Chapter 2
Everyone was growing antsy being cooped up in Legend's house for the past week and a half so when Warrior declared the Four Sword Heroes officially "no longer concussed" there was much celebration, inside and out.
Of course, there were still concerns, mostly from Time and Twilight, but Green was quick to reassure them, and everyone else, that there was nothing to worry about, even if he wasn't exactly sure if that was true.
Contrary to what Red believed, recovering from their concussion had not been ample time for all their colors to show. This was especially unfortunate in Red's case since he possessed the lowest pain tolerance of them all. Luckily, Wild had plenty of natural painkillers on hand, and Green switched out with Red fairly regularly, so he wasn't left bearing the agony of their injury alone.
However, Blue and Vio, to the disappointment and concern of many, hadn't gained control once. It could have been a side-effect of the concussion. In fact, that was what Vio speculated, and Green was inclined to believe him, if only so he could worry less. Not that it actually worked.
"Does this mean Blue and Vio will be able to be out now?" Red asked hopefully.
"It's likely," Vio said, and Green quietly hummed in agreement as he tugged on his boots. "Though, I'd prefer it if we could check. Just to ensure nothing is wrong."
"And how do you propose we check?" Blue demanded with much more venom than necessary. He'd been especially short lately, and Green could only assume it was because he hadn't fronted in over a week. To be honest, it would make Green stir-crazy too. Not being able to move and speak as you liked was maddening.
"We could try to force a switch."
"Oh, sure!" Blue exclaimed, sarcasm soaking his every word. "Just snap your fingers, Green. Let me or Vio take over since you and Red have been hogging the body for forever."
"We haven't been doing it on purpose!" Red reminded him.
"Exactly, so how does Violet think he's going to make us switch on command?"
"First of all, don't call me Violet," Vio said. "Second, I've noticed that there are certain objects and situations that draw out one of us over the others. Therefore, in theory…"
That's about when Green stopped listening. Or maybe Vio, Blue, and Red retreated to the back of the headspace, and it was slightly more difficult to hear them. Conscious decision or not, the heroes were heading out soon, and he had to finish getting ready.
After strapping on his replica Four Sword, Green reached for his headband, only for his palm to slap the empty side-table instead. A quick scan of the surrounding area informed him that the cloth had not fallen off the table. It had been moved. Most likely by Red.
Green immediately began to rifle through his bag, pushing aside items irritably. "I swear, Red, if I have to dump this entire thing out…"
"What are you looking for?" Red asked.
"The headband. Where'd you put it?"
"Uhhh…"
That was never a good answer. "In our bag?"
"No."
"Of course not," Green grumbled. "Because why would you put it somewhere obvious?"
Tears burned the back of his eyes. "I took it off last night because it was hurting my head, and then Wind and I were playing with it, but I don't remember where it ended up. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to misplace it."
Green sighed, sitting back on his heels and rubbing his eyes. "It's fine." And it was. There was no reason to get so angry about it. In fact, he normally wouldn't be so frustrated so soon, which could only mean this wasn't his frustration. It was probably Blue's. Goddesses knew he'd been angry enough lately.
"Green, you okay?" He looked over to find Sky eyeing him uncertainly.
He offered a smile, hoping any remaining anger on his face would be dissuaded from staying. "Yeah. I just can't find my headband."
"It's not in your bag?"
He shook his head. "Red said…Wind!"
The sailor turned at his name. "Yeah?"
"Do you know where my headband is?"
"Um, maybe? I don't know for sure. Somewhere over there, I think," Wind said, pointing towards one of the many cluttered corners of Legend's house. Green didn't particularly feel like searching, especially since Legend was especially possessive of his clutter, but he got up to look anyway.
Sky helped him search, and Wind bounded over to help once he was finished fastening his shield to his back.
"No offense, Legend, but your house is a mess," Sky spoke up after a couple minutes of fruitless searching.
"It is not a mess," Legend objected, striding over to them with purpose. "It's organized chaos."
"How can chaos be organized?" Wind wondered.
Legend ignored him. "What are you looking for?"
"My headband."
It took all of ten seconds before Legend was passing Green the missing piece of cloth. "Here." He then smirked at Sky and Wind. "See? Organized chaos."
"Wow!" Had Red been out, Green was sure he'd be clapping along with Wind and gazing up at Legend in awe. As it was, Green opted to convey his amazement with a simple "thank you" before sweeping his hair off of his face using his newly found headband.
"We should all get a headband that matches our color," Red chattered as Green walked back to grab his bag. "Then we could switch it anytime we switch so everyone doesn't have to keep asking who's out."
Green wasn't opposed to the idea. In fact, he'd always felt a little guilty about having the headband be his color. He felt like it was an insult to the others and not entirely fair. However, before he could voice this – quietly as he still didn't feel comfortable speaking at full volume to someone no one else could hear – Vio interjected with his own request.
