Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

No. 

His blood turned to ice as he saw his comrade fall to the ground, his eyes oozing a murky black substance, his veins turning a dark musty purple. 

He watched as Hyrule’s body shook with the transformation, knowing that he was trapped with nowhere to run. 

He watched as those now black eyes--the eyes of his brother --focused dead on him. 

His neck twisted, his jaws opened at a horrifying angle, his talon-sharp were teeth bared, and the monster that used to be Hyrule pounced, he threw up his arms to shield himself--

“Aaaaaand CUT!” 

Production bells blared in the background as Legend opened from his fetal position on the ground, coughing from the smoke machine being blasted at his feet. 

“Alright everyone, that was perfect! Let’s take our hour lunch and meet back here in sixty!” 

As he got up from the ground of the set and looked to his right, he saw Rose wiping the black SFX makeup off of Hyrule’s face, his friend grimacing from the weird feeling it gave off (He would know, the amount of makeup on his arms from the scars they painted on sucked) and chatting about later tonight after filming was wrapped up for the day. 

“And Time said that there would be a limo to take us to the studio! This is mindblowing for me Rose!” 

It sure was. 

After all, Hyrule’s internet spin-off show had blown up so much that Hylia herself had taken an interest in his story and had wanted to take him on as an actor in a TV series production of it. 

And lo and behold, Legend had just finished the filming of Triforce Heroes --Playing three roles at the same time was something else, let him tell you--and Hylia called him up asking if he would want to be a part of the spin-off series. 

And according to everyone at the studio, this would be a huge crossover. All of the previous stars of the Legend of Zelda series would be making an appearance in this production, and let's just say that fans were ecstatic.  

The amount of buzz that they attracted had booked them an appearance on the Late Nights with Nayru Show, the most popular late-night program in the country. 

And they wanted all nine of them to be there. At the same time.

Bless those producers, he thought to himself as he stepped into the catering line. He could already see the chaos that Wind and Wild would bring to the set. 

As he piled his plate up with sandwiches and chips--they had gotten a local deli for catering today--he noticed Twilight ranting about something to Sky (who was listening to his friend intently) and Wind (who was going to town on a plate of cookies) at a table to his left and strode over to join in on the conversation. 

“And honestly, you would think that the kids would be able to handle themselves for a day! Time said that he had full faith in me to babysit for a few hours while they went out for their anniversary, but by the time I came back from finishing dish duty, Eliana was covered in peanut butter and Caelan was hanging upside down off the ceiling fan!"

Huh. That’s a new one. 

“Seems like you’re not so perfect with kids after all, Twi,” Legend quipped as he set his plate down next to an exasperated Sky.

“I usually am! Except my little cousins are a different breed. They have the energy to rival Wild on a sugar rush.” 

“Let’s just hope that they don’t burn the house down tonight when the sitter comes over. I keep telling Malon that we aren’t paying Aspen enough,” Time said with a chuckle as he slid down onto the chair next to Twilight. He even spotted Wild and Four crossing over to the table. It seemed as though the whole gang was heading to their little group for their lunch break.

“With all the chaos they cause? I give it two hours--not even that--before someone is running through the house with their pajamas on backward and their toothbrush hidden,” Twilight groaned as he put his head in his hands. “I do not want Aspen to go through with that.” 

Time chuckled as he took a bite of his turkey club. He took a moment to swallow before he replied with a sly grin. “Oh, believe me, I want to spare the poor kid as much as you do. So I may or may not have bribed my children with the opportunity to come into the studio soon if they behaved tonight…”  

The group groaned good-naturedly at Time’s reveal. As much as they loved his and Malon’s kids, they could be quite chaotic at times.

Wild pouted as he sat down at the table as Wind munched on his cookies. “Aw man, no fair! I was looking for those choco-chip cookies,” He grumbled to himself as he gazed down at his meal. “I had to settle for white chocolate macadamia nut instead.” 

A mixture of “Hey now!”, “I happen to like those cookies…”, and laughter erupted from the table as Wind stared Wild in the eye and took a huge bite of the cookie, chewing slowly and loudly. 

