#Light: i made my champion a reincarnating warrior who is never alone and changes into someone else every life :)
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nightmare-foundation · 4 days ago
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I'm thinking again about the take that the brother cult religion as seen in The Infinite Man (or similar to it) is a widespread/well known religion in modern Remnant.
And like... i do LIKE the idea of there still being a Brothers-based religion on Remnant. Fantasy religions are always fun, and it'd be fun to explore how that might effect Remnants societies.
But like. It's almost laughably false. It's a cool headcanon, and I like seeing it in AUs (I use it myself), but when talking about canon, it's just not true.
For one, there isn't any discussion of religion in any rwby material, at least nothing truly in-depth. None of the characters are ever stated to be religious in RWBY, and we also don't really get any hints of religion in the entire show? We never see any churches in Vale, Mistral, Atlas or Mantle, and the only thing I can think of that MIGHT be a church is the building in the v4 Ruby-focused short, though we never see the inside of it and it could just as easily be like, a town hall or something. Specifically, it has statues of 2 women in front of it, so if it IS a church, it doesn't appear to be Brothers-based.
Also in v4, Qrow states to RNJR that "Not many people are religious these days". I highly doubt that this line is untrue? First of all, Qrow has absolutely no reason to lie. Second, I doubt this is a case of Qrow being an unreliable narrator; even if he believed that all of the other religions were "fake", this would still be a very odd thing to say if religion is widespread?? It's like if you were talking to your friends and said "haha yeah not a lot of people are religious these days :)" which would obviously get you VERY weird looks. On top of that, none of RNJR ever seem to recognize what he's talking about. Qrow never says like, idk, "Do you know about [insert name for Brothers religion]? Yeah, they're real. In case you don't know the story- [insert convenient religion/lore dump for the audience]". At least, if i were writing RWBY and wanted to make it clear the Brothers were still being worshipped, that's how I'd write it.
Qrow does, obviously, phrase it like it WAS a religion- which is true. But it doesn't seem like it's like still a religion, and if it is, it's certainly not big anymore because religion on Remnant has slowly died out.
And about Fairytales of Remnant, it isn't a "propagandistic hit piece", it's a book of fairytales that Ozpin put into Beacons curriculum. I doubt a tale in a widespread religion (or religions) would be put in a book containing fairytales, at least not without public backlash. That'd be like if you put the story of Noah's Ark into a book containing things like Cinderella and Snow White. If Ozpin really wants to create a Light-based cult in the modern day, he wouldn't do that lmfao. (Though that would be a HYSTERICAL move on his part)
Also, the topic of the Brothers (and separately, them being real) is treated like it should be kept secret. Ozpin never told the Inner Circle about his task either- they follow HIM, not Light, and the Gods aren't really treated as important by anyone. The Relics are more important, both before and after the reveal in v6.
And in general, there's nowhere in RWBY on Remnant that shows that it's main religion is a doomsday cult. If it was as widespread as Christianity is in the modern day, that would SHOW. And people on Remnant seem very against controlling religions and doctrine like these, both The Infinite Man and the Great War showing this. Oz's biggest achievement up until that point... was creating a TOWN dedicated to his task. A freaking town. Where peoples main desire was to learn how to defend themselves and the people they cared about, which was promptly destroyed by people who HATED the idea of a doomsday cult (reasonably so) and completely forgotten afterwards. And you're telling me he'd be more successful with an oppressive religion right after the war that was fought partly BECAUSE people hated that kind of oppression?
And like... idk it doesn't track with Ozpins character as it is now. It's sort of a Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond situation- we see how he is now, and then shown how he WAS, and think how he was is how he is now. And like. I don't think how he is now would do that kind of thing- it's blown up in his face multiple times, why would he keep trying? On top of that, there's multiple other pieces of evidence that he's saying NO to Lights task and the Gods' return. And like... i feel like the end of the war and post-war kinda shows that he kinda Gets the balance thing? Even if he doesn't realize he gets it, he kinda... did the thing the Blacksmith was talking about. Destruction to clear away the wilderness (the Relic of Destruction was presumably used during the final battle, then he tore down the world's militaries and monarchies), and then he created (created institutions of learning, created an entirely different form of government, and raised Atlas. Idk which this one goes into, but he also helped free Vacuo).
