If silence has a name, it would be Link.

The heroes had gathered in the mess hall of the inn they were staying in, and no one had said a word other than requesting someone to pass the condiments. After another eventful day (though they should have been used to it for a long time now), the most they could do was to stay within each other's sights. Wild is currently resting in one of the rooms they rented for the night, with one Link rotating to check on the Champion every hour. Sky remained with the group; however, he was barred from seeing the other hero for the time being to avoid a repeat of the same incident earlier. The Skyloftian did not object, but he had been catatonic since then. A few tried to talk to him, but all they received were blank stares.

They endured the silence restricted only in their table, picking on conversations that floated around them. It is the only thing they could do to distract themselves - the tension within the group becomes more apparent the more they dwell in it. It went on like that until the middle of dinner - chew, swallow, listen, and repeat - until a cup was slammed on the wooden surface, and shoulders flinched at the sound. Six pairs of confused eyes turned to the Veteran who was glowering at his food as if he was about to commit murder.

"Are we just going to sit here and pretend nothing happened? Because if we are, none of us are doing a good job about it."

"Vet." Time warned from across him on the table. "This isn't the time."

"Then, when, Old Man?" Legend demanded. "Do enlighten us when we're going to talk about this because I'm getting tired of all the shit happening around the Champion and not knowing when it will backfire to our faces!"

A silverware clinked against a plate with a restrained force. "Are you implying something, Vet?" Twilight narrowed his eyes. "Because if you are, I won't just stand by anyone talking behind Wild's back. None of us are privy to his secrets."

"And you think you're the same?" Legend scoffed as he crossed his arms. "For your information, no one's buying that act. It's obvious now that you know the kid before we arrived in his Hyrule. You know him more than any of us, and you didn't say shit! An 'Oh, I know him' would've been nice, you know."

The Rancher's eyes widened in disbelief. "You think I did that on purpose?"

Legend stood up in outrage and slammed his palms on the table. "You just did, asshole!" He swept his hand so quickly it looked like it might fly off. "And look what's happening. We got someone who is always on the verge of a breakdown upstairs and another who looked like they stayed in a room full of ReDeads for years! We haven't made any progress in this goddess-damned quest for months now, and we're already falling apart! What? You expect us to hold hands and dance in the middle of Hyrule Field because you didn't inform us of something important? Is that it?"

Twilight rose from his seat and loomed over the Veteran. A growl marred his features. "You think I'd want that? Do you think I intentionally told no one about Wild and let things go like this just because of some personal reason?"

"That's how it looked like, Rancher! That's how you made it look! It might as well be the truth unless you have an award-worthy excuse you'd come up with!"

"You're kidding me…." Twilight shook his head in disbelief. "Are you being serious right now? Really, Legend? Is that how you see me? A goddess-damned liar? Why in Hylia's name would I even want to do that? Why would I even shut my mouth about Wild? Wild who is another hero like us of all things?"

"You tell me."

"Because that's not how it is!" The Rancher slammed his palms on the table. "I forgot about him, Vet! I forgot about him just like how he forgot about his past! Someone or something made me forget. Made me fucking forget! Do you think, goddesses forbid!, that I'm glad to start remembering after spending nearly a year of ignorance, huh, Vet? Because I don't! And I'm fucking blaming myself for not being there for him before Hylia threw him to us!"

A fragile silence descended over the table. "You…" Legend wanted to laugh because things just had to go an unexpectedly ridiculous turn. "Don't remember? What the hell, Rancher?"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

The mess hall fell into a hush as Time's voice boomed across the room. People turned and stared at their table, and the other heroes had no choice but to turn away and duck their faces away in shame. Their de facto leader sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"This isn't the place to argue about this." Time stood up from the wooden bench. "Let's go upstairs. We're disturbing the patrons here. Captain," He threw a pouch of rupees to Warriors' direction, which the latter caught mid-air. "I'll leave the payment to you. The rest of you, follow me."

"But we haven't finished eating!" Wind complained over his plate, but the Hero of Time was already on his way towards the stairs. Twilight and Legend engaged for an intense staredown for a solid minute before promptly breaking eye contact and following the physically oldest Link. Four nudged the Sailor to stand up, and they hesitantly went after the others. The two passed by Hyrule, who was supporting an inert Sky. Their procession slowly trickled into a room adjacent to where Wild slept. Warriors had not the chance to close the door when the briefly postponed clash blew up again.

"I knew it! I fucking knew it!" Legend ranted as he pointed an accusing finger to Twilight. "I was right! You know him, but you don't remember. What? Just because we got this same spirit gig going on, you think we're psychics, and we could just guess that's how it is? The fuck's wrong with you, huh, Rancher?"

