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Yes, they were currently marching their way through the french countryside to face a dragon witch and save the world, yes that was important, but what kind of time traveling agent for Chaldea would Aria be if she didn't investigate the weird glowing portal that had appeared out of nowhere? Romani was saying it had weird vibes or whatever, which meant that it was definitely worth investigating. She walked up to the portal.
"Uhh, Aria? Should you really be doing that?" Mash asked.
"It's a portal thing is it not? We are investigating unusual things in the timeline. This is very unusual," Aria continued to walk towards what looked like a purple gate sitting in the middle of a daisy field.
"Aria," Romani's voice crackled through an unseen speaker as he made his image project right in front of her in a flash of blue," Were you not listening to what I was saying? That thing is unstable and dangerous. We should mark it on a map and come back once the dragon witch is defeated. For all we know it's caused by her! It could be a trap!"
"It's probably not her," Da Vinci cut in.
"Yeah yeah, I know what I'm doing. I won't touch it,"Aria replied, sudeley signaling for her unseen servants to stick close and follow her.
Romani and Da Vinci did not see, but Mash did. She grabbed her arm.
"Aria…"
"It's fine Mash," then she looked up to all her other servants who had been watching with amusement (Mozart), concern(Sigurd and Joan), and annoyance (the bickering lizards)," I'll be real quick and then we can take care of The Witch".
Aria wrested her arm from Mash's grasp and made her way to the purple portal. So strange, it looked almost like an archway. And what weird runes. She poked it. Oh no she pok-before she could finish her mental sentence, she had the feeling of being gently picked up and batted across... something as if she were the world's largest ping pong ball. It was dark, she was weightless, and it felt idly like her atoms were farther apart than usual. Then she was caught, and gently set back down again.
To those observing, it looked like Aria went up to the portal, inspected it closely, poked it, and promptly disappeared before the portal closed.
"Well sh-" Da Vinci was cut off by a glitch in technology.
…
Aria opened her eyes to the edge of a clearing where a chorus of blonde men were chatting about something around a camp of some sort. They looked like servants, but one could never be too sure. She cleared her throat. Seven blonde heads looked up to see her.
"Hi,"She opened," I'm Aria, member of the Chaldea security organization, hero of humanity, and I saw a strange portal and walked through it. Care to tell me where I am? Official business"
This was definitely not official business, but if she could sound impressive and worth their while it would pay off. That seemed to be the case thus far in her travels. She'd come up with a convincing lie later. More importantly, they had perked up at the word "hero”. Definitely servants then. But they didn't recognize Chaldea. Hm. Then, the second darkest blonde, the one with the wolf pelt, spoke up
"Hi, nice to meet you," he held out his hand, " We're all named Link, so you can call us by our nicknames, I'm twilight"
Okaay, she thought as she shook his hand, probably not servants. A bunch of brothers with unimaginative parents who named them after their uncle? She glanced at the man who seemed to be in his mid thirties.
"Hey!"the youngest, who was a bit older than Alexander, piped up," Your in Hyrule at some point in time. I'm Wind, by the way. Uh, if you don't mind me asking, what's humanity?"
This one was definitely a servant.
"All humans collectively. Nice to meet you"
"You too!"
Suddenly, out of the thick trees and bushes surrounding the clearing, came two more blonde individuals.
One of them had long, unkempt macaroni blonde hair held back from his face in a loose ponytail. Wicked cool (yet painful) looking scars adorned his face and left hand, and that was just what she could see. Next to him was a man that confirmed her suspicions about the group. Between the perfectly pristine armour, horribly impractical bright blue scarf that must have cost a fortune to dye, and pretty face, this man was undoubtedly a servant
"There's a monster camp up ahead. Hey who's this?" The macaroni blonde asks.
"I'm Aria," Aria replies.
"She's another hero!"Wind pipes up.
Macaroni blonde looks surprised while super scarf simply nods.
"We'll have to fill her in then,"Super scarf states.
"Let's do it over dinner!" His companion declares, rushing to the cooking pot
A short time later they were all gathered around the cooking pot, and Wild was dishing out a fresh, warm, and creamy hearty soup. The links glanced at each other. Who was going to explain? No one liked explaining duty. Finally, Twilight sighed and began,
"So, earlier I said we're all named Link right? That's actually because we are the same person."
