Link had to say he did not recommend following Zelda down into Hyrule castle to search for the source of their newest problems, something recently labeled gloom. After everything he had been through, he really shouldn't have been surprised to find a corpse- apparently Ganondorf's corpse at that, waiting for them.
So here he was clutching his painfully discolored arm with his unhurt one, supporting the injured hand in grasping the recently shattered master sword- and oh jeez if he survived to see the heroes of the past again Sky was going to kill him. Key word being if he survived, he wasn't quite sure yet how he was supposed to fight evils incarnate with an already decayed arm and weapon.
Luckily for him Ganondorf seemed to have decided to retreat. Unluckily everything around him was crumbling, including where Zelda was standing.
"Zelda!" Link shouted as he jumped down after her.
He outstretched his bad arm towards her, fingers barely grazing hers as she slipped from his grasp. He watched helplessly as a golden light surrounded her, making her disappear before his eyes.
Link had barley anytime to think what that could mean before the leftover light hit him before disappearing for good. He had just enough time to feel an arm grab his from above, slowing his fall before the golden glow seemed to burst out from where it touched him, flooding his vision.
A familiar nausea that only came with travelling through space and time itself overtook him. Inside the golden swarm he could once again feel the swirl that had to be Zelda before she vanished once again, leaving him behind once more.
It wasn't long before he found himself slamming into nothingness as time split open for him, feeling the exact same as traveling through the portals with the chain was all those months ago. That was of course before he had been taken from them and returned to his Hyrule without a reason as to why. Which now he had the feeling he understood why he had been forced to leave the chain.
Without warning Wild was thrown out the other side of the portal slamming into something- no more likely judging from the loud groan that was not his own, someone.
The force caused Link and his unfortunate victim to end up sprawled across the hard floor.
As he tried to let the dizziness pass, sound started pooling around his ears. It was a panicked voice- in fact multiple panicked voices.
It took him a minute to understand what was being said.
"Are you okay?"
"Hmm..." Was the smartest reply his brain had the capacity of thinking of.
"Look at his arm..."
"I know... I-I don't know if we have any hope of saving it... It looks pretty fried." A somewhat familiar voice shakily admitted.
"What!?" Another voice said sounding both startled and worried.
"Yeah- speaking of arms this glowing detached one seems real set on reaching him!"
"Well, keep it away!"
"What do you think I'm trying to do! This hand is- hey! Owww!" The voice shouted as a repeated smacking sound started filling his ears.
With another painful sounding smack another voice was chiming in, "I got it! You, sure we shouldn't just kill this thing?"
"It's hard to say. It doesn't look like any enemy we know so it's hard to say whether it'll be helpful to us later or not. It doesn't seem to be dangerous so far, so we'll just have to wait and see. Just- don't let it go."
"Hmph... not dangerous! It literally keeps hitting me!"
A small chuckle came from someone close to Wilds ear before the person it belonged to seemed to focus in on him, "Hey can you hear me? We need to know what's happening so we can help."
The voice sounded sincere to Link did his best to gather any remaining strength he had to push through the terrible pain he was in and sit up.
"Woah! Careful there. let me help you up."
What he was sure was a pair of gentle arms wrapped around him carefully avoiding his injured arm that was throbbing with enough pain to make him wish he was swimming inside death mountain instead.
The person or maybe even people seemed to lift him up to lay propped up against something, perhaps a tree? Or maybe a conveniently large rock?
As soon as it was clear to Link that the group wasn't going to move him any further up, he focused on trying to open his eyes. Which honestly, he found the task a lot harder than it should have been. His eyelids seemed pretty satisfied with remaining closed and with how the rest of him was feeling, he was tempted to let them.
"Wild?" The voice prompted.
And oh, it wasn't just anyone around him; it was the heroes of old, his friends, his brothers.
Suddenly finding a new strength Wild was able to force his eyes open. It took him a solid minute to regain the ability to focus his sight but when he did, he was met with the worried faces of his brothers.
