Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was time.

He couldn’t say he didn’t know that this would happen, he always knew. After leaving his old home and building a new one, he had to say goodbye.

Link hated goodbyes.

He wished he could stay with his friend, but the loftwings of Skyloft could never pass the barrier of the clouds like the Hylians could. The wind was too fierce for them to fly and it automatically pushed them back up into the sky if they tried. Even if they could make it down, the loftwings wouldn’t be able to survive in the new location of the earth: they were born to fly for their whole lives.

Link wished that they could live with them. He prayed to Farore, his patron goddess and the goddess of all life, to let them live in the new world. He prayed to Nayru, Zelda’s patron goddess and the goddess of order, for her to bend the rules just once. He even prayed to Din, the goddess of power, even though the power she held is what made Demise go evil with envy, for the loftwings to be strong enough to push through the barrier.

But… the gods did not answer. In a desperate attempt, he asked Zelda, her Grace Hylia reborn, if she could do anything. With sad eyes, Zelda told him what he feared.

“I wish greatly that they could join us,” she said, thinking of her own violet loftwing, “but their job is done. They no longer need to protect us.”

And that was the finale say. Loftwings served their purpose, they protected the Hylians when they were drifting on the wind, and now they were no longer needed. Just like you would an old sword, they were to be put away, remembered for the help they gave, but never seen again.

So, Link stepped out of his house, a nice little cottage that was made right next to Zelda’s. He walked over to the bird statue, the one connection to Skyloft, and was sent skyward.

He flew into the air, taking in the feeling one finale time before whistling. Just like the thousands of time before, a red blur flew underneath him and caught him. He needed to say goodbye, but for the moment he hugged the loftwing, his loftwing, tight. They flew for a while, just existing together.

Eventually, the sky was getting dark, so Link directed them to the now empty Pumpkin Landing. He dismounted and looked at his loftwing, who turned its head to look at him.

Before this moment, Link realized his loftwing never had a name. It was always referred to as the Crimson Loftwing, or his loftwing. There was nothing to call his friend.

But, Link realized it didn’t need a name, the loftwing seemed too big, too grand, to have a name. It would always be his loftwing, their connection.

He touched the loftwing’s head with kindness. With no words being said, the loftwing seemed to know what was going on. It was as if its eyes were communicating everything.

“Maybe I’ll see you again,” Link smiled, always the optimist, “you are bound to the hero after all!”

He was recalling of the old legend that he and Zelda uncovered on the surface: how Hylia rode on a Crimson Loftwing that was to follow the chosen hero. The hero would then have to prove themselves worthy of the bird, and only then could they even hope to fly.

“Was I ever worthy?” He asked as he hugged the loftwing, crying.

The loftwing was the first to move out of the hug, it started to spread its wings. Link backed away so he wouldn’t get hit.

He watched as the loftwing turned around and, in a quick, graceful move, flew off into the sunset, crimson meeting scarlet, until it could no longer be seen.

Linked wiped his tears before seeing something fall to the ground below him: a single red feather. He started crying again as he realized the loftwing answered his question.

The answer was yes.

——————————-

Link descended from the clouds, after he picked up the feather and clipped it to his belt.

He floated down on his sailcloth, which had taken hours, but he didn’t mind. He had a strong grip and he needed time to himself.

Once he landed, Zelda immediately ran up to him and hugged him. After a moment or two, she let go. They stood uncomfortably until she spoke up.

“The plans to explore and map out the region have been agreed on,” she changed the subject, trying to be chipper, “and I was wondering if you would like to map out the woods! I know how much you like the Kikwis!”

Link agreed, happy for something to do.

“Thank you!” Zelda bounced and quickly kissed him on the cheek before running off somewhere else.

Stunned, Link put a hand to his cheek, face burning red. Little did he know, Zelda was doing the same thing.

Without another thought, he walked back to his house and grabbed his supplies. He picked up some paper and a pen, and set out.

On his way through town, which had grow into twenty houses, he waved to his friends, putting on a fake smile.

It wasn’t until Groose that someone put it together.

“Hey, Link!” He practically shouted. “You are going to map out the woods, am I right?”

He paused when he saw how strained Link’s smile was. He also looked at the feather hanging from his hip.

“Would you like me to join you?” He asked, more quietly this time.

Link shook his head, dropping the smiling, and waved as he walked towards the trees.

Groose stared at Link’s retreating back, and it dawned on him that he too had to say goodbye to his loftwing.

Once he reached the woods, Link planned to walk through its entirety, then circle around to map it. He walked through a part he had never been to before, different trees that he’s never seen stood all around him.

He looked at the moon that was starting to rise. He could hear bugs chirping in the background. It was peaceful.

For about five seconds, for something strange, but not stranger than he was used too, happened. A black portal opened up at his feet dropping him into the night.

Chapter Text

Link found himself tumbling on the ground where he seemed to still be in a forest, but a different one than normal. He could’ve sworn that the trees were oak and not evergreen. On top of that, it was sunny and he was in an empty clearing. Outside of the thin layer of trees was what looked to be a road.

“It’s you!” He heard a harsh, deep voice sneer, “what are you doing here, Skychild?”

At first, Link thought it was Ghirahim, but he was mistaken when he turned around and saw… himself!

Or, a copy, a shadow, of himself. Whatever it was shared all of his characteristics, with the outfit and face being the same, except he had a dark motif. Covered in black like the portal he fell through with only his red eyes showing color. Besides the color, Link noticed he didn’t carry a feather, red or otherwise.

Instinctively, he pulled out his sword. It was no Fi, but an knight’s long sword worked fine unless he wanted his chance of survival be told to him.

“Elementary,” the shadow copied his movements, pulling out his own sword, “I am not here for you Skychild, but I will kill you if I must.”

Link stayed silent, readying his stance. Neither of them moved, at this point Link couldn’t tell if he was actually coping his movements.

Taking a chance, Link charged. The two swords clashed in battle, echoing each other in movement. Red eyes flared into blue as the two couldn’t seem to defeat the other.

It was about five minutes into the pointless battle when a new person joined the fray. A boy, one cloak in four varying colors, appeared out of thin air. One second the two swords were together, the next a boy seemed to shoot out of the ground and punch the shadow in the face.

The shadow stumbled away, holding his hand to his cheek. Strangely, Link felt a pain in his cheek as well.

The newcomer stared at the shadow, his own sword in hand. As Link got a closer look at him, he realized the boy was about half a foot shorter than him. He wore a tunic that split into green, blue, purple, and red with a green long hood, reminiscent of Link’s own knight’s cap. His sword was a strange one, a loose piece of fabric fluttering from the handle that held a black gem. Though he could not yet see his face, Link knew he recognized the shadow.

“Begone, Shadow,” the boy, his voice deeper than Link would’ve thought, “your master is gone and you have no purpose left.”

For a second, Link thought Shadow was crying, but not before long did he realize that he was laughing like a maniac.

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” He raised his head, which was no different, and so was his outfit. It seemed he changed to meet the look on the new person. From his face, Link could the tell the boy looked younger than him. “You think I’m that pathetic copy of you? I am not the one who serves Vaati, shadows are always meant to go away, but the Dark will always come back! You just need to snuff out the light.”

The boy seemed to be losing his temper, “begone! I won’t ask again! Whoever you may be, I am the protector of the kingdom and this forest. The Picori have called me here to remove any threat, which I intend to do!”

The copy stopped laughing and put his sword away.

“Oh, Hero of Men,” he taunted, “the second and lesser hero. You had to show up! But farewell, we will not meet again.”

He waived his hand as both the boy and Link charged him.

And time slowed.

The copy seemed to be moving his hands and chanting, creating magic. It sounded like an ancient curse that he was the only one who knew of.

“The beginning and the end of time-
The first to start, the stop at nine-
Space has no meaning-
Order and chaos are teaming-
Down the river’s flow that dealt a friend-
Till you all will meet the Delta’s End!”

With a satisfied smirk, black magic shot out from within the copy’s body. Nine pieces of black ribbon, like wisps of smoke, covered the surrounding area. One piece flew to the boy, who, to his credit, tried to attack before it wrapped itself around his neck, strangling him. Another went to Link, whose efforts were in vain to stop it from doing the same. The seven ribbons left disappeared as they zoomed off to… somewhere.

Link couldn’t breathe, neither could the boy, as the magic closed tighter and tighter around their necks. The smoke of the magic went into their eyes and, most importantly, their mouths as they tried to breathe. They both dropped to the ground in pain. In their struggle, they didn’t realize that the copy walked through another black portal, leaving no trace of him.

Link felt himself passing out when saddening the pain stopped. The ribbon, right before completely closes his throat, absorbed into his skin. The same for the boy as he stood up, gasping for air.

With enormous effort, Link stood up as well and looked at the boy.

“Are you okay?” The boy asked in a soft voice, which had lost all commandment he had before.

Without a word, Link nodded.

“The Minish told me Shadow was back and attacking you,” he continued, “I came as fast as I could, but I don’t think that was Shadow.”

Link didn’t understand a single word that came out of his mouth, which probably shone on his expression.

The boy looked at his surroundings and stood up to his full height, which wasn’t very tall. Putting a hand to his chest he did a slight bow and spoke.

“My name is Link, and do you know where we are?”

Chapter Text

“What did you say?” Link asked.

“Do you know where we are?” The other Link asked once more.

Link wondered if his eyes were going double today. First that copy and now someone with the same name as him. And now that he actually looked, he realized this Link also had blond hair and blue eyes.

“Who are you?” Link asked in disbelief, he must’ve heard wrong.

“I’m Link,” the Link repeated and looked around him, “now it seems we are still in a forest, but it isn’t one I recognize… do you hear music?”

There was indeed music, but Link had never heard what instrument was playing it before. It was jaunty tune coming from a large log to the right of them.

Without thinking long about it, Link walked towards the music.

“Hey-WAIT!” The other Link shouted, “that could be a dungeon or you could be walking into Moblin den!”

Link did not listen and it so happened that neither of those things were there. Instead, there was a young girl, looking no older than ten, playing a wooden round instrument. Floating around her head was a pinkish fairy.

The fairy bumped into the girl’s green hair, interrupting her playing.

“Huh, oh!” She smiled kindly at Link, “who are you?”

The other Link appeared behind him.

“Don’t do that again,” the other Link huffed in annoyance, “I don’t want to fight anything to save you again.”

“Save me?” Link asked.

“Yes,” the other Link turned away and faced the girl, “who are you?”

“My name is Saria,” she answered and stood up, “this is my fairy, Avon. How did you get into the Kokiri Forest?”

“We don’t know,” the other Link spoke up before Link could. “Have you seen a shadow out sorts, a copy of me?”

“No,” Saria shook her head, “but you should probably leave soon. You wouldn’t want to get lost, so I’ll show you out.”

She gestured to the log they walked out of and, at that moment, another boy ran through.

“SARIA!” He shouted as he suddenly hugged her, “I have all three spiritual stones! The princess is going to be so happy.”

The two Links looked at the boy, who was the same age as Saria. He wore a green tunic and a hat, exactly like the one Link wore as a knight. Once again, he had blue eyes and blond hair. The two also both took note of the use of the word princess.

“That’s great, Link!” Saria cheered. “Are you heading for the castle?”

“What?!” The first two Links gasped.

“Yeah!” The brand new Link smiled, “I wanted to let you know first.”

“Did you say your name was Link?” The first Link asked.

“Yeah!” The child smiled, “who are you two misters? Are you Hylians sent from Princess Zelda!?”

“Princess Zelda?!” “Princess?”

The child’s face changed to one of confusion at the reaction. There was an awkward pause where no one said anything before Saria piped up.

“Link,” she addressed the child, “our friends here are lost, on your way to Castle Town, could you guide them out?”

The young Link nodded vigorously, “me and Navi can do it!”

He pointed to his own blue fairy hanging around his head.

“Perfect!” Saria clapped, “good luck! And remember, just play Saria’s Song when you need help!”

The child smiled at the two elder, “come on!”

He ran off through the log from which they came with a call of “bye, Saria!”

Saria smiled, “you better follow him. You wouldn’t want to get lost.”

The way she said the word lost unnerved the two, like being lost was a fate worse than death.

She said nothing more and simply went back to playing her song.

With nothing but a passing glance at each other, the two Links ran after the third.

They ran after the slightest glimpse of a blue fairy. There were so many twists and turns, they almost lost them, but it helped that they could always hear “hey! Listen!”

Soon, they found themselves to be in more woods, but it was a city built into trees and filled entirely with children, no adult in sight.

The young Link was standing there with a proud look on his face as the other two walked up to him. The multicolored Link was breathing fine in contrast to the first Link’s heavy panting. He was not good at running.

“Do you need help?” The multicolored Link asked.

“No,” the first Link sighed. He knew he was a terrible runner, but he thought after saving the world he would’ve created some endurance.

“You’re here!” The young Link smiled, his fairy bobbing in happiness. “Alright, we have to run before Mido catches us!”

“Who’s Mido?” “Please, no more running!”

“Let’s go!” The young Link shouted and he booked it towards a gigantic log.

The second Link wasted no time running after and the first Link realized how annoying it is to call everyone Link. If they stay together, he hopes they get nicknames.

With a sigh, the first Link runs after as he sees the child run right past a screaming kid.

“What are you doing here!? DID YOU BRING OUTSIDERS?!”

“Sorry, Mido!” The child cried as all three passed Mido with no hesitation. Mido looked like he wanted to chase after them, but they were already all the way past the wooden bridge and out of the woods.

They made it to a huge plain before stopping with the young Link jumping in excitement.

“You sure are excited,” the first Link panted, glaring at the second who was rolling his eyes.

“I’m about to complete my mission!” He replied with a smile, “you’re out of the woods now, so you’ll be fine!”

“You said you were going to Castle Town,” the multicolored Link, “to see the princess?”

The child nodded before pulling out his own instrument that looked exactly like the one Saria had. Playing a quick tune, an animal was heard running over the hills to them. Soon, there was a brown pony with a white mane in front of them and the child got on it.

“What is that?” The first Link jumped back in surprise at the new animal. It must’ve been a species he hadn’t recognized.

“This is Epona!” The young Link patted the horse and directed it towards the west. “I need to go! It was nice seeing you misters!”

With an adorable “hyah” the rider and his horse galloped quickly away.

Link decided this was a good time to sit down, he was too overwhelmed for this.

“What just happened?” He asked aloud, “I’ve seen some weird things but-“

“This is odd,” the multicolored Link examined the field, “I don’t recognize any of this. I can see the castle in the distance, but it’s completely different! And that boy…”

Suddenly, he looked at Link, recognition dawning on his face.

“The shadow, the copy, he called me the second,” he studied Link’s face, “that would imply you were the first- what’s your name!?”

Link never did tell him his name, he realized.

“My name is Link, knight of Skyloft.” He said in a quite voice, unsure how the other would react. He himself was barely keeping his sanity together after the day he had.

Worry, or maybe fear or shock, crossed over the multicolored Link’s face, “you can’t be him! I’ve seen your paintings, you’re a legend!”

“You’re the first hero, the Chosen Hero!”

Chapter Text

“The what?” Link asked. The other Link looked like he was about to have a panic attack every time he looked in his direction. “The first?”

The other Link spoke slowly, “were you the one who brought the Hylians down from the sky? And stopped the greatest evil known to man?”

All Link could do was nod, he was the one to back Zelda up in the migration and he guessed that he defeated one of the greatest evils, the demon king Demise who…

“Oh, no!” Link groaned, putting his hands to his head, for he realized exactly what Demise did with his not so dying breath, “the curse was real!”

“What curse?” The multicolored Link asked, before changing topic completely, “I am so sorry that I stepped into your battle, you could’ve taken it. I’ve know about you my whole life, everyone at the forge idolized you, and now I’m meeting you!”

Link looked up from his hands and saw that the other was kneeling, with his sword on he ground. It made Link suddenly uncomfortable.

“You can- um- stand up,” he said, “the copy said you are a hero, too? The Hero of Men?”

The said hero stood up, showing his now red face, “that’s actually a mistranslation. My actual title is the Hero of Minish. But, I’m sure what I have done is nothing compared to you!”

“I’m don’t think you should put yourself down like that,” the first Link said, “you must’ve earned the title of hero, but I must apologize for what you have gone through. You see, a curse was placed on me…”

And so Link told his story, the one of Demise cursing Zelda’s bloodline and his spirit to a never ending battle, a battle that now included the multicolored Link.

“Wow,” the second Link said, “so I’m you, you’re me! I am a legend!”

The first Link just nodded.

“Then, what about that kid!? And that curse that the copy put on us!? And how are you here, you must be centuries older than me!”

Link considered the possibility of time travel, something that was not too far fetched in his line of work. It wouldn’t have even been the first time doing that! Maybe it was the portal that he walked through.

Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning and rain started heavily pouring.

“Let’s find shelter,” the first Link nodded back to the wooded path they came from.

They both ran towards the trees and sat under one far enough from the rain, but no so far that they couldn’t see the field.

Once they were both settled, the first Link spoke up once more.

“Speaking of the child, should we use some sort of nicknames?”

“Why so?” The second Link tilted his head.

“We’re all called Link,” the first Link stated, “and I have a feeling we’ll see the child again.”

The multicolored Link though for a moment before shouting out suddenly, “Four!”

“What?”

“Call me Four!” Four smiled.

“Any reason?” Link asked.

Four shrugged, “can’t be called Minish, that’s a race.”

And so it seemed that no other explanation would be given. Link sighed and thought up his own name. When no name came to him though, Four suggested one.

“Chosen?” Four proclaimed, “because all the stories I was told you were called the Chosen Hero!”

Link shook his head, he liked that as much as Zelda likes by called Hylia. Zelda always preferred to be her own person, but then Impa would’ve say that was exactly what Hylia would’ve said and Zelda would get annoyed.

Link’s mind drifted, from names to Zelda, to Hylia, and finally to his Loftwing. How he missed his Loftwing, he wondered where it was now.

After Loftwing, his mind landed on something. Something. Something that contrasted the red feathers of his bird and was the color of her and his eyes.

“Sky,” he decided, whiling holding the red feather at his side, “I would like to be called Sky.”

Four nodded, “now, back to the matter at hand. That boy, do you think he’s…”

“Hoo, hoo, hoo!” A familiar voice cried from above them, “I would think so! It’s not everyday you see a boy clad in green named Link.

The tree beside them shook and Sky gasped out in surprise, “headmaster!?”

But his headmaster was not there, instead a gigantic owl was above his head, sitting on a branch. He seemed amused and Four looked at Sky like he was crazy.

“You’re headmaster is Kaepora?” Four asked.

“No, my headmaster is Gaepora!” Sky responded.

The bird above them started to laugh once again.

“Hoo, hoo, hoo!” The owl chuckled, “you never cease to make me laugh, Grandfather.”

“Grandfather?!” Both of the Links cried out at once, only to the amusement of the owl.

“Forgive me,” the owl bowed its head, “you would not know me yet at your age. Allow me to introduce myself, my name, in this form, is Kaepora Gaebora and I am your Grandson.”

He said all of this while starring directly at Sky, who was gaping like a fish.

“H-how?” He asked.

“Hoo, hoo!” The owl seemed to enjoy his apparent grandfather’s confusion, “you of all people should understand that time is an easy thing meddle with. I can explain if you wish, Grandfather?”

Sky was too baffled to say anything, so he just nodded. Meanwhile, Four spoke up.

“Wait!” He looked between the two, “as much as I want to know how you had a bird as a descendant and how my even knowing him is possible, wouldn’t you being telling us his future? That could cause some problems, like you not existing!”

Kaepora laughed, “never fear! Time can change, it’s true, but it is like a river. A new path can be carved, but the main stream will not changed. My being is already decreed in fate, the very essence of you knowing me allows me to be safe.”

“Oh,” Four whispered, “then go on with your story and you better explain how you have lived long enough to know me.”

“Hoo, hoo! I will indeed!” Kaepora took a breath and began his story. “Of course, I am not actually a bird, nor am I alive. I have not lived for some thousand years, but I shall get to that.

“My real name is Rauru and I am the sixth son of the youngest son of the Chosen Hero. You see, in your future, Grandfather, and your past, little Hero, you will have three children: one daughter and two sons.”

Sky whispered to himself, barley believing it, “three children, six grandchildren?”

At the same time, Four shouted “little?!”

But Kaepora ignored that in favor of his story, “in honor of the goddesses, you choose to name them in likeness of there names. Your oldest, her name was Nayla, your middle child was named Faril, and your youngest, my father, was named Dinish.

“Of course, Dinish would go onto marrying and having me and my siblings, but there is more to the story. You see, there are many legends about our family, and one of them deals with the bloodline. The legend states-“

“That your daughter and her children held the powers of the goddess,” Four interrupted, “your son was the carrier of courage, and your youngest created any wizards in the land! How could I have forgotten the story?”

The owl gave a bemused look at Four for explaining over him, but he was right.

“Does that mean I’m also related to you and the Chosen Hero?” Four’s eyes widened.

Before he could think further about it, Kaepora answered, “no, most of that legend was false, except… my aunt Nayla did not carry powers, but her children did, and they went on to make the Kingdom of Hyrule. My father’s bloodline, on the other hand, while not creating magic in the land as we know it, did create some of the most powerful sages. Me and my siblings were the first sages, we had ultimate power to stop any evil that threatened the world.

“And that brings me to my state. It’s true, I should be alive as of now, and I am not. One day, when I was only a boy, evil came back and killed my siblings. He was the same evil that you faced, little Hero.”

A solemn feeling passed over the group.

“I’m sorry,” Sky said weakly, he hoped his grandchildren went quickly. He knew what a slow death felt like, even if he had never died before.

“Vaati,” Four growled and reached for his sword in angered, but he did not pull it from its place at his side.

