Archive of Our Own

Shadow had a few issues with his resurrection. He wasn’t complaining about being brought back just yet, as it’d only been a few weeks, but there were a lot of problems that he simply didn’t have to deal with when he was dead. 

The first and most important problem was, of course, that he was without his brothers; in fact, he learned pretty soon after he wasn’t even in the right time period anymore, which was concerning. The second problem was that he had managed to catch the eye of whatever new villain his brothers were fighting and they had been the one to bring him back. Because he couldn’t have a nice resurrection, no, of course not. He had a debt to repay, apparently. 

So this new Shadow he was supposed to work with—who hated being called a Shadow and preferred Dark, even though it wasn’t much better—was calling in favors across time, including yours truly, to fight this new group of heroes. 

Problems three through fifteen included these heroes, and four of them were his own brothers. 

If he really wanted to, he could up and leave at any time. Dark obviously expected him to be on ‘their’ side, so there was no reason to lock him up or blackmail him very much. He also traveled around with Dark to wherever the heroes were going, so it wasn’t like they were hard to find. Even if he were to run away, Dark would’ve probably cut his loses and tried to kill him for it, regardless of how nice he’d been up until now. 

So yes, Shadow could leave whenever, and could tell the heroes all of Dark’s plans. His last problem, and probably the worst of all of them, was that he didn’t really want to.

He wasn’t siding with Dark, or fighting against the Links, or even particularly fond of this edgy Hero of Time lookalike. But he’d met Dark, rather than just running away. And as evil as he’d seemed, as awful as some of his plans were, the rest of him was sort of . . . Childish. 

(He didn’t look like a child; he looked like a teenager, the spitting image of what he assumed the Hero of Time looked like during his first adventure, but in gray scale.)

He seemed utterly ruthless in almost all aspects, but as soon as Shadow started looking closer, it looked more like a child doing a really good job at pretending to be an adult. When he was angry, every move was precise and deadly; when he was relaxed, he was distractible and easily excited. When he smiled—actually smiled, not grinning evilly, which he did quite well—he looked much younger than Shadow thought he’d be. 

It reminded Shadow so much of himself, before him and Vio became friends, before he realized he could be better. It felt easy to see Dark’s point of view from the same side of the mirror. 

Or maybe he just felt like he owed something to the guy that brought him back from the dead. Especially since Dark had given him the Dark Mirror he was anchored to, in its own small, foldable case. It was one of the most thoughtful things anyone had done for him since he was first summoned, and he just couldn’t let it go. 

In any case, he’d stuck around Dark since his resurrection, and now Dark was implementing the ‘second phase’ of his plan. Which of course included Shadow, since he couldn’t catch a break. 

So far they’d sort of just . . . Hung out. Which sounded strange, because they were supposed to be Evil Masterminds working Against the Goddesses and Everything Good. But for the most part Dark’s Lizard General did the dirty work while he and Dark just talked. 

Dark showed him more magic, and eluded to showing Shadow how the time travel worked at some point. Shadow introduced him to Evil Rootbeer (read: regular rootbeer with Magic Powder mixed in. It didn’t actually do anything but make it sparkly.) and gave advice when Dark asked. 

(That was another thing: Dark had decided Shadow was the person to go to for Evil Advice, as if Shadow knew better about Evil Shenanigans than Dark did. Apparently his betrayal against Vaati hadn’t made it this far down the line in history, so Shadow was known as the First Copy, and therefore a ‘more experienced’ version of Dark. Shadow, at the time, didn’t have the heart to tell him otherwise.)

The more him and Dark spent time with each other, the more he saw their similarities. 

Now though, his orders from Dark were to antagonize them to the point of exhaustion, so they weren’t ready for the ambush he was planning when it came. Shadow had forgotten that him ‘helping’ Dark meant he actually had to help Dark, not just console him when his scaly General failed again.

Which brings him to the present: hiding in the shadows just outside the hero’s camp, watching most of them chat without really listening and trying to think of a way out of this. His hero—singular, as they’d reunited since the last time he saw them—was bantering with the rest of them, and it took everything in him not to run out of hiding and tackle him. 

