Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue

Shadow was born the most wondrous, perfect, delightful being to ever grace Farore’s green lands, one long black night from the Dark Magic of a Mirror and a blue pig man-monster, to go help a mouse creature dressed up as a giant eyeball bat with an inferiority complex and delusions of grandeur (Shadow was nothing like Mouse Dad, thanks), in the image of the local Destined Hero™.  An infinitely more interesting and less gross way to be born than the traditional squishy one.

He then had a short and fairly unproductive stint attempting to take over the world and bring darkness and doom upon all the Goddesses' creations. He'd had fun! Ridden a dragon! Burned some villages! He wasn't supposed to be proud of that now, maybe he was a little guilty, but it had legit been super fun at the time, okay?

And most importantly, he'd met Vio.

Shadow had not been an actual living, existing person for very long, but it wasn't until he met Vio he realised how much more there was to being alive than the aforementioned village burning and figuring out how to look cool while doing it.

Vio was clever and cool and patient, and kinder than he liked to pretend he was. The first person Shadow had ever actually liked to be around.

Vio had kissed him and then for a brief moment looked as panicked as Shadow felt. Shadow wanted to see if he'd make that expression again. He didn't, but he'd enjoyed trying to find out.

Suddenly it all meant something, suddenly there was a reason to do things beyond 'kind of fun', and much later when he was being honest with himself, beyond 'spite', 'pettiness', and 'fear'.

They were going to do it together! They were going to usurp Ganon and takeover the Kingdom and the the World and—! To be honest the plan hadn't had much more detail than that, but that wasn't the point. The point was they were doing it together. They were alike! Vio got him! His whole life everyone he had to hang out with was a literal monster, and he didn't fit in with them either. No one until Vio.

Nothing makes you fall for a guy like a group project.

But Vio it turned out, existed to complicate things.

He was a traitor, a spy, something that is infinitely cool except when you are the traitor-ee.

At the end though, he didn't really care. It had been worth it anyway.

He hadn't especially wanted to die, but his life wasn't really the greatest outside of Vio and dying for something, to be a real Hero and save Vio and make a actual difference, well maybe that wouldn't be the worst thing.

Also Zelda had been kind to him when it mattered and when he was hurting, even though he had only ever been a dick to her. Zelda had said he was one of the Heroes too, he didn't want her to die.

If he was honest with himself it was a far better way to go than he was expecting (See: Aforementioned Pig Dad and his finite patience.)

So fine, you know, he broke the Mirror. He did his part. He got to be the Hero Link, just for a moment, and Vio and the lamer-Vios could do what they had to; defeat Vaati and Ganon, save their world, blah, blah, blah. Whatevs.

It didn't matter, well it did matter, but the point is he wouldn't be around to see it. So it didn't matter in that way. You know?

Anyway, he was dying. It was very sad. Very tragic. Very Heroic of him.

Except Princess Zelda went and ruined his dramatic exit (that he didn't especially want to make, but at least he was going to look cool as fuck doing it), by pulling a little pouch out of her skirts as the Dark Cloud came to take her away, tossing it to Shadow, and demanding he give it to Vio as soon as he saw him.

That happened to be when he was dying. Shadow was the world's most amazing delivery guy, okay? That's dedication.

And Vio had pulled a shining little pearl and a dark spikey pinecone of a crystal out of the bag and pressed it against Shadow's chest as he lay sputtering out of existence.

The thing was a dark magic source.

An alternative dark magic source to the Mirror.

One that was in no way tied to Vaati.

WHERE THE ALMIGHTY FUCK HAD SHE GOT THAT?!

(This would set a trend of her continuously finding new and interesting ways to terrify him.)

It was smaller and weaker than the Mirror, less in every way. But it was enough. It was enough for him to tie himself to. It was enough to maintain himself as himself. It was enough to keep him alive. And so he lived.

He was a bit useless in the Big Final Battle to tell the truth. He wanted to help, but he couldn't draw enough power from the Crystal to do anything he was used to. He kept futzing himself back into smoke and shadow. So he gave up and spectated with Zelda. The guys had it covered. Ganon yelled some very unkind things at him.

And then it was over, lots of people said lots of things. There was crying (if anyone asks, not from him) and yelling and hugs.

And then they all went to the Elemental Sanctuary.

Vio and the other three boys who maybe actually weren't the worst thing ever but were still up there (down there?) reached out together and placed the sword back into its pedestal, a reversal of what they'd done all those months ago.

And Vio was gone.

And Shadow met Link.

○●

All their collective dads were dead. So that sucked. It sucked mostly for Link, who didn't actually want his Dad to be dead, just a bit more chill.

A casualty of Vaati's brainwashing somehow.

Link did Not. Want. To. Talk. About. It.

Despite this he seemed to talk about it with himself. A lot.

Shadow didn't push.

They went back to Link's Grandpa's house and proceeded to do a truly horrific job at being people.

Shadow had lived his short life with a phenomenal amount of magic power at his disposal. A raging torrent of it he had taken for granted, never knowing anything different. Now he was cut down to a trickle, and damn! Hylians lived like this!? Horrific. 0/10 would not recommend.

He'd try to do too much and end up collapsing himself back into the crystal, or losing all the solidness in his form. Less of a problem when he just went transparent and ghostly, more of one when he started falling through floors or dropping everything he was holding.

His thoughts would get vague when he did that too, as if the fuzziness in his outline extended all the way into his brain. It was exhausting learning to do everything again with less.

Plus he had to like, learn how to live in a house, and how to buy eggs, and how to speak to the lady who sold eggs without terrifying her or else she'd only sell them the shittiest eggs.

He missed Vio.

Link's problem was not that he was bad at being people, it was that he was bad at being a person. Singular. Occasionally he seemed to forget to be a mess and he'd walk around like he had two legs instead of eight and speak without stumbling and stuttering over his words. His eyes would be the grey he was born (the squishy gross way) with.

Other times he like was a baby deer, flailing and tumbling over his own limbs. He couldn't speak without jumbling everything up, without one of the colours butting in mid sentence. He'd get splitting migraines almost daily.

They tried taking it in turns and that was even worse. It was easier for the Colours to take over from each other than it was from Link so all 'we'll just schedule use of the body' attempts just ended in chaos faster.

They were both in foul moods constantly.

The Dad thing didn't help.

Looking back, he felt bad for Link's grandpa, having not only to deal with his grandson's fractured mind, and the death of his son-in-law, but Shadow's own failing attempts to… exist, really.

At least he'd loved Link, Shadow should have been nothing to this man. Worse, he could have blamed him for everything. Instead he was kinder and more patient than he ever really deserved. So this was family, huh?

○●

Today's challenge was apparently, 'picking up a cup of water without fucking dropping it everywhere'.

Something usually achieved by infants yet had continued to elude the both of them. It had been A Day, A Week, A Month even.

Link, being the one who actually needed to drink, had gone first and fucked it. Managing to half punch the cup off the table somehow instead of picking it up like a functional living being. Spilling water everywhere. Again.

He fell to the ground with a scream of frustration. Shadow'd say it was Blue, but he's pretty sure he had some backing vocals there.

Shadow glowered at the other cup, he would not be defeated by this. He would not lose to Link in this. Focus, focus. He reached out, kept his form solid, and picked up the cup with just the right amount of force. Which was a pathetic victory, seriously what had become of him? But a victory none the less.

"Ha!"

Link kicked him in the shin. Shadow's form stuttered and the cup fell to the floor.

Link grinned and echoed, "Ha!" and he looked so fucking smug over his stupid petty vengeance, flat on the floor with his shaggy, growing out hair and mis-tied shirt.

Shadow wondered if it'd be betraying Vio if he kissed him right then and there.

Then he wondered if he'd phase right through him if he tried and started to laugh.

"What!?" Demanded Link, thinking he was laughing at him.

It was too hard to explain, so he didn't, but he didn't stop either. So Link tried to hit him, a flailing motion from Blue the others made clumsy trying to stop him. The arm phased right through Shadow to hit the table leg with a loud thud and a string of curses from Link.

Shadow laughed harder, lost his control, and flailing fell right through the loft floor with a yell.

Link burst into laughter himself. No stuttering or catching this time, no choking on air. He sounded whole.

○●

By the time Link turned sixteen they had both moooostly got their shit together in terms of being more coordinated than a drunken goat again. A process that had taken too fucking long. Link told him it had taken 'the better part of a year' and Shadow had pointed out it was 'the worst part of the fucking year' and how long was a year anyway? He didn't really see the point in counting time then.

As an aside what a concept birthdays were, huh? You got prizes for not being dead. Link-mostly-Red had asked if he wanted to share birthdays, and Shadow had said no because he didn't like sharing anything.

They'd gone with the first New Moon after Midwinter's night so that it wouldn't clash with the Midwinter festival, he didn't want to share with that either.

Anyhoodle.

Link had added a number to the 'been alive' tally. People who liked him had given him shit. Everyone had been very happy when he didn't spill everything he was eating all over himself. Blah, blah.

And Zelda and Grandpa had both given him actual presents, along with something that would completely fuck up their lives to open the next day.

Two notebooks; handwritten, non-descript, wax sealed. And a letter with them.

Link,

Hi. I'm you from the future. It's complicated. We'll get to that.

I've written these notes, two copies, in the hopes we can change your fate, Hyrule's fate, and that of those I love. It's all on you now, but I'm leaving you with everything I can.

I asked Zelda not to give this to you until after you turned sixteen in the hopes that we would have followed the same path to this point. You should be mostly back together. Hi to Green, Red, Blue, and Vio.

I don't know how much time you have, but I know it won't be much more than a decade at most unless we change it. I'm sorry.

If I got it right when I was in your time six years ago (time travel, we'll get to that too), then I'm hoping, wishing, praying, that Shadow is with you still.

If nothing else changes, I hope at least I was able to save him.

As I was not my own.

Love always, Link (Four), Green, Red, Blue, Vio

Shadow started counting time the day they started counting down Link's.

○●

The notebooks were duplicates, more or less, written in all the Colour's handwriting along with Link's own. Four's own?

And in them was the story of their fate.

Once there was a boy named Link who lost his Shadow. Shadow knew that to defeat Vaati the Mirror had to be broken, Shadow knew this would kill him too. He broke it anyway. The brothers of Link's broken soul had no way to save him, the Princess Zelda had no way to save him. And he had died. The battle was won, and the boys had put themselves back together, never really meshing quite right after the loss that had gutted Vio in particular.

Later, that boy went on an adventure with several other sword dudes named Link. Travelling through time on some Goddess deigned quest. He named himself 'Four' after the Four Sword to distinguish himself. And as a little joke about the Colours the others would not understand for some time.

One day the Chain of Links (ha ha, get it?) found themselves dropping in on their own pasts, or at least, a copy of it, a new Timeline. One they could screw with. A game by the gods to twist this new future to something better or worse.

For Four, for Vio, this turned out to be the chance he'd dreamed of. One he never thought he'd get. If he could just think of a way he could undo his biggest regret. In the end one of his companions provided the answer.

The smartest thing Four ever did was leave the means to save Shadow with Zelda instead of Link, especially without being able to forewarn them of their split. Link at that time, well he uh, had his own drama going on. Instructions and a small dark magic source were left with clever, far-sighted, responsible Zelda, and when the time came she was ready. They had saved him.

Four's Shadow had died. This alter-Four's had lived.

And for everything else?

They screwed up.

They killed Ganon-dude to save a kid, Link's successor in this Hero Thing (apparently that was a Thing?) that was meant to die. By doing so with horrendous timing they likely set off an avalanche of bad luck and consequences that prooooobably destroyed Hyrule. Or at least gave Ganon-dick control over it for who knows how long.

Then they found themselves in Four's era, centuries before their fuck up, and were frantically trying to undo it.

They had to somehow stop themselves from interfering in that later era.

They had a solution to the successor kid dying too, there was another kid even further in the future that could use some Cosmic Divine Wish™ to bring him back.

They just had to deliver a message to a window of a few days some five-to-seven-hundred years in the future. That time frame was also a guess.

They were fucked.

Also, and more important than anything else ever, Link was set to die of unknown causes likely sometime in his 20s. His sword, and soul along with it, had then been placed in a Palace in a Temple in the Sacred Realm. He'd come back split as a set of corrupt monstrous sword spirits and almost murder his poor hero grand-successor kid.

If they could get a message approximately a thousand years in the future they could maybe also undo Link's mysterious and untimely demise. The window of time Four had to do this was Link's first quest, which was short. The 'Save Shadow' plan also had to be set up in the same window.

And tragically, Four held the group's only braincell.

They were double fucked.

That's where Link came into it.

The window of time Link had was say, at least half a decade, but likely more, to try to work something out.

So Four left them everything he could in the hope Link could pull things together instead. Ensure that his grand-successor survived the Chain's meddling, get him a message, and hope he'd be able to revive him.

It was insane.

But there was too much evidence to ignore.

And they'd saved Shadow.

They had to try.

○●

Link read it all, going paler and paler, getting up to pace, sitting back down. Making notes, stopping and starting over and over.

Shadow… wasn't great at reading, so in the end Link was just mostly reading parts aloud for them. He kept forgetting to do it, but it started to seem like to much to ask of him to keep it up.

Instead Shadow drifted over to settle in the armchair beside him, pinning Link's restless legs down with his own as he read and muttered to himself. Vio used to read to him like this, now he only caught sight of him in moments.

He reached the end. It wasn't that long really, a handwritten notebook outlining his short life and early death. Timelines and notes and tools, snippets written in other alphabets that might be left, descriptions of the others involved; the heroes, the Oracles, and others they knew who might help. Things with which he might make a plan. But the story of himself was short.

Four didn't know how old he was exactly, not with all the time travel, but 'late 17 or early 18' was his guess. Two years older than Link.

He was barely less lost than they were.

He'd had to do all this without his Shadow.

Shadow curled up against him.

And Link had turned to him and kissed him for the first time, tasting like tears. It was fear and it was desperation and he wanted to live. It was not a sweet, gentle thing, Link grabbed his shoulders tight enough to hurt and shoved him against the back of the chair as he pressed his mouth against his. He stayed tangible in his hands.

Then Link gave a sob, so Shadow kissed him back, and did it again and again. And then they were sobbing on each other and it was too hard to breathe. For Link to breathe anyway. Lame. Another point against being Hylian.

When he was calm enough to face the world, Link got up, cleaned his face, and lead the way to the Elemental Sanctuary.

For the first time in almost a year Link raised the Four Sword, and stopped being Link.

○●

Vio was back. And the others.

He hadn't know them that well, not really. He'd spent a little time with them sure, but he'd spent majority of his life between the time he'd emerged from the mirror and the time they'd defeated Ganon with Vio.

But he could see Link in them, in all of them, and he'd spent more of his existence with Link than with Vio alone at this point.

It was all very confusing.

That was Link's frown on Green's brow, that was Blue fidgeting just the way Link did, that was his curious expression on Red's face.

The five of them sat and discussed what Link had just read. Mostly the Colours discussed, and Shadow just sat beside Vio and watched them, trying to understand everything that was happening. Picking apart all the parts of Link, all the things he'd grown to love without realising, that were parts of them.

Nothing was decided. He thought they just wanted to be able to talk and be themselves, to process like this instead of the roiling uncertainty that'd send Link to migraine.

Red dragged Blue and Green out to find them some blankets and things. None of them felt like making the trek home in the dark and this mood. Even Shadow could see what he was doing.

He and Vio were left alone there together, sitting side by side. Oh boy.

"So um," started Shadow.

"Link kissed you. Or… we kissed you. I don't know…" Vio said softly.

"Are you mad?" Shadow asked, anxious.

"I don't think so."

THAT'S NOT A NO. Wait, "Are you sad?"

"I don't know."

"Should I have—?" He really, really doesn't know what he's doing with anything.

"You were fine. You've wanted to for a while right? Red thinks anyway."

"Is it…" Shadow sunk his chin behind his knees.

Vio turned to him, "I don't… hate being Link with you."

"I don't hate Link," Shadow admitted.

"I feel like I'm Vio less and less, like we're just him again more and more."

He lifted his head, "Do you want that?"

"I don't know. I don't know if we get a choice."

"You could stay separate."

"That doesn't feel right either.

The more we feel the same, the more we agree on things, the more we're Link instead of us."

They leaned up against each other, Vio laced his fingers into Shadow's.

"I'm sorry I left you alone," Vio apologised, "I'm sorry I wasn't here after everything that happened."

"You were," he doesn't want Vio to sound sad like that. He doesn't think Vio believes it and… it's too confusing. He doesn't know who's right.

"It doesn't matter. If what those notes say is true then we don't have much time. Not unless we do something about it."

"We're going to do something about it, right?"

"Absolutely. I'm not letting that be our fate." Vio sounded like himself again.

"Fuck that," Shadow agreed.

"He's where Zelda got that crystal, he told her when she'd need to have it. He saved you. And if he could change that we can change this. We're going to find a way. We'll save ourselves, and we'll save Hyrule."

The others returned, taking longer than they needed to to get back.

They built a nest of blankets and cushions and the five of them fell asleep tangled together. There where it all began.

○●

Zelda appeared the next morning with tea and pastries and a big basket of scotch eggs, enough for all six of them. Shadow didn't know how she knew, but she always seemed to.

They talked again. More. So much talking and all of it came down to 'Well that's something we'll have to talk about!' But it wasn't the end of the world yet. Not quite.

They gave the second set of notes to Zelda, and it was time to leave.

"So," Green began as they packed up the bedding and remains of breakfast, "Are we going to choose a name then, for Link?"

"We're not deciding as Link?" Blue asked.

Green merely shrugged, "I mean we can—"

"I suspect we're all thinking the same thing though," Vio interjected, "If they went with titles, and we're not using the Four Sword as ours."

"And if Shadow is alive for us and he wasn't for them…" Red added solemnly.

Greed nodded, "Red, you named us so do you want the honours?"

Red lifted his face to smile at Shadow, "Then, we're Light."

Link, the Hero of Light, put himself back together.

They had a new group project.

○●

Four's plan, as scattershot as it was, had not included Shadow. He wasn't mentioned in the notes, of course not, he was dead for him. The instructions he'd left for Zelda were the only sign of him. That and in the differences between Link and Four.

There were signs of who he was in that journal. In the way he talked about his life and journeys, in the little non-sequiturs and jokes. In the bluntness of Vio's sections and the anxiousness of Red's. In the fact that they'd written so many bits separately rather than Four having written it all. Losing Shadow had done something to them. The fractures in Four's soul ran deeper than in Light's.

For all they were facing down his doom, Shadow thought Link was pretty happy. He had him, and he had Zelda, and he had this big Hyrule saving project to work on. He had his forge and it's great reputation, business was good, he had the townspeople thinking he was some sort of Goddess blessed fae creature which… okay that one was kind of weird.

But he hadn't grown since he was ten, and the Minish would do whatever favour he asked of them, and he had a dark mirror of a partner that stuck to the shadows and followed him around making mischief like a little trickster god and occasionally preforming inhuman feats of whatever. At least they didn't give him shit or look at him with pity like when he was muttering to himself and stuttering.

He digresses.

Shadow had no intention of living out the rest of his life boringly without Link. If Link was going to be resurrected in a thousand years then Shadow was going to find a way to fucking be there.

Fortunately, for all they knew he was functionally immortal. At least in the 'will keep living so long as he had a power source' type way. Hopefully he wouldn't die when Link did, that would fuck up their plan somewhat.

Trying to survive for so long and keep his mind was going to be challenge though. He didn't want to go a millennia without Link. How fucking weird would he be by the end of that? Link would be a little baby in comparison, he wanted to grow old with him, not haunting the countryside alone for the rise and fall of Kingdoms or whatever.

So yeah, just waiting was out.

Four had included a Moon Pearl in his 'save Shadow' gift basket to Zelda so that the Crystal could be handled without turning whoever had it into an animal or monster. Green had picked up another (the same one?) during the whole Four Swords adventurey thingy.

Moon Pearls weren't much of a Light Magic source, not really. They suppressed Dark Magic much more than they countered it. So after a whole bunch of failed other experiments, they tried using it on Shadow's crystal. Tentatively, delicately, hesitantly. It worked, it would collapse him back into it, locking down the but not stopping the flow of the magic that kept him alive. He would sleep within the crystal itself.

They tested it; one minute, ten minutes, an hour, a day, three days, a week. He 'slept' dreamless through it all every time.

So from there it's simply a matter of getting it to the right time and place, right?