"Like different spirit origins?", Aria asked with tentative curiosity. It was as if she knew only a little bit more than the chain about whatever in the dark world she was talking about.
"I don't think so?" Twilight asked, looking to the other link's for help. They simply shrugged," it's more like reincarnation? We are the reincarnations of the same hero"
Sky gave an awkward wave.
"Okay…makes sense," Aria said with her face scrunched up in a way that implied it did not, in fact, make sense.
"Anyways," Wild cut in," I'm wild, that's Sky, Warriors, Time, Hyrule, Four, Twilight, Legend, and Wind. As Twilight said, we're heros venturing across time and supposedly space to defeat some guy who's making the monsters stronger,"
"And your the next hero to join us," Twilight added,"Your probably not a reincarnation though because your name's not link and you don't have a resemblance,"
"I don't know," said Warriors, leaning on legend's head, " I'd say we have another pinkette to join Legend,"
"My hair is not pink, it's strawberry blonde!" The girl, Aria, retorted with a vehemence Warriors was probably expecting of Legend . They really were similar!
"My bad," Warriors apologized. Then, Aria got a wicked grin on her face.
"Though, you know, if my hair looks pink, then I could definitely say the same about yours,"
"What?" Warriors expression morphed into one of confusion.
"Your hair is as yellow as queso cheese!"
"Oh! It's on!"
And so they proceeded to trade insults for the next ten minutes, with Legend joining in. In all honesty, Wild found it incredibly entertaining to watch.
Unfortunately, the chaos did not last, as a strange crackling sound that reminded Wild of what the Sheikah slate sounded like when it malfunctioned echoed in the air. A blue light flickered in front of Aria and voices drifted on the wind like the voices of the long dead in a ruin. Every single Link was on edge and ready.
Suddenly, a blue screen looking thing snapped into existence right in front of Aria and just to the right of him. It looked like a photo on the slate, but animated. It depicted a tall man wearing a long white coat with a name tag, looking extremely frazzled. Next to him stood a woman with long dark hair wearing the most elaborate dress he'd ever seen. It reminded him of what little fashion of the court he could remember. She had a look in her eye like she was planning the best way to win a war where the odds were stacked against her.
“Aria are you ok?!” The frazzled looking man questioned
“Yes, sorry for worrying you Romani,” She replied. Then she noticed that her new companions were on edge around her and made a “It’s ok” gesture at them.
The man looked down at something, and his face somehow became even paler.
“Aria! I’m detecting nine heroic spirits in your area! Be careful!”
“Oh! It’s ok. I’ve already made friends with them,”
“Oh, it’s good you're ok,” The man sighed, “Now that that’s out of the way, Da Vinchi?”
Wild hadn’t really been paying attention to the woman with long hair, but now he sure was. Her face went from that of a master tactician to a disappointed parent glare so strong it could rival Time’s.
“Aria!! What were you thinking?! If that portal had been dangerous you could’ve been killed! And if you were dead, we’d have no one else left to fix the singularities!” She chastised
“Da Vinichi,” Aria said quietly, “Can we do this later? Everyone is staring”
“No! You literally jeopardized the fate of all of humanity! Your new companions should know how reckless you are! Do not go walking up to random unanalyzed portals of unknown origin ever again! As it is we have no idea how to get you back,” The woman, Da Vinichi, finished up her scolding with a sigh, rubbing at her temple tiredly.
“We’re going to contact Mash and the other servants to let them know you’re ok,” She continued in a much calmer voice, “We’ll call you again later to give you a mission briefing. You at least had the decency to bring your other servants with you, right?”
“Yes,” Aria replied, sitting up striaghiter, “I may rush into things sometimes, but I’m not stupid,”
“Don’t mind her,” Romani? Said,” We were all just worried because of what you did Aria. Try no to go too far from where you are, ok? It’ll help us lock on to your location in the future,”.
And with that, the blue photo communication thingy disappeared with a sharp, smooth, hum.
Wild turned to Aria and asked
“Aria, what did you do?”
