Born a Weapon

A Twilight Princess Fan story

Chapter 15

Poison

"Ugh…" Midna groggily opened her eyes and sat up, rubbing at her back. "I told you those beds were terrible! Feels like I slept on the ground!" Midna floated in the air and stretched, "Are you still sleeping?" Midna questioned when she got no response from her companion, but when she turned to look at him, she just saw grass. "Link?" Midna then noticed the ledge that she fell asleep on across the room. "What?"

Midna floated to the top of the ledge and saw two empty and messy makeshift beds, and no Hero was in sight. "Where did you go?" she shouted, receiving no response. She floated around the room searching before spotting a humanoid shape on the floor. At first, she thought he was a patch of grass because of his green clothing. "There you are! What happened? How did we get down here?" No response. "Come on! Get up!" she demanded, shaking the hero. When Link didn't stir in the slightest, she turned him onto his back and began gently slapping his face. "Seriously, get up."

Still no response. Midna was beginning to get worried. Then she noticed the bottle lying close by, which she picked up and examined. She saw a few drops of clear water and remembered the only thing Link kept in a bottle like this was the magical spring water. And the bottle was alarmingly empty. Something was definitely wrong with Link, and that was bad. If something happened to him, who would get the Fused Shadow pieces? Midna rushed back to Link and desperately tried to wake him once more, and again failed. She looked him over for injury like she did when he claimed to have met a skeleton warrior and, unfortunately, unlike that time, she found one.

His shirt was torn at the elbow on his left arm, right in the spot where he had the least armor. Even in the heat of the moment, she realized how terrible Link's luck was. The wound didn't look that bad, so Midna had no idea why she couldn't rouse Link, so she searched for other signs of injury. She noticed something odd on his neck and pulled down his collar to investigate, and she had no idea what to make of what she saw.

She saw what seemed to be veins on his neck, but they were purple. Getting a bad feeling, she removed his arm brace on his left arm and rolled up his sleeve. She gasped in surprise when she saw his arm completely covered in the same veins on his neck, with a much darker purple.

"Oh, gods…" She muttered as she grabbed the sides of her head, "What do I do?" When she grabbed her head, she felt hair rather than the cold stone feeling she expected. "The Fused Shadow!" she immediately searched the room frantically, "where is it?!" Midna quickly noticed it lying safely in a pile of random objects next to Link's magical pouch and breathed a sigh of relief. Safe and sound, though she wondered how it got there.

"That was close." She said as she started to head towards it but bumped into something when she stood up. She looked down at her leg and saw Link, lying there possibly dying while she was about to wander off and leave him there. "Damn it! Focus, Midna!" She felt a pang of guilt at how easily she forgot about her hurt companion and prepared to leave him there.

Midna racked her brain for ideas, but she could only think of giving Link more spring water, which they didn't have. She could get some… there was a portal over the spring. She could easily teleport herself there, but if it was day, she would die. She had no way to go through as a shadow. She needed to be in the shadow of someone or something as it went through. And even if she went to the portal at the spring and didn't die, there was no portal she could return to.

Unless she made one.

There was a spell she was going to save as a last resort should Link be too injured to leave once he got the next piece of the Fused Shadow since she needed him alive to get the rest. She would use her energy to make a portal and send Link through. She couldn't teleport him back normally like she did before because, at that time, he was stuck as a wolf, and humans are a lot more complicated than wolves. The portal could be used as a return point instead of a sending point, and as much as she hated to admit it, she could teleport herself easily because there wasn't too much of her now that she was an imp. But making the portal would take a lot out of her.

Before she even tried that, she needed to make sure it was night. It wouldn't help if she teleported just to die. That wouldn't save Link. Midna remembered a few rooms back, one of the doors led outside, so after heading back to it, and almost missing it, she huddled against the wall next to it and used her hair hand to open it slowly. When she didn't see any sunlight, she slowly stuck out one finger of her hair hand and felt nothing, then the whole thing, then she peeked out of it and saw the moon in the sky.

With that problem solved, she headed back to the room with Link, so the portal would be close to him since it would take so much energy to make. Taking one last look at the unconscious form of Link, she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do. She stretched her right hand out in front of her and focused energy into making the portal in the ground. The ground began to flicker in similar colors as the portals she had taken from Zant, but Midna cried out and clutched her arm when it suddenly erupted in pain.

