Chapter Text
It had been a few weeks since the group found out about Time's... travels. Over those weeks, the Links had learned to fear the sight of the little blue instrument. Time had gotten into the habit of tucking it out of sight whenever possible because he knew how much him holding it scared the other heroes. It made it a little harder to grab in a pinch, but his priority was making sure his boys felt safe, so it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.
They were in Hyrule's Hyrule—which Warriors insisted sounded really dumb but Legend would flame anyone who dared insult Hyrule's nickname. Yeah, maybe it was a little dumb, but it was his name just as much as Link was and Legend wasn't about to stand for anyone making fun of it. They were in a forest in said Hyrule, and despite peace returning to much of the land after Hyrule's second adventure, the world would never be truly safe and monsters still filled the woods, especially in this area. The group was on their way to where Hyrule said the princesses could be found and Time was on edge. From what Hyrule had been saying, it sounded like there weren't any settlements around for days. If anything happened to them, there was nowhere to run, hide, or stock up on supplies. Time fingered the flap on the closed pouch where he began keeping his Ocarina—a new nervous tick he'd picked up since he couldn't hold the instrument itself anymore without causing a panic—when Twilight gently slapped his hand away.
"It's gonna be fine, Old Man. We've had our fair share of fights since we found out about the Ocarina and you've only had to use it once. We've gotten a lot better! Besides, even before then, we always made it out safe in the end. It's going to be okay."
Time nodded reluctantly. Twilight had a point, though Time couldn't say he was right, exactly. Time had used the Ocarina more than once since then; he just hadn't mentioned it to his descendent. The group continued through the woods, Hyrule leading the way, when Wild, who had been walking right behind him, held up a hand.
The group froze, ears trained and eyes scanning. The forest was too quiet. Wherever they went, they could reliably hear birdsong—Four said that it was because Sky had "friendly bird energy"—but the forest was dead silent save a quiet stirring of leaves. Nobody moved for a few minutes, and once they deemed there was no risk of ambush, Warriors made the motion to fan out and search for enemy camps.
Twilight, once safely obscured by bushes, shifted into wolf form and was immediately overpowered by the scent of monsters. He had yet to be able to discern if monsters were infected by scent alone, but he had a strong feeling that that was what they were dealing with. The stench was unbearable, like drowning in the putrid essence of pure malice. He could make out... bokoblins, bulbins, lizalfos.... moblins? There were so many scents that they all seemed to blend into one, but he knew he had to warn the group. Shifting back into human form, he began making his way towards where he knew he could find Time.
"This whole place reeks of monsters. I don't think I've ever smelled so many. I don't doubt they're infected, too," Twilight whispered upon locating his ancestor.
"Any other signs like tracks or camps?" Time asked, scanning the woods distrustfully.
"No. The scent was so overpowering, I couldn't even get a direction on it."
"Don't feel disappointed in yourself, Pup," Time began, "we're now aware of a danger we previously hadn—"
Time was cut off by a shout of alarm and the sound of swords clashing.The two began rushing towards the sound and by the time they reached the clearing where the sound came from, they could see Wind and Warriors fighting off what looked to be a dozen bokoblins and bulbins, yet the latter were without their customary steeds. The pair joined the fray as dozens—nearing hundreds—more monsters poured into the clearing, seemingly drawn to the scene by the sound of combat.
Amidst the fray, Time could see what looked to be a lizalfos, though where he would expect to see scales or texture, there was only an inky black void. The silhouette had bright red eyes that blazed with a sort of cruel intelligence that set Time's blood boiling. As he cut down a moblin with his Biggoron Sword, he saw The Shadow scan the group. Its beady eyes seemed to focus on something to Time's back left. It let out a cry in some hissing language that had the hylian baffled and sped off in that direction. Time, blocking a lizalfos' swing, desperately tried to recall who was in that direction. It hit him suddenly, and in his shock, the lizalfos got a strike in, though it bounced harmlessly off his armor. That's where Wind was fighting.
