The perpetual downpour cascaded turbulently, and the thunder continued to purr across the sky, leaving many students who ususally walked home huddling inside the school's cafeteria. Link and Ghirahim decided to brave the storm, unwilling to yield to the weather and being trapped within the educational system for an additional few hours. By Ghirahim's estimate, it would be raining until tomorrow morning.

There goes sword practice, Ghirahim lamented. He and Link had left all of their textbooks in their lockers; fortunately they hadn't been assigned homework over the weekend and therefor didn't have to scrounge up a way to bring their work home without it turning into a sopping mess, and now had propelled themselves from underneath the canopy of roofs and into the mass of water being fired from the clouds like artillery.

The heavy raindrops clung to them and weighed them down, the wind buffeting them as it blared in the direction that they were going. Mud sucked at their feet, so they had to pluck their legs humorously, similar to that of a Cucco, and run in a spindly sort of fashion to avoid being fastened into the ground.

"This is ridiculous!" Link screamed over the ocean of rain. Ghirahim could barely see him through the sheet of water, and could only make out his blonde hair, which was so ladden heavy with rain it was a shade of brown, and his dark hued top.

"I know!" Ghirahim tried to reply, but his feet stumbled within the sludge, and he had to regain his balance and save himself last minue from a face plant.

"If I wanted a mud bath, I'd go to a spa," he muttered to himself.

Link had dashed ahead, not noticing Ghirahim's blunder, and Ghirahim had to launch himself forward and through the thick soup that threatened to swallow him in order to catch up.

Link was a faded dark blue ghost, unknowingly putting a great amount of distance between himself and Ghirahim. For a split second, he saw a figure ahead of him flash, and assumed Ghirahim had managed to sprint, or possibly even teleport, past him. It had the same dark attire of Ghirahim, but it was much more stocky and had a strange gait -

"LINK!" Ghirahim bellowed, and immediatly ceased running, knowing that Link could not hear him above the cacophony erupting from the skies; if he opted to keep running, he would not make it to the Hylian in time. He watched in horror as Link realized at the last second that the figure that he was approaching was not Ghirahim. Wasting no time, Ghirahim snapped his fingers and teleported himself the short distance that would place himself between Link and Zant.

(He had wished he had thought to teleport himself and Link from the school to his house in the first place, saving themselves all of this time and trouble, but reminded himself that he was in no condition to teleport long distances, nor teleport an extra person with him.)

The second he felt himself grounded in his new destination, he was bowled off of his feet, and himself and Zant landed with a squelch into the mud, the two of them colliding with Link and knocking him back a few feet. Ghirahim felt himself pinned underneath the Twili, the loose earth staining into his clothes, and strained his hand to make a snapping gesture, but both of his arms were held above his head by Zant through his long sleeves.

"Nice try!" Zant shrieked, his voice carrying louder than the clap of thunder that exploded above them. Ghirahim felt his ear drops pop at the sheer intensity of both, and instead of relying on his ability to teleport, opted to thrusting his legs up to kick Zant off of him, although was not very surprised when Zant remained straddling his torso.

The Twili leaned in close to Ghirahim, his eyes burning like embers. "Where's Vaati?" his voice rasped.

"I don't know," Ghirahim spat, nose curled in a snarl.

Zant drew his fist across Ghirahim's face, busting his lip and drawing blood - the smell of the iron in the crimson liquid sent his senses reeling, and he had to steady his heartbeat lest he become so overwhelmed by the scent that he pass out. It energized him, but perhaps too much.

"He wasn't at school today, and I need to talk to him, but I'm not sure where he is and I can't afford to visit the wrong destination. So I'm only going to ask once more, since I know you know where he is - where's Vaati?"

Ghirahim only replied with a sneer, as out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Link brought himself to his feet and barreled over to bring Zant to the ground. Instantly relieved from Zant's weight, Ghirahim brought himself to a standing position, and snapped his fingers - a black saber materialized in a puff of diamond shapes, and he gripped the handle tightly - his tongue slithered across his lip and tasted metal.

Perfect, he grinned.