"Is it okay with you if we switch, Green?"
"If you can, go for it," Green replied. He wasn't going to deny Vio time in control since he hadn't had any for days.
"I'll need a book. Ask Legend for one."
Green failed to see how this was going to change anything but that was usually the point of things Vio did. It all made sense afterwards.
"Hey, Legend, can I borrow a book?"
Legend quirked an eyebrow. "You know we're leaving, right? You don't have time to read. Unless you plan on doing it while we walk, in which case, good luck not walking into anything because I'm not going to be your eyes."
"It's an experiment," Vio said.
"It's an experiment," Green parroted.
"For?"
"Science."
Somehow, Green didn't think that answer would persuade Legend. "Vio wants to see if we can force a switch so he can come out."
"I thought you guys had no control over switches," 'Rule piped up.
"We don't. That's why this is an experiment." He turned back to Legend. "So? Can I borrow a book really quick?"
"Alternatively, we could go to a library," Vio added.
"Gods, no! You'll bore us all to death!" Blue exclaimed while Red groaned in agreement.
"You have really bad timing," Legend complained, but he plucked a random tome off of a nearby bookshelf and tossed it to Green anyway.
Reflex caught the caught the book for him, but it was Vio that leveled a glare at the Hero of Legend. "Don't throw books." Only heathens threw books.
"You asked for a book," Legend said matter-of-factly. "There's a book."
"Mmm, and one I can't read at that," Vio hummed, casually fanning through the pages filed with foreign Hylian scrawl. Then again, he hadn't expected to be able to read it. He snapped the book shut and flicked his eyes up to scan the assortment of heroes in the room. "You all have to teach me your written Hylian sometime. And I'll teach you ours, of course."
Vio strolled over to Legend, silently relishing in how his body responded to him, and handed over the book like a civilized person. Legend took it, eyeing him critically. "You're not Green, are you?"
"Perceptive." Vio smiled, and there were no words to describe how great the miniscule movement of muscle felt. "I'm Vio."
"The experiment worked then?" Hyrule wondered, sounding surprised.
"Seems so," Vio agreed, flexing his fingers and analyzing their responsiveness. There was no delay and all movements were fluid, not shaky in the least. He was in full control.
Unfortunately, there was no telling how long it would remain that way. Forcing switches was a completely new, unexplored concept, which had been part of the reason why he'd decided to wait until they weren't concussed anymore to attempt it.
A headache pounded at the backs of his eyes, but other than that Vio felt right as rain. He didn't know about the others yet, but hopefully they'd come to the front soon enough like they usually did. For now, Vio was alone, and he couldn't say that he minded all that much.
"Welcome, Vio," Time acknowledged him with a nod. "It's great to meet you officially."
"Likewise," Vio returned with a nod of his own. Honestly, it was nice just to hear his name come from another person's mouth.
To his delight, he heard it plenty in the next couple minutes as the rest of the heroes crowded him with welcomes and greetings.
"Why couldn't you come out until now?" Wind asked, tilting his head to the side curiously.
Vio, who typically had an answer to everything, had no answer to this. Technically, he should have fronted way before this experiment of his. He'd wanted so desperately to answer questions and lay out his theories to the rest of the group while they were recovering. Personal interests didn't necessarily correlate with fronting, but external stimuli did and all the boxes had been ticked on numerous occasions to trigger Vio into control. At least, they had in Vio's opinion.
Of course, they had been concussed at the time, but that didn't inhibit Red and Green from switching at all. In fact, Vio had paid careful attention during the past few days and had been able to predict nearly every switch based off of the surrounding environment.
It was like he and Blue had been pushed back into a corner and held captive there. Could it be a side effect of their getting scrambled upon switching eras? Vio had no way to be sure. In any case, there was no use in worrying about it now, since he'd been able to be triggered into center stage and that meant Blue likely could be too.
"I'm not entirely certain, but it was probably the concussion," he decided finally.
"Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter," Legend declared matter-of-factly. He held up the book in his hand with a smirk. "Now we know how to get you out if we want to talk to you. Just throw a book."
"Do not." Vio was somewhat shocked by his own severe tone but Legend didn't seem to be affected.
Legend simply raised an eyebrow. "Why? Books don't have feelings, you know."
"They're sacred tomes of knowledge and you will respect them," Vio countered hotly. Blue had to be close because the words were Vio's but the bite behind them wasn't. "Moreover, we have feelings. Don't even think of trying to force us to switch. We did it just now because we wanted to and it was okay with all of us. None of you get to decide who fronts when. It happens when it happens, and if you ever trigger one of us without our permission, you will be sorry." Oh, that threat screamed Blue. Or at least, it was Blue inspired because Vio found that he meant what he said. He would be livid with anyone that triggered him or one of his brothers out without permission.
Legend took a step back, turning to replace the book on an already overflowing bookshelf. "Okay, noted. Sorry."
