Disclaimer: I do not own Linked Universe, it belongs to jojo. :)
The Linked Universe prompt for this story was something to do with chaos. This was somehow born out of it, but I couldn't tell you why this was the first idea I jumped to if I wanted to.
Time was having a bit of…difficulty right now. Wind wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but he knew there was something very not right about how he was feeling. But it's not like Sky wasn't used to winging his way through confusing situations, so he'd just have to run with it.
He took a deep breath and tried to stand up, but his body was too heavy-light tall-short-scars-in-the-wrong-places …
They stopped, halfway to their feet, as they fell-stood-stayedinplace
Connection…the device said something about a connection…
Wild grimaced. It would be just his luck, running into some crazy tech that split-them-up-brought-them-together-this-has-never-happened-before-not-again!-again?
He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to bring his thoughts back into coherence. Time took a deep breath, and opened his eyes. It wasn't quite as bad as before, but the disorientation still caught him off guard as nine different perspectives of the clearing suddenly swam in front of his eyes. Wild looked down at himself, saw Four's Twilight's-Time's-Wind's tunic on his not-his body (bodies?).
Warriors closed his eyes again, then blinked as he found that there were still a few visuals in his head. They all went dark a half a second later, but Legend-Four-Sky was certain of what he saw.
Sitting back down again, to minimize how much they had to focus on, Sky-Twilight-Wild-Time-Four began to focus on his thoughts, trying to separate them from the jumble.
It's-no-different-from the colors,-just-on-a-greater-scale-...wait-what-colors- oh that's true- worse than Zelda nagging- think I found my own thoughts, but I can still hear everyo- someone else has colors?- wait was that me or hi-
Gasping for breath, Four was the first to extricate his own mind from the mishmash of thoughts, and he found himself staring up at a tall tree. While his thoughts were now his own, the others were still in his head.
Legend was the next to snap himself out of it, and he slowly sat up and stared at Four.
Four stared back. For a moment, their thoughts seemed to partially intertwine again. He's split before too? No one- I thought I was- we were- the only- SNAP OUT OF IT- sorry
Deciding to put that off for later, the two of them turned towards the other seven who were still caught up in the chaos of the newly formed mental link. However, thankfully, it seemed that Time, at least, was slowly making progress, having isolated his own thoughts but not yet managing to separate his own perspective.
Legend grimaced. "I think we're going to have to go back in, help them out," he said reluctantly, cringing in unnerved fascination as Warriors', Hyrule's, and Wind's lips moved incoherently along with his words.
Four nodded, and his movements remained his own. "I think you're right. But you should let me do it. You don't seem to have as much control as I do."
He could halfway hear the protest Legend wanted to give, but the veteran held his tongue, giving a small nod and proving Four's point as Wind nodded with him. "Be careful."
Four smirked. "Always am."
He dived into the sea of minds, focusing on Time first, since he was mostly self-aware. A moment later, he felt Time's mind untangle itself from the jumble, and sighed in relief as Warriors and Twilight seemed to have caught on simply by observing, and began to work their own ways out.
So…who was having the most trouble? He studied the confused tangle for a few minutes, and came to the conclusion that the worst ones off were Wind and Wild.
Makes sense, I guess. Wind is such a strong personality that having it stripped away from him was bound to be disorienting.
He was about to help Wind first, when he caught a thought from Twilight, who was still stuck but more aware of himself than he had been. 'Wild first.'
Four paused. 'Huh?' he sent back.
'Help Wild…you should…he…amnesia.'
Oh. Right. Wind might have a strong sense of self to help and hinder in equal measure, but Wild…did not. His mind was strained enough already; it was hard to say what sorts of things he could handle. Four changed direction and gently slipped into Wild's perspective.
Twilight had been right to worry. Not only was Wild still meshed with Wind, Sky, and Hyrule, but his known memories-along with several which were unfamiliar-yet-familiar to him, were swirling through his head in a feedback loop that was going to give him one heck of a headache later. Four gently spoke to the ball of pained confusion hidden in the mess. 'Wild?'
Three of the four remaining minds thought, not me-who is- is that the smithy? but the fourth remained frozen in confusion. Four tried again. 'Wild. It's Four.'
Wild's consciousness shifted in his direction. Wild? That's me?
'Yes'
'Not everyone-all-together'
'No. This is you. Can you try and find me?'
'worry lost yes no '…okay.'
With careful coaxing and guidance, the smithy managed to help the champion find his own mind again. Four resurfaced to see Wild take four deep breaths, stagger unsteadily to his feet, and dart off into the trees. Twilight hesitated, then stood. "Someone should go with him."
Four nodded, making a face at the input coming from Wild's side of the link. Mind-induced vertigo was not fun; Four should know- he was practically the authority on it.
He steeled himself to dive back in, only to find that the other three were already mostly themselves again.
Sensing his confusion, Sky shot Four a shaky smile. "We were all getting pretty close to working our way back to ourselves once a few of us were already out, but it was hard to think with the champion in the mix. Once he was free, it became a lot easier."
A pained, 'sorry' echoed through the Link from beyond the treeline. Wind scowled and glared at the direction the thought had come from. "Don't you dare apologize. S'not like you did it on purpose, and you were the worst off!" He yelled towards the trees. A whisper of gratitude threaded its way toward them.
That settled, those who remained in the clearing turned to face the thing that had brought all this about in the first place. Seven heroes (with an eighth and ninth peeking in) all stared at the artifact in distaste.
"So!" chirped Sky. "Who's up for destroying this thing?"
Nine hands clamped down on nine sword hilts in eerie unison.