Chapter Text
Link Smith sat back in his chair, his eyes darting across the screens before him as voices buzzed in his ears. He chewed on his thumbnail, blunt and short, as his mind raced to compile the data on the screens. His other hand tapped away at the keyboard in his lap, blocky text appearing in the terminal window. Irritation gnawed at his gut, and cold dread ran through his veins.
It looked like he was going to get in trouble for this one.
He should go ahead and pack up. It wouldn’t do him any favors to get caught, no matter how important this might be.
“Good morning, Miss Malon!” Wind chimed politely as he slipped into the house.
Wind had become a common figure around the ranch. He had officially accepted the Chain’s invitation a week ago and said his goodbyes to the Red Lions. The guys had been teary and sentimental, but Tetra made him promise that they’d keep a reliable alliance, if not a friendship. Wind readily agreed. Tetra was his best friend. Even if Time didn’t want to lend aid if they ever needed it, Wind would help them himself.
The ranch was nice, if not a little disorienting. Wind had spent the last few years on the waters off the coast of Hyrule, and to live so long with his feet on solid ground was strange. Even so, he took to farmwork easily, and with his agility and size, he was able to climb onto the roof or into small spaces to help with upkeep. Epona was the most difficult horse to get along with, according to Time, but she took to Wind easily enough, and Wind adored her.
Wind had been irritable during his first mission with them, to say the least, but now that Aryll and Grandma were safe, he found that he quite liked the members of the Chain. Warriors taught him how to properly shoot a gun, emphasizing safety all the while, and Twilight was happy to teach him hand-to-hand combat. They were both much better at their respective areas of expertise than Wind, easily outclassing him, but Wind just took that as a challenge. It meant that there was only more room for him to get better. He swore he’d take them down one day.
Time was a lot more likeable without the Shrek mask. He was quiet and stern, but he had his moments of levity and kindness. Wind saw it in the way he’d joke around with Twilight and Warriors, the way he’d make sure Wild was doing well at random points in the day, the way he’d smile every time his gaze landed on Malon. Malon herself was strong and kind and reliable, like the mother Wind could barely remember, and he knew that Time had to be a good person if Malon chose to marry him.
Wild was strange. Wind liked him and thought him to be fun, with his penchant for explosives and his insistence on having the least self-preservation instincts of anyone on the ranch, but Wind couldn’t help but be a bit concerned. The first time he’d seen Wild fall into one of those trances, Wind had panicked. He had been scared that it had been his fault, but Twilight was quick to assure him that it just happened sometimes.
“He’s an amnesiac,” Twilight explained. “He doesn't remember anything from before I found him half-dead on the side of the road. When he spaces out like that and goes unresponsive, he’s just remembering something. Don’t blame yourself. We never know what’ll trigger a memory.”
Wild had said much the same thing, once he returned to reality, but Wind made sure to keep an eye out for him after that incident.
“Hello, Wind,” Malon greeted back, just as cheerful. “Time wanted to speak with you about something. He should be in his study.”
Wind blinked but nodded.
“Alright,” he said. “Thank you, Miss Malon.”
Malon didn’t seem too worked up about anything, so Wind tried to calm his nerves. He knocked on the office door before he pushed it open.
A desk lamp lit up the dim room, and the dark wood of the desk and bookcases only served to further enshroud the room in darkness. A blue glow lit up Time’s face from the monitor in front of him, and Wind shuffled awkwardly at the door.
“You wanted to see me, sir?” he asked.
“You don’t need to call me sir,” Time said kindly. He waved Wind over, and Wind came around behind the desk. Time pointed at a window on the monitor. “Do you know if this is normal?”
Wind leaned in closer and found that Time was reading an email. Wind stole the mouse and opened the email before the current one, and he frowned.
“I mean, sure, but it's still concerning,” Wind answered. “Security breaches can be dangerous. It means someone's gotten into your information.”
Time hummed in thought.
“You probably want to change your password,” Wind told him. “Just go to the website and change it. You know, eight or more characters, upper and lowercase, numbers and symbols, no full words. Regular cybersecurity stuff.”
