Chapter Text
They were surrounded and injured. Wild and Warriors had gotten separated from the rest of the Chain as soon as they'd fallen through the portal. It had deposited them in the middle of what felt like an army of monsters. Just the two of them against the horde — and they were losing.
Despite the fact that Wild and Warriors both had experience fighting mass volumes of monsters, they had never faced this caliber: black-blooded and white furred. Some of them even sported armor sparsely decorated except for an engraved Triforce of Power. From how scratched and dented some of them were, this wasn't their first battle.
Warriors' focus spirit wore out, ending his frenetic attacks with a blast of light, only achievable by expending vast amounts of magic. They'd bet on Warriors putting a sizeable dent in the crowd, leaving Wild to clean up the weakened rest.
It didn't work.
The blast of light had only felled a few, leaving plenty still looking far too healthy.
Wild turned when he heard a crunch of snow. Wars knelt there, pale, panting, leaning heavily on his sword. The mass of bokoblins and taros pressed in, clumping together.
Luckily, Wild still had a similar attack of his own.
"Stay down!" Wild called, taking deep breaths and calling upon any static in the air. When he had a hold of enough, he held his left hand up and snapped, thunder falling from the cloudy sky onto the surrounding horde. Urbosa appeared behind him, snapping her fingers in tandem.
The bokoblins up front screeched, raising the hairs on the back of his neck. A few fell, their bodies twitching with the lingering electricity. Behind them, perfectly healthy moblins and taros pressed in.
Damn! That had been his last charge of Urbosa's Fury. He wouldn't have another for four hours.
"Keep up the pressure!" something cried. Fan-fucking-tastic, some of these monsters were powerful enough to speak.
An iron knuckle was suddenly before him, ax raised high. Wild called on Daruk's Protection simply on instinct, the orange shield repelling the attack, spiderweb cracks flaring. The iron knuckle swung against the shield, the cracks widening and spreading. Daruk's spirit roared at each hit.
"Wars!" Wild grunted under the effort. He couldn't break his concentration to ready his shield. He wouldn't have enough time.
The Captain was suddenly at his back, breath heaving as he slayed a bokoblin creeping up behind. Warriors stood on shaky legs, wrenching his sword from the crunchy snow and dirt. His heavy breaths clouded in the air.
He stabbed into a chink in the iron knuckle's armor under its arm. It winced and fell back, armored hand reaching up to clutch the damaged area.
Wild lowered his hands, letting Daruk's Protection drop. There was only one charge left. He wouldn't be able to protect Warriors. Wild had to draw their attention.
Wars was gonna hate him for this.
That was fine. Wild could handle this.
He ignored the throbbing ache in his leg as he spun in a wide circle, claymore gripped tightly with both hands.
The iron knuckle and other monsters pushed the horde away, creating the space he needed.
Wild ended the spin, bringing the claymore down on an unlucky taros, its lizard-like body collapsing into a heap of black blood and guts.
In the space Wild created, he crouched, gathering the winds around him. He jumped and summoned his paraglider, Revali and the winds carrying him high above the horde. At its zenith, he let go, the world falling slow around him. His bow was in his hands the next moment, bomb arrows nocked, aimed for the edge of the crowd. He couldn't hit Wars.
He released his breath, letting the arrows fly. They struck true, exploding against the monsters, sending several through the air, crashing into the drifts and trees. The snow beneath their smoking bodies hissed as it evaporated.
He had enough energy for one more round, but he didn't have time to be precise.
Three more arrows nocked, pull back, aim the best he could, release.
The bullet time ended as the heat from the explosions blanketed over him.
Wild landed roughly, stumbling, ducking out of the way of an angry moblin with a wicked looking blade. He heard the rough and jagged edges hiss through the air.
There were still two charges left of Revali's Gale. He was running low on bomb arrows, but he'd have enough to thin the horde. There were maybe two dozen left by his rough estimate. He could just see over the bobbing heads several of them running to the trees for cover. He crouched once again, gathered the winds, and leapt.
He was already in the air when he heard Warriors' warning. What Wild didn't notice was the lynel, standing resolutely on the outskirts, bow in hand. Its eyes narrowed as it aimed carefully.
Wild didn't see the arrows until they were already sailing towards him, too late for him to change his trajectory. He tensed, raised his hand-
Something tore into him. He was falling apart, he knew it. He'd blown himself up, surely. He could feel how his muscles ripped, his lungs were gone, he couldn't breathe-
He lost his grip on his bow. Heat washed over him.
