Prompts: Isolation Chamber/ forced to stay awake/ "leave the lights on"

Summary: In the middle of battle Twilight is hit by a mysterious blast. The heroes struggle with what to do next as Twilight starts acting feral. Can they work together to help him before things get worse?

A/N: Whelp it's time for day 8! Enjoy! Sorry Twi!

No one in the chain could have seen things turning out the way that they did. What started out as a normal day for the heroes soon turned into one that could very possibly tear apart the chain as they knew it.

See it was just after breakfast when the incident occurred. They had just finished gathering their belongings to continue their trek to Lon Lon Ranch when monsters came out of nowhere and attacked.

Later when the group would finally be able to sit down and talk things out, they would realize that they had no idea which enemy caused their trouble. All they saw was a blast of dark magic shoot from somewhere off to the side and hit the Rancher directly in the face.

Twilight fell to the ground in a pained scream and the other Links were quick to deal with the remaining enemies, in order to rush in aide to their fallen companion's side but by the time they reached him it was too late to help.

Twilight was gasping and twitching in pain, appearing to be fighting to stay awake in his haze. When Hyrule moved forward in an attempt to help, the other attacked, leaving the healer with a nasty cut across the palm of his hands.

Twilight continued to spasm on the ground as he looked half ready to get up and bolt.

After a brief conversation they all agreed that the best course of action was to restrain their fellow hero and bring him, somewhere safe.

The trip to Lon Lon Ranch was both physically and mentally draining.

No one liked to see their friend in such a panicked pained state. It didn't help that the whole way there, Twilight was fighting against his restraints and that it took a lot of effort to keep their strongest member in line.

When they finally made it to the ranch, Malon was quick to help the boys clear out a shed to secure the, what had to be cursed hero in. Twilight fought even harder against them as they struggled to force him into the small space.

Once the rancher was properly confined to the shed, they set up a watch shift to keep an eye on him. One hero at a time would keep an eye out on the rancher, through a small window that the shed blessedly had. It took a bit of time to pop the window open to give them quick access to the struggling hero if needed, but in the end they managed. Meanwhile the others headed inside to try to make a plan to figure out what the heck was happening.

They couldn't be sure what the curse could actually be but through observations of how he seemed to be fighting himself to stay in control they decided it would be best to not let him fall asleep, in fear of him losing the battle.

With that in mind they left the small light in the shed on and tasked the person on watch to poke the hero with a stick if it looked like he was about to fall asleep.

The heroes struggled throughout their watches as Twilight's tiredness grew worse and worse. Soon enough the stick was being used to prod the rancher awake every other minute.

The pained sounds from the rancher only grew as the day turned into night. Twilight was practically howling in agony, and he wasn't even in his wolf form.

Those who were not on night watch were quick to make their way to Hyrule castle where unfortunately they learned that Times Zelda was away on business and wouldn't be back for another week. Luckily Time always came prepared and had a plan B in store for them.

After a bit of bickering back and forth with some pesky guards they were granted access to the library where they spent their time digging for any books they could find on curses and dark magic.

As the sun began to set, they placed all unread books in Wilds slate to bring back to the ranch to look through with the others. The Librarian looked absolutely peeved to be letting them leave with so many books but wisely shut up when Time presented her with an order from the Queen that he had received a while back that granted him access to whatever he needed in her absence.

By the time the research group made it back to the ranch it was already dark out and those left behind were anxiously pacing around out front.

"Find anything?" Malon asked as she passed out dinner to the group who gathered around the shed in meeting.

"No." Four informed, as he switched places with Warriors so he could take over the watch shift and let the captain take a break.

"But we brought all the books we could find back with us." Wild said tapping the slate and glancing at the shed as his mentor let out a practically pathetic sounding howl.

"How is he?"

"Not good. Definitely getting worse. We have to keep prodding him awake." Warriors explained, last part aimed towards Four as he handed over the stick.

"Great." Wind muttered kicking the dirt in frustration.

The group unanimously decided to down the remains of their dinner before heading inside to scavenge through the books for any sort of answer.

Four stayed out by the shed to keep watch until hours later Wild made his way out to take shift, mummering that their search had remained fruitless so far.

Wild watched Four until he disappeared in the distance- turning around the corner of the house, making his way to the front door.

Sighing Wild went over to the window to perform his new duty in keeping the rancher awake. He was startled to peak through and find his mentor closer to the window glare etched on his face. Another tense second and a growl was slipping between Twilights bared teeth.

Hesitantly Wild reached his hand through the small gap to poke the other with the pointed stick. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned and instead things went from bad to worse.

A/N: Continued Day 9!