Work Text:
In the silence that followed the sudden flash of light, Impa slowly lowered her shielding arm and peered across the battlefield. Dust hung thick in the air, though the eruption of rocks and debris seemed to have ended. Even the monster horde stood frozen in shock. Impa knew they should be attacking, they should be launching themselves at their unprotected foe-
But even she found herself trembling in shock. Her soldiers were likely in even worse shape.
Then came the sound of coughing and wheezing, one, no, two different voices floating out from the heart of the dust cloud.
“Pu-Purah! Wh- What did you do?!” came one half-choked voice.
“That was… definitely not me…” wheezed another feminine voice. “Blame Robbie!”
“I’m blaming - cough - BOTH of you!”
Slowly, the dust cloud began to fall, and they could slowly begin to make out two figures picking themselves up from the ground. They were in the middle of a crater surrounded by broken rock, half-exploded trees, and debris of all kinds. The women standing on wobbly legs were both clad in tan tunics. One had red-streaked white hair piled up on her head while the other wore a wide-brimmed hat over her long locks.
Red Streak was still coughing as she finally looked out towards them. “Ah! M-monsters!”
Wide Hat’s head shot up as she gasped in shock-
And with that, the monsters suddenly roared and began rushing forwards. Impa hefted her blade as her soldiers snapped-to once more, and then… the battle resumed.
It was a hectic affair; they were still vastly outnumbered, but the monsters’ distraction provided them with an excellent opportunity to restore their formation and surge forwards to attack their rear flank.
The newcomers weren’t entirely helpless either, as it turned out. Wide Hat moved into a protective position while Red Streak scrambled out of range. And then…
Impa gasped as the scent of Sheikah magic filled the air. Wide Hat’s hands flashed through a familiar series of hand gestures - ones Impa, herself, used for meditation - and she was suddenly surrounded by glowing blue shapes who surged forwards to join her in battle. Kunai and ofuda flashed as Wide Hat went on the attack, and suddenly, the battle rapidly swung back in their favor.
With such a powerful fighter aiding them, it actually didn’t take long before they finished off the legion of monsters and Impa could dispatch her soldiers to begin seeing to the wounded. And also have a much-needed conversation with their guests.
“Good job, Impa!” Red Streak exclaimed as she came scrambling back towards them. She was holding a strange rectangular shape in her hands on the back of which was a familiar glowing symbol. The same symbol tattooed on the brow of Wide Hat and sat on the armor protecting Impa’s own breast.
“Purah?! What did you do!” Wide Hat exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air before planting them on her hips.
“Me? I told you, Impa, it isn’t my fault, it’s Robbie’s! He’s the one who’s been messing with those new guardian parts we found-”
“That’s ridiculous! The two of you are always-”
“I need to know who both of you are,” Impa said, breaking into the conversation. Her eyes slid from one stranger to the next, trying to work out who they were. “Especially in light of the fact that you are both adorned with Sheikah symbology, and yet, I know neither of you.”
And determine why I keep hearing you use my name.
“Adorned with-” Wide Hat (Impa) swelled up with indignation. “Are you trying to imply that we aren’t Sheikah?! I was appointed by the elders of our tribe to serve the princess herself!”
“And I am Hyrule’s preeminent researcher into ancient Sheikah technology!” exclaimed Red Streak (Purah was her name?).
Impa stared at them, then sighed slowly as settled her nodachi onto her back. “More time travel,” she muttered in disgust. “Cia’s reach is ever-expanding.”
“Time travel? What do you mean by time travel?” Purah’s eyes went wide. “We’ve only theorized about the existence of time travel. It’s referenced in ancient Sheikah tales, but there’s been nothing that explains how such a thing might be achieved-”
“It’s a sorceress,” Impa said in a terse voice. “Going by the name Cia. She was once the Guardian of Time, but has instead chosen a path of violence. Through her magic, she has been breaking the very bonds of time to connect other eras with our own. It seems you are the latest set of heroes that she’s brought here by accident.”
“By accident?” sputtered Purah.
“Heroes?” Wide Hat exclaimed. “That’s ridic- Link is Hyrule’s Chosen Knight, not me! Or- or one of the other Champions-” Then she went still, eyes narrowing as she stared back at Impa. “Who, exactly, are you?”
“I am Impa, Commanding General of the Army of Hyrule. And you two are coming with me.”
