Born a Weapon

A Twilight Princess Fan story

Chapter 20

Eldin

Link stood before the wall of twilight, beyond which was the spirit Eldin. He had finally made it. After so long in Hyrule Field, he kept expecting something to stop him from reaching the destination right in front of him. As he stepped closer, the world around him seemed to fast forward. The sun moved to set, casting the world in twilight. When Link walked back, away from the wall, the world seemed to rewind, and the sun returned to its previous position.

"We're here," The shadowy form of his companion emerged from the ground, and when Link moved closer again, she cast off the shadow. "You remember what this is, right?"

"How could I forget? It's the wall I get violently pulled through by a hand."

"You're a lot bigger now, so I can't do all the work this time. When I grab you, you have to walk forward, and I'll pull you through.

"Got it."

"When you set foot in there, you might be a wolf for some time. For at least as long as it takes you to save the light spirit, anyway. Are you ready?"

"No," Link said flatly but stepped up to the wall anyway. "I'll need a minute after the transformation. It's not pleasant." Midna nodded to Link before floating through the wall, leaving behind ripples like last time. Her orange hand emerged from the wall, startling Link slightly, and he shifted back. Midna's hand grabbed where he was, and she began grabbing around the area when she realized she missed. Link somehow never thought to look at the wall from the other side, but it was clear Midna couldn't see through it.

Link stepped forward again and placed his hand against Midna's, and once she registered what touched her, she closed her grasp around his arm and tugged. Link walked forward and passed through the wall like Midna had done, emerging in the twilight. Link took a deep breath and braced himself, and Midna gave a sad knowing look.

"Are you not gonna-?" Midna didn't finish her sentence but gestured to Link.

"I think it takes a few-" Link was interrupted by a fairing pain shooting through his body. "AGH! There it is!" Link collapsed to the ground as he felt the agonizing transformation take place. He tried to hold back his cry of agony, and he did… for a few seconds. When the change was finally completed, Link collapsed to the ground, but at least this time, he managed not to pass out. Midna sat down against a rock wall nearby and looked at Link. She tried not to admit it, but she felt bad for him. And that scream of pure agony sent a shiver down her spine.

Midna gazed around at the area. The sky was covered in twilight, and she felt a bit more at home here, even if she knew it was unnatural. The only part that didn't fit was the grass. She didn't hate grass or plants. She just wasn't used to them being everywhere. She took some time to relax a bit in the somewhat familiar environment, closing her eyes and leaning against the wall. She stayed like that for a few minutes, and just as she was getting impatient, Link rose to his feet. "Crap, that hurt."

"It looked like it. Well, just hurry up like I've been telling you, and you'll be back to normal in no time!" Midna hopped back on Link's back and glanced over his shoulder to look at the barrier. From this side, the black background was replaced with a bright white, and the orange lines were replaced with shining gold. "Now come on! Stop wasting time." Midna said as she nudged Link forward, but he winced when she patted his right shoulder.

"Don't touch my shoulder! I'm hurt, remember?"

"Oh, you're fine."

"I forgot it's your job to annoy me," Link huffed as he began moving.

"Eee hee hee! I love this job! It's fun!"

"You're fired."

"Ooohh nooooo!" Midna said sarcastically. Link ignored her and instead focused on figuring out where to go. There only seemed to be one way to go at the moment, so he just went straight and soon stumbled on three Shadow Beasts. The two adventures remained in place, just out of sight. "What are you doing?"

"…I don't want to fight them."

"You didn't have a problem before."

"That was before I knew the truth about them!"

"This is why I didn't want to tell you that," Midna sighed while crossing her arms and looking down. "You were the only one of us willing to fight them."

"Is there any way to fix them?"

"…No." Midna thought about what to do now. Should she just tell him to fight anyway? Would he even listen? Her thoughts were interrupted by Link taking deep breaths, which she assumed was to calm down. Just before she could go back her thought, Link dashed forward, startling her and almost knocking her off his back. He charged the Shadow Beasts and caught the first one by surprise, tearing into it from behind. The first one fell to the sudden attack, and the other two began to move in on the wolf.

"Do that flying thing!" Link cried. Midna fumbled at the sudden request, but Link's dodging skills gave her enough time, with only a light swipe to her head protected by the Fused Shadow. Link flew through the air, tearing at both beasts before they could use their strange cry to revive each other. Link didn't look when the beasts burst into particles. He was just grateful he could end their misery so quickly, thanks to his sneak attack. He heard Midna claim the portal above them but paid no mind to it. He wasn't really paying attention to anything.

"Hey!" Midna's sudden voice startled Link, making him jump a bit. "Are you listening?!" The look on Link's face gave Midna her answer. "Geez, you're really out of it. We've been here for a while now." Link didn't respond, just looked away, and began walking again. "You should stop. The bridge is missing." Link halted his advance and noticed the large drop before him. He must really be out of it if he didn't see that. "I think they took it," Midna said, putting her hand to her chin in thought, "It has to be somewhere. I don't think Zant did this himself, and he's the only one who could hold something that big."

