Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The prefect was awoken by a frantic knocking on their door.

“Who is it?” They groaned as they pulled themselves up. It was six in the morning.

“The headmaster.” One of the Ramshackle ghosts answered.

“What does he want?”

“He said it has to do with Grim.”

That woke them up. In an instant they were downstairs and at the door.

“You have an update on Grim?”

Headmaster Crowley winced a little. “I do, but I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

Neither of them said anything else as they walked to Crowley’s office. When they finally entered the prefect saw what Crowley was so concerned about. Grim was gone. The cage he was in? Gone. In their place was a black hole that was slowly consuming the rest of Crowley’s desk.

“...what happened?”

“I don’t know! I came here first thing and he was gone!”

The prefect grabbed the side of Crowley’s desk that wasn’t consumed by the void and pulled it. It was missing the chunk that was in the hole.

“...I had important documents there...”

At a little past seven they had gotten all the housewardens and vice housewardens to gawk at the hole as well.

“So what do we know about it?” Jamil asked.

“Anything that goes in doesn’t come back out.” The prefect gestured to Crowley’s desk and the rulers that were a few inches shorted than they were supposed to be laying on top of it.

“Did you really need to confirm it that many times?” Vil asked.

“Shush...”

“No magic seems to work on it either.” Riddle said.

“What happens if something living touches it?” Azul asked, giving it a tense stare.

“We don’t know, it’s way too risky to try.” The prefect sighed as they observed the steadily growing hole. A swift kick sent them face first into it.

“Jade!”

“Why did you do that?!”

“It was a matter of science. We gained valuable information; living things appear to be completely consumed.” Jade’s remorseless grin suggested that it was more than science. Everyone took a step back from the hole.

“If they are dead, rest assured that you are going in next.” Malleus glared.

“Oh dear.” Jade said, still smiling.

“How will we know if they’re dead?” Trey asked, adjusting his glasses.

There was a long silence.

“Could we shoot them a text or something?” Idia asked.

“Do they have cell service in the void?” Leona asked.

“...not in my experience...”

Silence resumed.

“We should call an evacuation of campus.” Riddle asserted.

Meanwhile, the prefect was not dead, rather they landed face first on the ground.

They groaned as they sat up. “Whichever one of you...” they saw that they were no longer on campus, and no longer surrounded by their students.

Instead, there were three identical boys, and they realized that they landed on top of a fourth one. The only visible differences between them were the colors of their outfits, red (the one they landed on), purple, blue, and green. They reminded them of the knights’ uniforms from back home, the green one especially.

“Could you get off of him?”

“Oh, sorry.” They stood up and offered the boy a hand.

“Thank you.” The boy smiled as he took their hand and stood as well. “So... you came from the hole?”

“Yep...” they looked at the hole they emerged from, it was larger than the one in Crowley’s office and was also slowly growing. “My name is Link, by the way. Nice to meet you.”

The red boy perked up. “What a coincidence! That’s our name as well!”

“...what?”

“We should probably explain.” The purple one said. “We were all previously one person, but when we drew the Four Sword, we were split into four.”

“We go by nicknames to avoid confusion,” the green one continued, “but our original name was also Link. I go by Green, he’s Vio, that’s Red, and that one’s Blue.”

So they were named after the colors of their outfits. That made things simple enough.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you all, but I do have to get back to where I was.” They had some disciplinary action they needed to carry out.

“How do you plan to do that?” Vio asked.

They thought for a moment. “I think I’m going to try going back through the hole.”

“Is that safe?” Green asked.

“I was fine the first time.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Blue nodded.

“Ciao.” Link gave them a two fingered salute as they walked back into the hole.

Instead of Crowley’s office, the exited onto a hill. Where they immediately lost their footing on the sudden change in slope. They tumbled down to the base of the hill where they landed on top of someone.

“Oh, sorry-”

They tried to get up, but something landed on their back and pushed them back down.

“Vio, you’re on my leg!”

“What’re you guys doing here?” Link tried to push themselves up despite the four kids on their back.

“We followed you!” Red said.

“Yeah, I can see that, why, though?”

“Nothing we were doing was working.” Blue shrugged.

“And our swords glowed when we got close, which could only mean good things!”

“Could you please get off of me?” The boy Link landed on asked.

“Sorry!” All five of them scrambled off of the poor boy and the prefect helped him to his feet.

“Are you alright?”

“Yep!” The boy smiled brightly, then thought a moment. “Did you all just come out of the world eating hole?”

“Yep.”

“So is this where you came from, Link?” Red asked.

“Nope.”

“Wait, you’re name’s Link too?” The other boy, Link, apparently, asked.

“So a sixth Link?” Vio asked. “It can’t be a coincidence at this point. And besides the hair color, he does look a lot like...”

“Doesn’t matter.” The prefect turned back to the hole. “I’ve got places to be.”

