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Legend was already in a foul mood before the body fell from the sky.
With all his adventures, he would like to say that a portal leading him to stumble on eight other versions of himself isn't the strangest thing to happen to him. Unfortunately, it had been a very strange day, even by his standards.
After several very confusing hours of threats, introductions, and various exclamations that all amounted to “What the fuck?!” they had managed to establish a few things: Things were going to get confusing very quickly if they called each other by name, every single one of them had secrets they were cagey as hell about, and nobody knew what was going on or why.
They had come to a silent unanimous agreement to follow Time, despite him being as clueless about their circumstances as the rest of them.
Legend followed a bit behind the back of the group, wondering if his life was a divine joke.
Something heavy fell on him, knocking him to the ground. He wheezed for breath. One hand instinctively reached for his sword as he crawled his way from under whatever had hit him.
Legend was surprised to see that what fell on him was a young man in partial armor.
“Goddesses! Did a dead body just fall on me?!”
There was a lot of blood. On the man, on the ground, on Legend. The man was pale. He wasn't moving.
Legend bent down to the man's head to see if he was breathing at all.
The others had already noticed something was up. Four and Wild reached him first.
“What happened?” Four ran up to him.
“Is that guy dead?!”
“He's alive. For now.” Legend quickly ripped off the long cape the man was wearing and set it aside. He didn't know if it was originally red or if the blood had stained it. “Four, put his feet up.”
The rest of the group had caught up.
“Woah! What happened to that guy?” Wind said.
Twilight ruffled his hair. “We'll find out after he doesn't die, Sailor.” He not so subtly tried to steer the kid away from the sight of the bleeding man. Legend resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Brother instincts died hard, it seems.
Warriors and Time helped him pull off the man's armor while the others stayed out of the way and pooled together what healing supplies they had.
There, the wound was in the man's left side, below his ribs. Legend used the cape he tore off to put pressure on the wound.
“This can't be fixed with just potions or fairies,” Warriors said grimly. “This needs cleaning and stitches to have a chance of healing right.”
“I'll do the stitches,” Legend said. “I'm willing to bet mine are better than yours.”
“Ah, so humble.” Warriors huffed but didn't argue.
Sky, who was looking so pale Legend was worried he might pass out himself, left with Hyrule to boil water and sterilize a needle and thread.
Cleaning the wound was tedious and gruesome. It also looked painful enough that Legend was glad the man was passed out.
The strange forest they were in had thick foliage and a cover of mist that made it difficult to see the sky. But it was still clearly evening by the time the wound was deemed clean enough to heal.
A fairy healed the internal damage that was beyond their abilities to treat. They then poured one of Wild's elixirs over the wound to fend off infection. It was less effective than drinking a potion, but nobody wanted to risk choking the man by forcing one down his throat while he was unconscious.
Legend did the stitches neatly and quickly.
“I've never seen stitches done like that before,” Twilight remarked as Hyrule helped hold the man steady while Legend bandaged him. “Where'd you learn to do it like that?”
Legend grunted and shrugged. “Nowhere, really. Already knew how to sew, it wasn't that different.” (Liar. No amount of time sewing clothes and embroidering patches could prepare him for trying to stitch his own skin while hiding from soldiers in a bush.)
Nobody suggested they move to camp for the night. They worked out a schedule for checking the man's fever. Time took the first watch and didn't accept arguments. Warriors offered his bedroll for the injured man, and he would use Time's until they switched watch.
If Legend slept at all, it was in restless bursts. So he was awake to hear the man's barely audible wheezing turn to labored gasps.
He sat up to look. Time was already at the man's side, reaching for a red potion and coaxing him to drink. Legend watched carefully as he managed to down the whole potion.
The man's lips were moving, but he was too quiet for Legend to hear.
Time turned pale as a sheet. Legend was suddenly extremely curious about what he had said to make Time react like that, but the man had already slipped back into sleep.
Time didn't move for a moment before stiffly returning to his post by the fire. He met Legend's eyes. Legend resisted the urge to shudder at the intense gaze.
Time stared at him without blinking until Legend turned over in his bedroll to spend the rest of the night with racing thoughts and restless dreams.
Time knew he wouldn’t be able to get much sleep. Waking up to a dark portal outside his door, meeting other incarnations of the Hero who were all too damn young, finding a boy about to bleed out—far too many old memories had been stirred up for him to rest.
He was left uneasy, and found himself checking the stranger’s fever wasn’t too high more often than necessary just to do something.
It was past midnight when the newcomer finally awoke with pained gasps. Time quickly reached for a red potion from the stash they left near him.
“Easy now,” he murmured gently. Time helped sit up far enough to drink the potion.