He... kind of Gets the whole balance/actual meaning of destruction thing (hello, the circle/cycle theme in the Infinite Man?). I mean, it's sort of how his reincarnation works. I don't think his current belief system is very compatible with Lights at all. Plus it seems like he kinda... doesn't like the Gods. So it doesn't make sense for him to continue working towards his task at this point.
Anyways. There's no proof there's a modern Brothers-based religion in RWBY, and it doesn't fit with Ozpins character at all. I like the idea, but it's better as an au.
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abizarreyodelingincident · 4 years ago
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Our Nightly Confidant 7
Send your prayers to the Sky
With a vast array of different quests and experiences, it was no surprise that between the nine of them, the Links could cover most essential skills. For example, if you needed a tactician, look no further than Warriors. If you had to solve some puzzles, Legend had seen them all. If you got stuck out at sea (a very unfortunate experience for Twilight, who discovered that day his lack of sea legs), Wind would be happy to talk your ears off about sailing.
But if one needs a partner for a one-on-one fight, then Sky is the hero you'll need.
For proof, look no further than the deformed lizard and giant eye corpses they've left behind them. After the third such ambush in a day, one might decide to change their tactics. Those monsters, untouched by whatever corruption is plaguing their current quests, don't. They simply come in waves and waves, as unthinking as they are exhausting.
Twilight, wiping his brows, hears a faint chime, though he can't identify its origins.
Sky's face changes. From relieved to worried, brows drawn together and his eyes scanning the horizon for one sign or another.
“What is it?”
“Fi, the spirit of the Master Sword... she advises us to find shelter for the night. She says there are high probabilities that monsters lurk nearby.”
No shit, Twilight thinks. Ever since the portal spat them out away from the rest of the group, the two of them have been fighting constantly to make any sort of progress. He regrets not having told Sky his secret earlier. They might have gotten a better deal if Wolfie had detected the attacks early or led them back to the others.
“Can she tell where the portals threw our companions?”
Again, the chime rings, and the Master Sword almost seems to pulse in sync with it.
“She senses the existence of a few other sacred weapons, but they're too far away for her to tell me more.”
Twilight glares at the red sun lowering itself over the hills. “We'll try and find them tomorrow then. No time to lose. I think I saw some house westward before the ambush.”
                                                   ***
It wasn't a town.
Broken houses lay here and there across some rock hard dirt road. Shutters hang limply from open windows. Tombstones litter one corner of the hidden vale, most broken or too weathered by elements for the epitaphs to remain. There are hints of small gardens behind collapsed walls of stone. Upturned soil in little rows. Both of them know the traces left by harvesting.
It's no town anymore. There's not a soul left.
The sign, somehow, had survived whatever cataclysm had struck here. For all the good it did. Sky can't read it, and Twilight... it looks vaguely familiar, he said. Not enough to hazard a guess about it.
Sky resolves to ask Hyrule about it. He's aware it's probably a futile and maybe even cruel thing to do, but... he has to. He isn't certain yet, why the idea weighs so much on his mind. A nameless town, a place that should have been home to dozens, maybe hundreds of Hylians, gone and forgotten.
His mind turns back to the first time he mentioned Skyloft to the other heroes. The way his heart squeezed when he realized that none of them had ever heard of it, that the closest he ever got to news of his hometown was a nomadic tribe of sky people from Four and, after an apologetic grimace from Twilight, a ruined city in the sky.
For so long, Sky had lived with the notion of Skyloft being the only town in the world. The essence of the world of Hylians, distilled and preserved by the kindness of Hylia. His adventures on the surface had stripped him of the notion, but not the tenderness and longing he felt for his home above the clouds. How could he, when half his soul is bonded to a sacred bird?
Hyrule should not be a kingdom of ghost towns and miles spread graveyards. That sight alone had brought tears to his eyes. Nothing had ever made him doubt his and Zelda's dream of founding Hyrule together before that.
“Sky!” rings Twilight's cry, and he wastes no time, spinning with Fi in hand.
