A/N: Aaand here's chapter 4, rewritten as of 5/22/13

Revised on 10/02/14

Chapter 4: The World of Ruin

I groaned as I slowly regained consciousness. My hands were numb, my wrists - well actually, all of me- ached, and the back of my head was pounding. Wherever I was - though I had a pretty good idea - it was cold, and dank, and wet. I shivered as I forced my eyes open, and was greeted with gloomy grey stone and old metal bars; the dungeon of Hyrule Castle. I looked around until I set my eyes on the wolf that laid unconscious on the floor, about half a dozen feet away. Link. I moved to wake him, but found myself unable to move my arms from where they sat above me.

That was when I recognized the feel of metal against my skin. Tilting my head up, I saw my hands were chained to the wall above me with little wiggle room. I groaned again. My feet were unchained, but sore from standing for however long I'd been out. That aside, my reach wasn't far enough to be able to wake him through physical contact, and I wasn't about to go around shouting and possibly alert someone nearby to our presence. I'd just have to wait for him to wake up on his own time, which would hopefully be soon. In the meantime, I occupied myself with pulling at the manacles on my wrists. If I could just loosen them... I winced as the movement of my wrists made the metal dig into the skin – skin that had already been rubbed raw in my sleep, from the looks of it – but persistently twisted and pulled.

"You're only going to hurt yourself." A female voice warned. I tensed, looking around for the source. When nothing else came, I gave one final tug to both wrists, but gasped in pain when that one movement cut into my wrists. Not deeply, but enough to break the skin.

"Told you so." the voice cooed unsympathetically. I glared, though I couldn't find the source.

"I'm not fond of talking to thin air. How about you come out where I can see you?" I asked. I got another giggle in return.

"In due time. Go back to sleep." Too tired to argue with the disembodied voice, I let my eyes droop closed again.

'Rose. Rose, wake up!'

My eyes blearily opened at this new voice. My wrists were now both sore and stinging, and I felt dried blood on the skin of my forearms

"Link?" I asked groggily, and very confused. He was a wolf, he wasn't supposed to be able to talk.

'Yeah, it's me,' he answered. 'Are you alright?' he then asked. I stared blankly at the wolf for several seconds. I was chained to the wall and had been for who knows how long, my wrists were bleeding and my head was pounding. Was I alright?

"No, but I'll live." I decided as I regained a little coherency. I tugged again at the chains irately, wanting nothing more to get out. Of course, that was a really bad idea. "Ow!" I yelped as the cuts on my wrist reopened. This wasn't good.

'Stop pulling at it. You'll make it worse.' Link scolded, though he was gnawing at the chain that cuffed him to the floor. When that did nothing, he tried doing the same thing I had, but he didn't hurt himself doing so. When he returned to gnawing on the chain, I noticed something in peripheral. A tiny form, standing outside our cell.

"Link... Look..." I whispered, grabbing his attention. He followed my gaze, and narrowed his eyes at the figure. An imp. It was obvious that it was a female. She had on a strange helmet that was nearly the size of her entire body. It seemed to be made of stone and it covered her left eye. Cracks along the edge above her right eye indicated that there was more to the unusual helmet and that it had been broken. This was Midna. An irritating little imp that would soon become a close friend, I knew. Or hoped, at least.

Link bared his teeth in a snarl, a low growl escaping past his teeth. The imp simply looked at him for a few seconds before grinning, revealing a single fanglike tooth among the normal teeth. She jumped into the air, her form blurring through the bars of the cell and landing directly in front of Link.

"I found you!" she exclaimed, an eerie grin on her face, though her voice conveyed joy. That was when I realized; she was the voice I'd heard earlier! I hadn't made the connection before, but it made sense now that I was awake.

Link continued to snarl at the imp, narrowing his eyes dangerously. His low growling made her laugh her childlike giggle.

