The three warriors stared at the figure before them, frozen in shock, weapons raised by shaky hands. The dark Link laughed, a low, growling sound.

"You are correct. I am you. The darkness flooding your heart, manifested into physical form. I know your every move, I know what you are thinking, and your hatred and rage only makes me stronger." He smiled, showing glistening fangs. Link swallowed hard, taking a step forward.

"How did you come to be?" He asked, his voice slightly shaking.

"Every person has darkness in their heart. In this realm, we exist in physical form. You fell straight into our trap." Ghirahim cleared his throat, causing the shadow to look at him.

"A trap? This is Nefretiri's doing, is it not?" Shadow Link raised his sword.

"That, you may never know! I will exterminate you and reopen the wormhole. All of us shadows will enter the earth and infect it." They would hear no more, all three of them charged the shadow, weapons raised. He jumped back, dodging swords.

"There's three of us and one of you. Do you really think you can beat all three of us out?" Sheik asked, pulling out a dagger. The shadow began to laugh, sending ice through their veins.

"That is where you are mistaken." Closed his blood red eyes, focusing and snapping his fingers. A barrier formed around Ghirahim and Sheik, making it impossible to reach him.

"I will only battle the chosen half-breed, seeing as he is the one who created me." He raised his sword, charging at Link. Link threw up his shield, blocking the sword at the last second. He jumped backwards, ending their contact. Gripping his sword in both hands, he charged forward, meeting shadow Links shield, the exact move that had been done before.

"Silly half-breed, I am you! I can predict every move you make. You will never beat me." He sliced down again with his sword, this time hitting its target. Link sustained a large gash down his torso; the blood shining like diamonds. He reeled back, raising his shield once again.

"Don't give up skychild!" Ghirahim yelled, pounding his fists on the barrier, desperate to break it. Sheik joined, focusing her energy into her palms. It had no effect.

"I'll still beat you. If I created you, I can destroy you!" He lunged forward, thrusting his sword right through the middle of the shadow. He reeled back, and to everyone's horror, the wound began to close instantly.

"There is no way to destroy a shadow being." He took his sword, crashing it into the ground. The sword began emitting several razor sharp gusts of wind, slicing Link to ribbons. He dropped to his knees.

"Link no!" Sheik yelled, pounding her fists more furiously on the barrier. She looked over to Ghirahim, who was frozen in place, a horrified look cemented to his normally stoic face. Navi rose up, fluttering by his ear.

"The shadow is growing weaker." She said, the hum of her wings soft in Ghirahim's ear. "The barrier should be dissolving soon if he doesn't regain his strength." Link tried to force himself back to his feet, but he was losing blood, fast. The shadow walked over to him, lifting his head by his hair.

"There are others like me. I am your darkness, your hatred and impurity. Slowly, we will infect your earth, and Mistress Nefretiri will rule all with our help. This won't be the last you see of me." He threw Link down, raising his sword and slicing it down into the air. The wormhole opened, Shadow Link walking closer to it.

"Expect to see all of your shadows! We will rule!" He disappeared, the wormhole closing. The barrier around Ghirahim, Sheik and Navi dissolved, the three running over to Link. Ghirahim leaned down, propping Link up into his lap, taking care not to reopen his own wounds.

"We need to get to a safe place. Neither of you are strong enough to generate a warp yet. We can leave in the morning." She grabbed hold of Ghirahim, who held on to Link. A few moments later, they were in a small house inside a village.

"Where have you taken us? What is this hovel." Ghirahim said, looking around the drab hut in disgust.

"We are in my village. This will serve as our rest spot until morning, so make yourselves comfortable. I'll go to the apothecary to get some potions to fix up your wounds." Sheik exited the hut, leaving Ghirahim, Link and Navi alone. Ghirahim looked down at Link, a lump forming in his throat. Blood was covering Ghirahim's body, from both their wounds. For once, he didn't care.

"I'm sorry…master…" Link weakly said, staring at the older demon through half lidded eyes.

"Why are you sorry?" He asked, cradling Link's bleeding head in his lap. Link's eyes closed.

"For failing you. I let Nefretiri send you here…the shadow got away into our world. I…failed…" His voice trailed off. Ghirahim held his head closer, as if it would be the last time he ever felt him.

"Link…" He said, but stopped. Did he really just use his real name?

"Master…you…used my name." A small, weak smile spread across Link's lips.

"Link…you have been very faithful to me. Never in my life did I think I would have a companion. Servants come and go…but you are very special to me. Please…call me Ghirahim. Not Lord, not master…just…Ghirahim." He almost wanted to vomit at his words. The skychild was making him go soft, he thought to himself. But it was true, the thought of not having Link by his side make him feel queasy, when normally he wouldn't care weather he died or not. Link had awakened the small amount of human he had left in him; he hadn't felt emotion like this since he was a human and held Claudia in his arms. It was almost like holding his beloved once again, and Link being her reincarnation helped tremendously. He bent his head down, placing a kiss on Link's forehead.

