Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

They were tired; they were always tired in Hyrule’s era. Everything about it was exhausting, everything about it was harder. They had to conserve water, they had to double the watch, they had to eat trail rations, gnawing through dwindling stocks of jerky and hardtack instead of sitting down for warm meals. They had to keep moving, always moving, long marches of tedious boredom punctuated by sudden vicious attacks by some creature or another that would be among the worst in Four’s era, yet somehow was common and basic here. 

He was always tired in Hyrule’s era. 

It picked at all the parts of him, it wore at the cracks in his soul. How Green would look at the kingdom he’d wanted to protect and nurture his whole life and find it a wasteland. How Red would think of Hyrule, their friend and new brother, and the same feeling would be redoubled back on them all for not knowing how to make it better for him, how to bridge the difference between their experiences. Blue wanted to just storm off and fix it somehow. It made Four restless, his body antsy to move. Blue all physical restlessness while Vio did the same to his brain, a constant hum as he tried to analyse and problem solve and kept coming up short. 

Red hated the way Hyrule’s shoulders went up in fear, the way he always braced himself for the worst in a place that was supposed to be safe, supposed to be home. Green barely managed to keep them all together when they were in this time for longer than a day or so. (They all wanted to hold Hyrule close, to shield his gentle wonder from this rotten world.)

It was hard for Four to distract himself, hard to get out of his own head. Hard to think it was his own. 

There had to be more to it than Hyrule was telling them, more to it than the monsters hunting them like they did in no other place or time they’d been. Four had worked that much out. He suspected Hyrule had told Legend the full story with how close the two had always been, though the rest of the team weren’t granted that much trust or confidence. But well, he was hardly one to go pointing fingers when it came to secrets. 

He wouldn’t say the Chain were mad about the Colours thing, but it had only been a couple of weeks since he’d had to abruptly split mid-fight and he wasn’t sure they were entirely okay with it yet either. Extra fighters could have made a difference to their strategies, and the distance it had created stung. Maybe the others thought they didn’t really know him anymore, whispered his crimson heart alone on watch. Maybe they felt he’d been holding out on them, thought their emerald mind. He couldn’t even say they were wrong. Legend had gotten especially weird and avoidant too, and was only just starting to treat him normally again.

They had trudged through some half rotten swampy forest all day. Not a true marsh, but still stinking like it had been through a recent flood. The mud caking on their boots and insects nipping at their bare ears and hands. It was all a bit miserable, but he had gotten to see both Wars and Wild faceplant into the mud at different times, so that was fun. Hyrule’s pathetic attempts to not giggle about it were even better. Finally they had made camp and settled in for the night.

Four sat with his back to the fire, listening to Hyrule and Legend’s quiet murmuring from the other side of it. It was only his and Hyrule’s watch, but Legend had given up on sleep and staggered over to start making tea a few minutes ago. It was his watch soon enough anyway. He silently took Four’s own empty mug as he passed, and his heart ached. They were lucky they were even somewhere Hyrule deemed safe enough for a fire. The night was cold, thought not bitterly, and everyone else was snugly asleep. 

Four shifted his gaze to his shadow stretched out before him, wondering if he should join them, if he wanted the company or not. He thought maybe it’d be intruding, they were always closer with each other than him. 

‘You’re sulking,’ Red nudged from the back of his mind. ‘Hyrule likes your company, and Legend was nice just now.’

‘We should save Hyrule dramatically in the next fight,’ Instructed Blue, ‘You know, look cool. Then we’re in. With Legend too.’

‘Are you an idiot?’ Green asked. 

‘Do we even want that?’ Vio chipped in, ‘Who knows how long we’ll be together. And them learning about us didn’t exactly go perfectly. They're okay with us as Four. That's enough, right? We have each other, it's fine as it is.’

Red’s voice came back teasing, ‘Oooh, is the sulking coming from you?’ 

‘I am not sulking.’

‘Vio wants to be friends.’ Red sing-songed. ‘We’ll split and take two each and—’

There was a loud slap from the other side of the fire and his shadow shuddered. The voices went quiet, both inside and outside of his head. What in the world…? He looked back to find Hyrule frozen, face ghost-white, a small smear of blood on his hand and neck. Legend blanched and gave a little hiss. Had a big mosquito bitten him or something? 

“Are you—” Four leaned back to look at them better across the little clearing.

Hyrule shook himself, visibly trying and failing to shake off his unexplainable panic. He gave a slightly hysterical giggle, “Look! Bugs! Nature’s healing.”

“FALL IN!” Legend yelled, and Four rushed to their side. Legend scrubbed at the blood on Hyrule, then burned the rag with his Fire Rod before turning towards the forest. Shit. Four pulled out his own Fire Rod.

The others struggled to wake and escape their bedding. 

Four heard more than saw the swarm awaken in the forest. The small fire did little to illuminate what was coming. There was a certain, distinct sound a swarm of giant monster insect enemies made, whether he was minish sized or Hylian, it sounded much the same.. He tightened his grip on the fire rod.

“The fire?” Legend hissed at Hyrule. He didn’t respond. Legend nudged him. “Rulie, do we want the fire out?”

He barely began to stammer out a response when a swarm of huge, disgusting fly creatures emerged and descended on them from the dark and straggly forest. They looked like barrel-sized angry hornets. Quick, erratic, and obnoxious, they swooped over them and dropped stones. The others cursed and rushed to pull on the defensive items and clothes they’d shed for sleep. Fortunately, they never really felt safe enough to fully disarm in Hyrule’s kingdom. The fire rods flared like fireworks, and Hyrule came back to himself and added his own flaming sword to the mix. There was no time to breathe—no break to the slaughter—but they were holding their own, even with half the group having to jump in so abruptly.

Until the Lynels.

The first charged the three of them and they’d scattered to avoid its hooves and it thundered past to trample the fire, scattering embers and diming its already pale light. A second followed in its wake and went straight for Hyrule, driving him back as the first wheeled back to hold off Four and Legend. It carried a kind of flail or whip with a curved blade on the end of a chain. Four had never seen a Lynel carry anything like that. 

The creature whipped it at Hyrule, but the older boy deflected it neatly with a twist and a flick of his sword. The chain flicked back into the Lynel’s grasp and Hyrule readied his blade again. One of the bee monsters–those obnoxious pests– crashed into his head, and the Lynel struck, and Hyrule’s parry was not so clean this time. The chain twisted around his forearm and the blade sank into his tricep. Hyrule gave a muffled yell, immediately drowned out by screeching from every monster in the area. The sound echoed out across the dark forest and beyond. How many were there? 

The Lynel scooped up Hyrule and Four saw it crush Hyrule’s hand in one of its own, forcing him to drop his sword as a third charged in, firing a volley of arrows at Legend and Four. One hit Four’s shield, and another barbed arrow sunk deep into Legend’s leg. Crap! How were there three of them?! They couldn’t take three, no way. Wild appeared, seemingly from nowhere, and leapt onto the back of one of the nearest Lynel. It started to buck and kick, and Four scrambled backwards to get away from those hooves, half-lifting Legend to help him stagger back out of its path. An arrow thunked into the thing’s chest, one of Twilight’s, but he couldn’t see where any of them were in the chaos and darkness. The glow of the master sword flashed past as Sky charged after one of the others.

Legend pulled a chain of Medallions out from under his tunic even as he fell to one knee. Before he even got a chance to use them, the monsters scattered, fleeing in all directions, the Lynel taking Hyrule with it into the dark night. The deafening sounds of battle went quiet. Four saw red—literally—as his heart broke.

Legend screamed after them, staggered to his feet, then fell again, clutching his wounded leg, staining the earth the same bloody crimson as his tunic. They needed to get that thing out. Four pulled out his tin snips as the others rushed back to them. Sky and Wars were chugging potions, but no one was badly hurt. It had all happened so fast. 

And through gritted teeth, as Four and Warriors got the arrow out, Legend had told them what just happened.

Hyrule had hinted, once or twice, about the curse laid on his blood. Though he was their de facto medic alongside Warriors, everyone picked up pretty fast that he was terrified at the sight of his own blood. They’d put it down as another oddity within the group; they all had them.

Legend explained the rest of it. He told them about a curse, about Hyrule’s blood being said to hold the power to revive Ganon, and about the cult that hunted him for this reason. In the other eras, a little cut or scrape meant nothing. Here, it could be catastrophic. The monsters had smelled it on the breeze and come for him. They would take him to wherever Ganon’s ashes were kept, and bleed him out over them to revive the same evil they’d almost all put down in one form or another. 

Sweet, lively, kind, charming Hyrule would be bled out like a pig to revive the creature that had poisoned his world for decades.

So Four certainly hadn’t been the only one sitting on secrets.

He kept his thoughts on Hyrule keeping such a dire and dangerous secret to himself, he was hardly one to go pointing fingers right now.

Besides, it all came down to the same thing; they trusted each other, but not enough. Only in a fight, but never with their secrets; the strangest and most dangerous parts of them they still kept to themselves.