He sloshed forward carefully, wary that he could slip and impale himself - if he needed to take his time, he would. Zant had Link in a headlock, and Ghirahim's delicate ears could make out that something was being whispered in Link's ear - that Ghirahim could not clarify, but it wasn't necessary that he did. Something told him he already knew what Zant was hissing - he could tell by the way Link's fear flared inside himself. The fear only intensified as he drew closer, brandishing the saber, the invisible connection that linked the Hylian and the spirit together making itself heard - for a split second, the fear combined with his blood-high was almost too overwhelming, threatening to consume him and either force him to pass out or begin a deadly and sanguinary rampage, but Ghirahim bit back the impulses and forced himself to draw on the courage that was throbbing within Link; he faced their enemy calmy.

"Step aside, Link" Ghirahim said simply. His large eyes bored holes into Zant's, Link's fear making him sweat with anxiety and the taste of blood begging for more, but his courage turning his legs to stones, forbidding him to back down or cave.

Zant eyed the saber, and his lips parted in a smirk. He shoved Link away, who gave a snarl, but stood braced for battle a few feet away.

"Ghirahim, where did you get that?" he asked, taking in the sudden introduction of the weapon, but then quickly shifted to, "I need a sword, Ghira!"

"No, Link. If you impale yourself in this mess, I'll be very upset. Let me take care of this degenerate maggot."

Link's anger that had been bubbling since Zant's arrival spilled over top, and it was later that Ghirahim realized that he had developed such a strong need for bloodshed during that moment was drawn from Link's own rage and blood-thirst as well.

"I'm tired of everyone fighting my own battles for me! It's either you or Vaati, coming to my rescue, or me sitting on the sidelines, doing nothing!"

Ghirahim blinked in bewilderment, and Zant's nose twitched in annoyance, as Link continued. "I'm the son of a swordsmith, for the love of Din! I know how to fight in these conditions!"

"Link," Ghirahim tried to justify his position. "I don't want you - "

" - to get hurt," Link finished for him, his voice only elevating louder and louder. "I'm done letting Zant terrorize mine and Vaati's life, and I'm not going to sit by while someone else fights for me."

Zant seemed to possess the decency to wait for Link and Ghirahim to solve their dispute - whether it was because he was amused and took pleasure in conflict, or because he actually had respect for his enemies was unknown, but Ghirahim took advantage of every second they had before he knew he had to face Zant in combat; he watched the Twili draw two scimitars as that thought crossed his mind.

For another few milliseconds, he wondered if any of them would walk away dead - he could only imagine the world of misery he would be in if Demise discovered that he had murdered a high school student; he knew Demise wasn't above killing for fun, or disposing of those who were simply in the way, but Ghirahim also knew that Demise detested drawing attention to himself, as it has always been since they had moved into their small house downstream the Zora River. If Ghirahim took part in killing a student, that would undoubtedly bring unwanted scrutiny upon himself and his Master, and that would anger Demise greatly - he was not curious what kind of punishment would be served.

Ghirahim gritted his teeth and pushed all of that aside. If killing Zant meant saving Vaati's life, as well as protecting Link, he would suffer the consequences that Demise would dish out. The purpose of his life was to serve others, even if he was going against his true Master and serving other people.

So, relenting to Link's frustration and swallowing his uneasiness, Ghirahim's fingers snapped and conjured a sword for Link - he could sense Link's twinge of surprise, and chuckled quietly at Link's childish curiousity, knowing that through the rain no one could hear him anyways.

If creating swords out of thin air amazes him, I'd love to spend all day showing him all the tricks I can do, Ghirahim mused. If we can both walk away from this alive, anyways.

Ghirahim tossed Link the sword wordlessly, but it landed in the muddy slop, and he picked up with a huff. Zant finally spoke.

"So this will be a two on one battle, I see?" He slashed his scimitars together, creating a noise that grated both Ghirahim and Link's nerves.

"Unless you'll leave us alone," Ghirahim suggested. Link circled around Zant, bringing himself closer to Ghirahim.

"Just tell me where Vaati is," Zant said plainly, unamused. "I can't risk showing up at the wrong place."

"You expect us to betray our friend to save ourselves?" Link barked, face contorted in fury.

Zant shrugged. "Friends, disposable allies...aren't they all the same?"

