Archive of Our Own

Shadow was on the ground.

"The shadow normally follows behind the body," he managed to choke out. Sparkling dust filled the air, trailing back to his slowly dissolving legs.

Shadow was on the ground.

Vio reached desperately for him, his hands trembling and shoulders heaving. Red clutched onto Vio's back, arms wrapped tightly around the purple boy as he tried, desperately, to provide some form of grounding comfort. It was useless, and they both knew it. Nothing could help quiet Vio's wrecked, heaving sobs.

Shadow was on the ground.

Green knelt next to the fallen boy, his knees digging uncomfortably into the cobblestones beneath them. A sharp rock pressed against his shin, but Green paid it no mind. The only thing he needed to focus on was clutching Shadow's hand tightly, squeezing the weakly fluttering fingers between his own. Blue, who stood near Shadow's feet, for once didn't try to quell the tears slowly dripping from his eyes. There was no reason for him to still be standing. There was no enemy to guard against here, not when they had already defeated them all. But he couldn't move, couldn't do anything. His feet felt like solid iron weights.

Because Shadow was on the ground.

The dissolving sparkles had reached his torso now. It showed no signs of stopping. "But today," Shadow coughed weakly as he stared up at the pale blue sky above them, "today I still followed behind you four."

Shadow's head turned slowly, lolling to the side and locking onto Vio's gaze. The sparkling white dust floating near the colors' faces froze and shuddered before the white faded into blood red. Shadow's left hand darted out to clamp around Vio's forearm. Red screamed, his fingers closing tightly around the fabric of Vio's tunic.

"Shadow?" Green's voice wavered as he asked, still clutching the other's hand tightly. His thumb, previously stroking back and forth over Shadow's skin, drew to a halt. "Are you alright?"

No, clearly not! Blue wanted to scream as he tried to step forward, his hand twitching towards his blade, but he couldn't move. He was frozen still. His heart pounded, the blood rushing in his ears.

"You…" Shadow murmured as his fingernails dug into Vio's skin. "You killed me!" The crescent-shaped indents in Vio's forearm shook slightly, before the flesh cracked and gave way to a faint stream of blood. Vio yelped, yanking backwards as Red tugged on him, but he couldn't move. Shadow's grip was too tight. The fingernails just remained embedded in his flesh, creating long, jagged grooves.

The weights on Blue's legs vanished in an instant, sending him stumbling forward. He tried to convert the sudden momentum into a track towards his brothers on the ground, but his path was suddenly blocked as a familiar shape materialized out of the darkness at his feet. Blue drew his sword, the blade ringing slightly as he yanked it out of the sheath on pure instinct. He swung it high, barely managing to intercept the pitch black blade swinging for his chest.

Green, across Shadow's body from Vio, narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong here. The air felt off. There was– he sucked in a sharp breath, dropping Shadow's hand and rolling to the side. A pitch-black dagger swiped through the air only a second later, arcing through the perfect spot to cut his head off if he hadn't moved in the nick of time.

Hands latched around Red's shoulders, pulling and tugging at him. Red snarled loudly, releasing Vio and spinning around to tackle his attacker to the ground. His fire rod was in his pocket, and unreachable from this position, but he could still wrestle. The shadow pushed back, locking him in a shoving match as Red fought to get into even a slightly better position.

"You killed us! All of us!" the shadows yelled in unison as they pressed forward, narrowing in on the colors.

The original Shadow, still clawing into Vio's forearm, smirked. "And we'll kill you for it," he sneered. The newly freed hand that Green had been holding reached up and grasped for Vio's neck. It barely missed as Vio leaned to the side, fighting the grasp of inky black tendrils that had started to slither out from the cobblestones underneath them.

The rest of the shadows pressed forward, taking full advantage of the colors' clear shock and confusion. Blue only narrowly dodged the swing of a blade aimed straight at his neck, as Green barely drew his own sword in time to parry a jab at his heart. Red struggled on the ground, unable to make it into a proper pinning position as his perfect copy used portal tricks to keep him off balance. Vio pulled against Shadow's grip, trying to slip free, but the slowly widening black void underneath him wasn't a good sign.

"I'm sorry," Vio cried out as he struggled, his eyes welling up with tears. "I never meant to hurt you."

Shadow glared at him. "I don't care." He leapt forward, his fingers aimed at Vio's face and–

Link rocketed upwards in his bed.

He– he was–

His chest heaved. Shadow was– no. No, that wasn't true. Link's vision shook and his stomach ached as he looked wildly around his room. Look, see? He was on his bed. He was on his bed, in his room. Wait, wasn't that what Gramps had told him? Told him to do when he got like this? His breath caught in his throat, chest fluttering. He couldn't get a proper breath, he couldn't breath, he couldn't—

Five things. Five things he could see. Right. Yeah.

Link could see his bed, his wall, and the shelf of bottles on the wall. They were the same bottles he had used during his quests, when–

No. Not now.

He could also see the worn wooden door, illuminated in the light from the slightly cracked window.

Link's breathing was a bit better now, but not good enough. It still caught in his throat, rocking for a moment, before slipping out in a rush. What was next? Sight, sound, taste, touch! Touch. Yeah, touch. He could feel the blanket and pillows underneath him, the slight chill from the air outside his window, and the way his chapped lips ached with each slowing breath that passed over them.

Okay. Yeah, that was better now. Link could feel it. His breath was steadier, and he didn't feel so light-headed. He was okay. He was alive.

Link carefully reached up, pressing his fingers against his completely intact face. It was just a nightmare. He was okay. It was only a nightmare.

It was a nightmare, but that meant Shadow was still dead.

Link pulled his blanket-covered knees up to his chest and sobbed into the dark shadows of his bedroom.

Link wasn't much of a morning person. He hadn't been in years, not since he had been forced to go on too little sleep during his quests. Rest was something he valued much more now, a precious resource that he didn't dare fucking with. Mornings, by their very definition, fucked with his sleep. He generally didn't like them.

But he could acknowledge that some mornings were worse than others. And this one, unfortunately, definitely sat pretty far towards the "absolutely horrible" end of the spectrum.

"How are you doing, bub?" were the first real words Link heard that morning, not long after he finally managed to pull himself into the kitchen. He didn't bother looking in the mirror as he passed it. He knew there were going to be bags under his eyes.

Sleep hadn't come easily, or at all, after shaking himself awake in the middle of the night. It never had, and Link certainly didn't expect it to start now.

Link grimaced and turned to gaze sadly at Gramps. The old man sat at the other end of their small dining table, nursing a glass of water.

Yes, Link wasn't above admitting that he did briefly consider lying to Gramps. He wasn't supposed to have to worry about him. Link was the hero, the three-time savior of Hyrule, the boy who could do it all. The kingdom revered him, held him in the highest esteem right alongside Princess Zelda herself.

But he couldn't. He just couldn't. This was Gramps, and Gramps would see right through him. He'd know, just like he somehow always did. And then he'd give Link a long lecture about his feelings and honesty. Besides, Gramps, of all people, deserved to know.

"It's been three years," Link mumbled instead, the words barely audible in the quiet kitchen.

"I know lad," Gramps told him. He pushed himself out of his chair, before moving around the table and reaching to pull Link into a gentle hug. Link let him, his forehead coming to rest against Gramps' shoulder. He swallowed thickly. "Three years since Shadow, y'know. But, and I've told you this before," Gramps pulled away after a moment, stooping down slightly to look Link in the eye. "Grief never leaves you, not really. It just morphs into a familiar burden you can carry instead. And Link?" Gramps paused, squeezing his shoulder gently. There was a slight twinkle in his eye. "Always remember: grief is just a reminder of the love that was once, and still is, present."

He nodded slowly. "I know Gramps," Link reassured the old man, his voice shaky. "I do try to remember, I do. But it's just," his voice wavered, before shattering. Link blinked away another round of tears.

Gramps smiled sadly at him. I know lad. I know."

Silence settled over the small house on the edge of the woods. It wasn't an oppressive silence, like most of the ones Link had to endure these days. No. This was the peaceful, calm silence of two people who understood each other deeply: a young boy with tear tracks down his cheeks and the prickly sharp memories of all the people he's failed to save, and a old man with stark evidence of the years he's faced etched into his skin and shelves full of items that he didn't own and but still reverently cared for.

Yes. They both understood far more than they would ever wish to.

"Besides," Gramps finally broke the silence, letting his hands fall from Link's shoulders. "Today is also the three-year anniversary of when a very brave young boy saved the kingdom. I hear they're throwing a festival in Castle Town."

Link groaned dramatically and leaned back against the counter, dragging his hands down his face. "I told Zelda not to, and she held the festival anyway! She wants me to make an appearance!" He threw his hands in the air dramatically, over-exaggerating his annoyance.

It didn't matter that much to him, really. The festivals were annoying, yeah, but Link would put up with them. He always would. He'd do anything that Zelda asked him to.

Gramps chuckled. "You are the hero of Hyrule, Link," he told him, reaching forward to ruffle his hair. "People like seeing you out and about, especially on holidays like this."

Personally, Link had to disagree with that sentiment. They didn't like it. They treated him like someone they couldn't speak to, whether because they revered him way too much as the hero, or feared him as the boy who had lost his mind. But Gramps had never listened to that argument before, and he wasn't going to start now. So instead of pushing the issue, Link just reached up to fix his hair as soon as Gramps' hand pulled away. "Still," he muttered testily.

"Just please try to go for a little bit," Gramps asked him. The old man turned away, heading over to grab a basket from underneath the kitchen counter before heading for the front door. "Now, I have to meet with a couple clients, and get some vegetables from the market. I'll see you later. And Link," Gramps paused halfway through the door, "always remember that I'm very proud of you. I love you."

Gramps stepped through the door, pulling it shut behind him before Link had the chance to respond. He smiled softly as he watched his grandfather walk away through the kitchen window.

Alright. If Gramps asked, then he would at least try.

Link would like to state, for the record, that he did actually try. He did try to do as Gramps asked, he swears! He had been in the middle of eating his sandwich, ham and cheese of course (take that Ganon, you big pig. Link was eating your brethren), before heading out to the festival when a group of guys with armor and weapons knocked on the front door.

It wasn't Link's fault that he had to put aside the sandwich and push back leaving for the festival to invite them inside. It was the only real option. Most people who came to their house, especially those in armor, were either soldiers or travelers looking to purchase a new weapon or piece and armor. And Link always tried his best to be a good assistant for his grandfather, including brokering deals when needed. He was good at this stuff.

So Link had let the group inside, directed them to sit in the middle of the living room, and offered to hear them out just like Gramps had taught him to. The tallest of them, the one wearing the suit of armor, had taken the lead and introduced himself as Link. So had the one with the wolf pelt. And the one in the green tunic. And the child with them.

He was already starting to kind of regret answering the door after that confusing round of introductions. The whole situation was already starting to sound too strange, too mystical, too, well, adventurous. There weren't many possible explanations for why a bunch of men armed to the teeth and traveling together had the same name, especially when it was his own.

But Link, as much as he wanted to move on from those years of his life, was still considered a hero in the eyes of the people. More importantly, he still considered himself a good person, in his own mind. That meant that he listened to people who were in need, as these men probably were. So he sat back in Gramps' plush green armchair, sinking into his well-worn spot in the cushion, and listened as the old man, Time as he referred to himself, spoke of time travel, portals, and strangely strong monsters.

"Wait, hold on," Link finally interrupted about fifteen minutes into the story. He leaned forward, resting his elbow on Gramps' favorite spot of the armrest, and rubbed his forehead. "So, you don't actually know why you're all being gathered together yet. But your names are all Link, and you're all heroes of Hyrule."

"I prefer Ordon," corrected the one with the wolf pelt, Twilight if Link remembered correctly. Strange choice for a name.

"And Hyrule doesn't exist anymore for me!" added the child, Wind. He looked only a year or two younger than Link himself, but he must have already finished his own quest. That meant there was at least one other person who had gone through a whole quest at a young age. Mildly unsettling. "I'm the hero of the Great Sea. We only just started rebuilding Hyrule on the new continent that we discovered survived the Great Flood, but it's really only a town so far. Not much of a kingdom."

Oh. Okay. Uh.

