Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"M-Master Link! Please, wait just a moment!"

Link turns, one foot already in the saddle of his horse, to see none other than Paya rushing up after him, nearly tripping over a Cucco in her hurry. He steps back down, patting his horse's flank apologetically. Once Paya's caught her breath enough to peek up at him, he signs, "Link is fine."

"O-Oh," Paya stutters. "Um. Okay."

She fidgets nervously, hands clasped firmly behind her back. It... doesn't look like she's going to tell him why she frantically flagged him down without being prompted, so Link raises a wordless eyebrow.

"T-This is from the Princess!" Paya blurts out, withdrawing the package she'd apparently been holding behind her back. "It's very old, so be careful with it—b-but I know you will be, Ma—Link!"

"Thank you."

Link starts to unwrap it, only for Paya to shriek, "Not here!" loud enough to startle the nearby Cuccos.

The eyebrow raises higher. Link re-wraps what little he's already gotten undone, though not without keeping one careful eye on the Cuccos and another on Paya herself as she struggles to find her words again.

"It is not... look, Grandmother wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to give you this," Paya mumbles, staring at her feet. "But y-you deserve to have it. It's your heritage, and... maybe it can help you somehow?"

Slowly, Link nods. Paya rambles on, seemingly endless in her worries.

"Oh, I-I'd love to see you play it, but maybe... not now. If Grandmother believes that you ran into it through the will of the Goddess, then... well, maybe she'll be less mad at me—"

Link taps her on the shoulder, snapping out of her new tangent. He signs, "I should go?"

"Y-Yes," Paya agrees. "It isn't as if we can use it—Auntie Purah tried to figure out its secrets when she was younger, but it can only be used the way it's meant to be used by, well. Someone like you, or like the Princess. So better you have it than it be sitting around gathering dust while you're risking your life to help us all!"

"I should go," Link signs, more insistently this time. Whatever the rest of what Paya's saying means, he's pretty sure that she'll get in trouble for giving him... whatever this is. And while he's grateful for the gift, he doesn't want her to get into trouble on his account.

Her shoulders slump. "I-I suppose so. Be safe, L... Link!"

Paya circles about his horse as he mounts the beast, patting the horse—who he'd blurted out the name Tatl for when pressed, though he's certain he's never heard that name before in his life—on her nose. She whispers loudly, to Tatl, "You'll keep him safe, won't you?"

Link decides not to mention that he'd met this particular horse while they both were running for their lives from a pack of angry bokoblins, and he nods. Paya steps aside, and they're off.

He pulls out the package when he makes camp for the night, halfway back to the stable where he'd first registered Tatl. The horse herself is contentedly grazing nearby, yellow-brown tail swishing in an evening breeze, and carefully keeping her distance from the campfire he's set up.

She certainly has no interest in the roughly rectangular shape he's unwrapping. Whatever it is, the only conclusion he's come to during the day's ride is that it's not long enough or shaped right to be a sword, and it's too thick to be a book. Unless it's two books. Or one really, really hefty one.

He'd... honestly prefer a sword, to a book, at the moment. Unless it is the theoretical really hefty book and he could use it as a blunt weapon.

As he unwraps the item, carefully, it becomes... somewhat less rectangular. More rounded, almost, like a three-dimensional oval tapering to a point at one end, with a tube set into the side.

It is indeed rounded, once he discards the last of the wrappings. It's also very blue, and has lots of holes, and fits comfortably into his hands when he holds it. Like it belongs there, somehow.

He stares down at it for a bit longer, wondering.

And he remembers.

"I'm reasonably certain that the only reason my father let us take this out of storage at all is because he thinks it might help me unlock my power at last," Zelda confesses, looking down at the strange blue thing in her lap. "And maybe it will! Anything could do it, after all. Urbosa said that her lightning powers clicked into place the first time she put on her Thunder Helm, like they just belonged there. Daruk's was... er, something involving a dog? He was never completely clear on the details. Mipha's healing just happened, one day, while she was practicing her tridentwork. And Revali told me—"

Very quietly, Link clears his throat. She looks up, and he signs, "What is it?"

Zelda pauses, squinting, her eyes following the motions of his hands. At last she admits, "I'm sorry, I couldn't quite... could you say that once more? Slower, this time?"

Link nods, and obliges.

"Oh!" Zelda nods enthusiastically, holding the little blue thing out to show him. "This is an ocarina, Link! Not just any ocarina, or so I'm told, but the ocarina! The one used long ago by the Hero of Time to save Hyrule!"

He looks at it, a little dubious. He can't imagine it to be anywhere near as effective a weapon as the darkness-sealing sword on his back. "How?"

Zelda studies his features, for a long moment. They're carefully schooled into a mask, like they have been for a very long time, but she's gotten far better at seeing through that mask as of late. She giggles, and says, "Not like that! Watch, I... think I can play this!"

She raises the ocarina to her lips, places her fingers covering some of the holes, and blows.

Music comes out. It's a clear, sweet melody that resonates with Link's very soul, somehow. He's never heard it before, he would have known if he had. Yet he can't quite stop himself from leaning forward to listen.

Zelda finishes, eyes closed, and sets the ocarina back in her lap. She opens her eyes.

She looks... almost disappointed, when she says, "That is a piece called the Song of Time. Legend holds that in a time of great need, when this song is played on this ocarina, by one blessed by the Goddess... time itself will reshape to the player's desire. I... suppose I was not expecting much, but..."

"Zelda." Though there is a sign for princess that he uses in public, the one he does for her name in private—now that they have a tentative sort of friendship going, at any rate—is the same one that Urbosa uses: little bird. It... kind of stuck. "That isn't a bad thing. It means we aren't in a time of great need."

"Yet, but... true enough," Zelda concedes. "That, or I'm not... well, I suppose  I thought that even if it couldn't awaken my powers, maybe I could just... see her, one more time..."

She clears her throat, before Link can ask, and thrusts the ocarina into his empty hands. "You should give it a try, Link! Maybe it won't work for you, either, but... I would like to see you play it anyway."

He strongly, strongly doubts that's the only reasoning behind his sudden and presumably temporary acquisition of a legendary musical instrument, but he nods, and he tries to hold it the same way she does.

And he plays.

The ocarina is still in his hands, when he comes back to the present. Link stares down at it for a long, long moment. Then, he adjusts his grip upon the instrument, and he plays the way that he remembers.

Or, more accurately, he tries to.

It takes a lot of fumbling around to find the right holes to cover for the notes he remembers hearing. But he can't get the song out of his mind if he tries, and he isn't much inclined to try.

The sun has long since set by the time the legendary Song of Time sounds almost exactly like Zelda's version. Also, nothing has happened.

That makes him nervous, because if this isn't a time of great need... then what is?

Waterblight Ganon rips itself free of Vah Ruta's Malice-infested control panel with a horrific wet tearing sound, and all Link can think is, oh.

It's fast. And it's really, really hard to attack in melee range. Which is fine, because he has a bow and is better than he expected to be at using it. And then it suddenly is significantly less fine, because the Waterblight starts to flood the room.

He can't fire his bow if he has nowhere to stand to do it, and from the looks of things, he's not going to have anything except water too deep to stand in soon. So he takes a gamble, one that could be deadly and hopefully will be deadlier for the Blight than for him.

He throws the massive Zora-made greatsword at the Waterblight with every ounce of strength he can muster up, stunning it momentarily.

And he pulls out the ocarina. It's cool, blessedly so, against his hands, when he raises it to his lips.

It starts glowing, right before his eyes, after the second note. That's new. The Waterblight roars as if it knows what he's up to somehow—which is impressive, because Link himself doesn't have any idea what he's doing. He blocks it out. He has to finish this song, because it's actually doing something, and it never has before.

He has to finish it—and he does.

The last thing he sees is Waterblight Ganon swinging its massive blade towards his head. The last thing he hears is Zelda's voice in his mind, screaming his name.

And then there's nothing at all.

"What in the— Link?!" That's a vaguely familiar voice, soft yet sharp and deeply concerned. "What are you doing here? Are—are you hurt? Oh, Hylia, can you hear me?"

Link groans, turns over on the cold stone, and empties the contents of his stomach onto it. There's an alarmed gasp from whoever his companion is, and he's vaguely aware of someone's hands holding him up.

He blinks several times. He's... still on Vah Ruta, his head aches but he otherwise is in okay shape, and the ocarina is on the tile in front of him. He snatches it up, stashing it in the slate. Did it... work?

Well, something's clearly changed. The malice in the air isn't as heavy as it was. Actually, he can scarcely feel it at all, which is a major improvement.

"Link?" A hand is waved in front of his face. Red and white and— distinctly belonging to a Zora.

He makes a startled noise, looking over at—

Oh. Oh.

The Song of Time worked. The Song of Time worked a little too well. He can't keep his eyes from widening as he stares at someone who has been dead for a hundred years, yet now is—inexplicably—very much alive and kneeling in front of him, looking way more concerned than she should be. Or maybe exactly as concerned as she should be. Link can't and won't tell her what to do, not when he's pretty sure his actions got her killed.

"Please, tell me where it hurts," Mipha says gently, taking his hands in her own and giving them a gentle squeeze.  "I cannot heal you if I do not know what to heal." She withdraws her hands from his own, then, giving him an expectant look.

Link... hesitates. At last, he signs, "Head hurts. Not a problem, it's already getting better."

Mipha tsks audibly. She sets her hands on either side of Link's head, and the headache immediately starts to lessen. "Link, we have been over this. Now, what is happening? Where is Zelda? ...Is that her Sheikah Slate?"

He gulps. From the looks of things, they're not in the room with the main control panel, not even all that close to it. Actually, this looks like that one narrow hallway up above the main chamber, the one leading up to the waterspout trunk.

"I'll explain later," Link promises, and selfishly hopes he won't have to. "But Ganon is going to send some sort of... manifestation of himself here, to take over Vah Ruta and kill you."

"I... see," Mipha says, very slowly. "Link. I mean this in the nicest way possible. How hard did you hit your head?"

"No, no, I mean it," he signs desperately. He pulls out the ocarina from the slate again, brandishing it at her before putting it back to free up his hands. "I'm from the future, playing this somehow threw me back into the past, if you don't believe me—"

Mipha removes her hands from his head to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder. "I'm certain that you believe that, Link. And I am glad you are here, even if you should be with the Princess. If you're so worried about me, I only just arrived, I need to prepare Ruta here for our assault on Ganon. I shall inform the others that you are with me so they will not worry. There is no time to waste, come with me!”

Link nods, numbly, and follows her down into the control room.

At first, everything seems fine. Mipha situates herself at the control panel, her hands dancing lightly across it as Ruta groans and shifts around them. At last, she presses a button, looks at Link, and says, "Vah Ruta to all other Divine Beasts: I have a minor situation—"

She never gets to finish that sentence, because it is precisely then that Waterblight Ganon erupts from the console. All around them, the clear blue light of Sheikah technology becomes an angry red-purple, the color of malice so great it's condensed into a solid form.

The gate shuts behind them. They're both trapped in here, now.

They're both trapped in here, with the Waterblight, and the first thing it does upon arrival is to grab Mipha in one of its massive hands and bodily hurl her across the room. She hits one of the walls. Something audibly cracks. Mipha slumps to the ground.

Link hasn't managed a single verbal word since waking up with no memories in the Shrine of Resurrection. The scream that tears itself loose from his throat then, raw and misshapen and desperate, only bears a passing resemblance to his friend's name.

The second thing Waterblight Ganon does, just as he manages to reach her, is start flooding the room. Because of course it does that immediately. For his part, Link makes an extremely rude gesture at the Waterblight with his free hand, slinging his unconscious friend over his other shoulder, and presses the button on the Slate to warp out.

...It doesn't work.

Maybe he should have expected that. He is one hundred years in the past, after all.

A pained gasp escapes Mipha, and then a very soft, "I am alright, Link. Nothing is broken any longer. Please put me down."

Link does. There won't be much room for either of them to stand soon, which is going to make things much, much harder. Unless...

"Can you swim?" He asks, urgently.

Mipha's eyes look slightly glazed over with pain, her hands still glowing slightly where they're pressed to her side, but she nods. "How did you—"

"Ocarina," Link signs in explanation. There isn't really an actual sign for ocarina, and no time to make one up, so he fingerspells the word as fast as he can instead. "Mipha, I think I can kill it. But I’ll need your help.”

She nods, withdrawing her trident. It's smaller than the one with the statue had been. Though, of course, she's smaller than her statue had been, scarcely Link's height instead of towering over him like her (younger, older than she’d ever gotten to be) brother.

"Not that kind of help," he clarifies. "I have a bow, I can handle it from a distance. But not in the water."

"I see." Mipha nods, starting to return her trident to its place—then apparently thinks better of it, and holds it out to Link. "Store this in the slate, please? It will make carrying you much easier."

Link does so, right as Mipha dives into the rising waters. His boots are soaked by the time Mipha resurfaces, holding out a hand to him.

He takes it. She pulls him onto her back, and they're on the move. Mipha is smaller, so much smaller, than her brother is (or will be.) But she makes up for it in sheer speed, circling the Waterblight like a shark in the water as Link aims and fires, aims and fires.

"Hold your breath," she says suddenly, as Link's lining up a shot. He has just enough time to do that before she dives, carrying him with her, and a massive block of ice passes just inches above the surface of the water. But she doesn't resurface, not immediately. Instead, she swims closer to the Blight.

"Hand me my trident," Mipha says underwater. Her voice sounds different, deeper somehow, down here.

Link, his lungs screaming for air, withdraws it from the slate and does so. He stashes his bow, pulling out the heftiest weapon he's still got for good measure: a Zora spear.

"It can't hurt us under here," Mipha continues. "I wish I had thought of this sooner. I'm going to swim up as close as possible, then leap out inside its range, and..."

He nods. He gets it. He can't hold his breath for much longer, which is slightly impacting his ability to think clearly, but Mipha’s idea is simple enough.

Mipha must realize that, because the last thing she says, before they break the surface, is a moderately embarrassed, "Oh! Sorry!"

The Lightscale Trident hits home. So too does Link's Zora Spear, though both of their weapons shatter with the strike. The Malice-born creature screams, writhing, then dissipates into nothing. Vah Ruta's lights return to Sheikah blue, and the waters recede, leaving two exhausted warriors lying before the Beast’s controls.

“We… did it,” Mipha breathes, chest heaving. She turns her head to look over at Link, and smiles. “We actually did it. Thank you, Link, I am not certain that I could have done it without you.”

Too tired to raise his hands to sign, and with no desire to inform her that she would have died here if she was alone, Link simply nods. Maybe he can just close his eyes for a little while…

Except he can’t, because the next thing he knows he’s being dragged up into a sitting position, Mipha is giving him a look, and she asks, “Truly, Link— what is going on?”

Link blinks at her. So much for not having to explain.

He raises his hands, heavy as they (and everything else) feel right now. “Something… happened. I got separated from Zelda. I might have died? I woke up in the future and was told to free the Divine Beasts and Impa’s granddaughter gave me this ocarina and—”

“Slow down,” Mipha says gently. “Take a deep breath.”

Link does.

“Tell me everything that you can. Please.”

…Link does.

Everything takes quite a while, and yet not altogether that long, because Link has maybe two or three months worth of memories rattling around in his skull with a handful of confusing extras from Before. Link tells Mipha about waking up in the Shrine of Resurrection, about being spoken to by a voice he’d later realize was Zelda, about meeting and being cheated by the old man who was really a dead king. He tells Mipha about the road to Kakariko, about Impa and Paya and his strange horse Tatl. He tells her about Zora’s Domain in a hundred years—about her father and brother, about the statue erected in her honor, about what Vah Ruta has done and will do (and now, now that Link has somehow changed time itself, will hopefully never do again.)

Mipha listens, to her credit, running her cool fingers through his hair and not interrupting with each new and unbelievable revelation.

“That’s everything,” Link signs at last.

“Oh,” Mipha says.

Neither of them speak again, for a long time. At last, Mipha breaks the silence, sadness in her words. “I… have positioned Vah Ruta for an assault upon Calamity Ganon. But the other Divine Beasts… they are…”

“They were being attacked, too,” Link signs, before he realizes what it means. His eyes widen, and he scrambles to his feet. “I need to—”

“Link,” Mipha says sharply. “They were… already gone, by the time we had fought off the Waterblight. There was nothing else you could have done, so don’t you dare beat yourself up about it.”

He nods. He has every intention of beating himself up about it.

“We shall simply have to make this work, somehow. Somehow…” She sighs. “I need to make some final preparations for the assault on Ganon. And… the assault upon the other Divine Beasts, if it comes to that. May I ask something of you, Link?”

“Anything,” he signs without thinking.

“Go back to Zora’s Domain. Tell my father I am alright, and that I will be there soon. I will meet you there, and then… we can find Zelda, wherever she is right now.”

Link nods. The Slate still isn’t letting him warp out, which he does get even if it’s annoying, so he makes for the now unblocked doorway instead.

Mipha isn’t looking at him. Consequently, she doesn’t see what happens to Link. She only hears a cut-off yell—and by the time her head’s snapped over, less than a second later, he’s already gone.

His headache’s back with a vengeance, though that may be in large part due to the fact that he just opened his eyes to broad daylight from above. Link hisses at the sun scorching his eyeballs, and rolls over.

At least this time, he doesn’t feel the need to empty the contents of his stomach. Also, this time, he’s… outside. On that pier leading out to the reservoir Vah Ruta had been causing problems on purpose from.

The mechanical elephant bobs up and down quite contentedly in the water there. Its lights are still that clear, cold Sheikah blue, which is a relief. Even if he did get unceremoniously warped out of there, he supposes he kind of deserved it for how much he messed around with the elephant’s trunk.

Link looks up at the sun again—bad, bad idea—and frowns.

The sun hadn’t been visible at all, through the red haze of Calamity covering the sky, when he finished telling Mipha everything that had happened and would happen. Yet now, the sun is not only visible but high in the sky.

“Link! There you are!”

His head snaps up, because he knows that voice. It’s not a vague recollection, either, like all of the memories lost to him. No, he knows that voice because it’s Sidon.

Sidon, who looks just the same as he did when Link left him behind to board the Divine Beast. He grins that winning smile, helping Link to his feet, and says, “Is everything in order, my friend?”

Link’s heart sinks. He looks at Vah Ruta, then back at Sidon.

“Yes,” he signs. Better not to tell Sidon that he’d seen his sister, that he’d thought, somehow, he’d saved her.

“Excellent!” If it’s possible, Sidon’s smile grows. He claps Link on the back and says, “I am still not entirely certain as to what you were doing in there, my sister refused to tell me despite my best attempts at convincing her, but I am truly glad that it went well!”

Link starts to nod. Then, the impossible part of what Sidon just said slots into place, and his eyes widen. His hands are almost too shaky to sign well, but he steadies them enough to get out, “Your sister?”

“Yes! My sister! Mipha!” Sidon pauses, taking in Link’s utterly bewildered expression. “...Oh dear. You cannot possibly have forgotten her again, can you?”

He shakes his head. “I remember her.”

“Oh, good! That… that is a relief, I do not know how she would have taken you forgetting her a second time, but I suspect she would not have taken it well. You do remember me, yes?”

“I do, I promise,” Link signs. “Can… you take me to her? Your sister?” Despite his best efforts to the contrary, hope is swelling up in his chest again.

Time itself will reshape to the player’s greatest desire, was it?

If… if this is at all what it looks like… then Link will not complain at all.

…So, for one thing, Mipha is alive. Alive, and well, and she absolutely lights up the moment she lays eyes on Link.

For another: she’s taller than Sidon. By like a foot. Which Link is suddenly very, very aware of once she actually shrieks his name and tackles him in a hug so strong she nearly bowls him over.

There's baffled laughter from behind him: Sidon. Who says, "I... did not think that what Link was doing with your Divine Beast could possibly be that dangerous? He was not gone for that long!"

"Oh, it was not!" Mipha stands back, beaming. "And he was not. The last time I saw him was earlier today. But the last time he saw me was a century ago."

Link turns, just in time to see Sidon's features take on a look of unmistakable confusion.. "But... he saw you this morning?"

Mipha shakes her head. "I assure you, my dear brother, that I will explain everything to you later. Right now, there is something I need to discuss with him, alone. Could you, perhaps... Link, did you tell anyone that you were back?"

Sidon answers before he can: "No, he asked me to bring him directly to you. I thought that perhaps he was hurt..."

"I'm fine," Link signs, once both siblings look at him expectantly. "But I do need to talk to Mipha."

He fingerspells her name. He can't remember what sign he used for her name—the one memory he had of her, he hadn't done a whole lot of talking, just a lot of embarrassed staring out into space while Mipha chewed him out for being reckless again. Sidon looks at him a bit oddly.