The change in the air was apparent at once and everyone shuffled awkwardly.
Vio cleared his throat as if that would somehow clear the tension from the room. "I believe we were leaving…?"
The heroes were reanimated then, as if their forgetful puppeteer had picked up the strings again, and they all scrambled to grab the last of their things and head out the door.
It was only once they had all filed outside that their energy waned.
"Where are we going, again?" Sky wondered, hand creeping towards the back of his neck like he was embarrassed for forgetting their destination in the first place. He needn't have felt such a thing, for no one knew where they were going. Not even their resident Link.
Legend did, however, have a plan. "We're asking one of my friends for assistance."
"Ravio?" Vio guessed.
"No." The pink-haired hero took out a golden bell and rang it.
The clanging it made didn't sound any different than an ordinary bell, but Vio knew better than to assume it was normal. Especially since it belonged to a fellow hero. Their items could rarely be classified as normal.
The other Links had the same thought, casting their gazes around in expectation, only to be disappointed when nothing happened. There was some impatient shifting. A cough. Still, nothing happened.
"Uh-" Twilight's doubt was interrupted by a girl flying down from the sky atop a broom.
"Listen here, Greenie, I-" The witch girl's words, for she could only be a witch judging by the pointed hat and flying broom, stuttered to a stop when she noticed the other eight heroes. Her eyes quickly found Legend, and she raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "I am not ferrying all of you across Hyrule."
"That's not what I called you here for."
"Good because I'm not doing it. Now, tell me why you really called me to your lame family reunion and make it snappy. I'm in the middle of running errands, you know!"
Legend obliged. "Have you encountered any strange monsters lately? Specifically with black blood?"
Ah, so that was his plan. Gathering information. Vio approved. It was a logical place to start. Unfortunately, Legend's witch friend had no information to give.
"Nope." She attempted to fly off, and Legend was quick to attach himself to the end of her broom. The extra weight didn't go unnoticed. The young witch ground to a halt, twisting around in her seat to glare at Legend. "Get off!"
"Answer my questions, and I will."
She shot the snarky hero a withering look that he seemed to enjoy and lowered her broom so she could place her feet flat on the ground. She swung off the broom and tugged the end out of Legend's hand, standing the broom next to her like a staff, and placing one hand on her cocked hip.
Legend took that as his cue to continue his interrogation. "Has your grandma seen anything?"
"Link, my gram stays in her hut all day and makes me run errands for her. HOW WOULD SHE SEE ANYTHING?!"
"Okay, stupid question," Legend acquiesced. "Have you heard anything about monsters that are stronger than usual?"
"No."
"How about-"
"Did it work?" Green's voice startled him more than it should have, but everyone was paying too much attention to the exchange between Legend and his friend to notice.
"I'm inside!" Red chirped happily. "Are you out Vio?"
He gave a definitive nod in response, and though Green and Red couldn't feel it, Vio knew they could see the dip in his gaze.
"Yay! Vio's out! Vio's out!"
The bookish hero couldn't help smiling at Red's enthusiasm. It was literally contagious.
And it was only made more so by Green's praise. "I knew it would work; your plans never fail. Great job, Vio!"
"We should experiment with it more sometime," Red said. "Maybe we'll be able to control our switches more!"
Vio expressed his agreement with another nod, euphoria floating light and airy in his chest and showing no signs of abating as Red and Green continued to chatter and cheer over the experiment's success.
They were so loud that it was difficult to ignore them, but with some intense concentration, Vio managed to tune back into the conversation, concentrating on the girl's odd blue hair.
"…If I had a sample, my gram could run some tests, see what's in the blood that's making them go cucco. But if you want my opinion, it's dark magic. Usually is when it comes to monsters."
"Right, but could you determine a source, maybe?"
"Maybe. I'd need the blood in question, or rather, my gram would."
"We don't have a sample.
"Then get one and when you do-" The girl stepped forward, wielding the broom like a spear and thrusting the tip of it at Legend's face. "-you're going to use those legs of yours to WALK to my grams, got it?"
"Sure," Legend said, pushing the broom aside with the back of his hand.
"Hmph." The witch turned her back on him, twirling her broom in her hand and mounting it once more. This time, Legend let her fly off.
"So…girlfriend?" Warrior asked with a smirk.
"Shut up," Legend snapped, catching his shoulder on the way past.
Vio smiled at his companion's antics, and fell into step with the rest of the group, content to listen to the others laugh at Warrior's teasing. It seemed that they were just going to walk until they ran into an infected monster, which, considering the fact that they'd been doing that unintentionally in every era they'd been to thus far, shouldn't have posed much of a challenge.
Vio was satisfied with this arrangement because it allowed him plenty of time to explore his newfound freedom.
"Wild, may I see your Sheikah Slate?"
"Um, sure, I guess." Wild replied, handing it over. "What do you want it for?"