Link frowned, twisting that statement around in his head. He turned it over and over, the actions tinged slightly more purple than usual, and considered Wind's words. Link didn't know of any time in Hyrule's frankly not very long history where people lived on a giant ocean. Did that mean that Wind, at least, was from the future?

He pursed his lips and considered that thought, before eventually shoving it away. It wasn't important right now. "And you think I need to go with you on this, well," he tilted his head as he searched for the right word, "time-hopping quest?" Link leaned back in Gramps' chair and crossed his arms.

The four men—heroes if they were telling the truth—in front of him shifted in their seats. All but Twilight at least. He had taken up a position leaning against the back of the couch the rest sat on, Time in the middle. None of them had sat in the empty floral armchair next to Gramps'. Link appreciated it.

"You do," Time eventually spoke with a heavy sigh. "You're a Link, and a hero of courage. The Goddess Hylia brought us to you for a reason."

Frankly, Link didn't really care what Hylia wanted. He honestly never really had. It was a bit strange, especially since the royal family and Zelda in particular were direct descendants of Hylia, but still. Yes, most Hylians were very religious. The direct incarnation of Hylia herself had helped to found the kingdom only a couple of centuries ago, and many people still made pilgrimages to the locations she supposedly frequented.

But Link had never been very religious, even before he was forced to become a hero while still a child. He didn't care if Hylia wanted him to travel through time. Link, especially today of all days, was done with being this magnitude of hero. He still helped people in need of course, but they were people with normal problems like a monster clump near their town, or some relic they couldn't find. Link's days of true quests, real adventures, were over.

…

Could he really say that though? Link didn't want to go back to fighting for his life, didn't want to experience pain or utter heartbreak again, but could he really say he would ignore the call of a quest just to get away from potential harm?

Link knew that, if the threat were something in his own world, his own time, he would pick up the Four Sword without hesitation and fight until the bitter end. He knew it. He had already done so, returning to the blade multiple times as Hyrule called for him.

Could he say the same for other times?

"I know it isn't easy to return to the adventure after finishing your own quest," Time told him, perhaps sensing Link's internal debate. "You're at rest, and you've started to try to heal. I get it, I do." He held up his hand, and Link's eyes caught on the glimmer of a wedding band around the older man's finger. "But you don't have a choice."

"Hylia opened a portal underneath my feet," the last of the quartet, the quiet one in green, finally spoke. Link had been wondering about him, tensely pressed into the corner of the couch. "I tried to run away into the forest, but then I fell through the ground and into an ocean."

Wind chuckled. "I had to pull Hyrule out and he really wasn't happy about it." He grinned at Link, eyes sparkling at the memory. At least one of them could find some joy right now. "But yeah, he's right. Hylia's gonna make sure you come." Wind's smile fell, eyes flickering away as he looked down at Link's floor.

Link sighed heavily and pushed himself to his feet, stepping out of the seating area. Pacing had always helped clear his mind.

The fact of the matter was that Time was right. Link didn't want to leave home. He was mostly at peace now, something he had fought hard for. Hyrule was geopolitically stable, Vaati was locked away, and the Minish were thriving. Zelda was doing great at princess, and quickly growing into a great future queen for the kingdom. Hyrule was doing great.

Then there was Link himself. Sure, he still had some mental issues and there were absolutely lingering effects from his quests. He had multiple scars, still regularly woke up from nightmares, and the color of his eyes shifted with his emotions. But for the most part, he was okay. He was healing. Link, up until thirty minutes ago, was in a position where he could just enjoy the security and peace that came as a result of his own hard work. He didn't want to go back to battle again, not after Shadow–

He stopped in his tracks.

Shadow.

Link glanced to the side, his eyes catching on the carefully crafted and carved wooden chest that the shards of the dark mirror were housed in. He had slaved over the chest for weeks, pouring every ounce of anger, devastation, and loss into the wood that was possible. It was his way of giving Shadow some semblance of a resting place, however poor it was.

Shadow.

Zelda had tried to find a way to bring him back, to resummon him after the destruction of the mirror. She had failed. Nothing she tried worked. The pair had spent long nights pouring through every book in the royal library on shadows, dark magic, summoning rituals, everything they could think of. It was all useless.

They're from the future, whispered a voice in the back of his mind, one that sounded suspiciously like the voice of a certain purple-clad boy that had once been a part of him. Link swallowed thickly.

One Zelda couldn't bring Shadow back. She had tried and failed, repeatedly. But, she was one Zelda from a single time period. It wasn't unreasonable to think that other time periods might have something, some improved understanding of magic that might, just might, give Link exactly what he's been longing for for so long.

Shadow.

Link turned on his heel and stared Time dead in his single eye. Man, Gramps was not going to be very pleased with him.

"I'm in."

Each member of the chain had their own quirks. Hyrule and Wild had a tendency to wander off when no one was looking, Twilight had a few strange, almost animal-like habits, and Sky slept more than any other member of the chain. Wind was overly fond of sea shanties, Warriors somehow always seemed to know exactly where they were, and Time's sense of the passage of time was perfect.

Four, as Link now went by, knew that his own strange quirk, according to the others, was almost certainly either his constantly changing eye color, or way he seemed to stop and speak with people who weren't there. They were the Minish, of course, but none of the rest of the chain could see the small creatures.

Legend's quirk though, aside from his miraculous ability to have an item for every possible situation, was the most concerning of them all. He was, in Four's own opinion, overly secretive. Sure, Time kept the details of his quests a bit closer to his chest than Legend did, and Wild basically never spoke about his childhood, but Legend kept the most all-around secrets. He had been the second-to-last to join their little group, not long before Sky finished them off, and Four could probably count on one hand the amount of times Legend had willingly divulged information about himself in the weeks since then.

He still wasn't even sure how many adventures Legend had actually been on. Just a simple number. That was how secretive he was. The extreme level was honestly concerning. At least Time's brand of secrecy was more vague and riddle-ly. Time would drop cryptic hints like claiming he fought the moon (which obviously wasn't true) and leave it to them to piece together the puzzle. Legend, on the other hand, would simply clam up and refuse to answer any form of question.

Legend's staunch refusal had led to a range of theories from the other chain members as to the reason behind it. The theories included everything from Twilight's reasonable guess that Legend was just extra traumatized for some reason, to Wind ridiculously arguing that Legend must have gone through such insane adventurers that he didn't think they would believe him.

Like, seriously Wind? They had all seen crazy stuff. Sky lived on an island in the clouds, and dated the direct incarnation of Hylia. The entire chain was actively traveling through time with other versions of themselves. Four could even split into different color-coded copies of himself, for Hylia's sake! Not that the others knew that, of course, but still.

Wind's theory was ridiculous. It wasn't like Legend had hallucinated an adventure entirely in his own mind or something. Four had to draw the line there.

Regardless, the point was that they knew almost nothing about Legend. That was likely why, when Legend had opened the door to what he had said was his house only to be promptly tackled to the ground, most of the chain instinctively drew their weapons. Wild even knocked a shock arrow to his bow's string, drawing it back and pointing the tip directly at the presumed attacker's face.

Only two members of the chain didn't move: Time, who watched on with a strangely knowing glint in his eye, and Four.

Four should have reacted. He really should have. He had no reason to think anything other than the reasonable conclusion that the rest of the chain had reached: Legend, his ally, was in danger. He should have done something. Anything.

But he couldn't.

"Ravio, how many times do I have to tell you to not tackle me?" Legend demanded, shoving the other person off of him. The sound of a gasp from somewhere to the left of Four faintly registered in his mind, but he couldn't be bothered to connect the sound to a person right now. Not when the world felt like it was spinning on its axis around him, as if the ground could vanish from underneath his feet at any moment.

There was no way.

"But, Mr. Hero," Ravio complained as he pushed himself up to his feet. "You've been gone for weeks with no notice! Princess Zelda has the whole kingdom on high alert!" Ravio stood up fully and reached up to brush his hair out of his eyes before properly turning to face the rest of the chain.

Four's breath caught in his throat. Ravio looked almost exactly like Legend. Their facial features were the exact same, from the shape of their noses to the tilt of their eyes and even the slight divot in the top of their lips. The only clear differences between the two, other than their clothing, were their eye and hair colors: Ravio's hair was a deep purple, and his eyes bordered on the shade of pure emerald green.

Of course, Legend also sported a number of scars and other marks across his face and neck, but those were just the product of what was presumably years of adventuring. The rest of their natural features were exactly the same.

Four had seen something extremely, eerily, similar to this once before.

"Oh, hello Mr. Captain and Tune!" Ravio waved at Warriors, who had already lowered his sword and grinned back. Wind's eyes lit up, and he waved happily at Ravio. The rest of the chain followed in suit, blades disappearing into sheathes and stances relaxing, as they stared at the stranger. "It's good to see you again. And who are the rest of these gentlemen?"

Legend pushed himself back to his feet, rolling his shoulders. "Ravio, this is the chain. They're other heroes of courage. Chain, this is Ravio, my counterpart from Lorule." Legend waved his hand absently as he answered, brushing aside the immediate surge of questions that the response was sure to bring. Instead, he stepped up besides Ravio and clapped him on the shoulder. Oh Hylia, the two of them were even the exact same height. "Well?" Legend turned to look at the chain and raised one eyebrow. "Stop standing on the porch like idiots and get inside."

Four was going to be sick.

There are moments in life that seem to echo other times, other memories. Zelda had once called that feeling of uncanny familiarity with something you've never experienced before 'deja vu.' Four was familiar with the feeling. His brain didn't exactly function like other Hylians' brains, not after being repeatedly split apart and reformed along jagged lines corresponding to emotions.

Deja vu had been a familiar companion of Four's for a long while after the colors first re-merged. Their individual memories had all combined, layering on top of each other to provide Four with perspectives of each event from multiple angles. He could see each battle from four different locations, watch himself through his own eyes, and even remember different parts of him reacting in different ways.

Whenever Four thought back on those quad-memories, or revisited the places within, he tended to experience that uncanny feeling of familiarity. Zelda had theorized that it was his brain trying to find some way to compensate for the competing recollections of events, while also still reforging the slight rifts in his own brain from the colors. Four was of the opinion that the magic of the Four Sword had just fucked with his head a bit too much.

He was intimately familiar with the feeling of deja vu. But this was an entirely new way to feel it, one he didn't like.

"Lorule is my home," Ravio explained as he perched on the armrest of Legend's chair. He hadn't moved more than a few feet from the veteran since they entered his home, and Four had a pretty good idea of why. "It's a parallel-version of Hyrule, with many of the same places and events, but opposite."

Twilight hummed. "So that'd be why you look like a mirror of Legend, eh? You actually are."

"Yup!" Ravio patted Legend on the shoulder. "Mr. Hero here is my Hyrulian counterpart, so we're the same but inverted! Lorule," he hesitated for a moment, and Four stared at the way Ravio's fingers trembled slightly on Legend's shoulder. Legend reached up to take hold of Ravio's hand, squeezing it gently. "Lorule had some trouble, and I came to find him to get his help. He's much braver than I am, and managed to save us all."

Legend scoffed softly. "Don't listen to Ravio. He's brave himself. He's the bearer of Lorule's Triforce of Courage." He patted Ravio's hand once, before letting it go.

Four's mouth trembled. Hyrule piped up with another question, probably something about abilities or magic, but he couldn't make it out. He was too busy pushing himself to his feet and slipping out of the living room.

"I'm a manifestation of your shadow, so we're the same but flipped," Shadow had explained to Vio one quiet night, not long after the purple-haired boy defected to join him. "It's a bit complicated, but there isn't a shadow realm or anything."

Vio frowned, and leaned forward to rest his chin on his interlaced fingers. His elbows pressed into the surface of the library table Shadow had found him hunched over, deep within the Dark Cloud. This was valuable information. "How does that work?"

"Exactly as it sounds. I'm your shadow, given form by the Dark Mirror. That's why I wear a black version of your tunic." He gestured to the matching outfits they both wore, before sighing heavily and flopping down to lay dramatically across the table. "The Hylians hate me for being 'just a shadow,' but I'm way cooler than they are. They can't do shadow magic," Shadow muttered petulantly. As he spoke, a pitch-black dagger formed out of thin air in Shadow's hand. He twirled it around, fidgeting absentmindedly with the inky blade.