“I barely managed to get away, but I had to stop him. He kidnapped my cousin, Lanay, and he was going to kill her if she didn’t give him her power that she held. So, I forged a weapon to defeat him. My duty was to be the Sage of Light, so I created a blade that split my body into the different prisms of light. With this blade I was able to seal away Vaati, but not without a cost…

“I was split into six parts, each representing my connection to my siblings. But, just as them, my counterparts were killed as well! All that was left of me was Yellow, who represented my power. With only Yellow, I could not live on the mortal plane with so little of me left. I was forced to stay in the Sacred Realm, only being able to guide others in this form.”

Kaepora looked at the two, “so now you’ve heard my tale.”

“You-you made the-“ Four was stumbling over his words, “you-“

While Four tried to comprehend the creation of his blade and how he never heard of that story, Sky looked at his grandson.

“Who do I marry?” He asked shyly.

The owl gave a small smile, “I never met Grandmother, she was gone before I was born, and I only knew you for a short time, but… from the stories you would tell, I’m sure you have a clue as to who she is.”

Sky smiled and thought of her: Zelda! He was sure of it, he was going to marry Zelda and have kids, who were then going to have their own kids! If only he could get back…

“I’m sorry about your siblings,” Sky apologized, “but may I ask where we are?”

“A couple hundred years into the future for you,” Four finally came to his senses, “but I don’t know where that shadow took us.”

“Sadly,” Kaepora corrected, “you are wrong, you are around a thousand years in the future for you, Grandfather, and five hundred for you, little Hero! It seems this shadow of yours transported both of you far into another time.”

“What?!” Four eyes widened and he started to pace back and forth, mumbling to himself about time travel and how he didn’t need another crazy adventure. “I’m in a different time with legendary heroes and have no way to get back… Zelda is going to kill me…”

He whispered that last bit so the others couldn’t hear.

“I’m sure you will get back to your own time, hoo, hoo!” The owl laughed, “after all, I’m living proof.”

He started to fly in the air, “it is good to see you one final time, Grandfather, but I must go.”

He quickly started to go higher and higher into the air before Sky realized what was happening.

“Wait!” He screamed, running futilely after him, “you said you were guiding someone! Who?”

“Hoo,” the owl cried, “isn’t it obvious?”

As Kaepora disappeared for sight, fear dawned on Sky and the rain stopped.

“Bye, Kaepora!” Four waved and looked at the other Link, “what’s wrong?”

“We need to find that boy,” Sky started off towards the castle, “something’s about to happen- he’s a hero as well!”

“Oh, no,” Four looked at the sky, “this can’t be good.”

They both ran as fast as they could under the now blood red sky.

Chapter Text

And suddenly there was blue!

Four and Sky only blinked for less than a second and the red sky disappeared to reveal blue waters. One second they were on the ground, the next they were plunging into the depths.

Shocked, Sky took a while to get his bearings and surface, where Four was waiting for him. Luckily for him, Sky was way better at swimming than running.

“What was that?” Four asked.

“Don’t know,” Sky was bewildered, “we were in an empty field and now we’re…”

He looked around and saw no land in sight, it was also very dark with only a crescent moon in the sky.

“I actually don’t know where we are,” he admitted, “I’ve never seen this much water before!”

Maybe when the forest flooded that one time, he thought, but this didn’t compare at all.

“Great,” Four groaned, “we’re in an ocean.”

“Ocean?” Sky frowned at the unfamiliar word.

“Yeah, ocean,” Four explained, “big bodies of water. Have you never seen an ocean before?”

“There might’ve been one once in Hyrule,” Sky answered, “but there’s just a desert now, I’ve only ever seen a part of it be water.”

“Hello!?” A new voice came into the mix, “is anyone there? Do you need help?”

Something came into few of the two Links, and that something was a boat. It was red sailboat with a white maned lion mast and a sail that was gently blowing in the wind. The eyes of the lion looked almost alive, but it was also worn down by use.

On the boat was a kid, who was leaning over the edge, searching the water. From what Sky could make out in the dark, the kid had fluffy hair and wide eyes. His voice was that of a child going through puberty, so he must 13 or 14.

“There you are!” The kid cheered as he found the two, “I heard a splash while fishing and I was wondering if you were okay. Where did you come from?”

“That’s classified,” Four answered quickly, “where are we?”

The kid put on a bright smile, “you must be new! You probably fell off your boat on the way to land!”

Sky nodded, going along with whatever plan Four was doing. Four must’ve realized it would sound crazy if they said that they popped out of thin air.

“You’re about two miles off the coast of New Hyrule,” the kid answered helpfully.

“New Hyrule?” Four questioned, “what happened to old Hyrule?”

The kid’s smile faltered, “are you messing with me, Hyrule’s under the ocean as it has been for hundreds of years!”

He said that last bit with a sad voice and it took everything in a Four not to ask how a whole country was under the ocean. The only explanation…

“I hate time travel,” Four sighed and Sky agreed wholeheartedly.

The kid looked up and saw the rising son, “speaking of… I’M GOING TO BE LATE TO WORK!”

The kid started to muddle around with his boat, adjusting the sail and moving the back, angling it towards the north.

“Do you want a ride to land?” The kid asked nicely, “it would take you thirty minutes to swim, but only a minute in my King of Red Lions!”

He patted the lion head of his boat and stared at the two.

Sky looked at Four, who nodded.

“Thank you,” Sky replies as he and Four climbed into the boat. It was a tight fit, as the boat was made for one person, two max, but it worked.

“Alright!” The kid clapped, “hold on, I’m going to go super fast so I won’t be late to work!”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Four gave an amused smile.

The kid shrugged, “suit yourself!”

What happened next was odd. The kid pulled a cord on his sail it suddenly changed from a green design to a red one. Then, he pulled out a white fancy looking stick and gestured with it, like he was matching an unseen musical piece. Suddenly, a gust of wind picked up the sail and they shot across the ocean waters.

“OH, GODDESSES!” Four screamed.

“AHHHHH!” Sky screamed originally.

In no time flat, they quickly crashed into land. The boat skidded into a sand bed and they somehow didn’t die from the impact.

The kid jumped out of the boat and patted the lion again, “sorry, friend, but you know how Tetra is when someone’s late!”

Now that they were on land, the two could make out what the boy looked like thanks to some small campfires burning on the beach.

The boy had short fluffy blond hair and wide eyes that could probably pull off great puppy-dog eyes. He seemed to be in some pajamas, which were a blue tunic with a lobster on it and some pants and shoes. He also had the biggest smile on his face.

“I’m sorry I can’t properly greet you,” he apologized, “but I’m running late, so…”

He did a small jump and jazz hands, “welcome to New Hyrule! We have one town in the making and three native colonies, plus a castle. If you want information on the country, I would recommend taking the train to the castle.”

He pointed north of them and and waved, “I have to go! Hope you like it here!”

Once the kid was out of sight and they sky got lighter, Sky turned to Four.

“What’s a train?” He asked.

Four shrugged.

“You don’t know?!”

“This is clearly a different time period! You didn’t know what an ocean or a horse was!”

Sky signed.

“Anyway,” Four started to walk further into land, “he said castle, which means there’s usually a princess with magical powers, maybe she can help us.”

Sky walked with him, “okay, we’ll take this train, but I have one question.”

“What?”

“What’s a princess?”

Four gasped at him, “you can not be serious.”

The multicolored Link speed walk to what they would later find out is called the train station.

“I’m serious!” Sky yelled after him. Four didn’t answer, but Sky could swear heard him laughing.

Once the made it to the train station, they knocked on the buildings door.

“Hello,” Four spoke, “we were told you could get us to the castle?”

They heard a ruckus from the other side of the door, like if a bookshelf full of swords fell down. Then, a loud whistle came from within and the side of the building opened up to reveal a big machine on the wheels.

“That’s a train!” Sky gasped in awe of the mechanical transportation.

“Yup!” A voice cried from the front the train, “get on in the back and we’ll leave right away!”

A face stuck their head out of a window to reveal the boy from before, but he looked more disheveled than last time and he wore a hat with a cool looking coat.

“So this is your job?” Four asked the boy.

“Huh?”

“You said you were going to be late for work.”

The boy put on a mischievous smile, “I’ve never met you before, though!”

“You just gave us a ride on your boat!”

“Oh,” the boy smiled, “you must be thinking of my brother, Sink. Unfortunate name for someone who fishes, I know, but I’m Zink, your friendly neighborhood train conductor.”

Four really wanted to argue that he didn’t believe ‘Zink’, but he couldn’t. He too used to have identical brothers, but something was, for lack of a better term, fishy about this.

“All aboard!” Zink cried from the window of the train, “we have a schedule to keep, so get on on, please.”

Four reluctantly got on, but he had to admit that the inside was like a fancy carriage that only the princess herself was allowed in.

“This is nice,” Sky noted as he took his seat in one of the many rows of velvet lined chairs.

Slowly, the train started to move with a jolt as the whistle blew again. Soon, they were rolling fast down the country side.

Sky starred amazed out of the window, “I think we’re in the past!”

“What makes you say that?” Four raised an eyebrow, “this seems like advanced technology. I certainly don’t have any of this in my time. And what about the fact that this is called New Hyrule when you created Hyrule?”

Sky looked back at him, “the Lanayru Desert, from where I was from, used to be an incredibly advanced mining facility. It was run by little robots and they had carts like this train that went on tracks. It also used to be an ocean that many boats were. As for the New Hyrule part…”

He shrugged, “could be time travel, but most likely there were kingdoms before Hyrule that we didn’t know about. There’s evidence that us Skyloftians weren’t the first on the surface.”

Four looked out the window and saw the trees and a village pass, “huh, I guess you could be right.”

“Plus,” Sky said cryptically, “the desert used to be home to the Temple of Time and the Door of Time!”

“What!?” Four shouted, “if we find that, we can get to our own times and I’ll hunt down that copy!”

He smirked, like he was imaging how much fun it would be to stop the evil they faced, before it turned into a frown.

“What did you mean by used to be home to?”

Sky frowned, “the door was destroyed to stop someone getting through it, but… if this is the past, it should be safe. We just need to be careful of any enemies that may recognize me-“

The train shook violently, jostling the two as a loud BOOM exploded from the front. They heard some coughing coming from where Zink was.

“Are you okay?” Sky knocked on the door between the compartment and the engine room.

“Yeah- cough- I’m fine!” The boy popped his head out through the door and it was covered in smoke, “I mishandled the canon while I tried to scare some wild boars away. I’m still trying to figure out how it works!”

He said that last bit with a big toothy grin.

Four shook his head to remove his shock, “Zink, could you tell us where we can find a desert with a temple.”

Zink’s face scrunched up, “I don’t know… You would have to ask the Princess for permission to go to the desert, but we are going to the castle right now! I’ll tell my brother, Clink, who’s a guard, to let you speak to her.”

And after he said his piece, Zink closed the door and the whistle sounded once more. The two Links, on the other hand, went back to their seats.

“This is going to be a piece of cake,” Four declared, “I’ve been around royalty my whole life. If she won’t give us permission, I can convince her.”

“You still haven’t told me what a princess is…”

The road the rest of the train ride in silence, Four was looking at the scenery and Sky was too embarrassed for not knowing something that was apparently important.

In about ten minutes, the train slowed to a stop in front of a huge castle. Zink walked through the door and waved at them.

“We’re hear!” He smiled, “you better get going, and I’ll get my brother to let the Princess know you’re here.”

He then zoomed out of the train and by the time the two stepped out, there was nothing but a pile of dust.

“But where do we go?” Sky asked aloud. The two then heard a sigh.

Standing in front of them was an old woman who’s bottom half was in some contraption. She reminded Sky of Impa from the air that she gave off.

“That boy is always running around too fast for his head!” The woman huffed, “anyway, hello there. My name is Anjean, I suspect you wish to go to the castle? That is the reason for anyone coming here.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sky answered respectfully, “we need to gain access to the desert.”

Anjean nodded, “the Gorons in that area wish to be left alone by people, so the Princess needs to try not to let people about of this province. This better be important.”

Four piped up, “it is, ma’am.”

“Very well,” Anjean somehow wheeled around in her machine and she started to head towards the big castle doors. “I shall take you to the Princess.”

On their way to the doors, the two marveled at the architecture of the buildings that laid before the castle. Sky could liken these to a huge temple and they were made out of carved stone, and Four looked for differences from his Hyrule’s castle.

They went past a house that had an old grandmother on its porch with a little girl running around. The girl stopped her running when she saw the new people.

“Grandma!” She shrieked in a happy tone, “there’s new people! Big brother is going to be so exited!”

“Aryll,” the grandmother said in a sweet voice, “I’m sure he already knows.”

Aryll ran up to the three, “hi, Anjean!”

“Good morning, Aryll,” Anjean smiled kindly.

“Are you two moving to New Hyrule?” Aryll asked the Links, “big brother says that New Hyrule is going to be huge, with hundreds of people living here!”

“Uh…” Sky thought of something to say, but nothing came to his mind.

“Aryll,” Anjean spoke before with of them had to say something, “why don’t you go back to playing, these gentlemen need to meet with the Princess.”

“Oh,” Aryll stopped smiling, but only slightly, “tell her I said hi.”

“I will.”

With that, the three moved forward.

“This city is nicely built,” Four complimented, “but a little empty.”

Sky nodded in agreement.

“My people built the castle, its town, and all the tracks you see hundreds of years ago,” Anjean explained, “we waited for the Princess to come and create her kingdom. She and some friends of hers arrived two years ago and the country has slowly been growing.”

“Who are your people?” Sky asked, always interested in meeting new races.

“The Lokomo,” Anjean answered, “and here we are.”

They finally arrived at the massive castle doors.

“Just go straight in and you’ll find yourself talking to a guard, who will guide you to the Princess.”

Anjean started to go back the way she came and called back, “and don’t be rude!”

Without pausing, Sky hoped up the doors and they came face to face with a familiar person.

“Welcome to New Hyrule Castle!” The blond boy from before greeted, but now he was wearing a green tunic and hat, just like Sky and the child they met previously. “How can I help you?”

Four sighed, “you know why we’re here! We just spoke with you!”

The boy shook his head in a cheeky way, “nope! Never seen you before. You must have met my brother, Zink. He did tell me to let you two see the Princess. Nice to meet you, my name is Clink!”

He said all of this quickly as Four’s patience with this kid, who he knows is the same person, was growing thin.

“Whatever,” he grumbled, “can we see the Princess?”

“Yup,” Clink opened up another door which lead to a throne room. Sky could just barely make out a figure on the throne.

“Thank you,” Sky said as they walked forward through the doors. Behind them the doors slammed shut and they heard faint foot steps running.

“Greetings,” the Princess who was sitting in the throne spoke to them as they started to ascend the small amount of stairs. “I am… Princess Zelda, I am told you wish to enter the temple in the desert.”

They both notice the pause before her names. They also noticed that her name was Zelda.

“Did you say you’re name was Zelda?” Sky asked.

“Princess Zelda?” Four added.

‘Zelda’ smiled nervously, “who else would I be?”

She certainly looked the part, as she was wearing a fancy pink dress that was lined with gold accessories. She wore a big pink pearl necklace and in her blond hair was clips that looked like cartoon winds. What struck them as odd, other than the fact that she was so nervous about her name, was the fact that she looked as old as the boys they met, yet she was ruling a country.

Four looked at Sky, both having the same idea that something was off.

“May my partner and I converse for one moment, your Highness?” Four put a hand to his chest and bowed.

The girl bowed her head, “of course, but please hurry. I have many things to attend to.”

Sky nodded his head in thanks and Four dragged him to a spot down the stairs, too far for the girl to head them. Once there, Four spoke in a hushed whisper.

“One thing is for certain,” he said with confidence, “either we aren’t in the past, or that isn’t Princess Zelda!”

“Why?” Sky looked confused, “is it the name?”

“Yes!” Four shouted before quickly lowering his voice, “you wouldn’t know this, but where I come from, my Hyrule has a Princess Zelda. She’s my friend and she told me that she was named after her ancestor, supposedly the Zelda that was the goddess reborn!”

The gears clicked in Sky, “so that means my Zelda would have been the first Zelda and the girl in there can’t be named Zelda.”

“She was also very hesitant using her name,” Four agreed, “like it wasn’t her’s, so either we are in the future, or she’s lying about her name.”

“What do we do?” Sky asked.

“Let’s play along, see if we can get to the temple. We’ll go from there.”

The two nodded and walked back to ‘Zelda’.

“Sorry about that, your Highness,” Four bowed once more, “we were confused on some matters.”

‘Zelda’ nodded, “I understand. Back to the matter at hand, why do you wish to go to the temple in the desert?”

“We need to get home,” Sky answered, “the temple holds something that can get us there.”

“Hmm,” the princess thought for a moment, “and can you tell me where you come from? How will a desert temple help you?”

Sky was about to answer, before realizing that there was no reasonable answer. Yes, hi, we need to time travel to the future/past and we happen to both be heroes. It wouldn’t go over well.

“We can’t tell you,” Four replied instead, “ I apologize, your Highness.”

There was a creak heard from behind them and the two almost turned around when the girl shouted.

“That must be my advisor!” ‘Zelda’ said quickly, “he was supposed to be with me right now. Anyway, but if you do not tell me, I’m afraid I cannot give you access to the temple. Unless…”

A cold stare was held in her eyes, “how did you know about the temple? Very few even know of New Hyrule, let alone an area that no one is allowed to see. What did you say your names were again?”

Four and Sky looked between each other, caught.

“What do we do?” Sky whispered quickly as the princess started to stand up from her throne.

“I don’t…” Four hesitated, “we need to get to that temple!”

“I said,” the princess’ voice rang throughout the chamber, distracting the two, “what are your names?”

Four sighed, “fine, my name is Link and my partner is also named Link. We are heroes from Hyrule and we need to get home.”

Then he had a sword around his throat.

Chapter Text

Link was having a good day!

First, he managed to get a full night’s sleep, which is always helpful. Then, he found twenty rupees in the grass. Finally, he was getting a big bounty of fish for the day’s food.

But, the most peculiar thing happened! While he was fishing, he saw two people in green and various other colors appear out of thin air. They ran in the air for a second before crashing into the waves about ten feet from Link.

That was weird, Link decided, but it was his duty to New Hyrule to check out any suspicious activity, and appearing in thin air counted as suspicious.

Feigning ignorance, Link sailed to the two, who were now floating in the sea.

“Hello?!” He called, “is anyone there? Do you need help?”

“There you are!” Link then lied, “I heard a splash while fishing and I was wondering if you were okay. Where did you come from?”

And so, they told him nothing, which made Link even more suspicious. What could be classified?

With that, Link slipped into his role as protector of this kingdom and doing the procedure that he swore would never happen, but Tetra was adamant about. Operation: Four Links was a go.

Operation: Four Links was created a little after they first arrived when another pirate crew tried to ransack them and apparently is was based on a story Tetra read as a kid. It was a way of seeking out intentions of unknown people, and on whether they would be arrested or not. Link never liked it, mostly because it potentially put Tetra, Aryll, Grandmother, and Anjean in danger.

Regardless, Operation: Four Links is a ten step process, and Link had already started it.

Step one: Greet the suspicious party, find out their intentions and, if you don’t, direct them to the train. Be a fisherman named Sink who happened to be there.

The last part was a coincidence, as he actually happened to be there, so it made this part easier.

Link put on a bright smile, “you must be new! You probably fell off your boat on the way to land! You’re about two miles off the coast of New Hyrule.”

Their response left him baffled.

Bewildered, Link answered their question, “are you messing with me, Hyrule’s under the ocean as it has been for hundreds of years!”

There is no way they didn’t know the legends! They must have heard about the Hero of Time. They were wearing green garbs like Link had as well, so they must have.

He heard one of them mumble something, but he couldn’t make it out. Anyway, it was time to start the next phase.

Step two: Get the party to land as quick as possible and get them to the train. Be an engineer named Zink who has a brother that can get them to meet the Princess. If they don’t want to meet the Princess, convince them that they have to as new occupants of the country.

It was so easy, a quick scream of being late and a polite offer to get them to land. This step usually disoriented people whenever they went as fast as the King of Red Lions could.

Once on land, he directed them to the train and ran really fast to the train station to change. This was his least favorite part, because he was so slow at getting changed. Originally, he had a uniform, but he decided it was easier to put on a coat to cover his clothes and a hat on his head.

After putting on the coat, he heard a knock at the door.

Show time, he thought as he strolled out his mighty train.

Once he saw the two, one he realized looked like a boy his age and one was a man, one of them asked him if this was his job. He played dumb and he could tell he made of them annoyed.

With a smile, Link lied, “I’ve never met you before, though!”

One of them still pushed the subject.

“Oh,” Link continued, “you must be thinking of my brother, Sink. Unfortunate name for someone who fishes, I know, but I’m Zink, your friendly neighborhood train conductor.”

After that, they got on the train no problem. The train ride was a smooth one, until a boar ran right into the tracks and Link had to shoot at it. The canon misfired a little bit, so it rocked the train. Link slowed down and went to the train car to check on his passengers.

There, one of them was polite enough to ask him if he was alright. They also asked another question.

Link’s face scrunched up, “I don’t know… You would have to ask the Princess for permission to go to the desert, but we are going to the castle right now! I’ll tell my brother, Clink, who’s a guard, to let you speak to her.”

How had they known about the temple? The was secret information! At least he was able to figure out a motive and how to direct them to the castle. It also introduced another alter ego.

Soon after the train started again, they arrived at the castle and part three commenced.

Step three: After the train, leave quickly. They will meet Anjean and she will determined if they are an immediate threat.

Anjean, despite her looks, could totally destroy anyone in a fight thanks to some Lokomo magic, so she was in charge of stopping dangerous foes. She was in place when Link ran past her and started to talk to the two.

The next step Link would not be there for.

Step four: Anjean will bring the party past Aryll, who will talk to them. This is to see how they react to children and someone else around them. Aryll will ask some questions, but at some point Anjean will cut her off and keep going.