After The Shadow’s hiss, Time could feel the energy of the area shift as more monsters started flowing in the general direction of where Time remembered Wind being. Finishing off the lizalfos, he tried to weave his way through the battle—and it really had become a battle—in search of Wind. The clearing, though relatively large in size, was almost completely filled with monsters. He could catch glimpses of white, red, and a dark cloak, and concluded that the rest of the Links had arrived. Strong-arming his way through the battle, cutting down anything in his way, he managed to get eyes on Wind. The teenager was definitely getting ganged up on. A flood of bokoblins surrounded him, but they were getting thrown back as soon as they could get near. As Time fought his way to Wind, he saw—with no small amount of pride—that the young hero was holding his own quite impressively. As much as they liked to baby the kid, he was no amateur on the battlefield.
It was abundantly clear to Time, however, that Wind had been singled out as their weakest Link and targeted to try and break their morale. Luckily for the Links, Wind was a far more competent fighter than his age would suggest. He pushed back a wave of bokoblins with a spin attack and, in the moment he needed to regain his balance, managed to toss a bomb into the swarm. The Links were generally discouraged from using explosives during battle to avoid friendly fire, but evidently Wind decided that it was worth the risk. The explosion was already bound to attract the other Links, but Time let out a harsh whistle just in case. Wind was holding his own at the moment, but the swarm was only closing in on the teenager and he was only growing more tired. Eventually Time fought his way over to Wind's side and the younger nodded gratefully, a determined frown plastered on his face. Warriors eventually also worked his way over to the pair, and they managed to push back many of the bokoblins. They could tell these monsters were infected—if the streams of black blood running along their weapons didn’t already make it obvious—because though they took hit after hit, they just wouldn't go down. It was almost as if the black blood dulled their sense of pain.
Time heard a strange cry behind him and, as he turned around, watched as Wild slid in front of him, using his shield to parry away a fully grown bokoblin that had been thrown at Time by a moblin. The two exchanged a nod and the rest of the Links filtered into the center. Eventually, a sort of Wind Safety Bubble™ had developed, each Link fighting in a loosely circular formation, trying to keep Wind in the center. The teenager was clearly grateful for this, but still lobbed bombs over the heads of his allies and into the swarm of enemies. "Hey, Old Man!" Legend called over the din of battle, "If everyone's behind each other, can we lift the ban on pyrotechnics?"
Time nodded, and the ensuing explosion was enough for the rest of the Links to infer that he had approved.
Legend wielded his fire rod mercilessly, Warriors making use of the spare that Legend had let him borrow. The sudden explosion in firepower was enough to cause a lull in the fighting. Time took the momentary respite to scan the battlefield and do a quick headcount. Wind was looking rather worse for wear, a few cuts on his arms and hands, but mostly just looking exhausted. It was clear that the monsters were still targeting him. Looking farther away, he saw a sight that made his blood run cold.
A tower. A full-blown archer's tower. The enemy had somehow constructed it in the short while they had been fighting. How did they have the organization and intelligence to build such a structure so quickly? It had Time baffled and quite frankly worried. What scared him the most, though, was the sight of a lone bulbin climbing up the ladder. They were setting up a sniper . With that kind of height advantage, there was no way their loose circle would be enough to protect Wind and even if they could pick the snipers off with arrows, they still had to fend off the horde surrounding them.
Time realized, however, that the tower was made out of wood and they had no shortage of fire-wielders who could take care of it. He began to run towards Legend to alert the veteran about the tower but was interrupted by the sound of an explosion behind him.
As he turned, he watched in horror as Wind's Phantom Sword was blown away by the blast, embedding itself in the head of a moblin. Wind, however, was nowhere to be seen.
" WIND!! " Cried someone. Legend? Maybe it was Sky? It didn't matter. What did matter was the charred blue tunic and small leather boot, filled with blood, that Time could see at the edge of the cloud of smoke.
"I'll check! You don't need to see this," Twilight said, rushing into the cloud of smoke. Time hated that. He hated it so, so much. Ever since the boys found out, they'd been trying to hide bodies from him because they knew he'd remember seeing them but they wouldn't. While they had a perfectly valid point and Time had seen enough dead bodies to last him 20 lifetimes, he still hated the way he was treated like some sort of child when he was the oldest out of all of them. He didn't regret them finding out, of course, but he... he didn't know what he wanted, really. He was jarred from his musings by a broken "Tur– turn it back!" from inside the cloud of dust. " TURN IT BACK!! " came the cry, louder and unashamedly full of pain this time. The entire group minus Twilight and Wind converged around Time, creating a wall of swords and tunics to protect him while he played. The haunting notes rang out, and the battlefield went white.