"Can you tell Father that Link is alright, and that Ruta is ready for the assault upon Ganon?" Mipha asks.

Sidon nods, slowly. "Yes! I will do that. But after that, can one of you please, please, please! Tell a Zora what is going on here!"

"We will," Mipha promises.

"We will," Link signs, though it's much less of a promise.

Satisfied, Sidon leaves. It's only when neither of them can hear his footsteps any longer that Mipha exhales slowly, turns to Link, and says, "We had better determine what to tell my brother. I do not suppose that you think he would be willing to believe the truth?"

Link shrugs. The Sidon who had helped him get into Vah Ruta would have. But the Sidon who helped him get into Vah Ruta had lost his sister to the Calamity, a hundred years ago. To the manifestation of Ganon's malice that overtook her Divine Beast, Waterblight Ganon.

He'd fought that Waterblight alongside her. He'd killed that Waterblight alongside her.

"Not sure that I'm willing to believe the truth," Link signs, looking up at her. "But it's... good to have you back. Really, really good to have you back. What happened?"

Mipha's face falls. "You vanished, one hundred years ago, without a trace. I made my preparations to assault the Calamity, then I departed to search for you. I... did not find you. I did find Zelda, but you were already..."

"Dead?"

If it is possible for Mipha's face to fall further, it does. "Not quite, but... near enough. Perhaps if I had arrived sooner..."

"Hey. No." He signs that word again for good measure, at a dubious look from Mipha. "If I'm not allowed to blame myself for that, you aren't either."

Mipha sighs. "I can't believe you're using an argument I made a century ago against me now."

"It wasn't a century ago, for me!"

"No, it certainly was not." She smiles at him. It's not a particularly happy smile. "At any rate, I know that you... that you do not remember me. Zelda warned me that you might not, and I recalled what you said about the matter, and so... I waited."

Link's throat feels dry. Which is impressive, because he isn't even using it. "How long?"

"A hundred years... but you knew that already, and a century is not so long for a Zora, not compared to a Hylian." Mipha sighs, and crosses the room. She looks out at the reservoir, where Vah Ruta awaits her command. "It has been a hundred years, and a few months. Zelda was able to hold the Calamity back almost entirely at first, but either her power is weakening or she is weakening, and I worry for her. Lanayru has become nearly infested with monsters, particularly the kind that enjoy using electricity..."

"And electricity and Zora don't mix," Link realizes.

"Precisely. Ruta can handle the big camps, but only if she can reach them, and they have only become wiser and sneakier over time. So after what you told me, about how Sidon was searching for a Hylian... when it became a century since I had seen you last, I tasked my brother with finding a Hylian to help flush out the monsters that I could not. And that Hylian..." She nods to him. "I met you again just a few days ago, though I expect you don't remember it. You, Sidon, and I fought the Lynel atop Shatterback Point—"

"We what? How?"

Mipha looks back at him. She pulls aside the blue sash she's wearing, revealing a mostly-healed burn, and says, "Very carefully. It... was not quite carefully enough to avoid injury, but we survived. After... Sidon carried me back here. I asked you to check on Ruta, and... here we are."

Link stares a bit, even as she pulls the sash back over her burn. "Are you okay?"

"Yes! I am perfectly fine," Mipha assures him. "I am… fine now, at any rate. It barely grazed me."

He squints at her, and wonders if he would be more worried if he could remember the same events that she could. He doesn't have long to wonder.

"I... do not believe that anyone besides you can remember the old timeline, the one that you changed with the ocarina," Mipha continues. "And I expect—if you do the same thing as you did with me, with the others... I'm sure that my memories will change once again. Yours won't, since they did not here."

Starting to nod along, he suddenly freezes. "I can save the others!"

She grins at him. "That is my hope, yes. Though, in a hundred years... not all of us will be able to take the long way around, as I did. Daruk, perhaps, but..."

"I'll burn that bridge when I come to it," Link signs, and is treated to a snicker.

"I hope you will remember more about us, with time," Mipha says gently. "But if you do not... we will make new memories. You are still my friend and comrade, Link, and I have had a hundred years to think of how best to help you, once you were back. We will take down Ganon, this time, no matter what it takes."

Link nods, then hesitates. Carefully, he signs, "Is it okay if I hug you?"

Mipha stares at his hands, for a long moment. "...To tell you the truth, I am not certain whether it is you or I who would benefit more from it.”

Link isn't sure either, when he pulls away from her. He still can't remember much involving her, but—he knows he missed her. He really did.

And the fact that she's back? The fact that he has a chance to save the rest of their friends?

That means more than anything else in Hyrule, a hundred years ago or today.

Chapter Text

Death Mountain sucks.

Seriously, it sucks.  

It sucks less once he's stumbled into Goron City and gotten himself fireproof armor, armor that is hot and sweaty on the inside but most importantly doesn't have to be reapplied every five minutes like an elixir would. It also sucks less once he's met Yunobo, and remembered something with Daruk.

(It still sucks, though.)

"This is it, goro," Yunobo says, staring up at Vah Rudania. "You sure you'll be okay in there?"

Link grins at him. "I'll be fine."

"That's... good, but aren't ya a little worried? Whatever's inside there killed my gramps, goro. And everyone says he was way better with his Protection than I am, s’why they call it Daruk's Protection."

Link's grin lessens slightly, but he still nods.

Yunobo continues, "Then... I've got no right to ask you this, goro. But you gotta put an end to whatever killed him. Please... a-avenge him?"

"I will," Link signs. He hesitates for a moment, then continues against his better judgment, "I'll do better than avenging him. What if I told you I could bring Daruk back?"

The young Goron blinks at him, in a manner that seems a lot more owlish than a Goron has any right to be. "I'd... think you were crazy, goro. Or messin’ with me. But you're serious?"

"Very much so. I can travel back in time. Only inside Divine Beasts, but—it worked for Mipha."

(Mipha showed him the sign that he used for her, before he left Lanayru for Eldin. But Yunobo doesn’t know it, so he fingerspells her name before substituting it, after the first letter, with the sign for graceful.)

"Wait, Mipha? As in the Zora princess Mipha? We all heard about her, goro! She was the only champion to..." Yunobo grimaces. "To..."

"She wasn't, originally," he signs. "I went back in time and helped her fight off the Blight taking over her Divine Beast. And when I came back... nobody remembered that she had ever been dead, except me."

Yunobo scratches his head. "So... once you succeed, no one will remember Daruk had ever been dead, either?"

"Yeah. You'll forget that he was. The Zora who helped me get into Vah Ruta forgot that Mipha was." Though—before leaving Zora's Domain, Sidon had approached him, muttering something about very strange dreams before shaking his head and wishing Link well in his continued journey, so… a part of Link does wonder.

"Huh. That's... weird. Makes my head hurt, goro."

"Mine too," Link offers sympathetically.

"Could you tell Daruk something for me, goro?" Yunobo asks, looking down. "I'd tell him myself, except... I won't, since I wouldn’t have any reason to."

"Sure thing."

"Just... he's super strong, goro, and I can never live up to that. Except... that's what I used to think." The young Goron smiles. "I-I realized... it's not about not being scared. It's not about strength. It's about doing what you gotta, goro. No matter how strong or weak you think you are. I think I could live up to his legacy, goro. And I'm excited to meet him."

"Me too," Link signs, before he freezes.

Yunobo pauses. "Don't you... know him, goro?"

Link shrugs. "It's complicated. I'll explain later."

"O... kay," Yunobo says, as Link makes for Vah Rudania. He's almost inside when Yunobo suddenly shouts up after him, "Wait a minute, goro! I won't remember to ask you later!"

Though Link is far too high up to sign back at him now, and he probably wouldn't anyway—that was kind of the point. He waves instead, once his feet are on the relatively solid ground of Vah Rudania. Yunobo waves back, before he goes on in.

Fireblight Ganon also sucks. Link tries to play the Song of Time before activating the final terminal, much to the confusion of Daruk's lingering spirit, but it doesn't do anything, then. It doesn't do anything until Fireblight Ganon emerges.

It takes him a couple of tries to play the full song, because Fireblight Ganon is what could be colloquially referred to as a little bitch. On his last attempt, he knows he can't dodge the attack, but he turns his back to the Blight and keeps playing anyway.

"Link, what are you doing?" Mipha hisses in his mind, as her Grace keeps him from being burned into nothing but ash.

He finishes the song.

He has just enough time to shout, "Saving Daruk!" before he's gone again. If Mipha acknowledges it, he doesn't hear her response.

Link comes to, this time, cradled like a baby in massive rocky arms. There’s a voice he's only heard before from the spirit haunting Vah Rudania, and in the one memory he has from before he woke up covered in magic shrine juice.

"Little guy! C'mon, brother, you gotta wake up," says a deep voice that is probably... no, definitely Daruk. "Link..."

His vision's fuzzy, when his eyelids stop feeling so heavy he can't open them. He squints up at the massive Goron, trying to make his vision come back into focus.

"Link!" Daruk exclaims. "Good, you're awake. Speak to me, little guy!"

His arms feel heavy, too, but he can't let that continue. He has to be strong, or... or he'll have to watch Daruk die all over again and he can't let that happen.

So he raises his arms and signs, sluggishly, "Ganon's coming."

Daruk stares down at him. "Well... yeah? Did you hit your head or something?"

"Or something," Link signs. His head hurts a bit less now, at least. "He's coming for you. Can you put me down?"

"If you're sure..." Daruk sets him down on his feet. ...And then smacks him on the back so hard that he nearly falls over again. "What's goin' on, little guy? Aren't you supposed to be with the tiny princess?"

"Yes. No. It's complicated."

Somehow, the Goron looks even more confused. "Link. Brother. That doesn’t help.”

"I'm from the future and I'm here to save you," Link signs.

Weirdly, the truth seems to do some actual good. Daruk's brow furrows, but he nods. "Alrighty. Save me from what now?”

"Ganon is sending manifestations of itself into all four Divine Beasts. To kill you, and the other Champions." Link pauses, and takes a deep breath. He certainly doesn't need to take a deep breath when he's not actually speaking, but it helps him calm down. Somewhat. "Right now, I'm also waking up in Vah Ruta to help Mipha fight hers off. ...And I'm also with Zelda."

"You're makin' my head hurt here," Daruk says with a wry chuckle.

"Sorry," Link signs.

Daruk laughs louder and grabs the Cobble Crusher off his back, hefting it in one hand like it weighs nothing. Link knows from wielding the comparatively smaller Cobble Crushers that it weighs a whole fucking lot actually.

"Don't be, little guy! Though hey, if you're from the future, you wanna tell me what we're up against?"

"It... emerged from Mipha's control console, in Vah Ruta. And yours, here," Link signs, thinking about it a lot more than he had been before. "You told me... well, your ghost told me in the future that it was called Fireblight Ganon. It has a really big sword that hurts like a bitch to get hit by. And I wasn't done fighting it when I came to the past, but it had some kind of flaming ball blocking any attacks I tried to use on it."

Daruk strokes his beard thoughtfully. "Sounds kinda like my Protection, actually."

"...Yeah. That's the problem," Link signs. "Nothing can get through your Protection."

"I wouldn't say that." Daruk's face falls, as he looks over his shoulder, and Link realizes they're just a room over from Vah Rudania's main terminal. "What we'll need is to get something inside he misses. Somethin' he doesn't realize is an attack. Don't suppose you have any bombs on hand? I'd go grab some myself, but..."

"I do, actually." Link quite gleefully pulls one of the cubical ones out of the slate to show him, then frowns and puts it back. "The other kind's rounder, rolls better."

"That might just work," Daruk declares. He smacks Link on the back again—this time, Link manages to only stumble a little. "Let's kill this thing, little guy!"

To the surprise of absolutely no one, going in with a plan and not just coming up with one mid-fight goes much, much smoother.

That isn't to say that it goes smoothly, of course, because nothing Daruk does provokes the Blight into attacking until he touches the control panel. Then, and only then, does the Fireblight erupt out of it.

Daruk, of course, knows that it's coming, and buries his Boulder Breaker in its face. The massive sword it pulls out of nowhere in retaliation does nothing against his Protection, and Daruk actually laughs as he rolls backwards, retreating to stand beside Link.

"That all you got, Fireblight?" Daruk hollers. "You'll have to do better than that if you wanna kill the Great Daruk!"

Fireblight Ganon looks at Daruk, impossible to attack behind an impenetrable translucent red. It looks at Link, comparatively smaller and less well-guarded.

It makes a surprisingly rational decision, given the circumstances, and charges at Link instead.

"Hey!" Daruk growls. "Over here, ugly—"

Link backflips out of the way of its strike, just in time. Time seems to slow down around him.

He grins. He knows what that means. His body does, at any rate, even if his mind is still a little fuzzy on the specifics.

He doesn't need the specifics. Not to rush it, to strike again and again with the sword he'd gotten from one of the (many, many) shrine trials. Getting it to the point where it brings up its own bastardized form of Daruk's Protection goes... much, much faster this time, despite the fact that he hadn't actually thought Daruk hit it that much.

...Wow. Daruk doesn't hit often, Link's realizing—perhaps re-realizing—but he hits hard.

"Hey," he shouts, sounding a lot more offended this time. "You weren't kidding, little guy, that ugly pain in the crag really is copying me. Whaddya know? Like that'll stop us, right?"

Daruk grins, hefts his weapon again, and looks over at Link. His Protection flickers. "Right, Link?"

...He has to focus to keep his Protection up. Link doesn't know how he knows that, he can't remember ever being told that—but he does.

Link's eyes go wide. He mouths the words Daruk, duck! and—lacking anything better to do—he hurls his sword at the Blight. It breaks on impact with the fire shield, because of course it does. But it slows the Fireblight down, enough that when that massive sword comes crashing down—

Not enough. There's a cracking sound, a horrible cracking sound that Link's never heard before and hopes is just Daruk’s Protection. Just his Protection, and not anything worse. Like bones or backs.

(Hylia, what is his life coming to?)

"I'm fine!" Daruk calls, before the dust has fully cleared. Though the loud coughing from his direction suggests otherwise. “Protection’s down—I’m okay.”

Link nods. That just means it’s his turn. He pulls a spherical bomb out of the slate, holding it in both hands, and lobs it as far as he can.

It… doesn’t make it anywhere near the Fireblight. It rolls to a stop, pitifully, maybe half of the distance between them. Link stares at it. The Fireblight stares at it. Even Daruk, still coughing a little, stares at it.

Right. New plan!

He taps the button to explode the bomb, as a distraction if nothing else, and sprints towards Daruk.

“Hey, little guy,” Daruk says with a grin. Though his gaze goes to Link’s notable lack of a sword. “Wait, hang on, what happened to—”

Link shakes his head and gives him a look.

“Right. Not the time, huh,” Daruk says. “New plan?”

“New plan,” Link signs, and a part of him knows they’ve had that exchange more than a few times before. “Better plan.” He pulls out another bomb, mimes throwing it upward, and then points to Daruk’s Boulder Breaker.

Daruk follows his gaze. He nods. “Gotcha, brother. That, I can do.”

As Link watches, he shifts his grip on the stony weapon. Or, more accurately, he goes to take it in both hands, which is kind of terrifying, because Link’s seen what he can do with just one.

Fireblight Ganon screeches. Link tosses up the bomb, and then ducks before Daruk takes off his head in his enthusiasm. The bomb goes off like a shot, soaring across the arena—and through the shield!

Link slams the button to activate it, with maybe more force than is strictly necessary, and the bomb explodes. So, too, does the Fireblight.

“...Whoa,” Daruk says. “Damn, I gotta say—that might’ve been the toughest fight of my life.”

“Mine too,” Link signs. His legs feel like jelly. Will Daruk mind if he leans on him a bit? 

…Daruk won’t mind if he leans on him a bit.

Daruk does not, in fact, mind being leaned on a bit. Or a lot, as it ends up being. “Thanks for the help, little guy. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

Link nods. “Not sure I could have either.”

His friend nods, suddenly solemn. “Let’s get Rudania back on track, and this show on the road.”

“Wait,” Link signs, and Daruk stops. “I think me leaving here is the trigger for me going back to the future. The changed future.”

“The future you changed, huh?”

“The future we changed,” Link emphasizes.

“Heh. The future we changed,” Daruk repeats. “Gotta say, I like that. What now?”

“I tell you what would have happened, and won’t now.” He pauses, frowning. “If you want to know. Otherwise there’s just a few things—”

“I can tell it’s gonna hurt. But that’s a heavy burden for you to carry alone.”

“So…”

Daruk grins. He takes a seat, right there on the floor, and pats the floor next to him. “Tell me about it. Whatever you wanna share, brother. Whatever you think might help.”

And Link does. Daruk is… sad, but not surprised, to hear that Link had lost his memory. He’s pissed to hear what Ganon had done, to him and to the others. Glad, to hear that Zelda is okay… ish… if stuck in a castle sealing the Calamity away until Link can get his shit together enough to finish it off once and for all.

“I was wonderin’ why you didn’t have your sword,” Daruk remarks, at one point.

Link… pauses. What he was going to say is lost, so instead he signs, “My sword?”

“Yeah! It was a tiny little thing, but you had it as long as I knew ya. Tiny and strong, just like someone else I know.” He grins. Wonder where that sword ended up? Everyone did always make a big deal outta it. Called it a sword that sealed the darkness, or somethin’ like that.”

There’s a pit in the bottom of Link’s stomach. He’s forgotten something very important. “No one else has told me anything about a sword…”

“You found it once. I bet you can find it again. Bet it’s just waitin’ for you, somewhere off the beaten path.”

“Yeah…” Link looks down. “How long do Gorons live?”

Daruk raises an eyebrow. “Why do ya— oh. Got it. See, this isn’t gonna be super encouraging, but it depends.”

“...What?”

“Some Gorons, yeah, they don’t even make it as long as you Hylians,” Daruk says. “Usually the real reckless ones.”

“Like you?”

Daruk laughs. “I can afford to be reckless. I’ve got Protection.” As if in response, a slightly-cracked red flares to life around him. “For the most part, barring anything real catastrophic like fallin’ in a volcano or a river… we’re pretty durable. Don’t really die until we’re killed. Sorry if that wasn’t what you were lookin’ for.”

“That’s… great, actually,” Link signs. “Really reassuring! Means that when I go back to the future…”

“Yeah, I’ll still be around. Got no intention of up and dyin’ on you. But…” Daruk grimaces. “Mipha’ll be fine, Zora live a lot longer than Hylians. Urbosa and Revali…” 

“I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it,” Link signs, with maybe a little more force than necessary. He just found out that he can save his friends. He isn’t about to let them die all over again.

Daruk laughs, and smacks him (slightly too hard) on the back. “I’m sure you will, brother! I’m sure you will. You said you helped out Mipha first, right?”

Link nods. “I’m not sure where I’ll go next, but I’ll figure something out. Probably Urbosa, since I’ve already got all the hot weather gear from climbing Death Mountain.”

“Mmm, the desert is a different kinda heat,” Daruk warns. “But you’re good at figurin’ things out on the fly. I’ll seeya in a hundred years, then. Plenty of time to meet up with Mipha, see if we can’t track down wherever that sword of yours got off to. And when you’re back, I’ll have some of Goron City’s finest rock roast waitin’ for you, you got that?”

“Sounds good,” Link signs. He blinks. “Wait, rock roast?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the best kinda food there is!” Daruk sounds horrified. “Least I get to introduce it to you all over again now. You’re gonna love it!”

“Can’t wait,” Link signs, and wonders if the sudden twist in his gut is some side effect of fighting Fireblight Ganon or a warning against Daruk’s rock roast. “See you in a century.”

Once again, he wakes up near Vah Rudania. This time—quite unlike with Mipha and Vah Ruta—he doesn’t wake up alone.

“Is he okay, Gramps?” asks a voice Link can’t quite place. Yet.

“Yeah, he’ll be just fine,” rumbles Daruk in response. “You back with us yet, little guy?”

Link’s already signing as he wrenches his eyes open. “I’m back.”

Daruk chuckles. “Glad to hear it. Been a while, huh?”

Yunobo— Yunobo —looks confused. “What’s that supposed to mean, goro? He hasn’t been asleep that long. Hey, Mister Link? Are you okay? Are Hylians supposed to just fall asleep like that?”

“Not usually,” Link signs back, sitting up. “This is a bit of a special case.”

“What kind of…” Yunobo trails off. He looks at Daruk, pleased as punch. He looks back at Link. “Oh. Oh! Oh, it happened, didn’t it!”

Link blinks. He was not prepared for this much enthusiasm right after getting back to the future. “Yeah…? Daruk?”

Daruk looks a little too proud of his grandson. If that’s possible. “Yeah?”

