A/N: Hi guuuuys! I haven't forgotten about History is Written by the Victors at all, I've just hit a bit of a wall with it. Don't worry, I'm working past it. In the meanwhile, some Four Swords plotbunnies have been nibbling on me, so I figured I may as well bring some of them to light. So, without further adieu, here's Swapped Destinies!
-Chapter 1: The Swap-
Green groaned as he sat up. Cold...everything felt so cold...
He opened his eyes to find that he was stranded in the middle of a blizzard, snow blanketing the landscape as far as he could see. He quickly hopped to his feet, looking for the others. He saw no one, other than himself.
"How did this even...?" he muttered to himself, trailing off into the thought as he tried to remember what had happened, "We were...where did the river go?"
The last thing he could recall, he and his three counterparts had been in a canoe, going down the river. They had an argument over which fork in the path to follow, and hit a rock. Then...nothing.
"Must be one of Vaati's schemes." he huffed, crossing his arms to conserve his warmth as he tried to assess his surroundings, "Whatever. After how they all acted, I could USE some time alone. It's no rush to find them. Especially Blue..." his voice took on a growl at even mentioning the name of the blue clad hero, "That guy...so aggressive all the time, so full of himself..."
He picked a direction and began to walk as he grumbled, hoping he could find some sort of shelter to wait out the storm. Not long after he began to trek through the snow, he heard a voice desperately pleading for help. Green followed the source until he found an old woman, buried in the snow. He dug into the layers of white surrounding her, paying to regard to how his hands seemed to burn from how very, very cold they were becoming. Eventually, he got her free.
"Oh, thank you so much, er...what's your name?" she said.
"Me? I'm-" he started to answer with the name Green, but figured it would be easier to just use his birth name, as he was alone, "I'm Link, from Hyrule."
"Link..." she repeated, "Oh! You must be the Hero! Please, you must help...!"
"Of course! What's the issue, ma'am?" Green was never one to turn down someone in need, after all.
"The wind mage, Vaati! He caused this horrible blizzard! The plants, animals, even the people here, they're all dying!" she cried, with much woe in her voice, "Please, come quickly. The source of the blizzard is in this cave!"
"Ah, is that it?" Green asked, to confirm. She nodded in response, "I'll handle it, then. You wait here, where it's safe."
He unsheathed his sword, gripping it in his hand with all of his resolve as he trudged in. With determination in his eyes, he yelled, "Show yourself! End this horrible winter!"
His only response was his own words echoing at him, at the start. But then, the echoing voice distorted, speaking words of its own above the howling of the cold wind.
"What's the matter?" it asked, "Scared, little hero? Want your daddy?" it cackled.
This did not amuse Green. He focused on trying to keep a cool expression, not show that it had struck a chord. In doing this, however, the old woman from earlier had the opportunity to sneak in behind him without a sound.
She put her hand on his shoulder, which caused Green to quickly turn around, trying not to scream from the sudden jolt of fear that shot through him.
Her eyes shone a bright blue, and her mouth opened far further than any human mouth should. A freezing gust emits, and Green doesn't even have a chance to defend himself before he's frozen entirley in face, eyes wide in horror as he's unable to move even a single muscle.
Satisfied with her work, she smirks. "You've learned nothing, have you?" she snickers as she walks away, content.
Vio woke up sputtering, having just inhaled a mouthful of sand. He regained his composure relativley quickly.
First, a quick intake of his surroundings. Some sort of town. The other 3 Links weren't present. He wasn't injured at all, and the river was nowhere in sight, either.
His theory was that magic was used to seperate the four, but he would look further into it. For now, however, the task at hand was to find the others. He began to walk through the streets, when a conversation caught his ear.
"Did you hear about what has begun, because of him?" one voice said.
"Yes...Hyrule castle has fallen. Death is befalling the entirety of the kingdom, thanks to Ganondorf." another replied
"Don't say his name, it's horrible luck!" the other cried, "Besides, he's not even a man anymore. He's a demon. They call him Ganon, now." Vio could hear her spit after uttering the name.
"Well, whatever he may be called, he's a fool."
Vio was taking careful mental note of this. He had never heard of Ganondorf, but Ganon was a fabeled demon of legend, just as the previous hero of the Four Sword. He was in the middle of a thought just as a young woman trotted over and took him by the hand.
"This way, this way..." she ushered him, her voice as smooth and sweet as the finest honey, "You look so tense, come, come get a massage at my parlor!"
"Oh, n-no thank you, I'm just passing thr-" he started to deny, but found himself being pulled anyway.
"I insist! You look so tired, so stressed. You deserve something nice!" she brought him over to her table, "Here, lay down."
Vio, not always being the best with dealing with people one-on-one did as she asked, laying down face-down. The girl's fingers began to knead his skin, rubbing and pressing. It felt like heaven. Vio's eyes began to drift shut. His thoughts wandered.
