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It was loud.
Swords clashed, armor clanged, voices shouted, ground thudded, boots pounded, screams resounded. It was a cacophony of noises all bubbling and boiling throughout the forested clearing. But even with all of the crashes and thuds that echoed across the battlefield, one sound caught Four’s attention, making the rest of the world go horrifyingly quiet.
The sickening sound of metal on flesh followed by a soft, pained gasp.
Four instantly split their attention, letting Green and Blue focus on the monsters around them while Red and Vio scanned through their senses, trying to find where the sound came from. They zeroed in on a flash of blue and green soaked in red and a lizalfos towering above a crumbling form.
Quickly turning their attention off of the battle they were in, Four disengaged, kicking the bokoblin in the shin before turning and running, hurriedly dodging and ducking nearby attacks as they ran to their teammate’s side. From what Four could hear of the voices shouting above the clanging metal, it seemed that none of the others had noticed one of their own falling which led Four to deal with it alone.
Normally they wouldn’t have minded that, but when they finally arrived at their teammate’s side, a cold dread washed through their veins.
At the base of the subtle hill that their battle was taking place on laid Warriors, drenched in his own blood from a bad slash cutting across the front of his chest, monsters already beginning to advance on him. Four immediately rushed to his side, bringing up their shield to block an impending lizalfos strike before swiftly slicing of its head. Turning back slightly, Four grimaced as he took in the damage.
This is bad. He needs immediate medical attention. Red said worriedly, buzzing conversation into their mind.
We need potions! Do we have any? Blue scanned their memories trying to recall their inventory.
We don’t. We gave our last one to Legend last week. Vio hummed, bringing the memory closer to the front of their minds.
Then we need to get Hyrule or get this battle to end quickly. Green declared sharply
And how do we do that? We can’t just leave Warriors here! Blue snapped
Four cut down yet another lizalfos, the monsters slowly gaining ground as Four was forced to on the defensive in order to guard Warriors’ fallen body.
A thought was proposed, and although it was not well liked, it was agreed upon.
Pushing back against the advancing monsters with a shield parry, Four quickly raised their sword to the sky, letting a bright white flash around them. And, within the next moment, where one stood four, four who were one.
“Red,” Green instantly began to command the others, “Go get Hyrule. Vio, alert Time about what happened. Blue, tend to Warriors’ injuries. I’ll defend him.”
With no time for objections or arguments, they all split off, Red and Vio dashing back into the fray as Green reengaged combat with the monster who had finally started regaining ground after being stunned by the Four Sword’s light.
Blue instantly kneeled beside Warriors’ side, pushing the blood-soaked fabric of his tunic out of the way to get a better look. It was not a pretty sight. The gash ran from his stomach to his shoulder, crossing over his body like a sash. It wasn’t too deep, but it still presented the large risk of bleeding out if not given the proper care soon.
Blue quickly dug through his bag. As he searched through his gear, he quickly grew disgusted by the red staining his fingers and sticking onto everything he touched. But he had no time to waste trying to be neat and clean about it. Warriors needed his help.
When Link split, each of them got a part of him. More than just personality, each of them got part of his skills, dividing his talents, both unlearned and learned, into the different colors. Somehow Blue, despite his generally angry and unpleasant demeanor, got Four’s medical knowledge, much to Red’s disappointment and Vio’s frustration. Each time Red would beg to learn about medicine, each time Vio would study medical texts on his own, each time Green would be taught basic first aid, it never stuck with the other colors, any new knowledge gained simply going to Blue’s ever increasing medical expertise.
It was honestly ridiculous to even think about. Blue, the short-tempered, foul-mannered, hot-headed, rage-fueled Blue was the group’s designated healer. Vio proposed that it had something to do with the water element that Blue was supposedly drawn from, but even then, Blue couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that he, out of all of them, was the healer. Not sweet little Red, not study-holic Vio, not charismatic leader Green. No. It was Blue. Angry Blue.
Blue’s hands finally collided with the item that he had been looking for, shaking him out of his spiraling thoughts. Pulling out their first aid kit, Blue quickly grabbed the needle and thread and scooted closer to Warrior’s side, kneeling over him to get a better view of his injury.
Blue noticed Warriors’ eyes on him as he moved to begin sewing closed his injury. He looked dazed but conscious; Blue just hoped that he wasn’t too conscious enough to remember them splitting.
“What?” Blue snapped, fed up with the uncharacteristic silence from their chatterbox Captain.
“Did you change your tunic?” Warriors’ voice was slurred and choppy as if he was drunk or half awake.
“No,” Blue replied curtly, hands never pausing in their work.
“Oh,” a long pause passed between them, only the sounds of Warriors’ breathing and Green’s fighting filled the air. “Then why is it blue?”
“It has always been blue.”
Another pause filled the air as Blue finished up his stitches. But even with the new stitches, the cut was still long and bleeding a lot. Pressure needed to be put on his wound lest he end up bleeding out.
Blue looked around for anything that could be used to push against Warriors’ chest. Preferably something disposable or easy to clean; blood stains were horrible to get out of clothing. Scanning the area, the only things in the vicinity were Warriors’ already blood-soaked tunic which would be no good in the bloody tatters it was in and Warriors’ scarf which despite everything was still in good condition with very little blood on it. Warriors’ was always so careful with his scarf; it must really mean a lot to him to always keep it so clean despite the constant battlefields he was on.
Blue sighed deeply, understanding what he had to do. Blood was truly terrible to get out of clothing, especially blue fabric.