"I will do that…Ghirahim." Link's head lolled to the side, his pulse slowing. Ghirahim began to panic.

"Skychild? Link? Wake up!" He frantically shook him, failing to rouse him from his slumber. "Where is that woman? My Link is dying!" As if his pleas were heard, Sheik walked through the door holding an armful of potions. She knelt down next to Link, taking the cork out of one of the bottles; a shiny green liquid.

"These will stop the bleeding and begin to seal the cuts." She explained, pouring some of the liquid into the deep gashes littering his chest, arms and legs. She handed a bottle to Ghirahim as well, this one a royal blue.

"What is this?" He asked, eyeballing the liquid. Without looking up, Sheik said,

"Drink it. Your energy will be replenished and it will help with the broken rib I don't think you know you have." She laughed quietly, finishing up with Link and wrapping him with bandages. Ghirahim put the bottle to his lips. The bitter liquid made his face pucker as he felt it slide down his throat. He felt a burning in his chest, but he ignored it.

"Here…let's put him over here and let him rest." The two placed Link on a cot, covering him against the night chill. They both sat at the dusty table in silent thought.

"Would you like some tea?" Sheik asked, grabbing the pot from the stove. Ghirahim nodded.

"That would be lovely." He quietly said, glancing over at Link's sleeping form, wishing he was curled up next to him. Sheik placed a mug in front of him, taking her place once again at the table. They sipped in silence for a moment, enjoying the warmth of the black tea.

"How did you and Link become so close?" Sheik asked after noticing Ghirahim look in his direction once again.

"It's honestly complicated. I originally captured him while we were both on our quests, mine to revive my master and his to…" He trailed off, looking into Sheik's eyes. For the first time in thousands of years he felt guilty. "To save you…" Sheik nodded, taking a sip of tea.

"But why keep him alive after reviving Demise?" Ghirahim swallowed the lump in his throat.

"I did…unspeakable things to him. Brought him to the brink of death. There wasn't an inch of skin I didn't tear up. It truly was a bloody mess." He licked his lips, the thought of Link's delicious blood making his stomach flutter.

"That doesn't answer my question." Sheik said, agitated. Ghirahim cleared his throat.

"Right. Well…even after all of that, he never budged. He never told me where to find you, not so much as a subtle hint. His strength and willpower amazed me…so after the deed was done I had asked him to join me. Seeing as he had nothing left to fight for, and was potentially disgraced, I figure anyway, he decided to join me as a second chance to do something right. It was absolutely thrilling, filled my heart with rainbows ya know." He swooned, closing his eyes and taking another sip of tea. "Then, come to find out, this was the goddesses plan all along."

"But how do you know it was all her doing? Why would she make the good side lose?" Just then, Navi appeared, hovering by Sheik.

"Well," She started in her small fairy voice, "When Ghirahim was a human, one thousand years ago, he was in love with a woman. Unfortunately, Demise needed a soul…and he took mine." Sheik's eyes grew in shock.

"So you are Ghirahim's lover?" She asked, bewildered. Ghirahim nodded for Navi to continue.

"Demise changed Ghirahim for the same reason Ghirahim changed Link. They should have been able to kill each other easily when they met during your mission, but…they couldn't. The goddess took my spirit and morphed it with a young baby, just barley born. She thought that if my spirit was in the chosen hero, Ghirahim wouldn't be able to kill him because it reminded him too much of me, but the plan backfired, for the affection towards Ghirahim was also imbedded into Link." Sheik nodded, signaling that she understood.

"And now these shadows…they represent the darkness in our hearts." Ghirahim said, glancing once again at Link.

"Yes…the shadows. It seems they have found a way into your world." Sheik stood, stretching.

"This is another task the goddess has instilled in us. Another thread of fate bringing us together, as ally, not foe this time." He looked up at Sheik, standing as well and extending his hand.

"We can't let the shadows win. It's time to put aside differences and save earth once and for all." Sheik took his hand, shaking it lightly.

"Agreed. Let's get some rest. I'll locate another wormhole so we can get back in the morning." The once enemy nodded, walking over to Link and placing a soft kiss on his lips.

"Goodnight my skychild. We have a long fight ahead of us." He laid down next to him, noticing his exhaustion. He closed his eyes, and moments later, was paralyzed in a deep, peaceful slumber.

A/N Wow! This chapter is a bit longer than the last few! Finally, I've got a bunch of ideas flowing and I am hopefully going to be able to finish this in the next month or so, depending on how hard i work to get chapters out quick.

And yes, there will be more of an explanation on the mission the next chapter, and I'll try to add more GhiraLink as well, though thats not the main focus of this fic (sorry guys!)

but anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! let me know what you think.