He didn’t like this step either, as it made him nervous about Aryll’s safety. But he knew Anjean would protect her and this step also gave him more time to get in place, as he would be changing into his guard outfit.

Once in outfit, Link would warn Tetra about the two.

“I guess I have to put on that dumb outfit!” Tetra growled as she stormed off. Link didn’t remind her that it was her idea to look nonthreatening as a young girl in a dress, instead of looking like a pirate.

Onto the next step, Link thought as he went into his guard spot in his old hero clothes (which were really stuffy because he had to put them over his pajamas).

Step five: Get them into the castle and be a guard named Clink. At this point, they would be highly suspicious about you, but also weirded out. This will also let them know that there are people watching them, bringing down the possibility of an attack.

“Welcome to New Hyrule Castle!” He smiled when the two walked in the door. Even though he hated Operation: Four Links, it was funny to see the frustration of the boy at the fact they knew he was one person, but couldn’t say anything.

He moved them into the throne room and immediately ran to the castle door, which started part six.

Step six: Once the party was in the throne room, lock down the castle and assess any exits the party could use.

All doors were locked as he was running around and he checked for any exit points. During this, he took off his uniform and was only in his pjs now. Though, while doing step six, he hoped Tetra was doing her part on step seven.

Step seven: Tetra will interview the party and see what she can glean from them.

Link was grateful for the longer time he had to get to his next position.

Step eight: Climb into the banister and wait with weapons and bombs (if needed).

While he didn’t have bombs, Link did have his grappling hook, which he hooked onto the banister that connected the main hall and the throne room. Once directly over the two men, he watched for the signal.

Step nine: When Tetra gives the signal, drop down and apprehend the target.

There it was! Tetra stood up and that meant it was go time.

Putting on his iron boots to make him fall faster, he dropped from the ceiling and put his sword around the shortest one, the one who was suspicious about him.

And the ten step plan would complete with the final step.

Step ten: Get the information you need from the party and proceed from there.

“What’s going on?” The man asked and reached for his sword.

Link, on the other hand, forced the boy he held backwards. He grabbed the boy’s sword from its place at his hip and tossed it to the other end of the room.

“I wouldn’t move,” Tetra called as she walked forward, “or your friend might not leave this building.”

“Tetra,” Link questioned, “isn’t that a little harsh?”

Tetra sighed, “I didn’t mean it like that! I was going to use the dungeon!”

“We don’t have a dungeon,” Link replied.

“I’ll put them on the ship’s dungeon!”

“But then they would have left the castle.”

While the two bickered, the boy and the man looked at each other. They both gave a look that said “are we being held up by two children who are arguing about what to do with them?”

“Can I ask if you could let my friend go?” The taller man said hesitantly.

“I don’t know,” Tetra crossed her arms, “you gonna tell us who you actually are?”

“Are you going to tell us who you two are?” The boy Link was holding growled, “I knew you were the same person. And what did you do to Princess Zelda!?”

“I take it Operation: Four Links was a success then,” Tetra nodded to Link.

“It was funner than I expected,” Link smiled, “it was better than the catapult.”

“Four Links?” The short one asked.

“Yeah,” Tetra sneered, “like the name you two tried to pass off as your own!”

“What?” Link asked.

“But that’s our names!” The tall one argued, “my name is Link and his name is Link!”

“Really?” Link’s eyes squinted.

Tetra rolled her eyes, “you are both named Link and you happen to be looking for a temple and you are wearing green?”

“What’s so important about the green thing?” The tall one asked.

Tetra ignored him and sighed, the look in her eye also made Link nervous. That was her bored/annoyed face.

“Let’s speed this up,” she said as she pulled a cutlass that was apparently hidden on her back and pointed the sword at the tall one, “tell me your real names and what you want to do with the Fire Temple!”

“Fire Temple?” The tall one asked, “we’re looking for the Temple of Time!”

Tetra paused, “what? There is no Temple of Time in the desert!”

“What?” It was the tall one’s turn to be confused, “but it has to be there.”

Tetra got angry, “news flash! Unless you somehow missed the ocean or the hundreds of years of legends, the Temple of Time and all of Hyrule was sunk under the sea when the Hero failed to save Hyrule!”

“The Hero…” Link murmured to himself. His mind started to wander as the tall one and Tetra started to argue.

So, from what he heard, these two were named Link (or said they were), they both wore green, and apparently looking for the Temple of Time. They had no idea what happened to Hyrule and they seemed to know a Princess Zelda. All this added to something…

“Tetra,” Link said slowly, “I think these are the Heroes of Time!”

Tetra paused mid threat at the man, “you can’t be serious! There’s two of them and it was hundreds of years ago.”

“Exactly!” Link released the sword around the boy’s throat, “you said it yourself: they are wearing green, their name is the same name that the King told me about, and they are looking for the Temple of Time!”

“Link…”

“The legend states that the hero fought in two ways: as an adult and as a child!”

“Link!”

“Child?!”

“Tetra, is it really that hard to believe!?”

“LINK!”

“WHAT?!”

Link looked at Zelda, who was now pointing her bow of light at his face.

“Move away, slowly,” she whispered, fingers tightening around the arrow.

Link did as she told, because you don’t so no to a girl who’s holding an arrow to your face.

The two people were now starring at his with their swords drawn. The boy had apparently ran and got his when Link released him.

“What is going on?” Link asked worriedly.

“Don’t. Move.” Tetra growled as she let her arrow go.

Link flinched as the arrow sailed right own his shoulder and he heard a thunk and a screech behind him. He turned around and directed his sword to something that looked like a scarf covered in black smoke.

“What is that?” Link asked.

“Dark magic,” one of the two answered from behind him. “It brought us here.”

“It should’ve been destroyed by my arrow,” Tetra responding and promptly fired another. Like before, the scarf hissed, but it ultimately did nothing.

Without thinking, Link screamed “HYAY!” and launched himself at the scarf. He slashed downward, but the scarf moved quickly out of the way. The scarf lashed out as quick as light and tied itself around Link’s throat, lifting him into the air.

“Link!” He felt Tetra pull on his leg. He also heard the two shouting about what to do.

Once he started to pass out, the pain lifted and he dropped onto the floor. But, when he dropped to the ground, he didn’t feel the stone of the castle floor, he instead felt grass.

He heard one the people’s voices right next to him, “not again!”

Chapter Text

Not again! Sky wondered how much longer this was going to go on, because at this point he’s been awake for a straight 18 hours and he was tired.

“Where are we?” Sky looked at Four as he stood up. Looking at his surroundings, he saw they were on the edge of a hill with trees and there was a massive cliff to the left of them. In the distance, he heard some sort of growling, most likely monsters.

“Not my time,” Four answered and looked at the kid with a glare, “now what was with you pretending to be four different people?!”

“Please don’t be mad at me,” The kid awkwardly bowed, face flushing red, “it was a safety measure me and Tetra put in place to protect New Hyrule from others. She got the idea from a fairy tale.”

Four rolled his eyes and huffed, but otherwise moved on. “Why did you bow?”

“If I’m right,” the kid rubbed his hand through his hair, “then you two are legends, you’re responsible for my world even existing!”

“How?” Sky asked.

The kid smiled, “well… um… you’re the Heroes of Time, right? That’s why you’re looking for the Temple of Time. You’re the heroes that saved Hyrule before me.”

The Four and Sky looked at each other. Sky ran through titles he’s had, Hero of the Skies, Chosen Hero, etc., but none included Hero of Time. Four likewise had only ever been called the Hero of the Four Swords or Hero of Men/Minish.

But they did time travel…

“I don’t know about Hero of Time,” Four answered, “but where I come from I’m knighted as the Hero of Minish.”

“I am the Hero of the Skies,” Sky said with a smile.

The kid’s face lit up like fire was set ablaze in his cheeks.

“Sorry!” He practically shouted, “my people only know the story of the Hero of Time, so that’s what I connected you to. But, I know there have been previous heroes before that, you must be them!”

Everything the kid said was spoken in wonder, and what he said next was no exception.

“It is an honor to meet you!” He bowed once again.

“Please,” Four sighed, “stop bowing!”

The kid smiled and bounced up and down in place.

“So you are called Link, just like me?” The kid asked, “is it because we’re all heroes?”

“Seems so,” Four nodded, “we aren’t even the only three Links we’ve met. So, you’re going to need a name other than Link.”

The kid’s face scrunched up in thought before answering, “Wind! I’m the Hero of the Winds, so…”

“Nice to meet you, Wind,” Sky smiled, “I’m Sky and this is Four.”

“Hi!”

There was an awkward silence as no one knew what to say next.

“So…” Wind broke the silence, but it was still awkward, “what do we do now? Fight on some other quest to kill ANOTHER evil entity?”

Sky and Four noticed the slight annoyance in Wind’s voice.

“Sadly,” Four stated, “seems like it. The dark magic that transported us here was from something, a shadow of the spirit of the hero. We’re just trying to find our way home right now, picking up heroes like us along the way.”

“Okay…” Wind took in the information, “I’m sure it will be fine! I bet this is just another fake world like last time!”

“You have some stories?” Four asked, amused.

“Just two,” Wind answered as he patted the sword on his back, “maybe three.”

“I would love to hear them,” Sky spoke, “maybe if things calm down-“

Suddenly, there was a loud THUMP! They all turned to the noise and saw crumbles of dirt falling from the cliff’s top near the far end. Something must have fallen where they couldn’t see.

“Should we see what that was?” Wind asked and Sky nodded.

Silently, the three Links stealthily moved to the noise, at varying degrees of success. Four was the most silent, almost like a mouse, and treaded lightly. Sky took the back and accidentally stepped on some branches. Wind walked the way a Moblin from his Hyrule would walk, it was debatable if it counted as stealth.

After nearing the edge of the cliff, a shadow lunged out at them. Drawing their swords, the Links attacked the shadow, swinging wildly. By the time they got their bearings, the shadow was behind them, growling. They slowly turned around to see…

“Oh my Hylia,” Sky gasped. Wind covered his eyes in shock and Four started rummaging in his bag, mumbling something about potions.

In front of them was a great big wolf, one with black fur with white patches on its head. The wolf was growling and barring its fangs at them, but that’s not what worried the trio.

On the wolf’s back, precariously hanging on, was a bloodied person. There was so much blood, you couldn’t tell if the person was a man or a woman, young or old, but you could tell they were dying.

Sky slowly walked towards the wolf, shushing it in a calming matter. He couldn’t tell if this wolf was a monster or not, but it certainly wasn’t normal.

As he approached, the wolf moved backward, seeming almost protective of the person on its back.

“I’m out of potions!” Four declared after finishing his search.

“Huh?” Sky turned his head for one second to look at Four. In that second, the wolf bolted! It ran as fast as light into the trees and into the fading sun.

“Wait!” Sky shouted and all three Links followed suit into the small patch of trees.

Dodging branches and nearly colliding into each other, the trio managed to get through the brambles. On the other side of the trees, though, they saw no wolf. They could hear its howling, but it seemed to be disguised by the fast falling night.

“Where did it go?” Wind asked, “are they going to be okay!?”

Four thought about it and realized that that wolf was smart, making two possible outcomes of what would happen to the person. Option A: the wolf just found its next meal and wasn’t going to let them take it. The was a gruesome outcome that Four hoped against. Option B: the wolf thought them a threat and was looking for someone to help their friend. If the wolf was tamed…

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Four lied, he honestly would bet more on Option A.

Bum bum dadala bum bum dadala!

“Does anyone hear…piano music?” Wind asked.

SHING!

“What is that!?” Wind shouted as a red laser pointed at his chest. Following the laser, Wind saw the unholy abomination that was quickly scuttling towards them.

“Run,” Four started to back up, “RUN!”

Wasting no time, Wind ran, someone faster than the wolf they were chasing, back through the trees. The other two Links were close behind, running past tree after tree after… fountain in the daytime?

Wind crashed into said fountain, falling straight into the water. Four tripped on some cobblestones and stumbled into two people. Sky was lucky and for once his terrible running skills came in handy, as he just stopped running to pant.

“So sorry,” Four apologized to a woman who was hugging her boyfriend/fiancé/husband.

“Hump!” She tutted and started fussing over her partner’s coat.

“Are you okay?” Sky asked Wind.

Wind raised a thumb as he floated in the fountain, “I have let the water take me. Where did this fountain come from anyway? And wasn’t it night?”

“Welcome to your new life of confusion,” Four dragged the kid out of the water.

Their new (or the fifth time new) surroundings were more homely than any of the others. It seemed to be a bustling city, with shops and civilians mingling. Over the buildings they could make out some temple and they saw a glorious castle. The castle itself seemed incredibly familiar.

“Sky,” Four looked at the building, “I think this is the Castle Town that that other kid Link was talking about.”

Sky’s eyes widened, “it’s the same castle! Do you think he’s still there?”

“I don’t know. Last time we were here, the sky was practically bleeding! We could be in a different time than before, but in the same place. This could years after or even minutes before.”

“We need to check at least.”

“We’ll ask Princess Zelda, the kid said he was going to talk to her.”

“What are we talking about?” Wind asked, “what about Tetra?”

Four raised an eyebrow, “I’m going to ask later about your whole Tetra/Zelda thing, but everywhere we’ve been so far there’s been a Princess Zelda, she might be able to help us. And we’ve been here before, there was another Link.”

“We need to make sure he’s okay,” Sky interrupted, “something bad happened and we don’t know what.”

“Well, then let’s go!” Wind jumped in the air.

…………

Why are there so many guards?! Was the thought going through all the Links’ heads. There were two guards in front a gate, then another two guards in front of another gate. All around the fields in front the castle were six more randomly placed guards. The whole time, the three felt like eyes were on them, but not from the guards.

Luckily, for what the guards made up with their abundance, they lacked any intelligence. You could stand right next to them and, as long as you weren’t in their direct line of sight, they wouldn’t see you. With some splitting up and some distractions, they finally made it to a garden in the back of the castle.

“What now?” Sky asked.

“We can sneak in through a window!” Wind suggested.

“Maybe…”

“Halt in the name of the Royal Family!” A voice commanded them in a deep voice.

They turned around to see a very tall man in armor of gold and silver. He wore a gold gladiator’s helmet that covered most of his face, only letting a part of his blond hair be seen. On his back was an extremely large sword that could probably slice anyone in half.

“Trespassing on the royal grounds is an offense worthy of execution,” the guard growled, in a way that happened to remind them of the wolf they met, “you three better have an explanation as to why you are here.”

“Sir Knight,” Sky spoke up, he was lucky that knights were his forte, “we need to talk to the Princess as we are… new to this area. We are sorry to have broken your laws and we commend you for your diligent service to the people of your home.”

The guard smirked, “you definitely aren’t from around here if you think we have a Princess. But I’m afraid that you can’t just barge in here and demand to speak with the Queen. Now, will you walk out of here, or will I have to arrest you?”

“We’ll go,” Four said quickly.

Four pushed Sky and Wind back where they came.

“I think we can take him,” Wind whispered.

“Mind you,” the guard spoke suddenly, “there are eyes watching you, even if you don’t see them. One wrong step and-“

“Sir Lon?” A soft voice came from over a hedge, “what are you doing here?”

The guard quickly dropped into a bow as a woman with long hair and a pink dress walked into view.

“Your Majesty,” the guard answered, “I was escorting these trespassers out.”

“Hmm,” Queen Zelda looked at the three boys in green, “you know, they remind me of someone I met a long time ago!”

She directed a smile at the guard, who was now standing at attention.

The two of the three Links looked at each other with excitement, she could be talking about the child!

“Your Majesty,” Four steppes forward, “if I may, we are looking for someone. We met them once, a long time ago as well, his name was Link and he was dressed in all green. Do you know where we could find him?”

The Queen and the guard stiffened. They knew something.

“And what would need this Link for?” Queen Zelda asked.

Four looked at the guard, “may we talk about this privately?”

The Queen glared, “anything you say can be said in front of Sir Lon! He is head of my Royal Guard and he will not be leaving us.”

Four sighed, “we think that Link is a hero, one from legends, and he might be in danger.”

A pin could’ve dropped and all of Hyrule could’ve heard it with the silence that fell over the group.

“How do you know of that!?” The Queen shrieked, “Sir Lon!”

She didn’t even need to ask, the Knight already had his sword pointing at Four’s neck. Sky and Wind reacted by pulling out their swords.

“That is information that you should not have,” the Queen growled, “only a dozen people know of that, so how do you? Come to think of it, I have never seen you in my kingdom before. Where are you from?”

“We’re cursed time travelers!” Wind butted in and the Queen looked startled to be talked to by a very small teen, “I’m Wind, that’s Sky and Four. We’re heroes as well!”

The guard raised an eye at that.

“Also,” Wind continued, “I have no idea what’s going on, so if you are going to arrest anybody, arrest them.”

“Hey!” Sky shouted.

The Queen waved her hand and the guard removed his sword. Slowly, Sky and Wind put theirs back.

“Tell me your titles, I will determine if you are lying or not.”

“I’m the Hero of Winds!” Wind smiled, “I stopped Ganondorf and Malladus in the Great Sea.”

Queen Zelda’s eye twitched at the name Ganondorf, “and you?”

Sky spoke next, “Hero of the Skies, or I am told I am called the Chosen Hero. I fought the god Demise and migrated my people from Skyloft to the surface.”

The Queen nodded, “you?”

Four spoke last, “Hero of Men, your Majesty, though I am called by the Hero of Minish and the Hero of the Four Sword as well. I helped the Picori race and stopped the Wind Mage: Vaati.”

“Quite a lot of accomplishments,” the Queen stated, “but I believe you. While your stories have faded with time, the Royal Family has always kept every legend. I would know the Chosen Hero anywhere.”

In a surprising twist, the Queen bowed to Sky, who was very shocked at this.

Raising up, the Queen spoke, “we are descendants of your people, thank you for starting Hyrule. And you, Hero of Men, we have many records of you and it is an honor to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Four bowed.

“A charmer,” Queen Zelda bowed back before turning to Wind, “though, this one’s story. Doesn’t seem to check out. How could you have fought Ganondorf? And we have no record of any Hero of the Winds!”

Wind nervously shifted, “would you happen to have heard of the Hero of Time?”

“Yes,” the Queen answered, “the Hero of Time is our most famous legend, even the common people know of him.”

Wind’s eyes sparkled with stars, “awesome! Where I’m from, we also talk about the Hero of Time! I must be from your future, which means…”

Wind turned toward the castle and beheld its glory.

“Wow, this is Hyrule! This is the castle…”

Sky and Four were confused at why he was shocked they were in Hyrule, but they realized he must mean the Hyrule before his. This place was all underwater hundreds of years into the future.

The kid then looked inside the window, “missing the statue, though.”

The Queen cleared her throat to get the kid’s attention, “that still doesn’t say how you fought Ganondorf, when the Hero of Time supposedly killed him.”

“He never died,” Wind replies, “he was sealed away. Ganondorf broke his curse and started attacking my island, so I kind of…”

Wind made a gesture of slitting his throat, which would be cute if not for the implications.

The Queen looked at her guard before at last turning to the group of heroes, “while it unsettling to know that the Evil King will return, it is good to know someone is protecting our land.”

Wind tried with all his might not to correct her. If she was anything like Tetra, he would get yelled at. He also thought it would be bad to tell them that their country was doomed, even if it wouldn’t come for years.

“So,” Wind smiled, “now that you believe us, I think Sky and Four are looking for someone.”

“Yes, your Majesty,” Four came back into the conversation, “something was happening the last time we came here. The sky turned red and there was evil in the air, we need to know if the boy is safe!”

“There is also a curse on us,” Sky continued, “that seems to target heroes. We know nothing else except we were attacked by a shadow, one that could change its face to fit us.”

“A shadow?” The guard growled. “Dark Link…”

The Queen looked at the guard, “impossible! Dark Link died in the other time-“

“I have to go with them,” the guard interrupted. He looked angry, angry enough that he interrupted his queen.

“Must you?” Queen Zelda went into a silent conversation before she sighed, “alright then, you never ask for much.”

The guard then knelt and the Queen tapped his shoulders.

“Sir Lon of Lon Lon Ranch,” she spoke quietly, “you are hereby put off duty for the foreseeable future. May Farore bring you back swiftly.”

While the guard stood up, the Queen said one final remark to all of them.

“I hope you succeed on your quest,” she strolled away, “farewell heroes.”

“Wait!” Sky shouted on deaf ears before turning to see the guard take off his helmet. Underneath, his blond hair was revealed to be very long, he had a closed eye with a scar over it, and he had strange markings on one side of his face. He must’ve been in his mid to late thirties, but who knows.

“Greetings,” the man introduced himself, “my name is Link, Hero of Time, and I believe the man you are looking far is my enemy, Dark Link.”

“You’re that kid?” Four asked, staring at the scar and fierce expression of the Hero of Time, “what happened to you!?”

The hero smiled sadly, “time. It changes all of us. But not you two, I barely remember the two Hylians I met in the forest that day, but you don’t look a minute older.”

“Time travel,” Sky shrugged.

“Oh my Oshus!” Wind shouted, “you’re the Hero of Time, like the actual hero! I can’t believe I’m meeting you!”

The hero smiled and ruffled the boy’s hair, “I am honored to meet someone who finished Ganon.”

“Watch out!” Four grabbed his sword when he shouted his sudden warning, but the elder Link was faster. The hero grabbed his sword of his back and sliced some black magic smoke in half.

Sadly, magic doesn’t care for non-magic items, as the ribbon of shadows came back together. The hero tried to fight it off, but he couldn’t for long, as, like the last time, it tied itself around his neck. Soon, everything went black.

Chapter Text

It was actually midnight, pitch dark. So, from Sky’s perspective, he’s came from being up for a full day, to nighttime, to daytime, to a sky turning red, to morning, to night, to midday, and finally back to night. All without sleep.