Quickly undoing his belt and ripping his tunic over his head, Blue tightly folded his outer tunic before pressing it firmly onto Warriors’ chest. Blue watched as red soaked into the blue fabric, dirtying the color into a muddy brown.
With all that Blue could do to help out of the way, he focused his attention back onto the fight beginning to wind down around them. Blue noticed Green dispatching the last of the monsters around them as Red with Hyrule started coming into view. Across the battlefield, Blue saw Vio finally make his way to Time’s side as well.
Green slipped into the trees surrounding the clearing they were in as Hyrule found his way to them as well. Blue was about to comment on it before he noticed Red doing the same. That meant Hyrule must not have gotten a good glimpse of Red if they were still trying to preserve their secret.
“Move,” Hyrule commanded as Blue did what he was told. As Hyrule casted his spell, Blue scanned the surrounding area, preparing to take care of any threat that tried to come at them while Hyrule was busy healing.
From his spot, Blue could see the rest of their teammates finishing up their own respective battles, each rushing towards him when they were done, realizing something bad had happened there. Blue also noticed Vio slipping into the trees when he finished his own battle.
Blue for his part knew that it was too late to try and slip into the trees. It wouldn’t have even mattered anyways since he would need his tunic back as well. So he tried not to stay in immediate sight range, taking position behind Twilight as Time approached them. Luckily, it seemed that the older hero was more preoccupied with their fallen teammate to notice the shard of Four already there rather than behind him like Time probably thought.
Once they all gathered around and took stock of injuries, Warriors having been stabilized by Hyrule and no one else suffering any major injuries, Blue prepared himself for the worst.
Had Hyrule actually noticed Red? Had Time noticed Blue? Had either noticed the change in appearance? Had anyone noticed that his blood-soaked tunic was blue instead of the normal quad-colored?
Blue wasn’t one to get anxious, but he could practically feel Vio’s anxiety pounding through the bond that they shared.
When Time turned to Blue, he felt Vio’s anxiety increase tenfold. Instead of any confrontation, though, Time just put a hand on Blue’s shoulder and squeezed, “Thank you, Four. You did good.” Hyrule nodded as well, but it seemed neither of them would speak further and contradict each other’s experience and reasoning on why Four did a good job.
Blue resisted the urge to swat Time’s hand away and snap at the old man to not patronize him. Instead, Blue did his best to act like Red and gave a smile and a nod at the older hero; Blue just hoped that the smile didn’t look too much like a grimace.
Time seemed satisfied, though, as he let go and addressed the rest of the group, suggesting that they set up camp there for the night to which resounding agreement followed.
As everyone began setting down sleeping rolls and preparing the campfire, Blue gathered up his bloody tunic and began to move away into the trees where he knew his brothers were waiting for him, but before he could even get to the outer ring of the clearing, a shout stopped him.
“Wait! Four!” Blue turned around to see Warriors wave at him from where he rested against a pile of the group’s things. “Can you come here? I wanted to say something to you.”
Nodding once, Blue swiftly made his way back to where Warriors was and kneeled down beside him. Now that everything had settled down and the jitter of a difficult battle and a serious injury had calmed, Blue found it more difficult to maintain the Four act around the others, so he settled for another nod once he was beside Warriors.
“I wanted to thank you,” Warriors began.
“You don’t need to thank me,” Blue resisted the urge to roll his eyes, “It should be only natural that I help my teammate when he’s injured.”
“That’s true, but that’s not why I wanted to thank you,” Warriors looked back out at the camp, particularly where his scarf rested with the rest of his gear, the pristine blue fabric folded delicately on top of his bag as if to not let it get dirtied by the ground that it had been laying on moments prior.
“If it’s about your scarf, then you don’t need to thank me for that either. I folded it up because it was bothering me. It looked like someone was going to step on it, all spread out on the floor like that.”
Warriors’ chuckled at that, though Blue couldn’t figure out what was so funny. “Closer, but that’s not why I wanted to thank you either. I wanted to thank you for using your own tunic to stem the bleeding. You didn’t have to do that, but you went out of your way to, instead of using my scarf. So, for that, I thank you. It means a lot to me.”
Blue didn’t know what to say to that. He was sure that Red could come up with a wonderful reassurance if he had been here, but Blue was on his own for this conversation. He was so far out of his depth.
Blue sat there in silence for a bit, not sure what to say and hoping to pass off the quiet as contemplative or comfortable, like something Vio or Green would do in this situation.
Eventually, Blue cleared his throat and gave his best Red impression, “You just seemed to really like that scarf and I know how difficult it is to get blood out of blue fabric… I just knew the scarf was important to you, was all…”
Blue internally berated himself for how not Red that sounded, but there was no way to take back what he said now, so all he had to do was wait for Warriors to either notice or ignore Blue’s odd behavior.
“You know,” Warriors began and Blue hated the shit-eating grin beginning to spread on his face, “it was weird. I could have sworn your tunic was blue when you were helping me during that battle…”
“My tunic is always blue. It’s one of the colors on it.”
“Yeah, but this time, your tunic looked all blue which is not how it usually is.”
“That was the blood loss playing tricks on you.”
“Either way, a blue tunic like that would have just as many problems trying to get bloodstains out of as my scarf.” There was a knowing tenderness in Warriors’ voice that Blue hated.
“Well then I’m lucky that my tunic is more than just blue,” Blue abruptly stood up, gathering his blood-stained tunic in his arms again, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some idiot’s blood to wash out of my tunic.”
With one last chuckle from Warriors, Blue stalked off into the surrounding forest, meeting back up with his brother to finally become one again.
When they merged back together, the dried blood only stained the blue quadrant of their tunic.