Trigger Warning!: Pretty graphic descriptions of injuries toward the end. Quick description at the end.

Chapter 3

Zelda

Link and Zelda played in his front yard. Arista was supervising, as they were each only 10 years old. "Would you two like some iced lemonade and cookies? It's a bit warm today."

"Yeah, that'd be great gramma! Thanks!" Zelda voiced her gratitude as well before the older woman went inside.

Not too long after, a white van sporting a "Mighty Bananas Co." logo on the side pulled up a couple houses down. Zelda heard the doors slam, then footsteps drew near. Link tensed and shifted in front of her, blocking her from the view of the two men walking their way. She looked at him quizzically. They were just some workers, after all. The small, lithe one moved toward the two, while the larger one hung back a bit.

The man started talking. "Would you kids like some mighty bananas? A sweet snack for a nice day." Link shook his head, but Zelda peeked around Link and nodded, as she liked the fruit. Be better than burned cookies.

The man started, then looked at her more closely. An odd expression crossed his face. Then he grinned. "Of course, Miss Hyrule."

He started to move to them, but Link stood and stepped in front of her, arms spread defensively. The man snarled, "Think you can protect her, boy?" He grabbed Link by the front of his t-shirt. Her friend lunged and bit his hand.

"AAHG! You'll pay for that, twerp!"

The man had released Link upon the bite and the two ran, their hands holding on tightly. The pale-faced man nearer to them growled and pulled a mask with an inverted Sheikah eye over his face, the burly man following suit.

They began chasing after the two children, who navigated easily through twisting alleys and streets, thanks to Link's penchant for exploring any area he found himself in. He turned into an alleyway and wriggled through a gap in a brick wall, Zelda still being pulled behind him. He stopped at a house and jumped into its window well. He then opened the window and forced Zelda through. "Be super quiet," he whispered.

"Link, what's going on? Those guys..."

"Don't worry, Missus Impa and Purah, and Misters Symin and Robbie will help you. I gotta lead them away though, so they can't find you. Just tap three times on the door up those stairs, and they'll take care of you."

"Link, wait! I have no idea what's going on! Please don't leave, I can't-"

"You can. They'll know what to do, trust me."

She searched his face for a second. "Okay, fine. Be safe Link." She held him tightly for a moment before nodding and letting him go.

As soon as he raced out of the basement window, she cautiously went up the stairs before tapping three times on the door like Link had said. Hurried footsteps sounded, before the door opened, revealing a young Sheikah woman with glasses. "Click, snap! Who are you?! And where's Linky?" the woman asked.

"I-I don't-" Zelda stuttered.

"C'mon, kiddo, spill it!"

"Oh, calm down Purah." A new voice.

Purah huffed. "Well, Link's signal was tapped on the door, but he's not here! What am I supposed to do, not ask questions?!"

The new woman shook her head. She had tanner skin than the other woman's and long white hair in a braid. "Hello, young one, can you tell us what's going on?"

Zelda began to stutter out every detail, from Link's grandmother going inside to the mighty bananas on the side of the truck, and Link leaving her here to run off to mislead the men. After she finished, the woman who had previously been calm exploded.

"Well, that's just perfect. How are we supposed to find him?! And the Yiga surely have him by now, and who knows what they'll do, they don't care that he's a kid!"

"Oh, calm down, Impa," Purah mimicked. "I gave him a tracking device, an ankle bracelet, in case we needed him to scout stuff out for us. He's just so curious that he's always bound to get in trouble. All we need is Robbie's precious machine to show us where he is."

The two women walked up some stairs, Zelda following. Once they reached the room, Purah started yelling at a man with a shock of white hair and odd goggles to type something in a system of computers and find where Link was. The man, who introduced himself as Robbie to Zelda, typed something, and a map appeared on the screen. A specific dot near them was moving quickly, when all of a sudden, it stopped completely and disappeared. Robbie muttered something under his breath before typing into the machine again. The map moved to show a point in Karusa Valley, where the point stayed.

The three Sheikah were silent, and Zelda hesitated to ask what was going on. She managed to squeak out a few words: "Wh-what happened to Link?"

The people exchanged some glances before Impa knelt on one knee and offered a comforting hand on her shoulder. "There is no gentle way to speak of the Yiga, so I shall give you the truth. Your friend, Link has been taken by evil, traitorous people, and will likely torture him for information on your whereabouts, disregarding his age."

"What? Torture? Why? I'm not that important! How are we gonna get Link back? And will he be okay?"

Impa sighed. "I don't know who would be willing to rescue him... but we will start calling immediately. When we save him, we will contact you immediately. You should go back home, though. Your parents will get worried."

Zelda frowned. "No. I want to stay here, so that when you find him, I can see him again. He's my best friend, and I'm gonna stick with him." She saw Impa about to protest, then quickly said, "You can call my dad! As long as I'm with people that can take care of me, it should be okay!"

"Check it! Right away, milady," Purah said, grinning.

_/|||\_

It took them a full day to gather people, and luckily they were able to travel fast. The team consisted of Impa, another Sheikah warrior named Dorian, a Hylian from Hebra named Ashei, an Ordonian Human named Rusl, and, to her surprise, Zelda's beloved godmother, Urbosa the Gerudo.

"Thank you all for coming. This will be a dangerous mission. If you want to step out, now is the time." They all shook their heads.

