Fanning Flames - KaramellKitty42 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter 1: Where there’s Smoke…

Chapter Text

Hylia was stressed.

Like, really stressed.

Things had been going so well after the current Hero (Wild, she reminded herself, his name was Wild, not Link) and Zelda had defeated the Calamity.

Monsters were slowly becoming easier to take down, Blood Moons becoming rarer, and people could finally travel through Central Hyrule without worrying about leftover machinery.

Everything was going great!

But.

Long ago, spread out over the eras, something… weird had happened.

A few of her heroes, eight to be exact (and always the ones facing the biggest threats, earning legends known for centuries after) had disappeared.

Black portals appeared somewhere near them, and monsters tainted and strengthened by some vile dark magic spread over the land.

The Heroes would disappear from the face of the earth, show up again with a group of past and future incarnations of themselves, fight the monsters, leave again, and come back alone (looking rather banged up).

She tried figuring out what was happening there, but unfortunately, time travel was not something she was well versed in.

(It didn’t help that different points of the timeline touching twisted the entire thing.)

She only ever managed to trace the portals reach. Something would happen in the (at the time) far far future, which would end the entire ordeal.

At first, she had suspected the War across the Ages, because that had been one clusterf*ck of a paradox wrapped in broken rules of time and space that had somehow managed to melt the three split parts of the timeline back into one.

But no! The event was set to take place even later!

Hylia was stressed. Because that time was now.

Since the war, no more strange portals had appeared.

(Well, no, not quite true. One had pinged her radar, but after taking a closer look she realised it was just the shadow.(Dark was what he called himself, right?))

She had actually managed to forget about the entire thing.

Until it started happening again. In a Hyrule only just starting to recover from the apocalypse.

So yes, Hylia was stressed. Very stressed. And worried.

She should probably tell someone about this. Preferably Zelda.

Hopefully she‘d be able to reach her. Time difference and shifting between planes and realms was already challenging enough when the timeline wasn’t doing it‘s best impression of an overly complicated loop knot.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Dark‘s life was remarkably stress-free.

It hadn’t been all that eventful for the most part in general, really. Hiding away for years, fighting, dying, and hiding again got repetitive after a while.

But he hadn’t realised how taxing the constant paranoia and anxiety had been, always waiting for the next Hero to show up.

Only now that he didn’t have to worry about it anymore, he started noticing how stressful it had been.

Getting to relax for once was a welcome change.

However, things were by no means quiet. Travelling all over Hyrule with Wild was… an experience.

Ganon was gone, but Wild couldn’t bear staying in Hateno. Settling down was just not for him.

He had tried, because he wanted to spend more time with the princess, but Zelda told him to just leave for a while when the Hero started getting sick.

(It wasn’t like she didn’t have company. Zelda and Purah got on like a house on fire, and the people of Hateno were generally a welcoming bunch.)

Wild had insisted on staying at first, stating he wanted to help her with organising the rebuilding efforts, but Zelda had managed to convince him he would be a bigger help out in the field.

(It wasn’t even a lie, Wild really was more helpful outside than with planning. Taking out monsters and scouting for safe travel routes was more fitting for his skillset than the logistics of re-establishing a mail service and planning school curriculums.)

Dark wasn’t sure what exactly was causing Wild‘s wanderlust, but he suspected it had to do with the way the Hero seemed more at ease in the wilderness, and how he felt out of place in town to Dark’s senses.

(Initially he had assumed that was because Wild‘s magic was clearly spirit and nature based, but maybe something more was going on.

Regardless of what it was, Wild seemed to know, and he wasn’t worried, just a little bummed out he couldn’t stay with Zelda.)

Anyways, to make a long story short:

Wild couldn’t stay in Hateno, so he and Dark went back to travelling.

And Wild had said, while we’re at it, why not take out any monster camps we find?

Which brought them to their current predicament.

~

Another arrow whizzed past right next to Dark, nailing a Bokoblin in the eye. Instead of dropping dead like the monster should have, it screamed in rage and swung its club with even more vigour.

Dark answered by slamming his Bladesaw into the Bokoblins gut, sending it flying. It got up again, black blood pooling from its wounds.

A metallic clang brought his attention to Wild, who was holding his shield against a sword-wielding Moblin.

A quick pull on his magic allowed him to slip away and appear right behind the Moblin, surprising it with an attack from behind.

He immediately had to dive again to dodge a second Bokoblins spear, but the moment of distraction was enough for Wild to retaliate.

A quick nod from the Hero, and Dark went back to the other monsters.

Three more strikes with the Bladesaw brought down the Bokoblin with the club, far more than it should have.

When the monster finally fell to the ground, its body exploded into black smoke. That was normal, for the most part. But it shouldn’t be happening so soon after the monsters death.

It had been going like that since the two of them had stumbled upon this camp.

It should have been easy, go in, whack around some monsters, leave. But things didn’t go as planned.

Something was off.

For one, the monsters bled black. Which was not normal. Bokoblins should bleed purple, and Moblin blood had a bluish tint. But all the monsters in this camp had the same pitch black substance that reeked of dark magic pumping through their veins.

They were also much stronger (and smarter) than usual. Wild was having fun, but Dark was starting to worry about him.

(Not that the Hero took many hits. He was quite skilled at dodging. Dark knew, objectively, that Wild was more than capable. But that didn’t stop him from worrying about the reckless Hero.)

And lastly, they dissolved right after dying. (Which, while suspicious, Dark was actually kinda glad about. He didn’t want to see Wild trying to cook with parts from these monsters. That black blood couldn’t be safe to eat.)

Shifting his focus to the second Bokoblin, he jumped back into battle.

A flash of Blue and the following explosion told him that Wild had started throwing bombs, but he ignored it in favour of not getting speared.

A step, roll, and he brought his weapon down on the monsters head. Luckily, it didn’t get back up. Dealing with them was annoying.

The last Moblin was still standing, swinging its sword at Wild, who was jumping and running around, evading every single slash.

Dark ran towards them, and this time the monster noticed.

It’s attempt to swing at both of them at the same time backfired, when Wild backflipped into a Flurry Rush and Dark leaped onto the blade and went for the head.

After a few seconds of relentlessly hacking away at it, finally, the last monster fell and puffed away.

Wild put the sword he had pulled for the Flurry Rush away and leant on his knees. He was panting, but there was a grin on his face.

"Man, I haven’t had a challenge like this in a while!" He sounded way to happy about that.

Dark scowled. "That‘s not a good thing. With Ganon gone monsters should be getting weaker, not stronger!"

That seemed to help snap Wild out of his high, because he started frowning once he calmed down a bit and caught his breath.

"Yeah, that‘s… not good." A pause. „We should probably tell someone about this."

They really should. If the streets were becoming unsafe again, people had to know.

"Let‘s head back to Hateno. Zelda‘s gonna want to know about this."

