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skyward-floored · 6 months

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Whumptober Day 25: Storm, “You’re not delivering a perfect body to the grave”

The second prompt is more vibes then anything, there’s no dead guys here. Probably. Hopefully.

This is a continuation to day 22 :) It’s a lot of plot, but it’s plenty painful as well heh heh. There will be another part after this as well.

Day 22

Read on ao3

Warnings: much of the same as the first fic, more creepy vibes, blood, injury, some implied kidnapping, a liiiittle body horror, and an animal injury

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A scream shatters Twilight’s peaceful sleep, and he jolts awake, sitting up and looking frantically around before realization hits him.

It’s Time. Woken by a nightmare yet again.

Twilight sighs, sad acceptance settling over himself as he calms down, and he looks over at the older hero. But the sight isn’t the usual one they’ve become accustomed to these past weeks, and Twilight immediately moves closer.

Time is gasping for breath, both eyes wide as they stare up at the sky, and Warriors is unsuccessfully trying to get him to look at him. He’s pale and shaking— which, unfortunately, has lately been the norm— but usually by now Time is sitting up and getting ahold of himself, and acting like he’s fine.

Instead he continues to lie there, gasping like a drowning man.

“Time,” Warriors repeats, Legend kneeling next to him with a pinched look on his face, “Link, can you hear me?”

Time’s breath rattles, but after a long moment, his eyes finally turn towards Warriors, blue and white both blown wide in terror.

“Did... what happened? He’s never done this before, was... was it the same nightmare?” Wind finally asks quietly, voicing what the rest of them are wondering.

“No,” Time gasps, face white, sweat pouring down his face. “No, it was— it was different.”

Twilight and Legend exchange looks, and Time chokes in another gasp, still trying to calm down.

“...I think you’d better tell everyone your dream, Time,” Warriors says in a grim voice. “And then you can explain to us what was different this time.”

Time gives him a look, but Warriors is firm.

“The time for secrets is over. If we’re going to figure this out, we need everyone’s help,” the captain finishes more softly, and Time closes his eyes, dragging in another ragged breath.

Twilight grabs his necklace and shifts into wolf form, moving to sit beside Time. His mentor reaches out a shaky hand, and Twilight allows him to run his palm over his head, running down to the thicker fur at his neck. Normally he balks at being petted like a common pooch, but under circumstances like these, he’s found it’s the best way to provide comfort.

And it helps. Time’s gasps slow, his breath evening out. His hands still shake, but he looks more settled, and begins to explain the nightmare he’s been having for nearly a month now.

Twilight already heard the explanation once, but it’s almost worse the second time with the others listening, knowing what’s coming. All of them are dead silent as he speaks, faces holding several differing emotions, but Legend’s face especially seems to crease more and more as he tells them of the violence and death he’s privy to every night.

“That... sounds like a legend in my time,” Legend murmurs as Time finishes the explanation. “Of the Hero before me. The Fallen Hero.”

“Who?” Wild asks in a whisper, and Legend’s throat bobs as he hesitates.

“Legend goes that the hero before me fought against Ganon, but... failed,” he explains, crossing his arms. “The princess of the time was forced to seal Ganon away without him, with the help of six other sages.”

Legend swallows.

“There’s a bit more to it, but... the legends say the hero died. Like... in Time’s dream.”

Time seems to have lost what color he’d regained, and his hand clenches slightly where it’s resting in Twilight’s fur.

“But you said it was different this time,” Warriors interjects, voice steadying. “How did it change?”

Time breathes out, and launches into a second explanation.

He tells them all how the beginning of the dream had been the same, but at the point where it usually ended, it had continued, into a confusing darkness and broken bodies, and images Time had trouble explaining, and couldn’t make sense of. Twilight wonders if he might leave a few details out based on how he hesitates at certain points, but he doesn’t call him out.

“And the end was clear,” Time finishes in a more serious voice. His fear seems to have hardened into anger, and Twilight eyes him worriedly. “The rest was confusing, but there’s no mistaking it. An enemy I thought long gone is back... Majora.”