He slices the air in a flawless, textbook motion, and the strange red keese fell in two distinct halves before disintegrating.
Twilight rushes to him, placing a grounding palm on top of his shoulder. “You okay, Sky? That thing was diving straight at you.”
He fights the growing weight of the Master Sword in his grip. The out-of-body feeling. His chest pangs with pulses of heat, with a loathing turned inward. He shouldn't be a burden this way. Not on top of everything else.
But he can't find the words in front of Twilight's earnest worry. “I, sorry, I guess I was too out of it. Thanks for the warning.”
He gets a pat on the back, strong enough to be a bit startling. “Don't give me a fright like that. Leave it to the Champion.”
Sky chuckles softly. “I'm not usurping his role, I promise. I can't take this much roughhousing.”
The smirk on Twilight's face looks terribly smug. He gives Sky another pat, then marches on through the deserted street. “We'll need to be rested for tomorrow. Best we wake up at first light to get as much time as possible to link up with the others.”
Sky nods, even though the idea of closing his eyes makes him nauseous.
You dreamed of a new kingdom, Zelda. I'm sorry I ruined it before we even started.
                                                      ***
The dog's barking chased him through the ruins. The others are gone. He can't remember- no, he doesn't want to remember. It's too painful.
“Lucky you,” Legend's voice rings behind the crumbled remains of some statue. There's no one there. “Must be nice to have a choice.”
“That wasn't-” he tries to say, but the barking swallows his words. They are close. So close.
For all his Courage, he knows he stands no chance. He can't even lift his sword. Fi looked at him and, coldly, without ever speaking louder than a dull monotone, told him he was no longer fit to wield her. There was a zero percent chance he would ever prove his worthiness again.
He has to step over the bodies. So young. Too young. One's missing an eye, an accusation forever etched into the blank gaze. His apologies are sobbed. He knows. He knows. They tell him to stay. To die. To atone.
But somehow, he stumbles forward up the steps to the Temple of Time. He knows that the place is safe. That it must be. It's the only thing that keeps him going.
The doors slam right behind him. And he breathes out a sigh of relief, walking into the moonlit shadow of Hylia's statue. Despite everything, the pain, the grief, the despair, he musters a smile for the benevolent face looking over him. “Thank you, Hylia.”
“Hylia? Who's that?” Wind asked, scouting closer. “Some woman you know?”
“The Goddess Hylia? Protector of Hyrule and the Triforce?”
The doors rattle. Again. The barking is muffled.
“Never heard of her,” Wind said. “All that's left of Hyrule lies beneath the Great Sea. Why didn't you stab Demise in the head? That's what I did. They can't speak with a sword in their brain, you stupid scallywag.”
Sky reached out, but his little brother was suddenly too far, miles away, and he couldn't run fast enough to catch up. He never could. Always one step behind. Always too slow for when it matters. Even when it came to killing his enemy. He doesn't save, he just deals with the clean-up.
Or leaves it to his descendants and reincarnations.
The doors are threatening to come off their hinges. At every hit, he sees the gap between them widen a little more. He sees glimpses of fangs. Of blue eyes staring. Of drool splattering when dark muzzles try to push through.
“I had so many hopes for you.”
He bolts upright, a strangled scream on his lips, Fi raised to strike.
For a moment, Sky doesn't move. His mind is slow to catch up. It notices the darkness first. The faint flicker of the near dead fire they lit up earlier. The soft, weakened planks under him.
There is no temple. No goddess. No-, wait, there is a wolf.
Sky blinks a few times, hands rubbing at his eyes. Right. The ghost town. Him and Twilight. He... where is his brother?
“Why are you...?” Sky starts, before letting out a sigh. Does that truly matter? “Say, Wolfie, how do you keep finding us?”
The wolf grunts, his ears folded back on top of his head. He proceeds to take a step backward.
Sky's sigh is gentle, soft. The same way he ran his fingers through the fur on Wolfie's head, behind his ears. He doesn't want to spook his friend.
“I know you can't exactly tell me the answer to that,” Sky says, his smile idle as his gaze goes back to the shutters. “It's okay if I make up a way, isn't it? I won't tell the others even if I get it right.”
