Chapter Text
Swords are unsheathed, glinting against silver mist. The shadow’s red, piercing eyes are barely focussed on the Vet when Warriors is stepping ahead, running towards them. The traveller steps in front of Legend, shield in hand, blocking his already limited view.
All he sees is a sword being raised to the sky.
“WAIT!” He screams through the silent clearing.
The vet stands, accidentally bumping Hyrule in the process. The captain has his blade just raised above the misplaced face of Four, seemingly even paler than before as they breath heavily.
“They’re safe, they’re fine-!”
Warriors frowns. They all stand there, frozen, for a few a couple moments.
Twilight is the first to put away his sword and shield, stepping forward.
The rancher slowly pushes away the cold steel blade in the hesitant hands of the captain. Red eyes follow the sword as it moves away from them.
The shadow speaks up.
“I mean, you could’ve tried that, I guess? Wouldn’t really have worked out.”
For Hylia’s sake.
The entire chain looks as puzzled as ever, and they’re looking to Legend for an answer. Warriors already starts his own line of questioning, while the shadow pushes himself from the ground.
“Who are you? Why do you look-”
The gray smith pushes past both him and the rancher, much to the dismay of all the cautiousness all the heroes were displaying. They step up to Legend.
“ You.” A finger pointed at the vet’s chest. “Link, where is he?”
“I don’t- He got taken, they went through the mirror-”
“What!? ” Choruses from all around him, safe for Wars.
“He what!?” The shadow yells over all of them, a growl in their voice. “No, no, you’re telling me I spent years there only for-
uagh!”
The previous shade kicks at the ground.
“What are we waiting for, then!? Wind is on his feet in a hurry, trying to get the rest of the chain along to the cursed mirror. “We need to get them back!”
“I tried, I tried, I promise.” Legend repeats, still trying to convince himself of it.
The shadow is the only one not listening to the vet, getting back up and running over to the very mirror they emerged from.
It’s a weird sight, seeing the shade merging and disappearing within it, as if they hadn’t been here at all. It's a short, tense minute before they come back alone. Legend finds himself almost praying Four is thrown out, to at least be here. But Hylia rarely answers his pleas.
“The smith is capable.” Warriors reassures, the same words he told Legend before. The shade doesn’t quite agree.
“He’s a dumbass, actually-”
“We’ve been split up before, we’ll manage.”
“Not when the dark took him right through!” Twilight protests. “Me and the vet were together, atleast, And I wouldn’t have had a clue where to go if it wasn’t for him.”
“Not to mention, if the Dark took him through?” Hyrule questions. “One hit and that could be it-”
“We’ll have to trust him.” Time settles. “I’m sorry to be blunt, but I don’t see any other option, unless.” The old man eyes both the shadow and Legend. It's a quite uncomfortable gaze to be under.
The vet could understand why, but nevertheless, it hurt.
“What?” The shadow speaks up, under the eyes and swords of the rest of the chain. “Like I wanted that to happen? After risking everything to get a message to those two idiots?” Signalling to him and Twilight. Legend can barely see all the movement around him happening, the little he can see with his remaining eye being just as confusing.
“Hey-” The rancher cuts through.
“Because I tried warning you! And I owed you nothing!” They defend themselves, rather aggressively.
“And you were leading us straight into a dungeon saying the others were there, and you lied about that, right?” Legend counters, voice raising.
“Well they are now, aren’t they! I was just trying to prevent it in the first place!
“They were, you, and us, maybe!” Legend yells back, confusion arising amongst the chain. “How would you know, huh?” His cheek hurts, muscles around his wounded eye tense and strained.
“Vet, Calm down-” Twilight filters through, his voice too quiet compared to the two of them.
“Because this was a trap, obviously!” The shade screams back. “Really, what is there to gain from this forest? Nothing! It’s a shit personal stab at all of them and I thought Vio would at least notice that!” They don’t fear getting close and personal, yelling in Legend’s face. “If all was well, I was never supposed to be here at all!”
The vet stares down at them in an uncomfortable silence. Because they know. The eye contact they held told him they knew everything there was to know. Four was gone, a pink-haired boy starts his adventure, and a cycle starts all again.
“...He’s in the palace.”
“He’s going to be, at some point!”
Four is going to die.
That was much closer than Legend was already fearing for.
“Legend, Twilight.” An angry tone from Time’s direction. The group was one mess of a mix of confusion, panic, and frustration.
