Chapter 15: Trade of Knowledge
Teams RWBY and JNPR sat in shocked silence as they took in what had just occurred. Link, in a show of power and knowledge of his own abilities, had set a trap none of the Remnantians saw coming. Through tactical deception, he was able to best Yang of all people in a one on one fight. If that wasn't impressive enough in its own right, he was able to come back from the brink of death in the process while supposedly not having Aura of any kind. On the contrary to what the group expected after it all, Link was standing triumphant over Yang, who was still on the ground of the arena, barely conscious as it is.
"T-The match is now over." Ms. Goodwitch stuttered, completely flabbergasted at the turn of events. "L-Link wins by Aura depletion."
Through a small, emotionless, finishing flourish, Link sheathes the Master sword and presents a thankful nod towards the professor who stood there in shock as he continued on. Turning back to the defeated brawler who was now stirring slightly, Link calmly walked over to her and offered a hand and a caring smile. Looking up from the ground, Yang saw his outstretched hand offering to assist. Taking a moment before hesitantly accepting, Yang grabbed hold as Link started to pull herself off the floor. Once Yang was back on her own two feet, after some stumbling about, she could feel soreness all over now that the fight was over and her Semblance subsided.
"That was a cheap move." Yang spat out, still reorienting herself as Link grew a satisfied smirk.
"You fought well yourself." Link complimented. "Just lookout for what your opponent's doing at all times."
"Don't think I won't remember this for next time." Yang spoke with confidence and no resentment.
"Is that another challenge?" Link asked with a humored look.
"I've got to get revenge for my hair somehow." Yang said with some venom returning.
Before the two could continue their little chat, the doors to the arena were kicked wide open causing Link, Yang and Goodwitch to turn and see just who was barging in.
"Yang!" The now revealed Ruby shouted as she sped into the arena, just off of Link's side. The remaining eight ran in soon after, fully encompassing the fighters.
"Hey rubes." Yang returned, still somewhat tipsy while rolling away the stiffness in her shoulders, "Sorry 'bout tha- what's with that look?" she quickly realized and questioned as Ruby wore a worried face, in fact, after a quick once over, everyone had some worry showing, "Okay, what's going on?"
Link was also somewhat disconcerted at the looks everyone had, including Zelda. Ms. Goodwitch even stepped into the fray, her emotionless façade stripped away to show an uneasy concern, but not for the same reasons.
"Link doesn't have any Aura." Ruby quickly revealed.
Yang stood were she was, quickly blinking while process if she just heard her sister correctly. Seeing her lack of response the group continued their explanation.
"When you knocked him out, it did more than we thought." Blacked elaborated.
"And you apparently killed him in the process." Weiss added.
"WHAT!" Yang shouted at the top of her lungs. Her mind finally catching up with everything.
"Ms. Schnee, that is frankly impossible." Goodwitch hastily argued after her worry and shock went away.
"And how can he not have an Aura!?" Yang angerly yelled, wanting and waiting for a damn good explanation.
Link slowly stepped off to the side, not fully understanding the implications of the words being spoken. With a look back to the princess for some form of explanation, he saw she still had a look of worry now mixed with curiosity over her face.
"How would he have had his Aura meter change if he doesn't have an Aura?" Yang argued in disbelief at the fact she was beaten by someone without Aura.
"I'd have to agree with Ms. Xiao Long, the Aura tracking would have been empty as soon as the fight started." Ms. Goodwitch agreed.
"It wasn't tracking Aura, it was tracking his life." Zelda said now to the surprise of both Yang and Goodwitch. Link remained silent, but started to think of the situation. If Zelda was comparing this Aura thing they keep on talking about to his health, there must be something that joins the two together.
"I'm sorry, could you please elaborate?" Goodwitch questioned.
"Along Link's last adventure, he was able to gain more strength and stamina through means I'm not fully aware of myself." The princess slowly elaborated.
Piecing everything together, Link was starting to see what Zelda was talking about. So Aura was comparable to the heart containers he gathered but Aura is something everyone should have? There's more things he knows that he doesn't know and hopefully he'll learn what those are. Opening the Sheikah slate's inventory screen, Link looked and saw his hearts filled with two golden hearts on top of the twenty eight red ones. It wasn't something he fully understood but accepted it regardless. Shifting towards Zelda, he showed the slate to her with an inquisitive look to which she nodded in understanding and continued.