“What’s going on?” They heard the newest hero clamber around in the darkness. He was easy to follow with the clinking of his armor.

“We told you we were cursed,” Wind shrugged.

“We should start from the beginning,” Four stated, “why don’t we find somewhere to start a camp. I think we can scavenged for firewood, then we can talk.”

“And pray to Hylia we stay for more than five minutes,” Sky thought, “time is way too fluid.”

He heard a grunt of agreement from the guard.

Soon, after Wind ran into a tree, they found their shelter in some trees. Slicing off some branches, the guard managed to get a pile of firewood. Without anyone else being able to see him, the guard leaned over the firewood and whispered an incantation. Suddenly, fire sprouted and lit ablaze the wood.

“Story time!” Wind shouted and plopped himself on the ground.

“Yes,” the guard sat down, “I would like to know what we are facing.”

Four nodded, but, meanwhile, Sky couldn’t take the tiredness anymore and fell face first into the group. Four looked like he was going to say something, before he decided that Sky was just tired and sat down.

“I can tell you what I know of his story,” Four replied, “I’ll start with what I know, though.”

He explains how he was notified by the Picori that a dark entity was in the forest, so he went to check it out. What he found was Sky and something that looked like his old enemy, Shadow. He quickly found out that this was not Shadow and he fought with Sky against this creature. Then the creature cursed them.

“I don’t remember the exact words,” Four explained, “but he said something about reaching the Delta’s End, the number nine, and space having no meaning.”

“It sounds like Dark Link is displacing any heroes through time and space,” the guard mused, “while I don’t know what Delta’s End is, perhaps the number nine is could be the number of heroes.”

Four nodded, “makes sense, it also said something about going down a river that’s dealt a friend.”

The guard thought aloud, “delta, river… time is often compared to water. Nayru is said to control both water and time; her Majesty’s patron goddess is Nayru…”

“Everywhere I’ve been so far has had a Zelda,” Four followed his train of thought, “whether a Princess, a Queen, or-“ he looked at Wind –“that.”

Wind shrugged, “she prefers going by Tetra. We just call her Zelda around new people to give them a good impression of our kingdom.”

Four ignored the comment, but he was definitely going to ask about that later. “So far, we’ve been looking for each time’s Zelda, maybe they know something.”

“Her Majesty could also sense dark magic to an extent,” the guard spoke, “it is a wise decision to search out her counterparts.”

With that, Four continued his story about how they were transported to the guard’s time. Then they were taken to Wind’s, where they met Wind, who was cursed. After that, they appeared in a random area where they met no hero, just a wolf, which ran off with a dead body on its back.

“Then we met you,” Four finished.

“You need a name!” Wind quickly shouted.

“Excuse me?”

“A name,” Wind smiled, “we’re all named Link, and if we are going to meet nine of us, then we need to have different names.”

The guard shrugged, “you could call me anything. Wouldn’t be the first time with a fake name.”

“We can just call you Time,” Four suggested, “we’ve just been claiming names that are our titles.”

Time shrugged once again, but both Four and Wind took it as a yes.

“I think it’s time for some rest,” Time spoke, “I can tell you have had a long couple of hours, so we should follow the first hero’s example.”

Time leaned against a tree and closed his one good eye. Four had the nagging suspicion, though, that Time wasn’t going to actually sleep, but Four was tired. He later on the ground and listened to the crackling fire until he fell asleep.

—

An always lovely way to wake up, in any of the Links’ opinions, was with a sword to the throat, which is exactly how all four Links woke up.

Opening his eyes, Sky saw an angry knight staring him down.

“Four!” Sky shouted as he sat up straighter, but he didn’t move so much that he would be stabbed.

“Here,” Four sighed from beside him, a knight in front of him as well, “good morning.”

“Hi, uh, sir,” Wind waved a hand as his knight.

Meanwhile, Time stared annoyed at the knight in front of him. The knight must’ve not been very good, because the glare seemed to visibly scare him.

“State your name,” the knight in front of Time mumbled out, “stare your intent for being about here with weapons.”

“Link Lon,” Time answered, “we were traveling and got lost. The weapons are for protection.”

“Even the little one?” The knight in front of Wind asked, grabbing Wind’s sword.

“Hey!” Wind tried to grab it back, but the knight pointed his sword back at his neck.

“Dangerous world out there,” Time replied nonchalantly, “he needs to protect himself.”

“Name?” A knight asked Four.

Four decided they wouldn’t take a number as a name and told the truth, “Link of Minish.”

The title “of Minish” was a reward for saving the Minish. They deemed him an honorary Picori and it was another way to show himself as the hero.

“You both have the same name?” The knight asked.

“Family name.”

The next knight asked Sky, “name?”

Sky sighed, “Link of Skyloft.”

The knight glared, “you’re lying.”

“It’s a very common name,” Four answered for Sky.

“Name,” the final knight asked Wind, “let me guess, Link?”

Wind bit his lip, “Link Outset.”

Time interrupted before any knight could say anything, “our family is spread out and we’ve barely communicated. We are representing the four parts of our family to bring us closer together. We are having a family reunion of sorts!”

Time could lie, Sky admitted to himself, but the guards didn’t look convinced.

“Why are we being apprehended, sir Knights?” Sky asked in an attempt to sound commanding, “you have no reason to suspect us of wrong doing!”

Inside of his head, Sky was panicking, though, that they might’ve broken some foreign law. Maybe being named Link could get you arrested here. It would be with his luck.

One of the knights pulled out a sheet of paper from a bag at his hip.

“By the order of the Queen, her Majesty Zelda Hyrule the XXXIV,” the knight read and everyone took note of the name, “any suspicious people of unknown origins shall be taken to the castle and questioned on a missing person case.”

The knight put away his note and spoke once more, “four armed persons of unknown origins, spouting unknown last names and with the same first name. By the order of her Majesty, you four are under arrest.”

And that’s the third time Time had been arrested for various reasons, as the four’s weapons were taken from them, much to the dismay of everyone except Sky. Their hands were tied together and Time’s armor was removed to be put with the weapons.

“Be careful with those,” Time spoke is a soft voice.

“How does everything you say sound so terrifying?” Four asked as they were forced to walk to somewhere, “no matter the tone or volume.”

Time didn’t respond.

“Where do you think we are?” Sky asked.

“A new Hyrule?” Four suggested, “it looks a lot… bleaker than anywhere else.”

“How long do we have to walk?” Wind scowled in an adorable way, “that sword is sacred and I can’t replace it!”

“We can sort this out,” Four answered, “besides, we were going to go to the castle anyway, this is just speeding things up.”

Things quieted down as they walked more. Eventually, they made it to a town, which Time assumed was this time’s version of Castle Town, especially with the castle in the middle.

They were marched through the town and the people barely payed them no mind. Soon, they reached the castle, and then, they were right outside the throne room.

One of the knights took off with their weapons and another walked into the throne room, which the doors of close behind him. The last two knights stayed with the Links.

They didn’t have to wait long before the knight opened the door and pointed at Time and Four.

“You two, come in,” he ordered and pointed at the other heroes, “you two will wait for your audience.”

Time showed no response, but Four nodded as the knight guided them into the throne room.

The throne room itself was massive, but it was nothing compared to the large presence of the Queen herself. Sitting on her throne, Queen Zelda was there in all her glory, practically radiating power. She was decked out in the best dress and jewels money can buy and her expression was one that could rival Time’s in seriousness.

“Announcing the culprits of Order L349,” the knight shouted like a herald, “Link Lon and Link of Minish.”

The Queen nodded and waved her hand, “leave us, Sir Thein.”

The knight bowed, tossed a swift glare to the prisoners, and left the room. Once he was outside and the door closed, the Queen spoke.

“Is it true that every member in your party is named Link?” She asked, “do not lie to me.”

“Yes, your Majesty,” Time bowed his head.

“Is it true you are related?”

“In a sense,” Four answered, “but not closely related like with cousins are brothers.”

“Why are you here?”

“We do not know,” Time explained, “we lost our way in the night and had to stop to rest. We woke up to your knights arresting us.”

The Queen’s eyes narrowed, “I told you not to lie.”

“It isn’t a lie,” Time said calmly, “we are not from her and I have no idea why we were brought to this castle.”

“So you are saying you know nothing of the missing person case of Link of Ordon?”

The two Links’ eyes widened at the name.

“I see I struck a nerve,” the Queen stood up, “you will tell me what you know of our missing hero, why you are using the same name, and what is the presence I sense on you is!”

Time decided to start explaining, “what do you know of Ganondorf?”

The Queen nearly jumped at the name, “don’t you say that thing’s name in here!”

Time nearly chuckled, “me and my companions have been brought by the Evil King’s minion from different time periods. We are named Link because we are different versions of the legendary hero. The presence is probably the curse put on us, which randomly transports us to a different time.”

The Queen raised an eyebrow at that, “and what of our hero?”

“We don’t know,” Four answered, “we just arrived in this time and we were actually looking for you to see if you could help us.”

Queen Zelda was silent for a moment before she spoke.

“I believe you,” she decided, “I have certainly heard of weirder things and I have encountered some evidence of past times.”

She sat back down.

“Thank you, your Majesty.” Four and Time said at the same time.

“I can try to help you,” she continued, “but only if you help us. Our hero, the Hero of Twilight, has disappeared. I last saw in this very throne room where I bid him goodbye. He was supposed to return to his home in Ordon, but he never made it. My guards say they never saw him leave the castle. The only evidence I have is a faint presence of dark magic in the one of the halls.”

“It sounds like your hero was sent to a different time,” Time explained, “we have theorized that we will meet other heroes, and maybe we’ll meet them together. If we are to run into him, we will make sure he is alright.”

“As much as I wish that could put my heart at ease,” the Queen frowned, “I still worry. Link is capable, but a different and unknown time could be too dangerous. You must promise me you will find him and bring him back to this time!”

Four looked at Time, who nodded slightly.

“Our goal is to return to our own homes,” Four stated, “that includes any Links we meet. We promise to bring your Link back.”

The Queen sighed, “thank you.”

Time smiled to himself, this worked out better than expected. Before she spoke again.

“There’s one problem,” Queen Zelda hesitantly added.

“And what is that, your Majesty?” Time asked.

“You may find him in his other form, but you must never tell anyone else of this. The Hero of Twilight is sometimes in the shape of a wolf.”

Chapter Text

Four’s eyes widened, “your Majesty, I think I very well have seen your hero.”

The Queen’s eyes sparkled, “you have! Where?”

“Is he black with white patterns on his head?”

“Yes,” the Queen answered, “that’s him. He’s about the size of a human, too. Where is he?”

Four hesitated, he didn’t know if he should say the only time he saw her hero was when he was dragging a dead body. He decided he would omit that for now.

“I do not know, Your Majesty,” the short hero answered, “me, Sky, and Wind saw him for a short time, right before we met Time. But I believe we will see him again.”

The Queen was visibly disappointed, but she didn’t press the matter. With a wave of her hand, two maids opened a door and scurried in.

“Very well,” the Queen started, “please come see me again once you find him. But, before your… departure, I ask you to stay for how ever long until the curse acts up again. You can rest, as I’ve heard my knights woke you up from your slumber, or traverse the castle grounds. Your weapons will also be brought back to you.”

“You honor us, your Majesty,” Time bowed, even the Queen’s guard.

“Aurora, Borelle?” The Queen turned to look at her maids.

“Yes, your Majesty?” the two maids curtsied in synchronization.

“Please get the rest of these mens’ party in here and show them to two ambassador suites.”

“Yes, your Majesty.”

As the maids lead them away, the Queen said one last thing.

“Remember, don’t tell anyone what I told you. Not even your companions.”

They walked out of the throne room’s door to see Wind and Sky. The knights guarding them spoke to one of the maids before they left. The maids then bowed to the four Links.

“Right this way, m’lords,” they said in sync and walked towards a corridor.

“What happened?” Wind asked as they walked, “are we being tossed in a dungeon!?”

“Not at all,” Time smiled, “we’ve been invited to stay our remaining time here in the castle.”

“How did you manage that?” Sky asked, bewildered.

“The hero here happens to be missing,” Four answered, “we have to find him. Her Majesty believed our story about the curse and she asked us to look for their hero.”

“That’ll be easy!” Wind cheered, “I mean, we found each other pretty easily. We’ll just run into him at some point.”

You have no idea, Four thought to himself.

Once they reached an area, the maids each stood by a door.

“Here are your rooms, m’lords,” the maids curtsied, “is there anything else you require.”

“We’re fine,” Time said in a kind voice, “thank you for your service.”

As the maids scurried away, the heroes talked to themselves.

“What do we do now?” Sky asked.

Time replied, “we can rest, or…”

A glint in his eyes appeared for a second before disappearing. It either could have been mysterious, comical, mischievous, or all three.

“I would like to see how different heroes fair in a fight,” the Hero of Time continued, “How would you like to have a duel.”

Sky’s brain immediately screamed nope! Sure he was a hero, the first hero even, but he was no way as strong as the full grown adult that stood before him. The sword Time carried easily put his borrowed knight’s sword to shame.

Four, on the other hand, thought it would be an interesting challenge. Alone it would be difficult, but if he was willing to pull out the Others… but that would be too dangerous in a foreign land under a curse.

Wind, finally, could’ve died right there. Fight the legendary Hero of Time? Not only could he not hurt his idol, he would probably be killed by the gods for even touching him.

Time must’ve been able to read all there faces, because he smirked.

“Let me rephrase, you three all fight me at once. I simply wish to see your levels of power for myself.”

“Why not,” Four declared. Sky and Wind nervously accepted the proposition as well.

“Excellent,” Time clapper his hands together, “we’ll wait here for are weapons and then we’ll head off to the training grounds.”

“Do you know where that is?” Four raised an eyebrow.

“I saw it when we came in.”

“Ah…”

—

Oh, Hylia, they were going to die.

That was what was going on in Wind’s head. He was fighting his hero.

The knights returned their armor and swords and Time immediately led them to their battlefield. He put on his armor, but for some reason put away his sword. Must be a trick.

Sky managed to snag a better sword than his from the castle armory and was testing it out. Four was watching Time, figuring out what his game was. Wind looked like he was going to cry as he put up some magic barrier around himself.

Back to dying, though. Time was just standing there, the only thing he said was “when ever you’re ready.”

They all looked at each other, nothing happening. Just Time smiling.

Four decided then was the time to attack and launched himself at the hero. Without much effort, Time slightly leaned to the left and dodged the attack.

Sky then pounced, this time the opposite direction. Like before, Time side stepped and Sky fell behind him.

Wind, meanwhile, accidentally grabbed the wrong object. Instead of pulling out his sword, he pulled out an empty glass bottle. In a panic, Wind thought that if it worked for the king of darkness, it would work on a hero, so he chucked the bottle at Time.

Whop! It struck Time right in a forehead and everyone stopped and looked at him. The bottle fell to Time’s feet and he picked it up. Looking at the bottle, he started to laugh.

“Not very affective,” he smiled, “but it has the element of surprise!”

Wind’s face lit of bright red, “…thanks?”

And so the battle went on, each hero trying to attack and Time easily getting out of the way. At the end of the fight, all three heroes were done without so much as a hit on them.

“Well,” Time said, “you all seem to be in good strengths. Though your endurance could use some work.”

The three fallen Links just sighed out loud.

“Now,” the knight clapped his hands together, “it seems we have another hero to find!”

“What do you mean?” Sky asked and looked up.

Somehow they had already switched world again and they were in the middle of a very large field.

“Let’s go, boys!” Time started marching off to what looked like a bridge and the others followed behind.

Chapter Text

They made their way to what looked like a stable. Time went to the front and started ordering rooms as night was falling and the others started trying to cook.

“I don’t think that’s how you cook,” Wind looked over Sky’s shoulder. The food, some carrots, apples, and some variation of bananas, were currently on fire.

“Any suggestions?” Four muttered.

“I only know how to make one kind of soup,” Wind smiled sheepishly.

“Back home we only had pumpkins,” Sky scrunched his nose at the burning smell, “I barely recognize anything in any Hyrule.”

“For instance,” Four smiled, “a Princess or a Queen?”

“It’s not my fault we didn’t have a so-called government!”

“Bark!” The three heard from beside them and they turned to see a brown pup.

“What. Is. That?” Sky’s eyes widened, “it’s adorable!”

“Figures you’ve never seen a dog either,” Four smiled and pet the puppy.

Wind, who’s eyes were also very big, “what’s a dog?”

“You, too?”

Time finally made his way back, “I see you made a friend. They’re out of rooms, though, so we’ll be camping.”

Four pointed at the other two Links, “these two have no idea what a dog is!”

Time gave the two a glance before speaking, “we all come from different times, we don’t all have the same creatures. For example-“

He pointed at the smoldering banana, “this is a variation of fruit I have never seen before.”

Four rolled his eyes, “anyway, a dog is like a pet, you keep them to hunt or to play with.”

“Like a pig!” Wind smiled, “we kept pet pigs on my island!”

“No-“ Four was about to say something before another bark, a deeper and stronger one, sounded behind him.

They turned to see a newcomer, dressed in a dark blue cape and a red tunic that matched the style of the other Hylians at the stable. The cape’s hood was up, covering much of the person’s face, making it impossible to tell if the person was a boy or a girl. Beside the person was the creature that made the noise, not a dog, but a big, black wolf that seemed oddly familiar to Four.

“Do you need help?” The voice was soft and quiet, almost so that it couldn’t be heard. The person pointed to the charred food to clarify.

Sky, not recognizing the wolf, smiled, “please? I’ve never cooked before in my life.”

The person softly chuckled before pulling their fingers to their lips, whistling. The wolf straightened itself and the person pointed to the nearby trees. Without hesitation, the wolf ran off. The person sat down, emptied out the pot and pulled out some of their own supplies from what seemed like nowhere.

While the person worked and Sky and Wind watched him, Four walked to Time, who moved away from the group when the newcomer arrived. Tapping on his side, Time leaned down so Four could whisper in his ear.

“That’s him,” Four gestured to the direction where the wolf ran off. “That must be the Hero of Twilight.”

Speaking of, the wolf was now running back with what looked like a fox in its mouth. It walked up to the person, who petted it on the head in thanks before they started to cook the meat.

“Are you sure?” Time asked, though he already knew the answer. He could sense something from this wolf.

“Yes,” Four continued, “we saw this dog dragging a bleeding body a while ago. It matches the Queen’s description perfectly.”

“Then,” Time focused on the person, “that must be the body?”

Four shrugged, “they were too covered in blood to recognize anything about them.”

“Let’s wait and see what happens,” Time planned, “later, we will get the wolf alone and see.”

Four nodded.

“Done,” the person spoke up and all the Links turned to see a beautiful meal in the pot, enough to feed all of them.

“Thank you!” Sky smiled at the person, “it looks amazing.”

The person nodded, “just be sure to learn how to cook, or stay in the villages.”

“We will,” Time interrupted, “thanks for your help.”

The person looked at Time before nodding once more. With a whistle, he stood up with the wolf right beside him and walked away into the fading sunlight.

Once the two were far away enough, but not out of sight, Time pointed at the group.

“Start a camp,” he commanded, “we are allowed to camp in front of the stable as long as we don’t block horses. I’ll go scouting for the Hero or this Hyrule’s Zelda.”

“I’m coming with,” Four said.

“No,” the elder replied, “I need to be stealthy.”

“No offense, but with the armor on, anyone could hear you a mile away, old man.”

“Who cares if you can hear,” Time smirked, “when you can’t see, little boy?”

“What?” Four growled before screaming, “WHAT?!”

He blinked for one second and then the six foot tall man disappeared. He looked around and saw no trace of the Hero of Time.

Admitting defeat, Four went to help setting up camp and Time, now wearing the stone mask, followed the wolf and the person.

Silently, Time watched as the two settled down in some trees. The trees seemed to be a regular camp spot for them as there was a bed, a fire pit, and something glinting in the moonlight: the Master Sword!

Time’s eyes squinted, he had found their Hero, but why was he following this Hylian around like some trained dog? Did this person not know the significance of the Master Sword right behind him?

As he contemplated, the person sat down on their bed and laid down. The wolf put it’s head on the bed so that the person could touch him.

“Today was a good day, Wolfie,” the person muttered, louder than when they spoke with the Links, though, “and I think I finally figured out what the photo’s location is. Tomorrow, we’ll head to the Castle.”

The wolf huffed.

“I know it’s dangerous,” the person pat the wolf’s head, “but it’s only fair. I want the first thing I remember to be where I lived and worked. Not some random field I happened to be in once!”

The person yawned before pulling a blanket over themself.

“Besides,” they grumbled, “maybe it’ll give me clues to defe…”

The voice trailed off and the person seemed to have fallen asleep. Everything was silent.

The wolf watched the slow breathing of his companion before slowly moving away towards the sword. Time watched as the wolf slightly touched the Master Sword and, in the shadows, shifted into a human male, clothed in green and smelling like a farm.

Time noticed the Hero wore armor underneath his tunic, yet wore farming equipment over it. An odd combination to say the least. He looked around 20, most likely younger. He had brown hair and striking blue eyes that carried over from his wolf form.

He picked up the Master Sword before walking deeper into the trees. Time followed until they were in a clearing, with the Hero practicing sword play against invisible foes. It was then that Time revealed himself.

Taking off his mask, he said, “it’s a pleasure to see you, Hero of Twilight.”

The Hero didn’t even turn around, “stay away. I’ll train another time, not now.”

Time raised an eyebrow at that, having no idea the meaning. When the Hero realized he wasn’t leaving, he spun to face him.

“I said go!” He shouted before freezing. In his eyes was something akin to fear. He dropped the sword in surprised and it clanged on some stones.

“I don’t think the gods would take kindly to that kind of treatment to the blade,” Time said sarcastically. He couldn’t care less what happened to that weapon, it was a tool that used him instead of vice versa, so he would’ve probably done the same.

