Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Some people say there's nothing worse than losing oneself in battle. That being lost to the heat of the fight, clashing swords with the enemy in a practiced dance with death and life is the worst that can happen to someone.

Warriors would like to beg to differ. There is something much worse than being overcome by the rush of adrenaline and the beating of your heart whilst you dodge incoming spearheads and arrows. Something worse than losing sense of who is foe or friend as you cling desperately to the last strands of energy you might have left. Something much, much worse. Something that Warriors knew he couldn't control, unlike his own body and actions.
Losing someone else to the battle.

There's a reason why Warriors had become a Captain so quickly. He refused to give up on anyone. He refused to give up on the recruits having a difficult time learning their stances. He refused to give up on the traumatized soldiers that woke up in the middle of the night with nightmares wishing they were dead rather than trapped by their tormenting dreams. Warriors worked hard towards his goals even when his heart was shattered with each loss that came along with it. That was life. It ended far too soon for his liking.

When he became the hero and drew the Master Sword that weight on his back to protect others became even heavier.

Warriors couldn't save every soldier and civilian. That was an impossible dream, but one that kept him awake long after midnight. He was resigned to the fact that he wasn't perfect, and lives would be lost no matter how hard he worked. It had taken months of reasoning with himself and talking to others about it before he came to accept the fact.

But damn the Goddesses if he couldn't save the lives of his brothers. If he couldn't save the people that were the most important to him what was the point of all his fighting and work?

Warriors works as hard as it takes to make sure each of his brothers makes it out of every battle safe. He plans and plans and tries every approach to combat that he can think of and maximizes every one of the heroes' strengths. He does his best to find out who works well with who, and how. It's the only thing he knows how to do to improve everyone's chances of survival. He spends countless quiet hours tucked away in the backrooms of inns pouring over his notes on the other heroes as he draws up battle strategies. He feels in control when he does this, and he feels useful. Warriors feels like he’s doing something to help the others when he finishes a new battle plan.

It's in the middle of a battle that Warriors feels the most helpless. In battle anything can happen. There is no one right way to approach the situation when it comes to a fight. He can’t know each of his enemies' attacks and he can’t predict them perfectly. Warriors is afraid of the loss of control that comes with it.

He's working with Hyrule at his side, the traveler decimating the monsters that approach them with quick shots of lightning and fire. Warriors lets the brunette guard his flank as he rips through the hoard with his silver sword, cutting away at their numbers with a practiced ease. The two found they did well together after the night they were portal-ed to the new Hyrule a few months ago. Warriors didn't mind Hyrule's less refined fighting style. He was used to it because of the sparring he had done with Hyrule and the fighting he had done with him.

Warriors brought his sword down on another bokoblin before glancing around the field to take note of everyone's positions.

The battle was going smoothly, and almost easily.

Time and Twilight were doing exceptionally on the other side of the battlefield, felling the monsters that came their way with their eerily similar fighting styles. Twilight almost always seemed to know what move Time was going to preform before the old man executed it, letting Twilight adjust his own approach to compliment Time's. Warriors was almost jealous of their fluid teamwork.

Four and Legend were working off each other, almost as well as Time and Twilight, just a little way away from Warriors and Hyrule. Legend was firing off his rods in-between sword swings and Four was killing the monsters in the gaps Legend left to make sure neither of them were left vulnerable for more than a few seconds.

Wild was perched somewhere in a tree, shooting arrows at the monsters when they got too close to any of the others. It was useful to have some aerial support, especially from their best archer.

Sky is an absolute beast on the battlefield as he chops down each monster that comes within ten meters of him without a second thought. The skyloftian's sword strikes are practiced and precise but powerful at the same time. Warriors is glad the knight is on their side. He's almost certain Sky is still holding back some of his power even as he fells a moblin in mere moments.

Warriors lets out a sigh of relief as he does his headcount, double checking to make sure he hadn't missed any of the heroes.

One, two, three, he deflects a boko’s sword, four, five, six, he stabs the boko in between the ribcage, seven, eight..... someone's missing and it's not himself.

Warriors' heartbeat picks up and he twirls around to try and find the missing hero. Who did he not count? Who wasn't fighting?

Warriors freezes when he finds the last hero. His eyes blow wide open, and he feels his body tense up.

There, in the middle of the field, is Wind. A bloody, bruised Wind who is currently being held by the neck by the black liazfos. His whole-body limp in the monster's grasp. The boy's blue tunic is splattered with crimson splashes, and it's ripped down the side where the monster's claws seem to have dug into it. Wind's eyes are closed, his face is pale, quickly turning blue by the second.

Everything happens in a split second.

Warriors launches himself at the lizafos as he feels his anger surging to the surface. Forget his calm, precise fighting style and persona, he needs to get to Wind as quickly as possible. Without another thought he slices down each monster in his way, dodging the tips of the spears and the claws that surge towards him as he runs past. His only thoughts are focused on saving Wind. The boy's pale face scares the captain. It's too like the ones he's seen before. The faces of felled soldiers laying on the ground, burnt, bloody, broken and helpless as they shudder out their final breaths. He can't let anyone else die.

Warriors barely registers Hyrule's shout from behind him. The traveler begins to follow Warriors, but the man doesn't slow down, he only speeds up as he is once again reminded of how little time he has to help the sailor.

When he is inches away from the black lizafos, sword ready to strike down the beast, it simply drops the sailor's limp body on the ground with a sickening thud and runs away.

Wind scream in pain, apparently not as passed out as Warriors had originally thought.

The Captain is on his knees in an instant, ignoring the clash of blades around him as Hyrule defends the two heroes on the ground.

Warriors scoops up Wind's limp body as gently as he can, thankful that the boy is still breathing. There are blue bruises forming around his neck and the gash on his side is still bleeding. There's a deep line cut into the right side of Wind's jawline that's sure to leave a scar.

How had this even happened? Warriors had only looked away for a couple minutes. He routinely checked on the other heroes throughout the battle to make sure they were alright. Wind had been fine before his last check as he worked through the monsters by himself. Usually, Wind fought with Four or Legend.... Warriors really should have been paying better attention.

The captain shakes those thoughts away. Right now was not the time to feel guilty. Right now, was the time to get Wind the medical attention he needed, and fast. The gash on his side was still bleeding and staining Warriors' own tunic as he held the limp boy in his arms.

Wind looked so small.

Warriors frowns and takes out a roll of bandages from his bag before wrapping them around Wind's side as he lifts the boy's tunic up to get at the wound. Wind lays blood-curdling still as Warriors cleans up his wounds. Too still. If not for the fact that Warriors can see the light movement of his chest, he would assume the boy was dead.

Thank Farore he wasn't.

Warriors may not be able to save everyone, but he's beyond thankful he was able to save Wind. At least, he thinks he'll be able to save Wind. He can still hear the clashing of swords and the screams of dying monsters crying out around him as he continues to patch Wind up. The battle is close to finished by now and Hyrule has been able to keep the monsters off Warriors' and Wind's back.

Warriors will have to thank him for that later.

The captain shoves the leftover bandages back into his bag along with the alcohol wipes and clothes he used to clean Wind's wound and straps his bag over back onto his belt. After tugging Wind's tunic back onto the boy, he picks him up, letting Wind's head rest on his shoulders.

Warriors would laugh at the fact that he's carrying Wind like a toddler if not for the fact that the boy almost died a couple moments ago. Wind would usually have been mockingly horrified at the fact that he had to be carried like a child if he was uninjured. If he hadn't passed out.

"Captain!"

Warriors turns his head in Hyrule's direction. "What is it traveler?!" he yells back as he watches the brunette as he fights off one of the last lizafos.

"Wind's." Hyrule grunts as he lunges at the lizafos and stabs it directly in the gut. "Status!" he twirls around and sheathes his sword as the enemy disappears in a plume of smoke.

"Stable!” Warriors shouts back ,“He may need stitches later, but we'll get to that when we wrap up the battle."

Hyrule nods and turns on his heel to go help Legend and Four with their fight. The others seem to have finished and Wild has climbed out of the trees and taken out one of his rusty swords to also aid the duo.

Everything was going to be fine. Completely fine.

It started to rain.

Damnit, Hylia. Warriors cursed.

Chapter Text

“That's the plan." The Captain said as he rolled up the map and the other papers scattered across the war table.

Mask nodded lazily from the other side of the table next to Tune, who was more or less paying attention, as the other soldiers began to disperse.

The Captain raised an eyebrow at the two younger heroes. "Did you two get that?" he asked, "Or do I need to go over it again?"

Tune jerked his head towards the Captain, eyes blown wide. "Yes sir!" he said, putting on a grin as he gave a mock salute. The Captain smiled. "Wrong hand, sailor." he said. Tune quickly swapped out his left hand for his right. "Was that a yes, you missed it, or a yes we can head out now because you understood the whole explanation?"

"A yes I was defiantly paying attention!"

The Captain chuckled.

Mask sighed. "Can we get going already? We're gonna miss the whole fight!" the boy crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently.

"Just like how you missed the whole briefing?" Tune said under his breath. Mask shot a glare at the taller boy, even though he was right. Mask had been stuck in his own thoughts for most of the strategy briefing.

"At least I know how to give a proper salute." Mask spat back out with nothing behind it. He was spitting out random insults for the fun of it at this point.

"Now, now, kids. Let's stop the banter and get out of here before Impa leaves us behind." The Captain said as he nudged Tune and Mask's backs towards the exit.

"Kids?!" Mask exclaimed. "I'm no kid!" he said as he raised an indignant fist.

"Let's get outta here, Mask. Stop being annoying."

Tune rolled his eyes. "You're such a kid." Tune said the word kid in a singsongy voice before sticking his tongue out and proceeding to dash out of the large tent.

Mask followed suite with a frustrated expression and shouting curses at the sailor, leaving the Captain standing alone to put away the papers that still laid in his hands. He sighed fondly as he sorted the papers away in his folder.

"Those boys are going to be the death of me, aren't they?" he whispered to no one in particular before he left the tent to follow the two heroes.

And they almost were that day.

That's when Tune first learned to always follow the plan.

----

Wind knows he's supposed to follow Warriors' orders and battle strategies. He knows this, so why can't he stick to them? Wind begins the fight next to Sky, and he's doing well. Sky and Wind fight next to each-other in sync perfectly for a while. That is until an arrow strikes Wind's shoulder. On instinct Wind pulls it out as soon as he feels it hit him and throws it to the ground, but not before Sky notices. That sets the Skyloftian off, even when Wind assures him, he's fine. Sky goes total god-slayer on the monsters and leaves nothing for Wind to work with. Well, nothing to actually like, you know, fight.

So, he makes the only logical decision, and that is to completely disobey Warriors and ditch the battle strategy he had carefully planned out for them all.

What could go wrong? (A lot, actually).

One moment Wind is in the middle of a hoard of monsters, slashing at a bokoblin, and the next the monsters are retreating away from him, forming an odd circle around him. Wind keeps his sword up and takes out his shield, preparing for the onslaught of attacks that he's expecting from the monsters.

Then the next second his side is being clawed at. A large, silver talon comes down from his side and tears into his flesh and rips it apart painfully. His tunic rips apart and a splash of blood sprays out onto the long claws that had torn into him.

Wind doesn't scream even though he wants to. Instead, he ignores the pain and turns around to face the beast that had torn into him. He meets the red eyes and black, scaly skin of the black-blooded lizalfos. It's grinning madly and its red eyes shine with vigor.

Something like fear courses through Wind before he shakes it away. He can't back down, nor can he run away. If the lizalfos wanted a fight, Wind would give it a fight.

Somehow Wind manages to thrust himself forward to take a lunge towards the beast, only to narrowly miss it by a mere inch, his sword scraping its scales but doing no damage. He stumbles for a moment before regaining his balance. Wind grunts before turning back around to face the lizalfos again, more determined than before.

The lizalfos snorts as Wind rushes at it again, sword ready to strike it. The boy lets out a cry as he swings his sword and lands a hit on the lizalfos' face, creating a scratch that begins to bleed black.

Wind only allows himself a second to celebrate his small victory before rushing back in to clash swords with the lizalfos, still ignoring the large gash in his side that has begun to bleed and stain his tunic. He'll be fine. If he survives Hyrule's and Warrior's scolding later.

He has to keep fighting. He's certain that either Sky or Warriors will notice his fight in a couple moments and be there to aid him, but he can't just stand by and leave the lizalfos for the others to fight! He may be young, but Wind knows how to fight.... and he's still pissed about that time the lizalfos had the audacity to shove him and run off without a proper fight.

So, Wind parries and dodges the lizalfos' attempts to strike him down. He maneuvers out of the way at the correct time and slashes at it again and again, making sure to use his shield to his advantage.

The lizalfos lets out a screech and brings its sword down right as Wind begins to feel dizzy. Wind's too late to bring his shield up as his vision begins to blur, probably due to the blood loss, and he feels the lizalfos' sword scratch his face. It burns, and Wind lets out a gasp of shock before stumbling to the ground, eyes wide.

Wind knows he's injured, he knows he should be
calling for help, he knows he shouldn't be facing the lizalfos by himself, not after what happened to Twilight, but for some stupid reason, he kept going at it.

But now the lizalfos has Wind on the ground, injured and unable to stand.

"Damnit!" Wind swears under his breath as he brings a hand up to the cut on his face.

The lizalfos approaches Wind and grabs him by the neck, pulling him up from where he lays on the ground before the boy can even think.

"ACK!" Wind shouts out, flailing in the monster's grasp as he drops his sword and shield to the ground.

Nonononono, this wasn't good! This was really, really, bad. Oh goddesses, he wasn't getting out of this one easily, was he? Damn! He should've listened to Warriors and stuck with Sky, even if it was infuriatingly boring. They had had the whole battle planned out since the beginning. Warriors had been certain things would turn out right and Wind had gone and screwed it all up. Wind knows he should listen to Warriors- the last time he hadn't things had turned out horribly. (He tries not to think about that day).

This was not how Wind wanted to die! He hasn’t even had the chance to swipe the Rod of Seasons off Legend yet! Or find out if Twi could catch a shield like a frisbee!

Wind kicks the lizalfos again as it digs it's claws into his neck and the back of his tunic. He desperately holds the claws of the lizalfos to keep his body weight from resting on his neck. His arms are sore and the cut on his side burns with pain, making him lightheaded.

Wind can't breathe. Why can't he breathe? The world is spinning around and around and it's tilting to the side ever so slightly. Like a boat in a storm when the winds are strong, and the waves crash up against the hull as the sea tries to steal him for its own.

"Not so brave now, are you, little hero?" The lizalfos hisses.

Wind freezes and stops his futile kicking. WHAT? Had the lizalfos just spoken? When had it been able to do that? Actually, you know what, Wind was probably hearing things. He was pretty sure Legend had said something about that happening when you didn't have a lot of oxygen left, and Wind was certain he didn't have a lot of oxygen left. Not with how tightly the lizalfos was holding him.

"I have a proposal for you." the lizalfos hisses out again. "You don't have to continue this journey with these heroes.... you can leave right now."
Wind doesn't think even he's crazy enough to dream something like that coming out of the lizalfos' mouth. So, not fake. He's not hallucinating. That's.... actually a bit more worrying than the other options.

Instead of trying to answer, which Wind knows is probably impossible with how much his throat is in pain right now, he simply kicks the arm of the lizalfos again. It's weak and does nothing but tire the boy out more.

"It's up to you.... but I don't recommend avoiding what will happen to your homeland if you don't abandon this journey immediately ..." the lizalfos drawls out. "I can simply conjure up a portal for you, or you can watch as the other heroes drop like flies at the mercy of my true power. You’re not even a real hero, are you?”

Wind's blood runs cold. The threat sinks in, hitting just where the lizalfos most likely intended, but there's something else that makes Wind shake in horror.

There's something wrong about the lizalfos' voice. It's unnatural, like it's not actually coming from the beast's mouth. Was the lizalfos threatening him?! Nope, not happening today. He did not want to deal with this.

Wind struggles in lizalfos' grasp once more before letting his body go limp. His chest tightens and he can't breathe. His ribs feel as though they are being crushed from the inside out and then being lit aflame.

Then he's being dropped.

He hits the ground with a thud before letting out a scream. The scream rips at his throat and tears it apart like a seam ripper on a piece of clothing. His vocal cords feel like they've been torn apart stitch by stitch. Everything hurts and nothing is staying still. The world swirls around him before he closes his eyes, head pounding and ribs aching alongside the intense burning on his side. There's too much feeling, too much pain. Wind takes in one last gasp of air, then he feels nothing.

Chapter Text

The first thing Wind feels is the overwhelming heat surrounding him from all sides.
Then he sees the fire. Large, flickering flames of red and orange that lick his arms and hands but leave no burns. He feels the pain, and the fear, that begins to well up around him. His whole body feels like it's floating and when he looks at his hands, they seem like they are miles away from his eyes. Then he starts shaking. The whole world begins to shake. The flames grow larger and larger and trap Wind as they grow, fueled by the gales. A storm of fire wails all around Wind and he lets out a cry of terror. IT HURTS. Then his lungs are burning just like the air around him. It's curling inside of him, burying itself deep in his core and digging away to the center of his bones. There's no inch of him that isn't being overwhelmed by this raging fury swirling around him.

Where did it come from? Why did he feel this? What had happened? There was no fuel for this anger or this feeling that was surrounding him and engulfing him in its ever-changing and spreading devouring rage. It's not justified. It is. Why?

Then everything pauses and switches. Instead of flames, he's drowning in a sea of darkness. His limbs are stiff and are being dragged down by the impossible weight that is suddenly being put on his shoulders. Small tiny lights flicker in the abyss, barely lingering in the depths. Water. He's suffocating, but the heat and the fury have subsided, being replaced by the nagging guilt in the back of his mind. Wind wants to scream but when he opens his mouth water rushes in and makes him cough and choke. Wind can breathe for once in his life, but it comes at the cost of the darkness cradling itself around him. He notices now that his tunic isn't his own, and his boots seem too large for his feet. Nothing seems to fit him, but it does. His clothes are too large but fit perfectly.