They got Legend back on his feet with a quick potion and raced after the horde’s trail, even as it scattered and spread. Only Twilight’s insane tracking ability had led them to the monster’s base in the mountains where Hyrule was presumably being taken.

* * *

Four didn’t know if it was the cold, damp maze of the cave, the stench of dark magic, or the knowledge that he and his companions were surrounded by monsters on all sides, lurking and shifting in the dark and twisting tunnels, that sent the shivers down his spine, but something was definitely doing it. Seriously, once they got Hyrule out of here, he’d need to scrub himself for a week to get rid of this weird feeling.

Legend led the way for him and Wind. The three of them, being smaller and stealthier than the others—yes, Wars, Wind could sneak when he tried—had decided to take the smaller of two entrances they’d found into the monsters’ lair. 

Ever the collector, Legend’s variety of magic rings allowed Four and the Vet to sneak in disguised as monsters. Four didn’t know where he’d picked up magic rings that let him hide their presence from enemies, but he wasn’t complaining. Much to Legend’s chagrin though, he only had enough for two, so Wind had borrowed a frankly ridiculous looking monster mask by Wild. 

Four was incredibly grateful he didn’t have to wear one, but the kid had seemed delighted. The rest of the Chain were going to run distractions in the main hall while the three of them focused on their real mission: finding and rescuing Hyrule.

Four really, really hoped whatever revivification ritual the Eyes of Ganon had in mind hadn’t started yet. Legend had made it sound like they’d want all his blood for reviving the king of evil. 

Unacceptable. No fucking way.

So, rescue time! Warriors, being the most familiar with taking on insane numbers while keeping his men alive, had taken point on planning.

Legend had been chosen for his adaptability, Wind for his speed and surprising stealth, and Four for his inbuilt backup and ability to cut through even the strongest of dark magics. The Master Sword may be powerful, but nothing dispelled darkness quite like the Four Sword. He was the Hero of Light for a reason. 

They’d tracked the fleeing Eyes of Ganon to a fortress deep in the mountains that was something between a lair and a true dungeon, halfway carved into a sheer rock wall and reinforced with jagged timbers on the outer edge. Luck had been with them when they discovered a back door while scouting, which had led the three of them to the twisting passages of the lair.

Torches lit up the black stone corridor, casting long shadows across the pebbled floor. Sophisticated, as far as monster dens went. The upper levels that they skulked through now were sparsely occupied, filled only with a couple purple bat-monsters—easy enough to dispatch from behind. Proper forces were likely down on the lower levels, guarding against any potential interruption to their ritual. The Aches were always too smart for their own good, Hyrule had told them once. Not smart enough to properly guard their back door, though. Not smart enough to see through the charm on Legend’s rings or Wild’s odd lopsided mask.

“Shh. Can you hear that?” Legend stopped just before a fork in the path. He held up one hand.

Four strained his ears. It took a second, but…there! Down the left path, deeper into the heart of the cliff there was a low, rhythmic chanting. Shit, they’ve already started. That explained why the taint of dark magic was only growing stronger. “We have to move.”

“I know that dipshit, come on.”

The hallway ended in a large stone arch, framed with torches and guarded by only two nasty-looking bull monsters. “Taros, from my era.” Legend whispered. The three heroes paused just out of the light’s range. Four tucked himself into a dark hollow of rock.

“They look nasty, but they have shit defense. Wind, lure them here, then Four and I will take them out.” Legend ordered, “Rings off. They’ll just make your defense worse.” They shed them, slipped them into pockets and bags. The uncharacteristically solemn sailor just nodded and pulled up a slingshot he’d stolen from Time weeks ago. He shot a pebble down the hall, sound echoing against unforgiving rock. The Taros huffed to each other before fluttering a few suspicious paces their way. Another shot, further along the corridor, lured them closer again. Big and intimidating, but as dumb as Legend promised, it seemed.

The moment the monsters came within reach, Four and Legend struck out like snakes, cleaving heads from shoulders and reducing them to a puff of dark magic and dust. There was no time to celebrate. The three of them barely spared a glance to each other before starting for the open door. Stepping through, they emerged on a small landing with a massive set of stairs leading down into the ritual site. The air felt wrong; greasy and heavy and dark.Familiar. Vio shifted, unsettled within him.

Now this is a boss chamber if I’ve ever seen one. Four thought to himself. Stalactites hanging from the ceiling like jagged fangs hinted at it being a natural cavern once upon a time. Below their enemies were rushing. Monsters of every kind lined the chamber, from baying wolfos to hulking moblins and stals of every species.

The crowd thinned in the center of the room, the monsters held back by some unseen force. It gave the rescue party an unobscured view of their prize.

Hyrule, bound in heavy iron, lay unconscious on a smooth obsidian altar in the centre of a large, carved dais. Four’s blood ran cold, just for a moment before he felt Blue take over in a wash of rage, and he had to catch himself from charging right in. 

The whole design, from the dais to the circle of symbols carved into the stone floor, was a massive magic circle, meant to channel the power that lay in Hyrule’s blood. Behind the altar loomed a figure in a tattered robe, and before it rested an open golden urn, a simply shaped thing that somehow seemed to dominate the chamber. 

“I’ll thin them out first,” Legend hissed at them, “Stay out so I don’t hit you.” 

“Hurry.” Four heard Wind whisper into his Pirate’s Charm. “He’s not in a cell, they’ve got him on an altar and it’s bad.” Four prayed the others would make it in time to carve them out a clear retreat.

They didn’t have time for slow and careful, not with the hooded figure raising a knife to Hyrule’s neck. It shone like a star, like a broken shard of Mirror. His heart clenched. No!  

"HYRULE!" Legend yelled their brother’s name like a war cry. Dozens of heads turned towards them. 

The silver metal flashed in the darkness as it cut into Hyrule’s throat. Blood poured from the wound, dripping down the sides of the altar and into the grooves on the floor. The dais lit up instantly, casting the room in a burning glow.

Legend launched himself into the chamber, covering the distance with an unnaturally quick and long leap. Four saw a flash of gold in his hand, then explosions bloomed around him, spiraling out until the entire chamber seemed to glow with it. Monsters screamed as their lives ended without mercy.

Four felt a moment of panic for Hyrule, but the light dimmed to reveal whatever force had held back the monsters from the dias had kept out Legend’s attack as well. The older boy hit the ground with a roll and bounced back to his feet, only to have the surviving monsters converge on him. Well, he certainly caught their attention.

Scorched earth it is, I suppose.

Four gave in to cold blue fury as he grasped the Roc’s feather in his pocket and shot forward down the stairs. He launched directly into a spin attack, clearing a small cluster of monsters that hadn’t been burnt to a crisp in Legend’s initial blast. The path was momentarily almost clear.

Breezy calm overtook him with each step he took towards Hyrule. Between the hulking forms of the injured surviving monsters, the ritual’s glow continued to brighten as Hyrule’s blood flowed. People can survive slashed throats. We have a fairy and four potions between us, it’s not too late. It couldn’t be.

Four wouldn’t lose someone he cared about because of Ganon—not again.

He dove between the legs of an undead lizalfo and came up on the edge of the barrier. No monster seemed to cross beyond the two meters immediately surrounding the dais, and as soon as Four crossed that line himself he felt why. The magic in the air burned like acid. The shock of it almost sent him to his knees, but Four had been made of light since he was sixteen years old. Magic to counter magic.

He gritted his teeth and reached for the boomerang hanging at his waist. That pigshit of a cultist wasn’t getting another hit on his brother. Four drew back an arm and tossed it even as he charged the dais. The robed cultist dropped like a sack of bricks. Naively, he hoped it would be enough to stop the ritual.

Oh, how wrong he was.

Pillars of darkness rose from the dais like the arms of Wind’s Big Octos. Four dove through them, eyes on the golden urn. He could see a silhouette starting to form just above it as more and more of Hyrule’s lifeblood spilled out onto the ground.

But the Four Sword was made to cut through Darkness.

Four wasn’t afraid.

He raised his blade skyward and slashed the ghost without hesitation.

The magic around them flickered and dimmed. The dark tendrils rising from the magic circle drew away from the urn. Four let out one shuddering breath. 

It was enough

Then the air in the room pulsed.  

Well, that couldn’t be anything good.

Four tried to move and found his feet rooted to the spot. He glanced down to find darkness swallowing his boots. The now aimless black tendrils twisted like a snake tasting the air, then shot towards him. They were on him in a heartbeat, helpless to stop them wrapping around his body, tightening and smothering, engulfing him in pain. The darkness squeezed hard enough Four felt his ribs crack. Fire seemed to erupt within him as the pain consumed his entire being. A scream ripped from his throat, taking the last of his air with it. He couldn’t move, he couldn't move, he couldn’t breathe!

“Shit, Four!” He heard Legend curse from a million miles away.

Four twisted and pushed against the magic’s grip, struggling to pull in even a small breath without it being crushed out. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. His gaze met Legend’s for a brief moment and he didn’t know if he spoke or only mouthed “ Hyrule! ” as the last of the air was crushed from his lungs. He wouldn’t let this all be for nothing. 