Twilight threw his hands to the air. "Nothing's wrong with me!" He defended. "Maybe it's you who have a problem! You said it yourself that we have two people out-of-commission, yet here you are, nitpicking on things and starting a fight that no one asked for!"

"You had it coming! This is getting out of hand, and you know that, Rancher! All of us know that!" Legend shouted. "That kid is no one's responsibility. He's a fucking hero like the rest of us, so stop babying him every single time! You can't cover for him every time something fucks him up and throw us shade whenever that happens. He isn't your son to protect!"

"He isn't, but he's still family!" Twilight shot back. "He's family to you too, Vet. He's a friend and a brother to all of us!"

"Legend, stop it already!" Hyrule tried to reach for his predecessor, but the Veteran shrugged him off harshly. The latter strode toward the Hero of Twilight, grabbed the front of his tunic, and pulled him down to his eye level.

"You think I don't know that?" Legend hissed. "You think I'd prefer to stand by and watch him tear himself apart because of some shitshow Hylia put him in? Because I fucking don't, Rancher! None of us do, and we're tired of being in the dark because Wild has amnesia, and the only person who knows him didn't even make an effort to give us a headstart!"

The Veteran slammed the taller man against the wall. The action alarmed the others and made a move to separate the two, but the man paid them no heed and continued. "Look the fuck around you! Look at us and tell me we're not breaking part! Look at us and tell me we're not scared of not knowing when you'll get beaten up to death or when the Champion will destroy himself again. Look at me in the eye and tell me! TELL ME NOW!"

"You want the truth? You want the goddess-damned truth?" Twilight wrenched himself free and shoved the Veteran away. "I fucking don't know." He said. "Because it isn't my place to say anything! I have no right to spill someone else's personal hell when that person doesn't want to. I respect Wild's wishes, just like how I respect all of yours!"

"And you think that it's worth the risk putting both of you in danger? Are you fucking stupid, Rancher?"

"Vet," The Rancher gritted his teeth as he pointed at the other room. "He's an almost-two-year-old soul inside one hundred and seventeen-year-old body. He was forced to accept a life and an identity in a world that was destroyed because the hero and the princess in his era didn't have the support they really needed to stop a version of Ganondorf that none of us had ever faced. He thinks he's a failure of a hero that Hylia wanted from him, that he had done shame to the Hero's Spirit and paid the price for it. He thinks his existence was a disgrace to us when all he did was finish what the hero of his era failed to accomplish, and the Master Sword only reinforced that when it fucking burned him!"

There was a painful silence in the room as eyes widened in shock about the sudden revelation brought by the Hero of Twilight. When the Rancher finally noticed their stares, his rage waned as his words seemingly bounced against the walls. What did he just say? What did he…? A dream...no, a memory scratched desperately at the back of his mind like a cat demanding attention - a memory he regained upon the night of his return to Wild's Hyrule after nearly a year of his departure from that era.

"Wolfie…" The same voice hiccupped. The person sounded so young, so vulnerable, so scared. The sensation of being embraced tightly surrounded him, and he leaned into the touch. A soft whimper escaped his throat. "I'm scared, Wolfie…I-I don't know her. I don't really know her…yet I have to save her. I'm not him, but he isn't coming back. I don't know what to do. I'm scared, Wolfie. I'm really, really scared."

"What…what did you just say?" Legend made to grab the Rancher again, but Warriors held him back this time. "Answer me, Rancher! What do you mean that the Master Sword burned him?"

"Stop…"

Before Twilight could reel himself back in and try to answer the Veteran's question, another memory flashed in his mind - fresh yet fraught by the time that had passed. He was standing on all fours before the Great Deku Tree, anxiously watching his Cub step on the triangular pedestal where the Master Sword rested. Koroks, his Cub called them, hovered and peeked behind the blades of the grass and between the arching branches of trees as they waited in bated breath. The Rancher wanted to drag the Champion away from the divine sword, hide him from a destiny he was not supposed to accept, and curse Hylia for putting him in an impossible position. Twilight knew what was bound to happen once his Cub reached out and wrapped his shaky hands around the purple hilt. He wanted to stop it before it was too late, but he was powerless against the will of the Goddess. He could do nothing but become a spectator to the most heartwrenching three minutes of his life.

The night shortly after that, he laid curled protectively around Wild's feverish body. His dreams, no, his nightmares were plagued with the sound of bloody screams and the smell of burning flesh. The Master Sword was propped by the corner - calm and silent as it could be - where it was left sheathed in its scabbard. Twilight once revered the divine sword that played a crucial role in his triumph over Ganondorf, but now...now, he could not bring himself to look at it the same way he did during his journey. Not anymore.

Time's voice pulled his protégé back from the quagmire of his forgotten memories. "Pup, what's the meaning of this?"

Twilight stepped back and swallowed the lump in his throat. "I-I don't…I don't know." His hands went up and gripped the sides of his hair. "Cub...what…?"