Wild nodded and grabbed his slate, but paused.

"Dinner first, right? I wanted to make glazed meat!" And just like that, he completely switched topics.

Dark suppressed a sigh, and didn’t protest. Dinner actually sounded nice right now.

(Also, you don’t try to stop Wild from cooking. It won’t work.)

"Fine. But it‘s back to Hateno right after that." He tried sounding stern, but it came out more pleading than that.

Wild waved him off. "Sure, whatever you say." He was clearly not listening anymore.

Dark did sigh, this time.

Great. Hateno in three days (at the earliest) it was.

Chapter 2: …there‘s Fire.

Chapter Text

It had been a week since the first fight with black blooded monsters. Unfortunately, in that week, more of them had popped up.

Wild was starting to get used to fighting them. Once you learned the differences, they weren’t much harder to kill than normal monsters. They were just a bit sturdier, and more aware of their surroundings.

With how much he craved a good fight, it almost came as a disappointment.

Almost. His concern for the less fighting-skilled travellers all over Hyrule outweighed that.

Still, picking them off whenever someone reported an appearance was fun. Thanks to Zelda‘s hard work, a loose network for a mail service had been set up, focused on the stables for now.

That way, whenever someone saw suspiciously strong monsters, they told the manager of the nearest stable, who sent a letter to Zelda. And Zelda just messaged Wild through her new Purah Pad.

Of course, things were a bit more complicated than that. Nothing could ever be that easy to take care of.

There was no pattern to the appearance of the monsters, they just showed up all over Hyrule randomly. Which meant Wild and Dark had been running (and teleporting) from place to place around the entire country for the last few days.

It was exhausting.

And because of that, they had decided to take a day off in Hateno, to take some time to relax.

Usually, a 'day off' would mean sitting in the yard under the big apple tree and sleeping for Dark, and running around the village playing with children or Koroks and helping out anyone who needed it for Wild.

But then Zelda asked them to go shopping for her, and Wild had insisted on Dark coming with. (Just sitting around all day couldn’t be healthy for his friend!)

So now the two of them were ambling through the village, working their way down the list the princess had written.

"Okay, next up… milk." Dark looked up from the list, at Wild. "Don’t you have, like, five bottles of milk in the slate?"

"But I need those!" Wild whined, hand hovering over the slate protectively.

Dark just rolled his eyes.

Wild also wanted to buy more arrows. You could never have enough of those.

"You have over five hundred arrows on you!"

"But what if I run out?"

"Five. Hundred. You won’t run out any time soon."

"Should‘t you know how many arrows I use every day? It‘s better to be safe than sorry!"

"Yes, I know how many arrows you use! I also know that you always reuse the ones that didn’t break and regularly raid monster camps!"

Their debate was interrupted by Koyin, one of the farmers from Hateno Pasture. She was in a rather bad mood.

"Excuse me, Wild? I don’t mean to bother you, but you were a big help last time and we’re having a similar problem right now. Since you’re here, I thought I could ask."

Wild thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers in realisation.

"Monsters at the beach?"

Koyin nodded. "Yes, unfortunately. They’re not coming for my sheep yet, but I‘d prefer if they never got the chance in the first place. Think you can help?"

(Wild could tell that the girl would love to take care of those monsters herself, she was just trying to hide the aggression because it was the polite thing to do. Luckily she also knew that telling him was much safer than going after them alone.)

Wild sighed and gave her an apologetic smile. "I‘d love too, but we’re shopping right now. Maybe I can help you out later-"

He didn’t get to finish his sentence, because Dark tapped his arm.

"You can go. I‘ll go buy your arrows, just give me some money."

The faint trace of annoyance coming from Dark disappeared entirely when Wild smiled at him gratefully and shoved a silver rupee into his hands.

"This should be enough. Keep the rest. Thanks!"

He took of running towards the hill on the other side of the village, already mentally debating which weapon to use.

~

The monsters at the beach turned out to be blackbloods.

That was most certainly bad. Up until now, those had only appeared out in the wild, never this close to a settlement.

…it didn’t stop Wild from fighting them with a pitchfork, though.

(That was a fun challenge. He would have liked to try using a mop, but didn’t have one on him right now. Maybe he could ask Kilton next time he saw him.)

(…on second thought, let‘s not tell Kilton about the crazy strong and smart monsters running around. That obsessed merchant was going to get himself killed.)

Sometimes it still amazed Wild how well he could fight with literally anything that could be used as a weapon once he got a feel for it.

Fighting was mostly muscle memory and survival instinct for him.

The forms and motions he went through with the weapon were so deeply ingrained in his brain he didn’t even have to think about using them. They must have carried over from Link, because Wild had never learned them and had known and used them since he came out of the Shrine of Resurrection.

Unfortunately, that alone wasn’t enough to survive in most fights. So, he learned by watching. Monsters and animals alike had taught him a lot. And with gathering experience, he slowly developed his own unique style.

Steen, a Sheikah from Kakariko Village, had told him how unusual his fighting style was while teaching him some techniques he hadn’t known. But he had also complimented Wild about it, saying how being unpredictable was a huge advantage in a fight, so he took it as a good thing.

This, combined with the fact that Wild could use literally anything vaguely weapon-shaped to kill and maim, made him quite the fearsome opponent.

The monsters didn’t stand a chance, regardless of magically amplified strength and competence.

(If these monsters were to be revived by a Blood Moon, they‘d be able to remember this. The thought made Wild‘s heart sing.)

He had finished off about half of the monsters (it was a really big group, which, again, not good since they were so close to Hateno), when suddenly, a lot of magic started gathering in one point a few meters away.

It felt a lot like Dark‘s magic, but… off, somehow. Younger, less ancient. Also less potent.

There was something else mixed in too, something reminding him of the ticking of a clock, the dripping of water, and distant music.

At that point Wild had to force his attention back on the fight, because two Lizalfos were coming at him simultaneously.

From the corner of his eye he could see the magic condensing into a small black triangle.

"Okay, this is taking too long."

With those words, he exchanged the pitchfork for a Royal Broadsword and a Knight's Shield.

The remaining monsters stiffened, before attacking all at once.

(They seemed almost desperate, slightly panicked. But Wild couldn’t tell for sure. His empathetic senses didn’t extend to monsters for some reason, not that he minded.)

While bow and arrow felt the most natural to him, Wild was still a master swordsman. And a sword could do a lot more damage than a pitchfork.

At the side, the black triangle was growing. It was also starting to spin and glow purple, so that was probably not good. (He wanted to watch, damnit. Couldn’t these monsters die already?)

A close call with a Moblin forced him to turn his back to the magic triangle. It earned the monster a bomb arrow to the face, and Wild didn’t particularly care he almost got caught in the blast.

He could feel something happening to the triangle. It felt more like a gateway now. And there was something coming through.