"You mean in the magic storage thing you do?"

"Yeah, but where could it be?"

Link tried to think about where it could be, if he'd seen anything, but his thoughts drifted back to the Shadow Beasts. How many had they killed? He had fought then in several locations, Ordona's Spring, Faron's Spring, outside the temple Faron directed him to. Wait a second.

Link's head and ears shot up in realization.

"What? What is it?"

"I think I know where the bridge is!"

"Where?"

"Remember the place with the giant plant? And the huge spiders?"

"Ugh," Midna said with a shiver, "How could I forget that."

"There were shadow beasts just before that place. We fought them when we were collecting the light fragments. There was something there. it could be the bridge!"

"Could be?" Midna said with annoyance in her tone.

"It's the best we've got. We'll have to get back there to check, though."

"That shouldn't be too hard," Midna remarked, hopping off Link's back onto the ground and pointing up, "I haven't been grabbing these portals for nothing. I'll just warp us there."

"Us? I thought it was really hard to warp me?"

"That was when you were in your human form. This one," Midna gestured to Link, "Will be much easier."

"Oh yeah, you were able to warp me out of Hyrule Castle with no problem."

"Exactly"

"All right," Link said with a wolf shrug, I'm ready whenever you are." Midna stepped back and began concentrating, then Link's body turned into black squares and shot into the sky, Midna in tow.

Black squares fell from the sky and formed into a blue-eyed beast, and it focused those eyes on the massive tree in the distance but became distracted when an imp plopped down on the wolf's back

"MIDNA!"

"What?!"

"Oh, never mind. We're in the shade. It's fine."

"Huh? OH SHIT! I forgot about that!"

"Midna…" Link said with a long sigh.

"What?! I've never been in a world that tries to kill me before!"

"I know, but you'll have to get used to it. I don't want you dying from light exposure."

"…Thanks…" Midna mumbled, not sure how to react to that. Why did he seem to care, even when she admitted she didn't care about him? It must be a hero thing. "Well, time for you to find this bridge you were talking about."

"The bridge is right there." Link gestured with his head to the left. Midna followed his gesture to see a wooden bridge propped on the wall, clearly out of place. She remembered seeing it before, but she didn't realize it was a bridge and thought it was a strange light world structure.

"I'm impressed. You've upgraded from fetching a wooden shield to an entire wooden bridge!" Midna mocked.

"Will you stop with the dog jokes?" Link growled, "I'm not a dog!" Midna rolled her eyes with a smirk, floating up to the bridge that was still in the shade.

"It's a lot bigger than I was expecting."

"Will you be able to warp it?" Link questioned, still slightly annoyed.

"I think so. The size will be a bit of a problem, but it's only made of wood. The more complex something is, the harder it is to warp. That's why it's so hard to warp you in your human form but not your wolf form." Midna once again concentrated, reaching out her power to transport the structure and the wolf behind her. "Move closer."

Link walked right next to the bridge, just shy of touching it, and Midna once again transformed him into black particles along with the bridge. When Link reformed, he saw Midna descend from the portal and direct the bridge's particles with her hands back into the spot where the bridge should have been. It reformed just above its correct position, and Midna released it with a loud grunt. The bridge made a boom as it fell the small distance to the floor. Link walked up to Midna as she descended to the ground, and when he approached, she fell back to lean on his side.

"You ok?"

"I'm fine," Midna said, sounding tired and out of breath. "No more teleporting for a while."

The remainder of the journey was uneventful until Link came upon a gate with a sign hanging above it that was partially destroyed, only hanging on one chain still attached to a wooden beam above it. The remaining letters spelled Ka-riko.

"I think I saw this place on the map. It's a town. It's much bigger than Ordon."

"You think the light spirit's in there?"

"Maybe. Let's check." Link dug his way under the gate while Midna floated over the top. The dirt was a bit rough, and the ground had been turning into a rocky texture for a while now. Link kept walking until he rounded a corner and buildings came into view. Link slowly approached and noticed some Shadow Beasts wandering the streets. The place looked deserted aside from the menacing presence of many enemies, shambling in a mix between mindless wandering and a coordinated search. Link ducked behind the nearest house, hoping he was fast enough to go unnoticed. "That is a lot of monsters."

"Yeah…" Midna whispered as quietly as she could. Link searched for the light spirit, trying to ignore how many people were transformed into the monsters before him, and spotted it off to the side, away from all the buildings, completely exposed. Link inwardly cursed and tried to figure out what he could do. After a few seconds, the shadow beasts began shuffling to the entrance Link came through. Link waited until all but two had left before following them silently to see them break into pieces and enter a portal. Once all the shadow beasts had left, Midna grabbed the portal for herself, preventing any of them from returning.