Before he could contain it sobs wracked his body- and oh oww... that really hurt his arm to be moving like that. It was hard to say whether the following tears were due to being back with the chain or from the pain filling his body. The answer was most definitely a mix of the two.
"Hey, hey... yeah breathe. That's right, you're okay. We're here now Cub." Twilight said rubbing his good shoulder soothingly.
Which honestly Wild found the words a little hypercritical saying that the other currently also had tears pooling down his own face.
"How are you feeling?" Hyrule asked from where he was kneeled next to his bad arm. Warriors was to the side of the healer, hands hovering over the arm like he wanted to help but wasn't sure how.
"h-hurts." Wild rasped out.
"Y-yeah I bet." Hyrule said with his own chocked sob.
"What happened?" Time asked as he joined kneeling besides Twilight.
The rest of the chain slowly gathered closer, standing behind Time in order to hear better.
"Hey, the arms calmed down." Four stated, standing beside Wind with a death like grip around the detached arm that Wild quickly recognized from below the castle.
"W-what's that doing here?" Wild asked confused.
"You recognize it? It came through the portal with you. Is it dangerous?" Legend asked scooting closer to the appendage.
"H-hm.. it was h-holding back Ganondorf... so, no? maybe? It-s not bad? Wild struggled to say through the never-ending pain.
"Ganondorf?" Time questioned with a sharp tone on behalf of the group.
"Hmm..." Wild confirmed before he froze realizing he had forgotten about another important detail.
Looking further up he met eyes with Sky, quickly being able to come to the conclusion that the other didn't know yet. Wild looked around, much to the confusion of the others as he tried his best to locate what was left of the sacred blade.
It didn't take him long to spot the hilt of the blade sticking out from under his leg- and oh didn't that explain why his leg had been feeling so uncomfortable.
The others followed his gaze, noticing the hilt of the weapon they had probably only missed due to the distraction that was the sorry state of his arm.
"W-what?" Sky questioned, reaching for the blade.
"S-sorry." Wild sobbed, forcing himself not to squeeze his eyes shut because he wasn't sure he would manage to stay awake if he closed his eyes now.
As Sky removed the blade from under him it was clear the exact moment the others noticed the blade, or rather the lack of blade from their startled gasps. Crys of shock filled the air as everyone took in the decayed sword.
"W-what?" Sky asked once again in his shock.
"S-S-s-sorry S-s-k-y." Was all Wild could force himself to say while trying to hold back his tears. It took less than thirty seconds for him to break and for the tears to start freely falling down his face.
Something about his cry's must have snapped the others out of their state of shock because suddenly they were all focused on him again. Besides their seemingly kind words and reassurances he couldn't help but continue to cry.
"Wild..." Sky mumbled.
Wild looked up at the Chosen Hero whose face was wet with a flood of tears,
"It's not your fault. It's not. Look at the state you're in." Sky said glancing between the blade and his damaged sword arm seemingly spotting the similarities between the damage before breaking further down into tears, squeezing Wilds good arm reassuringly.
A solemn silence filled the air as the others took in the damage to the sword and matching arm.
"I hate to rush you, but I really need to know what happened." Hyrule said capturing the groups attention.
It was only then that Wild realized one of Hyrule's arms was glowing with healing magic clutching his bad arm, as the other pulled on his collar checking how far up the damage went.
The glowing slowly died off and Wild chillingly realized the healing magic did nothing to help. Warriors the only other one who had the chance to check out his arm had a grim look on his face.
"Sickness? Sub-stance? W-we call gloom...hmph..appeared... Zelda.. me.. explore source- under cas'tle. Corpse- Ganondorf, hand... sealing? H-hand drops... he wakens... att-ack.- gloom. arm- sword hurt, break. castle... crumble - Z-zelda fall, me follo'w- glow- sh-h-e gone... me here..." Wild struggled to explain with what was left of his voice.