Actually, no, there were multiple somethings coming through. And getting closer, Wild recognised it were likely multiple someones.

He still couldn’t see, busy evading four monsters at the same time, but he could tell there was a group of people coming through the magic-triangle-gate-thingy.

Finally, an opportunity presented itself. Wild took it without hesitation, swinging into a Spin Attack.

It took out three of the monsters, and the last one was swiftly finished off by a stab through the heart while it was still trying to find its balance.

Satisfied, Wild sheathed the sword, and turned around.

In that moment, the triangle-gate-portal disappeared, and all he found in the place it had been was eight people.

All eight of these people looked various degrees of sick. Two were puking their guts out and one was straight up passed out.

Some were watching him.

"Uh. You okay there? Do you guys need help?"

A person with pink hair and no pants was the first to answer.

"Does it look like we‘re okay?" Sarcasm was heavy in their voice.

They were immediately rammed in the side with an elbow by another guy, wearing a long blue scarf. That one then addressed Wild.

"Sorry about him. Could you tell us where we are, please? That would help a lot."

Well, these people did just come through some sort of weird dark magic portal. It made somewhat sense they didn’t know where they were.

"Sure. This is Hateno Beach. If your looking for Hateno Village, it‘s that way."

He pointed in the direction of the path leading up the hill.

Confusion coloured the faces of all those that were listening.

That wasn’t good. Everyone knew Hateno. It was the biggest settlement in all of Hyrule after all.

Unless these people were like Dark. Dark hadn’t known Hateno, because he had time travelled a few thousand years to the future.

"Are you guys time travellers?" He couldn’t stop a bit of excitement from leaking into his voice.

Stunned silence met him.

It was broken by a rather young looking boy, wearing a blue shirt with a lobster on it.

"Wow, that was fast."

A man, who held one eye closed and had strange markings on half of his face, sighed and massaged his forehead (the way Dark did sometimes when Wild did something his friend thought was particularly stupid).

"Congratulations, sailor. We can’t deny it after that."

The boy grinned sheepishly. "Sorry." He didn’t sound very sorry.

The pink haired one spoke up again. "We‘re looking for the Hero, I suppose. Have you heard of one?"

"Oh, yeah." Wild pointed at himself. "That‘s me. The name‘s Wild. What do you need?"

The lobster shirt boy squinted at him.

"Wild? Not Link? Are you sure you’re the Hero?"

"Sorry, Link‘s dead. I took over for him though."

That statement made shock radiate from all of the people before him.

(Well, except the smallest one, who was still unconscious.)

One of the guys that had thrown up when he had first appeared, wearing a white cape-like scarf, grabbed his sword by the hilt and just kinda stood there like that for a few seconds while the sword pulsed in a light blue.

(Wait a minute. That sword felt just like the Master Sword. But a lot younger. Was this…)

"Hey‘s not lying, guys. Fi says he‘s not a Link, but has the Hero‘s Spirit."

Somehow, all the people turned even more shocked. An awkward silence settled over the group.

"So, uh…" Wild said, trying and failing to break it without making it even worse.

"Do you want soup? Some of you still look a bit sick. Yeah, I‘m gonna make soup. Vegetable Stew."

He started setting up his portable pot.

Pink Hair leaned over to One Eye. "He can cook! Can we keep him?"

Chapter 3: Interlude - Soup for the Time Travellers

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: Dwindling Flames

Chapter Text

"So, what brings you all here? Any reason you came to this time specifically?"

Wild was handing out bowls filled with vegetable stew to the time travellers.

"We can’t really control where the portals take us." answered the blue scarf guy while taking the bowl.

"Yeah!" the lobster shirt kid agreed. "They just show up, and we go through."

For a moment Wild thought that sounded very dangerous and irresponsible. He immediately dismissed this thought, because he knew he would have done the exact same thing.

Instead, he smiled. "Sounds fun."

"Not really."

The answer had come from the boy that had been lying on the ground unconscious. A guy with a wolf pelt over his shoulders was helping him sit up.

"You‘re awake!" One of the shorter time travellers (who felt a lot like a fairy to Wild‘s senses for some reason) rushed over to them. "How are you feeling?"

The boy was holding his head with one hand, using the other to properly sit up.

"Like someone made scrambled eggs from my brain. Where are we?"

"Somewhere called Hateno Beach. It‘s a new Hyrule." While the Fairy boy explained, his hands began glowing with what was definitely fairy magic.

"And who‘s that?"

Wild waved as the colourfully clothed boy gestured at him.

"It‘s the Hero of this Era." Wolf Pelt said. "He was already here when we arrived."

Wild walked over to them with three soup bowls.

"Hi! I‘m Wild. Do you want soup?"

Wolf Pelt took the bowls and passed them to the other two.

The colourful boy raised an eyebrow at him. "A nickname already? How long was I out?" The question was directed at the Fairy Boy.

"Not that long. Fifteen minutes at most." He said that without looking up from whatever he was trying to do with his magic. Frustration was coming from him.

Wild looked at the shortest boy confused.

"It‘s not a nickname? It‘s just my name."

"Wait, really?" The colourful boy sounded (and felt) surprised. "Wow. You‘re, like, the first of us not named Link."

Wild shrugged. "Yeah, I took over for Link. I explained that while you were still out."

"You didn’t explain anything!" exclaimed Pink Hair. "You said 'Link is dead' and started cooking!"

Wild crossed his arms. "You looked like you needed some soup. Besides, I- wait a minute." He interrupted himself as something occurred to him.

"You‘re all named Link?"

One Eye stepped forward again. "Yes, all of us are named Link. It‘s a bit complicated, but we‘re all reincarnated versions of the Hero. We go by our titles instead."

Wild took a moment to process that.

He had suspected that one of them was a Hero, he was carrying Fi after all. But all of them?

Multiple incarnations of the Hero, travelling through time together, with portals they don’t control or even know the origin of.

Something about that seemed suspicious.

But also- "Why are there only eight of you here?"

Whatever kind of answer One Eye was expecting, that wasn’t it.

"What?"

"Wild nodded while gesturing at the group. "There‘ve been way more than eight Heroes in the past! Why only you?"

Silence. Then:

"There‘s more?!"

Wild couldn’t tell who had yelled, because it had been multiple people at once.

"You really didn’t know?"

That was… actually, no, it wasn’t that weird. Wild only knew because of what Dark had told him, and you could only really find most Heroes in historical records if you really knew where and what you were looking for.

"Which Heroes are you, then? You still haven’t really introduced yourselves."

The question snapped the time travellers out of their shock.

They sat down on the ground, because eating while standing was uncomfortable, and started talking.

One Eye began, and introduced himself as Time.

The Blue Scarf boy was called Warriors.

The Lobster shirt kid was named Wind.

Pink Hair was Legend.

Fairy boy was Hyrule, like the country.

Wolf Pelt was called Twilight.

