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Link gasped harshly as he delivered what he thought was the killing blow to Ganon. The divine beasts had already helped by attacking him. The feeling as if he’d just transported himself using the Sheikah Slate enveloped him, the castle disappearing. Then there was a harsh shriek and he landed in Hyrule Field. There he gasped as his wounds made themselves apparent as the corruption swirled around him. His left hand burned in pain as the corruption solidified to his horror. Instead of the demon Ganon it was Princess Zelda but unlike all the glimpses of memory he had of her and what Impa told him, instead she was cloaked in corruption and laughing though it had a deep demonic echo.
“You’ve failed already hero; it matters not that you have the sword or that it’s been 100 years. I have already corrupted your bastard Princess,” said Zelda/Ganon laughing as Link felt despair cloak him.
“I had her back when her father was pushing for her to become a maiden like her mother. Instead of praying at the shrines she helped me grow stronger. She despised not only her father but the kingdom that she felt stole her girlhood from her. Now all Hyrule will suffer for her insipid dreams of not being the pure princess,” hissed Zelda/Ganon raising a hand corruption swirling around it.
Link grabbed the Master Sword with both hands and charged the figure. Zelda/Ganon, just laughed and shot corruption at him. Link cut through the attack and swung at Zelda/Ganon to be shot away the sword’s glow weakening even as he struggled to stand.
“NO,” came a deep female voice and suddenly it felt as if time had been rewound and the grotesque Zelda/Ganon disappeared. As Link’s vision began to fail, he dropped the Master Sword his eyes heavy as blood loss sent him into darkness.
~~
“I am so sorry, my warrior, my champion my link. He was never to get control of her. I am calling your other selves together to help you defeat this bigger threat. Please forgive me Hero of the Wild.”
~~
Link, now known as Wild opened his eyes as he felt a fairy’s healing spread through him healing the wounds he had received from the battle. At that thought his eyes popped open and he rolled away from the person looming over him. Not finding either of his weapons he grabbed the Sheikah Slate from his hip to summon one when he saw who was standing over him.
“Who are you?” demanded Wild heart beating wildly his finger over the bomb rune if he needed it.
“We are all called Link but Hylia has blessed us with different titles,” said the blond-haired man standing in front of him, his marking reminiscent of something that stirred something in Wild’s head.
“That does not help me, Hylia is a statue and Princess Zelda,” choked Wild as despair filled him.
He’d failed twice not just one hundred years ago but now to. He had been unable to defeat Ganon and now he had corrupted Zelda. How was he supposed to go to Impa and tell her let alone the rest of Hyrule? He’d failed and failed and failed again. He would not be surprised if the Champions spirits had fully abandoned him. At that thought he ducked his head in shame.
“Easy Wild it is all right,” said the man with a wolf pelt over his shoulders.
“I’ve failed again it matters not how, and why do you call me Wild?” asked Wild getting ready to bolt.
“Because she told us,” said the one with a white sail cloth wrapped over his shoulder holding the Master Sword.
“She’s never spoken to me, but it must because I’ve failed so many times, I’m sure if I touched her now she would just kill me where I stand. I was given one task and I’ve failed it twice,” rebuked Wild shaking his head.
“You are the Hero of the Wild, just as I am Hero of Time, he is Hero of Twilight, and the one holding the Master Sword is the Hero of Sky,” said Time calmly looking over the heavily scarred Wild.
“Some Hero I am,” said Wild as more men joined where they were.
“My Hero’s Demise has done the one thing we all thought impossible,” came a women’s voice before a white light filled the area.
“Who?” muttered Wild even as her light covered them all.
“I am sorry my Heroes. It was my own folly to think that Demise would go for that which is supposed to represent me instead of going for the male Gerudo. Now I gather all of you here to defeat him once and for all. My Hero of the Wild, I a sorry for what has been done to you,” said the woman as Wild felt paralyzed as if he couldn’t move.
“Goddess Hylia,” started one of the me only to be stopped by the Hylia’s raised hand.
“All of you will be going to Wild’s Hyrule. I am sorry to do this to you again, but we must, or the timeline will truly destroy itself and everyone here. I do not have long, before Demise turns his gaze towards me again. You must not only find and activate all the shrines, you will have to go back to where you awoke Wild, talk to the Bard, refight for the Champions to bring them back to life, find Nayru and free her, then and only then will all of you be able to combine your powers to defeat Demise here maybe once and for all,” said Hylia before the white light enveloped all of them.
