Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda series do not, repeat, not belong to me. They rightfully belong to Miyamoto. (May he continue to make excellent games for the rest of his days.) What does belong to me are Cleo, Finn, Syrilla and Okam (sorta).

Chapter 5

As the pair got closer to the cave, not too far off, a robotic stalfos was watching Cleo from a cliff. "Yar har har har har! Another victim ripe fer the picking!" he laughed in a mechanical voice. He got his weapon ready and slinked into the shrubbery.

Cleo thought she heard rustling and looked around. "What is wrong?" asked Jack.

Before she could answer, the robot sprang out of hiding. "What the!?"

"Hello there lass, would ye mind sparing me some of yer goods?" he asked in a tone that was obviously feigning friendliness.

"Who are you?"

"I? I be LD-052S Scervo, the most feared pirate in the Twilight Realm!"

"If you're a pirate, where's your ship and crew?"

"Don't get smart with me ya wandering urchin! I be a lone wolf pirate, I don't need the likes of anyone. I have plundered traveling caravans and traders all on me own. Now if ye don't want to get hurt lassie, surrender all yer valuables!"

"Is he for real?" Cleo asked Jack. He didn't respond, and she couldn't be sure if he was shrugging. "Look mister, I don't know who you think you are, but you're getting in our way. And I'm not gonna surrender anything to you."

"Fine, if this is ter be a fight, then so be it!" Scervo brought out his sword which was sparkling with electricity.

"Uh-oh!"

"This is not good!" And Jack was right. Not only did the robot pirate have a dangerous weapon, he knew how to use it. Cleo dodged as best she could and blocking wasn't an option. She did get hit once and her whole body was electrocuted. She fell, stunned. Scervo was about to strike again when the spirit flew up at his face.

"Gerroff ya mangy spark!" Cleo, the moment she recovered from her paralysis, saw an opportunity to strike. She leapt up and swung her weapon at his sword arm, slicing it clean off.

"YOW! What the blazes?!" Scervo looked at Cleo's sword with a look of shock. "That cannot be! The Skribal Sword?"

"You know about it?"

"Yar har har! Never I thought I'd lay eyes on it, says I! A golden opportunity, it will be, ter wield a powerful blade."

"Fat chance!"

"Fat... chance? That does not make any sense," Jack mused. Cleo ignored his confusion and attacked again. Scervo caught the blade in the hook on his other arm.

"The Skribal Sword is mine!" The tip of the blade was close to his face and Cleo, quickly thinking, touched the Rune of Skribal. The tip lit up and blinded him then, quick as lightning, she loosened the sword from his grip and slashed one of his legs. He fell on his back in total shock. "Im-impossible!"

"You mean improbable!" Cleo said with a laugh.

Scervo grabbed his burned out sword and used it to lift himself back up again. "This isn't over yet! I will return, ye can count on that!" Then he limped off.

"God, I sure hope I don't run into anymore of those loonies during this quest!" Cleo murmered, exasperated, as she put away her sword.

"Me too," Jack agreed. After another half hour of walking and fighting a few weaker insects, they finally reached Pitch Black Caves. Ignoring the "DANGER, keep out" sign, Cleo unlocked the large wrought iron door. (Zelda chime) "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Cleo.

"...Nothing."

They entered the cave, into the darkness. In the first room was a glowing crystal switch, Cleo struck it and the whole room brightened, but only temporarily. She found the first key, unlocking the next door and the moment she went through, she realized that the giant bugs had got there first somehow, undoubtably looking for the essence. The bugs were the least of her problems though, there were traps for her to overcome. There were bottomless pits that she couldn't see without hitting a light switch which only lit up for a second so that she needed to memorize a path across the skinny bridges. The first puzzle was a long row of ten light switches. A strike changed one and specific others on or off. Cleo eventually figured out a pattern and lit them all, giving her the Rune of Anubis. It granted her a new power to create a shadow duplicate of herself by tracing around her body. With a double to mimic her every move in a mirrored pattern, Cleo proceeded to the double-mazes. Getting past them in a well thought out path (the two mazes were not exactly the same), they both reached two wall switches that needed to be pulled at the same time. The door opened next to the real Cleo and she canceled out her shadow. Finally, Cleo was rewarded the big key and went though the last door.

She entered an altar of some kind, lit by wall torches. At the wall on the other side was a plinth, on top was nothing. "Huh? Where's the essence? Shouldn't it be there?"

Jack floated over to it. "There is nothing. Perhaps we might be too late."

Then suddenly, there was cruel, dry laughter ringing throughout the room. "Of course it's not here," said the dry voice. "It's not yet time for the Realm of Shadows to fuse with the Realm of Light."

"Uh oh, something tells me I'm about to have a boss fight," Cleo thought out loud. The laughter rang out again.