Luckily the others somehow miraculously seemed to be able to piece together what he meant judging from their crestfallen expressions.
"Cub..." Twilight said sounding heartbroken.
"Wild, this- gloom. Is that what you meant Ganondorf attacked you with? What broke the Master Sword?" Hyrule said urgently.
Wild hesitantly nodded.
"Do you guys know of anything able to cure it?"
Wild slowly shook his head no as dread began to crawl up his spine at what was being implied.
"Right... Is it deadly?" Hyrule questioned sounding beyond stressed.
A tense silence filled the air as the Links awaited his reply. Wild managed to give a single nod holding back his tears at the realization.
"No!"
"We can't just give up on him!"
The chain all shouted their protests in dismay as Wild looked off into the distance at the reality of his situation. The group was silenced by a paling Warriors, letting Hyrule speak again.
"I don't know what to do! I don't know if there's anything I can do!" Hyrule admitted.
"No listen!" Hyrule yelled as the others begun protesting, " I want him to live just as much as the rest of you, but my magics not working- nothing is working. If just touching this stuff can be deadly, well he was attacked by Ganondorf with it... I'm sure it was a lot more concentrated than normal- I- I... his arms already in a state beyond repair, Warriors agreed. And take a look, it's starting to crawl up his chest."
Hyrule pulled down on the collar of his tunic, and Wilds breathe couldn't help but hitch at the state of his chest.
"D-do you- do- you said his arms already gone?" Time asked.
"As good as dead." Hyrule confirmed.
"Then do you think getting rid of the arm would contain the spread and give us a better chance at curing him?"
Time practically whispered the suggestion and Wild was forced to watch through his horror and pain as the others dulled over the information at hand.
"I mean... It's hard to say, if it'll actually help or not that is... but yes that should at least slow things down and buy us some time." Hyrule said starring down at the arm, refusing to meet Wilds frightened gaze. Wild tried catching the gaze of any of the chain but each of them was stubbornly facing away.
"Do it- fast." Twilight said tightly grasping his good hand.
Before Wild had the chance to say anything the others started moving around, all grabbing onto him- and while their hold felt loving he quickly realized it was in an effort to hold him down. An effort that was meant to stop his struggling as they cut his arm off.
Wild let out a scared cry as he begun to struggle in their hold.
"Shhh... It'll be over soon." Twilight whispered, cradling his head; but Wild was beyond hearing any comfort or reasoning.
Everything was hurting, he was outright dying, and his brothers were about to cut his arm off. He thrashed around in a feverish state, struggling for a grip on reality. Everything was too much for him comprehend.
If he hadn't been in the panicked state, he was already in due to the pain of the gloom trying to kill him, Wild might have been able to remind himself to calm down. Then he might have been able to remind himself that the others were only helping, but thanks to his current state he wasn't able to focus his thoughts and create reason- instead his only thoughts were that he was about to lose his arm.
"Here, drink this." A voice- Hyrule his mind supplied, said as a bottle of something was forced between his lips and he was forced to swallow. The potion did something because all of the sudden the pain dulled and was replaced with a tingly sensation as most of the control of his body slipped from him.
Wild held his breathe and fought between Twilight's hands to watch as Warriors brought down a sword. He sobbed as he watched his arm become detached, numbingly feeling the cold metal of the sword slice through muscle and bone alike before a sharp pain grew over the numbness from the stump.
Before he could catch sight of what else the others were about to do, Twilight took notice of the fact he was watching and raised a hand to blind his view. Wild fought for his right to watch but Twilight's hold was strong, and his mentor seemed determined to block any furthering viewing of his pain.
Wild was forced to lay in a darkening misery, crying at the pain that was quickly eating at the numbness as the others continued to work on his arm. The effort from thrashing around and the growing pain started catching up with him as he found himself fading in and out of consciousness.
Right before Wild could fully fade out, he heard Four shout in alarm- "Ack! The arms moving again!"