Huh. So he was legitimately just the darkness of Vio's own shadow given form and life. How had Ganon managed to achieve that? Manipulating life was an incredibly difficult feat of magic, and to create it out of nothing? Everything he could remember Zelda ever explaining about magic, or reading in a book somewhere, stated that it was among the hardest magical feats to achieve. Even the Four Sword, with all of its power, didn't truly create life. It just split an already existing-being into separate portions.

"But now that I have a former-hero on my side," continued Shadow, "we can force the world to like me!" The other boy turned on his side, pushing himself up to properly sit on the table. He looked down at Vio, who forced himself to crane his head up to meet Shadow's eyes. He wasn't liking the sound of this. "We'll rule the world together Vio, as it's dark overlords!"

Of course, it hadn't ended up working out that way, Four reflected as he dropped to sit on the small stairs leading down to Legend's apple orchard. The cool, fresh air of night was a welcome break from the stuffy, almost suffocating way the walls had seemed to press in on him when they were inside.

Shadow had learned of Vio's treachery, and vowed to destroy him. Then Shadow, at the last moment, had turned against Ganon and sacrificed himself to save the colors. He had called himself part of them in his last moments, and they had agreed with him, accepting Shadow as one of their own.

Four knew that, if Shadow were still here, he would probably say that he wasn't very brave. He was their shadow, a dark, chaotic part of them given life. All he had ever really done was work for Ganon and try to kill the colors. He wasn't brave, he wasn't a hero. Zelda had tried to tell him that he was, right before the end, but Four wasn't sure if he had ever truly believed it.

What Four could say, for certain, was that he would have argued with Shadow until the end about that. He truly, firmly believed that Shadow was one of the bravest people he had ever met, and that was saying something with his current company. Shadow had chosen to betray the being who gave him life, to turn his back on Ganon and shatter his own mirror to give Four a chance of winning the day.

It was one of the bravest things Four had ever witnessed, and he'd never get a chance to reassure Shadow like Legend had just reassured Ravio.

He swallowed thickly, and pulled his legs up to his chest. The position caused him to wobble precariously on the brick stairs, but Four couldn't find it in himself to care right now. Besides, the feeling of the rough stone of the step above him pressing into his spine served as a good grounding point.

Ravio wasn't like Shadow. Ravio was a real, living being that had existed before meeting Legend. It sounded as if he'd had an entire life in Lorule prior to finding Legend and getting his help. He wasn't a magical entity, given birth by a monster and manipulated for the sole purpose of ending the hero's life.

But that knowledge didn't help draw a distinction in Four's mind. Sitting there, watching Ravio and Legend together, was just too eerily similar to the scenes in his own quad-memories of Shadow gleefully standing next to Vio. They looked almost identical.

It evoked too much deja vu.

The door behind Four creaked open softly, and quiet footsteps sounded on Legend's back porch. Sky didn't say anything as he crouched down next to Four. He just sat there, gazing at the apple trees covering Legend's property.

Four sniffled quietly.

Sky lifted a single arm invitingly, and Four, after only a moment of hesitated, shuffled sideways to allow the chosen hero to drape the limb around his shoulders. Tears filled his eyes, blurring his view of the night sky high above them. Its namesake still didn't say a word. He just sat there, patiently providing a grounding point as Four leaned into his side and trembled.

Streaks of water slid down Four's cheeks.

Sky didn't ask. And Four didn't speak.

But it was enough.

Sometimes, Four really had to work hard to remind himself of Gramps' many lectures about the difficulties of grief. It wasn't linear, it was circular. It wasn't easy, it was hard. And, most importantly, it was never over. Grief stuck with you for, well, forever. Gramps still grieved his parents, who had died long ago. He still grieved Grandma, lost to sickness when Four was just a toddler. Father still grieved Mother, who had died giving birth to him.

The process of healing from grief was long, difficult, and something that never really stopped. Four had struggled to understand that when Gramps first explained it to him, only a few months after the end of his last quest. Of course he didn't understand at first. He was a hero! Every single one of Four's experiences with the concept of 'healing' was with injuries sustained in battle, which he usually just healed using either potions or fairy magic so he could charge into the next fight. The idea of a healing journey that never truly ended was unheard of for him. It was impossible! There were fairies who would just fly around him and fix him up like nothing had ever happened.

Well, now, a little over three years after his last quest, Four finally understood. He knew what Gramps meant; he had learned it the hard way. He had good days, and he had bad days. Thankfully, the number of good days now generally seemed to significantly outweighed the bad days. Most of the time, Four could think of Shadow and smile. He could even laugh, or make jokes about his lost brother and his strange tendency to vanish into shadows, or his weird eating habits with Zelda and Gramps. They would chuckle, and prod at Four to launch into some story from Vio's days with Shadow, or one of the other colors' encounters with him on the battlefield, and Four would tell the tale with a soft grin on his face.

Today, apparently, was not one of those days.

"See? Different charms can have different meanings!" Wind explained as he held up a swirly charm. "Especially to different people. Sky, what does this remind you of?"

The chosen hero looked up from his journal and leaned close to Wind's outstretched hand. "A gust of wind, like the bursts above the clouds," he finally answered after carefully studying the swoops. Sky smiled faintly, a wistful look crossing his face. "Crimson and I would search out those gusts so we could climb higher in the sky, before dive-bombing to build up speed."

"So it reminds Sky of flying with his loftwing. But, I think it looks like a wave in the ocean, like the ones we'd have to be careful of while sailing our boats," Wind continued as he drew back from Sky. "Tetra normally just picks whatever charms she thinks are prettiest and makes a bracelet out of them. Aryll doesn't like sitting still for long enough to even pick her charms. I think there's a science to picking the perfect charm." Wind grinned. "Tetra gets really pissed off when I take ages to even pick out my charms."

"I like this one," Wild cut in, holding out a small flower charm in his hand.

Hyrule leaned in and inspected it, before nodding in approval. "It's a blue nightshade. Very fitting for you."

Four, sitting across the campfire from the other trio, could practically see Wind vibrating in anticipation and excitement as Wild and Hyrule continued to hunch over the bag of charms. They had been spread across the navy blue spare cape Wild had pulled out of his slate to protect them from the dirt of their campsite's ground.

He would be lying if he said he hadn't been dreading this day.

There had been a festival taking place in Time's Hyrule when they visited it a few weeks ago, and Wild somehow managed to stumble across a couple of kids selling homemade bracelets for a rupee a piece. It wasn't anything fancy from the sound of Wild's descriptions, just the standard, mismatched beads in a simple pattern that kids tended to start with, but they were little kids. Wild had said they didn't look any older than six, maybe seven. People tended to buy children's crafts to encourage them, and making poorly color-coordinated bracelets to sell at festivals was practically a staple of Hylian childhood.

Except, Wild barely remembered his childhood, as he had revealed to them not long ago. He didn't remember making bracelets, or understand why they were selling them. He apparently didn't even know how to make one.

But there was a perfect person for him to ask: resident youngest and crafter-extroidenair, Wind. Wild's entirely innocent question about bracelets, asked as they sat around camp later that evening, had sparked a horrified rant from the sailor the moment he realized that Wild didn't have the foundational memory of making bracelets as a child. His horror only grew when Hyrule revealed that he didn't know how to make the sort of bracelets that Wind was describing either. Both of Wild and Hyrule's only real experiences with bracelets were the magic kinds, picked up during the course of their quests.

Four had spent most of that conversation biting his lip and blinking back tears. He did the same now, eyes misty as his fingers absentmindedly picked at the grass around him.

Why? Why bracelets, of everything? Wild and Hyrule were already sometimes the hardest members of the chain for him to speak with, their utter unfamiliarity with the world reminding him far too much of a shadowy boy he had once taught to enjoy life.

Their situations were, of course, fundamentally different from Shadow's. Wild had massive gaps in his memories and was relearning much of the world beyond the strain of adventuring. Hyrule's, well, Hyrule was left in shambles and barely had any civilization left in it for him to enjoy. What little there was, he hadn't even been raised in, as far as Four could tell.

Shadow was different. He just legitimately hadn't been alive for long before Four, and eventually Vio in particular, came along to teach him about life.

The situations were different, but they were still similar enough that the line between Wind's voice and Four's memories was blurring.

“So how do I tie the knot now?” Shadow finally spoke, cutting off yet another quiet yawn.

Vio glanced up from his own bracelet, made of an assortment of purple and black beads, and smiled. “How about I tie the knot on my own bracelet, and then you copy it?” he suggested, holding up his string. “That way you can do it on your own in the future.”

Shadow frowned. “But you’ll always be here to help me?” he argued, confusion leaking into his voice.

Vio grimaced softly. Sometimes, it was hard for him to remember where he was and what his purpose was here. It was just hard to remain objective when Shadow looked at him with such wide, confused eyes. He– he trusted Vio. There wasn't a hint of doubt in Shadow as to Vio's true intentions. Hylia, Vio was pretty sure that if he told Shadow he was planning to betray him right now, Shadow would laugh it off and believe he was just joking.

It hurt more than he knew how to put into words. “Yeah, but it also means that we’ll be able to make more bracelets faster. It’d be more efficient than me always tying the knots for you,” Vio pointed out instead of giving into the urge to start crying.

This couldn't last much longer. It had to end soon. Or Vio wasn't going to make it out.

“So first, you want to loop the left end of the string over the right one,” Vio began, his soft voice washing over Shadow and drawing his attention. “There should be three complete loops–”

"Then, you take the tail end of the string and pull it through!" Wind finished as he tugged his own string through, Wild mirroring his movements. The sailor grinned toothily at the older boy, basically preening as Wild turned his wrist over and examined the bracelet. "See? How fun is that?"

Four, honestly, couldn't make out Wild's response or any of the rest of the conversation between the trio. The world had narrowed down to just the sight of the scattered beads and strong. There was a wide variety of colors, but his gaze and locked in on a small clump of five beads near the edge of the pile: red, blue, green, purple, and black.

His eyes filled with tears.

Shadow had loved the bracelet making night he and Vio did. He wore that bracelet, adorned in purple and black beads, and refused to take it off for weeks. The last time he had seen it was– was when–

Four jumped as an arm settled around his shoulders, pulling him into a warm embrace and forcing his sight to leave the bracelets. Warriors didn't say anything, didn't bring any attention to Four's silent breakdown. He just sat there, humming softly and let Four hide his tears in his scarf.

Maybe sometimes, being around others who understood loss was a good thing.

Four, Link back then, had always been really close with his Zelda, Dot. He considered her to be his best friend, and knew that she felt the same about him. It was the natural result of him being the son of the captain of the guard, and Zelda being a lonely child in a big castle. Two mostly isolated, high-ranking kids finding companionship in each other, the most normal thing in the world.

Then Link had saved Zelda's life, multiple times, and their entire bond shifted on its head. They weren't friends of convenience and proximity anymore. They were bound in fire, connected through pain and sorrow that no one else could truly understand. Link would do anything for Zelda, and she would do anything for him.

But Four had quickly realized that this dynamic wasn't necessarily the same among all the members of the chain. Some of them were closer to their Zeldas than others. Sky, for example, was literally engaged to his Zelda. Twilight, meanwhile, had a friendly working relationship with his Zelda, but he vastly preferred to spend his time in Ordon, which wasn't even part of Hyrule.

Thankfully, it seemed that no matter what the relationship was between each Link and Zelda, there was a single common thread: they would always help those in need, especially if they were one of the famed heroes of old.

"I'm not the most familiar with this form of magic," explained Dusk, Twilight's Zelda. "I've encountered extensive Twili magic before, but this…" she hesitated, "shadow magic, if you can even call it that, is entirely new to me. It doesn't sound the same as the other forms of shadow magic I've read about before."

Four frowned, and looked down at the surface of Dusk's ornate desk. It was fancier than Dot's, and covered in clearly meticulously organized paper. Evidently, Dusk was incredibly busy. It made sense. Twilight had mentioned that she was actually a queen, rather than princess like most of their Zeldas. That simple fact made it so much more impactful that she had agreed to meet with him, despite everything else she surely had to focus on.

He appreciated it. Really, he did. But it didn't change the fact that her words stung, crumbling some tiny, barely blooming piece of hope in his heart.