○●

Link's seventeenth birthday came and went, then his eighteenth. He didn't meet the other Links, he didn't leave on a quest. He didn't meet Folklore, Lore, the alter hero of Legend on which his possible resurrection rested. He didn't meet the Kokiri boy that the two of them were trying to save from opposite ends of a millennium.

Shadow had no capacity for smithing. For any part of the process. They knew, they tried. Sooner or later ya gotta give up and accept defeat. He did other things with his time instead. He'd hunt the monsters that ventured near Castle Town, or sometimes, when they'd listen, just tell them to get lost, not that he was that powerful anymore but being functionally immortal helped a lot. He'd prowl the roads to keep them clear and meet travellers to get news from too. When the townspeople worked up the courage, and needed him badly enough to beg a favour, he'd help out by floating down a well or to the rooftops to pull out whatever poor creature (or child) had gotten itself stuck. He always rushed to fires without being asked.

Link was not a mason, but he knew many. Craftsmen know craftsmen. He went to the best with Zelda and they commissioned two marble altars, giving an approximate design and a couple of specific requirements to the master mason. One was placed in the Temple of Time, one was placed in the Temple of Light.

When there was nothing that needed his attention Shadow would sit in Zelda's shadow and try to make her laugh at inappropriate moments. It was rare that he did, but the important thing was sometimes he did. It also meant he knew who was making her life hard or generally being a dick. He swore he had no idea where the story that Hyrule Castle was full of vengeful ghosts came from.

They researched everything they could on Sword Spirits. Speculations on how to make them, the properties of the blade, the power required, what they could do, stories and folklore of them. They considered tracking down the Master Sword, but there didn't seem to be much point. The Colours were… kind of already there. The Four Sword was powerful magically and deeply entwined with his soul, adding Link wouldn't be much more of a push.

They spoke to the the travellers Link had helped as a child, Din, Nayru, and Farore. He asked if they were the Oracles, and they had said yes. They promised to help them when the time came.

Link turned twenty. It seemed like a milestone somehow. They got very, very drunk about it.

He rarely split anymore. The Four Sword was left to hold its nebulous seal against Darkness. The king didn't like it being taken unnecessarily. Mostly they were just Link. Sometimes it would get too much, sometimes his splitting headaches would come back, and they would go back to the Elemental Sanctuary so the Colours could work it out. Shadow and Zelda would sit and talk and play games with them again. It was strange, but so was he. The love was there, and that's what mattered.

At the mid-Summer festival Link danced with the Oracles; Din, then Nayru, and then Farore three times before Shadow stole him back. Nayru watched them with a curious expression Shadow couldn't parse, then took her sister's hand to dance with her instead.

Sometimes they went out into Hyrule, chasing monsters and information. It was actually kinda super fun. It was always fun with Link, getting to travel instead of having him in the forge all the time was even better. They took the Four Sword. Link made Shadow swear to do what needed to be done if he fell. For the sake of the plan, when the moment came, Link wanted to die by that sword.

They did what they could, left the messages they could. Writings in the castle, in the temple, with organisations they thought would survive. Items left in the Sacred Realm by the Oracles for their successors. Dozens of shots in the hope one would hit.

Every time they'd get in a skirmish, every close call they'd wonder if that was the moment. If that had been when Link was meant to die. Had they dodged it? Had they escaped fate? They… hoped to be honest. Surely enough had changed. Shadow was here, Link would always have back up! Someone to fight with him, to give him a potion or fairy if he couldn't himself, someone to carry him into town. Things must have changed so much right? Enough? The young are immortal. He would fall on that sword when he was old and grey.

Zelda asked if they wanted to marry. She could pull the strings and force hands to get it official and recognised. It seemed too much bother given it wouldn't change anything. He thought maybe they would if they reached 'after', when the danger period had passed. He kind of regretted not doing it.

They had done what they could and they were all kind of sick of thinking about it. Link likened it to having a sickness run in a family. Maybe it would get you, maybe it wouldn't. Their plan was in place, they all knew their part, nothing to do now but live their lives. So they did. And they were pretty good lives.

Zelda's father died when she was twenty-three, and they attended her coronation. As the Hero, and because Zelda was very good at getting what she wanted, Link was the one to crown her. Shadow was on his best behaviour. During the ceremony. And no one can prove a thing about any incidents that may have occurred after.

There was a bad fight. They were responding to a Tektite incursion at the settlement at the base of Mt Crenel, a standard boring thing, and had run into a pack of Keatons on the way home. The armed fox-like monsters had taken them by surprise. Link had needed to split and Green had almost been killed. Shadow and the others rushed him back to the settlement, unconscious and with a knife still in his guts. Someone there had had a fairy. He lived, and they all privately wondered if that would have been it.

They started hearing stories of a sickness in the Kingdoms across the sea in the year Link turned twenty-five. There were whispers of a Plague Year.

○●

Link was already sick when he turned twenty-six.

They didn't know how it spread, Shadow didn't much care if it was due to lack of devotion to the Goddesses, or bad air, or not eating enough fish. He did care when people blamed him and made it more difficult for him to get what he needed.

It had sunk its teeth into Castle Town in a matter of weeks. Spreading like wildfire. People got sick fast, and then they started dying. People fled, and all that would do was spread it. There was nowhere to run.

Zelda hadn't gotten it. They hoped with the whole 'descendent of the Goddess, holder of the Light Force thing' she wouldn't. Her retainers had her shut up tight in the castle. This at least, Shadow agreed with. But there was still a long time to go before this would be over. He would sneak in to give her updates sometimes.

He would not die. He would not get sick. He was not Hylian.

They'd blown off Link's initial headache, he still got them once in a while, but as soon as the fever hit they knew. Link went to collect the Four Sword once more and keep it by him. Zelda watched and waved from a high window, Link grinned at her and saluted with the sword. They all wondered if this would be the last time.

They made his grandfather stay away, Link had Shadow to look after him after all, no point in both of them getting it. The old man stayed in the forge. It didn't help, and soon Shadow was caring for both of them as best he could.

The tried potions of course, and fairies. Those were in high demand, but Zelda could get them for them. It drew it out a little more, turned what would have been days into weeks. Thinned out the blood in Link's spit, dulled the fever and headaches. His feet and fingers started to turn black. His lungs were, as he eloquently put it, super fucked. But he was alive, he was alive, they could keep going. He just needed to hold on long enough for it to pass and him to heal. They didn't think he'd survive a trip to a Fairy Fountain. Maybe if he recovered a little they could go. Shadow wondered if he was torturing him, keeping him alive like this.

His, their, Grandfather died. Mottled black under pale skin. Shadow buried him deep in the yard behind the forge. He didn't tell Link, his condition was too bad by then. Link didn't ask, but he suspected he knew. Every time he went to Castle Town he heard of more deaths, and soon there was no point in going. Everything had shut down.

He chased off looters, and those who came looking for the Hero. Rumour had it the Hero was guarded by a monster.

The Minish brought food sometimes, that was nice of them, it was getting hard to find. Mushrooms and berries and nuts, Link had always liked them. He had no appetite but sometimes Shadow could get him to eat a little.

He sat by Link and held his hand and made up stupid stories. He curled up beside him and watched every breath. Link said he was sorry, that he thought this was it. That he'd see him again someday, they had their plan, right? This wouldn't be their end. They would meet again, absolutely.

And one day Shadow couldn't wake him. Link lay still and pale, thin and ravaged by the fever they couldn't drive off.

A gasping deep breath, and then a silent exhale, a long slow silence.

Another gasping breath in.

He'd run it through a thousand times in his head, pretending he could possibly prepare. His last words would be something sappy, an 'I love you' or 'I'll see you again' or some stupid joke.

He couldn't even remember what they were.

He was getting worse. He wasn't waking up. He thought he'd get a final goodbye, he thought he'd get a final okay to go ahead, he thought it would be all dramatic and heroic and—

Another gasped breath, the time between them dragging longer and longer.

He can't, he can't, he can't.

It couldn't be for nothing. He had to give them their chance, had to do the last thing Link trusted of him. They'd done everything they could together, now Shadow and Zelda had to finish it.

He couldn't trust in fate or luck, couldn't trust in the Goddesses, only in Link and Zelda. Hope, hope that all they'd done had been enough. He didn't know if he could believe in it, but all was lost regardless. Nothing more to lose. He could only be a shadow, lost in the darkness without his light. Silence. When had Link last drawn breath?

Fuck this for their ending.

Four and Zelda had saved him.

Link was counting on him.

He took up the Four Sword.

And plunged it into his heart.

Chapter Text

The Sword slipped free with a wet 'shlunk' sound. Blood stained the sheets, gushing from the wound. No final gasped breath, no twitch of blackened fingers.

Thus fell the the Hero of the Four Sword, the Hero of Light.

Shadow screamed.

A monstrous, inhuman sound. He was not constrained by a Hylian throat, he was all magic and grief. The darkness around him writhed, twisting and lashing out. There was nothing to hurt, there was nothing to kill, there was nothing to avenge. He was one of countless thousands. The Goddesses owed Link better than this, a fragment of their divine protection. He didn't give a fuck if no one else was granted it, Link should have been.

His form slipped, the edges falling away into tearing darkness, his magic gouged at the walls, at the floor, looking to destroy in his rage and loss. The weakness of his own existence, the throttle on his power tightened like a leash around his neck. He was drawing too much, the Crystal could not provide it, the Four Sword almost dropped from his hands as his form flickered and faded.

All at once it all snapped back to him and he fell to his knees keening, sobbing, the Sword held in his arms.

Link was dead. Vio was dead. Green, Red, Blue were dead. All that remained was him and the Sword.

He remained there for a long time, curled over and insensate in grief. In what he had done. Here was the promised end.

A chirping noise brought him back, and he lifted his head to see a Minish solemnly standing before him. He'd always been able to see them, a legacy of his connection to Vaati perhaps, or just because of what he was. They didn't like him like they liked, loved, Link, but they didn't dislike him either.

The little creature placed a white flower and a green kinstone piece in front of him, then chirped again and hopped away. His eyes drifted after it, back up the bed to Link, now ringed by the little creatures. He was scattered with white flowers and all manner of little trinkets and gifts; ribbon, clover, acorns, feathers, shavings of brass and copper. He supposed he had been their Hero too. Neither of them had been able to save him in the end, huh?

Eventually, finally, he got up, if only to clean the blood off the Sword. He took the Kinstone and flower. He needed to take care of things, he needed to keep going. This was not over.

This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. This was not over. A blessing, a curse, a mantra.

He cleaned the Four Sword. He arranged Link's body comfortably. He was not there. He was in the Sword. He had to be.

He told the Minish to go, all of them. To gather up their families and things and get out. The little creatures nodded their understanding and scattered.

The Hylians would come for Link, he knew this. He had spent enough time shadowing Zelda to know what the wealthy and entitled were like. What she, they, had protected him from. The Hero was a prize.

They would dig him up to gather his bones and put them on display in the temples. They would break him apart for rich men's reliquaries.

He would not let them.

He would like to say he waited until night to give the Minish time to get out, or because he was getting organised, or even sentimental. The fact is he didn't notice the time passing. It was day, Link was dead, it was night, Link was dead.

He found Red's Fire Rod.

There were probably things he should have taken with him; mementos, gifts, things Link would have wanted saved. But he could not think, he could not find any of that important.

His magic had not been strong for more than a decade, but it was unceasing. He stood by Link's bedside and ended his vigil with fire.

Link was gone, beyond the reach of anyone outside of a fairytale, their home well ablaze. Shadow simply stepped through the wall away from his old life and in to the after.

The few neighbours that gathered to watch the flames saw a small, familiar silhouette vanish into the dark night, the Hero's Sword on his back.

●

He went to the castle like he had a hundred times, to the one person in the world who still mattered.

Unfair of him, there were others who he counted friends, others he liked. He didn't know how many were still alive. It didn't matter. He couldn't help them, couldn't save them, and he'd be leaving them behind.

The security was even worse than normal, he supposed they didn't have the manpower. It still pissed him off. He wondered what what would happen next, but he was never good at figuring out that sort of thing, never good at plans or possibilities. Now he didn't have the energy to even try.

Zelda was still awake and in her sitting room, pouring over papers and books he didn't care to understand. Trying to find some way to hold her suffering kingdom together, to help as many as she could. Someone would have to put the pieces back together when this burned through.

She sensed him as he emerged from the shadows and turned to him, probably expecting another check in visit, an update on the situation outside.

She saw his face, she saw the Sword with him, and she knew.

Her heart broke before him there. She made a wounded sound, and a moment later they were in each others arms, he could feel her hands wrapped around the Sword behind him, pulling the both of them close as she started to sob. She was the only person who loved him just as much. Her hero, at her side from the day she was born.

There was nothing to say, the dreaded had come to pass, they just held each other and cried until they ran out of tears like they'd done so many nights already. Big ugly tears, entirely unbecoming of a Princess. He wondered if she'd be able to keep her heart and kindness through this, through their cruelty of leaving her behind. He'd stay with her until it was time to say goodbye.

They sat in her armchairs instead of sleeping. He let her hold the Sword and she curled up with it against her chest. The only one he'd trust with such a thing. It occurred to him maybe he was the only one left she'd trust to see her like this.

Shadow wanted to break something.

"His body…" Zelda said softly, but practically.

"Gone. No one is going to touch him," Shadow assured her.

She shuddered and pulled the sword closer, "Do you think they'll remember him? Will it all be swallowed up in… this."

Not Goddesses or curses, not Demise or Ganon, no one laid out in a history book or Four's notes. A simple, mundane, devastating, natural catastrophe.

"They never knew Link," Shadow hissed softly, angry at the world.

"Some of them did. Not like us, but some."

He grumbled something nonsensical. She was right, as she always was.

"I wonder if this will be what breaks us. The Hero has fallen. Maybe it's better they're left to wonder what became of him. I don't think they'll wonder though." Her cheek rested against the pommel.

"What a bullshit ending."

"It's not the end."

"It's still bullshit."

Shadow got up to pace, he was so sick of being still, being ineffectual. There was a mirror above one of her fireplaces, he stopped there to stare at himself, at his face. "Do you want to give them one last story? Something better to remember him by?"

"Like what?"

"I'm Link too, aren't I?"

She watched him watch himself in the mirror and realised what he was proposing, "Shadow, you don't have to…"

He whirled back around to her, "We could… I don't know, he goes off on some quest! Tracking down a cure or—!"

Zelda shook her head, "No, that's… he's never coming back. There'll be sightings and charlatans all my life. There will be regardless, let's not give them ammunition.

But… We could give a half truth. He's gone to the Sacred Realm to beseech the Goddesses and he can never return. To be reborn in Hyrule's time of need, perhaps."

Shadow scoffed.

"It's about the story, not the truth," she said, "It's having something left to hold on to."

●

Shadow hadn't liked to think he wore Link's face, not at the start anyway. It was more they just so happened to have the same face. Which was of course, moronic. But still, by the time he was ready to acknowledge, yeah okay, Link had had it first, he was just… not used to thinking of himself that way.

Shadow wasn't 'Shadow Link' very often, he was just Shadow.

But today he'd be one of them.

Zelda had pulled out the plain but overly expensive white tunic Link would wear whenever he'd play the Hero publicly at events in the Castle. He'd worn it to her coronation, and a dozen other things.

Shadow put on Link's tunic, then his colours. Link's blond hair, Link's grey eyes, the pink in his cheeks and lips. He didn't need to change his face, but somehow his expressions still sat different. Link didn't look back at him from his reflection, just Shadow dressed up as a better man than himself.

"We really are just torturing ourselves, huh?"

"We can stop," Zelda pointed out.

"Nah, fuck that. Let's do the pointlessly dramatic thing instead," he grinned and didn't think anyone would mistake that expression for one of Link's own even for a moment.

She laughed. Ha! He managed to make her laugh at a completely inappropriate moment one last time.

They got on her horse, and the Princess and Hero rode together through the streets to the Temple of Time. They had an escort to make some noise so people would look out their windows, and to keep anyone from getting close enough to potentially plagueify Zelda. It was a dumbass thing to do, it was something he would do, not her. But grief and helplessness made morons of them all, or something. At least they'd remember Link with hope, maybe gratitude.

It would be the last time Link was seen.

The day was full of 'last times'.

He wondered if anyone would remember him, the shade with the Hero's face. If anyone would mourn Shadow Link with Link. He rested his head on Zelda's back, at least one person he supposed.

They reached the Temple, as cold and solemn as always. He never liked that place, but Zelda and Link found it peaceful, a connection to other times and people somehow. The ones who came before and the ones who would come after. Link had made peace with his tomb.

It pissed Shadow off. A lot of things were doing that.

He and Zelda went inside, and he dropped his illusions and gave her back Link's tunic. He didn't care what she did with it, but after he burned down the house not much else remained. Link had left behind the Sword, the plan, and them. And well, what could Shadow do but chase after him?

She gave him her copy of Four's notes —He may have burned Link's, whoops— and he stored them away in the void he pulled his form from along with the Kinstone piece and Red's Fire Rod.

They met the Oracles there. He didn't know if they'd come from inside the Sacred Realm, or from their own homes. Were they granted the protections of their Goddesses? Part of him was angry, but a lot of him was just numb. Tired. The worst had come to pass, he just wanted to get on with it and find out if there was anything left for him.

Farore was crying. They were all solemn, but Farore was weeping. He supposed she'd always had a soft spot for Link, he remembered her dancing with him, chatting with him, stopping by on holidays. He was kind of glad if someone else would remember him as Link and not just as the Hero.

He still hated having to trust her with him. To trust anyone with the both of them. But Zelda and Link were the smart ones, and they thought this was their best chance.

Who knows, maybe it was true. Maybe if they handed over the Hero to the Goddesses they'd intervene with the Plague.

He doubted it. And that would make them pretty shit Goddesses, if they held off until Link was handed over. But then he'd had always been a sacrifice, a role to play, one way or another.

Whatever came next he wouldn't be around to see it.

Together, he and Zelda handed the Sword over Farore. He resisted the urge to make threats about it.

Zelda turned to him, "Shadow, are you…?"

"Yeah," He nodded, then said it again with more confidence, "Yeah. I'm ready."

She reached into her pocket, moved something to her other hand, then held out both of them to him. Fists closed like he was going to pick which one held a sweet and which a stone. She always won that game, he didn't know how.

He tapped her left hand, and she opened it to reveal a single silvery Moon Pearl. He hoped it was Link’s, the one he found during their adventure. The other belonged with another Link and he had no Shadow.

Once they knew whose was whose, now they were hopelessly mixed up.

Zelda handed the spare to Din who placed it in a little metal box. Link had made it years ago now, he'd spent ages on it. Shadow would have said he was fine with anything, but he would have just been doing it to spare Link's feelings. He couldn't get a cool sword or his own Temple to sleep in, but at least he got Link's best work. He'd take that.

Zelda looked at him and fuck, they were both crying again.

"You'll find him," she promised, "You'll see him again absolutely. I believe it, I'll believe it for the rest of my life." She hiccuped and rubbed her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I know I should stay but…"

She shook her head, "Don't lie, don't make excuses. Just be selfish, go back to him. I can't follow but… if one of us can…"

He wrapped her in a hug again, one last time.

"Remember me sometimes, okay?"

"Every day."

"Goodbye Shadow, give Link my love."

He held out his Shadow Crystal to her, "Goodbye Zelda. I owe you everything."

She pressed the Moon Pearl into his Crystal, it clicked into one of the cracks. And he knew no more.

●

The plan… well there was a lot to it. So here was the short version. In the next hero's time, the time travellers were going to have a choice. Prioritise the survival of the Fallen Hero, that is, the 'Hero of Time', or prioritise the Hero of Legend, who would be born as a consequence of the Fallen Hero's death.

They knew the time travellers, the 'Chain' were going to enter the Temple of Time. Hopefully one of their messages would get through and they'd take the next step into the Sacred Realm, just opened by the Time-kid.

There Light could meet them and deliver a message; that them killing Ganondorf to save the kid then leaving would be catastrophic, that the young Hero of Legend had the means to save the Fallen Hero if given the chance. He was due to make a Triforce wish to revive something lost in three years, it could be used to also save the boy. Light would like to be in on that wish too.

They didn't know if it was possible, if it would work. It was a long shot, but if the Hero of Legend was bringing back one prematurely dead predecessor why not two?

With luck Link would meet his end at his grand-successor's hands in the Palace of the Four Sword. With better luck he might be granted a second chance from him too.

If they failed? Well he'd be those cursed shadows until something changed.

He… they hadn't known how the Sword had been split and corrupted. If Ganon had done it deliberately or if it had just been a result of his corruptive magic.