Which honestly made Wild pause for a second in confusion because he was pretty sure his decayed and chopped off arm was not going to be moving again. Then he remembered about the other detached arm in the room that seemed to have a mind of its own.
The last thing Wild saw was a flash of bright blue as a soothing feeling filled his mind, carrying him off to sleep.
When Wild woke, he quickly became aware of the fact that he was no longer laying on dirt but instead moved to a soft bed. Keeping his eyes closed Wild gave himself a moment for his mind to catch up with itself.
It took a second for him to regain his hearing and realize that the rest of the chain hadn't left him alone.
With a groan he forced his eyes open, blinking tiredly up at the ceiling of the low-lit room.
"Wild!' Wind shouted, being the first one to realize that he was truly awake.
"Cub..." Twilight softly cried, one hand gently grasping his face. Wild tiredly leaned into the comforting touch.
"Hey, Wild. It's good to see you awake. How are you feeling?" Hyrule questioned sounding like he was surprisingly far away.
Which is when it truly hit Wild what just occurred as he spotted the rest of the chain backed further away, with guilty looks on their faces. Even Twilight who was literally touching him seemed to be backed a good distance away.
Wild understood their thoughts on him wanting distance, last he had been awake they were literally chopping off his arm as he struggled against them, but he no longer found himself wanting to escape them, nor did he blame the group for their actions. The only thing he wanted now was their comfort.
Fighting to lift a hand, Wild lazily waved the Links over, only to freeze when he realized which hand he had just waved with. Ignoring the dizziness, it caused him he quickly sat up to stare at the arm he knew he hadn't imagined getting cut off- hardly noticing how the others were all watching him with abated breaths.
As he took in the sight of his attached arm, it was clear that the arm wasn't his, not his old one at least. He flexed his arm- and yup the detached glowing arm that had been holding back Ganondorf was no longer a detached arm.
He turned the arm in every direction in order to inspect every inch, until he was shuttering at the odd details. Whoever's arm it had once been, was definitely not a Hylian. And the arm felt as weird as it looked.
Wild could tell the arm was fully attached and, in every sense, his now but it was so much more different than his old arm that even the idea of trying to get used to it was downright terrifying. And that was before the arm started glowing again.
"What even-?" Wild questioned looking up with wide eyes at the rest of the chain.
The other heroes finally moved in closer, gathering around the bed with odd chairs. Wind and Four choosing to hop up onto the end of the bed to make more space.
"We don't really understand it either." Four stated eyes flashing between colors.
"The arm managed to reach you while we were- distracted- it erm... glowed? The light was blinding and when it faded the arm was already attached to you." Sky explained with a wince.
Wild looked between the group before glancing at the strange arm again.
"That's not all the arm did." Warriors said catching Wild's attention.
"How do you feel?" Time asked before Wild could question what Warriors meant. And that was a fair question- how did he feel?
Tired?
Yes, for sure.
Outright drained?
Without question.
Oddly enough though he wasn't in pain. He told the others such and they all sighed in relief.
"What?" Wild asked feeling left out, which wasn't fair because clearly the relieving information was about him.
"Well, what we thought- and from what you just said seems to prove our hypothesis right that the arm seemed to stop the gloom from effecting you further." Hyrule explained with a small smile.
"What?" Was Wilds brilliant response.
He wasn't dying anymore.
Instead of explaining everything again Hyrule reached over and pulled down the top of his tunic- to which Wild's first realization was that they had at some point changed him into a set of clean, loose clothes. It took him another second to actually realize what Hyrule was trying to show him
Where pulsing black vines of the gloom had once been crawling up his chest was now replaced with the same dull black of the arm- and oh they were right. Somehow the arm had managed to stop the spread of the gloom and save his life.
"Oh..." He exclaimed softly letting his tears free once again. Wild raised up his normal, Hylian arm up to his face to wipe away the tears; being not quite ready to use the odd arm yet.