When Warriors was next aware, his first sensations were cold, wet. He smelled smoke and something that reeked of charred, rancid meat. His stomach lurched, already churning from his magic use. The world spun without him, leaving him stranded in the snow.
Arching his spine, Warriors rolled himself onto his stomach just before emptying the contents into the no longer fresh snow.
"Wild," He called out hesitantly. There were monsters close by, he remembered that. There was an archer and Wild was vulnerable firing off his own arrows. Had his attack succeed and that's why there was silence?
Blinking to clear the water and blood out of his vision, Warriors scanned the battlefield of charred bodies looking for his brother.
Metres ahead, Wild was knelt in the snow and facing away from Warriors. He needed to speak with Wild but Warriors was still to get his head communicating with his mouth. While trying to sort himself out, Warriors watched Wild slumped over to became half buried in the snow.
Caution was abandoned. Warriors shouted with no clear message in mind. He just need Wild to hear and respond.
He immediately regretted it when he heard answering shouts from someone that was not his brother. Just beyond the tree line more monsters appeared, heading for their direction.
Legs shaking too much to stand, Warriors crawled his way to Wild's side before the monsters completely descended upon the vulnerable heroes. Rolling Wild onto his back revealed the damage. It was as bad as Warriors had expected and worse than he had hoped.
There were five arrows embedded in Wild's torso and leg.
The vibrant red of blood stained Wild's tunic and the snow around him. More blood trickled out of the corner of Wild's mouth, evidence a lung had been pierced. Of the five arrows in Wild's body, there were three that could have been the culprit.
"It's not too bad," Warriors lied. "I've got you." Wild didn't dignify that with a response. The fear in his eyes said it all. Without magic, five arrows and a pierced lung were a death sentence.
Even knowing the monsters would be there shortly, Warriors tried to stop the bleeding. He picked the two worst wounds to apply pressure to and pushed down. Warriors could feel Wild buck against the pressure, nearly throwing Warriors off. This probably said more about how weak Warriors was than the strength Wild had left. The only reason he managed to keep his hold on Wild was because Warriors had throw his whole body weight into pushing down.
Sharp claws and heavy paws grabbed onto Warriors and pulled him off of Wild. He fought, whatever strength he had left went into fighting, but it did no good. Those strong hands got a hold of his arms, wrenching them behind his back. The monsters pulled so painfully Warriors was afraid his shoulders would dislocate.
Thick, rough rope was looped around his wrists and pulled tight. Goose bumps, completely unrelated to the cold, prickled along Warriors skin. With a burst of energy fueled by panic, he tried kicking at the monsters' legs and tugging his hands free before the ropes became too tight. There was nothing coordinated about his attacks, Warriors just needed to be free. It had become clear in these last few seconds. This wasn't an attack, it was an ambush.
To say he became a beast is putting it mildly. Bitting at the shoulder of one monster that came to close. Head butting another. Twice he nearly slipped the rope before another hand appeared to hold him in place. With the adrenaline fading Warriors resigned himself to his fate.
The monsters were taking them prisoner.
The monsters were taking them prisoner.
That meant they wanted them alive.
Warriors stopped kicking, sagging into the monsters grip. There would be time for fighting later. For now he needed to convince the enemy to save Wild.
"My friend," Warriors gasped out. "He's hurt badly. Heal him or he'll die."
"Good," said a taros. "Then we don't have to waste any time on him."
"If you want your prisoners to survive you have to do something," Warriors argued. "A potion, bandages, something!"
"We want one prisoner," said a big blin. "You. The other one is useless."
"No!" Warriors cried out. "Save him, takes us both. I'll come quietly if you do." He desperately tried to think of a reason Wild would be valuable to them.
"If you ask me," said the moblin holding onto Warriors, "you'll be coming whether you want to or not." He gave Warriors a violent shake to demonstrate.
The big blin moved closer to Wild, standing over him and assessing. Please, Warriors begged silently. He's useful. Save him. Wild's fearful eyes flickered between Wars and the monster looming over him. Did he know that being taken prisoner was his best chance at survival?
At last the Blin spoke. "No use wasting arrows." It reached down to grasp at an arrow shaft. Pulling upward, the arrow briefly lifted Wild's body off the ground. Then gravity took over, and with a sickening squelch the arrowhead pulled free of Wild's ribs. The Champion didn't so much as scream as he gurgled around the blood pooling in his throat.
Wild may have been silenced but Warriors screamed enough for the both of them. "No, don't! Please! I'll come quietly. He's a hero too. He's useful! Don't kill him!"