"Twili magic sounds similar, but is fundamentally different from what you're describing," Dusk finally continued. Four glanced back up, meeting her sympathetic eyes.

She looked so… regal. If Four focused, he could almost imagine Dot looking like Dusk someday. There was just something about the way they both carried themselves, tall and proud as they faced the world head-on. Dusk definitely appeared to hold more weight on her shoulders than Dot did though, a clear consequence of the tiara resting atop her hair.

"I regret that I can't help more, Four. Truly, I do," Dusk finished. "It is worth asking the other Zeldas you encounter as well. Perhaps one of them will be more familiar with this form of shadow magic."

"I have been," Four told her with a shake of his head. "They all said the same thing as you. Without the Twili part, I mean." He swallowed thickly, wringing his hands together.

Dusk hummed softly. "None of them? Not even your own Zelda?"

Four shook his head, and she frowned. With the light of the setting sun streaming in through the large window behind her, framing her as she carefully considered his words, it was clear just how fitting the nickname Twilight chose for her had been. She looked like she was at home in the fading light of day.

"Have you considered asking other magical beings as well? I, and the other Zeldas from what Link has told me, are all strongly connected to light magic." Dusk turned her hand over, and a dimly glowing ball of light appeared above the center of her palm. "It is an extremely strong connection, due to our divine blood, but it means that we are largely unable to access other elements of magic. Others who use magic, such as the Great Fairies and sages though, do not face that same restriction." The ball of light flickered, flaring bright gold before fading from view.

He opened his mouth, paused, and closed it.

Why hadn't he thought of that? It was so fucking obvious! Dot had spoken to all of the maidens and powerful magical beings in his own time, so why hadn't Four thought to do the same in the other time periods? Clearly they would each have different connections to magic!

He was a fucking idiot.

"I– thank you," Four managed to force out instead of banging his head against the desk like he desperately wanted to do. He pushed himself to his feet, swaying slightly as his head spun from the new ideas. "Thank you so much."

"Of course." Dusk pushed herself up as well and gently folded her hands in front of herself. "I wish you the best of luck, Hero of the Four Sword. May Hylia bless your quest."

Oh, if only she would. Four was quite sure he'd give anything for Hylia to swoop down and hand him the solution on a silver platter right now.

He wasn't sure how much longer he could take this.

Why were so many of Hylia's chosen heroes ridiculous idiots? Was it because they shared the same spirit, apparently tainted with stupidity? Did repeatedly throwing yourself into danger somehow condition you to lose all common sense and make you become overly-prone to stirring up trouble? Or was the whole "putting yourself in the line of fire" thing actually a result of said recklessness and idiocy?

It was probably the last one.

It was definitely the last one.

Four couldn't really criticize the others for their antics. Most days, he'd be right there next to them, vocalizing his own opinions on whatever that night's argument was. Sometimes, that meant supporting Warriors as he lectured Wild about weapon safety. Other times, it meant taking Legend's side in an argument over dungeon safety and exploration protocols. On one memorable occasion, it had even meant teaming up with Wind to try and convince the rest of the chain that people had magic powers when they were younger, and the rest of them had simply grown too old to remember.

Well. Technically that was true. Sorta. Did being able to see the Minish count as a magic power?

Anyway, the point was that Four didn't have any ground to stand on when criticizing the others for their behavior. He just– well. Yeah. He just couldn't do it tonight, especially not when the topic at hand was even more ridiculous than usual.

Twilight, Wind, Wild, and Hyrule were staunchly arguing that the drum of a cucco was the best part to eat, while Warriors and Legend shouted back about the merits of the thighs. No, Wild being the chef didn't give his opinion any more weight than the rest of the groups'. It just meant that he could threaten to only cook cucco drums from here on out, as he was currently threatening Legend with.

Four sighed as he ran his whetstone over the edge of Hyrule's sword, carefully sharpening it. He grimaced when the volume of the argument reached a new pitch as Twilight brought up his training as a ranch hand.

No one paid any attention to Sky, crouched on the ground and slowly rocking back and forth as he muttered under his breath about how cuccos were too cute to eat. There was clearly something very wrong with Sky. Demise must have hit him over the head too hard or done something else to drive him to clinical insanity. Everyone knew that cuccos were unholy demon-spawn.

Did they really have to do this? Tonight, of all nights? Today had already been difficult enough. They'd had to battle off a surprise attack from a lynel and it's horde of allies, then keep trekking through the mysterious forest that none of them could quite place yet. It had been a very long, very annoying day and Four was just fed. up.

Four glanced up at the chaos just in time to watch Legend pull out a fire rod and point it at Twilight. He pursed his lips.

Y'know what, fine. He could use a break anyway. "Time, I'm going for a walk," Four murmured, leaning over to the man next to him. He didn't need to be here when Time inevitably deemed the chaos to be concerning enough to put down his letter to Malon. It wasn't going to be pretty. "I need to clear my head."

"Don't stay out too long," Time murmured back, not looking up from his letter. Must be an important one then, if Time was that focused on it. Then again, Time considered every letter to Malon to be of highest importance.

Four nodded slightly and pushed himself to his feet, leaving Hyrule's sword behind and swiping up the Four Sword. He strode into the bushes surrounding their small clearing. He really didn't need much, just a short break. Honestly. He just couldn't deal with the chain's particular brand of insanity today.

As Four stepped into the trees, the light of the full moon high above his head faded from view. The faint shadow that it had illuminated on the ground vanished from eyesight. He sighed softly, but the heavy stone in his stomach didn't loosen.

It, well, it wasn't going well. Dusk had suggested he speak to other magical beings when he visited her a couple of weeks ago, but he just hadn't had the chance to since then. Four had originally intended to speak with one of Wild's Great Fairies when they were in his Hyrule a few days ago, but a portal had whisked them away before he got the chance. He still hadn't really gotten over the crushing sting of disappointment.

Four just wasn't sure what it was, but sometimes it felt like the entire world was against him finding out any information about Shadow. Every time he tried to do something, anything, it never went his way. Booksellers didn't have tomes on shadow magic, princesses shook their heads at him in sympathetic sorrow, and heroes asked too many prying questions about his sanity.

Had a single thing even gone right for him since he joined this quest? It didn't seem like it. At every turn his one, primary, goal just seemed to drift further and further out of reach.

Four drew to a stop in the middle of a clearing in the woods. He had joined the chain primarily with the goal of getting more information on Shadow's magic and, hopefully, finding some way to bring Shadow back to life. It was the one, the only, thing he truly wanted out of this quest. Stopping the black-blooded monsters was important, and stabilizing the time-stream was essential. He knew that. But Shadow.

He stared down at the grass under his feet, vision blurring. Every time he thought he was on the cusp of some key piece of information or breakthrough, something went wrong. Four blinked, a handful of water droplets falling form his eyes and sinking into the dirt above his shoes.

Was this some form of divine punishment? Four had never been very religious, especially not since his quest, so was this their way of punishing him for that? Was Hylia saying he had somehow failed? Were the golden goddesses disappointed in him?

Was Shadow truly de–

No. Four snapped his head up and wiped at his cheeks. No. A rainbow of emotions flared in his gut, pushing him to turn around and begin the trek back to camp.

Four was a hero of courage. He had faced impossible tasks before, and this was only one more. Legend had mentioned something about other levels of reality having their own deities once before, hadn't he? When the chain had finally managed to pry more information about Lorule out of him? Maybe Four could–

A boy fell out of the shadow of a tree and landed in the middle of Four's path.

He stopped in his tracks.

The boy stared at Four. He stared back. Pale skin, purple hair, and glowing red eyes stood out against the black outfit, a perfect copy of the clothes on Four's own back. His lips trembled as a surge of colors rattled deep inside of him. He– he–

"Shadow?" he whispered, his voice shaking. Four knew his eyes would be a kaleidoscope of different shades of color as his emotions surged in a tangled mess, but he didn't put any effort into trying to calm them like he did around the chain. The other boy would understand. He always would.

That very boy, Shadow, because somehow, by some impossible manner it was him in a way Four could already feel settling deep in his bones, smirked at him. "Hey, Link. Miss me?"

Four didn't think he'd ever moved faster in his whole life. He surged forward, wrapping his arms around Shadow. His shoulders shook as he sobbed into Shadow's chest. "Oh, Hylia, it is you!" he choked out between heaving gasps. "You're alive!"

Shadow's arms came up and wrapped around him, pulling him in tighter. Four normally wasn't a fan of physical touch from anyone other than Gramps, or sometimes Dot and Father, but he had never been happier to be hugged. Somehow, despite the years apart, he and Shadow were still the exact same height. It just made the hug all that much easier.

They sank to the ground, arms still wrapped tightly around each other, and just stayed there. Nothing else really mattered, not when they had finally been reunited. Hylia, the portals, the black-blooded monsters, it was all pointless. Nothing mattered except for the feeling of Shadow's hands balling into the back of Four's tunic, the matching puddles of water on both of their shoulders, and the vice-tight grip that had been clenched around Four's heart for the last three and a half years slowly loosening.

Shadow was alive. He was alive, and he was here with Four. Nothing else mattered.

Four squeezed his arms tighter around Shadow and let his tears continue to flow. He hadn't realized just how many he had been holding back, unwilling to break down in front of the rest of the chain. They were okay now. Everything would be okay.

He would have been content to stay like that forever, until the world fell apart around them and Hylia personally came to collect their corpses, but Shadow clearly had different plans. The other boy let his arms slip away from Four's shoulders and gently, ever-so-softly, pushed Four away from him. Four let him, moving without protest.

If Shadow was breaking the hug, then there must be a good reason for it.

Four sniffled and reached up to wipe his tears away with the edge of his sleeve. He was the one to eventually break the silence, as Shadow just stared at his trembling fingers. "How are you here? We thought you were dead!"

"I was," Shadow answered, shrugging sadly. "The last thing I remember before waking up was you guys staying with me the whole time. Thanks for that." Shadow smiled sheepishly, and glanced away as if he couldn't bear to look at Four's face right now. It stung just the tiniest bit.

"We couldn't let you die alone!" Four argued, slipping into the plural language he generally used to refer to the time when he was four separate entities. "Besides, you were one of us. We never abandon each other, ever." He knew that simple fact, knew it like a compass guiding him to true north. When the colors were split apart, they had always stood together. Now, Four followed that same rule with his new brothers.

Hopefully, he could follow it with Shadow once more.

"Now, how are you alive. We need to determine the plan." Because there had to be one. Either Shadow was struggling with something, and Four would help him in a heartbeat. Or Shadow would be coming back to camp with him tonight, in which case they needed to figure out how to introduce him to the chain.

Four couldn't just walk back into camp with Shadow, not when he knew multiple of the other heroes had mentioned dark copies of themselves that they fought against once upon a time. He had even read about a couple of those battles in accounts of the heroes journeys, trying not to imagine the possibility that Shadow could have ended up just like one of those other, strangely different shades.

Returning to camp with Shadow now was practically asking for a disaster. But he, they, would figure it out. Because this was Shadow, and there was basically nothing that Four wouldn't do for him.

Shadow didn't answer his question immediately, and Four narrowed his eyes. That didn't bode well.

"I need you to promise that you won't overreact," he finally began. It was, perhaps, the most concerning thing Shadow could have led with. Four almost didn't want to agree, but he didn't really have much of a choice here. He nodded slowly. "Ganondorf resurrected me."

…

What did he just say?

"Ganondorf?" Four blurted out, jerking backwards out of Shadow's grip and landing heavily on the ground. He blinked and shook his head sharply. "As in the same Ganondorf that Time, Twi, Wild, and Warriors all fought?" Four's voice trembled.

Of all the people to say, that was quite possibly the second-worst option, other than Demise himself.

Shadow raised his hands placatingly, and his shoulders hunched inwards as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey, I thought you said you wouldn't overreact?"

Four glared at him. Overreact, his ass! It was Ganondorf. If anything, this was an under reaction.

"Okay, yeah, that Ganondorf. Maybe." Shadow frowned, tilting his head as he stared off into the distance in consideration. Hylia, just that simple, unconscious movement had Four smiling softly. He hadn't realized just how many tiny pieces of Shadow and his habits he had missed. Memories were fickle, and tended to brush over those little details that truly made a person themselves. "I'm not really sure which one it is, or where he falls in the timeline. But it is a Ganondorf?"

