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Sky cannot believe he's the first one to notice.
There are, of course, a number of variables that contribute to the rest of the Chain's defense. The most significant being that they have only known each other for a number of weeks, and the next being that these particular number of weeks have not been especially conducive to getting to know one another. They've bonded as a team, they've had to, but Sky's come to find that isn't the same as getting to know someone through softer times.
Sky, at least, learns more about his reincarnations from a week of quiet conversations over the fire and unfortunate heart-to-hearts over a basket of muddied laundry than he does from a month of battles. Sky had expected there to be more down-time as they traveled over several versions of the same expansive country, but the malevolent legion-leading monster chasing them--or directing them? Sky honestly tries not to think about it too hard--keeps them on their toes.
There isn't a Link without secrets, which becomes abundantly clear the moment Sky realizes he's probably the most forthcoming Link in the group. Demise's curse and his own failures hadn't been easy to bring up, by any means, but Sky had felt it necessary, if only to free himself from the grip the secret kept on him. Privately, he thinks the rest of the Chain would benefit from a similar approach to things.
Secrets only hinder teamwork. If life has taught him anything it's that all secrets will spill eventually, and the only way to keep them from spilling in the most catastrophic way possible is to bring them up yourself. He doesn't blame them for their secrets. He just sees how it burdens them, is all. He knows intimately that to be bound by your secrets is to hand your enemies a lead to pull you along with by the throat.
The point is, Sky knows the Chain has a lot of secrets, and he's even managed to piece together a few of them on his own. This secret, though?
As the portal splits the space between eras and his boots land on the smooth stone of Hyrule Castle, Sky startles. The rest of the Chain is unmoved, aside from the Smithy who instead cannot bear to be moved. Four is on the ground, not quite collapsed but not quite sitting either, and the rest of the Chain is working through their usual roll-call as if they aren't standing before the Queen of Hyrule herself. There are only two exceptions to this.
One is Wars, who stands at a vigilant attention, the courts unsurprisingly bringing out the more militant side of him. The other, at his left, is Legend. He stands tensely, though he always does in the presence of guards. It is, notably, a specific sort of tension that is only ever replicated when he stands before Hyrule's royalty.
The aforementioned royal takes in the group with a neutral expression. She scans the group almost idly, though he notes that the even look does waver. The mask cracks with a twinge of sympathy for the Smithy, a hint of fond exasperation for Legend, a near-immediate disregard for Wars, and a flat amusement for Sky's gaping look.
Sky quickly schools his expression before anyone else can catch it and tries to get a grip on himself. He is downright shocked to be the first one to put two-and-two together. He doesn't know that no one else knows, technically speaking, but…he has a feeling about this.
He meets Legend's gaze. Or, more accurately, he's caught staring at the Veteran and quickly throws him a nervous smile, only to get hit with the most solid point of evidence yet, aside from the frankly uncanny replication before him.
As the Chain gathers themselves, Sky thinks, offhandedly, that Legend's unamused, dry expression fits both faces the same. Legend's skin is slightly darker, more freckles splattered across the high planes of his cheeks, harsher edges to his cheekbones that speak more of prolonged malnutrition than genetics. And, yet.
How the hell did they miss this?
The courts around them settle, shock quickly turning to undisguised interest, and despite Legend's clear distaste for them, the guards around them barely even bat an eye at the interruption. Before that can change, and before the courts can demand it of them, Wars steps forward with a sweeping bow and introduces the group with as much grace as a gaggle of Links can allow.
And, on the throne? The Queen of Hyrule smiles with Legend's teeth.
---
The tension builds like a bowstring. It grows and grows and grows, and as the Chain wanders away from Hyrule Castle with Legend not even sparing the spitting image of himself a wayward glance, Sky finds himself constantly reaching for answers to the same question. His thoughts circle like vultures, spiraling over the carcass of uncertainty.
The tension might have reached a breaking point, eventually, if Legend hadn't sought him out first. As it is--
"What the fuck's wrong with you?"
Sky probably should have expected that his lingering looks and occasional mutterings might get picked up on by someone as hyper-aware as the Veteran. Of all the Links, it is him and Four who dig up secrets the way Wolfie digs up the bones littering Hyrule Field. Sky only stumbled into this one by happenstance.
Sky continues along the trail, careful to keep his feet moving even as he takes in the hero who's come to walk by his side. "I'm fine, Legend."
Where he expects the other hero to meet him with a genuinely unimpressed, skeptical look, a facsimile impression of one covers the barest hints of insecurity instead. A week ago, and Sky wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. Now, he clocks how Legend stands with his shoulders tense, his ears pinned back against his head even as he raises a brow. His steps are uneven, the rhythm broken by hesitation.
Legend snarks, "And I'm sure you've been glaring like you want to gut me in my sleep for no reason then, too?"
