A Hero's Choice

by AmayasAngel

Summary:

ZeldApril Day 30: A New Adventure

Portals are tricky things. Often dangerous things. How did each of our heroes first decide to stumble into this new adventure?

Notes:

Hello ya'll! Here's a fun story about how the various Links in my Linked Meetup story end up getting involved in the Link Meetup. There will be chapters for everyone except Firefly (Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask Link), First (Skyward Sword Manga in Hyrule Historia), and Geode (Mimish Cap, Four Swords, and Four Swords Adventures Link). Because they aren't going through any portals, they're where the portals lead to.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I will be putting Trigger Warnings at the top of the chapters that need them. PLEASE READ THEM. Some chapters will mention more sensitive subjects.

Chapter 1: Divine Instructions from your Girlfriend (Dove)

Summary:

This chapter is about Dove. Dove is the hero from Skyward Sword.

Notes:

Edit 4/5/2024:
A couple small changes. 1) I decided to drop the whole reincarnation thing a while back (cause it doesn’t work with plot plans) and forgot to remove it from here. So now it’s gone.
2) added a small, in passing, mention of other dieties.

Link was feeling content with his life, all things considered. He, Groose, and Zelda had slowly been working on getting the Surface fully ready for settlement and settling into a new rhythm in their lives for the last two years. The three of them had formed a bond during the time between Zelda's kidnapping and when Link had managed to kill Demise. And that bond had only grown stronger as they worked together to establish what Zelda said would one day grow into a thriving land.

Zelda's divinity wasn't wholly visible these days, but there were times when it was obvious that she knew more than they did. And that statement had been one of those times. Not that Link minded. He'd come to accept the fact that Zelda was the reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia and what that entailed. Plus the work in building this new settlement on the Surface gave him something to focus on, a purpose, during the early days after the defeat of Demise. He would never have been able to go back to his old life after everything and he was extremely glad that he didn't have to even try.

Groose had taken to things as well, coming to understand and accept the roles that Zelda and Link had with a grace that Link would never have thought him capable of a couple of years back. Funnily enough, out of the three of them, Groose was the one who had adjusted to the Surface the fastest. To the extent that he had fully moved down there, returning to Skyloft only when he really needed to. In contrast, both Link and Zelda tended to travel back and forth between the two quite regularly.

The rest of their people mostly stuck to the lands above the clouds, but most had at least visited the Surface by this point. And several had expressed a desire to live there once things were more settled. It was a lot of work, but watching things develop was wonderfully satisfying. Fulfilling.

On this particular day, Link was supposed to be helping with the construction of what would become the Surface's Academy. But he knew that wasn't going to be happening from the moment he sat up from the bed he shared with Groose and Zelda. Groose was already gone from bed, but that wasn't unusual. What was unusual was the fact that Zelda was still in the small bedroom, sitting on a chair by the room's only window. The sound of him moving must have caught her attention because she turned to look at him.

The look on her face made his heart catch in his throat. Something was very, very wrong. Link was on his feet in an instant, usual grogginess banished as adrenaline hit his system. 

"What's wrong?" he asked her, quickly scanning her over for any sign of injury. He was fairly certain that she wasn't in pain, but it didn't hurt to check. "Is everyone alright?" Her nod settled some of his nerves but didn't explain why she looked like that. She looked sad. And scared.

"You're going to have to go away for a while," she told him. And the certainty in her voice told him that this knowledge came from her more divine nature. "There's...something...something in the timestream. And it's trying to mess things up. To damage things. I'm not sure what it is or what it wants, but it can't be allowed to continue." Link slowly sat back down, frowning in concern. That...didn't sound good.

"What can we do?" Because there must be something. And she clearly knew what it was.

"It's what you are going to have to do I fear," Zelda told him, expression tight with regret. Zelda always felt guilty when she sent him out on missions these days, a residue from the guilt of their adventure. She was better than she had been at the beginning (they both were), but she still had trouble accepting that he forgave her for orchestrating things for them.

"Right," Link agreed with a firm nod, hoping to dispel some of that guilt. "What am I needing to do? How can I help?" Link was grateful to see some of the tension and guilt leak out of her as she smiled at him before replying.

"There is going to be a...crack of sorts that forms in reality because of what this thing is doing. Chrona is going to nudge it so it does what she needs it to. You're going to have to go through it. Deal with what it has done in that location. There will be others there as well. People you will travel with during this. Together I am sure you will be able to track down this usurper and deal with them before they irreparably damage the timeline. I...can't see the others you will travel with very well at the moment. But they are people who come after us in time.  People with experiences similar to you. I feel that they are...important. Or will be important, perhaps." Link nodded slowly, taking this all in. It really had to be serious if the Goddess of Time was getting involved as well.

Companions during his travel would be a new experience. He'd had Fi with him last time, but that was it. This sounded like it would be more than one. It would be interesting to see how it went. But that could wait. Right now he needed to prepare.

"What all should I pack to take with me?" He didn't want to be unprepared after all. Who knew what all he might run into on a trip like this."

"Your gear from your trip to save me should suffice," Zelda told him after a moment of thought. "Just be sure to stock up on potions before you go, just to be safe. And..." Zelda hesitated for a moment before straightening decisively. "I'm getting the feeling that you should go and get the Master Sword before you go. It feels like you're going to need her." Link sat up straight, shock flooding his system.

"What?! But—" Link faltered, staring at his best friend. "But she's sleeping! What—?" He faltered again as Zelda reached over to grip his arm, steadying him.

"She is sleeping," Zelda agreed, voice falling to a gentle, soothing cadence. "And she isn't likely to fully wake up for this. The chances of her coming out of the blade like she did before are very low. But she'll still be there, somewhat. I don't know how alert or aware she will be, but she'll be there. I know that's going to be rough for you, Link, but I have a.... serious feeling that she needs to go with you for this to succeed." Link took in a slow, deep breath and let it out. Like they'd learned and practiced together many times in the last couple of years. Zelda fell quiet as well, watching him with understanding brown eyes, and after a couple of moments he felt himself relax enough to continue the conversation.

"Alright," he agreed with a nod that was firmer than he felt on the issue for the moment. "I'll go by the Temple of Time first. That way I can be sure I have her with me, no matter how soon this...tear shows itself." Zelda smiled at him again, small and sad, and Link shifted his hand to pull her in and hold her close. "It will be alright Zelda. You'll see. I'll have these new companions to help me. And you'll have Groose and the others here with you. I'll be back before you know it."

"I know," Zelda told him as she relaxed into his hold, voice holding a conviction borne of trust in him rather than divine knowledge. "But that doesn't mean that I won't be waiting and hoping for your safe return the whole time."

"With all the work needing to be done around here I doubt you'll even notice I'm gone," Link told her, pushing his voice into a gentle, teasing tone. He was rewarded with a soft giggle as she curled in closer. Good. "Don't worry, My Sun," he told her, voice softening once more as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I'll return to you both safe and sound."

"You had better," Zelda mumbled into his chest, tightening her hold on him.

They sat like that for several long minutes before forcing themselves to detangle from each other. They both had things to do after all. Zelda needed to go and get Groose and tell him the news while Link got his stuff together for this new adventure. Link did his best to move quickly, barely pausing to fill anyone in at all. He answered a couple of questions when he got his potions refilled, but thankfully Bertie and Luv were willing to take his brief explanation of going on another trip for Zelda easily enough.

By the time he got back to the surface, all of his things gathered up and in the best condition he could get them at, it was sundown. He was rather unsurprised to find both Zelda and Groose waiting for him at their house when he arrived. What did surprise him, however, was the strange...ripple-looking thing in the air not far from their home. That was it then. It was time to go.

Hopping off his Loftwing he turned and whispered a quiet goodbye to the only being he'd bother explaining what was happening to. His partner would keep an eye on his beloveds while he was gone, he was sure. Which, along with them taking care of each other, was enough that he felt relatively safe leaving them behind. Link gave the large bird one final pat on the beak before turning and making his way over to the two people he was going to miss the most in the coming days. Groose broke away from Zelda as he approached, moving forward to meet him halfway and yank him into a fierce hug.

"Why is it always you, huh?" Groose asked him without letting go. Unlike in the beginning of Link's adventure, there was no bitterness or anger in Groose's voice. Just resigned sadness. Link huffed a sigh and wrapped his arms around his red-headed love in return.

"I'm just lucky I guess," he joked, not wanting to get into the details. If he were to wager a guess it probably had to do with him supposedly being reincarnated from the man who won Hylia's heart. If he were to wager a guess it probably had to do with him having defeated Demise. Or the fact that a part of the Triforce had chosen him as a place to rest. In the end, he wasn't sure the reason mattered that much. Just that it was a thing.

"Lucky, yeah, sure," Groose grumbled, but he didn't press for anything further. To which Link was very grateful. Instead, he just held on for another minute as Zelda came over to rest her hands on them both. Eventually though, she spoke up.

"It's time, Link." Zelda's voice was soft and sad and Link hated that, but all he could really do was pull away from Groose to give her a proper hug as well. The waiting rift kept it brief though, and all too soon he was pulling himself away to smile at them both, not allowing his nerves to show.

"I'm off then. You two take care of each other while I'm gone, alright?"

"We will," Zelda assured him, a slightly trembling smile on her lips.

"Yeah!" Groose agreed firmly, reaching over to pull Zelda into his side. "Don't you worry about things here Link. We've got it. You just focus on taking care of things on your end so you can get back here and finish helping us rebuild."

"I'll do that," Link agreed, his smile as shaky as Zelda's was. He didn't want to go, but he couldn't put it off forever. So, adjusting the sword strap he was wearing, Link forced himself to turn away and march toward the rift. He hesitated for a brief moment as he reached it, but not for long. Steeling his nerves, he pressed forward and stepped through.

Cold. It was cold. Cold and foreign and wrong. This whole thing felt so wrong and it was disorienting. Thankfully, it didn't take long for him to step out of the other side onto solid ground. Taking deep, steadying breaths, he tried to reorient himself and regain his bearings. A few moments passed before he could see clearly again, but once he did he blinked in surprise and confusion. In front of him was...a building? Well, a couple of buildings. And a fence of some sort. There were clearly animals beyond that fence, but they weren't ones he recognized. Though, if he was in a different time that would make sense.

Link shook himself and readjusted his bag to stall for a brief beat of time before starting forward. He wasn't sure where he was, but buildings typically meant people. And if he was to figure out where he was and what was going on that was his best bet. Besides, Zelda had told him that he'd meet traveling companions on this trip, so maybe they were in one of these buildings. It was worth a check at least. The place looked lived in at least so, when he reached the door of the larger of the two buildings, Link raised one hand and knocked. It was time to get this adventure started.

Chapter 2: Call of Gold (Monarch)

Summary:

This chapter is about Monarch. Monarch is the hero from A Legend of Zelda and Adventures of Link

Notes:

Edit 4/4/2924:
Slight change to make the description of Firefly more accurate

Link was tired. He'd been tired for a long while now, but today was especially bad. He had missed out on getting a full night's sleep the night before thanks to a group of bokoblins deciding that the middle of the night was a perfect time to come after him. But, lack of sleep or not, he had to keep moving. He'd been at his most recent camp for a week and a half, longer than he should have stayed. And the attack only further proved that point. It was time to move on. So he gathered up his meager belongings and set off as the sun began peaking over the horizon. He'd try and catch up on his sleep once he found a new place to camp.

Or. At least. That was the plan. Halfway through the day's travel, something happened that drastically shifted his plans. He almost didn't notice it at first, the slight warming of his left hand. But after a few moments, it became impossible to ignore. He quickly came to a stop, staring down at his glove-covered hand. The hand that held the Triforce. And that was the Triforce's energy pulsing there. There was no mistaking it. But why was it-?

A gentle tug cut his thoughts off. The Triforce seemed to be trying to get him to go somewhere. That had never happened before. Nor anything even slightly similar. The Triforce usually sat inert on his hand, barely noticeable outside of the faint feeling of divine energy he could always feel from it, humming quietly in his body. But...if the Triforce wanted him to go somewhere then he would follow. 

So that was what he did. Following the faint tug in his hand wasn't easy. He had to stop often, holding his hand out in front of him to see if he needed to alter his course at all, and more than once he almost crashed into something thanks to him paying more attention to the feeling than the world around him. But, eventually, he came to a small clearing in the woods. And what he found there had him staring. It looked like there was a tear in the very air itself. A strange, distorted section of reality stretched a good ten feet long and four feet wide. 

Even from where he was standing Link could feel the wrongness of this tear. Like something was breaking the very fabric of reality. It made him feel ill. But the Triforce was pulling him towards it, a slight urgency to the pull now. It hit him then. The Triforce wanted him to fix this. Whatever it was. But how?

Cautious, Link circled the strange tear, eying it from every angle. No matter which way he looked at it, it appeared about the same. And there didn't appear to be any nearby cause to it. So what was he meant to do? The pull was still drawing him closer though. So, drawing a bit of magic to his left hand, just to be safe, Link carefully approached the strange fault and reached out his right hand towards it, brushing it.

Instantly, the feeling of wrong increased and Link jerked his hand back, clutching it to his chest. But...there was something else there...He reached out again. The wrong feeling still wasn't comfortable, but he resisted the desire to pull back as he mentally reached out for whatever else there was lingering in the energy. Was that...time energy?! Link blinked at the tear in shock. He'd never felt time magic or energy before, but somehow he knew for certain that was what he was feeling. A small pulse on his left hand told him where that knowledge came from. Another pulse came moments after, followed by a more persistent tug toward the tear. Was he...was he supposed to walk into this thing? That didn't seem safe, but the energy he was getting from his hand was approving now.

Link swallowed hard, pulling his hand out of the strange energy. Right. He needed to go into the wrong-feeling tear in reality. He didn't know why, but if the Triforce was pulling him to it then it had to be important. And he wasn't going to argue with the magical embodiment of the Golden Goddesses' power. So...he was going. Link gave himself enough time to adjust his bag and take a deep breath before he forced himself to stride forward. If he stalled too long he might cucco out.

Of course, the horrid wrong feeling was so much worse once he was inside it, but Link forced himself to continue onward. He continued putting one foot in front of the other until, suddenly, there was nothing to put his foot on. He broke out of the strange wrongness at the same time that gravity seemed to flip, tipping him forward and onto the ground that suddenly appeared in front of him.

Experience had him catching himself well enough that he didn't get hurt, but he still ended up sprawled on the ground in a rather ungraceful manner. Lovely. Groaning, Link pushed himself to a sitting position, ready to start trying to figure out where he was, but he found himself freezing a moment later. There were people here. Two of them.

A tall, blond-and-silver haired man with red marks on his cheek and well-worn, brown clothes was standing next to a slightly shorter red-headed woman with a pink, brown, and white dress. They both appeared to be adults of some sort and they were staring at him in clear shock and confusion. Which. Honestly. Fair. If he gauged it correctly he had just toppled out of the air right in front of them. 

But before he could think much more on that he caught sight of the world around them. There were a couple of well-made buildings as well as what appeared to be a small herd of well-fed horses and some fences. But what really caught his eye was how green everything was. From the grass to the trees, everything looked alive. He could even catch sight of what looked like wildflowers growing not far off! Where....where was he?

"Are you alright?" The woman's voice jerked his attention back to the two people with him as the redhead stepped closer, concern etched across her face. Link felt himself tensing up as he leaned away from her, causing her to stop where she was. The concern on her face only deepened. And her voice was soothing when she spoke again. "It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Malon, and this is my husband, Link. What's your name?"

Link stared before glancing over at the man. The man (who's name was apparently Link as well?) was standing where he'd first seen the couple, watching him just as intently as Link was watching them. There was a wariness to the man, but no active threat. And...now that Link was paying attention, there was fairy magic lingering on the man. And all through this area. Happy, calm fairy magic. This whole place seemed to radiate safety. Link felt himself relaxing before he realized it. Something told him that these two meant him no harm. And, as if to confirm his thoughts, the Triforce gave another warm, content pulse before falling dormant once more. Link drew in a slow breath and let it out before looking back to meet the woman, Malon's, gaze.

