Chapter Text
~ Officer Heinrich ~
Officer Heinrich had just been relaxing on his king-size bed, listening to classical music on his radio, when he'd heard the sound of the to his office being slammed open.
He immediately leapt to his feet, causing the covers to fall to the floor, and was less than a second away from shouting at whatever Wehrmacht had just interrupted his quiet time when he caught sight of a black uniform and bright red skin.
Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull himself, had just entered Heinrich's office.
"H-Herr Schmidt!" As Heinrich gave him the HYDRA salute, his eyes darted around at his desk (covered in unfinished paperwork), his table (which had an unfinished steak dinner on it), and even his own uniform (ruffled and unbuttoned).
Schmidt's gaze wordlessly slid across the office, expression going from neutral to disapproving to actively pissed off.
"...Officer Heinrich. What is this." He said it not as a statement instead of a question, and Heinrich felt his heart drop all the way to his knees.
"Well, see, I was going to clean up soon, but..."
Heinrich's words trailed off as he noticed the people standing behind the Red Skull. There were a few standard soldiers, yes, but what really drew his eyes were the two blonde-haired teenagers beside Schmidt- one male, one female.
The male had dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes and a strict, stone-faced expression, along with a lithe but strong build. He was wearing a blue tunic with white designs across it, and had a strange sword with a blue handle sheathed on his back, as well as a shield.
The girl, meanwhile, had brilliantly blonde hair and green eyes, with fair skin and a childishly curious look in her eyes. She was holding some kind of flat stone with glowing blue constellation designs the same color as the Tesseract technology HYDRA used. Her clothes were noticeably more ornate than the boy's, with tight black pants and a white-and-blue shirt with gold stitching.
Both of them had pointed ears.
"I-If I may ask, Herr Schmidt," Heinrich asked, "who- what- are they?
"Honored guests of HYDRA," Schmidt replied simply. "My original intention in coming here had been to task you with finding living quarters for them... But," he paused, giving a disgusted look at the (admittedly unclean) state of Heinrich's room, "I do not believe that will be necessary anymore."
He reached down towards the holster at his hip, and Heinrich felt his heart stop as he began to draw the Tesseract-charged pistol.
Oh god, he thought to himself, I'm going to die.
...Maybe he deserved it. He had failed to properly serve HYDRA's objectives, and that was all the value his life held- just like all of mankind. What good did he have, if not that?
...But, instead of Schmidt pointing the pistol at him, he... Hesitated. He glanced, slightly, at the two behind him. The boy narrowed his eyes, and the girl's excited bouncing paused for a second.
...
...
"...Hmph." Then, to Heinrich's great shock, Schmidt holstered the pistol. "Consider yourself lucky to only receive a demotion. Clean this mess, then report to the infantry barracks for your new position's equipment."
"Y-yes, Herr Schmidt-!" But he was cut off when the man stepped forward, and despite being about the same height, it felt as though he were terrifyingly looming over Heinrich.
"Mercy is something I rarely give," he hissed. "You would do well not to take advantage of it."
The only response he could give was an anxious gulp and a nod. With that, ex-officer Heinrich Zemo fled the room that used to belong to him, fleeing the terrifying visage of the Red Skull.
~ Link ~
The moment the door closed behind the red-skulled man and the soldiers accompanying him- as well as the nervous man who assumedly used to live in the room- the Princess spun to face Link, her eyes practically sparkling.
"This is incredible! Have you seen the things the people here have made!?"
"Zelda?"
"An entire metal fortress, built inside of a mountain!"
"Zelda."
"And did you see their technology!? That glow is identical to that of the Sheikah's-!"
"Zelda!"
It was incredibly rare that Link raised his voice for anything that wasn't a mid-combat shout- and the Princess, in particular, had barely ever heard him say anything at a volume louder than a mutter.
That was likely why, when Link shouted, she froze in place and her mouth snapped closed.
Once he was sure he had her attention, he said, voice firm, "we need to focus on getting back home."
The Princess blinked a few times in confusion. "...What? Why?"
Link felt his eyelid twitch, but he managed to keep his expression as flat as he usually did. "We can't spend any more time here than we already have."