Link was the bravest person he knew.

They had figured there were a bunch of possibilities for Shadow and his long sleep.

Depending on who found his crystal;

He wakes to his Link, the Hero of Light. The nightmare is over. Somehow the circumstances twist just so. Possibly. Unlikely.

He wakes to the Hero of Legend, the boy Four called Folklore and Lore in his notes, preferably before he's had his chance to resurrect Light. Then he just needs to watch out for the kid for a couple of years until he has the Triforce again. If he was too late…? That doesn't bare thinking about, what kind of life would he live after they lost their chance?

He wakes to Four or one of his companions. He's with the time travellers, they tell him the message to resurrect Link got through, and his purpose now is to get back to him. Or they tell him it didn't he… he guessed he'd stay with Four.

He wakes to grave robbers and looters, hopefully close to the Hero of Legend's time, and has to wait it out.

Ganon finds him. Shadow gets murdered, or plays along as a lackey for a time then gets murdered because… let's face it, they're going to clash. He dies the way he always thought he would before he knew Link, just very belatedly.

Second worst case scenario. He does not wake. No one ever finds him.

Worst. He does wake. No one ever finds him. He cannot escape the crystal. He goes mad.He does not think about that one.

Also of course, the Crystal may burn out of power and he'd just die. Or something they hadn't accounted for may happen.

This whole thing was reckless, stupid, desperate. He didn't care. That's how he'd always lived his life before Vio and Link.

●

Shadow was Dark Magic. The Four Sword was Light, build from an equal balance of four Elemental Magics. The fairies and dragons and their ilk were another kind entirely, a sort of Natural thing.

The Triforce was none of the above, it was Divine, and it was simply power.

It was not in the Sacred Realm when they entered it, they knew it must appear there at some point between Link and the Fallen Hero but the how and when were completely unknown to them. It hadn't been in Four's notes.

Shadow felt it when it appeared there.

And that.

Was.

Bad.

He wasn't supposed to be feeling anything, he wasn't supposed to be knowing anything. But he did. Slow, seeping fear, like a nightmare, he didn't know what was wrong. Until he realised he was thinking, knowing, feeling. Then all he felt was terror, a spike of it cutting momentarily through the fog and smothering hold of the Moon Pearl.

The Triforce granted power to everything around it, but he, or perhaps his crystal? Held it better than the Moon Pearl keeping him dormant. It was making him stronger and the Pearl wasn't enough to keep him suppressed anymore.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

He didn't know how long it had been, but this couldn't be right. It took him a while to realise what must have happened, that the Triforce must have appeared and it was messing up the delicate balance of his being.

He couldn't do this, he'd go mad for sure. He thought he'd probably go mad just trying to wait it out normally, let alone trapped. He was not a patient guy, okay!? He tried to force his way out, he tried to overpower the Moon Pearl, tried to manifest his form or just some force to remove it or anything. He couldn't. He just… nothing helped.

He tried the opposite. He curled up small, suppressed his power as much as he could, trying to sink back in to sleep. That worked better, a little. He could kind of doze, he could bring back that brain fog a little and let himself drift. It would not be enough, it would not be enough.

Panic spiked and he was back where he started.

He tried again. And again.

He didn't know how long he stayed in that cycle, making himself as small as he could before slipping back to awareness. He reached for the Triforce to beg it to pull back, and to Link just because he always reached for Link.

He could not find them, he could not reach them. Trapped with nothing but his mind and the powers pressing down on him. It would not matter who found him, there would be nothing left to save.

Suddenly it dimmed, suddenly that golden power was smothered, blocked, and a wave of relief washed over him as he felt his own power start to wane.

Then a pulse, just a little, a gap in the blocking. Stronger, weaker, stronger, weaker in a little pattern like a song. Like the knock they'd always give coming home.

Link.

Oh Link.

He was here. He wished he could cry, he wished he could shout and reach for him. Anything.

He couldn't even rattle the bars of his prison.

Light wrapped around him, safe and warm and somehow unreachable. If the Triforce's power was bleeding into him then surely it was doing the same to the Sword, granting Link its power too.

He wondered if he could manifest a body yet. He liked to think he was sitting there on that altar he'd commissioned, the Four Sword on his back, Shadow's crystal against his chest. He wondered if he was saying it will be alright, that he was okay, that he was proud of him for getting so far. He could not hear, could not see.

He sank by inches, the Triforce becoming nothing but a distant golden hum, the power it bled to him blocked by another as they settled into their new balance.

Shadow slipped back into blessed dark nothing.

●

He spilled back out into existence without warning. Like a tap had been opened, the ground had collapsed beneath him, a natural overflow as the power holding him contained was removed. A trickle, a flood, then a levelling out.

It was hard to think. All the forces pressing against him were gone; the Triforce, Link, the Moon Pearl. He looked down, oh hey he could 'look' again, at himself. It was fuzzy, he was fuzzy? Or where his eyes? Or was his brain? He'd been through this before, a long time ago, he needed to…

Oh wait, "Huh," he realised aloud, "Not dead."

Had he actually survived being trapped there? That was… oh right, Ganon was gonna kill him. He was meant to schmooze or something. He lifted his head towards the sensed force of magic, life, power, sound, colour. Gaze drifting over them. No big blue pig. Something about that was good.

"Not Ganon…" Hylians, he knew Hylians, he was waiting for… "Wait…"

Realisation cut through the fog. His name cut through the fog.

"Shadow."

And just like that he was summoned to life.

Link. Link, Link, Link. Link called his name like a thousand times before. He's dead, he's here, he's different, he's crying.

It was the boy, the Link from his distant memories.

Not his Link at all.

Four. They knew he went by Four.

This was not over.

He needed to keep going.

They'd not lost yet.

He could work with this, he was waiting for this. They had a plan for this! One of the best outcomes, right? It worked, it actually worked?! Four, Four! The Link who lost his Shadow and saved Light's.

He smiled and drifted to his feet.

"Awww, it's baby Link." He really was cute after all, no smaller but he's got a cute baby face. Link so young, less than a handful of years after they'd met. Was all their hope and information really left by such a baby? How did he put himself back together all alone.

He's the same as when… Focus, Shadow. You were ready for this, remember? There's a plan remember? He needed to get home. "You must be Four."

Link, Four, Four, stared at him, and his eyes were that shifting maelstrom he hadn't seen in so long.

"Nope!" Four decided.

And that… well that threw him off.

"Nope?"

He watched Four take a deep breath, his face twisted in pain in such an odd nostalgic way. The splitting headaches Link had called them in the dumbest and most obvious of puns. Light had called them, because after all, he should distinguish between them now. Light who knew and loved him for more than a decade and…

“Everyone else’s turn for the migraine,” explained Four, as he drew the Four Sword. And split his soul back in to pieces.

Oh. Fair.

After all, Four never met his Shadow.

❍●❍

In Legend's experience the Colours never made an elegant entrance, especially when unplanned. One moment a fight is getting dicey the next the they're there, doubling the chaos in their favour.

Today is no exception, and the four of them appear in a cacophony and a flash of light. They all have Four's tear stained face and bloody hands.

Legend, well he can't blame Four for noping out if this was the state of his brain.

There was another Four, because there was always another Four. He was called Shadow, because Four's taste in names apparently extended to his Dark.

And a week or so ago (had it only been that long?) in the Palace of the Four Sword, after Blind had worn a younger version of that face to fight Four, he had told Legend Shadow was once one of them.

Red, true to form, immediately bursts into tears and throws himself at Shadow, who catches him in a hug.

Blue just starts screaming at him, "WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING WITH THAT BULLSHIT WITH THE MIRROR YOU ARSEHOLE!?"

"So. Um," Green tries to tell the rest of them around the Blue's tirade and Red's sobbing and his own little laugh. He's teary too but at least Green looks happy about the situation.

"You're fine, Green," Time reassures him. It can wait.

Unlike Blue. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU DID!? WE COULD HAVE FOUND ANOTHER WAY YOU DUMBASS SELF SACRIFICING PIECE OF SHIT!" Blue's not usually an angry cry kind of guy, but Four is and his tears are still on Blue's cheeks. They all got them in one form or another.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST FLOAT BACK INTO OUR LIFE WHEN WE'RE FINALLY WORKING AS FOUR AND MAKE US DEAL WITH ALL THIS SHIT A SECOND TIME!?"

"Blue…" Red sniffles at him.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO VIO!? TO ALL OF US!? YOU ABSOLUTE DICK! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT WAS LIKE TRYING TO BE LINK AGAIN AFTER THAT!? I AM GOING TO STRANGLE YOU AND THE OTHER FOUR!"

"BluuuuuuuUUUUE," Red whines, increasing in pitch until Blue is cut off, and opens an arm for him to join the hug.

Blue gives a flat out scream of frustration, then stomps over and does so.

Shadow give a little laugh, and lifts his eyes to Vio, still standing there, shell-shocked. There's something of the expression the shadow wore when he saw Four there. Ghosts looking at ghosts.

"Hey Vio," He gives him a smile Legend can't read, "Sorry I left you alone. Sorry I wasn't here after everything that happened."

Vio hiccups, the spell broken, takes a step forward and reaches out.

Shadow jerks a step back, eyes on Vio's bloody hands. Vio looks hurt, confused, then stared down at the blood smeared Moon Pearl in his hands and drops it like it burns him.

"Vi," Shadow says, and Vio staggers the last couple of steps to him, grabbing him tight and sobbing. Vio is sobbing. He expects this of… well any of them above Vio.

"Vio," tries Shadow again putting an arm around him, hand on the back of his head, and realising he's not going to get an answer to whatever he asks, looks to Green instead, "Did you get Light's message? Did you meet the kid, did you tell him, did Folklore survive, did—"

"He knows," Legend cuts in above the noise, "He knows to wish back Light as well as the kid. He'll bring your Link back."

Shadow stares at him, and Legend doesn't know if he knows who he is or not. He only half knows what's going on, but he knows Light wanted to live, and he knows he got that message through.

The shade starts laughing an entirely unhinged laugh, throwing his head back and cackling like a villian. Legend doesn't even have time to start getting concerned about it before it turns to sobbing and he buries his face in the hug. So now all five of them are crying. Green joins the group hug.

Legend pulls out his trail mix to pick at while they work through it. Spectating snacks. Time just looks at him and sighs. Oh, well now he's not getting any!

"I had a boss fight like an hour and a half ago," he says and pointedly offers some to Hyrule instead. Ever loyal, Hyrule takes a little handful for himself in support.

Time goes and picks up the Pearl Vio dropped before it's lost and forgotten in the grass and starts scrubbing off the blood with a handkerchief.

"You did good," He tells Legend.

"Huh?" Suspicious around his mouthful of trail mix.

"You're all back."

Legend squints at him, "The bar's that low? What's got you all sentimental, old man?"

Time just hums. Annoying mysterious old man. He wonders if he can actually get an answer. "What happened with you all anyway? With the kid? With the other Four?"

"He was a good man."

"Of course he was. Smithy's a better guy than most of us."

Time turned his gaze back from the Colours to Legend, "Lore as well, it was a kind thing he did there."

"Yeah, yeah. So I was a sweet kid and now I'm a dick. Too bad you couldn't swap us," he grouches.

"You're a good man too Legend, you just don't care to have a filter on your smart mouth anymore."

"I'm not so sure."

"You're too old to be having teenage angst," Time says jokingly.

"Never."

The older man snorts and turns back to the Colours and Shadow, "You know who he is?"

"Not really, just that Four said he was one of them. I think he died," he admits.

"We'll have to catch everyone up tonight. A lot happened, and for you too it sounds like."

Legend shrugs, "I owe Four. Whatever this is he's got my support, got it?" Even if it involves whatever Shadow is. He's not familiar with such beings but the dark magic of it sets his teeth on edge.

"Me too."

The group hug breaks up and Red latches on to Vio instead. Interesting. Vio wipes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Game face back on.

"Okay. Okay, okay, okay," says Shadow, floating back a little bit to take a seat in the air. "We have things to do."

"When are we? You know that right?" Vio asks.

"Baby's first quest."

There's a collective groan from the Colours.

"Well at least we hadn't split yet," Green comments, then tells the others, "Baby Four will be ten, and…"

"He's great, he's gonna be great," Blue assures them with a very concerning smile.

"We love him!" Red chips in.

There's a creeping dread climbing up Legend's spine.

"What do you want?" Vio asks next.

"One, me to not be dead. Two, Link to not be dead. Three, us to be in the same place at the same time. Now you would not think it would be that hard! But here I am! And there he was!" His attention abruptly swaps from the Colours to the rest of them, looking for someone before his gaze settles on Wild.

"You saw him right? Link? Light? Was he okay? Was he whole? What was he like? It really worked? He got in the Sword okay?"

Wild looks a little started to be singled out and Legend really wishes he had the full story and not just Wind's passing comments about them meeting the other Four.

"He… he was really chatty. He seemed happy, he was so glad we were there and he was joking and teasing and very kind. He seemed okay."

Shadow's body language softens a little at the reassurance. "You passed on the message right?" He asks again.

Wild nods.

"So the kid knows to bring him back, right? Somewhere out there Light could be alive."

"Yeah."

Shadow nods firmly, "So I'm getting back to him."

"But… why did Light give you to us?" Sky asks, and Shadow eyes the Master Sword still in his hand warily, "Why didn't you just stay there and wait for him to be resurrected and come back for you?"

"Okay!" He declares brightly,"I'll be Ganondorf-Ganon. Freshly sealed in the Sacred Realm and using the building we're trapped in as his base of operations for literal centuries. Let's pretend I found a little traitor sealed away with the Sword of the last Hero to kick my ass." A little Shadow doll materialises in his hands, dressed up in a black tunic and hat similar to the ones most of them wore in their early adventures. It's quite cute, really, got a little smiley face and everything.

Shadow jams two clawed fingers into its stomach and starts ripping out hyper-realistic guts. They vanish like dead monsters as he flings them away. More guts, more guts, more guts. Legend is not sure a person has so much, let alone fitting it in a palm sized doll.

Wind is grinning like this is the best thing he's ever seen.

Sky's looking a bit green, "Okay, we get the—"

Shadow holds up a hand to cut him off and rips out one final handful of guts, then lifts one of the poor thing's little arms and pinches it off at the wrist, then the elbow, then the shoulder. Then he does the same thing with the other three limbs before finally ripping off the head, now with frowny face, and letting the whole thing vanish in a puff of dark magic smoke.

"Any questions?"

"Um. No."

"Also on the chance the Hero of Legend kid failed. Light stays dead and maybe no one finds me. Ever. Handing me over was my best chance."

"Couldn't you have just… stayed in your own time?" Wind asks.

"Sure."

"Then why!?" turns out Sky did have more questions! "Why did you risk it? Ganon finding you or getting stuck for all eternity or—"

"This was the only chance to see Link again," the shade says, wilting somewhat, something honest and vulnerable in that expression.

Oh.

Ohhhhhh.

Legend sees Sky get it too and immediately shift his view on Shadow. Why did he do this dangerous, reckless thing instead of living out his life back in his day and age? Why risk meeting Ganon, or any number of horrid fates when he didn't have to? For the chance to find Link again.

Green goes very still, eyes on Vio and silently mouths 'Fuck'.

He's not sure Vio's noticed, Vio misses things about people sometimes, but for sure Red would have.

"But if Light's alive, then he's like, more than a thousand years in the future. You're further away now than you were when we picked you up." Wind points out.

"Yeah, you wouldn't happen to know any time travellers would you?" Shadow smirks with too many teeth.

"But we don't control the portals. We don't know if we're going to land anywhere near Lore's time again," Wind presses on.

"Which is why," Shadow explains as if telling them something obvious, "we're going to rob Vaati."

"Vaati?" Wind asks.

"We?" Asks Sky, much more importantly.

"What do you want from Vaati?" Blue demands, more baffled than anything else.

Shadow pokes Vio in the forehead, tilting his head back to meet his eyes as he floats there. Vio blinks somewhat blearily up at him, eyes still red from crying.

"Come on Vi, what am I here for? What does Vaati have I want?"

It doesn't take him long, he's always been the clever one. Likely it was his plan in the first place.

"You're after the hat," Vio realises.

"We're after the hat," Shadow corrects him.

Chapter Text

"What if we don't help you?" Warriors asks, because of course some of the others have to be thinking it. A Dark Magic being has appeared and declared they're all going to rob someone after all.

Not Vio, Vio can already see the shape of this. He had a hand in forging this plan for sure. He would not give up his Shadow, or his and his brother's lives so easily. Link, be it Four or Light, knows himself too well, knows Vio too well. He knows he would help Shadow.

He wonders if he's angry or proud. He doesn't like the manipulation, but he would do the same after all. He's on the other end of his own scheming for a change.

He doesn't like strong feelings.

His fingers rest on the pulse point in Red's wrist as his soul's twin clings to him. Tracking his beating heart.

"Then I'll make the plan and do it myself," Shadow announces.

"That's a threat," Vio informs them helpfully.

"It… what?" Time asks.

Blue starts to cackle, "And you all think I'm the dumb one. You are not prepared."

"Okay, I am definitely smarter than Blue," Shadow grumbles.

All four of their expressions turns identically doubtful, he catches Hyrule noticing it and the other boy laughs at them.

"Then which one are you?" Wind asks suspiciously.

"The good looking... No that's all of—"

"The evil one," Legend supplies.

"Yeah!" Agrees Shadow. Because it looks like he has not, in fact, changed.

"Do not." Green is making strangling motions in the air, "Tell them. You are the evil one."

"…why, are they lame?"

"Yeah Smithy, are we lame?" Legend asks, snacking on something and thoroughly enjoying this being someone else's drama.

"Legend," Green turns the air strangling hands towards the older boy. Vio wouldn't mind too much if he started something, but not now.

"What did he tell you to do, what was the plan?" he cuts in before devolves into a scuffle or races further off topic.

Shadow spreads his hands to encompass the four of them and announces, "The babiesssss."

There's a beat of silence, Vio and the other babies in question look at each other, then silently nod in unison. Blue leaps for Shadow's throat. They do not stop him. Sometimes it's actually nice being in sync.

Blue manages to tackle Shadow out of the air and land on top of him, before he, laughing, abruptly melts into a puddle of darkness and slips away, rematerilising beside Twilight.

Familiar. His grip tightens on Red's wrist, then loosens again as Red's gaze shifts from Shadow back to him. No need to fuss.

Shadow floats up so they're of a closer height.

"Hi. You must be Twilight. Good to meet ya. I owe you my life. You let me know if any of these chucklefucks are giving you problems, okay? I will make their life a living hell."

"I don't doubt it," says Twilight and holds out his hand to shake, "Nice to meet'cha"

Apparently that's the correct answer because Shadow grabs Twilight's hand with both of his and shakes it vigorously.

"And that's why you're second favourite," he declares, and the two of them grin fangs at each other.

Second.

And so much is said in such a little thing. Thoughts click, context supplied and applied. Shadow who keeps speaking of Link. Not of them and not of Vio. Second, because 'Link' is one entity. He should have noticed, he was upset and stupid. Or something. He loathes that.

Did they fuse after defeating Ganon? Did Shadow follow Link and Zelda home? How long had it taken that Link before he split again? Before he saw Vio again? What had happened, how had he felt about it, did Shadow choose Link over him? He'd been teasing and playful with all four of them. Is that what they were now? 'All four of them.'

Is he not a whole person by himself?

He doesn't want to feel these things. He is not the one whose job it is to feel things.

…was that the problem?

Shut up, shut up! Enough of this!

His eyes narrow, expression closing off to a guarded neutral. He can tell Red notices the shift, and Vio shoves out of his arms. Focus.

"See Time, he doesn't even know us and he has favourites." Legend is teasing.

"The Captain's right, it's not you," Time jokes back.

"So what did I do?" Twilight asks.

"You gave up Wolfie for us," Vio says without thought, without softening it, still distracted.

And suddenly the weight of that cuts through thoughts of Link and Shadow. The hammer blow realisation of not just what Twilight had done, but what it meant. What had to have happened.

It's one thing to know in theory someone cares about you, that someone is a good person, that they'd trust you if you said something was important. It's another thing entirely to see the proof of it.

Shadow having that crystal means somewhere, some version of Twilight does not. Because he gave it to Four to save Shadow. For them, for Four, for him.

"Huh," Twilight looks at the copy of his crystal, now being held out by Shadow for inspection, "Guess I did."

Vio does not want to feel things, he is less than a quarter of a heart isn't he? A lie. They can't pick and choose as it suits. He can't insist he's his own person, then merely a fragment when it gets hard. He's of Courage too isn't he?