The boy with too many colours for one tunic was named Four.

And finally, the one carrying the Master Sword introduced himself as Sky.

After that, Time started explaining a bit more.

"We‘ve been travelling for a few weeks now. Every few days, we land in a new Era, meeting a new Hero. We fight groups of extremely strong monsters with black blood that appear all over the timeline for some reason. We‘re not sure who‘s opening the portals, but whoever it is, they‘re up to no good."

Wild nodded along. "Oh, those black blooded monsters show up here too. We‘ve been taking care of them though. Honestly, they’re not that hard to kill once you get used to it."

"Wait, you can take these down alone!?"

"Yes? It‘s what I was doing when you guys showed up, actually!"

A frown made its way onto Wilds face. "But with all this going on it‘s starting to sound like someone is placing these monsters deliberately. This is the closest they‘ve ever been to a settlement. It‘s a bit worrying."

"Well, we‘re here now." Sky smiled at him. "We gotta help out a fellow Hero, right guys?"

A general sentiment of agreement and determination swept through the group, and everyone was smiling and/or nodding.

It was interrupted by Wind, wo jumped up and yelled: "Wait!"

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Can I get a second helping first? Nothing comes close to Grandma‘s cooking, but this is the second best soup I have had in my entire life."

Wild smiled and lifted his ladle. "Sure! Bring over your bowl, I‘ll refill it!"

This started a wave of Links trying to reach him as fast as possible, all holding bowls out to him.

Back in Hateno, Dark was helping Zelda put away the groceries.

"That’s a lot of food." he commented, handing her a cluster of tomatoes.

The princess laughed.

"I know. I‘m trying to learn to cook, and I want to make sure I have enough in reserve if I mess up."

Dark paused, confused.

"What do you mean, you‘re learning how to cook? You can’t cook?"

Zelda looked away, embarrassed.

"I never had to, before. The castle had professional chefs and everything."

"Huh." That made a lot of sense.

"Wait, then what have you been eating?"

"Ah, well…" She was fiddling with her sleeves now. "Whenever you two visit Wild brings a lot of different dishes, and I keep them in the Purah pad. Sometimes I visit Symin and Purah for dinner, too."

She looked up, a determined glint in her eyes.

"That‘s part of why I want to learn. I want to repay the favour, and invite them for dinner!"

Dark felt the corners of his mouth twitch, and allowed himself to smile.

"Maybe you could ask Wild to help you? He‘s a great cook."

(It was an understatement. Wild was more than great at cooking, but like so often, Dark found his vocabulary of positive descriptions lacking.)

The princess sighed. "I know. I probably should, but… I want to try on my own first."

Dark shrugged, accepting the answer and letting the conversation fade.

Suddenly, Zelda piped up again.

"Speaking of, where is Wild? Didn’t you two leave together?"

"We did, but apparently some monsters appeared at the beach. He left to take care of them."

"Oh. Did he leave just now, before you arrived here?"

Dark frowned. "No, actually. It was a while ago. What’s taking him so long?"

"Maybe he got sidetracked on the way back? You know how easily distracted he is."

Dark shook his head, sighing. "Probably. I‘ll go looking for him."

Zelda nodded encouragingly. "Go do that. I‘ll finish up here on my own."

~

Tracking Wild down was easy.

Dark had placed what could be described as a sort of magical tracker into Wild‘s shadow the moment he had been able to.

Because of this, all he had to do was follow that metaphysical connection to find the Hero.

Unsurprisingly, it led him to the beach, where Wild said he would go.

Dark looked around, trying to spot any signs of the Hero’s presence.

He didn’t see any monsters, so that was good.

Now the question was why Wild didn’t come back when he had been finished.

Zelda was right of course, Wild was very easily distracted. Maybe he had seen a mushroom growing somewhere and gone on a mushroom hunting spree for a few hours.

(It had happened before.)

After a few minutes of walking, he could hear voices on the beach. He was still to far away to understand anything, but judging from the distance, Wild was probably there.

(Why were there people on the beach? Wild had just cleared out monsters!)

Dark finally rounded the last corner of the cliffside, spotting Wild with a group of people sitting around a fire with a pot over it.

They must have heard his approach, because all of them looked over to him.

In that moment, when he saw their faces, Dark froze.

He knew those faces.

Everything around him ground to a halt while his thoughts started racing.

His gaze swept from one person to the next, never lingering, yet he recognised all of them. How could he not?

He knew the Hero.

He knew every Hero.

Every person that ever possessed the Hero’s Spirit, he knew them the moment he saw them. But these were Heroes he knew beyond that.

Hero’s of the past. Link‘s. Hero’s that didn’t- shouldn’t exist anymore. Not in this Era.

He recognised each of them, despite never having fought even half of them.

There had been hundreds of Heroes over the years. He had been connected in the same way to each of them.

He recognised all eight of these people, with just a glance.

The Chosen Hero (from a time Dark was barely even there, not yet having been forced into life, but still knowing his counterpart on instinct; the one who started the Reincarnation Cycle that had held for so long).

The Hero of the Four Sword (from a time a child too young to carry the Hero’s burden had been forced to bear it; from one of the most powerful and least malicious copies of Dark that had ever been made).

The Hero of Time (from a fight in a room with a single tree and floors made of water; from time itself being ripped apart into threads).

The Hero of Legend (from an era forcing a boy to take on many more quests than any Hero before or after, trying to fix things where the last one had failed; from falling to the same Hero multiple times, also something that had never happened before or after).

The Hero of Hyrule (from a broken land in a broken time; from a fight in a temple holding the Triforce).

The Hero of Twilight (from a Hyrule plunged in darkness, a curse on the Hero that still lingered; from being spotted exactly once before fleeing to the other end of the country, leaving the boy with only nightmares).

The Hero of Winds (from a flooded world, a boy with only the Hero‘s Spirit and nothing else scraping together the Triforce of Courage and demanding to be made a Hero like he wasn’t one already; from the dawn of a peaceful era).

The Hero of Warriors (from a war across ages, another copy made from a sorceress, time twisting and bending till it melted together into a single timeline again; from the worst headache he had ever faced because memories of three different branches of time got crammed into his head).

He stood frozen, taking in the impossibility of what he was seeing. Eight past Heroes, in one place, so far from their own times they couldn’t have come here by accident, all staring at him.

After what felt like an eternity, despite being only a second, the reality of the situation came crashing back into him.

The sound of swords being drawn cut through the air, bringing any coherent thoughts to a halt.

This left him with what basically amounted to the fight-or-flight instinct.

The answer was obvious.

The world melted away into shadows, and Dark’s mind dissolved into panic.

Chapter 5: Flickering

Chapter Text

Everything had been fine.

Wild and the other Heroes had been hanging out, eating, sitting around his fire.

They had talked, laughed. It was fun.