"My name is Link," he told her simply. "Can you tell me where I am?"

Chapter 3: A Prince of Light (Bumblebee)

Summary:

This chapter is about Bumblebee. Bumblebee is based on the Hero of Men, mentioned in Minish Cap.

Notes:

Edit 4/4/2024:
Added the name of Bumblebee’s brother

Link was going to get in trouble for this. He knew he was. But....he couldn't just leave that thing how it was.
Early that morning a report had come in about a strange phenomenon that had appeared in the woods not far from the castle. Naturally, having something off that close to the castle was concerning so Link’s father had gone with the guards to check it out. Link’s aptitude in magic meant he got to go too, leaving his mother and older brother, Daltus, behind to run things (not that this was much different than normal, considering they were Queen and Heir Apparent).

The source of concern was immediately obvious upon arriving at the edge of the small clearing the guards led them to. There was a…well. Link wasn’t sure exactly what it was. But it looked like a part of the air was twisting in on itself. Tearing even. And the magic coming from it felt…wrong. But Link couldn’t get anything more from it. Mostly because his father didn’t allow him to get any closer than the edge of the clearing. Instead, he had to stand there and watch as his father and the guards circled around and inspected it. As best as they were able to tell the strange thing wasn’t dangerous, but when one guard stuck his spear into it the spear didn’t come out the other side. Thought it did come back when he pulled it back. Thankfully.

After about an hour of looking the thing over Link’s father decided that they should return home. They left a group of six guards to monitor the clearing and made their way back. Link’s mother was curious to hear about what they found, but in the end, she didn’t have any ideas about what it was either.

All in all, the spent nearly the entire day muddling around and figured out next to nothing. And no matter how many times he asked, no one would allow Link to get closer to the strange tear to better check it out. He was twelve, so it wasn’t like he could do anything about it right? Never mind the fact that he was the one with magic. Or the fact that he’d saved their whole country a year ago. Nooo. None of that mattered because he was ‘just a child.’ 

But there was something he could do. He could feel it deep in his bones, in his blood, and in the magic that sang in his soul. And if he’d had any doubts before then the dream that hit him when he tried to sleep just now got rid of them.
It wasn’t a very clear dream, not like the one he got before the last attack on his home. But it still held the tint of magic to its edges that he’d come to recognize in a prophetic dream. In the dream he’d caught glimpses of other people. People he’d never met before, but felt strangely familiar. And he’d caught glimpses of monsters, both familiar and foreign.

The dream hadn’t lasted long, but Link woke up with the absolute certainty that he needed to go back to that weird thing in the clearing. So he’d promptly hopped out of bed and begun quietly gathering his things. His favorite blue coat was tucked into his bag in favor of a black one. He needed to get out without getting caught after all. The various tools he’d used in his last adventure joined his coat in the bag. There were only two things he kept out; his shield and the sword that his Picori friends had made him after he’d had to use the Picori Blade to seal away the monsters. His new blade didn’t hold nearly as much magic as the Picori Blade, but outside of that it was a perfect copy. Even the balance of the blade was the same!

Now to get out of the castle. Thankfully, Link knew a number of ways out. This was hardly his first time sneaking away. He’d done it for fun, back before everything. And afterward he tended to sneak off when he needed time away or fresh air to breathe. He loved his family, but they could be kind of smothering sometimes.

All that experience came in handy once again as he bundled his blade in a cloth to muffle any metal noise and snuck off with it and his shield in hand. All in all, it took about two hours for him to get out of the castle once he’d woken up. Not bad, but he still had a ways to go.

Unwrapping his blade, he strapped it to his back, stuck the cloth in his bag, and set off. Moving on foot meant it took another hour before he caught sight of the fire the guards were using to help them keep watch over the clearing the weird thing was in.

Link grinned to himself as he lowered his hood. These guards he could handle. Four of the six had seen him fight before. One had even fought alongside him at one point. In fact. Link shucked off the black cloak and put it into his bag, pulling out his blue coat instead. It wasn’t the green outfit the Picori had given him back then (he’d actually outgrown those in the last year), but it was still a recognizable outfit for him. 

That done, he resettled his sword and shield and made sure the Triforce of Courage was visible on his hand before striding forward. 

“Halt! Who goes there?” Link grinned at the familiar voice as three of the guards turned in his direction, weapons in hand.

”Easy Captain Falea,” he called back, continuing forward into the light. “It’s just me.” The guard closest to him lowered her weapon almost immediately at the sound of his voice and the others followed suit shortly after as he came into view.

”Prince Link,” Falea greeted him, sounding exasperated, but not surprised. ”Do your parents know you’re here?”

“Would you believe me if I said yes?” Link quipped back as he came to a stop and grinned up at her.

”Not in the slightest,” his friend replied dryly before shaking her head. “Why am I not surprised you’re here?”

”Because you know me,” Link told her simply, reaching up to par her arm. “Now are you going to let me through? Or am I going to have to cause various distractions until I can get through on my own?” This drew a groan from two of the other guards. Link’s tendency to cause chaos to draw people’s attention away from where he wanted to be was well known.

”You know your parents are going to kill me if you get hurt right?” Falea told him with a sigh as she stepped to the side to let him through.

”I know,” Link told her with an apologetic smile before he let the Light Force rise up to the surface, causing his left hand and eyes to glow a faint gold. “But I have to go.”

Link was never quite sure how exactly he looked when he used the Light Force like this, but it always got a response. Two of the guards, ones he hadn’t worked with before, shifted uncomfortably and one even stepped back. Several others stared at him in awe. But Falea just sighed.

”It’s like that then, huh?” She asked, but she clearly already knew the answer since she turned and gestured at the weird thing in the center of the clearing. “Do what you need to, but please be careful.”

"I will," Link agreed, making his way over to the weird fault in the air. Behind him he could hear the other guards questioning if letting him do this was a good idea, but he tuned it out for now. He trusted Falea to deal with them. Upon reaching the weird magic he came to a stop and reached out to touch it with his left hand, feeling how the weird, off magic seemed to be hanging in the air. Whatever this was it wasn't natural. But he knew what he needed to do. One of the things he'd seen in his dream was a vision of himself and several strangers walking through another similar-looking area. So, without further ado, Link strode forward and into the energy, ignoring the panicked call that came from behind him.

The wrong feeling was definitely worse once he entered the weird area, but bringing the Light Force back up to the surface of his body lessened the effect a great deal. And soon enough he found himself stepping out onto unfamiliar green grass. He didn't have much time to try and figure out where he was though, because there was something more important right in front of him.

A hoard of monsters was swarming around a large building that was probably quite well cared for normally. It was hard to tell at the moment though, since the roof was on fire. The monsters, a group of strange ones he was pretty sure he hadn't seen before (though some looked vaguely familiar), were all clearly out for blood as they attacked this building. And, if the sounds of metal clashing he was hearing were any indication, the people living here were targets of the monsters' ire as well. That just wouldn't do.

Pulling out his sword and shield, Link summoned some of his magic to his blade and swung it forward. An arch of golden-white magic swung out from his blade, cutting into the unsuspecting backs of the creatures in front of him. Several nearby monsters turned towards him, clearly startled but willing to fight this new threat. Link grinned at them and shifted his grip on his sword. Good. Time to get to it then.

Chapter 4: A New Adventure (Mural)

Summary:

This chapter is about Mural. Mural is the hero from A Link to the Past, Oracle of Seasons, Oracle of Ages, Link's Awakening, A Link Between Worlds, and Triforce Heroes.

Notes:

Note; Mural uses he/they pronouns, but when in their perspective I will be using they/them

Note 7/11/23: I went in and did some edits to this chapter. Mostly to add in things to reference the fact that I now head canon that all Lorulians have wings.

Edit 4/4/2924: small grammer edits

Edit 5/29/25: adding some description tex

Trigger Warning: There is some cussing and mentions of (mostly) past lack of self worth.

They'd done it. They'd gotten married. It was almost a year ago now, but Link was still having trouble wrapping their head around it all. Just the fact that Ravio had chosen to return to them instead of staying in Lorule had blown Link away and it had taken time for them to readjust to having someone in their life other than Zelda. But then accepting that Ravio not only wanted to stay but loved them? That had taken a whole other struggle. In retrospect it shouldn't have been, Ravio had been showing them affection nearly the entire time the two of them had known each other. Link had just been blind to it. Willfully perhaps? Marin had still been fresh on their mind when they met Ravio after all.

But all of that was in the past. They'd long since accepted Ravio's love and devotion, embraced it even. And returned it in equal measures. To celebrate their marriage Ravio ended up surprising them with a trip to several of the places that Link had traveled to during their adventures. So that Link could see old friends, and Ravio could meet the people he'd heard stories of. They traveled to Holodrum to meet Din, Dimitri, Ricky, and Moosh before heading to Labrynna to meet up with Nayru and Ralph. Then, finally, they went to Hytopia to see Styla. Ravio even managed to get ahold of the two other heroes that Link had befriended during their last time in Hytopia, setting things up for both of them to be there too! 

Needless to say, Link had a blast. Traveling around to see old friends while having someone that fully intended to stay healed things they hadn't even been fully aware were hurt. They would have to find some way to show their husband how much all of this meant to them. Link had done their best to tell the merchant how much it meant, but Link had always been better with actions instead of words. They'd have to think of something they could do as a proper thank you. It would be easier now that they were almost home. They'd probably see if they could get Zelda to help as well. She'd helped Ravio set up his part after all. Actually. They needed to do something for their sister too for that fact...

They could work on making dinner instead of having Ravio do it? But they weren’t the best cook, so maybe that wasn’t a good idea…Maybe spend some time this evening pampering Ravio? They knew their husband loved having their wings preened and Link did love getting to preen them. Those wings might be one of the few physical differences between the two of them (outside of coloration), but they often brought the two of them closer together rather than pushing them apart. Oh! Oh they could-Gah! There were too many ideas bouncing around in their head.

But those plans were put on hold as the two of them rounded the final corner that allowed Link's orchard to come into view.

"Shit." Yep. That about summed up how they were feeling right about then. Right in front of them, just off to the left of the path to their house, was what Link could only describe as a rift in the air. It wasn't as neat as the cracks that had led to Lorule, but it was clearly something similar enough. Couldn't whatever this was wait until they at least got all the way home from their Honeymoon? This was rude. That's what it was.

"I'll go back your gear." Ravio's sigh cut through Link's frustrated thoughts and the Hyrlian spun to look at their husband.

"Ravi I'm sorry! I-" Ravio cut them off, quite effectively, by putting a hand over their mouth.

"None of that," Ravio scolded them sternly before removing his hand. "This is what you do. I knew that when I met you, I knew that even more when I came back, and I certainly knew that when I married you. You're a hero, My Hero. And I know you need to go take care of this, whatever it is. I'll be here when you get back. And you had better believe I'm going to want to hear whatever stories you have when you return." Link huffed a sigh, tension leaking out of their shoulders.

"What did I do to deserve you?" they asked, shaking their head. Ravio grinned at them, rupee-green eyes sparkling.

"I don't know. I feel like saving my homeworld, letting me live in your house twice now, and sparing Hilda despite everything she did to you and Hyrule are pretty good reasons," the black-haired merchant told them with a playful tilt of his head. A moment later that playful expression gentled to a more sincere one. "Not to mention letting me love you, and loving me in return. Despite everything you've been through." Link's heart clenched but in a good way. A familiar way. They still weren't entirely used to the feelings that would hit when Ravio opened up like this, but it always left them feeling warm and a little breathless. Words weren't their thing though, not like they were Ravio's, so trying to explain how much all that meant to them verbally just wasn't going to happen. Instead, they stepped forward to hug the other, resting their forehead on their husband's shoulder.

Ravio, ridiculously adorable as he was, wrapped his arms around Link as well with a contented hum . His wings followed a moment later, cocooning Link in soft, grey feathers. Blast it Link was going to miss having this sort of thing at a moment's notice while they were out dealing with this newest....whatever it was. The thought had them tightening their grip on the purple robe Ravio always wore and earned them a quiet, warm laugh.

"Don't you worry, My Hero," Ravio's voice was warm and reassuring by their ear. "I'll be right here when you get back. No matter how long it takes." Link hummed into Ravio's shoulder, acknowledging the promise, but didn't let go for another couple of minutes. And Ravio let them, holding them back for as long as they needed. And, when Link finally pulled away, Ravio let them go with no resistance, tucking his wings back against his back like he always did. That was how Ravio always was, offering his presence and affection as much or as little as Link wanted or needed it. But Link couldn't stay here and curl up with Ravio. Not today. They needed to check out this...thing. And see if any of the guards or Zelda knew anything about it. So Link made themself pull the rest of the way away.

"I need to go check with Zel," they told Ravio, taking off their expanded bag and handing it over to him. "Then I'll be back home to get my gear and let you know what I learned."

"I'll get your stuff packed and see if anyone nearby knows anything," Ravio agreed with a nod and Link couldn't help but smile as a rush of gratitude went through them. Leaning forward, they pressed a quick kiss to Ravio's lips before turning and dashing off, activating their pegasus boots as they did so. 

---

The next couple of hours ended up being relatively unhelpful. As it turned out, the weird rift must have shown up recently, because neither Zelda nor any of the guards or soldiers had heard of it yet. But going by the castle did let them inform Zelda of the issue and that they were already on it. So it wasn't a complete waste of time.

By the time he arrived back home a good two hours had gone by. Strangely enough, while Link's bag was placed just inside the front door Ravio wasn't anywhere to be found in the house. A small spike of worry fizzled through their body as they grabbed their bag and put it back in its proper position on their belt before hurrying out of the house. Where was-? Oh. There.

Ravio was a little ways down the road from the house, circling around the weird rift with a thoughtful frown on his face. He was clearly examining it while still keeping a relatively safe distance from the oddity. Relief washed away the fear that tried to take root in their body as Link trotted over to join their husband. Clearly seeing them coming, Ravio stopped his circling to wait for Link to join him.

"Find anything?" Link inquired as he came to a stop. Their husband had always been better at sensing and working with magic than they were. Plus he'd had a bit of time here to look the thing over and think on it with the sharp mind they knew he had.

"Nothing good," Ravio confided, crossing his arms across his chest with a frown. "Looks like no one else has come across the thing yet, but Sheerow says that, according to the local animals, this thing appeared a short while ago. I'd estimate an hour or so ago at most. They've all been steering well clear of it. And I can't say I blame them, the whole thing reeks of something....unnatural isn't the right word, but it's close. Whatever this is it shouldn't be here. Shouldn't even exist maybe. And animals are sensitive to those sorts of things. Nothing has come in or out of it, however." Ravio held up a finger before leaning down and picking up one of the small rocks that lay around the general area. He took a couple of moments to heft it in his hand, gauging its weight, before he turned and threw it at the rift with an accuracy most would never expect from him. The rock hit the rift and...vanished into it. Link blinked in surprise before turning to look at Ravio with a concerned frown.

"I've tried a couple of different things now," Ravio informed him simply, taking the visual prompt for more information with ease. "Everything does that, no matter which direction I throw it from. Rocks, an apple, sticks. All of it."

"So it's some sort of portal then," Link mused.

"It sure seems that way, My Hero," Ravio agreed with a huff. "But I have no idea where it goes. It doesn't feel like anything that Lorule would create. I don't have much experience with any other portals, but I can say that it doesn't feel like divine magic. Or magic from around here." Ravio paused, frowning more deeply and Link raised an eyebrow. 

"Think of something?" they prompted after nearly a minute of Ravio frowning thoughtfully at the rift. The merchant jumped slightly before turning to look at Link with a sheepish smile.