Time looked at him blankly, then slowly said, “Yes.”
Wind stared back, just as blank.
“Do you need help?” he asked.
“Please.”
One tutorial, a sticky note, and two days later, Wind found himself lined up around the kitchen table with the others, a map spread out across the tabletop like the dining room was a war room. The ranch was circled in red marker, and near the edge of town, in the suburbs, one house was pinned with a thumb tack.
Wind kind of liked the vibes.
“A hacker got into my data files,” Time said bluntly, and the room held its breath. “I contacted an old friend to help find out who targeted us, and her answer was someone else’s anonymous tip.”
“Anonymous?” Warriors asked skeptically. “Then shouldn't we exercise more caution? Do some reconnaissance?”
“Normally, yes, that would be wise,” Time nodded. “However, digital crime moves fast, and my contact would not have given me this information if she herself did not trust it.” His eye drifted up to meet Warriors’s gaze. “So, Warriors. What is the plan?”
It was fascinating to watch Warriors formulate plans. Wind wondered what kinds of things went through his head, in order to split the crew up into teams depending on strength and ability. Warriors plotted out the paths they would use, ordering them to keep an eye out for any suspicious people, and Wind soaked up the orders like a sponge. He couldn’t keep up with Warriors’s reasoning, but he could follow plans.
This was another serious job, so there would be as few dramatics as they could manage, but Wind was still looking forward to it. Wild had promised to show him how explosion rigging worked during the next showy heist.
Wind wished he could have hitched a ride on Malon’s motorcycle, but Twilight had planted him in the back seat of the truck next to Warriors instead, letting his father ride with Malon. However, once they parked a block away from the location and disembarked, Wind felt that familiar rush thrum through his veins.
The baton in his pocket burned, and he itched to pull it out, but he still hadn’t found a chance to explain it to the others, so he stayed his hand.
Wind and Wild broke away from the others, trusting that Time had approached from the other end of the house. Wind quickly unlocked the window and warily pushed it open. When no alarms went off, he slipped in and helped Wild through.
A quick look around told Wind that the place was empty, completely unfurnished, like no one lived here. If the tip was right, though, then that was a lie. Wind spotted the stairs, and he tapped Wild on the shoulder. Wild looked at him, and Wind silently pointed toward the second floor. With a quiet nod, Wild slunk up the stairs, footsteps carefully quiet. Wind raised a hand to his ear and turned on the comm, turning the volume down, and he snuck off into the nearest hallway.
This was a nice house, Wind decided. The rooms were spacious but not too much so, leaving them perfect as bedrooms or even offices. The bathroom he briefly investigated was small, but he supposed that the guest bathroom was supposed be small, if that was its intended purpose. Another empty bedroom-sized room was at the end of the hall, and a quick look into the closets in the room and outside in the hall told Wind that the target wasn’t on this side of the house. Wind set his hands on his hips and frowned at the back wall of the empty closet. There wasn’t even a secret panel.
The only thing of note was the crack in the floorboards. No wonder this place was uninhabited. Whoever owned this place would need to get that fixed before they could sell the house.
“I found him!” Wild gasped through the comms. “He jumped downstairs!”
Wind startled, freezing when he realized he had only a faint idea of where Wild was. Wind turned and ran out of the room, only for a small figure to round the corner, looking over his shoulder, presumably in Time’s direction. Then, hazel eyes caught on Wind, and the stranger faltered, trapped in the corner of the hallway.
In the split second that passed, Wind stared at him, taking in his appearance. This guy was… tiny. He was older than Wind, certainly, but he was shorter. Headphones hung around his neck, the backpack hanging from his shoulders a plain black, nondescript. Golden hair hung down to his jaw, held out of his face by a headband, and his hoodie vest was split into four colors. His white shirt tucked into long fingerless gloves, and Wind found himself suddenly envious. He wanted cool fingerless gloves, too.
The boy then steeled his gaze, and Wind braced himself as the boy ran toward him… and dodged him completely, nimbly darting around him.
