Work Text:
Hyrule steps out of the portal with a bounce in his step; for once, his magic doesn’t seem to have reacted badly to that of the portal. Or rather, it’s as though the magic of the land around him has replenished his own. Dew drops on the grass sparkle like diamonds set atop emeralds, while the dawn sun lights the sky above with twinkling pinks and golds. Birds trill their morning songs from pine forests thick with healthy undergrowth, and fairies dart by glowing brighter than any he’s ever seen.
Awed, Hyrule turns to his companions. They seem to be having similar reactions to him, as most of them wander slowly across the meadow with eyes wide as rupees. The one exception is the rancher, whose face turns from Link to Link and mouths words to himself.
“Eight,” Twilight says, and the heroes jolt. Spell broken, they turn to the rancher.
“What?” Legend asks.
“Eight,” Twilight repeats. “Including me. The portal didn’t separate us.”
“Right,” Time nods, but the old man’s focus is on the world around them. “Wind, does this place seem… familiar to you?”
The sailor darts to their leader’s side. He holds a bouquet of flowers in his fists, gathered like precious jewels and clenched just as tightly.
“You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” Wind asks.
Time shakes his head. “It seems impossible… the last time we were here, the place was a battleground. But those are the trees we stripped for arrows,” he says, gesturing to a part of the forest where the branches have been thinned, “and that’s the spot Zelda was eying for burial.” He gestures now to a part of the meadow that dips into the forest. Its circular shape is luminous with sunflowers, and Hyrule knows instinctively—magically—that the flower doesn’t grow anywhere else in the meadow.
Wind nods. “And that’s the tree the Capt’n decapitated.”
“The tree the captain what now?” Legend asks. Having a hint of the history of the place around them, the wonder has faded from the heroes’ eyes. It’s shock that widens them now.
Wind just laughs. “Ya should’ve seen it!”
He points to a tree on the edge of the forest. It stands only half as tall as the rest, and where nature seems to have taken back the rest of the area, the top meter of this tree bears no leaves or branches.
“It was after Cap teamed up with the fairy, and she went whoom,” Wind circles the flowers in his fist over his head like he’s lassoing a wild horse, petals flying off from the force, “an’ the bottle hit the tree an’ Cap’s magic exploded like—” Wind throws both bouquets in the air “—an’ the tree broke into shrapnel that decimated the enemy!”
“Okay…” Legend says slowly. “I have no idea what any of that meant.”
Wind’s eyes blaze, but Time sets his hand on the boy’s head and ruffles his hair. “How about we tell you about the Captain on our way to the castle? It’ll be a good way to pass the time.”
The other heroes gather around the old man and the sailor as they start their story, but Hyrule lingers behind, gaze taking in their surroundings.
He knows what an old battleground looks like. He’s seen them in his own world, in the lack of resources and the darkened skies, and in Wild’s, in the wondrous horizons and the ruins overtaken by nature. The kind of magical growth he sees now takes a long time to happen—so long that he doesn’t know if his brothers’ captain is still alive.
“Rulie!” Twilight calls. The traveler jolts. Looking after his companions, he sees they’re farther along than he thought, the rancher walking backwards and waving for him.
“Coming!” he calls back, and dashes after them. He catches up and Twilight’s arm circles around his shoulders, pulling him in close to the group around Time and Wind.
“You were so little!” the sailor coos up at the old man. “I wanted to pinch your cheeks!”
“I can pinch yours now,” Time replies, raising an eyebrow. Wind pouts, and Time takes over the story, saying, “The sorceress Cia and Ganondorf started the war together, but both wanted more than the other would give. They severed their alliance, which left Hyrule fighting a war on two fronts. We won a lot of battles, but we were always on the back foot, braced for the tide to turn.”
“Not the Captain though!” Wind jumps in. “He always pushed ahead.”
“And he just let you two children follow him into war?” Legend asks. Hyrule glances at his predecessor; the older teen looks like he bit into a lemon.