Their new visiting Sheikah tagged along willingly and Impa was glad to foist Purah off on Lana, who visibly began to wilt under the barrage of questions the Sheikah research immediately began to unleash on her. Impa, meanwhile, found her own visiting counterpart… a lot more challenging to handle.
Mostly because she wouldn’t leave her alone.
“You need not haunt my every step,” Impa saint in a pointed voice as she went striding through camp. “There are a number of other heroes you could consult with if it is knowledge you seek.”
“Oh no, you aren’t getting rid of me that easily,” Hat declared. His voice was, as always, loud and filled with determination. “We might have been snatched away from our era of Hyrule, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped serving Princess Zelda! Purah’s taking care of recording all the lore from our tribe we’ve apparently lost over the years, which means it’s my job to work on everything else. Hyrule hasn’t dealt with an actual war in years. You’re in the middle of one, though, which means there’s no better chance to see how it all actually works!”
“You can do that with Link,” Impa growled.
“They’re busy,” Hat said dismissively. “Besides, you’re the one in charge. Your Link is sweet, but it’s clear he barely knows how to be a soldier, let alone a commander. I’m pretty sure our champion could beat him in a fight, too, so there really isn’t anything there to learn.”
Impa found herself growing under her breath, but she didn’t swing back to snarl the way she wanted to. She simply pressed on, heading for the command tent.
“Anyways,” Hat said, pressing on with her previous question. “How do you get messages from one part of the army to the next without Rito? There’s no one faster in the air than them, but we know there’s a chance the Calamity could send forces after them. We’ve been mapping out routes for riders and begun staging fresh horses but we haven’t fully worked out the best way to rotate them…”
And on, and on, and on Hat went, pulling out one hypothetical scenario after another. The questions were wide ranging and usually increased in number after each meeting she invited herself into.
As evening drew near, Impa groaned and rubbed at her temples. Various bits of paperwork sat before her in neat piles (a report from the quartermaster, updates on Cia’s latest deployments, their own current casualty and injury numbers, and so on) “What I don’t understand is how your era has managed to lose so much basic knowledge about conducting a war.”
Hat huffed and lifted her chin proudly as she folded her arms across her chest. “We have been blessed with centuries of peace and prosperity, and have only needed to defend Hyrule against small-scale monster incursions and the occasional Yiga Clan attack.” Then her hands came flying down to slap against her folded legs. “It’s not our fault we’ve lost some stuff along the way! But we’re mobilizing fully to prepare for the Calamity’s attack. There’s just a few little details we need to sort out so we can shove the Calamity back in whatever pit it’s going to crawl out of!”
“This isn’t just a few details, though,” Impa groaned.
“Well, how am I supposed to know exactly what we’ll need? I have to get as much information for the princess as possible!”
Impa gave Hat a sideways look… then paused as the very real worry wrinkling her however-many-times successor’s brow, and the fear lurking behind her eyes. She might be loud and brash, but Impa couldn’t deny how fervently devoted Hat was to her Zelda, or how deeply she wanted to protect Hyrule. All eras of Hyrule, really, given how determinedly she acted on the battlefield, but especially her own.
The threat she spoke of seemed too large to be real, and Impa had to admit she’d probably been a bit too dismissive about the threat. If this Calamity truly was a danger on the scale Hat and Purah kept describing, then wouldn’t she also be desperate to try and find something that might give them an edge? Both of the visiting Sheikah bragged about the great machines they’d found to help in the battle, and of the martial prowess of their Hyrule’s various Champions. But they also clearly worried that wouldn’t be enough.
Hat considered the situation far more dire than Impa had been, and she should have respected that more.
Slowly, Impa straightened up. “You should go meet with Link-”
“I already told you why he-”
“-because,” Impa continued in a loud, terse voice, “he is grappling with many of the same questions you are. I’ve already given him a number of resources to help get him up to speed with serving as one of Hyrule’s commanding officers. Ask him to share. Reading those will give you far more comprehensive knowledge than jumping randomly from one topic to another.”
“Books? That’s really more Purah’s thing than mine… But you have a point.” Sighing, Hat folded her hands in front of herself and inclined her upper body in a bow. “I will go and seek him out. Thank you for your guidance.”
And just like that, she rose to her feet and went dashing off with a look of determination on her face.
Well, perhaps managing Hat wasn’t so hard after all. Instead of just being frustrated with her youthful determination, Impa needed to remember that Hat was just as devoted to the royal family as Impa, herself, was. They were of the same tribe, the same lineage, and carried the same name. And there was great weight to that.
They were Sheikah. They were Impa.
It was their honor to serve.