It switches, then switches again. Burning ice, cold fire, freezing flames. Wind cannot control it, but each time he's being thrust in-between the two states, wind and stormy tempests rage around him and pull him back and forth. The conductor realizes he hates it when the winds are out of tempo and out of his control. He hates it. The feeling of powerlessness is overwhelming. He covers his ears and screams even though his throat wants to collapse in on itself.

Lightning and then thunder. A crash.

Black eyes with swirling red and purple pupils stare at him through the walls. They seem to screech at him, repeating the same twisted message over and over again.

You’re no hero.

Blood replaces fire and water.

---

Warriors watches Wind toss and turn in his uneasy sleep from his place by the mouth of the cave. He's on second watch, he insisted, even though it was the worst one to be on. Being on first watch meant you stayed up a bit later and being on third meant you only had to get up earlier. Waking up in the middle of the night wasn't desirable. Warriors didn't mind it though. He was used to waking up in the middle of the night anyway. Nightmares didn't really help all too much and there was no way he wasn't taking at least one watch that night. Not with Wind injured.

At least he didn't have to wear his armor. He was only in his tunic and trousers, but had his sword next to him. Close enough for him to reach it in an instant. He was nothing if not vigilant.

Warriors sighs and crosses his arms as he stands leaning on the rock wall, recalling the day's events. Recalling how horribly his strategy had failed.

Thankfully the group had managed to find a cave before any of them had been soaked by the rain, and since they were in Wild's Hyrule the cave was deserted, far from settlers of any sort or monster camps.

Wild had assured them five times that it was safe. Usually they wouldn't care too much, but with Wind injured, Time and Warriors had both insisted. When Warriors had been occupied making sure Wind was stable, Time had organized the group and led them well.

Sometimes Time's maturity took Warriors by surprise. He knows it's unfair of him, but sometimes all he sees when he looks at Time is little Mask, a traumatized twelve-year-old who liked to act older than he was. A boy who hid behind his masks, literally and figurately to protect himself from losing more than he already had. Maybe Time was still acting like he was older than he was, because he most defiantly was not sixty like some of the chain had suggested. That still makes Warriors chuckle. The man couldn't be any older than thirty five by now. Though he was most assuredly at a better place than he was during the War of Eras. Warriors can't help but be proud of him.

The captain is proud of Wind too. The thirteen-year-old had pulled through the injury and was sleeping it off now. He had needed little assistance from Warriors, who was the chains' only certified medic, or from Hyrule, the chain's only fae healer. Unfortunately, despite his healing spells, Hyrule still had very little actual medical knowledge. He'd almost put a cast on Wild wrong and messed up the whole healing process. Just because he knew a healing spell didn't mean he knew how to do stitches. Warriors was teaching him though, and Hyrule had helped significantly when Warriors was treating Wind.

Warriors looks fondly over the group of sleeping heroes.

Sky is asleep next to Legend and Hyrule, the former of which he had grabbed onto and was currently using as a stuffed animal. For some reason Legend hadn't woken up or hadn't bothered to move away from Sky's grasp. It was rather cute, too bad Wild wasn't on watch tonight, Warriors would have liked a picture.

Four is sleeping as close to Wind as he can without risking getting kicked in the face by the sailor, who tended to kick when he had nightmares or vivid dreams. Four learnt to be careful when he woke up with a bruise on his face one morning.

Twilight and Wild sleep in their usual pile of limbs, with Time added to the mix, which was now becoming a more often occurrence. Ever since Twilight had recovered, Time had been just a bit more clingy to the Hero of Twilight. Only slightly, but Warriors noticed these things.

When he sees that everyone is sleeping peacefully, Warriors lets the tension he didn't know was there fall from his shoulders as he slides to sit down on the ground, then moves his sword into his lap. When had being on watch gotten so stressful?

Wind whimpers and Warriors almost bolts towards him on instinct. Instead, he shakes his head and turns his head away, staring outside to the cloudy, dark sky. Wind needs to sleep right now. He's not in critical condition and Warriors shouldn't wake him up. If the boy wakes up by himself, then so be it, but Warriors didn't want to risk robbing the boy of important sleep.

Warriors lasts five minutes before he gives in and stands up slowly to go check on Wind. The boy had been tossing almost uncontrollably and he had began sweating by the galleon.
Legend would call it Warriors' Hero complex or something, but he can't just let Wind suffer visibly by himself, (and seriously, the guy with six adventures calling out Warriors' hero complex was ironic). So, Warriors gets up and moves over to Wind, carefully stepping over Four so he doesn't wake the smithy up. Nobody wanted to deal with a grumpy smithy.

Warriors bends down by Wind's side and looks at the boy's face. He almost cringes at how uncomfortable he looks.

Wind's face is scrunched up and tears are pooling out of his closed eyes. He whimpers through clenched teeth and his whole body is shivering violently despite the several blankets draped over him and the fact that he's sweating up a lake beneath himself.

Warriors places the back of his hand on Wind's forehead. It's not warm, but it's not cold. That means he doesn't have a fever. He's probably having a nightmare.

Warriors isn't too concerned now that he's made sure the boy hasn't developed a fever that had snuck underneath his and Hyrule's notice, but he still doesn't feel as though he can just leave Wind to suffer in his sleep.

With a sigh, Warriors nudges Wind's shoulder gently, in hindsight maybe not the best way to wake a hero up, but it was better than waking everyone else up in the process.

"Wind?" he whispers under his breath when the boy only whimpers at his touch.

Warriors gives him another little nudge. "Hey, sailor, are you alright?"

Nothing happens. Wind stays still in his uneasy sleep. Warriors is about to nudge him again before the boy twitches violently.

Then suddenly, Wind lurches up with a gasp and grabs ahold of Warriors' wrist, eyes wide open and gleaming with fear.

Warriors almost jerks back at the suddenness that Wind grabbed him, but instead he stays where he is crouched, careful not to move. Startling Wind wouldn't be the best idea.

Wind blinks his dazed, glassy eyes and tightens his grip on Warriors' wrist, his nails digging into the man's skin. The fear melts off of the boy when he sees Warriors crouched next to him.

"Hmmm." Wind groans after several moments before turning his head to Wars. "Cap'n?" he murmurs, "Why're y' awake?"

Warriors stifles a laugh. "I'm on watch, sailor."

Wind nods still dazed. "Why's it so cold?" Wind asks, shivering.

It's not cold in the cave, it's a bit humid if anything, but Wars isn't going to combat what Wind is saying. He's still half asleep. The last time he tried arguing with a tired Wind it hadn't ended well.

"I don't know." Warriors says instead before wiggling his wrist away from Wind's grasp. "Do you want some water?"

Wind stares at Warriors with wide eyes, as if he just realized something. "No." he says sternly. "N-no water."

Warriors frowns. "Are you sure?"

Wind nods and then shivers again, pulling the blankets up to cover his arms.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Warriors asks. It was a fifty fifty with the heroes of hyrule. Wind was more prone to talking about his nightmares, seeing no shame in them, but Warriors still asks. Wind doesn’t always offer up an explanation.

Wind thinks for a moment before shaking his head. “I... I’d rather n-not...”

"Alright then. Why don't you try to go back to sleep?" It probably wasn’t too bad of a dream then. At least Warriors hopes so.

"No." Wind shakes his head. "I don't wanna."

Warriors sighs. “Why not?”

Wind doesn’t answer, which is answer enough.

“Do you want me to sleep next to you? My watch is almost over so I can wake up Time right about now."

Wind nods. "Yeah... please." he whispers, cradling his legs against his chest.

"Alright, give me a second."

Time doesn't complain when Warriors wakes him up a couple minutes before his watch begins. The man has a perfect internal clock but he's not going to chide Warriors for taking care of Wind even if it means sacrificing ten minutes of sleep. It was only a bit difficult for Wars to not wake up Wild and Twilight at the same time as Time.

Though the old man does give Warriors the side eye for a moment. Like Warriors wouldn’t notice. Hah! Two years of dealing with Mask paid off all the time.

Wind settles back down once he sees Time is awake and opens his bedroll so Warriors can lay down next to him.

Goddess, Warriors hadn't realized how anxious he had been before he had laid down next to Wind. As he positions his arms around Wind's middle, he hugs him close. The thoughts that had been trying to make their way to his mind since Wind was injured begin to surface.
What would have happened if he had lost Wind? What if he hadn't been quick enough? Would he be able to go on at all? He couldn't think about any of these in the heat of the battle or when they had rushed to the nearest shelter. Not when Wind needed him to be steady, needed him to be strong and be able to support the other heroes in the crisis. Sometimes he felt as though he had too much placed on his shoulders in this group. Sometimes Warriors wanted to pass the responsibility to someone else. But of course, he could never do that. Time was becoming a great leader, but Warriors still found it hard to see him as anything other than his little brother. He was trying though. It wasn't exactly fair of him, though.

At least he could still call Wind his little brother. The boy probably had only about a year before being brought on this journey. Wars himself had had two years or so after the war of eras had ended. To be honest it wasn’t enough time whatsoever to get his life together, but he envies some of the other heroes even less. It was better to be two years done with adventures than twenty, like Time or three months, like Hyrule.

It was odd how much could change and how much things could stay the same within such a short amount of time. Or a long amount of time for some.

“Stop thinkin’ so loud...” Wind says in a hushed voice. The boy shifts in his spot and turns to face Warriors, his blue eyes

Warriors startles before shaking off his intrusive thoughts. He closes his eyes and melts into the warmth that is Wind. Cold, huh?

“’Night, Cap’n” Wind mutters, yawning.

Smiling, Warriors murmurs a goodnight.

He falls asleep, content.

Chapter Text

When Wind wakes up the camp is already bustling with wide awake heroes preparing for their day, but instead of opening his eyes, Wind shuts them closed tighter. As he does so, he swears he can see the glowing red eyes of the lizalfos again, staring into his soul. The red swirls in his mind's eye and makes the boy stiffen in his place.

"You're not even a real hero, are you?" the voice of the lizalfos still lingers in his mind, making Wind wince at the memory. He was a real hero. He was.

Just because he hadn't been chosen by the goddesses didn't mean he wasn't a real hero... right? He had wielded the master sword. He had used the triforce of courage.

"You can leave right now...."

The lizalfos' threats replay in Wind's mind, making him shiver, so he pulls the blankets over his head once more. He wouldn't leave, he wouldn't. Nope. he was staying right where he was with the other heroes.

But would the lizalfos carry out his threat and hurt the others- no, kill them, if he didn't leave? Would it be his fault if they died on this journey?

Wind doesn't want everything to be his fault again. Not again. Please... never again. The boy swears he can still hear the Captain's screams and Mask's sobs ringing in his ears. Wind presses his hands to his ears as though it’ll stop his memories from overwhelming him.

If he follows the plan everything will be fine. If he had followed the plan everything should have been fine....

He shuffles in his bedroll, seeking the familiar warmth of Warriors. The blonde isn't there though, and Wind has to hold back tears. The Captain was fine. The war was over. Everyone was safe.

 He guesses it’s normal for Wars to be up before him, but there goes his one sense of emotional comfort, damnit. Wind rolls over and groans, his side aching as he does so. Oh, yeah. He had gotten injured in their last battle and hadn't had to stand up for a couple hours. Getting up was going to hurt. Not as much as it hurt when he was getting stabbed though.

Guess one night of sleep and a red potion didn't heal anyone overnight, unfortunately. He can feel the stitches in his side, and they dig uncomfortably into his skin. His sleep had been light, and Wind still feels like crap as he blinks his eyes open slowly. You know what, crap was too light of a word. He feels like he was run over by a horse or something and then thrown into the Great Sea from off of the spirals in the Forsaken Fortress.

Eh, maybe he'll just stay in bed until someone forced him out of it. Not like they knew he was awake, and Cyclos did this bedroll feel so good right now despite all of the bad thoughts crowding his head.

 Last night and the day before had been absolute hell... he's pretty sure he almost died so that should warrant being able to stay in bed a bit longer. Nobody had the right to wake him up after almost bleeding out and getting strangled by a monster.

"Hey sailor! You awake?" a voice calls from above him. "Wild's finished making breakfast, and you don't get any if you don't get your lazy ass out of bed."

Never-mind, he spoke too soon. Wind rolls over onto his back and sits up as quickly as he possibly can, eyes wide open. Someone reprimands the person who woke him up, but Wind pays no mind. He can practically taste the sweet scent coming from the pot that Wild's standing over, bent over and holding a ladle to his mouth. His stomach rumbles. Guess he was hungry. No surprise there, really. Warriors says he could eat like a horse.

Wind turns to Legend, who looks just as exhausted as Wind feels, and apparently the one who woke him up. "What did he make?" Wind asks, his voice excited.

"Eager, are we?" Legend sighs, rolling his eyes with a fond look in them. "Wild made some fancy dish I can't name. Not sure why he spent so much time cooking breakfast, but it looks decent."

If Legend says it's decent that means it's amazing.

Wind can't help it, he stands up, maybe a little too quickly because his side flares up in pain for a moment and his head rushes with dizziness, but no matter. He needs to have some of whatever Wild had just made. It's worth getting dizzy over!

Apparently, Wars disagrees though, because as soon as Wind starts to walk completely normally over to the cooking pot, Wars grabs his wrist and catches him.

Catches him because Wind most defiantly did not almost fall over flat on his face, nope! Not at all!

"You good?" Wars asks as he rights Wind, placing him back on his feet.

Wind's face does not darken in a blush, and if anyone accused his face of doing so, then they obviously were blind. It was dark in this cave after-all despite the fact that the early morning light was shining right into the cave's mouth.

"Yeah, yeah!" he nods, continuing his walk over to where Wild stirs the pot. "I'm good, just a bit dizzy, is all."

Wars frowns but doesn't press further, which is a relief. Wind really is only dizzy and tired. Not the nicest combo, but breakfast would fix it all!

"Alright, you go eat something now, I'm going to check in on Time. He left to patrol a bit earlier and should be back soon." Warriors says before turning around, scarf following him with a swish.

Wind doesn't have time to respond, but it's not a big deal because Warriors is already out of sight by the time the thought occurs to him. Ah, oh well.

"Morning, kid." Twilight says, waving from where he's packing up his bag. Wind pipes a small good morning back as he skips over to where Wild was cooking.

The silver pot has a light liquid in it, with a couple slices of bread dipped into it. On another pan, there's pieces of bread cooking with the liquid soaked over them. Next to Wild there are a couple of finished plates, and on each are four pieces of bread topped with berries, syrup and fluffy whipped cream alongside cream cheese.

Wind reaches a finger out to dip into the pot before having his hand smacked away from it with a spoon.

"What was that for?" Wind pouts, glaring at Wild halfheartedly.

Wild chuckles. "No taste testing the batter, 'cause I have a plate ready for you already."

Oh, oops. "Ah, thanks champ!" Wind smiles as Wild hands him a plate and he goes over to sit next to Hyrule, Four, and Legend.

Hyrule and Four say good morning as well, then the former insists on checking on Wind's wounds.

"I'm fine, traveler!" Wind says, pulling away slightly before immediately feeling guilty as he sees Hyrule's crestfallen face.

Wind pouts and rolls his eyes. "Fine.. go ahead and check. But you did a good job, so I’m sure I’m all good.”

Hyrule beams and Wind's face reddens as he eats his food.

Breakfast is short, but delicious. Despite that though, Wind can only manage to shove down half his meal. For some reason he just can't shake off the feeling of dread and stress that weigh on his shoulders. He had been fine when he first woke up, but by the end of breakfast Wind wasn't feeling good, emotionally or physically. His side ached painfully, like little pins were poking at it constantly and his head was pounding. The sailor doesn't pity Four's migraines at all.

Sky helps Wind pack his stuff up and Wind doesn't complain because his side hurts too much to bend over and roll up his pack.... and he doesn't feel like arguing with Sky, not after he gave him the look.

Legend lends Wind one of his tunics since the vet was still repairing his ripped blue lobster tunic. The tunic is green, but Wind doesn't mind even though he'd sort of swore of wearing green after his first adventure. His first tunic was unbearably itchy when he was sailing, and it had gotten too small for him to wear. Thankfully Legend wasn't much larger than Wind, so the vet's tunic fits comfortably on Wind. But still, green. Ugh.

Afterwards when Time and Warriors trail back into the cave, slightly wet due to the light sprinkling that continued throughout the night, Wild announces that they'll heading out to Hateno since it's the closest village to them and they need to restock on supplies.

Wind picks up his sword and sheathes it on his back before latching on his shield and joining Warriors and Sky where they stand, ready to go.

"We leaving now?" Wind asks as the camp is all but put-away. Legend and Four are strapping on their shields and coming to join the group as well.

"Yup." Wild says, strolling up to the front of the group, pots and pans put away neatly in his slate, "We'll be heading North-East to get to Hateno. Shouldn't take too long, we camped really close to the inn due to the fact that it started raining and Wind was injured."

Wind winces. He still feels kind of bad about that. Fortunately, neither Warriors nor Sky had scolded him yet, so he probably wouldn't be getting in trouble for that until they got to Hateno, even though he really should be scolded about it. This wasn't the first time he'd almost killed someone because of his rash decisions.

"Yeah, what was up with that, sailor? You usually don't stray from the battle plan." Legend says as he and Four join the group of heroes at the mouth of the cave.

Dang! Why'd the vet have to go and bring it up?

"I don't want to be rude but... it was really scary seeing you so beat up... good thing I was there to cover Wars, otherwise today might not have been so good." Hyrule says sheepishly, fidgeting with his hands. "I don't think I've ever seen you so pale..." he whispers.

There’s a silence among the heroes.

Hyrule's saying the quiet part out loud. Nobody mentioned it throughout the morning, but they were all worried sick about Wind throughout the night.

