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Twilight had been gone for three days when they finally found him, in a cell deep in one of the Yiga Clan’s lairs.
Time was the one to find him, and for that he was glad— none of the younger members of their party would have to see Twilight, the most older-brother-esque figure of the group, like this.
“By Farore,” Time said under his breath. He wasn’t normally one to take the Goddesses’ names in vain, but this situation called for it. Twilight was curled up on the dirt floor, stripped of all but his most basic underclothing to reveal arms and legs covered in bruises and a few stray cuts. His ankles and wrists were bound by tight ropes, though those restraints paled in comparison to what was around Twilight’s face.
It was a muzzle. It didn’t fit very well around Twilight’s face, the edges warped up in some spots and pushing against his skin in others, but it was still a muzzle, latched in the back with a metal clasp and holding Twilight’s jaw closed.
Just above it, Twilight’s eyes looked up at Time in a strange mix of hope and fear.
“Rancher,” he said, and Twilight flinched. Time lowered himself to Twilight’s level and set his blade down on the ground. “It’s me, it’s just me. I’m getting you out of here.”
Slowly, agonizingly, Twilight nodded.
The ropes were the easiest to take care of, so that was where he started. The ones around his wrists were impressively frayed, Time noticed, though at the cost of some nasty-looking rope burns on Twilight’s skin.
“Did you really just try to bust out with your strength alone?”
Twilight huffed into the muzzle.
“Not mocking it,” Time clarified. “Just impressed.”
Once the ropes were off, the first thing Twilight did was grab Time by the shoulders. He scanned up and down Time’s face as he felt the textures of Time’s hair, clothing, and armor.
“This… this isn’t a dream, Twilight. I’m real,” Time said once he realized what Twilight was doing. He took hold of Twilight's hand, trying to ground him in a way that had worked before, in Twilight's moments of panic, moments they all had from time to time. “This is real, we’re leaving, the others are fighting off the Yiga as we speak. Can you stand?”
Twilight pointed to the muzzle and tilted his head.
Time checked again, but no— the metal clasp in the back was welded shut, and the leather straps were too tightly secured to be simply pulled or cut off. “I’m sorry, we’ll need the smithy’s tools to get this off, I’m afraid. Or maybe a bit of magic from Legend. Let’s get you out of this place so we can do that, yeah?”
Twilight nodded reluctantly. He tried to stand, but his legs gave out almost immediately.
“Careful,” Time said, more a habit than anything. “Come on, hold on here.”
Twilight gripped Time’s arm hard enough to bruise as they hobbled out of the cell.
By the time Time made it outside the Yiga base with Twilight still latched onto his arm, most of the others had already made it out. Hyrule was tending to miscellaneous wounds on Sky and Wind, while Four and Wild were setting up a small campfire— a campfire that Wild, when he locked eyes with Time and then Twilight, nearly snuffed out in his scramble to stand up and run to Twilight.
“Twilight!” he shouted.
Twilight flinched away at first, as he had with Time— but just a second later, and he was peeling himself off of Time’s arm to wrap Wild up in a tight, desperate hug.
Time rubbed his arm, the limb finally free and his hand almost numb. Twilight must’ve cut off the circulation, he thought. Worth it, he also thought.
Wild pulled away from the hug to grab at the muzzle on Twilight’s face. “What is this?”
“I found him with it,” Time explained. “I can’t get it off on my own. Four, can you...?”
Time didn’t even have to finish his sentence; Four was already pulling Twilight down by his ear to get a closer look at the latch. “Yeah. I can get that. Come on, farmer boy, let’s take care of you,” he said, pulling a rather disoriented-looking Twilight over to his pack of repair supplies.
Time turned to Wild. “Warriors and Legend?”
“They’re searching the last few rooms of the base for Twilight’s stuff. Most of the Yiga ran off once they realized they were outnumbered.”
“Right,” Time sighed. “Right. Have you known them to do…”
“Human torture?”
“I didn’t say that, but… yes, torture. Is this typical of them?”
Wild shrugged and looked away, his eyes moving just past where Four was working on getting the muzzle off. “They’re loyal to Ganon above all else. I don’t see why they wouldn’t resort to torture, if it meant luring in more of Ganon’s enemies.”
“They were using him as bait to get to us?”
“They were using him as bait to get to me,” Wild corrected him with a grin. “I don’t think they anticipated all eight of us. If they had, they would’ve taken him to a less shitty base.”
Time wanted to admonish Wild for his language, but before he could, a loud cough drew his attention away.
“Yes!” Four exclaimed over Twilight’s coughing. “Jeez, how’d they get this on so snug?”
Time was at Twilight’s side in seconds. “Hey, hey— there you are,” he said, patting Twilight’s back.
Twilight tried for a small smile, though the red ring of irritated skin where the muzzle had been removed somewhat undercut it, as did the red staining around his mouth. “Time—” he rasped before losing his voice to another round of coughing. Wild held out a canister of water, and Twilight drank it greedily before clearing his throat and trying again. “I— I did.”
“You did what?”
“Try to bust out. Y'asked, earlier. I tried, and I almost got out, too, because they weren’t 'specting me to bite,” he grinned, his teeth just a bit too sharp. “Then they put that thing on me and I thought…” He stopped, looked away, then shook his head and came back to the moment. “I thought— it felt like so long, I thought you’d— and they told me, they told me that you had— but they were lying, weren’t they?” he said with a small, hysterical laugh.
“I… I don’t know what they told you,” Time said carefully, “but we’ll always come help you. You know that, right?”
Twilight choked, though whether it was on his own dry throat or something more, Time didn’t need to know.
An hour later, Warriors and Legend came out of the base, Twilight’s stuff in their arms.
Well, Warriors was holding Twilight’s stuff, at least. But he was also holding a small, pink, and very angry-looking rabbit, who was in turn holding Twilight’s Shadow Crystal.
Twilight laughed, finally, and Time finally felt relief.