Four nodded slowly. Okay. They could work with this. It sounded bad, sure, like basically the worst thing ever, but he could, would, find a solution. He had to. "Okay," he began as he pushed himself back into a seated position. "I assume he wants you to work for him, and has some form of power over you that's forcing you to stay with him?"

Shadow stared at him, his mouth falling open. "Wait, what?" he asked, rather dumbly. "You don't think I'm working for him willingly?"

That was probably the stupidest question he'd ever heard, which said something considering the company Four was keeping these days. He cackled loudly. "No, dumbass. You're one of us, and I trust you dummy." Four raised his eyebrows. "Now, tell me what's going on so we can figure out a plan."

Shadow smiled softly at Four and, for the first time in three in a half years, his heart felt truly whole. The cracks were beginning to finally beginning to properly mend, rather than just stabilize.

It was all going to be fine. They were together, and nothing would change that. Not with Four around to stop it. He could play the hero; he had done it before.

"Oh, I thought that was obvious, Rainbow," Shadow threw back at him, chuckling as he shifted his legs to brush against Four's own. The warmth of Shadow's knee sunk into his own flesh, and Four had never been happier to have someone resting their legs against him. "I'm pulling a Vio!"

The chain had landed in Four's Hyrule a handful of times before, but they had never actually been to his house. Not since Four had left at least. Something always managed to happen, pulling them away from the direction of his home. One time it was a massive monster attack on the other side of Hyrule, another time a missing party of knights that they were asked to help track down. There was just never a chance for him to even try to go home before the chain was being swept up into some mission that carried him even further away.

Four wasn't above admitting that it had really begun to piss him off. Of course it had! The rest of the chain had been able to see their loved ones at some point or another. Hylia, they had spent ages at Time's farm alone! Not that Four disliked that of course; he loved seeing Malon. It was just, he wanted to go to his own home and see finally Gramps again after being forced to hastily pack his bags and sprint out the door, with only a single note left behind to explain his sudden absence.

Sure, he had managed to get Dot to send a couple of messages, to both Father and Gramps when they made a brief stop at Hyrule Castle one time, but it wasn't the same. Link wanted to be able to see them with his own eyes, to be able to tell them he had missed them in his own words, not with writing on a stupid piece of paper.

He missed home like it was a phantom limb. He missed his room, his bed, his stool in the kitchen. But most of all, he missed waking up to Gramps' breakfasts everyday, visiting Zelda at the castle every Wednesday, and having his father over for dinner whenever he was able to get enough time off of work. He wanted to introduced the chain, his new brothers, to Father and Gramps, and show them around his forge. He wanted to go home.

So when the portal opened and finally, finally, finally plopped them down on the edge of the small village outside their home, Four didn't even bother taking the time to explain. There just was no time. He couldn't risk the possibility that Hylia would decide she was going to open another portal underneath his feet and send him careening through time once more. He just couldn't.

Four took off running, sprinting through the streets as familiar to him as the back of his hand. His feet pounded against the cobblestones, impact shocks echoing up his legs. His chest heaved, taking in deep breath after deep breath.

Somewhere behind him, Warriors yelled out his name. Four didn't stop. He didn't stop when Sky joined in the shouts, or when footsteps filled the air behind him. He couldn't stop.

The portal had put them on the opposite side of town from the path to his home. The fastest way to get there, therefore, was straight through the middle. He dodged the people in the central square, uncaring of the way the chain hesitated behind him. Four sidestepped a child he vaguely recognized, hopped over a barrel, and ducked underneath the side of a stall. He didn't even stop to greet his favorite vendors, or say hello to the children that idolized him, something they would surely give him shit about the next time he joined in on their games of 'Hero Link.'

It didn't matter. None of it did.

The only thing that mattered was the way the town walls disappeared behind him as he sprinted into the surrounding woods. The only thing that mattered was the clearing slowly becoming visible through the trees. The only thing that mattered was the sight of the smoke rising from the chimney of the forge, which Four immediately adjusted course for.

He burst inside, his eyes scanning he room in a split second. It only took another second for him to cross the room and barrel into Gramps' frozen frame.

"I'm so sorry, Gramps. I'm sorry," Four mumbled into the old man's side. "I had to, I had no choice. Hylia was gathering us and there was was time travel, and–"

His frantic ramblings cut off as Gramps' arms wrapped around Four, pulling him in tight. "You're here, and you're safe. That's all that matters lad. That's all." Gramps' hand tangled in Four's hair, cradling his head gently. For once, he didn't give a singe shit about his hair being messed up. He would take every out-of-place strand if it meant Gramps was still here, hugging him.

Four leaned further into the hug, and smiled softly. Finally.

Four was pretty sure his ears were still ringing. His lecture, once the rest of the chain had finally managed to track down his house via a combination of Twilight's tracking skills and Wolfie's nose, had been horrible. It was probably only topped by the lecture Wild had received when he just teleported away from them during their first foray into his Hyrule.

He was pretty sure he'd never seen Time as angry as he had been today. Warriors had even pulled out the knight's code, never-mind that Four wasn't even an active knight right now! He was still taking a well-deserved leave of absence! Man, even Wind had been angry with him. So had Gramps, once he realized who the chain was and why they were so mad at him.

But Four, while he recognized the stupidity of his actions, couldn't fully bring himself to be sorry for them. Perhaps it was the way his fingers had started shaking as soon as he stepped out of that portal, or the way he could practically hear his hometown Minish welcoming him back to a place he knew intimately, but he'd had to get home as soon as he could. There was no other option.

Besides, he knew that Shadow would agree with him when Four eventually told him about this, and that was the only opinion that really mattered to him.

Actually, speaking of which…

"Gramps," Four spoke, breaking the soft silence around their campfire. "I have something to tell you."

The old man, sitting on his favorite log, leaned forward. The rest of the chain wasn't here, having retired from their storytelling to the living room to catch up on some much needed sleep. Four was grateful for that right now.

"What is it lad?" Gramps asked gently.

Four hesitated. He– well. He didn't actually know how to say this. He hadn't told anyone else yet after all. Just how do you go about telling someone that the person you've been grieving for years now, who they never actually met, has somehow been revived? What about telling them that the person was trapped in, essentially, a prison as they tried to trick one of the most dangerous entities in history to stay alive? All while secretly preparing to betray them?

Wait, what if Gramps didn't like Shadow? What if he didn't trust that Shadow wasn't going to hurt him? Gramps had always listened to his stories of Shadow, and always told Four had that he wished he could have met them, but what if those were just words? He could have been lying for Four's sake, telling him what he needed to hear. It wasn't impossible. After all, the only time Gramps himself had ever seen Shadow was when he was terrorizing Hyrule as an agent of Ganon.

No. Hang on, slow down.

Gramps wouldn't do that. He was kind, and he loved Four. He would never lie to Four about someone he missed so badly that it felt like his own soul was torn apart. He always had, and would continue to believe Four when he told him how good Shadow was.

There was only one thing Four could do here: just say it. Get it over with.

"Shadow is alive."

Gramps stared at him. Four stared back. Somewhere in the distance, a frog croaked.

"That's– that's amazing Link," Gramps finally breathed out. "Is he here?"

And there it was. "No. He's, well," Four paused and rubbed the back of his neck. "He's being forced to work for the man behind all of the time-traveling monsters," he finally forced out. Gramps blinked. "Ganondorf probably has another Dark Mirror somewhere, but Shadow hasn't found it yet and–"

Four cut himself off with a soft hiccup. He shook his head sharply, and sucked in a deep breath.

"Ganondorf made him one of his generals, so Shadow's helping plan the attacks against us while trying to prevent them from being too bad. He warns me whenever he can, but–" Oh Hylia, he was rambling again. Four hated when he did this. He just couldn't stop. He had to try and defend Shadow's actions to Gramps, who looked like he was frowning and– oh. Gramps was moving.

Was he upset? Was he angry with Shadow? Did he think Shadow was going to betr–

Gramps' arms wrapped around Four for the dozenth time that day, and pulled him in tight. His forehead pressed against the crook between Gramps' shoulder and neck. His back arched slightly as he leaned forward to meet Gramps, who had knelt down on the dirt. Gramps rubbed at his back softly.

"It'll be okay Link. Shadow will make it out," Gramps murmured as he rocked him side to side. "Shadow will survive. He's strong, just like you. Then, once he makes it out," Gramps squeezed his arms tighter, "you'll bring him here, to his home."

Four leaned into Gramps' hug and, for the first time since running into Shadow in that clearing and being forced to let him return to the clutches of Ganondorf, let himself truly break.

"I have a question," Four began carefully as they trekked down the forest lane. The trees on either side were a welcome change of pace after their recent brush with Twilight's frozen mountains. It was evident from the way the chain had spread out in a long line, meandering down the trail at a gentle pace, that Four wasn't the only one relieved to be back to their familiar woodsy landscapes.

"What's your question, Four?" asked Time, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye.

Behind the duo, Four could faintly make out the sounds of Wind teaching Sky and Wild about the mechanics of sailing big ships. The rest of the group trailed behind the trio, discussing something or other that Four couldn't quite make out and didn't really care about.

"Well, I've been doing some research," he began.

Time chuckled. "I'm not surprised smithy. You've been sneaking away to whatever bookstore or library you could find in every era we've visited, and always finding time to meet with each of our Zeldas." He glanced over at Four with a soft smile. "The only one nearly as studious as you has been Legend."

Four looked away and rubbed his neck at that comment. He hadn't realized Time noticed him slipping away, or combing through whatever old history books he could find. He had assumed that Time was more focused on the rest of the party, particularly the troublemakers. Huh. It felt, warm? Almost?

"I assume your question is something about my quest?"

Four's head snapped back towards Time's, his eyes widening in shock. How? How had he known? There shouldn't have been any indication. Four was normally so careful when he went looking for books, always making sure to never even insinuate he was one of the legendary heroes he was asking after. Did someone figure it out and somehow get word back to Time? But how?

Then again, maybe Four should have expected this. Time had, repeatedly, displayed an uncanny ability to figure out what the rest of the chain was thinking. They had even started calling him all-knowing, when his back was turned of course. The only thing more accurate than Time practically reading their minds was Time's own sense of, well, time (no pun intended).

Once, Time had somehow taken a single look at Wild and Wind, seemingly innocently sitting around the campfire, and asked them if they were prepared to accept the consequences of their actions. They had, after a moment of confusion, told Time that they were. Said consequences weren't revealed until the next day when Warriors discovered his shampoo and body wash had been swapped.

Warriors had lectured both of them for an hour on proper hair care. Four, despite watching Time the entire lecture, still had no idea how he had known. It made some little purple part of him bubble in frustration while blue and red tinged laughter echoed.

So yeah, Four probably should have known that Time would manage to guess today's topic of discussion. "You got it," he admitted with a shake of his head. "Of course you did. I have a question about your adventure, specifically one of your enemies."

"What is it? I'll answer as best as I can."

"Your sixth dungeon."

Time's step faltered for a split second, and he turned to gaze down at Four. His eyebrows furrowed. "The Water Temple? Why are you asking about that one?"

Four could practically hear the rest of the chain perk up behind them. A gentle hush fell over the group as they, very conspicuously because for trained heroes they were all seemingly unable to hide their actions, listened in on his and Time's conversation. Honestly though, he couldn't really blame them. They so rarely got details on anyone else's adventures, especially Time. Most of the rest of the chain would drop little anecdotes about their adventures in conversation when they were relevant, or occasionally tell recount dramatic stories around the campfire. Wind in particular enjoyed the latter of the two. Even famously clammy Legend had finally begun to tell a tale or two, once they had been traveling together for some time.

Time, however, was practically a locked chest. He still hadn't even told them how old he really was (Four had placed his bets on 38). Time willingly sharing details without turning it into a complex guessing game was a rare occurrence, one the chain would not want to miss.

"One of your enemies in the temple. It was a," Four paused, pursing his mouth. How was he supposed to describe Dark, as Shadow had called him when explaining his situation to him, without revealing that he knew a bit too much from Shadow's long rants? "A shadowy figure, right?"

"Yes," Time drew the word out. "Yes, it was. Where did you read that? I haven't told anyone that before."

