Chapter Text
Romance Isn’t Dead, But It Does Include Aliens This Time
“ZELDA!”
Zelda startled as Link burst in through the front door with the force and volume of a thunderclap. She whirled around, hand over her chest.“Oh—!”
She gasped at the sight of him, practically drenched in monster and Hylian blood and mud, but she didn’t have long to look. He ran forward and unexpectedly swept her up in his arms, spinning in a circle. “Link! You’re covered in—”
“I love you!” he said, grinning up at her. The white of his teeth was a sharp contrast to how filthy and stained his face was.
“Link, what…?” she said, hands fluttering as she tried to find even a tiny clean space on him to brace herself. She could feel the mess start to soak through her skirts.
“I love you!” he repeated, unbothered by the fact that he was dripping on their floor and ruining her clothes. “I realized something while I was fighting. When those ancient heroes came, I was terrified at the thought that I might be separated from you again. You’re the most important thing in my life, Zelda, and I love you. Marry me!”
How very straightforward. For a girl who’d been in love for over a hundred years, that was really all the invitation she needed. She gripped his jaw with both hands. There were no thoughts about the ramifications of her decision as she dove in and kissed him with wild abandon. Let everyone else think what they would about the Princess’s choice—she wanted this one.
Amazingly, he wanted her too.
Zelda thought they did a pretty good job for two people who’d never kissed anyone before. Link let her slide to the ground, and they didn’t bump noses or accidentally hit their teeth together. He tasted like Hyrule herb and monster blood, but she wasn’t about to complain. Not when it had taken so long to get here.
“You need a bath,” she breathed against his mouth, pulling back to catch her breath.
“Is that a yes?”
She laughed. “Yes! Yes, Link, I’ll marry you!”
“Do you think we got dumped here just to make sure the kids got home safe?” Wind mused as he walked through the portal… and out into the exact same place, just facing the opposite direction. “Wait, what the f—uh, flip?” he hastily corrected, just in case the kids were still in earshot.
No one else seemed to know what was going on either. It was evening now and the environment looked subtly different, but not enough for them to draw any firm conclusions. Even the front door, where the kids had been standing, was still open. Light from inside spilled out over the grass. Before anyone could comment, a man inside lifted his voice in song.
“I’ll swim and sail on savage seas,” he sang, accompanied by the soft thud of bare feet on wood planks, “with ne’er a fear of drowning.”
A woman laughed. “Now? Haven’t you had your fill of dancing?”
“And gladly ride the waves of life, if you will marry me.”
“You romantic sap.” The light from the doorway flickered as people passed in front of it. They really were dancing.
“Only for you,” said the man. He picked the song up again. “No scorching sun nor freezing cold, will stop me on my journey, if you would promise me your heart…”
The woman joined in. “And love me for eternity.”
“Er… should we leave?” Wind whispered. That almost sounded like a grown-up Wild and Flora, but that couldn’t be right. Was it Link and Zelda?
“Shh,” said Hyrule. “I want to hear the song!”
The tempo of the song and their feet on the wood floor picked up. “My dearest one, my darling dear,” sang the woman, “your mighty words astound me! But I’ve no need of mighty deeds when I feel your arms around me.”
Smiles were clear in both of the singers’ voices. The man sang again. “But I would bring you rings of gold, I’d even sing you poetry—” the woman laughed ”— and I would keep you from all harm, if you would stay beside me!”
“I have no use for rings of gold, I care not for your poetry—”
“Hey!”
“—I only want your hand to hold, I only want you near me.”
The speed of their dancing increased even more as they began to sing together. “To love, to kiss, to sweetly hold, for the dancing and the dreaming, through all life’s sorrows and delights, I’ll keep your laugh inside me.”
“I’ll swim and sail on savage seas, with ne’er a fear of drowning, and gladly ride the waves of life… if you will marry me. If you will marry me!”
The woman yelped, laughed, and then gasped. “Oh! Link, careful, the bows!” Something clattered to the ground.
“I’m sure Revali will forgive me,” said the man.
“Revali would have gladly fought you for much le—mmm!”
That was unmistakably the sound of people kissing, and considering they had no idea the group was there (and no reason to stop at kissing), this was probably an ideal moment to interrupt. Time strode forward until he could reach out and knock on the open door frame. Wind peered around him to see a young blond man and a young blonde woman break off their liplock to stare at their unexpected guests with wide eyes. They looked remarkably like grown-up versions of Wild and Flora, even down to their clothing and hair.