Now Wind still feels bad about that.

“I was real worried there too kid,” Twilight puts in, “Didn’t wanna say it out loud, bu’ you’ve gotta be more careful.”

Wind cringes. Did everyone think he had been that bad? He’d already considered the battle a personal failure, but boy did it hurt a lot more to hear it from someone else.

“Well-“  Wind begins,

"It was irresponsible of him, but I'll talk to him later about it, so no need to worry everyone." Warriors butts in to Wind's relief. "Now should we get going?" Wild nods in response to Wars.

"Sounds good. Everyone ready?"

There's a chorus of agreements in response to Wild's declaration.

Hopefully everyone can just drop it and forget about it for the rest of the day. The sailor doesn't think he can handle feeling worse than he already does about the whole situation. Wind's headache is getting worse and he wants to get going. Hopefully he can walk there without collapsing, he doesn't need to be a burden to the other heroes.

They're at risk enough with him being in the group if the lizalfos' threats are legitimate.

But Wind won't let anything bad happen to his brothers. He couldn't, not if he could prevent it.

---

So, about the not collapsing thing. Yeah, didn't work out too well. For the first twenty minutes Wind had been fine. His feet hurt and his side was cramping up badly, not helped by the stitches at all, but he had been alright.

His head still hurt like hell though.

Wind had begun to trail behind the group but kept catching up so nobody had noticed right away. Then he could barely take another step. It came all on him at the same time, this overbearing weight that seemed to press down on his shoulders, pushing him to the ground. Wind collapsed in the mud and smeared his face and hands with the cold, goopy stuff as he sneezed. If Wind hadn't felt like crying before, he sure did now. Tears threaten to fall out of his eyes, welling up painfully behind them. He blinks them away though as he struggles to lift himself out of the mud. He can hear the shouts of worry from his brothers, especially from Wars, Sky and Twilight approaching him. All the emotions that Wind has been keeping in that morning want to release themselves, but he holds it all in as Twilight hauls him to his feet.

"You alright, sailor? That was quite a fall." Twilight asks, wiping some of the mud off Wind's face, expression worried but calm.

Guilt throbs in Wind's chest. Argh! Why couldn't he do things right? He didn't want to seem incompetent in front of the other heroes. He didn't want to seem like he was just a little kid... playing at being hero. Wind shakes those thoughts away as soon as he has them. Nope, no feeling like this. Bad thoughts! Bad feelings! He should be able to control them better. So why can't he?

"Fine..." Wind breathes out, gasping for air. He only realizes now how hard it is to breathe, and how many black dots dance across his vision. "All... all good!" he says, huffing a bit.

Twilight doesn't seem convinced, and neither do any of the other heroes.

"Bullsh*t!" he hears Legend shout from ahead of him.

Twilight winces. "Not t' agree wit' the vet, but yeah, y'don' look too peachy. I reckon y' need a break. Want me t' carry ya'?" the ranch-hand offers.

Warriors and Sky both agree with Twilight, to Wind's dismay.

He doesn't need to be carried! He's fine. What if theres an ambush? What if someone gets hurt because Wind couldn't take care of himself? What if...

"I'm fine." Wind spits out, crossing his arms. As though the gods want to prove Wind wrong, when he tries to take a step to prove his point he nearly falls right over again. This time, Sky catches him.

"I think you should probably take up the rancher's offer, bud." Sky says, shooting him a sympathetic smile. "You're still recovering, afterall." The look Sky sends Wind is enough to have him freeze where he's standing.

Wind shivers and sneezes, mentally berating himself as he does so. "....Fine." he agrees quietly. There was not way he was arguing with Sky. Nope, no thank you.

"Good." Sky smiles.

Ugh, still intimidating. Somehow Sky had taken the scariest Link spot, despite him being the sweetest one as well. Maybe that made him all the scarier when he wanted to be.

Wind sometimes envied that trait of Sky's.

"Well then sailor, get o'er 'ere." Twi says, bending down so Wind can hop onto his back.

Well, hop onto is a bit of an overstatement. Wind feels his legs almost give out again when he tries to take a step, and Sky catches him yet again. Instead, the Skyloftian helps him position himself on Twi's back before the group begins walking again.

---

Wind tries his best not to feel guilty for slowing everyone down. Nobody would like it if he said anything out loud. There was a strict no blaming yourself rule for something you couldn't control.

The only thing was, could Wind control if the group was attacked or not? If the lizalfos' threats were true....

---

Everything is his fault. He thought if he stayed with the group, if he didn't leave, everything would be fine. The lizalfos couldn't hold that much power. It couldn't.

Once again, the world proves Wind wrong. So utterly wrong.

They were ambushed just outside of Hateno as soon as they passed the Dueling Peak's stables. It couldn't be a coincidence.

Pandemonium unleashed around the group of heroes as lizalfos, bokoblins, moblins and tektites burst out around them.

But the moblins weren't from Wild's era, no these ones were larger and had golden piercings. They were from Wind's era.

Shit. Way to get a message across.

"Twilight! Get the sailor out of here!" Warriors shouts from the front of the group as he unsheathes his sword and charges at the hoard of monsters. Time, Legend, Four and Hyrule immediately follow Warriors, but Twilight turns around and runs in the direction Wild points him in.

Twilight doesn't question Warriors' advice at all and goes as quickly as he possibly can without jostling Wind too much.

Arrows fly past Wind's head as the two make a mad dash towards Hateno Village, away from the attacking monsters.

'Watch out!" Hyrule's yell is far and Wind barely hears it, but Twilight does.

The rancher rolls right of the way of a huge silver ax as it lodges itself into the ground next to him and Wind.

That was too close.

"You good up there, sailor?" Twilight grunts as he repositions Wind on his back. The wind pushes the sailor's blonde hair back and wipes it clear of sweat.

"Yeah" Wind gulps, wrapping his arms around the rancher's shoulders a bit tighter.

He wanted this to be over- please.

This was all his fault. Twilight couldn't make it to Hateno fast enough with Wind on his back. Wind was being such a burden. All he wanted was to help the heroes. He wanted to be worth something. Worth staying for.

Twilight jumps over a large rock and Wind almost let's go when he lands. Hateno is in view now and

There's a scream in the distance behind the two as they make it to the gate.

Wind wants to cry, but instead he buries his face in Twilight's wolf pelt, smothering his emotions along with his face.

Just as Twilight begins to slow down, three arrows fly in the air and dig themselves into Twi's shoulder.

Twilight falls down with a shriek, shocked, and Wind falls along with him.

---

Wind feels like shit as he sits in his chair of the shared inn room with Four and Sky. The two other heroes are fast asleep already.Wind in the other hand hasn’t been able to sleep a wink.

He still has a headache...but he's less tired than before, for some reason.

And on top of that, Four and Twilight are injured. Four went down when he was clubbed in the head after being slashed across the chest by a spear. The smithy was fine, but he had a concussion.

Twilight was alright, the arrows had just startled him. The two had gotten up quickly only to see Time killing the bokoblin archer that had shot at Twilight.

Warriors hadn't ended up giving Wind that lecture he had promised, instead taking care of Four and the others who had received minor injuries.

All's well that ends well, the group had agreed during their hastily made dinner.

Wind doesn't agree. This wasn't over, and it wasn't going to end well.

This was all his fault. What if it happened again? Nobody should have been hurt today. What if they were hurt worse the next time this happened? What if... what if someone died?

Wind doesn't want to leave the other heroes. The thought makes him cry. Tears are welling up in his eyes as he stares at the crescent moon, sitting in the uncomfortable chair.

Why was this so hard?

Wind knows what he has to do. He can't stop and watch as his brothers get hurt!

So, he won't.

Wind pushes himself up, ignoring the lingering pain in his side before crossing the room. He doesn't bother to be quiet, Four and Sky are out cold anyways. They wouldn't wake up even if Wild set off a bomb.

The sailor grabs his discarded bag, and his sword and shield, strapping them on. Legend had finished repairing his tunic, so he takes it from the pile of bags as well, shoving it in his own bag. Hopefully the vet wouldn't mind if Wind took his green tunic. Wind didn't want to take it off yet... and it may be his only reminder of this journey if things were going to go his way. Before he leaves, Wind takes a piece of paper out of Sky's notebook and scrawls a quick note. He doesn't bother to explain everything too much. They're better off without him there endangering them.

Then he pulls out a woolen tunic that Sky had lended him a few weeks prior and pulls it over his head when he puts the notebook away.

The sailor sighs and pauses at the doorway when he makes his way to it. He looks at Four and Sky's peaceful, relaxed faces and tries to memorize them as he does so. Who knows if he'll ever see them again?

Maybe he’s being rash, and maybe he’s being stupid, but Wind can’t think of a better solution.

He couldn’t tell anyone else about what the lizalfos had said, because as much as he doesn’t want to believe it, people could change their minds about others quickly enough.

He's not sure how long he pauses at the doorframe, but when he leaves, he feels as though it wasn't long enough.  

The sailor slips out unnoticed into the moonlit town and leaves under the veil of the night.

Chapter Text

By pure habit alone Warriors was always the first one to wake up. It wasn't something he did on purpose, at least not entirely, but it was a harder habit to break. Somehow, he just happened to be awake before the others. It was like his body had found out how to sense when other people would be awake during the war. To be fair, there was a lot of work that needed to be done during the war, so there wasn't much time to sleep anyways. Warriors also knew that if Mask and Tune woke up before him then he wouldn't be there to stop the chaos they'd likely start, on accident or on complete purpose.

When Warriors wakes up he immediately knows something is wrong. He's not sure what exactly, but there's a sense of dread that comes over him when he blinks his eyes open.

Had somebody woken before him?

Warriors sits straight up in bed and looks around the inn room he had slept in. The window's drapes are drawn and early morning light shines in through them as they flutter in the light breeze. It can't be earlier than 6;00 am, which is a Goddess send. Nobody woke up before six besides Wars. He can hear the cheery singsong of the birds from the half open windows.

Twilight, Time and Wild are fast asleep in the other two beds that line the beige wall of the room. Wild's snugged up against Twilight as the rancher continues his light snoring. Time's face is peaceful and relaxed, an expression Warriors wished he saw more on his face.

Nothing is wrong. Nothing that Warriors can see, anyways, so why does he feel off? His instincts had never led him wrong before, and he hoped they wouldn't start now of all times.

Shrugging the feeling away, Warriors gets out of the bed and begins getting ready for the day. He pulls on his tunic and boots before clipping his scarf into place. He briefly looks in the mirror and straightens his hair out, because despite what the others may think, Warriors is anything but vain and his hair really isn't his first priority right now.

With that done, Wild and Time are already beginning to wake up, stirring in their sleep. Warriors leaves the room quietly, trying to avoid waking Twilight up as well. Not after the rancher had been injured. Thankfully it wasn't serious, and Warriors had only had to clean it up a bit, no stiches. It wasn't the best time considering Wind had just been injured the other day, but Twilight always bounced back a bit quicker than the sailor, so the two would be perfectly fine it about the same amount of time.

Everything was going to be fine.

Warriors took a deep breath as he walked down the still quiet hallway and downstairs to the kitchen.

---

It's not until Warriors does a headcount after breakfast does he realize something is wrong. Or rather, someone is missing from their number. And boy, does he feel stupid for not catching it sooner.

Four and Legend are debating something about magic in the corner of the large common room, while Time, Sky and Hyrule discuss something else as they pack up their bags and sort through their stuff. Twilight is still finishing his breakfast since he came down later than the other heroes.

Warriors is having a chat with Wild about the day before and their next move when Wild points out that someone is missing from their group, the champion's eyebrows are furrowed and his face worried as he says so.

Warriors frowns and counts the heroes one by one, making sure to include himself as he straightens himself up from where he was leaning on the table behind him. One...two...four....seven..eight. That's one short.

Wind isn't there.

Warriors isn't immediately worried about it. It could be that the boy is simply just sleeping, it had been a long day after all, and everyone deserved to sleep in a little bit after being so out of it. But even so, it's not normal for Wind to sleep in the longest. The sailor had told Warriors that he'd never been the best at sleeping in after his journey, and sleeping itself wasn't always the most comfortable thing for him... something to do with his second adventure, and Warriors wasn't going to push.

Even so, the heroes who needed the sleep the most, Sky and Four, are up and about! The former sleeping longer due to his narcolepsy and the latter injured the day before in the skirmish on the way to Hateno.

Now Warriors is worried.

"Hey, Sky?" Warriors calls from across the room.

The skyloftian perks his head up from where he's sitting down, legs curled up to his chest and skycloth wrapped neatly around his shoulders. "Yes?" he asks, turning away from his conversation with Time and Hyrule. "What do you need?"

"Have you seen Wind?" Warriors asks, "I haven't seen him yet this morning."

Sky frowns, expression puzzled. "Uh, no, I haven't either. I assumed he woke up before me?" Sky chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry."

Warriors sighs. "Don't worry about it, I'll go find him." Warriors smiles at Sky as he waves his apology off. "He's probably somewhere in the village getting up to something he shouldn't be."

Wild nods. "There's some pretty cool shops around here." He gently elbows Warriors' side, "If you ever get bored of that blue scarf, there's a dye shop just down the road. I bet purple would suit you!" Wild teases.

Warriors gives Wild a strained smile. "Yeah, yeah." he rolls his eyes. "Are you going to come help me find the scoundrel, champion, since you know the town so well?"

"Sure!" Wild says, before locking arms with Warriors and dragging the two of them out of the inn.

"Make sure to be back before we have to head out!" Warriors hears Time shout from across the inn as the door slams shut.

---

Warriors did not in fact, go find Wind, because the boy was nowhere to be found. By nowhere, he meant absolutely nowhere. He couldn't find him. Anywhere.

Even with Wild's self-proclaimed expertise in finding things, the duo couldn't find their fellow blue-clad hero anywhere in the village. Unfortunately, this left only one or two guesses to where he could be. Either the sailor was playing some elaborate prank on the group of heroes and thought it would be funny to hide from them... or the sailor had been taken. There was always the possibility that Wind had left on his own, but that seemed ridiculous to Warriors. It wasn't a possibility he deemed possible.

"Should we head back to the inn, then?" Wild asks, his face straight and his expression worried.

Warriors lets out a frustrated breath. "I guess so." he shrugs. "Hopefully Wind will be back at the inn, and this was just an accident or some sort of prank. If so, that sailor is in for the lecture of a lifetime. Scaring me half to death." Warriors huffs.

Wild lets out a small, strained chuckle. "Heh, yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if he's trying to start up the prank wars again. Though, they didn't end very well last time."

"He was pretty upset that Time won." Warriors smiles tightly at the memory. "Even so, I'm not letting him have another go at it again. Let's just head back, I'm sure Wind will be there." Right. Wind will be there. For some reason, even though Warriors has said it and thought it, it doesn't seem believable.

---

When they get back, Warriors' swears his heart stops for a full on minute. Wind is in fact, not sitting with the other heroes in the inn's common room. Instead, Warriors finds the others uncharacteristically quiet, and all of them are sitting with their heads bowed. Time's face is serious, even more serious than usual. Hyrule looks close to tears from where he sits next to an angrier than usual Legend. Twilight's laying his head on his hands that are propped up by his elbows from where he sits next to Sky and Four, with the latter staring out into space, his usual stony grey eyes flashing crimson.

The first thing Warriors notices after he takes everything in is the piece of paper in Sky's hands. The skyloftian is holding it tightly, and the edges look as though they've been crumpled slightly. Whatever's happened, it has to do with that note.

"Sky, what's written on that note?" Wild asks before Warriors can voice the question himself. "What happened?"

Silence greets Wilds' questions.

"Sky." Warriors prompts, swallowing the lump that's formed in his throat. "Give it to me. Please."

Sky nods, taking a deep shaky breath before holding the note in his outstretched hand, gesturing for Warriors to take it.

The captain moves forward automatically and takes it before unfolding it as quickly and carefully as he can.

The handwriting is undeniably Wind's. Warriors braces himself before reading it, making sure Wild has a clear view of the paper as well.

Hey guys,

So, please don't be too mad at me,

and please don't feel too bad about all of this.

But I'm sort of leaving. You've probably already figured that part

out though, huh? If you've found this don't blame Sky or Four for not stopping

me from leaving, they were out cold when I left.

I'm leaving for personal reasons and all that, it's not your faults.

Hopefully I can see you again soon! Well, it probably won't happen

but cross your fingers, will you? I'm perfectly fine and

I'm leaving because I chose to, not because I was forced.

You'll all do better without me here anyway, right? I'm not even a real hero.

I'll let you in on a secret.

I wasn't chosen by Hylia to be a hero, not like all of you.

Anyway, have a nice life guys. See you on the other side!

-Link, Hero of The Winds.

"What?" Wild lets out as Warriors finished reading it. "Why? What?" His face falls into a frown.

Warriors' hands are shaking and he doesn't notice when he drops the paper, his hands coming down to his sides.

Why? Why? Why?

What?

How could.... How could Wind just leave?

Was this a joke? Wind wasn't really gone, was he?

Why? Why? Why? Where was Wind? Where was he going? Why had Tune left?

What was going on? he couldn't breathe.

Wind...... no... stop... why? Tune... come back.. Why?

Follow orders next time. Tune! Look out!! Come back! Why?

Stop running that way! Tune! Why.....

His lungs feel like they're being constricted. Everything is fading to black.

But he has to get back to Tune. Tune's gone. Gone gone gone gone.

He'll come back. Right? Run! Why?!

A heavy pair of hands comes down on Warrior's shoulders and the captain looks up. Facing him is Time's concerned face.

"Captain, everything is going to be fine." Time says. "We're going to find him. There is no need to panic."

Warriors had begun hyperventilating and he hadn't notice, too caught up in his panic. He tries to slow his own breathing but he can't without being thrown back into the memories that try to crowd into his head.

"Link!" Time says, "Panicking isn't going to help him. You need to calm down. Please, everyone needs you to calm down, especially Tune."

