Work Text:
If there was one place in Hyrule that Pan was glad she barely explored, it was caves. They were deep, winding, and very, very dark. Often to the point of being suffocating. It was like the world was threatening to collapse in on her and crush her. But, she was here, underneath Hyrule Castle because of both the gloom that seeped from the floor, and the king in front of her. His blue jacket and golden accents were sharp against the rough, brown rock of the cave. Kev had forgone any actual finery for the expedition, only choosing to travel in the bare minimum. He walked slowly ahead of her, his torch too high for any actual use besides potentially lighting some roots that hung from the ceiling on fire. Pan followed behind him, matching his pace as she glanced at the rocks and rubble, waiting for something to reveal itself and attack them.
“I’d lower the torch,” Pan commented, earning a glare from Kev. “It’s too high to function.”
“Forgive me for wanting a good view of the area,” he retorted, even as he lowered the torch to an acceptable level.
“How’re you gonna get a good view, though?” Pan asked, waving away some fog that drifted towards them. “This gloom is just thick enough to be annoying.”
“But not thick enough to poison us.” Kev countered, stepping around a crack in the floor.
“Messed up how breathing air can get you killed.”
“No one has actually died.”
“Yet.”
“They’ve found some foods that help, so don’t get your hopes up.”
Pan rolled her eyes with a smirk, before her eyes were caught on something on the wall.
Kev heard her stop walking, and glanced back, before turning to the wall. His eyes widened.
“Are you seeing this?” He said quietly, though Pan could see the glimmer in his eyes.
“I am. I think. Are you seeing two dancing Hinoxes drinking wine?”
For once, sarcasm didn’t earn Pan a deadpan stare. Kev was too busy staring at the wall. It was a pretty nice wall, but she didn’t see his fixation. Not until she stepped closer. It was a mural, and by glancing further along the surprisingly long wall, it was part of an entire gallery. The very first depicted some sort of… god? Creature? It sat on a carved piece of stone, its clawed hands holding six floating shapes that reminded her of teardrops. Or commas. A seventh sat nestled between the creature’s long horns. Figures that Pan could only guess were Hylian stared up at the figure in awe, hands raised out in silent prayer.
“I think I’ve heard of this…” Kev muttered under his breath, walking to the next mural with Pan trailing after him.
The next mural had the same creature’s claws intertwined with a Hylian. Their foreheads were pressed together, despite the height difference that forced the creature to kneel. In the hands that weren’t holding the other’s, each held a droplet from the previous mural. The Hylians this time danced between each other, joyous at the apparent reunion. Kev had already moved onto the next mural with excitement shining in his eyes. Pan couldn’t help but wince at this mural, though. The Hylian from before was impaled with a three-pronged weapon. It emerged from a stretch of dark teal that spread across half of the mural. A tall, monstrous being held the hilt of the blade from right before it emerged from the dark, a long tail swooping down from its head and ending at its feet. Antlers sprung from its skull, and sharp teeth emerged from its grinning mouth.
“Nasty.”
Pan glanced at the last mural, without moving from her position, and even though Kev blocked some of the lower half, she could still tell what was happening. The tall, dark shrouded figure was somehow even taller here, and the features even more exaggerated. Eyes bloomed from the cloak it cast itself in. Its clawed hand was extended, a ruler throwing out orders to its subjects. The subjects in question were… monsters. Pan could recognize the form of moblins, lynels, bokoblins and more. They raced out from the darkness, weidling weapons that they used against the Hylians, who had only a small section of the mural to themselves. The rest of it was cast in darkness.
Kev turned to her, smiling ever so slightly, “I know these.”
Pan blinked, “Oh yeah?”
Kev nodded, “It’s the Imprisonment War. You’ve heard of it, right?”
It rang a bell… vaguely. She was fairly sure she knew. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Kev looked at her dumbfounded, “You’re lying?”
Pan shook her head, “Uh-uh. Never heard of it.”
“Well. I’ll tell you.” Pan didn’t miss the excitement as it crept back into his voice.
“So, we don’t really… know how Hyrule started.” He started walking towards the first mural, holding up the light so she could see clearly. “Some people say we were crafted by Hylia herself, while others say we came from tree saplings. But this… this is lending credence to the theory that we came into being by ourselves, before we were visited by gods, who taught us about things like the Triforce. The gods were called the Zonai. This one seems to have brought some form of gift. Judging by the next mural, the one who brought gifts married a Hylian. Maybe the tears were a proposal? Uniting divinity and mortality, I guess?”
Pan blinked, “So it was marriage. Knew it.”
“Shush. Apparently the royal family came from a union like that.”
Pan grinned, “Is your grandma a creature?”
Kev rolled his eyes, “These are thousands of years old. This is like my great great grandmother's grandma.”
“I bet she made good cookies.”
