know this probably will."
"Yes, it likely will... tell her I'm... tell her we're sorry." I said accepting the fact it was in fact a perfect copy and as such deserved to be treated as though it was me.
"Of course," he said taking the ring which I had finally removed. "Now get going, that pain was crap."
"I know right?"
"Totally."
"It's so nice to talk to someone who completely gets you."
"Oh I know what you mean," we paused and laughed, it sounded as though only one person was laughing until we stopped and he continued speaking, "Well best be getting back to the palace, if you're too late they'll get suspicious before I tell them at dinner." he said waving.
"Don't forget to give em' the gifts I left in that box!" I yelled after him. He raised his right hand and gave me a small two finger wave that was meant to tell me not to worry. Suddenly my ear started ringing and I shook my head. Bleh, someones talking about me... I turned around and stretched. "Suppose I should get going then..." I paused and turned back to look at the Twilight palace one more time. I feel bad for lying to Midna that making that other me would erase my memories of her, but he knows not to tell her unless it's absolutely necessary... I didn't want her to worry about me... I'll be fine though, after all I came all this way already... I raised my hand ready to leave but heard footsteps scuffling about nearby. "Who's there, show yourself!" I said and ducked as something flew out at me. I wheeled around and to my astonishment saw who appeared at first to be Kris, but it was clear it wasn't her.
"Boo! Ha ha... I scared you... leaving so soon? After you messed up this world so bad?" she said as I looked over her similar appearance to Kris. Three major difference that gave her away right off the bat was that her hair, instead of the brown that used to sit upon my own head on Earth and Kris' here was jet black, and her eyes, and this completely threw me off, were bright purple. Lastly was her skin tone, instead of seeming as though she had seen some sun, but not enough to tan her very much, this girl's skin bordered on dark grey.
"What the hell are you, and what are you talking about 'messed up this world'?" I said and she sneered at me.
"I went through all the trouble of trying to make that Ganon guy stronger and you go and kill him dead! Then I thought maybe you'd be dead and I could throw your family deeper into despair but then you go and get up like nothing happened!" she growled sounding frighteningly angry.
"Well now that you've told me you're a hateful girl who wants me to suffer, care to give a name to a face?"
"My name is definitely not important, not now at least... all you need to know is I was so hoping Ganon would destroy you, it would have made this world mine!" she said and I stared.
"What?"
"Oh you don't know? I cause and preserve un-natural order, meaning, by whatever means, I destroy any chaos in a world, even if the easiest way is simply to destroy what's good and pure and let darkness rule, I do it." she cackled confidently.
"So wait... I'm meant to preserve natural order, you preserve un-natural order... then Kris-"
"Yes, my counterpart preservers natural chaos, whereas your own counterpart the un-natural chaos he doth cause. Actually it was his idea to help Ganon stick himself in your head." I raised my hand at this and tried to shoot some form of magic but then remembered I had given it all to my new clone. "Now if you don't mind I'll be taking my leave!" she cackled and a large grey portal opened up behind her and she slipped through. It quickly began to close.
"No you don't!" I yelled and raised my hand once again the portal opened wide and changed to a solid black, I ran and leapt inside, and in the total darkness I found myself able to see even as the portal closed behind me. I could see Kris' doppelgänger swimming through the massive array or strange glowing bubbles. I tried to walk at first, but got no where, so instead began swimming like the 'evil' Kris had. I thought her evil simply because she did not care who got hurt and actually wished pain on some it seemed, plus her appearance was much darker then Kris. Passing by many of the bubbles closely as I chased after this newly found foe I noticed there were actually places within them all. What is this? If I were to hazard a guess it'd be the way my friend the preserver of order travelled, but he said something about growing tired when he dropped me didn't he? I soon found out what he had meant as well, my arms and legs grew weary as I swam after the Kris look-a-like and many of the bubbles serene nature began to look very appealing.
As suddenly as she had appeared and vanished through her grey portal she turned and went into one of the bubbles, her feet stuck for a moment. I thought I would catch her but as I swiped at the left foot it popped inside the bubble. "Damn it!" I yelled and it echoed and suddenly to my surprise I saw myself, but once again something was instantly and obviously wrong with my appearance. This other me saw me and dashed toward the bubble I was beside, and unlike the Kris copycat, went straight inside with no hesitation. I heard panting and turned to see Kris swimming madly toward the bubble as well but she stopped when she saw me.
"Chris!"
"Heya Kris." I said and we both chuckled lightly.
"So what was the deal with-"
"The other me? Well as far as I can tell, apparently at some point you absorbed a being that preserves 'natural chaos' while I absorbed a being that preserves 'natural order.' As far as I can tell your clone preserves 'un-natural order' considering she said it out loud..."
"Yeah, that guy that looked like you said he preserves 'un-natural chaos'... what that is... and then rambled a bunch of random junk, he's completely nuts and makes no sense at all."
"Ah, the same yet different."
"Huh?"
"I'm nuts, but I least make sense." I said, we laughed for a moment.
"So um, what's the deal with this bubble?" she said pointing to it.
"Don't bloody ask me," I said shrugging and suddenly the bubble had a mouth, it looked more like a jagged wavy line then a mouth but I thought it a mouth because it had just clamped down on nearly half of Kris. "Oi, let go!" I yelled and grabbed hold of her legs trying to pull her back out. "Ugly bubble, I said let go of my fr- whoa!" I was forced to let go and swim back slightly as the bubble opened wide and nearly chomped down on both me and the remainder of Kris. I moved forward and grabbed hold of the the strange bubble, it felt almost like cold metal. I tried to wrench open where the mouth had just closed but to no avail. "Open, you son of a-" CHOMP. I quite literally heard the bubble's mouth clamp down on my arm and looked over to see it holding tight. "Ow! Le'go!" I tried to shake free but it's grip was as iron tight as you'd expect a little metal bubble's to be, though I'd never thought of an metal bubble biting my arm. I slammed my foot against it and tried to pull my arm free, thinking it would be better to go on without an arm then be eaten by a strange metal bubble. I let up for half a second to catch my breath and felt the grip loosen. I tried to move quickly but was caught off guard when the bubble's 'mouth' opened wide enough to bite down on the leg I still had pressed against it. "Nononono- Ahhh, you little hunk of-" but I was cut off again as the metal bubble's mouth opened beyond both the top of my head and the bottom of my free leg. "Crap." I closed my eyes and felt a compressing darkness around me for several moments, but then saw a light bright enough to turn the black vision of my closed eyes into the red colour of the back of my eyelids.
I opened my eyes and saw a black portal, like the one I had opened, but with a bright sunlight shining through the middle and making everything around me a lighter shade of black. Knowing it was where I had to go I swam towards it. Here's hoping wherever I end up, its somewhere that can take my mind off Midna.
Yay, finally done, yes that's right done! That's it that's all, the end... but it's clear I've decided to leave a couple openings for some closing stories if theres any demand for them XD Regardless, I'd like to thank The Silent Orion for not maintaining silence on my note, thanks for the review :) And I'd like to thank all my other faithful readers! :D