With a shaky tone the Hero cried, “you’re supposed to be dead!”

Time almost chuckled, “and so should you, if time is to be believed.”

They both stood there for a moment. Crickets chirped in the silence and lightning bugs shined in the dark.

“How are you here?” The Hero asked.

“I will ask the same,” Time deflected, “I was just at your Hyrule, your Queen has been looking for you.”

“My Hyrule?”

Time sighed, “this might be hard to believe, I hope not, though, seeing as you turn into a wolf, but a curse has been set on Heroes from different times. Anyone baring the name Link with the mark of the gods is being sent to different time periods. You are the most recent Link we have met.”

“The Shadow?” The Hero asked, “it attacked me in the Castle, saying how I would pay for killing its master. It sent me here…”

“Your ward,” Time’s head nodded back in the direction of the camp, “who are they? Why do you follow them?”

His eyes narrowed on the blade, how would someone who stays in a wolf form most of the time carry a sword. Someone must be carrying it for him, but only Heroes could pick it up.

“Are they another Hero?”

The Hero’s eyes widened once more, “No! He’s, um, he’s…”

He looked at the floor, picked up the Master Sword, and held it close.

“He’s my descendant,” he said in a hush, “I found him here, bloodied. He was nearly killed when some monster, controlled by the Calamity, another form of Ganon, attacked him. It destroyed almost everything, including my descendants memories.”

He looked Time in the eyes, “I have to help him. The Hero hasn’t shown up, he’s said to have died when the Calamity first attacked 100 years ago. Until he appears-“ a breath – “I will be the Hero, I’ll destroy the Calamity. I need to protect him…”

Time shook his head, “you might not have an option. The curse seems to affect every Hero we come into contact with. You may be pulled away from this world before you accomplish your goal.”

The Hero’s eyes grew fierce and his mouth turned into a wolffish snarl, “not even Hylia herself could drag me away from helping him.”

Time’s face remained stoic, “we’ll see. I’m heading back to my camp, come by if you wish. Just be prepared in case the curse acts again.”

He turned around and walked off into the night. As he left, Time could’ve sworn he heard the Hero mutter something.

“So you were cryptic in life as well as death.”

Whatever that meant, time would tell when he would learn the meaning.

Time walked, passing by the Hero’s camp. He looked at the bed, seeing that the person’s hood fell off, revealing flowing golden hair and more scars than unmarred skin.

“You’ve seen some things, haven’t you?” He recalled what the Hero said about his memory, “but how much do you remember?”

He stood for a moment before going all the way back to the stable. Everyone was asleep except for Four, who was sitting by the fire.

“So?” The short Link asked.

“The wolf is the Hero of Twilight,” Time sat down.

“Is he joining us?”

Time looked at the stars, “maybe.”

Chapter Text

“Any of you want to explain why you’re in my house?”

And thus marked another transition to a new world. As the Links woke up, they saw they were transported inside of someone’s home. Said someone was standing at the front door with their arms crossed.

Four looked around and noticed no one else had joined them, so the Hero of Twilight did indeed stay where he was.

“Sorry!” Sky shouted from the very back of the house.

Wind, who was closest to the door, greeted the annoyed person.

“Hi!” He waved, “I’m Wind!”

The person, another blond with a single pink strand in a red tunic over a green one, raised an eye.

“Hi,” he looked confused, “I’m Link.”

“What a coincidence,” Four smiled.

“We are all Link as well,” Sky stood up, “we are different versions of the Hero.”

“That must mean you’re also a Hero!” Wind smiled, “that was easy!”

Link smacked his face and growled, “goddess damnit!”

He then walked out of the house, slamming the door open. Outside he started to pace back and forth while somehow screaming and whispering at the same time.

“I already saved Hyrule twice!” He shouted, “then I saved Lorule! THEN I saved Holodrum and Labrynna! AND THEN I saved a fake world! Have I not done enough!”

He shouted that last bit into the sky before pacing again.

“Now I’ve got four Heroes crashing into my house! I swear if this is another adventure then I will go into the Sacred Realm and make it darker than Ganon could ever hope for!”

He paced like this for another five minutes and the Links just looked at each other. Eventually, Link got tired, walked back into the house, and slowly closed the door behind him.

“So,” he sighed, “explain who, what, and why you are here and then get out of my house.”

“You believe us?” Wind asked, “just like that?”

“I’ve seen some weird stuff,” he explained, “and met some other ‘Heroes’ before. Those Hytopia idiots tried to drag me into their problems before finding some cosplayers to do their job. Now spill!”

“Have you ever encountered a dark version of yourself?” Four asked.

“Yeah, they were easy to kill,” Link shrugged, “What about it. Unless you are talking about Ravio, then he’s annoying.”

“A much stronger shadow, his name is Dark Link,” Time continued, “he’s cursing Heroes across time. We keep randomly change time periods and it seems it affects every Link someway.”

“So,” Link rubbed his forehead, “the Fallen Hero, the Hero of Men? That’s you guys?”

Four raised his hands, “I’m the Hero of Men. We’ve never heard of any Fallen Hero, though.”

Link smirked, “you probably wouldn’t, that Hero died. So, if it’s any of you, you wouldn’t know if it was until the end.”

He said the last sentence cryptically with a creepy smile.

“Just kidding!” He smiled normally, “the Hero died fighting Ganon, so unless you haven’t finished your adventures, you’re all good!”

That did not set anyone’s thoughts at ease. Everyone in the room stiffen, except for Sky, at the thought of Ganon winning.

“Anyway,” he continued, “is there anyway to stop this ‘Dark Link’?”

“Not that we’ve seen,” Four answered.

“Not even light magic could stop it!” Wind added. “I was shot with a light arrow and it did nothing.”

“One,” Link raised a finger, “who shot a kid? Two, what are you going to do about it?”

“Our plan right now is finding different Zeldas,” Sky voiced.

“Well, my Zelda is busy. We’ve just been attacked for like the third time in her reign and I personally am on vacation.”

Link opened the door, and gestured for them to leave, “so, I think I’ll take my chances, have a good day!”

Suddenly, everyone froze except for Link.

“What’s wrong with you guys?” He asked, “please get out of my house so I can sleep!”

Wind slowly pointed behind him and Link turned around just in time to see dark magic shoot out at him.

“What the f-“ Link whispered before he was being strangled by the magic, just like the Heroes before him.

“Should we help him?” Wind asked, watching the new Hero be strangled.

“Not much we can do,” Time shrugged.

They watched as the magic seeped into the Hero and he dropped to the ground, breathing heavily.

“Thanks for the help!” He heaved, clutching his chest.

“You told us to leave and you blocked the door,” Time smirked.

Link slowly stood up and pointed at the elder, “you- you!”

Suddenly, he smiled, “I like you.”

He walked to one of the walls of his house, grabbing random objects off it.

“If I have no choice, I’m grabbing my equipment and we better fix this fast!” He smiled to himself, at least he has company this time, “I’m assuming you’re using nicknames, so you can call me Legend, since I’m the Hero of Legend.”

He turned around to find himself in a familiar place, but not his house.

“Well,” Legend looked at the Castle of Lorule, “that happened fast.”

Legend looked around to see only the old man was with him.

“Where’d your friends go?” He asked. “What’s your name, as well?”

The man stood still for a moment, thinking, and then said, “the curse sometimes splits us up. This is the first time it has happened to me, but I met another Hero who isn’t with us but is still cursed. They called me Time.”

“Convenient and pretentious,” Legend replies and started walking to the castle. “So, what’s your story?”

“I’m the Hero of Time,” Time followed, “I fought Ganon after being put to sleep for seven years.”

“Weird,” Legend opened the castle doors and headed to the Royal Office, “that sounds like the story of the Fallen Hero, but he’s dead.”

Time chuckled, “not the first time I’ve been told that I should be dead. Luckily I succeeded.”

“Have you done anything else?” Legend asked, “the goddesses have cursed me to have five adventures, is it the same for you or the others?”

“I don’t know about the others,” Time stated, “I’ve simply helped some people.”

Legend stared at him, “doubt, but okay.”

Time ignored him and looked around the castle, “where are we?”

“Lorule Castle, one of my five adventures. It’s a flip world to Hyrule, with people that look like my world but with different personalities and sometimes a color swap.”

Time hummed, remembering the people of Termina.

“Lorule’s Triforce was destroyed years ago to stop wars, but Lorule couldn’t exist without it. The world started crumbling away into nothing. The Princess, the alternate Zelda, Hilda devised a plan to steal my world’s Triforce to save her world. I stopped her, but me and Zelda used our Triforce to create Lorule’s, saving both worlds.

“Afterwords, travel between the two worlds closed and I haven’t been able to come back here and visit my friends. Until now.”

“And who are we visiting?” Time asked.

“Princess Hilda and her Royal Advisor Ravio,” Legend answered before stopping in front of a grand door, “here we are.”

“I thought you said Princess Hilda tried to destroy your Hyrule?”

Legend waved off the concern, “she was being manipulated, it’s a long story. She was just trying to save her kingdom that was literally being torn into an abyss.”

He knocked on the door, “I haven’t been able to see her or Ravio in months. I’ve been busy fixing Hyrule from all our invasions that I haven’t even had time to check if there was a way. That’s what I was coming home from, I worked as Princess Zelda’s advisor for a time.”

He knocked again, “so, if I’m cursed, I might as well take advantage of it and see my friends.”

At the end of his sentence, the door opened to reveal a girl around Legend’s height with dark purple hair and bags around her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Princess Hilda rubbed her eyes, “I know I said I’ll listen to citizens’ problems, but I can’t right now. Please come back to-“

Legend smirked and interrupted, “now is that anyway to treat your loyal subjects?”

Hilda froze, looking at the ground and she slowly looked up with tears in her eyes.

“Link?” She cried in disbelief.

“Who else? Ravio?” Legend joked, “it’s good to see you again, Hilda.”

“I’m about to break all protocol for royal-citizen interaction, but you aren’t a citizen of Lorule, so it’s fine,” Hilda declared before she rammed herself into Legend, hugging him fiercely.

Time, meanwhile, stood there with a blank look on his face.

Finally, the two broke up and Hilda wiped the tears from her face.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, “travel between worlds is impossible, even Ravio couldn’t figure it out. We tried for months to no avail!”

“It seems I can never rest,” Legend smiled, “I got cursed from some dark magic, along with some other friends.”

It was then that Hilda noticed Time, “oh, who is this?”

“Me and Ravio aren’t the only Heroes,” he answered, “this is Time, a previous Hero from Hyrule that is time traveling due to the curse.”

“Greetings,” Hilda bowed her head, “I hope you find Lorule enjoyable.”

Time nodded his head in turn.

“Speaking of,” Legend looked into the office, which was not destroyed like last time, but instead neat, “where is Ravio?”

Hilda frowned, “he just left for one of the old portals. Like I said, we’re trying to reconnect the worlds and Ravio is testing an invention on a portal for away from people on both sides to make sure nothing bad happens.”

Time spoke up for the first time, “is this Ravio a Hero as well?”

Legend looked at him, “as Hilda is the alternate Zelda, Ravio is the alternate me, so he’s Lorule’s Hero.”

“Should we check on him then,” Time asked, “the curse may affect him as well.”

Legend sneered, “nothing is ever easy. Hilda, which portal is he going to?”

“Somewhere in the swamp.”

He sighed, “that’s halfway across Lorule it would take us a day to get there.”

“What is this curse?” Hilda asked.

“Basically any Hero is forced to randomly travel to different time periods, and now, apparently, different worlds, unless this has happened before.”

He looked to Time who shook his head.

“Chances are I might show up again, or Ravio could up and disappear. Also, other Heroes could appear, and you could kick them out of the castle, if you want, because I tried to kick them out of my house.”

“How long until you leave?”

Legend shrugged, “I was just added to the party, you’ll have to ask Time over here.”

The Princess looked at Time expectantly.

“I haven’t been around the longest,” Time explained, “but I’ve noticed that we usually travel whenever something happens or when we are distracted. Like when we fall asleep, having a conversation, or fighting.”

“So you could, say, walk through a doorway and then be in another time?” She asked.

“Most likely.”

“And how many worlds are there?”

Legend glanced at Time to answer.

Time shrugged, “we think there are nine Heroes, but apparently Legend has two worlds of his own, so who knows.”

Legend winced, “actually…”

Time glared at him as he slowly continued.

“If this curse works with just different places I’ve been to, then there are two more places of mine. Holodrum and Labrynna.”

“That might be where the others are, then.”

“Others?” Hilda looked between the two.

“The other Heroes that I’ve currently met. Imagine parallel versions of me, like with Ravio, except I’m more handsome and everyone is still blond.”

“A travesty then?” She smirked, “I can barely manage two of you, how could anyone handle nine.”

“We aren’t there yet,” Time answered, “we’re at five right now.”

“Well,” Hilda opened her door and gestured for them to enter, “until you leave, I would like to catch Link up on Lorule, and you are welcomed to join us- uh. Time was it?”

Time nodded and they both walked into the office, where Legend immediately noticed a painting of two very familiar people. Hilda noticed his gaze and grew a flustered look.

“We wanted to honor you!” She explained away the bizarre appearance of a painting of Legend and Princess Zelda. Zelda stood in the back, her hands forming a triangle with a flame forming in the middle, her dress rustling in the wind. Legend, meanwhile, was positioned below her, in an attack stance, and half of his body melded into more cartoonish painting style.

“With a painting?” Legend questioned, “it’s better than a statue at least.”

Hilda ran to sit at her desk and pointed to the seats in front of it for them to sit, “we also have paintings of the Sages. Though, I hope they are more tactful than last time. I want to make sure that Lorule for generations know what we did to them and how you still helped us. Paintings are considered sacred here, if you couldn’t’ve already guessed, so these will be treated and they will exist for years to come.”

Legend smiled, Hilda always tried to do the right thing, sometimes in odd ways, but it’s the thought that counts.

“Now,” she smiled, “speaking of Lorule…”

Chapter Text

Meanwhile…

“Where’d everybody go?” Four questioned himself as he stood alone in a forest at night. In the distance he could hear music and laughter. Through the trees, fire was visible and it was moving around wildly. Either somebody was holding a torch or there was a flaming keese.

“Sky?” He shouted out, “Wind? Time?”

No one responded, not even the new hero, who Four barely heard name himself Legend. A little bit of an egotistical name if you asked him.

Four sighed, might as well find out where he was.

The Hero started trudging through the trees until he encountered the source of the music. It was a band of traveling performers, people dressed in consumes or doing strange acts like juggling while upside down. They were all laughing and looking at a man-made stone ring, where a woman dressed in red was dancing.

The woman, wearing a red unitard with strings flowing from it, held a tambourine in one hand. Her hair, red as well and kept in a high ponytail, was swinging to the music. In her free hand, flames were dancing on her fingertips, creating patterns in the air.

After watching the display for a second, Four got a glimpse of her face.

“Din?”

Sure enough, the dancer girl he helped find a house was there. What did this mean? Was he back in his own time?

She didn’t stop her movements, but her eyes locked into his. She smiled and extinguished her hand, reaching it out to him in a gesture of welcoming.

“The Hero returns!” She smiled and the band of people around her cheered drunkingly, “though looking shorter than usual.”

“What are you doing here?” Four asked, walking out of the trees, “where are we? I’ve been turned around a bit.”

“Don’t you remember anything?” She smiled and tossed her tambourine into the air, which promptly set itself ablaze until it disappeared into ashes. While Four was distracted and looking at the ashes, Din grabbed his arms and pulled him into the circle. “You have to dance to have your questions answered!”

“What?!”

Four was then forced into a complex dance that seemed to have no rules. Given his short stature and the fact that Din was leading, he was spun quite often and once was even dipped.

When he finally got himself oriented, he and Din were doing a tango. He looked her in the eyes, which was very awkward, as she was a foot taller than him.

“Din,” Four sighed, “I’m serious. This isn’t Hyrule.”

She smirked, “last I checked! This is Holodrum.”

“Holodrum?” He asked before being spun once again.

—
Sky, on the other hand, was having a grand time. He was lost, too, like Four, but he soon found a woman dressed in blue and playing a harp. Besides the woman was a man in a cape that reminded Sky of Groose.

“Ma’am?” He asked, interrupting her singing and playing, “do you know where we are? I’ve gotten loss.”

Then there was a sword to his throat, something that Sky was getting very tired of.

“Only those blessed are allowed here,” the man declared, “or those who tricked their way in. Which be you!?”

“Uh-“ Sky was about to say something when the woman stood up.

“Ralph, please,” she smiled.

Ralph sputtered, “but- fine…”

The man put down his sword and afterwords he glared at Sky. Ralph then sat on the ground and pouted like a child.

“So sorry,” the woman smiled, “you are in Labrynna. My name is Nayru and this is my friend, Ralph.”

“Nayru?” Sky asked, “like the Goddess?”

If that was the case, it wouldn’t shock Sky. His Zelda was the reincarnation of Hylia! Strangely though, the answer was not what he was expecting.

“Goddess?” Nayru smiled innocently, “the only Goddesses we know about have no names. I am simply Nayru. Would you like to play?”

She lifted up her instrument, which reminded Sky of the harp in his bag.

He smiled, thanked her, and agreed to play. If he was split from the group, they would find each other again. Might as well play in the mean time.

Nayru sat on a stump and starting strumming a common lullaby. Sky sat on the grass and played along. Ralph huffed and silently listened to them.

—
Wind was living his best life, aka he landed in the middle of the ocean and was swimming until he hit land. He washed ashore on an island that was different than any in his world, there were too many trees and the air was different.

“Guys?” Wind stood up and looked around and saw no one but a girl in a blue dress.

“Hello,” she smiled.

“Hi! I’m Wind,” Wind waved.

The girl raised a shield and sword, “these washed ashore before you. Are they yours?”

“Thank you!” Wind took back his gear.

“I was watching the seagull before you showed up,” the girl spoke.

“My sister loves watching seagulls!”

“Really? She sounds nice. Would you like to watch with me?”

“Sure! I need to wait for my friends, anyway.”

“I bet they are nice, too.”

—
After thirty minutes of dancing, Four was getting tired. So was everyone else, as the rest of the traveling group starting falling asleep and Din’s flames grew dimmer to accommodate them. Once everyone was asleep, Four spoke to Din.

“What is going on,” he asked annoyed.

Din still smirked, “you should know, Hero. You’re dancing in Holodrum.”

“I have never been to Holodrum before!”

“And now you have.”

Four sighed, “you are named after the Goddess, do you know what is going on?”

Din frowned, “I know no Goddess named Din, but I thank you for the complement.”

“You don’t know-“ Four was confused now, “how don’t you-“

“Uh-un,” Din waves a finger, “I think you are asking the wrong questions.”

“Then…” Four thought for a moment, over the half hour he talked with her enough to realize that she was different than the Din he knew. She was either a past or future version of her and he had to move forward with that information. “Who are you?”

“Din, the dancer,” Din let go on Four finally and did a backflip onto a stump, creating a rainbow of flames as she moved, “the Oracle of Seasons. An ally to you and especially to you, Link.”

“Heya, Din!” A new voice appeared.

Four looked around and saw the newest Hero, Legend, followed by Time walking out of the woods.

“How have you been treating my friend?” Legend walked toward the dancer.

“Confusing him,” she answered, “but he’s a better dancer than you, at least.”

“Hey!”

“Wait,” Four asked, “if you are from Legend’s Hyrule, how did you know I was the Hero?”

Legend smirked, he must’ve learned it from Din because it looked identical to her, “what? You thought you were in your time?”

Din ignored him, “how did you know I was Din?”

“Well, I met you-“ Four then remembered the description the statue maker gave him of Din, comes from a long line of dancers in Holodrum. “I met your ancestor.”

The dancer chuckled, “who knows, you’ll have to ask my counterpart in Labrynna.”

“We’re going there next?” Legend asked, “I need to say hi to Ralph and make sure he didn’t kill himself.”

“How do you know all of this?” Time spoke for the first time, “is it your namesake.”

“Here,” Din answered, “time is as changeable as fire. I can have a flourishing forest, or a burned down acre. I can have a cold night, or a warm evening. I can do all that and see it before it happens. You know what that’s like.”

“So,” Legend asked, “cold or warm night ahead?”

The woman chuckled, “you know you have to dance to get that answer.”

“Pass,” Legend sighed, “it was good to see you again.”

“Likewise, Link. It was nice to meet the past Heroes.”

Suddenly, Din snapped her fingers and flames filled the lining of the stone circle.

“Say hi to Nayru for me!”

And then she was gone, walking through the fire with no pain. The flames grew higher before falling away to reveal another forest in the daytime.

“What happened?!” Four shouted in annoyance.

“You just met an Oracle,” Legend answered and started walking, “and you are about to meet another. Welcome to Labrynna.”

“How come she didn’t know who the Goddess Din was?” Four asked.

“Who?”

“You, too?”

“In my time,” Time added, “while the Goddesses are known, their names are used sparingly. Maybe the names simply faded with history.”

“A lot of stuff was lost in the Era of Dark,” Legend agreed, “but it doesn’t matter the names, they still curse me on quests!”

As they continued onward, soft harp music was heard being played. Soon, they came into a clearing and encountered three people.

“Halt!” Ralph stood up quickly before falling on his face. He continued to talk while eating dirt, “declare thy selves!”

“Ralph,” Legend answered, “it’s me.”

“Link?” The man rose to his feet and started bowing to the Hero, “an honor to see you again. I have been practicing daily.”

Legend hummed, “I can see that. Hello, Nayru. Din says hi.”

Nayru stopped playing and gestured to the sleeping Sky beside her, “your friend was an excellent player, but I’m afraid he was very exhausted.”

“I’ll get him,” Four volunteered.

“I don’t think you’re tall enough to-“ whatever Legend was about to say was cut off by Four kicking Sky in the shins.

“What! I’m up!” Sky bolted upright, clutching his own harp.