He would’ve preferred this anytime, anyplace else. He was supposed to talk with Four in the first place, dammit, he wasn’t sure he was ever going to see this shadow, this dark-? Again.
“And you, shade-” The old man redirects.
“Shadow.” They stop him, irritated. “My name is Shadow.”
Time’s eye narrows. “I need to know if you aren’t going to be an immediate danger to anyone here.” He puts directly.
“Not unless you don’t start putting those swords away.”
Whether they had been gripping the handles unconsciously or in still caution, the swords were still glinting in the bare light that filtered into the clearing. One by one, they are put away, the rancher stepping forward.
“We came ‘cross… Shadow here while we were waiting in the palace of the Dark world we ended up in. As quite literally that, a shadow.”
“Thanks for the visit, by the way.” They mention sarcastically. “Been waiting an awful long time.”
“It was the closest thing to Hyrule castle if we were to meet up again.” Legend informs, taking caution of any lectures he might receive for going to such a dangerous place.
Not that the others knew of that, however. It seemed only Four had come across the Dark world along with him.
“So you know where the smith is?” Warriors pushes.
“I only hope they’re not there yet. In the palace, in the Dark world.” Legend says ahead of Shadow, because whatever they were about to say most likely wouldn’t be comforting. ”We need to get there, quick.” He insists. He isn’t taking chances.
“So we have to wait for a portal to take us back where you went?” Sky asks.
‘If it will take us back at all.’ Wild concludes. ‘I don’t recall any of us having been there before.’
“Can’t you just get in from the Light world in the first place?” Shadow’s voice calls after them.
Legend, caught up in his own worries, knowing damn well he is on a time limit, just catches the shade floating sitting in the air. He can tell that everyone wants to say something about it, but would prefer not to.
“You know, I had to get here too. The monsters get here.”
“Warps to the dark world disappeared over time after the palace.” Legend answers.
“Not that that would work anymore now.” The shade comments.
“You’ve been before?” Wind cuts in.
“Vet.” Time cuts to the chase instead. “I’ve seen you being uncomfortable around the smith the moment you got back from there. I don’t know what happened, but for their sake.” He stands with the help of the rancher, his right injured side slacked. “We need to know everything about this.”
Oh, how bad Legend wants to run away right now. This is the worst way for this to have to come forward. Shadow looks at him expectantly, but even more angry with the situation, and he knows.
“It’s-” The air is taken out of his lungs before he is capable of speaking further. By Hylia, he feels small. “I’ve been to the same dungeon at the end of my first adventure.” Legend starts with instead.
He can see the rancher silently encouraging him from the corner of his eye. He might’ve known that, but the vet is sure he will hate him soon enough. Time’s and Warriors eyes drill through him with questions.
Suddenly he is 9 again, half his size and scared of knights.
“It was one large boss rush. I think I went in and out of that palace a dozen times for supplies. I had to get these swords, to go to the final room. The dungeon was only meant for true heroes, or something.” He tries explaining. He vaguely recalls a fox-like creature running off with his rupees.
They’re all still injured and calming down from the fight they had just gotten out from. Din’s hell, Time looked barely alive. The chain looks at him expectantly to continue.
“There was another fight in the end. And I don’t know how I couldn’t recognise them before, but I wasn’t supposed to make it out in the first place.”
“Legend…?” ‘Rule is filled with worry.
“But I fought Four there, each of them split.” He confesses.
Everyone, save for Time and Shadow, starts talking over one another.
“Excuse me, your first adventure-”
“-Why would they..?’
“How was the smith there?”
“So you’ve met before? Why didn’t-”
“You’re kidding?”
“And you got out-!?”
“You survived.” Time, a calm voice carrying the most terrifying thing he could’ve said.
Legend just nods as his lips shut tight, the others coming to the same conclusion.
“You won.”
“That’s good, right?” Wind, not unaware, but a deflecting tone cuts through. “You survived, you got away, we can get Four, right?”
The silence across the clearing is filled with only the hesitance stuck in the Vet’s throat. A low breeze brushes across the dead grass, the ruined life. There’s not a spot of green that isn’t untainted.
“We’re on a time limit.” Warriors voice is stern, automatic. The old man’s face twitches as he says it.
“It’s already happened, Cap’n.” Twilight confronts, but there’s every hint in his voice that he doesn’t want to believe himself.
“If we’re lucky, we might still-!”