“Um,” She wasn’t sure how to respond to that. The truth would probably be best, “ As part of my job as an agent of caldea, I’m, in a way, investigating anomalies across time. I was in New Oreleans just after the death of Joan of Arc when my group and I saw a weird purple archway. I went to inspect it closer and poked it without thinking,”
Wild nodded sagely, “Sounds like something I would do,”
Aria gave a sigh of relief. She was in the clear. (little did she know, she was not, in fact, in the clear, and that the more responsible Links were mentally deciding to make sure she ddin’t do anything stupid). Now that was over with, it was time to get to work. Macaroni blonde, er, Wild, had mentioned monsters. It seemed super sca-Warriors had a similar idea.
In unison, they began, “So, monsters,”
They stared at each other in surprise for a bit before Time took over.
“What kind of monsters did you see?” Time asked.
“Well,” Warriors replied,” Basic monsters, bokoblins, the big and small kind. Some lizifoes. Both yours and Wild’s. However they’ve set up quite a large camp, but considering their power level we should be able to defeat them. We’ll just need a solid stratgey,”
Everyone seemed to be coming up with ideas, but they were forgetting the fact that Warriors was leaving out crucial information.
“That’s good, but what kind of monsters are they?” Aria asked. Everyone stared at her in confusion.
“I…just said?,” Warriors replied, “If you aren’t familiar with them, can we explain?”
“No, no it’s not that,” Aria waved him off. Sometimes it felt like all she did was fight unfamiliar monsters, “ What’s their class?”
Wild chimed in on this one,” A lot of them are my monsters, and all the bokoblins are red. Uh, that means they’re the weakest. The lizifoes are average greenies. However, we don’t really know if they have black blood so...”
Alright, that information was useful, but still not what she was looking for. Did these guys not know anything about basic classes for magical creatures?! These monsters they were fighting sounded pretty magical.
“No! Like sabers, berserkers, assiaan class? That’s what I mean! What is their class?!” Aria exclaimed, exasperated.
“Oh you mean what kind of weapons they use!” Wind piped up, “I was getting really confused listening to you guys’s conversation,”
“My bokoblins mainly use spears, while my lizifoes use swords.,” Time answered Aria’s question before looking at Wild. Wild stared right back.
“Oh!” He realized, “ My bokoblins aren’t really smart and mainly use clubs or whatevers around. What you said about berserkers is pretty accurate. My lizifoes mainly favor spears,”.
“Ok, good to know,” she replied.
“Aria,” Warriors addressed her, “We need to know for the battle ahead, do you prefer close up or long range,”
“Long range,” Aria replied with no hesitation. Heaven forbid the God that apparently actually existed allowed her to wind up in close range combat without Mash there.
And so a plan was made. She and Wild would support the heroes from a convenient cliff that overlooked the camp. Wild sniping the monsters in the highest parts of the base, and Aria would take care of monsters trying to sneak up on the ground team. Wind would temporarily freeze time(not to be confused with Time), and steal any extra weapons lying around.
Twilight and Hyrule would ambush from behind;While Time and Legend would draw the big bokoblins' attention. Sky, Four, and Warriors would act as backup, taking care of spare monsters and being ready to help Time and Legend fight in case the big blinds had black blood.
Usually, they would have more focus on the extra monsters, but Aria assured them her fighting style would ensure they would be taken care of. Little did the Link’s know, Warriors was not the only one to leave out crucial information.
On the dawn of the day of the battle, Wild decided to cook his favorite dish. Monster stew. It was the best thing to make before battle against monsters. You felt powerful knowing you had eaten their brethren only a few hours prior.
The first to wake up after him was Sky, bolting upright and looking at Wild, a little panicked.
“Do I have class today?” Sky asked
“No,” Wild replied. Sky sighed and went back to sleep.
After Sky, it was Time’s turn to wake up, but he was much calmer. He stretched, whispered something that sounded something suspiciously like:
“5:43 a.m exactly. As usual,”
Then he turned to Wild and remarked,” Monster Stew again?”
“Yup,”.
Next Twilight, Wind, and Warriors all got up around the time when the sun kicks dusk(not to be confused with Dusk) away and starts to ✨properly✨ rise. Next was Hyrule who woke up because Warriors accidentally fell over his own pouldrawn and landed on him. Ten minutes later Aria and Legend woke up. Finally, last but certainly not least, was Sky.