“We weren’t kids!” Wind says. “I mean—Time was, but I wasn’t! And even if we had been,” the boy glares at Legend, “we rarely fought with Cap. He was always at the front, and he always stuck us at the back. We’d spend the whole battle just trying to get to his side. And then he made the deal with the Great Fairy, and it got worse.”
Hyrule’s heart thuds in his chest. He loves the Mothers, but they don’t always understand Hylian needs.
“He never wanted us around when he was with the Great Fairy,” Wind complains. “I think he was embarrassed or somethin’, which is ridiculous, cause their combined attacks were epic.”
“Why would he be embarrassed?” Four asks.
Time sighs. “This era puts a lot of emphasis on appearances,” he explains. “And the Captain’s deal with the Great Fairy…”
“What was the deal?” Legend asks. “You’ve both just talked around it.”
Wind stares at Time, who grimaces. “They agreed to share their magic. Or… it was more like, the Captain asked the Great Fairy to assist on the battlefield, and she agreed, but… even though she could use Link’s magic, her magic would have been too powerful for him. So he…” Time trails off.
Hyrule shares alarmed looks with his brothers. Their leader is still talking around what happened, which he never does; Time refuses to discuss his past or hints at it, he doesn’t dodge it. Suddenly, Hyrule’s earlier bad feeling comes roaring back.
“Time?” Twilight asks. “What happened?”
“She put him in a bottle,” Wind interrupts. “It let her draw on his magic, and they could fight together with him in or out of the bottle.”
Hyrule stares at him. He can see his brothers in his peripheral vision, too. Legend has gone ashen, Twilight is frozen, and Four’s hand flexes over his sword hilt. Wild hugs himself, and Hyrule thinks Sky speaks for all of them when he rasps, “What?”
Wind looks between them. “It wasn’t—okay, yeah, we were against it when we heard. But the Capt’n made the deal without us, and he was fine. I told you, their attacks were—”
“Yeah, you keep saying that,” Legend interrupts. “But who are you trying to convince, Wind? You—you and Time were kids, and you already said yourself Link tried to keep you away from the war. Kudos to him, it’s more than anyone ever did for most of us, but I’ll kiss Hylia’s ass—”
“Legend!”
“—if you’re right and the two of you knew what he was actually going through.”
“Legend that’s enough,” Time grabs the vet’s shoulder and pulls him back in just enough time that when Wind surges forward, he doesn’t break Legend’s nose with his head. Hyrule startles. He hadn’t realized how close Legend got to Wind. Hadn’t recognized the anger twisting the normally happy sailor’s face.
“You weren’t there, Vet!”
“Wind,” Sky starts, alarmed, but the sailor plows over him.
“I was, and Time was, an’ Zelda an’ Impa an’ a whole lotta other people who all know Capt’n better’n you! People he trusts.” Wind spits the last word, then straightens, the anger morphing into determination. “An’ I’ll prove it to ya.”
Dodging reaching hands, Wind sprints ahead down the path.
“Where is he—where is he going?” Four asks. For once, the smithy sounds lost, but this is one question the traveler thinks he can answer.
“To find his brother,” he sighs. A hand falls on his shoulder and squeezes, and he looks up to meet Time’s eye.
“I just hope he finds what he’s looking for,” the old man says.
Legend, still in Time’s grasp on the other side, narrows his eyes.
“I’ve had more time to think about what happened,” Time explains. “More perspective. For Wind, the wounds of the war are so fresh… the idea Link might have hidden his own wounds, might not have trusted us with them… that we didn’t see them anyway…”
He turns his gaze to Legend.
“We need to be there for him.”
Legend folds his arms, but nods and grumbles, “I shouldn’t have yelled. But…” the eyebrow he raises has some of his usual energy back. “If you want to be there for him, Old Man, we gotta get running.”