Four shrugged casually. "You must have written it down somewhere in the future instead then. I did read it in a set of reprinted journals. Sorry for the funky timeline." He waved his hand absently. "I'm still curious though. The journal didn't give much information on the creature and I was wondering if it could be connected to the shadow we're chasing?"

There was silence for a long moment. Time didn't respond, and none of the rest of the chain dared to interrupt. Four fidgeted, gnawing gently at the inside of his lip. Had he fucked up? Was Time putting the pieces together?

Finally, Time sighed heavily. "Yes, the final enemy was a dark, shadow copy of myself. It materialized from the water and fought me with all of my moves. I had to get tricky in order to beat it." Time's hand brushed against his hip, exactly where the hilt of a normal sword would rest.

"Did you kill it?" Four asked softly.

Time grimaced. "Yes. I stabbed it through the chest and it dissolved back into the water."

Okay. That was definitely important information. It sounded slightly different from Shadow's death. Shadow had broken into glittering dust, while Dark dissolved into water. Shadow had also, unfortunately, been subjected to a long and drawn out death. Dark, apparently, hadn't. It wasn't super surprising, given that they were fundamentally different entities according to Shadow, but still. Good to know.

"Do you know where it came from?" Four prodded.

Again, Time didn't answer immediately. He stared at the winding forest path in front of them, the chain's gentle footsteps pounding in time with Four's racing heart. This really wasn't going well, was it? He really had messed up.

"No, I don't," Time finally answered, his shoulders sagging. "I tried to investigate the temple, once after my quest, and was never able to figure it out." He sighed heavily and rubbed at his face before looking down at Four. "I'm sorry."

"Mine were summoned by Cia, if that helps at all." A heavy hand landed on Four's head, startling him. The only reason he didn't spin around and draw his sword to attack was the immediate recognition of that annoying hair ruffle.

Instead, he reached up and shoved the hand off his head. "My hair is not for ruffling, Warriors," he bit out as he carefully fixed his now lopsided bandana. Ridiculous. Warriors had seen Gramps ruffle his hair a single time, and refused to stop since. Ugh. "As I've told you multiple times before."

"Yeah Wars," Legend drawled, sidling up next to the knight. "That's what Wind is for."

"Hey!" the sailor cried out. "Time, Legend is spreading lies again!"

"Anyway," Legend continued, ignoring Wind's angry glower that promised retribution, "do you think your 'Dark Link' could be connected to the shadow at all, Time?"

Time hummed, and shook his head. "No. It didn't have any of the powers this shadow seems to, like summoning monsters and opening portals. Besides," he shrugged, "I killed it."

Well. Uh. About that.

This was going to be really awkward when the truth was eventually revealed, wasn't it?

….

That was a problem for future Four, not present Four. All present Four needed to worry about was getting through the rest of this conversation.

"There were mentions of some of the rest of you fighting similar creatures," Four added on, drawing attention away from Legend's question. After all, if the rest of the chain was involved in the conversation now, he may as well try to get some use out of it. "They at least mentioned Warriors, Legend, and Hyrule in their stories."

"And I have an armor set that makes me look like that!" Wild interrupted Four's list. He paused in his tracks and turned around, only to flinch heavily. Four stumbled backwards, straight into Warriors' armored chest.

Only a few feet away from Four stood Wild but… not Wild? His skin was more of a dark gray, making his bright red eyes stand out sharply. His hair, rather than being purple like Shadow's, was nearly white. He looked different enough from Shadow to be clearly distinct, but his black rendition of the hero's outfit, especially paired with the red eyes, was still enough to send Four reeling.

Oh, Hylia. If Shadow were to appear in the middle of the chain, looking that similar to an enemy multiple of them had apparently faced, well… Four really didn't want to think about that.

Time hummed, scratching his chin. "It's close, but not quite right."

"Your skin is a bit too light still. The shadows' was almost pitch black," Warriors added from behind Four. He hadn't moved away, his gloved hands coming up to rest reassuringly on Four's shoulders. While Four would normally throw him off, he didn't this time.

Time nodded in agreement.

"Real funny Wild," Legend butted in dryly. "Now, take it off before someone mistakes you for a monster." Wild shrugged and pulled off the mask with a slight pop, revealing his normal face underneath: pale skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. He was just Wild.

Four took a deep breath to hopefully steady his shaking hands before stepping away from Warriors. The knight left one hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently.

"And to add to your list of shadowy encounters, I also have Ravio," Legend continued, looking back at Four again. "He's very different and overly friendly, but still. He has a similar appearance."

"It doesn't matter how many of us have shadowy versions though, Four," Warriors cut in. "They still won't be an issue. We've all killed ours, and you probably won't have to fight one since you already finished your adventure. Besides," Warriors paused, shifting around so he could look Four in the eyes, "we'd protect you. We won't let a dark version of yourself kill you smithy." He smiled down at Four. "So there's no reason to be afraid."

"Yeah, no–"

Wait what? Four blinked up at Warriors, tilting his head in confusion.

"It's okay smithy; we can tell you're scared. Even heroes of courage can feel fear." Warriors nodded his head slowly. "I don't know what shadowy creature you've encountered that has you this worried, but we'll all be here for you."

Warriors gestured behind him, and Four turned to follow the knight's hand. The entire chain had stopped in the middle of the dirt path, gathered in a loose circle around Four. Every one of them looked at him reassuringly, from Sky's gentle smile and Twilight's toothy grin, to Wind's giant thumbs up and Hyrule's steady gaze. Only Legend refused to meet Four's eyes, his mouth slightly twisted as he gazed down at the ground. Huh. Interesting reaction.

"You don't need to be afraid of some shadow," Warriors repeated.

"Right, yeah," Four forced himself to say breathlessly, his head spinning in circles. "No reason to be afraid."

….Well, shit. He had really fucked up, hadn't he?

Hyrule had, to the shock of the rest of the chain, never made a sand castle before. Even Wild had apparently been dragged into the activity by the kids in Lurelin at one point, and Twilight had found a beach? Somewhere? At some point? He refused to elaborate, despite Ordon clearly not having any beaches. Hylia, even Sky had made a sandcastle before, and beaches didn't exist in the literal sky!

Wild had, of course, in the sanest reaction Four had thought possible, immediately derailed them all and forced Wild to take them to the nearest sandy area in his world. They were lucky the Akkala coastline was only a day away. Wind probably wouldn't have been able to live with the knowledge that one of them had never made a sand castle for any longer than that.

It made some sense, if Four thought about it for more than a few minutes. The waters in Hyrule's time, especially the beaches with the needed combination of both water and sand, were usually infested with zora and octoroks. There probably weren't many places, if any, that Hyrule could even make a sandcastle. But just because the heinous crime was understandable, didn't mean that it was acceptable to leave it as it was.

"You have to make sure to have a strong foundation first," Four interrupted Wind's explanation of decorations. "Windows and towers are useless without a base that can support them."

"And you make the sand stronger with… water?" Hyrule asked hesitantly. He frowned down at the bucket of water next to them on the beach.

Wild nodded vigorously. "It does! The kids sued so many buckets of water to make their big castles."

Four smiled as Wind began to lead them in a quest to construct a replica of Hyrule Castle. Sand castles were fun, the perfect combination of creative art that made him glow red, and careful engineering bathed in purple. It had been too long since he last made one. The last time had been with–

His hands stilled. The sand pressed into his fingertips, sinking into the crevices of his nails. The last time he made a sand castle had been when Vio taught Shadow about them.

Four swallowed thickly. Shadow, who– wait. Right. Shadow was alive. He was alive, and he had actually just managed to visit Four last night.

Shadow was alive.

Four smiled softly, and resumed his job of smoothing down the walls. The entire chain was here, the other five relaxing on the beach behind them. Shadow was alive, and even if he wasn't quite safe yet, Four knew that he would come back. Everything would work out in the end.

And right now? Well, he had a sand castle to build.

"You know, I'm kind of glad I died before you," Shadow broke the silence of the night.

Four stiffened. When Shadow had written in Four's notebook and asked him to sneak away to meet him, this hadn't been what he expected. The stargazing, sure. That made sense. Four wasn't surprised to be laying with his back on the grass, gazing up at the twinkling lights in the sky. It had always been one of Vio and Shadow's favorite pastimes, back when Four was still the individual colors and Vio was a traitor.

But this? Shadow implying he was happy about one of the worst days of Four's life as he just lay there, arms crossed under his head in a picture of perfect relaxation? No, he hadn't expected that.

"What?" Four breathed out, his hand tightening in the grass beneath him. His fingernails dug into the dirt, only adding to the ever-growing stains that were evidence of a life on the road.

"Yeah. I'm not happy it happened at all," Shadow clarified. Four was kinda glad he couldn't see Shadow's face right now. Instead, visions of white sparkles swam in front of his eyes. "But I am happy it happened how it did."

Four could hear the blood rushing in his ears. "Why?" he finally managed to choke out, carefully leaving his gaze trained on the sky above them. The stars had always been a steady companion for Four. Maybe they would help him get through this now, when he couldn't bring himself to look at the boy, his brother, next to him. Not when he could still feel the phantom pricks of the mirror's shards digging into his palms.

Shadow hesitated. "It's like I told you that day," he began, his voice soft and wobbly. "A shadow always follows behind the body. But a shadow also can't exist at all without the body." Shadow sucked in a deep breath, a soft whistle echoing through the night air. "I don't think I could have kept living without you."

"But then that means I have to." Four finally ripped his gaze away from the sky and pushed himself up into a sitting position. Thankfully, Shadow echoed his movements. "I did that for three and a half years. And Shadow," Four reached out a hand. Shadow took it. "It's not fun. It was the worst three years of my life."

He yanked, drawing Shadow into a tight hug. His brother collapsed into Four's warm embrace, shuddering. Shadow's arms crept up behind Four and squeezed him tightly, desperately, clinging on as if he was the only thing tethering him to this world. Four held Shadow just as tightly.

"I don't know what you're planning Shadow," Four whispered into his brother's ear, "but please, be careful. Don't leave me alone again."

Shadow nodded against Four's shoulder. They didn't let go.

High above them, the stars of the constellation Hylia's Hero continued to shimmer.

Four had, long ago, learned that the worst days often tend to start out as great ones. It's a cruel twist of fate, but somehow bad days are born out of great, wonderful days full of joy. It was true when Four had accompanied Zelda to the Picori Festival just to watch her be turned to stone by Vaati. It was true both times he and Zelda had gone to the Four Sword Sanctuary, only for Vaati to escape.

It was certainly true today.

Wild had made one of Four's favorite meals for the chain, pepper steak, and Four had even gotten seconds! Then he and Warriors got to have a long conversation about the merits of different types of blades in various battles and how to properly maintain them (something Wild could stand to learn from). Four had even been able to walk with Legend for a bit and carefully probe him for information on the possibility of Minish existing somewhere in his timeline, with very promising results!

All in all, Four thought to himself as they journeyed through some of Twilight's woods, it was a good day.

So naturally everything had to fall apart at that exact moment. A massive portal opened in the middle of the pathway, tinged blood red instead of the usual glowing white of Hylia's portals. Four drew his sword, backing into a loose formation with the rest of the heroes as they braced themselves.

This was new, and it was entirely unknown.

"Stick together boys," Time murmured, the Biggoron Sword already drawn and gripped tightly in his hands. Four had taken up formation between Warriors and Hyrule, both of them holding their own blades. Wild had somehow already managed to climb one of the trees nearby them, nocking and drawing five arrows at once as he prepared to give them aerial coverage.

He had a really bad feeling about this.

Four's heart pounded, stuttering as he stared the portal down and waited for something, anything to happen. He sucked in a deep breath and tightened his grip on the hilt of the Four Sword.

What was this? Had Hylia sent them some new form a portal? Was this portal created by another being, attempting to trick them? Were they about to be–

Two figures appeared through the portal, tumbling and landing hard on the ground. They rolled over themselves, splitting apart and falling in different directions. One of them, a figure Four recognized immediately, slid to a stop at Wind's feet.

"Hey kid," Shadow managed to choke out.

"Shadow!" Four cried out, dropping his sword and breaking formation. He ducked underneath Time's outstretched arm, sliding to a stop at Shadow's side.