“Sure. Anyway, the next one means that marriage didn’t end that well. Probably. This monster seems to steal the wedding gift from the Hylian. And if you look closely, the tear seems to be different now, look at the way the darkness reaches for it. The monster seems to be Zora, or some mutated form of it. The trident was normally used by the royal family, but the Zora haven’t had one in ages. Wonder if this is related.”
He continued to the last mural, the torchlight illuminating the sharp features on the monster’s face. “And this has to be the beginning of the Imprisonment War. The monster seems to have united the monster races, or perhaps created them, to wage war on Hyrule. They seem to outpower and outman the Hylian forces.”
Pan tilted her head, “Forgive me if I’m being horribly stupid, but how is Hyrule still a thing? If we were horribly outpowered and all.”
Kev shrugged, “I think it has to do with the fact it's called the Imprisonment War. I think I remember reading about these… sages, I believe, who sacrificed their lives to stop the war. It was probably like locking the door on the monsters. They were stuck for a while.”
Pan looked away, “And that didn’t really work.” The two of them knew better than anyone.
“It lasted thousands of years. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.”
Pan sent Kev a glance, as she caught the double meaning. They hadn’t ever really… talked about the time between the Siege of Hyrule Castle and when she defeated the Calamity. It was a topic they didn’t like to dwell on. Pan was dead for a hundred years. Kev was stuck holding shut the jaws of the Calamity for a hundred years. She knew it had been hell. Hyrule lost a hundred years of change, as the sky slowed and everything stopped. Eventually Kev’s power had weakened and monsters slipped through the cracks. He had been practically fraying at the seams when Pan had slain the Calamity. And he was right. His sealing of the Calamity had lasted a good fifty years before it finally began to fracture. It wasn’t perfect, but it had worked.
Kev seemed to stop thinking about it, as he turned to the rocks pressed up against the wall. Pan could see murals peeking out from the rubble at the top, but it was too little to make any difference.
“I wonder what’s behind those…” he mused.
“You know, I could show you, if only someone didn’t take my Sheikah Slate and mess with it!”
Kev sent her a horrified look, “You don’t mean you were going to blow up the murals?!”
“What? They’ve lasted this long, they could handle a little explosion.”
“You’re insane.”
“That’s your favorite thing about me.”
“It’s. It’s really not.”
“Liar.”
He rolled his eyes, “Besides, I was trying to help. That thing was horrible at actually letting you know where shrines were, and reading the temperature. It couldn’t even accurately gauge depth properly. It led us over more mountains than needed because we couldn’t tell they were mountains.”
“And by trying to help, you fucked it up! My runes, Kev, my runes. How will I fly again?” Pan said, throwing her hand over her head dramatically.
“Didn’t Aguya give you her gale?”
Pan scoffed, “Nothing can beat using physics and minecarts to ride a dragon.”
Kev stared at her, “Do I want to know?”
Pan shrugged, “Yet again, I’d show you, but I never got my Slate back.”
“It’s not my fault it blew up, ok!”
“It blew up?!”
“Blame Purah. We were trying to fix it, and… It didn’t go well.”
“I can’t believe you blew up the thing that helped me save Hyrule!”
“Well, Purah gave me her Purah Pad, which actually works.”
Pan crossed her arms, “Yeah, and can I walk on water using cryonis?”
“...no.”
“Exactly. When you find out how to get me back my runes, we can talk.”
“Later.”
“Later, he says, and he’s going to never give me my bombs back.”
“That’s for the safety of Hyrule at this point.”
Pan opened her mouth to disagree, but Kev had already started walking away.
“Hey!” She complained as she followed after him, walking faster to catch up.
He ignored her, and continued on, when Pan heard a familiar noise.
Pan groaned, “Kev, stay here.”
He blinked, “What? Why?”
“Keese.”
“Ah.”
Pan looked through the doorway that they were stopped outside of, and saw a colony of Keese flying around aimlessly. Pan guessed there were about five of them.
She glanced at Kev, and smiled, “Wanna see something cool?”
“Go ahead.”
“Step back then.”
He listened, and stood next to the old murals. Pan pulled out a stick that she had brought down in case one of them broke an ankle. No use in dirtying her blades if it happened. She held the stick and spun. She felt the familiar crackle of electricity as Cory’s Fury spun into the air. She heard Kev sigh, likely disappointed by her misuse of the champion’s blessing. When she felt the static hit its highest note, she slammed the stick into the ground. The Keese that hadn’t noticed her, as she was past the doorway, out of sight, screeched as the electricity burned them. She walked into the room a bit to verify that she had gotten all of them. Pan grabbed a couple of the wings and eyes, tucking them into her bag, before she walked back to the doorway.
She swept into an exaggerated bow, holding her arm out, “After you, your majesty.”