Legend and Wild both look up, and the champion hesitantly reaches into his pouch, pulling out a mask in almost dizzying colors, with yellow eyes and small spikes at the edges.

“You’ve mentioned an enemy by that name before... when I showed you this,” he says cautiously, and Time nods.

“Yes. The mask that housed it was identical to this one,” he says as Wild hands it to him. “Though this one is empty, possibly a replica. Many years ago I destroyed the demon, but... it should not have been possible for it to return.”

They all chew on that for a moment, an owl hooting somewhere in the forest.

“...Unless it’s the Shadow’s doing,” Warriors finally says in a grave voice. “He’s brought back many an old foe. Who’s to say he can’t resurrect a demon?”

“That would take a lot of power,” Hyrule speaks up, his face shadowed with worry. “Even a dark being like the Shadow would need some kind of help, a conduit, or cursed object maybe—”

“It doesn’t matter how he’s back, we gotta stop him!” Wind interrupts, his face dismayed. “If Time’s dream was real, then there’s at least two people he was possessing and captured! They need our help!”

Twilight breathes out, and shifts back into a hylian, sitting down next to Time.

“You’re right sailor, but we don’t know where they or the demon are,” he says. “Time just said they were in a dark, stone room. That doesn’t narrow it down much.”

Somebody makes an odd noise, and Twilight looks over at Legend, raising a worried eyebrow at how pale he suddenly seems.

“...Veteran?” Sky asks, and Legend swallows.

“I have a mask like that as well,” he says in a low voice. The others turn to stare at him. “I could tell it had some dark magic in it when I found it, kept it for safekeeping. Maybe... maybe it’s like Hyrule said. Maybe all the Shadow needed to bring the demon back was the mask.”

A stunned silence falls over them, and Twilight looks at Time, his face still pale and grim.

He’s a bit less receptive of his ancestor’s mood now that he’s not a wolf, but there’s an equal mixture of anger and fear and worry on his face, along with the dark circles from so few nights of sleep. A change in the routine of torture he’s been submitted to seems to have woken him up a bit, and his face is more alive then it’s been in a while.

As horrible as the circumstances are, Twilight is a little glad.

“Where is it?” Time asks finally, and Legend pales again, as if he’s just realized something.

“It’s at my house.”

(...)

They break camp and leave immediately, knowing time is of the essence. It’s still dark out, but they’re close enough to Legend’s house that the veteran knows the way, leading them silently with a pinched look on his face.

Twilight can only imagine what’s going on in his head at the moment. Legend’s house is right by the castle, and not much further from Kakariko— if there’s a demon loose, it could have already wreaked all sorts of havoc.

Not to mention the fact that Legend’s house isn’t empty.

Twilight glances at Legend again, the veteran looking like he’s barely keeping himself from bolting off with his Pegasus boots.

Legend’s never explained exactly who Ravio is, but you’d have to be a fool not to notice how similar they look. Twilight is sure there’s a story there, but the point is, Ravio is important to Legend, despite what the veteran may show outwardly.

And he’s all but confirmed to be in the same location as a demon Time tells them once destroyed the world.

“...he means nearly destroyed, right?” Wind asks in a quiet voice as Time explains a little more about Majora to them, but Time doesn’t answer.

The information doesn’t make much sense, and neither does any of the situation, really. All they know for sure is that Time’s been plagued by nightmares for nearly a month, identical to each other except for tonight’s, in which two people had been alternatively possessed by a demon mask in a dark room somewhere.

They’re working solely off of assumptions and coincidences otherwise, and there’s a large part of Twilight that desperately hopes all of this truly was just a nightmare.

He knows better then that though. Nightmares like Time has been having aren’t normal.

They never are.

They reach Legend’s house at dawn, rays of sunlight barely peeking through the clouds that blanket the sky. Twilight feels a little hopeful at the lack of obvious destruction from the outside of the building, or the surrounding area.