Wistful. That's the emotion inside him. He needs to feel it, he believes. After that nightmare. After... not the memory, but something close to it. What he knows might happen.
His fellow heroes have all suffered so many hardships. He wouldn't blame them if they turned their anger at him. (He'd deserved it.)
A quick lick of a rough tongue brings Sky back to the present, and he forces himself to focus.
“You're no ordinary animal. That mark on your forehead, those soulful blue eyes...” Familiar. A reflection of what he's seen in the others. Heroic. “Hylia sent you.”
The grumble isn't loud enough to be threatening. It's actually more in line with the noise Legend makes in the morning or when Warriors is rejected in a tavern.
“A sacred beast to guide us heroes on our journey.”
The screams of his nightmare ring back through his memories. The accusations. The hate on the face of his brothers.
His smile starts to slide off.
“An envoy, to help lessen the aftermaths of my mistake... maybe...” he chokes out.
The sacred beast – he knows in his heart – lets out a quiet whine, and buries his muzzle against Sky's shoulder. Sky's arms latch onto Wolfie's fur as if it were a loftwing's reins. He is in freefall.
“Wolfie... I know I'm supposed to be a Hero of Courage, but... how do I tell them?” The corner of his eyes burn. Wolfie's face blurs, then clears when Sky blinks. “They've all overcome such odds, so many trials, and they... they wouldn't have had to, if I hadn't failed.”
The way he expects Wolfie to react ranges from a betrayed yip, to a silent embrace to even a sudden mauling.
A flat look wasn't one of them. It oozes skepticism and Sky's emotional outburst sputters like he had been making a stormcloud out of a nimbus. Do... do wolves really do that? That wasn't what he had in mind talking about how this wolf friend is special.
“I... ”
“Woof?” Wolfie woofs, annoyed.
“On my journey, I faced off against Demise, the demon god. A cruel being imprisoned for millennia before his subordinates managed to free him. I... I fought him. I dove through a portal and brandished the Master Sword and killed him. But... with his dying words, he cursed me. Us. The ones with the Hero's Spirit and the blood of the Goddess. There would always be an incarnation of his hatred to destroy everything they sought to build.” – The growl is steadily growing in intensity. – “I should have stopped him. It's me. My fault, Wolfie.”
That's when the shutters on the window rattle.
Sky is on his feet, sword drawn, even faster than Wolfie is. That, he later realized, is the problem. Fi might have brushed against his friend's fur. Not with the edge, never, but he had not thought the flat of the blade might have been a cause of concern. A blessed weapon wouldn't harm a sacred beast, right?
Shadows swallow Wolfie, who lets out a startled yelp, before out of the cocoon of darkness emerges a scowling Hylian.
“Twilight?!” he gasps, a whisper-shout that feels like his chest would explode. Twilight is Wolfie. Oh, Hylia, Twilight is Wolfie. He... he told...
This can't be real. His head spins. Oh Hylia. He needs to brace himself. To stand. (To run.)
The shutters swing open.
“Goshess darn it,” Twilight spits.
He makes a grab for something under his armor – what, Sky couldn't see – and the shadows return, swiftly giving his brother the form of the companion beast that they assumed was stalking their progress throughout the eras.
Wolfie (Twilight) barks at the open window, and the darkness of the night. The flutter of a moonless breeze.
Sky, despite the past few months having just turned on their heads, is alert enough to keep his focus on the threat at hands. What probably helped destroy the town. Those lost Hylians deserve some vengeance. It's too little, but he has to give them that.
There is nothing there.
But Twilight lunges, his fangs glinting in the hearth's light before he latches on something. Sky can only watch in horror as Wolfie-Twilight-brother hangs and scrambles against an invisible enemy, snarling, scratching, biting. He hears the inhuman shriek right as Twilight drops back on the ground, blood splattered over his fur and a fading purple light in his mouth.
Sky waits in tense silence, knuckles tight over the handles of his sword and shield. Beads of sweat roll on his cheeks, his heart hammering.
He doesn't react when Twilight stops and sniffs the air. Doesn't, when the change happens.