Twilight smacked him upside the head. 

As the others laughed and Wind rubbed the back of his head, Impa--their production manager--had joined them at their table with a clipboard and some photos of outfits for each of the boys to wear. 

“Now that you’re all here,” She nodded to Hyrule, who had seemed to finally get off all the makeup, and Warriors as they took the last few seats at the table, “I wanted to go through a few ground rules that you all must have when appearing on Late Nights with Nayru later tonight. 

They all sat up straighter when they heard that, except for Wild who was still bitter about losing his beloved cookies to the youngest of the group. 

“Rule one: You are to treat everyone with the utmost respect and politeness while you are on set. We do not want another Burning Daylight with Din incident, do we? 

Several members of the group winced. They did not want to deal with another dressing room crisis (Legend had replaced Warriors’ shampoo with orange hair dye, one of his better pranks if you asked him). They had been asked to leave the studio after Warriors chased him around the lot with a hair straightener. 

That had been an interesting day. 

“Rule two: under no circumstances are Wild and Hyrule to sit next to each other on the set.” 

The two boys in question began to protest before eight pairs of eyes stared at them. They knew as well as everyone else that they would get distracted and wander off somewhere even on live television. 

“And finally, rule three: have fun. I know how you all hate these rules, but they are important. Unfortunately, I had the pleasure of reading the list to you all tonight,” Impa said with a smile before she continued, “I think that settles it. Make sure you are dressed and ready to go by 6 PM sharp. We need to get there early for rehearsal.” She gave another smile before walking away and saying something into her earpiece.  

“Oh boy…” Sky sighed as Twilight put his head in his hands. Their hands were going to be very, very full.

Chapter Text

The green room was nice. 

Lavish velvet couch cushions and chairs were placed around the room with baskets filled with chocolate croissants and other goodies. 

Wind was trying to stuff his pockets with mini muffins because according to him, fancy talk show food was amazing and even better than what craft services give us. 

Legend agreed to disagree with that. 

He hummed with approval as he sat down on one of the couches, putting his feet on the glass coffee table. Twilight looked at him with mild disapproval. 

“Uh, you sure you wanna be doing that, Legend? Those seem pretty expensive…” 

Legend rolled his eyes and made a show of making himself more comfortable in his seat. “No, I don’t think so. The whole point of these rooms is to make ourselves feel at home, and I am damn well going to do that.” 

He reached his hand across the table to a plate of chocolates. “Ooh, nougat.” He popped the candy in his mouth with a smirk. 

It was Twilight’s turn to roll his eyes, an amused smirk playing off his lips. “Whatever, just make sure you don’t leave scuff marks on the table or anything. The last thing we need is to piss off another talk-show host.” 

Legend made a sound of acknowledgment as he reached for another chocolate, yet he stopped himself as he saw Hyrule sitting in a chair in the corner, his body rigid and his eyes looking every which way as he tried to calm his nerves. 

“You ok there, Roolie?”

Hyrule jumped out of his seat as if he forgot the rest of them were there. He made eye contact with Legend as his face turned beet red. 

He played with his hands as he spoke, his leg bouncing in tandem. “Um...yeah,” He sighed as he began to calm himself down. “I guess I’m a little more nervous than I thought I was going to be. After all, I’m the one who pitched this show in a sense. What if they don’t like me? What if they begin to yell at us and throw popcorn because they hate me? What if I get run out of town because they hate me so much and I have to go on the run and--”

“Woah, woah, woah! Hold it!” Legend had abandoned his place on the couch, where Wind had immediately stolen it and began to plunder the chocolate plate. 

He would have to deal with the little gremlin later. His friend’s nerves were more important. 

“You’ll be ok! Just breathe with me, ok? Your videos had millions of views online, remember? If you can handle that, I’m sure you can handle this.” 

Hyrule’s eyes shone. “Really?” 

Legend smiled a real, genuine smile. “Really.” 

A chorus of “awws” broke out amongst the group, and the two boys startled out of their conversation. Legend gave them all a very rude gesture with his hand. They laughed until a producer with a headset knocked on the door.