A red light—the ritual’s?—pulsed bright enough to burn Four’s eyes. Something within him was ripping, tearing apart. A thousand needles seemed to pierce his skin, he couldn’t tell what was the magic and what was simple suffocation.

Bloody red light lightened to a brighter crimson—warm, like a campfire. Then it flashed green. Blue. Violet. Something cracked. A quartet of voices echoed, smothered in his mind. The world drifted around him, fuzzy and going dark.

Without warning, solid arms of magic lifted Four off the ground, and he caught a gasping breath in the change of position. A momentary relief before burning pain erupted in his side and his head tilted back with a scream. 

He knew what getting stabbed felt like; had he seriously just been stabbed!? In the middle of being eaten by a dark magic ritual!? He had! The fucking cultist had stabbed him! I should have made sure they stayed down! Was Four’s last coherent thought before the pain redoubled.

It burned, it burned, it burned!

Between one blink and the next, Four’s vision started wavering between the cave’s dark ceiling and a deep, starry void. It was quiet in the void. Calm. "Link?” He heard an impossible voice whisper before another blink landed him back in the depths of hell. 

Multicolored lights brightened to a blinding white, white fractured into colours. A resounding crack rang through the world, pain blinding Four to all else. Time ceased to have meaning as his soul fractured apart.

It was a feeling he’d only experienced once in his life. The day he’d first drawn the Four Sword.

And then it was over. 

The spell released him. Four crashed to the ground in a boneless heap as the light finally, blessedly died. 

The last thing he saw before darkness took him was a pair of ruby-red eyes.

Chapter Text

He’d been dreaming for so long. 

Thoughts were difficult here, in this endless expanse of stars. On occasion, dreams slipped through to occupy his mind. He saw Vio become Link once more, saw his other half live and grow in the world of light. Little flickers of pain and joy were bittersweet reminders that life indeed carried on without him. Time passed. How long he never knew. 

When Shadow had enough strength to feel anything, it was mostly relief. His sacrifice had paid off. He’d made a difference, done something with his life and death. But most of the time he drifted in sleep and numbness. He wondered, when he could wonder, if the memories would all fade away. If he would just fade away. He couldn't tell if the brief moments were getting shorter, if the time between dragged longer. What was death to a being born of magic and shadows? His light lived still, after all.

A hint of dawn poked over the horizon, and a scream that shook him to his core. Before him, flickering like a candle, formed the silhouette of the boy he’d been longing for, the other half he had always known and barely met. He drowned out Shadow’s flickering memories like the sun outshone the stars. This can’t be real. If Shadow had a heart, it would have stopped. “Link?”

It was Link, it wasn’t Link. A silhouette split in two.

He reached out. They disappeared, and Shadow’s world was flooded with light, then abruptly went dark.

He curled into existence, born of the shadows and dark magic, and blood. The blood was new. There hadn’t been blood last time, was there meant to be blood? Power humming around and through him, a confusing tangle in his reforming being. The taste of sugar-sweet magic lingered oddly on his tongue.

Ah. This could not be anything good. No one dragged him into existence for the betterment of the world.

A familiar bay of monsters was reaching crescendo, and a voice he almost knew cried out. Shadow unfurled, drawing himself from the blood and darkness, from Link's shadow, and opened his eyes.

…to a scene of chaos. Carved channels in an altar ran red. A boy he did not know lay still and pale, heavy shackles on thin wrists and collarbone. His throat torn and bleeding. A robed figure grasped Vio-Green-Red-Blue-Link by the collar and ripped a knife out of him, raising it high, readying to bring it down again. Oh, absolutely the fuck not. Shadow did not need to understand anything else.

He launched himself at the figure, all teeth and claws and fury, tearing into the figure's face and chest. The bastard dropped, the knife dropped, Link (Link?) dropped, and he was the only one Shadow caught, a wash of magic cradling his fall. 

He was bleeding, he was bleeding! What had happened? Where were Vio and the others? Why did he look different now? What had happened in the fight with Vaati? With Gan- Wait, was that fucking Ganon? Oh fuck. 

He was in so much trouble. They were in so much trouble.

The air was thick with a cloud of Dark magic. It pulsed again, and the half-formed body of Shadow’s worst nightmare solidified into horrifying reality. He took the form of a hulking blue pig man, maybe four meters tall, garbed in spiky dark armor and holding a fuck-off sized spear. He roared, the sound enough to shake the cave around them. Shadow hissed at the sound.

Ganon turned toward them. Towards probably-Link and the poor guy as they beld out into the concerningly large and intricate magic circle and crap on a fucksicle; this was probably one of those moments in Vio's stories where someone was supposed to do something heroic, and Link was in no condition to be smiting anyone. Well, he’d already died for them once.

Shadow held Link tightly for one more second, squeezing him gently before setting him down on the blood soaked stone. This was going to have to be quick. He straightened to glare at Ganon. Well, time to work off a lifetime of workplace frustration. It wasn’t a long life, but it was his whole life, you know? Shadow cracked his knuckles and lunged.

Powerful guys liked to prove they were powerful by being big and meaty and intimidating. The downside? They were always too fucking slow. Shadow had never been one to surrender to the chains of gravity, and he wasn’t going to do so now. He flew above Ganon’s trident, somersaulting up and over his head. Shadow twisted midair and slashed downwards with his claws, carving four deep gouges into his thick neck.

“Over here, pig dick!” He shouted, voice full of rage, letting the anger smother out anything else there was to feel. “I’m your problem now!”

Ganon twisted and the trident flashed towards him but Shadow melted out of the way. Okay, maybe he wasn’t that slow, but Shadow was still faster. He slipped back further away from the boys on the altar, drawing Ganon with him, wondering if he could get back inside his guard. How was he supposed to kill this guy anyway? He didn’t have a mystic weapon or anything! Maybe he could just chew through his spine or something, would that work? 

A guy with a scary fuck off sword (why did everyone but him have a terrifying weapon?), glowing orange-gold like a hot forge sprinted in to the fight out of nowhere and gouged his blade deep into the blue-black hide. Oh hey! That might work! Reddish black blood sprayed from the wound, but the newcomer didn’t pause in his ruthless assault. Apparently Shadow wasn't the only idiot here today. He was more than happy to hand over this fight to the mystery new guy  and rushed back to Link. There'd be no point chasing off Ganon if he bled out. 

He landed crouched over his other half. Link was ashen pale, a pool of bright red blood soaking his quadri-colored tunic. He’s bleeding, he’s hurt, what do I do? He’d never wished to have healing magic so much. Shadow lifted Link gently, feeling for the injury. There, in his lower back just below his ribcage! He pressed hard on the wound. That’s what you were supposed to do, right? To keep the blood inside? Link groaned softly at Shadow’s touch but his eyes did not open.

Movement, someone rushed towards them. Shadow twisted towards the figure with a growl, crouching lower over Link, magic twisting and writhing in the darkness. I’ll kill them for this, I’ll kill them ALL—

“Woah, woah, woah!” It was a Hylian boy, and he looked a lot like Vio and the others the last time he’d seen them, he skidded to a stop. Shadow’s eyes flicked from the newcomer to Link and back again.

He really wished he’d stop having the most confusing day of his life so frequently. How did the world keep managing to outdo itself? Shadow wasn’t even that old! Actually maybe that was the problem?

The kid was armed though, a threat. Shadow let out a hiss. The darkness shuddered around him, reacting to his will and reaching for the boy. Nobody else was going to touch Link. Not now that Shadow was here.

The boy blanched. He held up his hands in a show of peace. “It’s okay, it’s okay, you’re protecting Four, right?” the kid tried to placate him.

What the fuck’s a Four? Shadow didn’t reply. Link’s blood was seeping out under his hands. What can I do, what can I do?! How had it all gone wrong?!

“I’ve got a fairy,” the boy said and Shadow froze. A fairy, he’s got a fairy. Is he lying? Could I take it? “I’m, I’m going to put it on the altar okay? And you’ll let it heal Fou—Let it heal those two?”

A jerking nod. Fuck, Shadow had forgotten about the other poor schmuck chained up and lying on the altar to his side. 

A roar erupted from the room’s entrance and the boy whirled back around to face the new threat. Something’s coming. Link was bleeding. The guy in red was dodging and rolling away from Ganon’s trident, keeping his attention for now. 

“Give–!” 

The boy startled as Shadow addressed him. He rummaged through a bag. “Right!”

A bottle with a fairy hurled towards him. Shadow caught it, ripped the cork free, and tipped the little sprite out. He backed away, just a little; fairies hated him, but he’ll forgive this one her irritation. He knew he stank of dark magic to them, the little beings would naturally see him as a threat, a predator. She spiraled around the two boys, touching down on each of them, a gentle blessing of light within the darkened chamber. It was over in moments, and he rushed back to Link.

His breathing was harsh, but stronger. Still not good, he needed to get them out. How’s the other guy? Shadow moved from Link to the other boy, putting his hand down on the altar beside him and felt a magic buzz run through him. What the hell? He lifted his hand and… it was the blood? Drenched in foreign magic, in power. Not Dark or Light, something more akin to fairies or dragons. Nature magic.