Twilight, ever practical, crosses the meager main room in a few strides and forces the shutter shut. Then lift a broken table leg and use it to ram the whole thing locked, or as good as it got in these circumstances.
When he is done, Twilight does not turn back right away. He lingers about the window, his shoulders tense and the wolf pelt (how had they not made the connection?) ripples in the low light when he lets out a defeated sigh.
“I shifted the first time because I thought I'd heard something, and my senses are much sharper as a wolf. I... I didn't mean...”
To trick you, Sky completes the thought. And it's unfair, cruel, but – despite his failure – he still thinks it (like he has the right to).
“You heard. About how I cursed the lineage.”
“I heard that you killed a demon god for what he threatened to do to your world, to your Zelda.”
“Twilight... I'm sorry,” Sky pleads, his throat hoarse. “I'm sorry! I know it'll never weigh enough for what my failure did to you and the others, but I'm so, so sorry, Twilight. If I hadn't... if I had just... Demise would have never had the chance to curse Hyrule.”
“And yet, with that 'chance', he went about it in the worst possible way. I know he predates the Triforce an' all, but that guy sure was no champion of Nayru.”
Sky's self-loathing melts into a slosh of confusion. “I... I don't...”
Twilight, strangely, is not winding up a punch or a kick or even a swipe of his sword. He's walking up to him. Sliding next to him, and, with an arm around his shoulder, getting them both sitting by the hearth.
“Think about it,” Twilight replies with a small smirk. “Coulda forced his reincarnation at any point he wanted, but he went 'fuck it' and made sure that there would always be a Champion of Courage and a Princess of Goddess' Blood around at the same time it showed up.”
Sky... considers. Tries to recall the wording. The exact thing, but he's forgotten half the words. He's spent one too many nights trying not to remember for his memories to cooperate now. He just knows what he felt then, the doubt and horror at war within. How many people might suffer if the curse was real? Had he truly earned his title, his love back, if it had come at the cost of the future?
And if he only knew of Hyrule's broken kingdom, the answer would be easy then.
“What was he like? That Demise guy? Did he give you the speech?”
Sky huffs. “Does trash talking count?”
Twilight's eyebrow game is quite on point there, wagging so fluidly. “Does it ever?”
“He thought me unworthy. Destined to die in a realm of water and storm. He promised the destruction of everything I hold dear, once my corpse lied at his feet.”
“Big talker,” Twilight deadpans. “No wonder he got so pissy about his defeat. Must have been humiliating.”
To his amazement, Sky bites down on a laugh. Demise had been imprisoned before, hadn't he? Who had done the deed the first time around? And if he was such a threat, would they not intervene again if he went too far?
“If it were me... well, not that I'm the revenge-type or anything,” Twilight adds suspiciously quickly, “I'd wait till they were both long gone and just destroy everything they ever built. Render their whole lives pointless. But that's his type, isn't it? Doesn't count if the victim isn't there to see it.”
“Alright. Demise would never be Nayru's favorite, I'll grant you that,” he says, sobering. “It's just... It hurts to hear Time and Legend insult Hylia. She's not...”
Not the one that deserves their blame.
Twilight runs a hand through his hair. “Can't speak for 'em. Much as I'd like to pretend, it ain't my mind and I ain't them as sure as they ain't me. The questing took its toll on their hearts and souls. I don't even want to imagine what Hyrule and Wild's doubts are like.”
Sky knows, though. He's heard Hyrule asking Legend once. He doesn't even understand what faith is meant to be. And, he thinks, gaze to the broken village outside, not without reason. What have the goddesses done for this kingdom that worshipped them?
“But I ain't about all that chosen talk... Chosen.”
Sky snorts. That was so terrible Time would be proud. The old man, somehow, relishes in their agony. The stupider the joke, the better, he said.
“I told you guys it was too pretentious for me.”
Twilight looks back to the flames. “It's too bad for the City Boy that he hasn't gotten that title. Would have flaunted it, the bastard.”
The image is amusing, until it's not.
“Do you think... do you wish it would have been him instead of me? Do you think Warriors could have done it right?”