"Yeah... Cub, you're okay now." Twilight said reaching up to help wipe away the remaining tears with a gentle hand.
"Well, I wouldn't say he's perfectly okay." Hyrule stated causing alarm to rise in Wild.
"I thought we agreed to break things to him slowly." Twilight said with a low growl, which was not helping Wild's raising anxiety.
"What are- just tell me please?"
Time let out a loud sigh giving the whole group a hard look before meeting Wild's eyes, "Alright, to start let's all be clear like we told you, as far as we can tell you're not in any danger of dying anymore."
Wild didn't say anything in response, waiting for the oldest of the group to say more.
Instead, it was Legend who spoke up, "The arm stopped you from dying but it doesn't seem to have the power to reverse the damage that was already caused to you. The attack drained you- and not the kind of draining that can be fixed overnight with potions and a good rest."
"What does that mean?" Wild asked not sure he understood.
"Cub, the attack was draining your life force- it- it- we think it severally weakened you."
"Weakened me?"
"You're actually lucky that's all it did. The arm seems to be the only permanent damage- the rest can most likely be recovered within time." Hyrule explained, "From our best guesses you seem to be in a similar state that you would have been after coming out of the shrine. All of the training and strength you've gained from after that point is gone."
"Not injured, just weak- got it." Wild said with an unamused huff.
"Yeah, probably sucks to hear that. All the strength and skills you've built up over the time of your journey and with us are gone. It'll probably be frustrating trying to do things you used to be able to do with ease and suddenly not having the strength but hey it could have been worse. A lot worse. But you can get it back and what kind of heroes would we be if we didn't help you out?" Legend said with a reassuring smirk.
Which was honestly was more reassuring than Legend knew- that was until he remembered the state of his Hyrule and Zelda.
"Wait!" Wild shouted ignoring the strain it caused his throat, "I- my- Zelda- Hyrule- I can't leave th-."
"Woah! Calm down! It's not like you can go fight Ganondorf in your current state." Twilight exclaimed, giving him a gentle push back down towards the bed.
"I can't just leave them like that!" Wild shouted fighting a losing battle against Twilights grip.
"Will you guys calm down." Sky said, waiting until it was fully silent to speak, "We're in my Hyrule right now."
Wild nodded, looking around the room for the first time and noticing the familiar decor that only belonged on Skyloft.
"We were on the surface when you arrived, and after everything with the arms we managed to get you up to Skyloft. Sun was waiting for us- she's apparently been having dreams recently. She had a message waiting for us, explaining that our current mission was postponed or in other words to be pushed back as a secondary goal for now."
Sky moved forward grabbing hold of Wilds hands before continuing, "She said we are to help you focus on recovering and getting back to your time. It's unclear at the time whether or not we'll be able to help you beyond that point."
Wild took in the information unsure how to feel- on one hand he felt guilty leaving his Zelda and Hyrule waiting but on the other the very idea of having to leave the chain again so close after finding them again was torture.
Based off of what Sky said, he was going to most likely have to leave them at some point in the near future anyway, and he really wanted to delay that for as long as possible. Wild would take as much time as he could with the chain- especially if he was being forced to regain all of his strength from the start.
Which in itself was a topic he didn't want to think about. Just how weak did that one attack make him? How many things had he lost the ability to do, thanks to his lack of strength? And how long would it be until he'd be clear to scale tall cliffs again?
In the end though all those questions could wait because he was just thankful that he didn't have to be alone while figuring out the answers.
Ever so slowly with his weakened body, he stretched his hand towards the middle keeping it there until the others caught on and soon enough there was a pile of nine hands lifting into the air with a cheer.
The chain was once again Linked back together again and now that they were, nothing was going to stop them.
A/N: So, did you like it?
Originally the ending was going to be a bit longer and explore deeper into Wilds recovery with the chain as they get back to his Hyrule but when writing it I ended up liking this as an ending.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you all enjoyed it! Bye!