"If I'm understanding correctly, the 'Aura' that was tracked was Link's heart's health." Zelda said as Link handed it to her. Once it was traded between them, the screen changed, not much but enough to be noticeable. As the screen was on the inventory with the hearts, once the exchange occurred, the hearts immediately dropped to the default three. "And it seems like Link has ten times as much as me." She concluded with surprise. They never did get a chance to fully test the Slate after the defeat of the Calamity.
"Wait wait wait." Yang said waving her hands about, "So you're telling me Link beat me with a fake Aura thing and some way to resurrect himself?" she summarized in disbelief.
"Yes and it was a friend of ours, Mipha, who saved Link." Zelda added with a remorseful tone.
"So that's the name of that spirit thing?" Jaune asked.
Link nodded in confirmation. He knew they had seen her and now they were going to ask questions, questions about their past.
"Spirit? Like a ghost." Nora said with more enthusiasm than the Hylians would've expected.
A small chuckle escaped from Link at the thought of his fallen friends being like the ghost stories he heard in his youth before the memories of what happened returned, halting any sense of joy he was feeling as he returned to the group.
"No Nora, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for that, Link?" Ren said, looking for confirmation.
He shook his head mournfully in disagreement with the statement. No point in denying what they saw.
"Is everything alright? Link?" Ruby asked, seeing his sorrow.
Shrugging his shoulders, he gave a fake, reassuring smile to the little reaper who seemed to accept it. Now with his memories of the Calamity returned, that day haunted him, it haunted both of them.
"Good, because that was amazing," Ruby started, "Placing explosives while Yang was focused on you and coming back alive to blast her. It was, I don't, I feel, ughh. Incredible!" She sped through, her mind thinking faster than she could speak.
"Ms. Rose, I would suggest not overwhelming him after the fight," Ms. Goodwitch recommended, "And as for you," She turned to Link with her classic disciplinarian look, "I would highly suggest that you have a medical examination done before the semester starts. I would personally see to it myself but I currently have business with Ozpin to attend to. If you'll excuse me" She finished and walked away leaving the ten alone.
"We've got some team business to deal with as well." Pyrrha said to the group once Goodwitch was out of sight.
"Wha- oh yeah," Jaune said before being lightly jabbed by Pyrrha, "Yeah sorry, we have to go too."
"I don't mind." Zelda said with Link nodded in acknowledgement as well.
"Okay, see ya later." Ruby waved goodbye.
"Stay out of trouble." Yang joked.
"Bye." Blake added.
"Have a good one." Weiss finished.
JNPR left with waves and goodbyes leaving RWBY and ZL alone in the empty arena.
"Alright," Weiss continued with a serious tone, "It's beginning to look like we should have a serious conversation about what we do and don't know about each other's abilities."
"Tell me about it." Yang commented.
"You're still wanting to see the competition, don't ya Weiss?" Ruby teased.
"That's got nothing to do with this." She responded as she was becoming flustered.
"Competition?" Zelda inquired.
"The Vytal festival." Yang responded, still relieving some soreness.
"It's a tournament where teams from the four kingdoms come together every two years and fight to see who are the best hunters-in-training." Blake elaborated.
"And this year it's being held in Vale." Ruby quickly said with excitment, finishing the explanation.
Link straightened up as they spoke, the idea of a planet wide tournament intrigued him to say the least. It sounds similar to tournaments held in Hyrule as warriors from around Hyrule competed in month-long festivities. For the few times he competed, he would rank in the top three consistently, evening winning in some of the later years, even at his young age.
"Well that sounds entertaining." Zelda admitted.
"It is. In fact it's the biggest event on Remnant, nearly everyone watches it." Weiss responded. "But that's not for a few months still."
"It sounds much larger than anything I've seen before." Zelda said with awe as she tried to imagine the scale of it all.
"I would presume so but that's neither here nor there." Weiss responded somewhat dismissively
"Okay, could we please get to the powers and abilities, like how I lost to you when you... died." Yang redirected the conversation back to the current issue, still not truly understanding it all.
"Right... so what do you want to know?" Zelda asked with a single laugh, knowing they will get close to the Calamity. It was a miracle that they were able to avoid it so far.
"First off, Link, is there any other special Semblance like powers you have?" Weiss inquired.
He, in response, inquisitively tilted his head slightly to the side, showing that he didn't know what she was talking about.
"Those powers, the wind, shield and resurrection, are there any more of them." she elaborated in all seriousness.