Sky pauses, and it takes a beat for his steps to pick back up.
"I'm not…angry with you?"
Legend huffs a disbelieving, bitter laugh. "Sure could've fooled me."
In all fairness, Sky sounds much more uncertain than he means to. It's bewilderment that stalls him, not a supposed effort to conceal his own ire. Honestly, though, it figures that Legend would have come to his own conclusions about all the staring, and Sky knows his confused look and someone else's angry look can often seem quite similar. His own rage is usually best described in fire or ice, and not in shrouded irritation, but he can understand where the Vet is coming from.
"I'm not angry with you. I actually wanted to talk," Sky admits, "I just wasn't sure how to broach the matter with you."
Legend can't raise his brow any further, but if he could Sky is sure that he would right now. Beneath the scrutiny, insecurity and hesitance make way for a tentative intrigue. "Consider the matter broached."
Sky nods. With consideration to the Veteran's privacy and the fact that the matter is still clearly intended to be a secret, he speaks in a quiet voice. He says observationally, "You're my descendant."
Legend's expression does not waver, but Sky clocks the tension spreading across his shoulders.
"Obviously. We're your reincarnations, Mr. First Hero," Legend snarks and Sky pauses.
"Actually, that was someone else," Sky says honestly and--
"What?" Legend asks, the tension dropping from his shoulders as disbelief and interest pull at his posture instead.
Sky shrugs. "Honestly, that part was hard to keep up with. I know there's a hero before me, though? He was Hylia's lover."
Legend snorts. Playfully, he quips, "Thought that was you."
Sky chuckles. "I'm Hylia's chosen. Sun's lover. A bit of a difference, there."
"Not much of one," Legend says. For once, he seems more amused at the fact than bitter or righteously angry.
Sky shrugs again. He's not going to spend another three hours getting into the specifics with one of them again, especially when he knows the Veteran is just trying to distract him.
"Anyways," he says, re-righting the conversation with a casual air, "I know you're my and Sun's descendant."
It's like watching a boulder fall onto Legend's shoulders in real time. His steps stop completely, only to rush quickly to catch back up. He walks in time with Sky, his eyes and ears flicking around the group nervously. His scowl looks more like a pained grimace than anything.
"Yours and… Sun's descendant?" Legend echoes quietly. It's clear he's hoping Sky's just made a mistake.
As it is, Sky smiles at the other as warmly as he can. "You and Fable. You're twins, right?"
Legend's expression shutters. Something haunted inches into the space between them.
"What gave you that idea?" Legend demands, but his voice cracks and curls at the edges like a piece of paper caught in a campfire.
Sky laughs and tries to keep it light. "You have the same face, Vet."
Legend's breath catches. For a moment, Sky worries he's going to really panic and he inches closer to him on instinct. If the Veteran Hero books it for the woods in his own era, he will undoubtedly remain unfound until he is ready to be so, Wolfie or no Wolfie.
Fortunately for Sky--and the group at large--Legend doesn't run for the treeline. Instead, his panicked breath quickly strangles itself into a near-hysterical laugh.
"It really is pretty obvious, huh?" he says, his eyes wide and frantic. The amusement seems more like desperation, from this angle. "Really makes you wonder what they're paying those guards for, huh?"
"Come again?"
Unbothered and bordering on hyperventilating, Legend oh-so-helpfully explains, "You know? Securing the line of succession? It's part of their job to make sure the Queen doesn't lose the throne. Can't have Princes running around unless you want Hyrule to fall to ruin!"
Sky blinks. "What?"
Legend laughs, and it's loud enough--or maybe just harrowed enough--that Twilight turns around from where he lingers up ahead with Time. Sky shakes his head as subtly as he can; the Veteran does not need more people lingering right now, and he knows the Rancher can make out their conversation from there if he really feels the need.
Sky puts a hand on Legend's shoulder, not sure what else to do. It's surprisingly hard to tell while they're walking, but the Veteran's shoulders shake as the laughter chokes into something bordering closer to a sob. It reminds him faintly of Hyrule's sugar crashes, wild and energized until, suddenly, someone has an armful of a sleeping or sobbing fairy. Or both, if his magic is especially drained. This is much more unfortunate, though.
Legend sucks in a harsh, shuddering breath. His violet eyes are so haunted that Sky is surprised his words come in his own voice and not that of a ghost.
In a trembling rasp as loud as the whispering wind, Legend confides, "The Royal Line can only ever have daughters."
Sky might ask what this means for a Prince like Legend, if he didn't think the other would bring it up himself. Sure enough, a breathy murmur follows quickly after the silence begins to take hold.
"The guards did well with every generation before mine. I'm still not sure how they missed me."
Sky breathes beyond the rage that begins to take hold of him and swallows past dread in his throat. He echoes, almost casually, "Missed you?"