Wind spun around and gave chase. It was a dead end. He tackled the boy just as a string of indecipherable sounds left the boy’s mouth in alarm, his foot directly over the cracked floorboard, and they tumbled down together, plummeting through the air as the world compressed around Wind. Everything grew and shrunk, and it hurt his eyes to see.
Wind yelled as he fell, the voices of the others buzzing through the comms. He, somehow, impossibly, fell right through the crack in the floorboard and bounced off of something buoyant. He bounced twice more, each bounce absorbing his momentum, before he landed on the floor in a graceless tumble.
“No, no, no!” came the weirdly tinny voice of the stranger.
Wind groaned and shakily picked himself up. The boy in the colorful hoodie was pacing back and forth. Wind looked back behind himself, and his mouth fell open. He gawked, taken aback.
That was the single biggest plant he had ever seen.
Apparently, the bouncy cushions had been the leaves of the giant plant. He whipped back around to stare at the boy with wide eyes.
“What was that?” Wind breathed, pointing up at the impossibly large crack. “What did you do?”
“You interrupted the spell!” the boy snapped back, but instead of anger, his face was twisted in distress. “I’ve never shrunk anyone else with me, and Ezlo doesn’t count! I didn’t even know this was possible--”
The sounds of distress crackling through Wind’s earpiece made him wince. He held up a hand, interrupting the boy, whose mouth snapped shut with a harsh clack of teeth on teeth.
“Hold on, I’ve gotta take this,” Wind told him. Backing away without turning around, he turned the volume on his comm up. “Hey, guys.”
“Wind!” came a chorus of voices.
“What happened?” Time demanded, and Wind shuddered at the way his voice echoed from above. His surprisingly quiet footfalls echoed through the wooden boards, though his footsteps were still louder than ever. It was strange, coming from a man with such quiet movements. “You tackled the target, and then you both disappeared. What was that?”
“We heard screaming,” Twilight said.
“Are you alright?” Warriors asked, more of a bark than a question.
"What's going on?" Wild asked.
“I’m fine,” Wind said, looking up, unsure, at the crack overhead. “I’m going to find out what happened, but I’m with the target, and I think he’s panicking?”
The boy glared. Wind decided to continue talking.
“He doesn’t seem violent, so I’m just gonna talk to him.”
“I’m right here,” the boy growled, still not daring to get any closer. At least he wasn’t running.
“Yeah, I’ll be right back,” Wind said into the comm before he turned it off. He turned his full attention back to the stranger and raised both of his hands, showing that he was unarmed. “Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m Wind--”
“You’re the Chain,” the boy spat, backing up when Wind stepped toward him, maintaining the distance between them. “You’re here to get rid of me, aren’t you? I knew I should’ve left, but did I listen to myself? Noooo, and now I’m being hunted, because of that cocky little purple--”
“I’m Wind,” Wind repeated, slowly extending a hand. He stretched it out toward the boy. The boy watched him with cautious hazel eyes. “We don’t want to hurt you. We just want answers. What’s your name?”
The boy looked between Wind and the offered hand. He was quiet for a long moment before he spoke.
“I’m being blackmailed,” the boy said bluntly. His tone was far from weak, but he looked so much like a kicked puppy that Wind couldn’t help but feel sympathy. “If you get actively involved, more will be at stake than your privacy and personal information. I have things to lose here.”
“So do I,” Wind said, not lowering his hand. “I have a sister at home with my grandma. The Chain is practically family. Heck, Twilight is literally Time’s son. We know what we’re putting on the line, and we can help you. I promise.”
The boy’s hands twitched, and his mouth twitched. Wind was close. Just one more push.
“I don’t want to see anyone else get hurt for no reason,” Wind said. “Please. Let us help.”
The boy slowly reached out and took Wind’s hand. Despite his evident fear, his grasp was firm.
“Call me Four,” the boy said. He looked at Wind with large, round eyes, his expression suddenly unreadable yet uncomfortably intense. “I’ll unshrink us, and in return, you help me get my friend back. Deal?”