They all ate the soup, which everyone thought was delicious. Breakfast went on without a hitch. Mostly.
“What kind of meat is this?” Aria asked.
“Monster,” Wild replied.
“Monster? Monsters are edible?”
“Yeah, but sometimes it’s hard to get right,”
“Ok,”
Suddenly, Wind pulled out a tally. He made a mark.
“That’s nine to one Legend, you're still the only one of us who’s unwilling to eat bugs without complaint,” He stated
“Hey! That is perfectly reasonable!,” Legend retorted
“This stew has bugs in it???” Aria gasped.
“Uh, no,” Wind replied,” Sorry, I just assumed that since you didn’t mind monster meat you wouldn’t mind bugs,”
“Uh, meat’s meat, but bugs? No way!” Aria responded
“Technically it’s a very fine extract made from purifying monster parts to their finest components. It’s best made out of fleshy parts such as organs and tails,” Wild mumbled.
Some didn’t hear, others didn’t hear on purpose, finding that much more disgusting than regular meat. Aria was delighted.
“So it’s like meat juice?! If only we could save some of this for later. I know a few people I’d love to see try this!” She cackled.
Wild perked up,”Um, actually, I can save it for later! I can store stuff on my sheikah slate!”
He then turned his slate towards the leftovers, and put them in his slate in a flash of blue light.
“Ohhhh! That looks interesting! How does it work?” Da Vinchi’s voice echoed. Wild jumped and turned around.
Unbeknownst to them, the strange blue, moving picture had returned. It was just behind Aria.
“Um,” Wild cleared his throat,” Well, the scientists in my home time would know better, but we think that it converts an object’s mass into a kind of energy. I think it’s called data? Then when you want it back, it just converts it back into matter again!”
Da Vinchi seemed delighted by this,”Kind of like the moon cell? Not the same of coure, but similar in the converting part! Can it store lifeforms? How powerful is it? Is it sapient? What else does it do?”
“Um,” Wild cleared his throat, “It can store lifeforms, I’ve got a lot of frogs in it. We don’t know. Hopefully not. It makes ice and bombs, freezes objects in time, is magnetic, can take pictures, and has a map when I have connection,”
“Oh that’s great! If we ever meet you’ll have to let me study it!”(Now Da Vinchi was really reminding Wild of Purah.)
“Da vinci” Labcoat, uh, Romani, cut in(and thank the goddesses for that),“This is interesting and all, but don’t we have a mission debriefing for Aria?”
“Oh! Right!” She turned to Aria, who at this point(like the rest of the camp) had turned to face the floating pictogram, “We have good news and bad news. Which would you like first?”
“Bad news,” Aria stated simply.
“Bad news is, you are in a completely different universe. Not even an alternate one where it’s just different versions of ourselves, you're somewhere completely new. Good news is we know where you are! Hopefully we will be able to get you back by this afternoon as long as you Do. Not. Under. Any. Circumstances. Damage. Your. Mystic. Code. I know it’s unlikely that would happen, but if you do, we have no way of getting you back,”
“I understand,” Aria nodded seriously.
“Oh, and Aria,” Romani said
“Yes?”
“Mash says be careful,”
“I will, but I think I should give my own mission report to update you guys. Wild and Warriors here spotted some monsters, and with a group this big and what else I have we should be able to take care of them easily. The monsters are east of here and we should be done before afternoon. I’ll be where I usually am during fights,”
“Alright,” Romani replied, “ I’ll give the others the rundown, see you this afternoon,” and with that, the blue window disappeared.
Warriors raised his hand, “Excuse me, but what’s a mystic code?”
…
The monsters were oblivious, Twilight and Hyrule were hidden in the trees, Wind had successfully snuck up to the top of the base under the cover of his magic sword, and had the confiscated weapons ready to be set aflame. Sky, Warriors, Time, and Four only had to wait for Wild’s signal. The first watchman pierced by a single arrow. And thus the battle began. Wind had borrowed Legend’s firerod to burn the weapons, the only warning the monsters got.