So he forces out the words.

"You… I didn't have a way." He turns to Twilight, he should face him properly for this. "It's been years and I never figured out how I could have saved him. I… There's nothing to use in our era. I've looked and researched and…

But we were there, and I wanted to save him and I must have said something and you… You gave up Wolfie so we could save Shadow. You must have. You'd never even met him and— You, you did that for us."

He feels his voice crack and he hates it, hates it, hates it. He already cried once today that is enough.

Twilight crosses the distance and wraps an arm around him in a hug, not too tight, because Vio never really liked that, and rests a hand on the back of his head. And that little act of consideration almost undoes him all over again.

"So you could save your snarky little shadow buddy's life?" And his voice is so kind, "Of course."

"You never even knew him." Because if this is Link's childhood then Shadow is still years away from existence.

"You did though."

Vio just shakes his head. He doesn't know where to drive his thoughts.

And Twilight doesn't ask, 'what happened?' And he doesn't ask, 'why is this a you thing not a Four thing?' And he doesn't ask, 'did you love him, Vio?' He just holds him for a the long moment it takes to push everything back down again.

"'sides," Twilight adds as Vio shifts, "I'm meetin' him now."

He hears Legend hiss, "New favourite," and snorts at the sound of someone cuffing him in the back of the head for it. Twilight laughs and rubs the back of Vio's head, letting him go as he pulls away, letting the attention be drawn away from them. He keeps a hand on his back, which he finds he doesn't mind.

"Was Lore this bad?" Time asks them in general.

"Nah," Twilight replies, "but you could see his bad habits catchin'"

"It's the other way around," Legend argues, "I lost the good ones."

Vio suspects it was both, the years and trauma grinding him into some other shape. Funny the different directions they'd gone in, but he supposed their starting point was different. The conversation moves on.

He catches Green's gaze shifting between the four of them. "I think we need to be Four for a bit." Green decides for them.

"Agreed," says Red, and Vio's not sure if he should be grateful or annoyed at the two of them.

Blue looks at them suspiciously. "We're going to be headachey as fuck. So why?"

"Because we need to tell them what happened and it's easier to remember and talk about Link stuff as Link." Green explains patiently.

"That's the Green reason. What's the Red reason?"

"I just think everyone needs some time and help to process things," Red says, trying to sound nonchalant.

He fails, Blue catches it, "What things? What everyone?"

Red just laughs nervously as Blue gets up in his face, "Red, what things?"

"It's just um…"

Vio decides to save him, "That Shadow has only talked about Link, not us, correct?"

Red fidgets, twisting his fingers and nods at Vio.

"So…?" Poor Blue, always last in the loop.

Red looks uneasily between Blue and Vio. Horrific to be included in a group with Blue in this.

"Red. I'm right, aren't I?" Because Red was always better at figuring out people than he was, "It was—"

"Shadow and Link were together. I think." Red confirms. The unspoken 'not Vio'.

"…what? WHAT?!" Blue whirls to face Shadow, floating there 'innocently' and watching the drama unfold, "NO!"

Shadow blows him a kiss.

"I REFUSE!" Blue declares.

Shadow just laughs. The others are all watching at varying levels of amused, enthralled, and sympathetic. Nayru grant him patience, did they really need to air all their old personal messes? They were meant to be Four now, not the four of them racing on opposite directions again.

"But you were Vio's whatever the fuck you called that!" Blue yells, waving a hand. Like nothing happened and nothing changed in the what, decade? this Shadow had that they haven't.

"Boyfriend," Shadow provides 'helpfully', knowing it'll just lead to more yelling.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

"Partner in attempted world domination?" Shadow tries instead.

"Vio!" Wind gasps, aghast, but in an admiring way. Just what he needs.

"Both of you stop talking." He tells Blue and Shadow to no effect. He does not need the details of what he was up to after they split being brought up thanks.

"It's been more than ten years, Blue." Shadow points out, a little more kindly, "The four of you put the sword back, remember?"

"I WOULD RATHER DIE."

"You're going to kill Four at this rate."

"HEY YEAH, WHAT THE FUCK!?" Blue turns on Green, "You were going to tell me by fusing!"

"Because you're being like this," He says in his 'managing Blue' voice, which does more harm than good half the time, "Besides it's not just for you."

Blue looks to Vio, finally. Vio just glowers back, "I'm fine."

Which is the wrong answer, because no one in the history of the Chain have ever been fine upon saying they were fine. He must remember to use 'okay' next time instead.

Blue snarls and marches back over to Shadow to yank him from the air by the front of his tunic. "What the fuck do you think your game is? You and the other Four?"

"Light said to tell you he's sorry," Wild cuts in in defence of said other Four, "He said to tell Twilight thank you so much, and he's always in your debt. And he said to tell the four, five of you, they're all so, so sorry. He knew it would hurt."

But he sent Shadow anyway, and they'd do the same. Because they have a chance this time around. Because one way or another, Shadow isn't alone now.

Vio swallows. "Blue. What's done is done. He's not our Shadow. Our," —my— "Shadow is dead."

❍●❍

They're an awkward distance from Castle Town. They could get in tonight but they'd be arriving and looking for a place to stay as most innkeepers were going to bed themselves, and worse, it's the eve of a festival so everywhere is going to be full up. No chance the nine, ten, of them would be able to get a room or two to themselves.

So instead they set up camp where they are, catching the last of the dusk light as bags are unpacked, firewood is collected, and Wild starts on dinner. The Colours recombine and Four proceeds to be completely useless for a while.

Blue was right, he is indeed headachey as fuck.

So while everyone else is productive and helpful Four lies on his back, gazing up at the sky, and coming to the deep and painful realisation that all this is indeed his circus and his monkeys.

Hyrule sits cross-legged on the ground behind him massaging his head, which is nice of him. The others gather and settle around the fire and Legend takes the lead on explaining what happened with their group while they were split up. Four is happy to let him, listening with half an ear instead of contributing.

He feels discordant, the balance he's worked so hard for over the past few years upset. So now he has to lay on the fucking ground staring at the moon for a while until he can sort himself, himselves? out and be a person again.

The last time he needed to do this was in the Dark World, after they'd fought those shadows of himself, and everyone had been freaking out for different reasons in his head the moment the danger had passed. Twice in a week and a half is not a good run. He supposed he could appreciate that at least he could hold himself together enough to get through fights nowadays.

It was Light. They'd fought and killed Light.

The version of him this Shadow loved, the version of him who'd sealed himself away in the Sword for centuries to pull them from disaster and save his successors.

Four had killed half of him, and Legend and Lore the other. He wonders if Shadow knew.

Probably. That's the sort of thing he'd include in an apocalypse notebook to himself.

'Ask him if he brought the notebook,' Vio prompts.

To which Four decides, no, his head hurts, he is going to lie here on the ground and not fucking deal with that until he can deal with this. They have enough to process without throwing that in.

Likewise he's not going to ask about his fate until he has space for it. i.e Not tonight. They'd made it clear before they fused they'd need a little space, so Shadow had been pestering Twilight and Legend mostly instead.

His curiosity can wait, he has other things to feed it first.

Time takes over from Legend and explains what their group did. About his own childhood self, about meeting the other Four in the Temple of Light. How he had watched over the sleeping young Time. Would he do that himself in his own future? He didn't know. Something else to think on later.

They had let history play out, trusting the young Legend —Lore— would save the boy instead. Now Lore would save Light too. Four hoped his other self would look out for the kid, he could do with an adult who understood the weight of all this.

'Of course he will,' Red hums at him, 'He's you/us.'

He feels a little better, the ache in his brain starts to settle and he drifts back into the conversation right in time for it to have his brain break again.

Because wait. What?

Four sits up abruptly, "What do you mean Wild got a piece of the Triforce!?"

"You're the only one without now," teases Hyrule, resuming his head massaging.

"We'll save the next one for you," Sky adds with faux sympathy.

"No seriously."

Wild laughs sheepishly and shows him the mark on the back of his hand, and huh, yeah, there it is.

"You didn't just let things play out for the kid," Four confirms, "you gave up a Triforce piece?"

"You made a convincing argument," Time interjects, "You had a way to save them both and you waited so long to tell us. It was important, it was smart, and we respected the level of dedication to that. We trusted you and Legend."

The level of trust. He… okay, Red is definitely crying in there right now. Hyrule stops his head massage to lean bodily on Four instead, squashing him in a fondly obnoxious kind of way.

Time carries on a bit longer, answering questions and filling out the details.

And then it's Four's turn to explain what they're here for. His first Quest.

He pushes Hyrule off and they drag themselves over to sit properly with the group instead of laying on the periphery. Okay. Story time.

"Princess Zelda and I were born two days apart," he tells them, "my mother, who was a personal seamstress to the Queen, became the Princess's wet nurse. My father was a young captain in the castle guard at the time, and my maternal grandfather a royal armourer and swordsmith. A convenient option that dodged a lot of potentially messy politics.

By all accounts my mother was an exceptionally charming woman, she and the Queen got along fabulously. The Princess and I were allowed to stay friends and had whatever a normal childhood is given those circumstances. Probably most of you were the same in terms of not exactly being normal kids."

He leaves out the in-between, they don't need to get into that, they all have bad luck with their mothers.

"When we were ten we went to the Picori Festival, an event that is held every year to commemorate and celebrate the Picori, or as they call themselves, the Minish, granting a sword and the Light Force to a Hylian hero to drive off evil. We'll get back to that.

The Minish are small magic beings, people. They have their own realm they come and go from so they aren't always common in Hyrule. I've only seen them in some of the other places and times we've been.

They're sort of resemble mice, they're my dark world form, so you've seen one. They're a little like fairies in that they have their own magics and cultures. They like Hylians, and helping them, but they tend to remain hidden except to kids. So the festival is a big one for children.

A fighting tournament was held as part of the festivities, the killjoys wouldn't let me enter, in hindsight, yeah, I was ten. But whatever, I was delivering the blade my Grandfather made as the prize. The Princess and I had a fun time doing kid-at-festival things then went to watch the tournament and deliver the sword.

The winner was a man named Vaati, a stranger."

He pauses as Wild hands him a cup of tea, then continues.

"As the victor he was granted the right to touch the fabled Picori Blade, and the chest it sealed. Vaati, being the bad guy in this story, promptly kicked the guards' asses and broke the Picori Blade, unsealing the chest in the hope that he'd be able to obtain the Light Force sealed within.

Light Force wasn't in the chest. Evil was. So whoops, evils released upon the land. Vaati cursed Zelda into stone, because he is a dick, then ran off. Only kids can see the Picori, and so I was charged with taking the broken sword to them to get it reforged to break the curse on Zelda," he tugs at the sword on his back with his free hand, "This is it now, same one. The Picori blade would bit-by-bit be reforged into the Four Sword."

He takes a sip of his tea, "On the way to the Minish Woods I met Ezlo, a talking hat."

Wind laughs abruptly and too loud as a few of the others chuckle about it, and Four grins at him.

"Yes really. He wouldn't tell me for ages, but he was a Minish mage, cursed into that shape by his former student, Vaati. Vaati has a sense of irony if nothing else.

You see Ezlo made a very, very magic hat. It would grant the desires of its wearer. Little Minish Vaati stole it, put it on, and got to be a big, powerful, mage of a Hylian.

That's what Shadow's after. That's his way back to Light. Light knew we'd be coming here next so he sent Shadow with us to give him a way to get to Lore's time without having to risk going through Ganon."

Legend breaks the silence, "…Four, why are you like this?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"Legend, you're a bit like that." Wind calls out the hypocrite.

"Yeah, the difference is Four is better at it. You would if you could." Sky adds.

Wind nods, "The only one more like that is Vio, and he's just Four but worse."

"They are all just me but worse!" Four points out.

"…huh," Sky says, after a long moment musing on this.

Four gives him an incredulous look. Wait, how many of them are considering this for the first time? They knew they were him! Ugh, it doesn't matter!

"Argh! Okay. Okay. We're off topic." He drags the conversation back, "Where was I up to?"

"Magic hat," Hyrule supplies helpfully.

"Magic hat!" He agrees.

"Triforce hat?" Ventures Wild, "If it's granting wishes..."

Four shakes his head, "No, no, nowhere near as powerful, Ezlo was still a mortal mage rather than a god after all. Think of it more like… Great Fairy levels of magic."

"If Shadow gets the hat is that going to… ruin everything?" Hyrule ventures cautiously.

Four sighs and considers it for a moment, "No, it shouldn't. The only thing we used it for was undoing the damage Vaati did.

The only thing that must happen on this quest is the forging of the Four Sword."

He thinks about that for a moment longer, "Okay we have a ground rule, and that is; Baby Four is not under any circumstances to get his hands on my copy of the Four Sword. His can make non-autonomous copies, but it can't split him, not for years yet. It needs time to mature and soak up power in the Sanctuary."

"Aww! No baby Colours?" Hyrule is giving him his best puppy dog eyes, then Sky joins him, then Wild.

"Absolutely not," Four tells them flatly, "Look, it's not just about that. Recombining was… hard. Even if they're only apart for a short time it won't be good for him."

They agree to that easily enough.

"So what happened with Vaati?" Wind prompts.

"Right, well Vaati didn't know where the Light Force was so he waited for me to gather everything to power up the blade and open the way into the Sanctuary in hopes there'd be a clue in there."

"…isn't that Ganondorf did with you to get to the Triforce?" Hyrule cuts in, asking Time.

"It was." He confirms.

"Ha!" Four laughs, Ganon the copycat, "Vaati did it first. Anyway, the clue was in the form of a massive stain glass window showing the Princess has it. Surprise! Goddess powers! He siphons them from her a bit, evil-fies the castle, boss fight, I win, Zelda gets the hat and uses it to seal Vaati and set things right again. She destroyed it too.

It… he maybe slips the seal a couple of times, but that's not relevant for this time."

He will not bring into question Zelda's sealing prowess. She was ten and did it with a hat. The second time is on him and Shadow anyway. Speaking of…

"Shadow's not in that story," Twilight points out, motioning at the shade who has been (surprisingly) politely and quietly hovering over his shoulder for story time. Just watching and listening to Four.

"Shadow was in number three. Vaati was back and serving Ganon. He and Shadow had the same power source, Shadow broke it so Vaati could be defeated and…"

"And Zelda pulled out this thing some weird time travellers had left with her and completely derailed my very cool and heroic sacrifice," Shadow cuts in.

"And we didn't have a way to save him and he died," Four finishes.

And therein lies the difference between them. That one moment. He feels sick, an ache in his head and heart.

Time is the one to break the silence."Four's Shadow died. Light's lived."

Four just nods, Hyrule puts an arm around him and stars rubbing his head again. Four makes a noise of objection that is ignored.

"Are you like the Colours too? Part of Four?" Legend asks Shadow.

Shadow's gaze shifts to him, "Nah. I wasn't split off by the sword. I was born through different means, and before they were."

"Are you his Dark?" Wars asks.

Shadow makes an 'I dunno' sound. "You're saying that like it's a thing? But I have no idea what that is."

"So is this baby Four or baby Light?" Wild wonders aloud.

"It," Four sighs, "He's neither.

Okay. I, Four, didn't meet you as a child. For me, Shadow died three years ago.

Light met the version of us that killed Ganondorf, doomed this timeline's Time and Legend, then asked him to fix it. They left him with the means to save Shadow. He met Wild and asked us to make a different choice. We did.

So this baby-Link, let's call him Minish, meets us, the version of us that spoke to Light and didn't screw with the timeline.

We need to leave him with the same information again. How to save Shadow and Lore. He does the same thing again, we do the same thing again, eventually we get a stable loop.

When the Goddesses or Time Guardians or whoever weave all the threads back together, it smooths out to a path where we saved as many of us as possible, and whatever future that brings.

That's what Nayru wanted. Save as many as we could to drag this timeline to a better end."

"Question!" Wild raises a hand.

"Yes, Wild?"

"Do I have to understand all this?"

"No, you're good. I've got it," Four promises.

Wild sighs in relief. So does Shadow.

"Should he… understand what's going on?" Wars asks, somewhat concerned.

"I see no reason why he'd start now," Four replies, eyes flashing violet.

ꕤ

In the interest of finding out if they've actually got the right year this time, it is unanimously decided Twilight should run into town, find the nearest pub, and confirm that they celebration they can see setting up in the distance is indeed the hundred year Picori Festival Four says it should be.

So he does.

And it is.

Four's first adventure is set to kick off tomorrow.

He stays for a drink while he's there, because he's spent the last several days babysitting Wind, the Colours, and two versions of Legend. A man deserves a drink for that. A man deserves a medal for that.

He loves the boys, really he does, but ye gods and little fishes.

He has a nice time, big towns are always lively before celebrations and Four's era is more prosperous than most. People are happy and lively, the town is still well awake when he leaves, transforming back into Wolfie to start the run to Four's house.

Thoughts of Shadow sit churning in the back of his mind. That dark mirror being Four had and lost. He never mentioned him, but then Twilight had never really mentioned Midna either. Had he really given up his last connection to her, given up the freedom of his transformation for Four?

But the only answer that comes back to him is 'of course'. He would in a heartbeat if he knew it would save her. How could he have done any less for someone who held that place in Four's heart? There had always been something a little broken in Four, that strange sadness beyond his own, and he wonders if this was it.

They're all a bent from the weight of destiny and responsibility in their own ways. He had never seen it so starkly until he met Lore and realised how much Legend had hardened from that kid.

He's going to have to give it up again isn't he? No, not 'have to', but the choice will be there again. Does he leave the little Minish Hero the means to save his Shadow? He wishes he could have met Light and seen the difference it would make to Four. He wishes he could have met the young Time too.

Would he give it up to save Four, Shadow, Time, and Legend? Even if it was another version of themselves? How could he not? He thinks it will still break his heart regardless. He'll miss this freedom, he'll miss this world only open to him as a wolf.

There is nothing to be done for it right now.

Four's home and forge is only a little ways out of town, and it doesn't take Twilight long to reach it with a wolf's stride.

He creeps around the house, then back of the forge, looking and smelling and listening for anything out of place. Forges always have a strong scent and it drowns out most other things, but still, he doesn't sense anything amiss. He prowls around for a little while before accepting that it all seems quiet and normal. He'd like to stay on watch but he'll need to sleep at some point and—

Ooh cheese!

Hylian Twilight is not allowed to eat floor cheese, but it's free game for Wolfie.

He snarfs up the piece near the back of the forge, then another against the building wall in the fenced yard behind it, then a third deeper in. He loves cheese. How did he miss this on his last pass—

Wait.

There's a yell and he leaps back as a figure drops from above and a sword embeds itself in the earth where he'd been standing a moment before. Twlight skitters back away from the building with an instinctive growl. The figure rips the sword from the earth and grins a threat that is very Blue.

Aaaaaand he's been caught. It's Four, it's baby Four. Baby Four set a cheese trap to try to murder the wolf in his yard.

Twilight fell for— you know what, that's not important.

The kid is dressed in what seems to be an old shirt of his Dad's worn as a night shirt. His feet are bare, his hair is similar to Wind's in length and style, and scruffy, like he scrubs it dry with a towel at best and never bothers to brush.

He brandishes the sword at Twilight.

"En guard, fell beast!"

En guard with what?

Link doesn't give him the time to consider, taking a step towards him.

Twilight steps back and glances around, he's penned in with Link blocking the only exit. Something he really shouldn't do, given a normal animal might get vicious to escape.

"I'm going to make you into a monster wolf cloak!" the boy declares.

Twilight abruptly suspects he is not the real monster wolf here.

Link leaps forward, bringing down the sword in a clean overhead slice. Not fast enough enough and Twilight dodges away. Link's fast, he's confident, already better than some adults he's met. He's Four's height, he thinks, but doesn't have as much muscle as his older counterpart yet. Still, he's plenty good enough with that blade.

The thought that one of them might have actually been prepared for what fate was about to throw at them would be funny if he wasn't trying to put those skills towards killing him.

Twilight makes to get past him but the kid lunges to the side and cuts off his escape. Now, Twilight is going to let himself get stabbed before he bites a child but he would really, really, rather do neither thanks.

So instead he whines and flattens himself on the ground, tail wagging, and giving Link his best puppy dog eyes. He knows Four, and he likes to there there is no point in Four's life where he would have stabbed an animal being friendly and submissive in order to make a cloak out of it.

The sword lowers a fraction, "Are you just a dog?" he seems disappointed.

He is such a good dog. Absolutely not a wolf or a monster or something that needs slaying by an over enthusiastic ten year old.

His eyes fix on the manacle on Twilight's foreleg.