“Nayru,” Legend spike to the woman, “Din said you could help us. Do you know what is going on?”

The Oracle thought to herself before voicing, “all I can see is that the future is full of Heroes, the past has all but none.”

“What’s happening in the future?” Tune asked.

Nayru shook her head, “I do not know, I can only fully see the past and catch glimpses of the future. This is all the help I can give you.”

“Thanks anyway.” Legend pointed at Four and Sky, “I never got your names, I’m guessing Shorty and Sleepy!”

“I’m Four,” Four glared.

“Sky,” Sky yawned.

“That just leaves the kid Wind,” Legend pointed out. “Don’t know where he is, though. I swear if he’s in Hytopia…”

—
Cut to the mentioned Hero of Winds. He was currently laying down in the sand next to the girl he met and they were both watching the birds.

“Someday,” the girl spoke to Wind, “I want to be a seagull and fly away from this island.”

“Why not just build a boat?” Wind asked, “I can show you how! It’s very easy, all you need is wood and some cloth. Of course food as well, but learning to fish solves that.”

The girl shook her head, “no one can leave this island, and we don’t know if anything is out there.”

“I live on an island as well,” Wind replied, “I don’t know how I got here, but maybe my island is nearby.”

“That would be nice. I could visit and meet new people! The only people here are in my village and the animals. Maybe the old castle has people in it, but no one has gone in there for a long time.”

Then, out of nowhere, the ground rumbled. The birds shrieked in the air and and the monkeys shouted like crazy. A tree was swaying and almost fell down before the shaking stopped.

“What was that?” Wind asked, standing up.

The girl turned around and pointed at a mountain covered in clouds.

“That’s where the Wind Fish is sleeping,” she explained, “no one can leave while he sleeps, but recently something has been attacking the egg and it causes these earthquakes. Monsters have even been spotted!”

“What can I do to help?” Wind asked, preparing his sword.

The girl smiled, “that would be amazing, but no one knows what is causing the Wind Fish pain. I plan on going up there soon to sing to it, maybe it is just having a nightmare.”

The girl sat back down, “until then, I will wait for a sign. The Wind Fish’s guardian is said to appear in times of crisis. That’s why I watch the birds, he is said to be one.”

“I’ll watch with you,” Wind decided and sat upright, on a mission to help this girl.

They sat for a while, listening to the ocean and watching the birds. After a while, a man’s voice carried over the beach. Wind couldn’t make out what he said, but the girl apparently did.

“Coming!” She shouted back and looked at Wind, “I’m sorry, but I have to go home for dinner. It was nice meeting you!”

“You, too!” Wind waved at her and she ran off before he realized something, “wait! What is your name?!”

The girl paused and looked back at him, “my name? It’s M-“

“What the f-!”

Wind blinked and found himself on top of the the newest Hero, Legend. They were on some mountain and the rest of the Links were there.

“Oh, hi, guys,” Wind got up and offered a hand to Legend, who refused it. “Where have you been?”

“Holodrum,” Four answered.

“Labrynna,” Sky said after.

“Lorule,” Time nodded to Legend, “apparently we traveled to different parts of his world.”

“And you fell on me!” Legend growled, “where were you? Hytopia? Or did you just get here?”

“I think I went back home,” Wind answered, “or somewhere near it. I was on an island.”

“An island?” Legend asked and then shook his head, “that would be impossible, never mind. What now?”

“We find a new Hero,” Sky offered.

“Then let’s go!” Wind cried and ran off in a random direction with the rest of the Links following.

Chapter Text

The new area was a unique one compared to the others they’ve been to so far. Where other Hyrules had cities and people, this Hyrule was practically empty. In the distance some villages were spotted, but they were miles away. Maybe they were just unlucky enough to be thrown in the middle of a mountain range.

As they walked, they discovered multiple cracks in the walls. More than once, a Link volunteered to blow up the cracks with a bomb, but they were all swiftly told no by Time.

“Man,” Legend looked around, “this place looks desolate. You sure we can find a Hero here?”

“We can’t always be dropped right in front of them,” Four replied, “me and Sky found Time as a child and then we didn’t see him again until after we met Wind.”

“What if he’s in a cave?” Wind wondered, “I got a bomb!”

“No,” Time glared, “I said no bombs.”

Wind sunk down and slowly put the bomb he was pulling out of his bag back. Legend was siding with Wind though, and was planning on dropping a bombchu when Time wasn’t looking.

“We could try to call out to him,” Sky suggested, “we know his name.”

“Not a bad-“ Time was about to say, yet he was interrupted by the youngest of the group.

“LIIIIIINNNNNNKKKKK!” Wind hollered at the top of his lungs out of nowhere, scaring everyone in the group. Sky jumped and tripped on his sailcloth, Four instinctively grabbed his sword, Legend dropped the bombchu he was holding, and Time was regretting his choice of wanting kids.

(Speaking of, somewhere down and adjacent to the timeline, a wolf felt chills running down his back.

“What’s wrong?” His partner asked.

The wolf just shook his head, ignoring the feeling.)

“Sorry,” Wind looked sheepishly at the group. He also tried not to laugh at the soot covered Legend, who’s hat was now being used as a wipe, but was really making everything worse.

Time said nothing and started walking down the path once more, leaving the rest to collect themselves.

They continued their travels, occasionally running into monsters, which were quickly killed. The group noticed that the cracks in the walls were getting larger, before coming across what looked like a man made cave.

Sky was the first to look inside, “hello?”

With no answer, Sky jutted his head inwards to the group and entered. Inside was a makeshift home, with blankets and pillows in a corner to sleep on, chests piled in another corner, and a fire pit in the center.

“Why is this here?” Four wondered.

“Can we loot them?” Legend asked with a smile.

“Yeah!” Wind agreed.

The two were then glared at by Time, but that didn’t stop them from looking for things to steal.

“It looks like someone’s home,” Sky pointed out, “maybe it’s the Hero’s.”

“Is this what you all do?” Legend plopped down on a pillow, “break into people’s houses.”

“No door to break into!” Wind smiled, sitting next to Legend.

“Can’t argue with that.”

“What are you doing?” Time shook his head at them.

“If we’re waiting for the Hero to come back, I’m not standing for how ever long that will be.”

Sky and Four agreed with that statement and sat down as well, but not on the pillows. Time, meanwhile, grunted.

“I’ll be outside, waiting for the Hero,” he said and left.

“So,” Legend spoke slowly, “you all went to my worlds?”

Sky nodded, “Nayru was very nice, but why does she share the name of the Goddess?”

Legend waved off the question, “apparently my time lost the names of the Goddesses. We just called them the Golden Goddesses, and call them by their attribute, like Goddess of Power or Wisdom or Courage.”

“So, Din, Nayru, and Farore,” Four explained.

“What is your name for Hylia?” Sky asked.

“Who’s Hylia?” “We only have three goddesses.”

Wind and Legend spoke at the same time, and what Sky heard almost made him want to pass out.

“You don’t know or Her Grace?!” He frowned and only got shaking heads back.

“What was she the goddess of?”

“She was the Goddess of Time and Light!” Sky started off on a tangent, “she protected the Triforce for evil with the other goddesses left the world. She is the patron of all Hylians. She is Zelda’s past life.”

“Wait, hold on?” Legend sputtered out, “first off, the Goddess of Wisdom holds the title of Goddess of Time.”

“In my world, I assumed the Goddess of Courage had that,” Wind butted in.

“But what is this about Princess Zelda being a Goddess reborn?!”

Sky sighed, “my Zelda, the first Zelda apparently, once she reawakened, learned that before my world of Skyloft was made, there was a big war. Hylia was fighting Demise, who she sealed away, but he would come back. Since gods can’t use the Triforce, she turned herself mortal, into Zelda, so that she could use it to finally kill Demise. We did that, but Her Grace is still Zelda, but with her powers and memories in the body of a mortal.”

The room was silent.

“I didn’t know the rumors were true,” Legend’s eyes were wide, “the Royal Family loved to say they were descended from the gods, but they usually said they were from the Goddess of Wisdom.”

“Tetra is part god?! I am never telling her that, no matter how cool that is!”

“I am not shocked,” Four shrugged, “my Zelda could take a blast of dark magic to the face and not flinch. All anyone could do to her was freeze her, not even pierce. My time only knew of a fourth Goddess, though, not her name or story.”

“I’m surprised that Her Grace faded with time,” Sky smiled sadly, “it’s a bit poetic.”

“Why do you still call her Her Grace, if she’s what, your girlfriend now?”

Sky blushed heavily at Legend’s words, “we aren’t really dating! Plus, Her Grace was still a goddess who did a lot for us, I should honor that. Zelda, on the other hand, doesn’t like worship, so I don’t call her that to her face.”

Legend smiled and looked like he wanted to poke at the term “really dating”, but, before he could, they heard a clash outside. Time was fighting something, something that didn’t sound like the monsters found around there.

“We have to help him!” Wind declared and rushed out with the others quickly doing the same.

It turns out that Time didn’t need their help, as he held a man who attacked him a foot off the ground in one hand.

The man, more like a boy, was wearing a dirty brown tunic with a loose green one on top. His hair was fluffy and brown and his hand was trying to hold onto his sword.

“What happened?” Four asked.

“I was watching guard when this boy fell from the cliff top to attack me,” Time explained, unfazed it seemed, “I finished the battle so no one was harmed.

“Please, let him go, Time,” Sky begged, as the boy looked like he couldn’t breathe.

Time complied and say a short apology. The boy landed on the ground and huffed out before standing up, pointing his weapons at the group.

“Who are you?” He asked.

“Is your name Link?” Legend fired back.

“Maybe!”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Legend clapped his hands together, “is this your home? Sorry for breaking in-“

“NO DOOR!”

“Sorry for entering, these guys don’t understand privacy, but we were looking for you.”

“Why?” His guard loosened, “has something happened at the castle? You look like a knight.”

He said that last bit to Time, who shook his head.

“This might be hard to believe,” Sky started to explain for the sixth Hero, “but we are also named Link. We are Heroes, cursed by something called Dark Link to travel through the timeline and meet others like us.”

“Oh,” the Hero strangely put away his sword, “why didn’t you just say so!”

“Uh, what?” Legend said with a confused face, “even I took the news harder than that.”

“Hyrule has two Princess Zeldas from different time periods right now,” the Hero explained, “not too hard to believe in multiple Heroes.”

“Wait, what happened to Zelda?” Sky almost shouted.

“It’s a different curse,” the Hero smiled, “Princess Zelda from a long time ago was cursed to fall asleep forever, I woke her up and now she’s like a sister to this time’s Princess Zelda.”

“Oh.”

“So, do you have names?” The Hero asked, “besides Link, I mean.”

“I’m Wind! The Hero of Winds!”

“Sky, Hero of the Skies.”

“Hero of Time, I’m named Time.”

“Hero of the Four Swords, call me Four.”

“Legend, after the Hero of Legend.”

The last name gave the new Hero pause.

“The Hero of Legend?” His eyes went wide, “like the actual Hero who defeated Ganon three separate times? The one who traveled to other dimensions multiple times? Savior of the whole world!”

“Please,” Legend smiled, “you’ll make me blush.”

“You’re the Hero before me!” The Hero cheered, “you’re the only Hero who’s story survived after Ganon took over in your time. You did so much more than the kingdom than me. It’s such an honor to meet you!”

“I bet you did some awesome things as well,” Legend patted the Hero on the back, “now you need a name. What’s your title?”

“Hero of Hyrule,” the Hero smiled, “it’s really basic compared to the rest of yours.”

“Hyrule is a fine name for you then,” Sky concluded.

The rest of the group then realized how confusing that might get in the future, but no one said anything.

“Now,” Hyrule started to ask, “what’s the curse about, who are we fighting?”

So, they explained everything. They had now officially reached six out of nine heroes, maybe they could fight the creature once everyone was there.

“The black mist,” Hyrule pondered out loud, “it should just attack me around now.”

“Don’t take it personally if we do nothing,” Time explained, “there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”

“Not even getting shot!” Why was Wind so proud of getting shot?

“And usually,” Four ignored the youngest Hero, “once you are cursed, we travel to the next time and meet the next Hero.”

“This should be easy, then,” Hyrule smiled naively.

It was then when Hyrule offered them his cave to sleep in until the curse kicked in.

“Why do you sleep in a cave?” Sky asked.

“I grew up in the mountains,” Hyrule explained, “when Ganon took over, most of the cities had to evacuate to a neighboring kingdom, Calatia, and I didn’t get the message. Monsters flooded the mountain out of nowhere and I was told I was the Hero. Then I defeated Ganon and the cities went back to normal, but I was used to my cave.”

Sky nodded, “it’s nice from what you’ve made it out of.”

Once everyone was laid down, Wind, Sky, and Four fells asleep. Legend and Time were chatting and Hyrule told them he was going outside to get cursed. He was taking all of this strangely well, the Links thought.

In reality, Hyrule wanted to see his world one last time. He didn’t know when he would be back, so he wanted to enjoy his time there.

He climbed up the cliff he had attacked Time from and starred at the rising moon. In the distance he could spot the castle, and he knew the Zeldas were talking about the newest plans for the kingdom. He hoped he would see them again.

Slowly, Hyrule fell asleep.

It wouldn’t be for another couple hours when the dark strain of magic would attack Hyrule in his sleep, jolting him awake to see his world fade into another.

Chapter Text

The group was immediately tossed into chaos. They landed in a middle of field with destroyed buildings around them. Monsters and people alike were running and fighting each other.

The Links, who were all in a pile, all woke up suddenly and grabbed their weapons.

“New world,” Four declared.

“That was not fun,” Hyrule rubbed his neck, “what now?”

“Wait,” Sky pointed at one of the monsters, “those are bokoblins from my time.”

“I recognize those lizalfoes,” Time agreed.

There was a sudden shriek that came from somewhere hopefully far away.

“That would be a manhandla from my time,” Hyrule paled.

“Is the timeline colliding with more than just us?” Legend asked, “this is new right?”

A male voice cried out, “help!”

“We’ll worry about that later,” Time declared, “we are in a middle of a battlefield. It’s time to fight!”

With that, Time went to go help a knight being swarmed by lizalfoes.

Hyrule nodded, “I’m going to find the manhandla.”

Likewise, he ran off. The last four Heroes stared at each other, wondering what to do. They didn’t have to wonder for long before a woman in armor appeared beside them.

The woman, who was glaring at them worse than Time, had white hair and red eyes. On her back was a gigantic sword that was bigger than her. She pointed at the group.

“I-Impa?” Sky stuttered out, “what are you doing here?”

Legend raised an eyebrow, “Impa?”

“That’s General Impa to you,” Impa commanded, “I don’t know what you are doing here, but you better be fighting. You!”

She pointed at Sky.

“Go to the North Keep and help the soldiers there!”

If by instinct, Sky saluted, “yes, ma’am!”

He ran off and Legend shook his head at him.

“You, go help the goron troops-“

“Look, General,” Legend cut her off, “you don’t command me.”

“This is a war through time,” Impa gripped her blade, “and we need every soldier. So, go help the gorons or-“

Without lookings, Impa snapped pulled out her sword easily and sliced behind her. All the bokoblins looking for their next victim literally exploded from some kind of magic.

Legend stared, horrified at the hundred dead monsters.

He gulped, “I will go help the gorons, then.”

Impa sneered, as if saying “yeah, you are”. She then focused on Four and Wind.

“Link needs help in the Castle Keep,” she pointed in the direction of the keep, “go there.”

She then disappeared. Wind and Four looked at each other.

“That solves our problem!” Wind cheered and started running.

“I wonder what’s going on here,” Four grunted as he fought his way through monsters.

-
Sky ran forward until he found the nearest building, a keep he thought, at the farthest north point of the area. He could hear the slicing of swords and maybe some singing. Readying his duty as a knight, he huffed and charged.

Running inside, he saw two people he didn’t expect. First off a Ghirahim, a sword spirit who should be dead, yet he looked fine. He was fighting the other person Sky never thought he would see again.

“Fi!” He called out. She barely glanced at him as she summoned a ring of flower petals that exploded in Ghirahim’s face. Once Ghirahim looked like he wasn’t getting up in a minute, she floated over to him.

“Master,” she said in her familiar robotic voice, “to avoid confusion, I come from a time before we meet and we are both in a future of our time. I only know it’s you from your spirit. So, in essence, I am from your past in the future of this present. Are you ready to fight, Master?”

It took a moment to process what Fi said, but Sky thought he got it. It didn’t matter, though, as he was happy to see his friend again. He nodded and Fi glowed, turning into the Goddess Sword, which Sky caught. Sky got used to the blade he carried for a month before turning to Ghirahim.

“Third times the charm,” Sky muttered out as Ghirahim finally stood up, brandishing his sword.

“You look somewhat familiar,” the demon lord sneered, “a knight of Skyloft? How come you are holding the sacred blade?”

Sky steadied his stance.

“Oh,” Ghirahim gasped, “you’re the Hero, aren’t you. I haven’t had the displeasure of meeting you yet. Nether the less, I can’t wait to kill you for my master!”

-
“That looks different!” Hyrule shouted as he chucked his boomerang.

“You fought this before?” A knight beside him asked in fear.

“Yeah,” he nodded, “it’s just been a while.”

He got a lucky shot and all the heads fell to the ground. All at once, any soldier in the vicinity charged the revealed gemstone laying on the monster’s back. After five seconds, the gem disappeared and Hyrule was back to throwing boomerangs.

“How often do these attack?” He asked.

“Usually we get dodongoes!” Someone answered, “that’s why we’re not used to these.”

“SHIELDS!” Hyrule called out as he saw the heads all point at the group, opening their mouths and firing out needles.

“What is this Hyrule?” Hyrule thought, “to have this scale of monsters regularly.”

Besides his own, anyway. And besides of a certain other Hyrule, who’s Hero was currently fighting a golden lynel for fun and because someone asked him to.

-
On the way to the Castle Keep, Wind and Four were some how separated. Somewhere along the line, Four started fighting a moblin and Wind had to just keep pushing forward.

Eventually, he made it to the keep. Inside of the castle was two figures fighting. One was a scantily clad woman wielding a staff and the other was a man in a green tunic and blue scarf.

“Are you Link?!” Wind shouted as he ran up.

The Link in question turned to look at him.

“Wind?” He asked, but, in his distraction, the woman hit him really hard in the side.

“Why did you distract him!?” A fairy that Wind saw flying over the Hero shouted, “you know he needs to fight!”

“Not helpings, Proxi,” Link grunted.

“How did you know my name already?” Wind asked before ignoring his own question, “General Impa told me to help!”

“Oh,” the woman smiled at Wind, “you are too cute! I didn’t bring you here, Hero of Winds, but it is an honor.”

“Normally,” Link launched another attack at the woman, “I wouldn’t let a child near Cia, but I need help.”

“Rude,” Cia scoffed before asking, “are your friends here as well? I would love to meet the older Hero of Time. For some reason I can never seem to find him.”

Wind ignored her and screamed a battle cry, rushing in to help.

-
“I. Hate. This. World.” Legend grunted as he attacked what felt like his two hundredth monster. The gorons around him were barely any help, if anything they were menaces.

But, Legend’s life was only going to get worst when he heard a laugh coming out of the nearby mine.

“You’ve got to kidding me,” the Hero said as he stared at his old enemy, Yuga.

“You should be stuck as a painting right now, worm,” Yuga swung a frame in the air with magic.

“And you should be dead,” Legend snarked back.

Yuga just laughed.

With the weird time mechanics in this world, Legend almost wondered if Ravio was here.

Legend pulled out his light bow, “let’s get this over with.”

-
Time, meanwhile, was helping any soldier or knight that called out. If he was running this army, they would be much better prepared. This world seemed to rely on one or two really good fighters and a million fodder battalions.

“The Hero of Time?” A voice shouted excitedly at him.

Time killed his monster and turned to see a woman, dressed almost like a Gerudo, with long blue hair. She was hold a spear that looked like it was made out of wood.

“What are you doing here?” She smiled, “me and Cia can only reach the younger version of you.”

“I don’t know who you are, ma’am,” Time frowned.

The girl huffed, “must be some time travel nonsense. Well, my name is Lana and I oversee time, so that’s how I know you.”

“If you oversee everything,” Time began, “what do you know about Dark Link?”

Lana thought for a moment, “he’s trying to bring back his master. He needed you Heroes out of the way.”

“How can we fix it?” Time asked.

Lana shook her head, “I don’t know. But I do know you will visit your own times again. Think of it like traveling around the world, but randomly!”

That brought a little solace to Time, but not much.

“Now,” Lana clapped her hands together, “to battle!”

-
Four found himself as the only Link who had nothing interesting happening to him. Hyrule was fighting a huge monster, Wind met the new Hero, Link met an all seeing witch, Legend met an old enemy, and Sky met an old friend and enemy.

Four was just fighting monster after monster.

If only this world cared about his adventures and characters.

-
Everyone battled for like another three hours, and at the end everyone was tired. When a horn announced the enemy’s retreat, everyone cheered.

The knights and soldiers all walked back to their barracks with Hyrule near them.

“Guys!” Hyrule shouted, “where are you?”

Legend burst through the crowd, “this place is a nightmare!”

He pointed to a group of knights, “do any of you know where we can find someone named Link?”

“You mean the captain?” Someone replied, “should be at the castle. Heard he was fighting Cia there.”

“Poor bastard,” another knight snickered before being punched by a comrade.

“Castle’s that way, the barracks are to the left of it.”

“Thanks.”

On their way to the castle, Four ran into them.

“That was so fun,” he growled.

“Tell me about it,” Legend nodded.

After that, they amassed the rest of their group. Sky showed up with a new sword that he was holding almost lovingly. Time appeared with a woman he introduced as Lana, who was freaking out about them.

“I have not seen so many Heroes in one place!” She smiled, “I know all of your stories. Warriors is going to love you!”