"Ooh! Aren't you scary!" she teased. He didn't seem to be intimidating her at all. When Link didn't stop, she folded her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrow. "Are you sure you should be doing that? Snarling and glaring at me? Well, that's too bad," she sighed, and I detected disappointment in her tone. "I was planning on helping you two... if you were nice."

It was laughable how quickly Link's growling let up at those words.

"That's much better! You humans are obedient to a fault, aren't you? Oops! But you AREN'T a human anymore, are you? You're a beast!" she tapped him under his chin twice, amused. Link tried to take a snap at her, and she jumped back. "There, there. You be a good boy and calm down. No need to bite!" she chided, like he was nothing more than a disobedient child.

I'm not quite sure what happened next. I remember Midna creating a strange crackling ball of magic in her hands, before flinging it. With the sound of multiple metallic cracks I felt myself falling, but my motor skills kicked in in time for me to catch myself on my hands and knees. I winced at the pain the action caused, but brushed it aside.

"You look kind of surprised!" I heard Midna giggle, and realized her statement must have been made to Link. When I looked up, she was floating backwards and blurring through the bars again. "So, I bet you're wondering... Where exactly are we?" she said.

"I know exactly where we are." I said quietly. "Well, this is Hyrule Castle isn't it?" I asked rhetorically. She raised her eyebrow, but didn't otherwise acknowledge me. She made her offer, then; Get to the other side of the cell door, and she'd tell us. Or rather, 'Maybe' she'd tell us. Link made it out easy enough after adjusting to walking on four legs, and now he was just waiting on me.

I couldn't fit through the gap in the ground Link had crawled through, not as a human. This could prove problematic, as that was the only way I knew how to escape.

"Give me a second." I said to him, opening my pouch. I stopped when I realized something. "I've got nothing in here that could break the lock, except for my sword." I said, frowning.

"What do you have in there?" Midna asked. I raised an eyebrow at the genuine curiosity in her tone before I answered.

"Um, my cloak, my sword and shield, a bow and arrow, and my own little device that won't help." I wasn't sure what they'd make of the phone, so I didn't actually name it. "This is a problem." I sighed as I grabbed my sword. It was worth a shot, right?

The bars were wide enough to get the blade and my arm through til I got to the right angle to slash at the lock, but it took a few tries before it broke. The door creaked open, and I walked out easily enough. However, Midna wasn't there. I looked around, trying to find the little imp. I heard a disembodied giggle before the imp appeared, landing on Link's back. He tried to buck her off, going in a bit of a circle. Midna was undisturbed.

"Well, I guess neither of you are as stupid as you look." she said as Link reluctantly settled down. "Listen, I like you two, so I think I'll get you out of here. But in exchange for my help," she grabbed his ear between two fingers and pulled him towards her. "You have to do exactly as I say!" she whispered in his ear. I rolled my eyes again.

"I probably could get Link and I out of here without your help. But, I'll go with you anyways. You could be useful." I said, using the same tone she had used with Link just to annoy her. It worked perfectly. I could practically feel the anger radiating off of her.

I made a face when we entered the cell beside ours, and Link opened the gate. It led to the sewers.

"Ugh. Gross..." I muttered, but nonetheless followed Link into the tunnel. It wasn't large enough for me to stand, so I was forced to crawl on my hands and knees. Once or twice my balance wavered on a wet section of the stone, but I didn't fall. Lucky me, but lucky for both of us we weren't in the small tunnel much longer. Once I crawled out, I saw a small green light in the corner of the room, floating lazily in place. It looked like a green flame. I knew it was a spirit, and tuned out Midna's explanation as I drew my sword again to get rid of the Twilit Vermin in the sewer system beneath the castle.

They were just as disgusting as the creatures I'd fought in the light world, if not more. And they, too, bled an inky black substance that was just...yuck.

Once I took care of the ones that were in the way, I called Link over and pulled the chain-handle that opened the waterway. The water level raised enough for us to pass the bed of spikes embedded in the ground. The water stung my wrists, but I mostly ignored it. Granted it hurt like hell, but there were more important things to worry about.