"Are you an escaped dog! Are you an evil villain's evil wolf?"

Twilight keeps up the good puppy act as the kid rambles and schemes.

"I could reform you and you could be my giant dog. You'll have to live in the forest 'cause Grandpa doesn't want a dog but I'll teach you to come when I whistle. You're real big, could I ride you like a pony? How cool would that be! And Princess Zelda could come too—"

"Link!" Calls a man's voice from the house.

"Crap!" The kid jumps and glances towards the voice.

Twilight backs further away, eyeing a route that should get him up and over the fence.

"Hey!" hisses Link, "We're not done! Sit! Stay!"

"Link! Stop playing around. Bed! Now!"

The moment the kid glances back towards his house again he makes his move. Bounding on to a barrel, then a stack of covered wood, then to the top of the fence and over.

"Ah!" Link yells after him, surprised and annoyed, "Get back here!"

The kid's doing fine.

Chapter Text

'Tell Twilight thank you so much, we're forever in his debt.'

The words roll in Time's mind as he tries to dredge up details and hints, tries to remember what Light said that he mustn't have picked up on in the moment. The young man (is he still young after so long waiting?) delivered his message, then handed over his lover to strangers in the hope they would save him, and maybe one day deliver them back together. Pushing him out of Ganondorf's path and into the unknown.

It's no wonder he asked them to hand the Shadow Crystal —and what an oddly apt name that turned out to be— over to Four instead of chancing their reaction to this dark magic mirror of himself.

What a risk, what trust, what a reckless desperate thing the two of them have done. To seal themselves away for centuries; knowing Light's monstrous cursed end in the Palace of the Four Sword, knowing Shadow may have been found by an enemy or never at all.

This was no impulse decision, they must have prepared for years.

To try to save Hyrule, to save the Fallen Hero, to save Lore, for a chance to change their own fates.

It isn't their problem, centuries after their time with no proof it was true. Nothing, except that Four and Twilight had left the means to save Shadow.

The risk too great, the ask too much, the chance too small. They tried anyway, and they made it this far. They could have left it there, Light could have accepted his end and a peaceful rest.

It would have been a better death, but one without hope for anything more.

Instead he will find his end as a monster at the blade of the Hero of Legend, and perhaps live again at his wish.

'Four had some regrets, he gave me a way to not repeat them.'

Shadow shares the watch, resting in mid air by the low fire, drifting lazily and occasionally vanishing off into the darkness for a minute or two to chase whatever catches his attention. He didn't so much volunteer to join him as not lie down to sleep with the others. His focus always sliding back to Four.

'Take care of them for me, okay?'

In his mind, a young man who looks like, but isn't, Four, sits on a beautiful altar and grins at him with a brightness he's never seen on the Smithy's face.

There's so much more he wants to say to him now. Instead he turns to the one he left behind.

"Do you sleep?" Time asks, and Shadow leans his head towards him, tilting in the air rather than bending his neck.

"I can. But you know, I don't think I want to. Ever again." The shade grins with sharp teeth.

He finds he understands that, the spectre of lost time and forced sleep.

He's thinking of something else to ask when Four cries out, a sharp noise of some nightmare or memory or the particular unique tangle of his mind and soul, then murmurs a string of nonsense. Shadow's full attention snaps back to him.

The boy just rolls over and stills again, curled up tight, arms wrapped around himself as he sleeps beside Sky. One of the older boy's arms is thrown over him and keeping him close, grounding and calming.

Hyrule and Legend had been there too at the start but had moved away. No one but Sky could get any sleep near Four when he's like this. Talking and shifting in his sleep, the unsteady string of incomprehensible mutterings as sure a sign of his difficulty holding himself unified as the headaches.

Time watches Shadow watch him, a frown on the the young man's overly expressive face.

"Something wrong?" Time asks.

Shadow answers without thinking, without looking away, "No, I think just…" He trails off, lost in his thoughts.

"Different?" Time guesses.

Shadow shrugs.

"You seem worried," Time points out.

"That normal for Four?"

It is, frankly. Not common, but no cause of concern for any of them. They all have their tics and oddities, all have odd marks left on them by their strange lives. "When he's upset," Time confirms, "Though this is bad for him. Light doesn't do it? Or didn't at his age?"

Shadow just shrugs again, too much already said.

"Your Link was a good man," Time tells him.

Shadow's head whips around to him, then he narrows his eyes, suspicious, unsure of him, "You met him?"

"Wild and I went in there together."

"You're the one causing all the trouble," he realises. The fallen hero.

"In a manner of speaking."

He huffs and looks away. Time suspects there are things he wants to ask and say, but he doesn't actually know how to navigate it. Beneath the smug, intimidation, and disinterest with the rest of them he's a little awkward, a little obvious.

So he takes the step instead. "What was he like?" Time asks.

There's already an obvious pattern in his interests and concerns. This is all for one person after all, he left everything else behind, everything and everyone he knew. He wonders how long it's been. Not in the long creep of centuries, but in Shadow's waking hours (Days? Weeks? Months?), since his Link died. And what Light's glib dismissal of his fate really meant.

I got sick. A lot of people got sick.

He didn't tell them what happened, but he left them someone who could.

"Like Four, right?" Shadow says, unhelpfully.

"Except he's not, is he? None of us are quite the same." Even after knowing him only a short while, he could tell they weren't the same. Their lives had followed different paths.

Shadow curls up in the air, his form vague in the darkness but his voice steady, "He's the bravest person I've ever met. He was worth every chance I ever took."

"You were together?"

Shadow eyes him suspiciously, like he's not sure if it's a trick question or trap. "Yeah."

Time holds up his left hand and taps his wedding ring, "I've been the only one."

He settles, just a little, at the lack of hostility about it, and ah, the defences come down a touch. "We didn't marry."

"No? You said it's been more than ten years."

"The religious are kind of not cool with non-Hylian dark magic shadow beings quote-unquote 'wearing another man's face', it's my face thank you very much, existing. Let alone being with their 'proper' counterparts," He says scornfully. "Zelda offered to force it through, apply some leverage, but it would have been trouble for her so we didn't bother."

First name basis, Time notes, and it feels like closeness rather than disrespect.

"I don't need a line in some fucking book in a Hylian temple to prove shit," Shadow adds.

"I'm glad he had you, someone who would go so far for him. You've followed him a long way. I think that young man I met had been happy, even though he died too young."

"Well of course he was!" Shadow declares, but seems flustered about it. Not used to that kind of complement perhaps. He blatantly seeks to change the topic.

"What's Four like then?"

"Clever, reliable, practical, kind, patient. Good." He gives the standard list of complements.

"Boring," Shadow flaps a hand at him, "Don't you know him enough to do better than that?"

It feels like a test. But he does; complicated, clever Four. He tries again, "Good at getting what he wants, good at getting people to do what he wants. He's subtle about it, but he's good reading people and at shifting their moods. He's always in the background, quietly smoothing things along. Excellent team player.

Unlike some of us, he has an actual, practical sense for self preservation, for which I am eternally grateful.

Most of the boys like a prank, but Four likes a scheme. I imagine there was part of Light that very much enjoyed building his clever little timeloop plan."

Shadow grins, showing off those sharp canines, "Correct." He glances back to Four and asks, yet again, "You really think it worked?"

"If there's anyone who can get things done, it's Legend. Somewhere, hundreds of years from now, another me and another Legend and Light are together and working out what comes next. I have that faith in them."

"Good." He curls up again, "Even if… Good."

"It hasn't been very long for you, has it?" Time ventures.

"It's been five to seven centuries at our best guess, infant," Shadow huffs.

"Does it count if you slept?"

"It counts when it suits me or when it's funny."

"What happened?" The question finally slips out.

Shadow sighs and tilts his head to look at him, "Look guy, this is the nicest day I've had in half a millennium so how about we don't talk about how Link died until Baby-Link forces the point?"

He's right. "My apologies."

Shadow scoffs, "He will. He could never help himself."

That Time can agree with. They're all curious, but none of them chased knowledge for its own sake as much as Four. He would want to know he thinks, even if he knew it was going to hurt him. Legend was the same in that, and Wars. He's not sure about himself nowadays.

Shadows ears flick and he pivots in the air before abruptly vanishing into the darkness again without another word. Time feeds more wood to the fire, watching in the direction Shadow went. Sure enough a few minutes later Wolfie —Twilight— emerges from the darkness and Shadow materialises from his shadow with a "Huh" and continues to stare at it as Twilight shifts back.

Twilight nods at Time then looks back to Shadow who is still staring at Twilight's firecast shadow with a considering eye.

"You know him?" Twilight teases, "Go to shadow school together?"

Shadow punches him in the arm and Twilight just snorts and sits himself down, "Someone's been in it before, you can tell?"

Shadow just tilts his head, "I guess? It feels different but I don't have any reference."

Twilight hums and stretches out his legs as Shadow settles back into his haunting of their camp.

"How'd it go?" Time asks, and sets the kettle over the fire to make more tea.

"Well we got the right year this time a' least."

"Did you check on the boy?"

Twilight hesitates then comments, "…lot of Blue in that kid."

Shadow cackles, and abruptly vanishes into darkness when the noise makes Four stir. A Shadow shaped shadow cast by the firelight on the ground continues his now silent laughter.

"You didn't know him then did you?" Twilight asks the silhouette and Shadow's head pokes back into existence.

"I met him, briefly, and I knew the Colours, and they came from somewhere."

"Was just expectin' him to be more like… Four. The original, ya know?"

Shadow snorts derisively. "Four is not the original."

Time raises his eyebrows, "No?"

"Four is the compromise."

"Between the Colours…"

"They can all stand to be him," Shadow explains, hands appearing from the shadow to shrug, "They can all step back and let Link— let Four be Four. They love him all the same."

"The kid seemed more like them than him," comments Twilight.

"I guess if ya met Four first you'd think that he's always been like that, but that kid," he waves vaguely in the direction of the town, "That's Link before the Sword cut his soul to pieces, and the Link 'before' is not the same as the Link 'after'."

"We just gonna let that happen?"

"Have to don't 'cha? 'cause Ganon's gonna turn up like he apparently always does. Someone needs to beat him, which means using the Four Sword. 'sides, it's Link's call. There are parts of fate we fight, and parts we don't."

Time wonders how you tell the difference.

ꕤ

Link had told grandpa about the wolf because it was cool and exciting, and also because that was probably the sort of thing you're supposed to let adults know about.

And what was his reward for his good deed? For sharing the exciting happenings of his life?

Being woken by his grandfather at the bum crack of dawn.

Grandpa said, "Today's the Picori festival." And Link said "So?" And Grandpa said, "The Princess may wish to go with you." And Link said, "So?" Because so? And Grandpa said, "Link, did you really see a wolf?" And Link said, "Yeah!" because he totally did. And Grandpa said, "Do you want her sneaking out again to pick you up if there's wolf wandering around?"

And Link had to admit he did not want that.

So Grandpa was fine with Link getting eaten by a wolf! Except when he brought it up Grandpa had laughed and said it would be the wolf in trouble (true) and he'd be carrying the blade for the tournament prize anyway and Link was to stay to the path and make sure to report it so the patrols could keep an eye out for it.

Except he didn't actually want to mention it to his Father because he hadn't managed to kill or pet-itfy it and this whole wolf thing was becoming a pain and he didn't even have a wolf steed or cloak to show for it!

Not to mention he wasn't allowed to enter the Tournament. Lame. He bet he would have won and now he was going to have to wait a whole 'nother year. Today already sucked.

Anyhoo.

Link was walking to the castle to pick up Princess Zelda for the festival because he didn't want her to be eaten by a wolf.

Now, the thing about their forge is it's the only thing on the end of the road to their forge. Ya know, it's not a road to somewhere, it's a road to the forge.

Which is why it's weird to find a guy waiting on it. All dressed in purple-indigo and bright red, expensive dyes, but his clothes aren't cut in the fancy court way. His mother always used to point out these things. Told him ways you could tell things about nobles from clothes, she said she didn't want him getting in trouble with some puffed up Duke or whatever.

Anyway, the guy looks like a rich guy but he doesn't have a horse or servant like a rich guy should. He isn't carrying a weapon Link can see, but he looks like a mage, his cloak and big, floppy hat look mage-y. Maybe he's just a weirdo because of that, mages can be as weird as they want.

Nothing marking rank or house, and while he doesn't know everyone in town he's pretty sure this guy's not from around here. Alarm bells ring in Link's head.

"Are you lost, Mister?" He asks like a good, helpful boy should. Definitely not investigating.

"I'm waiting for someone," the man tells him.

This is a suuuuper weird spot to wait for someone

"You're on the wrong road." Link points out.

"Am I?"

"Yeah. This road goes to the forge and they close on festival days. No deliveries or anything." He doesn't think Grandpa was expecting anyone and he knew no orders were ready to pick up.

No wait, Grandpa was maybe expecting Princess Zelda.

This sort of person seems like bad news. Why is he dressed all expensive but weird and waiting alone on a dirt road at too-early in the morning? Who would he be waiting for? Obviously not himself right? There's a worry maybe he is waiting for the Princess.

"You probably want the main road into town. It's next to this one, um." There's a word for it, but he can't remember so he just points through the trees.

"Are you the blacksmith's son?" The weirdo asks.

Suspicious, suspicious, suspicious! Everyone knows him, or his Father or Grandpa, or knew his Ma, definitely not from around here.

"I'm a page, I was picking up the prize for the fighting tournament for the festival," he lies and hefts the sword in his arms.

And the stab of guilt he feels isn't for lying —it's absolutely completely totally okay to lie if it's to protect the Princess— it's for lying about that. His Father's already disappointed he won't commit to a knighthood. He's just… not sure he wants to give up the smithing, you know? He likes it, he's good at it! He likes making stuff, joining the guard seems like an awful lot of being told what to do.

"Oh. Hmm, well perhaps I'll catch them somewhere else." Muses the man, though he doesn't make to move.

"Goodbye then." Link leaves and doesn't wish him luck.

There is absolutely something nefarious going on.

❍●❍

They decided to split up. According to Four, the Princess and his younger self should be together and the chance of someone following them covertly was "Minimal". When asked to clarify he said the two of them would be tearing around at full speed like a pair of sugar high squirrels, and Mini Four would '100% start shit' with anyone he thought was following around the Princess.

Legend, counting himself as someone who could improvise, offered to enter the Tourney, then endured the 'Why? Sky could kick your ass, we should enter Sky!' Before explaining the point wasn't to win. It was to have someone covering that possible 'Vaati fucking up the timeline' point, if anything he was going to have to throw a match so Vaati could win. He then had to endure the 'Legend totally could/couldn't publicly throw a fight against a flamboyant villain' and 'Legend, are you just trying to get another boss fight after Veran?' discussion, which equally annoying.

Look, he just had some energy to work out after everything.

So they agreed, yeah, maybe one of them should be there, and why not Legend since he offered? They didn't actually have a plan for anything yet. They hadn't had enough time, and they weren't sure if things were going to go as predicted. After their disastrous encounter with Veran they were trying not to lean too heavily on future knowledge.

They were just going to let things play out and jump in if needed. Easy, right? They were still debating about what to actually do when the kid went off to collect the Elemental Stones and fix the sword given Four was the only one who could reliably interact with the Minish.

Then someone had brought up, 'Hey, we probably won't be here that long anyway' and Four revealed his entire first quest had, in fact, lasted a week.

The conversation rapidly shifted to if that should even count as a quest ("I did the temples, I collected the magic rocks, It's not my fault you guys are so slow.") Before Wars finally called things to order and pointed out they were on the clock and they set off.

Shadow, figuring he'd go wherever he'd have the best chance of getting that hat, had decided he was going to go with Legend. Justifying it with providing back up, and being able to get him out if things went wrong, and 'do you really want me going off by myself?'

He knew how to push Four's buttons, that was for sure.

So it was Legend found himself watching Shadow as they made their way through town to sign up for the Tournament.

He'd (thankfully) dropped all the floating and dissolving into smoke and casual little illusions and was just running around like any Hylian. He seemed oddly (was it odd?) excited about the whole thing.

Until Legend suddenly realises he knew many of these people, they just didn't know him. The shade seems glad to see them again, mostly glad. Sometimes his face shifts to… something else, and the unspoken question sits heavy in Legend's gut. What happened to his Link? What is going to happen to Four?

Shadow appears back beside him, "Give me money."

"What?" He answers on instinct, "No! Use your own."

"Can't. Left it at home before trapping myself for hundreds of years while Light sacrificed himself to save your sorry future ass," blatantly shoehorning in a guilt trip, "I'll pay you back."

"No you won't."

"No I won't," he agrees easily, "But I'll buy you stuff."

You know what? Fuck it. If it was Marin, alive, time displaced, and grieving, he'd want them to be kind to her.

He hands Shadow a pile of rupees.

The guy rushes back to a stall and returns to hand Legend a steamed bun while practically inhaling his own. Legend just raises an eyebrow at him.

"She's dead, can't get 'em anymore. Ooh!" And he's off again. Obviously comparing how the town is now compared to his own time, what buildings and people have changed. Perhaps caring less about what he buys and more who he's buying it from.

Something about his mood sets Legend on edge but he can't pick what it is.

It occurs to him, abruptly, as Shadow hands him a bag of candied nuts then shoves his way into a carnival game, that some version of Four managed to change his fate, both of their fates. Maybe not entirely, he still died young after all, and maybe he'll stay that way. But none the less he did it.

This guy, buying him useless trinkets and too much food with Legend's own money, is alive because Four knew his future and was able to change it. They were able to be together and… what does that mean for him? For Lore? Is it really possible then? Is there even anything he'd want to change? He won didn't he? It was the best outcome. But he was… not okay, after a lot of what happened.

He can't save Marin, she's not real to save, there's no warning he could give that will change that. But maybe for Lore, Koholint wont carve him open to tear out the last of that spark.

Shadow pauses in his half-manic race around the festivities to stare up what to Legend is an ordinary looking street, still as a statue for a long moment. Then he breaks himself out of the trance and marches back to Legend with a fake smile pasted on.

"Okay, okay, enough fun, let's go get you signed up for the bloodbath."

Legend doesn't bother with the inane questions like 'what the hell is up with you?' all he's going to get is lies. Besides, he knows what's up with him, doesn't he? His Link died, and he left his era behind to chase after his ghost. Timeline fuckery. Legend would be in his own subtle flavour of unhinged too.

Shadow leads the way to the castle and vanishes into Legend's shadow, as ready as they can be.

❍●❍

Four knew it had been odd for Legend to see his younger self, it was hard. There it was on full display for all to see, evidence of all the damage done. A sweet, determined, uneasy kid clawing his way to the final battle, a young teen already wearing down, already resigned to carrying the weight of Kingdoms. A contrast to their self assured, prickly, bitter, smartarsed veteran.

For Four though, it's odd how much it didn't feel odd. He has been and met and loved so many versions of himself, how could he not adore that boy they were all born from? And frankly, it wasn't this first quest that had been painful, that had required recovery from, it was the third where he'd split, where they'd lost Shadow and their Father. The baggage with the kid just wasn't there.

All that is to say, the little guy was fantastic, they were all in agreement about that at least. He's looking forward to meeting him.

He ends up with Wind somehow, the two of them sharing a big communal table with many others in the main square, drinking cider and snacking while they keep an eye out for the kids and watch the street performers.

Two people have asked so far if they're relatives of Link, so, uh, whoops. He's been travelling anonymously long enough with the others he didn't consider that these people might see his face as familiar.

Wind lies smoothly, "Maybe! Da told us we had some second cousins in town or somethin'" And it all passes without incident.

A girl skips by selling flower crowns and Wind buys one made of clover and drops it on Four's head with a grin, trying to keep his mood up.

He can tell Wind's itching to join the kids, but also wanting to sit with the adults. It's a pity Lore couldn't come with them, and not just because it would have been funny to watch Legend squirm, it would have been good for the both of them to have a friend their age. He doesn't miss being fourteen.

They didn't know where the others are exactly. Time and Wars made mention of making some casual connections to the city guard, while the others were going to spread out. Twilight and Wild planned on checking the roads, but they should all be somewhere in town now. Four figures the kids will be here soon enough, so he waits and lets his mind drift.

'Do you think they saved Dad too?' Red bubbles to the surface as the lines between Four and the Colours breaks down, or maybe the lines between the Colours are just solidifying.

'Oh it's 'Dad' now is it?' Vio snarks back as Green tries to play peacemaker, 'Guys…'

'He was our Dad,' argues Red stubbornly.

'He was our Father,' Blue grouches back.