His pleading fell on deaf ears. The blin reached for a second arrow. Rage sent energy back into Warriors' trembling limbs. Digging his feet into the dirt he managed to propel himself forward and out of the moblin's grip… briefly. He got two steps in before several dinolfos tackled him. They wrestled Warriors onto his knees, facing Wild. It gave Warriors a front row seat as the blin wiped a second arrow head off on Wild's shoulder.
Their callousness made Wild flinch.
Warriors switched targets. He couldn't persuade the monsters, and he couldn't break free. He would have to rely on Wild's resiliency instead.
"You have to put pressure on it," Warriors pleaded to the shell shocked Wild. "It will hurt but you have to hold on." The others will be here soon, Warriors thought. He couldn't say it out loud. The monsters didn't appear interested in killing Wild outright, but they might change their minds if they knew help was coming. If help was coming.
Wild tried. He slowly lifted both hands and placed them over the open wounds on his chest, but that was about all he could do. Warriors prayed to Din that Wild could hold on long enough. He prayed to Wild's Hylia, too. He would pray to all the gods he knew if someone would listen and protect Wild.
It did no good, and when a third arrow was pulled out of Wild's collarbone his brother lost all strength, both arms flopped uselessly to the ground. Wild hardly acknowledged the third arrow's release, just gasped up at the sky with a blank expression.
"Damn it," breathed out the biln. "I broke it." He was holding up an arrow shaft with a missing broadhead.
"Wars," Wild hissed out. Warriors had to strain to hear him. "It's still…" He couldn't finish the sentence, but he didn't need to. Warriors could see exactly what had happened. The big blin hadn't been careful when removing the arrow, and now a piece was stuck inside Wild. Hopefully it would continue to stem the bleeding until Wild could be healed.
If Wild was healed, whispered a traitorous part of Warriors mind. Help had to be coming, Wild would be saved.
"Don't touch it," Warriors instructed. Every little action, every second, would mean the difference between life and death for Wild now.
It seemed wholly unnecessary, but the blin planted his foot on Wild's chest to better leverage the fourth arrow's release. Guess it didn't want a repeat of the last arrow.
"Get off him!" Warriors shouted on Wild's behalf. He couldn't just stand by and let them do this to Wild. There was no acknowledgement from the blin, but a few of the monsters that crowded around chuckled. They were enjoying this, enjoying watching a hero bleed out.
As crazy as it sounded, there was a brief moment where Warriors was glad someone was putting pressure on Wild's wounds. Then Warriors heard a crack, and Wild spit out a stream of blood into the air. The weight on his chest had been too much and something very important had broken inside Wild. Already Wild had lost too much blood. Warriors began to doubt a potion or fairy fix this.
When Wild's coughing subsided, his head fell listlessly to the side, facing away from Warriors.
A new level of panic set in when Warriors could no longer see Wild's eyes. It shouldn't matter whether Wild was looking at him or not, but logic had escaped the captain. He needed Wild to look at him. As long as Wild was looking at Warriors he' was still alive. Wild could still be saved.
"Look at me, Wild!" Warriors roared. "Look at me right now!" Wild didn't move, Warriors wasn't even sure he was breathing.
Warriors tried again, calling upon his captain voice. A tactic he rarely used on the free spirited champion. "Sir Link," Warriors commanded, trying to infuse as much authority into his voice as possible. "Face me soldier!"
The only movement Wild made was a weak bobbing in the back of his throat as he struggled to breathe.
"Please Cub," Warriors begged. Maybe if he thought Twilight was here Wild would listen. "Please look at me."
The fifth arrow was pulled loose from Wild's leg without even the slightest protest from Wild. There was nothing left to plug up his wounds. The puddle of blood underneath Wild had grown frighteningly large.
"Think he's dead?" asked one of the bokoblins, nudging Wild's face with its dirty clawed toes. Warriors snarled. He was no wolf like the rancher, but he would love to rip its throat out with his bare teeth. The monsters ignored him, and the disrespectful boko kicked at Wild's face, turning his head over until Wild was facing towards Warriors once more.
A moment ago, all Warriors wanted was for Wild to look at him. Seeing his brother's face again, Warriors knew all hope was lost. There was nothing left behind those eyes.
Warriors stopped struggling to get free, his whole world narrowed down to two blue eyes, a pale face, and a splatter of blood dripping down a slack jaw. When the tears came Warriors tried to blink them away as quickly as possible. He couldn't move his hand to wipe at them, and he needed the time to memorize Wild's face in death. It wasn't peaceful, Wild was clearly in pain and terrified as he choked on his own blood. It was a horrible way to remember his brother, but Warriors refused to forget this face, not until he's killed each and every one of these monsters.