“If you explain how you shrunk us in the first place,” Wind bartered.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Deal!”
Four shifted uncomfortably. He resisted the urge to pull his headphones over his ears and let the colors’ voices drown out the tension that pressed down on his shoulders and around his head like an uncomfortably fuzzy blanket.
He sat in an old armchair that completely dwarfed him, though that wasn’t exactly a difficult feat to accomplish, considering his stature. In front of him stood the adult members of the Chain, looming menacingly as Malon (lovely woman, very kind, though not without a healthy dose of intimidation) stood in the background and rolled her eyes at the display, treating Wind to a muffin and a glass of milk.
Wind seemed to have been telling the truth, as far as Four could tell. When he had returned the both of them back to their original sizes, their hands clenched tightly in each others’ grasps so they wouldn’t lose contact during the spell, it was only by Wind’s intervention that Four hadn’t immediately been tackled by the tallest and oldest of the crew. The others had been hostile as well, so Four had clung to Wind’s side as the youngest member of the crew explained their deal to the others.
They hadn’t been pleased, but they weren’t willing to break Wind’s word, and now Four was being interrogated.
“First, what did you do to Wind?” Time demanded more than asked. “I saw you both disappear.”
“You’d think I’m insane,” Four answered. It wasn’t like he’d meant for anyone to find out. Wind had just happened to get pulled along for the ride.
“Try me,” Time answered.
Four sighed. It was time to make himself sound absolutely bonkers, apparently. There was no good way to phrase it, so he would have to be blunt.
“There are tiny mouse-like people called the minish,” Four said.. and there were the confused, disbelieving stares. Time didn’t give any hints toward his true thoughts, but the other three men were more openly expressive. “They’re inherently kind and like to help people when they can through small things, like a rupee on the sidewalk or stitching a hole in your pocket that you didn’t even know was there. Most people know them as the picori.”
“How does this relate to what you did?” Time questioned. He didn’t even seem phased by the talk of picori. Kudos to him.
“I’m getting there,” Four huffed. “Minish only show themselves to children, so when I was a kid and needed help, one of them came to me because he needed help, too, and--” Four shook his head. He was getting off track. “Look, the point is I know the minish, and I know how to shrink to their size, given the existence of a portal. I was casting the spell when Wind ran into me, so he ended up shrinking with me.”
“Pa…” Twilight said slowly, eyeing Four like he would feral animal. “Is he crazy?”
Four buried his face in his hands in defeat. Wild mumbled something, and Warriors was agreeing with Twilight. Time stayed silent, and Four resigned himself to not getting any help and instead being sent to a psychiatric facility, which was probably worse than plain jail, because they’d be obligated to find and contact his grandfather. Goddesses forbid his grandfather knew what he was doing.
“No, he’s telling the truth!” Wind spoke up. Four looked up at the boy sitting at the kitchen table. “I didn’t see any of those mini people he just mentioned--”
“Minish,” Four corrected on reflex.
“But we did shrink,” Wind continued, ignoring Four. “We were under the floorboard.”
“But magic doesn’t exist, nevermind a children’s fairytale,” Warriors insisted. “It can’t. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Magic does exist, but I still find this hard to believe,” Twilight said, shaking his head.
Warriors turned a wide-eyed, baffled stare toward Twilight. Twilight graciously ignored him.
“What?” Wild asked, his face twisting into a look of pure confusion. “I mean, I’m willing to believe it, but it doesn’t really exist, right? You’re just messing with us, aren’t you?”
“No, it does exist,” Time said. His tone was so serious that Four had to look at him, and apparently, the effect was just as strong on the others as all eyes turned to him. “Magic is real. It’s just extremely rare to come across.”
It almost sounded like Time had firsthand experience with magic.
Four’s eyes widened. If they at least believed him, there was hope. He set his hands on the armrests, minutely pushing himself up.
“You know about magic?” he asked. The words fell from his mouth before his doubt could stop him. “I’ve never met anyone else who believed me.”