“You!” Flora gasped, which seemed to confirm it.
“Wild? Flora?” Time asked cautiously.
Wild wrapped his arms protectively around Flora’s head and scowled at them. “No. Go away.”
“How long have we been gone?”
“Not long enough!”
Twilight cleared his throat and awkwardly raised a hand. “Erm, maybe this isn’t the right time for this question, but… aren’t you two related?”
Flora’s head popped up. “Related?” she sputtered. “No! Goddess above, no! Not even distantly!”
“Oh thank Hylia,” Twilight breathed, sagging into Legend. He got shoved for his trouble.
“Hey Wild,” Wind asked, squeezing his head in between Time and the doorframe so he could grin at them. “Are you getting married? Does that make you a Prince?”
Wild made a very interesting face. Flora was distracted enough by the question to laugh at him. “Are you? Are you getting married, Your Highness?” she teased.
“You’re my wife, aren’t you supposed to be nice to me?”
“We’re getting off topic. It might have been a long time for you, but we stepped right from our last meeting to this one, which means either you or your ‘grandpa’ are coming this time,” said Legend.
Wild and Flora exchanged a glance. “…aliens?” Wild said, as if it was a proposition.
“Aliens,” she agreed.
“What does—HEY WAIT!” Warriors lunged for them as they started to turn blue and levitate off the floor, exactly like their first meeting, but he couldn’t stop them. Just before they disappeared in ribbons of light, Wind saw Wild stick his tongue out.
“…they used to be such cute kids,” he sighed.
Mipha's Grace
Link landed hard after he fired off as many bomb arrows at the blight as he could. The thing hardly seemed fazed, although some of the black goo that made up its form had been burned away, revealing the dead Guardian parts beneath. Link called the Hylian Shield from the slate. It weighed too heavy on his arm, but covered most of his body.
He should have handed the slate off to Zelda and told her to teleport back to the Plateau. Of course, then he would have died and there would have been a blight on the loose, dangerously close to a stable. Regret was pointless. He just had to win, no matter what it took.
This time, three laser sights centered on his shield, but he had precious little time to consider them. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Urbosa’s Fury struck, arcing between the conductive components of the Guardian debris, but the blight barely faltered. A line of guardian legs pushed out of the blackness like a broken bone. The roiling goo surged down its length, forming into a massive club that the blight raised high.
Link was already moving before it had even struck, but the darkness disadvantaged him and hid the changing shape of the weapon until it was too late. The hammer turned to a morningstar, spikes growing sharply from it even as it fell. One caught Link down the center of his chest, cutting far too deep, and he screamed. Searing, burning pain erupted from the malice-poisoned wound. He felt blind from it, and then was blind as the lasers fired on him. He dodged, battle fury numbing his wound, and called on Daruk’s Protection. The shield was too heavy on his arm. Daruk’s magic shattered beneath the second laser.
The third slammed into his shield and threw him like a ragdoll.
He didn’t pass out. He couldn’t, not when Zelda’s safety was on the line. But he couldn’t move either. The poison burned, burrowing into him, far more intense than he expected. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t feel his arms or legs.
Mipha, he prayed, eyes sliding shut against his will.
Golden light enveloped him, purging the malice. He heard someone screaming his name.
Zelda, he prayed, and found the strength to force them to stay open.
“Cub! No!”
It was not Zelda who reached him first. He watched the stranger’s mouth move. It sounded like the man was underwater. A hand lifted his head, straightening out his airway and making it easier to breathe. Wolf-pelt—Twilight—dripped water onto his face.
Why would a stranger cry for him?
Too late, anyway. Zelda fell to her knees at his side, safe and unharmed. He gladly let his eyes slide shut and cast his soul into Mipha’s capable hands.
Oh Link… it was my pleasure.
Twilight got there just in time to watch Wild get his torso sliced open in a spray of blood and black poison. He pushed to close the remaining distance as the shadow beast fired beams at the kid, three in succession: Wild dodged one, used magic to mostly block the second, but was thrown by the third.
No!
He was finally in attacking range when Flora screamed for Link. The kid lay still where he’d fallen. Twilight didn’t hesitate to throw himself at the monster, howling in fury and anguish in his wolf form.
Please, not a little kid!
