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ghosthoard · 3 months ago

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PART 9

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Time’s armor was convoluted.

He had perfected the art of getting it on on his own years ago, but he always appreciated a helping hand, usually Malon, but recently one of his boys, or his big brother would take the time to help him.

Right now though, Twilight was still sitting by Wild while the camp was dismantled around him and the others set about getting themselves ready. So, Time went through the motions of putting on his chainmail, his tasses, and his fauld alone first.

It had so many pieces and so many straps, heavy and unbendable. Armor such as this made the impression that there were no weaknesses to the wearer nor any openings, but there could never be a perfect armor set if it wanted to allow freedom to its bearer. He remembered learning the hard way that he needed to be aware of where he was vulnerable, where the armor was left open so that he could bend his knees, his arms, have maneuverability of his groin, his neck.

It was a statement, it was formidable, and it was an old friend.

Every now and then, however, he missed when he was young and spry, when his fighting style relied on speed and being small without being weighed down by all this armor. But he also remembers when he was young and spry wishing he could deal more damage then he did with one strike, to be more of a force to be reckoned with to protect the Captain and Tune’s back. It was a wish he made every time he had donned the Fierce Deity mask.

If he wanted to do sweeping, debilitating damage in one swing of his Biggoron sword, then the armor was a necessity.

In the process of donning the set, it was his chest piece and his pauldrons where things got more difficult. He used his teeth to hold straps while he maneuvered his arms around locking everything in place.

But he must be out of practice, too spoiled by the helping hands around him, because the chest piece started to slip and he went to catch it knowing he wouldn’t be fast enough.

The chest piece stopped falling in midair, and Time blinked.

“Let me help.”

The Captain had caught it, of course, that made more sense.

Warriors was smiling when Time looked at him.

“You’re wearing makeup,” shock spilled the words out of him.

It wasn’t the type of makeup Warriors would put on when he was feeling especially happy, where it made him prettier doing something with charcoal to make his eyelashes more prominent or more playful with colors and patterns. It was the natural, utilitarian style he used during the war when he didn’t want his men or enemies hidden among friends to see him weakening, or when he covered up bruises and scratches and scars.

Warriors’s eyes dulled slightly but the smile was one made for him and it was patient and loving. “Arms up.”

Time didn’t listen. The Captain must be getting slow if he expected him to just accept the drop in conversation. He stared and waited.

Wars sighed, muttering something like, “always been stubborn,” before forcing the chest piece against Time’s chest and instructing him to hold it while he grabbed the back piece.

Time obediently held the armor in place while Wars set about tightening the straps and speaking, “I thought it wouldn’t be great for our remaining morale if I looked ugly.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Time said immediately. “You don’t have to pretend with us.”

“I know. But I guess old habits die hard. This makes me feel more secure.” Warriors patted him on his pauldron to punctuate his point.

Before Time could organize his thoughts enough to respond, the Captain asked, “What were you thinking about before I came over?”

Twilight still hadn’t moved.

Legend was right. They did look like two corpses.

“I was thinking about how much my fighting style has changed over the years,” he was saying, “How speed was a familiar weapon but something I can no longer wield. How I’m now weighed down by this armor.”

“I’m relieved that you wear it now,” the Captain said with a fond, wistfulness in his voice. “Do you know how stressed I was seeing you on the battlefield without any sort of armor? I’ve thought about scooping you up and dumping you into a full set so often I had dreams about it. But I knew you’d be a little brat about it if I ever brought the idea up.”

A little bit of childish indignance made him frown. “Tune didn’t wear any either back then.”

“Yeah, well. He at least was mature enough to ask for leather armor as the years passed and he grew bigger.”

Time remembered that. Remembered being jealous when the Captain gifted Tune specially crafted leather armor he had bought just for him and then took the time to spar with the sailor for a couple of days to get used to fighting in it. So jealous in fact that when he was asked if he wanted his own, instead of the truth, he told them it looked dumb and that he was good enough to fight without it unlike some people.

A funny look had twisted Tune’s face. Back then, Time thought he was laughing at him, but now he knew exactly why. How silly it would be to see a man you had looked up to acting as spoiled and childish as he had been.

“You were our armor, shield, and sword back then,” Time told the Captain as he now looked over at where Wind was speaking with Sky. “I was never afraid when you were around. Maybe more afraid of what would happen to you.”

“And that was never your burden,” the Captain went to stand in front of him, finished with the armor. The weight was comforting and secure. Time looked at how the foundation was caked on below the Captain’s eyes. “I’m a hero. And so are the rest. You can’t take responsibility for us and our pains,” a knowing look, “or our deaths.”

Time met his gaze daringly. “You didn’t fail us.”

“It was a miracle, and not by my hand that you two outlived the war,” the Captain said sternly, the grain of the powder lessening the lines of his frown. “Don’t hold yourself up against me in comparison.”

“Twilight almost died, Wild has died under my leadership, under my protection. If I had died—”

The Captain closed his eyes and turned away as if the thought physically pained him.

Time continued to land the blow, “—you would have blamed yourself.”

His brother’s voice was fragile and quiet when he said, “Would you have wanted me to? Would you have agreed if I did?”

“You would believe it no matter what I thought,” he said ruthlessly. “You blame yourself even now for Wild.”