A silhouette appeared from the ceiling, upside-down. She looked up an saw it was a human mantis. "What exactly do you mean?" Jack asked.

"The Essence of Light is not here in this realm. It resides in the mirrored world. Only when twilight touches that world would it appear here. Unfortunately for you, you'll not live long enough to see it." The intruder dropped down from the ceiling and faced them with blades extending from its arms.

"Yep, I called it, boss fight." Cleo got her sword ready.

Ninja Mantis Soldier:
Thrifos

Thrifos moved like a viper, making it hard to dodge his attacks. Jack helped Cleo time her attacks and counters. Then Thrifos split into two and jumped about wildly around the room, striking her. Both of him were solid and able to hurt her. He cackled, he was toying with her. Cleo created another shadow double and attacked the mantis duo. After a few strike backs, Thrifos spun his body like a tornado, blowing out the torches and darkening the room. Then Cleo got hit again by that move and was knocked down hard. Despite the darkness, Jack was still able to see and told her where to strike. Listening hard for the enemy, she waited... he was moving in for the kill... Jack flashed brightly, revealing him and she thrust hard.

The sword went right through him, there was a look of shock in his large eyes. They went dim as Cleo pulled away and he fell, burning into ashes. Cleo, covered in scratches (and a large bruise on her face from the tornado attack) stood triumphant. She sheathed the Skribal Sword.

A bright light suddenly appeared above the altar and she turned around to watch it grow brighter and more brilliant. In a shimmering blast, an object appeared, made of silver and black onyx in the shape of a stylized silver body and it's black shadow. She went over and picked it up.

She got the Cast Shadow. The light summons an echo of the lost and reveals their image!

Father... father... father, where are you! ...I am scared!

I am here my son, do not worry.

Father, I got lost. I could not find my way.

I told you not to wander off into the woods, it is not safe. Your mother and I were worried.

I know... I am sorry, please forgive me.

I am thankful you are not hurt. Let us go home...

Cleo and Jack trudged all the way back to the Palace of Twilight and presented the Cast Shadow to Midna and Okam. "You did it Cleo! You got the next essence!" Midna exclaimed in amazement. "Perhaps you are the one that will save all of the Twilight Realm. I guess the Skribal Sword is right in choosing you."

"I still can't believe you managed to pull it off! I thought the first one you gained was from dumb luck," Okam admitted. He couldn't contain his excitement. He went almost up to her face. "Have you done something like this before?"

"Uh, yeah." Cleo leaned back a bit.

Okam turned away, stroking his beard. "Interesting..." He went up to her face again. "Listen uh..." he turned away again. "I want to say... I'm sorry for doubting you..." One more time, he was in her face. "There! I said it. I'm sorry. So no hard feelings right?"

"Um, well no... I guess we got off on the wrong foot here."

"Wrong foot? Who's foot?" Jack asked.

Okam looked at him and his jaw dropped. "A lost spirit... talking to me? Where'd it come from?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot to introduce you to my new friend. This is Jack, he's been helping me out."

Midna came closer to him. "This spirit seems fully aware. How is that possible?"

"It was the Moon Pearl that brought back his senses. But he still doesn't remember anything about his past except his name. I'm hoping all eight of the essences would help revive him completely."

"That is a pretty accurate theory, but getting the rest of the essences will not be as easy, I'm sure. Things will get harder from here," Okam warned. "If you'll follow me to the library, we can look up where we can get the next one."

The group were in a room with huge shelves upon shelves filled with scrolls. The tubes were not actually made of paper as Cleo thought they would be, they were black sticks that were split in half, lengthwise, then stretched out as sheets of pure transparent energy with glowing letters. Okam was using his telekinesis to look at each one. "Grr, where did I put that thing? No, no, no, NO!" He threw them in the air in frustration. "I swear, I can't keep track of these things!"

"Essences of Light, a Reference Guide," Midna read out the label on a tube.

Okam zipped over to her. "Where'd you find that?!"

"It was under 'E'."

"Ha ha, very funny princess!" Okam said in a snarky tone. He unrolled it. "Okay, the next essence is the Firefly Swarm and it's located on Bioluminisle. Now the next destination is very far across a dark ocean. You're going to need the Geozolas' help at the Lunai Bay, if you're to get anywhere."

"The what-zolas?" Cleo and Jack both asked.

"They are Twilight Zoras. One of the many races in this realm," answered Midna.

"I thought there were only Twilis that evolved from the Dark Interlopers," Cleo admitted.

"The Dark Interlopers weren't a race. They were a cult that practiced dark magic, a member from any race could join as long as they had the power and motivation."

"Wow, this realm must be bigger than I thought." Cleo had always believed that it was a small and isolated world. She'd never once thought about how elaborate it really was, how much alike it was to Hyrule.

"The warp needed to take you to Lunai Bay is right here in castle town." Okam closed the scroll. "I'll take you there, then you're on your own."