“What did you tell him?”

His grin widens. His beard’s a great deal longer than it was when Link last saw him, and it’s streaked with grey. But it’s still the same old Daruk, and Link doesn’t doubt for an instant that he still packs a wallop. “Just what you told me, brother. With a few things added in, here and there, for spice. Had to keep the little tyke entertained for his bedtime stories, y’know?”

“Gramps!” Yunobo’s grinning, even as his words carry the tone of a complaint. “I’m not that little anymore!”

“Anymore,” Daruk teases.

And this—this feels right. Daruk getting to know his grandson. Yunobo getting to grow up with his grandfather. He doesn’t know, not for sure, how much change Goron City will have seen—but he’s sure there's something.

There are exactly three things Link is sure of, by the time he heads down Death Mountain.

One, while Daruk and Mipha were able to figure out that his sword was somewhere in a forest, neither of them were completely sure which forest, but there couldn’t be that many big forests in Hyrule. Also, Daruk had a warning to pass on from Mipha that when Zelda had put it back, she’d taken precautions to make sure no one besides him picked it up, and he should be careful.

Two, the differences in Goron City are much more pronounced than the differences in Zora’s Domain. The only real changes Link had noticed in Zora’s Domain was that there were a lot more Zora—probably due to Mipha’s healing powers not dying with her—and a notable lack of a statue to the long-lost princess. But there are a lot more Gorons, and a lot more faces carved into the rock alongside Daruk’s, and Goron City’s tourism industry seems to be alive and thriving.

Three, he does not like rock roast. (Sorry, Daruk.)

He does manage to find the sword, eventually. It's precisely where Zelda had left it a hundred years ago: a pedestal in the depths of Korok Forest.

Trying to draw it nearly kills him. The Great Deku Tree winces sympathetically, and suggests perhaps he had better strengthen himself a little more before coming back.

So he does.

Chapter Text

Link had intended to go for Urbosa and Vah Naboris next. Really, he had. But after using up all of his arrows in an attempt to get a shrine to open itself to him, complaining to Kass about it, and being informed that Rito Village sold arrows—not to mention being given a message to take to Kass’s wife, should he happen to go that way—it seemed like the best course of action.

It seems a lot less like the best course of action when he remembers something, standing there on Revali’s Landing.

“This… may be a little difficult,” Mipha says, when he pops back to the Zora’s Domain shrine to get her advice. “He can be... prickly, at the best of times, and this is not at all... Are you certain that you cannot save Urbosa first?”

Link shakes his head. “I need arrows for the desert. Also, apparently my Death Mountain gear doesn’t work in the desert. I’ve got an itchy doublet from a cranky old ghost, and Rito Village sells colder weather gear if I can scrounge up the rupees for it.” He pauses. “Also, Vah Medoh is… the Rito need me now. I’m pretty sure the Gerudo will be okay for a little while.”

Mipha nods. There’s a certain sadness in her eyes when she says, “Revali may be… difficult, to persuade. But I have faith in your abilities, Link, and in you. If all else fails… the part of my Grace that I have given you should still work for others.”

“...Should,” Link signs, dubiously.

“As I said,” Mipha says gently, “if all else fails.”

So Revali, even in death, is kind of an asshole.

Windblight Ganon, from the moment that it comes crawling out of Vah Medoh’s controls, is much more of an asshole. 

“What are you doing now?” squawks a voice from nowhere, as Link pulls out the ocarina. “Do you truly think now is the time for—for whatever that is?”

He rolls his eyes. And he asks Daruk, in the back of his mind, to lend him his Protection. Daruk quite happily obliges, with a warning that it won’t hold for long. That’s fine. He doesn’t need it to hold for long. It just needs to hold for long enough.

“I’m saving your life, you feathery asshole,” Link signs to the ceiling, and then he plays the Song of Time as fast as he dares.

He wakes up.

He wakes up alone, somewhere in the passages underneath Vah Medoh's main deck, which is weird... but not all that weird when he thinks about it. Revali wouldn't care enough to stick around to see what the fuck he was doing here. Not in general, and definitely not when things were in the middle of going horribly, horribly wrong.

He sits up. His head hurts, though not as much as it could, and something slides off him when he does. He looks down.

...Is that a blanket?

It certainly looks like a blanket. And it feels like a blanket. It's surprisingly warm, dyed green on one side and blue on the other, with the same symbol woven into both sides of it in white that was painted onto the deck of Revali's Landing.

Huh. Maybe Revali does care, a tiny bit. Or maybe he just didn't want Link to freeze to death on his Divine Beast, which is a little (a lot) more likely.

Link considers this, and tucks the blanket away into the slate. He's keeping it. It's a nice blanket, and if Revali doesn’t want him to steal his blankets then maybe he should be less of an asshole.

Speaking of Revali, Windblight Ganon shouldn't be too difficult between the two of them. He just needs to find the Rito Champion, let him know what's going on, and come up with a plan.

...Or, while Revali is off sulking, maybe Link can just handle the Windblight without him. He's pretty sure that he could have, in the past—it was created to kill a primarily ranged attacker, and hadn’t seemed to know what to do with Link and his swordplay. 

So he takes a deep breath, draws the sword that isn't his sword, and makes for the main terminal.

It isn't Revali yelling that clues him into the fact that something is very, very wrong. It's an explosion, a scream, a loud thud of something crashing into the deck. And then silence. Horrible, horrible silence.

Link rushes out onto the main deck in time to see a crumpled mass of blue-black feathers scarcely recognizable as Revali, and the Windblight leveling its cannon to deal the finishing blow. Link's eyes go wide. He throws himself between Revali and the cannon, spreading his arms out to block as much as possible.

And as the cannon fires, Link does the only thing he can, and reaches for Daruk's Protection.

(He has no idea if that will work in the past. But he has to try.)

Careful, little guy, I'll only be able to block one more hit like... that... The part of Daruk that travels with him pauses, apparently taking in the situation. He tried to fight that thing alone, huh?

Yep, Link thinks back, thoroughly irritated. Asshole.

He crouches next to Revali. He's breathing, which is a massive fucking relief. His wings are wrapped in a death grip around the burned beyond recognition remnants of... something...

...Oh. Oh, fuck, the Windblight's smarter than Link thought it was. It must have aimed to disarm him first, with... explosive results.

That's got to be what's left of his bow.

(He has the distinct and very sudden feeling that if Revali was conscious right now, he would be trying to kill the Windblight for that alone.)

Link, Daruk says urgently. I can't—

I don't need long, Link thinks back fiercely. But he's going to die if we stay here. Unless—Mipha?

I will not be able to help again should one of you be hurt again later, Mipha warns him. But the soft blue light of her healing magic is already swirling to life out of him, encircling Revali, and the Windblight is nice enough to just watch what's happening instead of trying to attack again. Either nice, or just confused.

If Link had any rupees to put on it after spending so much on his own set of comfy-cozy Snowquill Armor, he'd put his money on confused, because the Calamity doesn't do nice.

"Link?! What are you even—"

"Good to have you back," Link signs, only halfway sarcastic.

"Back? What do you mean— my bow!" An indignant squawk very quickly becomes a horrified one.

"It was already destroyed when I got up here." He hesitates, then adds, "Sorry."

Revali's feathers look quite literally ruffled to say the least, but he stares at Link for a long time before nodding. "It's... fine, it isn't as if it was my Great Eagle Bow. I didn't have time to... enough about that! Enough about me! What are you doing here, how are you even here, don't you have some darkness to seal—where is your sword?"

Link winces. "It's complicated."

Explaining as little as he can get away with in battle is always his least favorite part of this. Especially since—his gaze snaps to the side, at the Windblight.

He has just enough time to tackle Revali and call upon Daruk again before the blast hits. Daruk's Protection shatters around them with a loud crack, but both of them are unhurt, and that's the important part.

That's all the help I can give ya, Daruk says, sounding quite put out about that fact. Don't either of you go dyin' on me, alright?

And he's gone. So is Mipha. They're not really gone, of course—on the other side of Hyrule, another Link is helping Daruk destroy Fireblight Ganon, and yet another Link is fighting desperately alongside Mipha to stop Waterblight. He's stronger than both of those Links. Not stronger than the one about to lay down his life for Zelda, of course, but—details.

"What the fuck," Revali hisses, and Link realizes he hasn't actually let go of Revali. "Was that Daruk's—"

Link nods. In lieu of explaining, he pulls the best bow he's got out of the slate and shoves it into Revali's wings.

"This is a Hylian bow, you brainless nincompoop, of course I can still use it but it won't be—"

Link draws the sword that isn't his, pulls a pot lid out of the slate to act as a shield—the Windblight's beam had looked at least somewhat like a Guardian's, and worst case scenario he can still at least block it—and charges at the Windblight before Revali can get another word in.

"Fine! Fine, we'll take this down first," Revali calls after him, and he feels rather than sees the Gale's winds behind him. "But as soon as we have, I expect answers."

...Yeah, Link's really not looking forward to giving them.

Alright. So he's not going to admit this to Revali's face. But with Link keeping the Windblight's attention off him, and more importantly the Windblight's cannon arm off him, Revali is actually a scarily good shot with a bow. Definitely far better than Link is. He's not sure the Rito has missed a single shot, actually, which is more than any other parties involved can say.

The miniature tornadoes are a surprise and an unwelcome one. One of them sends Link flying up and out, away from Vah Medoh. He goes for his paraglider.

Revali reaches him first. Blue wings wrap around him in midair, as Revali angles their freefall into a dive, and deposits him none too gently back on the deck.

"Now we're even," Revali says, and takes back to the sky, out of range of the Blight's non-cannon attacks.

Link nods, and rushes at the Windblight once more. It has to be flagging, now.

...And it is, because one more hit from his sword sends it careening backwards and off of Vah Medoh entirely. Link sprints up to the edge, watching it fall, until he sees it dissipate into nothing but free-floating Malice on the way down.

Revali lands beside him. "It's dead."

"It's dead," Link signs in agreement.

"Good riddance," the Rito says, with more vehemence than expected. He slings the borrowed bow on his back—evidently he has as much intention of giving back that bow as Link has of giving back the blanket from earlier, which is fair— and crosses his wings. "Now. Start explaining. What are you doing here, and why were you able to use Daruk's power?"

"Mipha's too," Link clarifies, just to set the record straight. “Or you wouldn’t be up at all.”

Revali stares at him. "What the fuck is going on?"

Link tells him. And if he embellishes a bit, here and there, to make himself look like less of an idiot in front of someone who already thinks he's one? That's no one's business but his own. 

"I... see," Revali says after he's told him about what Rito Village is like in a hundred years. The first thing he's said in a while, which—Link doesn't know for sure, he can't remember much, but that strikes him as odd.

"I thought you would be more annoyed that the Windblight killed you," Link signs.

"You clearly don't remember me as well as you think you do, in that case." Revali sighs and turns away, looking out at the Hebra landscape. From here, Link can actually make out what must be Rito Village, underneath that distinctive shaped rock. Though it's... a lot bigger than it will be, in a hundred years, and it hurts to think too hard about why. "Everyone dies someday, and I knew full well that it would be rather likely for me to meet my end facing the Calamity. But I thought that it would at least... mean something. I never expected for us to fail."

"Sorry," Link signs, for all the good it will do.

Revali... pauses. "For the longest time, I wasn't aware that word was even in your vocabulary. And now that it is, of course, you manage to use it too much in lieu of too little. Even you should know better than to apologize for something that was not your fault."

Link raises an eyebrow. "I'm... not sorry, then?”

The Rito huffs, and looks away. "This new version of you is significantly better than the old. And yet it seems I am fated not to know this new you for very long at all."

"What do you mean? I'll see you again in a hundred years, once I go back."

"No," Revali says, slowly, as if he is talking to a child. "You will not. Do you remember anything about the Rito?"

This feels like a trick question. "...Besides the obvious?"

(Revali has no way of knowing that the first thing he’d said to Kass was, Are you a bird?)

"Yes, besides the obvious," Revali snaps. "Tell me. Of all the Rito you met in the Rito Village of the future, how many of them knew me personally?"

Link thinks about it. The more he thinks about it, the more he realizes where Revali is going with this. "No one did. The Elder, Kaneli, assumed that I had to be a descendant of the Hylian Champion. Nothing I said to convince him otherwise worked, because he said that... nobody lives that long."

"No Rito does, at any rate. It's said that the Rito are descended from the Zora, and yet they are among the longest-lived people in Hyrule, while we…" Revali clicks his beak absentmindedly, and eventually says, "I won’t be there anymore when you return to the future."

"Well that's just fucking unfair," Link signs, because he did not go to all the trouble of saving his... fellow Champion's life just to have him die of old age. (Calling Revali a friend is a little farther than he's willing to go right now.)

"Yes, it very much is, thank you for noticing." Revali's scowl deepens. "First, you relegate me to the position of sidekick, and now you tell me that I won't even live to make Ganon taste the sting of my revenge?"

"I don't know what else to do. I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing for things that aren't your fault, and let me think." Revali looks down. "You said that you were returned to the past when you left the other Divine Beasts?"

"When I left the main room, anyway," Link signs. "Which for Vah Medoh..."

"—would just be the top deck," Revali reasons. Suddenly, there's a new look in his eyes.

Link isn't sure he likes (or trusts) that look. "What are you—"

"Hold still," Revali informs him, far too cheerfully.

Link doesn't have enough time to do anything but hold still before Revali bodily tackles him off the side of his own Divine Beast.

They both vanish. And Vah Medoh, lacking a pilot or any further instructions, starts to fall.

Link wakes up alone, curled up against the base of Medoh's control panel. He's shivering, even in the Snowquill Armor that keeps him from freezing. He's... pretty sure he would have long since frozen to death without it.

It's cold. Too cold.

With a start, Link realizes that the main deck is covered in snow. A lot of snow. For a second, he's not sure if this even is Vah Medoh's control panel, except... it has to be, it had a very distinctive shape. Mountainous, craggy, just like the Hebra region itself.

...The main deck is tilted at an angle. And when Link looks around, he realizes that the mountains around them are much higher than they should be. Or higher than they would be, if it was in the air. Which it's not. Why is it not in the air? And where's Medoh's pilot?

"...Revali?" Link whispers, out loud.

There's no answer. Something has gone very, very wrong.

He pulls out his slate, opening up the map, and... oh. Oh, fuck. Vah Medoh is really far away from any shrines. And halfway buried in the mountains.

Link swallows, tries to bury the growing horror somewhere in his gut, and hits the button to travel to the shrine in Rito Village. Maybe there, he'll be able to get some answers.

Teba glances over his shoulder at Tulin, lowers his voice, and whispers, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Link stares. He signs, "I'm sorry?"

"No one's even seen Vah Medoh since Champion Revali disappeared with it, over a century ago. At least, not until..." Teba sighs. "Look, you must have hit your head, so I'll do you a favor and recap. You arrived about a week back, looking for that thing and claiming you could make it work again. Maybe even figure out what happened to Revali. Harth and I thought we might have found it, but on our way to take you there, we got attacked by... I'm not even sure what it was, though it seemed to work a lot like one of those Guardians."

Medoh's cannons. That had still happened, even if Teba hadn't known those were Medoh's cannons.

"So you went back," Link signs. "And I kept going."

"Now you've got it. Did you at least find the thing?"

He nods. "I... couldn't get it working."

"Fair enough, nobody could but Revali, and he’s…" Teba hesitates. "Did you find any sign of what happened to him?"

Link can't keep his shoulders from sagging. He shakes his head. "No, I didn't."

"Damn pity," Teba mutters. "Would have at least liked to know.”

"...Yeah. Me too."

A trip first to Mipha, then to Daruk, confirms it. By the time either of them had made it out to Vah Medoh to check it out, the Divine Beast was deserted, and there was no sign of Revali or what had happened to him.

"What did go down?" Daruk asks, before Link can teleport back to... anywhere but here. "I know ya needed my Protection, hope it helped—"

"It did," Link signs. "It helped a lot. Once the Windblight was dead, I told Revali what was going on, and then he tackled me off Vah Medoh and I woke back up in the future."

Daruk lets out a low whistle. "Damn, brother. Didn't think he hated ya that much."

"...There were some other things in between that. I don't think he hates me that much either. Or at least I hope he doesn't... I know he didn't die. Not from the Windblight."

"And the Rito are just... actin' like nothing changed, huh?"

"Almost nothing. Instead of turning against the Rito, Medoh just buried itself in the mountains for a century. And no one has any idea of what happened to Revali."

Daruk winces, and pats Link on the back sympathetically. "Maybe you'd better figure out what happened with him before trying anything with Urbosa. Just to be safe.”

"You're right," Link signs, and he hates it.

"Why, hello there!" Kass says, after finishing a song on his bandoneon. "How have you been, Link?"

"Good," Link signs on instinct. "I gave your wife that message. She wanted me to tell you she loves you, your kids love you, and they hope you can come home soon."

Kass sighs, and looks wistfully at the road. "I... hope that I can too. More permanently, at any rate, though I'm close enough to home now that I would strongly consider visiting even ignoring recent events."

Link nods absently, following Kass's gaze towards the nearby Rito Village. There seems to be a bit more activity than normal—Teba must have passed on that he’d found Vah Medoh after all.

"In the meantime, I need your help."

"My help?" Kass's eyebrows shoot up. "Of course, but whatever with?"

"This is going to be a little weird to ask, but you're the most likely I know of to know something," Link signs. "I need to find out what happened to Champion Revali."

"I... see." Kass lowers his instrument. "You haven't heard, then?"

"Heard what?"

"It is, of course, common knowledge that the Champion disappeared alongside his Divine Beast one hundred years ago,” Kass says slowly, studying Link’s face. “He reappeared two days ago.”

Link’s eyes widen. “What?”

“Apparently, he just flew into the village, scarcely a day older than when he disappeared,” Kass continues absently. “And of course, all I have heard are rumors, but they are from a rather reputable source as far as rumors go, and I could hardly call myself a bard—or a Rito worth his feathers!—if I did not go to verify them myself. Would you care to accompany me?”

“I would,” Link signs, truly hopeful for the first time since he woke up alone aboard Vah Medoh.

On his way through Rito Village, searching desperately, Link freezes in his tracks. Because there, standing with his back to him upon the landing bearing his name, is…

“Don’t just stand there,” Revali says sharply, turning to face him. “Don’t you have anything to say?”

Link considers this. Then he signs, “Bitch.”

Revali, the unrepentant bastard, laughs. “I suppose that is warranted, after the stunt I pulled. In my own defense, I hardly wanted to get your hopes up when I wasn’t certain it would work myself.”

“...You didn’t tackle me off your Divine Beast just because you were tired of talking to me,” Link signs, dubiously. “Or for shits and giggles.”

“Of course not!” Revali pauses. “It may have been slightly, as you so crudely put it, for shits and giggles. The fact of the matter remains: it worked. I’m still here.”

Slowly, Link nods. “Why weren’t you there when I woke up? You could have at least left me some kind of a sign.”

Revali’s expression sours. “I did wait, before you go accusing me of anything untoward. We arrived on Medoh shortly after sunrise. You had not woken up by the next sunrise. Which is, by the way, far longer than you were unconscious for the previous time you decided to take a nap aboard my Divine Beast.”

…Oh. He was worried.

It would probably be like pulling teeth to get Revali to admit it—do Rito even have teeth? He doesn’t remember, and it would be really awkward to ask—so Link just signs, “Sorry. That’s a side effect of the ocarina. I was out for a while on both sides of going back for Mipha and Daruk.”

Revali gives him a long look. And then he says, quietly, “Has it been longer every time?”

Link considers it. “I think so. But I can’t stop now. I’ve got to save Urbosa, too. And I’ve got to get my sword back.”

“I did notice a certain lack of that signature weapon of yours, yes,” Revali says dryly.

Meanwhile, Link is… thinking. And connecting dots. “You really were worried about me.”

“Lies and slander. I knew you would be alright, should I leave you alone for a while, and my own stature would not allow me to carry you all the way back to the village. Additionally, it is physically impossible for even you to freeze in a full set of Snowquill, and while I would have left you a blanket regardless, most of the stash I kept aboard Medoh did not survive the last century and my favorite one mysteriously went missing.”

“Is this it?” Link asks, pulling the blanket he’d woken up with the first time partially out of the Slate.

“...It is,” Revali says. “At this point, you may as well keep it. Consider it yours.”

Link, who had precisely zero intention of returning the blanket even if Revali did want it back, nods, stows it away again, and resists the urge to throw it at Revali’s face just to spite him.

“So,” Revali says.

“So,” Link signs, looking at him. “...I’m glad you’re still here. I thought, for the past week, that I’d somehow fucked up so badly I’d erased you from existence. Or something.”