~~
Wild opened his eyes to find himself and the other Heroes back on Hyrule Field. Swearing he looked at his Sheikah Slate to see that the time was that before he had stormed the castle to fail all over again.
“Can I at least have my bow back, I doubt the Sword will take kindly to me right now,” said Wild his hand out to Time.
“Why don’t you tell us what happened here,” said Legend with a frown as the suddenly heard a high-pitched beeping and then a red laser aimed at Sky.
“No time everyone grab onto me,” said Wild in a panic as he lopped his hand around Sky as the rest touched him.
With a random swipe of the Shiekah Slate they all transported away the Guardian’s laser going through the ghostly apparitions. They all landed with a heap outside the Twin Peaks Stable. Sky, Legend and Four Sword all puking while the rest looked very green. Wild picked himself up and grabbed his bow from Time with a huff.
“What in all that is blessed was that?” asked Four Sword with a gasp.
“That was a Guardian, or a version of them. They patrol parts of Hyrule and are under Ganon’s control, that beam would have cut straight through him and killed him,” said Wild even as he made his way towards the Stable.
“Stop,” said Time grabbing Wild by the upper arm only to have the smaller boy swing at him to make him let go.
“Don’t touch me. If you want answers it will be better to do them behind closed doors where the Yiga can’t hear. So, follow me and keep your traps shut. While the people here know me, you are foreigners they’ve never seen,” snapped Wild as he made his way over to the inside of the stable to reserve a room.
Several hundred rupees lighter, Wild gestured for the other 8 Hero’s to enter the room he’d been able to haggle for. Once they where in there, he tapped several things on the Shiekah Slate so food would appear on the table making everyone else perk up.
“Food will help with the nausea. The Slate wasn’t made to transport more than two people at a time unless in extreme emergencies,” said Wild gruffly as he took a chair with his back to the wall.
“The Goddess explained that Demise’s right-hand man Ganon had corrupted the Princess, but she did not explain how,” said Sky after they had all started to eat.
“I don’t know. I had fought the beast in the belly of the castle where Zelda had sealed it away a hundred years ago. I had defeated it and then I was transported to Hyrule Field. Zelda appeared but she was full of corruption and when she talked there was a demonic echo,” choked out Wild his hands trembling as he pushed away the rest of his soup.
“So, we need to rescue her and then what?” asked Wind with a shrug.
“No, she said that the rest of the shrines would have to be unlocked and then, we’d have to go back…” trailed off Wild quietly.
“What’s a shrine?” asked Sky looking confused.
“This is a shrine” said Wild tapping quickly on his Shiekah Slate to pull up a picture of a shrine with Koko and Cottla standing in front of the one at Kakariko.
“How do you find them?” asked Twilight gruffly with a look of reproach at Wind.
“If I’ve visited them before the map on the Shiekah Slate has them marked but the ones I haven’t activated will not show up. Sometimes there are legends about them sometimes they are along the road others hidden far away from everyone,” said Wild with a shrug.
“It is late we will sleep here and then in the morning we will come up with a better plan,” said Time as everyone finished eating.
~~
Twilight saw Time’s Shadow by the door, and he got up quietly not wanting to wake the others and followed the man outside near where the pasture was far enough away that anyone trying to eavesdrop would have to come out into the open. He nodded to the old man waiting to hear what he had to say.
“Did you see the scars he had? If we hadn’t had a fairy on us, he would have died from his wounds,” hissed Time as his eyes scanned the land around them, the strange rusted machines making him uncomfortable.
“There’s plenty there that he probably won’t tell us. All we can do is be there for him, He’s called to my other form before I’ve helped him fight many a thing here,” murmured Twilight with a shrug of his shoulders.
“What?” yelped Time only to have Twilight clap a hand over his mouth to smother his outburst.
“I originally just thought it was all a dream but being here, I know it wasn’t. I wasn’t allowed to follow him near cities or these shrines but elsewhere I followed him, trying to keep him alive. Old Man, we both thought we’ve put our Hero days behind us, but we’ve been pulled here to help him. If we don’t know one will. Neither of us care for the goddess but can you tell me you’d want to abandon him,” snarled Twilight as he looked up at the stars.
“No if we don’t help him out no one will,” sighed Time shaking his head.
~~