Time and Legend advanced on the big blins in sync. Four, Sky, and Warriors began to work on the general monsters. Twilight and Hyrule surprised those on the edge of the wood. What was Aria doing? She was just standing there and didn’t have a weapon. Wild stared at her. Could she not fight?Then finally, she began to do something. She performed a quick series of hand signals in rapid succession, seemingly directing someone.
Then, a six feet tall and super strong sheikah man wearing a tight red cardigan and matching flowy overskirt over a stealth suit appeared out of nowhere and took the shot Wild should’ve been. He used a great black bow that seemed to disappear as soon as he was done. He saved Wind from a bokoblin’s club.
Elsewhere in the battle field, Warriors was getting ganged up on by some sword wielding bokoblins who’s weapons didn’t get swiped, and it seemed the others hadn’t noticed him yet. He was about to call out when-
A masked spearman cloaked in white thrusted his halberd forward, disarming one of the creatures before stabbing it in the gut. Just as quickly as he came, he bounced back behind Warriors field of vision.
Time mentally cursed. This blin had black blood. That wasn’t good. He tensed for a swing that never came. An individual with cherry red hair wearing baggy pants came out of seemingly nowhere in a gust of wind, blocking the blow before swiftly landing a hit on the beast.
These strange people continued to appear, baffling the heroes, throwing them off their game. Finding themselves needing to be rescued from their distraction by their distractors. The only one that seemed to not be phased was Warriors, mumbling about:
“Stupid time portals at it again,”.
One second Twilight thinks he's mostly alone, ready to strike, and then he has to move his sword last minute, a man holding a huge halberd rushing past to take the blow he’d been planning too. The mysterious second archer that everyone had thought was Aria but is so clearly not jumps onto the camp and slashes at a lizifoes with his twin swords.
Wind was not pleased. He had that very much! Though, there were an awful lot of lizifoes up here, and it was clear the ground team weren’t the only ones distracted. Then, to make it worse, the six feet tall and super strong sheikah man began to pray.
What the fiddler crab?! This was a battle, not a sermon! He was just standing there! It looked like Wind was going to have to watch his back while the man mumbled about
“I am the bone of my sword,” or whatever.
“UNLIMITED BLADEWORKS!!” The six feet tall and super strong sheikah man called out.
Suddenly, everything was wrong. They were no longer on top of a semi-towering monster camp in the clearing of a thick wood, they were on a barren deserted plain of brown earth that stretched as far as the eye could see. Like the aftermath of a great battle without the carnage. Broken and whole swords littered the ground, and in the distance great gears seemed to have fallen from the sky.(not to be confused with Sky). Wind couldn’t move, none of them could move! None of them except for the six feet tall and super strong sheikah man.
The man raised his arm and with it too raised hundreds of swords, he brought them down on the monsters in a terrible rain of agony, and surprisingly enough, not all of them died. Only most of them. All of them except for Time’s blins and a couple of blue bokoblins. And just like that it was over. Wind was returned to his spot on the platform, just standing there from the shock. Everyone else on the battlefield was similarly stilled, except for Aria and the strange warriors.
Everyone had a look of bewilderment on their faces except for her! Her face was as stoney as the cliff she was standing on. Her hands moved in a flurry of signals. It was like a pirate code of hand signs. She was… directing the strange warriors? And then her hand movements ceased. Oh, while Wind had been figuring her out, Time and Warriors had taken care of the last big bokoblins. Everyone else was quick to deal with the stragglers.
They regrouped shortly afterwards.
“Anyone know what that was?” Twilight asked. Most of the Link’s shook their heads.
“I think Aria was directing them,” Wind stated, Wild nodding in agreement. Everyone turned to Aria.
“Uh, sorry about that,” Aria said, scratching her neck sheepishly(maybe she was an incarnation! Sky thought),“I didn’t think to tell you guys. Those guys were servants. You know I’m a mage with junk magical cricuts, it’s how I fight”
“Your servants? How were you even able to find servants like that?” Legend asked, flabbergasted.
“I, uh, summoned them?’ Aria replied, as if it was obvious.
“Summoned them?!” Warriors questioned.
At that moment the six feet tall and super strong Sheikah man appeared once more.