Wild had been showered with questions, about this era, about Zelda, about why Link was dead (which lead to him explaining the entire Calamity again) and so on.

Things had been fine! So fine, actually, that he completely forgot the time.

When he felt Dark approaching, it occurred to him that he and Zelda had probably been waiting for him to come back.

Not soon after, the time travellers noticed someone was coming too. They turned their heads in the direction Dark was coming from, trying to spot whoever was walking towards them.

Wild had not been prepared for the reaction the Heroes and Dark had to seeing each other.

He should have been, really. Dark had told him about his experiences with Heroes of the past.

But Wild hadn’t quite connected this bunch of friendly (if heavily armed) people with the people Dark had met. Fought. (Been killed by.)

He should have expected the reaction.

But he still felt like he got whiplash from how quickly the entire mood of everyone changed.

Loose relaxation and a general air of curiosity dissipated in a moment, being replaced with wariness, alarm, and even traces of anger.

And Dark? For a second, Wild couldn’t pick up anything from his friend. He had frozen, looking at the Heroes without moving at all. (He was too far away to tell for sure, but Wild got the impression that Dark wasn’t even breathing.)

Then the sound of swords being drawn disturbed the silence, and Dark moved.

Or, well, more accurate would be to say he melted. Wild had seen him do this multiple times. But accompanied with the immense panic and fear he could tell was coming from Dark, it looked a lot more like he was frantically moving away than anything else.

The time travellers were still tense, standing there with raised swords and shields, like they were expecting an attack at any moment.

Wild didn’t like that.

The thought of a friend getting hurt upset him, and anger came rising sharply. (He wasn’t loosing anyone. Not again.(Four dead friends were four too many.))

It was immediately overshadowed with worry. The urge to leave immediately to check up on Dark was strong.

However, this train of thought was derailed when Time spoke, addressing him, breaking the silence that had settled over the group.

"Wild. Have you fought a dark Link before?"

The anger boiled hotter with a stab. These people had fought Dark before. Had hurt him.

"No." The answer came out clipped, but it betrayed none of his anger.

"Then this might be whoever’s responsible for the portals and monsters!"

Wild hated how Legend tightened the grip on his sword while he said that.

"You think so?" asked Hyrule.

"No." Wild repeated before anyone could answer. "He’s not the one you’re looking for."

This earned him weird looks from almost everyone.

"But-"

"No."

Ah. Now it was getting noticeably that Wild was clearly not in a good mood.

"How can you be so sure?" Warriors sounded mostly confused, but there was an underlying accusatory tone. He was suspicious.

"Because I know him."

"Didn’t you just say you never fought a dark Link?" Wind was also confused, but genuinely curious.

"We didn’t fight."

Wait, no, that wasn’t right.

"Well, we did fight, but not each other. We met, talked, and went to beat up Ganon."

Now everyone was even more confused, and also varying degrees of shocked.

"So please excuseme while I go check on my friend."

With those words he snatched the slate from his waist and teleported to Hateno Village before anyone could say anything.

(He was like 95% sure that‘s where Dark was. It was one of the few places he fully accepted as safe, and Zelda was home.)

Zelda had finished putting away the groceries and was now brewing tea.

Back in the castle tea time had been held every afternoon, and while Zelda didn’t keep up with the tradition anymore, she still enjoyed it occasionally.

Just when she finished pouring her cup and sitting down, the shadows in the corner of the room shifted. A second later Dark stumbled through.

Now, Zelda could already tell that something was wrong from that alone, because Wild wasn’t with him.

But she quickly became more worried when Dark didn’t do anything beyond that.

He just stood there, unmoving, staring at the wall.

He wasn’t even breathing. Oh dear.

"Dark?"

His gaze snapped over, but it was more like he was looking through her. Now she could see his eyes though, and those told her all she needed to know in the moment.

She put down her cup and stood up, carefully walking towards him, making sure to move slowly.

"Dark, can you try breathing with me?"

She knew that Dark technically didn’t need to breathe (which was probably the reason he wasn’t right now), but she didn’t know any other way to help calm someone down.

(Literally all of her knowledge of first aid came from Impa and Urbosa, and neither had ever managed to give her a full rundown on the basics. She was lucky she knew anything at all about this.)

Luckily, it seemed to be working.

After a few minutes, Dark had calmed down a bit and seemed much less distant.

"Are you feeling a bit better?"

She received a nod in return, which was very relieving.

"That‘s good." Zelda thought for a moment. "I made tea. Would you like some?"

"…yes. Tea sounds nice."

Wordlessly, Zelda poured another cup of tea. She set it down in front of Dark, who was sitting at the table now.

Grabbing her own cup, she asked: "So? What happened?"

Dark shrank into his seat, looking away.

"It‘s… complicated. I found Wild at the beach, but… a bunch of Heroes from the past were with him. They saw me, and I- I panicked."

He lifted the cup to his mouth, softly blowing at the steaming tea before drinking.

"Can we talk about something else, please? I don’t- I don’t want to think about it right now."

Zelda nodded. If only seeing these people was enough to give Dark a panic attack, she understood his desire to change the topic.

(Though, Heroes from the past? What was going on? Time travel or something? She‘d have to ask Wild once he came back.)

"Something else to talk about… Hmm."

What else could she talk about? She had already told Dark about wanting to learn cooking…

"I‘ve been think about cutting my hair."

"Really?" Dark looked back to her, studying her long blonde hair. "Do you not like it this way?"

Zelda sighed, tucking a loose strand behind her ear.

"I do, but it keeps getting in my way during work. Also, my father never allowed short hair. Said it 'wasn’t becoming of a princess'."

Dark nodded, an amused smile on his face.

"Ah. Petty revenge, huh?"

Zelda chuckled.

"Well, I‘m not a princess anymore, and it’s not like my father can tell me off."

"True. Do you already have something in mind?"

"I was thinking something around chin length-"

The rest of the sentence got cut off when a stabbing headache exploded behind Zelda‘s eyes.

"-lda? H-llo? Ca- -u hear me? Zelda?"

"Goddesses, Hylia! Be a little more gentle when contacting me, will you?!"

"Terribly sorry about that, but it’s rather urgent. I want to warn you, there’s probably some time travelling going on somewhere around where you are."

Zelda huffed, putting a hand on her forehead.

"Yes, I‘m aware. We’re working on it."

"Oh, you are? That‘s good then. Just… be careful, alright? I suspect there might be some powerful dark magic afoot."

"I will. Goodbye, Hylia."

"Goodbye, Zelda."

The headache faded away with the Goddess’s voice, and Zelda breathed a relieved sigh.

Focusing back on what was going on around her, she noticed Dark looking at her with a worried expression.

"Are you okay?"

"I am now." Zelda said. "Hylia called. She wanted to warn me about the time travelling stuff going on. She also said something about powerful dark magic?"