Time saw exactly when the Captain’s walls came up. The makeup looked at home on this expression. “This isn’t about me.”

Hypocrite. Time wanted to shout. You would have me blameless while you wore the same blame on your face! When it was my burden, my son, a curse I set upon my own flesh and blood for being so inadequate my descendants had to make up for it! Even when I am with them I can’t protect them! This was anger, this was grief, this was …uncalled for.

Time rubbed a hand down his face, taking a steadying breath. This was a moment where he needed to step back and get some space. He started to walk away. The Captain didn’t deserve this, his big brother only meant to comfort him and here Time was attacking him like a child. He just needed a moment.

“You decided not to use the ocarina.”

The words stopped him in his tracks.

The ocarina used to be an easy fix. Goddess knows how many times he’s played the song when he was a child.

The moment he saw Wild’s body, it had been a burning presence in his pouch. Always there.

It was a possibility that had taken over Time as he sat there for hours beside Wild and Twilight. Not really in his body, not really out of it. He had listened to Twilight’s whining, his howling. The answering silence of Wild’s body. How many more times must he sit helplessly by a loved one?

“If I used it,” Time said carefully, “I don’t know if it’ll rewind for all of us, or split the timeline again. I could disappear from this time, leaving you all behind.”

He would never know. If he used the ocarina, he would never know if the timeline split or if he rewound time for all of them. He’d die never knowing for sure. He would’ve died ignorant of split timelines—of the timeline he abandoned —in the first place if it weren’t for this goddess-given mission. But regardless, there’d be a life where Wild was alive. He could make sure of it. What use was the title the Hero of Time if he couldn’t even make this right?

“I think,” the Captain replied from behind him, just as carefully, “I would rather grieve with you, than to try to undo something without knowing a hundred percent if it’ll work.”

Even with so many secrets shared among their family, not everyone knew about the ocarina, Time wasn’t the type to flaunt the instrument around after all. Wind, Sky, and Wild were there when they talked about the possibility of a split timeline. One less person who knew his secret. And he had confided in the Captain after the revelation.

Twilight didn’t know.

After that life-altering conversation, before Twilight almost died, Wild had sought him out. The young man had plopped down next to him on the ground, looking at him with those unnerving, blue eyes of his that seemed to see things in Time that even he didn’t know about.

“I was thinking,” Wild had said, “I was so ready to go back in time when I thought you had the power to. It was a dream come true for a moment, I could go back, fix everything and things would be right again.”

Something wistful and wise settled around Wild like peace. “But if it meant that I would have to leave you all behind, leave this timeline behind, I don’t think I could do it. After meeting all of you and hearing about all the other adventures you’ve gone on, I can’t expect that my job is done. I abandoned them once before,” Time still remembered Wild’s small smile, “what if they still need me?”

Back at the inn, back in that room where Twilight lay dying, Four had told Time the confrontation he had with Wild outside of Twilight’s sickbed like the guilt of it was killing him. Time remembered being ready for Wild to storm in and demand he use the ocarina should Twilight die. But when, instead of a grief driven little brother, an insightful and inspirational hero came to them, Time realized he was using Wild as an excuse. It wasn’t Wild who would’ve used the ocarina, but him that was tempted in the first place. He was anticipating it, hoping for Wild to give him a reason to.

“But there’s a chance,” Time continued, turning around to look at his big brother as the man walked over to close the gap he’d made, “if I decide not to take that chance, how could I bear to face him?”

If Twilight knew about the ocarina, would he be the one to demand Time use it?

Time had never been good at moving on.

As always, the Captain seemed to know exactly what ailed him, “Twilight wouldn’t risk losing you too. It’d kill him to ask you to use that ocarina as much as it’d kill him if you actually did. And, goddess dammit, Sprite,” a small crack in the Captain’s voice, “I can’t bear to lose you again. And maybe that’s selfish. I would give anything to have Wild back, but—”

Time reached out as his brother bit his bottom lip and looked away, trying to pull it together. He held onto his Warriors’s wrist and saw how he could completely wrap around it now. He hadn’t been able to before.

“But not you,” Warriors finished quietly, like the words were poison, like he was disgusted with himself. “I’m asking you to stay.”

“I want to stay,” he had cried through angry, scared tears, clinging to the Captain’s scarf and glaring up at his big brother, the portal that was to take him home a sickly cold presence behind him. “You can’t make me leave. You still need me and you know it.”

“Anyway” Wild’s small smile had stretched into a mischievous grin, “what would you all do without me and my food if I up and vanished? Wouldn’t last a day, I bet.”

His silence must have gone on for too long, because the Captain took a step back from him, pulling out of his grip.

Warriors had schooled his expression back, smoothed the cracks out on his porcelain face. He was looking past Time’s shoulder. “You should talk to him. Then you’ll know that he loves you just as much as Wild and you can forget about this misplaced guilt.”

Warriors was the one to walk away this time. Time didn’t stop him.

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wanted to get one last part out before the end of the year!!! thanks as always for all the comments, reblogs, and likes! see you guys in 2025!

#Please Perennial #linkeduniverse #linked universe #lu #lu fic #lu wars #lu warriors #lu time #lu mask #this one was a mess of a part compared to the others #definitely one of the parts i'll need to go back and fix #honestly wasn’t planning on having these two fight #but it ended up that way #still not sure if I like it #spookswrites

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