"Is he going to cry the whole way?" asked one of the dinolfos pinning Warriors down.
"Gag him," said the big biln. "If he's still crying when we get to Cia that's her problem."
Twilight never liked it when the portals separated them. Undoubtedly, Hyrule and Wild (and sometimes Legend) wandered off somewhere. Sometimes, Wind would find some boat to commandeer. Sky would either be strumming on his harp or taking a nap. Either way, he'd be so absorbed into what he was doing he wouldn't hear the others calling for him. Time, somehow, was always "respectable leader that everyone looked up to" or "chaos gremlin". There was no in between. He could be anywhere.
Four and Warriors had always reiterated the importance of staying together and finding the others as quickly as possible. Twilight had located Four quickly, and soon after, they found all the others. Time, today, seemed to fall into the "respectable leader" category.
All they were missing were Wild and Warriors. Twilight sighed. With those two, who knew what kind of trouble they could get up to? Warriors was usually the most level-headed of all of them. Maybe he'd be able to keep Wild in check. He let that soothe his unease.
Then again, if they found themselves in combat, the Captain and the Champion were chaos incarnate. That worry crept back in.
Twilight shivered as the cold nipped at the tips of his ears, watching Hyrule carefully climb down a tree.
"Well?" Time called.
Hyrule hopped down the last few feet, landing in a crouch. "They're not nearby, but I could see a lot of movement that way." He pointed to the north.
"That might be our best lead," Legend said, fire rod slung over a shoulder. "Who wants to bet that they're in another fight?"
"Or fighting each other," Sky joked, bumping his elbow into the Veteran's ribs.
Twilight rolled his eyes. He'd feel much more inclined to joking when they were all back together, he was sure. He just couldn't shake the dread settling in his bones ever since the portal had dropped them here.
Something echoed out then, carrying the rumble of deep thunder. But the clouds carried no hint of a storm.
"Hush!" Twilight cried. The chatter died, letting the next boom! rumble without interruption.
"That sounds like explosions," Four said.
"And where explosions are," Wind said with a small grin, "Wild usually is, too. I bet the Captain's yelling at him already."
"Well," Time decided, "let's save the both of them from themselves."
The others chuckled, but Twilight couldn't bring himself to join. The dread was more palpable, almost tangible to him. How come the others couldn't feel it?
They trudged through the snow, following the sound of the next explosion, chattering dying down just a bit. As the snow soaked into Twilight's boots, chilling his toes, the dread steadily changing into something deeper. This trek was taking too long, though Twilight couldn't tell, what with the sun hidden behind the clouds. Still, any minute more was another minute Wild and Warriors weren't back safely with their brothers.
Their progress ground to a halt when they came upon the ravine. It stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction, no bridge in sight.
Twilight attempted to ease his nerves with a few long, deep breaths, just as Uli had taught him. But his mind still swirled with worries and possibilities, each more devastating than the last. He pictured Wild and Warriors surrounded, beaten, bloodied, worse, all because their brothers were late. The images grew only more gruesome the longer the rest of the Chain took to figure out how to cross.
"Twi, what do you think?"
Twilight snapped back to the present, Hyrule and Time staring at him. "Huh?"
Time's eye narrowed. Twilight looked away, not wanting to see the disappointment that would surely be there.
Thankfully, Hyrule was patient enough to fill him in. "Sky and I can see a path down and up the other side, but it looks rough. We needed someone else to look at it and agree."
Asides from Wild and Hyrule, Twilight was one of their best trail navigators. He suspected Time or Sky had a hand in getting his input. Honestly, Twilight appreciated it. His thoughts and imagination were not helpful in the least, taking his mind deeper and deeper into worst-case scenarios.
His thoughts somewhat sounded like something Legend would say, he realized wryly.
Twilight turned his attention to the ravine, looking for the trail that Hyrule had spotted. It blended in too well with the rocky walls, but he could see the twists and turns leading down to the bottom, and on the other side, the same to the top.
There was just one issue he could see: It would take at least a couple of hours to cross it, time Wild and Warriors may not have.
Twilight conveyed his issue to Hyrule and Time. The Old Man rested a hand on Twilight's shoulder. "I know," Time said. "But this is the only way we can get to them. And we must trust in their abilities."
Twilight nodded, resolve settling. He and Hyrule would guide the others through the ravine, and they would find Wild and Warriors on the other side. He prayed to whatever light spirits would hear him that they would be safe.