The three of them all turn and look down the path. Their brothers are strung out along it like bright, metal and leather flowers, all racing after the blue star far ahead.
“Fuck,” Time sighs.
Hyrule, Time, and Legend catch up to their brothers while they’re trudging up a hill. Wind is still ahead, but Wolfie walks at his side, the sailor’s hand resting on the wolf’s head.
“Stupid… animal stamina…” Sky groans when they reach him. The Skyloftian is at the back of the pack and panting for every breath. Hyrule smiles at him sympathetically, but leaves him in Legend’s capable hands and keeps climbing.
He’s worried about how Wind will react when they find his captain. No doubt, at worst, Link is dead to time, and at best, he’s faced the consequences of his deal. Great Fairies never say all of the contract aloud. There is always something extra, some twist to their words hidden in their magic. With luck and experience, a Hylian can recognize that twist—but someone desperate like the captain is all the more likely to miss it.
Hyrule has never heard of a deal like this one, though. Bottling a Hylian… shivering, the traveler squints ahead. He’s passed everyone but Wild, at this point, and the champion is steadily closing the gap between him, Wolfie, and Wind.
None of his brothers know about his fairy heritage yet. The temptation to tell them has filled him many times, sweet as honey straight from the comb, but the sight of bottled fairies has kept him silent. He doesn’t think they’d try to capture him—has no doubt Legend would kill them first if they tried—but the fear of being bottled is instinctual.
Captain Link must be either very stupid or very brave, Hyrule thinks, to agree to being bottled.
A finger pokes Hyrule in the shoulder, making him jump and whirl.
Wild’s diamond-blue eyes stare back at him.
“Okay?” the champion signs.
“Fine,” Hyrule says.
He looks up the hill at Wolfie and Wind, who are now in hearing distance; he hadn’t even realized he’d caught up.
“Okay, maybe not,” he admits to Wild. “I’m—” he looks up at Wind again, then signs, “I’m thinking about the captain in a bottle.”
Wild’s arms come up to hug himself again, shoulders curling in and making him look smaller. Then he straightens, freeing his hands to sign, “The captain turned himself into a weapon. I can’t—” Wild frowns and studies his hands. “When I emerged from the shrine… when the king told me my purpose, when I remembered my past… I often felt like a weapon, but I never was one.”
Hyrule waits for more, but Wild’s hands fall to his side and his eyes meet Hyrule’s. For the first time since the traveler met the champion, he thinks his brother seems afraid.
“We still don’t know what we’ll find,” Hyrule whispers, hoping the words comfort Wild more than they do himself.
“Hey!”
Hyrule looks ahead. Wind is right in front of them, anger seemingly gone as he waves his hand overhead excitedly.
“Wolfie senses something!”
And so does Hyrule, he realizes suddenly. Standing on top of the hill, taking the moment to breathe and his attention no longer just on Wild, magic in the air tugs and begs for his attention like a mother who misses her child. It swirls around him on the wind, carrying pine needles and flower petals, and it ripples through the grass, stirring up the leafy scent and mixing it with that of cool, fresh water.
It’s as though the magic wants to remind him of the wonder of the world, just as he was reminded when he first came through the portal.
A wet nose nudges Hyrule’s palm. He looks down to see Wolfie, ears back and eyes plaintive, then up to find the rest of their brothers reaching the hilltop.
Hyrule clears his throat. “The fountain is this way.” He gestures to the forest on their right, and even as he says the words, the magic around him grows stronger and the trees glow with an inner light.
Sliding up next to him, Legend narrows his eyes on the forest. “You sure?” he asks. “It seems almost too welcoming.”
In front of them, Wind frowns. “We’re not looking for the Great Fairy,” he objects. “We’re looking for Link.”
Everyone stills. Hyrule doesn’t know what to say, but thankfully, he doesn’t have to figure it out:
Four says, “Last you knew, they were together. She can tell us what happened next.”