Twilight stills. Sky sees him clench and unclench his fists a few times, then let out a long exhale. There's a hint of weariness in his gaze. Hard and walled in stone.
“You think your goddess could put up with Fancy’s hair flips? He'd turn her mad after just one of his rants about the standards of beauties of men.”
There's no hesitation. None whatsoever. “Yes. She would. She loves every incarnation of the Hero. Every single one of them. With all her heart.”
Twilight's lips twitch. It could be amusement. Or bitterness.
“Funny thing from a woman I've never met. Ain't ever heard of the gal till... well, Wild. I was grown on the worship of the Golden Trio, personally. Already chosen by Farore before I was found in Ordon. Can't imagine what made her think a two years old was especially brave when lost in the woods, but what I remember of it is just me crying and wondering about and getting stung by mosquitoes the size of my hands.”
Sky's silly bleeding heart cries for the image of a young Twilight, just a toddler with tear tracks on his face, stumbling out of a forest. Burns, then, when his brain reminds him of all the monsters that take residence in the woods of most eras of Hyrule. Stops when he recalls the other important detail: Twilight never found out who his parents were. Not their names, not what they did, not why he had been wandering alone.
Sky grabs his brother's hand and locks gaze with him. “I think you were brave then. Farore knew it too.”
Twilight’s face flushes red. “If... if you say so. But, that wasn't my... Urgh. Back home, I prayed to the Golden Trio because that's what Rusl and Uli did. I thanked Farore for wind on a hot day, Nayru for rain that irrigated the fields and Din for the fire in the hearth during winter. It wasn't much more than that.”
“We... we celebrate Hylia on Skyloft. She is the one that lifted the land in the sky to protect us from an unending war with demons. We have festivals in her name. Coming of Age happens before her most well-known statue. There's not a person in Skyloft that doesn't believe. All my life, I was told to show her gratitude. And I did, even in the pits of that damned temple, with shambling corpses trying to drag me under. Even when things looked lost, I still... I still had faith. I felt her love with me the whole way.”
He pauses, letting out a shuddering breath.
“Did you have that?” he asks in a whisper so quiet he couldn't tell if he was even heard.
Twilight, not helping matters, only glances around the broken furniture, the spilled wardrobe and the rags inside. “I had someone else talking over my shoulder,” Twilight says with a wicked grin. “I wouldn't have called her a goddess though. The impact on her ego that would have had, oh man. The Chosen Hero stuff though? Honestly, I forgot all about that until Princess Zelda mentioned it. Destiny didn't mean much to me then. I didn't even hear of Ganondorf until I was like, past the midway point.”
“He's the curse,” Sky confesses, hanging his head in shame. “He's the one that incarnates Demise's Hatred. You can't tell me that he never affected you. I saw your face the first time I said I never met the man.”
“Oh, yes, him I hate. Nearly killed everyone I loved. Doesn't mean I hate you though.”
“But-!”
“My Ganondorf is the same one the old man stopped. The same person.”
Sky's jaw drops. The same Ganondorf? Not a reincarnation?
He thought... he thought Twilight and Time had lived in different eras. Their bond has always seemed a little special. Older on Twilight's part as well. Like he had known Time before Time could become aware of him. It only made sense if one was the other's successor, but now he ponders. Are they... are they father and son? Had Twilight taken up his sword to finish what Time had been too old to do? He knew Demise's Hatred wasn't truly a man, but he had had the failings of one.
“H-how?”
“The ghosts of sages past pretty much confirmed it. Before my time, Ganondorf was accused of plotting a coup and trying to steal the Triforce from the kingdom of Hyrule. He was eventually arrested and scheduled for execution in the newly built Arbiter's Grounds.”
The name, for a reason he doesn't understand, sends a shiver down his spine.
An odd light glints in Twilight's eyes as he rests his sword over his knees. “But right as they thrust the sword in his chest, Din gave him the Triforce of Power.”
What the fuck, Sky thinks, and he'd chastised himself over such a blasphemous thought, but he can't muster the brainpower to do it. Din. Din of the Golden Trio. One of the Three. Why?
“What the fuck, right?” Twilight smirks, very much aware of Sky's bafflement. “The sages couldn't explain it either. They said... it must have been a divine prank.”