Revali opens his beak. He closes it again.

“Will wonders never cease,” he says at last. “What do you intend to do from here?”

“I’ll see if I’m strong enough to pull the sword. If I’m not, I’ll go free Urbosa.” Link takes a deep breath. “All I need you to do is prepare Vah Medoh to fire against Ganon. I can handle the rest on my own.”

“Which I will quite happily do, should you reactivate my Divine Beast.”

Link blinks. “What.”

“You, or perhaps we, did something wrong. Whatever it is, I’m sure that strange device of yours can fix it.”

“...The slate or the ocarina?”

“Both! Either. Something will simply have to work, because I refuse to sit this one out.”

Link nods. “Let’s see if the slate can take us both back there, then—the waypoint is still active, even if Medoh isn’t.” He holds out a hand. 

Revali eyes it dubiously, like Link is a carrier of some contagious disease. He takes Link’s hand in his wing. His feathers are warm, and softer than Link expected, and for a moment Link wonders what else he has forgotten. Though in his defense, he doesn’t think Revali liked him enough to give him the time of day, never mind to spend any time willingly within close proximity to him. He can’t have forgotten something that never happened to begin with.

Maybe, just maybe, they can at least be friends now.

The Sheikah Slate cannot, in fact, transport multiple people at once. One very embarrassed trip to see Purah gets her working on fixing that, though Revali is more than capable of flying there and back on his own in the meantime. Before too long, Vah Medoh is reactivated, perched above Rito Village, and pointed at Ganon.

Link takes another trip to the forest, once that’s settled, to reclaim his sword… or to try to. An hour later, he returns to the village shrine, stumbles down several sets of stairs, and promptly collapses into one of the inn beds.

“No luck this time, eh?” is the first thing he hears the next morning. Link considers responding, only for the voice—Revali, who else would it be—to continue, “It’s strange. I was so cruel to you, all because of that sword, and now that it’s gone I almost find myself missing it.”

Strange isn’t the word Link would use. Maybe ironic.

Any thoughts of signing or saying as much vanish when Revali continues, in a much lower voice, “All things considered, I’d rather have you than some silly sword that did neither of us any good last time. You’re certainly much less… irritatingly blank without it.”

Okay, at this point, he definitely can’t let Revali know he’s awake. It’s fortunate that Link tends to sleep on his side, then, and that Revali’s voice is coming from behind him.

Revali’s voice—and suddenly a quiet, forlorn laughter.

“How far have I fallen, that I can confide in no one but you? I did not consider until after I had already jumped that I would be leaving everything I knew behind, in favor of a mere chance at vengeance. If I had stopped to think about it…” Revali sighs. “I don’t know if I would have followed you to the future or not. My decisions have been made, and I will abide by them now.”

There’s another sigh, longer and slower. 

And Revali murmurs, almost too quietly for Link to hear, “It’s the least that I can do, after how spectacularly I have failed everyone depending on me.”

Link only dares to breathe after a sudden swoosh of air makes it pretty obvious that Revali’s flown out the window. He hadn’t realized that he was holding his breath in the first place.

Chapter Text

Link does not find out that Revali has invited himself along on his quest to free Hyrule upon his departure from Rito Village. The single blue-feathered figure standing atop Vah Medoh, watching him head south on horseback, rather implies the opposite.

He does not find this out upon his arrival in Gerudo Desert, either—though maybe the weirdly knowing look that Kass had given him after asking after the Rito Champion should have clued him into the fact that something was going on.

But no, he finds this out after he goes to all the trouble of wearing clothes that get him gendered very differently than he normally settles for, and during his meeting with the (small, too young) Chief of the Gerudo, because Revali comes flying in through the doorway with at least three guards in hot pursuit and, in his rush, flies directly into a stone pillar.

“Link!” Revali blurts out, scrambling to his feet. And then he pauses, squinting, and goes— “What are you wearing?”

…At this point, Link wouldn’t even blame Riju for throwing them both out and making them reckon with Vah Naboris on their own.

It’s probably for the best that she’s apparently inherited her great-grandmother’s sense of humor—and, possibly more importantly, her great-grandmother’s healthy respect for loophole abuse.

He doesn’t get any real answers out of Revali until the pair of them have been sent off to steal back a certain Gerudo artifact from the Yiga Clan. He doesn’t even get a chance to ask until Revali takes a break to breathe before launching back into a rather long-winded tirade about how of course the Yiga are still around, it’s not like they’d have the courtesy to die off or at least leave everyone else alone after their master had essentially won.

It’s only then that Link clears his throat and signs, “Why are you here?”

Revali blinks. “Do you think me incapable of realizing that my actions likely contributed to our being tasked with this, instead of… oh, I don’t know, someone slightly more capable of stealth than the pair of us?”

“Weren’t you listening? Riju said they’d tried that before. No one that made it inside ever came back, stealth or no.”

“Unfortunately rather characteristic of dealing with the Yiga, or they’d have been flushed out from their little hideaway a century prior,” Revali mutters.

“Anyway!” Link waves a hand in front of his beak. “That isn’t what I meant. Why are you here?”

“Because we were—”

“Why are you with me at all!”

Revali opens his beak, but not enough to say anything. He slowly closes it again, without saying anything. 

“Ah,” he says at last. “Well.”

Link raises an eyebrow. “You made it pretty clear that you didn’t want anything more to do with me than you had to.”

At least, he made that clear when he knew Link was listening. Link hasn’t brought up that quiet moment in the inn, partially because he’s not sure he didn’t dream it and partially because he doubts doing so would result in anything but vehement denial of Revali doing any such thing.

Still. He’d like to know, on the off chance Revali is willing to tell him.

“Rito Village has… changed, quite extensively, over the past century,” Revali mutters. “I knew that surely it must have, but knowing that and seeing it for myself are… two different things. The achievements I worked my entire life for are seen not as something anyone could do with enough hard work, but completely unattainable for anyone but me, and I…”

“I thought you wanted to be a legend,” Link signs.

“Not like this. The village is my home; that will never change, whatever time period I find myself in. But there are too many new faces, too many echoes of those I knew once and never will again.” Revali sighs, shaking his head. “It’s almost a kindness, that you can’t remember those you left behind.”

Link’s… vaguely aware of the fact that he had a family, in the times before the Calamity. Mipha’s alluded to it. Daruk’s gone to rather extreme lengths not to allude to it. A part of him wonders—what did happen to them?

The rest thinks perhaps he’s better off not knowing until the Calamity is defeated, once and for all. Like it should have been the first time, and wasn’t, because they weren’t ready.

“Do you regret it?” Link asks. “Coming to the future?”

Revali doesn’t answer at first. He only looks up, at the sandstorm that seems to (finally, finally) be clearing enough for visibility. Link is half expecting him to take off the moment that he can do so again.

He doesn’t. Instead, he looks back at Link.

“I don’t believe that matters,” Revali says tightly. “I swore to pilot Vah Medoh in the assault against the Calamity, and I can hardly do that if the assault against the Calamity will only occur decades after my death. Does that answer your question?”

Link considers this. At last, he signs, “You don’t know. Do you?”

The glare Link gets is an answer in itself, and not a reassuring one. Revali stops walking then, crouching in the sand, spreading his wings to call upon his Gale. Evidently, this conversation is over.

Though perhaps it isn’t, because before Revali leaps into the sky, he says over the wind, “If it’s Urbosa you are worried about, I don’t anticipate that she’d choose to leave Zelda.”

He soars. Link watches him do it. And then, as the wind ruffles his hair teasingly, he pulls out his paraglider and shoots up as well. The squawk of surprise Revali makes at a sudden addition to his airspace is hilarious, even if Link can’t maintain altitude as well as he can.

And, for however little time that Link can glide, it’s much, much faster than trudging through the sand.

The Yiga Clan is kind of terrifying. Or, more accurately, they are terrifying, no kind of necessary… right up until Revali nearly gets caught, Link throws a bunch of bananas at a guard in an attempt to distract him, misses horribly—and the guard is, bafflingly, distracted anyway.

After that particular revelation—and especially after the rather anticlimactic battle with one Master Kohga—the Yiga pretty quickly go from kind of terrifying to not terrifying at all. Riju certainly is happy—if about as confused as Link still feels—to hear about the Yiga’s greatest and weirdest weakness.

The important thing is that the Thunder Helm is back. Which means that Link can take on Vah Naboris, with Riju’s help, and… hopefully, one way or another, save Urbosa.

One more Divine Beast shouldn’t be that hard, not when Link’s already fought three and their respective Blights. Waterblight, Fireblight, Windblight…

…Honestly, what Link is most worried about is the fact that this time, he isn’t doing it alone. Every time before, he’s had help getting into the Divine Beast, but said help never went inside with him. Sidon couldn’t, Yunobo wouldn’t, and Teba wanted to before he took a bad hit in the timeline where Revali died.

This time… is a little different. Riju has no interest in going inside herself, just in making sure that Link can get there and is equipped to do so without dying horribly the same way Urbosa did. Revali, on the other hand, is quite adamant about not sending Link in to fight whatever awaits by himself.

“Out of the four of us Champions, Urbosa is…” Revali sighs, clicking his beak irritably. “Urbosa was, perhaps, the one who would have come out on top if ever any of us had to fight each other. She was very good in a fight. Whatever took her down has to be fast, and strong, and you may very well need my Gale in fighting it.”

Whatever it is, most likely, is another Blight of some kind. Whatever it is, Link isn’t particularly excited to fight it. He doesn’t remember much about Urbosa, only bits and pieces and flashes, and one very distinct memory of being hugged by someone whose face he can’t picture.

“I shall do my utmost to keep both of you safe with the Thunder Helm,” Riju says at last, hugging said priceless Gerudo artifact to her chest. “However, there is a related matter that has been eating away at me. Champion Revali… how are you here?”

Revali looks at Link.

“I’m not explaining that,” Link signs.

“What do you mean?” Revali says carefully.

“I know that both Champion Mipha and Champion Daruk managed to defeat the monsters sent to kill them and yet live to this day,” Riju elaborates. “I know that Lady Urbosa… perished. I know that your fate was unknown, but anyone who knew of you certainly thought that… I know that the Zora and the Gorons both live for really long amounts of time, are the Rito—”

“Do we live longer than Gerudo?” Revali shakes his head with a scoff. “Hardly. The eldest of my people currently living would be our current Elder, Kaneli, and he is scarcely fifty-one.”

“...Oh,” Riju says. “Then how could you be—”

Revali looks at Link meaningfully. 

Link sighs. “I have… something… that lets me travel back in time in specific situations. I haven’t discovered any situations where it lets me do that except when I’m inside Divine Beasts, confronting the monsters that killed their Champions a century ago.”

“Champion…s?” Riju frowns at him. “But only Lady Urbosa…”

“I’ve done it three times already,” Link explains. “Once for Mipha, once for Daruk, and once for Revali. Both Mipha and Daruk were able to take the long way back. Revali… didn’t.”

“I took a shortcut,” Revali says mildly.

For the sake of not confusing Riju further, Link decides he’d better not mention exactly what said shortcut entailed. “Once we go back and save Urbosa’s life—it’s up to her what to choose. Not me.”

“I… see,” Riju murmurs. “Either Lady Urbosa will remain in the past, or…”

“Or she returns with us.” Revali breathes out, slowly and quietly. “One way or another, nothing will be the same. I don’t trust Link not to erase me from existence entirely by accident if I remain behind, so I’ll be accompanying him.”

“I see,” Riju repeats, nodding. “That seems perfectly reasonable.”

It seems pretty reasonable to Link, despite the way Revali worded it. Especially once it occurs to him that, if Urbosa remains in the past alone, it will be both his and Revali’s only chance to say goodbye.

“Thank you! I knew there was something I liked about you,” Revali says breezily. “Now, I suppose… shall we make for Naboris today, or wait until tomorrow?”

“I would prefer to do this sooner rather than later, but—”

“Tomorrow,” Link signs, eyeing the window set into the wall—and the last rays of the setting sun illuminating the desert beyond Gerudo Town.

“...Tomorrow, then,” Riju declares. “That does give me time to learn how to use this properly! Though, first things first…”

Without any ceremony, she raises the helm and puts it on. Riju has to adjust it a bit, so it looks slightly less big on her, but eventually she seems to be satisfied.

“How do I look?” she asks. “You both knew Lady Urbosa, do I look… at all like she did?”

“I can’t recall her ever using the Thunder Helm,” Revali says carefully. “However—you carry yourself similarly now that you have it, more confidently. You certainly appear to be her relative.”

Beneath it, Riju beams. “Thank you! Link, what do you think? …Link?”

Link neither signs nor says anything. Because, something about the Thunder Helm, something about Riju here, something about dusk in the desert—

He remembers. He remembers Urbosa, better than he had before. He remembers her being a better parent to Zelda than the long-dead king ever had been, he remembers Vah Naboris, he remembers—not everything. Not even close to everything.

But he remembers enough.

Link may not know a lot of things about himself, not for sure, but he knows this: he doesn't scare easily. Lynels aren't anywhere near as intimidating as they used to be. Guardians still make his heart race and his breath quicken, but as long as he's got a pot lid or something similar on hand and the ability to get the attention of only one at a time, he'll generally be alright. The Yiga are infinitely less scary now that he knows they'll drop almost anything for bananas.

Approaching Vah Naboris by seal surfing, with Riju relying upon her own beloved seal and Revali flying low so as to stay within the Thunder Helm's protective sphere, is legitimately scarier than anything else Link can remember doing. The air around them crackles with electricity even close to Riju. The hair on the back of Link's neck stands on end.

"Like we planned!" Riju calls out, steel in her words. "Stay close, take no unnecessary risks!"

"The risks I take are quite necessary, thank you very much," Revali grumbles, but he too is careful to stay within range of Riju. "Surely Naboris cannot keep this up forever..."

Link shoots him a wordless glare. He's not wrong, but when a single misstep would result in them all being cooked alive, Link is much less inclined to fuck around and find out.

Riju, her focus evenly divided between maintaining the barrier keeping them all alive and steering Patricia through a helm that is slightly too big on her, does not see the look Link gives Revali, nor the challenging eyebrow he raises in return. If she does somehow see either of those things, she doesn't comment on them.

Instead, she calls out, "You're right, Champion Revali—but I'm inclined to be more cautious now that we're out here, and Naboris isn't moving any closer to Gerudo Town than it already is. We can take a lap around it and better survey what we have to do. Everyone, to the right! Let's circle about the back!"

As it turns out, Link's own rented sand seal is much less thrilled about taking a sharp turn to the right than Riju's. Consequently, he's treated to a clear view of Revali twisting gracefully in midair, gliding easily ahead of Riju before falling back to fly alongside her as Link races to catch up.

He can also clearly hear Revali say, "Her."

"...Her?"

"Vah Naboris," Revali says, his voice clipped and curt. "It's an understandable mistake, but I didn't refer to my own Divine Beast as it, and neither did Urbosa."

"Oh!" Riju winces. "I apologize—"

"No need to. You had no possible way of knowing, unless you've been hiding an ability to read minds from us?"

Riju stares at him for a moment, then actually giggles. "Believe me, I would have significantly fewer problems if I could! I don't suppose you're capable of that, either?"

"I regret to inform you..." He pauses. "No, I'm afraid that reading minds is indeed beyond my capabilities as well. Though I'm in full agreement regarding how useful that would be!"

Link, who had been keeping a careful eye on what Naboris was doing even while paying some attention to Revali to make sure he didn't say anything overly mean to Riju, nearly lets go of his sand seal in thankfully nonliteral shock. Revali has snapped at him for much, much less than that. So why...

It occurs to Link, quite suddenly, that every single kid in Rito Village has an even higher opinion of Revali than they did before he'd turned up after a century where no one knew what happened to him. He thought, assumed really, that maybe they just hadn’t talked to him much.

But maybe he's just good with kids?

(Riju, for all her determination, is very much still a kid herself.)

All that aside—Link can't really sign anything while holding onto a sand seal for dear life. He whistles instead, the sound high-pitched and audible even over the crackling of lightning, though probably not to the horse he left at Gerudo Canyon Stable a couple weeks back, a horse with a coat so dark it’s nearly purple he dubbed Tael.

"Right!" Riju clears her throat. "It does seem like Naboris can only fire off an attack every several seconds, and she does not seem to recognize that she is not doing anything to us while we are protected here. So long as my own resolve remains—and it will— the Thunder Helm will keep us safe."

"That's more than enough time to work with," Revali says. "I'll take out the farther two feet. Link, are you capable of shooting the near two in one pass?"

Link nods. Or more accurately, Link starts to nod, and then he thinks about it and shrugs. He'd like to do both in one pass. He probably could if he wasn't being hauled through the desert sands by a sand seal, an animal he had almost no experience with before today.

"If you can't hit them all, come back," Riju says. It sounds more like a desperate plea than an order.

"Of course," Revali says airily. "After this next strike?"

Link nods, more resolutely this time. And, as the lightning dissipates harmlessly around the Thunder Helm, both of them go. Link focuses on the front left foot first. It's closer, much closer, than the back foot on his side, and a single bomb arrow connecting dead on is all that it takes to make the first foot stop glowing with that horrible, horrible purple-red.

He hears explosions, slightly distant explosions, from the other side. He pays them no mind. He knows Revali is good at what he does, and what he does is archery and fancy flying and... Link doesn't actually know what else. He doesn't have the time to wonder about what sort of hobbies the Champion of the Rito might have in his free time.

He's got a job to do, and he's not in the habit of letting down his friends.

(Not that he thinks he had been, before—not on purpose.)

His next arrow flies true, but the massive camel doesn't stop. It trudges onward, one foot after the other, slowly charging up for another devastating attack. Link turns his increasingly nervous seal back towards Riju, even as he's looking desperately over his shoulder for Revali.

Where—

There! Arrow nocked to his bow, string pulled back. He should be falling, but the wind beneath his wings holds him up, giving him time to make his shot from the air. He doesn't fall. But the lightning—

"Revali, get back!" Riju shouts, spurring Patricia to move closer, just as Revali lets his arrow fly.

Just as Vah Naboris looses yet another surge, and Revali dives for the protective dome that is proximity to Riju. Link's eyes widen. He passes the lead of his sand seal to one hand and—desperately—he reaches with the other.

Revali's gaze meets his. His wing brushes against his fingers, through the edge of the Thunder Helm's protection—and then Revali's entire body slams into Link with enough force to knock them both to the ground and knock the seal's lead out of his grasp. The final assault of Vah Naboris crackles harmlessly against the barrier, just a few feet away from them, and Riju said she can't hurt them but Daruk's Protection flares to life around Link—and by extension, around Revali—all the same.

Everythin' okay? Daruk asks in the back of his mind.

Yeah. We're about to board Naboris, Link thinks back, and gets a feeling of vague acknowledgment from Daruk and unmistakable worry from Mipha. Anything you want me to pass on to Urbosa?

Please do not die, is all Mipha has to say. Any of you. I will do what I can, but...

Better not to rely on it, Daruk agrees. No matter what Urbosa picks, Mipha and I'll see her again. She's not got an easy choice ahead of her. But I don't see a little thing like death stoppin' her even if she stays behind.

No one will begrudge her for whatever choice she settles upon, Mipha murmurs, quieter than before. Focus upon ensuring that you all live to see that decision.

Daruk's gone again, then. Mipha, too. Maybe if they had stayed dead, maybe if Link hadn't gotten the ocarina from Paya so early on—he really needs to thank her personally for that—and maybe if he hadn't remembered Zelda playing the Song of Time for him and had the thought to try it within Vah Ruta… maybe he'd still be able to get help from their spirits that way.

But there's something about the way he'd prevented their deaths from ever happening, maybe some magical interference somewhere that Link doesn't know or care enough about to understand—they can communicate with each other and with Link, over very long distances indeed, when either of them lend Link their respective powers.

Nothing of the sort has happened with Revali. Then again, Revali's never offered Link his Gale, and Link's never asked for it. He never thought to—but it certainly came in handy when going against the Yiga Clan, when Revali could touch down beside him and send them both high into the air.

(Neither Mipha nor Daruk offered to travel alongside him, either—Mipha certainly wanted to, but her people needed her more. So did Daruk's. And Revali didn't... offer, exactly, so much as turn up in the absolute last place Link would have expected to run into him again whether he liked it or not.)

"Link?" Revali says, in an uncharacteristically small voice, and that unceremoniously yanks Link out of his own thoughts. "Would you particularly mind getting off of me?"

...Oh. Right. They've just been lying in a heap for... however long he was talking to Mipha and Daruk. The storm surrounding Naboris has cleared, the great camel herself has knelt to the desert with a clear way inside visible, and Riju is eyeing them both with a mixture of amusement and confusion written all over her face.