It’s not a lie. Hyrule thinks that’s the only thing that saves them, because Wind accepts Four’s words and starts running again. The other Links follow, breaths huffing in and out, but Hyrule doesn’t hear any complaining. Not even from Sky.
They’re all too worried about what they’ll find.
It doesn’t take them long to make their way through the undergrowth. It parts around them, trees bowing their branches and bushes leaning away, clearing a path smoothed by tiny animal paws.
The Chain goes carefully. Legend’s words echo in their heads, and they’ve all seen traps and people who wear welcoming facades to hide the tricks underneath.
And yet, they don’t slow. Anxiety makes their hearts beat faster, their steps quicker, until finally Hyrule comes to a stop. Behind him, there’s clattering and cursing as his brothers try not to run into each other.
“Hyrule,” Legend complains. “A little warning?”
“Sorry,” he says. “I just—we’re almost there.”
Silence falls. Then—
“How do you know?” Four asks.
“Just a hunch.” Hyrule doesn’t know how else to put it. It’s not his mind that knows the Mother is in a clearing just three large pines ahead, it’s his body. His wings shiver, begging to be let out, to fly with his sisters and be graced by his Mother’s magic. “I’m going to scout ahead.”
Before Hyrule’s even taken a step, someone grabs his shoulder. He looks back to see Time, one eye grave under a heavy brow. Hyrule waits. He expects Time to forbid him, to have to fight to go ahead alone. But—
“Be careful,” Time murmurs. “This magic… I’ve never felt anything like it.”
Hyrule nods. “I will.”
He continues on. He doesn’t keep to the path; he steps off it, disappearing into the undergrowth, and when he can no longer see his companions, he focuses his magic inward. One breath, two, and Hyrule bursts into flight, tiny wings flapping rapidly to keep his fairy form alight. He darts through the trees, weaving around trunks and under branches, till finally he comes to rest on a sprig. Its pine needles prick at him, but more importantly, it pokes out into the clearing.
The Great Fairy Fountain is huge. Made of marble, it reflects the sun like a radiant beacon. Fairies dance in the beams, crystal laughter tinkling throughout the clearing, and the forest’s prey animals sleep in the grass, unafraid of being out in the open. No predator dares harm them here.
Hyrule can almost believe the peace of the clearing is real—except balanced on the rim of the fountain is a glass bottle large enough to fit a Hylian.
Hyrule peers closer, trying to see if anyone is inside, but he can’t tell. A mass of fairies, some sleeping, some flying, encircles the bottom of the glass and conceals whomever may or may not be inside.
Hyrule has to get closer.
He bounces on the branch, letting it sway under his weight, then springs upward and forward. In seconds, his sisters spot him, and they swarm him.
“Brother!” they shrill. “Brother, welcome!”
Hyrule does his best to stay on track, but with so many fairies around him, it still takes him time he doesn’t have to reach the bottle.
Looking inside makes his heart lurch.
A Hylian lies in the bottle, curled on his side with his back pressed to the glass. His skin is sun-tanned, except for the tips of his short ears, his nose, and his arms—those are sun-burned, red and peeling. He wears a green tunic, brown leather boots, and a blue scarf; metal and leather armor lays in a pile next to him.
He doesn’t look unwell—his lips aren’t chapped, his cheeks aren’t hollow, he must be getting food and water—but he doesn’t look well, either. He’s slumped in on himself, to say the least of the fact he’s been in a bottle for Hylia knows how long.
Hyrule drifts forward and rests his hand on the glass. “Link?” he whispers.
No reply.
“Link?” he asks, louder.
The Hylian doesn’t stir, but the mass of fairies does. They lift into flight on the other side of the bottle, and when he looks down, he sees hundreds of tiny faces staring up at him—
A body rockets into his, slamming him face-first into the glass.
“Who are you?” a voice snarls. “Who sent you?”
“I—”
“Is this a trick?!”