"Right. Yes. Sort of. It kind of feels like the magic Nayru had around her, but...twisted around. It's not quite right, but that's the closest I've got." Link couldn't help it. They groaned.

"Time travel. Wonderful." They had nothing against Nayru, but time travel was one of their least favorite things to deal with. The last time they'd dealt with it they'd ended up nearly getting erased from the timeline and then did end up with a painting of themself in their grandparents' house. They were their own namesake now for Nayru's sake! It was all very headache-inducing and they were not looking forward to dealing with more of it.

Though....it was kind of cool getting to meet people from history. And see things they'd only gotten to read about before. So...that was an upside to this sort of thing. And this one might not even go back. What if they got to see things that came up in the future? How cool would that be?!

"Getting excited for this then?" Ravio's voice pulled them back to the present enough to take in the fondly indulgent smile he was giving them. Only then did they realize that an excited grin had spread across their face. The smile faded as quickly as they realized it was there, leaving behind a sheepish, apologetic one.

"It's not that I want to leave," they hurried to reassure him. "I just..."

"You're excited to see where you'll end up," Ravio finished for them, thankfully not appearing offended by this at all. Instead, he just looked more fond. "You want to see new places and meet new places. I know you do. And that's ok. Good even. I'm glad you're excited about this." Gratitude welled up in Link then, washing away the sheepish feelings from a moment before. Ravio really did know them. They were excited about this. Traveling was fun. So was meeting new people and seeing new places. Link could acknowledge that, not too long ago, the idea of making new friends in some distant place wouldn't have excited them the way it did now. But the idea wasn't a bitter one anymore. Not with their merchant waiting at home for them, a living testament that not everyone left. And those who did go didn't have to stay gone from their life forever. The trip they'd just returned from only further cemented this idea in their mind.

"Yeah," they agreed with a small breath and a relaxing of their shoulders. "That's exactly it." Tugged forward by the urge to touch and be close, Link moved closer to their husband so they could wrap an arm around his shoulder and pull him close to their side. "But I won't stay gone too long if I can help it. I like spending time here at home with you and Zel too."

"I know you do," Ravio agreed, wrapping his arm around them in return and leaning against him. They stayed like that for a couple of beats of silence before Ravio began speaking again.

"You got your bag I see. I tried to pack anything I thought you might need in it. Outside of what you already have on you of course. Your ring box is in there along with a stock of potions, your seed bag, a fire rod, ice rod, shovel, moon pearl, hookshot, long switch, hammer, and...well. A number of other things. I didn't put in any duplicates or the tools that have really only helped you in Lorule. I hope I didn't forget anything." 

"I'm sure you did fine," Link reassured him with a slight squeeze. It sounded like Ravio had done his best to make sure they would be well prepared for just about anything that would come their way. Honestly, they were starting this off far more prepared than they typically did. Half of their other adventures had started with them completely without most of their gear. If they had any of it. It would be nice to not be running around feeling naked at the start of an adventure thanks to not having the items they used the most often.

Ravio hesitated, tense, but then he let out a slow sigh and leaned more fully against them. They were still working on his feelings of inadequacy, but at least he was actively trying to accept that he'd done well here. That was better than he used to be. The two of them used to go back and forth whenever Link would try and reassure their merchant that he'd done well. Link would compliment him and Ravio would falter or deny (or, when he wasn't feeling up for an actual conversation, put forward fake confidence that was extremely see-through once you got to know him). Those sorts of conversations were rare these days, thankfully. They had been frustrating for both sides. A comfortable silence fell again as they leaned against each other, but eventually, Link had to break it, pulling away enough to look over at Ravio.

"I should get going." Ravio let out a sigh, but nodded as he pulled away as well.

"You should," he agreed. "The world isn't going save itself." Link huffed a laugh and shook his head. No. No it wasn't. Not in their experience at least.

"I'll be back soon," they promised, pulling Ravio into one last, brief hug. They couldn't be sure how soon it would be, but they'd do their best.

"Just focus on getting back safe," their husband corrected them, returning the hug for several moments before pulling away to give them a gentle push toward the rift. "Go on you."

"I'm going. I'm going!" Link laughed, shaking their head and starting towards the rift. "See you later, Ravi." Ravio raised a hand in reply and Link could still see him waving out of the corner of their eyes as they stepped into the strange rift.

Oof. Yeah. They could see what Ravio had meant when he said the whole thing felt wrong. It had been harder to tell from the outside, but it was impossible to miss now that they were inside it. But they weren't about to let that stop them. Steeling their resolve, they strode forward with purpose, and some budding excitement.

The sight that greeted them as they stepped out the other side only served to bring that excitement to bloom. This place was foreign to them. It was hard to be completely certain, but the plants they could see didn’t look right for the ones they knew.
A quick glance behind them told them that the rift was gone. Lovely. Right. Link took in a settling breath before starting forward, senses alert for possible threats and eyes scanning for any hints on where they might be. It was time to see what this new adventure was going to bring.

Chapter 5: A King’s Fall (Diritaln)

Summary:

This chapter is about Diritaln. Diritaln Link Gidlazir is my hero from 10,000 years before Breath of the Wild (well, 1,000 in my story, but the game says 10,000)

Notes:

Edit 4/4/2024: slight grammatical edits

Diritaln was happy. The strange technology the Sheika had built had proven to be exceedingly helpful in defeating the Calamity. With the help of their Divine Beasts, piloted by Champions from each of Hyrule’s border people; the Zora, the Gorons, the Rito, and his own people, the Gerudo, it had been almost easy. At least compared to previous times he’d read about.

The time since that victory two years ago had been one of peace. And relations between Hyrule and the Gerudo had never been better. Trade was flowing easily and his people were able to freely travel outside of the desert for whatever reason they wanted. There was still work to be done, of course. Politics never fully settled. And that was why he was on his way toward Castle Town to have another meeting with the Queen of Hyrule to discuss a small change to a trade agreement.

He and his four guards were traveling along a commonly-used path in Gerudo Canyon, approaching the crossing for the River of the Dead when things suddenly went very wrong. Alba, the trusty mare that had carried him to and from the Hyrulian capital many times, suddenly reared as they approached the start of the bridge. Caught completely off guard, Diritaln scrambled to try and grab at her reins but didn't manage to get a grip. Instead, the mare's panicked flailing sent him careening off her back as she turned and bolted back towards home. 

Diritaln barely heard his guards' panicked shouts as he came to the sudden realization that he wasn't going to be landing on the ground. No. His horse's panicked bucks had sent him flying right over the edge of the nearby cliff, missing the bridge by a good couple of feet...This was going to hurt. Assuming he survived the fall of course.

Looking back up the way he'd come Diritaln caught sight of his guard's terrified faces as they peered down over the ledge at him. But then they were gone. As was the rest of the world around him. Instead of the pain he'd been expecting, Diritaln found himself falling into a strange, foreign feeling....something. What in the...? Where was he? He could no longer see anything that reminded him of any sort of ground or sky. All he could see was a strange, distorted grey that seemed to surround him.

But he didn't get to process it any more than that because the world suddenly rushed back into view as he crashed, not onto sharp rocks or cold water as he expected, but onto hard, flat ground. It wasn't as hard as it should have been, considering how long he'd been falling, but it was still enough to knock the air out of his lungs and leave him gasping on the ground as he tried to reorient himself. It was hard to do, winded like that, but he could already tell he was somewhere different than he'd been a short time ago. For one thing, there were tall trees looming above him instead of a cliff face and bridge.

"Ouch. That looked rough, are you alright?" The new voice was unfamiliar but sounded concerned enough. For all Diritaln couldn't quite gather himself enough to turn and look. Thankfully, the new person seemed to be able to tell, because a short while later he was greeted by the sight of the stranger leaning over him. The person was clearly Hylian. The blond hair and pointed ears made that fairly clear. Though...it looked like their hair was sorta..pink too? That was kinda odd. Right? That or he'd hit the ground harder than he thought. Anyways. Blond-pink hair, brown eyes and a bright red tunic. Male most likely, if he was judging correctly.

"Yeah. You look kind of winded there," the Hylian mused with a slightly wry twist to their-his lips. "You gonna be alright?" Finally. Finally, Diritaln managed to draw in enough air to try and respond. But first, he forced himself to a sitting position, making the Hylian step back to give him room.

"Easy there," the brown-eyed stranger cautioned, watching him with a small frown. "You hit the ground pretty hard there. Not to mention passing through that rift-thing."

"Rift thing?" Diritaln repeated. Because, well, that sounded like the most important part of that whole statement and the Hylian blinked at him in surprise before his expression creased into something akin to pity. And...Diritaln didn't like that. Not at all.

"You don't know how you got here?" The young man asked him "Did you stumble through the rift by accident?"

"What rift?" Diritaln asked, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully.

"The rift you just fell out of," the stranger informed him dryly. Diritaln frowned thoughtfully. Was that what he'd fallen into? Some sort of...rift?

"Is that what it was?" He mused "Lovely. So...where are we?"

"No clue." Well, that was an unfortunate answer, but it was accompanied by the stranger straightening more fully and crossing his arms across their chest. "I just got here a couple of minutes ago myself. And nothing I've seen looks familiar to me. My husband said the rift felt like time energy though. I wouldn't be surprised if yours was too. So the better question might be when are we." Diritaln stared at him, trying to process that.

"Time travel?" he asked, cringing a moment later at how dumb he sounded. He was a king. He needed to gather himself better.

"Best as I can tell, yes," the stranger agreed with a dismissive shrug. Was this just...normal for this guy?! Wonderful. But before Diritaln could process more on that he shook his head and held out his hand in a clear offer to help him up. Despite the...obvious height differences between the two of them. Might as well work with it. He didn't need to be insulting the first person he met here after all. So he reached up, taking his hand and allowing him to pull him up. The Hylian had a surprising amount of strength for someone so short. More than most Hylians he'd met, actually.

"Anyways," the Hylian said once he was up. "We might as well work together while we figure out where we are. My name is Link. How about you?" Link huh? Well. It was a common enough name.

"Diritaln," he told the young man. "Diritaln Link Gidlazir, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Notes:

Ok. So I'm supposed to be working on the next chapter of A Wolf and His Wild Child, yet here I am. The other members of the Chain grabbed me by the scruff and said I needed to write about them for a bit. So I am.

Chapter 6: Prison Break (Twilight)

Summary:

This chapter is about Twilight. My Link from Twilight Princess.

Notes:

You will likely notice that, unlike most of the others, Twilight is already using Twilight in this chapter instead of Link. This is intentional and the why will be explained later on in the actual meetup. But in general, he thinks of himself as Twilight rather than Link.

TRIGGER WARNING: There will be some cursing in this chapter. Also mentions of suicidal ideation. The suicidal ideation is all in the second paragraph if you wanna skip that.

Edit 4/5/2024: A couple of grammar edits as well as fixing the gear he pulls from the shadows to be more accurate

Twilight's arms were starting to hurt. Well. They had been hurting for a while, but now they were starting to get to the point where he couldn't just ignore them anymore. A side effect of having them chained above his head for a couple of days. They could have at least chained his arms down a bit lower. He supposed he was 'too dangerous' for that. Bloody jerks. It wasn't like he'd ever killed any Hylians. No matter what they did to him. Not directly at least. He couldn't do anything about if they treated the wounds properly or not. Twilight let out a low, frustrated sigh (ok. It bordered on a growl) and leaned back against the wall to try and loosen the tension on the chains and his arms.

"Shut up in there!" Yep. There were the guards. Fucking assholes. Twilight was quite honestly at the point that he was ready for them to get this whole mess over with. At least then he wouldn't have to deal with the assholes that seemed to make up the majority of Hyrule's population in this time. Another, smaller, sigh escaped him and he let his eyes fall closed. He just wanted to go home, but it didn't look like he was going to be able to do that. Not in this lifetime at least. Maybe he could get back to his Kit in spirit form? Like his grandfather did for him. It wouldn't be the same but-wait. What was that?

Twilight's eyes snapped open, fixing on the space against the wall to his right. What in the-? The dark of the dungeon made it hard to see what exactly what it was, visually, but his other senses definitely could tell something was there. The scent was faint, but...weird. It smelled unnatural. And, honestly, that was the vibe it was giving a lot of his other senses as well. Even the sixth, danger sense he'd gained from his time as a wolf was screaming that this thing wasn't supposed to be here. That it wasn't safe. And that wasn't counting what he was catching with his magic. It didn't feel quite like anything he'd felt before. Even the Twilight Magic's foreignness didn't fit this. 

Though...now that he was paying closer attention to it he was catching something familiar. Something cool and dark that sang to a part of his being that he did his best not to draw on too often. That was...concerning. If something like that was coming from this thing it could be dangerous. And while he didn't particularly care for most Hylians he did have a small number that meant a good deal to him. And most of those individuals currently resided in Castle Town. Plus he needed the queen to survive, so she could continue the line that would lead to Ren. Blast it all. He couldn't just leave this thing here could he? Not safely.

Frustration bubbled up in him, but he pushed it away and got to his feet. He might as well take care of it. But to do that he needed to get over to whatever it was. Which meant the shackles had to go. He already had one shackle stuck on his wolf body. He didn't need any stuck on his bipedal one. Well. Luckily for him the runes these idiots had carved on the shackles did literally nothing to restrain his magic.

So, once he was steady on his feet, Twilight shifted around so he could gesture at one of the chains with the hand not attached to that chain. A small spark of dark, glowing energy formed at the gesture and shot over to the chain, snapping the metal with the same ease Midna had demonstrated all those years ago. Not wanting to make any excess noise, Twilgiht quickly jerked that arm away from the wall, letting the chain fall down to dangle from his wrist, safe from clattering against the wall.

Moving slowly to avoid knocking the now dangling chain against anything, Twilight used his now-free hand to grip the shackle on his other wrist. This took more effort, but with a bit of work the shackle itself snapped, freeing that wrist entirely. Twilight grinned darkly at the shackle even as he caught it and set it so it hung quietly against the wall. Oh what those guards would think if they had known how easily he could have gotten free this whole time. They probably would have wet themselves.  Twilight shook his head, dismissing it for now, and used his shackle-free hand to break the shackle off of his other wrist and carefully placed this second shackle on the ground. There. All free.

Turning towards the odd feeling, Twilight allowed himself to rub at his sore wrists and arms to get the blood flow back in them properly. To work then. Shaking his arms one final time, he made his way over to the strange feeling on near-silent feet. They'd taken his boots from him, so it was nearly child's play to keep the sound he made to a minimum. 

Huh. Now that he was closer to the odd feeling Twilight was finally able to get a visual glimpse of it. It looked like....a weird...rip? Or a warp? Something really off with the air itself. Frowning to himself, Twilight held out a hand off to his side, palm open. A small thought and twist of magic brought the Ordon Sword to his hand. Thankfully, while the guards had taken his bag away most of his gear had been safely stored in the shadow pocket he used before he even entered the Castle. So it was safe and within easy reach. But if this led to a whole thing he would need to get a new bag though. And more potions. And rupees. Oh well. All of that could wait. For now, he gripped his blade and carefully used it to reach over and poke at the weird warp in reality.

Nothing traveled up the blade, which was good, but the blade also seemed to vanish into it. Which was...odd. At the bare minimum. Some sort of portal then? Tear in reality? Twilight froze, staring at where the sword vanished. Was this....was this a way to travel? Twilight had long ago given up on praying for a way to get home, but....could this be? He knew it wasn't very likely but....it was possible. Even if unlikely. And that was more than he'd had in a long time.

Twilight let out a slow breath, trying to calm himself. Right. So. This was a thing. And he'd done worse things than walk into unknown rifts in his attempts to get home. So there was no way he wasn't going to try it. But he needed to get a bit more prepared before he did. He had no idea where this thing was going to take him. Probably nothing good, considering what he was feeling from it. And he didn't want to risk leaving any of his gear behind while traveling through this thing either. So he'd need to get the most important things out now. Hopefully, none of this would draw attention from the guards outside.