When Warriors looks at Time's face he doesn't see Mask. He doesn't see a child anymore. Right now Warriors sees Time. When had Time become someone Warriors relied on instead of the other way around? When had Warriors become so dependent on others? He doesn't know, and he doesn't entirely care right now. Right now is the time to calm down, and to figure things out. Without panicking. He slows his breathing down and lets himself sink into a hug from his now elder.

Maybe it's ok to not have a plan for everything all the time, but Warriors could sure use one right now.

"So are we going to go get him?" Warriors whispers into Time's shoulder, his nose a bit stuffy. He hadn't noticed he'd been crying either.

"Of bloody course we are!" Legend says from across the room where he's being held onto by a distraught Hyrule. "Wind can't just up and leave without us trying to find him."

Warriors lets out a weary laugh, throat tightening a bit. "You're right." Warriors says. "We're going to find him."

---

Ten minutes, a couple shed tears and a formation of a plan later and the group left Hateno and the inn and were currently being led by Twilight in his wolf-form. The rancher had caught onto Wind's scent and was leading the Chain to where the sailor should be.

Apparently, Wind's scent wasn't fresh, and had probably been made sometime last night, which worried Warriors to no end. Thankfully the group was going faster than they'd ever moved before and with Twilight and Wild they were possibly going at two times the rate Wind had been walking. The sailor was the second shortest, and therefore walked a bit slower compared to the others.

Four was hoisted up onto Time's back since he still had a concussion, but the leader of the group hadn't let his step falter once or slow down whatsoever, which Warriors was still thankful for. Wind wasn't going to leave their group so easily, and especially without a proper explanation.

Warriors could only hope nothing horrible happened to Wind within the hours he had been missing. Any number of things could have happened and they wouldn't have a clue about it until they found Wind's bloody and botched body. Warriors shakes off those thoughts though, right now he doesn't have time to catstrophize. He has to be on task. His task is to get to Wind as quickly as possible.

It's three hours later of speed-walking and worrying later that Twilight stops in his tracks and transforms back, a serious expression donning his face. The rancher turns around quickly and puts a finger to his lips, signaling the others to be quiet before crouching down. The group was in a forest a good twenty miles away from Hateno, and they were currently right next to what Warriors assumed to be a clearing.

Warrrors crouches down along with the rest of them. That's when he hears the clanging.

When he crouches closer to the bush Twilight is looking through that peers into the clearing, Warriors sees the source the clanging is coming from.

It's Wind.

Wind is fighting the black lizafos, and by the looks of it, he's losing. The boy's face is covered in blood, and the green tunic he's wearing that looks suspiciously similar to Legend's is also splattered in blood. At least some of the blood is black, indicating that he'd gotten a few good hits in. Wind is still breathing heavily and there are tears welling up in his eyes as he goes to parry swords with the lizalfos again.

Warriors' heart stops and he forgets how to breathe. Nononononono- not again. He's not going to let Wind be hurt again.

Before anyone can stop him, Warriors is moving. He's gotten up and rushed out of the brush, drawing his sword in the process. He races towards Wind and the lizalfos and lets out a battlecry.

But before he can reach Wind, a purple portal opens up behind the boy and the lizalfos pushes Wind into it, right after plunging it's sword into Wind's stomach.

Warriors screams as the blond boy disappears.

Chapter Text

Wind watches the purple portal close around him before he screams at the top of his lungs. His lungs burn as he falls through the portal after being plunged through with the sword of the lizalfos.

The last thing he sees before the portal closes is the lizalfos being struck by a familiar silver sword. Then the forest disappears alongside his brothers.

Wind remembers seeing Warriors' horrified face appearing from the forest right before he had been thrown into the portal. He wishes the others hadn't followed him too.

He's stuck in an in-between for only a few moments before he feels wind pushing on his back.

Wind only realizes that he's falling through the air moments before he hits the water with a loud splash. The impact sends a shiver down Wind's back as he screams again right before he's plunged beneath the waves. The cold salty water fills his mouth before he has time to take a breath of fresh air. He wants to gag when he tastes it, but that would only make his air supply run out sooner. At least he knows he's in an ocean now. But that's not the thing he has on his mind. He has to swim. He has to reach the surface. The first thing he was taught aboard Tetra's ship was to always go up whenever he was thrown overboard. If he follows the light, he'll make it to air. Air was equal to life, and Wind sure wasn't planning on dying just yet. He couldn't die yet, he still had so much he had to do.

The stab wound on his side is bleeding out, and the longer he swims towards the surface of the water the harder it gets to focus. Why can't he focus? The sunlight that shines through the depths of the water becomes blurry and his vision begins to spot in and out. Wind is so close- he can almost taste the air. Just a couple more strokes of his tired arms and he'll be free of the confines of the sea.

With a heavy gasp he breaks the surface of the water. Almost immediately he begins hyperventilating, drawing in air as quickly as he can- he can't. He knows he can't hyperventilate or the lightheadedness that's begun to make its way to his head will cause him to pass out. Passing out in the middle of the ocean was never a good idea. Wind can do this. He'll be alright. He'll be fine.

Wind is nauseous and he wants to throw up, but the familiar salty air of the sea keeps him grounded a bit, easing away the nausea slowly as he takes in large breaths of air.

Wind kicks his legs and moves his arms in a doggy-paddle motion as he keeps himself afloat. Using one hand he reaches underneath the collar of his tunic to grab his pirate-charm. He could contact Tetra and she could take him back home. That was his plan at least, but when he tries to grab onto it, he finds that it's missing. Wind can't find the chain that held the pirate's charm anywhere on him. It's gone.

Wind takes a deep, shaky breath as he tries to calm himself down again. He can't waste the precious energy he has left. Even though he was young, Wind sure as hell knew he wasn't stupid. No matter what he does, he can't pass out. His head feels like it's about to float away, and his vision won't steady itself. It doesn't help that constantly kicking his legs is making him even more tired.

Then he has the brilliant idea of just floating on top of the water. He lets himself starfish on the surface of the water. Technically this wasn't the best idea he'd ever had, because this was a sure-fire way to lose body heat incredibly quickly, but this was the only thing he could do to not cry from exhaustion. Thank Cyclos it wasn't a rainy day. He could easily see the sun shining down from the top of the bright, blue sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight.

Five or six minutes go by before Wind hears shouting. Familiar shouting at that. Wind stops floating and starts treading water again so he can get a good look at where the shouting is coming from. Just like he guessed, he sees the Hylia's Servant cruising straight towards him. Huh.

Wait.

THE HYLIA"S SERVANT?!

Wind's face breaks into a pained smile and he starts waving his arms and shouting to try and catch the attention of the crew on the boat.

"TETRA!!" He shrieks at the top of his lungs, not caring that it's painful as hell. "NIKO!! ZUKO!! EVERYONE!!! DOWN HERE!!!!" He doesn't care that he's getting lightheaded, getting the other's attention is a bit more important right now.

Thankfully his shouts seem to work because suddenly he sees at least five of the crewmates nearly fall over the railing as they run to the edge of the deck to see who's shouting. As soon as they recognize him there's a flurry of movement and the boat's suddenly careening in his direction.

A couple minutes later and a whole lot of yelling and Wind's being hauled into a small wooden rowboat by Zuko and then brought up to the deck of the main ship.

As soon as he steps on board the ship, Tetra is making a beeline for Wind, her face a mixture of confusion and worry. Wind opens his mouth to explain, but before he can get anything out, his vision goes black and he's unconscious.

---

When Wind wakes up with a startle, he falls onto his face right off the hammock he had been sleeping in with a shout. He groans, rolling onto his back as he rubs his now smashed up face. What a way to start a morning. He wonders what Wild's making for-

Wait a second.

Wind sits up quickly, his eyes widening in realization as he does so. He's not with the others anymore. He had left, fought the lizalfos like an idiot and then was shoved through a portal before he fell right into the Great Sea... which meant he was on Tetra's ship.

He was on Tetra's ship. Oh, thank Cyclos and Zephos. That meant at least Tetra was safe, and nothing had happened to her like the Lizalfos had threatened would.

Wind gets up from the floor and looks around the cabin. He's back in his old room he shared with a couple of the other pirates when he sailed around with Tetra before and after the War of Eras. The rooms pretty much unchanged even though it's been at least eight months since he left through the purple portal. It'd been kind of awful being away for so long, but Wind had held on to the hope that he and the rest of the Links would be dropped off in his Hyrule at some point.

Too bad he was here by himself. He would have loved to show everyone around. Sailing was sort of his thing, and he hadn't even been able to show them how good he was at it! He hadn't been able to teach them how to take down a giant octorock, or been able to relax on Outset with them. Wind hadn't been able to introduce them to Aryll and Grandma. Would he ever be able to?

Wind shakes his head at the thoughts that try to continue in his mind. Not thinking about that right now, he decides. Wind grabs his bag from where he finds it on the floor and looks through its contents. Everything is in there, thank the gods, and his Phantom Sword is laying right near where the bag had been lying. Wind rummages through it and pulls on the tunic he had taken from Sky. He sort of felt bad about taking it... but he knew it would come in handy if he was alone in Wild's world for a little longer than he liked. He wonders if the others are still looking for him.

NOPE. BAD BAD THOUGHTS. Stoppppp- he shakes his head a little rougher this time as if doing so will make him stop thinking about the others so much.

What he should really be focusing on is getting to Outset Island. Oh gods, what if the lizalfos had already gotten to Outset?

Wind racks his memory, trying to think of everything the lizalfos had said in their second fight before he had been pushed into the portal.

Wind had been caught off guard as he walked through the unfamiliar forest of Wild's era. Nothing had been particularly familiar, so he was almost lost. Basically, he had just been waiting for the lizalfos to find him somehow. To be honest he hadn't thought too much about what was going to happen after he left the others. He sort of assumed it was just better to get away as soon as possible so no one got seriously injured.

Anyway... The lizalfos had found him and they had immediately started fighting. Throughout the fight the lizalfos had said some pretty cryptid and creepy things that Wind would rather not think about right now, but he had to. A lot of gibberish about Wind not being a real hero- (CYCLOS, he already knows that, wouldn't the lizalfos shut up about it for once?) Then something about what the consequences would have been if Wind hadn't decided to leave. Then some other crap about what the lizalfos could still do to everyone and everything Wind loved.

Oh... OH... CRAP.

Yeah, Wind's glad he got out of there before anyone was hurt.

If Wind didn't do anything too heroic y, he was fine right? The lizalfos would leave everyone alone, right? Right. Right! Everything was gonna be fine. He was with Tetra now and he could be as pirate-y as he wanted. Pirates were almost the opposite of heroes, at least according to the other Links. Except, Tetra wasn't a bad pirate. Most of the time she went around destroying the actually bad pirate's ships. The pirates who pillaged and killed people and burned villages down were the ones Tetra was targeting. She'd said that when they started New Hyrule that having bad pirates around would be annoying, so they needed to get them all thrown in prison or obliterated.

(Personally, Wind preferred to throw them in prison. Despite his pirate rep he was against blowing people up unless they were absolutely terrible, awful, disgusting people. Most pirates didn't qualify. Most.)

Wind is jolted out of his thoughts when the cabin door slams open, and a glowering Tetra crosses the room towards Wind in a few quick strides.

Had he accidentally summoned her by thinking too much about her?

"LINK!! Where the HELL have you been, you idiot?!?" Tetra yells, right in his face. Wind grimaces. "I was so- so.... I was really mad!" Tetra stumbles over her words as she tries to find the right ones to use. "How could you leave without telling me?!?! NOBODY'S SEEN YOU IN EIGHT MONTHS!!" When Tetra's yelling her eyes start to well up with tears. Her worry and anger leaking through her voice. "I was so mad. SO,SO MAD!" She shrieks, finishing her tirade with a huff before launching herself at Wind, tackling him to the ground with a hug.

Winds started to cry himself. Relief coursing through him. So, she wasn't actually mad. She had been worried.

"I'm sorry!" he sobs, letting out all the pent-up emotions he's had over the past couple days. "I'm sorry I left without telling you. I didn't mean to!" he cries, letting Tetra cry into his shoulder as they sit on the ground, hugging.

He really hadn't meant to leave Tetra. It just so happened that the day the portal had shown up, the crew had been boarded on an island that was more of an outlier, one Wind hadn't visited on his quests. The portal had just appeared out of nowhere when Wind had been alone and he couldn't leave it alone, even though he tried to get back to Tetra first, the portal decided to swallow him up from underneath. He can only imagine how it must have felt to not have been able to find him for eight months. Tetra had enough to worry about without her friend being missing too.

"Well," Tetra sniffs, "Just don't do it again you bastard! I missed you so much!" She punched his shoulder as she stood up, her face red as she frowned and turned away, crossing her arms.

Wind's lips drew into a straight line. "I..." he said, unsure as he stood up too. "I really do feel bad though. I should probably explain what happened." He kicked the floor, a little embarrassed as he wiped the tears off his face.

"No duh, you should explain." Tetra huffed, her usual attitude returning. "Why were you in the middle of the ocean of all places, bleeding too! You passed out from blood loss when you tried to stand up. I'm surprised you didn't pass out in the ocean from exhaustion."

Wind pales. He had thought about the possibility of passing out when he had been in the water, but he hadn't thought too hard about it. He could have died. (Maybe it would be easier for everyone if he- nope, stop). No wonder Tetra was even more worried and pissed off than usual. He was gone for eight months and then reappeared in the middle of the ocean with a stab wound. Oops.

"It's kind of a long story." he says, shrugging. "You might want to sit down for this one... it's kind of crazy."

"As crazy as living two months in ten minutes, oh, or as crazy as meeting an alternate version of yourself?" Tetra asks, rolling her eyes as she turns to face Wind again.

"Try eight versions of yourself." Wind sighs.

"EIGHT?!" Tetra shrieks, hands going up clutch her head. "Holy GODS, where were you, Link?!"

---

It took half an hour for Wind to explain what had happened to Tetra, and another ten minutes for him to explain why exactly he had left. It took longer than it should have only because everything Wind had told Tetra had been slightly dramatized. He knew he had a tendency to make everything a little over the top and dramatic when he was telling someone a story, especially if he was nervous. Tetra hadn't seemed to mind though, so that calmed some of his nerves down a bit.

Tetra sat contemplatively on the wooden floor in front of Wind, chin resting in her hands as thought about what Wind had just told her.

Wind fiddled his hands nervously as he sat with his legs crisscrossed, waiting for a response from the pirate captain.

"So....?" he said, trying to break the silence that had fallen over the cabin room.

Tetra shook her head and crossed her arms before staring right into Wind's eyes.

"Well shit, Link." she huffed out, "What exactly are you gonna do now?"

Wind made a questioning sound. "Wha- what do you mean? Isn't it sorta obvious? I have to get back to Outset Island just to... make sure you know?" He had to make sure the lizalfos hadn't actually carried out its threats towards Wind's family. He just had to.

"Yeah, yeah. The ship's already set course for Outset. As soon as you passed out on the deck, I made sure we would get to Outset as soon as possible. Your sister and Grandma are worried sick about you too, you know." Tetra rolled her eyes. "Honestly, you're gonna get the lecture of a lifetime from your Granny."

Wind let out a small, awkward laugh, and rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. He probably was going to be slightly scolded after the fact. Though, he doubted her reaction would be anywhere close to Tetras' first.

"You're right..." Wind said, voice a little shaky. Curse his injured side. He was still feeling a bit dizzy, but thankfully the crew's medic had wrapped bandages around his stab wound after cleaning it. It still stung a bit, but it was a lot better than when he was floating in the water bleeding out. The water was technically toxic, so the medic had probably had to use a bit more antibiotics than usual. They'd probably have to restock soon.

Wind sighed. He really had missed his family, and the growing worry that was festering in his chest was only getting larger the longer he stayed on the boat, sitting down and basically chatting with Tetra.

"Sorry." Wind gritted out, "I'm really stressed out right now."

Tetra chuckled. "No duh, I'd be stressed out too." she says, rocking back and forth in her spot. "But don't tell anyone I said that." she snaps quickly, before smiling.

Wind nodded, smiling back at Tetra. Honestly, nobody in the crew was really fooled by Tetra's tough girl persona, but that didn't matter. Tetra really was a softy underneath it all.

"I'm really glad you're back, Link." Tetra mutters, pulling Wind into another hug.

Wind's face suddenly felt very warm as he returned the embrace. "M- me too." he murmurs back.

---

It's three more hours until they make it to Outset Island. Wind rushes up to the deck as soon as he hears the crew shouting that they've spotted land. He's been so nervous and anxious throughout the entire trip there, and his heart soars with relief the second he hears they've almost made it.

He's breathing heavily when he climbs up the mast to the crow's nest, taking out Aryll's telescope so that he can get a good view of Outset.

What he sees almost stops his heart from beating. His blood goes cold, and he almost dropped the telescope.

No....no no no no no no no no no...

Wind wants to scream. He wants to cry. He wants to be anywhere but standing on board this ship, completely useless.

Smoke is rising from the island, swirling around and gathering in the sky in a large, black cloud.

Outset Island has been set ablaze.

Chapter Text

Link had run across the battle-torn field as he knocked down the monsters that surrounded him. No beast or man is safe from the edge of his silver sword as he runs. Traitors and monsters alike fall to the tip of his blade.

Link embodied the spirit of the hero in the flesh so perfectly that it started this war, and he was planning on ending it as soon as possible.

He knew that as soon as it ended his brothers in arms would be sent back to where they belonged, and he was the happier for it. The less people that died because of him the better. So, Link fights as he's supposed to, as a Captain fights with all his strength. They have a plan, and it's going to work. His plan isn't going to fail as long as everyone follows it to the letter and doesn't stray off from it. Link had complete faith in everyone around him in his regiment, and maybe that's what almost got them all killed.