“Who’s Warriors?” Hyrule asked.

“That’s this time’s Hero,” she explained, “the Hero of Warriors! We have met Heroes before, so this isn’t really a shock. With everyone named Link we figured out that nick names would be easier.”

“What Heroes did you meet before?” Sky asked.

“Well,” Lana started, “we’ve been to your time, Sky, and yours Time. But we’ve only met a younger version of Time, who was called Young Link for a while.”

Legend looked at Time, “you’ve been here before?”

Time shook his head, “I don’t remember this, but I’ve had some problems with time travel before, obviously.”

Lana nodded and continued, “you’ve certainly have had a weird life. But, along with Time, we met someone we named Toon Link, but he gained the name Wind.”

“You met Wind?” Four asked, “he’s never said anything about this.”

“Probably because after this whole mess is when Wind meets us,” Lana explained, “he did seem to know Warriors, he even gave him the name.”

“Wait,” Hyrule thought, “if Wind gave the name to Warriors because he met Warriors already, where did the name come from originally?”

Lana shrugged, “who knows. That’s the fun of paradoxes! If it doesn’t blow up the time stream then why bother thinking about it.”

“You are cheery,” Legend pointed out.

“Yup!”

It was then that they reached the castle, where Wind was waiting. He waved and ran up to them.

“Hi, guys!” He smiled, “who are you?”

“I’m Lana,” Lana smiled, “you haven’t met me yet, but I’ve met you, Wind. It’s good to see you again.”

“Nice to meet you!” Wind shook her outstretched hand, “Warriors is in there talking to Princess Zelda about the battle. I’ve already told them about us.”

“Is Warriors concerned about Dark Link?” Lana asked.

Wind scrunched up his face, “he didn’t really believe me when I said it was unstoppable.”

Lana sighed, “our Dark Link is just a mindless clone created by a sorcereress, and they aren’t more hard to kill than a simple lizalfoes. Warriors has fought enough of them that he doesn’t see them as a threat anymore.”

She waved off the thought, “he’ll learn eventually. Hopefully his travels will fix his stubbornness eventually.”

“You don’t seem concerned about this,” Four told her.

“I’ve seen all of time,” she smiled, “this is nothing new. Now, follow me to the throne room.”

That is exactly what happened and then were soon met with the image of Princess Zelda on a throne, General Impa talking to her, and the Hero of Warriors adding some things.

“In conclusion,” Impa spoke, “Yuga, Ghirahim, and Cia have all been pushed back to their own times for now. There were no casualties thanks to the new Heroes.”

“Speaking of,” Zelda, who was in full armor, stood up, “greetings Heroes. I’m glad to have faces to the names. And it is good to see you again, Hero of Time.”

Time nodded and the rest of the Links waved.

“It has been brought to my attention by Wind that Warriors will be leaving us soon,” she continued. “So, I am very sorry that you had to fight in our war, just to leave. Though we are grateful.”

“I highly doubt I can’t stop this Dark Link,” Warriors scoffed.

“Link!” Zelda snapped, “you thought you could defeat Cia at her full power alone and that made you get trapped by said Dark Links. I trust the word of these Heroes. You will stay here and get cursed, or so help me!”

Warriors looked away, “a weird thing to threaten me with. I won’t take this idly, but I’ll help these Heroes.”

Warriors would later eat those words as he would be attacked five minutes later, not even having enough time to raise his sword.

When they shifted worlds, Warriors was grumpy for at least a day later, though who’s to say it ever ended. Sky was sad as he felt Fi dissolve through his fingers. Lana waved then group off and the hyrule warriors started planning their next battle.

Chapter Text

“We’re back here,” Time noted, looking at the sprawling fields.

“You’ve been here before?” Warriors sneered, “shouldn’t I also know about this time, then?”

He got no response. The group looked around and saw a stable past a bridge. Without saying anything, Time pointed towards it and made his way over to it.

“So,” Wind looked at the newest Hero, “what’s going on in your world? Who was that lady?”

“Yeah,” Legend grumbled, “I met Yuga there, and he shouldn’t be alive. Not to mention everyone else’s time’s monsters.”

“Cia and Lana,” Warriors begrudgingly began his long tale, “are witches who watch over the time stream. And they… sort of… fell in love with the Spirit of the Hero.”

It took a second before everyone figured out what that meant.

“Wait,” Hyrule asked, “two immortal, omniscient beings have feelings for all of us?”

“Sadly,” Warriors nodded and the rest of the group made varying faces of confusion and disgust, “lucky for all of you, Cia choose me as the version of the Hero of whom she would meet. She tried to get the older Hero of Time and the Hero of Twilight, but they were out of her reach for some reason. Anyway, with Cia’s crush, jealously set in, which allowed Ganondorf’s spirit to take hold of her.”

There was the name again, Sky thought, Ganon or Ganondorf.

“He forced her to merge the time stream so that his spirit, which was scattered across time, could become one. That’s how we have different era’s monsters and areas. Long story short, we beat them, but the problem with time traveling villains…”

Sky finished for him, “they still exist in the past.”

“Exactly,” the Hero groaned, “so, even though the war is technically over, it won’t ever end. Cia keeps bringing herself from the past into the future along with other villains. It’s annoying, but I at least met some cool people, like Wind and young Time. Speaking of…”

He pointed to Legend, “do you have a brother or something, by the name of Ravio?”

Legend nodded, “Ravio’s an alternate version of me from a parallel world.”

“Can you tell him to stop trying to sell me things?”

“He’s never going to stop, believe me.”

They reached the stable and Time spoke to the stable owner.

“Have you seen a man and wolf?” He asked.

“Hmm,” the stable owner put his hand to his chin, “why, yes, I have! They came in this way and went to Hateno down the way. It was just yesterday, I think!”

“Thank you. And how far is Hateno?”

“About a days walk, less on horseback.”

Time nodded and face the group.

“Are you talking about the person who cooked us food last we were here?” Sky asked, “do you think he’s the Hero.”

Time shook his head, “I think he could lead us to the Hero. It’s time to head off.”

-
“Wolfie!” Link called to the wolf from the top of his loft. “Come check it out!”

The wolf ran from his napping spot on the bottom floor to the top. He saw his ward standing proudly in front of a picture showing all of his old friends.

“I can always remember them now,” he smiled in bitter-sweet way.

He stood there for a minute, silent. The wolf looked at the faces he could sometimes see when Link activated his powers. The wolf felt like he had a duty to pay to the fallen in the picture, that he had to help Link, no matter what. But, that duty grew beyond a need to fulfill some wishes, now it was personal.

Link wiped away some tears. He looked at the wolf, determined.

“It’s time,” he said confidently.

The wolf stared at him, wide eyed, before nodding. They had been holding this off for too long.

Link prepared. He put on his champion’s tunic, his topaz earrings, and his hood, all of his strongest armor. He thought about taking the champion’s weapons, yet ultimately deciding he didn’t want to break them. Instead, he grabbed all the ancient weapons he could carry and, of course, the Master Sword, now at full power. If anything broke on the way he would scavenge for royal weapons in the castle.

Link took one last look at his house, especially at the picture, and then closed the door shut after the wolf walked out. He then looked at his stable, which held two horses: Epona and Fluffy.

He looked at the two, wondering which should he ride. Epona, a chestnut mare, was mysterious, as it showed up one day out of the literal blue, just like Wolfie. Fluffy was a pure white horse decked out in royal dress, a decedent of the horse Princess Zelda rode one hundred years ago.

Zelda…

The Hero’s mind wandered. She was still alive, she would need a horse to ride back when he saved her. If she saved her- no, he would.

Link, with a fierce look, chose, he would take Fluffy to the stable nearest to the castle, then ride the Master Cycle the rest of the way. When Zelda was saved, he would quickly call her horse. He hoped she forgave him for the name.

He patted Epona on the head and muttered an apology. The wolf looked at the mare and barked, those two always interacted strangely together. Sometimes, Epona would follow the wolf’s lead more than Link’s.

Anyway, Link hopped on Fluffy and started riding to the castle.

Through the town, he smiled like nothing was wrong. He waved to the children and nodded to any hellos that came his way. But then a guardsmen asked him something.

“Where are you going, Link?” The guard asked, “especially with that horse. You said that was for someone.”

“Gift,” Link said softly, “for stable owner.”

The guard raised an eyebrow, looked at Link, and then looked at the direction of where the castle was.

“Good luck,” he nodded solemnly. And all Link could do was carry on forward into the trees. In three days time, he would complete his mission.

-
Dawn of the First Day.

The group of Heroes were walking, Time seemed to be humming something that sounded like festival music, though no one was calling him out on it.

It had been half days travel at this point and they have, so far, walked past a fortress, over cliffs, and through five monster encampments. They’ve also seen a total of two people, both of which were merchants. One of the merchants only sold bananas strangely, but no one took him up on his offer when Legend pointed out that he had tried to steal Hyrule’s sword when no one was looking.

“Where is everybody!” Wind shouted in annoyance, “even the Great Sea has more people than this!”

“Maybe this area is just unpopulated,” Hyrule suggested, “like where I live there’s no people, but there’s still a large population.”

“Wait,” Time stopped his humming and put a hand up, “there’s a person.”

Indeed there was, but they were different from the other travelers, as he had a horse instead of walking or having a donkey. The horse looked regal, pure white with not even a hint of any other color.

“That’s the horse of royalty,” Warriors pointed out, “no way they just came across a pure white horse.”

The person moved closer, close enough to make out more features. They had long blond hair with a hood up, they had a blue tunic with white markings, and, on their back, was the hilt of a familiar sword.

“We walked for half a day,” Four spoke, “just to easily run into the Hero. Wait!”

Four whispered to Time, “I thought this was where the Hero of Twilight was. This isn’t a wolf.”

Time put a finger to his lips, “there’s something going on here. It’s best we just asked.”

“Alright,” Legend heard the last bit and turned to shout at the newcomer, “HEY, HORSE GUY!”

Everyone in the group jumped back at the noise, while the person barely batted an eye and didn’t even flinch. Instead, they calmly rode towards them, stopped and made a ‘huh?’ noise.

Time shot a glare at Legend who was smirking, which are, of course, the trademarked looks of these characters. Time sighed and looked at the person, who even though they wore a hood, he recognized them as the boy from before, just with no wolf in sight. The boy climbed down from the horse.

“Yes?” His voice was very quiet still.

The Hero of Time asked, “do you know where we could find the Hero?”

Then there was a sword to his throat. It wasn’t like before, when only the point was at the base of his neck, but rather the boy somehow got to his back side and and was choke holding him with the Master Sword. All of this was done without anyone so much as seeing him move. It was also impressive given the size difference, as the boy only barely made it to Time’s shoulders, meaning he had to raise his sword uncomfortably to hold it around his neck.

The rest of group immediately reacted, once the situation became clear. Everyone pulled out their weapons and directed them to the boy. Time, meanwhile, was trying to plan how to get out of the situation, but wanted to see how it would pan out.

“Let him go!” Sky demanded, trying to ignore the fact that Fi was being used to attack another Hero.

“Giving you five seconds to run,” the boy muttered, “decide your loyalties now, Yiga!”

“What?” Hyrule responded, “Yiga?”

“Don’t compare me to Yuga!” Legend misheard.

“Go,” the boy pushed the blade closer to Time’s neck, “friend will be let go only then.”

The Links at each other, before slowly backing away. The boy seemed confused by this for some reason, as he lessoned his hold on Time. Quickly, the boy let go of Time and promptly jumped off the cliff passing they were on.

“Wait!” Sky shouted and everyone ran to the edge, expecting to see a splattered Hylian on the ground below. Instead, they saw the boy sailing on the wind with some contraption. He made it about twenty meters before landing, whistled, and his horse started running towards him at full speeds, nearly knocking over Wind. The boy jumped on his horse while it was still running and was soon out of sight.

“That was the Hero,” Time concluded. Now he knew for sure that the Hero of Twilight was lying about his ‘descendant.’

“Oh, you think?” Legend said sarcastically, “what gave it away? The goddess damned Master Sword on his back?!”

“We better get moving,” Warriors declared, “we’ll lose him if we don’t.”
-
Dawn of the Second Day.

Link kept moving. He had been riding for a day, switching out his horse midway at the stable like he planned. Now, he was pushing his cycle to the limit, going as fast as he could. So fast, that he didn’t even see-

“WOAH!” Link backflipped off the bike and it kept going, ramming right into Wolfie. It didn’t hurt him at all, for the cycle disappeared into blue light, leaving only a very shocked wolf standing in the middle of the road.

Link sighed, “why did you scare me like that?”

The wolf barked.

He nodded, “almost there, I plan on getting there tonight and going straight to it.”

The wolf lowered its head, almost as if asking something. Link looked at the lowering sun.

“I’ll sleep when this is over,” Link replied, “the Yiga are on my trail. I need to get there soon.”

Without warning, the wolf lunged at Link. If he didn’t know any better, he would think he was being attacked. Instead, Wolfie bit the Master Sword and removed it from Link’s back. The wolf held the sword like it was a stick and they were playing fetch.

“Wolfie…” Link starred at his companion, who was wagging his tail back and forth, “not now. Give it back!”

But the wolf did not, he just ran around while Link chased after.

“Get back here!” Link grunted and then promptly tripped over a branch. He face planted into the dirt and looked up to see Wolfie smiling at him.

“You little,” Link sneered before the wolf put its nose to his.

He stood up and dusted off the dirt. He grabbed the sword from the wolf’s mouth and put it back on his back.

“Fine,” he huffed, “I’ll sleep for the night. But, first light, I’m gone!”

The wolf sat down, satisfied.

-
“How far could he have made it?” Legend complained.

They had been walking for hours and it was past midnight by the looks of the moon. Currently they were on a path on the east side of Hylia River, walking towards where some people said they saw the Hero.

“Have you ever seen a horse?” Warriors asked.

“No!” Legend shot back defensively.

“You two have been bickering for three hours,” Four pointed out, “please stop!”

“Can we camp for the night?” Wind asked Sky.

“We have to keep looking for the Hero,” Sky answered, “this will make eight.”

Nine, Time added mentally.

“Soon, we’ll meet all nine and hopefully be home. But, believe me, I want to rest, too.”

Time almost mentioned what Lana said to him, but decided against it at seeing Sky’s happy face.

“I can’t wait to tear that Dark Link a new one,” Warriors grumbled.

The group fell into a silence after that. They walked for a couple more paces before Time put his hand out to stop them.

“What?” Four asked.

“Everyone,” Time commanded, “set up camp here. Four, follow me.”

“What, why?” Hyrule questioned.

“It’s late,” Time explained, “we need rest. Four?”

The five slowly started to follow the instructions and Time and Four continued walking on the path.

“What’s going on?” Four whispered.

“I saw the Hero of Twilight, he was watching us in the darkness. He knows we are looking for Heroes, perhaps he wants us to stay away from the boy.”

“Why?”

“Protect him, maybe,” Time looked forward. In the distance, he could see this luminous eyes of the wolf. “I wanted to tell you that I was going to talk to him. All nine Heroes are here, something has to happen now.”

“What are you planning,” Four wondered, “kidnap a dog?”

“I’ll talk to him, you go back to camp. I wanted to explain so if I don’t show up, you know where I am.”

Four narrowed his eyes, “alright. Just try to come back with the Heroes.”

“Will do.”
-
The wolf had been watching the group, the other Links, particularly the eldest one.

After Link went to sleep, the wolf went to find what Link thought was the Yiga, but there were only the Heroes. He thought they had left, but after a while they appeared again, with even more people.

Then, they made camp and two of them split off. Soon, the shortest one went back and the eldest walked a little farther, before stopping. The wolf crept closer.

“I know you are there, Hero of Twilight,” he said.

The wolf didn’t even flinch at the sudden words.

“We need to talk.”

Huffing, the wolf shifted in the darkness and appeared before the Hero of Time.

“I thought I told you to leave us alone!” He sneered.

“I thought you said that your ward wasn’t a Hero,” the man fired back.

The Hero of Twilight shrunk back a little, “I’ve noticed your party has grown.”

“Yes, and you and your ward makes nine, the prophecy fulfilled.”

“No chance we’re joining you,” the Hero of Twilight scoffed, “we have a mission to complete.”

“Since your ward is actually a Hero,” the Hero of Time raised an eyebrow, “shouldn’t you be letting him fight his own battles. Besides, your Hyrule needs you too.”

The Hero of Twilight caught his breath, “I had a companion on my journey, so should he.”

He turned his back on the man, “now, you’ll have to excuse me. He’s waiting for me.”

Then, at that very moment, the castle blew up.

Dawn of the Final Day.

Chapter Text

“What was that?” Time watched as the castle caved in on itself.

The Hero of Twilight didn’t respond. Without warning, the Hero bolted to the nearest bridge connecting them to Hyrule Field.

“Stop!” Time chased after.

They made it to destroyed ruins of some circler area before Time grabbed him.

“Let me go!”

“No!” Time held on fiercely, “what can you do?”

The Hero’s mind was going crazy. Link must’ve snuck away when he was gone. He saw an opening to leave and he took it. He promised he would rest. Now…

“He’s in there,” he whispered. That idiot! The same thing happened with the golden lynel, except this is ten million times worse.

“What?” Time looked and could make out a glow of red and explosions of blue through the broken windows.

The Hero broke his grip and ran forward. Quickly, Time thought of what to do.

“TWILIGHT!” Time yelled with enough force that the Hero, Twilight stopped.

Twilight took a sharp, harsh breath, and stood still. So did the wind. The area that was usually swarming with monsters was uncharacteristically empty, apart from the two.

“Do you know where we are?” He asked.

Time looked around at the ruins, whatever was there was long gone and barely anything could be seen of it.

Time shook his head, “some old ruins. Why does this matter?”

“I’m surprised you don’t recognize it,” Twilight huffed, “I don’t know much about you, but I learned a few things about the Hero of Time. How he lived on a ranch.”

Time froze. He couldn’t be serious.

Twilight nodded, “this is what happened the last time the Calamity attacked. It destroyed -everything- and it could happen again.”

Twilight got into a running stance, ready to pounce. But, before Twilight could transform, Time moved quicker, reaching him in time enough to grab him once more.

“You can’t stop me!” Twilight growled.

“I’m pretty sure I can,” Time replied. Another explosion then shook the ground, adding to Twilight’s rage.

“Do you want everybody to die again!”

No response. Twilight continued pushing against Time, but Time held fast. Quickly, the Hero started to visually deteriorate. He started crying and lashing out, until he couldn’t move from the stress.

“What are you so worried about?” Time asked, “I’ve seen him fight. He’s fast.”

“You don’t know everything.”

“I don’t, but,” Time looked back to the area where the group was, “I have met multiple Heroes. Based on us, how could one Hero fail in his task.”

Little did Time know the unknown.

Twilight was silent, a sort of calm before the storm of thought. He even stopped moving for a second before bringing it back in full force.

“I need to help!”

“Why?”

“I need- to-“ Twilight kept clawing his way towards the destroyed castle, “I need!”

Suddenly, a light shot out of the rubble and landed in the middle of the field. The light morphed and became an indescribable terror, being quickly followed by a brighter, smaller light.

The Links all stared from their places as the final battle began. Twilight escaped from Time’s clutches and ran into the rising sun.

Twilight ran to the golden barrier, Time following closely from behind.

Once they hit the wall, Twilight banged on it, only to be repelled by magic. Through the yellow he could make out the beast and Link on his cycle, riding right into it. His face was aglow with the light bow’s magic that he held and shown with courage.

“CUB!” He shouted, but his voice was masked by the battle. “CUB!”

Time put a hand on his shoulder.

“He can do it,” Time said simply.

“He needs me!” Twilight cried, shaking off his predecessor, “he shouldn’t be alone. I can help!”

“Twilight,” Time said softly, “he’s a Hero. It’s his turn, not yours.”

Fear shown in the Hero’s eyes and he was locked onto the battle. He could faintly hear a woman’s voice, accompanied by light magic appearing on the beast.

“It’s her,” Twilight whispered. He long heard Link talk about how beautiful and kind his Zelda’s voice was. He had her doubts about it she still lived, but now he knew she could be saved.

And that’s when he knew everything would be alright. Link wouldn’t let Zelda die, and he would fight madder than a lynel to do it.

As the battle continued, Twilight grew more and more confident. And, when the final arrow was pulled, he cheered louder than the roar of the Calamity.

“CUB!” Twilight cried in excitement as Zelda appeared and blasted the creature into oblivion.

Zelda landed and the golden barrier disappeared. He could see clearly as she asked something, before Link nodded and ran full force into her, locking her into a hug.

Time looked to Twilight.

“It seems you have completed your mission,” he said with a smile, “I think it’s time you joined our group. We can come back for your friend.”

Twilight looked at the two, still hugging, in the distanced. They needed their time together after all they had been through.

He looked at Time and nodded.

-
Two hours later after a long trudge over the field while trying to be quick, the two made it to the other Links. The first to see them was Legend.

“What.” He emphasized, pointing in the direction of where the beast disappeared, “the f*ck. Was that!”

“A problem that is now fixed,” Time answered before directing everyone’s attention to Twilight, “may I introduce the Hero of Twilight.”

“New guy!” Wind cheered, “I’m Wind!”

“But the Hero looked different than this guy,” Hyrule stated.

Warriors walked up to Twilight, looked him up at down, and spoke, “please never meet Cia.”

“Okay?”

Time raised his hands, “everyone, let him speak.”

Everyone stopped and waited for what he would say.

“Um,” Twilight waved, “I’m the Hero of Twilight, so I can go by Twilight. I’ve been here in this world for a while with its version of the Hero.”

“Speaking of,” Four looked around, “where is that Hero?”

Twilight hesitated, “he just had a long battle as I’m sure you could all see, he’s resting. Now, who are all of y’all.”

“Wind!”

“Did you just say ‘y’all’?”