They're thinking of the champion's abilities, Link thought as he had a small look of realization. "There is one other."
Team RWBY looked on as they each started to speculate as to what the last power the knight had was but before they could ask anymore questions, Link started walking away.
"Hey! We've still got more questions for you!" Weiss shouted at him once she saw him start walking. Hearing that made him stop in his tracks, now standing with the arena light fully on him. "Now, are you gonna answer them or not?"
After a moment of everyone standing where they were, Link started to raise his right hand to the confusion of everyone in the room. Once his arm was up above his head, he brought his hand into a fist with all except a single finger.
"Link?" Zelda asked as her worry grew.
"What is he doing?" Ruby asked no one.
"I don't know." Yang responded hesitantly.
As he seemed to be lowering his hand, to the relief of the others, Link suddenly went for his blade and brought it out slightly surprising the girls.
"Link? What are you doing?" Weiss asked as she started to feel dread form within, they all were, especially after what he just pulled not even two hours ago.
For the rest of the way, Link slowly brought the blade out of its sheath and to his side. Holding the position for a moment, he started to crouch slightly and brought the sword in front of his chest, blocking their view of it.
"Link?" Zelda asked more desperately now, "Are you ok-" she started before being interrupted by an outward push of green energy as she realized what he was doing.
"What is this?" Blake questioned as the wall stopped just behind them. The four Remnantians looked around in shock and awe while Zelda was looking slightly worried.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Zelda asked hesitantly to her knight as team RWBY gained grim looks upon hearing her question.
Link looked over his shoulder as a satisfied grin made its way onto his face.
"Safe? What is he gonna do?" Ruby asked worryingly.
Once she finished her question, Link spun in place, sweeping his sword around as lightning struck around them all, seemingly coming from nowhere. Initiating the strike was the green translucent appearance of a female, floating confidently just above the ground. Soon after she disappeared, the barrage of lightning strikes halted as Link stood facing the group.
"Urbosa." Zelda said in paralyzed astonishment. This was the first time she got a good look at the champion's abilities and their spirited wielders.
"Who?" RWBY asked in unison.
"Chief Urbosa of the Gerudo, a once good friend of mine." The princess admitted as Link returned to the group.
He could see that Zelda was back to remembering the memories of the Calamity. Approaching from behind, he put a caring hand on her shoulder, surprising the princess initially before easing her thoughts.
"She died protecting Hyrule." Zelda said somberly as RWBY started to understand the ramifications of her words.
"Through avenging her spirit, I received the ability known as 'Urbosa's Fury'," Link explained, "That was what you just saw."
"And the other three?" Weiss slowly asked as she knew the feeling of loosing people close to you, they all did.
"Revali's Gale, Daruk's Protection and Mipha's Grace." Link answered with respect for the names he said. "I avenged their deaths and in return, they gave me a part of themselves to help in my journey."
"I'm sorry." Yang tried to comfort him.
"Don't be, it happened long ago." He said in response, himself feeling the pain of loss.
"So Zelda, do you have anything special about you?" Blake asked kindly to move the conversation from that depressing note.
"Other than what you've seen, no." She said as he looked upon her open hands, "I don't even know what I'm truly capable of myself."
"Well that's what Beacon's for." Ruby said in an unknowing attempt to lighten the room.
"Wait Link, during our fight, how were you able to cut me to pieces so easily?" Yang asked, thinking back to the battle.
"Don't know, it just happens that I can attack much faster sometimes." Link said with a shrug.
"Well it's gotta be something. That nearly looked like an actual Semblance." Yang commented prompting the Hylians to gain inquisitive looks.
"Ughh," Weiss tiredly sighed, "If you two don't know what Aura is, it makes sense that Semblances are completely out of the question."
The two looked to the other in confusion, neither knowing what the heiress was going on about.
"A semblance is the tangible projection of one's Aura which itself is the manifestation of the soul." Weiss explained.
Taking in her words, Link couldn't help but linger on the word soul. Aura is the manifestation of the soul. He didn't fully understand why but he could feel a connection forming, to what, he did not know. All he did know is that there was importance to those words.
"A manifestation of the soul, how so?" Zelda asked but Link paid little attention.
Manifestation, an intangible idea taken physical form. A Semblance, the tangible projection of the manifestation of one's soul. The soul projected out.
"Well, to start, it's one hell of an amazing healer." Yang said with raised arms, any evidence of the previous fight had completely vanished.