The noise starts falling to the back of his mind. Legend didn’t want to face the shadow. He screwed it up. He couldn’t manage to confront the smith and now, they would be paying for that mistake. They might have known, figured something out. He expects Shadow to be furious.
Their expression is more akin to confusion, eyebrows furrowed until they raise in quick succession.
“Oh! Wait, you think that-?”
The others roar over one another, and by the others Legend would mostly mean Warriors and Twilight. Both in their own acts of denial and anger, while Time stands behind them, hands twitching over his item pouch.
The only thing stopping him from doing anything stupid is the sailor staring him down.
“No, wait, it doesn’t have to be that yet, right? They could’ve been taken somewhere else?” Hyrule tries to suggest. No one is quite listening.
“It’s still shit, but It’s not that-” Shadow is cut off. If no one heard their healer, he sure wasn’t going to be.
“You don’t just get to give up like that!” Wind starts pitting in with the yelling. “You don’t just get to admit that they are-”
“They aren’t dead!” Shadow resorts to screaming instead. “I’m sorry, can you use your common sense here!?” The chain goes quiet, collectively ignoring the underlying insult. “I’m their shadow! I wouldn’t be here if they were six feet under now, would I!?”
It's only then that Legend regains his ability to speak. No, that can’t be, not after he’s spent the last 12 hours in constant worry, in mourning, of the smith while he was standing right in front of him.
“No, no. I’m sure.” A sword through the chest, the back, the shoulder and the neck. “I saw them fall-”
“But did you see their bodies?” Shadow insists. “Or were you too busy with Vio after Blue tried to gouge your eyes out to notice that Red and Green simply disappeared? Like monsters, like darks?” He bites out. “There weren’t any bodies left!”
“I could’ve missed it. I didn’t get to see-”
“You collected the swords! The cursed things were where they came from in the first place! If not Dark’s, then they were sword spirits, or simply just corrupted, and those all don’t just simply die!” The shade yells in his face, trying to get his point into his thick skull. “I was there then too, you know. And I vaguely recall you taking those swords with you, back to wherever you came from!”
Oh.
“So he’s alright, then?” Sky questions, none of the others quite excited to get in between the argument.
“He’s not dead, that’s for sure.” Shadow grunts out, hands in his face to let out a groan.
Relief washes over them, even if not all of them believe the statement quite yet.
“They weren’t quite darks, but...” Legend brings wonders,, too high strung to share the same relief he was yet to process. “That definitely wasn’t a fair fight. Their skin was grey, like the life was sucked out of them, corrupted.”
“Black blooded.” Shadow settles, choosing to ignore the comment, wiping dirt off their face. The muscles around Legend’s eye pull as his expression turns into one of realization. He winces at the pain.
Could that have happened? The vet looks towards the ground, crumpled up plant life, dead tree stalks. If monsters got corrupted, and other forms of life did as well.
He didn’t like the implications. It didn’t just have to be the smith. It could be townspeople, knights.
“If that is the case.” Twilight reasons. “How do we solve that?”
No one raises their voice.
“You’re talking like this already happened, though, like they’re gone!” Wild cuts through.
“Because it did.” Shadow rolls his eyes, settling to floating in the air again. The cook doesn’t appreciate the lack of urgency.
“We might still have a chance to-”
“We can’t rely on that.” Warriors grimaces, hating to go against his own point he made moments ago. “We have to be prepared, find out something to solve this.”
“We’ve been on this quest for ages now.” Wind argues. “We’re chasing the Dark and it’s gotten us nothing. We’ll need some miraculous clue, if anything at all.”
Shadow huffs, growing more annoyed at the situation. At least all eyes are focussed on them, instead of him. The only person that seems to be still paying attention to the vet, instead of caution for the shade, is Sky.
“Well, this isn’t hurrying up, because every single one of you got the dense part of the triforce, didn’t you?” Shadow starts moving in the opposite direction.
“Hey-” Twilight attempts, quickly talked over.
“So I suggest we look for Zelda, the princess.” The shade settles. He says it as if it's obvious, only hoping the strangers he just met would know who they meant.
No one quite disagrees with the plan, they would have to face that at some point anyhow. Not to mention finding their way back out of this forest. They needed to heal up, all of them. They will all pretend they will be fine, and collapse back at the smith’s house.
They all look to the worst of them, to Time. A raspy voice responds, a clear pain present in his body as he speaks.
“Alright. Let’s head back.”