Vaguely, Hyrule recognizes that whoever has him pinned is the same size as him. This isn’t some monster, it’s another fairy.
He coughs, trying to breathe in more air.
“I’m not your enemy,” he swears, and as he feels the magic of the oath settle on his shoulders, he hopes it’s true. “I’m here for him!”
“How?” the fairy snarls.
“What?”
“How are you here for him?! For what purpose?!”
“To—” Hyrule coughs “—to rescue him! I’m with Time and Wind!”
The pin was already loosening when he said ‘rescue,’ but at the last sentence, the pin releases entirely and Hyrule drops. Rapidly flapping his wings, he just saves himself from plummeting to his death and turns around.
The fairy has long blonde hair braided into a bun at the nape of her neck, violet wings, and fierce eyes that glow with the blue of her magic.
“You’re with who?” she asks, voice lilting up in confusion.
“Time… and Wind?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know those people,” she tells him. “But if you’re here to rescue Link, you’ve got our help!” She slams her fist into her chest, and around them, other fairies do the same.
They’re surrounded, Hyrule realizes. The mass of fairies who were around the bottle and the fairies who greeted him have all flown over and hover, ears tilted forward eagerly.
“You’d defy Mother?” Hyrule asks in surprise. “All of you?”
The fairy who ambushed him scowls. “Mother hasn’t been the same since the War started. First Ganondorf’s darkness, then messing with the Triforce of Courage… Link never should have lent her his magic. Once she realized the power it gave her, she couldn’t let it go… Couldn’t let him go.”
She droops, eyes locked on the Hylian in the bottle.
“We couldn’t do anything,” she says sadly. “We could help him and Zelda on the battlefield, but against Mother? Useless.”
Another fairy darts forward, warm orange magic washing over the first fairy. “That’s not true, Proxi! We kept him alive. Remember? And now—now they can free him!”
The first fairy, Proxi, shakes herself, and when she looks back at them, her shoulders have straightened and she seems more like the fairy who body-slammed Hyrule.
“He can’t really walk,” she warns. “Our magic sustains him, but with the War over, the Great Fairy no longer releases him for battle, and he doesn’t have room to exercise in the bottle.”
Hyrule nods. The words are grim, but he latches onto one vital detail: “He will wake up, then? Be aware?” Throughout the entire conversation, Link hasn’t stirred once.
“He will,” Proxi confirms. “He does it less and less these days, but he will. Now, fetch your friends, and hurry! Mother is the one you don’t want to wake.”
Hyrule transforms into his Hylian form at the edge of the clearing, then makes his way back to the Chain through the undergrowth. He knows Twilight will be listening for his return, and even if the journey is harder than it was when he was smaller, Hyrule is still the traveller, used to traversing difficult terrain. A forest thriving under the magic of a Great Fairy is nothing in comparison to the deadly forests of his own time.
When he emerges onto the path, his brothers greet him with expectant faces.
“He’s through there,” Hyrule says, nodding towards the clearing. “Just a few meters, then there’s an open clearing. The Great Fairy and Link are both asleep, but the fairies are ready to help us.”
“What do you mean, Link is there?” Wind asks. The sailor’s eyes are wide. “He should be—the War is over—why is he here—”
Hyrule grimaces, but as gently as he can, he says, “The Great Fairy never let him go, Wind. She—she kept him.”
For a moment, Wind’s teeth bite into his lower lip. Then he hisses, “She did what?”
“She—” Hyrule begins, but breaks off when Wind storms down the path. The rest of the Chain hurry after him, and Wild just manages to grab their rogue sailor by the shoulder and pull him back before he enters the clearing by himself.
“We can’t just go in weapons raised!” Twilight scolds. “We might… disturb…”
Twilight trails off. Hyrule looks past the knot of Links clogging the path, and his stomach sinks, skin breaking out in goosebumps.