Shadow looked at the other boy properly for the first time and wondered if he was wrong in taking him for a Hylian. There was something… different. Shadow was a magic being at his core, he didn’t think he saw the world quite like Hylians did, and something about the boy is odd to that sense. He was weighed down with iron shackles on his wrists, on his neck, wrapped around him. Which could mean fae but could also just mean, you know, normal and boring. Either way, his weird magic blood was probably what got him chained to an altar in a spooky monster cult’s den.

Fortunately, Shadow was neither fae nor mortal. So nice fucking try, iron, but you ain’t special. 

He gripped the lock fastening the collar and twisted it, forcing his magic into the mechanisms as he did, and it came apart in his hands. He unlatched the thing and tossed it away. The boy immediately started breathing easier. I still don’t like the look of his throat, though. The cut may not be fatal anymore thanks to the fairy’s healing, but it had to hurt like a bitch.

Right, one restraint down. Just the manacles on his wrists left.

There was a yell from the chamber’s main entrance, and Shadow glanced up, checking the progress of the fight. Honestly, he’d tuned out the monsters, he’d done that most of his life after all. Ganon was still fighting the young man in red. The boy who looked kinda like the colors was trying to hold the door and doing a pretty damn good job of it; normally Hylians just screamed and ran from monsters like that. Stalfos bones started to fumble around not-Link’s feet as some weird looking Bokoblins tried to force their way past him into the room. Emphasis on tried. 

Then abruptly they scattered as a roar sounded from further down the hall. The whirlwind of bones resolved itself into a Stalfos faster than should be possible, just out of the kid’s line of sight.

Crap.

The Stalfos’ arm grips the kid’s leg.

Double crap.

He glanced down at Link, motionless and pale even after the fairy. Uuugggghhhhhhh, damn it! Shadow leapt from the altar and shifted back to a cloud of dark magic, and lunged for the kid. He scooped him up and out of the way, dumping the two of them against a wall as a massive bullheaded monster he didn’t recognise crashed into the room, stampeding right where they’d been seconds ago. 

A few things happened at once; the boy looked up at him, owl eyed, and whispered “That was so cool!” And the guy in red yelled “Wind!” which seems a pointless thing to yell, especially since the distraction cost him the game of light ball tennis he’d apparently been playing with Ganon. He went down as the ball of energy slammed him into the wall of the chamber, Ganon turned back towards the altar.

“Legend!” the boy in blue yelled. Also a stupid thing to yell. Wait, was that supposed to be red guy’s name? It seemed a little presumptuous to Shadow.

Now, Shadow gets that he’s not always the smartest guy in the room (especially as he likes his rooms with Vio in them), but he’s feelin’ it tonight. Fuck, there were too many fights happening. 

He leapt, all tooth and claw, and ripped at the head of the bull monster, not stopping to finish the job, that’s the kid’s problem again, and used the momentum to launch himself back to the altar. He scooped up the Four Sword, sticky with blood, and pointed it at Ganon as he stood over the two boys.

He bared his teeth, “Hey Boss, fuck you. I quit.”

No sign of recognition from Ganon. No sign of thought from Ganon. Weird. He roared instead of threatening Shadow, like some common bokoblin. Normally he’d get told he’s gonna get tortured and slowly murdered then dragged back out of the mirror and asked if he’d learnt his lesson or if they needed to go again. Okay, well whatever. Everything is weird, what’s a little more?

Anyhoodle.

Ganon waved a hand and a ball of light (but not Light ) spun towards him, and well, he’d seen that red guy wacking it back earlier, after all. Couldn’t be that hard. He swung the Four Sword at the light ball. Success! He’d deflected it! Failure! It slammed into the ceiling instead of Ganon! 

Another light ball, this one Shadow deflected into the wall.

“Slash sideways!” Yelled the red guy—who almost got killed by one of these he might add—with all the frustration of a pro watching a newbie suck at a game they’re particularly good at.

“What!?”

“Stop slashing up!” He made a sideways slashing motion with his sword.

Shadow was kinda pissed off at being told what to do, even if he probably needed it. It’s the principle of the thing.

Nonetheless, because winning is more important than being petulant when Link’s life is on the line, Shadow mimicked it the next time the energy ball spun towards him. He hated that it worked. He still missed, but it was closer. The ball spun past Ganonbeastie and the guy in red sprinted after it with what must have been magically enhanced speed, and parried it into Ganon’s back. Big blue pig boss fell to a knee with a grunt.

Shadow did not want another round of light tennis.

Red-guy-maybe-called-Legend was rushing in, but Shadow got there first, not even bothering to try to keep looking Hylian as he descended on Ganon, hacking the Four Sword into his back and neck in a fury. Cutting away at flesh and magic.

“Move!” Yelled Legend, and Shadow pulled himself out of the way just in time to dodge the scary glowing murder sword as it slammed through Ganon’s face. Finally, finally, his ex-boss exploded into miasma.

Shadow looked back to check on the young guy, and found him standing in a cloud of clearing dark magic smoke, his own foes fallen, fishing out a potion to chase off the hurts of the fight. Seconds passed where all they could manage to do was catch their breath, the chamber oddly silent after the fight. 

Then the cry of some new monster echoed through the rock, and Shadow’s attention snapped back to where Link was still lying unconscious on the ground. He met red guy’s eye briefly and with a nod they both ran for the injured. They may have cleared the ritual chamber, but based on the racket there were still plenty of enemies outside somewhere.Where the hell were they anyway?

Now he had a moment to think, Shadow had time to really take in just how shitty Link looked. How much blood had he lost? Had the fairy been enough? He hated this so much. He reached for Link’s cheek with no thought beyond ‘Please wake up?’

“So you’re on our side, right?” Young-guy-maybe-Wind asked. He took up position in front of them, watching the lower of the two entrances. “I really, really don’t want to kill you after you saved me.”

Snapped his gaze up and narrowed his eyes at the boy, “Like you could,” he scoffed. “I’m on Link’s side.”

“Well funny thing then, that’s my name too! And his!” Wind gestured towards red guy with one hand and looked back briefly to grin at Shadow. Fuck, this kid was young. What was this red-dress idiot doing, letting a baby onto a battlefield? He and the others hadn't been that young had they? 

“That why you went with the dumbass nicknames?” Shadow asked, one eyebrow raised. It was why Vio and the others had after all, but what were the odds of there being a bunch of Links twice? And they were barely better than the names his Link had chosen for his other selves! Actually, no, ‘Legend’ was absolutely worse.

Wind flashed him a smile. “Exactly! The Link you know we’ve been calling Four, and the one the monsters kidnapped is Hyrule! I’m Wind” — Ha! He was right— “and that’s Legend,” he confirmed.

Shadow rolled his eyes, generously not calling the kid out on how stupid that all sounded. Shadow could properly make fun of them when the absolutely not love of his life wasn’t bleeding and unconscious in his arms. “I’m Shadow. Though Zelda did try to insist I was Link too, once.”

“Why do you look like Four?” Legend asked without looking up from the final boy—Hyrule, apparently. Shite luck to be named after a country. Legend was fiddling with the iron shackles still locked around the poor boy’s wrists. “Why should we trust you?”

“Why do you look like a dickhead?” Shadow rolled his eyes, Legend also rolled his eyes.This was taking too long, “Here, the locks are arcane, dumbass. Let me.”

Legend watched with narrowed eyes as Shadow reached out with one hand—the other still cradling his Link—to lay a hand on the manacles. The magic in them buzzed angrily, Shadow buzzed angrily back and pushed enough magic into them to shatter the spell.The locks sprang open as the cuffs crumbled away. Legend immediately flung the shattered remains to the floor and frowned at the raw skin revealed beneath. 

“You’re okay, Hyrule, you’re okay.” He whispered. Shadow smirked at the tenderness in his words. Just like Blue–hiding his affection under blustering anger. He’s a big fucking softie, I know it.

Not that Shadow had room to talk, though. A big part of him wanted to hold Link close and make sure nothing harmed him ever again. The other part of him was peeved that he’d had a big, triumphant, heroic return to existence and Link had the nerve to be unconscious for it. Shadow had looked so cool! 

We need to get you out of here, Shadow thought, cupping Link’s cheek. But he showed no sign of waking up. He poked him a couple of times just to be sure, no dice. Shadow wondered if he could fight his way to freedom while carrying him and decided it might pay to try the ‘enemy of my enemy helps me escape a murder lair’ thing. That’s how the saying went, right?

“So is freeing your friends, saving your asses, and helping kill Ganon enough to call a truce, or do I need to keep going?” Shadow asked.

Legend tied off the bandage on Hyrule’s throat and leveled a glare at Shadow. “We’re not doing anything until you explain who and what the fuck you are.”

Oh, come on, really? Shadow hated these suspicious types. “Does that really matter right this second? You’d be dead without me!”

“You spawned in the middle of a ritual designed to resurrect the King of Evil!”