“Master, I think you should do a better job of explaining this to them. They are your allies, and it would not be a wise decision to leave them confused,” He suggested.
“Thanks mom,” Aria replied. You could see the him bristle at that,” Your right, If you all will be patient, I’ll explain what I mean by servants and summoning”
…
And so Aria began,” So, mages will often summon heroic spirits from this thing called the throne of heroes to use in fighting. Servants are basically very advanced familiars who can talk back. Don’t get the wrong idea, every single servant you summon comes willingly, it’s their own fault they’re in a contract with a mage. I may have terrible magical circuits, but I am unusually equipped for making contracts with heroic spirits, that’s why I can have multiple with ease. They do what I tell them too, and exchange they can use my mana to stay tethered to the physical world,”
“So, if they break the contract they die?” Warriors asked, aghast.
“Depends on the servant, Archer here,” Aria gestured to the sheikah man from before,” Could technically go for a time without me. And once again, they chose this so,”
It took a bit for the Links to process this, but they still seemed a bit uncomfortable with it.
“Aria is a very honorable master,” The archer stated.
“Speaking of which!” Aria exclaimed, turning towards Wild,” I have something I’d like for you to try! Wild, do you still have that monster stew?”
Aria and Wild grew matching mischievous grins that could rival even the devil’s. Wild took out the stew, and dished out eleven bowls. Aria whispered something to him and that number changed to fourteen. Aria made a quick hand sign, and three more servants appeared. Two of which were at that morning’s battle.
“Do you guys want to try some stew with an interesting new extract?” Aria asked, the picture of innocence, conveniently leaving out the monster part.
“No, I just heard you call it monster stew. Why would I eat that? Besides, I already told you I’m not interested in eating human food. Why are you asking me?” The six feet tall and super strong sheikah man, whose name must be archer, replied.
“Because I know you’re secretly a gourmand,”
“Aria, I told you not to have undue respect towards your servants, but really?”
“Really,” She smirked.
Then, she turned to her next victim.
“Houzouin, want to try some stew?”
“No thank you,”
“Alright,”
“I’ll have some stew, master,” The baggy clothed redhead from the battle said.
Aria handed hima bowl. The next and newest servant was a…child? A child with unruly red hair, an armoured skirt, and fingerless gloves stood.
“I’d love to try some stew! What kind of extract is it?” The child asked.
“Monster,”Aria grinned
“Oh,” He said as he took it.
…
Overall, it was an excellent lunch. They talked and got to know each other. The six feet tall and super strong sheikah man was as stoic as ever, though they did discover he wasn’t, in fact, Sheikah. The spearman Houzouin was amicable and fairly polite. However, he didn’t compare to the baggy clothed Fuuma.
He was a soft spoken man who told them of his village. It sounded like he had led a very peaceful life. When asked how he had ended up on the throne of heroes, he simply smiled an ominous smile and stated he was an assassin class. Nothing else needed to be said.
The child’s name was Alexander, and apparently he grew to be a great conqueror. Right now though, he was an energetic boy just a bit younger than wind who was fascinated by said boy’s stories of the sea. He had mused whether great books had been written about the Link’s like Alexander’s favorite book, the Iliad. He had been delighted when Wild had slipped him some honey candy.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. With a crack and a fizz, the strange, Fi like image returned.
“Aria? Sorry to interrupt, but we are ready to get you back now. A portal should open up within twenty feet of your location,” Romani stated.
“Alright,” Aria nodded as the image disappeared at her confirmation,“Looks like it’s time for me to go again,”
A swoosh, and a white, swirling portal opened up ten feet behind her. A wave of her hand, and her servants once again disappeared from sight. Sky wondered if there were more they were not seeing. He would be correct.
Just as she was about to step into the portal, Wind called out,
“When will we see you again?”
“Oh, probably never, oh never,” Aria replied
“What about tomorrow?” Wild asked in a poor attempt at humor.
“Perhaps,” Aria said with a smile,” Well, not tomorrow, but, maybe someday,”
And with that as her final goodbye, she stepped into the portal, going back to New Orleans to defeat the Dragon Witch. With that single step through time* she completed this small chapter in her great adventure.