"That doesn’t sound good." Dark was frowning now. "I‘ll keep and eye out. She probably means the black blooded monsters, but… you can never be too careful."

"…I think you can, actually? It‘s called being paranoid."

"Really? Okay then, you can never be to paranoid."

"No, that‘s not- Nevermind."

At the beach, eight slightly confused Links were standing in stunned silence.

"What just happened?" Wind was the first to break it with his question.

"I think Wild was really angry." explained Sky, worried.

"Did he say he befriended his dark Link?" Warriors sounded slightly hysterical.

"What‘s so wrong with that?" snapped Four, suddenly defensive.

"Nothings wrong with that." Twilight was quick to assure him. "I don’t think-"

"I fought multiple dark Links," interrupted Legend, "and none of them were what I would call friend material."

"The one I fought didn’t really do anything but attack. Maybe this one‘s different?" Hyrule said quietly.

Time watched all this happening, silently lamenting the fact that he had been put in charge of this group. No, really, why had he agreed to this?

"Would you settle down, please!" Time‘s voice thundered over the beach, effectively shutting the bickering Heroes up.

"I know, you’re all confused, trust me, I am too. But standing around and arguing won’t help us figure anything out."

He exhaled sharply, doing his best to ignore the dull headache he could feel building up.

"So. Ideas. What do we do now?"

For a few seconds everyone thought about it, not saying anything. Then Wind hesitantly raised his hand.

"You don’t have to raise your hand, Wind, we‘re not in school. What is it?"

"Uh, I think we should just ask what‘s going on. Didn’t Wild say a village is that way?" He pointed in the direction Wild had back then.

Time blinked. "That‘s… a good idea, actually. Even if we don’t find anything, we can check if there’s an Inn where we can stay for the night. Any objections?"

No one spoke up.

"Great. Then that‘s what we‘re doing-"

Everyone stood up and started walking away.

"-after we clean this up. We’re not leaving the dirty dishes here."

Time ignored the groans coming from everyone and started putting out the fire.

Really, the least they could do was clean up after themselves. He wouldn’t stand for littering with this group.

Chapter 6: There‘s Ashes in the Sky

Chapter Text

Wild made his way to the house the moment the shrine released him. With blue spots still dancing in his vision he ran down the hill towards the bridge.

After letting out some of the anger, worry was quickly overtaking it again.

He knew Dark hadn’t gotten physically hurt, of course. But he feared for the mental state of his friend. The wisps of emotion coming from Dark before he disappeared into the shadows had felt an awful lot like the beginning of a full-blown panic attack.

He could tell Zelda and Dark were both in the house, their contrasting presences of light and dark magic standing out against the background of forest and town thanks to the familiarity he held to them.

At least they were both calm. That was the only thing keeping him from kicking the door down. He opened it like the civilised person he was(n‘t) instead.

(There was also the thought of what Zelda would do to him if he broke the door. And the thought of how much money Bolson would probably demand for fixing it. And also- okay, so there were a few reasons he didn’t kick the door down, but that first one was still the most important!)

Anyways, his friends were both sitting at the table. They seemed to be drinking tea, Wild recognised the smell of Zelda‘s favourite herbal blend. They had been holding a conversation, but the talking stopped when Wild came in.

Zelda looked over and smiled when she recognised him, gesturing at the third chair at the table.

"Wild! Come sit with us, I made tea."

The Hero shot a questioning glance at Dark, who shrugged and took a sip of tea. He looked and felt fine…

Hesitantly, Wild sat down, accepting the cup Zelda slid over to him with a muttered "Thanks, Zel". Then there was a somewhat awkward silence between them until Wild finally managed to speak up.

"So… How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

Wild cringed at how he had phrased that. Of course his friend wasn’t okay!

Dark tilted his head, like he had to think about the question. The answer was (unfortunately) still close to what Wild expected.

"I… I don’t think so, no. I‘m… still- I‘m not okay, but I will be. Zelda helped." He looked to Zelda gratefully at that.

She simply waved him off. "It was nothing. I‘m just glad I could help."

She really didn’t seem to think of it as a big deal, not quite realising just how much it meant to Dark.

Despite that, Wild breathed a silent sigh of relief. At least Dark was feeling a bit better. That was all he had hoped for while coming here.

But of course that wasn’t the end of it. The anger he had managed to drown in concern fought it’s way back to the surface. With a frown building on his face Wild gripped his cup of tea tighter.

"They shouldn’t have hurt you."

Dark looked at him in mild confusion.

"They didn’t? I got away fine."

"Not just today." Wild ground out. "I mean in general."

"Oh." The confusion was replaced by something softer. Something sadder. "I don’t blame them for it."

"What?!" Wild‘s head snapped up and he looked at Dark, disbelieving.

"I don’t blame them. I don’t blame any Hero for it." Dark explained, patiently. "Not for how they reacted today, and not for how they reacted before."

The way Dark said it so calmly, without any disdain, somehow served to make Wild even angrier.

"But they hurt you!"

"They did."

"They killed you!"

"They did."

"You’re afraid of them!"

Wild‘s voice broke at that one, something desperate creeping into it.

But Dark simply nodded again.

"I am."

"Then why?"

The question was spoken barely above a whisper, but it rang clearly through the silence of the small kitchen.

The answer was just as quiet, carrying that soft note of sadness Dark was feeling with it.

"Because it’s not their fault."

Wild stared, confusion and anger and a bunch of feelings he didn’t know the names of swimming circles in his mind.

"I don’t understand."

"I wouldn’t expect you to." Dark swirled his tea around, watching the ripples in the liquid. "You soul is so young compared to theirs. You didn’t know me before."

Wild shrank into himself, staring at the table. "I don’t understand."

Dark sighed, set his cup down and leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head.

"Think of it this way: If Ganon suddenly showed up again, with no warning, no explanation, what would you do?"

Wild frowned. "I would kill him again."

Dark nodded. "That‘s right. Would you stop to consider that he might not be the Ganon you know? That he might have changed, or was never bad in the first place?"

Still frowning, Wild shook his head. "No."

"Right. And if that had happened hundreds or thousands of times already, would you ever think to question it?"

"No, I don’t think so."

"Exactly." Dark leaned back on the table, looking Wild right in the eyes. "For them it’s like that, but with me in Ganon‘s place."

"But that wasn’t you!" Wild tried to protest. "You weren’t in control at the time!"

Dark turned away, looking tired all of a sudden. (It reminded Wild of how his friend had looked back when he first met him. He didn’t like it.)

"But they don’t know that, do they?"

And just like that, it finally clicked in Wild‘s head.

"…oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Dark smiled, but there was nothing behind it. An empty smile.

(It looked wrong on him. It had taken so long for Wild to get Dark to smile. He didn’t want to see a smile this hollow on his face ever again.)

Prima was quite content with her job. Running the Great Ton Pu Inn with Leop was very nice. She got to meet lots of people, and usually the days were quiet.

