p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"— What was that noise? — Link asked, flustered - It must be trouble... big trouble!br /— It's not possible — Zelda reasoned, scratching her forehead — What could have happened?br /— Your Highness, I...br /— What is it, Impa?br /— I think those noises are coming from the direction of the / When she heard this, Zelda's blue eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hand /— It can't be. It is — she turned to the boy — Link, you need to check the sanctuary of the Four Sword, now!br /— What? But it's so far away, I wouldn't be able to get there and back in time. Isn't it better if I stay and help with whatever it is?br /— Impa, take him to the sanctuary. /— But, Your Highness — the young Sheikah protested, annoyed — How can I leave you alone? I have to...br /— You have to follow my orders, I'm still the princess of Hyrule. It's my right to give orders — Zelda turned towards the castle and stormed off, abandoning her regal and elegant manner — And it's my duty to protect my people!br / As they looked at the seventeen-year-old running off into the distance, Link and Impa stared at each other. It was obvious that they both wanted to go after her, but they were also willing to help each other. Sheikah let out a dead /— Hunf, she's always been so stubborn... Come on, Link. The sooner we get the blade, the sooner we can help her./p
p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" Amid the purple dust, Link and Impa suddenly appeared in front of the entrance to the sanctuary of the Four Sword, hidden among the trees in the heart of Hyrule. After the last incident with Vaati and the imprisonment of Ganon, Impa's late grandmother had conjured up a barrier that would make it impossible for any normal living being to invade the resting place of the legendary /— Impa, you don't really think someone has invaded the sanctuary, do you? — The boy asked, turning to his companion — No one should be able to do /Impa looked at the barrier, which was transparent and emanated small particles from itself. The symbol of the Sheikah clan adorned its /— No one should, it's true. However...br /— Huh?br / She closed her eyes for a moment, raising her right arm to the heavens and quickly lowering it again. That was enough for the barrier to /— Grandma taught me how to destroy the barrier if necessary one day — she explained with a smile to her companion, who was a little confused — As I was saying, no normal person should really be able to overcome the barrier. But for an experienced wizard, I'm not sure it would be such a challenge. My grandmother didn't take this into account, hardly anyone knew about Ganon's existence and only we, Zelda, the maidens and that old owl knew where he was imprisoned. Who with magical powers would be interested in freeing him? Go on, Link. I'll guard the /That was all the young knight needed to hear. In the blink of an eye, he entered the sanctuary./p
p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"— The interior of the sanctuary of the Four Sword was almost a paradise isolated from the disturbances of the world. It was a circular building, filled to the walls with grass. In the center, surrounded by four pillars supporting sculptures representing the four elements, and in front of a drawing of a large eye on the wall representing the dreaded Wind Mage, the blade of the four rested eternally... or that's what it was supposed to be. But when Link entered the shrine, he saw the sword lying on the ground, far from where it had been placed by the young hero seven years /— So it's true — he whispered, slowly approaching the sword — Ganon has been freed...br /— Yes, he / It's not hard to imagine the shock Link felt when he heard the deep, hoarse voice behind him. In an impulsive move of self-defense, the boy turned around and, with his eyes closed so as not to get dizzy, threw a punch in an attempt to hit whatever was nearby. But he was surprised not to feel his fist hit anything but the /— What?br / Opening his eyes, Link came across one of the last things he expected to find there. A bald, bearded old Hylian, wearing a long cloak and gloves that covered his hands. He was leaning on a wooden stick that he held in his left /— You're right, young man — The old man gave a friendly smile, covered by his long white beard - The one who calls himself "King of Darkness" is /— Who... Who are you? Where have you been that I haven't seen you here until now?br /— I'm very good at disappearing and appearing when I want to. If I didn't want to appear, you would never have seen /— Oh, really? Was it you who freed Ganon?br / The old man laughed /— Hohoho, are you accusing me of giving a new chance for Ganondorf? You couldn't be further from the truth, Link. Rest assured that I aim for his downfall just as much as you do. Perhaps even / The boy was getting more and more /— How do you know my name?br /— I was only here to keep an eye on the Four Sword until you arrived - the old man said, ignoring the question — And now that you're here, I think I can leave /The old man turned to leave, but Link grabbed his /— How do you know my name? — The young man repeated, / The old man slowly turned his head, looking into Link's eyes./p