"I'm just curious," Vio said as he accepted the slate from Wild. It was lighter than he'd been expecting. "I want to know how it works."
"Here he goes…"
"I don't even know how it works," Wild admitted.
"Aw, let him have it, Blue! We've all had a chance to act like ourselves outside. Well, not you, yet. But you will!" Red insisted.
"Probably magic," Green guessed, ignoring Red's and Blue's comments.
"Not magic," Vio declared. He knew what magic felt like, and as he held the slate and tapped on its smooth, mirror-like surface, he felt nothing.
"It's definitely science, er, technology," Wild agreed. "Zelda always corrects me when I call it magic. I think you two would get along well, actually. Are you interested in science?"
"Very much so," Vio said, drawing an apple from the slate and then trying, and failing, to put it back, much to the amusement of the voices in his head. Not that they knew how the slate functioned either. He turned to Wild. "How do you put things back?"
"Tap here," Wild instructed him, grabbing the other side of the slate and pointing at an arrow icon in the corner. "Then…" The long-haired hero guided the hand that was holding the apple to touch the slate and the fruit disappeared.
"Fascinating."
Blue yawned. "Boring."
"I think it's neat!"
"It's definitely different."
Vio flipped the slate around so the Sheikah Eye emblazoned on the back stared up at him, half expecting to see the mechanism that had stored the apple away. Of course, there wasn't anything of the sort there. He'd have to take it apart if he wanted to determine how it functioned. However, it was unlikely Wild would let him do such a thing.
"I can show you how the rest of the slate works, if you want," Wild offered.
"Please." Vio nodded eagerly, ignoring Blue's groans about being bored to death and the subsequent chatter of Red and Green telling Blue to quit being so selfish.
It was freeing, being able to say and act how he pleased. How he felt most comfortable.
His pleasure didn't go unnoticed by his impromptu teacher. "If you're so interested in the slate, why didn't you say so before?"
"It's too me."
Wild's quiet, "oh" was one Vio had grown accustomed to hearing from the others. It wasn't an "oh, I understand." It was an "oh…I don't get it."
"I'm the only one of us genuinely interested in things like this." Vio waved the Sheikah Slate in the air for clarification. "If I had expressed that before, everyone else would have had to feign interest, and to be frank, they're not capable."
"I'll show you capable!" Blue shot back.
Vio rolled his eyes. Blue was the last person that could pretend to be him and get away with it.
"So you never got to do anything you wanted until now?" Wild wondered, sounding crestfallen.
"Not exactly. I enjoy smithing, and there's always something to fix, thanks to you," Vio returned with a teasing smile.
Wild laughed. "I'm not that bad, am I?"
"No, but your weapons are." All levity vanished from his posture and tone. "You really have to stop taking whatever you can get from monsters. I do like the work, but the scraps of metal and splinters you call weapons are hardly worth fixing."
"Yeah! We can make you a sword and shield that won't break!" Red chimed in.
Vio nodded in agreement before remembering Wild couldn't hear Red and repeating Red's offer out loud.
A shout of "Monsters ahead!" choked off Wild's reply, and Vio's hand flew to his sword, unsheathing it. He was towards the back of the group, as usual, and by the time Vio returned the tablet to Wild and managed to work his way to the front, he found the Chuchus already dissolving into puddles of green goo. Nothing about them indicated they were infected.
"Finally something exciting and you're so slow you miss the battle!" Blue griped.
"I don't think there were many enemies to begin with, Blue," Green said. Looking around, Vio had to agree. Besides, ChuChus were hardly formidable foes. At least, when one wasn't the size of a Picori. They hadn't missed much excitement.
"Figures when we're looking for infected monsters we can't find them," Legend grumbled, flinging Chu goop off his sword.
"Maybe it didn't spread to your world yet," Wind suggested.
"Doubt it," Legend scoffed.
"I'm sure we'll run into more sooner or later," Sky reassured him. "We always do."
"Right, let's keep moving," Time agreed. "Legend?" He eyed the resident hero, indicating that he should resume his place at the front. Legend did so, and they all fell into step behind him.
Vio kept his sword in his hand, opting to stay alert. Blue's anger, while nothing new, was justified in this case. It was foolish of Vio to get so distracted when they were seeking out trouble. Had it been something more dangerous than a few Chuchus, Vio could have gotten himself killed. Blue, Red, and Green, too.
Of course, the other chosen heroes probably wouldn't let such a thing happen. They protected each other instinctively, just like the Four Sword heroes used to and still did—to the best of their abilities, anyway.
However, it was wrong to expect the others to mind his negligence, especially when he was fully capable of paying attention. And anyway, they couldn't catch everything either. All it took was one fatal hit. At the end of the day, it came down to a choice, and Vio prided himself on making the right one.
He could fawn over the technology from Wild's era later. Now was the time for vigilance.