Link jumped into the air and swung his sword at the massive moblin in front of him, bringing his sword into a circular arc around himself as he spun before bringing the beat down. It dissapeared as it died and Link moved onto the next monster.

His comrades had been running around in the field as well, pushing forward with him as they fought. Tune and Mask were on the other end of the field making sure some of the less experianced fighters weren't making any stupid mistakes. Link didn't think he'd have to worry about those two.

But he had forgotten one thing about them.

The other heroes, were well, heroes. And heroes don't always follow orders as well as they should. Link knew this from personal experiances. When had he ever followed Impa's orders to the letter? Most of the time he would, but certainly not perfectly or everytime he was given orders. Sometimes he blatantly disobeyed Impa or the other generals if he thought their orders weren't going to help, or weren't thought out as well as they could have been.

Link knows that Tune wasn't listening as well as he could have been during the lecture they had had before the battle, but he didn't count on him not following the plan this badly.

Tune had leapt ahead of the line of soilders in their ranks, throwing himself into the middle of the field, surronded complelty by foes. Link knew he was a child still, but that move had been most likely the most reckless thing he'd seen in a long time, and not in a good way.

Link's blood ran cold when he saw Tune being overwhelmed by the monsters, all on his own. He can't get to Tune in the moment though, his sword still busy peircing another foe, but he drew away from that fight as soon as it was over and let his guard down too easily as he turned to run to Tune.

Link felt the presence of something behind him too late. Because the spear of a moblin had already come out from the left side of his ribcage moments before he could see it. There had been no time to dodge the incoming attack. Link drew a short gasp and tumbled to the dirty ground of the field, laying there open for more attacks.

Link has to get to Tune, he has to. He needed to go. He needed to run to him before the boy would be killed by the number of enemies around him. As silver daggers dug into his arms, Link let out a groan of pain. Black spots had danced around in his vision and the world decided to tilt itself to the side.

Mask is too far away to do anything. Maybe he hadn't noticed Tune was in danger. In that case Link couldn’t depend on him for backup.

Red blood seeped into the dirt around him and his blue scarf turned a deep crimson red. Still, Link tried to move. He gripped the ground in front of him and tried to ignore the blinding pain searing through his chest and arms as he pulled himself forward.

The last thing he saw was a flash of bright white light and an unfamiliar figure charging into battle holding a spiral shaped sword above their head.

---

Warriors awakes with a gasp as he sits up straight in his bedroll, sweat glinting on his forehead as the dimly lit campfire shines a light onto his face. Crickets chirp around him in the dark forest as he adjusts his vision to the darkness. Snoring comes from a couple of the passed-out heroes who lay asleep on the ground near him.

It had been a dream; one Warriors hadn't had in a long time. Something uneasy stirs in his chest as he looks around the camp. His heart aches when he only counts six sleeping figures and Time keeping watch by the fire.

Wind was still gone, and now he was even farther than before. Lost to another era, and one they might never find since he had gone through the portal without them.

With an exasperated sigh, Warriors lays back down in his bedroll, shutting his eyes as tightly as he can as though that will block out the memories of the day before.

Everything had gone to hell when Wind had disappeared in the portal. Warriors had tried his best to land an attack on the lizalfos, but it had slipped away before he could do anything but give it a measly scratch. Some hero he was.

Time had had to physically hold Warriors back from charging after the monster in his fit of rage. For once the Captain had actually spit out a couple of curse words at it. Nobody had had the heart to chastise him about it, even if he usually was the one telling people to keep their language clean.

Maybe it was because nobody was really in the mood to tell him off. Nobody was really in the mood for anything.

Legend had been uncharacteristically quiet for the rest of the night. Four was arguing with himself more than usual. Twilight was plain out irritable along with the usually happy Sky. Time was stoic as ever, and maybe a lot more so that night. Wild had barely had the energy to cook a good dinner, and nobody ate much of it anyway. Hyrule stayed by Warriors' side the whole night, seeking to comfort the Captain and maybe to gain a little bit of comfort for himself as well.

All in all, the group was a mess. None of them were unaffected by the loss of their youngest member. Dinner was quiet without Wind to tell stories or to liven up the mood.

It felt like they had lost him, in all honesty. Perhaps he wasn't dead, they had no way of knowing if the portal had led the boy to foes or friends, or unknown territory. The best-case scenario was that he was back home, and safe with his family and friends. The worst-case scenario was that he had been dropped off a cliff and was dead at the bottom of a cliff face and then his corpse was eaten by a vulture or something, or maybe he was taken hostage by The Shadow, or-

Warriors cut his own train of thought off there. He didn't need to make his headache or his heart ache anymore that night.

Wind was safe. Wind was safe.

Warriors kept repeating that mantra in his head over and over again, because if he did, then maybe that would make it true. He keeps repeating it as he drifts back off to an uneasy sleep.

---

Time sits silently by the campfire on one of the logs they had set up as he stares into it, his elbows resting on his legs as he cups his chin in his hands. It's dark, and the night feels like it's only just begun.

He had offered to take the first watch, but he wasn't planning on waking up someone else to take the second. His boys needed to sleep after the day they had. He could tell that nobody was exactly alright, even Legend and Sky were off.

Time feels awful about the whole thing, but probably not as awful as Warriors feels. He knows Warriors is most likely blaming himself for the whole situation, even though it's not Warriors' fault. That's the only thing Time knows for certain in this situation. He wishes he could be more helpful and comforting, but he's never been an expert at helping those is emotional distress, especially not a whole group of younger men. This is a time he wishes he had Malon with him. She'd know what to do.

Time listens to the chirping of the crickets and the light snoring of Sky as he watches the campfire. He might be a little selfish as he stays up all night thinking. Selfish because he thinks that maybe if he watches closely enough this time, then nobody else will go missing.

He knows that Wind has his reasons for leaving the group, because unlike Warriors he isn't in denial of the fact that Wind had left on his own.

Time remembers when he left the place where he had been born and raised to go on his own journey. Leaving some place or someone important to you was never easy, so he knows Wind must have had a hard time choosing to go. Though, it makes Time upset that Wind didn't have enough trust in them to ask any of them for help, or to confide in any of them. He really thought they were all close enough to do that.

What Wind wrote at the end of his letter haunts Time's thoughts as he sits there. Wind had written that he wasn't a hero like the rest of them, that he wasn't chosen by Hylia.

The odd thing was, Time hadn't even thought that was possible. Hadn't Wind said he'd once held the Triforce, or at least a part of it? And Sky had thrown the Master Sword to Wind in the middle of a battle once when the sailor had lost his sword, and he was in a tight spot.

As far as Time understood it, only a hero chosen by Hylia could do those things. Not some random kid off an island in the middle of an ocean.

But then again, who was Time to really doubt what Wind was saying? Wind wouldn't lie to them for no reason.

Ironically, Time had been mad at Hylia at one time for choosing such young people to be heroes. He himself when he was nine and Wind when he was only a few years older than that. Many of the others had gone on their first journeys in their younger years too. It had turned out Wind wasn't chosen by Hylia. He supposes Wind really was the freest of them all. He was a free spirit in truth, ready to go where he wanted to. Wind didn't go where he didn't want to, and he didn't do anything he didn't want to do. The sailor guided the gales around him with his baton, not even letting them control where he sailed.

No wonder it had always been difficult for the Captain to get him to focus on the plan.

---

In the early morning dawn, red light shining down from the sky and pink clouds smeared across the horizon, a young man sits criss crossed by the base of a tree as he rummages through his bag, looking for a piece of clothing he'd meant to mend a while back.

He doesn't find it and slaps his own forehead in irritation. Legend guesses this is what happens when you lend your favorite old green tunic to your friend who has a habit of swiping things.

Legend bites his lip as he remembers the fact that Wind had been wearing his old tunic when he fell through the portal, gone from sight and from them. Wind, not the tunic. Honestly at this point he doesn't give a crap about the tunic.

He sighs as he settles himself, leaning against the tree trunk and closing his eyes as he takes a couple deep breaths. When he calms himself down, he looks through his bag again and pulls out one of Four's undershirts that had been ripped up and needed fixing. Legend brushes one of his pink locks out of his face as he focuses on threading the needle he holds in his hands.

Warriors was already awake when Legend arose, but the veteran is trying not to interact too much with any of the others. He knows the only response he'll have is to either snap at them, or burst into tears and he's not weak, so he's not going to be crying in front of any of them. Even if he's not showing it, the vet did care about Wind a lot and he wasn't taking losing him very well.

Legend guesses this is what always happens to him. People leave, and they don't come back. He'd lost so many people over the years that it should have become the expectation. He should have expected to lose someone.

The oddest thing is that Wind chose to leave him. Nobody had chosen to leave Legend before. That hurt particularly badly.

Legend huffs as he pricks his thumb again for the fourth time and shakes his hand in frustration. He's sure he has a thimble somewhere. Once again, he goes through his bag, but his hand finds something that he's certain he didn't put in it. Paper.

Legend clutches the piece of paper gently and takes it out of the bag. It looks like a letter. The writing is in something that looks like Time's writing, but it's not the same.... it's more like Winds.

Legend reads over the letter five times before he gets the message correct. It's nothing complicated, and it's only three lines.

Hey Legend! Sorry for stealing your tunic, but I really liked it, and you know I'm going to get taller soon. See you later!

Legend can't help but let a couple tears drip down his cheeks in the silence of the red-skyed morning.

---

Four is pissed. Pissed at himself, mostly, but also pissed at Wind for not saying something. Wait, he's not mad about Wind not being chosen by Hylia or anything, he literally gives zero craps about that because it doesn't matter in the long run. He's annoyed by the fact that Wind didn't even wait to ask them for help with whatever he was going through!

Four knows that the heroes who have wielded the Master Sword aren't the best at teamwork, not like they've had much experience with it, (well maybe Warriors did, but that's beside the point), but Wind could have at least tried. But what if it was hard for him to try? Well, it shouldn't have been! He should have tried even if it was hard! What if it wasn't something he could share? Why wouldn't he share with them? They've done nothing to not earn his trust!

See why he's pissed at himself? He can't even draw any conclusions on the matter at hand without trying to make a new one and screw over his own logic. Sometimes being equal parts emotional and logical was annoying.

Four isn't trying to blame Wind. Obviously, something else is going on but it frustrates him that he doesn't know what it is and that he can't make sense of anything. It doesn't help that everyone else seems to be in distress too.

Four doesn't sleep well that night, his mind is busy. Busy with trying to rationalize things, and busy trying to ignore the fact that he never had the courage to ask Wind about their matching shields.

Stupid time travel.

---

Hyrule stays as close to Warriors as he possibly can the whole night. He can still see in his mind's eye the look of rage and frustration that Warriors had in his eyes as he tried to fight against Time's hold to go after The Shadow. And the pain.

Hyrule knows that being empathetic is a good thing, but when there are so many negative emotions swirling around his senses it can only take so much. Warriors' emotions aren't simple, but he finds it easier to block them out. He needs to focus on his own feelings, but if he can bring Warriors a bit of comfort, then he'll feel a little better about being selfish.

Hyrule can only cuddle up next to Warriors and try to block out the tears that threaten to leak out. The Traveller doesn't really care to try and find out why Wind had left, all he cares about is somehow finding him and bringing him back. If it was even possible. Hyrule had never had many people in his life because his own Hyrule was rather desolate and empty. The most important people in his life were Aurora and Dawn alongside his newfound brothers. To be honest, this was his first time losing someone important to him, and it hurt. It was a hurt that he was pretty sure even his sisters at the Great Fairy Fountains couldn't heal.

---

Sky wakes up at maybe two in the morning. It's not unusual for him to wake up so early, but it is unusual that he wasn't woken up by Time a lot earlier. Leave it to the leader to decide to take on the whole night shift. Sky lets out a shaky, annoyed breath before standing up and going to sit by the fire next to Time.

The older man startles as the skyloftian takes a seat next to him and crosses his arms.

Sky glares at Time. Just because they had lost one of their members that day didn't mean that he could simply decide it was ok to take on the whole night shift.

Time squirms rather uncomfortably under Sky's glare for a few moments before sighing in defeat.

"Fine, I'll go to bed."

"Good." Sky says, rolling his eyes. "Don't try to stay up all night again."

There's a pause before Time nods and gets up, standing and stretching his arms lightly behind his back.

"Are you alright?" Time asks, looking at Sky with a concerned expression. "Well, sorry, you're obviously not alright, I don't think anyone is, but how are you feeling?"

Sky uncrosses his arms and looks at Time. "Irritated."

That's not really it, but Sky can't seem to find any other word that really feels right. He's irritated at the whole situation. At himself, for not noticing anything was wrong, and at Wind, for leaving without talking to anyone. Mostly he's irritated that there was nothing any of them could have really done to change what had happened. No matter how many "what-ifs" he thought of, there was always the fact that they hadn't done that. They hadn't noticed. They hadn't tried to see how Wind was doing mentally. They didn't do anything.

Sky has always hated not being able to do anything. He's always hated the fact that his loved ones kept slipping through his fingers before he could catch them and hold onto them and keep them close and safe.

"Hm." Time hums as he goes over to his bedroll and shakes it out. "Sounds complicated."

"Sure," Sky sighs, he wishes he could play his harp or smash some pottery or something. Despite his calm demeanor, he could have a lot of pent-up frustration built up inside.

"You know you don't have to keep everything inside. It's ok to not always be worrying about others and how they might feel."

Sky chuckles lightly. Huh, who would have thought. Time always seemed to be able to say the right thing at the right time. "I guess so." Sky says non-committedly. "Anyway, get some sleep, Time. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be busy."

"I have a feeling you're right."

---

Wild wakes up and the first thing he does is stare at his sheikah slate for ten straight minutes, trying to decide if he should cook something for breakfast, or just let everyone have their pick of leftovers.

He decides that he might as well make something.

Although he's slow as he cooks up the morning meal, his thoughts aren't.

Losing people is an all too familiar thing to Wild. He should be desensitized to it by now, but he's not. Maybe it was different when you happened to remember them.

Memories sucked sometimes.

Wild's movements as he cooks feel automatic and robotic as he cuts, stirs, and flavors the food. His mind keeps replaying the day beforehand. Had he been too dismissive when Warriors and him were looking for Wind? Had he been too hasty to conclude that Wind was probably playing a joke? He recalls his conversation with Warriors before they had gone back to the inn. He hadn't taken Warriors seriously enough.

Honestly, sometimes that was a problem. Wild took thing he shouldn't take seriously, seriously, and dismissed important things.

Wild lets out a grunt as he cuts his finger while chopping some strawberries. It stings, but he shakes his hand as a small pinprick of blood falls from the cut.

Wind had looked so scared and hurt when the lizalfos stabbed his side as he fell into the portal.

Wild winces at the memory.

Yeah, he stands by what he thought before. Memories suck sometimes, especially when you have to actually remember the moment you lost someone. It feels selfish to be sad for yourself when you lose someone. Wild knows he should be focusing on the fact that Wind was probably alone and hurt, but it's hard not to think of how fresh this new wound feels. Most of his losses had had 100 years to heal.

---

The one thing that circles through Twilight's mind as he tries to drift off to sleep is thoughts of "what if".

What if he had tracked Wind faster? What if he had noticed he was gone sooner? What if he had picked up on the negative emotions swirling around Wind before the kid had decided to take drastic measures? What if?

What ifs often circulated through Twilight's head. He's used to them. And thoughts and about people he cares about deciding to leave him and the world he was in behind. If he had a rupee for every time that happened, he would have to as of this moment. That's not a lor, but it was absolutely dreadful that it happened twice. Both times he might have been able to stop it.

Now he was projecting all his anger towards himself towards the others in the group and that only made him angrier. He had overcome his anger issues ages ago when he was 17 and he wasn't planning on visiting them any time soon. Being angry was overrated when it was directed at any but himself.

Yeah, so maybe he should get therapy or whatever like Warriors had suggested, but he wasn't about to let the captain know he was right about it.

Now the thoughts of "what if" had circled back to what Twilight should of done, and perhaps what he could still do. There had to be a way to find Wind. Right?

---

On the Great Sea one could see a huge plume of dark grey smoke rising above the mountain tops of Outset Island. Faintly, screams could be heard. Not screams of physical pain, but the screams of one young boy who had just arrived to see his island covered in the red and orange fury of flames.

There were shouts of panic and confusion from the large boat as the men and woman ran around, attempting to lower their rowboats and get closer to the burning and the flames.

There's one last shout, and then the blonde boy is plunging into the cold waters in a dive, headfirst.

Chapter Text

It takes five men to keep Link from jumping off board, but their hold only lasts for about ten sconds before he's squirmed from their grasps and diving into the dark sea.

Tetra doesn't stop him from swimming to the island set ablaze, because why on Hylia's damned sea should she?

Her own heart mirrors the island at this moment. Burning and full of anger and rage on behalf of Link and the people of the island.

Goddess, why couldn't any of them have a rest?

She orders the men to lower their boats into the water so they can set foot on the island. Whoever's left should be brought aboard her ship. If there's anyone left at all. That’s a rather dark thought Tetra wouldn’t like to think about.

As Tetra hops into one of the row boats, she spots another huge ship floating on the other side of the island. More pirates, and most likely hostile ones. She doesn't recognize the ship, which means it's probably an enemy ship.

Probably the ones that set Outset Island on fire.

Tetra shouts out another order, and several of her men run right to the cannons and set them up. If the people who burnt Outset thought they'd get away with it, they were wrong.

Nobody messed with Tetra or anyone she cared about, and she made sure of it.

The cannons light up and the black, round cannonballs shoot towards the ship.

Revenge was best served cold, but Tetra didn't have the liberty of waiting for the fires to go out. This might be the only exception she'll make to her rules. Link always was an exception in her life.

---

The cold ocean water doesn't stop the boiling heat bubbling up inside of Wind. It doesn't stop his heart from filling up with rage.

