Archive of Our Own ^beta

When the chain was three, they met their fourth member: Four. He was a highly intelligent and calm hero, borderlining serene. When he was faced with his first portal hop, however, Four gave them a heads up.

“As a warning, I am susceptible to head injuries. I’ve noticed no pattern with the side effects. There may not be rhyme nor reason to them, but I assure you, something happens.”

They didn’t think much of it, other than Four may be a bit clumsy and might bump his head on a few things. That or he gets concussions easily.

Four became nine, and then the divine-given quest began. That and what ‘head injuries’ actually insinuated.

-----

“Personally, to be or not to be would be the question if we had a choice. Unfortunately, being marked with the Hero’s spirit means Hylia rather likes us, making the impossible unlikely. The question would be viable if our shadow didn’t decide to be sentient one day and walk off.”

The rest of the chain stops to listen.

“So this is what he meant,” Wind whispered, oddly fascinated.

“Uhhhh…” Hyrule waves his hand (the one not healing the bruise on Four’s head) in his face, “You good there?”

“No, of course not, please make him stop, this is the fifth time he’s gotten Vio on a rant in the past three hours.”

“Wha - Who - ” Hyrule is cut off by Four spontaneously giggling for roughly three seconds, then abruptly stopping and snapping his head to face him, expression dead serious.

“Green. Help.”

“You’re seeing green!?” Before Hyrule can go into panicked mother-hen medic mode, Four laughs again, this time in a short, loud burst instead of constant small giggles. He then stands and makes his way to Wild, making grabby hands.

“Two minutes and an apple.”

Four got his apple and returned to normal.

Time pat Hyrule’s shoulder in consolation and turned to Wind. “The scary part is you get used to it.”

-----

They were fighting a bokoblin camp that was set up too close to the road when Four was heard crying. Barely a second later, he abruptly stopped, as if somehow physically muted.

A yell: “That’s for making him cry, you fucked up pig!”

Giggles: “I can’t believe that worked!”

Bafflement: “Why, pray tell, would you think it a snazzy idea to break down and cry during battle??”

A shrug: “I was curious.”

“Fascinating! The bokoblin clearly paused in shock! This implies they have an understanding of basic emotions. This calls for science!”

The gang are left confused and horrified. Legend is speechless. He could only gape and extend an arm in the direction of Four rapidly flipping through personalities on a dime. The words ‘do you see this shit?’ fails to leave his mouth.

“That’s a new one.” Hyrule does not know what else to say.

Actually, yes he does: “At least his head’s not bleeding?”

Warriors squints. “Never thought about it til now but that kinda looks like DID… though normally the switch isn’t that fast…”

Sky tilts his head, not looking away from Four, who is steadily stopping the sporadic hand gestures. “DID?”

“I see it with soldiers sometimes. They create this entire entity in their head, complete with its own personality and set of memories, that’s capable of ‘switching places’ with them. It’s commonly an effect of trauma.”

“Oh.”

Four, having ceased talking to himself, walks up to them. He’s got a curious look in his eyes, but says nothing to them.

Warriors raises an eyebrow. “You good there?”

Wild comes up behind Sky. “You’ve got a voice in your head too?”

Four shrugs at Wild and turns to Warriors. “I’m fine, just susceptible to head injuries.”

“Head injuries?” Legend finds his voice, “That was more like a head scramble!” Apparently head injuries meant going nuts and not being incredibly prone to getting hit in the head.

Time rests a hand on Four’s shoulder. “Are you sure this isn’t a mental issue, one similar to that which Warriors suspects?”

“Nah. It’s just the usual.”

“The usual?”

“Being a hero of Hylia.”

“Ah.”

Four has a point there. What can anyone say to that when considering fighting the moon, turning into animals, weather-controlling instruments, and the like.

“Hang on, ” Warriors pivots to Wild, “Voices in your head?”

“Zelda.”

“That explains nothing.”

“No, it explains everything.”

-----

They landed after a portal jump.

“Shit” Warriors says. This is nothing new.

“Shit” Time says.

Hyrule sucks in a breath. Now that’s concerning. Time rarely curses. Whatever it is must be bad.

“Shit.” That was Sky. Things were definitely bad.