p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"— Tell me, boy, you want to know where the Triforce of Courage is, don't you? The demon thief and the princess of Hyrule have their parts, but not you. Of course you don't, only with the crystals you would be able to get /— How do you...br /— How do I know that? You make so many questions, my boy, in my day the heroes of Hyrule were quieter. But anyway, well, it doesn't matter, what matters is that I know and I can tell you if you want me to. Do you?br / The boy hesitated for a moment. What if it was a trap? What if the old man was a servant of Ganon in disguise? But even so, when he looked into the old man's blue eyes, he couldn't help feeling that they were the eyes of a friend. It was a strange familiarity, as if he had known him all his /— I want to — he finally said, preparing himself for a possible attack. The old man /— Perfect, perfect! Take sword in hand and find the trail of indomitable courage. Find the crystals that have been hidden for many years. It's dangerous to go alone, so better put your clones to work! Hahaha!br /— Trail of indomitable courage? What do you mean?br /— When the time comes, one of you will realize. To prove that I'm not a liar, I wll leave a little surprise for you when you solve the current problem. Now let me go, please. You have a date with yourself three times, better not be late. Oh, before I forget, give the old owl a hug when you see /— Do you know Kaepora Gaebora?br /— Of course. Old Kaepora Gaebora is an old friend of mine. Probably the only one of my acquaintances who still wanders this world...br / The old man stopped talking, and his countenance withered for a few moments as he stared into nothingness. It was as if his entire life was being replayed in his mind in a matter of seconds, in an unbreakable trance. Link, thinking it best to give space to whoever the old man was and wanting to get back to the castle as soon as possible, let go of him and walked towards the sword. Memories came back to him of when Shadow Link, a replica of himself made of pure darkness, had manipulated him into raising the Four Sword and freeing Vaati. But that was no longer a concern, not with Vaati dead and Ganon free. The boy took a deep breath and, closing his eyes, raised the powerful blade. When he opened his eyes, he didn't see anything different at first. Nothing seemed to have happened. Then he looked to his left out of the corner of his eye and saw a purple blur. He turned his head and saw, next to him, a perfect clone of himself, also wielding a perfect copy of the Four Sword. The only difference was that his clothes were violet, not green. He was sitting down, smiling./p
p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"— (V) It's a great pleasure to see you again, Green. Do you still want me to call you that or would you prefer something else?br /— (G) Vio, I'd say the same — Link exclaimed, suddenly overwhelmed by immense joy — Of course you can call me Green, it wouldn't be fair for me to be the only one of us to go by Link. We're the same person! Where are the others?br /— (V) Blue is lying there on your other /— (G) Huh? — Link looked to his right and saw another replica of himself, lying with a somewhat depressed face. His clothes were blue — Hi, Blue! How are you?br /— (B) How am i? — Blue asked, his gaze lost in the ceiling of the sanctuary — The castle is under attack and we're wasting time here, who knows what the threat is... What if Uncle Alphon gets hurt? Or Zelda? Or everyone? — Frustrated, Blue covered his face with his hands, scratching at his eyes - How can i be anything other than worried?br /— (V) Ah, he hasn't changed a bit. Just like when he thought the Helmaroc King would kill us. And, despite his fears, we made /— (B) That was /— (V) Did we also defeat Vaati and Ganon on the basis of luck?br /— (B) I don't want to remember that, /— (R) The same old whiner — Another Link said in a relatively furious tone, stepping out from behind one of the pillars. His clothes were red — Everything worked out in the past and it will work out in the future, you just need to stop being so /— (G) Red! Good to see you!br /— (R) Green... /— (V) Well, now that we've greeted each other, I think it's about time we got /— (R) Great! I can't wait to bomb some /— (B) Uh, guys? — Blue stood up and dusted off his clothes — Where's the old man?br / It was true. The old man who had approached Link a few minutes earlier was no longer in the shrine. The four Links looked around, hoping that he was just hiding, but to no /— (R) Ah, how wonderful — Red punched one of the pillars, but it wasn't enough to damage the object — We'll let him get away before he gives any more /— (V) There's only one way out here and Impa is watching it. She'll know where he's gone, if she hasn't immobilized him /— (G) Quick thinking, Vio. Come on, guys!/p