"But- but! If we can manage to learn how they construct their technology, we could bring those learnings back to Hyrule, and make our own Guardians! Or, or, or our own armor! Imagine how easy it would be to defeat Ganon if every soldier in the Hyrulean army had armor like theirs!"
Link opened his mouth to retort... But couldn't think of anything. Yes, the presence of both her and Link were far too important to risk- the two of them were required to defeat Ganon, after all- but at the same time... Armor like that could save an uncountable number of lives.
Though, that did bring another thought to Link's mind.
"...Why are they arming themselves?"
The Princess blinked, as she took a second to register the question. With a hum of thought, Link watched her sit at the edge of the massive, luxurious bed, tapping her chin rhythmically.
"Well, while they're obviously preparing to face a Calamity of their own, I doubt it would take a form at all similar to that of Ganon's."
Link nodded in agreement. It was the explanation that made the most sense-
"OH!" She gasped, causing Link to flinch as she shot up to her feet. "That's why we're here! They created a portal to bring us to their land so we could assist in defeating their Calamity!"
Link frowned a little. "Before we could stop ours?" He halfheartedly retorted.
The Princess let out a huff in response. "Oh, don't be like that," she said, crossing her arms with a petulance Link had become unfortunately familiar with. "You want to help them out just as much as I do, don't you?"
...
...
"...Fine," Link sighed. "We can help them. But the moment that portal is working again," he insisted, "we leave."
Zelda pouted at him, but before she could say anything, Link shook his head. "I mean it. Your life is too important to risk."
Link watched as the Princess tried to think of a retort, but could only huff in frustration.
There was a strange sense of satisfaction Link got from it.
It was around that moment that the Princess went still... Then, after a moment, she made a deep intake of breath, followed by a yawn.
"You can rest if you need to," he immediately told her, turning away and gesturing at the bed.
Zelda, in response, began to blush furiously, taking a step back away from him. "W-what-!? I mean, um, t-that can't possibly be proper-"
'Proper?' What did she mean by- Ohhhhhh.
"I'm not sharing the bed with you," he quickly clarified. "You can have it. I'll take..." He paused, and glanced around the room, before landing on the chair meant for the desk- one that fortunately had cushioning on it. "I'll take the chair."
Zelda, surprisingly enough, frowned at that. "...Are you sure? I'm not certain how restful that could possibly be..."
"I'm sure."
~ Johann Schmidt ~
Schmidt watched through the security camera footage as his two guests conversed, the boy frustrated with something the girl was saying. A fascinating dynamic- the knight with sword and shield, and a girl with a royal demeanor, like something out of a tale by the Brothers Grimm.
But the boy in particular... Blonde hair and blue eyes, the ultimate example of Aryan superiority. Schmidt could tell, just by looking at him, that he was an experienced warrior- the way he held himself, the attentiveness of his gaze. Though, it wasn't just that which convinced Schmidt he had found his champion.
Schmidt had spent enough time in the presence of the Tesseract to begin to comprehend the feeling of power radiating off of an item, and it had only a moment of looking at the blade on the boy's back for him to understand exactly what he had found.
The energy the sword emitted- something that Schmidt was certain nobody but he could notice- was utterly unlike that of the Tesseract, yet was nearly on par with it. It was more than likely the signal that had been detected, and the reason they had set the portal's coordinates to the location they had- a distant planet, just barely within view of HYDRA's telescopes.
Yes... Schmidt had chosen wisely. And that idea was only reinforced as he watched the two of them sleep- or, rather, watched the girl sleep, and the boy feign slumber. It didn't take long for him to stand up out of his chair, step to the middle of the room, face the door, draw his blade, and plant the tip of it on the ground between his feet with both hands at the end of the handle, standing at attention to protect his charge from any threat that my enter the room.
He had no need to be so cautious, of course- no enemies would possibly be able to enter Schmidt's fortress, and at the moment, he had no reason to engage either him or the royal girl he served. Until Schmidt had no other option, he had no plans to use the girl as leverage- for one as protective as the knight was, he had the feeling attempting to do so would only result in two powerful enemies instead of just the Captain.
Still. He'd keep the idea in his back pocket, just in case.