Sprawled in the fountain, so tall that even sitting the top of her head is even with the peak of the fountain’s looming centerpiece, sits a Great Fairy. Long hair the color of bright pink hibiscus flowers sweeps down her back, and lush verdant vines keep twin ponytails in place. Her eyes gleam with pink magic to match her hair, but even as Hyrule watches, blue lightning flickers through them—a flash of the magic that belongs to the Hylian lying in the bottle she taps with one sharp fingernail.
“So,” the Great Fairy purrs. “Come to marvel at my weapon, have you?”
She pauses, but no one speaks.
She continues, “You’re not the first. The queen herself has come many times. That court witch, too, and her sister. Even offered to buy him from me! But well—” she grins, a sly stretch of pink lipstick “—if so many want him, how could I ever put a price on his head? Better to keep him here with me. Safe.”
“Safe?” Time asks.
Hyrule looks to his leader. It’s the first word any of them have uttered since they entered the clearing, and it comes in a low, heavy voice. Time stares at the Great Fairy, one hand clenched around the hilt of the Biggoron’s Sword.
“You think he’s safe here? In that—in that bottle? I saw him safe. On the battlefield, with his brothers at his back, and after, when his friends tended to his wounds. You took that from us, and we trusted you. Now we take him back!”
A roar erupts from Time’s throat and he charges forward, drawing the Biggoron’s Sword.
Hyrule yelps—he didn’t think they’d full-on attack the Great Fairy—but he dashes for the bottle and the brother inside. It’s easy enough at first—all he has to do is avoid the Great Fairy and Time—but when he’s almost there, the bottle whisks away. Hyrule stumbles, suddenly seeing the marble rim of the fountain approaching at speed, and he just manages to slow down enough that when he slams into the fountain, he catches himself on the rim with his hands and doesn’t go for a swim.
“You need to get her to use a big attack!”
What? Hyrule whirls around and comes face to face with Proxi. The blue fairy pants for breath, exhaustion written so large into her features that even Hyrule, with his Hylian eyes, can see it.
“All her big attacks let Link out of the bottle!” Proxi explains. “They do more damage separately than together. She won’t do that right now, she knows you’ll just take him and run, but if we can get her to work on instinct—”
“She’ll do it anyway,” Hyrule breathes out. Just like all those times he’s snapped his fingers and called lightning, even when he knows he doesn’t have the magic for it.
But how do they badger a Great Fairy to that extent?
Hyrule turns to study the battle, absently noting the small weight of Proxi settling on his shoulder.
All the combatants are centered around the fountain. The Great Fairy keeps one foot in the water and the center of her magic, but the captain’s bottle is capped with a long steel chain, letting her use it like a flail for distance. Time got in close with his sudden attack and is still there, but while the other Links have drawn their weapons, they seem to be having trouble getting near the Great Fairy—the two exceptions being Four and Wild, who have backed up to the pine trees with their bows.
Even as Hyrule watches, an arrow slams into the elbow crease of the arm wielding Link’s bottle. The Great Fairy shouts, then catches the chain with her other hand and whips the bottle at Wild.
The champion leaps out of the way, but the captain isn’t so lucky. Trapped in the bottle, the high velocity throws him against the glass sides, making Proxi whimper in Hyrule’s ear.
“We have to free him!” she shrills.
“We will,” he reassures her, still tracking the bottle.
The captain is awake now—his arms up and protecting his head, his legs bent at the knees to absorb shockwaves—and if the Great Fairy knows that, their chances of her letting him out just got higher.
“Proxi, can you tell our archers to separate? I want them on opposite ends of the fountain.”
“Aye-aye!” she says, then pushes off his shoulder and darts away.
He blinks after her. That sounds like something Wind would say, but she said she didn’t know the name…
Shrugging it off, Hyrule runs into battle. He has a half-mapped plan in his head, and he needs to let his brothers know.
An unknown amount of time later, minutes that felt like hours, Hyrule stands in the middle of the clearing. Around him, his brothers have spread themselves out, leaving Time to take the brunt of the Great Fairy’s attacks but not giving her cause to use the bottle. They’re all waiting on his signal.