"Damn it! Damn this stupid curse! If I wasn't stuck as an imp, this wouldn't be so hard!" Midna cried out in frustration. The curse that transformed her into an imp was designed to prevent her from using magic. She could still do small things, but anything powerful caused her body to erupt in pain.

Additionally, the spell decreased the magical power she had, so even if she could fight through the pain, making a portal was probably the most powerful thing she could do. She simply didn't have the magical energy for anything more complicated. And that infuriated her. It was one of the reasons she hated being called an imp so much. It made her feel weak, and she refused to be weak.

Midna was about to try again when she got a really stupid idea, and her eyes drifted over to the Fused Shadow lying on the ground next to her.

Do not make use of its power unless necessary. Once you access its power, corruption will flow into you, and you may not be able to resist it.

The words of Faron rang in her head, which she shook and turned her attention to making the portal again. Her eyes slowly returned to the artifact lying right on the ground next to her. It was right there! Midna needed Link to get the rest of the pieces, and Link could be dying! He could only have a few seconds left for all she knew! It was the only option, so she had to use it! She needed the portal, and she needed it now!

Then stop getting distracted and focus! The Fused Shadow is not an option!

Midna tore her eyes away from the helmet, and although it felt like she was being pulled back to it, she ignored the tug. She now understood Faron's words. She just considered using it all her thoughts, and all her focus turned to the Fused Shadow. That is why Faron said not to use it unless necessary. It excelled at corrupting people. She only got slightly distracted, though, so maybe it wasn't as bad as Faron thought. Still, Midna wondered if it would get stronger when she assembled the whole thing.

After calming herself down and steadying her breathing, she stretched out her arm again and concentrated. The ground began to flicker again, and pain returned to her arm. She cried out and clutched her arm with the other, but she did not stop casting her spell. Her arm felt like it was being shredded from the inside, like all the flesh, muscles, and bone were being chopped to pieces. She screamed but did not stop, and finally, a portal formed on the ground. It was only as wide as Link's stance, but it would be enough.

Midna collapsed to her knees and held her arm, which felt numb and stiff when she tried to move it. She knew she might not have much time before it was too late, so she ignored her pain, grabbed the empty bottle, stepped into the portal, and looked at the Fused Shadow again before disappearing into black squares that flew into the portal on the ground.

The spring of Faron was beautiful to behold now that it was free. All around was peaceful, with the only sounds being an owl hooting and a few crickets singing in the night. Black squares descended into the spring bathed in moonlight and formed into Midna. As soon as she arrived, she dashed into the water, the bottle clutched under her left arm since her right was in so much pain. Once she felt the cool water on her feet, she plunged the bottle beneath its surface and watched bubbles surface as it filled. While it was filling, she dipped her right arm in the water as well and sighed in relief as the pain began to subside. Once the bottle was full, she wasted no time. She replaced the lid on the bottle and turned back into black squares, disappearing into the night even though her pain hadn't entirely ceased.

Black squares flew up from the portal in the ground, reforming into the imp girl holding onto the bottle with both hands now. Midna ran to Link, removed the lid, and gently poured the water into his mouth. She worried he might choke on it, but the blessed liquid went down without incident. She didn't know how much she should give him but decided more wouldn't hurt, so she made a few more trips while the portal lasted, dipping the bottle and her aching arm in the water each time she visited the spring.

Eventually, she knew the portal wouldn't last long enough for another trip. Deciding she had given Link enough spring water, she conserved the last bottle in case it was needed later. With nothing else to do, she sat on the ground and waited.

While waiting for Link's condition to change, Midna tried to piece together what happened. Next to Link, she spotted a dead deku baba that struck her as odd because of its unusual purple color. Aside from the dead deku baba and injured Link, there was no sign of a struggle. As much as Midna looked down on Link and all light dwellers in general, she doubted one deku baba could cause him so much trouble. But its teeth looked like they could have made the bite mark on his elbow, and it didn't seem like a normal deku baba. After not finding anything, Midna stopped investigating and decided to ask Link what happened when he woke up.