It was at that moment that both Link and Ghirahim realized that Zant did not, and likely would never, understand the concept of valuing a life that didn't belong to yourself. His gang was not his family, they were not his friends. They didn't express concern for each other. They were merely a cold business affiliation, with Zant himself being the boss, and the rest of his crew, the people who looked up to him and acknowledged his power, being his employees - ones that were, in some part of his mind, nameless and faceless.

Vaati must have discovered this, and combined with the sheer danger of what he had gotten himself into and Zant's homoerotic fascination with him, had fled that kind of relationship. He had sought companionship, and even amongst having drugs forced into his body, being given degrading and illegal missions, and being an object, not person, of interest to Zant, had still not found it amongst Zant and the people who chose to affiliate themselves with him.

This fight would be more than just defending Vaati - it would be attempting to restore whatever emotional trauma that Zant had been responsible for, as well as Vaati's dignity.

It was Link who struck first, enraged by Zant's disregard for human life, for Vaati's life, and with a passionate and stomach churning scream, laid his blade with a swift slice across Zant's torso; Zant blocked at last second, the two steel edges colliding with a clang.

Ghirahim drew his saber back, fingers tightening on the handle, and targeted Zant; the constant stream of droplets in his eyes muddled his vision, but he blinked to clear them, his eyes stinging, and finally let loose with a powerful and insanely fast charge that sent Zant flying - the saber hit the right scimitar, and the combined effects of his own bodyweight and speed gave the bodyslam extra force.

Zant recoiled faster than Ghirahim had anticipated, and had to regain his footing in the slosh - Link took the initiative to lunge forward with a battle cry, but was jolted backwards harshly as Zant struck with an uppercut. Ghirahim's heart lurched as he watched Link barely block the attack, but mentally congratulated him for his quick defense. He plodded over, his white bangs plastered to the side of his head, blocking his view.

He joined in with Link, as the two took turns dueling the Twili; no blood had been spilled yet, and Ghirahim, who admitted to himself that he was insatiably hoping there would be, was somewhat glad that his nor Link's hadn't been - he held on to the notion that the scent of Link's blood would drive him up the walls, and that would be a pricey distraction in the middle of a battle.

Ghirahim was anticipating the moment when Zant would be struck down, either disarmed or too exhausted to fight back any longer, so that his telepathic abilities could be put to good use once more. Something told him that he would have to conjur up something quite awful to throttle Zant out of his already sick mind.

Fortunately, he was given his chance earlier than he thought; Link, with a beautiful swipe of his sword, managed to slit through Zant's sleeve and wrist and cause the Twili to drop one of his scimitars, hissing in pain. Ghirahim took advantage of Zant's temporary blunder, and prepared himself for a charge attack; the odds were in his favor, and he managed to send Zant flopping onto his back before he could retrieve his second weapon, his remaining scimitar disarmed from him as well.

"Link, pin his arms down!" Ghirahim instructed loudly, as Link dove to restrain the Twili, and Ghirahim stood towering over Zant, one foot positioned on each of his sides. He sneered down into the hateful, glowering eyes, already sifting through his mind for ammunition against this deranged person.

Link had never asked Ghirahim what he had done to Ganon and Garo the times he had traced the strange ability that the Sword Spirit possessed with them fleeing in a state of panic and disorientation - he was actually a little terrified of asking. For the longest time, he had seen Ghirahim as a lonely and abused child, who needed guidance in the ways of understanding humanity; someone who had never known what a friend was.

But now, as Ghirahim simply instructed Link to remove himself from Zant's arms, he reluctantly agreed, noticing that Zant's body had gone taut, and his eyes had become blank.

He watched, mesmerized in a horrified sort of way, as Ghirahim's dark brown eyes became half-lidded, and a dreamy, ghastly smirk slithered onto his white lips. When Zant's eyes begin to twitch, then widen in terror, he was reminded that Ghirahim was much more than an abused child - much, much more.

It was then and there, in the light mist that sprinkled the earth, that Link began to fully appreciate that Ghirahim was not human, and this was the first time that the realization of Ghirahim's nature frightened him.