Hyrule sits up and speedwalks over to see Warriors lying face up in the dirt, numbly looking over to Four, who is lying face down. The way they had fallen through the portal had Warrior’s armored arm over the back of Four’s head.

“Shit indeed, ” Twilight calls from over Hyrule’s shoulder. Hyrule shivers. Time to prepare mentally.

Warriors removes his arm and sits up. He gives a side glance to Hyrule, and then to Time. “Please don’t traumatize me for this, this was entirely out of my control.”

“Considering the situation, I agree with you on that, however, it all depends on the episode.”

Warriors gives a pleading look to Time.

“Oh, I make no promises.”

Four groans, then sits up, facing away from the rest of the group.

“Weird energy in here.”

Hyrule sighs. “Four, we’re outside.”

“Yeah, you are. I am not.”

Wind snorts. Wild looks up. “Uhhh, not anymore.”

“I am not vibing with that. Please wait 3 - 5 business days before you bring that topic back up.”

Time blinks. “Last watch tonight.”

“It was an accident!” Warriors hisses.

-----

“Oops! Sorry there bud!” The remarkably tall trader picks up a sack that fell from his pack at just the right moment to drop on Four’s head. Wild hands over a few chunks of ice chuchu jelly over and they all wait for the inevitable madness.

Yet it doesn’t come.

Just when they believe they avoided a scrambled Four (by the skin of their teeth no doubt), they come across a bokoblin camp.

Four, suddenly skipping and bobbing his head back and forth to a rhythm in his head alone, yanks out an axe and chants “don't be suspicious don't be suspicious” in a sing-song voice.

The axe itself is very suspicious. It is a large bloodstained battleaxe. Weapons in Four’s possession are never anything but clean and well cared for.

With a smile, Four cleaves the tree supporting the camp in two. The bokoblins fall to either gravity or the blade, a few to both. A couple straight out flee as Four returns, saying “They're gonna know! How would they know? They're gonna know! How would they know? They're gonna know!” in a breathy voice that’s mimicking a whisper without actually lowering his pitch to do such. He stops, battleaxe back in his inventory, and stares at the group, eyes going from a blinking green-blue to red.

“What do you do when your shadow talks to you?”

Eight pairs of eyes blink back.

Wild uses Twilight’s shoulder to gain height when he jumps, and then just supports himself there, leaning over as if Twilight were a countertop. He speaks not unlike a snickering grandmother sharing gossip.

“Talk back if it’s friendly, stab it if otherwise. Or you could just stop eating that particular type of mushroom.”

-----

“Excuse me, “ Tetra waves Hyrule over, “I believe you are a healer, yes?”

“Yeah, why? Someone got hurt?”

“Something like that.” She drags him out and up to the deck. “So sorry, but one of my crew couldn't see your friend and accidentally clocked him in the head with the sail.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. It happens. Most of us aren’t used to boats anyway. So who got hit? I know sometimes people forget about Sky’s presence and Wild is insane at hiding - ”

“I believe Link said his name was Four?”

Hyrule froze. He took a deep breath, slowly, then let it out. The sound he made was not unlike a deflating balloon.

“I don’t think I can help with that…”

“Is something the matter?”

“No…? It’s just- ”

Four’s voice could now be heard. The crewmember he was talking to had long given up trying to apologize and is now listening to Four, intrigued.

“- So then he got turned into this witch hat, but without the brim, and spoke with this beak that came out the top.”

“But I thought he was originally some mouse-hylian mix?”

“Exactly! But no, Ezlo spoke with a beak and not some normal minish mouth.”

Tetra stopped with a huh. “Guess he’s back to normal.”

“Yay…” Hyrule sighed, “Yeah, not much I can do for him. Whenever he gets hit in the head it’s less like he gets a legitimate concussion and more like he gets possessed by one to four different people.”

“Sounds like a hero thing.”

“At least he’s not a really old person that accidentally turned himself into a child.”

And here Tetra thought a king that got turned into a talking boat was weird.

-----

Hyrule is pressing ice chuchu jelly to Four’s head when he turns to Sky and makes direct eye contact, his stare having a disturbing lack of blinks.

“God is DEAD.”

“I don’t think Hylia is dead?” Sky’s tone is equal parts hesitant, confused, and concerned.