Link hopes that Urbosa, her spirit trapped inside Vah Naboris somewhere, can't see this. He has a funny feeling that the look on her face would be nothing but amusement, no matter how little she understood what was going on.

"Sorry," Link signs, and pulls himself to his feet. "You okay?"

He offers Revali a hand. The Rito stares at it for a long moment, blinking rapidly. His feathers seem to be more... fluffed up, for lack of a better word? Than they normally are?

...Is he okay?

"More or less," Revali says at last. "Nothing that an elixir or two will not fix. I will admit that was, perhaps, slightly more reckless than I normally would have been. Still, no one involved perished, so as long as we can maintain that I'll consider this to be a tentative victory on our part."

Surprisingly, he takes Link's offered hand.

More surprisingly, he says nothing for a long moment afterwards, until he hastily pulls away and says, "As much as this pains me to admit, you do know what you're doing."

"Same," Link signs, if only to see the look on Revali's face. When it doesn't change, he clarifies, "To both."

Revali stares at him. Then he laughs to himself. Link can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

"Your company is almost adequate when you bother to talk back," Revali says, and it almost looks like he's smiling.

Riju, looking between the two of them, at last coughs into a fist very loudly. Link realizes that both she and the sand seals are staring at them.

Honestly, that's fair, he'd probably be staring at himself too if Link was wearing her sandals. Metaphorically speaking. He’s pretty sure they don’t share a shoe size and there are several issues with asking, not least of which being that he doesn’t know what his shoe size is.

"Naboris seems to be waiting for your entry," Riju says, the Thunder Helm tucked beneath one arm, "but I wouldn't wait too long, personally... though I know full well that I would not be allowed aboard her myself."

"You might just be surprised," Revali replies. "Urbosa would like you."

"You... do you truly mean that?"

"I make a point of not saying things I don't mean, not unless I have a very good reason." He averts his gaze. "Which is to say: yes, I do mean that. She would be incredibly proud of what you've helped us do here today."

Without the Thunder Helm on, it's clear to see the surprise written all over Riju's face. Though she does regain her composure quickly enough, after that, and continues, "I... appreciate that greatly, Champion Revali. Is there anything else I can do to aid you before you go in? Anything at all?"

"...I would not say no to a resupply of Bomb Arrows," Revali says, "but I strongly suspect that I already bought every bomb arrow being sold both within the walls of Gerudo Town and outside them in Kara Kara Bazaar."

"We have a lot of arrows stored inside the Sheikah Slate," Link signs, and pats the slate at his hip. "Haven't hit a limit yet."

(Though given that Revali seems to consider it a point of pride to use as few arrows as possible, and also keeps turning up with more Bomb Arrows than his quiver can hold, Link has a sneaking suspicion that if there is a limit, the two of them are going to find it sooner rather than later.)

"Ah. Very well, then." Riju takes a deep breath. "I suppose... this is goodbye, then."

"More than you know," Link signs. "You won't remember this once we've saved Urbosa. We won't have ever needed to take on Vah Naboris the way that we did in the new timeline."

"Oh," Riju whispers. "Do you think... will I... be able to meet her?"

"That will depend on Urbosa," Revali says. "Thanks in large part to my own endeavors in testing that, we could bring her to this time with us."

Revali's own endeavors in testing that is certainly one way to say Revali throwing himself and Link off his own Divine Beast without explaining himself first.

"It's up to her," Link signs. "Is there anything you want us to pass on if she doesn't return with us?"

"I... I suppose I just..." Riju takes a deep breath. "Perhaps it is selfish to hope that she will come to the future with you, but I truly... would like to meet her. If she decides that her efforts are better spent in the immediate wake of the Calamity, far be it from my place to tell her otherwise. I suppose, do just... please... please tell her that the Gerudo will be alright, without her, and I will protect our people when she no longer can."

"We will," Revali promises. He eyes the ledge that has lowered for both of them appraisingly, the ledge that is more than low enough for him to simply hop up onto it. He doesn't, of course, because he's Revali and Link is halfway convinced that he will perish on the spot if he doesn't continue being a dramatic bitch at every potential opportunity.

So of course he crouches, the wind gathering itself up beneath his wings, and soars up into the sky before circling back down to the platform and holding a wing out to Link.

"Coming?" Revali asks. "Or do you intend to stand there until the end of time itself?”

Link nods and takes the offered hand up without a moment's hesitation.

"We'll see you on the other side," he signs to Riju, before the platform begins to rise beneath them both.

Riju nods, exchanges glances with her sand seal—and then apparently thinks better of her inhibitions, because she waves with her whole arm as they rise.

Link looks over at Revali and signs, "You like kids, don't you?"

"Children are... yes, they can try my patience at times, and I'm not certain whether I would want to ever be a parent myself. But as a rule, I tend not to trust anyone who outright dislikes them," Revali responds, staring out at the desert. "What about it?"

Link shrugs. The motion draws Revali's gaze back to him.

He signs, "Seems wise."

"I... can't say that I ever expected to hear that word in reference to me, coming from you," Revali says. Then he pauses, squinting at Link, and amends, "Or perhaps see that word, but I will not get into the semantics of it all. Whatever horror lurks within Vah Naboris brought down Urbosa; we will need to be more on our guard than ever."

Link nods. He doesn't say what has been plaguing him for... some time. Since the Yiga Hideout, or maybe even since Revali inexplicably turned up in Gerudo Town and caused far more problems getting in than Link did.

On the one hand, if Urbosa chooses to stay in the past, this will probably be the only chance Revali has to say goodbye.

On the other— does he regret coming to the future?

(Link doesn't know. But if Revali decides to stay in the past, there won't be anything Link can do to stop him, and—he'd miss him. Far more than he ever thought that he would.)

That thing is fast does not, as it turns out, even begin to describe Thunderblight Ganon. Fast is a word that Link would use to describe Revali, but even he has limits. Thunderblight moves so fast that it seems to teleport, sometimes, and that's somehow even more intimidating than Vah Naboris's exterior defenses had been.

The good news is that Revali is quite effective at keeping Thunderblight's attention off of Link, which is great for him. He can find a somewhat secluded corner to crouch with the ocarina in hand, and he can start to play the Song of Time upon the ocarina that feels warm in his hands.

He feels breath on his neck, though no one is there.

He hears Urbosa whisper, though he can't see her, "Now, what are you up to? I can't expect that Revali would particularly enjoy serving as a distraction, though I also wouldn't have expected you to get along so well with him... is that my little bird's ocarina?"

Little bird had been Urbosa’s nickname for the princess well before Link ever met her and started using it as a namesign. She'd been more of a mom to Zelda than Rhoam had ever been a dad, after she'd lost her own mom very young. Which means...

Oh. She knows exactly what the ocarina is.

She knows what it is!

Carefully, so as not to risk having to start the song over, Link nods.

"I see," Urbosa says. "Revali is buying you time. That would be how he is here, isn't he? You've done this before."

Link nods again. He's almost to the end. Fortunately, the song doesn't do anything in most places. He played it for Revali, once, before they'd set out to take Naboris on—because he always goes to the past after finishing the last note, and if Revali isn't in contact with him when he does...

...Well. Revali knows what to listen for. It'll be fine.

(He hopes.)

"Urbosa, I want you to know that this thing is terrible!" Revali squawks as he flies past, narrowly dodging a ball of pure electricity from Thunderblight.

"I'm well aware," Urbosa mutters. "...You're going back in time. I truly won't remember any of this. Perhaps that is for the best."

Link nods a third time. He's on the second to last note, and he deliberately plays it louder than any of the others he's played so far. If Thunderblight gets interested—well. He's got a little help from Daruk, still. Which is usually how he gets away with playing the song while actively under attack. But for the moment, Revali's got it covered.

...Given that Thunderblight's options at range are severely limited, Link is starting to think that Revali could kill it himself. But that might ruin their only chance to get Urbosa back, and Link refuses to let that happen.

"You know full well how fast it is," Urbosa continues. "I mistakenly thought that I was close to defeating it, a century ago. Then it threw down a hail of metal posts around me, obliterating each one with lightning, and… it was all over for me, after that.”

Oh, that's useful. Link wishes he could do something to thank her other than nod, stand up, and move on to the final note. He holds it for as long as he can. Daruk's Protection flares to life around him, and he looks desperately for Revali—

"Incoming!" Revali shouts, soaring upward through an opening he's just made—and then, tucking his wings in, he dives for Link.

"Take care of each other," Urbosa says in a low voice—one Link suspects only he can hear over Thunderblight Ganon realizing too late that the annoying Rito really was up to something.

Once again, Link can only nod. A strike from Thunderblight's sword shatters it harmlessly against Daruk's Protection, and in the time that Thunderblight's reeling, Revali lands, looping a wing around Link's shoulders.

"Let's go!"

See you soon, Link thinks.

He lets the ocarina fall from his lips, and the interior of Vah Naboris gives way to nothing—or perhaps almost nothing.

For a moment, just a moment, he can feel Revali's wing across his back.

For a moment, and only a moment, he can feel how fast Revali's heart is beating.

"He's coming to," is the first thing that Link hears. The words aren't spoken in Revali's voice, though.

They're in Urbosa's, which Link only knows from a singular short memory and from the brief amount of time he's spent in Vah Naboris already. He's still in Vah Naboris, from the rumbling of the massive camel traversing the desert beneath him. And from the fact that—he hadn't exactly been paying a ton of attention to what the upper portions of this Divine Beast's interior looked like, but it looks like something made by the Sheikah, it's got that same stonemetal as every other Divine Beast...

Also, a familiar blue-feathered face suddenly appears in his field of vision, waving a wing in front of him. Above him. He’s on the floor again, because the vast majority of his floor time lately has not been his idea but the ocarina’s.

"About time," Revali mutters. "I hope you're aware that it has been a good deal longer than you were asleep when you came for me.”

"You weren't there when I woke up on your end," Link signs sleepily—and then adrenaline kicks in, he fully realizes what Revali means, and he sits up, very alert despite the pounding headache. "Wait, we need to—"

"Revali told me everything," Urbosa says gently, kneeling to put a hand on Link's shoulder. "He was quite emphatic about the fact that I could not go anywhere near the controls of Naboris until after you woke up... and that you were both from the future. A future where we were all meant to perish."

Link nods quickly. "Don't have time to get more into it now."

"No," Revali mutters, "but you were taking a very long time to awaken from the side effects of your magical time-travel instrument and I certainly had nothing better to do than to read her in."

"Fair."

Urbosa clears her throat. "I can't say that I didn't appreciate the chance to breathe before throwing myself into combat anew. Now, though..."

She eyes the doorway into another room, pulls herself, and draws her scimitar to hold both it and the shield on her arm at the ready. Link doesn't have the map open to check, but if he had to guess that doorway leads to the central room. The one with the main terminal in it. The one that Thunderblight Ganon is hiding in, waiting for its chance to murder her.

"One thing," Link signs. "In the future, you... I didn't see this myself, but I was told that once we've backed that thing into a corner, it'll send a lot of metal spikes down around us and use them to devastating effect. With its electricity. Revali, did you—"

"Yes, I passed on that her that her Fury wouldn't do much good," Revali says. "More metal, hmm? Can't say I'm particularly enthused about that."

"Nor am I," Urbosa mutters—and if she's put together the pieces as to how they know this specifically, which she probably has, Link is grateful that she isn't commenting on it now.

"Wait," Link signs, and pulls out the Sheikah Slate. Magnesis stares out at him from the rune selection screen.

Revali, peering over his shoulder, squints at it. "You don't think...?"

Link puts the slate away again, for what he suspects will not be a very long amount of time at all, and signs, "If nothing else, I bet smacking it with one of those spikes would distract it!"

"Perhaps it isn't immune to its own lightning," Urbosa says thoughtfully. "I'm not immune to mine.”

Revali looks at her. He looks again at Link.

"We're just going to ignore the rather concerning implications that raises, I suppose?" Revali says.

Link nods. "At least until after we've survived."

Link keeps a handful of elixirs on hand for emergencies, stored in the Sheikah Slate. One of these elixirs, he discovers or more accurately rediscovers when he's looking for something to help with his headache, is an incredibly potent Hasty Elixir. Another, equally potent, increases the strength of attacks.

Revali gets the Mighty Elixir, once he figures out how to drink it with a beak. Urbosa gets the Hasty Elixir, which she chugs before stepping up to the central terminal.

"Ready?" she asks.

Link nods, a broadsword that isn't his in one hand and the trusty pot lid that might as well be his at this point in the other. Revali only responds by crouching, then taking to the air.

Urbosa lays a hand upon the terminal, then leaps backwards as malice pours out of it, at a speed that may have been previously unattainable to mortals.

Thunderblight Ganon is just as fast as it had been in the future, and possibly even faster. It still moves so fast that it almost seems to be teleporting.

"That thing is fast," Urbosa exclaims with a laugh, in an entirely different tone from the last time Link remembers her saying that.

The Gerudo Champion is fast even without elixirs involved. Probably faster than Link.

With elixirs involved? There are two combatants who seem to be teleporting rather than running at each other with sword and shield. Link's fast, too, but not that fast—he ends up retreating to use his own bow. To occasionally freeze Thunderblight in place with a well-timed use of Stasis, allowing Urbosa to pause her deadly dance in favor of just whaling away on it. Revali keeps well out of range of most of Thunderblight's attacks, striking it with Bomb Arrow after Bomb Arrow whenever it disengages enough from Urbosa. Though he also uses more regular arrows than Link has ever seen him use before, since precision is key.

Thunderblight lets out a horrifying shriek, actually teleporting almost as high up in the chamber as Revali is. Metal spikes appear from nowhere, hemming Urbosa in with nowhere for her to go. Nowhere for her to run.

(This is how she died.)

Link drops his bow entirely in favor of the Sheikah Slate. Stasis is available again, so he freezes Thunderblight in place first to stop it from attacking. Then he clears a path with Magnesis. Only once Urbosa is safely out of the way, only once Stasis is on the verge of running out, only once Revali has flown far closer to Thunderblight than Link would like for him to be and sent most of their remaining Bomb Arrow supply into it before retreating—

Only then does he grab one of the discarded spikes again and hurl it at Thunderblight's horrible face. Mask. Thing. What it is doesn’t matter.

(This isn't how she'll die again. Not today.)

Thunderblight comes out of Stasis with a louder shriek, and does exactly what he hoped it would: it shocks the spike hurtling towards its face, in an effort to keep from being hit. It doesn't get hit, not by the spike.

It does, however, scream in agony as it shocks itself. It drops its weapon and its shield—both almost Sheikah tech in make, yet not quite. Thunderblight itself falls to the floor, trying desperately and ineffectually to pull itself back together.

It doesn't succeed.

It doesn't have time to succeed, because Urbosa rushes in. With the last of the Hasty Elixir that should have run out by now, she leaps up, slams her shield into its mask with a loud cracking noise, and drives her scimitar into its single eye.

"We'll come for your master next," Urbosa says—her voice steel in a way that reminds Link, ironically enough, of Riju. "Give the Calamity my regards, won't you? The Gerudo stand strong without him, and we don't remember him fondly."

Thunderblight wails, but it's ultimately unable to do anything except dissolve into Malice, and then into nothing at all.

Link stares at the spot where Thunderblight had died for a long moment, not sure if he entirely believes it. That it's... over, at least for now. That this fight is over. That he's actually pulled it off—that he's saved all four of his friends from their untimely deaths within their own Divine Beasts. But Urbosa sheathes her sword alongside the shield on her back, and Revali's feet find the ground again as he pats out a few smoldering feathers, and he can't not believe it.

He's won. And he won without having to call upon Daruk or Mipha for aid, which...

Having both Revali and Urbosa fighting alongside him really made a difference, against a being of malice and Malice that he suspects would have been much harder to fight alone.

(Really, Urbosa did almost all of the work. Not that Link's going to object to that—his head still hurts, more than it ever has before. He's not sure that he could have taken down Thunderblight on his own, not like this. Not alone.)

(A damn good thing it is, then, that he wasn't alone. That he hasn't been alone, not truly, since he realized the ocarina let him change the past and fix the future—since he realized that Mipha was back, that the changes he'd made had stuck, and that he could save the others too.)

"Well then," Urbosa says, sheathing her scimitar and slinging her shield into its place on her back. Link follows suit with his own equipment.

"Well then," Revali echoes. "You know what time it is."

Realistically, there is probably nothing Link could have done to prevent Revali from telling Urbosa (nearly) everything ahead of time except simply wake up sooner, and while he would have loved to wake up sooner, clearly his body disagrees. Clearly there's something going on with the sudden and repeated temporal displacement that his body just really, really doesn't like.

He's gotten very tired of headaches.

"Thank you both for fighting alongside me," Urbosa continues. "But... yes, I suppose that I do. Time to choose whether I stay, or go."

Link gulps and nods. He signs, "Mipha and Daruk wanted me to pass on that they'd see you again no matter what you chose."

Urbosa snorts, amused. "No help in deciding from them, then. How are my people doing, in the future?"

Link looks to Revali, first, who only shrugs and says, very unhelpfully, "I didn't exactly spend much time in Gerudo Town. For obvious reasons."

Obvious reasons indeed. Link thinks about it.

(It sounds damningly like Urbosa is legitimately undecided on whether she'll stay or she'll go, which is a scary thought. Link wants her to return with him and Revali, he desperately wants for all of his friends to be there with him—but it isn't as if he doesn't know, all too well, that Urbosa must have friends and family she'd be leaving behind. Sometimes Link's own amnesia is a curse—but sometimes, like now, it's a blessing, because he misses far fewer people than he probably would otherwise.)

"Could be better," Link signs at last, "could be a lot worse. Your successor is younger than me, but she's doing alright, she has support and the Gerudo love her. The biggest problem at the moment is actually Naboris, and that's a problem that will never happen now. One way or another."

"Hm," Urbosa says, dissatisfied. "So my options are to leave without saying goodbye... or to say goodbye to the two of you for what very well may be forever. If I'm still around in a century—which is a very big if—I won't be in any shape to aid you against Calamity Ganon."

"That largely sums up what qualms I had," Revali mutters. "I have no intention of missing the fight against him. But I—"

"Do you regret it?" Link signs, and immediately regrets asking, because Revali's initial response is to just stare at him.

"...No," Revali says at last. "I don't. I would make the same decision again now, except... I wish that I had the chance to say goodbye, first. To tell the few people that I do happen to care about that I would never see them again."

Link's shoulders slump. He does, too—though at least Revali remembers the people he'd want to say goodbye to. Maybe his amnesia is a curse after all.

Urbosa hums to herself thoughtfully, and at last says, "Perhaps I do. Revali, it was when you left Vah Medoh with Link that you both were transported to the future, correct?"

"Yes, but—"

"And Link," she continues, "every time that you returned to the future was specifically when you left the main room of each Divine Beast, correct?”

Link nods. "Probably because I've got the ocarina." He's come up with a sign for that now, a combination of the signs for time and flute. Though he probably could just use flute on its own, it's not like he's seen any other musical instruments around besides the very different one Kass carries around and it's... not that far off from a flute? He thinks? Probably?

(Kass would probably know. Maybe he'll ask him, the next time their paths cross each other, though Link hasn't seen him since that brief period of time when he was terrified he'd somehow erased Revali from existence. He'd been... preoccupied, to say the least, once Kass informed him that wasn't the case. He probably owes Kass an apology for rushing off as quickly as he had, or at least an explanation.)

"Then that suggests that I could leave, say goodbye, and return—so long as you don't leave this room as well." 

Urbosa's gaze finds a certain direction, a direction that is nothing more than Naboris's walls to all appearances, a direction that Link could not say what without pulling out his Sheikah Slate given that the only lighting comes from Naboris itself. Link can't tell what direction she is looking in, not for sure—but he'd be willing to bet every rupee he has on him, which is no small amount of rupees, that Gerudo Town is that way.

"Wait a plucking second," Revali says—though says is a generous description, it sounds more like a squawk to Link. "You mean to say that I could have... and I..."

Her gaze falls to him, then, and she offers him a sympathetic smile. "There's one way to find out, isn't there?"

With that, with no further ado, Urbosa leaves the room.

...Nothing happens. She goes several paces out and down, towards the lift down to the desert sands below, but comes back before she can take it and announces to them both, "Certainly looks like I can leave. I'll... try to be fast. Do either of you want anything?"

"No?" Revali manages.

Link, at even more of a loss for words than he normally is, numbly shakes his head. Urbosa looks at him, looks at Revali, then shrugs.

"Fair enough," she says. "I'll be back."

Link watches her go, until the elevator lowers itself out of sight and he can't watch her anymore. Revali, for his part, suddenly uses his Gale to take to the air again, conveniently ending up high enough that he can watch Urbosa go through the windows too high for Link to easily reach.