The only thing he can think of as he swims towards the island is his family. Images of his sister and granny race through his mind. One arm in front of the other, his legs kicking as quickly as he can make them. His chest aches, but he doesn't know if it's from his injury, or the anger he's feeling right now.

When he steps onto the shore Wind pays no mind to the sand that gets stuck in-between his toes, instead he sprints towards the fires, taking in every detail of the scene.

The houses are all but ash, the wood burnt and crisp. The island is silent besides the crackling of embers and the heat of the flames is fresh against his skin.

There's no one on the island as far as Wind can tell. The silence speaks louder than a thousand words could.

He keeps running, trying to find out what's happened. Where was everyone? His heart is beating at a million miles per hour, and his breathing feels too quick. His limbs buzz with unwanted energy

Thoughts course through his mind, imagining every possible scenario.

Focus on running.

Just run.

Keep going. He has to keep going. He can’t stop. He has to find everyone. That’s what he needs to do. Aryll needs him. Granny needs him. The people need him.

Wind runs and runs and runs.

His mind is going just as quickly as his legs. He can’t help from continuing the horrifying imaginary situations in his mind.

Until he didn't have to imagine anything anymore, because this is worse than anything he could have imagined.

Wind comes to a complete and sudden stop.

It's the ghastliest thing he's ever seen, and bile quickly threatens to spill out of his throat.

Tied up on poles set up around the side of the island's beach are the people of his island, set ablaze. Faces half melted, clothes turned to nothing but flecks of black and ash, hair burnt and dark. Their eyes are dark and glossed over, no glimmer of life in any of their pupils. There’s a stank smell of oil.

His village.

His family.

Everyone.

Gone.

Gone.

Gone...

Dead.

No! Nononononono.... (It's his fault again, it's all his fault).

Wind's breathing stops and his knees feel weak. He can't stop his trembling legs from collapsing in on themselves, and he falls to his knees, eyes wide and mouth agape. The adrenaline he had coursing through his veins doubled and caused his entire body to violently shake with sobs.

The rancid smell of burning flesh reaches his nose, and before he can stop himself, Wind is throwing up. His throat pushes out the remnants of his last meal on the ship, and the bile and acid falls onto his hands as they are planted in the sand. The blond lets out a shaky, unstable breath as he gags, spitting out the last of the vomit.

As he lifts his head with hesitation, Wind lets his eyes search the almost unrecognizable features of his fellow islanders.

Sturgeon... Orca.. Rose and Abe, their children Zill and Joel....

Wind blinks the salty tears out of his eyes as he stands up, his legs barely cooperating with him.

He can't look at the bodies anymore. This is all his fault... Cyclos. He was too late, far too late. Why hadn't he left sooner. Why didn't he think the shadow would got through with its's promises? Was he really that stupid and naive to believe this wouldn't be the outcome of his stubbornness? If he was a real hero, he'd have been able to stop this. If he was a real hero, he wouldn't want to viscously murder whoever had done this. Maybe he'd have a bit of mercifulness left in him. The blond knows whenever he sees who did this, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from harming them.

Would the Captain be thinking like this?

Wind's breathing picks up again as his chest shakes with heavy sobs.

---

Wind runs again, but this time he's running with a vindicative purpose. His sword was left behind on the ship, so he runs to Orca's half burnt house and finds a slightly bloodied spear. A familiar spear... one that brings memories back to the front of Wind's mind. He brushes those thoughts off for now, the only thing that's allowed to take up space in his mind is the picture of the burning flesh of his family.

Once he's acquired the weapon, Wind runs as fast as his legs can take him towards the ship he saw before jumping into the water... The people in the ship must be the ones who killed his family. He just knows it.

He doesn't care that he's currently covered in his own tears, vomit and that his side has begun to bleed again, what he needs to do is exact revenge on the monsters that did this.

Wind runs across the beach, closing his eyes as he stomps along the sand next to the still burning bodies.

As he turns the corner of the beach, he can see the large ship come into view. The ship isn't one he's seen before, but he takes note of all its details first. It's larger than any he's seen before this, and it's rimmed with gold inscriptions. It's too far out in the water to easily swim to it.

Before Wind can get any closer, a familiar figure appears, approaching from the distance.

He grits his teeth and holds the too-large spear in front of him.

No way did this idiot think it could just show up after... this.

The shadow's expression is enough to make Wind's anger double.

"Hello, little hero." The shadow glowers, a smug smirk stuck on its lizard-like face.

Wind doesn't grace it with a response. He knows fighting the lizalfos would be stupid, especially with how it ended the last couple times.

"Don't look so mad", the shadow says, "I didn't do this, I'll have you know... I just didn't stop it."

Somehow that's worse. If the lizalfos didn't do this, Wind would have to redirect most of his anger towards whoever is on that ship. Wind can't blame the lizalfos for this. He can't blame it... which means Wind will have to blame himself. If he had been here... if only he had been here, he could have stopped this from happening. He could have protected his family. Now all he could do for them was get revenge. But revenge never seemed to do the trick for any of the other heroes he had met. Maybe since he wasn't exactly a hero, revenge would be the cure for this feeling.

"I could aid you, though, little hero."

Wind scoffs. "If you really wanted to help, you would have sent me here BEFORE this happened". Once again, Wind has to hold back tears. His voice his raspy.

"Unfortunately that would have been counter-productive for both of us." The lizalfos takes a step closer, and Wind jabs his spear threateningly towards him. The shadow puts up its hands in a bit of a surrender.

Cyclos. Wind couldn't take the "aid" of this thing. This thing was what hurt Twilight all those months ago. He couldn't just accept its help. There wasn’t any way it wanted to help him either. Right?

"If you want to get the revenge you deserve and prevent the atrocious people who did this to your family from doing it again, then you'll accept my aid. What harm could it do to you?" The lizalfos takes a step forward again, but this time Wind doesn't jab his spear towards him. Instead, he lowers the spear, willing to listen for about five minutes more before he attacks it.

"I'll give you an aid to defeat and utterly ruin those who did this to your family... all you have to do is take it." As the lizalfos takes another step forward, it shows Wind, a small pendant made of a singular mirror shard in its outstretched claws.

Wind bites his lip. It could be a trap. He could just leave the lizalfos this instant and go after the people on the ship, but to be honest, he hadn't really taken any time to think it through. Now that he does think about it, it'd be really stupid of him to go off and try to take down a whole crew while he's injured and emotionally unstable. Then again, it would also be stupid to trust the monster who injured him in the first place. Wind might be just a tad bit stupid.

"I dunno, it's not really a good move to trust your enemies. Why would you want to help me at all?"

"Maybe I feel bad for you."

"It's kind of hard to think of you as empathetic". Wind retorts.

The ship that carries the crew that burnt the island down has begun to sail off, and Wind twists his head to take a look at it. It's about a quarter of a mile away from the shore, and it's soon going to be double that distance. There's no way he could swim out to it quickly enough.

Should he take the help from the shadow? It was a stupid move, but so was just letting the ship get away.

As Wind ponders his choice, the lizalfos starts shifting where it stands, it's getting impatient.

“What’s in it for you?” Wind asks, still wary. One thing he knows is that villains don’t do things for no reason. They don’t help their foes out of the goodness of their hearts, or whatever.

“Nothing much.” The Lizalfos responds, its tongue flicking out of its scaly mouth in a way that makes Wind shudder uncomfortably.

“I find that kinda hard to believe...” Wind trails off, trying to cross his arms and almost stabbing himself with the spear while doing so.

“Do you want to get revenge or not? If you don’t take it, I can’t guarantee i won’t kill you where you stand.”

Ahhh... a threat. Okay, Wind sort of knew that since the Lizalfos was threatening him into taking the pendant, then that’s exactly what he shouldn’t do. Though, he is kind of curious to see what would happen if he took it. What anything bad really happen? Or would it be completely fine?

Eh, what more does he have to lose?

"Fine." Wind stretches his hand out to accept the odd-looking pendant. Its magical energy is hard to discern, and honestly Wind hasn't ever been proficient in magic. He was skilled at wind and storm magic, but that was very different than any other source of magic. Wind knows the other heroes each specialize in a certain area of magic to at least a small extent. Whatever sort of magic is radiating front he pendant, Wind can't put a finger on it. "Just... just hurry up and give it to me." Wind spits out, impatient and annoyed. He's still struggling to breathe and hold back tears, and he's doing everything he can not to think of the bodies that lay just behind him.

"No need to be so restless," The lizalfos throws the pendant with a sudden jerk of its claws, "Catch".

Wind grunts and reaches out his hand to grab the pendant, right before his hands close over it he hears Tetra's voice yelling his name in the distance.

"Link!" Tetra's voice is strained and frantic, but Wind ignores her as he grabs the pendant from the air.

A small tingle of electricity shoots down Wind's hand and into the ground as he examines the dark, crystalline shard that hangs on the pendant. It's glossy and reminds him of a mirror, but much more stained. There's no particular shape to it, but the magic imbued in it is slightly familiar, though Wind can't place where he's felt it before. Whatever type of magic it is, it doesn't seem hostile, so that's an indicator that it's safe enough to use. Risks were worth taking sometimes.

"Now what?" he asks, looping the pendant around his neck. "What's this thing even do?"

Instead of giving a straight answer, the lizalfos simply smirks, turning around and walking away. "You'll find out".

A swirling, purple portal opens up in front of the lizalfos and before Wind can reach it, its gone through it.

"Crap".

What in the Cyclos damned world was that interaction. Wind is left more than a little stunned as he looks down at his hands, looking at the glowing pendant.

From behind him, a force barrels right into him, wrapping its arms around his torso and burying its face in his neck.

"L-link" Tetra sobs, her body shaking against his back.

Wind bites his lip, his throat suddenly a lot tighter than moments before. Slowly, he tucks his newly acquired pendant in his shirt and then turns around to hug Tetra.

"It'll be alright." Wind whispers. Not like he really believes that. He doesn't think anything will ever be right again. There's something missing like a gaping hole in heart, and he doesn't think even the blood of all those who hurt his family would be able to fill it.

Tetra sobs again, letting her own facade fall as she mourns with Link. There's no point in trying to be strong when something like this just occurred.

---

Tetra had apparently shot the pirate ship with several cannonballs. Wind hadn't really noticed. The ship must have been strong enough to withstand the attacks because it had sailed off too quickly for Tetra's ship to catch up.

Now Wind's laying down on his back, staring up at the starless night sky as tears track down his face. The hard wood of the ship makes his muscles ache and splinters poke at him. Wind doesn't feel it, his mind is to preoccupied with Exhaling and inhaling hurts, and his lungs are most likely full of smoke and smog from the island. The distinct smell of burning flesh is stuck on his clothes. Thankfully he had thrown off his green tunic before jumping in the sea. Wind blinks tear out of his eyes as sits up and buries his face in the green fabric. It smells like orchards, campfires and apples.... it smells like Legend.

The thought of his brothers makes Wind choke out another sob.

Had he made the right choices? Was this what he wanted? As of right now, he was pretty much alone in the world. He had lost everyone except Tetra and her crew.

Wind is thankful for Tetra, he really is, but he can't imagine life without his family.

Was this the consequence of not being a real hero? Were the Golden Goddesses punishing him for forcing them to accept him as the hero? Was his family's fate sealed the second he wrapped his hands around the Master Sword two years ago?

Wind grabs his knees and brings them up to his face, shoving his head onto them as he lets out another round of sobs. His golden curls are still damp, and they stick to his tanned freckled face as cries. His memories of his brothers feel so distant, even though it's barely been two days since he left. He misses them so much. It hurts. It hurts so bad.

Where is he supposed to go after this? What's he supposed to do? What's the right choice? Had he ever made the right choice in his life?

What if he was the problem? Was it possible to... never mind. He shouldn't be thinking like that. He knew he was useless, a false hero, a burden, a mistake, but he couldn't do THAT to Tetra. If Tetra was there, he would be fine.

Wind lifts his head up from his knees, sniffling as he tries to dry his tears again with the back of his hand. From underneath his tunic he pulls out the pendant the Lizalfos had given him. It was probably a stupid idea to take it, but most of Wind's successes came from doing something stupid and being ridiculously lucky. Hopefully this was another one of these times.

So far, the pendant hadn't done anything but tingle with energy on occasion.

Wind swallows roughly as he takes another look at the pendant, tracing his fingers lightly over the smooth surface. It's rounded on one edge, but jagged on the others. On the rounded edges are small inscriptions, unreadable to Wind but so so familiar. Everything about the pendant was familiar, but in an odd, twisted way.

Wind almost threw up again thinking about what it could imply. Taking the pendant was a bad choice, but Wind was wondering if trusting the Lizalfos was the worst choice. Had the Lizalfos simply lied to him? Was it actually the Lizalfos' fault that this had happened and not whoever was on that ship? Wind could only guess, and hope that his plan wouldn't go to hell.

Some people learn from their mistakes, but Wind needed to make the same mistake at least twice to learn from it. Which is why his plan is a little too like the one that he made before getting back to his era.

Tetra doesn't approve of revenge as a general rule, mostly due to the fact that she was trying to be better than the ruthless pirates that shared the seas with her. This time, Wind knew that Tera would be willing to help him get revenge on the enemy crew, but Wind didn't want to drag her into this. It was bad enough that she had gotten the crew to come onto the island to help him bury his family.

So, Wind was going to leave. As soon as they got to Windfall, or anywhere near it, he would take a rowboat and sail off by himself. Maybe if he was lucky, he could get a sailboat somewhere along the way. Then he'd sneak onto the ship, (stealth was something he specialized in), and kill everyone who dared to hurt his family.

Whether or not he'd be able to pull it off, whether he'd be able to kill someone in cold blood, that was what he questioned. Would he actually be able to do it, or was he more of a hero than he thought? Because to be honest, Wind can't imagine any of his brothers doing what he was going to.

Wind gets off the deck after going over his undeniably awful plan in his head, and heads back down to the cabins.

The rest of the crew is asleep, besides the two or three who had been up by the wheel of the ship to make sure it wouldn't go off course.

Carefully, Wind sneaks over to Tetra's cabin. He creaks the door open as silently as he can and peers in. Tetra is asleep, her arms and legs sprawled out across the entire bed like a starfish. Her face and blonde waves are light up by the shimmering moonlight that sneaks in from the curtained circular window.

Biting his lip, Wind takes off his boots and overtunic, throwing them softly onto the floor planks.

With careful steps, Wind climbs onto Tetra's bed.

The pirate captain curls into herself, giving Wind space to climb on top of the sheets before wrapping her lethargic arms around him.

Wind has to stop himself from crying again. He'd missed Tetra so much, and only now was realizing how badly he had. The two didn't often share Tetra's bed... they only did after one of them had had a particularly rough day or woke up from a nightmare. Back when they were sailing together after Wind's first journey, sometimes Tetra would wake Wind up and force him to cuddle her. Wind never asked why, but he sort of knew it was because she had nightmares. She returned the favor and let Wind climb into bed with her when he woke up from similar nightmares. It had become a habit, and one that Wind had missed.

Wind lets his body relax in Tetra's warm arms, letting out a sigh of slight contentment.

Tetra buries her face in the back of his neck, and Wind closes his eyes as he lets out a weary breath.

With her arms around him, Wind can finally feel a small semblance of safety.

---

Somewhere in a dark, desolate area, someone who'd been long asleep, awakes.

Chapter Text

Warriors never half-assed anything.

Whether it be battle plans, or a simple sparring routine, Warriors had everything detailed out and ready. If something went astray, there was a backup plan (even if that backup plan didn't work, Warriors knew that he could usually fix everything in a matter of hours). There were backup plans for the backup plans.

So when everything goes to shit, Warriors is more than surprised and lost. Because his definition of "goes to shit" is "My backup plan for my backup plan for my backup plan just failed".

Even though he barely got a chance to fix the situation at hand, Warriors still defines this as a "gone to shit" moment.

SO, what does he do when he fails? He does everything in his power to fix it.

Warriors wakes up first, as he almost always does, and gets to work immediately.

Which means he takes out his battle-planning notebook and writes absolutely everything he can think of relating to Wind and why he left, and the various possibilities about what could have happened to him.

He sits up on one of the logs they rolled into the campsite the night prior and scribbles ideas on the rough parchment. Some things feel gross to write, but Warriors writes them anyway. If there's something he thinks of he has to write it down. At least that's what he tells himself.

Unfortunately, his mind is annoying as hell and decides to think of really gruesome things. Of course he writes them down too.

He goes at it for two hours or so, Legend has already woken up and Wild is making breakfast by the time Warriors has filled several pages with notes.

As he scribbles another idea down, he feels a hand come down on his shoulder, and a head peers over him to look at what he's writing.

"You sure that's a productive use of your time and energy, Captain?" Time asks, grabbing the notebook from Warrior's hands.

"Hey!" Warriors startles, trying to sit up only to stumble on his own feet as he tries to grab the notebook back. "Give it back. I'm just planning". Warriors says as he lays on the ground, looking up at Time.

Time nods absent mindedly as he flips through the notebook, looking over the pages Warriors has written. "Uh, huh. Sure. You're not catastrophizing this, are you?" Time gives him a flat look as he snaps the notebook shut and hands it back to Warriors.

Warriors stands up and shakes the dusts off his pants and scarf as he does so. He takes the book out of Time's hands with a narrowed glare.

"I'm not catastrophizing... it's called preparation." Warriors says, tucking away the notebook into his bag as he kneels down.

"Sure." Time sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as Warriors stands up again. "Are you hungry? You should probably eat before we head out today."

Warriors isn't particularly hungry. His stomach has been uneasy all morning. Technically eating would help him to get through the day, but if he ate anything too flavorful he might throw up.

Over at the hastily set up cooking pot, Wild is crouching down beside it and stirring a pot of what looks like oatmeal. On the pan next to the champion there's bread dipped in sizzling egg whites.

Looking at the food only made the churning in Warriors' stomach worse.

"Uh, I'm not hungry right now. I'll eat later." Warriors says as he turns to grab his armor.