'He loved us.' Apparently Red's not letting this go.

Vio is sour on the topic, 'He loved Link. Green was the only part of us he would have—'

'That's not true and you know it, you just don't want to think about it.'

'You really want to dwell on what happened?' As always, Vio is the first to set them off.

Green and Blue sink into guilt, poisoning the rest of them. It's over, it's done, it was Vaati's fault and they need to stop blaming themselves, and yet…

'No…' Red admits, 'But I don't want to pretend he was someone he wasn't 'cause it's easier.'

'Shadow would know.' Vio starts to say, and they sink deeper into guilt and loss, 'He knows what happened to us and that's more—'

"Four," Wind's voice cuts through the chatter, "Four, they're here."

Four blinks them off, shaking his head to try to clear it, he follows Wind's gaze as the voices go quiet. Walls back up, walls back down. The churn in his gut remains.

Link and Zelda enter the square from one of the side streets, the boy still holding a carefully packaged sword. He knew he and the little Minish Hero were the same height, yet somehow he still expected him to be smaller. Wearing that old green tunic he would never grow out

"Awwww," Wind coos, " He's so cute! Look how scowly he is!"

Four grins, "He's keeping people back from the Princess."

"And he's doing such a good job! Look at him all ready to pick a fight."

And he really is. Four laughs and Wind looks seems pleased with himself.

The crowd gathers around them, Zelda happily chatting and Link getting between her and anyone getting too close. He had forgotten how obvious he was about it, he'd like to think he's more subtle now. He misses her, he realises, he misses her a lot. He hopes she doesn't have to go too long without him, time travel complicates things.

The kids enjoy themselves, he watches them eye off the food and argue about trying a game. He still thinks they're probably rigged. Zelda wins a lottery game, just like last time, and hands Link a shield. Some things don't change it seems, one way or another. Are things exactly the same? Or does she just always win? How hard to you need to push to change fate on its course?

"Hey, Four?" Wind cuts into his musing once again.

"Mmm?"

"That shield Zelda just gave him. You still got it?"

Four shifts his attention back to Wind, "At home, yeah, why?"

Wind gives this some consideration, gives Four some consideration, "Probably nothing. Show me it next time we visit."

Four just shrugs, "Sure thing."

Part of his mind files that away for later, but there are more important things to focus on for now. Link and Zelda tear off to check another stall and Four knows it won't be long now.

"Let's finish up," he tells Wind, "It'll all begin soon."

❍●❍

They may have a problem.

They probably, maybe, definitely have a problem.

Legend makes it through to the finals pretty easily. He's great, thanks. Sure he's not the best of his party of literally mythological heroic swordsmen, but he can beat a few puffed up new knights and brigands who have most of their experience sparring with each other.

So, the final round rolls around and Vaati must be in the other bracket, right? Easy. He'll throw the final and be done with it. Vaati wins and kicks off Mini Four's quest.

The guy he's facing… does not match Vaati's description.

Instead it's a man with big shoulders, skinny legs, a face like an ox and a hat to match.

Legend looks down at his shadow and mouths 'Is it him?'

The shadow shakes its head.

So hey, they've maybe found what changed on this timeline huh?!

So Legend wins, he fucking wins. He couldn't not, the jerkass made comments about him being small and Legend had snarked back on instinct and then he could hardly throw the match against the big dumb ox he'd just mouthed off at.

He doesn't know if this is the right or choice or not, they were already in unknown territory so he'll just have to follow things through as best he can and hopefully whatever needed to happen wasn't on him. Hopefully he hasn't already fucked up history.

He waves to the crowd in in victory with a smile plastered on his face and searchs for the others. He only finds Wild, climbed halfway up a pole and mouthing 'What? What?' at him, and what must be the young Four and Zelda sitting near the Important People.

That was unhelpful. Oh, he's so fucked.

An attendant ushers him to a little tent pavilion off to the side of the parade ground so he's not just standing there awkwardly while they clear things up to award the prize and get everyone into place. Legend shoo's the woman off telling her he wants some privacy to wind down when inside.

Once alone he crouched down to address his shadow, "WHAT THE FUCK!?" he whisper-yells.

Shadow's head materialises, "Where the fuck is Vaati?!"

"I don't know where the fuck is Vaati! He was supposed to win this thing wasn't he? That's what Four said."

Things are already going off the rails.

"He's supposed to be here! None of them were him, I would have been able to tell! You would have been able to tell! He is not that subtle!"

"So where did he go!?"

"What if he's not here?!" Shadow realises in a panic, "What if we can't find him?!"

And Legend realises he has to be the one to keep a handle on things here, because while he's worried about somehow messing up what's meant to happen, Shadow is looking at losing his way home.

"No, shut up," He cuts Shadow off, "look, this happened with Veran too. He's probably just done something different this time. There's no reason to think he's not around."

"So we need to find him."

"No, no, we need to worry about the kid. Veran targeted Lore, so he might be going for Mini Four."

His shadow darkens and roils beneath him and Shadow hisses, "We should go to him."

"Maybe." Think it through, think it through. If Vaati's not here then where is he? What does he have to do and what does the kid have to do? What is Vaati after? "The others are watching him and… Um … no. No, because Vaati still might turn up looking for the Light Force in the chest and— Oh. Oh fuck the sword."

"Why are we fucking the sword?"

"No, no, no, no, Four said it right? The most important thing for him here is the forging of the Four Sword." Because he never has the Master Sword, he has no idea where it is, and even if he did he'll never be tall enough to weild it properly. He needs the Four Sword for when Ganon appears, and he's the one who forges it. Here and now.

"So?" Shadow's still not getting it.

"If Vaati's not here then the sword's still old and weakened but not broken, it doesn't need reforging."

"Ah... So what do we do?"

Legend knows the answer, and he does not like it in the least. 'You owe Four,' he reminds himself, 'You owe Four, he saved the kid, he's your friend and a good man. You know what needs to happen, this is to save him, and Hyrule, and all that mess of a better future you're weaving.'

And he knows he can do it, the Hero of Legend has never been one to half-arse things. They're lucky it's him here if anything.

But he is absolutely never going to hear the end of this.

They should have brought Wild. Well, he'll just have to make do. He pulls off his hat and shoves it in his bag, then starts rummaging around for his cape.

"…How good are you at stage effects?"

ꕤ

Okay, fine, Grandpa was right and this was a good idea. He had fun, Princess Zelda was really happy, he wasn't allowed to enter the Tournament which still suuuuuuucked but he chased off and octorok, and he really did like the shield, and they got a front row seat to the end of the Tournament thanks to him delivering the prize.

Also possibly from Zelda being the Princess. Details.

It takes place in the parade ground in front of the castle, all set up with seating and rooms for the competitors. The Ministers who are always bossing Princess Zelda around are there, and the King, but they don't bother them.

They settle in to watch but are only in time to catch the final couple of matches. The winner ends up being a young swordsman in red. Link could have beaten him, absolutely. Probably. Yeah, he doesn't seem to have too much difficulty winning, but... It's actually hard to tell how good he is.

The guy waves to the crowd then vanishes into one of the waiting tents as everything gets set up for the prize presentation.

"Do you know the story behind the Picori festival?" Zelda asks as they wait.

"Yeah! The Picori legend. Grandpa told it to me."

"Long ago," She recites, "terrible, evil spirits arrived in the world. They burnt our city to the ground. At the same time the Picori arrived, bestowing a magical sword to a great hero."

"Using the sword the hero drove the evil spirits away… or something." He should have slayed them, but he guesses driving them off works too.

"Yes, so every year we have a festival to thank the Picori for coming in our time of need." She nods firmly.

"You really believe the legend?"

"You don't? My father told me the Picori really do exist. He says they come out when the door to the Picori world opens every hundred years. And this is the one-hundredth year! So this time the party's extra long and extra special." She kicks her feet, "Maybe we'll see one!"

Link makes a doubtful noise at that. How can they always be helping people if they're only around every hundred years? Maybe it's just a big holiday for them too. If they exist. If they're around then Zelda should definitely see some, that seems like a Princess power.

Finally four guards march out with the chest between them, sealed with the fabled Picori blade, and place it down in pride of place in front of the King. Link cranes his neck to try to get a better look at it, but knows better than to leave his spot to check it out.

It's actually a pretty stupid prize. What kind of swordsman wants to just touch a blade and never wield it?

Now if he got to see it properly he'd be learning all sorts of things from it in order to make an even better one. Someday he's gonna make a famous sword people are still fighting for in hundreds of years.

An attendant heads into the tent to collect the victor, and the man swaggers out, now dressed more like a mage than a swordsman in a long red cape. His fingers bedecked with rings, his blond hair slicked back making him look older. There's an odd strip of pink in it he notices.

He feels like magic in a way people, even the mages he meets, normally don't. He and the Princess aren't the only ones he's ever met who have the sense for it, and for magic items, but they're both unusually strong in it. There's something similar in this guy. There's something dark too and he shivers.

Link glances at Princess Zelda and shifts forward just a little further . Something's... off.

"Champion Legend, step forward!" The Minister calls.

Oh ouch, it's not the weirdest name he's ever heard, but still, his parents must have been odd. Or even worse, he changed it to that. Link squints at the sword on his back, it's an unusual orange-gold colour with a deep blue hilt. Obviously expertly crafted rather than than being something produced in bulk for an army or guard order. Actually, his whole outfit was a bit odd, even before he put on the cape. He just figured he was a foreigner but the weight of all the little oddities are making him uneasy.

Oh the King's talking, "—The honour of laying a hand on the fabled blade."

"Thank you, your majesty." His accent is odd.

The guy with the stupid name steps up to the sealed chest, pulls a bunch of little tokens strung on a necklace out from under his cape and reaches out that hand towards the blade. He grasps it and shudders, the motion subtle then lost as a roiling cloud of dark magic bubbles and curls up from the earth beneath him. Link surges to his feet and puts himself between it and Princess Zelda.

The dark power settles over the man, resting like another cape over his shoulders and reaching out to wrap around the sword and his hand. There's a surge of magic, a tangle of different kinds, that twists in Link's belly and he hears an almighty CRACK.

The sword shatters.

After that everything happens very fast.

The guards lunge for the wizard, drawing swords as they do. Someone is yelling something but Link is just staring at that broken sword, feeling something ominous stir from the chest. He… he doesn't think anything good is in there.

The mage vanishes from sight and that darkness that cloaks him lunges at one guard, engulfing him and wrapping around his head. He staggers for a moment then falls, and the shadow monster leaps to do the same to the second guard. The wizard un-vanishes.

The chest explodes open, phantom dark creatures erupting out, like ghosts and and spectres and bogeymen of stories. The wizard's own cloaking darkness lunges at the mass of them and they tangle together. Is it a creature of its own? Something about the way it moves. The ghouls and ghosts and indistinct monsters of shadow scatter and flee, but the living darkness seems to have caught and consumed at least some of them. The crowd starts screaming and running.

He feels Princess Zelda's hand on his shoulder and starts backing them up, he doesn't know what's going on but it's dangerous and he needs to get the Princess away.

The third guard, a friend of his father he knows, leaps over the chest and brings down his sword towards the main, however he takes a step back and flicks a magic rod towards him. An orange-red pillar of magic appears under the soldier as he comes down, catching him and throwing him backwards. He lands loudly in a clatter of armour from a height and Link winces, wondering about broken bones.

The guard tries to get up and the man just points another rod at him, ice creeps up his armoured legs and pins him down. The living darkness pounces on the final guard and brings him down the same as the others. Just like that it's over.

The inky cloud settles back over the man, whose takes a deep breath and then his expression flickers for a moment and he frowns, he catches a quiet, "What do you mean motiv—"

The darkness resting on the man's shoulders shifts, then whips towards him and Link raises his shield, ready to combat it. But instead of slamming into him it circles around bypassing him and—

The Princess!

He spins on the spot, and finds the darkness pooled under Princess Zelda, just for a moment.

"Link," She sounds scared.

It reaches up to swallow her before he can reply, the pool of it vanishing into the earth.

The Princess is gone! Princess Zelda is gone!

He spins back to face the wizard, there's some strange expression on his face before he throws back his head and laughs.

Link sprints at him, no thought for how he'll win, he'll work it out. Wizards are meant to be weak anyway, he'll just hit him until he gives back the Princess. The man produces a Magic Rod of some kind, and raises it as him. A blast of magic hits Link's shield and sends him skidding back.

The man smirks, "I," he tells him, putting a hand to his chest as he boasts "Am going to harness the power of the Princess and the Elemental Sanctuary and conquer all of Hyrule, and without that broken key of a sword no one can stop me."

He tosses the hilt of the Picori blade at Link's feet.

"Later." The man turns on his heel and vanishes in a whirl of red.

He's gone, and Princess Zelda is gone. Just like that.

Link is left with the shield she gave him, the broken Picori blade, and a mission.

Chapter Text

Wind sits resplendent in Wild's Thunder Helm and Sky's Sail Cloth, the most regal items he could manage on short notice, ready to cast judgement upon his loyal subjects. Yes, the burnt out pub they were using as a meeting-slash-hiding place was not the most stately residence, but one had to make do, and he'd found a chair to sit on top of a charred table to lend him appropriately gravitas. Legend, Hyrule, Sky and Wild all sit around the table on makeshift chairs.

Finally, Warriors and Time slip into the building. Excellent, that's everyone he was expecting. He bangs a borrowed Ice Rod on the table to call them to order. Legend gives him a withering glare that does not wither him in the slightest.

"Gentlemen!" Wind announces, "We are gathered here today to ask the important questions; would Baby Four kill a man?" "—Wind—" "And will that man be Legend?"

"Wind!" Legend snaps at him from his seat of villainy.

"The defendant will not speak out of turn!" Wind orders.

"No, your Honour" Hyrule chimes in, "Legend is too much of a cockroach."

"Hyrule?!" Gasps Legend, betrayed.

"It's a compliment!" Hyrule argues.

"It's not!"

"But they're so good at surviving?"

Legend sinks his head into his hands with a groan. Time and Wars find themselves seats.

"Should we—" Time starts to ask.

"Let them get it out of their system." Wars suggests.

Hyrule turns to them to submit a grievance. "Yes, hello, I would like to raise just how unfair it is Legend is allowed to kidnap children and I am not?"

"I wish you'd stop making that joke." Sky adds as an aside.

"Joke?" Hyrule ponders.

"And that one."

Wild knocks on the table for attention and raises a hand, "It's also unfair Legend is allowed to break swords and I am not."

"Favouritism," Hyrule accuses.

"Favouritism," Wild agrees wholeheartedly.

"The court rules favouritism," Wind declares, banging the Ice Rod in finality.

"That's not how courts work!" Argues the criminal.

"Are we okay with Legend breaking a sacred blade, releasing evil upon the world, and kidnapping a Princess?" Sky broaches.

"Shadow absorbed a bunch of the dark magic," Legend grumbles in defence.

"And kidnapping the Princess?"

"I didn't know he was going to take Zelda. We didn't have time to discuss anything."

"Where are they?" Wars asks.

"No idea. It's his era, almost, I presume he has somewhere he puts the people he kidnaps."

"Yeah, a kidnapping room," agrees Hyrule, guileless, and dodging the piece of charcoal Sky throws at him.

"You realise," Wind points the Ice Rod at Legend, "This is karma because you got smug about it not being your era."

"I will be sure not to assume anything doesn't revolve around me in the future," Legend assures him.

Wars sighs, deeply and painfully, "As much as I am loathe to say it…"

"Oh?" Legend turns to him, grinning smugly, "You can do it."

"Legend," Wars swallow, braces himself, "May have been right. May have made the right call."

"There we go."

"The execution may have been questionable—"

"Excuse you, I did great."

"But Ganon won't fall to just any weapon, Link needs that sword reforged for him to stand a chance when he's older. It had to break," he exhales deeply, "Ugh, I feel dirty. Does that ever go away?" Wars visibly shudders, excellent job.

"Never," Sky laments.

Time elbows Wars, "They need to get it out of their systems, huh?"

The villain rolls his evil eyes, "You are all so fucking dramatic."

"Okay, you are the last person who's allowed to say that today," points out Wind, "I was there, I saw! You slicked your hair back, Legend! You walked out there like a storybook evil mage!"

"That was the point!" Legend waves for emphasis, "Besides, that's how he described Vaati!"

"Did he really?" Wars asks Wind , leaning forward with a grin, "Wait who was there? We only heard it second hand. Gotta say you're taller in the stories."

"Me, Four, Wild an' Twi," Wind says.

Time frowns, "And was Four okay with—"

"Four laughed!" Wind defends, "Four laughed so we're allowed to joke about it."

Wars squints at him, "What kind of laugh?"

"I don't see how that's relevant."

"Speaking of the Hero of the day, where's Four?" Time asks.

"He said he had to go threaten a hat, grabbed Twilight, and ran off," Wind tells them, "Abandoning me an' Wild. He said he shouldn't take too long, he's hoping his old fast travel method still works for him."

"Was he worried about Shadow taking the Princess?"

"Uhh, not especially, kinda got the impression he'd done it before?" Honestly Four had been less horrified more 'fuck's sake not again' about the whole thing.

"The evil one," Hyrule reminds them happily.

"Legend," Wars asks, "Shadow didn't know Vaati wouldn't be there?"

Legend shakes his head, "He was expecting him, he was upset when he wasn't there. He's got things riding on finding the guy, you know? What Light told him would happen was inaccurate."

"So is Vaati doing something different compared to Light's childhood?" Sky asks, "Nothing should have changed for him though. Just for us."

"There is a difference between Light's experience and now though," Wars points out, "Shadow is here. Maybe Vaati sensed him, a powerful mage couldn't miss someone like that, right? Or maybe he's just changed the timing of things."

There's the noise of heavy footsteps outside, clanking armour and they all go silent as a patrol passes the building.

"We can't stay here," says Legend when they're gone, hunched down and fingering his cape. "Someone will check it soon enough. This place isn't safe."

"We'll have to work something out," Time agrees, "we need to speak to Four and Shadow."

They settle in to wait, and in an unexpectedly short time Four creeps in through the back of the building to find them there. He does a headcount and sighs in obvious relief at no one being arrested yet.

"Did you yell at the hat?" Wind asks.

"No, decided to leave Elzo to it. He is a hat by the way, I mean still cursed, so Vaati's around somewhere presumably. Honestly, 'there was a Hylian mage going by 'Legend' that kidnapped the princess' is still kind of a Vaati thing to do."

"Where's Twilight?" Wild asks.

"He's gonna intercept the kid and stay with him as Wolfie."

"Is that okay?" Sky worries, "Won't he be scared?"

"Look, uhhh, it's only a slight exaggeration to say baby Four knows neither fear nor humility at this stage," Four admits, "He is… not like baby Legend."

"I want to meet him, he sounds cool," chips in Wind.

"He is! He's a monster, I adore him, Goddesses save Twilight, but he's good with kids, right?" Four nods to himself.

"But would he murder Legend?" Wind asks importantly, they never settled that.

Four thinks about this for a long moment, "…ooh split vote. He'd certainly try. Honestly, taking Zelda was probably the most murder-inducing choice you could have made."

"That was Shadow, not me," Legend grumbles. Once again throwing his partner in crime under the cart.

Wild pulls over a chair (upturned barrel) for Four, "Do you know where she is?"

He takes the seat, "Tower of Winds probably."

"Excuse you, I don't have to do the exact same thing every time. I haven't kidnapped anyone to the Tower of Winds in a decade," huffs a voice from the darkness of the burnt out roofing and they all look up sharply.

"Shadow," Four taps his foot against the table leg, "Would you like to come down?"

"Depends. Are you going to lecture me like a lame-o?" His torso materialises upside down like he's got his legs slung over one of the burnt out rafters.

"It's not a lecture, I'm just wondering what the hell you were thinking!?"

"What part of me panicking and kidnapping the Princess was out of character to you?"

"…fuck." He's got him there.

"There we go."

"Where is she?"

"In a room," Shadow says smugly.

"A room," Four replies flatly.

"Yeah!"

"Where is the room?" He asks with a patience only Four can manage.

"I dunno, under the castle somewhere. Well under the grounds. There's tons of closed off rooms and stuff down there. I use them for… You know what, never mind that."

"And you left baby Zelda there alone?"

"She's fine, I found her a candle. It's not even one of the scary rooms."

"Go get her!" Four orders.

"'Kay." He dissolves back into a puddle of black shadow and vanishes.

"Huh, so he did have a kidnapping room," Hyrule says thoughtfully.

"Four, I was not expecting this to be your taste in guys," Legend comments for all of them.