So, moving carefully to try and avoid creating noise as much as possible, Twilight began pulling out his various important gear out of the shadow pocket. His sword belt, stealth boots (courtesy of the Stealth Armor his Kit had gotten him), and Hylian Shield came out. The belt, boots, and shield all went on before he sheathed the blade. 

Then he paused, considering. He couldn't really risk putting on armor in this cell. It would cause too much noise, but there were things he didn't want to lose if the things he carried in his shadow pocket somehow didn't travel with him. With that in mind, he reached back into the shadows and pulled out a couple of other things. Things from his time in Link's time, like his Snowquill Armor, Stealth Armor, Hylian Amor, and Diamond Circlet were a given. And he couldn't forget the wooden box that held the armband he'd gotten from the Isha in Gerudo Town plus the one from his childhood. And last, but not least, came a slim book he'd been given by his grandmother before her passing.

It took a bit of work, but he eventually managed to bundle it all together so he could stand up, carrying it all safely with him. This made it so his hands were full, unfortunately, but he didn't want to risk losing any of these precious things. Many of them were irreplaceable. All of them were, in fact, if he couldn't get back to his Kit's time.

That done, he took in a slow breath and let it out before striding into the strange rift. The unnatural energy feeling was all around him now and it was a bit unpleasant. But not as bad as he thought it was going to be. And it took less than a minute for him to get through it, stepping out into a forest as the rift vanished behind him. The lingering, familiar energy also vanished, leaving him without any leads on where to go. But anywhere was better than where he had been, so he wasn't going to complain.

Coming to a stop, Twilight reached out with his senses, trying to get an idea of where he was. The scents were similar to the ones in the forests not far from Castle Town, if ever so slightly off, and the sounds fit what he was used to as well. But (and it was a big but), he couldn't sense any of his warp points. None of the areas of twilight magic that he or Midna had left around Hyrule were within range. So...either he had traveled in time ago, or he was very far from Hyrule. Unfortunately, that did mean that he probably wasn't home either, since he had even more warp points there. But he could work with this. And, since he didn't hear any nearby monsters, he could take the time to put on armor.

A quick gauge of the weather had him selecting the Hylian Armor before putting away the rest of the gear he had been carrying, tucking it into his shadow pocket. And, good, his other gear was still there. So he hadn't actually needed to carry those things. Oh well, better safe than sorry when it came to things like that. At least he knew now, in case he came across similar rifts later.

He was halfway into putting on his armor when he realized something. Right. He wasn't in prison anymore. And he wasn't likely to be dying anytime soon. He should put his armband back on. The dye he'd applied would only last so long and he had no way to know how this place would react if his natural hair color began to show. A quick thought had the wooden box back in his hand and he removed the older band from it before storing the box away again.

Quick, practiced hands attached the armband back to his bicep before putting on the rest of his armor, hiding it completely from view. After that it only took a couple more minutes for him to finish putting on the armor, pulling the hood up over his head. Just to be safe. Then he set off. He wanted to figure out where, or when, he was. Preferably before the sun went down. A quick glance at the sky told him he had a couple of hours to work with. Good. That should be enough to get started at least. Especially since, shortly after he began walking, he caught the sound of two people talking. That would be his starting point then. 

Chapter 7: Stepping Through Time Again (Captain)

Summary:

This chapter is about Captain. Captain is the Link from Hyrule Warriors

Link could truly say that he'd enjoyed the last year. Things had taken a little time to calm down after the war, but they'd managed. And rebuilding had been going well. Peace had been going well. So suddenly receiving an urgent summons from Zelda to come to the castle on one of his few days off had been an unwelcome surprise. What could have her calling him in like this? Especially since she was the one who insisted that he stay away from the castle on his days off. Unsurprisingly, the messenger had been of no help when it came to knowing what was going on, so Link had to rush to the castle with no real information.

Upon reaching the castle gates he was let in and directed to the main training grounds for knights in training. Which was odd, but far less odd than finding that it was being blocked off by an array of soldiers who had been instructed to keep everyone out of the training grounds. Thankfully, the soldiers were quick to let him through once they recognized him and he was allowed to make his way to the training grounds themselves. 

Once he arrived it was easy to tell why the guard had been set up. There was some sort of weird rift thing hovering in the air near the center of the training grounds, right next to a training dummy.  Queen Zelda was standing a good distance away, near the edge of the grounds, along with General Impa. Lana was there too, circling the tear with a frown on her face. There wasn't anything he could do for their time mage, so Link made his way toward them.

"Link, good. You're here," his queen smiled at him as he reached them and dipped into a low bow (there were too many guards around to forget formalities here). "Please, stand. We have important matters to discuss."

"Of course, Your Majesty," he agreed, straightening. "What do we know so far?"

"Not a whole lot I fear," Zelda replied apologetically  "This thing appeared here a couple hours back. We quarantined the area quickly and nothing has come through it, but anything passed through it vanishes. Things on sticks or strings can be pulled back, but otherwise, they vanished. We haven't sent anyone through it. We didn't want to risk it until after Lana looked over it. She arrived here about a minute before you. Before we could call her actually. She's looking it over now." Link nodded slowly, frowning in thought as he looked at the weird rift.

"It doesn't look anything like Cia's portals," he noted after a moment, looking back at Zelda.

"That's because it's not like them," Lana cut in, making her way over to them, her tone and mannerism alarmingly serious. Even during Cia's whole mess Lana had remained fairly bubbly and upbeat. What could have her like this?

"What is it then?" Impa cut in, concern coloring her voice like impatience.

"It's worse," Lana told them grimly, coming to a stop and wrapping her arms around herself. "The fabric of time itself is tearing. "Cia and I caught the feeling of it earlier today, so I came here as fast as I could."

"Tearing?!" Zelda asked in alarm. Not that Link could blame her. That sounded really bad.

"Tearing," Lana confirmed with a nod. "Something is messing with important points in time, altering it in a way it is struggling to recover from."

"Is there anything we can do?" Link found himself asking. There had to be, right? They couldn't just sit back and let this happen. Lana frowned, looking back at the rift, the tear, pensively.

"I'm not certain..." she admitted slowly "But..."

"But what?" Zelda prompted, stepping forward to touch a hand to Lana's shoulder. "What is it?"

"It's just. There's no reason for a tear to appear here," Lana told them, turning away from the tear in question. "It's illogical. It almost feels like...something nudged it here. Or someone. Someone who wants to stop the damage from occurring. I can't be certain, but I have a sneaky suspicion that if someone were to go through it then they would find themself at the point in time where the damage is happening. They could fix it. But...I'm not sure how that person would get back here."

"I'll go." Link cut in before Impa or Zelda could voice any concerns on the matter. "Even if I can't get back here we need to stop this from happening, right?"

"We do," Lana agreed grimly.

"But Link!" Zelda protested "We need you here! What about Toka?" Link grimaced at the reminder. 

"Toka will be fine," he told her firmly. He would. His partner was strong. And he understood the duties Link had as a knight, and the Hero. "Just...let him know where I went, alright?"

"We will," Impa agreed, pressing a firm hand to their queen's shoulder, quelling further protests. "And rest assured that we will endeavor to look into ways to get you home if it is at all possible." Link let out a breath and nodded.

"I know you will," he agreed. Zelda deflated in defeat.

"I'm going to miss you," she told him, stepping forward to pull him into a hug. Like it was just them, and no soldiers were standing around nearby to see. Link blinked hard, pushing back tears as he wrapped his arms around her in return.

"I'll miss you too," he admitted quietly. "All of you. You take care of yourself, alright?"

"I will," Zelda agreed, squeezing tight.

"Don't worry, we'll look out for her," Lana promised, stepping closer to place one hand on Zelda's shoulder and the other on Link's. "And Cia and I will do our best to keep an eye on you wherever you go. That should help us on getting you home."

"Do you need to go get anything for your travels?" Impa's cool, impartial tones were a steadying presence. Familiar in the face of the unknown. Link forced himself to pull away from the two women holding him so he could properly answer his general.

"No ma'am. I grabbed my gear before leaving home. The message said it was urgent and I didn't want to risk coming unprepared."

"Very good." High praise from the General. Link allowed himself a pleased smile as he dipped his head in acknowledgment of the praise. To his surprise, Impa smiled back. It was a small smile, but a smile all the same. 

"You had best be off then," she instructed him. "We don't want to risk this thing closing without you."

"Yes ma'am," Link agreed, snapping a salute before turning to look back at his queen and their time guardian. Unable to find further words, he dipped into a low bow, fighting back further shock when Zelda returned it in kind. She straightened quickly enough, but the bow was still a shock.

"Travel safe, Link," Zelda instructed him. "And return to us victorious." Link's throat suddenly felt tighter, preventing him from responding verbally, but he did manage a small smile and nod in reply. Unable to do more, and unwilling to stall, he turned away. Uncertain what sort of dangers he might face on the other side, he drew his blade before striding into the tear, refusing to look back.

....Well...it certainly took longer to get through this than it had to pass through Cia's portals. And the unpleasant chill that sunk into his body made the whole thing even more unpleasant. He wasn't sure if the nothingness spanning in every direction made it better or worse though. He was starting to wonder if he should begin counting to see how long the trip took, but before he could actually start doing so it ended.

Lush, green trees like none he'd ever seen before spread out around him, not a single sign of civilization to be found. Well. He definitely had gone somewhere. Or, perhaps, somewhen. Now it was time to figure out where, or when, he was and deal with whatever threat was being brought upon this place. Then he'd worry about trying to get home. But which way to go? A quick glance around didn't give him any real indicators of where to go, so eventually he settled on a random direction and started off. Better than standing around at least. Hopefully, a path would show itself soon enough.

Chapter 8: What if I Poke it? (Tune)

Summary:

This chapter is about Tune, my hero of Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass.

Link loved sailing. He really, really did.

But...it was also good to get to be on land from time to time. And seeing his family and the people he grew up with made it even better. Especially since his grandma wasn't getting any younger. So he was going to make the most of the time he had for this shore visit. They were only going to be on Onset for another day after all. Unless he could convince Tetra to hang around for a little bit longer. He kind of wanted to keep his feet on solid ground for more than two days. It would be a nice change.

(In hindsight. Maybe he should have worded this particular desire a bit more specifically...)

For now, though, enjoying his time ashore meant hanging out with Aryll on the beach, building castles out of sand while their grandma watched from a nearby chair. He couldn't help but occasionally stop and stare at his little sister. She was pretty good at it, much better than he remembered. But he supposed that was bound to happen considering she was eleven now. Almost twelve (he'd have to make sure he got back here in time for her birthday. He couldn't miss this one). He was missing her growing up too, but they'd agreed that she would stay on the island with Grandma until she turned fifteen, or Grandma passed on. If Granma was still around when she turned fifteen they'd trade spots for a while and he'd stay on Onset. Unless they'd found a place for New Hyrule by then. If that was the case they'd have to work things out. But for now they had a plan!

"What are you staring at, ya shellfish?" Link startled. He had, in fact, been staring again. And Aryll had clearly noticed. Clearly used to his weirdness, if amused by it, she raised an eyebrow at him, tilting her chin in challenge. Link grinned in reply.

"Oh. Nothing much, just a little gull-chick."

"Better a gull-chick than a wet-behind-the-ears scallywag!" she shot back, dark brown eyes sparkling playfully. Link straightened. Oh. It was on.

"Oh yeah? Well at least-"

"Now now children," Grandma's voice cut over his before he could finish. "None of that now. Play nice." Link and Aryll both deflated.

"Yes, Grandma," they chorused. Neither of them wanted to upset her. Not even for an insult battle. Link did catch the look Aryll gave him though. The fight was far from over.

"Hey, Sailor?" On second thought. It might have to be over for a bit. Link-the-farmer didn't normally come searching him out. And definitely not sounding like that. Link could tell that Arylla knew it too. Her shoulders dropped slightly, but she straightened them and nodded to him as he got to his feet and turned to look toward the call.

"What's wrong?" He asked, leaning down to grab his sword and shield from where they were resting on the sand and starting towards the man.

"It might be nothing," the farmer began uncertainly, but his expression was worried. He clearly didn't think it was anything. "There's just.... something weird just appeared by my pigs' house. Could you come have a look-see?"

"Lead the way," Link agreed as he strapped his gear to his back.

"I'm coming too," Aryll told them as she came up beside him, her own sword back on her hip. The cutlass Tetra had given her a year ago was no Phantom Sword, or Master Sword, but it worked on most monsters. And Aryll had been working hard to learn how to use it ever since she got it. Orca had commented to him more than once about how diligent she was in her study of the blade.

"Alright," Link agreed with a sigh. There would be no talking her out of it, he knew that for sure. "Come on then." The farmer frowned slightly, glancing between the two of them, but didn't comment as he turned to lead the way back to his pig house.

At first, Link couldn't see anything that could be a cause for alarm, but as they rounded a corner that led to the space behind the house the cause for Farmer-Link's concern became obvious.

"What in the Great Sea is that?!" Leave it to Aryll to ask the big question. The thing in front of them didn't look like anything Link had ever seen before. He wasn't even sure if it could be called a 'thing' really. It almost looked like...the air was rippling? But not like how it did when he used the Wind Waker. There was an almost warped look to the area.

"I don't know." Farmer was answering her question, but his eyes were on Link. "I haven't ever seen anything like it. But my pigs want nothing to do with it. I actually found it because they were acting so weird. Like they were afraid of their house or something. What about you, Sailor? Any ideas?" Link hated to disappoint them, but he had to shake his head.

"It's new to me too. Best keep your pigs away from here until we figure out what it is. And if it's dangerous." Farmer was nodding before he finished and quickly bustled away, probably to corral his hogs. So Link shifted his focus to Aryll. "I need you to go get Tetra," he told her firmly "She's been out and around more than I have. Maybe she'll know what this thing is." For once, Aryll didn't argue, thankfully. Instead, she turned and hurried off towards the docks, leaving him alone with the weird...whatever it was.

Link breathed a sigh of relief and turned back towards the weird air. Good. Now that she was safely off somewhere else he could actually look this thing over. He did feel a bit bad sending her off like that, but it wasn't a lie. It was very possible that Tetra might know more about this. But he also just wanted to make sure she wasn't right there with him as he looked the thing over. Just to be safe. But that did mean that he needed to move quickly to actually examine this thing.

That in mind, he hurried forward and began circling it. Weirdly, it looked about the same from any angle. But nothing had attacked him yet, so that was good. Inching closer, he pulled out his blade and used it to poke the strange ripple.

What the-?! He yanked his blade back and looked it over, wide-eyed. The end of his blade had vanished into that thing! But it looked fine now. Nothing missing or damaged. He looked back at the ripple. Then back at his blade. What in the...? Link frowned and carefully moved closer, slowly sticking his blade in again, farther this time. Just like before, it vanished as it went in, not coming out the other side at all, but when he pulled it back it seemed perfectly fine.....He looked back at the ripple. This was probably a really stupid idea. But it was the only one he had at the moment.

Moving slowly, ever so slowly, and ready to jerk back in an instant if he needed to, Link carefully stuck his hand into the ripple. Nothing. It didn't feel different at all, but his arm did vanish. He pulled it back quickly and looked it over. But just like his blade, it seemed fine. Link's frown deepened as he stared at the weird thing. Was it...some sort of teleportation thing? Like in the dungeons? If so, where did it go? 

......There was only one way to find out....Aryll was going to kill him for going without her. And he didn't want to think about what Tetra was going to do to him. But...maybe if he just stepped through a little bit? To see what was on the other side? That way he would have a better idea of if it was safe or not when they got here!