Time looks like he's trying not to strangle Warriors right then and there. "Captain." the man takes a deep breath "I know you don't like eating in stressful situations, but I will force you to eat something this morning even if it's just an apple". There's a pause. "Don't test me."

With an annoyed huff, Warriors complies and takes a singular apple out of his bag. "Fine."

Why the hell did Time know how to convince him to do whatever he wanted? Back during the war it was usually Mask and Tune just wanting to do something stupid, and Warriors eventually giving in. Now Time was forcing him to have healthy habits! What a hypocrite.

---

"Alright. That's the plan. Do I need to go over it again, or are we good?"

The group of heroes all give Warriors a weary sound of confirmation. Nobody wants to go over it again, and everybody knows that Warriors doesn't want to go over it again either. They have already been assigned roles for the day, and the plan should be easy enough to follow.

They were planning on heading to the encampment by the remains of Castle Town. Wild assured them they could take a path with few monsters on it, which would limit their chance of having to fight.

Even though there wasn't anything left of Wild's Castle Town besides a few walls and the ruined Castle itself, Wild had said it was their best bet to head there. Apparently, Flora and Wild had been doing some work there, and if they wanted some more assistance someone named Purah, (who Wild had assured was sane, despite the stories he had told of her), could help them. At least she could help them get back on their feet, and it would be a nice-ish place to rest. Staying in Hateno would make everyone restless, and they were already in-between the two places. The walking distance was relatively the same to both places.

The walk towards Castle Town is quiet. No one really talks, they're just not in the mood for it.

Four and Legend trail behind in the back of the group while Sky and Hyrule walk together. Twilight stays close to Time, which leaves Wild and Warriors walking at the front.

Warriors tries to focus on the route that Wild had showed him on the Sheikah Slate, but his eyes keep wandering back to Wild.

Wild's fidgeting with his hands almost constantly. He's playing with his long hair, twisting it up tugging on it and he's picking at his cuticles and nails. It's almost annoying, but Warriors has to shake himself out of those thoughts. Wild's probably just nervous about getting back to Flora without anything else life-changing happening.

When they're roughly halfway there, and trekking through a darker part of the forests, Wild coughs, obviously clearing his throat.

"Uh." Wild says awkwardly, pausing as he tries to recalibrate his thoughts. "So..."

Warriors turns his head to look at Wild while still trying to focus on the path ahead. "What is it, Wild? I'm sort of trying to concentrate here."

Wild face flushes and he stutters out something unintelligible.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that." Warriors mutters as he steps over a precariously large stone.

"I said," Wild takes a deep breath "Uh, I'm sorry for not being serious about the situation yesterday. I should have been taking it with more than an ounce of care. I kind of screwed up."

At that, Warriors pauses, his brain sort of freezing over for a second and taking a little bit to restart. Wild had apologized. Which was weird, because what on Hylia's earth did he have to apologize for? It wasn't Wild's fault that Wind had managed to sneak out of the inn without anyone noticing. Maybe the champion had been a bit jokey when they were looking for Wind in Hateno, but he was only trying to lighten the mood.

"You didn't do anything wrong. Don't blame yourself for what happened. It's not as though we would have found him any faster if you were more serious about it." Warriors thinks that's where the conversation's going to end, but Wild decides to pipe up again.

"Okay. Thanks, I guess... uh. You know it's not your fault either? I'm kind of getting the vibe that us hero types sort of like to blame ourselves for everything. Even if it's not our fault." Wild says.

"Hmm". Warriors hums, considering the statement. Sure. It hadn't been anyone else's fault, but really, he saw no reason why it wasn't his own fault. He knew Wind better than any of the other heroes, besides Time, and wouldn't that mean it was his fault if he hadn't noticed something was wrong?

"Seriously, Captain," Wild places a careful hand on Warriors' shoulder as they keep walking, "Don't blame yourself. We can't change what happened, but we can control what we do next, kay?"

Right. Okay, yes, Wild's advice made sense. Wild was being logical for once. Though, was it really in their control what happened next? It certainly hadn't been controllable yesterday. Warriors had had enough promises broken that were made to him, and he wasn't sure he could take the comforting statement from Wild with more than a grain of salt.

"Alright. Thanks." Warriors manages to say after a couple moments of contemplation.

Wild gives him a tight smile and takes his hand off the other blond's shoulder. "No problem."

Slowly, Warriors lets the tension slip from his shoulders and lets out a small huff of relief. They could control what they did next. That was true.

They couldn't control or stop all the horrible things that could be happening to Wind. That's what worried Warriors the most. He knows Wind is competent, he knows Wind is technically a Hero of Courage as well (regardless of what the boy's letter may have said), and that Wind could take care of himself.

"Captain," Time says, falling into step next to Warriors from his other side. "Approximate time of arrival?"

Warriors snaps out of his thoughts and looks at Time, a little startled. Goddesses, he was off his game today. How had Time managed to sneak up on him twice?

"Ask Wild. I'm not sure. I think it was four hours, though. We left an hour ago. So, three hours."

Wild doesn't answer, so Warriors turns to Wild. The other blue-clad hero has stopped walking and his face is carefully blank. The other heroes stop walking when they see the three at the front have paused.

"What's the hold up?" Four asks, stepping up next to Wild. The smithy follows Wild's gaze as Warriors does the same.

"Ah, I guess that answers my question." Time states, "There isn't a time of arrival."

The purple gate standing just over the next hill is glaringly obvious when Warriors sees it. And Goddesses, he has to stop himself from running right towards it and leaving everyone else behind just for the slight chance that Wind might be on the other side. If he ran, there wasn't any way Time wouldn't catch up to him and stop him from dashing headfirst into that portal. It was embarrassing enough when it happened yesterday.

"Another portal already?" Twilight says as he catches up to Time. "Do you think...?"

Warriors can guess what Twilight was about to say... does he think Wind's Hyrule is on the other side of the portal? Well, there was only one way to find out.

"Alright everyone, pair up. I'll be going through last with Wild. Time and Twilight, you two go through first."

---

When Warriors has made sure everyone has gotten through the portal without any trouble, he follows Wild into the gate, his sword drawn. Whatever's waiting on the other side, Warriors is ready to face it.

He steps through the swirling gate and the breath is momentarily taken from his lungs, the air cold and crisp. As he steps onto the crunching ground on the other side of the portal, a sharp tang of the salty air hits his senses.

The blond shields his eyes from the glaring sun, a bright blue sky looking down on him as he walks across the sand. The telltale cawing of seagulls is audible in the distance and the crashing of waves against the elevated rock surface of the island.

As Warriors looks around his surroundings, he notices a few palm trees, and a large spiral tower standing in the middle of the island they're on.

An island? Salty sea water? Could this mean they really are in Wind's Hyrule? They'd been there once or twice, but only briefly and they hadn't had the chance to meet with any of Wind's family, so none of them really knew their way around the place.

Wild stands next to Warriors and peers up at the tower that's the most obvious structure in the area. Other than the tower, there's nothing else on the island. The more Warriors looks at the tower, the more certain he recognizes the face that's topping it.

Wait... where was everyone else? Wild was the only one he could see.

"Wild? Did everyone else go up the tower when I wasn't here?"

Wild looks at Warriors, a little bit of concern plastered on his own face. "No."

"Where are they?" Warriors is a little more than a bit concerned. Had the portal separated them? It had happened a couple of times before, but this really wasn't a good time to get separated. Especially not after what happened yesterday.

"Wait, actually, Legend climbed up. Nobody else is here, at least that I know of?"

Warrior sighs, his heart dropping. "You're kidding? I can't believe the portal separated us."

"We're in, Wind's Hyrule, aren't we." Wild says, frowning.

"Most likely." Warriors responds.

Why couldn't things have gone to plan? Making plans seemed useless at this point. Maybe he should take Time's advice and stop trying to control every little detail of his own life... (yeah, no).

Where could the others be? There was no way to tell if everyone came to the same timeline, but hopefully they were all here. Legend had gone through the portal at the same time as Four, but only Legend had ended up here with them. Time and Twilight were most likely together, hopefully, and Four might be with Hyrule and Sky. That would make two groups of three, and a group of two. Unless there were only two separate groups and the three of them on this island were the ones who were separated. Warriors could only hope that everyone was alright. There was a chance that the others were alone, but Warriors doubted it.

Anyway, there wasn't any time to waste. He had to make a game plan. They couldn't stay on this island, and so far, there wasn't any visible way off of it. Hoepfully there was someone living in the tower who wasn't too hostile.

Warriors glances over the island again. There's some flowers in an odd-looking circle and four pedestals that look like they used to hold something, but those somethings are no longer there.

It's a little weird, but Warriors feels something off in the air. It's not familiar, but it's familiar at the same time. Like there's been a shift.

"Hey! Dumbasses!" There's a shout from the top of the tower, and Warriors looks up to see Legend waving his hand at the two of them. He looks miniscule from down on the ground. "Get your asses up here!" Legend shouts again before disappearing from view.

Short and blunt as usual. Warriors can't help the small smile that creeps its why onto his face. There was no point in shouting back, so he gestures to Wild and the two of them make their way to the top of the tower.

The wooden ladders they climb up seem sturdy enough, but the wood is slightly rotten. Hopefully that wouldn't cause any trouble when they went down again.

Warriors pulls himself up onto the top platform with a small grunt and Wild comes up right behind him. As he stands up and takes in his surroundings, Warriors is immediately struck by the realization that he knows exactly who owns this tower and island.

"Oh my goddesses". Warriors groans as he looks at Legend's goofy smirk.

The veteran stands next to the owner. The owner is a short, ugly little man who's wearing a green jumpsuit of sorts.

It's honest to Nayru, Tingle.

Why the hell was Tingle in Wind's Hyrule of all places? Why did he have to see Tingle again? This was a little unsettling.

"Hello, fairy guy! Welcome to Tingle's Island, Kooloo-Limpah!"

Warriors shivers as the disturbing old guy uses the nickname he gave Warriors during the War of Eras. The guy was obsessed with faires, and often kidnapped Warriors own fairy friends because the short man was jealous of Warriors' bond with the faires.

"What the hell." Wild states. "Who's this?"

Before Warriors can answer, Legend pipes up. "It's Tingle."

"How do you know Tingle?", Warriors says, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Adventure Three." Legend says. "Unfortunately I had the luck to stumble upon and meet this guy."

Tingle lets out a little bit of a shocked and offended gasp. Warriors ignores what the guy says. He does not have the energy to deal with this.

"SO." Wild says a little too loudly, trying to dispel the awkward tension. "Any way off this island, umm" Wild pauses, "sir?"

Tingle nods happily as he twirls around a couple times, "Yup! I have a boat you can borrow" The large-nosed man smiles and Warriors wants to go die in a hole somewhere. "For 800 rupees! Kooloo-Limpah!"

What.

Was the guy kidding? That was an absurd amount to simply borrow a boat. It wasn't like Warriors didn't have the money. He could almost certainly afford it.

"Too bad you're broke as hell, Captain." Legend says, sighing mockingly, "Good thing Wild has a ridiculous amount of rupees in his magic slate."

Of course, Legend thought Warriors was broke. Wild and Legend wouldn't let up about it.

"Oh! Don't worry, I've got enough for that." Wild says as he pulls out his slate and taps a couple buttons on it. "Also, for the last time, it's not magic."

"Like hell it isn't", Legend scoffs.

At least Warriors won't have to pay. He begrudgingly listens to the two bantering for a few moments more before the mood falls somber again. He supposes the shock of meeting someone as strange as Tingle has worn out, because Legend quiets again and Wild's smile falls off his face by the time they've stopped teasing each other.

After a small transaction, Warriors and the other two have boarded the small, albeit well enough built boat. It's a sailing boat, and there's no deck, but enough room for their bags and for them to comfortably roll out their bedrolls if they're on the boat for the night.

Legend volunteers to sail it, because he's the only one in the trio with any boating experience. Warriors noticed the veteran was hesitant to volunteer but did anyways. It was a little odd, but the captain wasn't too worried. It might have something to do with the veteran's adventures... but he wasn't going to ask. Legend's boundaries were Legend's choice. If he didn't want them to know, Warriors wouldn't push.

As long as they were sailing, it would be fine.

Warriors sits down and opens his notebook again, this time to plot out what could have happened to the others.

Hopefully they would find them soon. Warriors wasn't sure how long they'd be alright by themselves for.

---

"Do you recognize this place?" Sky asks, looking around the small island they've been brought to.

"No. Not really. I assume we're on the Great Sea, though, because we're on an island in the middle of the ocean" Time responds, putting away his sword when he realizes there's no threat on the island.

"Oh! That means we're in Wind's Hyrule. Do you think we'll find him?"

"We’ll see. Don't get too hopeful, though." Time sighs. "We should try to find the others as well. It's a little odd the portal didn't send Twilight and I together. Four and Hyrule must be with him"...

Sky pauses and frowns. "Yeah. I was sure we were all going to end up together. The portal's done this a few times now, bad timing this round though. Do you think Legend is with them? I would assume that Legend would be with Four...” Sky mutters something else, most likely musing about the possible groups the others could be in.

Time only hums in acknowledgement, looking around again. There's a pile of rubble, a ruined pile of wood and stones that looked like it used to be a building.

The Skyloftian stands up and goes over to stomp through the rubble as he searches the small surface area of the island.

Time sighs as he walks over to the edge of the island. Peering down, he notices that the island is elevated, the rocky shores crumbly and old. A small, rotting boat is lodged in-between two large stones. It was probably safe. It was their best bet if they wanted to get off this desolate rock.

The old man turns around to alert Sky of the boat, but the Skyloftian is crouched in the middle of the rubble, and he's holding something that looks vaguely familiar.

Time walks over to the other man and arches his neck so he can look over Sky's shoulder to see what he's holding.

"Do you know what this could be for?" Sky asks as he holds out a canister that seems to hold a few papers.

Time takes the canister from Sky and opens it up, shuffling one of the papers into his hands. Unrolling the paper, Time's eye quickly scans over it. "It looks like a map."

"Of the area? Do you think it could be useful?"

Time nods, "Sure. I can read it well enough, I'm fairly certain it's in Wind's Hylian." Time almost winces at the look of worry on Sky's face. The Skyloftian hadn't been the cheeriest lately, and Time's pretty sure he's faking the smiles and nervous chuckles as of now.

"We're in Wind's Hyrule..." Sky mutters. "I dunno. Something feels off."

Time nod. Yes, it had been a little unnerving when they entered the portal and stepped onto the island. The fact that they had been separated from the group, and the oddness of the air felt wrong. It sort of reminded Time of the air in Termina, but a little more twisted and subtle. Magic was something Time cherished and detested simultaneously.

"I agree, but we shouldn't let that distract us. This map has a bit of information, and I've found a boat that we could try to use to get off this place."

Sky perks up and stands, shaking the dirt off his pants. "Great!" He smiles, though it's a little strained.

With that, Time sighs and rolls the map back up and places it back in the canister. With one movement he tucks the canister into his bag.

He lets his eyes look over the rubble once again. If there was anything of note, he didn’t want to miss it. His eye catches something half hidden under a plank. Huh.

Time lifts the large plank off the detailed piece of rock he noticed, and when he does, he lets out a small huff of amusement. It's a statue, well only the face of a statue, of Tingle.

That's odd. He hadn't seen Tingle since Termina... and then there was this statue of him. Perhaps Tingle was one of those people who existed in alternate timelines like Beedle.

Sky is already pulling the boat up from in between the two rocks, so Time ignores the statue and tries to forget about it as he goes to help him.

---

"I'm this close to jumping into the ocean and just letting the waves take me." Four says, kicking the golden statue of some random-ass weirdo that Hyrule doesn't recognize.

"C'mon," Hyrule sighs, "It's not that bad! At least we're not alone, like the first time we ended up in Wild's Hyrule". That had been an utter disaster.

Four groans, flopping down on the bright green grass. "Sure. It still sucks and I want to die.” He says as he looks up at the sky from his back.

Hyrule rolls his eyes, and he glances back at Twilight, who's trying to find a way off the island. "Why don't we go help Twilight find a way out of here, if you hate it so much?"

The smithy lifts his head to glare at Hyrule. "If we haven't found the way out of here yet, I don't think we're getting off for a while".

"No need to be so down! Where's your positivity gone?" Hyrule gestures with his hands in frustration.

"Wherever the hell Wind is." Four lets his head hit the ground again. It’s as though he’s just given up. Hyrule knows for a fact that the shorter hero doesn’t give up so easily. He’s just having a fit.

"Oh, shut up." Hyrule snaps, "I'm going to go help Twilight. You can sulk, but you're being a brat right now and it's not going to make anything better."

Four mutters something back, but Hyrule doesn't care about what the Smithy has to say. It was probably something vulgar. The brunette is close to crying at this point. Four really had to bring up the fact that Wind wasn't here. Hyrule understands that nobody is doing good right now, but Four didn't have to be..a..a.. an asshole about it! Nothing was going well, and now that the groups were split up, Hyrule’s anxious tendencies are soaring through the roof. His hands are fidgety, and his chest hurts when he tries to breathe. The boy chokes down his tears.

"Find anything?" Hyrule asks as he reaches Twilight.

The ranch hand sighs. "Not exactly... there ain't any way outta this place that I've found. The weirdest thing I found was that darn base o'r there. It seems to be a foundation fer a building that's not there no longer,"

That's weird... yeah. How could someone just remove a whole building? "Uh, darn. Alright. We're kind of screwed." Maybe Four had the right idea, just laying down in the grass. Hyrule is tired and depressed, and he does not want to have to deal with this either, but it's not the worst condition he's been in.

Wait, didn't Twilight still have a shoulder wound? And didn't Four have a concussion still? Shit. Hyrule didn't have Warriors here to help him with the usual medic stuff. It wasn't as though Hyrule knew anything about treating wounds besides what Warriors had taught him and his Life Spell, and the obvious fairies, red potions and stitches and bandaging tactics.