He could try, if he was particularly pressed. But he isn't. He busies himself with pulling some wood and a spare Flameblade out of the Sheikah Slate. The Flameblade breaks as soon as he uses it to start a fire, because of course it does—he'll need to pick up a new one, somewhere, sooner rather than later. That, or he'll need to actually start using his rather extensive stockpile of flint, but why would he do that?

Thinking about that, thinking about stockpiling things that he already hoards to an extent that would be impossible without the Sheikah Slate and its physically improbable storage functions, is vastly preferable to thinking about the blue-feathered Rito who touches down, talons scrabbling against stone, on the opposite side of his growing campfire inside Vah Naboris.

Of course, Revali manages to shove his way back into Link’s thoughts within moments anyway, before he’s even opened his beak.

“Starting a fire? Inside Vah Naboris?” Revali tuts in clear disapproval, even as he sits cross-legged opposite Link. “I doubt Urbosa will be particularly happy with you for this. I wouldn’t be, if this was my Divine Beast.”

“This isn’t Medoh,” Link signs, staring into the flickering flames.

“...No,” Revali allows, and falls quiet.

“It helps me pass the time. Especially if I’m alone.”

Some strange, foreign emotion flashes in Revali’s eyes and he snaps, “You’re not alone, in case you somehow missed that fact!"

"I know," Link signs.

"Then why—"

"Urbosa might be gone for a while."

"Yes? And?" Revali rolls his eyes visibly. "It certainly does appear that way. Particularly considering that, by all appearances, Zelda has sealed away the Calamity by now."

...He's right. From what little Link can make out of the sky through the high-up windows, it isn't the angry red of Malice any longer. The sun is starting to rise. If the interior of Vah Naboris wasn't as carefully controlled temperature-wise as the other Divine Beasts, it would be getting really hot in here soon. As it is, the air's warm, but not uncomfortably so—and he can chalk up that warmth to his fire. (Which he will be cleaning up, once Urbosa returns. Obviously.)

"You're a fast flyer," Link signs. "Aren't you?"

Revali puffs up in either pride or offense, or maybe some strange mix of both emotions that he wouldn't put past Revali at all. "The fastest, thank you very much! ...Over short distances."

"And long distances?"

"Hmph." That's an answer in itself. "I'm fast enough, though I won't deny that I'm deeply curious as to where you're going with this."

"How long would it take you to reach Rito Village from here?"

Instead of actually answering the question, Revali's head snaps around so fast that Link can scarcely follow the motion, his feathers fluffing up in a way that really reminds Link of a startled animal.

"If this is your idea of a joke," Revali says tightly, "it is rather in poor taste. I don't find it amusing. I don't expect anyone would find it amusing, and I wouldn't have expected you to find it amusing either, but evidently I have misjudged you—"

"Genuine question," Link signs. "Not a joke."

"Ah. I see." He hesitates, however briefly. "I can't fathom why you of all people would care to know that, and even the most reliable of mail carriers can only estimate how long it will take them to make it from one location to another..."

"Could you make it to Rito Village before Urbosa returns?"

"Well, yes, but..." Revali trails off, squinting at Link. "You didn't say there and back again, did you?"

Something warm and wet that Link refuses to acknowledge pricks at the corner of his eyes. "You really could go back if... if that's what you want. With all of you saved, I don't have any reason to go back in time again, so... you'd be able to just stay here. If you wanted to."

"If I wanted to," Revali echoes dubiously. "I believe I have already made it clear that I am standing by my decisions, thank you very much."

"You could also just go for a little while," Link signs hastily. "To say goodbye. If Urbosa can leave to do that, I don't think there's any reason that you can't too. I'm the one who's stuck here. Not you."

"You... make a compelling argument," Revali says, as if calling a single thing that Link signed compelling isn't even more ridiculous. "And I can't deny that, while I do not regret much about the manner of my travel to the future... I would have liked to say goodbye."

Link gestures vaguely at one of the windowed walls. The openings are high up enough that he couldn't reach them himself, but Revali easily could with his Gale. Revali's taller than Link, but less broad, and he thinks that either of them could squeeze through a gap that size without too much trouble.

"...Fair enough," Revali murmurs in response. "Provided that you and Urbosa are willing to wait for me, I could pass along a goodbye on your behalf. To whoever you're leaving behind."

"I'd wait for you. But I don't know—I can't remember—"

"Oh. Right.” Revali winces. "Never mind, then. I'm afraid we were never close enough, before, for me to have known... anything about you, really."

Link is going to regret asking this. But he signs anyway, "Now?"

"I..." Revali inhales sharply. "I don't know. I'll get back to you later, literally and figuratively."

"You're coming back," Link signs, as Revali spreads his wings.

"Obviously." Yet Revali hesitates before calling upon his Gale. "Do you... want me to?"

"I'm not sure what I'd do if you didn't."

It's perhaps the most honest thing he's told anyone all day. His initial impression of Revali was of an arrogant little bitch. And yeah, alright, that... still isn't an inaccurate description of him. Revali is arrogant, and Link wouldn't be wrong in describing him as bitchy. But something's clicked between them now, something that never clicked before and maybe never had a chance to in the first place, not with how closed-off Link knows now he was, not with how determined to assume the worst of him Revali was.

They're not enemies, anymore, though formally they never were and even informally they were still always on the same side. Link doesn't even think that rivals is the right word, anymore, though maybe it was the right word once upon a time. They might be friends, though that still doesn't seem quite right. 

Friendship is what he feels for Mipha and Daruk, for Yunobo and Sidon and Teba and Riju. Friendship is helping out Daruk with his plan to build up his grandkid's self-confidence, babysitting Teba's young son while he and Saki are cleaning out their roost, signing seal pun after seal pun while talking to Riju about her own beloved sand seal and keeping a straight face as long as he can until he can't anymore and he joins Riju in giggling madly. It's staying up with Sidon after a particularly nasty nightmare about everyone he cares about dying, it's climbing Death Mountain again with Yunobo because another Goron's gone missing and everyone else is either too busy or not worried enough to go looking for him, it's tracking down a ceremonial replica of Mipha's trident alongside her and figuring out how to replicate a particular ceremony in order to reveal a shrine neither of them had known was there.

He doesn't remember Urbosa well enough to make any decisions about friendship with her, yet. He'd been afraid to try to remember too much, to make himself hurt more if she decided to stay in the past after all. But he'd like to be friends with her, too, and what little he can remember suggests that they'd at least gotten along in the time he mostly refers to as Before. Even if she had chosen to stay behind, it would have been a disservice to her memory not to try to remember—though it'll probably be easier, the more time he spends with Urbosa. 

It's gotten easier to remember things involving the other Champions, with them physically present. With them, considerably more importantly, not dead like they should have been, like they originally were, like no one remembers but Link unless he's told them. 

He remembers Mipha working up the nerve to offer him the armor he never could have accepted, and thankfully not holding it against him when he didn't feel the same way that she did—though, he supposes, she's also had a century to move on now. He hadn't had the nerve to ask her if there is anyone else these days, not even after telling her that he'd remembered that day. He hopes there is someone else, if that's what makes her happy, or that there isn't if an additional century has revealed that she has about as much interest in romance as her little brother or the average Goron.

He remembers Daruk showing him how to use a Cobble Crusher, the sort of weapon that most non-Gorons simply wouldn't be strong enough to use at all, never mind effectively. Link isn't most non-Gorons, or most people in general. He'd ended up having to two-hand the crusher, and it would never feel as natural in his hands as a broadsword—but according to Daruk, it was more effort than a lot of people would make, and maybe that was part of why Link found himself as an honorary brother not long later.

(He remembers Urbosa showing up near the end of Daruk's impromptu crusher lessons, ostensibly for some other reason. That reason was very quickly forgotten in favor of learning how to use a crusher herself, because while Urbosa clearly favors a scimitar and shield and typically fights similarly to Link, to say that she was excited to figure a crusher out would be something of a massive understatement.)

Thing is—he remembers Revali, too. He remembers Revali avoiding him, mostly, apart from that rather disastrous meeting upon the landing that would, many years in the future, come to be named for the long-lost Rito Champion. He remembers avoiding Rito Village when he could, and Revali himself when he couldn't, and not really caring enough to figure out why the Rito Champion didn't like him when he could do literally anything more productive with his time.

He also remembers the paraglider that was, as he suspected, not originally Rhoam's at all. It was his, a hundred years ago. Somehow it lasted that long.

(That memory doesn't have anything to do with Revali—it was just prompted by the strange look on the Rito Champion's face the first time that he pulled it out in front of him. Revali had told him later—quietly, seriously—that paragliders are a mobility device used by Rito who are too young or too injured to fly. He hadn't seemed to know how Link got his hands on one, though he'd changed the subject weirdly quickly afterwards.)

Revali clears his throat, snapping Link out of his reverie. "Still with me, Link? Did you remember... something?"

Link shakes his head in response to Revali's second question. To his first, he signs, "Just thinking."

(He doesn't think that Revali ever called him by his name in their lives Before. It was always hero or knight or some variation thereof, in the most derogatory way he could possibly say a word that definitely wasn't meant that way originally. He wouldn't have thought that Revali had even known his name, back then, if the first thing he'd said in the past hadn't been it.)

"So you're capable of that after all." Revali smirks at him as the winds whip up around them both, ruffling his feathers along with Link's hair. "I do wonder, sometimes."

"Very funny," Link signs.

"Oh, I'm well aware." The smirk fades slightly, as the Gale intensifies. "No sense in continuing to waste time, then. I'll be back. Wait for me?"

Weirdly enough, that's a question.

"We will," Link promises.

"Of course you will," Revali says loftily. "What would you do without me, after all?"

He takes off, of course, before Link can even think of a response, never mind sign one. Link watches him go, watches him soar through one of Naboris's upper windows with an ease that seems effortless, watches him wave as he flies off into a time that Link himself can never return to. Not that he'd want to, he can barely remember it!

...Link kind of wants to, even so. But trying to leave will just strand both Urbosa and Revali in the past, after he went to all the trouble to make sure that they would be okay with coming to the present, with joining him and Mipha and Daruk in the future. He's not so desperate to see the Hyrule of a hundred years ago that he'll ruin things for them all.

So he settles in to wait, staring back into the flames as he does. He must fall asleep, at some point, because one moment he's pulling his legs up to his chest and setting his head on his knees and the next, Urbosa's sitting there, polishing her scimitar.

She doesn't look up from her work, when she says, "I'm going to take a wild guess that Revali realized he could say goodbye to his home after all, since I could, and reacted accordingly?"

Link snorts, and nods. Sounds like Urbosa's just as good at reading Revali like a book as she is for Zelda. As she is, judging by the look she fixes him with then, for even Link himself.

"Well then." She offers him a smile. "I doubt he'll keep us waiting for too long, but in the meantime... Revali did tell me that you had amnesia?"

He nods silently. "Don't remember you too well. Don't remember anyone too well. Spending time with people who knew me before it all... helps."

"With remembering the memories that have slipped away from you?" Urbosa eyes him speculatively, sheathing her scimitar back where it belongs, as he manages another nod. "In that case, let's see if I can't do something about that.”

"I'm sure you can," Link signs.

Even if she can't, he appreciates it. Talking about the past, talking about the Link of Before that is intrinsically different and yet not so much from the Link that exists now—it does generally help. The thought means a lot, either way.

Plus, it’s something to do, while waiting for Revali to come back. Because he will—Link’s sure of that, now. More sure of it than he was before. It’s a weight off his shoulders he didn’t know was there.

His friends’ choices are their choices to make, not his—and while Link would not have done anything to stop them from choosing what they wanted, not what he wanted, he’s… relieved, incredibly so, that both of them chose what they did.

That, once the Calamity’s defeated, once they’ve gotten Zelda back too, they can all be together again. That, for once in Link’s life—everything can turn out okay.

There’s nothing he wants more, really.

Chapter Text

The sun is rising over the sands of the Gerudo Desert, and Urbosa is regaling Link with a story about how he’d saved Zelda from the Yiga Clan, by the time that Revali flies back in without any of his usual bluster. His eyes are rimmed with red.

…In fairness to Revali, his eyes are usually rimmed with red paint, but they’re red-rimmed to the point where it looks suspiciously like he’s been crying. Link has to wonder—was it even harder, to go back knowing that it would be the last time he’d ever see whoever he was saying goodbye to?

“Welcome back,” Urbosa greets, looking up. She pauses. “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” Revali snaps. “No less so than you, in any case.”

“Ah. So not particularly alright, then.” She offers him a weary smile, as she pulls herself to her feet. “No one will hold that against you, Revali. It’s a nearly impossible decision for anyone to make, and not one I would wish upon my worst enemies.”

“On the contrary, it wasn’t impossible in the slightest,” he replies. “My duty is to pilot the Divine Beast Vah Medoh in the assault against Ganon, and I can hardly do that if I am dead and buried decades before.”

Urbosa hums to herself, gaze flicking to Link before it returns to Revali. “I did say nearly impossible. For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you. Both of you, really.”

Proud of Link, too? He didn’t do anything except play an instrument and fight to save his friends. It’s the sort of thing anyone would have done, in his position. But Urbosa seems to mean it despite how little Link had expected her to say that.

…That applies on both fronts, as it turns out, because the sound that escapes Revali is an unmistakably startled squawk as he stares at her, feathers fluffing up within moments. He recovers eventually, clearing his throat and averting his gaze into a direction which happens to be Link’s.

“Let’s get back to the present day,” Revali stammers. “Shall we? The Calamity won’t defeat itself, after all.”

“No, it won’t,” Urbosa agrees, expression hardening. “Link?”

Link nods wordlessly. He holds out one hand to Urbosa, who takes it immediately and gives him a reassuring squeeze. The other goes to Revali, who stares at it for several seconds before eventually reaching out with a grip tight enough that Link begins to lose feeling in his fingers.

He can’t sign anything, not with both of his hands occupied. Fortunately, he doesn’t need to—both of his fellow Champions know, just as well as he does, that the moment Link steps out of this chamber is the moment that he, and anyone in physical contact with him, returns to the now-changed future.

(Somewhere across Hyrule, both the Link with Mipha and the Link with Daruk have surely returned to the future as well. Zelda must have sealed away the Calamity by now, with the sun shining visibly at all, so the Link with her must have already fallen. A part of him wonders if he’s been put into the Shrine of Resurrection yet.)

(The rest of him finds he doesn’t care as much as he thought he would.)

He can’t sign anything. He does, however, nod towards the nearest exit—the stairs down to the lift he and Revali would use, one hundred years in a future that no longer exists exactly as it was, to access Naboris in the first place.

Three Champions walk towards that exit, not a single one of them daring to let go of each other.

Three Champions vanish, all at once, and the Divine Beast Vah Naboris settles in to wait for a century.

Link's head feels like a group of Lynels dribbled it around for a while among themselves before throwing it at him, which is a frankly terrifying mental image given that he's never once seen Lynels in groups, never mind throwing things that are not fireballs (from their mouths) or arrows (from their bows, assuming that counts, which Link isn't sure of.) Sunlight hurts, where it's streaming down from the sky into his unfortunate eyeballs. Thinking too hard hurts, but he takes a stab at it anyway.

He's... in the desert. Somewhere. Seems like he's alone, which strikes him as odd—but he'd woken up alone the last time he returned to the present, too. Urbosa and Revali must be somewhere nearby, because if this worked once it has to work again.

He doesn't know what he'd do if it didn't. But it did. Surely.

Sunlight hurts, thinking hurts, but he has to at least get up. He has to keep moving. Whether he was able to bring Revali back with him again, whether he was able to bring Urbosa back at all, he still has a job to do. He still has to get back his sword. He still has to take down Ganon. He still has one more friend to save, whatever it takes, and he can rest once she's safe.

(His head spins when he tries to stand. He manages it for a second, two—then crumples back to the sand, unconscious again. He doesn't see the blue-feathered Rito who touches down beside him moments later, doesn't hear him start to crack a joke before sucking in a horrified breath, doesn't feel himself be poked in the ribs by a taloned foot before Revali promises to return with help and, in a burst of his own Gale, flies off again to find it.)

Wherever he is when he comes to again, he's not in the middle of the desert. Or, well, he is, but at least this time he's in a building, which is a definite improvement. He thinks he might even be in a bed, which is something of a rarity for him.

...He doesn't recognize the ceiling he's squinting up at, desperately trying to figure out where he is without actually moving.

He vaguely recognizes the voice that goes, "Oh, good, you're awake! Lady Urbosa will be relieved."

It takes him more effort than it should to prop himself up on his elbows, seeing Riju there. Who looks... really, really concerned, for some reason, concerned enough that he pushes himself up into a sitting position so he can sign. He definitely doesn't trust his voice right now, though he does like Riju.

And he trusts her to tell him the truth, so he signs, "Urbosa's here?"

"Yes, she's fine. Champion Revali, too." Riju pauses, where she's standing in the doorway of a room that he really should have realized was somewhere in Gerudo Town sooner, then retraces her steps towards a well-used chair and takes a seat in it. Backwards, with her chin set upon her folded arms and her arms set upon the back of the chair. "I am aware of some of the situation, from the letter that Lady Urbosa left for me... a century ago. And from what you told me before you went out into the desert for Naboris."

"What did I tell you?"

"I suspect much the same as what you told me in the old timeline." She shrugs absently, heedless of Link's confusion until she looks him in the eye, smirks a little, and adds, "Yes, I know about that. Lady Urbosa told me."

"...In her letter, or to your face?"

The smirk grows. Not by much, but it does. He really does like this kid. 

"Both, as a matter of fact."

"Both," he repeats. Yeah, he doesn't know why he's surprised. He shouldn't be. "...How did I get here?"

"Patricia helped," Riju says, which clarifies nothing. "So did Champion Revali. And Lady Urbosa."

"Okay, but—"

"I should get one of them." She glances towards the door, frowning. "Lady Urbosa, most likely... I love Patricia dearly, but you're as unlikely to be able to understand her the way Padda does as I am, and Champion Revali has almost certainly reached Zora's Domain by now..."

"What," Link signs. "Why is he going to Zora's Domain?"

"For Champion Mipha?"

There's a sinking feeling in his chest. "Why does he need Mipha?"

"Well, he probably doesn't anymore," Riju clarifies. "But he couldn't get your, er... Sheikah Slate? Working. None of us could, at least not for the ability to transport people across vast distances that it apparently possesses. He can fly, so..."

"...Why did he need Mipha?"

"Because you have been unconscious for nearly a week," Riju says bluntly, standing and turning the chair she was sitting in back to face him while he's still reeling from that particular revelation. "I'm getting Lady Urbosa. Don't try to move or I'll have Patricia sit on you."

"How are you getting Patricia in here?" Link signs, halfway to play demon's advocate and halfway because he's legitimately curious.

"I," Riju declares, pointing at him, "will find a way. Don't make me."

She leaves, massive braid swishing in the air behind her. Link watches her go, blinking in confusion, and comes to the rapid conclusion that Urbosa has definitely rubbed off on her young descendant already. This seems like the opposite of a problem, as far as Link's concerned.

"Good, you haven’t moved," Riju declares, rushing into the room a few steps ahead of Urbosa. "Is there anything else that I can help either of you with? Lady Urbosa...?"

Urbosa smiles at her. "I assure you, little tempest, you have already done more than enough. I appreciate it, and I am certain that Link does as well."

Link, for his part, gives Riju a thumbs-up. "If there's something I've been keeping you from—"

"There is not," Riju interrupts. "But I will give you your space."

She leaves again, with a respectful nod to Urbosa, who nods back as she's passed by before taking over the very seat that Riju recently vacated. Admittedly, she does sit in it facing forward, even as only one of her legs is actually on the floor.

...Seems like absolutely no one here sits in a chair normally. Interesting. (To be fair, Link wouldn’t either, assuming he sat still long enough for anyone to notice or care. Which is a tall assumption on its own.)

"I told you that you'd like Riju," Link signs.

"And you were entirely correct, about that," Urbosa says. She leans forward. "Now, about you. I assume that Riju told you—"

"I've been out for a week, and you sent Revali off to get Mipha?"

"The first part of that is correct." Urbosa smiles a little, though the expression seems weirdly strained. "You should know Revali well enough, by now, to know that it would be very difficult for me to force him to do anything he didn't want to. He sent himself off for Mipha."

"He did? Why?"

"A week, Link." Urbosa sighs. "I suppose it was too much to hope that you would remember this, but others do care about you and your wellbeing, Link. Even Revali, which did come as something of a surprise—but I’m getting used to it.”

"Are you sure about that?" Link pauses. "The last part. I know that other people care about me."