Yeah. That could work. He'd just take a quick look. Then he'd come right back. Link inched forward. He really did want to know where this thing went, if it did. He wasn't stupid though, he kept his blade out and in front of him as he carefully made his way into the strange thing.

This was a mistake. He knew it almost the instant he finished stepping in, but by then it was too late. The place Link had stepped into was grey and featureless. He could still feel something under his feet, but everywhere he looked was just the same grey emptiness. Alarmed, he spun around, but behind him looked exactly the same. Nothing indicated that it was the way he'd come. Fear rose up in his throat, but he stamped it down. Now was not the time to panic. He needed a clear head to help him get out of here. He *knew* he'd come from this way, it was directly behind where he'd been facing. So he just needed to walk in that direction.

So...that was what he did. He walked in the direction he'd come from. And he kept walking, for far longer than it should have taken him to get back home. He'd only taken a step, maybe two, into this place, why was it taking so many for him to get back?! Had he misjudged the way he'd come? No. That would have been basically impossible to do. Which means that the way he came in had vanished, or at least moved. But how was he supposed to know which way to go when everything looked the same?! This whole place-Green. Link was suddenly surrounded by green. But not like the nothingness he'd just been in. The green of trees and bushes and grass.

The first feeling that hit him was relief. Relief to be out of that grey nothing. But the next was confusion, followed by concern. These...these trees didn't look like ones he'd ever seen before. And...he couldn't hear the ocean. Or smell the salt on the air. Where had this thing taken him? 

Link looked around, searching for some sort of familiar landmark, but there were none. Well...he needed to get home. And standing around here wasn't going to help him. So...he might as well start walking. Another quick glance around almost came up as useless, but then he caught something out of the corner of his eye. Smoke. There was a thin line of smoke coming from not too far away. Smoke like that had to mean a stove or a campfire. And that might mean people. And people could help him figure out where he was, which was his first step in getting home. 

Link let out a small breath of relief before straightening and pulling his shield from his back. It was better to be prepared after all. Then, sword and shield in hand, he started towards the smoke.

Notes:

I know. I know. The number of chapters keeps going up XD These should be the last ones though.
9-Fox
10-Engineer
11-Ravio
(Might swap Engineer and Ravio in order, but those are the last 3)

Edit: 5/29/2025 Adding some more descriptive text

Chapter 9: Mistakes Have Been Made (Fox)

Summary:

This chapter is about Fox, my hero from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom

Notes:

THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR TEARS OF THE KINGDOM!You have been warned.

'signing'

Note: Fox is genderfluid. Her pronouns in this chapter are she/her

Somedays Link wasn't sure how she got to where she was now. So many things had to go right (and wrong) that, looking back, the fact that she'd gotten here was unbelievable. Well, not completely unbelievable. She did believe it. It just....it was hard to wrap her head around it sometimes.

From dying at the beginning of the calamity to being able to bring Zelda back from being a dragon and being able to have this life she had now. It was all so...honestly unbelievable probably was the best word. But here she was. Sitting on the grass outside the house that she and Zelda shared. While Zelda was up with Robbie at the lab.

Even the fact that Zelda was willing and able to be up at the lab without her was a huge thing. It had taken several months for Link's partner to be willing to be away from her for any real period of time. Zelda didn't really talk about it, but Link knew that her time as a dragon had left marks on her. More than the physical ones of course. Not that Link was complaining! Never! Just the fact that she'd been able to get Zelda back at all seemed like a miracle. From what Mineru had said the dragonafication was supposed to be permanent. They'd been very lucky that Raaru and Sonia had been able to linger in the world of the living for so long . And that they'd been able to pass their power through Link to turn Zelda back.

With all of that considered, Link was more than happy to accept the physical changes that Zelda had gone through. It wasn't like it was that surprising. Magic left marks on its user. The more powerful the magic, and the longer you used it, the more drastic the marks ended up being. Twilight had taught her that, what with his dark markings along his body and his sharpened teeth. And it wasn't like the changes looked bad . Link actually kind of thought Zelda was even prettier this way, for all it took some getting used to. And, well, the horns could get in the way sometimes. Thankfully they weren't too big, but Link knew that Zelda had caught them on things more than once. And Link herself had gotten hit by them a couple of times when Zelda turned around too fast.

And besides! Link hadn't gotten off unscathed either. Raaru and Sonia may have returned her arm to her, but it wasn't exactly how it used to be either. Black markings, in the same place as both the black marks and the golden bands that had once rested on Raaru's arm now crawled across her skin. And the skin itself had an ever so slight discoloration. Plus her nails were longer on that hand. But all in all she'd gotten off pretty lightly. She had been dealing with a little difficulty trying to adjust her fighting style again from the loss of the sages and the abilities she'd gained in that arm. But thanks to Zelda passing Mineru's secret stone onto her she didn't even have that issue anymore really. Sure, she didn't have the sages' vows, since she'd passed those on to Zelda along with her own vow, but she had the rest back.

Link let out a huffed sigh and sat up. She needed to stop reminissing. If she lingered on things too long she sometimes ended up getting sad. And today was too pretty to lay around and feel somber about things she couldn't change. So instead, she hopped to her feet and began meandering into town. Maybe a quick stop by Cece's to check on that armor she ordered would distract her.

"Link!" Or not. Link turned towards the voice calling her. Tamano was rushing up the path towards her, looking rather frazzled. Which certainly wasn't good, escpially since Tamano was one of the villagers in Hateno who tended to guard the gate into town.

' What's wrong? Someone hurt? ' Link asked with a sharp frown, once again reminded how grateful she was that the people of Hateno had all decided to learn sign after she had first decided to make the village her main home.

"Not hurt, no," Tamano told her, hands clutched tight around her broom handle and eyes tight with worry. "But there's...something really weird just down the path from the town. I don't know what it is, but it being so close to the road into town can't be good!" Link felt some of the coiled tension in her body slowly release. No one was hurt at least. That was good. But it sounded like she needed to check this thing out. She gave the woman a breif nod and started towards the entrace of town, but paused before she got far, looking back at Tamano.

' Please sent a message to Zelda, let her know I'm examining this .' Thankfully, Link knew she could trust the people of this town to do their best to support the needs of both herself and her partner, so she wasn't surprised with Tamano quickly nodded her agreement.

"I'll make sure she's told right away!" That settled, Link turned and started off towards the entrance to town once more. Sure enough there was something very strange there, not far down the road for the gate. It looked like....Huh. It kind of looked like the entrances into the zonai shrines. Just...without the ability to see through it at all. And less color. The strange rippling effect in the air was the same though. Did that mean it lead to somewhere like one of the shrines? Some new test for her?

Link felt her heart squeeze in her chest. She hoped it wasn't some new test. Because if it was, that would mean that there was probably some new danger coming to Hyrule. And it had been less than a year since she managed to defeat Ganondorf. She really didn't want to face some new threat to her home. At least last time she'd gotten several years of peace before she, and the rest of Hyrule, been thrown into danger again.

But...if it was...then she needed to check it out. These tests had always been there to help her prepare for what was to come. Help strengthen her for the task. Or to teach her how to use some new ability or skill she'd been granted. She couldn't risk missing out on something that could help her face whatever might be coming for her and her people next.

Link growled under her breath, low and wolf-like, and bared her teeth at the rippling air. She wasn't going to let it, or whatever threat might be coming, hurt Zelda. Not again. She'd be better this time. Stronger. Zelda deserved to have a chance to just live . Not have to spend a century, or countless years, waiting for Link to figure things out enough to save her. Not again.

Reaching down, she unclipped the Purah Pad from her hip and did a quick scan of her inventory.  It looked like she had a good supply of weapons, shields, food, and various fusable items. (Not like she had really expected otherwise). So unless this thing took all her gear (and thanks for those shrines Raaru) Link should be good to handle this new test. Or, if it wasn't a test, to handle whatever she was going to find after stepping through this thing.

Link took a moment to glance behind her, up towards where she knew the research lab was. Zelda was going to be furious when she found out that Link had gone into this thing without warning her first....but Link had sent a message that she was going to explore this thing.  And she would do her best to finish up whatever it was and be back in town before Zelda came down anyways. So...it should be fine.

That settled, Link turned to face the weird ripple and strode through it with all the confidence of someone who had made her way through countless similar things while working to clear the gloom out of her body.

What she found on the other side...wasn't wat she had been expecting. Instead of it leading her anywhere specific, Link found herself walking through a weird, ever-shifting grey. Maybe this thing just took longer to open up? Kind of like the elevators for the Sheikah shrines? It did feel like she was still walking forward after all, even if there weren't any markers to use to tell if she was going anywhere.

There!

Link blinked to clear her eyes and allow herself to refocus on where she had stepped out into. This....this wasn't like any shrine she'd seen before. Link could see countless trees, and blue sky spreading out above those trees. As well as grass and various other, unfamiliar plants covering the ground.

Wait... unfamiliar plants?! Link looked again. Yeah. She didn't recognize any of these bushes. Or flowers. Or trees. None of it! Link turned to try and get a better look at her surroundings, but froze a moment later, horror creeping like ice into her veins.

The ripple. It was gone. It was completely gone!!   How?! Link had only stepped through it a moment ago! How was she supposed to get home?! She couldn't be stuck here! Zelda needed her! Her friends needed her! And she needed them! She needed her partner, and best friend, Zelda. And her husband, Sidon. And his wife, Yona. And her little siblings, Riju and Tulin. And-!

Link choked on a cry and backed up until her back hit a nearby tree before sliding down to sit and try and regulate her breathing. She needed to calm down. She needed to breath . She-

"Are you alright?!" A new, strange voice cut through her thoughts and had her jerking around to find someone standing not far to her right. When had they gotten there?! She was pretty sure they hadn't been there when she'd been looking around earlier, but if that was the case then how had they crept up on her? Had she been that out of it? That wasn't good. She needed to be more aware of her surroundings. Especially in an entirely new place. She- 

"Hey," the voice was softer now as the person moved to crouch down. Their movements were slow and careful. And thier tone was soothing. Like they were interating with a spooked animal. Normally Link might have taken offense to that, but right now she felt like a spooked animal.

"It's going to be alright," the stranger soothed her. "Can you take a couple deep breaths for me? Slow and easy." Link made herself nod before taking in a deep, shuddering breath. She knew how to do this. Twilight had walked both her and Zelda through similar exercises many times during his time with them.

"Good. Good. You're doing great," the stranger encouraged her with a small, encouraging smile. Link could feel the panic fading, replaced somewhat with old, familiar grief. She had the feeling that this person would have gotten along with Twilight really well. That was the sort of thing her older brother would have said as well. Feeling more like she could function, Link slowly uncurled herself and took a moment to really look at the person who had come to help her.

If Link were to wager a guess she'd say that they  were some sort of soldier, or at least a fighter. They were wearing what looked like a chainmail tunic under a well-made blue tunic (the same shade of blue as the one she'd been given as the Hylian Champion actually), and they had arm and leg guards on. Plus some sort of ornate sword sticking out from behind them. They also had on a blue....cap of some sort, that hung down a good deal behind them. And a blue scarf.....and blue fingerless gloves and blue socks. Wow. This person really liked blue huh?

Link blinked, trying to refocus, and looked back at the stranger's face.  Concerned green eyes were watching her from a face that rather looked like they had never spent a day in the sun. Which...was odd. Especially since the looked like a fighter. And their hair was a bit odd too, not quite red enough for them to be Gerudo, but not quite brown either.

"Are you alright now?" The low, soothing voice cut through her thoughts and she flushed slightly, leaning back. How long had she been staring? She wasn't sure she wanted to know....but at least it was better than the panic that had overtaken her earlier. Link gave them a small nod, earning her a relieved smile as the person sat further back on their heels.

"Good, I'm glad," they told her "My name is Link Draper, by the way." Link blinked in mild surprise, but shook it off a moment later. Link wasn't that uncommon of a name (and was only getting more common these days). She raised her hands to introduce herself in return, but faltered. Would this person know sign? She really hoped they did. Talking after that panic attack would be really hard. And it wasn't like it was that uncommon these days. Sign helped travelers avoid catching the attention of various monsters so it had become relatively well known (and many of those who didn't know it had started to learn how to sign in the years since she woke up in the shrine). So it was worth a try.

' Hello. My name is Link as well. Link Namika. ' And wow it felt weird using her last name. She hadn't needed to use it for....actually she was pretty sure the last time she'd used it to introduce herself was before the Calamity. But it seemed right to do so now, since this stranger had done the same.

Surprise flickered across the stranger's face at her signing but, thankfully, so did understanding. So they could understand her. That was good. Otherwise this whole situation would have been a pain. She did notice how their eyes lingered on her right arm for several beats, eyes widening slightly, before they seemed to school themselves once more and refocus on her face. But…there was no recognition there. Which was odd. Most people knew who she was these days. Her arm was…distinct enough that if people could see it then it was a pretty distinct give away of who she was. And the Charge Armor top she was currently wearing did little to cover her…unique markings. But despite all that, nothing in their behavior indicated that they knew who she was. Just how far from home was she?

"Well, it's nice to meet you," the other Link’s voice drew her from her thoughts as they dipped their head in greeting before glancing around. "Do you think you can stand? I'm not sure where we are, and I get the impression you aren't either?" Link swallowed hard and shook her head. "Then we should probably both take some time scouting out the area and seeing if we can find civilization, or at least a safe place to rest. And it might be better if we traveled together, if that's alright with you? Safety in numbers and all that." Link frowned slightly to herself before carefully getting to her feet. She was a tiny bit wobbly, but not bad. As she did so, she took some time to think over the person's offer. It did make sense, but....

Link stared at the stranger, narrowing her eyes slightly as they got to thier feet. They weren't acting agressive, even after she'd introduced herself. But...well. There was one sure fire way to make sure. Reaching to her side, she pulled the Purah Pad from her hip and quickly scrolled through her inventory before pulling out a mighty banana and holding it out towards the stranger with a tilt of her head.

Well. Link was already pretty sure this person wasn't a Yiga. The absolutely bewildered look they were giving her just wouldn't fit. And that was even before they slowly shook their head.

"Um...no thank you? I ate pretty recently. I...apriciate the offer though." Oh dear. They sounded like they were trying so hard to be polite. Link huffed a quiet laugh before dropping the banana back in the Purah Pad (noting with some confusion that the stranger kept looking at it with wide eyes). Once the fruit was gone she turned to give her new traveling companion a wide smile and nodded.

' Where should we go first? ' she signed. Because, honestly, she was good with just picking a random direction, but maybe they had more of a plan? Tearing their eyes away from the Purah Pad, the other link turned to glance around them before looking back at her and shrugging.

"I was going North when I came across you. So unless you have another preference maybe just continue that way?" Well. That was good enough for her. She gave an easy nod before gesturing for the other to lead on. She needed to find her way back home. And the best way she could do that was to figure out where she was. So the sooner they got moving the better. The other seemed to relax some at her acceptance and they took a brief look up at the sky before turning and starting off into the woods with purposeful strides (soldier’s strides. That was the walk of a soldier. Or maybe a guard). Not wanting to be left behind, Link started after them. It was time to start figuring things out.

Chapter 10: Why is there a Portal in my Living Room? (Ravio)

Summary:

This chapter is about Ravio, husband to Mural and hero of Lorule. He is from A Link between Worlds

Ravio was lonely. He could admit that to himself (and to Zelda, when they had spoken over dinner the night before). It was weird being at the house and not having Link there. Sure, he'd done it plenty when they first met. Link had been in and out of the house (more out than in), working to save both Hyrule and Lorule. But that was years ago. And Ravio had long since grown accustomed to having his spouse around.