“I don’t know any spells. I did, however, end up using some magic items in the past,” Time answered, shaking his head and completely ignoring the flabbergasted expressions on Warriors’s and Wild’s faces. Malon and Twilight seemed to already know, and Wind just looked excited.
“I’ve used something magic, too!” Wind said, and all eyes turned to him. He pulled a strange, delicate stick of silver from his pocket. “I stole this thing back when we blew up the Forsaken Fortress. It’s a baton that lets me control the wind. I didn’t know how to bring it up before, but since we’re talking about magic now, I might as well tell you guys.”
“Wait, is that what happened to the Helmaroc King?” Warriors asked, his voice pitching up.
Four tuned out the bickering, leaving the crew to bicker amongst themselves and instead sinking into his thoughts. To think that there were other people out there who knew about magic… it was mind-blowing. Four had thought himself alone for years, having been exposed to magic as a child, and even now, he could still see the minish--in fact, a few of them were running around on the rafters overhead--but to know there were multiple other people under this very roof who had dealt with magic was astounding. He thought he’d never meet anyone else who knew. Apparently, he was wrong.
Four pulled the mic of his headphones up to his mouth, careful not to let his movements alert anyone.
“Vio,” he whispered, “run a search on magical artifacts, Time, and the Helmaroc King.”
A faint buzz from his unworn headphones answered, and Four pushed the mic back down before anyone noticed.
“Four,” Time said, turning his gaze toward Four. Four’s eyes snapped up to him, his heart jumping in his chest. “Wind told us you required our help.”
“I only broke into your data because I was threatened,” Four explained, cutting right to the chase. “I wouldn’t mess with a crew as infamous as yours, otherwise. That’s just stupid. An old enemy is holding my friend hostage as leverage.” He looked at Time pleadingly. “Please. I can’t lose him.”
Time sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“That depends on who you’re talking about,” he said.
“Vaati,” Four answered. An old anger bubbled up in his chest. He pushed the memories down before he could drown in them. “He kidnapped my childhood friend years ago, and now he’s back, holding my other friend hostage. He’s, uh… the head of, um…”
Four shrunk in on himself, his bravado fading as he realized how bad this sounded. He, personally, had come to terms with it long ago, but…
“… Tower of Winds.”
Alarmed shouts filled the room. Four couldn’t blame them. Tower of Winds was a well-known tech company in Kakariko City, and to mess with its owner was folly, but Four needed to deal with him in one way or another. The man had made his life a living hell for years, forcing him to move away from his grandfather for fear of getting him involved, not to mention the history of literal kidnapping.
Vaati hadn’t gotten his comeuppance last time. Four would not make the same mistake again.
“I’m sorry, Four,” Malon said, her eyes drooping with sympathy. “Normally, we would take the job, but we’re just not equipped to handle someone with so many resources.”
“The Helmaroc King is one thing when we have backup,” Twilight said, his eyebrows creased in a reluctant frown. "But this..."
“But his friend is in danger because he’s talking to us!” Wind argued. Goddesses bless him. “We have to do something.”
“We can’t go against a tech giant like that,” Warriors said to Wind, not unkindly. He… had gotten over his shock quickly. Or he was just repressing it. “We’d get destroyed. We just don’t have the skills to take on such a job without severe backlash.”
Four stared at the crew, watching them argue without absorbing any of the words, because a terrible, horrible, stupid idea was bubbling up in his head. It was risky and dangerous and dumb, and it could end very badly, but he had already taken several risks today, and he was still breathing. Why not take one more?
“You’re not equipped,” he said slowly as the gears turned in his head, his skin tingling under the multiple sets of eyes trained on him, “but I am.”
“What?” Twilight asked. His brow scrunched in confusion.
“If you guys can handle the physical aspect, I can handle the digital aspect,” Four said, leaning forward. “I would’ve gotten out of this situation already if I could do both at once, but I’m only one person. With you guys, though--”
“This might work,” Time finished, humming thoughtfully.
“Exactly!”
For the first time since they met, Time’s mouth twitched up in a smile.
“What do you need?”