It's a little hard to believe, sometimes, and the list of people that would genuinely be sad if he died isn't all that long, but that list does exist. Which is wild.

"I wasn't," Urbosa says wryly, leaning back again. "Do you realize how strange it is to have the two of you in one room without Revali antagonizing you for being there?"

Link blinks. "Not really?"

Admittedly, now that he thinks about it, he can't recall a single memory of Before where Revali was both present and didn't glare at him, at some point or another if not for the full duration of the memory. And the thing on Revali's Landing, which he still isn't sure what to make of, comes to mind.

But the thing is—that was Before. This is now.

"I guess you wouldn't," Urbosa murmurs, smile fading entirely. "How are you holding up? I imagine that it would be stressful enough to wake up after a century in a land where no one knew you without amnesia involved."

"I'm fine," Link signs.

Urbosa raises an eyebrow. It feels like she's looking right through him. "No, you're not."

He groans. "No, I'm not. But I have so much I still have to do. I still have to get back my sword—maybe I'm strong enough for her now. I hope I’m strong enough for her now. We still have to get Zelda back, and take down Ganon—"

"And we will," Urbosa assures him. "Zelda is strong, Link, far stronger than she ever believed herself to be in the past. She has held back Ganon for a century, and while I am the last person who would ever ask more of her, I’m certain that she would not mind waiting a little longer so that we can be sure of our success, this time.”

This time, Link thinks. What if we fail again?

“I doubt that the Calamity has the strength to send forth a monster like that Thunderblight again,” Urbosa murmurs, as if she’s somehow read his mind; more likely, she’s just thinking the same things he is. “If it did, it likely would have done so to retake Medoh and Naboris already. Still, if it does, we have fought those monsters before.”

“Bring a bow,” Link signs. “Or a spear. Something metal to throw at it. Maybe both. Just to be safe.”

‘Yes, it… did take advantage of my preference for melee, didn’t it.” She frowns. “I’ll be cautious. We all will.”

“Good.” He pauses. “If it’s been a week, have you gotten to see Daruk yet? Or Mipha?”

Urbosa shakes her head. “Not yet. Revali mentioned that your slate could transport multiple people now?”

“Yep. Why?”

“Then I think it may be best for us both to pay Zora’s Domain a visit as well, sooner rather than later. But first…” She studies him. “Tell me, Link. Do you know how long you were unconscious for after using the ocarina in the past?”

“...No,” Link admits. “But I think it’s been getting longer. And I think taking you and Revali with me might have affected it too.”

“I feared as much. Link… promise me something, will you? As a friend, as a fellow warrior, as a fellow Champion. As someone who cares about your continued well-being.”

“Depends on what the something is,” Link signs, “but I’ll hear you out.”

She chuckles to herself. “Wise of you, to not agree preemptively. Still… I’d rather you didn’t use the ocarina again. Not unless you have no other choice, not unless everything goes catastrophically wrong.”

“...Not unless we all die again?”

Amusement gone, Urbosa can only wince. “In a worst-case scenario, we know what’s coming. That won’t happen.”

But it could. They both know that, and it’s terrifying.

Link promises her that he won’t use the ocarina again, before the two of them travel to Zora’s Domain considerably faster than Revali had. It feels like a mistake. He hopes, prays, pleads that it won’t be.

He shouldn't be surprised that Mipha is upon him the instant he and Urbosa make it to Zora's Domain via Ne'ez Yohma Shrine and some carefully-applied Sheikah teleportation. He also really, really shouldn't be surprised that Mipha does not buy that he's 'fine' at all and insists that he stay in Zora's Domain for at least another week before even thinking about heading out again.

The fact that there are three Champions waiting for him and Urbosa in Zora's Domain, not two... that's surprising. Daruk wastes absolutely no time in pulling him and Urbosa both into a massive hug, one that probably comes dangerously close to being literally back-breaking, and explains that he'd figured that he'd be coming to Zora's Domain after freeing Naboris and—in one way or another—getting Urbosa back.

And Revali...

It feels like Revali's avoiding him. No, strike that, Revali is avoiding him.

While he's busy recovering from what Mipha confirms is indeed magic overuse to an extreme—oops—he scarcely ever catches a glimpse of dark blue feathers—and when he does, it's far enough away across the Domain that by the time he gets there, Revali is long gone.

Link doesn't know how to feel about that. He thinks that Revali used to avoid him a lot Before, but that was back then. This is now. They are getting along more , or at least they were. He can't imagine that Revali would have flown off to Zora's Domain, crossing most of Hyrule on his account to find Mipha, if they weren't still on better terms.

Mipha, carefully monitoring his recovery (and expressing the same sentiment that Urbosa had, that he should not use the ocarina again unless he has no other choice) says he should talk to Revali. Urbosa, taking the opportunity to help clear out some of the monster camps that the Zora couldn't on their own—that Link had, before, but the Blood Moon went and fucked up for him—says he should talk to Revali. Even Daruk, spending some of his time helping out Urbosa and some of his time keeping a sharp eye out for if Link attempts to leave Zora's Domain before he's fully healed, says he should talk to Revali.

This would be less of an issue if he wasn't increasingly certain that Revali is avoiding him. He can't even figure out why.

Neither can Sidon, when Mipha briefly tasks her brother with babysitting Link on the last day he's confined to the Domain. Sidon does, however, have an idea as to how they can find out.

"Do you want to talk to him?" Sidon asks, studying his face until Link manages a nod. "Then trust me, my friend; you will talk to him."

Sidon's plan is, in theory, fairly simple: leave Link in the lower chamber of Zora's Domain built around Ne'ez Yohma Shrine, convince Revali to join him there as well, and don't inform Revali of the real reason why Sidon wanted his help with an unspecified something until after he's already there.

In practice, Link is fully expecting Revali to turn around and leave as soon as he catches sight of Link. Or to just use his Gale to leave without a word, but Sidon had chosen that spot specifically for a reason: it has a roof.

When the moment arrives, Revali still freezes in his tracks. He glances backward at Sidon, feathers fluffing and hackles rising, like he's considering the merits of just bowling Sidon over and flying out anyway. Ultimately, it seems that he decides it's either not worth angering Mipha by assaulting her brother, or something along those lines.

"Is... there a problem, Champion Revali?" Sidon says innocently. "If you do mind helping out with this after all, I can of course ask someone else—"

"You planned this," Revali snaps, feathers fluffing further. "...One of you did, and I don't know which one."

Link coughs into a fist and signs, "It was mostly Sidon."

"It was indeed!" Sidon proclaims, thoroughly unrepentant.

Revali sighs. "Of course it was. Do either of you actually require my expertise, or—"

"You've been avoiding me," Link signs, looking at Revali expectantly.

The next sigh from him is deeper, longer. "Perhaps. It's possible."

"Why?"

"I..."

Sidon considers this, considers Revali, considers Link. He stands back and declares, "Now that you are talking, I will leave you both to it!"

Link glances after him as he walks, a little faster than normal, back up the steps into the Domain at large. Then he returns his attention to Revali and signs, "Okay. What's going on?"

"Nothing," Revali says immediately, not meeting his eyes. "I haven't the foggiest idea of what you mean."

"Oh, so you've been avoiding me by accident?" Link raises an eyebrow. "You can't think I'm that stupid."

"...I don't." Revali pauses. "While your decision-making process is, at times, rather lacking in sense—you're not. Stupid, that is."

"The guy who tackled me off of his Divine Beast without thinking it through, at all, for a chance of taking Ganon down with the rest of us, has absolutely no ground to stand on for insulting how I make decisions."

“Then it’s rather a good thing that I can fly, isn’t it?”

"Not what I meant. You know that."

Revali’s eyes narrow. “Do I?"

"I thought I did," Link signs. He's regretting trying to figure out what was going on with Revali more and more. "I don't... did I do something?"

"Not exactly," Revali says tightly.

"Okay." That raises more questions. "Are you okay?"

"Am... am I...?" Revali stares at him, beak falling slightly open. "Urbosa had to restart your heart and you have the utter gall to ask if I'm okay? You nearly—"

"She had to what."

Revali's eyes widen. "...Shit."

He takes a step back, then another. Looks desperately over his shoulder, like he's once again considering fleeing, and this time there's no Sidon there to stop him. There's nothing except Link, and he won't even look at Link right now.

"Revali," Link whispers, and the Rito's head snaps back over to him. "What happened?"

"I woke up alone in the desert," Revali says after a long pause. "I assumed that you and Urbosa would make for Gerudo Town as well, and arrived there a few hours before she did. It was an accurate assumption, regarding her. Not one at all, it seems, regarding you. When there was no sign of you by morning, everyone grew rather worried."

"Excluding you, of course," Link signs.

Revali shoots him a dirty look. "Don't put words in my beak, Link."

"So you were worried about me, this time?"

"I didn't say that." Revali looks away. Link takes the opportunity to edge closer to the stairs himself, closer to where he'd at least have a decent chance of being able to intercept Revali if he did decide to make a run for it. "Do you want to know what happened, or not?"

"Yes—"

"Then stop interrupting me," Revali snaps, and Link lets his hands fall. "Neither of us are certain as to how long we were out for, but it was days before we brought you back to Gerudo Town. The Gerudo have their own healers, of course, and by that point Riju had them on standby. Still, you're lucky, immensely so, that Urbosa thought quickly enough to save your life."

The Rito pauses, then adds, almost offhandedly, "I suppose, out of the two of us, you've always been the lucky one."

Link would probably be better at responding if several separate things about the past few days hadn't just, all at once, suddenly clicked into place. That's why Urbosa was so insistent that he wasn't fine, why Daruk has been really cautious about hugs after that first one, why Mipha has been keeping a careful eye on him as much as she can and tasking Sidon with doing so when she can't. That's why Revali's been avoiding him.

He nearly died.

(...Again. He's... not sure if the Shrine of Resurrection would work for the same person a second time, or if it would work for a second time for anyone, but he doesn't really want to find out and he also somehow doubts that thought actually occurred to anyone else. Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the resurrection soup.)

"Revali—"

"So to answer your question, I suppose: no, I'm not okay, and it is entirely your fault. How dare you trick me into caring about you?"

"Revali."

"It's utterly asinine." He throws up his wings. "Asinine, I tell you! I was fine with hating you, you know that? And then you had to come along from the future specifically to save my life, because I wasn't strong enough to defeat that Windblight on my own. It wasn't as if it was anything special, you would have done that for anyone and did do that for everyone, because you care, you idiot, you care so plucking much that it's literally killing you!"

"Revali."

The Rito in question sighs heavily. "I suppose I should be glad that your sign for me isn't anything more derogatory. What."

(Link's namesign for Revali involves the sign for eagle, because while he had definitely considered something like asshole or arrogant, it would have raised more questions than he wanted to answer when talking to anyone in the Rito Village of today. Also, they seem to like him. These days, he does too.)

"I didn't trick you into anything," he signs. "Or if I did, that's news to me."

"Of course it is," Revali scoffs.

"For what it's worth..." He considers his words, and almost signs something else, but thinks better of it at the last second. "I care about you too."

"Do you?" Arching a single eyebrow, he jabs a wing into the center of Link's chest. "Then don't you ever do that again. Idiot."

"Asshole," Link signs fondly. "...Look, I know that you tend to avoid hugs, but—"

"From Daruk," Revali says stiffly. "Who, might I remind you, is strong enough to wield a weapon made of solid rock and metal with one hand. I’d rather not have every bone in my body broken, thank you very much!”

“Do you want a hug?”

“I want you to never do that again.” He pauses. “I… suppose that I wouldn’t mind a hug, however. In addition to that.”

Link nods, and steps forward, and wraps his arms around Revali. He hears Revali’s breath hitch, feels him stiffen and shiver through his feathers.

“I won’t use the ocarina again,” Link says. His voice cracks. He winces at the sound. “Don’t need to, anyway.”

“If there comes an opportunity to use it again, it would already be a worst-case scenario,” Revali mutters into his hair, and Link’s not sure who he’s trying to convince. “A scenario like that would not be improved by you killing yourself. Don’t.”

“...Won’t,” Link mumbles. “Promise.”

Revali breathes out sharply, sets his head atop Link’s, and wraps his wings around him, too. He says nothing more, then. For once in his life, he doesn’t need to.

Link returns to Korok Forest as soon as he and the others have their new plan set in stone, as soon as he’s allowed to leave Zora’s Domain unsupervised. He’s still not as strong as he was a century ago, not quite—but he doesn’t have to be. Not quite yet.

At last, he’s enough to wield the sword that seals the darkness.

It’s time to save Zelda, to defeat the Calamity once and for all. But no one begrudges him for wanting to go after a few more shrines first, just to be safe.

“The final battle is soon, isn’t it?” Kass says quietly, lowering his instrument and looking toward the castle. His help in particular has been invaluable for hunting down several of the more… unorthodox shrines. Link doesn’t think he ever would have figured out the blood moon one without Kass. Or the deer one.

(It was hilarious to see the look on Revali’s face after informing him about the deer one, though—he only wishes he’d somehow gotten Kass to take a picture.)

“...Yeah,” Link signs, when Kass looks back at him. “Soon.”

“There is… something I would like to give to you, first,” Kass says, setting his bandoneon aside. “While I find the event that you of all people would fall in battle to be unlikely—”

“Give it to me after?” Link signs, and the Rito bard freezes. “Because there will be an after. We’re going to win, this time.”

They’ve got contingency plans upon contingency plans, this time. Not a single Champion is going to their Divine Beast alone, when the time comes, just in case the Blights somehow make a reappearance.

Each of them is pretty sure that, knowing how the Blight fights from experience, they could take on the Blights alone this time—but really, it’s better safe than sorry. Particularly given that Link has made promises on several separate occasions to several separate people that he wouldn’t use the ocarina again.

(He knows himself too well. He’d break those promises in a heartbeat if it means the difference between life and death for his friends, his family. The only family he has left.)

“...After,” Kass says uncertainly. “Very well. I can do that. I assume that I’ll know when it’s all over?”

“You will,” Link signs. “It’s not happening yet, I need to be as strong as I can be—but I’ve done something with every song you have, haven’t I?”

“Every one that was passed down from my old teacher, yes,” Kass murmurs, a faraway look on his face. “He would have been happy, very much so, to know that I was able to pass them down to you in particular—though, of course, I don’t intend to let his songs or my own die with either of us.”

“Good. You should go home, then. It’ll be safer there, when the time comes.”

“...I’m sure that my family does miss me, and I most certainly miss them.” Kass breathes out slowly, gaze shifting to where Vah Medoh is visible perched atop Totori Rock from far, far away indeed. “Though it will be strange, decidedly so, to return home at last after so long on the road.”

Link would agree with him, if he had a home to return to. Home’s not a place, for him—well, technically, he owns a house on the edge of Hateno Village now, but a house isn’t a home without it being lived in. Home, for him, is the people he cares about most. It’s in Rito Village, in Zora’s Domain, in Goron City and in Gerudo Town.

And it’s deep within the most dangerous place in Hyrule, the castle that contains the very heart of the Calamity that Zelda’s holding back right now. He’ll get her out. Soon.

Link nods wordlessly instead, around the lump in his throat. The next time he visits Rito Village, he can hear Kass’s daughters practicing their singing—and the unmistakable sound of Kass playing along with them.

He finds every shrine in Hyrule, solves their puzzles, receives their blessings. He finds the final blessing, too, deep within the Forgotten Temple. It’s an outfit, strangely familiar. Strangely green. The most comfortable outfit he’s ever worn, and it fits him perfectly.

He wears it while he’s chasing down the last of the memories held in Zelda’s photographs, then returns to Impa. He hasn’t spoken to Impa since he changed history the first time, but he’d assume that even in this changed timeline he must have visited her before he went anywhere else.

Impa has something for him: a blue tunic bearing the design of a sword, his sword, and a final memory hanging there on her wall. The memory of him dying, almost, not quite. Of Zelda’s powers awakening at last, too little and too late.

The tunic isn’t as comfortable as the other outfit. But it holds far more familiarity for him. He remembers wearing it, in every fleeting memory he has.

Also, and more importantly: when he’s wearing it, he matches the others.

He likes the green outfit. He’ll wear it when he’s done, when Ganon’s finally gone for good, when he can finally take the time to breathe again. But until then, and especially when it’s finally time and he makes for the castle, he wears the blue.

Link’s extensive, single-minded in his preparations for the Calamity. He upgrades the armor he plans on wearing to the fight with the help of every Great Fairy in Hyrule, he practices with the sword that seals the darkness—not that he has to, much, before the muscle memory comes back to him—and he plans.

He doesn’t know, exactly, what fighting the Calamity will be like. No one alive knows what fighting the Calamity will be like, except for maybe Zelda, but if she has anything helpful to add her strength has waned too much to add it. Still, Mighty Elixirs and lots of hearty food will go a long way. Everything else he’s picked up and stashed away in the Sheikah Slate, he can worry about sorting through after the Calamity’s gone.

Mipha’s lent him her Grace already, of course, and Daruk his Protection. Urbosa cornered him and made sure he took a portion of her boundless Fury with him before he left to get back his sword, but Revali never offered him anything.

Not until now. Not until today.

“I give you my Gale,” Revali murmurs, pressing his forehead to Link’s before he goes. “Which is to say that I give you a small portion of it, and I will be taking that portion back once you’re done fighting Ganon, thank you very much. However—”

“Thank you,” Link whispers. “I love you.”

Revali doesn’t exactly say, “I love you too.”

No, what comes out of his beak instead is, “Then you’d better not die on me now.”

(Link gets the message.)

Single-minded as he is, Link does not notice that some of the things he’d been hoarding in the Sheikah Slate have mysteriously gone missing: his entire supply of Endura Carrots and Bokoblin Guts, most of his Hightail Lizards, and all but one of his Hot-Footed Frogs.

It’s less that he doesn’t notice that his horses aren’t at the stables where he left them, so much as that he asked the stablehands to keep them as far away from Hyrule Castle as possible and didn’t ask follow-up questions. If he were to ask follow-up questions, he might discover that Tael is still at Gerudo Canyon Stable, while Tatl has found herself at Wetland Stable.

But Link doesn’t have time for follow-up questions, or for checking on things he won’t need. What matters is that the Calamity goes down, and that as few people as possible are at risk of going down with it, and anything else— everything else—can wait.

Zelda’s power, strong as it has been all these long years, falters moments after Link makes it to the center of Hyrule Castle. If he was anything like the old man on the Plateau he refuses to dignify with the title of king or father anymore, he might be bitter over the timing.

He’s not. He can’t be. He’s simply relieved that Zelda was able to hold out as long as she did—and if a part of him quietly wonders if her strength failing now, specifically, is because he’s here, the rest of him lunges forward towards the Calamity, searching desperately for any sign of his friend falling from that cocoon.

He finds her, offers her a hand—just in time for the Calamity to regain its bearings, just in time for the stony floor beneath them to splinter and crack and fall.

“Hold on!” Link shouts, and as Zelda hugs him for dear life he pulls out the paraglider, and soars down after it. After the Calamity.

The sword that seals the darkness calls out to the Calamity like a flame to an unknowing moth—and the Calamity, trapped for so long with nothing but Zelda for company, takes the bait instantly. Which is good, because that means Zelda can stay back and keep herself safe.

“I can help,” Zelda insists, intent gleaming in her eyes. “Do you have anything…?”

Anything… extra? Well, nothing that she can use. Except… the Sheikah Slate itself. He offers her a smile, and the Slate that was hers so many years ago, because while she may not have much experience in actual combat? She’s one of the most resourceful people Link has ever met.

Her eyes light up, taking it, and he knows he’s made the right choice.

(He doesn’t remember, exactly, why he’s so certain that she’s so resourceful—but he doesn’t need to remember it. He's right, anyway.)

Link’s more than ready to leap into the fight. So, he thinks, is Calamity Ganon—though it’s eyeing him warily, as it should. But it’s for the best that they both hesitate, circling each other—because it’s then, precisely then, that something ricochets down after them. Four massive blasts of power, coalescing into a single blue-white burst of pure energy that makes the Calamity hurt.

It’s close enough that Link can feel the heat against his skin, but he's not afraid of it. If anything, he's less afraid, knowing that everything went alright on their end. He can almost picture each of them calling out the attack, now that the time has finally come. It's time for vengeance.

Admittedly, some of that vengeance is about things that only Link now remembers... but it's the principle of the matter. Ganon didn't kill the Champions, not in this timeline—and yet each of those Blights gleefully would have, in a heartbeat, if they'd been given the chance.

"That was..." Zelda's eyes are wide, when he looks at her. "Link, it is at approximately half of its previous strength now!"

He grins at her and signs, "Then let's get rid of the other half."