"Nice. Now we just have to deal with two."

Silently Link approached the two remaining enemies, trying to remain undetected as long as possible. He doubted he could kill one without alerting the other, so he'd have to show himself eventually. When Link got within reach, the Shadow Beasts spun around and swung at him, and he barely managed to tumble away, knocking Midna off his back with a cry.

Both companions were quick to scramble away, avoiding getting their skulls smashed. Link took a combative stance and growled at his misfortune. He was separated from Midna, and because of that, he couldn't use his quick attack. He would have to push through them to get to Midna. Link dashed forward and sidestepped a blow, then lunged at the beast and bit into its throat. After some struggle, the beast collapsed, and Link rushed the other, one taking a swipe at Midna, who was floating under the attack. Link lept through the air and slammed into the beast as it shrieked its horrible sound. Link frantically bit into its throat to silence it, hoping to stop the reviving process.

The beast stilled, and just before Link could sigh in relief, the beast he had already killed grabbed him from behind and threw him down the street into a wall, knocking him senseless. Midna launched a punch with her hair hand, but the beast was only stunned by the blow. Midna really wished she had a weapon. The beast took in a sharp inhale of breath, and Midna desperately rushed it to stop it from shrieking. She rammed into it with as much force as she could, making it stagger and stop what it was doing.

Her relief was short-lived. The breast grabbed her before she could react, covering almost her entire body in its massive hand, only sparing her arms and above. Midna's eyes widened in fear once she realized what the beast planned to do.

"NO!" she cried, pure terror filling the air. The scream was enough to snap Link back to his senses and realize what was happening down the street. Midna struck the beast with her hair again, but it didn't release her and grabbed onto her hair with its other hand. Link began running down the street, and Midna's repeated screams of terror turned into one continuous cry of agony.

Link jumped onto the beast and tore into its flesh again, causing it to drop Midna. It inhaled for another shriek, but Link crushed its throat with his teeth to silence it and didn't let up until it was dead and both shadow beasts burst into particles. Link quickly turned to Midna and nearly cried in surprise at what he saw.

Midna was lying on the floor, only propped up by her right elbow. The Fused Shadow had fallen off her head, disheveled her hair a bit, and exposed her eyes, letting Link see the terror in them. But that wasn't what shocked him so much.

Midna's torso had turned black, along with some of her arms and legs. Her colorful greenish-blue markings were no more, replaced by darker lines that traveled across her entire body, aside from her chest and back, where there were blood-red lines.

She looked like a shadow beast.

Link was frozen. What could he do anyway? He tried to think of something, but nothing came to his panicked mind. Midna kept mumbling 'no' in a shaky voice, terrified beyond the capacity of reasonable thought. Neither of them could think straight through the panic until Link noticed the black section of her body began to recede.

Starting from her arms and legs, her body slowly started returning to its normal appearance. Link sighed in relief, and Midna noticed when her arm began returning to normal. Her frantic breathing slowed down, still riddled with fear but with relief mixed in at the sight of her plight ending.

Link felt useless. He could do nothing other than be there for her, even if it was unlikely she would care. He laid down next to Midna, not too close but close enough that she could tell he was there. She surprised Link by burying herself into his fur, grasping onto it like she would die if she let go. Midna knew there was something about Link that protected him from being turned into a shadow beast, and she prayed that, just maybe, that power would extend to her.

Midna remained buried in Link's fur even after her body returned to normal until she managed to calm herself down. Once she did, she tore herself away from Link, turning her back on him and crossing her arms. She hated herself for being vulnerable, especially in front of a light dweller. She tried to put on a tough exterior, but she let it slip. She was just so scared. She had seen so many people suffer the fate she narrowly avoided and watching people turn into monsters haunted her. She kept thinking about what it must be like for them. What it would feel like to be a prisoner in your own body. The thought terrified her.

"Are you ok?"

"Leave me alone," Midna snapped. She felt a slight pang of guilt for saying that after he helped her, but she wasn't going to take it back. Much to her surprise, she heard Link leave. His footsteps grew quiet, and she glanced over her shoulder to see him heading to the light spirit. She huffed and retrieved the Fused Shadow, placing back on her head.

Link padded through the shallow water up to the floating ball of light, all that remained of the light spirit.

"Hero…" it spoke, "look for my stolen light… and gather it… in this…" a container identical to the one Faron had given him floated from the light spirit, and Link gently caught it in his mouth. He would have to ask Midna to attach it to his foot again. Link gave the light spirit a nod to acknowledge its words and turned to leave. "Be careful… the darkness… now hunts you…" Link stopped in his tracks at those words. The evil he was fighting had noticed his actions, and now it was coming for him.