Something searing hot curls into Sky's chest, ugly and dark. His eyes fall on Twilight's form again. On his brother's scars, both on and under his skin. The self-deprecating smirk, growing sad as memories of his adventures must be surfacing. The horrors he saw. The battles he fought. The one he lost. Everything.
A. Prank.
Clarity is burnt into him. He knows, in the moment, what Time and Legend feel. Right down to his bone marrow, bitterness fills his thoughts and heart.
Demise. Demise, he can grasp. He can understand the shape of him and his evils. The motives, lacking as they are, feel so much smaller with that perspective. Petty, based on passion and emotions. Almost like a Hylian. But this? Is betrayal. The Goddesses he was taught were the benevolent makers of the world. The bastion upon which the world rests. Why then, Sky wonders. Why would Din indulge the incarnation of Demise's hatred just as the sages put him down without a struggle?
Why empower evil right as good triumphs?
Do they truly know anything about the gods?
“I don't get it,” Sky says, the only thing he can think to say at all.
Twilight's arm hooks around his neck.
“I don't understand either, and I've decided not to care. Din condemned us, Nayru granted us respite through my queen and Farore...” He looks down to the back of his left hand, where, under the gauntlet, Sky knows the Triforce of Courage lays. “Farore marked me from birth for salvation. I don't know how they work. It sounds almost like a balancing act. Did they each choose separately? Together? And if they didn't, was Din the first one to act or just the one that made the biggest impact? Maybe it was a prank. A big great game between three sisters having fun with their toys.”
The corners of Twilight's mouth lift up an inch, and Sky has the fearful impression that Twilight knows exactly the impact of his words.
“The worst pain I've ever endured... was inflicted on me by Farore, by the way.”
“Twilight! You, what are you even... the fuck?!”
Twilight's hand lands a solid clap on his back, and his snicker is boisterous. “The first time I turned into a wolf, that was due to this.” He rubs the Triforce of Courage on the back of his hand. “But that first change? Like my body had been left to dry during the hot season just in time for a wildfire. I swear to the Goddesses... nothing could ever compare. And that helped, in the face of monsters I'd never seen before.” And Twilight looks up to the ceiling, half caving from rot, and his eyes spark. His voice thrums with an unusual intensity. “No threat of pain ever made me pause. I never missed a beat from fear. I knew, on some deep level, that the worst would always be behind me, and I'd made the source of it my own tool for battle. I'd overcome Farore's test, in some way.”
Sky realizes he is holding in his breath a moment later. That his brother's words cast a spell of silence on this small dilapidated home. There's something empowering to the idea.
He remembers his own adventure a bit differently. He'd found Courage on a path more traveled, he feels. “I didn't have time to be afraid. I was chasing a demon lord after my Zelda. I knew I couldn't be scared of the monsters, because I had to face their master to free the love of my life. So I refused to be.”
And, it's some strange irony that he suddenly sees salvation within reach.
“For the record, Hyrule likes his country,” Twilight muses, like he's sorting through his memories.
Sky feels the burn of shame on his face. He doesn't mean it like an insult! “It wasn't...”
“No, sorry, let me rephrase that. He loves this place. He sees everything wrong with it, and he loves it anyway. He's working on improving it. He'll take the grueling tasks, the down and dirty, and he's gonna keep improving it until the rest of the country sees it the way he does. I say, it's a brave man that walks through broken ruins and still fights for the one wild flower he finds blooming there.”
“Please tell me you told him that,” Sky begs. Because he knows Twilight is Time's protege and Time is a man of few words. It works for them, but Hylia, he hopes...
“Why? It's pretty obvious, isn't it?”
Sky groans.
“Just... tell him, alright.”
Twilight looks a little bemused, but shrugs. “Sure, first thing when we see him tomorrow.”
That's a tempting thought, actually. Just getting it over with. To throw it at them, but that's another form of cowardice. To unload such a weight on people he loves without giving them a proper chance to prepare. He had to do this right. He owed them at least that explanation. If the constant heartaches had a purpose... maybe they'd be easier to bear.
'Why couldn't you just do it right the first time around?' echoes the voices from his nightmare.