Link watched as Ghirahim, the telepath, dragged Zant into an abyssal trench of torture, marked by the victim wrapping his long, teal arms around his head and screeching in what anyone would assume was pain. The Hylian recognized that he had been extremely fortunate in hailing from Ghirahim's good side, never having tasted his true wrath.

And the Sword Spirit was just that - non-human. He displayed obvious longevity and durability that was unachievable by human standards; Link knew that had Ghirahim been a regular human, he would not have survived being poisoned by Ganon, as he was sure that in the struggle to get him to his home he would have died. But he had not.

He knew that, after suffering severe head trauma and blood loss underneath a book case, a regular human wouldn't have survived, or at least would have been left with a permanent impairment - namely, brain damage. Even fairies could not heal wounds of that magnitude. But Ghirahim was not a regular human, and he seemed to surpass many of the biological limits that restricted those of mortal descent, and the healing powers bestowed upon him by the fairy had been enough to revive him.

Ghirahim could conjur weapons out of thin air, and could teleport; he could charge at blinding speeds, and was a telepath. Something told Link that that was only the surface of Ghirahim's abilities - and that frightened him to an even higher degree. His best friend was nothing short of a demon, but yet he held on to the notion that the white haired boy was still trying to understand love and compassion, and that in itself was what prevented him from being a truly evil and heartless force - precisely the entirety of what Zant was.

Now, he watched in silence as Zant pleaded intangibly for Ghirahim to relieve himself of his pain, whatever it specifically was, but Ghirahim did not oblige. His Cheshire grin never faded, and his round eyes remained partially closed and never blinking as he, arrogantly, barely held the telepathic connection (as the main portion of the equation was eye contact.) He would exercise his control in any and every means possible, while displaying the utmost pleasure in doing so.

"It's time you left Vaati alone, Zant."

Ghirahim's psychological grip visibly eased, but not enough for Zant break free.

"Do we have an understanding?" His eyes narrowed to two tiny dark slits, invisible fingers clenching the Twili's mind momentarily, agonizingly.

Zant feebly nodded his head, but Ghirahim instantly roared, "I don't think you do!"

His eyes widened, and spasms grappled with Zant's body, as he lay convulsing on the ground, Ghirahim's fingers twitching and dancing like spiders over his body; he was controlling the movements of Zant's body with his own hands.

"You've upset me and my Link for the last time. I've seen the hideous ramblings inside your head, and I find them irksome and appalling. When I recieve your honest word that Vaati will be spared murder, you are free to leave - this entire town."

A large, cold stone sunk to the pit of Link's stomach - he knew Zant harbored ill feelings for Vaati, perhaps even revenge that he had somehow justified (or not) inside his corroded mind, but murder even seemed like something only his sleazy crew members would stoop low enough to commit - if his experience with Garo was anything to go off of.

Everything that Vaati had mentioned to him wrapped itself accordingly around this new revelation, helping him reach a new level of understanding, and Link felt himself praying to the Goddesses above that Vaati would be able to reach safety.

Something told him, though, that Vaati had managed to find that. Perhaps it was returning him home before school to worried foster parents, or maybe the wind mage, being in the confessional mood he was in, voiced everything that had been eating away at him, and Ezlo's old friends were getting him the help he needed.

But something told him that Vaati would be going away for a long time, and when he came back, things would definitely be different between the two, but better for his petite friend - if he got the psychological assistance that he so desperately needed, perhaps he would come back a less troubled person.

The only other thing that slowly began to dissolve Link's thoughts was Ghirahim's choice of words: he had said that Zant had upset "my Link" for the last time. Link wrapped his mind around that, and finally decided that Ghirahim had not said that on accident - all of his words were meaningful, but whether he had intended to say that aloud was not clear.

Either way, the heat inside Link's chest expanded, and he was reminded that Ghirahim did possess at least shred of humanity - he believed, though, that it was much larger than he was allowing himself to acknowledge at that moment, as he witness Zant struggle under Ghirahim's power.

And underneath Ghirahim's death gaze, Zant could only obey his command. Ghirahim seemed to fish around inside his victim's head a little bit longer, veryifing the validity of whatever was being commuicated via their invisible mental thread, until he finally seemed satisifed with whatever it was he had found.