Heart beating fast, Hyrule raises his hand. He didn’t tell his brothers what the signal would be, partly because he didn’t have the time, and partly because—
Well. It’s the most obvious signal in the world.
Hyrule snaps his fingers. Lightning juts from the clear blue sky, hits the Great Fairy dead-on, crackles down her body to the fountain, sparks across the water’s surface, and crackles up again. The Great Fairy stumbles away from the water, yelling, and drops the bottle. Within it, the captain looks dazed, but the glass has kept him safe from the lightning.
While the Great Fairy is distracted, Hyrule and his brothers surge in closer from six different points around the fountain. She only notices them when they’re steps away, and screaming in anger, she lunges for the fountain, only to jerk back when she notices electricity still dancing along the water’s surface.
“You’re dead!” she rages. “I’ve been playing with you!”
Without a thought, on instinct and fear alone, she grabs the bottle, pops the cork, and throws the captain into the air.
For a moment, Hyrule stops breathing.
Then Wind yells, “Capt’n!”
Hyrule runs forward, half his brothers following him while the other half engage the Great Fairy again, and he reaches Link just as his brother hits the ground. Link’s legs buckle under his own weight, but hundreds of fairies straining at his clothes keep him from further injury and from collapsing entirely.
Link stares up at them. His body is battered and bruised, one eye already swelling closed, and he slumps into Wind’s outstretched arms.
“Tune?” he slurs. “Thought you went home.”
Wind hiccups. “I did, Capt’n,” he whispers. “But I came back for you. Me an’ Mask, an’ all yer new brothers.”
Link hums. “Love brothers.”
Hyrule’s heart wrenches. He wants to let them have their reunion, but they need to move.
“Time to go,” Twilight says. The rancher came with them, and thank Hylia. Where Hyrule and Wind would have struggled, Twilight leans down, slides his arms under Link’s knees and back, and picks him up with ease. Fairies fly around them like snow flurries, kissing blessings to Twilight’s cheeks, smoothing back Link’s hair, and showering healing magic. As Hyrule watches, Link’s swelling eye returns to normal and his gaze turns shrewd as he looks at Twilight and Hyrule.
“Tune?” he asks warily.
“They’re good,” Wind says. “I know you’d rather walk, Cap, but Twi’s gotcha this once, okay?”
“You!” the Great Fairy shrieks, and they all jolt and turn.
The fountain isn’t electrified anymore, and she’s returned to the center of her power. She looms over them from it, bottle in hand—then she smashes it against the marble and raises a glass shard the height of Hyrule himself in her fist.
“Get back here!”
“Time to go!” the captain says, hurriedly patting at Twilight’s chest. “Proxi!”
Hyrule, Twilight, and Wind start running, and Proxi flits out of the fairy flurry to land in Link’s lap.
“Here, Captain!” she chirps. She still looks tired, but she glows with happiness looking at Link. “Ready to flee so we can fight another day!”
“That’s my girl,” Link laughs. It comes out raspy, half-caught in his throat, but it’s a laugh. Hyrule shares a grin with Twilight.
Then, as they cross the line from clearing to forest, Hyrule turns and hollers, “Time!”
“Around mid-day!” Legend snipes. The vet sends a spark of magic to his pegasus boots and books it after them. Wild and Four round the outer rim of the clearing, and Time and Sky bring up the rear, the Biggoron’s Sword and the Master Sword keeping the Great Fairy at bay.
They move quickly but silently after that. Some of the fairies accompany them, healing small injuries as they go, but the worst is the deterioration Link’s body faced in his longterm imprisonment, which can’t be healed with any potion or spell that Hyrule knows. Link will have to heal the old-fashioned way.