Hateno didn’t get that many travellers, but there were still enough people coming and going to make sure things never got too boring.

Sure, sitting behind a counter all day wasn’t the most exciting way to live life, but it was something she enjoyed and that was enough to make Prima content with it.

All this, however, didn’t change the fact that she was slightly overwhelmed when eight people entered the Inn at once.

Most Hylians travelled in pairs or groups of three.

(Prima assumed that at least some of the other races of Hyrule did too, but she had never met any, so she couldn’t say for sure. Then again, from what she‘d heard a Goron wouldn’t need a companion to make travel safer…)

The point was, anything over three people was rare. Very rare.

But eight!?

A stable would have trouble accommodating for this many people when taking all other occupants into account!

Nonetheless, Prima put a smile on her face, greeting these guests the same she always did.

"Good evening. Welcome to the Ton Pu Inn. How can I help you?"

The tallest of the group, a one eyed man wearing armour, stepped forward.

"Good evening. We need rooms for the night. We’re not…"

He paused, like he was searching for the right words.

"We’re not sure how long we’ll be staying. Is that a problem?"

"Oh, no, not at all." Prima assured him. "There is a different problem though. See, this Inn only has six beds."

"Oh." The man blinked. "That’s alright. We can share. Right boys?"

That last part was directed at the other seven guys, paired with a pointed look.

They were clearly not happy with that and there was some grumbling, but no one outright objected.

"Wonderful. We charge per bed, so that‘s 120 rupees for the first night."

Another guy stepped forward. This one wore a wolf pelt over his shoulders. He nodded at the others, who began making their way over to the rooms, probably to put away their bags and travel gear.

He pulled a wallet from his bag and begann taking out red rupees. Once he had six of them, he put them down on the counter.

"Here you go, Miss."

He seemed to remember something while putting away his wallet, because he looked up from the bag rather suddenly.

"By the way, we heard Zelda lives here. D'you know where we can find her?"

That wasn’t a question she had expected.

People who wanted to see the former princess rarely came all the way to Hateno. Since Wild was always on the move, the easiest way to reach Zelda was through him.

Then again, maybe these people had matters or concerns that needed to be discussed in person. It wasn’t too far-fetched of an idea.

"You heard right, then. Zelda lives in a house a little outside the village, even if it’s technically not hers. Wild and Dark visit a lot, so it doesn’t really matter. I‘m sure if you ask someone outside they’ll be happy to give you directions."

The man nodded in understanding, looking intrigued.

"I think we‘ve met Wild, but who‘s the other one?"

This prompted a laugh from Prima.

"I‘m not surprised you ran into Wild, the boy is all over the place most of the time."

She took a few seconds to calm down again and continued speaking.

"Dark just kinda showed up one day. He‘s a bit scary looking, so everyone was afraid of him at first. But once you get over that he‘s pretty nice, if very shy and antisocial. He doesn’t talk much to anyone except Wild and Zelda, but they seem to get along great."

The man turned thoughtful at that.

"And… how long has he been living here?"

The question was asked hesitantly, with an undertone of something Prima couldn’t quite place her finger on. Suspicion, maybe? Apprehension?

She waved those thoughts away (mentally, of course) and focused on answering the question instead.

"No, they don’t live here. Didn’t I just say that? The house belongs to Wild, but he’s always travelling around, all over Hyrule."

Prima tapped her chin, thinking.

"Though, if you’re asking when they first met, I honestly don’t know. Wild showed up with Dark the first time after the last Divine Beast was calmed, so… around eight, maybe nine months ago? Like I said, he just sorta appeared out of nowhere."

Some of the suspicion and worry on the man‘s face disappeared at that, but he still looked a bit troubled by something.

Prima wondered what he was thinking about for a moment, but quickly decided that it was none of her business.

Eventually the man nodded, smiling at her.

"I see. Thank you for your time, Miss."

She smiled back.

(Years of customer service had trained that reaction into her, but this time the smile was actually genuine. This guy was very polite.)

"It was no problem at all, Mister. Have a good evening."

It was getting late, but a glace at the clock told her that she had two more hours to her shift.

With a sigh, Prima sat back down behind the counter and pulled out her knitting needles. She wouldn’t be getting any more customers today, the Inn was booked out fully with eight guests.

Perhaps she should have questioned that a bit more, but being honest? She really didn’t care. The group hadn’t made a fuss over the number of beds, had been fully willing to pay upfront, and seemed to have some pleasant conversation partners in it on top of that.

They were good in her book.

Chapter 7: Can you see the light?

Chapter Text

Wild was wandering through the village. He needed some fresh air after the conversation he just had.

The anger had finally drained out of him. Now he was just… tired. Exhausted.

(Zelda had assured him that it was normal and he trusted her on this, but that didn’t make the feeling any more pleasant.)

He wasn’t sure what to do now. This was all so confusing…

"Hey, Wild! Did you get rid of the monsters I told you about?"

A voice ripped him from his thoughts. He looked up and recognised it as belonging to Koyin.

He smiled at her.

"I did, thanks for the tip. Had a lot of fun."

"Of course you did." The farmer shook her head.

"Still, thank you. I don’t know what we‘d be doing without you."

"It was nothing."

Wild started into the sky for a moment.

"It’s getting late. Why are you still out?"

Koyin waved him off, already walking away.

"Don’t worry about it, I was just running some errands. I‘m on my way home right now."

"That‘s good." Wild nodded, distracted. He was thinking. Maybe he could ask…?

"Hey, Koyin?"

The woman turned back around.

"Yes? Is something the matter?"

Wild started at the ground. How could he phrase this?

"If- if I got angry at someone, and was mean to them, but then found out they hadn’t technically done anything wrong, what should I do?"

He didn’t look up, but he could feel Koyin turning thoughtful.

Eventually, she answered: "If something like that happened, I think you should apologise and explain why you got angry."

Wild thanked her and continued his walk, turning Koyin‘s suggestion around in his head.

Apologising and explaining. That didn’t sound too bad. It sounded like a pretty good idea, actually.

…should he explain the situation to the other Heroes?

Sure, it would help them understand, but…

Wasn’t it something personal to Dark? He hadn’t told Wild until he had been forced to, after all. Also, he had clearly hated talking about it.

…wait. Wild was being stupid.

Of course Dark hated talking about it. Not because it was personal, no! Who would like to talk (or even think) about being hurt and dying?!

He should definitelyexplain this to the Heroes, if only so Dark wouldn’t have to!

Mind made up, Wild straightened and began making his way to- to… uh.

Where were the time travellers? Had they said something about where they wanted to go?

Wild racked his brain, trying to remember the conversations he had held with the group.

They were probably in Hateno, right? He had only told them about Hateno.

And it was getting late. The sun was close to dipping below the horizon, people would start going to bed soon.