“No, no, I’m pretty sure God is dead. If they were alive I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have spent half my first adventure chasing my shadow because it stole some of my bombs and wanted to use them on the nearest town.” Four is smiling. His cheer does not match his words.

“Isn’t Hylia a goddess?”

“This isn’t about Hylia, now, is it?”

“But it is???”

“Irrelevant. Hylia does not apply here. In other news, could Shadow confiscate my bones?”

Hyrule sighs. Four regains the filter to his thoughts. Sky just wants to regroup with the others already.

-----

"Four is a threat to our sanity."

"No, Wild is. Four is fine as long as you don't think too hard. There's nothing protecting you from a flying tree log or an arrow that can literally erase anything it hits out of existence."

"I think Sky is far more threatening."

"Sky? He's, like, the sweetest one out of all of us."

"Cuckoos literally see him as best friend material on sight."

"You have a point…"

-----

Twilight fights off another stalfos. He startles at Four’s “Hey!”, whipping around to see him block a sword with his hand.

Twilight finds he can only watch, rooted to the ground, as Four, holding the sword by the blade, physically wrenches it from the stalfos’s grip and then bash its skull in with the handle.

His eyes are as red as the blood on his hand as he turns to Twilight, now holding the blade flat along both hands. “Look at it! It’s so well made… I love it. It does not deserve to be in a monster’s hold.”

“Four! What - ” Hyrule rushes over at the sight of the red dripping through Four’s fingers and down his arm.

“It’s beautiful. Shiny too, I bet, if we clean off the blood and grime.” He does not look away, even as Hyrule extracts the hand from under the sword to heal. With the movement, Four yanks up the blade to catch it by the hilt in one smooth motion.

A sound has Twilight turning around, only to see Wild tying a piece of bone to his palm. Wind’s eyes are too bright for it to be anything but a new scheme. He catches Time’s gaze; a silent plea for help. He gets nothing but faint amusement.

Sometimes, Twilight forgets that, by technicality, Time is a fae.

-----

Sky is on his nightwatch shift when rustling attracts his attention, the source being one smithy sitting up from his bedroll. His head tilts to the side, and then, quietly, he starts talking.

"I am an ice elf"

"Oh cool, so you live in places like Antarctica?"

"No, I live in your freezer"

"Confusion noises. My freezer...?"

"Yes"

For how long?"

"Eh, a year."

"Is that why my ice cubes keep disappearing?"

"Uhhh Four?” Sky is starting to get weirded out. And intrigued. “Who are you talking to? And for that matter, what are you talking about?"

"Hush, I'm writing. Now then..."

"You're nowhere near a notebook... or something to write with..."

"Your opinion is noted, however your perception of reality is inherently flawed, considering the elements you're unaware of, and thus invalid."

Sky nods as if that made sense (it did not).

Wind is decidedly glad he feigned sleep. An ice elf living in people’s freezers is undeniably an excellent concept. Perhaps Four could give him the completed story. Aryll would love it.

-----

Legend was getting tired of this.

Yes, every Hyrule was dangerous in their own way and came with their own brand of hazards. That said, Four’s Hyrule was not supposed to be actively trying to kill him at this moment. This is the third hinox of the day, and it’s not even lunch!

“Where in the goddess damned Hyrule are they coming from!?”

“That’s it. I’m speaking my mind. Goddess above, I’m not taking on another one.” Four is glaring at nothing beside him.

“Are you seriously going to… what… insult it until it goes away?”

“In a sense, yes.”

“Smithy, that is both the worst and best idea I’ve ever heard. Go for it.”

Four skips away as Legend looks on in anticipation. The rest of the Links are either waiting in suspense or whole-heartedly confused.

Four stops just shy of the hinox’s range: close enough for it to notice him, far enough for it to not immediately attack. “Oi! Your appointment’s not until 2! GET!”

The hinox, undeniably confused, stands and wanders away, occasionally looking back to see him at its back making shoo-ing motions.

When he gets back to the group, Legend is smiling in a rare moment of maniacal glee. “Holy shit that worked!”

“I did not expect that to work.”

“Maybe sheer bafflement is a weapon in and of itself?”

“Hush! Don’t say that kind of stuff around Wild.”

“Too late, ” Wind pops up between them, “He’s already plotting with Hyrule.”