After waiting impatiently, the purple veins seemed to start to disappear at a painfully slow rate. Midna assumed this meant Link was getting better, but it would take a long time for them to disappear entirely. And she had no idea when he would wake up. Regardless, Midna was relieved. Even if she didn't like Link, Midna didn't want to watch the man who was forced into this journey die alone on the floor in some decrepit tree. Well, technically not alone since she was there. Midna wondered if anyone would even remember him if he only recently came into others' lives. There had to be someone who knew him. He can't have spent… whatever his age was number of years completely isolated, could he? He had to have parents somewhere.

Time passed, and Midna realized she was getting tired. Despite her normal awakening, it seems that her sleep was interrupted. Based on the last time she slept, the sun disappeared around the time she would get tired in some kind of day-night cycle this world seemed to have. So, unless she slept an entire day, it was the same night.

Midna wanted to rest on her bed, if it could even be called that, but didn't want to sleep across the room in case she needed to administer another bottle of spring water. She also realized it wasn't a good idea to sleep while he was like this, but she was getting so tired she knew sleep was inevitable. Feeling like leaving Link on the ground was cruel, Midna brought Link's "bed" down from the ledge as well as hers. She felt slightly uncomfortable leaving the safety of the high ground, but there was no way she could lift Link to it. After plopping the bed next to Link, she slowly rolled him onto it and threw some blankets on top of him while mumbling about how useless he was.

Midna once again looked over to where the Fused Shadow lay on the ground. She shouldn't leave it there in case something happened, but she really didn't want to have anything to do with it after it tried to control her. Not that she wanted anything to do with it before that happened, but she was very angry with it at the moment. Giving an aggravated sigh, she convinced herself it would be fine, and she could have some space from the helmet for a while. Suddenly, she realized that she could put it into her magical storage. She still didn't want to do that either. The pocket dimension was called that because it was essentially a magic pocket, and just like a pocket, it was still connected to her. It wasn't physically on her body anywhere, but she still had a connection to it, and putting it into the pocket dimension made her uncomfortable. If this artifact was so powerful, it would likely still be able to try to take control again should she give it the chance, whether it was in her magical storage or not. Finally decided to leave it be, she took one more look at the injured hero next to her.

"You better appreciate all this."

Link faintly became aware of a soft feeling under him and slowly opened his eyes. Torchlight from the walls reached his eyes, and he remembered what had happened before he fell unconscious. Well, he wasn't dead, so the spring water must have saved him. But why was the ground so soft? Link slowly began to sit up and felt something fall off his chest. He looked down and saw it was a blanket and that he was in his bed. Was that whole incident a dream?

"Hey, lay back down!" Link saw Midna float up from another bed on his left and hover over to him, gently pushing him back onto his bed. Wasn't she on his right when he went to bed? "I don't want you running off. I already saved you once." Link obliged, rubbing his eyes as he did so. "Isn't this ironic?" Midna said with a giggle, "Back in the treehouse, you made me rest, and now in this tree… thing… I'm making you rest!"

"What happened?" Link asked groggily.

"I was hoping you knew. I woke up on the floor, and you looked like you were poisoned. You said light world food can have poison, so you probably did something stupid and ate the wrong thing." Link moved his head around and spotted the shriveled remains on the deku baba that was almost the end of his companion and adventure.

"So that did happen. I thought it was a dream since I woke up in my bed."

"Whatever you think was a dream wasn't. I brought the bed down from the ledge and rolled you into it. You're welcome, by the way. Now," Midna crossed her legs, put her hands behind her back and leaned back while floating in the air. It was still weird to see her do that. "Tell me what happened. I've been sitting here for who knows how long, bored out of my mind waiting for you to wake up. I could use a story." With a deep breath, Link began recounting the events of the deku baba experience.

Midna listened intensely, her face changing from relaxed to extremely confused and uttering a "what?" when Link mentioned Midna had gotten up and wandered off. He recounted the strange smell and increasing headache as he approached the evil plant and how he was bitten after pushing Midna away, and he drank the spring water to try and stop the poison. Midna now understood why Link was in such bad shape, why his stuff was all over the floor, and why the bottle of spring water was empty.