The soul projected, the soul projected inwards. A soul taken physical form, an orb. The shrines, the monks, the reward, the Soul Orbs.
"It's also a shield you can call upon when in danger." Blake added on.
The soul orbs, given as offering to Hylia for the blessing of health or stamina. An increase in hearts is an increase in Aura. The soul, expanded through trials, blessed by Hylia, given strength against the Calamity. The soul, manifested into Aura to protect and shield, brought to life by Semblances. They may be functionally different, Aura and the hearts, but they're opposing sides of the same coin.
"It can also help bond yourself with your weapon." Ruby concluded.
Link still wasn't paying much attention to the conversation in front of him, the revelation he had was more important at the moment. If they had Aura back in Hyrule, would the Calamity have come to pass, would they have been able to stop Ganon before it claimed victory for a hundred years. To think the soul would connect it all together, the ancient Sheikah provides the Soul orbs and these Huntsmen and Huntresses who train the soul to fight, battle against the darkness for the sake of Remnant.
"-Link." Zelda said with concern as he returned back to the conversation. With a "hmm", the princess let out a small sigh of relief.
"You were gazing off for the past few minutes." Yang mentioned, seeing that he was back.
"Anything on your mind?" Blake asked.
"I think I put together why I had an Aura when I clearly don't." Link said, gaining everyone's full attention.
"And what would that be?" Weiss asked, genuinely curious to solve this anomaly.
He simply said "The soul." confusing the five before him. They were all wanting clarification on the meaning of his words. "During a past journey, I needed to become stronger. The way to do that was by completing the puzzles within shines all over Hyrule. The reward for completing them was an item called a Soul Orb."
"You actually were able to enter the Shrines?" Zelda asked in surprised. He hadn't mentioned the shrines to her yet but now was as good a time as any.
"Yes, each was built and the final resting place of an ancient Sheikah monk, waiting for a 'hero of Hyrule'" Link said with air quotes. This seemed to satisfy the princess for the time being so he continued. "In a weird way to obtain it, it came to me as I absorbed it which was surprising to say the least. Once I had four of them, Hylia would answer my prayers and would bless me with either a increase in the slate's hearts or an increase to my stamina. Apparently that affected my soul, granting it greater strength. In a way it could be close to the Aura that protects you, likely meaning these monitors were unable to tell the difference between the two."
"Anything else?" Ruby asked inquisitively, clearly showing some interest for something other than a weapon.
"Not that I'm aware of." He responded decisively.
"So if what you've said, of whatever those Sheikah monks are, is true, that would explain your sudden Aura." Blake muttered about with the notion.
"While this is quite interesting and I'll be sure to look into it as soon as possible, you mention Semblances. 'A tangible projection of one's Aura' was it?" Zelda asked.
"Yep." Yang popped, "Basically they're a special ability that is completely unique. Well mostly." she said, directing the last part to Weiss to which everyone looked.
With all eyes on her, Weiss quickly explained her semblance "I have a hereditary Semblance that exists only in the Schnee family." The heiress said as she formed a small glyph in the palm of her hand.
"Amazing." Zelda quietly awed as she leaned in slightly. Link suddenly remembered Yunobo and how he had Daruk's protection from his grandfather.
"I can go really fast." Ruby said as she zipped around in bursts of rose petals, faster than the Hylians could see.
Seeing her speed, Link was finally able to get an answer as to how she just suddenly appeared at breakfast. He could now see that Semblances are quite similar to the Champion's abilities. Maybe the four of them had an Aura without even knowing it.
As Ruby was showing off, she accidentally zipped right through the middle of the group, forcing everyone to jump back. Blake even instinctually used her Semblance creating a clone to which Ruby blasted through before coming to a stop.
"And that was my shadow clone." Blake said as Link looked at her with eyes wide.
In just a brief moment, she reminded him of Thunderblight's afterimage charge, surprising the hero like the first time he witnessed that ability.
"While everyone else has very visual Semblances," Yang started, "Mine more or less buffs my strength and pain tolerance, although I can feel it afterwards sometimes." she said with an arm roll to emphasize her point.
"Truly fascinating." Zelda continued to awe at the range of abilities this world has. No wonder the individual is so highly praised, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Powers so different that if there was anything uniform in training, they wouldn't fully discover their true power. Maybe she could even fully unlock the goddess' power here. No, getting back to Hyrule is their top priority but while they're here, she might as well take advantage of the opportunity.