“And then I tried to rip his head off!”

“You said he was your boss!”

“And no one likes their fucking boss!”

“You’re fucking leaking dark magic!”

“Yeah, well, your hat clashes with your outfit!”

“Boys, boys, you’re both pretty!” Wind laughed. Which was a lie, Shadow was much prettier thanks, that guy looked like a shrew. Wind had crossed the room towards the lower door while they were arguing and now had an ear pressed against it. “But I don’t think we have the time to gossip! It sounds like the uglies are getting closer.”

The darkness around Shadow rippled in anticipation and Legend glared at him. Wind glanced back at the both of them and sighed.

“Legend, really, there’s probably like a bajillion Fours or something, we haven’t even met a yellow one yet, so what if there’s an attack Four that gets summoned by evil rituals?” he argued, “Let’s go before we have to deal with Ganon again. ”

Legend looked between them a few times before coming to the inevitable conclusion that there was no real choice.

“Fuck. Wind, help me get Rulie on my back.”

Wind hurried back to do so, the two of them sitting Hyrule up on the altar then slumping him on Legend’s back, arms hanging limply over his shoulders.

“Do you want me to take Four?” Wind asked Shadow.

Shadow just hissed at him.

The kid raised his hands in surrender. “All right, all right, I’m taking point then I guess. Ready?”

The two of them nodded, and followed Wind out.

Chapter Text

Wind led them out of the chamber, dashing ahead to take out a few monsters who had fled the room before picking a side passage to head down based mostly on vibes. He understood Legend’s love of maps in that moment, what he wouldn’t give for one. They couldn’t afford to take the main path out though, not if it was potentially crawling with monsters. He wasn’t even sure there was a main path in this maze. His whole body ached with exhaustion. First the ambush, then the mad dash, then storming the ritual chamber…he didn’t know how much longer he could keep this up.

The Shadow-Four took the rear. Wind could tell it made Legend nervous, but they’d also seen his magic tear monsters into bite sized chunks and gouge deep into Ganon’s flesh so he could probably protect them without having to put down Four. 

He definitely looked like he was in over his head to Wind, who was well familiar with the feeling. He hadn’t expected whatever had just happened to, well, happen. But he was carrying Four in such a gentle, worried way Wind couldn’t think he was bad. They just had to get away, then they could sort it all out. 

Wind dashed them through the passages for a short while, his first goal being to put some distance between them and the ritual chamber.

He paused at a four way intersection and glanced back at the others. Legend was flagging, the adrenaline from the fight starting to run dry, but Shadow still seemed to be faring fine. Is it ‘cause he’s a magic beastie? Wind wondered distantly.

He took out the Wind Waker and flicked it, calling up the wind, tracing the magic lines of it through the maze. The natural path of it led to the right, the nearest source of fresh air. He led them on.

They didn’t see any monsters as they weaved their way through the passages until with an explosion of noise they found all the monsters close ahead. Well, maybe not all, but more than Wind wanted to deal with when they were exhausted and towing injured brothers. The passage ended at a simple arched entrance to a fairly large open room.

The breeze he found snaked in from a rookery full of big nasty birds. He hated big nasty birds. He didn’t know what they were, something from Rulie’s world he supposed, but massive orange eagles have gotta be bad news. He peeked in and saw no way to get through without drawing them all down on them. Legend peeked in, his jaw set, and glared at the birds. 

Legend decided on violence.

Wind jerked back as the older boy pulled out his medallions again, he didn’t even give Wind a chance to brace before lightning ripped through the chamber. The creatures barely had a chance to screech before with lightning burned through almost everything inside. Legend staggered into the doorframe, drained and exhausted. Fuck, he’d used those twice now, not to mention a freaking Ganon fight. How much longer was he going to be able to carry Hyrule? I really hope we find the others soon. 

Shadow had to have noticed their slowing down, but he didn’t comment. Wind had no idea what he was thinking. 

They needed a way out, like, yesterday. 

Wind ran through the rookery, picking off the last couple of monsters Legend’s lightning hadn't fried. And ah, just like he’d hoped, the room opened up to the cliff face, letting the eagle creatures fly in and out. An exit! Technically. He looked down at the sheer drop, way too far to jump. He had his leaf, and maybe Legend could use his hookshot and lower himself? But he was tied, and how were they going to haul down Rulie and Four?

Speaking of, Shadow appeared beside him and squinted down.

“Can you get down?” Wind asked.

“Huh? Yeah. Easy.” Shadow’s arms tightened around Four and he stepped towards the edge, neither waiting nor elaborating.

“Can you get Legend and Hyrule down?” Wind prompted to stop him leaping off a cliff without them.

Shadow turned back to watch Legend staggering towards them, Hyrule still limp on his back. The dark copy of Four softened a fraction at the sorry sight of the boy who had been bleeding out beside Four.

“If he’ll let me,” Shadow admitted grudgingly, then went to say something else before cutting himself off. Instead he shifted on his feet, unhappy, and looked over Four again.

“Legend, we’re going out the side. Shadow’s going to get the three of you down,” Wind told him.

“What? No! We don’t even know this guy!”

“Then give me your sword, he doesn’t like it, and if he screws us over I will slay him.”

“No!” Insisted Legend, the same time Wind got a “What!? No!” from Shadow.

Wind clapped his hands together in a fit of manic excitement. “Excellent! You’re agreeing on something! So are we going with the plan where we just fucking get out of here then, or do we have to make it complicated?”

Hyrule gave a weak cough over Legend’s shoulder and he flinched, obviously torn.

“...he’s what brought me back, right? His blood.” Shadow asked.

Legend glanced back at Hyrule again, then nodded.

“Then I’m in his debt. That matters alright? I’m not Fae, but it’s not nothing,” Shadow met his eyes properly, “I’m just trying to get Link safe. And knowing the stupid obsession with teamwork, he’d kill me if I left you guys behind.”

Wind watched as Legend stared for a long moment, trying to work him out, trying to weigh if it was trust or suspicion that would get them killed.

“...fine,” he said finally, oh so grudgingly.

“Great!” Declared Wind, sheathing his sword then pulling his Korok leaf out of his bag, “Go–” He waved his hands vaguely, unsure what his new friend actually needed to do.

“Grab on,” Shadow said, looking like he’d rather do anything but that, “It doesn’t need to be tight,” He stepped over to the opening, Four held close against him. Legend staggered over and flung one arm around Shadow.

“Ready?” Asked Wind, preparing the leaf. Shadow and Legend both nodded.

Wind leapt from the opening, unfurling the leaf to catch him. In the same moment he saw a cloud of shifting darkness engulf Shadow and the others. It spilled down the cliff almost like a liquid, though there was an obvious control to the descent. The cloud of it roiled down the cliff face and hit the ground slower than an object at freefall would.

Wind drifted down to them and the cloud of darkness folded in on itself to reveal Shadow, still standing with Four in his arms and looking over him anxiously, and Legend, who fell to his knees, Hyrule half sliding off his back. Wind hit the ground beside them.

“You okay?” He demanded of Legend, who just nodded in reply, breathing too deeply and too fast. His face looked a little green.

Shadow fidgeted uneasily, Wind knew what someone looking for an escape route looks like. “So if that’s all, we can just…”

“Hang on, hang on!” He pulled out his pirate charm from under his shirt and activated it. There was a chime as it connected.

“Wild!” He yelled into it.

“Wind?” Wild replied, “Where are you?”

Wind looked up to track the dim sun, mostly hidden by clouds, “South side, at the cliff base! We came out through a monster den. We’ve got Rulie. You guys need to go!”

“We’re on our way.” The connection cut out.

There was nothing to do but wait, and to be honest the three of them that were conscious were having an awful time with that. Legend looked like he was about to pass out and couldn’t seem get back to his feet, Shadow obviously wanted to bolt and take Four with him and was probably only being stopped by clearly having no fucking clue what was going on, and Wind? Well, Wind was now responsible for these people until a Real Adult came.

Fortunately, the rest of the Chain turned up before more monsters did, fleeing a suspiciously loud rumbling sound and dust cloud. For better or worse the angle of the cliff meant the others couldn’t actually see Wind’s group until they were fairly close. Which would have been fine if not for the obvious monster vibes thing Shadow had going on.

Sky took one look at their tagalong and activated his murder face, something Wind was normally glad to see but he rushed to intercept this time. 

Shadow backed off, cornered with the cliff at his back, eyes fixed on the Master Sword in Sky’s hand. Wind put himself between them.

“Sky, Sky!” He yelled, “Back off, he’s a friend.”

Sky’s eyebrows drew together in what was either confusion or a threat. “He’s–”

“I know,” Wind cut him off before he could start, “But he knows Four, and got us out, and at least one of us would probably be dead if not for his help. So chill, okay? Please don’t stab him.”

“I, uh, do enjoy not being stabbed.” Shadow piped up, trying for levity and failing miserably in the face of Sky’s holy blade. “Un-stabbed is my preferred state. Please.”

Sky lowered the sword, but didn’t sheath it. Wind turned back to Shadow to find the darkness around him roiling again, twitchy through his attempt to seem friendly. Scared, thought Wind, He’s terrified.

