Between Dusk and Dawn - Chapter 13

Misled

The witch and the hero had passed the giant stone door and now were standing in a large room in the shape of a dome, right under their feet was standing an oval surface made of glass where the reflection of the duo was shown.

"This is what we've been looking for." The sorceress said.

Link had expected the Gate of Twilight to have similar patterns to the usual twili items, like the mirror or the palace he had seen before, but the Gate was unusually plain looking.

"For the Goddesses, there was no point in decorating something they wanted to hide for all eternity." Cia said to answer the hero's thoughts, "They made it so that even if somebody somehow managed to get in front of one of the Gates, they wouldn't know what to do with it."

The sorceress approached the glass ground and knelt down, putting the palm of her hand on it, whispering something that sounded like a magic chant.

The hero of light stared curiously at the witch, wondering what exactly he was supposed to do right now.

A minute later, Cia stood up and turned back to the hero.

"I cannot travel myself to the other side of the gate but I can send somebody through it, this is why I needed you to accompany me. Outside the fact that I wanted you to come because it is related to the world of Twilight, you are also the most fit person to go through the Twilight Realm."

Link nodded, understanding her point. He had traveled a lot during his adventures and that also included walking in the strange parallel world, getting himself used to being forcibly transformed into a previously uncomfortable form as well.

"Whether you will turn into a wolf or not once you enter the twilight again is something that I do not know myself, however if you do transform, you might have a different form than the sacred beast thanks to Shadow Veil's influence."

"Will it affect my abilities?"

The witch put a finger under her chin, thinking for a second about the answer. "I doubt it will." Before Link had time to ask another question, the witch tapped the surface of the mirror with the tip of the staff, creating something similar to ripples. "When you're ready to go, simply jump and you'll fall into the other side."

"One last thing," The hero started "How do I activate the other side of the gate when I find it?"

"Touching it will be enough."

Link nodded and, without another word, jumped, making himself pass through the ground.

Once the hero arrived, it only took him mere seconds before he felt a familiar sensation pass through his body, one that he would have preferred to avoid entirely.

Link's body turned black as his form shifted into a more animal one, the form of the sacred beast. Although, not quite the form he was used to.

Because of the magic infused helmet's influence, his fur had turned completely dark, the markings on his forehead were also completely gone, the only remaining feature from before were his striking blue eyes.

Ignoring the unpleasant feeling the veil of shadow still gave him, the man turned beast focused on his eerily silent surroundings to find that he had been teleported not far from a large twili building, one he thought he recognized to be the Palace of Twilight, a place where him and Midna had once fought Zant... Yet it somehow looked different from the one from his memories.

Link started moving toward the entrance, quickly yet carefully out of habit. Upon arriving, he noticed that there was no light inside of the twill markings the walls sported.

In fact, there was nothing but inanimate objects everywhere he looked. No traps, no guards, no twilis, no shadow crystal fog, not a single sign of life or death. It was as if every living being had suddenly disappeared one day without leaving a trace.

And as easier as it would make his job to search for the mirror, he would rather have to fight off guards than experience being the last person in the realm.

The beast shook off the bad feeling to concentrate on his mission, he wanted to be done as quickly as possible.

Thus, without fear of being interrupted by anyone, the wolf rushed from room to room to find where the mirror could be.

"We have to move forward, quickly soldiers!"

This was the first thing Sheik heard upon arriving, followed by the sounds of steel clashing against bones and the battle cries of Hyrule's soldiers.

The ninja had teleported on high ground to be able to get a good look at the current situation her army was in, while at the same time giving herself time to heal her recent wounds.

The first thing she noticed was that her troops were moving fast and that Impa wasn't at the front, leading the troops, but that a man clad in green was.

'Could it be... Did Impa find the hero from the legends?' Sheik thought, relieved to know that they could count on the help of the goddesses and their chosen one.

Her relief quickly turned into confusion when she saw that her troops didn't look as organized as they should be when pushing forward. She understood when here eyes shifted to find the rearguard that the situation was not as bright as she thought it was.

Her troops weren't pushing forward.

Her soldiers were being chased by thousands of skeletons and hundreds of lizard men.

They were being forced to move forward as the rearguard, lead by Impa, was desperately fighting off the horde of monsters to make sure no soldier was left behind.

"This... This is bad." Sheik immediately stopped healing himself and immediately took out his damaged harp. "I have to help Impa out now."