The rest introduced themselves, though not in the same excitement as Wind. Twilight nodded to each introduction. Once they were done, one of the Links spoke.

“So,” Warriors said, “we have all nine. What now?”

Sky recalled the prophecy, which seemed so long ago, but was somehow really only about week and a half ago.

“We’re at Delta’s End,” he remembered.

“What does that mean,” Twilight questioned.

Time answered for him, “we are at the very end of the timeline. The farthest point we can go.”

“Now, we can track down the shadow?” Legend raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly, Twilight stood up straight, leaning his head to one side, like he was listening to something. He looked back the way he came, with a smile on his face.

“Before that,” he looked to the group, “I need go meet someone.”

“What?” Legend shouted, “that someone better be the other Hero, because I just want this done and over with.”

Twilight nodded, “start moving for the castle, we’ll meet you there.”

“The castle, kinda of,” Wind made a gesture, “exploded. How are-“

Wind’s mouth hung agape as he stopped in his tracks. Twilight, smiling, disappeared into blue magic, which zoomed off into the sky.

All the Links stared at each other and the spot where Twilight disappeared.

“What magic was that?” Hyrule asked.

“Not ocarina,” Warriors answered, looking at his own. Legend, Four, and Time all nodded.

“Definitely not wind,” Wind chirped, “otherwise there would’ve been a tornado.”

“No use in wondering,” Time stopped their thoughts, “let’s get a move on.”

Chapter Text

Twilight reappeared in his wolf form in some part of the destroyed castle. He recognized it from the first memory that Link had recalled, when he almost got blasted by a sentry. But those guardians were gone now, laying in bits and pieces on the ground below.

From inside one of the rooms, Twilight could hear faint talking. Going inside what used to be Zelda’s room revealed Zelda herself and Link.

Zelda, a little worse for wear and still in her prayer robes, was clearly sobbing, but her mind was so fried she didn’t fully seem to comprehend her emotions. She was flapping her hands crazily while Link smiled and nodded along.

“I simply must see the rest of the kingdom, Link,” she said with the brightest smile ever, “how much could change in 100 years astounds me. And I need to visit the Zoras and see those who still remember me. Little Sidon must be so grown now, I wonder if he’ll recognize me.”

Link beamed and was about to talk about the prince, when Twilight barked and made himself known. The two looked at the wolf with a mix of shock and happiness.

“A wolf!” Zelda shot up and started petting him, which Twilight would normally find demeaning, but he let it slide for the princess. “Such an odd one, too! These marks aren’t natural, maybe a remnant of the Calamity’s mark on the wild life? How did it even get up here?”

Link put his hand softly on her shoulder, turning her to face him.

“Friend,” he explained and pat the wolf on the head once, “helped me.”

Her eyes shown, “that’s wonderful!”

Twilight noted that Link didn’t speak in full sentences with Zelda as he did with her. Perhaps he was still nervous to talk to people. Speaking of, it was time he introduced himself in his actual form, hopefully not freaking the two out too much.

“What is it?” Link whispered to the wolf when it nudged for him to move. The wolf walked farther into the room, until it was in the center, and waiting for the magic to occur.

“Peculiar thing, isn’t it?” Zelda pointing out, “what is it doing?”

She didn’t need to wait long for an answer, as Twilight shifted back into human form right in front of their eyes. Zelda looked like she wanted to run or poke him with a stick. Link, on the other hand, was too hard to read.

“Hello, your Highness,” he bowed to Zelda, “it is an honor to finally meet you.”

“Uh,” she shifted quickly back into her royal training, “likewise, sir…”

“Link of Ordon, but you can call me Twilight.”

She looked at Link and whispered, “your friend is a werewolf with the same name as you? And where is Ordon, a new province I havn’t learned about yet?”

Link stared blankly back. Twilight prayed that he was taking this well.

“I’m sorry I kept this from you,” Twilight looked at Link, “I was trying to protect you.”

“Highness,” Link could barely be heard, “excuse us, please.”

Zelda looked aghast, “really? Well, alright then. I will be checking out my study, see if I can scavenge anything. The state of the castle is horrendous, but that is to be expected…”

Her voice trailed off as she left out the door to the adjacent room and closed it behind her. This left the room empty except for the two Heroes. No one said anything.

Twilight gulped, “again, I’m sorry-“

“Why?”

He was taken aback, “what do you mean why?”

“Why?” Link growled, “you lied!”

Twilight’s face fell, he was talking in short sentences. He wasn’t comfortable around him anymore.

“I was brought here by a curse,” he explained, “we met when I was in wolf form, but I had no way to change back until the Master Sword unlocked it for me again. After that, I didn’t know how to. I thought, maybe, you would think I was a trick.”

He sighed, “it’s still me. I’m still the wolf that you traveled with, the one that saved your life. I have never done, nor will ever do, anything to hurt you. I care about you, Cub.”

Link glared at the nickname, and Twilight immediately regretted talking.

“I started to see you as one of my family,” he smiled softly, “after all, we have the same spirit.”

“Spirit?” Link asked.

“The Hero’s Spirit, I am the Hero of Twilight, from somewhere in the timeline. The same spirit the rests in me is alive in you. We’re connected.”

“‘m no Hero,” Link spat, “she’s the Hero.”

Twilight shook his head, “that’s not true. She’s a hero in her own right, but you are a Hero. You did all of this, you saved everybody!”

Link said nothing.

“Listen,” Twilight stepped forward, “the curse that brought me here, it also brought others like us. Seven others, to be exact, all Heroes. We are the last ones they need to figure out how to fix this mess of time travel.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, something to do with an old enemy of mine, a shadow of me that has existed for ages. They spoke of a prophecy that mentioned nine Heroes meetings at the end of time, traveling together. I’ve met them before, they said the curse can drag us away from this world.”

Link shook his head fiercely, looking in the direction of Zelda.

“I know,” Twilight frowned, “you might not have a choice to stay, though. The shadow will come for you and attack with dark magic. But, believe me, if you want to stay here, I will fight to the death to keep you here.”

Link thought for a moment, “need time.”

Twilight smiled, “of course. If you decide to join us, meet me at the shrine in the place where you were knighted as a champion. If not, you only need whistle and I will come to your side every time.”

Twilight started to walk back to the door, opening in it slightly. He looked back at his ward, who was treating him like a stranger. He could no longer help himself.

He launched himself at Link and pulled him into a fierce hug, tears welling up in his eyes.

“I know you don’t trust me anymore,” he cried, “you think I betrayed you. Yet… I’m just so happy to finally meet you like this, Cub.”

It took a second, but Twilight could feel Link slowly moving his arms to hung him back.

After a minute, Link released his grip and so did Twilight. He washed his tears away and went to the door without looking at Link.

“Come before midnight if you do,” he opened the door to find Zelda listening in.

“Oh,” she gasped, embarrassed, “a million apologies, Sir Ordon, I was simply-“

Twilight put a hand up, “it’s alright, your Highness.”

She quieted down before speaking slowly, “are you really the Hero of Twilight?”

He nodded and her eyes grew wide.

“The marks on your wolf form should’ve been a dead give away!” She smiled, “I was an idiot not to notice them. The next time we meet, you have to tell me everything about your era.”

“Of course, but I must be going.”

“Pardon me, then. Link, what’s the matter?”

She said that last bit to Link in her old room and ran into there to comfort him, as he was also crying. Twilight, seeing an exit, jumped off the balcony, shifting into a wolf before he landed.

-
“So?” Legend asked as Twilight rejoined the group on the place he swore to meet Link.

“I gave him a choice,” he explained, “either he meets us here, or he stays here and I will protect him from the shadow.”

Four protested, “you can’t stop this curse. It’s going to happen.”

“I know, I just wanted to give him a choice. Besides, he needs to make sure his Zelda is okay. They are probably heading to Kakariko Village as we speak.”

“Glad to hear that that town still exists,” Time smiled.

Twilight nodded, “a lot here was destroyed, but you’d be surprised at how much has stayed from over the ages. An entire bridge spanning a lake from my time thousands of years ago still exists.”

“It’s like us,” Sky spoke, “the same but with changes over the centuries.”

“Like how you have pink hair,” Hyrule poked at Legend.

“Or, how you are literally the only non-blond in this group!” Legend snapped.

The group started pointing out everyone’s differences and Twilight smiled. He was going to like it here.

-
“Link, seriously,” Zelda asked for the tenth time, “are you alright?”

They were currently riding towards Kakariko. Zelda was atop her mount Fluffy, which she apparently loved the name, while Link was on the Master Cycle. Zelda had fought to get a chance to ride a Divine Beast, but Link said she would have to learn first and it was safer on Fluffy.

Link nodded, still mulling over what Wolfie- Twilight said. He couldn’t help but feel betrayed that his one constant companion was lying to him the whole time.

“Are you going to go with them?” Zelda asked, a hint of worry in her voice, “I know it’s completely up to you and I will support any decision that you make-“

Link put a hand up, “don’t know.”

Zelda sighed, “oh, right. I am just worried about this curse, Sir Ordon did say that nothing could stop it. And I thought we could be done with this whole mess once the Calamity was destroyed. Maybe Impa will know something about it, that is… What is Impa like now?”

Link thought for a moment, “old.”

She laughed, quickly covering her mouth, “you can say that. I would no way doubt that, no matter her age, she could still beat you in a fight. Besides, Purah is much older than her.”

He made an ‘eh’ sound.

“What? Please don’t tell me she died. The Sheikah are supposed to live to 150, Purah should have 30 years left, at the very least!”

Instead of answering, Link laughed softly.

“You can’t just not answer me, Link! I assume from that reaction that she is not dead, but what is she?”

“You’ll see,” Link smiled, “Impa old, Purah young.”

There was a silence between the two of them.

“You can’t possibly mean,” realization dawned on Zelda, “she actually did it. She figured out how to reverse her age! We only theorized about that working. How old is she?”

Link shrugged, “six.”

“Six!? I need to see this for myself or I will never believe you.”

-
It was nearing midnight when the group started getting restless.

“He’s not here,” Warriors pointed out, “you said midnight, right?”

Twilight shook his head, “he can teleport anywhere in an instant, he could be here exactly at midnight if he wanted to. I said midnight because I knew it would take to eleven for them to reach Kakariko, so, if he is showing up, it will be any minute now.”

Legend leaned over to Warriors, “five rupees he doesn’t show up.”

“Deal.”

“Ha! Pay up!” Legend cheered in success as an unknown person came running into the clearing. The person in question was this world’s Link, hood still covering his face, looking ruffled and like he was running for his life.

“Cub,” Twilight bolted up and ran to him, “what’s wrong?”

Link huffed, he must’ve ran out of fuel and ran from the nearest shrine, lost all of his stamina.

“S-shadow!” He wheezed, “must… protect Zelda. Ran, distraction.”

“You didn’t want to put her in danger?” Twilight translated the short words, “where is the shadow now?”

A laugh sounded from behind them, “where else would a fellow Link be?”

Everyone in the group quickly turned to see the shadow, Dark Link, shifting in and out of form. Currently, he was reflecting Twilight.

“Begone!” Twilight pulled out his sword and pointed it at him.

Dark Link waved away the threat, “you have all tried and failed at stopping me. Let’s just make this one easier.”

“We didn’t have a body to hit before,” Warriors growled, hefting his own weapon.

Dark Link shifted to look like Warriors, who didn’t even blink at the change. He laughed again.

“Oh, you still don’t,” Dark Link smiled, “the only two of you who have seen me since this whole battle began have been Skychild and Four Swords over there.”

“And this is, what?” Four asked, “a projection?”

“Something like that,” Dark Link phased from his Warrior’s form to a floating ball on mist solidifying into a ribbon of dark magic.

“The curse!” Wind shrieked and blocked himself with his shield.

The shadow smirked and reformed to be Time. Time glared at him.

“Isn’t this oh so familiar,” it was weird seeing those expressions of Time, “it’s been a while Hero of Time. Did you know I killed you once? It was very exciting! In fact, that action caused the creation of Rabbit and Zeldas over there.”

Everyone was confused at that statement. Time had been killed by this creature? How? And how could that have created what everyone thought was Legend and Hyrule?

Time grimaced on the inside, “it won’t happen again.”

“Rabbit? That’s Ravio!” Legend chose to ignore the statement about Time. He kind of always knew that he was the Fallen Hero, but refused to say anything, except for maybe dropping some hints to see if Time knew.

“Zeldas?” Hyrule questioned. Was it because he had two Zeldas? Or the fact that people, for some reason, confused him for either of the Princesses. Honestly, it was probably both.

Dark Link ignored their comments, “regardless, I decided that I must see all of you together, so that’s why I’m bothering with this fake form. And, I must say, you all look dumber in a group.”

“Hey!” Wind took offense.

“Now,” he turned to Link, “to do what I came here for. Say, goodbye to your world, Hero of the Wilds!”

In a blink of an eye, the shadow went back to his ribbon form, and launching himself to Link. Not missing a beat either, Twilight drown his own weapon and pull out the Master Sword from Link’s back and blocked the attack. The mist stumbled backwards before turning into a darker form of Link. The shadow’s skin seemed to be burning bright white from where the sword touched him.

“Ugh!” He growled, clutching his sides, “cheap trick using that thing or even having it.”

Twilight pointed the sword closer in his direction, forcing Dark Link to inch away. So, this was his weakness.

“After all,” he smiled fiercely at Link, “you aren’t even a Hero. You’re more like me than you will ever be like them!”

Link’s eyes grew wide and shook his head.

He muttered, “‘m not you.”

Dark Link shook his head, “of course not. You’re worse! You are responsible for the death of thousands, an entire country, but you clean your blood stained hands by forgetting about it. What kind of monster kills thousands and doesn’t even remember it?”

Before Link could respond, Twilight shouted a war cry and locked Dark Link in a grip with the sword almost touching his neck. The shadow didn’t even fight back, he instead looked Link dead in the eye.

“You know how this works,” Dark Link spoke, “light magic may not hurt you, but a cut to the throat certainly will. Any pain inflicted on me will hurt your precious Cub as well. But I don’t think that matters anyway…”

Dark Link slowly moved one of his arms up, careful not to touch the blade, which Twilight was holding very cautiously, and removed his hood. All the Links gasped at the sight of the reflection of the Hero.

“He’s already felt what death feels like first hand!”

Dark Link had a crazed look, wide smile that bared teeth and eyes that could put a guardian to shame, but that’s not what shocked them. What did was the horrible scares lining up on the left side of his face. They were burn marks that covered his entire ear and they could see them running down the shirt.

“Do it,” Dark Link shouted at Twilight, “it won’t make a difference to this monster.”

Twilight glared and instead slightly touched the blade to the shadow’s neck, burning him. But, the shadow didn’t shriek in pain, but rather he laughed like a maniac and moved his head forward to intentionally cut himself. Link suddenly grabbed his neck, knocking his hood off in the process and showing the shock in his eyes.

Twilight pushed the sword away from Dark Link in fear, but still had his grip on him.

“See!” Dark Link cried, “the only way to not hurt your Cub is to let me go and let the curse take over. Otherwise…”

He grabbed the Master Sword’s hilt and forced Twilight to push it close to him. His hands were burning from the sword and he was clearly in pain, but he held strong.

“Your projection or whatever you are will be burnt away before then,” Twilight pointed out.

“Do you want to take those odds?” The shadow asked, “can you afford to lose anyone else?”

Twilight was about to respond when Link put his hand up.

“What, Cub?” He asked and quickly realized he was asking for the Master Sword.

“Are you intending to fight me?” Dark Link spoke, “you can’t even kill me without killing yourself.”

Link took the sword from Twilight, who backed away from the shadow. Dark Link rubbed his hand and looked Link dead in the eye six inches away from his face.

“That’s the plan!” Link growled and plunged the sword into the shadow’s stomach.

“CUB!” “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” “IDIOT!”

Dark Link coughed out dark mist, “didn’t think you had it in you. But it was still futile.”

Link could feel the stab wound opening up in his stomach, blood pouring out fast. He also coughed up blood as he removed the sword out of the creature.

“Not,” he coughed, “not a monster.”

With that, both of them collapsed in opposite directions of one another. When Dark Link hit the ground, he disappeared into nothingness and the residual dark magic floated into Link’s wound. Link, on the other hand, slammed hard onto the marble floor, the Master Sword falling into the small stream outside of the stone.

“No, no, no,” Twilight cried and he cradled Link’s head, “why’d you do that?”

“Not a monster,” Link’s words began to slur together, his eyes going out of focus slowly.

“I know, Cub,” Twilight smiled, “you’re the best Hero I have ever met.”

Link tried to shake his head, “not a Hero. Not a monster.”

Twilight cried, “then what are you.”

Link coughed out, “W-wild.”

His body went ridged. Link looked at the water beside him.

“I,” he closed his eyes, “I see Mipha.”

There was nothing. Twilight broke down as he sensed no more life in his ward. All the Links went silent in respect to the fallen Hero. The only noise that could be heard at that moment was the howling of wolves and Twilight’s tears.

Chapter Text

Then there was blue.

“It is my pleasure…”

The Links all stared as a spirit appeared and floated around Link. She was a Zora with a lovely voice and she was doing something. Twilight immediately recognized her as Mipha, Link’s long lost fiancée. After a second, she disappeared.

Suddenly, Link bolted up from what seemed to be death, gasping for air. The blood on his clothing magically vanished and he seemed to no longer be in pain.

“Hey,” Legend spoke up in disbelief, “one question: what the f*ck?”

Twilight ignored him and was freaking out and checking Link all over to make sure he wasn’t going to plop over. Once he was certain he was alive for good, he hugged his ward.

“Never do that again!” He cried, “what even was that?”

Link smiled, “Mipha.”

“I could see that,” Twilight groaned, “but shouldn’t she be in Vah Ruta?”

Link shook his head, “champions gave me powers. Mipha heals. Daruk shields. Revali whooshes. Urbosa lightnings.”

He tried to wrap his mind around that, “how come I’ve never seen that before?”

Link shrugged, “don’t do stupid stuff around you.”

“I have seen you shield surf in your underwear in Tabantha straight into two different lynels. If that’s not stupid, I don’t want to see what you claim is.”

“Hi, yes,” Legend waved, “my what the f*ck question wasn’t answered.”

Twilight stood up, helping Link as well while he did, “Cub here never told me he has what amounts to a fairy on him at all times!”

“Not unlimited,” Link explained, “once a day.”

“Well,” Time walked over and looked down at the latest Hero, “whatever the case, it is an honor to meet you, Hero of the Wilds.”

Link shook his head at the title, which Time raised an eyebrow at.

“You are a Hero, regardless of what you believe or have heard. I’m the Hero of Time, but these boys have taken to calling me Time.”

Link’s eyes went wide, “Time? Know you!”

Time smiled, “apparently I’m famous.”

It seemed everyone was able to move away from the whole ‘Link dying’ situation, as they were able to happily greet the ninth Hero. Twilight introduced them all to him.

“You know me and Time,” Twilight pointed at each Hero, “that’s Four, Wind, and Warriors. And there’s Legend, Hyrule, and Sky.”

“Hi!” “Hello.” “Nice to meet you.”

Link waved back and realized that the one called Sky was walking towards him. Sky gestured to the Master Sword.

“May I see her?” He asked hopefully. He was in luck, because Link practically chucked the sword in his direction off of his back. Sky managed to catch it and cradled the sword in a hug.

“You really like that sword, huh?” Legend jabbed.

Sky nodded, “I helped forge it, and the spirit inside was my friend. I hope she’s still in here. Fi?”

Nothing happened. Wind made a look akin to saying ‘is he crazy?’ and Link looked around at everyone to see if this was normal.

Then, there was a light blue glow coming from sword, almost as if it was talking. Sky’s face beamed and he quickly started talking back.

“There’s a spirit in there!” Wind nearly screamed, “how come it never spoke to me?”

“I’ve met the spirit,” Warriors said, “along with her counterpart. Fi could kill a man just by looking at her, so I’m sure she had her reasons. She never spoke to me either, at least through the Master Sword.”

Time, meanwhile, was secretly seething on the inside. The sword that had cost him so much had a will. This Fi was the reason he had to be an adult to fight Ganondorf. The reason he lost his childhood and had to reforge all of his relationships.

Link, on the other hand, shut down. He nearly died trying to reclaim this sword, multiple times. It was crucial to saving the entire kingdom, and now he knows that Fi could’ve given him it at any time! He must not have been a real Hero is the sword actively told him no. But what made him different than the him of 100 years ago?

Sky finished talking to Fi and the glow died down, he grinned and looked at Link.

“Wild is good name for you, then!” Sky told him.

“Wild?” Wild asked.

Twilight patted him on the back, “you said so yourself. Plus, we are all still named Link.”

“Welcome to the group,” Wind greeted.

Wild frowned, “wanted to stay.”

Four answered, “when Dark Link- the curse- collapsed, some dark magic went into you. You’re along for the ride, I’m afraid.”

Wild looked down.

“Do you need to go tell Zelda?” Twilight asked.

He shook his head, “no, said I had to go for a while.”

“Is Impa watching her,” a nod, “she’ll be fine, y’know. She’s strong!”

He grinned, when he gets back, Zelda would probably have fixed the whole kingdom. Towns would be popping up as fast as Tarry Town.

“Now,” Warriors commanded, “with all nine of us here, I say we plan the death of our enemy.”

Everyone nodded at once, determined to get back to their own times.

As they sat down and made a fire to strategized, Wild listened to the water pouring around them. He wanted to take everything in before he was rushed away from his world.

Now that all nine had be dealt, where was there to go. Well, a delta isn’t truly the end; just the end of a river, just a single path closing. Once the waters built up and the silt has been kicked away, where does it go?

Into an ocean, with many more possibilities. No direction to be had and only more mysteries appearing. Before there was a clear trajectory, now it was a free for all.

As this story closes, so do many more open, and the flow of time just got a lot more complicated.

Delta’s End.

The End.