Wild and Twilight rushed to Legend and Hyrule and Shadow shifted further along the cliff with a little hiss as they got too close.

“Legend? He an ally?” Warriors asked, and Wind made an indignant noise at Wars asking for a second opinion. What, was he not trustworthy enough?

Legend lifted his head to look at Wars, then followed his gaze groggily to Shadow. 

It takes a moment for his brain to press through the fatigue, “Leave him be. He’s a’right.” Oof, he was crashing hard. How much magic did those medallions take?

They were then saved the potential catastrophe of trying to take Four away from Shadow by the appearance of a portal. Impeccable timing as always, Hylia.

“That’s our exit,” Wind told Shadow, who just glared at him in response. “You coming?”

Wild helped up Legend and Twilight lifted Hyrule into his arms. Wind watched as Shadow eyed the portal with distrust. And them with distrust. And the clouds blocking out the sun with distrust. He didn’t know what the guy last remembered but for sure it had been A Day.

“Shadow…” Wind started.

“No.”A flat refusal.

“Then you’ll be leaving Four with us and staying here,” Time said with no room for argument.

Shadow hissed then yelled a “NO!” at him.

Wind stepped over to properly face Shadow, “They won’t hurt Four, they won’t hurt you so long as you don’t try to hurt us, okay? Promise.” He gave the others a glare over his shoulder to drive his point home. He just made a deal, so none of you are allowed to break it, okay!? “We’ll go through together, can I take your arm?”

Shadow hesitantly nodded, the defensive glare shifting into something else that mostly looked like uncertainty. Wind guided him to the portal.

“I don’t like it,” Shadow growled at him softly. He glanced down at Four, still cradled in his arms. Wind followed his gaze. His brother looked pale and sick, even smaller than usual. He needed help. Wind desperately hoped there wasn’t another fight waiting on the other side.

“I know,” Wind whispered back, “But if we don’t go through them they’ll open under us eventually. That includes Four.”

They watched as Sky and Time went through first, the deep colors rippling around them.

“Ready?” Asked Wind. Shadow just nodded and lifted Four up closer against him.

They stepped through the portal.

 * * *

Hyrule felt like he’d been buried under a cave-in. His head pounded, his limbs were impossibly heavy, and breathing was a struggle. Had one of his hideouts collapsed? He was usually way too careful to enter any cave he deemed unstable. That was an amateur mistake. 

He groaned and shifted. Wait—something felt soft. Warm, too, definitely not buried under rubble. His limbs were so weighed down it felt impossible to move them, yet at the same time part of him seemed weightless, disconnected. Odd, foreign irritation echoed in the back of his mind.

Light shone behind his closed eyelids. Was that sunlight on his face? Hyrule groaned again as it sent stabbing pains through his head.

“Rulie?” A voice called to him. “Hyrule, can you hear me?”

“Ah, is he wakin’ up?” A distinctly feminine voice called from father away. “I’ll get some tea goin’, see if you can get him up enough to drink.”

Wooden floorboards groaned under solid, sure footsteps. Am I in a house? How?

What had happened? Hyrule had been traveling with his brothers, trying to lead them to shelter. There had been tea… and a bug. A battle! There were so many monsters…claws in his skin, cruel arms holding him back. Pain, and a blur of darkness.

He’d been taken.

Hyrule flinched into the pillows he was lying on. A pained whimper escaped him despite his need to keep quiet. Whoever had him would no doubt use any weakness against him. What was with this kindness, anyway? It would make more sense to have him lying in a cell. 

“Woah, Hyrule, it’s all right!” The first voice spoke again. “You’re safe! You’re fine, nobody is going to hurt you.”

Something about the speaker’s timbre was familiar. Hyrule found himself relaxing just a hair, despite his instincts telling him to remain on guard. A painfully gentle hand ran through his hair. Hyrule froze at the contact, but no blow followed the touch.

“Come on Rulie, open your eyes.” 

His eyelids were so heavy. The hand ran through his hair again, brushing it out of his face so delicately he could barely feel it. 

The world was a fuzzy riot of color. Hyrule had been right, he was in someone’s home. Warm white walls surrounded him, the roof made of shining wood free of any cobwebs. Plain, but clearly well-loved. He groaned as the light made his headache flare.

“There you are!” His companion laughed. 

Hyrule turned his head towards the noise. Pink and red and gold slowly swam into focus. Hyrule narrowed his eyes, trying to gain clarity through the fog in his pounding head. “Legend?” His voice came out a pathetic rasp.

Legend smiled. He looked terrible, Hyrule realized, as he blinked the sleep away. Legend had deep purple bruises under his eyes, and his blush-colored hair hung lank and greasy. He was sitting on the edge of the bed Hyrule had been placed in, one hand in Hyrule’s and the other cupping his cheek. “Careful. Don’t try to talk too loud, okay? We got you healed up but your throat is still recovering. You lost a lot of blood.”

Fear broke through his fatigued haze. Blood and kidnapping in his era only meant one thing. But how had they gotten out? More importantly, how was Hyrule still alive? He remember burning iron on his wrists and collar, he remembered the flash of a knife. His hand jerked up to clutch his throat.

“Shh, shh, it’s okay,” Legend’s hand shifted to take Hyrule’s and gently pry it off his throat, “You’re okay.”

Hyrule made a soft noise in reply.

“We tracked the monsters that took you to a fortress in the mountains,” Legend explained, “Me, Wind, and Four went to break you out while the others distracted the main horde. A portal came just as we all got out—we’re in Time’s house right now.”

Good, that was good. Lon Lon Ranch was as safe as it got for the Chain. The woman’s voice from before must have been Malon. He liked Malon.

“Is everyone okay?” Hyrule asked. The words burned coming out, and he became all too aware of the bandages wound around his throat. He extracted one of his hands from Legend’s and brushed over them. They were snug and even, no doubt the work of Warriors. He always played combat medic when Hyrule was down or needed extra hands. 

Legend nodded, but discomfort shone in his eyes. “It was nasty, but everyone came out alive. The ritual only half worked, something Four did made the resurrection way weaker.”

Alive, Legend had said, but not well.

“Ganon?” Hyrule whispered, clutching Legend’s hand as tightly as he could. Fear washed over him cold as a bucket of ice water and even more effective at waking him up. 

“Dead. I killed the fucker myself. He’s not coming back again, Rulie, not in your lifetime.” Legend said with a tired smile.

The words should have been a relief to Hyrule. And on some level it was, to know the specter that had been haunting him for years was no longer a concern. He could properly relax now. Could he? But something about the tightness in Legend’s eyes ruined his attempt at good cheer.

“What are you not telling me?”

Legend opened his mouth to reply, then paused and pursed his lips. His ears went back a bit in discomfort as he struggled to find words. “Well, when Four stopped the ritual, things got…weird.”

“Weird how?”

“There’s kind of five of him now?”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah, turns out our smithy had a little ghost tagalong in his shadow. When he cut Ganon’s ashes off from the ritual, it didn't just fail like we hoped. It was redirected onto Four.”

“Is he yellow?” The question slipped out before Hyrule could think better of it.

“What?”

“The new one.” Hyrule could feel his cheeks going a bit pink at the suggestion. It was one of his favorite colors, and he’d had a secret disappointment when he learned their brother could split into color-based aspects that didn’t include his favorite. 

Legend snorted and ruffled Hyrule’s hair. “No, Rulie, still no yellow.”

“That new feller is edgier than my Link was in our teens.” A new voice put in. Hyrule and Legend both turned towards the door to find Malon waiting, smiling with a tea tray in her hands. She gave them a warm smile and walked right in, setting the tray on a side table and pouring a cup of tea. “I let the others know you were awake, honey. Even the new guy wants to see ya. Legend, can you be a dear and help him up?”

Legend slipped an arm under Hyrule’s shoulders and helped him sit up against the pillows. His head swam at the movement and stars danced in his eyes for a moment, but Hyrule held onto consciousness. The teacup Malon pressed into his hands was full of rich, overly sweet tea just the way he liked. A telltale pink shimmer hinted at some of Wild’s fairy tonic being added.

While he drank Legend gave him the rundown of what happened since he’d been snatched.

Out of nowhere, the sense of discomfort in the back of Hyrule’s mind rose to booming levels. He flinched, rubbing the heel of his palm against his forehead to try easing the sudden ache. A loud thump echoed from down the hall and Hyrule jumped. It was quickly followed by a hiss.

Time and Malon didn’t have any cats.

Legend sighed so deep his shoulders slumped downward. “That’ll be the new guy. Want to go say hi?”

Chapter Text

Link… or ‘Four’ Shadow supposed, didn’t look too good. They’d cleaned the blood off him and changed him into fresh clothes, but the hero’s face was still unnervingly pale. He didn’t have any outward injuries left, but his magic seemed all kinds of fucked up according to Time. For a man composed of magical energy just as much as flesh and blood, that was a bit not good. Shadow glowered through the constant examinations and checkups they seemed intent on doing. Some of them glowered right back, eyes full of suspicion.