Unfortunately, without something concrete to engage him, Vio quickly found himself slipping. His head was in a fog and for an instant he worried that he had caused it with his experiment. He writ the thought off as ridiculous almost as soon as it assailed him. None of his physical symptoms were different than normal. Headache? Check. Floaty dream feeling? Check. Audible inconsistencies? Check.
Just a regular day in the life.
Vio couldn't help feeling disappointed that he was being pulled back already. He exchanged his sword for his bow in an attempt to ground himself, seeing as he was the best archer of the four of them, and therefore, used the bow the most. Running his hands along the wood helped.
Until they were ambushed, that is. Vio was able to loose one arrow before he was shoved aside, and Blue jolted into control.
Dizziness struck him, and he stumbled, blinking away the fog with practiced ease and tuning in to his surroundings. Strange lizard-like monsters with leathery wings swarmed the air.
Wild already had his bow out and was firing arrows, and though the bow wasn't Blue's strong suit, it was already in his hand so he nocked an arrow. To his dismay, their arrows pinged harmlessly off of the creatures' round shields.
"What are these things?" Legend demanded, lowering his own bow in favor of rolling out of the way of a gutsy monster that rushed him. The creature was in the air and out of reach again with a powerful beat of its leathery wings.
"Aeralfos," Twilight and Warrior said in unison.
"You need to bring them down with a clawshot," Twilight explained, pulling out said weapon.
"Hookshot," Warrior corrected him, firing his hookshot at a shielding enemy. Unlike the arrows, the hookshot embedded itself in the shield and brought the monster crashing to the ground in front of Warrior. The captain wasted no time whipping out his sword to hack and slash at the creature.
"Clawshot or hookshot," Twilight amended, following Warrior's lead with his own weapon.
Armed with this information, everyone began to pull out of one the indicated weapons. Blue, however, had no such item.
"Vio!" Sky's call turned his head just in time to catch the clawshot the Skyloftian had tossed his way.
He nodded his head in thanks, not bothering to correct his fellow hero.
With that, the air filled with battle-cries, ringing metal, and screeching hisses from Aeralfos. Blue opted to use his sword at first, simply because the clawshot required a learning curve that he didn't have time for with all the attacks coming his way.
When there was finally a small lull in the battle, he sheathed his sword and fumbled with the unfamiliar weapon. It swallowed up his hand and entire forearm, but he could reach the trigger inside so he didn't think much of it. Only when he aimed and shot the claw at an air-born lizard monster did he realize why he'd never come across such a weapon.
He was simply too light for it.
Instead of pulling the Aeralfos down to him, the clawshot pulled him up to the Aeralfos.
Blue tightened his already tight grip on the clawshot as he was swept off his feet and into the air. The journey was all too short and ended with the monster's round shield slamming him to a stop.
The Aeralfos screeched in his face, none too happy about him clinging to its shield, and attempted to shake him off. The motions were jarring but Blue's death grip on his borrowed clawshot ensured he wasn't going anywhere. Unless he wanted to, of course. Which he did because being ten feet in the air was dangerous by itself and that wasn't even accounting for any flying lizard monsters that had the ability to breathe fire if they so chose.
Thanking his lucky stars that it hadn't occurred to the creature to burn him to a crisp just yet, Blue ensured he had a solid hold on the top of the shield before freeing the clawshot from the mesh of metal and scrambling up and onto the rim of the shield. He balanced there for maybe half a second before jumping onto the monster's shoulders, unsheathing his sword, and stabbing downward.
A piercing screech of pain that made him wince erupted from the monster beneath him, but it didn't go down. Only when he tugged his sword out of its head in preparation for another stab, thick black blood slogging down the blade, did he realize why. This monster was infected.
It was then that the Aeralfos decided to twist its head around and breathe fire. Blue backflipped instinctively, only remembering as he began to straighten out that he was still in the air.
Reaching out with the hand that still clutched Sky's clawshot, Blue fired at a preoccupied Aeralfos's shield and was yanked to safety. Well, relative safety. Hanging off a monster's shield wasn't really the safest, but it was definitely better than going splat on the ground.
Maneuvering around this enemy was slightly easier because he'd caught it by surprise, and it had been too occupied with targeting Wind to notice Blue until he sliced through its neck.
Blue only had time to note the spray of red blood before he found himself plummeting to the ground atop the Aeralfos he'd just ended.
Fortunately, the creature's corpse cushioned his fall fairly well so he only came out of it a tad bruised.
Wind gaped at Blue as he shot to his feet. "That was awesome!"
A small satisfied smirk tugged at his lips, but he forced it into a careful frown and moved to block a sword strike that was heading for Wind. "Talk later; fight now."
The young sailor shook himself out of his amazement and dropped back into his determined battle stance, helping Blue dispose of the immediate threat.
Fighting with Wind was refreshing. The two of them moved with fluidity that would make a river jealous, ducking and weaving and slashing at Aeralfos without so much as a word exchanged between them.