The sacred light of the triforce flooded the forest. He felt rather than saw as the monster burned away beneath it. The very second he was sure the thing wasn’t a threat, he turned and ran for Wild, casting off his wolf form as fast as he could.
“No no no no no! Cub! No!”
Twilight tried to think about what he had on him, but as soon as he got to the kid’s side, he knew. That wasn’t a wound anyone could come back from without magic that Twilight just didn’t have access to—and maybe not even then. Even a dozen fairies couldn’t fix this.
He reached out a shaking hand and tried to help anyway, readjusting Wild’s head so that he could get air a little easier. The kid’s breath was shallow and growing rapidly shallower. His eyes were glassy and half-lidded. Twilight bit back a sob and regretted the way his tears fell onto Wild’s face. “Oh, cub…”
“Please!”
Flora vaulted recklessly from the horse and ran to Wild too. Twilight almost wanted to shield her from the gruesome sight, but he didn’t get to make that decision here. She only had eyes for Wild as she threw herself down by his side, picking up the ‘slate.’ It lit up in her hand.
“Oh, you’re—you’re going to be alright,” she said shakily as Wild deteriorated in Twilight’s hand. “Hold on, you’ll be alright.”
Twilight’s heart broke for the poor little Princess. How was he supposed to tell her that there was no hope? How was he supposed to comfort her when she saw that for herself? He didn’t think Wild had even minutes left.
A glass bottle materialized in her hand just as Wild exhaled his final breath and went limp. Twilight wasn’t ashamed of the shuddering, painful sob that escaped him, but he only allowed himself one. What a brave little boy Wild had been. If only they’d managed to win more of the children’s trust, he might still be alive.
Flora sobbed too, clutching the bottle to her chest. Twilight started to gently set Wild’s head down, but then… his body lit up in blue flame. A Zora woman appeared, there and gone in a blink. “It was my pleasure,” she sighed, hovering over his limp head. The blue flames faded away.
Impossibly, Wild gasped back to life.
Twilight gaped, but he didn’t have time to be stunned. Wild arched sharply, coughing up all the blood that had pooled in his lungs. He hastily turned the kid onto his side, supporting his neck and jaw so he wouldn’t choke. When Twilight hesitantly touched Wild’s torso, the fatal wound was gone, replaced by a wide, fresh scar.
Flora sobbed harder, but she didn’t seem surprised by what had just happened, only distressed. When Wild stopped choking, he managed to slur “S fine. M’ fine.” He patted her arm and slumped exhaustedly into Twilight’s hands.
“No, you’re not,” Twilight said shakily. Flora un-stoppered the bottle in her hands and he blindly trusted her, sitting Wild upright into his arms so he could drink it. The kid did so without protest, blinking hazily up at Twilight. Flora buried her face in his bloody neck and cried her poor heart out.
“Uhn… you’re…?” Wild said, trying to figure out how Twilight was there.
“Shh. Close your eyes and rest, cub.”
It was almost funny, the way Wild managed to give him a dubious look despite everything that had just happened, despite the blood coating his chin and chest, despite the way he was too exhausted to squirm willfully out of Twilight’s arms. Almost funny.
Flora raised her head and managed to speak as she prodded the slate. “We nuh-need… to move. The Blood Moon reh-resurrected eh-everything.” Blue light flashed around the Hylian shield Wild had been carrying, and suddenly it was gone.
“Yuh,” Wild agreed. He gripped Twilight’s tunic and started pulling himself to his feet.
It was like Twilight wasn’t even there—or like they thought he wouldn’t help. Whatever had just happened was normal to them, he realized. The ‘Blood Moon,’ the monster, the triforce, the fact that Wild had died. It was so normal that they were already pulling together to keep running, even though Flora was still choking on sobs and Wild could barely move his arms.
They were six.
“Come here, kit,” he said to Flora, picking her up in one arm while he kept Wild in the other. He stood, startling a gasp from her. “Just hold on to me.” Their horse was tired, but if things were still dangerous then he was just going to have to push it a little more.
“S-sir Wolf,” Flora stuttered when he put her in the saddle first. “I—we—you d-don’t need to—“
“Shhh.” It was difficult to keep his anger from showing, but he didn’t want her to think it was directed at her. He swung up behind her. Wild barely clung to consciousness in his arm. “You did great, kit, and now you don’t have to fight anymore. I’ve got you. Just look after Wild until we get back.”