It wasn't like he'd lied to Link when they were leaving. No. Ravio did know what he'd been signing up for when he'd married His Hero. And he wouldn't try to change Link for all the rupees in both worlds, but that didn't mean that he didn't miss his spouse when they were away. Maybe he should find some way to occupy himself while Link was gone. Some new project? Preferably something that could lead to something he could give to Link when they came home...But what? Nothing material. Link already had plenty of things. But maybe Ravio could take the time to learn some new recipe for them to enjoy? Or they could focus on their item crafting and try and find a way to mimic some of the items Link had into a more convenient manner of use?

There were so many possibilities, but it wasn't like he needed to decide now. No, Ravio was pretty sure he had some time to figure this out. Link's adventures were rarely that short, and they'd only been gone a day and a half now. So he could put off deciding for the moment. Especially since he needed to do a quick round to check on the orchard and the bees.

Pushing himself out of the chair he'd been resting in, Ravio started for the front room of the house. But before he could get far a flare of magic caused him to stumble and almost fall. A quick flare of his wings helped him catch himself enough that he could stay upright, but it was a near thing. Still rattled, he ended up leaning on the wall. What in the-?! Ravio stared at the door in front of him. What was that?! He could still feel the magic. It was just through the doorway, in the front room of his and Link's house. It...it didn't feel anything like what Link had traveled through, so it probably wasn't his spouse coming home.

But then what was it? And what was Ravio supposed to do about it?! Ravio swallowed hard and slowly straightened, taking his hand off the wall. But before he could do much more than that the sound of familiar, alarmed chirping drew his attention toward the nearest window where, not long after, Sheerow came diving through. The panicked bird-like being seemed to calm slightly when he caught sight of Ravio standing in the room, unharmed, and flew over to settle on Ravio's shoulder with a concerned peep.

"I don't know, Buddy," Ravio admitted "It just showed up a moment ago. Whatever it is. Should...should we have a look? Sheerow was quiet for a moment, but after a while he gave a quiet trill that Ravio knew was meant to be an agreement. Welp. Lovely. Guess it was time to figure out what had just dropped into the main room of his house. At least he had Sheerow with him.

Ravio allowed himself enough time to take a deep breath, but not much beyond that before he turned the handle and pushed the door open to reveal what was on the other side.

.....well then. That wasn't alarming. Nope. Not alarming at all. Please notice his sarcasm. Ravio was starting to seriously regret getting out of bed this morning. Because this. This was a bit much.

There was a portal in his living room. Like, an honest-to-Lolia portal. Large and swirling with dark purple and black magic. And it wasn't happy magic either. Even from where he was Ravio could tell that the magic was angry. Well. Not that the magic was angry. But it's caster probably was. Angry enough for that anger to sink into their magic. And that....that generally wasn't good. Why was an angry caster's swirling dark portal in his and Link's living room? And when Link was gone no less?

Frowning in concern and feathers more than a little ruffled, Ravio was about to start trying to check this thing out in much the same way he had the rift a day or so prior, but before he could he felt -something- tug at him. At the very core of his being. Ravio stumbled forward slightly, drawn towards the pull, earning him a startled chirp from Sheerow. 

Oh. Oh dear. That really, really wasn't good. This thing was pulling him in ! Why? What did it want with him of all people? ....Maybe it thought he was Link? This was Link's house after all, and he and Link were counterparts. So it wasn't too farfetched. Not that it mattered too much, this thing had grabbed ahold of him and it wanted him to go through. Ravio could already tell that this thing wasn't likely to let go of him. Another concerned chirp drew his gaze to Sheerow, who was still resting on his shoulder, watching him. 

"I think...I think I might have to go through that thing, Sheerow," he told his friend, voice shaking slightly. "It's pulling me in, and if I'm judging it right the pull will only get worse over time." Another, more alarmed chirp. "Yeah. Yeah. I know. I'm not fond of the idea either." Ravio huffed out a breath and forced himself to straighten. "But, if I'm going to have to go through this thing I'm not going to go through it unprepared. Think you can rush a note to Zelda while I grab some thing?" Sheerow made another couple of sounds, curious and almost scolding. "No. No. Don't worry. I won't go through without you." This earned him a final, more content chirp and Ravio allowed himself a small hysterical laugh before turning to hurry back into the room he'd come from and over to the desk. Quickly jotting down a basic note he passed it over to Sheerow, who darted out the window at speeds that Ravio was fairly sure most natural birds couldn't reach.

Well. That was one thing done. Zelda would make sure that the house and everything involved with it would be taken care of in their absence. She'd been doing it while they had been on their honeymoon after all. And everything had looked good when they'd gotten back (at least as best as Ravio could tell, Link hadn't had the chance to check things over).

Oh. Right. Link. Ravio frowned at the desk before grabbing another sheet of paper and writing out another note, this one slightly longer than the last. He certainly didn't want to risk Link coming back before he could get home and finding it empty with no explanation to be found. If he was lucky, Ravio would get home before Link did, but that was hardly a certainty in this sort of situation. So he made sure to jot down what was going on before reassuring Link that he'd be home as soon as he could. Ravio hesitated for a moment before scowling and writing down one final bit at the bottom. Just in case things went badly on his end. He certainly had no plans on being permanently removed from Link, but one could never be one hundred percent certain on these things.

Letter done, Ravio folded it up and wrote Link's name across the outside before tucking it partly under a book. That way there was no chance of it blowing away. 

Now he needed to pack. And Ravio knew exactly what he needed to gather up to take with him. Sending a quick, mental apology to his spouse, he made his way down to the storage room and began pulling out items from where they had been carefully stored. Familiar items. He hoped Link wouldn't be too upset with him taking along the items he'd made his now-spouse spend so many rupees on. They were the items Ravio knew how to use best, despite the basic sword training Link had started him on after they'd gotten married. He was pretty sure they wouldn't mind. What with the situation as it was. And they'd been fine with him using the bow during their recent travels. 

Contrary to popular belief, Ravio was not incapable of fighting. He just didn't like to fight. And he wasn't the best with a sword or shield. No, what Ravio excelled at was the use of a range of other items. Each of the items he'd rented, and later sold, to Link had been Ravio's first. And Ravio knew how to use them. The bow had been the main weapon he grew up on, learning to use it to hunt for food as he worked to survive in a dying world. Then, after the death of his uncle, Ravio had set out to try and find some way to help his home and his sister. The search had taken him through a number of strange places, and on the way he'd gathered a collection of items. Items that he mastered over the course of his travels.

Of course, none of those skills had helped him protect Hilda from Yuga, or from her own desperate fears. So, when faced with the fact that his dear older sister was planning to doom a whole other world to try and salvage their own. Well. Ravio knew he couldn't fight his own sister. And he wasn't strong enough or brave enough to stand up against Yuga either. Most of his skills were for dealing with traps and puzzles and the occasional monster. Not...not someone like Yuga. So Ravio had fled to Hyrule to find a Hero who was actually able to help. A real Hero.

But now, with this strange portal trying to drag him off to who-knows where? Well, Ravio was just grateful that he'd taken the time to learn how these items worked after Link had gotten them enhanced. It wouldn't due for him to have to relearn how these things worked while dealing with....wherever this thing was going to take him.

Magic items packed, Ravio moved over to the shelves of medical supplies and potions and carefully gathered up a number of those to pack as well, just to be safe. He had made sure to include a request for a restock in his letter to Zelda, so hopefully they wouldn't be short on anything Link might need if they got home before he did. Gear and medical supplies done, Ravio made his way up the stairs all the way to the second floor where he grabbed the clothes he figured he’d need. He didn’t know how long he was going to be gone after all.

All in all, it took less than an hour for Ravio to get packed and ready to go. Looking down at his bag, Ravio felt a flare of gratitude for his spouse. One of the first things Link had gotten him after he'd come back to Hyrule was a bag with the same expansion spells that Links bag had. It was so much easier than carrying around that giant sack. And far less likely for him to lose anything by accident. It had been a gift to help Link show that they cared (as if Ravio hadn't already known). And Ravio mentally pulled that feeling of care close before starting back down the stairs to the back room. 

Unsurprisingly, Sheerow was waiting for him when he made it to the top of the stairs. The little bird-like being had likely dropped the note off and turned right around to rush back here without waiting for any sort of reaction or response. Smiling tiredly to himself, Ravio held out a hand for Sheerow to land on and brought him up level with his eyes.

"Ready to go on another adventure into another place, Buddy?" The quiet trill of agreement helped Ravio smile again, a bit more sincerely. "Good. Let's get on the road then. Just you and me, like old times." Sheerow chirped again before hopping over to settle on Ravio's shoulder. Once he was sure Sheerow was ready, Ravio reached back to grab the edge of his bunny hood, careful to avoid hitting Sheerow with it as he did so. Face properly covered like it had been during his first time in Hyrule, Ravio rolled his shoulders and carefully drew his wings in close, tucking them in under the outer layer of cloth on the back of his robe designed for just that. All settled, Ravio turned to start back toward the living room, but stopped when he caught a glimpse of himself in a nearby mirror. He looked nearly identical to how he had when he first met Link. A little taller, and less lean (not that his structure showed much under the robe), but still about the same.

Ravio huffed a small, bemused laugh before turning away from the mirror. He had places to be after all. The tugging from the portal had only grown stronger as time passed and Ravio really didn't want to find out how bad it could get. So he had might as well get this over with. Ravio made his way over to close the window before walking into the living room. He made sure to take the time to shut the door to the back room once he was through before skating around the edge of the living room to reach the front door, which he promptly locked. Only then did he turn his attention to the portal. Unsurprisingly, it looked the same from the other side as well. 

"Well Sheerow," Ravio breathed, reaching up to stroke his friend's head. "Off we go then." That said, he strode forward and through the portal without stopping to allow himself time to back out from fear.

The portal itself wasn't uncomfortable per se, but it wasn't something he enjoyed either. He could still feel the caster's anger rolling around in the magic, but thankfully the passage was short and soon Ravio was stepping out into unfamiliar lands.

Right in the middle of what looked to be a battlefield.

Notes:

Wonder where Ravio has dropped into. Or when rather. ;)

Chapter 11: Staying on Track (Engineer)

Summary:

This chapter is about Engineer, the hero from Spirit Tracks.

Notes:

Edit: 5/29/2025 added some descriptive text

Link was pretty sure he was living the dream life. Leaning out the window of his train and feeling the wind blow through his hair as he watched the world go by at a comfortable pace was one of his favorite places to be. It was only really topped by being at home with Karu and their three kids.

It didn't get much better than spending the evening sharing a meal with his four favorite people and listening to the kids share about their days. Niko always had interesting stories now that he'd started the beginning of his sword training at the palace. And Angee and Alpho were constantly getting into something they weren't supposed to.

Link did feel bad leaving Karu with them most of the day (and the occasional overnight), but he also knew that his husband was perfectly capable of handling the three of them on his own. And they had agreed that Link would continue to be the one working while Karu stayed home with the kids. So long as Link worked to try and be home before the kids went to bed most nights. So there wasn't really any reason to feel guilty. He just...did sometimes.

Link shook his head and refocused on the tracks ahead of him. He wasn't worried about crashing. He'd driven this train on these tracks for seventeen years now. He could make it back to Castletown with his eyes closed. It wasn't like he had monster trains trying to chase him down like they did back when he was twelve. Compared to that, keeping his train on track while avoiding regular trains was a cakewalk.

Speaking of Castletown. There it was coming up. Link felt a grin spreading across his face as he shifted gears to slow down for the approach to the station, easing his train to a gentle stop. Once he was completely stopped, Link hopped out and turned towards the passenger car to beam at the two Castletown locals who had caught a ride back with him from his last stop in Aboda Villiage.

"Welcome back to Castletown," he told them brightly "And thank you again for riding with Hero's Spirit. I hope to see you again soon!"

"Wonderful as always, Link" Mona praised him, waving as she disembarked. "I'll see you in a couple of days for my trip to Wittleton."

"I look forward to it, Mona," Link replied easily, waving in reply as Mona and her travel companion made their way into town.

Link waited until both passangers were off the platform before he began running through his nightly checks of his train, checking the passenger car for forgotten items and trash, glancing over the wheels, and checking the engine. He didn't actually expect any issues. This was the Spirit Train after all, a train crafted by ancient spirits to help guard the land, but Alphonzo had taught him how to check his train and Link wasn't one to let that go to waste. Besides, it was better safe than sorry.

Once he was sure that everything was in good shape Link hopped back into the cab and began carefully maneuvering his train into its shed. It was an easy, familiar thing by this point in his life, so it didn't take much time at all. He was on his way into town less than ten minutes later, the shed closed up behind him.

Since he'd managed to finish up for the day relatively early in the evening Link was looking forward to sharing a meal with his family before getting to cuddle with his husband before bed. Unfortunately for him, however, those plans were quickly derailed when he reached his house only to find two royal guards stationed outside his door.

The guards could only mean one thing; Zelda was visiting. But...she very rarely brought more than one guard. Something had to be up. Concern drew a frown to his face as Link picked up the pace, hand drifting unconsciously over to grip the hilt of the Lokomo Sword that rested at his hip even now. He very rarely had the need for a sword these days, but he hadn't gone anywhere without one since that fateful day that he and Zelda had needed to sneak out of the castle to get to the Tower of Spirits. Call him paranoid, but the crazy mess that had led up to that day, and the mess that followed, left a mark on him. He wasn't willing to risk being without a weapon. Monthly spars with Alphonzo as well as the Guard Captain meant his skills never got truly rusty.

Hopefully, though, there would be no need for him to draw the sacred blade today, let alone use it, but Link was prepared for anything as he passed by the guards (with a short nod in greeting) and into his house.

Just as he had assumed, there was Zelda, seated at one of their dining room chairs, just across from Karu. Zelda looked the same as she always did these days; dressed in some shade of pink or purple and wearing the crown that marked her queen of Hyrule. Her hair was darker than when they were kids, more brown than dark blond, and her eyes had never lost the grey color they'd taken after her time out of her body, often leaving them looking like a fogged-over sea. Much like himself, she wore a blade at her side. Once she'd gotten a taste of defending herself and those around her (admittedly while in the body of a phantom) she'd refused to give it up. Despite her teacher's many worries.

Thankfully, the blade she wore was sheathed for now, so she wasn't expecting an attack any time soon (something he'd gathered by how relaxed the guards had been, but was still good to confirm), but the look on her face still indicated that she was very concerned about something. The pinched incline of her eyebrows gave it away despite how she was clearly trying to have easy and idle chatter with Karu.

To be fair, Karu didn’t look much better. The brown eyes that Link loved so much were tight with worry and his usually tidy black hair was askew in a way that told Link that he’d been tugging at it recently. A sure sign that his husband was stressed.

Shutting the door behind him drew the attention of both people in the room over to him and Link gave them a small smile in greeting before making his way over to the table they were sitting at. Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to Karu's upturned lips before taking the seat between his husband and his queen.

"Kids with Alphonzo?" Link clarified. That was where they typically had the kids go when something came up. Thankfully, the kids loved their grandpa Alphonzo and Link's mentor was typically happy to watch them for a time. He hadn't followed Link to Castle Town for no reason after all. They were family.

"They are," Karu agreed. "And he's agreed to watch them for the night if need be." Link hummed in acknowledgment before turning his full focus on the grey-blue eyes of his childhood friend.

"Are things that bad?" He needed to know what he was dealing with here. There weren't many things that Zelda came to him for. Link was no soldier. He was a Train Engineer. He just...also tended to keep track of the Tower of Spirits and the Spirit Tracks as a whole. Checking in at the Temples from time to time as well. Just to make sure things stayed stable. 

"We're not actually sure," Zelda admitted. "That's part of why I wanted to check in with you. Have you seen anything odd at the Tower or the Temples lately? Anything out of the usual at all?" Well....that wasn't concerning at all. Anything that could possibly be connected to issues with the Tracks or Tower was very much not good. But...