He may have been conscious at last, but he was clearly still out of it. Time doubted he would stay awake much longer than it took to swallow the potion. They would have to take the stitches out first thing in the morning before they fused to the skin. But for now, the potion and rest would leave him with the best chance of surviving his wounds.
Time gently helped the strange lean back to the bedroll. He looked at Time with unfocused eyes and a confused expression.
“...Fierce Deity?”
Time felt like he had been punched in the gut. The stranger had already fallen back asleep, but those couple of words had thrown his world off-balance.
It felt like a short eternity before he finally moved back to the firelight. Distantly, he noticed Legend awake and watching him curiously.
He had recognized the marks on Time's face. He had known where they came from. Time had never expected that anyone else would know anything about that mask. Except perhaps the Captain, who may have recognized it from when he used it in the War of Eras, back when he was still foolish enough to use it as a tool.
Time had no idea what it might mean, that this newcomer recognized the Fierce Deity. He doubted it could mean anything good.
Time blinked and realized he had been lost in his thoughts while staring in Legend's direction, who was now laying with his back to him.
He sighed. His right eye had started to ache.
Glancing at the sky to gauge the time was completely useless, as the sky was still blocked by the thick mist of the forest, and he didn't need the stars to know the time regardless. (47 minutes, 10 seconds past midnight. 12 minutes, 50 seconds until Warriors' watch. 13 hours, 52 minutes, 3 seconds since he last saw Malon. 9,136 days, 18 hours, 47 minutes, 10 seconds since the last cycle began.)
He woke Warriors and briefly informed him of the changes with the stranger's condition.
Warriors paused. “Are you alright? You seem... tense.”
Time knew he couldn't lie to him. He also didn't know how to talk about everything swirling in his head right now. “I'll be fine.”
He didn't sleep.
In the morning, he sat silently to the side and watched as the others prepared for the day.
Legend had no problem waking up the stranger to take the stitches out. The heroes roughly gathered around him, eager at the opportunity to learn about their mysterious newcomer, but careful to give him space. Wild was flipping through his strange magical device in a not-so-subtle attempt to look casual. (And failing.)
The stranger hissed through gritted teeth.
“Sorry,” Legend said as he finished, “but we needed to remove those stitches.”
“Don't worry about it,” his face twisted into what could have been a smile or a grimace, “this isn't my first experience with healing.”
Warriors eyed the wound over Legend's shoulder. “Do you mind telling us where you got that wound in the first place?” Legend shoved Warriors away from him with his elbow.
“We found you yesterday, you were hurt pretty bad,” Wild said.
Legend snorted. “We didn't find anything, he literally dropped into our laps. My lap.”
“Anyways,” Twilight shot Legend a reproachful look, “in all the hubbub we never got your name.”
“My name is Link.”
There was a beat of silence as the group processed that.
Four sighed. “Of course it is.”
“We should have expected that, honestly,” Hyrule said.
Twilight groaned. “Who wants to explain, or should I?”
“Go ahead,” Legend sighed. “Goddess knows I already have a headache from this whole thing.”
Time tuned out the explanation, his eyes firmly fixed on Link, and wondered how he might get a moment alone to ask why he knew about the Deity.
The others had turned to a discussion of where they all placed on the timeline.
“I'm sorry, but I've never heard of anything like a cycle of heroes before now.”
“You might be near the beginning, like Sky,” Wind piped up. “He didn't know of any heroes before him either.”
Sky's brow creased as he looked at Link's wound.
“That's... not quite true. There is a story, of a Hero of Hylia before Skyloft rose to the sky.”
Link inhaled sharply. “The sky? That's me then. I remember the city rising up with the sword, when...”
“When what?” Wild asked.
Link gingerly brought a hand to the bandages of his wound. “...I should be dead,” he rasped, hardly louder than a whisper.
Time's expression pinched.
Legend twitched like he'd been struck. “What?”
“This was supposed to kill me.” Link's expression darkened. “I think maybe it did.”
Sky winced. “In the legend... the hero died on the Surface when Hylia raised Skyloft,” he added softly.
Link chuckled humorlessly. “That's half right.” He didn't offer any further explanation.
Awkwardly, the heroes gradually dispersed and left him to rest.
Time approached him.
“Hi?” Link said nervously.
Time held out his hand to help him up. “Come with me. I'm sure you haven't had a chance to relieve yourself since before this mess started.”
“...Okay.”
Time supported him until they were far enough away to have some privacy. They would still have to whisper, though. Sound carried far in a forest. Link sat down against a mossy tree.
“Why did you want me away from the others? I doubt this is really a bathroom break.”
Time shrugged. “You can do that too, it's not like I'll stop you. But no.” He crossed his arms. “I don't know if you remember waking up last night, when I had you drink a red potion.”
Link stilled. “I remember. I thought it might have been a dream, I thought—well, I confused you for someone else.”
They stared each other down for a long moment.