"Stop it…"

"Rancher!" Legend snarled, scratching his nails painfully on Warriors' metallic gauntlet. Beside Sky, Hyrule stood stiffly with a pale face as a frightening realization contorted his face. "Explain! Don't you fucking dare tell us it's nothing!"

"I…"

"I SAID STOP IT!"

They jumped and whirled toward the source of that voice. Sky was on his knees with his hands covering his ears, trying to block the others as they were about to rip each other's throats moments ago. His body trembled as tears streaked down his cheeks. The Hero of the Skies, who was unresponsive moments ago, now had fallen ungracefully into a state of hysterics.

"P-Please stop it...Wild didn't...it isn't his fault!"

"Sky...what…?"

"H-He doesn't have the Hero's Spirit…." Sky rasped. "He was forced to take on our role, but Fi...Fi, she…" His body was wracked in sobs and hiccups as his misty eyes stared dimly on the wooden floor. "She burned him, burned him because he isn't her master! Even though Sun...Hylia sent him. He...just why? Why it has to be him?"

"I don't understand. Sun, Fi...why do you have to give him a title when he isn't one of us? Why do you have to throw him to us when his place isn't with us? Why? Why...why does he have to suffer in that hero's place?" The Chosen Hero clutched his hair, almost about to pull it out, and wailed. "Please tell me! Anybody! I beg of you! He didn't deserve this! This isn't right!"

"Sky..." Twilight dug his fingernails on his palms to prevent himself from grabbing the Skyloftian by the shoulders and pulling a Legend. "Since when….Since when did you know about this?"

Sky did not answer. He only sobbed harder and curled himself on the wooden floor. Then, it suddenly clicked - the reason why Wild ran away out of the blue earlier and why Sky was near hysterical and threw aside the Master Sword when Time and Legend dragged him here in the inn. It finally made sense to Twilight why Wild was reluctant to share some parts of his journey and only told him that it would be better for him to remember than to hear it from him. It finally explained the sorrowful look on Malon's eyes and her persistent silence about what she and the Champion discussed that night. Like a cursed jigsaw puzzle, everything finally made sense.

Twilight swayed as the world around him spun in an array of dull colors for a brief moment. He lifted his head, and his eyes landed on the door. "I-I have to get to Cub…I have to...I have to know..." He staggered towards the door, but he was yanked back by the fabric of his shirt. He whipped his head around and snarled at the person who dared to stop him.

"No, Pup." Time's words brooked no argument as he met the Rancher's feral gaze with a stony look. "No one's going to him."

"TIME!" The Old Man might be his ancestor, predecessor, and mentor, but Wild is someone Twilight promised to look after. The kid entrusted himself to the Rancher. He might not be a reincarnation, but it changes nothing for Twilight. The Champion is a part of his family and his pack. He will readily go from hell and back just for the kid. "LET ME GO! I'm not going to abandon him just because he doesn't have the Hero's Spirit! I'm not going to cast him aside because of something he has no control over! He's as much of a hero as the rest of us!"

Time's expression softened. A sad glimmer in his eyes told the sincerity of his following words. "We're not throwing him away, Pup." He said. "But none of us are in the condition to face him. If we do now, I'm afraid someone will get hurt."

Not just physically, but emotionally and more. Time did not say it, but Twilight could understand what was left unspoken. His eyes drifted to the others. Hyrule cradled a weeping Sky, but his eyes were distant - terrified, even. Legend was still being held firm by Warriors - the former trembled in unrestrained anger as he cursed the heavens without a care who might hear it while the latter had a pained expression on his face. Wind and Four were huddled together at one corner of the room - disbelief and confusion warred on the Sailor's face while the Smith's expression remained neutral. There, however, was a storm of colors raging in the eyes of the Hero of the Four Sword.

Twilight was not faring any better. He did not try to regain his balance as he slumped forward. Time let him rest his head on his shoulder as the younger hero grasped his mentor's shirt like a scared child. For once, Twilight looked more like an actual person than a heroic figure chosen by the Goddess. "Sky right's…." His voice was muffled, but Time could hear him all the same. "It isn't his fault. He...Wild didn't deserve this. Being a hero...he shouldn't have to go through that…."

"I know, Pup." Time whispered hoarsely and placed a hand on the Rancher's head. He is so tired, and so does, Twilight. All of them are. He did not even try to stop Wind when the Sailor pulled away from the Smith and made a desperate beeline towards the door. No one reacted when Wind slammed it against its hinges, uncaring whether he might destroy it or not in his rush. How much more can we endure until we break? How much more until the Hero's Spirit itself shatters under the weight of its repetitive destiny?

"I know."

And once it does, who will save the one who suffers from that burden?

Meanwhile, Dink is vibing somewhere...