Four sinks his head into his hands, a popular position today, "Blame Vio."

Legend thinks about it, "…oh actually yeah, I can totally see that."

The smithy makes a despairing sound, poor guy.

Wind bangs his (Wild's) Ice Rod once again to call the court to order.

"Back to the topic at hand, is Legend expelled from the club for his act of puppet show villainy?"

"I thought the topic at hand was if the kid was going to murder me?"

"We've moved on, keep up, what's your defence?"

"Saving Hyrule?"

"They're idiots, your honour," Four says without looking up.

Wind considers this, "Yes, an excellent point."

"Do we need to be more concerned with the boy or the soldiers?" Time asks, the trial is derailed once again.

"How competent could they be if they sent a kid to save the Princess and fight Vaati?" Legend grumps, "What was the King thinking?"

"Ah,they didn't, they just asked me to take the sword to the Minish and ask for help. I was a… proactive child." Four admits.

"…does it occur to anyone else that maybe it's Four's fault the Goddesses kept sending children to do these things?" Wind asks.

"Maybe if you weren't such a chronic over achiever the rest of us would have gotten to wait until after puberty at least," Legend accuses.

Hyrule nods in agreement and scolds, "You set the bar way too high for baby Time."

Four is formulating a defence to that when a pool of darkness slips straight through a wall and puddles in the middle of the floor. From it emerges Shadow, pulling the Princess with him by the scruff of her dress.

The girl blinks in the dim light, takes one look at them, inhales a deep breath and opens her mouth, and she almost gets out the ear splitting scream before Shadow covers her mouth with a hand and it becomes a muffled yell instead.

She glares at him.

"No," he scolds, "If you start screaming we go back, got it?" He removes his hand, she does not scream. Instead she looks them all over silently, no doubt committing their faces for memory so she can report them as co-conspirators and they can have an extra big public execution party.

Wars realises it too, "Well now she's seen all of us."

"Good job everyone," Legend snarks and claps sarcastically.

She backs a few steps away from Shadow and he lets her. Wind thinks she looks shaken, but not terrified. Zeldas are always tough, right? He wonders if they get 'what to do if kidnapped by evil wizard' lessons. She's only a little older than Aryll, he doesn't like the comparison.

"It's okay," Four addresses her, "We won't hurt you okay."

She stares at him, glances at the rest of them then sidles up beside Four, staring at his face. Four just looks awkward. Oh, maybe they shouldn't have…

The Princess grabs his sleeve and pulls it up inspecting his arm. Four freezes.

"Link?"

If whatever distinctive mark or scar she was looking for didn't give it away, Four's panicked, guilty expression sure does. His poker face is so unreliable.

"Link, why are you being so mean!?" The Princess bursts into tears.

He has to hand it to the girl, she has no idea what's going on, but she's lunged straight for the jugular of Four's heart.

The guy's resolve crumbles like a sandcastle before a tsunami. "We should let her go."

"Four, no!" Legend snaps.

"But she's sad!"

Legend gets up, walks over to Four, puts his hands on his shoulders, and looking him dead in the eye says, "Put Vio in charge."

"I love Vio in charge," Shadow comments to the others.

Hyrule breaks into giggles. Sky chokes.

"Legend—" Four starts.

"The rest of you shove off. I want Vio to deal with this."

"Vio won't help you against Zelda, protecting her is the one thing they feel the same about."

"Fuck."

Four cuffs him on the side of the head, "Don't swear in front of the Princess!"

Legend stumbles back a step, "Fuuuu— Four, don't you get it? You have responsible adults in your life! And the moment they get the Princess back they'll pull the kid off his questing to reforge that sword!"

Four makes an unhappy sound.

The Princess in question sniffles and looks at Four with big, sad baby deer eyes, and okay that has to be deliberate, right?

"You know he needs to finish this," Legend continues, then addresses the Princess himself, "Princess, we apologise for kidnapping you, and scaring you. This wasn't the plan. But in a couple of years something very bad is going to happen and Link needs that magic sword to fix it. I swear we won't hurt you, and we'll tell you what's going on, and we'll let you go as soon as we can."

"What do you want with Link?" She looks at Four with an uncertain expression, "I don't… Who are you really?"

"We're not going to hurt Link either, okay?" He tells her, "I'll tell you all about it properly, I don't expect you to trust me or believe me yet. But I swear we won't let any harm come to you."

That feels like a big promise to make.

"Then let me go."

Four hesitates.

"We can't," Legend's willing to play the bag guy when Four isn't, "Not until Link is done, not until we know what's happening with the actual threat."

She looks around at all of them as they try to look non-threatening, then moves behind Four without a word.

"How are we going to hide Legend?" Wars broaches the next topic.

Legend winces, "Ah, I think I have something for that."

He pulls his ring box out of his bag, flips it open, and picks out a ring. No sorting and searching required, it was right at the top of course.

"Rulie ring!" Wind recognises it, he'd used Lore's less than a day ago after all. Four snickers.

"What do you mean Rulie Ring?" Hyrule asks, baffled.

Silently, guiltily, without breaking eye contact with Hyrule, Legend puts it on. In an instant he looks like Hyrule. The outfit is a little different perhaps, simpler, an older one maybe. But aside from that they look pretty much identical, though Legend doesn't bother trying too mimic Hyrule's mannerisms or body language.

He knows he's in trouble.

"WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT?" Hyrule yells.

"I DON'T KNOW! I FOUND IT!"Legend defends.

"Inside voice!" Time snaps.

"Do not fucking call it— OW!"

Four kicks Legend hard in the ankle, "Language!"

"Lore had one too," Wind politely adds more fuel to the fire.

"Why didn't you tell me!" Hisses Hyrule.

"Because it's weird as fuuuuu— heck."

"How long have you had it?!" Hyrule flaps.

"Since I was thirteen! I didn't know who it was! It makes no sense, I didn't even get it in Hyrule!" Legend also flaps. Flaps matchingly even.

"You can't just use my appearance for villainy!"

"I used my appearance for villainy."

"And what else? Huh? HUH?"

"To sneak around the Palace in Labrynna."

Hyrule gasps as if wounded.

"Hey, hey! Think about it, are you actually against that?"

"…no." He grumbles.

"Hyrule," Legend says solemnly, "may I please wear the weird nonsensical ring that makes me look like you in order to not get arrested and publicly executed?"

"…fine," Hyrule agrees reluctantly.

"Can I use it for pranks?" Wind asks.

"Sure," he agrees immediately.

"What!? No, it's my—"

"The princess is escaping," Shadow informs them all helpfully.

Sure enough in the midst of the distraction Zelda has made it to a window sill and started climbing out. She glances back at them and starts climbing faster.

They are so bad at this.

Wild trots over, picks her up under the arms and carries her back to the group, setting her down next to the stool he was using.

The Princess looks at the dirty, soot stained stool, then to Wild with the most disdainful look he's ever seen on a ten year old.

He loses the staring contest and summons a clean tunic from his slate without comment, then lays it down over the seat for her.

She hops up onto the stool, wipes away her tears with one hand, gives a single sniffle, then folds her hands in her lap and composes herself like a tiny, angry queen.

They are in so much trouble.

ꕤ

'Just remember,' Four had told him, 'He's as much Red as he is the others, and Red's never met an animal he didn't want to befriend.'

Twilight still has his misgivings.

But the kid needed to get a'questin' and after Legend and Shadow's stunt they could hardly introduce themselves and ask to come along. So Twilight waits where Four left him on the path to the cursed Minish wizard that was Four's companion on this little adventure.

He's interested to see how he compares to Midna. Four had just grinned and said he was 'Bossy' (so maybe not so different). Outside of the potential disaster that was whatever had happened with Vaati, Four was entirely too amused at the idea of leaving him to join them.

They'd run here, Twilight carrying Four as Wolfie for half the trip, checked Ezlo was still cursed (yep), and Four had played some jaunty little song on an ocarina and been carried off by a bird, presumably to go enact whatever the next stage of damage control was. He wonders if Legend has gotten arrested yet. Probably not, he's been dodging the authorities since he was the kid's age apparently.

So Twilight waits, then gets tired of waiting and heads back along the road to meet the kid halfway instead. Quest companion Wolfie, he can do this.

Please may he not have to face the little hellion trying to kill him.

The distance he needs to cover is not actually that far, Four's young Hyrule doesn't stretch anywhere near as far as some of the others. He hears the boy coming first, then the wind shifts and he catches his scent. Twilight sits himself on the side of the road and that's where Link finds him.

"You're back!" Link cries when he sees him.

'Whuff,' replies Twilight.

"You were very rude to leave," the boy tells him, like he hadn't fully planned to turn him into a wolfskin coat, and starts scrambling around in his pockets for something, "Did you belong to the evil wizard? He stole Princess Zelda but I'm going to get her back absolutely. Did you escape? I can't blame you for escaping," he squints at him, "Or are you a spy?"

Twilight whines in what he hopes sounds like a negative answer.

The kid pulls out a handful of crushed up biscuits from his pocket and sets them on the ground, then moves back, one hand on his blade ready to draw it. So he's got a little bit of sense, but entirely not enough.

Twilight steps forward, sniffs the biscuits, not that the kid would be trying to drug or poison him, right? …right? Anyway, they smell fine, so he eats them and wags his tail.

"Can you show me where to find the Picori?"

Twilight bobs his head. Link creeps closer and holds out a smushed dried apricot from another pocket. Twilight very carefully and delicately takes it from him, Link pats his head and starts getting teary, ahh, there's Red.

"You're such a cool dog!" He declares and grabs him tight in a hug around his neck. Again, something you should not do with strange dogs. "Okay! Let's keep going."

The boy starts to walk again and Twilight pads along beside him. Well that was easy.

"You need a name."

Oh no.

"It needs to be cool."

Oh no, oh no.

"How about Moonfang?"

Why is Four's naming sense so bad? Why was it always so bad?

"No, no! Bloodmoonfang! No Darkmoon Bloodfang, Yeah!"

He whines, the child ignores him.

"No maybe it should have 'wolf' in it."

Just call him 'Wolfie' and be done with it.

"Wolfslayer, no wait, you're not slaying wolves… Wolfsong Darkblaze! Ah no, yelling Wolfsong would be lame."

And none of the others would?

"Shadow Wolf Moonstalker," he says with an air of finality.

Why is he stalking the Moon?

Wait, wait, did he just name his dog—

"Shadow, good boy," he holds out another crushed biscuit to him.

He chuffs, unable to laugh in this body. He's laughing on the inside though. Oh this is too good. Or bad? Too funny. Good job, baby Four!

He licks the crumbs off the boy's hand and patiently accepts more pats then leads him deeper into the forest to where Four had shown him Ezlo.

There's a few monsters on the way, octoroks and chus mostly. Twilight means to dispose of them himself, but it proves fruitless to try to hold back the kid when he can't actually speak to him. Link dashes in, sword and shield ready, to take out any Twilight doesn't immediately get to. Well, it is what it is, at least he's having fun?

Deeper and deeper into the misty forest they go, and when they hear yelling the kid sprints ahead. Someone is going to need to teach this boy teamwork at some point, and maybe caution. Twilight trots after him and stays in the treeline to watch the boy get berated into attacking a couple of octoroks in a clearing by a talking green hat. The thing had a face complete with beak-like mouth and big ol' eyes.

Their world saving quests sure did come in a lot of flavours, huh?

The kid finishes off the monsters with only a scraping blow from one of projectile rocks to one arm to show for it. Twilight wonders how he'd react to be properly injured. Hopefully he'll never need to find out.

He mentally does inventory. Potions? Yes, he's still got a couple, and the fairy he picked up in Lore's time.

The boy goes to inspect the strange creature that is Ezlo. Four had seemed fond of him at least, if bemused.

Elzo launches straight into it and ah, Twilight bet he likes the sound of his own voice. "Phew! Well done! That was close. Not that I couldn't handle them myself. But that's beside the point!" The hat puffs up, "What in the world is a lone child doing so deep in the woods?"

"I'm looking for the Picori. An evil wizard kidnapped Princess Zelda an' broke the Picori blade," Link explains, taking all this in his stride. This is how the stories go, right? "I need their help to fix it to get her back."

"The…Picori, you say? And a wizard? He broke the sacred blade?!"

Link nods firmly, "I need it for smiting evil."

"Is that so? I see, I see… You know, you and I have quite a lot in common. You see, I, too, am on a quest to break a curse of a wizard. Perhaps the sacred blade is the key… Well then you have found yourself a companion, my boy. My name is Ezlo, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"I'm Link," the boy tells him, "Okay, but we gotta hurry."

And just like that Link considers Ezlo to have joined the party. He sets off again and Elzo gives a couple of perfunctory hops after him before he starts yelling again.

"Wait, wait I sat! You walk so quickly! Too quickly, in fact!"

Link stops and Ezlo continues to complain.

"Can't you go any slower? Surely you've noticed that I have no legs…"

Link takes two steps, looking kind of amused about it to be honest. The yelling continues.

"Boy! Take a good look at me! Do you really think I can walk that fast!?"

Link takes another two steps, definitely smug this time.

"Augh! If it isn't one thing, it's another! You are a troublesome boy!"

Elzo hop-hop-hops over, agonisingly slowly and launches himself on to Link's head. It's the kid's turn to squawk now as Ezlo gets settled.

"There! Now, you can't possibly leave me behind," he nods, proud of himself, "My… It's quite comfortable up here. More comfortable than it looks, surely. And much easier on me!" The kid tugs at him, Elzo does not budge. "Hey! Quit your squirming! Can't you sit still? See! There… Yes, Yes! That's it. Much better."

"Oi—" Link grumbles.

Ezlo ignores him, "Now I suppose a boy like you still has much to learn about the world. If you ever need my insight I'll be happy to help! Ah, such a hopeless child…"

Twilight steps into view and Ezlo gives an ear-splitting squawk, "Kill it!"

"That's my dog," Link explains, completely casual about the whole thing.

"Dog!?"

"Shadow Wolf Moonstalker is a good boy."

Thank you child, he is.

"Is he not a wolf?"

"That would be so cool," he says wistfully. This kid has amazing priorities.

Ezlo gives Twilight the side eye and a doubtful, "Hmmmmm?"

Can he tell he's not actually an animal? Four said he was a mage after all, and this form is the result of a curse. Now, Twilight can't talk to Hylians like this, but lots of other things can understand him, so he figures he'll give it a shot. ' 'hear your 'prentice is out cursin' people.'

Ezlo squawks.

'We're gon' help this kid, and he's gonna make a cursebreaker sword, and everyone wins and no one gets eaten. Yes?'

"…very well, I suppose the dog can aid us too."

❍●❍

They couldn't stay where they were, but they didn't exactly have somewhere to go as wanted criminals either. Fortunately, only Legend and Shadow were wanted criminals! Yes, the Princess had seen all their faces, but she hadn't been able to tell anyone about it. The rest of them were 'unknown accomplices' for now.

So the short of it was this was not Wild's problem yet.

Yet.

Four wanted to head out to see some expected declaration by the King or city guards he'd heard about on his way in. Would they announce the Princess had been taken? Had anyone seen them with Legend and reported them as possible co-conspirators?

No one was keen on Shadow taking the Princess back to the non-scary kidnap room, because if anything happened to Shadow they'd never find her. Also anyone he did take down there to stay with her would be trapped. As much as any of them could ever actually be trapped anywhere.

Anyway, Four had things to do. Find somewhere to move to, find out what was happening, get away from the extremely guilt inducing child.

They all offered to go with him. It was obviously the more interesting thing to do.

Legend got to come, so long as he kept that disguise ring on, because the Princess did not like him being there and maybe Four just didn't want to leave him to cause more chaos. Shadow had to stay in case they needed to rush Zelda out unseen. Wild got to come because he drew the long straw.

So the three of them found themselves pushing through the crowds back towards one of the town squares. Not the biggest, that was taken by the festival, but this one had the town hall with a nice crowd addressing balcony on it and was nice and central. They'd catch more people there than trying to get them up to the castle grounds.

The three of them find a place in one of the streets leading into the square, up against the side of some busy tea shop. The square itself too crowded by now, though they're still able to see.

Four knights step out on to the balcony, taking up positions around it, they are followed out by a couple of bureaucratic types, then a fancily dressed guy with a massive beard who had to be the King. Why did they always have that beard? Was it a King thing? A royal family thing?

A young man steps up beside him, Four inhales sharply then lets it out in one long slow breath.

He's not especially tall or large, dressed in blue-purple and red, with a floppy Link-style hat. Long, sleek purple hair and pale skin, something odd about the tone. He had the evil mage look an edgy teenager would go for. Well… that may save them some work.

"That him?" Legend hisses.

"That's him," Four confirms, "Vaati."

The King waves for quiet and the crowd stills, "I would like to present the Great Mage Vaati who will be leading the efforts to reclaim the Princess, after she was so cruely abducted today by an enemy mage of unknown origin."

"Your name sounds so fake they're not even using it."

"Huh."

Vaati sweeps a hand dramatically, and okay so Legend's impression actually wasn't that far off, "Thank you your Highness!"

"Majesty," Corrects Four under his breath.

"It is my honour, as the greatest mage in all the lands, the wise and powerful Vaati to take on this task and ensure your beloved Princess is returned to safety!"

"He wants Zelda do you reckon?" Legend wonders aloud.

"Maybe," Four considers.

"Good thing I—"

"Don't even say it."

Vaati sweeps a hand out again to properly flutter his cape dramatically. The King claps, and when the King claps everyone else has to clap along, so they do.

"Along with the assistance of your noble guard," Vaati continues, "I will hunt down the criminal that has kidnapped the fair maiden and bring him to justice and confiscate his dangerous artifacts."

"Oh, he wants your stuff too," Wild comments.

More clapping. Vaati puts a hand to his chest, relishing in it.

"So the King just handed over control of the guard to some guy?"

"Gonna say it's the mind control, Ledge. Vaati does that."

"He really did do everything first, huh?" Legend snarks, "Sucks to be Veran."

"Hey," Four comments, eyes still on the balcony, "So before it gets revealed at an inopportune, dramatic moment, like after a fight to the death, I should probably tell you the guy on the left is my Dad."

"What?" Wild's attention snaps to Four, then back to the figures on the balcony.

He focuses on the knights guarding the King to pick out a middle aged bearded blonde man, though of a darker shade than Four. Neat beard, strong build he can see the similarities, kind of, but he suspects Four takes much more after his mother than his father. He probably wouldn't have picked it if it wasn't pointed out.

Legend frowns, "I thought you were an orphan like the rest of us?"

"Oh, I am, but Mini is not, not yet."

"Oh neat, I love a secret child," says a cheerful voice, they all startle, Four actually jumps, and whirl towards the source. Half hanging out of a ground floor window from the shop they're standing beside is a short, pretty teenage girl in a green and blue dress, green hair done up in two buns.

"Farore," Four says, before his brain can catch up with his mouth.

She tilts her head, "Have me met?"

"Like the—" Wild starts to ask.

"Like the Oracle," Legend cuts in.

"Oh?" She grins at them, bright and delighted, "Oh I was right, you're absolutely the most interesting group here. How'd you know then?"

"Secret," Four offers, and Legend and the girl both snort.

"Indeed. Shall we introduce ourselves properly then? Nice to meet you," she curtsies, "I am Farore, Oracle of Secrets, and you three seem to have a few."

Chapter Text

"This is the best thing ever."

"I assure you, it's not," Legend tells the girl, deadpan.

Farore forges on, undeterred, "There's time travel, and evil villains, and fake villains, and heroic deeds, fairytale creatures, fighting fate, and a shot in the dark for love! You've done so well, I'm so proud of you!" She grabs Four's hands across the table from her and shakes them vigorously.

"Thank you?" he replies, dumbfounded.

She does seem genuinely proud of them all. Wild wonders of this is what having a parent is like, if the parent was a girl in her mid teens with nebulous divine powers.

They sit in the cafe having afternoon tea. She has somehow managed to pry the entire story out of them in a frighteningly short amount of time.

"It has been an exceedingly stressful fortnight," grumbles Legend, equally undeterred, "and decade."

"You believe us?" Four asks, taking his hands back.

"Of course."

"That easily?" Wild adds, it seems too easily.

She tilts her head at him and her smile softens, "What do you think I'm the Oracle of?"

"…wait, can you tell if people are lying or something?" Legend asks suspiciously.

"Nope!" She says brightly.

"Was that a lie?" He asks even more suspiciously,

"Nope!" She chimes, in the exact same tone as before.

Legend puts his head in his hands, "That would explain several things about my Farore."