p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" Each wielding a blade, the four of them ran out of the sanctuary, where the young Sheikah was waiting for /— Finally you're back — she said impatiently — Can we go now? We've wasted too much time /— (G) Impa, where did the old man go?br / Impa looked confused. She arched an /— Old man? What old man?br /— (G) Why, the old man who was in the shrine. He left before I could question /— Link, nobody left. I would have /— (G) What?br /— (V) That's not /— (B) I knew it, we are going mad...br /— (R) You're lying!br /— Better watch your mouth — Impa addressed Red, a little annoyed — Just because you are ¼ of my friend, doesn't mean I couldn't kick your ass if I wanted / The two of them stared at each other, and Vio and Blue had already accepted that trouble was brewing. But Green got in the way, separating /— (G) Calm down, guys, calm down. We have to help Zelda and the Knights of Hyrule and stop what's attacking the castle from spreading throughout the /— You are right, Link. Let's / Before they disappeared, however, something caught Vio's eye. In the middle of the forest, hidden among the trunks and bushes, he could see out of the corner of his eye what looked like two red eyes watching him and his companions. When he turned towards the eyes, he confirmed what he was seeing. He would never forget those fierce eyes that stared at him like a predator staring at its prey. Eyes that belonged to a creature with black fur. He couldn't see very well what species the beast was because it was hidden. Before he felt the need to alert the others in the group, however, the animal /— (V) It must have just been an animal looking for food...br /— (G) What did you say, Vio?br /— (V) Huh? Oh, it was nothing. I just thought I saw something, but it turns out it was just a wild animal. No /— (G) I see — Green replied, a little suspiciously./p
p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" When Impa and the four Links finally returned to the castle, they were greeted by the sight of moblins marching against the Knights of Hyrule, led by Alphon, who were fighting bravely against the demons. A few blows from their swords were enough to destroy them and turn them to dust. From the top of one of the towers, Zelda, wielding a bow and a quiver full of light arrows, weapons empowered by divine light, attacked the enemy army. A single light arrow was capable of evaporating a monster instantly, while being generally harmless against natural biological beings like Hylians, Gerudo, Gorons and Zora. The most they did in these cases was stun the target briefly, but they soon recovered without further damage. As she fired at the rapidly approaching demon army, Zelda could see four dots: one green, one red, one violet and one blue. In the midst of her nervousness, she smiled with /— They're here... Thank the Goddesses, they're here! Link! No, Links! — She shouted and waved to be noticed by the four heroes, and it worked very /— (G) Is that Zelda? — Green squinted to get a better look — That's her!br /— (B) Clever of her to stay up there and attack from a distance. Can I keep her company while you fight with your swords?br /— (R) That depends, can I have your sword? It must be nice to use two at the same time!br /— (B) Of course, I didn't wanted to use it anyway — Blue reached out to hand Red his sword, but Green held him back — Hey!br /— (G) We're all going to attack together, as if we were /— And I don't intend to be left out — Impa said, snapping her /— (R) I want you to leave the bigger ones to me, okay?br / And so, the five warriors went into action./p
p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"-/p
p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'lucida grande', 'lucida sans unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px auto 1.286em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" So, a really funny thing happened. On the original chapter that i have on my notebook, the Links' dialogues were colored for each one. Green text for Green Link, purple text for Vio Link and so on/p
p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'lucida grande', 'lucida sans unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" But...uh.../p
p style="border: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'lucida grande', 'lucida sans unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" I don't think AO3 supports colored text and i didn't took that into consideration while writing so i had to put the (G)/(V)/(R)/(B) before their lines to avoid confusion/p