The fact that the house is still standing must be good, right?

Legend doesn’t waste a moment in running up and shoving open the door, the others right behind him.

The veteran’s house is always a disaster, but as Twilight walks in, he sees it’s even worse then normal. Furniture has been knocked over, and books and maps and items are all over the place, mixing with glass from a broken window. Twilight sees clear signs of a struggle, things that look like they’ve been thrown, weapons fallen out of reach.

Any hope that it’s a coincidence goes out the window when he sees blood on the floor, and Legend quickly checks the rest of the house, shouting for Ravio.

But there’s no sign of the purple merchant, and Legend comes back into the main area with a grim look on his face.

“The mask is gone,” he reports in a biting voice, looking at a particular portion of the wall. “And so is Ravio.”

“There was dark magic used here, a lot of it,” Hyrule says quietly.

“That all but confirms it,” Warriors says as he closes his eyes, a grieved look on his face. “Majora is back.”

A quiet chirping noise punctuates the end of his sentence, and Twilight pricks his ears, turning his head towards where it had come from.

“Rancher?”

“Shh,” Twilight says in reply, and the others go quiet as he picks his way across the room.

He steps over a pile of what look like various magic rods, and over to a stack of maps, fallen all over the floor in a large pile. The chirp rings out again, and Twilight follows it to the corner, where the maps are piled particularly high.

Twilight lifts up several pieces of paper and parchment, and near the bottom, he startles at a little blue and white bird underneath.

Sheerow’s wing is crooked, blood in his feathers, and he fluffs up at the sight of Twilight, angrily clacking his beak.

“What is it?” Four calls, and Twilight crouches next to the bird, studying him.

“...It’s Ravio’s bird.”

“Sheerow?!” Legend asks, and the bird perks up a little, letting out a pained squawk as he shifts his wing.

“Easy, little guy,” Twilight soothes, and Sheerow glares at him a moment longer before slowly smoothing his feathers.

He blinks and tilts his head curiously as Twilight continues to make soothing noises, and Twilight scoops the little bird into his hands. Sheerow lets out a tired peep as Sky picks his way over and runs a finger over his head, and the bird looks relieved to have finally been found.

“Yep, this is Sheerow,” Sky confirms, having studied the bird a few times before.

“Ravio never goes anywhere without that stupid bird,” Legend mutters with a frantic undertone, starting to pace among all of his items thrown on the floor, “and I’ve never seen Sheerow get hurt, not even when he’s pulled weapons off me in stupid dangerous areas, or dragged me home even, how could he have—”

“Legend, calm down,” Warriors says, and Legend whirls on him.

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” he yells. “My house has been broken into, my roommate’s been kidnapped, it’s extremely likely a mask got stolen and a demon got resurrected using it, the whole kingdom is probably in danger, and not to mention all those stupid dreams Time keeps having that are telling the future or past or I don’t even know!”

Warriors goes silent, and Legend swipes an angry hand across his eyes.

Sheerow lets out a squeaking sound in Twilight’s hand then, and nibbles his finger, bobbing his head towards Legend.

“Whoa, okay, you want to see Legend?” Twilight asks softly, and Sheerow chirps in an insistent way. The rancher picks his way back across the room, Sky in tow, and holds out his hands to Legend, the veteran looking at him with emotion swirling in his gaze.

Sheerow squawks, and jumps out of Twilight’s hands onto Legend’s shoulder, pecking lightly at his ear.

“Ow, what is it you stupid bird?” Legend asks, all bark and no bite, and Sheerow lets out another urgent series of chirps.

“Wait... I think he’s trying to tell us something,” Wind says, eyes wide. “Is that it, Sheerow?”

The little bird chirps, bobbing his head, and the heroes exchange looks.

“Wait, do you know where Ravio went?” Twilight asks suddenly.

Sheerow chirrups louder then ever, and Legend scoops him off his shoulder and into a hand, rifling in his pouch with the other. He pulls out a potion, and pours some into his palm, offering it to Sheerow.