Every time one of these weird Link wannabes looked at him Shadow got shivers down his spine. It wasn’t like he’d asked to be reborn! This wasn’t his fault! They should be blaming those tacky cultists for Four’s condition, not Shadow. He had done nothing wrong, ever, in his entire life. Second life. Close enough. No, actually either of them. The guy with the white cape and old one-eye were bad enough, but the scarf-wearing hero? 

Everything about Warriors made Shadow want to bite him, from his stupid fancy clothes, to his exceedingly punchable face, to the way he kept trying to manhandle Four in order to check on him.

It’s a stupid fucking nickname. Shadow thought to himself. The kind of dumbass name Red would have come up with. He just wished his idiot would wake the fuck up so he could make fun of the guy properly. But no, Four had remained stubbornly unconscious since they’d been dumped on this stupid farm over a day ago. It apparently belonged to old man Time, and his wife had taken one look at their injured and thrown open the doors of her home to them all, no questions asked. She hasn’t even batted an eye at Shadow's obviously dark magic influenced form.

He liked Malon. She was too good for Time.

“Come on, I just want to take a look.” Warriors repeated once more. Shadow glowered at him, sitting cross legged in midair between the bed where his other half slumbered and the interloper stepping through the doorway. “I’m a trained medic. I just want to make sure he’s not getting worse.”

“You’ve bothered him enough! Fuck off!” Shadow curled his lip, displaying the fangs he knew unsettled light worlders. Though fancy pants kept his cool, Shadow could see the way his eyes tightened that it had worked. Unfortunately instead of backing off Warriors took another step forward, reaching out to try to physically shove Shadow out of the way. 

Shadow grabbed the nearest solid object to him—sorry, candlestick—and threw it at Warriors’ meddling head. Blondie ducked to avoid it and it sailed into the wall behind him, leaving a noticeable dent. Pity.

“I told you to leave him alone!” Shadow hissed.

Warriors glared. “He’s my brother. I’m not going to hurt him.”

“You’re a liar. Link never had any brothers!”

“What does that make you, then?”

“His ex-boyfriend was my guess.” A deep, drawling voice interrupted—the furry one, Twilight, he let himself into the room to come up behind Warriors. “What?” He asked when they both looked at him like he was mad.

I mean, he’s not wrong, but does it count when I only really dated Vio? How did the colors feel about each other at large? Shadow had a few fuzzy memories of Red clinging onto Blue, but he didn’t know how Green fit into the situation, or how Vio felt about them now that so much time had passed. Or what all that made Link. “You’re a nosy son of a bitch, you know that?”

Twilight threw his head back in laughter, not phased in the slightest by Shadow’s threat display. “I’ve been called worse by the village kids, yer gonna need to do better than that, short stack.”

Shadow stared at the hillbilly like he’d grown a second head. All the other idiots had been cordial but somewhat suspicious towards him over the last day. Mostly they were content to keep their distance. They had not laughed at him baring his teeth and called him short.

Wind had checked in, but even his friendly nature was nothing compared to Twilight’s complete lack of apprehension. Shadow really didn’t want to like any of these posers, but Twilight was starting to grow on him. Like a fungus. “Do none of you know how to mind your own business?”

Twilight shrugged. “We sure do. He’s our business too though, ya know. Matter of fact, ya both are now.”

“I don’t need any help from some backwater hick.”

“Don’t talk to him like that!” Warriors admonished, stepping into Shadow’s space. He growled, deep and utterly unnatural.

A crisp whistle cut through the brewing argument. “I know I said use your words in my house, but I do not approve of y’all reading each other for filth. Honestly. And here I was tryin’ to bring y’all a visitor!”

The three of them turned to see Malon standing in the doorway now, looking thoroughly unimpressed. Her arms were crossed and her fingers tapped against one bicep. The Heroes immediately snapped to attention. Damn, I wish I could do that. 

“Hyrule?” Wars asked, hopeful.

“Woke up ‘bout half an hour ago. He’s shaky, but he’s doin all right. Legend filled him in. See for yourself.”

Malon stepped to the side. Hyrule shuffled in, Legend close behind keeping a wary eye on both him and Shadow. He gave a pointed glare to Warriors who silently got out of the way so Hyrule could sit by the bed. Ha!

“Should you be up so soon?” Warriors asked him.

Hyrule shrugged, “Don’t fuss. Besides, this way we can be here with Four.”

There were still marks around the guy’s neck and wrists from the shackles, something about that set off an angry fluttering in Shadow’s chest. 

“So!” Hyrule directed at Shadow, cheery but in a deliberate way, and tired. Maybe he was uncertain too, “I hear you helped save me, and maybe more than just me. Thank you.”

Shadow drew his knees up to his chest still perched in the air, “I’m alive again because of you, right?”

“I think so. My… there’s a curse in my blood. The cult has been trying to use it to resurrect Ganon for years now.”

Shadow squinted at him. The guy didn’t look that old, probably around Link’s current age, whatever that was, so what did ‘years’ count as?

“So. What exactly do you mean by again?” Hyrule asked.

“I was dead. It was very cool and heroic and dramatic. But I was also very dead. Also for…” He glanced down at Four, “I don’t know how long, A couple years at least. I guess.”

“So the last thing you remembered was–”

“Dying,” Shadow said honestly, bluntly. He’d felt like he knew bits and pieces of the inbetween, but the last clear memory? The boys with him as he faded back into nothing.

Legend cut in, “And then you woke up in that chamber in a pool of blood, and Ganon was there and Four was dying and the rest of us were trying to deal with that.”

“Yeah!”

“And your first move was to try to attack Ganon like an angry cat?”

Doth his ears deceive him? Does the red jerk approve?

“I thought it was Vio and the other’s fight against Ganon,” he waved a hand at Link, Four, whatever.

Legend just snorted at him.

Shadow could feel heat rushing into his cheeks. He waved his hands. “IT’S BEEN THE MOST CONFUSING DAY, OKAY?!” 

“I’ll bet. So what is Link to you anyway?” None of them seemed particularly phased at Shadow’s dramatics now. On one hand it was nice that they ignored his embarrassment, but it was terrible news for future theatrics.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” Shadow scoffed.

“Hmmmm? ‘Cause I don’t think you’ve let him out of your sight since you woke up.”

“Some very shady, suspicious people around,” Warned Shadow, baring his teeth. “You idiots didn’t exactly take good care of him.”

“Guys,” Hyrule cut back in, “Please?”

Legend just smirked and made a shooing motion. Shadow decided he might bite him too if the opportunity presented itself.

“Shadow,” Hyrule dragged his attention back, “Could I look at Four? Please? I’m the healer in the group.”

“Not him?” Shadow asks, looking at Warriors (stupidest name, he cannot get over that) with disdain. If he was faking being a healer to get close to Four when he was vulnerable then Shadow was going to shove the guy's own sword up his–

“He’s the medic,” Hyrule explained patiently, “He works with stitches and bandages and potions. I work with magic.”

Shadow glaaaaared a warning, and Hyrule met his gaze steadily.

Fine.

He couldn’t stay mad at those stupid baby deer eyes.

He drifted back out of his way and Hyrule gently lay a hand on Four’s chest. Oddly enough there was something comforting about the motion, he felt calmer as he sensed a thread of magic unfurling from him. 

The thought of letting Warriors or Legend close to Four again set his hackles on edge, but Hyrule was…fine? His presence felt inexplicably familiar. 

Weird. 

Shadow wasn’t sure he liked that either. He wished he could bite someone about it, or maybe explode some things. Not Hyrule, but it had been a stressful day and he’d really like to take it out on something or someone flammable.

Hyrule was looking at him, sensing his restlessness perhaps, “You okay?”

Shadow just nodded.

The thread of Hyrule’s magic reached out and sank into Four. Shadow thought he could almost sense the warmth of it and drifted closer, almost feel it in his soul or whatever it was he had at his core. A chime like bells, a satisfied fatigue, soft worn-in leather, secret forest places, and then Light . Discordant. Lenses out of phase and unaligned, an instrument untuned, metal pulled in the wrong plane becoming brittle.

“Ah,” said Hyrule, and with his other hand reached out for Shadow.

Shadow took it, the odd semi-fae magic of Hyrule redoubled, and Shadow felt his own respond to it. Biting darkness, broken mirrors, childrens’ games on dark nights, monster stories and the fun kind of fear. He pulled himself back in, he didn’t want to hurt Hyrule.

Hyrule let go of the both of them and leaned back in his chair with a deep breath.

“You good, Rulie?” Legend asked from across the room, eyes intent on them. Shadow wondered how much of that he sensed. Warriors and Twilight stood by the door, keeping an eye on everything. Ugh.

“Yeah,” Hyrule opened his eyes, “I think I figured it out.”

“Can you fix it!?” Shadow demanded, and Warriors made a face at his volume, but fuck him.

“One thing at a time,” Hyrule said, taking a deep breath, “Okay. So, the Four Sword can split Four into four people, right? But they’re all still Four, or parts of Four, or made from him. A crystal splits white light into colours. And it works in reverse too.”