"I do apologise for causing her trouble then," She giggles behind her hand, "But I mean, it's more we have the same patron, Heroes of Courage, Favoured of Farore. That I can tell, and I think I can trust you in this. So I want to help, what can I do?"

Four looks at her with a Red expression, a 'thank you so much you have saved me in my darkest hour' expression, "Do you know somewhere we can stay?"

Wild'll cut the rest of it short, the answer is yes.

The four of them go back to the house Farore is renting with two other women with Goddess names. A coincidence he's sure. They're not home at the moment, off doing their own thing at the festival like she was.

Wild, being the one who is currently not the most wanted man in Hyrule, and not mired in the deepest level of damage control while living the 'what if' nightmare, goes to pick up the others.

Running errands is vital Link work.

Back to burnt out hideout-pub he goes. No one's been arrested, and the Princess has somehow inexplicably obtained a bag of candied nuts and fruits. Or maybe not inexplicably given the way Sky is guiltily hovering nearby. Okay, so both Four and Sky are wrapped around her finger. It's fine. Shadow seems to have Princess kidnapping experience and can presumably handle it.

"We met Farore," Wild announces.

"…the, the Goddess?" Sky asks.

"The Oracle," he clarifies.

"Which means what?"

Wild shrugs.

"Like the Nayru in Legends time?" Wind asks.

"I think so?" The problem with that is only Wind, Four, Legend, and Twilight actually met her, so how's he supposed to know? "Are they priestesses or something?"

Wind makes a loud 'I dunno' noise. Zelda watches with calculating interest and a mouth full of snacks.

"Probably not the Goddess herself," Shadow chips in, "If they're the actual Goddesses we need to have words."

"And that means… what, Wild?" Time asks. Oh right, the explaining thing.

"We can stay at her place."

There's a collective sigh of relief among the group.

Wild rummages around in his pouch and pulls out a note, then hands it to Shadow, "Here's the address."

"Awww, he thinks I can read," Shadow coos fondly.

"Can you read?" Wind asks suspicious at his tone.

"Yeah, but that's not the point. The point is the trus—" He squints at it, "he's written it like for a six year old."

"Four said you can transport everyone there?" Wild confirms.

"Mmm, no."

Okay, does not confirm. "You can't?"

"One or two at time, sure, but at that point you can walk," Shadow waves the note for emphasis, "I'm not a delivery boy."

Wind blinks at him, "Uh. Why'd he say you could?"

"Baby Shadow was more powerful. But it was taking a power cut or being dead soooooo—"

"We can walk," Wild knows the way, "You just take the Princess."

"Right." He melts into a shadowy puddle and a moment later Princess Zelda disappears with a squeak.

"There has to be a better way of doing that," Sky mutters but Wild just shrugs, who is he to question his villainy?

They gather up their things and head off.

ꕤ

This is the best thing ever.

Except for Princess Zelda being kidnapped, that is the worst thing ever.

But aside from that, getting to go into the magic forest to find the Picori? Best. Being allowed to carry a real sword and fight monsters? Best. Cool dog (possibly a reformed monster wolf) as his new octorok fighting pet? Best. Ezlo… um. Well it's cool that magic hats exist, even if they're bossy and complain a lot.

They walk and walk and walk, Ezlo redirects him sometimes and complains other times. Eventually they come to a pretty normal looking stump and Ezlo tells him to step up on it.

There's a odd feeling of magic wrapping around him, different from what he normally feels from magic items, but he thinks he could get the feel for it with enough practice. It turns him tiny.

That is also the coolest thing ever.

It's a whole different world, he wishes he could explore it properly. It's definitely more dangerous, what if he met a monster? Or even something like a bird! But it's still amazing. He has a job to do though.

He gets big again and they head deeper into the forest, then he has to leave Shadow Wolf Moonstalker for a while because he can't turn little. (Very sad, can you imagine? He'd be so cute. Man, he wants a tiny dog as well as a big dog.)

He and Ezlo turn tiny again and he goes to the Picori village except they're Minish not Picori which explains the name of the forest really and raises the question of why it's called the 'Minish Woods' if people call them Picori instead, but language is weird like that sometimes.

Anyhoo. The Minish are so friendly and cute and they give him a Jabbernut to speak their language which is basically amazing and he has to experiment. Is that the only new language he understands? What if he speaks everything now!

Later, later, later.

He asks the Minish Elder about fixing the sword, and he says they'll need the Elemental Stones to do it and marks where they are on a map.

So of course he's gonna go get 'em.

❍●❍

It's a nice house. Two stories high, the girls all have their own bedrooms upstairs, small kitchen but decent sized main room downstairs. As far as 'places Legend's used to hide out while the entire royal guard was hunting him down' went, it was excellent. Has a roof and everything, no starving on the road in the rain for him!

…he's fine.

They settle in on the ground floor, they do the introductions, Farore is delighted to meet a bunch of time travelling Heroes of Courage full of secrets. They close the curtains and Legend takes off the disguise ring because going around looking like Hyrule is weird. (Farore is immediately on it like a magpie).

And hopefully, hopefully, that's it for the night and they can all sit back for a while and not have to deal with a new crisis. The kid's off questing, Twilight and a cursed mouse mage are watching out for him, and Four's childhood villain is comfortably in the castle playing dress up as a Hylian while magically brainwashing the King. See? The problems aren't solved but they're on hold.

Farore is apparently immediately all in for this nonsense. They haven't even offered to destroy a beloathed tower for her. Well, Courage not Wisdom.

She and Four get the unenviable job of trying to talk the Princess into cooperating and reassuring her they're not actually a threat.

That is if Zelda doesn't immediately talk Four into letting her go.

Legend is not convinced they're gonna be trusted.

Zeldas are smart, and he maintains all of them are dumber than their Zeldas. They have to be, it's part of divine destiny, they're job is to be the brave guy with the sword who's stupid enough to do whatever reckless fetch quest needs doing.

Which of course gets interesting when it comes to Four. Legend considers himself clever, not the smartest guy out there, but not a complete idiot either. He's good at problem solving, languages, music, improvising on the fly, important adventuring skills.

Four is smarter than him. Than all of them. Not just when he's Vio, Four is smarter than him. He is also something of a schemer. He uses his conniving for good, sure, but he still uses it. Case in point; everything that's lead Shadow's being here and not dead.

All this is to say, if Four's Zelda is smarter than Four, she is definitely smarter than all of them.

Right now she's hobbled by the most terrible handicap of being ten years old, and while ten year olds are idiots, he's not entirely sure it's enough.

They may think that means she's smart enough to know they're telling the truth. But probably she'll just reserve her judgement and get the hell out as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

If it was anyone else he might suggest keeping her in Shadow's non-scary-kidnap-room, but he can see how that'd go down so he doesn't bother. There's not a chance of getting that past Four or Sky.

So for now Four and Farore are sitting the girl down in Farore's bedroom and giving her a crash course rundown on what's going on; that yes, Four is her Link, that her preemptive kidnap saved her from being turned to stone by the mage currently puppeting her father, that Legend does not in fact deserve a public beheading (he hopes they included that one), and that all of this is an elaborate time travel scheme they can't fully explain right not but just trust us that Link really has to fix that sword, okay?

At some point presumably they'll have to get into the Shadow stuff, but this time it's not his problem.

…he was definitely not supposed to think that. Last time he thought that he ended up publicly kidnapping a Princess and becoming Four's childhood villain. Fate does not need more tempting.

The evening passes and they come back, seemingly having come to some sort of understanding. Wild makes dinner and everyone else chats pulls out the usual hobbies and games.

The Princess sits down at the table with Sky and Farore. He's also obviously almost as soft as Four and there's possibly still a non-zero chance of talking her way out of all this.

Legend himself sits curled in an armchair, in theory doing some mending, in reality doing nothing. He's allowed to have a lazy mood one in a while, thanks.

Four comes over and lays on the rug for some quality floor time. There's a free chair, so Legend doesn't bother offering his. Sometimes a guy just needs to lay on the ground and not deal with things.

Wind wanders over "Do you need to split?" he asks, "We can cover for you."

"Oh, I'd love to, but then Vio would need to feel his own feelings and we can't be having that, can we, Vi?"

"Uhhh."

"It's fine, I say Vio but it's all of them. All of me." Four massages at his temples and eyes with the heels of his palms.

"Can we help?" Wind takes a seat on the floor beside him.

"Not really. Honestly, it's worse dealing with emotions separately."

"How does such a level headed guy end up in the most complicated relationships I've ever seen?" Legend questions, looking down at the two of them.

Four cracks open an eye to look at him with a half smile, "It's always the ones you least expect. My head is only level through a precarious balancing act."

"I'm not sure Vi is the one I'd least suspect."

"They got separated," Four only kind of explains, "Shadow found Vio. He was braver than he gives himself credit for."

There's some flicker of emotion on Four's face Legend can't place. Something going on between the Colours. Shadow, probably realising they're talking about him, wanders over and grins down at Four.

"Shut up," Four grumbles.

"I'm not saying anything."

Four groans and rubs his eyes again, "You and Vio are talking later."

"About what?"

"Closure."

"Ah," He pauses, awkwardly, "Sorry. He said I should be careful about bothering you too much. We're already asking a lot." Shadow stands back up straight, rocking on his feet in an impossible way.

"Do you miss him?" Four asks abruptly, and Legend wonders which him it's coming from.

"More than anything. What a stupid question."

"You grew up."

"Tragically," Shadow teases.

"Un-tragically," he closes his eyes, "The name was a message wasn't it? 'Light.' Because I wouldn't use that if you'd died."

"It was also the least stupid sounding option, but yes. He was 'Link' though, 'Light' is just for you lot."

"Joining the club," Wind adds, and Shadow grins at him. "Exactly"

"Did he meet the others? Did he do," Four gestures to himself, the others, the room in general, "This? The time travel group trip?"

"No."

Does it mean anything? That Lore can only meet them again through his wish. That for all they are the same, this thing did not happen twice.

Four's eyes crack back open and he gazes up at Shadow, "I'm glad we got it right once."

"We're not done," the guy argues.

"We'll get you home." Four promises.

"No. Not just that." He's looking at Four with some expression Legend can't interpret. Funny for someone who shares Four's face to wear it so differently.

"Shadow—"

"Not now," he waves it away, "it's been a biiiiiig day for baby Link."

Four kicks him in the leg then sits up as Shadow hops away with a cackle.

Wind goes to say something to him when they're all interrupted by the sound of the front door unlatching. Never mind what he said before, Legend is actually an idiot. He scrambles in his pocket for the disguise ring as the door swings open.

He catches a glimpse of… oh, of course, crisis averted, it's just the other two.

In the doorway stand a young woman with long blue hair, her shopping in her arms, and another a little older, a tall redhead with Gerudo features.

Oracle of Seasons, Oracle of Ages. This era's Din and Nayru. They're not the ones he knows, not quite. Like with Farore their faces aren't exactly the same, though they could be sisters of the ones he counts as friends. Ugh, they're gonna have to do the explanation again but hopefully they'll be onboard to help them too.

"Farore," the redhead says with a frown at all the strays her housemate's dragged in.

"Ahahahaha," Farore laughs nervously from her seat at the table with Sky and the kidnapped princess the entire town is looking for, "Girls, I can explain. These are our new friends and—"

"Shadow," the parcel in Nayru's arms drops to the floor with a thunk, "You made it. It worked."

She's looking at the man like she's seen a ghost.

What?

And then he realises.

Lore's Nayru remembered him, remembered Legend.

Despite him coming from a different timeline, despite them having had years more time together than she'd had with Lore, despite him never having met 'that' Nayru.

Why should it not be the same for the little Minish Hero's?

Oracle of Ages.

"Oh." Tears start running down her cheeks, unnoticed, her gaze only for Shadow and Four. "So that's what's going to happen."

Shadow takes a step back, the colour draining from his face, then dissolves into shadows and magic, and flees.

❍●❍

Four goes after Shadow. Time goes after Four.

The two of them rushing past the newcomers and out into the night.

The rest of them are left there with nothing to say to this weeping stranger.

Some days, they just can't catch a break. Some days it is two steps forward and one step back. At least Four is not alone. Sky doubts he'll find Shadow if he doesn't want to be found. Though he's not sure how long the man could stay away.

He doesn't fully understand what's going on, not the 'how' of it, but what he does…

"Are you okay?" The taller woman breaks the silence, wrapping an arm around the blue-haired girl.

"Just… give me a moment," she pulls herself together slowly, wiping her tears away with her hands.

"Nayru?" Legend is the next of them to speak, standing beside the armchair he had claimed. There's a hesitance in his voice they usually don't hear.

The young woman lifts her face and looks to him, and there's recognition there too.

"Link," she says, then corrects, "Legend. Because you're all Link. These must be the others," Legend nods as she continues, "I— oh, you have met a few of us now, haven't you?"

He swallows and nods, "That's… all those lives? Lore's Nayru and mine and…"

"No, just the times you knew each other. Not their whole lives." She gives him a watery smile, "The tower was fun. And hello again, Wind."

The boy gives a confused little, "Hi."

"You know them?" The tall redhead, and Sky would be willing to bet she's called Din, asks.

"They met other Oracles of Ages."

"Ah."

"What's happening?" Hyrule asks from where he sits on the floor refletching arrows with Wars.

"I met an Oracle of Ages, so all the others will remember it too if I meet them. It's part of their power." Legend looks to the door, "You remember Shadow's Nayru."

"Yes," She sniffs and fumbles in her bag for a handkerchief, Farore leaps up and hands her one instead. "And Four's. Except they don't know each other well, not yet. There's not much there, and it's almost all from years ago, but… Shadow is a lot."

Din leads her over to a spare armchair, "Sit. Please."

Nayru nods and sniffles into the handkerchief.

"You know what's coming for them." Wars says, standing up, and it's a statement not a question, "You know what happens to Four."

"It's not my place to say," Nayru replies firmly, "It's nothing Shadow didn't already live."

Sky glances at the Princess, things might be getting upsetting or heated. Best to get her away, it's getting late anyway. He nudges her, "Come on, time for bed I think," then calls out to Farore, "Miss Farore?"

She glances back at him and nods.

"What happened to Link?" Zelda asks, uncertain.

"Nothing, and we're going to keep it that way."

She slides out of her seat as Farore trots back over and they head upstairs to the bedrooms.

"You can have my room," Farore tells the girl, showing her in and hunting down a nightgown for her.

"What if I sneak out?"

"That would be inconvenient, but also what I'd expect of a Princess Zelda. Especially you, from what Four's said," Sky comments.

She huffs at him and takes an oversized night shirt off Farore. The girl seems unsure if she should be thanking her or not. She's a well raised, polite young lady after all, but they are holding her captive.

"I hope you won't though," he adds, "you just need to hold on a little bit until Link finishes what he needs to do."

"How do I know Vaati's a bad guy?" She crosses her arms and lifts her chin at him, "you could be lying."

"You know that Four is Link. Both of you are clever, I'm sure he had ways to prove it." Four knows his Zelda more than most of them, perhaps more than any of them except maybe himself, there's no doubt he'd have known a way.

"You all could be deceiving him or something!" She accuses.

"You don't really think that," Farore says fondly, patiently.

"…no," the child admits, "I just don't like being kidnapped."

"We really are sorry," Sky apologises, "but things didn't go to plan."

"I want to see Link. My Link."

"I'll see what we can do," he promises.

"If he has to go I want to go with him too. I don't want to always be left behind. It's not fair he has to do the hard bit." She twists at the night gown in her hands.

"I know." And it's not, it's really not, especially for the kids. He could make his own choices, but it wasn't fair on that little boy in the Dark World, or the child from the forest, or all the others he hasn't met. It's not fair on the boy who will become Four. It's not fair on Four, chasing a living ghost out into the night. "There will be things only you can do. I promise. Do you want a story or something?"

"Are you trying to distract me?"

Nailed it. "Maybe, but how often do you get to ask time travellers things?"

She gives this proper thought, "…are you from the future?"

"The past actually, I was there when Hyrule was founded," he tells her.

"Really!?"

"Really. We've only just started settling on the surface."

Farore takes a seat on the bed and pats it for the Princess to join her, and she's distracted enough to do so.

"You were really in the sky?"

He loves her eagerness, her curiosity. There's a spare chair in one corner so he pulls it over to face them. "We were. Do you want to know about the first Zelda?"

She nods eagerly, then stops and considers him.

"Four said you were all called Link."

Sky nods.

"So you're Link?"

"Yep," he agrees.

"And you were there at the founding."

"Uh huh."

"And you know Zelda."

He nods again. She blinks, then squeaks and covers her mouth.

Farore giggles beside her and Sky grins, "What?"

"Nothing. Nothing," the princess reassures him.

"…"

"…"

"…I don't want to mess up history so don't ask!"

Sky looks at her bemused, "The Hylian royal family is descended from that Zelda."

The princess nods, still covering her mouth with her hands.

"Her husband's name was Link. It's okay, I know. We're already engaged."

"Oh. Congratulations," she says politely.

"Thank you. So, do you want a story?"

"Yes please."

"Okay, hmm, how about—"

"I need to write this down," she realises, almost with panic, and turns sharply to Farore, a girl on a mission "Could you get me something to write with, please?"

"Uh, sure," she agrees, a little intimidated by the sudden intensity.

Zelda's eyes turn back to Sky, "You are an important historical resource."

"Um."

"I would love to hear your stories, ancestor," she smiles with his beloved Zelda's smile, the one he always found a little terrifying "I will be taking notes."

ꕤ

It's dark and very late, so late it's almost early, and Twilight is tired but cannot sleep. For all Four asked him to stay with the boy, the fact remains there are places he'll go Twilight cannot follow. Perhaps they could have tried sending Hyrule as a fairy, but for sure he'd have ended up in a bottle.

He has to trust Link, and he supposes Ezlo.

Mostly Link.

He can keep watch at least, keep an eye and a nose out for Vaati. He prowls around the woods, keeping close to the area the boy left him, supposedly near the Minish village. He waits and worries.

A sharp whistle cuts through the woods. Then again, and again. So Twilight runs, crashing through the undergrowth to follow that sound, memories of wrapping his hands around Lore's arm as he bled out coming unbidden to his mind.

Please don't let another of the kids be hurt, please don't let there be a change here too.

A final whistle and he pushes through the trees to find the young Link, looking scruffy and tired and oh so bright. A little battered, scraped and splattered with who knows what, and reeking of sweat and monsters. There's blood, but the wounds healed by potion or fairy and he seems unfazed.

Glowing with his victory.

"Shadow Wolf!" Delighted he's come when he's called, "I did it! I got the first Element!"

You haven't explained what that is, child.

"And there was a Chu and it was ginormous! But I beat it!" He declares.

Who gave you that job? He gives Ezlo the stink-eye and gets one in return.

"And there were puzzles and a barrel and bouncy mushrooms and it was like a real dungeon! Do you know the Minish? They're so cute and so sweet. Anyway look! If I get these I can get Princess Zelda back!"

The kid grins at him and holds out a spiked, deep purple stone for him to inspect. His hands are shaking slightly, be it the after effects of adrenaline, or fatigue, or the weight of what he just faced he does not know.

Twilight sniffs it politely. It has an odd magic scent to it, of deep dark places under the earth and cool forests and good soil, it somehow reminds him of Vio, an element of that boy's own scent and self that he never worked out before now. He doesn't know enough about how magical theory to understand it, but he thinks, somehow, this will be a piece of Vio one day.

It's shoved into his bag, then the kid yawns mightily and starts walking again, feet dragging.

Nope.

He grabs him by the belt with his teeth and tugs him down to land on his butt.

"Hey!" Link protests, "Bad dog!"

Shadow Wolf Moonstalker climbs on top of him and puts his head down with a sleepy sigh.

"All right, all right!" The kid shoves him and Twi rolls on to his side, but not off him, "We can sleep, I guess we can't get to the next one tonight. Get off you great lump."

He allows himself to be shoved off and the boy gets up to have a look around before finally deciding on a bed of clover to sleep on. Maybe he should carry him home, but spending more than an hour hanging on as they run through the dark forest instead of sleeping is probably going to be worse for his fatigue in the morning than sleeping on the ground.

Twilight settles curled around him and the kid makes an excited, delighted little noise that sounds just like Red.

Twilight lifts his eyes to Ezlo, 'You're on watch. Squawk if something tries to eat you.'

Ezlo squawks at the idea of it.

'Yeah, like that.' He rests his head back down and closes his eyes as the boy gets comfortable snuggling against him, gripping his fur tightly.

Four wasn't kidding when he said he got through this quick.

One down.