Finally, they exit the forest. Hyrule heaves in a breath of fresh air, glad to be out of the Great Fairy’s immediate territory, and the Chain waves goodbye to most of the fairies. Proxi stays where she’s nestled into Link’s lap, his hands cupped around her and fingers gently rubbing over her hair.
“Well,” Sky starts awkwardly. He looks around, probably taking in the vast greenery and lack of people around them, then looks back at them. “Time for a rest?”
Anything else someone might have said is interrupted by Wind bursting into tears.
“Tune?” Link asks, alarm in his voice when the sailor tries to cling to him while he’s still in Twilight’s arms.
“Hey now,” Twilight soothes. “Lemme just—” he sets Link and Proxi down, and Wind follows them “—Sailor, are you—”
“You said you were fine,” Wind sobs. “You promised, an’ I just—I just went home! If I’d known, I would’ve done something! I never would’ve left you! Never!”
“I know,” Link murmurs. “I know, Tune. That’s why I couldn’t tell you.”
Wind pulls back, devastation etched onto his face. “You don’t walk the plank when the ship is in trouble,” he cries. “You go down with her an’ the crew!”
That makes zero sense to Hyrule, but he thinks Link understands, judging by the way he pulls Wind into a hug.
“I’m sorry,” Link says.
“I’m never lookin’ at a fairy bottle the same way again,” Wind says. His voice is muffled, but then he turns his head and looks up at Hyrule and the others. “Do we have any fairies right now?”
One by one, the Links shake their heads, till Legend pulls a singular jar from his pack. Inside, the fairy is asleep.
“Here,” Legend says, handing the bottled fairy to Wind. For a moment, the sailor cradles it—then, with a twist of his wrist, he releases the fairy. She spins into the air with a shower of magic and darts from hero to hero.
Looking for injuries, Hyrule thinks, but their sisters already healed what they could. In moments, the fairy is gone, flying into the forest and chasing the call of their Mother.
He could have watched the forest forever, following the magical trail his sister left through the trees, but Proxi’s voice draws him back to his brothers when she says, “Link? Are you okay?!”
The captain sits on the ground still, but he lists toward the sailor; Hyrule thinks Wind is doing most of the job of keeping them upright.
Link grunts. “Just tired. This is the most excitement I’ve had in…” he frowns. “I don’t know how long, actually.”
“Neither do we,” Time says. He moves up beside them and squats, wincing, to put a hand on both Wind’s and Link’s shoulders. “But you don’t look too much older.”
Link and Proxi stare at Time with the exact same expression, their brows furrowing in confusion before their eyes widen in realization.
“Mask?” Link asks. “You—you’re all grown up!”
“I am,” Time says. “And I’ve had a lot of time to think about how you ended up in that bottle and all the things I should’ve done… but you’re here now.” Time smiles. “You’re here, and you’re hurt, but we’re going to take care of you this time and you’re going to let us. All of us.”
The captain looks up at them. Six Links, all in a circle around Time, Wind, and their newest brother.
“You’ve found quite the family,” Link says wistfully.
“And they’re all mother cuccos when they want to be,” Time replies. “I reckon you’ve got those instincts stirring.”
Link laughs. “Still a troublemaker, huh?”
Time’s smile widens, and Sky kneels beside them. “I think we’d all love to hear stories about baby Time,” Sky says. “But first, maybe we can find out your hero name?”
Later, when they’ve settled into a camp for the night, Hyrule lies in-between the sleeping forms of Warriors and Legend. It was a fight for who would get to sleep next to their newest brother, until Warriors decreed that he needed his personal space. Hyrule won the fight by pointing out that if the captain needed medical attention during the night, Hyrule himself was most qualified to help.
But what Hyrule really wanted was this:
Rolling onto his side and leaning towards Warriors, Hyrule murmurs, “If you ever want to talk about it… I’m part fairy.”
Then he rolls over, cuddling into Legend and basking in the comfort that he said the words aloud. Maybe someday, he can tell his brothers his secret while they’re awake.