"Maybe a bit of alone-time could be nice..." he mentally conceded, "Those others are always causing trouble...I can find them...later..."
Blue was roused from his unconciousness by the smell of smoke. As he faded back into reality, he heard flames roaring, people screaming...typical fair to tell him that some hero-ing was needed.
He jumped to his feet, accidentally smacking someone in the face.
"Oh, jeez, whoa!" Blue exclaimed in shock. He looked to see who he had hit, expecting possibly Red, or perhaps even Green or Vio, only to see a small child in a striped hat.
"Ow!" the child cried out, clutching his face.
"Hey, kid, have you-have you seen any other guys dressed like me around?" Blue asked, seeing none of them.
"No, just you. Please, Mr. Hero, you have to help us save the village!" the little boy pleaded, "You're Link, right? Help us!"
Hearing that validating statement, that HE is Link, gave Blue the boost he needed. He started to run over, but the boy stopped him by putting a rod into his hand, one with a red orb on top.
"Here! Use this! It's magic!" said the child.
"Oh, hey, thanks!" Blue shot him a confident grin, "Don't worry. I'll save everyone!"
As he darted off, he completely managed to neglect his Four Sword, leaving it laying on the ground. After the blue hero was far enough away, the child snickered and picked up the sword, slinging it over his shoulder. He stuck around long enough to watch the chaos ensue as Blue tried to use the rod to extinguish the flames, only to make them grow higher. Of course, Blue ran away. He could only imagine it was due to shame, or the people chasing him with pitchforks. One of the two. And the child then cackled, and disappeared in a puff of black smoke, Four Sword in hand.
Red hit the ground, letting out a pained whince.
"Why am I always the one getting hurt?" he cried out as he got to his feet, rubbing his sore bottom.
He got no response, which prompted him to look around. He saw no one. In fact, he could barely see anything at all. It was night, the only light being that of the pale, full moon above. He drew his sword, keeping it in front of him as he walked. His hands were shaking, but he did his best to not give into fear and stay strong.
"There has to be a safe place near by..." he told himself, ever the optimist, "I just need to move nice and slow..."
He heard a branch crack above him and it caused him to jump. He turned on his heels, looking up to where the sound originated from.
"D-don't come any closer...!" he cried, pointing his sword up at the figure. Well, pointing as well as he could, with his extreme shaking.
The silhouette pressed against the moon revealed himself to be Shadow Link, jumping down with a weightless sort of grace and landing without a single sound in the grass beside Red. He held his hands up, as if to show he was, at the moment, unarmed.
"Calm down there, big guy!" Shadow smirked, walking a bit closer, but still with his hands up, "I'm not here to hurt you~"
Red kept his sword aimed at Shadow, however. As Shadow drew closer, Red moved further, matching him step for step. He didn't realize it, but the expression on his face was close to tears.
"I just wanna talk, that's it!" the darker Link said, stopping in his tracks, "I thought you were the most understanding of your counterparts, but...I guess you're just as terrible as them."
"Terrible?" his phrasing caught Red off guard, making him curious. His guard lowered just a bit, "What do you...mean by that?"
"You really think I'm doing bad things because I want to?" Shadow asked, offering his best attempt at a sad face, "I'm being forced to do these things, by a teeeerrible man named Ganon! I came to you for some help, because I thought that you of all people would listen to me. Blue's so mean, Vio's so cynical, and Green...well, he's just got a stick shoved way too far up his ass to care about a creature of darkness like me."
Red was quiet for a moment. His sword fell a bit more, pointing more toward the ground now. His brow scrunched in thought. Eventually, he spoke up again, "...Why should I trust you?"
"Well..." Shadow sighed, bringing his hand to his forehead, covering his eyes. His shoulders twitched a bit. His voice began to crack a little, almost like he was crying, "If you don't, I just don't know what I'm gonna do!"
This caused Red to completely give in to what it was Shadow was trying to accomplish. He put his sword back in his scabbard and walked over. He was tempted to put a comforting hand on his shoulder or something of the sort, but wasn't sure how the purple-haired Link would react.
"Alright, then..." Red said, taking a deep breath, "In that case, what do you need me to do, to help?"
Shadow smirked, but as his face was still concealed by his hand, Red couldn't see this, "You'll have to come with me, for now. You'll have to pretend to be on our side..."
"Wha-" Red sputtered for a second, "Why?"
"We're going to take down Ganon from the inside. I'm not the only one caught up in his fiendish plan, y'know..."
He didn't understand entirley, but he thought he understood enough. Red nodded.
Shadow offered his hand, and Red accepted it. Dark, shadowy magic enveloped the two, whisking them off to the darkness. While Red's expression was one of resolve, his heart called out for someone, anyone, to help. He knew he was in over his head. He did trust Shadow, but he knew he couldn't do this alone.