Whenever an Aeralfos took to the air, Wind would don his iron boots and hookshot and pull the monster down to their level. Then Blue would leapt into action, viciously swinging his sword and blocking counterstrikes as he waited for Wind to sneak up behind the monster and deal extra damage.
Blue managed to fell some Aeralfos on his own, but for the most part he and Wind did it together. It seemed that they had stumbled upon a mix of infected and non-infected monsters.
Though tough, they were no match for nine seasoned heroes and before Blue knew it, the battle was over and potions were being passed around. Other than a wicked slice to Sky's arm, none of them had been injured too badly and even then, it was nothing a potion and a couple bandages couldn't fix.
Blue himself only suffered a few bruises, which faded with the help of a red potion.
"Did you see Vio fighting them in the air?!" Wind exclaimed to Sky, shaking Blue by his shoulders.
"Green," Blue corrected him, pitching his voice perfectly to match Green's with hardly a thought. Imitating Vio was doable, but not for long.
"Green, sorry. It was crazy cool!" Wind cried, jumping up and down in excitement.
"It was crazy," Time agreed. "I honestly expected something like that from Wild, not you."
"It was an accident," Blue informed them. A thrilling, effective accident, but an accident nonetheless.
"You probably shouldn't be using clawshots," Sky rubbed his neck sheepishly as Blue returned his weapon.
Blue twisted his mouth into a wry grin. "Probably not." Not when he was sharing his body with other people at least. He didn't know if it was the adrenaline still coursing through his veins or not, but it had been kind of fun. If he hadn't been concerned about hurting the body, then he may have kept flying from Aeralfos to Aeralfos.
"The important thing is we're all okay," Twilight interjected, accepting the clawshot he had lended to 'Rule and storing it away.
"And we got the blood," Legend added, holding up a bottle which he'd just finished scooping some black monster blood into.
"We are never using that bottle again," Warrior declared, staring at the goop inside with disgust.
Legend rolled his eyes. "Obviously not. It's staying with the witch, and she can burn it when she's done with it for all I care." The pink-haired hero got to his feet. "Speaking of, we have a witch to get to. Let's go."
"You're in a rush," Warrior observed as they began to move again, leaving the battlefield and all its carnage behind. "Hoping your girlfriend's there?"
"For the last time, she's not my girlfriend!" Legend griped, glaring at the scarf-wearing soldier. "She is a friend that is a girl."
"So girlfriend," Wind decided with a mischievous glint in his eye.
"No!"
Blue would have loved to tease Legend about it too but bit his tongue. Green would never do something like that. He would, however, laugh along, so that's exactly what Blue did.
For what it was worth, the witch girl hadn't been bad looking. She'd even had blue hair which was pretty cool and matched Blue's own signature color and namesake. Mistaking her for Legend's girlfriend really wasn't as much of an insult as Legend was making it out to be. Not in Blue's opinion, anyway.
Nonetheless, Legend refused to tell them her name, which led to some, frankly, hilarious guesses. Only when 'Rule proposed the name Blueberry on account of the girl's hair did the conversation turn into a debate over whether blueberries were actually blue or not, courtesy of Wild who insisted that when mashed they were a reddish-purple and when peeled they were green.
Vio probably knew that, but Blue didn't, and he couldn't help but think the fruit reflected their situation. One body but many minds. Like a blueberry, they were made of many colors and none of them could claim to be the original. Green was the most obvious outwardly, but Blue, Red, and Vio were no less present. One just had to look a little deeper than the surface
Ugh, Vio had to be close even though Blue couldn't hear him because now he was spacing out, thinking about blueberries of all things!
They were almost to the witch's hut when the world stuttered and swirled in on itself. Dizziness struck Blue and brought him to his knees. Groans from the others around him entered his ears. They were switching worlds again.
"Are you seri-?!" The exasperated half sentence from Legend was the last thing Blue was aware of before everything snapped to black.
Pain. It was the first thing that registered in Green's mind, and his heart rate picked up as he failed to recall any reason why his head felt like a giant had palmed it and squeezed.
Vio's first thought was that it was a particularly aggressive switching headache. They'd gotten them plenty of times before, after all, and he did just switch out so it was a likely explanation.
Green was inclined to think so too but couldn't stop his worry. Was it really just because of switching or did they have a concussion again? Did the body get injured somehow?
There was only one way to know for sure. Move.
Gingerly, Green attempted to curl his fingers into fists. He only managed it on his left hand.
Vio managed it on his right.
"I believe we are both in control at the moment," Vio observed.
"Yeah, I think so too," Green returned. "What is happening?"
"I'm not entirely sure…"
"Are we hurt?"
"No idea. I can't open my eyes."
"Maybe I can…?" Green slowly peeled open his eyes and lifted his head off of his folded arms.
Green grass. A river. Nothing remotely familiar.