"Off topic, but do you think Four will be fine with a concussion if we can't get somewhere to actually rest?"

Twilight pauses, concern etching over his face as he scrunches up his nose in thought. "Uh, sure. He'll be just dandy. Give 'im a lil bit o' time and he'll be right and good. Though, he might be a bit 'ova jerk for the time being."

"Hm. Okay." That doesn't really help Hyrule's worries, but he'll have to just deal with it. Hopefully the others were fine and this wouldn't turn out to be a disaster.

Hopefully being the keyword there.

---

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---

"Where the heck am I?" A figure spits out as they stand in the middle of a small clearing, their eyes slowly blinking open as they take in the sight of the world for the first time in centuries.

Chapter Text

"To be frank, I think your plan is idiotic." says the dark figure as they unroll various maps across a large wooden table in the stony room. Dim light reflects off the musty maps from the torches and lanterns above the trio.

"Well, I haven't seen you come up with a better idea! That puppet of yours has been more than annoying recently, with its recent failures". the second figure spits out, readjusting their hat over their head. "Why can't we use my idea? It's worked before."

"I've told you this before- my puppet is not failing, it's simply enacting the first stages of my plan, unlike the asset you wish to use. That asset has failed multiple times." The dark figure retorts. They take one map and start drawing eight hexagons, the hexagons crossed with stars in the middle, on it in multiple spots, two pink hexagons, three green hexagons, and three blue hexagons. There's a small flash of sparks around each hexagon before writing appears in the middle of them and they begin to move slowly. "You say I don't have a better idea of how to proceed but at least I have approval from the higher ups."

"The only reason you have approval from them is because I initially helped you. They'd do anything to get another mage on our side." The second figure rolls their eyes, kicking their feet up as they levitate lazily above the table, looking down at the maps. "When did you learn other magic, anyways?"

"When the short one did. He was rather obsessive about it too, which was more than ideal for me".

"I hate the fact that you can just... know things. Unlike you, I had to work for my knowledge" The floating figure scoffs at their partner, picking up a map of their own homelands and tracing the ridges of a drawn mountain's cliffs and rivers.

"Try not to get too caught up in the fact that I'm simply better. Don't let me remind you that you were beaten just as sorely as me, if not worse, by a hero with much less prowess." The first dark figure closes up the map it drew the hexagons on and slots it into a container before spelling a lock on it with a flick of their midnight black fingertips.

The second figure scoffs again, getting a little more than irritated and throwing the map they had been looking at at the head of their partner. "Whatever. Can you at least consider my plan? I swear it's much better than simply killing people. Manipulation is fun! I guess you can't relate though, all those damn heroes have given you the idea that killing is the easiest way to get a job done."

"Don't test me, mage", the dark figure spits out, placing the map the second figure had thrown at them back on the table. "But fine, I'll let you pitch your idea to the higher ups. If you can get approval from those demon twins, I'll allow you to use the asset."

"I knew you'd give in!" The mage smirked, floating back down to the ground with a "clack" of his shoes. "I'd say thank you, but I was going to do it whether I got your approval or not! Bye bye, now." The mage's cape twirls as he exits the small room, slamming the wooden door behind him.

The first figure, now alone with the third, rolls their misty red eyes as they continue to clean up the maps. "Sometimes that demon of the winds forgets that I'm his superior"... the figure mumbles, a small itch of irritation bubbling to the surface of their mind. "I can't wait till this whole damn fiasco is over with."

The third figure nods as she leans against the door. "If I have to listen to you two bickering for another century, I may go insane." her grin is a little unnerving as she says this.

The dark figure raises a black eyebrow at the woman. "Really? As though you aren't already insane."

That gets a small snort from the woman. "Fair enough, Rin." her smile turns into a small frown. "Do you plan on reporting that mage to the higher ups, or are you going to let it slide once more?"

"There's no point in trying to stop him. The twins will let him get away with whatever he wants as long as it does some damage to the target." Rin cards a black and grey hand through their white hair. "Though, I don't think the asset will comply. You'll have to get involved".

"Ooh, I'd love to. I haven't been able to mess with anyone since the whole tower thing." the woman seems happy at the thought of getting back onto the field, despite her rather awful first assignment back a while ago.

"Don't seem so happy about it, you'll probably get stabbed senseless again."

"As though a sword could actually vanquish me! Nobody knows of my weakness in that era, I'll be perfectly fine". the woman chuckles.

"If you say so, Vi." Rin sighs.

This had better all go according to plan. If that stupid mage messed anything up, they'd be screwed for another millennia. As if on cue, the mage bursts back into the room, grinning from ear to ear.

"Guess who just got approval?" the mage says in a mockingly singsongy voice.

Rin supposes they should get out the damn mirror, a couple hundred candles, and as much magic powder as they could find.

---

Win- Link- wakes up with the clear absence of warmth. Tetra's has gotten out of bed, most likely a few hours ago, because Link can't feel a single bit of warmth where Tetra had been laying. Link shouldn't be too upset, but he's a little disappointed he didn't wake up at the same time as Tetra. There was just something peaceful about waking up next to your best friend, blinking sleep out of your eyes as you watched her wake up and blink open her own dark brown eyes and- nope. Stopping thoughts. Link did not have time to evaluate how he felt about Tetra. Tonight was most likely the night he was leaving, and thinking about Tetra in that way would make the guilt a little too overwhelming. His thoughts were already plagued with guilt on a pretty regular basis nowadays.

Link tangles his hands in his blond curls, grunting a little bit when his fingers tug on the tight knots. He'd have to ask Warriors if he could borrow his hairbrush again, oh and maybe some shampoo so he could drench his hair with water before brushing his curls- wait.

Damnit.

He wasn't with the other Links anymore. That's why he was trying this new thing called- stopping reffering to himself by his nickname in his head. Link sighs, rolling onto his stomach as he buries his face in the feathery soft pillows. No crying no crying no crying. If he cried, he'd have to get out of bed and clean his face, then drink some water and actually do something, all the while trying not to spill his plans to leave to Tetra. A few more minutes ruminating in his own thoughts would be fine. (He tries to believe in himself!) At first, it's fine.

Until his thoughts wander back to what happened last night- oh Cyclos no.

The images of his family and friends flash through his head once again, the smell of burning flesh still fresh in his mind.

This was going to be a ridiculously long day.

---

Turns out when you were stressed out all day, it didn't drag on too long. Link's considering rethinking every single one of his life choices at the moment, as he stands on the edge of the ship's railings dropping bags into the sailboat suspended by several ropes. Apparently, Tetra had gone and bought a few sailboats from someone- who though Link didn't know. She wouldn't miss one boat.

Unlike his last "escape", Link had left a much more detailed note to Tetra. (One of his many regrets is not writing individual notes to each of his brothers... along with refusing to write more than a couple letters to his family while he was on the journey, but he shakes off those thoughts. Not tonight, thought demons).

Link has packed all his clothes into his bags, his sword, a couple extra weapons of smaller stature, obviously his journey bag, and more than enough food to last him a month or so. He knows how to live off the land well enough, so even if he does run out of food early, he'll be fine.

The boy readjusts his belt, loosening it a bit over the extra layers he's wearing tonight. Sky's woolen undertunic and Legend's green overtunic is what he's chosen to wear tonight. For sentimental reasons, and for the fact that it's chilly out on the open sea at night. Extra layers were something he really could have used on his first adventure. Gods, he was a stupid kid... okay no bashing his past self right now. he wasn't any better. He was a stupid teenager now, which was probably worse. Yup, stupid teenagers were worse. Because for one, he thought it would be smart to trust the lizalfos, which got him separated from his brothers, and stuck with the creepy ass pendant that still hung from his neck. He should probably stop and figure out what was up with the pendant soon, but he didn't feel like it yet. There was too much on his mental to-do list at the moment.

Checking over everything once more, Link hops back onto the deck and begins to lower the sailboat into the water, cranking a lever that connected the ropes and boat with both of his arms.

When he hears a small splash coming from down below, Link stops cranking the lever. He locks the machine in place, making sure the ropes won't fall into the water when he gets down. Tetra would hunt him down and yell at him if he didn't make sure the ropes weren't lost.

Link grabs the ropes, and then hops over the edge of the ship, holding on tightly as he climbs down onto the small sailboat. Carefully, he sets his feet down and balances himself on the boat. It wobbles underneath him for a moment before it steadies itself out. He hasn't sailed on a smaller boat for a while. It'd take some getting used to again. How long had it been? A year or so, probably. At least it felt like a year. The last time he'd sailed solo was his first adventure. Sailing with Linebeck had come next, then the war. There hadn't been any sailing then, and Link had missed it pretty badly.

Link hoists the dark blue sail up, feeling for the winds with his hand. Quickly, in a practiced motion, he ties a couple knots and adjusts the ship to prepare it for sailing.

He'd missed the breeze in his hair, and the smell of salty water, the quietness and peacefulness of lone sailing. Lonesomeness was something a bit abnormal- even when he was sailing "alone", he'd had the King of Red Lions to occasionally speak to, even if it was usually silent. Now he was completely alone for the first time in a while. And he was planning to keep it like that for the foreseeable future. (Which hopefully meant a few months, but who knew how long it'd take him to reach his goals?)

Gods, he'd be trapped with his mind for a while, wouldn't he?

At this rate he was going to go crazy, huh?

With those super encouraging thoughts tumbling around in his head, Link sets sail.

---

"I am almost certainly going to attempt murder after this." Rin grits out as they set up the several hundred candles around the tall imposing mirror that stands in the middle of the room. Colorful chalk lines have already been drawn onto the stone floor of the large room where they usually torture people, but unfortunately for Rin, today it's being used for a ritual.

"Attempt being the keyword there", the mage chuckles, once again levitating above Rin. "Couldn't kill someone you know the whole skill set of, can't kill me".

Rin mutters something under their breath before continuing to stand the candles up. They had to change forms from a taller version of themself to one of the shorter and leaner versions, mostly because they kept knocking over candles. And this form had a fire spell, which was very useful for shooting at the mage when he got annoying.

"Do you want me to mess this up? This is your damn idea, and I don't give a crap if it messes up. Praise Demise if it does, actually".

The mage sticks his tongue out at Rin, ignoring the jabs. "Yeah yeah, whatever. Team effort right? The higher ups wil be mad if we don't succeed. I'm just doing all of us a favor, even if you think I'm idiot."

"Well, yes you are an idiot. Who uses an asset that's been asleep for millennia? One that could betray us AGAIN if we're not careful?" Rin hisses out, accidentally knocking over a candle. It takes what seems like a century in all honesty, especially with the stupid mage's ramblings and teasing, but Rin does manage to set up the candles.

Why were they the only one who knew how to set up this ritual? Maybe because the mage had always refused to perform it himself the first time.

"You finally done; carbon-copy rebrand?" The mage chuckles to himself as he fixes his purple hat over his head again, his cloak swishing annoyingly close to Rin's dark face.

"I'd have done it faster if you weren't insistent on staying in here." Rin rolls their crimson eyes, stepping out of the intricately drawn lines on the floor to examine their work. It seemed complete. Ah well, this would be fine. Now they just needed the magic powder. Which era had they decided to use again? Oh yes, the most magically potent one. That's where the strongest magic powder was made. They wanted the ritual to end with a corporal result, after all, and Rin may have added a few new components to this ritual, so the more magic power the better.

Rin grabs the huge bag of magic powder and adds a precise amount of the glowing substance to each designated spot on the chalk. Then they sprinkle a bit on each candle, lighting them with a rainbow of colored flames.

"Oooh, pretty." Vi says, waltzing into the room as she observes the colorful candles. "Are you almost finished, Rinrin?" the woman asks, using the horrible nickname Rin acutely despised.

"For Demise's sake, yes I'm almost finished. I am on my last damned straw, though." Rin shoots a pointed glare at the still floating mage, who like the moron that he is, just grins.

Rin was either going to murder themself or the mage after this whole ordeal was over with, if it ever was.

With a final look over of the chalked-up lines and candles, Rin walks over to the central circle that they've drawn on one side of the large circle right in front of the mirror.

"Alright, I need both of you dunderheads to get out now. If this is going to work, I can't have anyone with an ounce of a light magic core in here." Rin gives an extra pointed glare to the mage, the one who probably has the closest to a grey core in the room and shoos the both off.

When the metal encased door swings shut, Rin closes their eyes.

With a deep breath, Rin begins the ritual.

---

It's painful having the life force drained out of you after being injured beforehand, but honestly, he hadn't really thought it would be this painful. This is like sixteen times worse than he thought it would be. Eh whatever, he was sacrificing himself for those dumbasses anyway. He probably should have expected this. Goddesses, his life sucked.

Voices hover around him as he suffers the consequences to his actions- honestly who came up with those? - but he can't make out every word. He's just trying to focus on breathing, goddesses when did breathing becomes so hard, as he lays on the ground. There are a couple shouts more as the others realize what's happened, and he opens his eyes for what he's pretty sure will be the last time. Huh, he hadn't really thought about what would happen after he sacrificed himself, maybe he should have done that. Whatever, at least he wouldn't have to think about the crappy stuff anymore.

With the last bit of his strength, he mutters out half-assed apologies, that he really wished he could have worded better. Oh well. His "friends" or whatever will just have to live with that. They seem worried, but man, he can't bring himself to care for than a fourth of them... he'd miss seeing that guy, even if it all did go to hell near the end.

Haha, maybe he was going to hell. Honestly, he hadn't thought about dying too much beforehand.

He closes his eyes, letting out a small shaky breath. Guess he'll figure out what it's like to die pretty soon anyway.

Then he enters the void. There's a sudden nothingness, and then there is absolutely everything all at once. Nothing-something-everything, he can't tell. All he has is his thoughts. He's floating but he's standing on solid ground at the same time, he can't see, but he can also see blinding colours and light. There is no sound, but there is a light buzzing of the swirling strands of colour. He reaches out, trying to touch a strand of colour that stands out in the black void of nothing but everything. There's a tingling sensation, but he can't wrap his hand around it, his pale fingers going straight through it. Moving is hard, and each tensing and relaxation of his muscles is difficult.

Hadn't he just died? Where the hell is he? There's something familiar about this place, but he can't put his finger on it. He swears he's been here before....been familiar with this place.

Nothing seems real, but it's not fake either. Is this the afterlife? Had he returned to where he was before he was created? Was this some sort of eternal punishment? He doesn't know, and he wants to find out. Before all of this he could just snap his fingers, do a little magic, and have the answer to his question... but now, no. This was beyond him.

The colours shift around him, and he steps- floats- he doesn't know, around the empty airless space. How is he still functioning at all? Is he somehow still being powered by the mirror- what's going on exactly? No use in thinking about it, if he wants answers, he's probably gonna have to work for them.

After what feels like hours, because honestly it may as well have been hours, he still has zero answers! Zilch zip nada.

Well crap, guess this was his "life" now. The space he's trapped in will let him "walk" for hours on end without actually getting anywhere, and he can't seem to get injured in any way. Oh, also he doesn't need to breathe. Weird. Air doesn't seem necessary, but the mass around him is defiantly not liquid, or gas, or anything really. Nothingness was awful. He'd rather have some sort of answer to what this weird purgatory-shit was supposed be.

.

.

... sometimes he screams as loud as he can just to see if anyone will hear him. If anyone is in this space.... maybe he really is truly alone here.

.

.

.... he remembers a time he wasn't alone. He misses periwinkle eyes and cheery laughter.

.

.

.

...he's pretty sure centuries pass, but he's never had the best sense of time...

.

.

.......at one point he closes his eyes and doesn't have the energy to open them again. The swirling colours that occupy the non-space with him remind him of friendships he'd rather forget if he could never have them again.

.

.

. .

.

. . .

. . .... what was that?

There's an odd tingling sensation; one he hasn't felt since he spent hours messing around with the swirling colour strands. This feeling is more powerful than any he's felt before, though. It's almost as though the strands have all stabbed him at the same time, in the chest. He, against his better judgement, opens his dark eyes. It takes every bit of energy he's been storing up in this odd space to do so, because that's what happens when you don't open your eyes for a long time. Just like he thought, the strands of colour have wrapped around his arms and legs, and some have stabbed their way through his chest. It shouldn't hurt- it really shouldn't, but goddesses, why does it? The colours are darker, muted, compared to when he first saw him. The already pure black walls have begun to darken, somehow, if that's even possible. They close in on him, and the colours seem to drag him towards a shimmering archway that's appeared. The archway is made out of what looks to be glass, and it's glowing a dark silvery colour. He should resist the colours dragging him toward this anomaly, but goddesses, these past centuries have been terribly boring, so he lets them move him towards the archway. The door. Was freedom finally at his hands? Could he finally be allowed to grasp it with his pales hands once more? Experience life? If he could, he'd pledge loyalty to the goddesses, or whoever had the power to literally resurrect the dead or something, and- okay he was getting ahead of himself.

He lets out a gasp of pain as his body his thrown through the archway.

Each movement after this is painful and slow, and it feels like ooze is making it's way down his back. For the first time in centuries, he takes a breath of hair, stepping onto something that seems solid.

The room he falls into seems solid- there's a somethingness to it. There's a reality he can finally grasp onto.

With heaving, half panicked half elated gasps of breath, he stands up.

Blinking his eyes open, he looks around the small clearing he's found himself in- no not a clearing, a clearing in a group of candles and lines.

"Where the heck am I?" he spits out, looking around the stone room- and then straight at the face of someone he'd never thought he'd see again.

It's not that person though- it's someone wearing their face, just like how he himself wore their face.

This is a monster of darkness that stands in front of him, a monster of darkness just like himself.

Despite this, Shadow can't help but feel a little at ease seeing the face of the Hero of The Four Sword- even if it's not truly them.

Freedom... freedom indeed. Shadow turns around and looks at the mirror that he was summoned out of before collapsing onto the stony floor.

..

......
END OF ARC ONE: INTO THE TEMPEST