“I need you to tell me what you know about the Fierce Deity.” Time said in a sharp tone.
Link raised an eyebrow. “Tell me how you got his marks branded on your face, and then maybe I'll tell you.”
Time scowled. “This isn't something to take lightly!”
“I know that!” Link snapped. He took a shuddering breath. “I know that better than anyone else.”
“Then what—”
“Why do you even want to know? It wouldn't change anything that's already happened, I doubt it would change much in the future, either.”
“Because—because it could be dangerous—“
“What do you want me to tell you?”
Link closed his eyes and leaned his head back. He suddenly looked much more worn and tired than he had a moment before.
“That he wasn't an enemy but you'd be a fool to call him a friend? That he terrified to my bones? That I owe him more than I can say, including my life several times over and an apology? I don't know what you want me to say.”
Time frowned. “That Deity is dangerous.”
“Believe me, I know.” Link ran his hand through his hair. “Just as dangerous to those who are desperate enough to make a deal with him as those he fights.”
“People make deals with him?”
Link frowned. “But if you didn't, then how—”
Wild came crashing through the trees. “Uh, Time? Sorry to interrupt your bathroom break,” he rolled his eyes and mimed quotation marks, “but Wind climbed on Hyrule, and now Hyrule is trying to climb on top of Warriors' shoulders while Wind is on his shoulders, do you think—”
“Right, I should... stop that. Wild, help him get back?”
“No problem.”
Time sighed. Well, he should make sure those boys didn't hurt themselves.
Wild held his breath until Time was gone. Time was more than a bit intimidating to talk to, especially when he was clearly not in a good mood.
Wild turned to the newest Link. “He was glaring at you pretty hard earlier, thought you might want a chance to escape.”
“So that was a lie to distract him?”
“Oh no,” Wild grinned, “they were totally trying to find the answer to how many Links can be stacked on top of each other, and when I left the answer was at least three.”
He blinked. “I think you would get along well with my friend, Orville.”
“I don't see any reason we couldn't.” Wild paused. “As long as he likes horses ”
Link was struck with the thought that he would never see Orville again. It felt like a physical blow that knocked his breath out. Any levity he felt was stripped away.
“Yeah,” he choked out, “he likes horses.”
Wild paused. “Are you okay?” He sat down next to him.
“I don't know.” Link closed his eyes and sucked in a breath. “I just realized I'm never going to see any of my friends again.”
“...That's probably a no, then.”
Link huffed. “Probably.”
Wild tugged at a ribbon around his wrist. “I... had wanted to talk to you, too.”
Link turned his head to look at him.
“The others already know most of it, to explain—” Wild gestured to the extensive scarring on his face “—this. But, um, there was a fight where, where things didn't go so well. And I ended up... I still don't know if I nearly died, or actually died and was brought back.”
“Oh,” Link breathed out.
“It took a hundred years before I woke up, and by then... everything was gone. Different.” Wild took a deep breath. “This part I haven't really talked about with the others, but I also lost all my memories. I've been getting some back, but it's... not much. I don't think I can express how little it actually is.
“I just, well, if you wanted to talk about—um, yeah.” Wild looked at the ground, his fingers anxiously fiddling with the ribbon.
It had seemed like, not exactly an easy decision, but a simple one, to tell Link his story after hearing his ragged words, “I should be dead.” Out of all the heroes, Wild had thought he could relate to that the most. But now he wished more than anything to take back everything and be swallowed by the ground. Why would he assume Link, who if they were right was the very first of them, could relate to him, the hero who failed so miserably?
Link tugged away his hand that had been pulling at the ribbon and held it.
“The last thing I remember is laying on the ground,” he said quietly, “watching the land rise to the sky. And then...” Link frowned, “I guess something sent me here, same as the rest of you. But, it feels like it was a lot longer before I came to you guys.” He let out a shaky breath and said like he was confessing a terrible secret, “I think I was somewhere else that I don't remember for... a long time before you found me.”
Wild chewed on the inside of his cheek. “I don't remember any of my time in the Shrine of Resurrection, but... sometimes it's like I can feel it. The time I missed. Even the memories I have from before, they feel so far away, like they belong to someone else.”
“What a pair we make.”
“Two guys with screwed up memories who may or may not have been raised from the dead,” Wild said dryly.
Link huffed. “Just the usual, no big deal.”
Wild chuckled. They sat there for a while longer. “It should be safe to head back. Time should be past the worst of the lecture and disappointed glare by now.”
Link groaned. “Moving is going to hurt.”
Wild grimaced in sympathy. “I'm sure you'll have an elixir forced on you the moment we get back.” He stood up.
Link took a breath and braced himself. “Alright. Let's do this.”
Wild grasped his hand and helped him up, and Link gritted his teeth against the pain. Wild supported his weight as they stumbled back to camp.