Twilight's hand grabs his and squeezes. Concerned. “We can't force them to be reasonable right away, but we can knock their heads on straight.”
Twilight would. Somehow, despite the admiration for Time that Twilight never bothered to hide, Sky is certain that he would indeed slap him upside the head if the situation calls for it. And protecting one of them would definitely be one of those circumstances.
“They can be mad,” he says. “With what Ganondorf wrecked, they-”
“In Wind's time, the Goddesses saw Hyrule burn and doused it with an ocean. Do you think it's better than this era?”
Ravaged by fire. Swallowed by water. One, the act of a demon. The other, that of three goddesses.
He can't tell the difference. He can't tell the difference!
Hylia, Sky's head is spinning. Instinct latches on memories well-loved. Hylia cared. Hylia was one of the lesser divinities. One to guard the Triforce, not grant it. She, who loved the Hero so much, stepped into the world of mortals to forever be with him and help him protect the creation of the Three.
“Sky, I swear I don't resent Time over Ganondorf surviving his era. I don't resent the Twili for not stopping Zant before he could usurp the Twilight Realm. Not the guards that failed to prevent the invasion, not the Light Spirits that couldn't protect the very provinces they were meant to guard. Sky, hate is so hard to live with, I don't want to waste my heart raging about people that never deserved it. And maybe we're all different people, but we share the Hero's Spirit and I know that false blame has no place in it.”
The fire in the hearth sputters and embers are sent flying a few feet. They burn out entirely in midair, and with a sigh, Twilight rises to tear off another leg from an old chair and feed it to the flames. It's a simple, domestic gesture, not unlike the sort of things Sky remembers from Gaepora at the academy, when it was just him and Zelda, just children huddling together under a blanket.
The headmaster would tease them, and Zelda would laugh, unimpressed. She'd claim that it was only right, because she had decided they would be married, and not even Hylia could disapprove.
Even now, he blushes at the memory, his heart light in his chest.
Another log is stirred lazily through the hearth. He can see the headmaster's shadow over Twilight's.
Until he notices that Twilight's lips are moving silently. The words, Sky's unsure, but there's a faint impression of practiced in his brother's body language. Rehearsed. And, he can't quite stop himself from asking.
“... Who are you praying to?”
“Din.”
“Din? You're praying to Din?! Even after all that?!”
Twilight gives him one of those 'I'm-a-simple-man' shrug and Sky has the most troubling, greatest revelations of them all. Twilight is fucking with him.
“The fire's still there, isn't it?”
They might lose a finger to frostbite through the night without the fire. They need it. And there the pieces fit together. The picture of who Twilight is, and the value of being an earnest man. They need the fire, and the flames are there, and that's enough. The Goddesses might drown the world tomorrow, but tonight they allowed the flames to burn, through passion, through logic, through love.
Sky lifts a finger to the clasp that holds Zelda's sail around his neck. Then, deliberately, pulls the cloak of his shoulders to wrap them around both their shoulders.
Twilight blinks in surprise for but a moment, then grins back and shares his own wolf pelt. “Who needs gods, huh?”
Yes, Sky thinks. The fire is still here, but the warmth is all you.
AN: I have *opinions* about this fandom conflating all the Links into Hylia believers and I do not like it. Hylia is a very recent addition to the Zelda lore, and I hate that everyone acts like she's always been there. It's not even needed! There are thousands of years of hystory to go through. The worship of ONE goddess dying out and coming back (with Wild) shouldn't be such an impossibility. And the others meeting Sky and Wild shouldn't be enough to turn all their beliefs on their heads to include Hylia right away and make her the scapegoat for all the issues. Seriously, look at what the Triforce trio did before Hylia's inclusion. Don't they make more interesting figures to wax philosophy about??
OR.
Sky: *dealing with Hero Complex and impossible standards*
Twilight: *fresh out of a conversation with everyone else* You too? *pulls up sleeves, cracks his knuckles* You're on, skyboy.
Sky: *angst about Demise*
Twilight: He was a dumb shit.
Sky: *having a theological crisis*
Twilight: How about I fix that by making it even worse?
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