"I don't remember any of that…" she muttered in thought.

"The smell seemed to affect you more than me, though I have no idea why. I got a massive headache and had trouble doing basically anything, but you seemed… entranced, dazed. Like you weren't aware of anything except where the smell came from and determined to get there. I think that was the point."

"But how come that didn't happen to you?"

"Uhh… hero immunity?" Link offered with a shrug, "but I don't think that was it. The light spirits would have mentioned something like that."

"You're probably right." Midna narrowed her eyes and seemed enveloped in thought, but she seemed a bit unsettled.

"What?"

"I think… now I remember a vague, foggy thing. I was… looking at… something… and I heard distant shouting. Then I was falling?"

"That sounds like when I tried to warn you about that darn plant."

"I think so, but there's something more important I need to ask you," Midna said, her tone suddenly serious as she nodded to Link's pile of items. "How did the Fused Shadow get over there?" Link looked in the artifact's direction before replying.

"I put it in my magic bad thing."

"Did anything… happen?"

"What do you mean?" Link asked, raising an eyebrow as he turned back to Midna.

"When you touch the Fused Shadow, it tries to get you to use its power and take over your mind. After that, it seems to fall silent but still has this… evil feeling about it. Still, it's not a good idea to spend too much time with it. It's too powerful for anyone."

"I didn't notice anything."

"That's impossible." Midna said, looking directly into Link's eyes with a condescending look, "you must have experienced something." Link was silent for a second, thinking back to the moment he picked up the Fused Shadow.

"No. Nothing. But I was kind of… drugged at the time. Maybe that stopped it?" Midna was going to insist once again that something must have happened, but the words died in her mouth when she heard Link's suggestion.

"Well… uhm… I guess? Could something so simple really stop it, though?"

"I don't know. You seem to be an expert on it. You tell me."

"I'm not an expert."

"Well, you know more than me."

"Well… I don't know." Midna floated back over to her bed and settled in on it. "Well, you told me your story, so I'll tell you mine," Midna informed Link of what happened when he was unconscious. He was surprised to hear that Midna had opened a portal to Faron's spring and gotten him more spring water. Midna finished telling Link her side of the story, but she failed to mention the Fused Shadow tried to corrupt her. She wasn't sure she wanted to tell Link about that. It wasn't that bad anyway, and she didn't think Link could possibly understand… but she felt like she had to mention it.

"Well, it seems like we both went through some craziness."

"Quiet. I'm not done," Midna snapped. Midna leaned back, using her hands as support, and looked at the ceiling, taking a deep breath before speaking. "The Fused Shadow tried to influence me."

"What?!" Link cried, sitting up.

"Just let me finish before you freak out!" Midna said, scowling at Link, "nothing happened." Midna turned her view to the item in question, which Link followed. "It tried to convince me to use its power to make the portal. I was thinking about what to do, and I suddenly started thinking about using it. It took me a minute to realize those weren't my thoughts," Midna tore her gaze away from the evil relic and returned it to Link, "but I didn't use it." The implication that Link thought she might have let herself be corrupted insulted Midna. I'm not an idiot, she spat in her head.

"I'm glad," Link sighed, "You heard what Faron said. You're strong-willed, but I still don't like that thing. I didn't feel anything from it like you said happens, but I still know it's evil and can corrupt people. Keeping it around makes me nervous, but I know we need it." Link rubbed his eyes as he sighed. I know you might think I'm just being paranoid. You didn't give in this time. Why should any other time be different? Besides, it sounds like it barely affects you. I just hope it doesn't get worse when we get more pieces."

"I'll be fine, Midna said, rolling her eyes, "How nice of you to worry about me," she added sarcastically.

"Just returning the favor." Link said with a smirk and slight mocking tone before changing it to serious. "Thanks for helping me out."

"I need you alive to get the Fused Shadows. I can't let you die before even getting one," Midna replied. Link found comfort in the fact that Midna went to such extremes to save him from death. Sometimes, she might be cruel, but she's still a person and can care about others. Link knew he could rely on her to help when he needed it, even if she only did it so he would get her what she wanted. "Didn't I tell you to lay down?"