Kev rolled his eyes, and continued forward. He stopped, “Wait. Have you ever looked in the mirror after you did that?”
“Um, no? Why would I? Am I just breathtakingly beautiful? Or am I terrifying? I bet I’m both.” She sent him a smirk.
He huffed, “You look stupid, if anything. Your hair gets staticy.”
“You’re joking.”
“Nope.”
Pan fell dramatically onto the dirty ground, “Kev! How am I gonna pick up hot babes now?”
He raised an eyebrow as he walked back over, “You were doing that in the first place?”
Pan took his hand as he offered it, but rolled her eyes, “Of course I was. Who doesn’t want a piece of me? Savior of Hyrule? Champion of Champions? Slayer of the Calamity? Hottest thing since Death Mountain?”
Kev looked at her blankly, “Probably all of the monsters you’ve slain.”
“That’s what you think.”
“Anyway, I don’t think you’re going to find your… ‘babe picking up abilities’ affected by your hair being staticy and stupid. If you’re really concerned, consider: hat.”
“You’re right, everything else about me is hot enough to cancel it out,” Pan said as she stood up.
“Sure.”
“Glad we could agree on that.”
Kev sighed, and turned towards the next doorway. “We should move on.”
Pan frowned, “I’m getting bad vibes.”
“When have we done anything that hasn’t?”
“Fair enough. Just stay behind me. I don’t trust this place.”
Kev gestured for her to go forward. Pan did so. The torch could only illuminate so much, so most of the tunnel was cast in shadow, with Pan and Kev’s shadows turning monstrous on the wall.
As they walked, with Pan’s eyes darting at every movement, she realized something, “Did you take pictures of the murals?”
“Yeah. I did it while you were ruining your hair,” Kev replied from behind her.
“Cool.”
They fell into a soft, comfortable silence as they walked. The tunnel was long, she noticed, and was slowly winding down. The bad vibes she’d noted earlier returned. It was like someone walking over her grave. She glanced back at Kev, to verify he was still there, to which she met his eyes. They flicked over to hers, a warm coffee brown. He raised an eyebrow questioningly, but Pan just turned forward. The gloom was thicker here, a denser fog. Not enough to poison, she assumed, but it was definitely messing with her depth perception. Suddenly, the cave opened into a much larger cavern.
There was a glow from the middle. An indigo that twisted in the miasma, twirling upwards. Kev walked to stand beside her, his torch illuminating the cavern and the thing in the middle.
“What the fuck?” He hissed under his breath when he saw it.
A large corpse was laying on the ground, Zora by the looks of it. Long limbs that had dried out scales, gills faded and feathery. The tail that grew from their skull was twisted and curved, the fins dull with the slightest glint like a dusty opal. A snarl was transfixed on their face that was paler than the moon, which contrasted against their black scales. But as the fire light glinted over them, Pan realized they were really a very very dark teal. A stone that reminded Pan of the ones from the murals was cradled in an intricate lattice work of silver and other gems sat around the base of the tail. The stone itself was a dark indigo, practically swallowing the little bit of light in the room. The corpse was seemingly being choked by a disembodied hand that was the indigo she had spotted. It glowed gently, metal that reminded Pan of golden lightning spread across the arm in an almost tattooed fashion. A similar, glistening stone was part of a ring that was held in place by chains that curled around the palm. This one was a honey gold, and glowed brightly, like a drop of the sun.
Pan tilted her head away from the thing in front of them, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw figures in the dark. Her hand flew to the Master Sword, but stopped when she realized they were statues. Very, very realistic statues. Through the multiple sources of light in the room, she recognized a Zora, a Gerudo, a Goron, and a Rito, each holding a long chain that connected them to the corpse. It took her a second of searching to realize the chains each connected to a limb on the corpse, holding it taut.
She glanced at Kev, who was staring, transfixed, at the display. He reached for the Purah Pad, and lifted it, the small click of the shutter alleviating the tension.
“I think…” He began after a moment, “We just found the sages.”
Then there was a creak. Both of their eyes flicked back to the hand, whose light that spun down from the ceiling flickered. The hand’s grip loosened, before the indigo light faded and the hand fell from its position. Kev caught the stone in a trademark display of reaction time, and stared at it. It glowed in his hand. Nothing happened. For a moment. Then the chains snapped, flailing. Pan’s arm flew out, slicing the piece that was flying at her and Kev in two. The chains landed behind them, rattling as they settled.
Pan turned towards Kev, “Are you alright?”
He nodded, not paying attention, just staring at the stone. This time, instead of the honey gold, it was warmer, like a rich bronze that shone gold and orange in the light.
Pan opened her mouth to question, when a scraping drove her attention away.