Legend's eyes are clear even as he trembles, from grief or fear or leftover adrenaline. That he doesn't shed a single tear despite the emotional beating he's clearly taking is a testament to something. Strength, maybe. Or, perhaps a pervasive fear of vulnerability instilled by a world that apparently wants him dead. Sky feels the fierce need to pull him into a hug either way.
"It's far easier to take care of the problem when they're young," Legend confirms roughly, "That way they can't grow up to vie for the crown and send Hyrule to ruin."
'Take care of the problem.'
Sky does not visibly react.
The gentle breeze whistles through the trees and Warrior's barking laugh drifts down the trail. Sky takes in all of his reincarnations, pressing their faces into his memory. He imagines them, young and afraid. He imagines ties between them even deeper than that of a shared spirit. He imagines those ties uprooted, fibrous tissues snapped and bleeding out through the echoes of time.
In the moment of quiet, Sky's gaze shifts to the trail ahead. He lets the image of his knuckles shattering the faces of all those involved in the murder of his descendants soothe the tremors that threaten to overtake him.
Oh, how his soul tears between embracing the other hero and mercilessly brutalizing all who would do him wrong. It is truly, truly hard for Sky to be the peaceful one, sometimes.
He takes a careful breath. "At some point, I would like names."
Legend, perhaps startled by the sudden break in the quiet, blinks at him uncomprehendingly. "Names?"
"Names," Sky agrees. All of the cruelty he has ever felt the urge to inflict flashes behind his eyes in rapid succession. "Descriptions and eras, too, if you have them."
"You--what, you think you can fix it?" Legend scoffs, looking at Sky like he is a nine-year-old who just said he was going to slay Ganon and save the world.
At twenty-three-years-old with Demise a cruel echo and a curse, and nothing more, the Godslayer looks back at him, undeterred.
"You'd have to take out basically the entire royal guard of every era," Legend says, like he thinks that's a good excuse for Sky to do nothing.
Sky nods.
"Alright," he says, running the numbers, "Yeah, I can make that work."
Legend pauses. Incredulously, he asks, "What?"
Sky pats him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it."
For some reason, the other hero doesn't seem very assured.
---
Sky drops to his knees before the goddess statue. It hadn't taken the Chain as long as it usually would to make it to Hateno Village, mostly due to their luck in finding an entire field of horses to tame. Bruised and weary, Sky is driven by a new, burning determination.
Tucked to the side of a house he does not know, and covered from the elements with a wooden overhang, the gently smiling face of the past-present-future of his love looks down upon him. Sky lays his soul and troubles bare before her.
He takes a shuddering breath and speaks in a quiet revenant voice.
"Hylia, hear my prayer," he pleads, and he knows in his heart that she does, "For time itself will not contain my wrath. Nor will it yours, I am sure, once you have known the horrors inflicted upon your children in a mockery of your name."
Birdsong fills the air, and the sun glows warmly. The day is perfect, and Sky feels with a certainty that it is about to be better, somewhere, for someone. It is also about to be a lot worse.
Sky breathes, "I would beg for your grace and your power. Between our hands, fate should twist itself anew. Time should reconstruct itself for us, and for the mercy we will give to it, should it return our children to their rightful lives. No bones shall litter the cradles crafted in the echoes of our hands."
His kneeled bow is so low to the ground that his back aches faintly. The gentle touch of gold kisses his skin.
"Hylia, past and fate of my love, hear my prayer," Sky prays, the fire in his chest stoked by the flames of his plea, "Let their troubles be many and their peace be unfound. Let their neighbors turn scorn upon them and their children abandon their houses for sturdier structures. Let their ashes be scattered to the winds."
Sky laughs, low and hungry. "Hylia, my goddess, let my hands press the screams from out their throats."
Behind him, twigs and grass bend and snap beneath his brother's boots as he makes himself known far before he makes himself seen. Legend approaches, slowly and unsure.
Sky smiles gently at his descendant, only to watch him stop dead just as their eyes lock.
Legend gapes, barely more than an awed and haunted whisper, "What the actual fuck?"
He does not stare at the Chosen Hero with shock, having heard few of his words and believed fewer of them still. He does not stare at the Chosen Hero at all. He backs away with slow, careful steps, his ears pinned back to his head. His disposition is so clearly the same as the rabbit he turns into, the gentle shape of his soul Sky was blessed to meet and to hold.
Legend does not stare at the Chosen Hero as he trembles like a leaf in a lightning storm. His fear, misplaced though it is, seems to have very little to do with Sky's spoken desire to kill, and everything to do with Hylia's response.
Before them, Sky's wrath is returned tenfold and, as the portal that claws its way into existence flickers with its brilliant energy, the lips of the goddess statue curl higher.
---
Hylia was once a god of war. Perhaps, it is time to return to her roots.
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