Were they still in Legend's Hyrule? Neither of them knew.
"Four." The nickname they'd adopted drew their eyes to Time who was standing a few feet away. The others were on their feet too, assessing the area, making Vio suspect they had changed eras since he had last fronted. "Are you alright?"
Habit had their head halfway through a nod before Vio corrected it with a jerk that made their migraine flare and eyes go dizzy.
Green squeezed their eyes shut and rested his pounding head back on his forearms. Settle, please. Settle.
This wasn't anything new. They'd gone through this a bunch of times and each time everyone just assumed time travel made them sick. Well, it made everyone sick, but it hit him especially hard. Four minds had to catch up with the body, not just one.
More often than not, two of them got stuck in control at the same time, just like Green and Vio were now. It should have become less scary, but it never did.
Their thoughts and emotions were jumbled together so they could hear and feel what the other was thinking and feeling, and though Green could hear Vio's rational mind insisting that one of them would front fully in a few minutes like always, he could feel Vio's own fear. Fear that they wouldn't. That they'd be stuck like this for an hour or more. Because after all, hadn't they only snapped out of their previous mix-up by being knocked over the head?
Of course, the others hadn't known then so they'd had to keep it a secret which probably didn't help matters. Now, everyone knew, but that was terrifying in its own right because he could feel the eyes on him, crawling all over his skin and sticking there like glue, and he didn't want them to see this.
But Vio didn't seem to care as much as Green did because he was lifting their head and Green couldn't help cracking open his eyes when Vio started to shift the right side of the body so they could sit up. Green followed along, thinking it ironic because he was supposed to be the leader.
The thought invigorated him. He was the leader. He could deal with this because he'd done it plenty of times before and out of them all, Vio was the easiest to be trapped in co-control with.
"Don't move the eyes," Green ordered Vio.
"I won't."
"Did you guys get mixed up again?" Twilight asked.
Green didn't want to nod, partly because of the headache and partly because he feared the world would tilt and swirl again. Thankfully, Vio had it covered, raising his right hand and signing yes.
The real answer was more complicated than that, but Vio didn't have both of his hands to sign and talking whenever they were like this was next to impossible.
"Can we do anything to help?" Time questioned. He was kneeling down somewhere to their right, but Green didn't dare take his eyes off of the nothing on the ground.
"Water," Green signed. It usually helped ground him in these types of situations so hopefully the water would shock him into full control.
'Rule was quick to offer a waterskin, and Green and Vio accepted it with minimal difficulty. The cool liquid alerted them to the fact that the body was parched, but they didn't dare drink so much at once so they forced themselves to take a break after a couple swigs.
No one moved to take the water from him, perhaps sensing that he wasn't done with it yet.
Green could feel Vio's thoughts drifting farther away, out of his reach like they should be. Encouraged by this, he took another sip.
"Not to interrupt but we're in my Hyrule," Wild interjected meekly. "Just…thought you guys might want to know."
They did. It helped to be less confused, though the two of them still had a plethora of questions. Unfortunately, those would have to wait until they settled.
"We should get Four somewhere they can rest. Is there a stable nearby?" Time questioned Wild.
Green nearly choked on the water, tugging the waterskin away from his mouth and nearly dropping it as he freed his left hand to sign "no" over and over. Now that he was thinking a bit clearer, he realized having the other heroes in the know was incredibly beneficial. Any other time, he had to scramble for his waterskin himself (which wasn't the easiest thing to do when one didn't have complete control over his body). He had to move when he wasn't ready to. Moreover, he had to act like he was fine when he wasn't.
If they took him to a stable, he'd have to pretend all over again, and putting on a show of normalcy for strangers was something he'd rather not have to find the strength for right now.
Thankfully, Twilight noticed and was quick to reassure him. "No? Okay, okay, we won't. We'll stay right here."
Silence reigned, then, and Green fell into a sleepy pattern of drink, blink, drink, stare, drink, don't forget to blink, drink some more, until a voice broke his concentration.
"Is it getting any better?" 'Rule's voice was soft, for which Green was grateful. His head still throbbed.
"I can't hear your thoughts anymore," Vio reported.
"I can't hear yours either", Green returned but received no indication his other half had heard.
"Yes," Green whispered, testing out his tongue. It seemed to work fine, but there wasn't much to trip over in that one word.
"Is it like what happened last time?" Wind wondered, curious.
"No, it's tovus." Green furrowed his brow at the slur and tried to correct it twice without success before tossing all words aside and holding up two fingers, then patting the respective colors on his tunic.
"Green and Vio?" Time checked.
Green signed the affirmative before taking another drink of water. At this rate, he was going to drain the entire waterskin. It was helping, though.
"Will it help any if you look at my Sheikah Slate?" Wild wondered, edging a little closer.
"Yes!" Vio eagerly lied. Well, Green didn't have any proof it was a lie, but he was almost completely in control now so he didn't think Vio would front like before, but it didn't hurt to try.