For a moment, just a moment, Four's sense of time slipped from his grasp. It was similar, too similar. Shadow was on the ground in front of him, clearly injured, as Four hunched over his crumpled body? Or was it dissolving? Was he a single person, or four colors? When was it?

Shadow groaned softly and snapped Four back into the present. He could freak out later. Right now, he had a job to do. "Fuck, fuck, what happened?" he muttered as he leaned over Shadow's still-breathing body (because he was alive, he wasn't a corpse, not yet). Four yanked off his tunic and hurriedly pressed it into the biggest danger he could see: the large, open gash on Shadow's side. Wind fell to his knees on the other side of Shadow, reaching out to try and stem the bleeding of the cut in his other arm.

It looked bad. It looked really bad. Four wasn't well trained in first aid, but even he could tell when shit wasn't going to end well. And Shadow– Shadow– "No, wait," Four murmured and he knitted his brows together. This wasn't usually his job. There was a reason he didn't really know what he was looking at. "Hyrule! Warriors!" he screamed, craning his neck to look over his shoulder. "Get the fuck over, I need your first-aid skills! Now!"

His voice cracked as he screamed, but Four didn't care. What he did care about was the feeling of Shadow's blood seeping through his fingertips, and the battle his eyes caught onto as Hyrule and Warriors started sprinting his direction.

The second figure from the portal, the one Shadow had initially been holding onto, was up and fighting like his life depended on it. His skin was pitch-black, interrupted only by starkly glowing red eyes, and Four's breath caught in his throat.

What the fuck?

It didn't make any sense. Shadow had told him a little bit about the other boy in Ganondorf's grasp, Dark, but this wasn't him. It couldn't be him. Because Shadow had made a point of telling Four just how much Dark was suffering, how much pain he was in, how little of the world he knew. Shadow's descriptions had tugged on Four's heartstrings, reminding him a concerning amount of the Shadow that Vio had once known.

So that wasn't Dark. It couldn't be. It wasn't. Because Dark, the Dark that Four had heard stories of, wouldn't be going for the kill. His sword swung up, only barely missing taking Legend's head clean-off, and arced back around to narrowly miss cutting Twilight's stomach open. It was terrifying to watch.

That was why Four didn't. He had other things he had to focus on right now, no matter how much his fingers ached with the urge to pick up his sword and defend his brothers. They would be able to figure out the patterns of the attacker and find some way to hold their own. He knew it. They were heroes of courage, after all.

"Hey, Rainbow," Shadow gasped out as Four turned his attention back to him. His eyes cracked open, a slight smirk dancing across the pained tilt of his lips.

"Don't fucking talk to me right now," Four bit back without even thinking about it. Shadow didn't get to do that right now. He didn't get to look at Four and try to crack jokes, not when he was actively bleeding out only days after promising Four that he wouldn't leave him again. Not when Four's heart was racing, tumbling, cracking apart as he prayed to a goddess he barely cared about that he wouldn't be left alone again. Not when his brothers were fighting for their lives against some being that Shadow had brought with him, only barely holding their own. Speaking of which… "Who the hell is with you, and what is his problem?"

On second thought, Four probably should have phrased that better. There must be a nicer way to ask that, some way that didn't startle Shadow. He could have at least asked if it was actually, somehow, against all odds, Dark who was fighting against the chain like that. Anything other than the way he did. Because Shadow, despite the open hole in his side, shoved his hands underneath himself and rocketed forwards.

Four's arms shot out to try and catch Shadow, to force him back to the ground, but Warriors beat him there. The knight pushed Shadow back down to the dirt as Hyrule's already glowing hands settled into place over the wound in Shadow's side. Four cursed softly and shoved Hyrule's arm away.

"No, you can't use light magic healing spells on him," Four muttered in Hyrule's ear. "He's made of shadowy dark magic; you'll kill him!"

"He'll have to be treated the old-fashioned way then," Hyrule shot back. "It's slower and I can't guarantee his survival." But even as he told Four that, Hyrule was already pulling his pack open and yanking out bandages. That was exactly why Four loved him so much. Thank Hylia for Hyrule.

It was going to be difficult, but it was the only way to truly heal Shadow. He couldn't take potions or healing spells, as they had unfortunately learned when–

"No!" Shadow screamed, forcing Four's attention back to him. Shadow's other arm, the one Wind had been clutching onto, reached up to clamp onto his forearm. "Don't hurt him!"

What? But– did that mean it was actually Dark? "Shadow, he attacked us! What the hell are you saying?" Hyrule pressed a piece of cloth he had poured some liquid that Four didn't catch the name of onto Shadow's side, and the other boy cried out. Four hunched over him and stroked his forehead. "I know Shadow, it hurts."

"No, Four, listen," Shadow murmured as he shook his head weakly. "Dark, he's– he's like me. You– you have to trust me."

Four's eyes widened. It really was Dark. So why was he attacking them? Why was any of this happening? Why did it seem like Four's very life was on the verge of collapsing yet again? Warriors pushed Four gently out of the way, leaning over Shadow's body to pour some water over his wounds.

Shadow hissed softly. "The Master Sword. Cut his chains."

Chains? What cha–

Four's head snapped up. He whirled around, his eyes scanning over the battle. Where was– oh shit. How had he managed to miss it before? A glowing, blood red chain hung from Dark's wrist, binding together the two manacles on his wrists. The color of the chain perfectly matched the red of his glazed-over, distant looking eyes.

Oh shit. Those chains.

"Sky!" Four cried out, catching the attention of the chosen hero. Sky's eyes flickered towards him from the other side of the battle with Dark, and he raised a single eyebrow. "Cut the chains!"

"What?" Sky yelled back as he dodged a swipe from Dark's sword. It was a close one, far too close. Most people couldn't get anywhere near Sky. Hylia, Dark was terrifyingly good.

Four pointed at the glowing chains, and repeated himself. "Cut the chains! Trust me!"

Unconditional trust was a beautiful thing, and Four really didn't appreciate it often enough. Sky swung around, side-stepped around the path of Dark's blade, and popped up directly in front of the boy. He raised the Master Sword high above his head, glowing bright white, before swinging it down without an ounce of hesitation.

An unholy roar echoed across the small clearing they were in, mixing in with Dark's own loud screech of pain. Four flinched away from the noise, as did most of the heroes, and unfortunately jostled Shadow's arm in the process. Shadow echoed Dark's cry with one of his own. Four jerked his head back just in time to watch as Shadow's eyes rolled back, slipping into unconsciousness.

Four fell backwards, rolling out of Hyrule's way as his anxious muttering reached a new crescendo of worry. Warriors followed Hyrule's orders without hesitation, his battlefield medic training taking over and keeping his hands steady. It was leagues better than Four's own, trembling hands.

Clearly, Time's hands were also a bit shaky. Four could see the slight tremor as Time's gauntlet-covered hand appeared above him, palm facing outwards. Four accepted the outstretched hand and allowed Time to pull him to his feet.

He wobbled on his toes, swaying just enough for Time to find it necessary to reach out and clamp one hand on his shoulder.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Dark was clearly unconscious on the ground at Sky's feet, who still hadn't put the Master Sword away. Nor had Twilight sheathed his own blade, both of them falling into a guarding stance as they stared down at the poor boy.

Behind him, Hyrule and Warriors worked on Shadow, but Four knew there wasn't much he could do to help them. He was, very frustratingly, well aware of that fact. If he continued to hover, especially now when anxiety and fear was making his hands shake way more than they should, he would probably only do more harm than good.

So what else could he do? How else could he help? There had to be something for him to do, someway he could help make sure that both Shadow and Dark would be okay, right? Right?

"Well, Four?" Time began, his hand still clenched around Four's shoulder. He stared Four dead in the eyes, his lips drawn into a thing line. Ah. Yeah. There it was. That was what he needed to do. "Mind explaining what's going on here?"

"So, so wait, hang on," Warriors interrupted Four.

It was probably for the best, really. Four was aware enough to know that he had been rambling for quite a bit. It wasn't insane to say that he probably should have stopped this train before he began explaining exactly how Farmer Mike's milk business was actually, in an ironic twist, now doing much better than his old pig one was before Shadow's dragon attack. That was a little bit off topic.

"Yes?" Four asked, instead of saying any of that. He rubbed awkwardly at his arm, glancing away from where most of the chain had scattered across the ground in front of them. Looking at them right now, while he was explaining exactly how and why he had lied to them for weeks now, felt weird.

Instead, he looked at Shadow. His long-lost brother lay on the ground next to him, spread out across Four's own bedroll. Hyrule had somehow managed to stabilize him even without being able to use his magic or potions. He had said Shadow should wake up on his own. Eventually.

Four really didn't like that choice of words.

"This guy," Warriors pointed at Shadow, "is literally your shadow brought to life with magic. And he was evil. But he's not anymore?" Four nodded. "Okay. Why?"

Well. He was at an impasse here, wasn't he? There were two options: he could tell the others about the whole being able to split into multiple color-coded versions of himself based on strong aspects of his personality, then dive into the whole 'oh yeah and one of my colors pretended to betray the rest of them while tricking Shadow into thinking he was on his side but ended up showing Shadow the wonders of life and turning him so good that he actually sacrificed his life for us' thing, or he could lie.

…

The colors thing was a problem for later Four. Aka, Four once he was no longer terrified that his brother might die in front of him. Again.

"I pretended to team up with him during part of my last quest, and realized he didn't know how to live," Four began, simplifying the story greatly. It wasn't technically a lie after all. He was Vio, and Vio was him. He was just also Green, Blue, and Red. And all of them combined at once.

Hylia, this was complicated.

"He had never experienced life," he continued. Four continued to stare at Shadow instead of looking back at the chain. He didn't want to see their faces for this part. "Shadow was summoned only a couple weeks of weeks before my last quest began, and he was working for Ganon the whole time. He–" Four hesitated, his voice shaking, "he was a soldier. A pawn. But he was also basically an isolated child who had never seen the world."

One of the others sniffled softly. Four couldn't tell exactly who it was, but he didn't really need to know. Any hero of courage, as Four could attest to, would find their heartstrings tugged by Shadow's tale. He wouldn't be surprised if he looked over right now and saw multiple wet eyes.

"So I tried to teach him. I showed him how to make bracelets, I made him his first real meal, and I even taught him how to sleep. He thought the concept of dreams was terrifying at first!" Four chuckled, but it only lasted a moment before his face fell. "Shadow got attached to me, and I got attached to him. He even told me he wanted the two of us to rule over Hyrule together."

"But you're a hero," Twilight murmured.

Four nodded slowly. "I am. So I was never actually on his, or Ganon's, side. And I had to betray him eventually." His shoulders shuddered as he sucked in a shaky breath. "We fought, and I thought I killed him. But Ganon re-summoned him, and, well, he had a change of heart. Shadow found Zelda, Dot, in Ganon's base and she convinced him he was a hero. Because he is."

He finally tore his eyes away from Shadow, staring at the rest of the chain, the rest of his brothers. Wind had pressed a single trembling hand over his mouth, his other clutching the edge of Warriors' scarf tightly. Wild stared down at the ground, his eyes distant and cloudy, as Twilight rubbed his back. Hyrule, and Sky both gazed at Shadow, taking him in, while the rest continued to watch Four.

As he had expected, most of their eyes were wet. Good. Hopefully they would be on his side by the end of this.

"Shadow willingly shattered the Dark Mirror on his own so that I could defeat Vaati," Four continued. "And it killed him. He died in my arms." He swallowed thickly, his voice trembling. "I never really moved past it. I've been mourning him for the last three and a half years." Four's voice trailed off.

Where did he go from there? What was next? Should he tell them everything he thought about Shadow over the last three years? About how Dot, Gramps, and Father had barely been able to help him through the grief? About how Four had been wrecked by Shadow's loss?

"He's the lost friend that Wild, Hyrule, and Ravio reminded you of," Sky ended up filling the silence.

Four grimaced. "You knew that?"

"Respectfully, Smithy," Legend interrupted wryly. He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at Four. "Your grief was so obvious that even a blin could have seen it." Legend's eyes softened, an expression Four had only seen a handful of times. Wow. "You couldn't stand to be around Ravio, Wild and Hyrule always upset you, and you shied away from any conversations about friends. Of course we thought you had a dead best friend."