After a minute or two I found where we were supposed to go. There was a path, but it was blocked by more metal bars. When we reached it, Midna flew off Link's back and blurred through the bars.

"This way! Over here!" she called to us. Her orangey hair took the shape of a hand. "I'll be waiting for you two, but you'll have to help yourselves for a change!" she added, her hair seeming to beckon to us.

With that, I turned around and looked for the chain that would open the gate to drain the water. My first attempt didn't go well, and involved more Twilit Vermin. I got the right handle on the second try, and the water drained away, allowing us to enter a small tunnel that Link discovered once the water was gone. I followed behind and saw another floating spirit. Link relayed to me what the spirit was saying, merely more muttering about monsters, before we moved on.

I started when Midna suddenly appeared on Link's back again, making her giggle loudly.

"Well it took you long enough!" she exclaimed. I frowned at her, and she giggled again. "Aw, did the little detour tire the light dwellers out?" she cooed in mock sympathy. I rolled my eyes at her, though I smirked challengingly.

"No way."

From there, we entered circular room with broken stairways, tightrope bridges, and twilit bulblins among other things. This would be the room where we would do our first 'Midna-jumps'. I went first, though I eyed the ground beneath me warily, often testing different pieces for stability before putting my weight on them. It didn't work out all that well, unfortunately. I'd misjudged the stability of a larger piece of the stairs, and when I put my full weight on it the rock crumbled, dropping me onto the stone below it. The air fled from my lungs with a 'whoosh' when I landed flat on my back. Though, I imagined the impact wasn't quite as terrible, given that I was partially in the water.

"Ugh, what are you doing?" the imp demanded. I couldn't form a reply as I tried to take oxygen to my lungs, and I noticed when I managed to sit up that Link had fallen as well, but not on his back like I had.

'Are you alright?' Link asked. When I was finally able to breathe again, I nodded.

"I'll live." I repeated my words from earlier. With the assistance of my wolfy companion, I managed to get to my feet again, stopping when I saw the gap was too far to jump. I relayed this realization to Midna, who was not impressed.

"Ugh, I guess I have to do everything for you two. Alright, I'll guide you. Just focus on me." she said. Link went first. When I tried, I missed by a few inches, and Midna's hair-hand caught me. I gave her a grateful glance before continuing on. There were a few more locations where we had to rely on Midna to guide us, and several more near-misses before we reached the top. And that aside, there was also the issue of the few twilit bulblins and vermin that were spread across the expansion of rubble.

It was raining when we exited the spiralling tower, the Twilight making a gloomy setting around the massive castle. It was much larger than it had once appeared, though smaller than my memories accounted for; then again, everything was bigger when you were a child.

"So, we were finally able to get out. And look at the sky! Isn't the black cloud of twilight looking beautiful today?" Midna giggled.

"Not exactly the word I'd use to describe it. It's all so... gloomy." I murmured, looking around the outside of the castle and the grounds below.

"Look, there's someone I want to introduce you to...but I'll need you to go to that tower to do it!" she pointed to Zelda's tower.

'Who?' Link asked curiously. Midna didn't answer, just gave him an insistent look as she pointed to the tower. I shrugged at him when his gaze turned to me, and let him lead the way. There were a few complications in the crossing, such as the Twilit Kargoroks and the rain, but it was manageable. I usually didn't like it when it rained, back on Earth. There was something different about it here though. It felt...different. Cleaner, maybe? I don't know. There was certainly less pollution in general – no factories, or chemicals, none of that. The twilight felt stifling, however. I couldn't wait to be in the world of light once again.

Soon after dealing with the flying pests in the immediate area, we came across another soldier's spirit, and that was when Link realized where we were. Hyrule Castle. He relayed to me what the soldier had said, mourning the state of the castle, and the realization dawned on him.

'This... this is Hyrule Castle?' he had asked. I nodded my head at him.