“Excuse me? They’re ready for you.” Everyone got up from their seats and brushed themselves off, doing some last-minute touch-ups and calming their nerves before they were on live TV. 

Legend patted Hyrule’s back. “I believe in you, ok? You’ve got this.” 

They grinned at each other as Time nodded to the producer. “Lead the way.” 

They were guided through some hallways as they neared the set, they watched as the musical guest for the night (The Indigo-Go’s) finished up their set on one of the TV’s set around backstage for people to watch as they waited their turn to go on. 

As they neared the entrance to the set, they heard Nayru’s voice as she thanked the band and they cut to commercial. 

Legend’s mind filtered out whatever the producer was trying to tell them as he glanced around the set. He’d done this way too many times now to not know everything off the top of his brain. 

Let’s get this over with, he thought as the producer finally finished their spiel. 

“And we're back in five, four, three,” The producer counted the last two on his fingers as the cameras turned towards Nayru.

“Welcome back everyone! Now, our next guests have been quite the buzz as of late. From a backyard production budget to a million-dollar soundstage, these nine talented individuals have taken the acting world by storm. Without further adieu, let us welcome the cast of Linked Universe !” 

The studio audience cheered up a storm as the nine of them walked on the stage towards the large couches they had set up for them. Legend smiled and waved at everyone and made sure to look as friendly as possible. Hyrule was doing a great job so far, smiling and acting a little shy, but that was what made him endearing to everyone. 

“Good evening to all of you! How are you all tonight?” 

A series of pleasantries were exchanged. The generic talk show lingo went on for about 4 minutes, Time doing most of the talking.

Bless him, Legend thought as Time cracked a joke about cuccos that had the audience and Nayru in stitches. 

Now, It seems like we have a little surprise for everyone tuning in…” Nayru said with a twinkle in her eye as The nine of them chuckled nervously. 

“Oh, and what could that be?” Twilight looked at Nayru nervously.

“We’ve got the first look at a teaser trailer! We don’t want to keep the people waiting, do we?” 

Huh. That was a surprise. He looked over to Time who seemed to be covering his shock pretty well. Almost everyone save for Wind, who looked ecstatic, and Hyrule, who looked like he wanted to lose those croissants from earlier. The audience showed their excitement through their screams of joy, all on the edge of their seats. 

Time cleared his throat and began to speak. “Yes, let’s roll the clip then.” 

Everyone looked towards the screen with bated breath.

The music picked up fast, bright and energetic as the perfect background to the short clips being played out in tandem. A shot of them sitting around the fire as Wild cooked dinner. Four spoke up. “The whole town, even the old; not one ever knew a day of war, calamity, terror...nothing.” 

Wild said with his arms spread out. “We could be anywhere in Hyrule’s history.” 

The music bounced as rapid quick shots cut from one to another. Sky slashed at the camera. Legend and Hyrule weaved in and out of each other, tearing apart monsters with their blades. Legend went to trip the bokoblin and Hyrule went for the kill--

Twilight raced on Epona, through the trees as she was jumping over stray logs and branches. Warriors spinning in slow motion, his face whipped around to face the camera, a murderous look set on his face. Four ducking around the large swords, too big for him as he danced around the blades with ease, his eyes not seeming to settle on one color. Wind Jumping high in the air and slashing down with this sword, his mouth open in a silent battle cry. Wild flying through the air, arrows flying faster than the eye could track, shooting one towards the camera, ending with a final shot of Time bringing his massive claymore down upon the camera cutting to black. 

A pair of red eyes glowed in the darkness. It cut back to black. 

Time’s voice rang out of the speakers. 

“Seems we are on the right path to understand the cause of our meeting.”

With one final flourish of music, the words Linked Universe in bright gold with the triforce behind it shone brightly, only to fade out to the sound of dark laughter. 

The audience went wild. So did they. But in the midst of it all, was Hyrule with a massive smile on his face, not believing what he was seeing. And Legend had to admit it, the kid was extremely talented. He couldn’t be more proud of him. 

If only Wild hadn’t taken his spot next to him.