"Not that I've seen." Link shook his head, frowning to himself as he mentally went back over his last visits. Thankfully, his bi-monthly round of checks was only a week ago, so it was relatively fresh in his mind. "Everything looked normal when I went by last. Why? What's happened?" The tracks themselves were doing fine. He knew that much. People would have been talking if that wasn't the case.

Zelda hummed in reply, a sound that was somehow both relieved and disappointed at the same time. She didn't reply for several moments, tapping her fingers. against the wooden tabletop and frowning in thought. Link left her to it, reaching over to take Karu's hand in his own while he waited. As long as her gaze stayed focused and remained somewhat blue he knew she was just thinking not....anything else. A minute or so later he was rewarded for his patience by her straightening up and clasping her hands in her lap.

"Like I said, we're not quite sure what it is we're dealing with. So we're uncertain if it even is a threat or not. But, essentially, a strange...something has appeared in the courtyard behind the castle. Not far from the old tunnel. It almost looks like the air itself is...faltering? It's rather hard to describe to be honest. I've set up a guard around the courtyard, but other than that I'm uncertain what to do about it. Especially if the Temples and everything are fine." Wonderful. Link could already feel a headache coming. But he could see why she'd come to him for this.

"I'll make a run by the Tower and the Temples, starting tomorrow," he told her. He already had a couple of deliveries set up for tomorrow, but they would have to wait. Spirit Duties always came first. Though maybe he could drop the first one off on his way to the Snow Sanctuary...Link shook his head, dismissing the route planning for now as he refocused. "I will want to see this...fault before I go though. So I know what sort of thing I might be looking for." Link could easily see some of the tension Zelda has been carrying leak out of her shoulders as she accepted his decision.

"Of course," Zelda agreed. "You can come by tonight or tomorrow. I'll let the perimeter guards know to let you through, and answer any questions you might have of them when you get there."

"Tomorrow." Link decided immediately. He wanted to spend the evening with his husband in kids before going on a trip that would take, at minimum, two days to complete. There was a reason he typically broke his bi-monthly checks into small chunks that he could do as he worked on deliveries or shuttling people to places near them.

"Of course," Zelda agreed again, likely easily guessing why he'd decided on that. "I'll be sure things are ready for you before you arrive." That said, she got to her feet and gave the two men a tired, but sincere smile. "Thank you for having me over today. I am sorry that I can't stay for dinner, Karu, but with all of this going on I have several things I need to get done at the castle before I can shut down for the night." Ah, so Karu had already invited her to stay for dinner. Well, that saved Link from having to do the same.

"It's no problem at all, Zelda," Karu reassured her, reaching over to place a hand on one of the queen's calloused ones. "You know you're always welcome here. So please come by if you need a break from all the crazy. You know the kids love it when you visit for a bit."

"I know, I know," Zelda chuckled, patting Karu's hand with her free one. "I'll try and work in a visit in the next day or so. But for now, please let them know that Aunt Zelda is sorry she can't stay and play tonight."

"Of course," Karu agreed, squeezing Zelda's hand once before letting it go and sitting back. "Be safe getting back to the castle."

"I will," Zelda agreed with a nod. "Would you like me to send a guard to let Alphonzo know to bring the kids back around?"

"If you don't mind, that would be helpful." Link flashed her a grateful smile, earning him an understanding one in reply.

"I'll do that then," she promised. "Have a good night you two."

"And you as well, Zelda," Link told her with a stern look. Zelda chuckled quietly at the look, but nodded before turning and heading out.

Link watched her go for several beats before sighing and leaning sideways into his husband. This wasn't quite what he'd had planned...

"So much for a relaxing evening," Karu mused dryly, drawing a similar laugh from Link in reply.

"You said it," Link told him before shaking his head and straightening. "But we'll still get to have dinner together tonight. So it's not a total loss."

"True,"  Karu agreed with a warm smile. "The kids will be happy for it." That was true, especially since they'd had to go visit their Grandpa Alphonzo. The twins were too young to know better, but Niko probably had assumed they'd be there for the night, or at least for dinner. That was how it had gone the last couple of times they'd had do to something similar.  The twins were just too young to remember either of those.

Deciding to simply enjoy the rest of the evening as it was, Link and Karu got up to gather things together for a simple meal for their family. A meal that they enjoyed with the kids once they arrived.

---

The night, as good as it was, passed far too quickly for Link's liking. But there wasn't much he could do about that. He rose with the sun in the morning, kissing his kids and his husband and promising to get home as soon as he safely could before he set off to the castle.

The guards there knew him well by this point, and he was let in without any hassle. A few of the guards even greeted him. Weaving his way through the castle with the ease of familiarity, Link made his way to the back door and nodded to the guards there as they let him through.

The guards actually in the courtyard looked up as he entered, but quickly went back to keeping watch. Clearly, Zelda had done as she said and informed them that he'd be coming. Which was good.

Stepping more fully into the courtyard, his eyes were drawn over to what could only be the thing Zelda had told him of. And he could easily see why she struggled to describe it. It wasn't like anything he'd ever seen before. The air looked like it was twisting in on itself. It was...odd. And almost nauseating to look at to be honest.

Shaking his head, Link turned away from the oddity and scanned around to find the person in charge of the area. Thankfully, it didn't take long. Visible ranks made that sort of thing easy to figure out in most situations.

"What can you tell me about this thing?" He asked, making his way over to the highest ranking person in the area, a vaguely familiar black-haired woman who was a good two ranks above everyone else in the area.

"Not much, unfortunately," she replied with a sigh, looking away from the thing herself. "It's remained just like that since it appeared. It hasn't grown or shrunk and nothing has come through it. We have attempted tossing a few things into it, rocks and such, and they vanish once they hit it. The thing doesn't react at all, but the thrown object vanishes into it and doesn't come out the other side."

"Well that's certainly concerning," Link mused with a frown. "But...better than having things come out of it, for sure. I trust no one has attempted to put themselves into the thing?"

"No sir!" the woman replied. Perhaps a bit too quickly. Link raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't question it. If he were to wager a guess he'd say that someone had decided that they wanted to try and stick their hand into it, or something similar, and their coworkers stopped them.

"That's good," he told her, not bothering to speculate on his theory. "Let's keep it that way. We have no way to know how dangerous this thing is. So keep everyone away from it unless given instructions otherwise by Zelda or myself."

"Yes sir!" That always felt a bit weird. Link didn't have any real rank per se, but many guards acted like he did. Aftereffects of Zelda openly speaking of their childhood adventures and acknowledging him as the Guardian of the Tower of Spirits he imagined. Though his regular sparing sessions indicating his skill with the blade probably helped as well. But, whatever the reason, for now it was helpful, so he let it be. If it kept people away from the creepy tear in reality he'd take it!

Leaving the castle took even less time than arriving did and soon Link was back at his train, getting it set up to go. Once it was ready, he set about getting the one delivery he was actually going to make that day loaded into his cargo car and took off. It was time to check on the Temples, and on his Tower. If some strange thing thought it was going to be able to mess with his home they were going to be sorely disappointed.

---

In the end, Link's thorough checks of all the Temples as well as the Tower of Spirits took him a good five days to complete and turned up nothing. Everything was exactly how it was in his last visit, without a single stone out of place.

Relieved, but baffled, Link returned to Castletown to make his report, only to find out that the odd thing had vanished about six hours before he arrived back. No one had any clue what triggered it to vanish, and it didn't coincide with anything he had done during his inspection. So it was unlikely to be connected. It was just...odd. Very odd.

Oh well. There was nothing he could do about it for the time being. So he made his report to Zelda before returning to his daily work. If another one of those things appeared they'd put guards on it then, keeping an eye on it until it would hopefully vanish as well. As long as it didn't bring any danger to them there was no reason for them to do anything beyond that. (One guard had suggested that they sent someone into the thing. To explore it or see where it went, but that had been rejected as an option rather quickly. There was no need to risk anyone's safety like that. What a silly idea).

Notes:

This chapter is also the reason why I sometimes call this story: "10 Times a Hero Went Through a Strange Portal into Another Time and 1 Time They Didn't"

Engineer is also known as the only hero with any sense or self-preservation XD.

 

(There are now more chapters after this one, because I have no self control XD)

Chapter 12: Trying to Find Home (Marin and Ravio)

Summary:

This chapter is about Ravio and Marin. Ravio is the Lorulian hero from A Link Between Worlds and Hyrule Warriors and Marin is from Link's Awakening and Hyrule Warriors

Notes:

Sooooo....I finally gave in and added a whole fourth group of heroes. This group will include Ravio, Marin, Hound (From Age of Calamity), Engineer (from the previous chapter), and Priestess (Zelda from Echoes of Wisdom). They are a strange group, not entirely made up of Links, but they're a lot of fun. So here's the first out of 3 chapters for the new members of this group!

Marin could admit, at least to herself, that she was coming to truly enjoy her life as it was. The home she shared with Ravio was a nice one, the Queen had made sure they were provided for after Lana had been unable to send them back to Ravio’s home. And getting to spend time with Ravio was nice as well. He was a sweet man, smart and caring too, if a bit self-deprecating at times.

It wasn’t perfect though. She still missed her hero fiercely. And Ravio did as well, probably more than she did. And that wasn’t even considering the lingering effects the war had left on them both. Plus this world, as nice as it was, wasn’t theirs. Sure, they’d both had to swap worlds before; Ravio from Lorule to Hyrule, and Marin from Koholint Island to the land of the waking world. But they both had a place they called home, somewhere they wanted to get (back) to. Even if Marin hadn’t been there herself yet.

But even with the challenges they were making it work. They’d had a almost a year and a half to get used to it, after all. Plus the two years of war.

That wasn’t to say that they’d given up hope on getting home, however. Of course not. And that was why she and Ravio were currently settled on a couch inside the temple that Lana and Cia made their home. 

The couch itself was somewhat new, having been added to the room they were in about six months ago, after it became clear that getting them home was going to take a lot of research, and plenty of trial and error. In fact, the two of them had found themselves traveling from CastleTown to this temple about eight times since the end of the war. The last visit had been about two months prior and ended up leaving all four of them in a state of intense frustration.

After so many tries, Marin didn’t hold too much hope out for this newest attempt (it was far too painful to get her hopes up only to have them dashed each time), and she knew Ravio didn’t either. But they still made sure to set things up like they were going to make it home each time they came. The house back in CastleTown was clean and organized and the Queen had a spare key (The Captain having taken his with him after he apparently went through a strange rip in time about a week ago). Plus they had all of their most important gear and belongings on them, stored away into spelled side pouches.

Unsurprisingly, this visit had been unsuccessful so far, and Marin could tell that the pair of time mages were growing disheartened again as their most recent ritual refused to give them any useful results. Ravio had even started to fall asleep against her side while they waited for the mages to finish, relaxed despite the frustrated mutterings coming from the other side of the room. To be honest, he was rather cute sprawled out like he was; one wing semi-tucked against his back, the other wing draped off the side of the sofa, and bunny-hood askew enough to allow more of his long purple-black hair to show from under it.

Marin was starting to consider joining Ravio in his nap when the dark-haired man suddenly sat up with a gasp , grey wings flaring out to mantle over her protectively as his eyes fixed on the center of the room.

Marin straightened as well, hand going towards where her bell sat on the ground beside the sofa as she scanned around the room for what might have startled him. She almost thought it was a nightmare, but that usually lead to him scanning the room, not fixating on a certain spot.

“Ravio, what–?” Marin began, but cut off as both Lana and Cia straightened and turned to look at the same spot in the room. 

“Is that…?” Lana trailed off, leaving Marin even more lost than before, but before she could begin to ask questions the air in the middle of the room seemed to shift and twist. Or…maybe it wasn’t the air. Marin wasn’t as attuned to magic as Ravio was, but even she could feel something off of the strange distortion that was forming in the center of the room. She couldn’t place it, but it was odd. And almost nauseating to look at as well.

“That’s what Link went through.” Ravio spoke up, firm and certain.

“It is,” Lana agreed, frowning in concern. “But why is another rip showing up here? Link already went through to try and fix things.” Ravio blinked, focus shifting to confusion as he looked at the two time mages.

“Wait,” he frowned. “You mean The Captain went through something like this too? This is what you meant by a rip in time?”

“Yes?” Lana replied, still frowning. “What did you mean—oh!” She straightened in shock. “Do you mean your Link? They went through something like this too?”

“Exactly like this,” Ravio agreed before pausing and glancing back at the apparent-rip. “Well…almost exactly. The time energy feels a little different.”

“It’s a little different than the one our Link went through too,” Lana confirmed, looking back at it as well. 

They fell silent at that, all three magic-sensors staring at the rip in time with thoughtful frowns that bordered on worry. Marin looked between the three of them before turning back to the rip as well, processing everything they’d said so far.

“I think we should go through it.” Marin decided, cutting through the somewhat tense atmosphere and drawing three sets of eyes to her.

“We have no way to know where you will end up if you do,” Cia pointed out, raising an eyebrow. “And certainly not if you will end up anywhere near either of the heroes who have gone through ones already.”

“Maybe not,” Marin conceded. “But we know that Link, both Links, went through one of these. And Lana, didn’t you say something about these tears seeming to be moved to places where people who might be able to fix the issue were?”

“I did…” Lana admitted, brow crinkled uncertainly.

“Then this one is probably here for Ravio,” Marin nodded, already sure of it. “And if Ravio is going, then I’m going. It’s not like you two are making any progress on getting us home here.”

“She has a point,” Cia noted, tilting her head in acknowledgement even as Lana winced.

“You’ve got a home here though,” the blue-haired mage pointed out. “Not the one you want to go to, but more of one that you might have if you go through there.”

“We can handle ourselves,” Ravio spoke up, getting to his feet in what looked like a decision. “We’ve both got plenty of experience making a new home where we are if needed. And we’ll be together.”

“If you’re sure…” Lana conceded, though the frown on her face made it clear she wasn’t happy about the idea.

“I think it’s our best chance,” Ravio confirmed as Marin got to her feet and picked up her bell. “Marin is right, you were running out of ideas on how to try and get us home. I know you were.”

“You’re not wrong,” Cia admitted, shaking her head. “Your temporal energies are a mess and nothing we did seemed to help us track them down.”

“You’ve got our letters for everyone?” Marin asked, patting herself down to make sure she had everything she needed. They’d always made sure to write a letter when they arrived at the temple, adding them to the stack of previous letters to be passed onto the people they’d come to care about in this world, just in case. They’d said goodbye in person as well, of course. But the letters were a way to make sure they said everything they wanted to, or felt they needed to, as they left.

“We do,” Lana nodded, shoulders dropping slightly in defeat before she forcefully straightened. “We’ll make sure to pass them on, and let everyone know what happened. You two just focus on being safe, alright? And if you run into any of the other Links we know say hello for us, alright?”

“We will,” Ravio agreed firmly before turning to hold out a hand towards Marin. He was worried, Marin could see it in his eyes, but he was as set on doing this as she was. They’d tried just about everything they could here. It was time to take another risk in their efforts to get back home. 

“And be sure to stick together,” Lana continued worriedly.

“We will,” Marin repeated Ravio’s assurance, taking Ravio’s hand in her own before linking their arms together. She didn’t intend to get separated from him in this.

“They’ll be fine, Lana,” Cia reassured her other half, placing a hand on the blue-haired woman’s shoulder.

“Right…” Lana breathed out before nodding and repeating more firmly. “Right. You’ll both be fine.”

“Take care, you two,” Marin told them, dipping her head since both of her hands were full.

“And give the others our farewells,” Ravio added, shifting beside her to slip his wings back through the slits in his robe and fold them against his back, hidden from the world.

“We will,” Cia confirmed while Lana nodded, seemingly unable to say more.

And that was that. Marin turned slightly to meet Ravio’s gaze and gave him a firm nod before turning her attention towards the strange, rippling energy. She could feel Ravio’s grip tightening on her arm, so she gave his arm a small squeeze back before beginning to stride forward. Ravio quickly fell into step as well, and within moments they were stepping into the rift.