"Hey," Ruby said, gaining everyone's attention, "If you're going to be Hunters-in-training, you're gonna need Aura no matter what."
"How so?" Zelda asked as Link raised a brow, hearing the easiness of the task in her voice.
"Like you've already seen, the Job is quite dangerous so we need all the help we can get." Weiss elaborated, "Gaining an Aura is a matter of 'unlocking your soul'."
"Wait a minute, we're just going to make him more powerful?!" Yang questioned as scenarios played out in her head.
Link didn't know if he should take pride or offense at the brawler's comment.
"Sure, why not. You keep pushing yourself further and further." Ruby countered.
"I push myself to become stronger." Yang answered back, some emotions flaring up in her words.
"Would you two make up your mind." Weiss asked, somewhat bored at the sisterly bickering. "Are we doing this or not?"
"Fine." Yang relented with a small smile. At Least she'll have something to train towards now.
"In any case, they'll be able to at least look like they belong." Blake commented knowing that, at least for Zelda, her lack of Aura would put her in jeopardy should she get separated from Link.
"So who wants to do it?" Yang asked. She couldn't as her Aura was still depleted from the fight.
"I don't see the harm." Weiss said, volunteering herself.
"Ohh, me, me." Ruby said jumping up and down, " Uhh, what do I do?"
"I'll do it." Blake said with a small smile towards her leader.
"Fine." The reaper said with a childish pout bringing a smile to everyone's face.
Once Ruby finished her antics, Weiss approached Zelda and Blake approached Link. The two huntresses looked to each other and nodded in silent agreement.
"Close your eyes." Blake asked as Link and Zelda complied.
Closing their own eyes, Weiss and Blake both placed a hand on the Hylian's shoulders, white and black Auras surrounding each of them respectively.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality." Weiss said. As Zelda started to glow a royal, cobalt blue.
"Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all," Blake continued causing Link to glow in a bright forest green.
"Infinite in distance and unbound by death." Weiss spoke again.
"We release your souls, and by our shoulders, protect thee." They said at the same time. In a flash that lit up the entire arena, lights of blue and green shone out from the Hylians, nearly blinding Ruby and Yang in the process.
"Is this normal?!" Ruby exclaimed as she turned away for protection.
"No! Definitely not!" Yang responded, causing the others to open their eyes too see what they were talking about.
As soon as their concentration broke, the light instantly subsided leaving a surprised set of sisters, a couple of collapsing curious girls and a pair of empowered, glowing Hylians. Both Blake and Weiss were completely spent after the unlocking, just barely being able to stand.
Looking at the blue glow emanating from herself, Zelda with wide eyes could only say one thing, "Wow."
A/N: And here you go. The secrecy is starting to shed and now Link and Zelda both have their Auras. There isn't much else I'd like to say about the chapter but I would like to address some reviews that have come in.
To the guest who said that said I have no clue what I'm doing, you're correct. This is the first time I've ever published something and I know just in the three months since then I've not done much but spout random ideas onto my computer. I started this story with no end goal in mind and when I wrote this specific chapter, I still didn't. It all started as an idea as a mid way though, what if scenario that has been growing since. I took inspiration from other Fics yes, but now I've got a big picture of my own forming, I just need to work to achieve that.
For another guest review, which I presume was the same person, the two of them, Link and Zelda have been through a lot of trauma. Seeing all that you know come crashing down in fire and brimstone, you would want to avoid it like the devil and push it into the depth recesses of you mind. Also the two have rationalized that Darvin's test was all that it was in the moment, a test, no current threat of Ganon's malice but they are still weary even if it wasn't specifically said. I wish to respect the reader's intelligence and ability for common sense. It may not be the norm for FanFictions but I wish to see this part through. As for the amnesia Link went through, it would most certainly lead to some personality changes in universe. Out of universe, I'm just trying to give him some character for writing, not games but I know that I could have easily failed as much as I could have succeeded. There is also the point where on Remnant Link isn't the knight to Zelda the princess, they are just two huntsmen in training now. Both are of equal rank, one not above the other and hopefully will become good friends as a result, with each other and everyone else.
That's all I have to say, I don't really reflect on things at all but this broke me out of that and I thank that person for it, well except for the overall tone but it is understandable to defend something you love with a passion. I write this sincerely to hope that this person and everyone else knows that I will take what you leave and try to become a better person and writer because of it. Thank you for your time.