"I remember coming here before. It was a bit bigger back then..." I murmured in answer.

Even as I fought against the Kargoroks, I couldn't help the sorrow I felt as I saw the castle within the veil of Twilight. It seemed less like the Hyrule Castle I knew; more dark, more frightening. I didn't realize we were out of enemies to fight until there was absolute silence for longer than five seconds. There weren't any of the flying nuisances in the air, circling like vultures any longer.

"To quote one of the most irritating inventions from my home, 'that was easy'." I said simply when this fact registered in my mind. Link gave me a curious look, but I just shook my head and headed towards the opening in the tower, across the uneven stone shingles that made up the outer roof of the castle. And just as I reached the regular flat stone, I slipped on a loose shingle. With a cry of surprise, I slid down the heavily slanted roof, rolling once before impacting with the hard wood 'railing' type thing at the edge. I was lucky it was there, even if I wasn't quite prepared to move yet.

"I've got some sort of mixture of terrible and uncanny luck." I muttered. I closed my eyes as raindrops threatened to hit them, before forcing myself up to my feet. I stood precariously as my balance threatened to fail and send me to the ground again, and waited until the moment passed before climbing back up the roof and into the window.

I took a few extra seconds to get down from the window ledge to the stairs, and Midna nagged me the whole time for taking too long. Well sorr-ry if I almost fell to my death...

The door to the princess' chamber was ajar when we reached it. I slipped in quietly, though I figured Zelda would hear me anyways. Due to our sense of hearing being much stronger than an ordinary human's, Hylians could pick up even the smallest of noises, especially in a quiet like this. But, perhaps Zelda was absorbed in her thoughts, because she didn't seem to react to us.

"Princess Zelda..." I whispered, more to myself than to her. I didn't even have to bother trying to control my fangirl, because it was more or less stunned into silence itself. She tensed slightly, and I realised she'd heard me. She turned in our direction, though she looked to Midna first.

"Midna?!" she gasped quietly as Link approached her. I followed behind them, a bit slower.

"Oh, you remember my name! What an honour!" Midna drawled from Link's back. Zelda's eyes then went to Link, and then to me.

"So these are the ones for whom you were searching..." she breathed, and I saw her eyes flit to the Triforce on my hand. When they did, the princess frowned minutely, before relaxing again.

"They're not exactly what I had in mind, especially this one," she jerked a thumb in my direction and I huffed, crossing my arms. "But... they'll do." she finally nodded her head. Zelda studied Link's right forepaw, and I saw the remains of the chain that had bound him to the floor.

"You were imprisoned?" she inquired, looking back up to me. I nodded my head.

"We probably still would be if not for Midna." I replied. Her eyes then flicked to my injured wrists, and a look of sad understanding came to her face.

"I am sorry..." she said. I shrugged it off.

"No permanent harm done."

"Poor thing, he has no idea what's happened or where he is, though she seems to know somehow... So, don't you think you should explain to him what you've managed to do? You owe him that much..." A smirk came to Midna's face. "Twilight Princess!" she giggled.

Zelda sighed, but nodded.

"Listen carefully..." she began urgently, her lone focus being the wolf beside me. "This was once the land where the power of the goddess was said to slumber. This was once the kingdom of Hyrule... But that blessed kingdom has been transformed by the king that rules the twilight... it has been turned into a realm of shadow, ruled by creatures who shun the light." The next thing that happened is, very difficult to describe. I saw images in my mind, but they were not my own memories. It was showing me what happened when Zant attacked.

There were many soldiers in the throne room, spread out with swords at the ready as though they were preparing for something, defending against something. then, out of nowhere, an ashy black shroud shot into the room and instantly overwhelmed a few of the palace guards. Other ran forward to attack, and many shadow beasts erupted from the darkness. The soldiers fought bravely, but were quickly overpowered, and forced into submission or killed.