The Calamity roars, preparing to attack. Link draws the sword that seals the darkness, and pulls the shield unlike any other he'd found on his way into the castle off his back. Zelda grips the Sheikah Slate tightly, gaze flicking between the runes available to her before she settles on one.

Before Calamity Ganon can strike, as it's rearing back to do so, Zelda taps the screen. Calamity Ganon freezes, glowing gold with the unmistakable sheen of Stasis. It'll fade fast—it always does, when used even on the lesser monsters, and Calamity Ganon is definitely not a lesser monster—so Link doesn't have time to think. Doesn't have time to call upon Fury the normal way.

He shifts his shield arm instead, so that his left hand is free. Ganon emerges from Stasis, just in time for Link to snap and for lightning to crash down upon it from nowhere. He's never been more ready for anything in his life—of that, he's sure.

All he has to do now is avoid dropping the ball.

As it turns out, defeating Calamity Ganon the rest of the way, even after the Divine Beasts have weakened it, is much easier said than done. Zelda picks up the Slate's new functions fast—Link can't help but wonder how much of a terror she would have been, if she'd had access to them in the past—and thankfully keeps herself mostly to the edge of the chamber. Still, neither of them are able to do all that much against the Calamity. He knows that the Master Sword is dealing damage, little by little, and that's something.

All he has to do is outlast something that was biding its time for a century, while he was lying uselessly comatose in a pool of resurrection soup.

He wishes he'd made more stamina elixirs. It's far too late for that now, even if Zelda could toss something his way, and while he's pretty sure that stamina-wise he's returned to the level he was at before the Calamity, he's... tiring. Faster than he'd like.

It's fine. He can still keep fighting. He can still fight, simply because he has to—

"Remember me?!" comes a shriek from above, from the tunnel they'd fallen through. Link can't see who said that, shouted it, screamed it really—but he'd know that voice anywhere, now.

He'd know the trio of Bomb Arrows shooting at Ganon anywhere, too. One connects with the arm being raised to attack, another with the cannon not unlike the Windblight's—and the third, of course, the third explodes between Ganon's eyes.

The Calamity wails. Revali touches down. Both Link and Zelda rush over to join him.

"Hello, Link. Hello, Zelda," Revali says blandly. "Good to see the two of you still in one piece. You didn't seriously think that I'd be letting you fight that without me, did you?"

"...Yes, but I admittedly did think you would be more concerned about Rito Village than either of us," Zelda says quietly. "It's good to see you. Very good to see you. Though I'm a little surprised that you... oh, never mind that right now!"

Oh. Right. Zelda has no way of knowing about any of the more recent developments between himself in Revali. If she sees the wink that Revali shoots him behind her back, she doesn’t comment on it.

(She probably does see the wink back, but she doesn’t comment on that either.)

“Never mind indeed,” Revali says, voice slightly strained. “Let’s kill this thing, shall we?”

“Let’s,” Zelda murmurs, a hundred-plus years of rage and grief all bottled up warring to be let out at last.

Link, for his part, only nods before charging forward again. A breather, any breather, is nice. Having Revali here—it’s dangerous, immensely so, but he can handle himself. And a selfish part of Link is glad to have more backup, against this thing.

Realistically, Link shouldn't be surprised when, moments after using up the last bit of Fury he's been lent, another massive surge of lightning comes in answer. He's still not sure if he is actually surprised or not when he looks up and sees Urbosa, gliding down with a paraglider not dissimilar to his in what is definitely not the intended way, with one arm looped through both straps and the other, holding her scimitar, pointed directly at the Calamity.

"Sorry for the delay, little bird," Urbosa calls down, sheathing her scimitar and making no move to shift back to two hands with the paraglider.

"Urbosa!" Zelda sounds surprised—and delighted. "Why are you... how are you...?"

"You didn't seriously think I was the only one coming?" Revali teases her. "I'm merely the one who arrived fastest."

Folding up the paraglider as her heels touch the floor, Urbosa nods. "It was his idea—and I for one am quite glad that he talked me into carrying one of these myself."

"What was I supposed to do, just have all those extras lying around useless?" He scoffs. "Hardly. Even if you're using it wrong."

"And why, I wonder, would you have so many—"

"Ganon," Revali interrupts. "We'll have time to talk after Ganon."

He takes to the air, as much as he can in this admittedly spacious cavern deep below Hyrule Castle. Urbosa nods, a hint of unconcealed amusement to her motions, retrieving her own scimitar and shield.

Link could have taken Ganon on his own. He could have taken Ganon even without Zelda's Sheikah Slate wizardry, he's pretty sure—but having Revali and Urbosa here too, he suddenly feels much better about their odds.

(...Is Daruk coming too? Is Mipha?)

Among other things, Calamity Ganon is a cheating bastard. Which does make sense, in retrospect—why would the physical manifestation of hatred incarnate simmering away for thousands of years even consider something like fighting fair?—but it's still annoying, immensely so, when it manages to shield itself to the point where almost nothing actually does damage to it.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of what does hurt the Calamity when that shimmery red shield keeps almost everything else from doing anything at all: Urbosa's Fury, reflecting the blasts from its cannon back at it with a shield, and Daruk, in his Protection, crashing into the Calamity like a very pissed off cannonball from above.

That really should be the end of it, even if Mipha hasn't arrived—and yet it isn't. The Calamity screams, then vanishes into wisps of Malice. Link would think that it is dead, actually, except that the Malice doesn't dissipate like it had for the Blights. If anything, it intensifies, before shooting upwards faster than even Revali's Gale could go.

"...Great," Daruk grumbles. "Hey there, tiny princess, everyone—any ideas on how we're gettin' back up?"

"I-I think that... perhaps..." Zelda winces. "I don't know—"

The ground begins to shake. Rocks fall, as the ceiling of this chamber begins caving in around them, above them. Well, fuck.

"No time," Daruk decides, spreading his arms wide. "Everybody in, now!"

Link reaches him first, Urbosa second, the two of them sprinting for the safety of his Protection. Zelda dashes in moments later, shuddering where she's wedged between Urbosa and Link, and Link would try and comfort her if he wasn't carefully scanning the room for Revali, who's—

"Don't worry about me," Revali declares, crouching to call upon his Gale. "I'll meet you—"

A chunk of ceiling crashes down close to him, far too close to him. He yelps aloud, focus lost, and stumbles backwards.

"Revali, get over here," Daruk hollers louder.

"I can—"

"We know you can make it," Urbosa shouts—Link is almost certain she's lying to keep Revali from trying to fly out just to be contrary. "You don't have to!"

Revali looks up again. Looks over at them. There's fear in his eyes, desperation. Link makes eye contact with him. His voice won't work, it never works when he needs it to most—but he mouths the word please.

The ground shakes harder. Parts of the walls are falling, the ceiling's about to give entirely. Revali makes his decision, takes to the air—and darts towards them. He cries out in alarm—in pain?—as a shard of ceiling crashes down close to him, too close to him. He reaches them, crashes into them really, at the last possible second.

The ceiling collapses. Daruk shouts, hugging everyone close with everything he has, his Protection flaring to life around them brighter and bigger than Link's ever seen it before. Soon, the only light is that dull red—but that's better than nothing. Leagues better than nothing.

The shaking stops. Protection fades, and Link can't see a thing.

"Everyone okay?" Daruk asks. Link makes a vague noise of assent, hopes the Goron will interpret it as such. "'Bosa, tiny princess? Revali?"

"I am alright," Zelda murmurs.

"As am I," Urbosa chimes in.

"I just... I need to think... we have to get back up there." Zelda pauses. "...Revali?"

"Fine," comes the clipped response. "Barring the obvious, but I expect none of you can see a thing right now, so that hardly counts.”

Link tries to remember where Revali had been before Daruk let his Protection fall, and reaches out. He feels feathers, warm against his fingers, and—blood.

"Whoever that is, I'm fine!" Revali insists. "Just... a scratch."

"That isn't me," Urbosa says, "but I'm not sure I believe you."

"Not me either." Zelda sounds distracted. "I just... I need to focus. I can do this."

"...Link, then." Revali gives his hand a squeeze. It's weaker than normal, not as reassuring as it's meant to be. "I'll live. It's nothing debilitating."

"That's good to hear," Daruk says, "but unless the lot of you wanna die down here, now's a good time to start diggin'. Or—tiny princess? Zelda?"

"I can do this," Zelda says quietly. There's a little bit of light in the darkness, golden, and Link can't figure out the source. "I know that I can, now. I believe that... Mipha is on her way too, yes?"

"I was going to fly out and get her help," Revali grumbles, which is as much of a confirmation as anything else.

"Okay." She takes a deep breath. "Okay. Everyone, hold on—"

To say that Mipha is surprised, when all five of her friends appear in a flash of golden light in front of her, is probably as much of an understatement as saying anyone else is surprised when, one moment, they're trapped far beneath Hyrule Castle—and the next, they're outside, back on the surface, and Mipha's there too.

Admittedly, while Zelda did manage to teleport all five of them to Mipha, roughly—Link could have done without having to fall at least a foot onto the road right in front of her. He supposes he should be glad that Daruk didn't fall on anyone, but the Sheikah Slate's teleportation never does that—

...Wait.

The Slate could have gotten them all out.

Well, he's a dumbass, but in his defense Zelda has the Slate right now and also he was a little busy panicking over Revali. Not without cause! A look over at him proves that he was right—one of his wings looks a mess, and he really, really hopes it's not as bad as it looks.

He turns to Mipha, and—wait, is that Tatl? His horse? ...Side-eyeing her strongly?

"Hello, Link," Mipha says mildly. "I do not believe that your horse likes me very much, but fortunately we did not have to travel far together. Are you hurt?"

Link shakes his head, points in Revali's direction.

"I'm..." Revali stares at his wing, at the blood staining his feathers. It’s nowhere near as much as Link feared, in the darkness, but any amount of blood on the outside is generally more than the ideal.

“Ah,” Revali says faintly. “I’m still mostly fine.”

“I am certain you are.” Mipha doesn’t sound at all like she believes him, but she goes to him anyway, reaching for her healing immediately. Only once she has already begun to patch Revali up does she ask, "Is it... over?”

"It is not over," Zelda says quietly. “Not yet.”

She looks at the Slate, then winces. "And this has... Link, the Slate has gone dark, why has it...? Do you know what is happening?”

Oh. He silently shakes his head. So much for using the Slate to get out after all, but the Slate going dark seems bad.

The loud, furious roar from the direction of Hyrule Field seems worse. Considerably worse. Revali startles, goes to call upon his Gale—

"Oh, no, you do not get to do that right now," Mipha counters, a firm hand upon his good shoulder, and he reluctantly sits back down. "Link?"

Link nods to Revali, then—reaches. Crouching, spreading his arms in lieu of wings with his hands splayed wide, mimicking what he’s seen Revali himself do countless times. He’s pretty sure, from the handful of times he’d called upon Revali’s Gale on his way up to where the Calamity lurked, that he only needs to crouch.

But. It’s the principle of the matter.

(Besides—Revali’s right there. The least he can do is do him proud.)

The resulting Gale is the most powerful one Link’s ever been able to pull off, in the short time Revali’s power has been loaned to him—although it still pales in comparison to anything Link’s seen the Rito himself pull off, and he thinks that Revali knows it as well as he does.

He risks a glimpse at Revali’s face, in the split second before the force of the Gale yanks his paraglider up into the heavens and Link himself with it. Revali’s almost smiling, rueful as the look is.

And then he’s up, and he can look around. There’s the Hyrule Field tower, the one he had spent an embarrassingly long amount of time trying to sneak up without getting the attention of any nearby Guardians. There’s the castle, close by.

Neither of those things matter next to the massive, Malice-covered... thing, that must take up a quarter of Hyrule Field with its sheer size alone. It resembles a boar, almost, with massive tusks and violent pink-magenta flames flaring up from its back.

He doesn’t see any openings for him to stick his sword into, which is concerning— but he, admittedly, doesn’t have time to look very long. Not after he makes eye contact with the massive beast, not after he knows in his heart and his soul even better than he already did that this is Ganon. This is the evil he was born to fight, the darkness his sword was made to seal.

(The sword on his back almost seems lighter, at the thought.)

As this new form of the Calamity’s roars again, Link folds up the paraglider and drops like a stone. He reopens it a few feet above the ground, of course, because while he does still have both the shard of Mipha’s power she’d lent him and Mipha herself right there, it would be incredibly embarrassing to break his legs right in front of her.

“Giant beast,” Link signs to the assembled group, though he looks at Zelda.

She sucks in a horrified breath. “Dark Beast Ganon...”

“Oh, great,” Revali says sarcastically, flexing the wing that, Link is pleased to see, now looks considerably better. “How many final forms does the Calamity have?”

“...I don’t know,” Zelda says, which isn’t encouraging. “But if we can defeat this one... I can end this. Once and for all.”

“That thing’s sure big,” Daruk notes, eyeing what little he can make out over the hills between them. “I like our odds!”

“I would like them better if we still had our Divine Beasts to work with,” Mipha murmurs—but Link catches what she’s not saying. Getting back there would take too long, and this beast could wreak all sorts of havoc in the meantime.

...Also, he vaguely remembers the other Champions agreeing to use all the power the Divine Beasts had left in them, to make it count, in that single shot. So it’s debatable how much good any of them would do now even if their pilots could make it back in a timely manner.

Revali looks to Mipha, as if asking permission. She hesitantly nods, and Revali shoots up to get a look at Dark Beast Ganon for himself.

“That is indeed horrifying,” Revali reports, touching down again. “The air itself, it’s... thicker, and not in a good way, even here. I don’t believe I’ll be able to maintain much altitude close to that thing."

(Link is privately grateful to his past self for encouraging just about everyone he’d run into on the road lately to stay away from the center of Hyrule in the near future. Not that the vast majority of people needed encouraging, but... still, better safe than sorry.)

“There aren’t really any openings to work with, either,” Link signs. “Unless we can burn away the Malice somehow?”

“I can certainly try,” Urbosa says, shrugging. “Though I have no reason to believe that my Fury will do any better than anything else—“

“I can create openings,” Zelda says. “If I’m close enough. If I can borrow your horse, maybe? And I think... there is one more thing. Something that I’ve known how to summon ever since my powers finally awoke, yet I never truly knew why, not until now.”

Her eyes gleam gold as something coalesces into being in her hands. A weapon. A... bow.

“Is that,” Revali squawks, “the plucking Bow of Light?”

Revali says that like he knows what it is. Like everyone here should know what that is. Link can't deny it seems familiar, vaguely so, but... he can't place it. To be fair, he can't place a lot of things that he should know, but this feels different somehow. Different in the way that the Master Sword is, like it's somehow etched into his very soul.

Zelda looks down at the bow. Looks back at Revali. “I... believe so, yes?”

Link reaches for the Bow of Light, eyes it for a moment, then passes it along to Revali—and tries not to smirk, too much, at the barely coherent noise he gets in response.

“You’re the better archer,” he signs. Very deliberately. “If you can’t fly too close—could you land on the back of Tatl’s saddle?”

“Who—“ Revali stares at him, dumbfounded. “Your horse? Of course I could do such a thing, but I doubt your horse would be very happy with me for doing so!”

“She cannot be angrier with you than she currently is with me,” Mipha points out, stepping carefully a little farther away from the horse that is, indeed, more disgruntled than Link has ever seen her before.

...Honestly, Link'll have to give Tatl so many apples later, if she’d put up with Mipha actually riding her for a not insignificant amount of time.

"Issue," Daruk says. "The three of you aren't all fittin' on that horse."

Link doesn't see the issue. Revali can shoot better than him, and Zelda can give Revali the openings he needs, and he can... run alongside them on foot, or something?

...Maybe not. He's starting to see the issue. Someone needs to steer Tatl, Zelda hasn't ridden a horse in a century, and Link has the funniest feeling that this might be the most time Revali has spent in somewhat close proximity to a horse ever.

"Your other horse should still be near here," Urbosa says thoughtfully—wait, is that how she made it to the fight so fast herself? "He seemed to like me well enough. Perhaps Zelda can ride with me, and Revali can ride with you?"

Zelda stares at her. "You can ride a... I suppose it's foolish of me to assume otherwise, but..."

Urbosa smiles back, the expression tinged with sadness. "It was one of your mother's favorite pastimes. She showed me how to ride horseback, I taught her how to seal surf."

Daruk clears his throat. "Alrighty—I'm definitely not gettin' on a horse, but the not-so-tiny princess and I can stick together, help either of ya out if you need it?"

"That sounds reasonable," Mipha says. "Please, all of you—be careful, and if you are hurt, do not hesitate to fall back to me. We can do this. Together."

Link agrees—not verbally, but by whistling loudly. 

Tatl's ears prick up, and she trots over to join him, whinnying at him until he pats her flank reassuringly. Tael approaches from the direction of Hyrule Castle at a gallop, slowing only once he catches sight of Link, and yeah, both of them are getting so many apples once all this is over. Every apple that he's got in the Slate and then some, if he can get it working. If he can't... well, he knows some good places to find apple trees.

"Together," Link whispers.

All eyes go to him. For the first time in a very long time, he smiles back at the five people he cares most about in the world, in all the ways that applies. Friends, family, even more than that.

His thoughts go, briefly, to the ocarina left somewhere in the Slate. He couldn't get it now if he wanted to, not unless the Sheikah Slate suddenly decides to start working again if it's given back to him, and he doesn't exactly have time to ask for it now. He could try anyway, if he really, really wanted to.

The thing is? He doesn't. This is terrifying, even more so than walking into that castle to fight Calamity Ganon was so many hours ago. But that won't stop him. Being scared of things hasn't ever stopped him before. He's not about to let that stop him now.

He thinks that might be called courage.

Courage need not be remembered, for it is never forgotten.

Mipha tells him, after it's all over, about the family he'd forgotten. He had a father who was a knight before him, a little sister who spent most of her time in Zora's Domain after he died, helping out Mipha and Sidon wherever she could. Who hoped that she'd get to see him again, but understood all too well that it would be unlikely, and had written letters to him. A lot of letters. Reading them, he can almost picture his sister's face; can almost convince himself that her messages weren't one way only.

His father survived the Calamity too, according to Daruk—one of the only knights to, and while Link suspects Daruk himself may have been involved in how that happened, he doesn't ask, and Daruk doesn't offer. The two of them had barely known each other in the time Before, but Link is... less surprised than he would have expected to be, to find that they'd gotten along well after he... well, died. Daruk doesn't have letters to pass on, but what he does have is stories, and that's... that's something, at least, and it's more of something than he expected, and it has the fun side effect of making Yunobo think that, between Link and Zelda and his own father, all Hylians must clearly be incredibly strong and brave. Clearly.

Neither he nor Revali are much inclined to iron out the specifics of what has somehow turned into a relationship in the immediate aftermath of it all; not now, perhaps not ever, but perhaps a little sooner than that. Still, it's not a coincidence that Link accepts the long-standing invitation from Teba to stay with his family in Rito Village for a while around the same time that Revali finally moves back into Rito Village proper.

(Really, though, he had to. How else would he have gotten to see the way that Revali nearly started crying on the spot when Tulin, determined little guy that he is, shows off something that's almost, almost his Gale?)

Urbosa knows, evidently, how to seal surf. She quite deliberately does not inform Riju of this fact when her great-granddaughter offers to teach her, but in the days and weeks after the Calamity, it becomes a common sight to see the two of them racing about the Gerudo Desert like lightning given physical form. Link... has to wonder, he does—though he won't ask—if someone in the family she'd left behind might have been just as fond of seals as Riju is today.

A few days after she’s left the title of princess behind for good, Zelda tells him that she remembers what happened originally, and what changed. She doesn't tell him much else. She doesn’t have time to, as the newest member of Purah’s research team, a plucky girl who just so happens to share a name with the lost princess of Hyrule.

It takes Link longer than he would have expected to have a chance to speak with Kass privately, between the everything on Link’s end and Kass’s five young children. But eventually, there’s time.

At long last, Link discovers what Kass had for him all along: a picture of him, alongside the people who mean the most to him. Link knows, looking at it, that it’s going directly on a wall. His, ideally, next to the picture of himself and his family Before.

At long last, Link realizes what he should do, too. Impa’s noticed, by now, that the ocarina is missing. She assumes, most likely, that it was stolen by the Yiga Clan—and Link could tell her otherwise, if she doesn’t figure it out on her own. He’s told Paya; after all, she was the reason he could save his friends in the first place.

He tells Kass, too.

“For the next hero that needs it,” Link whispers, holding the ocarina out to him. “Keep it safe.”

Kass looks at the ocarina. He looks at Link. He takes the instrument in his wings, reverence clear in the way he holds it.

“I will,” Kass swears, and Link fully believes him.