So… the Inn. That‘s where people who didn’t have houses in the village slept, right?

(He wouldn’t know, because Wild, when he deigned to actually sleep for once, preferred sleeping outside. He would take the branches of a tree or a soft patch of moss over the beds provided by Inns and stables any time.)

Okay, he had a plan now. Go to the Inn, apologise for getting angry, explain why he got angry in the first place, then hope they would accept his apology.

It was simple plan. Nothing complicated at all. He could remember this, right?

…Wild pulled up the slate and filed a quest in his adventure log. Just to be save of course.

~

Prima confirmed his assumption of where the other Heroes were, which was good, because Wild honestly had no idea where they could have been otherwise.

He went over his plan one last time before he knocked at the door, waiting for someone to answer.

The Links were surprised to see Wild, that was the first thing he felt. What surprised him was that they didn’t seem to be upset with him.

That didn’t change anything, though.

"I‘m sorry for how I acted. I shouldn’t have taken my anger out on you."

Again, none of them were upset.

"It’s understandable. You were defending a friend." It was Time who said that, but everyone seemed to agree.

"I-" Wild didn’t know what to say. "Thank you. For understanding. I‘ll try to explain."

And he did. He told them about the parts of the story he hadn’t mentioned at the beach. He told them how he met Dark, how they became friends, how they fought Ganon together, what happened after.

He told them what Dark had told him back in Kakariko village, about the mind control, the deaths fights.

At the end of it, Wild‘s throat was so dry he had to drink an entire bottle of water.

After that he waited for a reaction, because somewhere along the line the entire Chain had frozen, projecting such a rainbow of emotions that Wild honest to Hylia couldn’t get a read on them.

After what felt like an eternity (but was, realistically, no longer than five minutes) someone finally broke the silence.

"Wait." Legend face scrunched up as he thought over what Wild said. "You’re telling me every single dark Link we fought was the same guy?"

"What? No. Just most of them. Some were copies? I‘m not sure, he didn’t talk much about that part."

(Dark hadn’t really told him about that at all, just mentioned it in passing. It being the only part of the conversation Wild remembered wasn’t actually a good thing, considering it had been about politics.)

That didn’t change the feelings of the other Heroes much. Most of them still felt guilty.

And that was interesting. Wild told them Dark was being controlled, told them he didn’t blame them for attacking, but they still felt guilty about it.

He supposed that was what made them Heroes.

Hyrule turned to Wild, hesitant.

"Should we apologise? I feel like I should apologise, but I also think he doesn’t really want to see any of us…"

Wild winced. "Probably not," he agreed. "But I could pass it on."

After that, the conversation turned to lighter (in Wild‘s opinion) topics.

"So. How can we help out with the black blooded monsters?" Twilight asked that question with utmost seriousness.

Wild didn’t get why these people were so worried about the black blooded monsters. Sure, they were a bit harder to kill, but he and Dark had managed just fine…

(It did not occur to him that he was unusually skilled at fighting. Wild‘s unpredictable fighting style made him a menace to fight, not even black blood could help the monsters deal with that.)

Still, if they offered their help with getting rid of the rest of the monsters he wouldn’t say no.

Wild began explaining the situation.

"We‘ve been taking care of them so far. The problem is that they keep appearing all over Hyrule."

And Hyrule was big.

He didn’t mind travelling, but even Wild could get sick of the constant jumps and changes in environment he had to make over the last week.

"With more people around we might get things done faster. But if we want to stop the monsters completely we‘ll have to find the source. They keep popping up again and again."

Having more people help with that search would be good. Zelda was doing her best, but she was only one person and she hadn’t found anything so far.

"If you want to help with you should talk to Zelda. She‘s the one handling the logistics, I‘m just the one who beats the monsters up."

"We wanted to meet the princess anyways." Sky smiled at Wild, friendly. "She lives here, right? Maybe you could introduce us?"

Wild lit up at the suggestion. "Sure I can!"

Zelda did love meeting new people, and she would never forgive Wild if he didn’t take the opportunity to have her meet multiple historical figures from the past.

"It’s not that late, we can go meet her right now!"

With that he ran out the door.

When no one followed he came back, throwing a confused glance into the room.

"What are waiting for? Come on!"

The Link‘s scrambled after him in a whirl of amusem*nt and confusion.

~

'Not that late' was subjective. It was eight in the evening and the sun had almost completely disappeared by now.

Wild still lead the eight other Heroes through Hateno to his house. Zelda never went to bed before midnight anyways.

But when they crossed over the bridge and reached the house they were treated to a view that was most decidedly not normal.

Behind the pond, two figures were fighting.

One wielded a black sword, the other a blue glowing Bladesaw.

Both were also making rather heavy use of dark magic. Jinxes and Curses were flung around the battlefield, both opponents regularly blipped out of existence only to reappear from the ground, and constructs made of shadows seemed to randomly appear at times, be it swords, arrows, spikes stabbing up from the ground or shadowy tendrils dragging them down.

Twilight squinted, trying to make out the dark figures, something that probably wasn’t easy with the sparse light of the evening.

"What‘s going on over there?"

Wild looked over as well, analysing the situation.

"Looks like Dark‘s fighting someone. …is that another dark Link?"

The others tensed up when he said that, but he ignored it in favour of looking closer.

"Huh. That one kinda looks like Time."

Legend leaned forward as well. "You think so? Doesn’t that guy look a bit younger than our Old Man?"

"No, no, I can see the resemblance. I think the eye is throwing you off. He‘s using both of them." Wind had his telescope out and was following the ongoing battle through it.

"It‘s kinda weird watching two of them fight," mused Four. "Can anyone tell who‘s winning?"

Warriors watched them closely for a moment. "The one with the weird blue weapon. The other one‘s fighting too defensive to be winning."

"They‘ve been at it for almost thirty minutes now." Zelda was watching the battle entirely unconcerned.

Half the people present jumped, and the other half only didn’t because of well-honed reflexes.

(Except Wild, who had felt her presence the moment she had come close enough. He didn’t jump either.)

"When did you get here?" Hyrule, who was standing closest to Zelda, asked the question they had all been thinking.

Zelda raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Two minutes ago. I‘m assuming you’re the Heroes Wild met at the beach?"

Time took over for all of them.

"We are. It‘s a pleasure to meet you, princess."

Zelda snorted. "Don’t call me that, please. I haven’t been a princess in one hundred years."

"Wait, they‘ve been fighting for half an hour now?" Sky sounded unbelieving.

"No, they‘ve been for arguing for half an hour, since they met. The fight started five minutes ago."

"Should we do something?" Wild asked despite being pretty sure what the answer was going to be

"No, let them fight. Dark‘s winning, we can step in when that changes." Yup, called it.

He turned his attention back to the fight.

Watching like this was fun.

Three taps on his slate later he was passing around popcorn.