The corpse moved. It slowly drew itself to full height which… was way too tall. It dwarfed even Jared, who was the tallest Zora Pan knew. Its claws flexed, and its tail flicked, colors trapped inside of each scale. The finery it had draped itself in was silver, but even here, countless precious stones glinted in each curl of chains and plate of metal. The stone on its forehead gleamed as its eyes opened.
Pan’s heart stopped. She knew those eyes. Golden with slit pupils, too bright to be seen anywhere but in the masses of Calamity that had stricken the Divine Beasts. The blights that had taken the form of a scorpion, a tiger, a bull, and a raptor. Every nerve in her body set itself alight, and time seemed to slow. This was the Calamity. Not the monstrous form of the dark beast that reminded Pan of a warped deer. This husk trapped beneath Hyrule’s Castle. This was the thing that had taken so much of Pan’s.
Its hand flicked out, reminding Pan of the mural for a split second, before the gloom that had welled in the air rushed out, lunging towards her and Kev. She swung the Master Sword to cut into it, but didn’t expect resistance. It slammed against her and the blade, and Pan bit her tongue to prevent the scream that demanded to be let out of her throat. She could feel the Master Sword screaming as the gloom raced down the blade. It was like lightning in her veins, even before it leapt to her hand. She felt her nerves spasm as it raced through her veins to her heart.
Pan threw a glance to Kev who stared at her. The stone was pressed to his chest as he sat on the ground, apparently having fallen when it met her sword. She wanted to tell him to go, that she would figure it out, that he had to go. Hyrule couldn’t lose its king again. But the thought of something else lurking in the darkness and killing him while she was occupied was enough for her to turn back and face down the gloom. She felt the gloom wear on her and the Master Sword. It sapped her like an open wound, and she could practically feel her life dripping from the handle of the Master Sword. Her arm jerked as if it had a mind of its own, and she forced it into position with her other.
Suddenly, the gloom stopped. She dropped onto her knees and forced breath into her lungs, even if she knew it was futile. She felt as fragile as a glass figurine. Able to break at the slightest touch.
The gloom raced back towards her, before abruptly turning and lunging for Kev.
It was second nature.
She threw herself between the gloom and Kev, and then it was like getting struck by lightning. It was a sixth sense. She felt the gloom reach the weakest point on the Master Sword and dig its teeth in. And then the Master Sword shattered. Her eyes widened as it felt like someone had severed her hand from her. It was something that she knew. Something she loved. And it was broken. A shard flew from the sword, and nicked the corpse on the cheek. Golden tar dripped from the wound. It raised a claw and touched the wound, glancing at the blood for a second before flicking it away with a grin.
“So that’s your pretty little sword that was supposed to slay me.” It laughed, sharp and thorny like a bramble bush.
“But where are my manners?” It mused. It swept into a mock bow, “Pleasure to see you again, Wisdom. Always nice to see such a familiar face.”
Its head turned towards Pan, fixing her with its demonic eyes, “And how nice it is to finally meet you, Courage. I’ve heard oh so very much about you. You’re supposed to slay me, yes? But that’s supposed to be with… well… that flimsy sword.” It shrugged, “Oh well. It was never going to work anyway.”
Pan’s hand felt frozen, holding the hilt of the Master Sword, even if it stung like an infected wound. She forced herself to her feet, and readied herself for another blow. She’d sworn an oath a long time ago, to protect Kev, and Hylia damn it, she was going to follow through. She ignored the black blood that dripped from her lips and nose. She blinked away the traces that welled from her eyes. She wasn’t going down without a fight.
The corpse laughed again, “Oh, isn’t that sweet. It’s a shame the two of you will be buried here, in what was supposed to be my grave. I love irony.”
It threw its hands up towards the ceiling, and gloom shot out from the floor, shattering the statues it had gathered around, and slammed up against the ceiling. The rock groaned and shuddered at the force. Rocks began tumbling as it moved upwards. Pan blocked one from her and Kev with her shield, as her eyes flew towards the doorway, but she realized it was blocked. They were stuck in here. A crack raced along the ground, and it spread rapidly, fracturing the floor. The cavern groaned as it collapsed, and Pan could hardly see with the amount of dust and rock that came down from the ceiling. The figure was obscured, as the gloom rushed from its palm as well, but she could see Kev. Of course she would see Kev. She would always see Kev, wouldn’t she. Swearing loyalty to someone does that.
The ground collapsed under them, and Pan leapt to try to catch Kev’s hand in hers, to save him from the chasm she saw rupturing from below. But she missed. His hand was barely a breath away from hers, but it was enough for him to fall.
“Kev!” She screamed, and she nearly leapt off after him, but her hand that she was trying to ignore because of how much it hurt was caught by something. She threw a glance, about to scream at whatever it was when she realized it was the same indigo hand as before. In a moment that seemed to last an eternity, it readjusted its grip and pulled her through the indigo portal it came from. All Pan could think as she was pulled through was that she had never liked caves. She missed the stars.