“Back? No!” she cried, jolting her friend to awareness. She turned to look at Twilight with wide, terrified green eyes. “We cannot go back the way we came! The Blood Moon might have resurrected the Guardians! Only Wild knows how to kill them on horseback!”
Twilight hesitated. On one hand, he desperately needed to get these kids back to his fellow heroes. On the other, he was sure Time would have sent at least Legend after him once the Blood Moon appeared. If he waited or kept going down the path they were already on, he would have backup at some point. But the entire group couldn’t follow at speed, which made it reasonably likely the rest of them had gone to find ‘Link,’ who Twilight was now sure was six years old and lying heavily in his arm.
What a mess.
“Shh, it’s alright. We’ll keep going forward then,” he decided, readjusting the reins. “Rest, kit. I’ve got you both.”
He spurred the horse into a smooth canter and briefly marveled at its speed. Flora clung to Wild and dissolved into tears again. The little hero murmured another lie that he was fine and managed to grip her hand for a moment before he lapsed into unconsciousness. Twilight made sure both children were secure against him and kept a sharp eye out for any more threats.
It belatedly occurred to him that Flora had addressed him as ‘Sir Wolf.’
When Legend and Four found them, it was in another stable nearly identical to the first. Twilight was sitting at the foot of a bed not far from the entrance. Little Zelda was asleep under the covers, hardly more than a mop of blonde hair and a single pale hand curled up by her mouth. Little Link was asleep in Twilight’s arms, bundled up in a blanket. Twilight himself was humming and running his thumb in slow arcs across the side of the kid’s head. He didn’t look up until the two of them were close, and when he did he was visibly exhausted.
“Thinking of adopting?” Legend said, nodding at little Link. That was a remarkably protective grip Twilight had on him.
“…he died,” Twilight murmured.
Despite himself, Legend lurched forward a step as his stomach dropped. No! Then he saw the clear rise-and-fall of little Link’s chest, only partly hidden by the blanket, and scowled. “Obviously not,” he snapped. “What was that for?”
“He died out by the castle,” Twilight said, expression unchanged. He returned his attention to the kid. “There was some kind of giant infected monster. I didn’t get there in time. I watched him die. And then… he came back. And it was normal for them.”
He peeled back the blanket from the kid, enough for them to step closer and see a fresh, awful scar that trailed down from his collarbone to the bottom of his stomach. Little Link grumbled and shivered after a moment, so Twilight wrapped him back up. He didn’t wake.
“There’s an exit wound scar on his back, too.” Twilight met Legend’s eyes again. Behind the exhaustion was fury so intense that it made him wary. “I watched him die, and it upset me way more than it upset him.”
“Are you sure?” Four asked.
“His chest was torn open and burned by poison. Not even a dozen fairies could have saved him.”
“Then what did?”
Twilight hesitated. “I don’t know. His body was covered in blue flame and I saw… the spirit of a Zora, I think. She brought his soul back to his body and healed the worst of the damage.”
Little Link murmured and shifted. Twilight resumed stroking a thumb across his temple. “He woke up and the first thing he did was tell Flora he was fine and it was alright. Like he was used to it.”
Privately, Legend thought that things suddenly made sense. A six-year-old who couldn’t stay dead was capable of acting in the hero’s role, no matter how ill-equipped he was for it. The kid was definitely stubborn and courageous enough. Of course, Legend didn’t say any of that out loud. Instead, he asked, “Why didn’t you bring them back?”
“Flora said that the ‘Blood Moon’ resurrected everything. She was terrified of something called ‘Guardians’ along the path and said Wild was the only one who knew how to kill them on horseback. I couldn’t risk their safety. Did you encounter anything unusual?”
Four shook his head. “No, just monsters we outran.”
“Everyone else is heading for Kakariko Village to look for this era’s Link,” said Legend. “Guess that’s pointless now.”
“Hmm. We’ll find a safe route to meet up with them tomorrow.” Twilight nodded to little Zelda. “She’s definitely the little Princess, at least.”
“They’re bad at lying,” said Four.
“What do you expect from six-year-olds?”
Legend looked at Twilight and the kid for a long moment before he sighed. “You need to rest. Give me the brat, I’ll make sure he doesn’t get into any more trouble.”
“Nice try,” said Twilight without skipping a beat, “but you’re not about to steal the cuddles.”
Legend sputtered at the accusation. “I—am not!”
“You could have just told me to put him next to Flora. You definitely are.”
Four laughed at both of them.