"I had assumed the friend was killed by a Dark-Link though," Warriors butt in. A chorus of agreements echoed from the chain, and Four sighed. "It was what made the most sense with the pieces, and how much you pressed about dark magic or shadowy fights. Speaking of which," he nodded at Dark, "what's with him?"

Dark, who still hadn't woken up after collapsing when Sky cut his chains two hours ago, had been spread out on Twilight's bedroll much like Shadow had. Four still wasn't sure what to think about him. Not him as a person of course, not after Shadow had made it evidently clear just how similar Dark was to his former self. But rather, Four was struggling to figure out his appearance.

To put it rather bluntly, Dark just didn't look like any single one of them. Shadow, of course, looked like a near-copy of Four himself. Aside from slightly different colorings, they were identical. Legend and Ravio were the same way.

But Dark wasn't. Four could pick out individual features of him that resembled each of the chain members if he tried. His hair was a mixture of Time and Warriors', but his eyes looked like they were the same shape as Sky's. He was about Wild's height, with Legend's slightly pointer nose and Hyrule's lankier build. The slight-extra length of Dark's ears was probably due to Twilight's longer-than-average ears. He couldn't really find a similarity between Dark and him or Wind, likely due to Wind's age and Four being unable to stare at his own face right now, but logic said that there was probably something.

Put simply, Dark was an amalgamation of different pieces of each of them in a single being, and it was throwing Four off. He had pictured someone that looked like Shadow, but echoing one of the other chain members instead of Four. He hadn't expected a mashup.

"Shadow said he's a reflection of the heroes' spirit," Four finally managed to make himself say. "Shadow is a reflection of me, my own Shadow, Four's shadow, but Dark is a reflection of the spirit of courage." He tore his eyes away from Dark and managed to refocus on the chain. "Every time one of you fought a Dark Link, it was him. Shadow said that Dark's entire life before recently was just the short battles he had with you. There was nothing between them, just fighting for his life."

Time looked down, staring at the ground in front of him. Four couldn't blame him. He had been the first in the timeline to fight Dark. His battle with Dark had probably been Dark's, well, birth. A simultaneous birth and death, ever-repeating as Dark fought the chain again and again.

"Until Ganondorf, who is apparently the one behind the black-blooded monsters," Four held up a hand to quiet the immediate wave of questions and protests. "I don't know, Shadow didn't explain any of that to me yet. You'll have to ask him yourself when, when," he repeated to himself softly, "he wakes up."

The chain clearly wasn't happy with that statement. Warriors grumbled softly, crossing his arms over his chest as Twilight frowned and Legend rubbed at his forehead. Four couldn't blame them. He wanted answers too. But, he thought as he shifted his legs and stole a quick glance at Shadow, he could find it in himself to wait as long as it meant Shadow would wake up. He would willingly wait an eternity for Shadow's eyes to open.

"Ganondorf summoned him," Four continued after the chain settled down, "and enslaved Dark, forcing him to work for him as a general. That's what the chains that Sky broke were." He nodded towards Sky, who still rested a single hand on the hilt of the legendary blade. Alright. They could work through it later. "He eventually re-summoned Shadow as well and, with the threat of breaking whatever new Dark Mirror he had, forced Shadow to be a general as well. But Shadow found me a few weeks ago, and we've been secretly meeting up since." Four shrugged. "That's it. I have no idea what happened today, and I wish I did." His voice wobbled as he looked back at Shadow's still, unmoving body. "I really, really, wish I did."

A heavy silence settled over the small clearing in the woods that they had decided to temporarily make camp in. Four was, honestly, kinda scared to turn around and see the faces of the rest of the chain. Were they mad at him for keeping the secret of Shadow and Dark? Disappointed? Was Four about to be kicked out of the chain? Would they say that Shadow, and Dark he had to assume, couldn't stay?

Four would go wherever Shadow went. If he couldn't join the chain, then Four couldn't stay. He didn't care if Hylia tried to force him through the portals and separate him from Shadow. Four would find some way to defy even the Golden Goddesses if it meant staying with Shadow. He'd do anything.

A hand landed squarely on Four's shoulder, and he turned upward to gaze into Time's eye. The old man squeezed his shoulder. "Alright, Four," he began. "The only thing we can do now then, is wait for them to wake up. We'll talk to them. And," Time smiled gently down at him, "if they want to stay, then they'll be one of us."

Four blinked up at Time, and Time nodded his head. He surged upwards and wrapped his arms tightly around Time's waist. Four didn't say anything as Time's arms settled around Four's back. There wasn't anything he could say.

Shadow and Dark were home.

It turns out that playing the waiting game when its someone that Hyrule can't use magic to check up on really fucking sucks. Four was pretty sure that if Wild hadn't basically drugged him with sleepy tea (thanks a lot for that one champion, ugh), then he wouldn't have gotten a single moment of sleep over the course of the next three days.

At least whenever the chain was injured before, Hyrule was able to use his magic to check their progress! He could at least see how well they were doing and give a usually pretty fair estimate of when they would wake up. Hyrule could even speed up the process by healing them more once his magic levels replenished themselves.

It didn't work like that for Shadow and Dark. They couldn't do anything but sit in the same camp, day after day, just hoping and praying that Dark pushed through whatever magic had hurt him, and Shadow managed to heal from his injuries.

Which, speaking of which, Four still wasn't sure how he had been injured. The injures didn't really match the sword Dark carried. The gash in Shadow's side was a bit too big and wide to come from Dark's blade, and the lacerations on his other arm were slightly too jagged. But if it wasn't Dark, then who was it? Had Ganondorf discovered them running away, and had his monsters attack them? Did that mean they should be on the lookout for a retaliation attack from Ganondorf? Were they going to be ambushed?

Then again, time travel didn't necessarily work like that. Ganondorf could very well have sent an attack squad out only minutes after that the heroes wouldn't run into for weeks. Time, the concept not the person, was really weird.

…Okay the person was really weird too. It wasn't the point right now though.

The point was that Four probably wasn't going to get anywhere stressing like this, and there was absolutely nothing he could do but sit and wait.

Hylia, he hated waiting. It was the worst thing ever.

Thankfully, it turned out that he didn't have to wait too long.

Midway through the first day after the battle, Dark groaned softly. The entire camp slowed to a halt as the rest of the chain stared at the boy, still spread out across Twilight's bundle. Four, himself, crouched down next to Dark. Maybe familiar facial features, even if they weren't quite the right color, would help prevent Dark from startling?

Dark shifted, his shoulders flexing as he sucked in a deep breath. His fingers brushed against the dirt, paused, and rubbed again. Probably struck by the sudden realization of where he was, if Four had to guess, Dark bolted upright into a sitting position and his eyes flew open. Wow. They were blood red. Interesting.

"Whoa, you're okay, I promise," Four murmured as he extended his palms outwards towards Dark. The rest of the chain, blessedly, remained silent. "I'm Four, and you're with the heroes. You're okay now. We're not going to hurt you."

Dark stared at him blankly.

Four gnawed at the inside of his bottom lip. Okay. Alright. "Shadow probably told you about me, right?" Dark nodded slowly. Okay, okay! Progress. "Well, I'm his hero. And these are the other heroes." He nodded his head towards the rest of the chain, loosely gathered on the other side of the campfire. "Shadow told me a bit about you. You're like he was, right?"

"Yeah," Dark whispered. "He did. You helped him."

"I did. And we can help you too, if you let us?" Four extended a single hand towards Dark, holding it with his palm facing upwards. "Shadow thinks you could be a good person, and we want to help you with that. So Dark," he smiled gently at the other boy, "do you want to be a hero?"

Dark hesitated. He didn't exactly have pupils, but Four could imagine them staring down at his hand and shaking. His fingers certainly were at least, clearly trembling despite the way Dark had clenched them tightly around his pants.

Finally though, after a long enough moment that Four was starting to get scared, Dark swallowed thickly.

He took Four's hand in his own. And Four grinned brighter than the sun.

Shadow, thankfully, wasn't quite as chaotic as Dark was. Not right now, that was. Four was confident that as soon as Shadow was healed, there would be a new member of the little Wild-Wind epic pranking duo. For now though, Shadow was certainly calm.

Yeah, he had surged upright just like Dark had, that was true. It did scare the shit out of Four, who was just sitting in his usual post next to Shadow's bedroll and writing in his journal. He had barely left Shadow's side since Dark woke up, even sleeping on the ground next to him.

"Whoa, whoa, Shadow, you're okay," Four had immediately begun saying. His journal slipped out of his hands and landed face-down on the dirt. It didn't matter. It wasn't anywhere near as important as Shadow was. "You're safe." He wrapped his hands around Shadow's arms, holding onto them gently. Four shifted just enough to bend over Shadow's legs and place his own face directly in front of Shadow's.

Shadow blinked rapidly, his eyes slowly focusing as he did so. Eventually though, Shadow's eyes locked onto Four's own and widened. "Four?"

"Shadow," he answered with a nod. "You're here. You're safe." Four couldn't help the hand that drifted up to cup Shadow's cheek, gently wiping away a single tear with his thumb. Shadow probably hadn't even noticed the offending water droplet, or the way his mouth was trembling. "You made it out and teleported into the camp. Everything's okay."

The other boy, instead of saying anything back, broke eye contact to gaze over Four's shoulder. Four turned and followed Shadow's line of sight.

Everyone else was still doing their own thing, valiantly pretending as if Four and Shadow weren't actively on the verge of falling apart. With the exception of Hyrule of course, who he could see already mentally taking stock of Shadow's condition from the other side of the clearing. Warriors was fiddling with the edge of Hyrule's tunic as he teased Legend over whatever topic it was this time. Time had leaned against one of the trees on the edge to rest, while Twilight, Sky, and Wild huddled around Wild's pot over the campfire.

But Shadow's gaze had locked on a single point in the camp in particular: Dark and Wind, huddled over the spot on the ground where they had been playing some sort of drawing-guessing game all afternoon. Four smiled.

Dark, after taking Four's hand and eventually narrating his own side of events to fill in Four's narrative gaps, had managed to slide right into an empty spot that they hadn't even realized was there. He fit right in with the rest of the chain. He sat quietly with the early-risers in the mornings, eagerly listened to every long story he could, and loved messing around with Wind.

There was already a lightness to the set of Dark's shoulders, and a sparkle in his eyes that wasn't there just two days ago.

He was perfect.

"Dark woke up two days ago," he finally managed to bring himself to say, smiling as he continued to watch Dark and Wind. Dark pointed at something on the ground, his mouth moving as he said something, and Wind broke out in cackles. "He explained everything to us, from when you were first summoned to your escape." Four managed to peel his eyes away from the pair and refocus on Shadow. He needed to drill the point home. "The others accepted him without hesitation."

"They– they did?" Shadow breathed out.

Four nodded slowly. "They did. They also accepted you. And," Four paused, smiling at Shadow, "I want to say that I’m very proud of you. You survived Ganondorf, and you saved Dark.” Shadow blinked at him, and Four squeezed the one arm he still had a hand wrapped around gently. “Now, your injuries still aren’t fully healed. Hyrule wasn’t confident enough to use his life spell on you, since you’re a shadow, and we only risked giving you a tiny bit of red potion. So they’ll mostly have to heal naturally. So you need to rest, alright?"

He stared Shadow down. If Shadow somehow fucked this up, if he set back his own healing process, then Hylia-damn him, Four was going to be pissed.

Thankfully, it seemed threats weren't needed. "Of course Rainbow," Shadow whispered with a smirk. But it wasn't one of his annoying, or joking smirks. It was the smirk he wore when he didn't really know how to be genuinely sincere, the one he wore when he wasn't expecting the kindness he was shone. Four's heart cracked a bit, seeing that particular smirk, but thankfully it faded into a real, genuine smile. Alright. They'd work on it. "I'll rest, I promise."

He could accept that. That was an acceptable promise. And he'd ensure Shadow held to it.

Four finally, finally, leaned forward, wrapping his arms tightly around Shadow. Shadow sank into the embrace, but his arms didn't come up to hug Four back. It was okay. Four could feel the steady slowing of Shadow's breaths as he slipped back into unconsciousness.

"Welcome home Shadow."