Somehow the little bird knows what he’s doing and eagerly sips it up, beak clacking. He stretches his bent wing a few moments later, no longer bent, and does a little loop in the air, a triumphant caw ringing through the house.

“Can you help us find Ravio?” Legend asks seriously, and Sheerow chirps in a determined way and flies right out the door.

Legend leaves his disastrous home without hesitation, and the rest of them follow, Twilight staying by Time’s side as they run. The older hero has been doing a little better since they’ve been given something to do, but he’s still running on barely any sleep, and Twilight admittedly isn’t sure he’ll keep up.

Sheerow guides them to the east, the land growing more hilly as they go. The clouds above them thicken as well, white turning to grey, and Twilight can smell rain in the distance, a mark of the coming storm.

Time drags the longer they go, but he stubbornly keeps at it as they follow Sheerow up crumbling stairs and across old bricks. It’s an hour or two after they leave Legend’s house before they reach the yawning maw of a large temple, and they pause, getting their breath back, looking to Legend for information.

“Eastern Palace,” Legend reports, Sheerow flittering nervously around his head. “Pretty easy dungeon on the scale of things, mostly low-level monsters. I had to do it twice actu— would you stop that?!” he snaps at Sheerow, and the little birds chirps in offense and goes to sit on Sky’s shoulder. “As I was saying—”

Twilight hears thunder off in the distance, and a light rain begins to fall on their heads, small noises of dismay coming from them all. They move to go inside the palace, but then Sheerow lets out a noise like a shriek, and Time stops dead in his tracks.

The rest of them stop as well, drawing their weapons seconds after Time does, and Twilight hears Time let out a sharp inhale as footsteps echo from the entrance to the palace.

Two yellow eyes appear, and then a figure steps out into the rain, bringing with it sharp inhales from them all.

The figure that’s stepped out is barely recognizable as Hylian, his tunic torn and covered in blood that the rain begins to wash onto the stones at his feet. Darkness is coalesced around where the blood is thickest, patches over his skin in several places, twined like vines across his arms and legs. It covers the injuries that must be there, but what’s most noticeable is the mask covering his face.

It’s identical to the one Wild possesses, but its eyes glow with an extra malice as it seems to look around at them, stopping when it’s gaze reaches Time.

“Well well. I was wondering when you all were going to show up,” the boy says in a voice that makes Twilight’s heart stop.

He sounds almost exactly like Time.

He spares a frantic look at his mentor, and sees that Time’s face has gone eerily blank, though the glint of horror in his eye is impossible to erase.

Who’s under that mask?

“Where’s Ravio?” Legend demands, his gaze like steel as he points his sword at the demon.

Majora ignores him.

“My, you’ve grown, Hero. I see you’ve had some fun with some masks yourself!” he titters, staring at the markings on Time’s face. “Power like that is enticing, isn’t it?”

Time doesn’t falter. “Fight us as yourself,” he demands, his voice more matching the thunder that’s growing closer. “A puppet is unbecoming.”

“On the contrary, I rather like him,” the mask giggles, tilting his head so a few blood-soaked strands of blond hair are visible. “I’ve waited for revenge at my only defeat for a long time, and this only sweetens it. No... I think I’ll be keeping him.”

He pauses, and a flash of lighting strikes nearby, sending him into sharp relief.

“Or should I say... you?”

Pure horror hits Twilight like an arrow, and Time moves at the same time as the boy, a horribly familiar laugh ringing over the sound of thunder.

#linkeduniverse #linked universe #lu twilight #lu time #lu legend #lu chain #all the links #linked universe fanfic #whumptober 2023 #day 25 #fic #storm #writing from the floor #don’t tag as ravioli please #thank you #I love Sheerow he’s such a spunky lil guy #his cheeps are so cute too #the ending is a little weird but originally this part was supposed to have a lot more along with it #but I ran out of time lol

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