At his go ahead, Wild sat down beside them, and Green allowed himself to take his eyes off the ground and redirect his attention to Wild's mysterious slate. The long-haired hero let him grasp one side of it as he scrolled through it and though Vio was plenty entertained in his head, commenting on this and that, there was no change.
Or rather, there was no immediate change. Vio was sliding back, but it was sluggish, like someone was peeling off a stuck bandage with excruciating slowness except the bandage was his head. He couldn't pay much attention to Wild's quiet explanations or sliding between inventories and maps. Everything was foggy and far away, like he was in a dream. Just when he became convinced Vio was switching with him after all, the world popped back into clarity, and Green released a breath he hadn't been conscious of holding.
He shoved the slate back towards Wild as gently as he could while still being firm. The not-quite light it was emitting was hurting his eyes. He rubbed them as if that would help relieve some of the tension from his head. "That was miserable."
"Did it work?" Wild wondered.
"Not you-" Green cut himself off and tried again, taking his time on each word. "Not the way you thought it would, I think. I'm Green."
"Just Green?" Legend cocked an eyebrow.
"Just Green," Green confirmed with a weary smile.
"Is this something we should be concerned about?" Twilight wanted to know.
Honestly, Green would like to know that himself. As far as he could tell, however… "No. It happens. We always get out of it eventually. I'm fine. Vio's fine. Thanks for helping us."
"What exactly happened?" Warrior wondered.
"Me and Vio-"
"Vio and I," Vio corrected him.
"Vio and I," Green corrected himself begrudgingly, "got stuck controlling the body together. We were both fully aware, seeing, hearing, everything. But I could control the left side, and he could control the right and our thoughts were mashed together. It was really weird and uncomfortable, and I'd rather not talk about it."
Respecting his wishes, the group changed topics.
"It figures we'd change worlds right before we can reach the witch," Legend grumbled, a scowl painting his features.
"You don't happen to know any witches, do you, Wild?" Warrior asked with mild interest.
Wild frowned in thought. "No…but I do know a guy that's obsessed with monsters."
"Could he do what Legend's witch was going to?" Sky wondered.
"I don't know. We could try to track him down and ask," Wild returned, beginning to fiddle with the Sheikah Slate.
"Wait, so we did get the blood?" Green interjected, desperately trying to make sense of this new conversation. Vio was quiet but Green could still feel him nearby, so he was probably doing the same.
"Dude, you were there when we got it," Legend said.
That answer didn't help Green's confusion one bit, and he made sure Legend knew it by shooting him a puzzled look. "No, I wasn't."
"You were!" Wind insisted. "You fought the Aeralfos while they were still in the air! Don't you remember?" The boy's tone suggested that Green should, but he didn't.
"I don't have any recollection of that whatsoever."
"Truly? You don't remember borrowing my clawshot?" Sky pressed.
He shook his head. "The last thing I remember is…Vio was out, and Wild was showing him the Sheikah Slate. Then there were some Chuchus, I think."
"There was a battle shortly after that but I lost control just as it started," Vio said.
"So whoever you were talking to during that time up until now, was not me," Green concluded.
"Who was it?" Twilight asked.
Green shrugged. "Definitely not me.
"Or me," Vio added.
"Or Vio. Red?"
"Unlikely."
"Yeah, probably not. Um, maybe Blue?"
"Because it was a fight, I'm going to say definitely."
"Okay, Vio thinks it was definitely Blue, and I'm going to second that," Green stated. He knew for a fact it hadn't been him or Vio, and Red had adjusted to being himself around the others by now. Blue was the only option left.
"Why would he pretend to be you?" 'Rule wondered. "Doesn't he know that he doesn't have to do that anymore?"
"Yes, but maybe he just…forgot," Green returned. He knew it had been a bit of an adjustment for him, and it was an even bigger adjustment for the other three, who had had their personalities trampled into obscurity the most.
"Or he's still mad that we told our secret, and he's rebelling in his own childish way," Vio proposed. "Think about it. If he forgot he wouldn't call himself Green. He'd call himself Four."
Green hated that Vio had a point. Still, he attempted to cling to the hope that it was an innocent mistake that didn't mean anything.
"We have been keeping this secret for a long time, even before we met up with you guys," Green continued, not knowing if he was trying to convince everyone else or himself. "It was probably just a habit."
YouTube Resources:
"FORCED PERSONALITY SWITCH CAUGHT ON CAMERA Positive Triggers DissociativeIdentityDisorder REUPLOAD" –DissociaDID
"My Identities Impersonating Me: Why DID is a hidden disorder | Multiplicity&Me" –MultiplicityAndMe
"CAN YOU NOTICE? | Overt vs Covert Identities | Dissociative Identity Disorder" –MultiplicityAndMe
Website Resource (delete the spaces):
learn about did . com