"I can't imagine letting anyone, especially a child, be taken by those monsters. If it were my son, you know I'd do anything to get him back. I'll do my best to get this kid home safe," Rusl said emotionally.

"And I've known Link for a while; he's been best friends with Zelda since her family moved to the capital. As her godmother, of course I know her friends, and Link is certainly the best of them. No offense to the others." Urbosa said, her calm demeanor influencing the tension in the room.

"Any other inspiring speeches? No? All right, one last thing. Remember, first priority is to get Link out of there. Anything else comes second. Is that clear?"

They all nodded, then left Zelda standing there, feeling terrified and relieved at the same time.

Miraculously, Zelda's father had allowed her to stay with the Sheikah to make sure Link was alright. His only conditions were that she was guarded at all times, and he would be informed if (when, Zelda reminded herself) when they found Link.

She stayed with Purah, Symin, and Robbie in order to see what was going on; a few of the team members had video cameras that showed visuals to their base, where she currently was.

The young girl sat on the ground, deciding that she didn't want to wait for them to find Link while standing for ages. I wonder how these people all know each other... Ooh, maybe it's like a secret hero group dedicated to getting rid of the bad guys. Or they follow orders from the government and keep tabs on everything... like spies! Zelda frowned internally. That... doesn't explain how they know Link though... maybe he's a hero too!

Before she knew it, she was nodding off into sleep, fantasies of heroes leading teams to destroy the bad guys swirling in her mind.

All of a sudden, a scream broke through the darkness of her dreams. She shot up and raced to the monitor, dodging Symin's attempt to keep her away. Her mouth dropped and she shrieked. "What... what is that?!"

Purah swallowed. "I- ah... that would happen to be... Link."

Zelda stared at the screen while tears unconsciously flowed out of her eyes. His body was nearly beyond recognition. Luckily his face had avoided the worst, but a sharp red line ran from his forehead to his jaw on the left side of it, and a bit of blood still crusted his hair. And instead of the average scrapes and bruises of a 10-year-old, he was covered in swollen red lines. Much of her friend's body was cut, thin lines running in every direction, leaking blood and a nasty substance the made her cringe. An arm and his fingers and legs were bent at an odd angle, black, purple and yellow mottling them. He barely seemed to be breathing.

Zelda shook. He's hurt so terribly, dying even - like mother - and I'm stuck in Central Hyrule, ages away from him! "Purah! I demand to be taken to him immediately! Which hospital are they going to? Tell me!"

Purah turned to look at her. "I assume they'll go to the Gerudo Canyon hospital. Even this injured, Link is male and is forbidden from entering Gerudo Town. The doctors there will likely send him to the Central Hospital after stabilizing him. After all, they don't have as many resources."

"Okay then! We're heading there now! I must be there for him."

Purah looked helplessly at Robbie, who sighed. "Zelda, we can't leave. We're at the base of operations for the team. They need us to inform them if there's anything else they need to know. But... Link will need a parent or guardian at the hospital. Purah will go with you to protect you, she has more experience in that sort of thing than me."

Zelda grabbed Purah's wrist and the two raced to Link's home.

_/|||\_

Link's uncle, Mori, Arista, and Aryll, waited with Zelda; his father was at work. Purah had said that the helicopter wouldn't be long, and that he was almost there. Regardless, she was very stressed and worried, the image of his broken body stuck in her mind. The call soon came in; Link was in the building. An attendant led them to the room where he would be treated, Urbosa carrying him; she had been the one to find his nigh-lifeless form.

The woman seemed hesitant to let Aryll and Zelda be near, but Zelda mentioned that she already had seen what had happened to him, and that 5-year-old Aryll had seen bad stuff before; she had been in the car when her mother had been crashed into, dying soon after.

For what seemed like ages, there were doctors surrounding his unconscious form, sanitizing the wounds, placing casts on too many parts, too many, and stitching him up. Eventually, they left Link on a bed, with tubes sticking into him, chest barely moving, heartbeat fluctuating, and more wounds than what she could count.

Zelda nearly rushed to him before remembering his family. She decided to stay back, with Urbosa, so they could gather around him. They whispered words she couldn't hear. Urbosa leaned to her and said quietly, "Be brave, Little Bird. Things take time."

Some time later, they pulled her to the bed and backed off. Zelda pulled up a chair and sat next to his prone form. He had never seemed so weak or small. He was supposed to be full of energy: running, bouncing off walls, and playing with her when other kids had passed her by, too intimidated by her father's position. She gently placed her hand over his, let her head down on the bed and let the tears fall. She quickly began to fade into the realm of sleep, where she saw who she knew to be Link get hurt, nearly dying over and over... until she was sure that she would go mad with grief.

Sometime the next day she awoke to a listless gaze on her, coming from a pair of once bright-blue eyes clouded with pain. She quietly stood up and held his face in her palms. "You're safe now." Tears trickled down Link's face. He didn't - couldn't? - speak. She placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.

"You're safe."

A/N: A couple of Yiga approach Zelda and Link, who are each ten years old. Link recognizes the danger and runs with Zelda to a small group of Sheikah who are leaders of a group who catch Yiga and defend against other dangers to Hyrule, especially the members of the Alliance Council. He is captured after hiding Zelda, who informs the Sheikah of what happened. They send out a team to collect him, and he is put in the hospital.