Passing through it was…strange. She couldn’t imagine what it must feel like for her companion with his senses, but for her it was just…disconcerting. The energy swept over her skin as they passed through what seemed to be a swirling, formless, grey abyss.

It didn’t last for long though, and soon they were stepping out into an unfamiliar field of long, waving grass. And…was that some sort of…glowing road off in the distance? How strange.

“Does any of this seem familiar to you?” she asked, turning to look at Ravio.

“No.” Ravio shook his head. “I don’t recognize any of this. I do feel strange energy coming from over where that area is glowing though. And it looks like it could be a path of some sort maybe? So we could start there.”

“Sounds like a good enough plan to me,” Marin agreed with a shrug before shifting to attach her bell to her hip. Only then did she release his arm enough to take his hand. “Shall we go see what we can find.”

“Might as well,” Ravio agreed with a shrug, reaching up his free hand to tug slightly at his well-worn bunny hood, making sure it covered his full face.

And with that they were off, walking hand and hand towards the weird, glowing path. Maybe they’d find Link here, or the Captain, Marin certainly hoped so, but even if they didn’t at least they were doing something instead of simply sitting around waiting for others to fix the problem. It was a start.

Notes:

Also! Sorry to all my readers for being gone so long. Muse was burned out/dead for a while, but it seems to be back for now.

Chapter 13: Princess on Duty (Priestess)

Summary:

The third member of this new group is Priestess. Unlike most of the characters focused on in this series, Priestess isn't the hero from her world. Instead she's the princess, but that doesn't make her helpless. Priestess is the Zelda from the Echoes of Wisdom game and is more than capable of holding her own.

“What is that?” Zelda frowned as she stared at the unusual-looking area of the world in front of her. It wasn’t large, or dark like the rifts, but it did seem to twist and distort the air and small area of ground it encompassed.

Not for the first time Zelda found herself wishing Tri was around, or even Link. Maybe one of them would know what this weird area was. But Tri was long gone, having vanished to go back with the goddesses after the defeat of Null. And Link was currently who-knows-where, having gone off on an adventure to see if the areas beyond Hyrule’s borders were alright after the damage Null had done to Hyrule, and possibly the lands beyond. So that just left Zelda. She couldn’t even ask Impa, Lueberry, or Minister Lefte since they were back at the castle and she was days away from there in the depths of the Faron Wetlands. She supposed she could ask the Deku Scrubs but…somehow she doubted they’d be much help. So that just left her, alone and uncertain what this thing was, or if it was safe.

Though…Zelda glanced down at her right hand at the golden triangle that sat on her hand, a fragment of the Prime Energy that had remained with her even after they’d beaten Null and freed those taken by the rifts. It was glowing more than usual today, and had been since she arrived in this area, growing steadily brighter as she got closer to this strange…thing. Was the Prime Energy calling her here? Or even the goddesses themselves? After three years the feeling of their blessings had settled into something she simply adjusted to and barely noticed at all, but even that had grown more prominent as she drew closer.

What did that mean, though? What was she supposed to do now that she was here?

Zelda shifted her grip on her tri rod and dropped her other hand down to the hilt of her blade as she thought. Was she…supposed to go into this thing? Like she and Tri had gone into the rifts? She wasn’t sure how that would work if she was, not without Tri’s assistance to go in and out. Not that this was the exact same thing…

Zelda huffed a sigh and shook her head. This would take some planning, and maybe some research. But first she should probably warn the Deku Scrubs to stay away from this place while she worked on it.

Decided, Zelda turned to go, but found herself freezing a moment later as the sensation of the goddesses’ blessings flared up in her in a way they never had before. It felt like she was overflowing with their energy as the three blessings swirled and mixed under her skin.

Then she was somewhere else entirely. The white void was both terrifyingly strange and familiar at the same time. But this time, instead of the colors of any of the three golden goddesses, an unfamiliar purple light filled the area, followed by a voice she didn’t recognize.

“Priestess blessed by the Three,” the voice intoned, echoing into her very soul in a way she’d only experienced three times before. “Do not turn away from the path my sisters draw you to. Your Strength, Wisdom, and Courage are needed, lest Hyrule fall to ruin.” Zelda’s breath caught in her chest for a beat. This goddess (for it must be a goddess) made no attempts to introduce herself, but Zelda certainly wasn’t going to question her. If nothing else she had more pressing concerns.

“What do I do?” she asked, gripping her rod tighter. 

“Walk forward, Priestess,” the voice instructed. “The rest will become clear with Time.” There was a strange emphasis on the word ‘time’, but Zelda let that go for now. She could put more thought into who was talking to her later. For now she was about as sure as she could be that it was another goddess. And the blessings in her, while stronger than normal, didn’t feel defensive or anything like that. So she didn’t have any real reason to think the voice was lying. Nor did she want to risk it.

“Okay,” she agreed. “I will do what you ask.”

That was all it took. Blinding white and purple light vanished back into familiar, lush greenery. Strangely enough, she seemed to have turned around somehow, and was facing the strange, twisted area once more. 

“Walk forward, huh?” Zelda mused, fingering the branches of her staff thoughtfully. Alright then. She could do that.

Striding forward took no real effort, and she didn’t let the strange grey void-like area she entered into stop her either. It wasn’t too different from the blinding white she’d just been in after all. Disturbing, but hardly worth stopping for, for all she began scanning around for any hints of what she needed to do next.

Stepping out onto cobblestone certainly wasn’t what she expected, however. And it startled her enough to bring her to a stop. Cobblestones and unfamiliar stone buildings on either side. 

A quick scan of her surroundings quickly told her that she was now in what looked like an unfamiliar alleyway of a city or a town. Thought not one she recognized right off from the unusual-looking architecture. How strange. She’d been in the wetlands moments earlier, and then in a grey void. And now she was in a town? Or perhaps a city? Where had she been sent?

Or….small thought nagged at her, remembering the strange emphasis. Perhaps when had she been sent?

Zelda looked around her once more before starting forward again. She’d been told to walk forward, and that what she needed to do would make sense to her soon enough. She’d walked forward, so now it was time to start trying to figure out what exactly it was she was here to do. And she’d start by seeing if she could figure out where, or when, she was. 

Perhaps that nice-looking man in a strange bluish-black outfit and funny hat would have some answers for her. It wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Chapter 14: A Dog's Loyalty (Hound)

Summary:

The final member (that's traveling to join the rest) of the last group is Hound. Hound is the hero from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. There are some parts in here that will make more sense when we get farther along in the main story. So don't worry if you have questions at the end.

The war was over, the calamity was gone, and the time travelers who had come to help had all been sent home. They’d even been able to rebuild Terrako!

All in all everything had gone far better than Link had feared they would, especially after learning about how things had played out in a different version of their world. He just hoped that their success didn’t erase the world their helpers had come from. Erased the family Twilight had been trying to get back to.

He didn’t think it had, Twilight and Mural had both seemed strangely knowledgeable about time travel and assured him that it shouldn’t have undone the other world, just created a separate branch of time.

But, new timeline or not, things were settling well for them here and now.

King Rhoam had stepped down to allow Zelda to step up as Queen, taking a place as one of her advisors instead. The champions and other people who had helped fight had all returned home safely, and Terrako was running around the castle, beeping and chirping at people like he had throughout their adventure. He tended to stay close to Zelda and never failed to make her smile with his antics even when she was feeling stressed.

Sure, Link might be missing some of the stamina and steady mobility he’d once had, but considering the injury he’d sustained (and the situation his counterpart apparently dealt with in the other world) he counted himself lucky. Zelda had even gifted him a special cane to help him balance when he needed it. Plus his engagement spear doubled as a walking staff if it came down to it.

And it wasn’t like he was unable to fight, he just…had to be a bit more careful, and figure out how not to move. Something he’d been working on over the time that had passed since the fight against Ganon. He still couldn’t believe it had been almost a year.

He’d spent a lot of time during the last year traveling back and forth between Hateno Village to see his family and Zora’s Domain to spend time with his fiance as well as seeing the healers there, just to be sure his leg was fully healed.

Currently he was spending some time in Hateno, though he planned to return to the Domain in a couple of days. Before that, though, he wanted to help his sister bake a pie for their dad’s birthday in a couple of days. To do that, though, he needed to make sure they had enough wood and enough apples. That was the reason he had gotten up early in the morning and made his way into the nearby woods in search of good wood and ripe apples.

What he found was something else entirely.

Sitting there, not more than twenty feet from the road leading into Hateno, was a familiar twisting distortion in the air. He’d only seen one like it once before, but he never forgot what it looked like, strange and otherworldly as it was. He had really hoped to never see one again, but now that it was here he was pretty sure he knew what, or rather who, it was for.

Scowling to himself, he reached for the small, technical device Purah had given him only two months before.

The device was small and rectangular with easily discernible sheikah designs on it, honestly looking fairly similar to the Sheikah Slate that Zelda carried around. The main difference was what this device could do, or rather not do. The Purah Communicator, as it was so aptly named, could do one thing and one thing only. And that was to reach out to communicate with the Sheikah Slate and other Purah Communicators. There weren’t many Purah Communicators made yet, but they were useful all the same, especially in situations like this.

Pulling the communicator free, Link tapped on the button needed to reach out to the Sheikah Slate and settled to wait. It didn’t take long, it never did. Zelda rarely went anywhere without the slate after all.

“Link?” Her voice came through the communicator even before the image fully settled onto the screen. “What’s up? I thought you were spending the day with…” She trailed off, frowning as she took note of his expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you remember those four heroes that traveled through here during the war?” He began, knowing her answer already, but unsure how else to start this conversation.

“Of course!” Zelda confirmed, blue eyes scanning his face in concern. “Why? Are they back?”

“No,” Link told her, shaking his head as he shifted to lean against a nearby tree, taking the weight off of his bad leg. “But this is.” Turning the communicator some, he pointed the camera towards the strange, warped space in front of him. “It looks exactly like what they went through when they left.”

“Oh dear…” Zelda breathed, worry lacing her voice. “Why do you think it’s here? Are they coming back? Is something wrong?”

“I…” Link hesitated, turning the camera back towards himself. “I think I might need to go through it?”

“What?!” Zelda snapped, straightening in alarm. “Why would you need to–? You didn’t go before so why–? You’ve already done more than enough!”

“Zelda, Zelda, breathe,” Link soothed, brow creasing in worry. “I know it’s not the best, but like you said, I didn’t go before. And the reason I didn’t go was because we were in the middle of things still. Still dealing with the calamity. Besides, all of them had done enough before getting pulled into that mess too, remember? They’d already saved Hyrule at least once, then one of these things showed up near them to get them to go and help save it again.”

“But I….” Zelda faltered before deflating. “You’re going to go through that thing no matter what I say, aren’t you?” Link felt his lips twitch up into a wry, apologetic smile.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “Sorry, but I really think I need to do this. Can you let Mipha and my family know where I’ve gone?”

“You are going to owe me big time for this, I hope you know that,” Zelda huffed, reaching up to rub at her face. “Telling Mipha is bad enough, you know how she worries about you, but your dads and sister are going to be upset if you just vanish on them.”

“I know, I know,” Link huffed a sigh. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise. To all of you.”

“Just get back safely, alright?” Zelda instructed him. “We can discuss repayment after that.”

“I’ll do my best,” Link promised simply. He couldn’t promise more than that. He knew that, and he knew she knew it as well.

“You had better,” she groused before shaking her head and straightening. “Alright then, you have your gear with you?”

“Of course,” Link confirmed. He never went anywhere without his stuff. Maybe it was paranoid to want to always have his weapons and such on him, but that paranoia felt particularly validated today. After the war, and everything the other heroes had mentioned, he didn’t want to risk being caught unaware. Hylia knows Mural had mentioned getting caught without their stuff several times in their life. Link hadn’t wanted to risk having the same thing happen to him.

“Then good luck and goddess-bless, Link.” Zelda gave him a shaky smile. “You had better call me as soon as you’re back.”

“I will,” Link promised. “You be safe as well. See you later, Zelda.”

“See you later, Link.” The princess blinked hard, and Link thought he might have caught a glimmer of tears, but the communicator shut down before he could be sure.

Sighing, he powered the device down and put it back on its spot on his belt before straightening and adjusting his grip on his spear. He might as well get going, it wasn’t like this mess was going to fix itself. A quick check told him that his cane and bag were both securely attached to his belt along with his communicator and then he was on his way, striding forward into the strange, warped-air. Just like those four heroes from before had done almost a year ago.

Stepping through the rift was strange and disconcerting. It didn’t feel like much, unlike how the others had described it, but it was…weird. Green forest faded into swirling, formless grey with no discernible features. And if he hadn’t been able to feel the ground still under his feet he would have thought he was walking on nothingness as well. The others had described this, though, so he pushed on in determination and soon enough the grey gave way to an open, grassy field. Strange, but not too different from teleporting via the Sheikah technology. 

Now what though? Link scanned around him, taking in the vast grassy field, marred only by the occasional tree and what looked like a possible path a good distance away. Wonderful. This was going to involve a lot of walking, wasn’t it? Link grimaced, reaching down to rub at his leg in anticipated discomfort. If only he’d thought to go get his horse before going through that thing. The specialized saddle he had made riding long distances much easier than walking.

Oh well. What’s done was done, so walking it was. He wasn’t sure where exactly he needed to go, but heading towards the path-looking area was probably a good start. Maybe he’d be lucky and it would be a major road he could follow. Preferably one with a mostly-level surface. Huffing another sigh, he shook his head before starting forward. One step done was a step that wasn’t ahead of him, after all.

Notes:

Aha! That's the last of them (hopefully XP). Now I can start posting their chapters in the main story. The first chapter for them is already written, so look out for that in the next couple of weeks.

Love ya'll, hope you're doing good on your end of things <3

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22

Notes:

As in all of my Link Meetup stories, almost all of my Links are queer in some manner. My story, Rainbow Rupees goes in-depth into this, but here's a short list of everyone's Pronouns and Sexualities as what game they're from.
Dove (Skyward Sword)-He/him, polyamorous, bisexual.
Geode (Minish Cap/Four Swords/Four Swords Adventures)-He/they, asexual, aromantic.
Shadow-Ze/zir, asexual, panromantic.
Iolite-Fea/fear, asexual, aromantic.
Alexandrite-He/him asexual, aromantic.
Ruby-He/him, asexual, aromantic.
Sapphire-She/her (transwoman), asexual, aromantic.
Firefly (Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask)-Any pronouns, demisexual, demiromantic.
Monarch (Legend of Zelda/Adventures of Link)-He/him, uncertain.
Twilight (Twilight Princess)-Genderfluid (typically he/him, rarely she/her), asexual, demiromantic.
Captain (Hyrule Warriors)-He/him, homosexual.
Tune (Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass)-He/him (transman), heterosexual.
Fox (Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom)-Genderfluid (he/him, they/them, and she/her depending on the day), pansexual, polyamorous.
Mural (A Link to the Past/Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages/Link's Awakening/A Link Between Worlds/Triforce Heroes)-He/they, polyamorous, biromantic, heterosexual.
Ravio (A Link Between Worlds)-He/him, polyamorous, bisexual, demiromantic.
Crimson (Comic in Hyrule Historia)-He/they, transmasc, aromantic, pansexual.
Bumblebee (Hero of Man legend in Minish Cap)-He/him, uncertain.
Diritaln (10,000 years ago hero from Breath of the Wild)-He/him, pansexual, aromantic.
Engineer (Spirit Tracks)-He/Him, homosexual.
Marin (Link's Awakening)-She/Her, biromantic, heterosexual, polyamorous.
Priestess (Echoes of Wisdom)-She/Her, homosexual.
Hound (Age of Calamity)-He/Him, pansexual.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 8 of ZeldApril 2023
• Part 2 of Rifts in Time