All went silent save for the struggling soldiers when Zant, self-proclaimed ruler of the Twilight Realm, strode in with two larger shadow bears on either side of him. He halted about half way to the throne.

"It is time for you to choose; Surrender or die." he rasped. "Oh yes, a question for all the land and people of Hyrule..." his voice betrayed the sneer beneath his helmet. Zelda remained silent.

"Life? Or death?!" he suddenly screamed. There were several more beats of silence, before the blade Zelda held in her hand fell, clattering noisily to the ground. Then the vision ended.

"Twilight covered Hyrule like a shroud, and without light, the people became as spirits." Zelda whispered, her voice a lament. "Within the Twilight they live on, unaware that they have passed into spirit form... All the people know is fear... Fear of a nameless evil..." Zelda's eyes opened. "The kingdom succumbed to Twilight, but I remain its princess..." I waited patiently as she reached to pull the hood back from her face. Link sat up at full attention, nearly throwing Midna from his back from the suddenness of the act.

"I am Zelda." the princess stated when her face was revealed.

"Well you don't have to look so down about it! We actually find it quite livable! I mean, is perpetual Twilight really all that bad?" Midna asked cheerily, levitating several feet into the air.

"Midna, this is no time for levity. The Shadow beasts have been searching far and wide for you." Zelda admonished. "…Why is this?" she asked. Midna crossed one leg over the other, still in the air, and made an 'I don't know' gesture with her arms, shrugging them.

"Why indeed? You tell me!" she said with another giggle. Zelda didn't seem disappointed, as though she hadn't expected a proper answer, before her face grew serious again.

"Time is short. The guard will soon make his rounds. You must leave, quickly." she urged. Link got to his feet, and Midna floated down onto his back. I gave a short nod of my head, before running after Link and Midna, who had already taken their leave to the outside of the room. They'd made a lot of headway, but I caught up easily enough.

I stopped at the window where we'd entered, stopping Link beside me.

"What is it?" Midna asked irritably.

"The guard's coming." I explained in a low voice. "We need an alternate route. Like, say, the window we got in from." I hinted, and the imp got the message. The door opened at the bottom of the stairwell just as Midna finished pulling me up onto the stone ledge.

"Good thinking." she whispered. I blinked, surprised. She actually complimented me? I glanced around outside again once we exited the window, and saw that nothing had changed, except the corpses of the Twili-birds were gone. Once we caught up with Midna she sighed.

"I guess a promise is a promise, so I'll let you both go back to where you first tumbled into twilight...But..." she hesitated for a second. "Are you really sure you should be going back? Are you sure you aren't forgetting anything important?" Then, she took the form of Colin, then Ilia, both screaming. I glared.

"Eee hee! Do you want to save them? Well, in that case, little Midna would be happy to help you!" she said, using Ilia's form to speak. "But... Well, you'd have to be my servants...and like a good pair of servants, you'd have to do exactly as I say!" she listed off with her fingers. I growled at that.

"I'm nobody's servant." I muttered. Midna giggled her annoying little giggle.

"Why don't you go back, take a little time, and give it some thought. Eee hee hee!" then she warped us away.

Warping, has to be hands-down the strangest sensation in the known universe. It's like feeling your body breaking apart, and then each fragment being pulled back together somewhere else. All in all, very disorienting. Once the world came into focus, I saw we were in the Ordon Spring. Link looked down to see he still had paws.

'Why am I still a wolf?' he asked rhetorically. I shrugged, though I knew Midna would be able to answer him.

"Oh, that's right! I forgot to mention, you may have left the darkened realm but that doesn't mean you'll be turning human again anytime soon!" Midna clarified from nowhere. "Now why could that be? Eeeheehee! See you later!"

I stood silently, waiting for Link to say or do something. When he didn't, I broke the silence.

"I'm not sure I like that imp very much." I commented.

A/N: There we go. Lemme know what you think. If you've already left a signed review on this chapter before the revisions, just leave an anonymous review. I'm accepting those, so I don't mind :)