Shadow nodded and he continued, “But right now the recombining isn’t… it’s not lining up right. It’s like they all got jerked out of phase and they can’t move in either direction. They can’t split, but they’re not in place to be Four either. And he’s too weak to force everything back into place.”

“So what can we do?”

“If… if we could get them to split somehow, that would probably do it; they could recover individually, and then when they fuse again they should fit together properly.”

Legend sat at the foot of Four’s bed, “Okay, so how do we force a split then?”

“It’d have to be the Four Sword somehow, right?” Shadow asked, “That’s what did it in the first place.”

“There must be a way of activating it or else he’d be accidentally splitting all the time. But if he’s unconscious then he can’t trigger it, and we wouldn’t want to accidentally split ourselves instead either.”

They all looked back down at Four for a long moment before Hyrule looked back up at Shadow.

“You’re like the Colours too, aren’t you? Not the same, but kind of. They’re… made of magic in a way, and so are you. You're… The same shape. I don't mean in your looks, though there's that, I mean magically you're… a reflection, an inversion? Of Four. Less a piece, more a match. You weren’t split by the Sword, were you?” It’s the kind of question someone asks already knowing the answer.

Shadow shook his head.

“I thought so. I think… if any of us can trigger it for him, I think it might be you.”

“It won’t split me ?” He asked, suddenly concerned at the possibility.

Hyrule’s turn for the head shaking.

“You can’t split Darkness the way you can Light, so if it’s trying to, and Four is there too, it should split him instead.”

“I don’t know how.”

“We’ll try together,” Hyrule reassured him, “Legend, could you hand me the sword please? Everyone else, please give us some space.”

Shadow watched Malon drag Warriors and Twilight out, though he suspected they were still lurking outside.

The Four Sword had been laid carefully against the wall in Four’s room. Legend scooped up the blade first, unsheathing it and handing it, point down, to Hyrule before going to lean against the wall in a very bad show of disinterest. Pretty obviously protecting Hyrule. Like Blue and Red. Shadow rolled his eyes.

Hyrule waved him down from his floating. “Come sit down. I don’t know exactly how his magic works, but I’ll do my best to guide you.”

Shadow did as he said, sitting on the worn quilt right next to Four. He didn’t move, didn’t stir, no hint of change to his breathing; wherever his mind was, it was far out of reach. “So? How do we do this mystic shit?”

Hyrule laid the Sword on Four’s chest and wrapped both his and Four’s hand around the hilt. 

“Put your hand on the pommel,” he instructed, and Shadow did so. He thought he could almost feel it hum at his touch.

He felt a tug at his magic, at his being really, and reached out for it. Hyrule’s magic threaded through him and gently guided him down. For all Shadow was magic, he wasn’t much for the esoteric arts. He was real good at what he did, but understanding it? Eh, well he didn’t need to, right?

…maybe he could get Hyrule to teach him? But that was making too many assumptions about what would happen next. Who was he to these people anyway? Focus, focus, gotta focus!

Shadow could curl himself into the void and shadows, and the path Hyrule took him almost felt similar. Folding down into some other space, some pocket of reality. A fracture of light, white and a rainbow of colours. No pattern, no order, a scattered cacophony of colour like misaligned stain glass windows. He felt at its core a mechanism, like a key or a switch and sensed it jammed. 

Hyrule’s shining presence nudged him towards it, then drifted away. The last thing they needed was yet another foreign magic source here while trying to sort out this mess.

Shadow reached out for it with his power, and shoved, feeling it to click into place like tumblers in a lock. And that kaleidoscope sea of light swallowed him.

He blinked the riot of colors out of his eyes. He held the Four Sword, but no longer was he at Four’s bedside. Damn, do I need to pinch myself? What the fuck is going on? He was standing in a sea of stars. It looked…familiar. Shadow thought he must have been here before, in the long years he’d been dormant. He blinked again, and suddenly the starry sky was above him, like a painted ceiling. He stood in a temple all of white stone. Coloured light cascaded in through stained glass windows, Red, Green, Blue, Violet, overlapping to a bright white in the centre where he stood on a dias with the Four Sword.

“ Shadow?” A voice exclaimed behind him, sharp with disbelief. 

Shadow whirled around to find Four, Link, standing directly behind him, one hand outstretched. He jumped back with a yelp and Link flinched. “Ganon’s wrinkled ballsack, Link, I’m supposed to be the sneaky one!”

Link gaped at him like a landed fish. His eyes started flashing between colors almost too fast to track. He snorted, quickly devolving into full body laughter. “Years apart and the first thing you say to me is Ganon’s wrinkled ballsack?”

Shadow grinned. “Well we wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t gone and gotten yourself stuck in a coma!”

“Is that what this is?” He rocked on his heels, looking around in interest. Like this was all an interesting new experience rather than something that could kill him. 

“Far as I can tell. Your buddies say your magic is crooked or something.”

“You met the Chain? You’re…real? This isn’t another dream?” Violet shone in his eyes now. His voice had gone soft. Oh, no, survivors' guilt wouldn’t do right now. Vio could have a pity party after Shadow saved his ass. Again.

“Aww, sweetheart, you were dreaming about me?” Shadow batted his eyelashes. “I’m as surprised as you are. One minute I’m hanging out in your shadow, enjoying my quiet afterlife, and the next I’m in the middle of a bloody Dark magic hellhole surrounded by a bunch of do-gooder snobs.”

Link’s eyes blew wide. He took another step towards Shadow, visibly rattled but still wary of touch. “The ritual—Hyrule! Is he okay? What happened?”

“Whatever ritual thingamajig those wack job cultists were working on rebounded to you. It was all resurrection and crap, so it found me hanging out and just got confused, I think. You really should think more before charging into strange magic circles though, and that’s coming from me . You did make Ganon weak as shit, so that’s not a total failure!”

“Ganon’s alive?” Link half whispered.

“Nah, red guy–Legend–killed him, and I helped.”

Link stared as he processed Shadow’s words. No doubt taking in the differences in his appearance. He’d been brought back looking exactly like his dark reflection, long hair and all. Shadow had discarded the dumb headband as soon as he could. He wasn’t sure the hair had grown on him (ha!) yet. “Are you gonna stand there staring all day, or can we get out of here? I think the others are gonna beat my ass if we don’t get going soon.”

Link hummed thoughtfully. “Is this the part where you explain why you have the Four Sword in your hand?” 

“I’m gonna fight the Warriors guy for being a prat.”

Link choked on a laugh and Shadow grinned.

“Almost forgot about this fucker.” He held it up between them, blade pointing towards the ground. “Hyrule’s idea. Since your magic is kind of eating itself, you’d recover better if you split.”

Four hesitated, one hand hovering above the blade. He looked at Shadow with piercing gray eyes—all of him must be united in whatever was running through that stupid pretty head of his. “Will you still be here if I wake up?”

“If? If? Cut that bullshit, you’re going to wake up just fine.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.”

Shadow rolled his eyes. His sweet, sweet idiot hero. “I came back from the dead to save your sorry ass. If I left you’d just go and get yourself killed again. It would be a waste of my hard work.”

Yeah, screw hesitating. Shadow had never hesitated in his entire life, that may have been his entire problem, but he saw no reason to stop now. 

Lunging like a snake, he grabbed Link’s hand and brought it to rest between his on the hilt of the blade.

He heard Link exhale a little helplessly and had just enough time to register how warm his counterpart was before the world exploded into white.

Between one blink and the next Shadow found himself face first in the quilt on Link’s bed. It didn’t taste very good. He’d barely had time to raise his head before arms were thrown around him, clinging tight.

“You’re here. ” Vio whispered, breathless in disbelief. “You’re really here.”

Despite himself Shadow went soft. He turned within Vio’s embrace to return the hug. 

Hyrule cleared his throat from wherever he and Legend were watching. “We’ll give you guys some space.”

Soft footsteps retreated and the door clicked softly behind them. Shadow took a second to revel in the fact that he was here, that he could hold Vio now after years of half-memories and dim nothingness. 

Another form pressed up against Shadow’s back. “It’s so good to see you again!” Red pressed a kiss to Shadow's cheek, grinning when he sputtered. 

“You certainly didn’t waste any time.” Shadow heard Green chuckle. He lifted his face from Vio’s pale hair and took a proper look around the room.

Blue loomed over him, cutting off his view, “You are not to pull any shit that gets you killed ever again, do you understand me?” He threatened.

“Or what, you’ll kill me?”

Blue punched him in the shoulder and Shadow laughed as Red pulled him down into the hug with them.

“I’ve got one question though.”

“Yeah?” Asked Green.

“Does this mean I have four boyfriends now?”

“Ha!” Green settled in behind Vio and threw an arm over both of them, “You’ve gotta earn that! I’ll look forward to your efforts.” Shadow could hear the smile in his voice.

“Welcome back,” whispered Vio, pressing his face into Shadow’s collar.

Shadow closed his eyes, “It’s good to be home.”