The wounded ninja closed the distance as quickly as he could without being noticed and once he was close enough, he started playing a tune.

"Song of storms."

As impossible as it sounds, a dark cloud started to form above the monsters, growing bigger and bigger until overtaking almost half of all of the monsters attacking the rear guard, confusing both man and monster.

Sheik then leapt in front of Impa, who immediately considered him a new threat until she realized that Sheik wasn't facing her.

"Rain thunder upon my enemies!"

Lightning bolts came down like arrows on the battlefield, obliterating a part of the unsuspecting enemies.

Sheik immediately turned to Impa "It won't last long, let's move." He said, wasting no time on doing so himself.

Zelda's best friend wasn't one to trust people she didn't know or take orders from then but right now, her priority was to get her own soldiers to safety, she'll deal with this new person later.

"Everyone, forward! We need to catch up with the hero!"

The sacred beast had finally found was he was looking for.

Located behind the throne of the throne room was standing an unusually plain and big glass reflecting everything in front of it.

Now, all he had to do was touch the mirror to open the gate on both sides, giving what Cia wanted.

The dark wolf approached the mirror, wondering at the same time if life would come back once the souls had been released from their prison, and what they would become.

He slowly put a paw on the glass and let it stay here for a few seconds before ripples started to show on the surface, much like what had happened back when he was with the witch.

The light of the twili markings on the walls started to light up again, much to Link's pleasure.

'I can finally communicate with you Hero of Light, good work on opening the gate.' Cia's voice rung into his head, he was now sure that he had done the job properly. 'Now all you need to do is to go through the Gate of Twilight to come ba-'

Suddenly, the doors of the room bursted and by instinct, the beast quickly hide behind the throne.

"ZAAAAANT!" A voice furiously shouted.

One he hadn't heard in such a long time, yet one that Link would never forget.

"My, even though you were the previous ruler of our people, you sure have no manners, Midna."

Another voice the Hero of Light knew very well, the one that started his quest to save Hyrule and the one that placed the curse upon his friend.

"You-! How dare you attempt to overthrow me! Break the curse this instant, you traitor!"

The sacred beast dared to take a look from behind the throne and there he saw it.

Zant, a smirk on his face, slowly walking toward the imp form of Midna.

'Hero of Light, I cannot see what you are seeing from the other side, why have you not returned yet?'

The voice in his head asked him, yet Link couldn't give an answer as his eyes were locked on what he was about to see.

"Traitor? I am no traitor, I am King Zant! I deserve this place, this world!"

Midna's hair turned into a closed fist out of anger. "You're just a power hungry madman!"

"Shut up, you pathetic imp! I'll show you, I'll show you all who the real ruler is! Those who won't kneel before me will be executed, just like you are about to be!" Zant said, his weapons coming out of his sleeves as he took a battle stance, ready to attack Midna.

Link stared in fear as he understood that Zant was about to fight Midna when most of her strength was locked behind the curse of being transformed into an imp.

His friend was about to lose her life and he could barely do a thing to help her because of his own cursed form.

'I see, I understand what is going on now, you have come in contact with the inhabitants of the mirrored side. I'm guessing you're near the Twilight Princess, otherwise, you would have left already.' The witch spoke inside of the beast's head 'Be aware, Hero of Light, this is NOT your true friend, but a copy. This copy isn't even aware that you exist. The faster you come back, the faster you will be able to be with the real Midna.'

Oh but the hero was already aware of this. In front of him were not standing Midna and Zant.

Yet they still are Midna and Zant.

One didn't waste any time to attack the other, as a giant orange fist attempted to hit Zant, who deflected the attack before rushing at the imp, slicing in an unpredictable manner, making dodging much harder for the princess.

The imp couldn't dodge the last attack, rushed to make a magical barrier around her. Alas, in vain, as the superior twili broke it with ease before materializing a large hand to smash Midna into a wall.

The mad king burst out laughing. "Look at yourself, Midna! With such a pitiful amount of strength, do you truly think you are fit to rule?!" Zant hide his blades back into his sleeves. "You're nothing more than a bug, and I shall give you a fitting ending." He said, before the twili started to grow in size, transforming into a giant very quickly.

"Damn you... Damn you!" The weakened princess exclaimed.

The giant twili raised his foot above her.

"Goodbye, previous ruler."

Adrenaline shot up into the sacred beast's system as he rushed out of his hiding place.

There was no way he was about to let her die.