"If I see you or your crew outside of school ever again," Ghirahim threatened with a clenched jaw, "I won't hesitate to murder you."

With that, Ghirahim gave a theatrical flourish of his hands, releasing Zant from his binds. The Twili scrambled up to his feet, face an unreadable mixture of shock and disgust, before backing away slowly, staring, and finally fleeing, hopefully for what would be the last time.

It had completely stopped raining by now.

The walk home started off with silence. They plodded through the left over mud, thought it didn't mean much difference - they were both covered in dried mud and their sodden clothing hung to their bodies like plaster. Ghirahim was disgusted by the splotches, and spent almost the entire walk home wiping it all away.

It was Link, uncomfortable with the silence, who spoke first.

"We're a real mess, aren't we?"

Ghirahim flicked away another crusting of mud, and chuckled. "We are."

"Do you really think that will be the last we see of Zant?"

Ghirahim thought for a moment, before finally replying, "I made sure to stress the importance of him never returning here again. I would like to think he took my threat seriously." He threw Link a careless grin.

Link felt a few prickles spiral down his back, and he turned his head away, blushing. Ghirahim had a very toothy smile, with very white teeth, and he would be spending the rest of the night with him - Link tried to reevaluate what exactly that meant.

He would be sleeping in the same house with a demon Sword Spirit who could summon weapons at any given time, teleport, move at ungodly speeds, and use a combination of telepathy and mind control. At any other time in his life, he would have just shrugged it off as some sort of silly superstition or the situation just never would have garnered so much fascination out of him; but now, that's all he felt: fascination, with a touch of fear.

But Ghirahim would never hurt me, Link assured himself.

He returned Ghirahim's smirk with one of his own, and as they neared the small house downstream of Zora's River, let his hand brushed against Ghirahim's, drawing comfort from the fact that his skin was at least slightly warm.

"Do you think we did the right thing?"

The elderly couple had been lounging about the house the remainder of the day, neither saying much to the other, their minds unfocused and frazzled. The house had always been quiet when Vaati was away, but this heavy silence that stretched to even the newly spun cobwebs in the corners of the walls was more ominous and left a larger gap between the two.

That morning, they had been awake when they saw Vaati leave for school as usual - it wasn't until he had gone out of sight that they realized that it was beginning to rain. They had started to go about their daily of routine of preparing a small breakfast and reading the Hyrule Times, but within a few hours of their morning, they heard a knock on their door.

They hadn't expected anyone to visit them, and had even less expected to see a pair of sodden teenagers on their doorsteps; one who's shirt was dark green with rain, and the other their own son.

"He's really upset. I don't think he can make it to school today," Link told them frantically. As they thought back on it now, and to all of the times that Link had been around their Vaati, they realized that the blonde boy had been an extraordinary friend to Vaati, and had probably saved his life.

They took Vaati inside, grabbing towels and drying him off, unnoticing that Link had left during the commotion, probably because he was in an almost similar state of anxiety and had no idea what to do.

As the two frightened parents dried him off, the frail teenager sobbed and attempted to say, although some of it was incoherent, "Just let me die! Please! Let me die!" Wasting no time and within the flash of a Deku nut, they had found themselves at the nearest mental health center with a very disturbed lavender haired boy.

Now, as they sat alone in their house after Vaati had been bacheracted, Agitha could only wonder if leaving him in that facility was the proper thing to do.

Colin stared out the window at the soggy earth beyond; he was searching for a response to his wife's question, but he could only correlate how the solemn gray sky was the same color as both his and Agitha's hair.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to both himself and Agitha, he replied, "We saved his life, dearest. No matter what may have gotten in the way, that is always the right choice."

He crossed the room to drape his arm across her shoulders, and the two resumed their silence, the only difference being that now they felt they could forgive themselves more.

A/N: Yes, I did use an older version of Colin and Agitha from Twilight Princess - imagine Agitha without her "castle" but retaining her love for bugs, and it seems likely that if she and Colin (if in canon they had ever met) went out looking for bugs, that they might find a Picori - Ezlo!

So, this chapter was originally going to be the start of Link's sleepover at Ghirahim's, but I had a different idea in regards to the Vaati/Zant problem - next chapter should feature the sleepover :3