“Hey before you go,” the newest Link started, “could you help me find my shield?”

The prefect paused mid-stride and turned on their heel. “Alright, what’s it look like?”

“It’s brown and has a red cross on it.”

The six of them looked around the area. The prefect was about to give up when-

“Is that it?” Red asked, pointing up a tree.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“How’d it even get up there?” The prefect asked.

Link shrugged. “But hey, this one’s shorter than the last tree!”

“The last tree...” the prefect echoed as they approached it. After a quick evaluation they started climbing. “Look out below!” They dropped the shield and quickly fell down after it.

“Thank you!” Link smiled brightly. So bright that the prefect almost had to avert their eyes.

“Yeah, no problem.” They gave him a pat on the head as they walked past. “I’ve gotta get going now.”

“Where are you in such a hurry to get to?” Red rushed to match their pace.

“I... well... it’s a long story, but to put it quickly I am in charge of something and I need to get back. Au revoir.”

The last thing they heard was “has anybody seen my sword?”

They emerged in a plain surrounded by train tracks, a crashed train rested at the end of one. It reminded them so much of home. A loud clang of metal against metal pulled them out of their reminiscing.

“Owww...”

The prefect got closer to where they heard the noise, a train.

“Are you alright?”

“Who’s there?” The voice called back. “Uh, I’m fine, but it’s pretty dangerous around here, so you should leave.”

“Are you sure? It sounded like it really hurt.”

“Yeah, no need to worry.”

Clang!

“Owww...”

“Alright I’m definitely worried.”

“Seriously,” the voice moved to talk to them face to face, “I’m fine,”

They couldn’t help their knee-jerk reaction. “Green?”

“Huh?”

“Sorry, you look a lot like someone I know.” Uncannily like him, even.

“Right, well, you should-”

“Alright, where are we now?”

Green, Red, Blue, Vio and Other Link emerged from the hole.

“What the-?!”

“Oh there you are!” Red waved at the prefect. “Who’s your friend?"

“It’s like looking in a mirror...” the boy muttered.

“You can see how I got mixed up, right?”

The boy nodded silently.

“I’m Red, what’s your name?”

“Link... wait, are you guys named for your clothes?”

“So we’ve got another Link.” Vio looked around. “There’s definitely something about this.”

“If we keep getting new Links at our current rate,” Red thought a moment, “we’ll have... a lot.”

“Good job.” Vio patted the other on the shoulder.

“And that means you’ll need nicknames!”

“What, like yours?” The prefect asked. “I don’t think using the our clothes’ colors will work.”

Red thought for a moment, before he snapped his fingers. “What about your titles!”

“What?”

“Your hero titles! Like how we’re the Hero of Light. What are your guys’ hero titles?”

“I’m the hero of trains, I guess.”

“Wait you are?” The prefect looked at him.

“...Vio, what’s a train?” Red asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Am I in New Hyrule?”

“Yeah.”

The prefect pumped a fist in the air. “Finally! Take that, you stupid crow!” They were finally back home! Granted, the Hero of Trains being there meant that they were not in the correct time, but a win was a win!

“What’s happening?” Blue asked.

“Alright, remember when I was talking about a long story? Well get comfortable, cause I’m about to explain.”

“Ooh! Story time!” Red sat down. “Do you have any snacks?”

The prefect rummaged through their bag and tossed him some macaroons.

“...can I have a snack?” The Hero of Trains asked.

The prefect looked in their bag again. “Do you like waffles?”

“...yeah, I like waffles.”

The prefect explained that a year ago, they were a regular citizen of New Hyrule until they were spirited away to Twisted Wonderland, where they were declared a “beast tamer” and made prefect of Night Raven College.

After they were done, the others shared their own adventures. There were train battles, a sword that split people into four, and lots of getting lost. And after everyone had trains explained to them, Red went on to give everyone their nicknames: the Hero of Trains was called Steam and the Hero of Hyrule was called Realm. As for the prefect...

“What’s your hero title?”

“Oh, I don’t have one.”

“Oh, what about one of your other titles then? Prefect or beast tamer?”

“I’m not sure if I’m really a beast tamer, so let’s go with prefect.”

“Okay... and what’s a prefect?”

“It’s like a student director. I was in charge of helping the students work together.” They were also the student snitch, but they purposefully left that out.

“So... what about Union?”

“That’s... kinda clunky for a nickname, isn’t it?”

“We can shorten it to Yu!”

They winced as they thought about it. Then Red hit them with the puppy dog eyes, and they were weak to cute puppies, darn it!

“Alright, Yu’s good.”

“It’ll grow on you.” Blue patted their shoulder.

“Like a mold...” They straitened up. “Alright, let’s get this show on the road.”

“Guys, I lost my sword again.”

“Right after we find Realm’s sword.”