He felt split up himself: desperate to get back with his better half, but afraid of what his Link would say, and unwilling to leave Dark just yet. He knew the only way he could do this was by hiding from the Colors, and he’d been readying himself for days. He didn’t know how Dark could hate his counterpart; even when he was envious of Link, he’d found a brother in Vio. 

(Dark claimed they were fundamentally different. Shadow was the original; a dark reflection of Link, two sides of the same coin, but not opposites. Dark was everything the Hero wasn’t, and then some: all of his negative feelings, all of his shame, his anger. The only thing the two Shades shared, according to Dark, was their righteous anger and inherent evil. Shadow didn’t believe it.)

Shadow watched the group of heroes bed down for the night, his hero laughing along with the rest of their antics. They seemed to content together, getting along well despite their forced and unnatural acquaintance. 

His Link’s unity was strange; he didn’t know they could do that, after the sword split them. There was a small moment of fear, at the thought that the four of them were gone—could he even be sad, when the person in front of him was the culmination of all of them?—but he saw the Four Sword placed carefully by Link’s bag, and he figured he didn’t need to worry about it just yet. 

He took a look around at the rest of them, all perfectly happy to leave their oldest awake for watch. Their pile of bedrolls were laid out near the fire, close together and away from the pile of equipment on the other side. Shadow tried to remember what Dark had told him about this era earlier; it was relatively safe, with no big monster attacks after the Hero succeeded. Their guard was lowered, which would have been the perfect time for Shadow to strike. 

Shadow could feel eyes on him, and he froze; he’d been distracted too long. Two heroes were watching the shadow were he hid intensely, as if trying to figure out if the presence they could feel was worth bringing up to the rest. He managed to stay put, rather than flee further into the darkness; any movement at all could have them attacking. 

The Link with dark tattoos across his face looked troubled as he stared him down. The dark magic that coated him like a second skin had something predatory about it that Shadow didn’t appreciate. The other link who watched, the plain-looking one drenched in fae magic, looked ready to attack even without his sword. Shadow knew this Link was the most powerful magic-wise, and tried to withdraw his magic as carefully as possible. To them, it would feel like whatever presence they were watching slowly backed away. To Shadow, it was like holding his breath; his very being was made of the stuff. 

It took what felt like ages, but eventually they both laid down like the rest and settled in. The only one not trying to sleep was the old man, sitting on a log and looking out, his back to Shadow. As soon as Shadow had seen him, he’d known which hero he was looking at. Even as old as he was now, he could see traces of Dark in the hero’s face, in the weary way he held his shoulders.

The Hero of Time kept constant vigilance outside of camp, listening for the smallest rustle. He seemed to move his head around at even intervals, as if counting the seconds, moving at the same time each minute. Was he keeping track of the time? 

Shadow waited until he was positive everyone was asleep, made sure the old man was looking away, and jumped around the clearing until he was by the pile of bags in the back. They were stacked haphazardly together, all indiscernible to Shadow save for one. 

Link’s bag, to the back, still had kinstones and buttons badly sewn into the top flap from his first adventure. It was in decent shape, considering all the shit Shadow was sure Link put it through. He opened it quietly, pulled out their small journal—which he did not read, even if he was curious—and wrote a small note. Just enough to let them know he was there. Enough to calm the need Shadow had to be back with the rest of himself. 

As he was putting the journal back, a small idea formed, devious and sinister. He knew he wasn’t really on Dark’s side, but he couldn’t go back to their evil lair without having done something. It would help the Links in the long run, he knew it. 

He felt a dramatic evil smile form on his face as he cast a silencing spell on himself, slowly creeping back toward where he’d left his little battalion of monsters. They were going to hate him for this one; Shadow only wished he would be there to see it.

...

It was much too early for Four to follow the conversation that had woken him.

“His is the only bag, what do you mean it might not be him.”

“—Really isn’t funny, can someone wake him up?”

“My scarf is ruined, why in the world would he—“

Most of it was lost in the chatter, but Four puzzled out that something happened the night before. It must not have been serious, if no one had woken him up, but then why would they be so upset? 

Anything else he might’ve thought up was cut off by a large, gooey something being splattered on his face. He shot up with a gasp, or tried to, getting slime in his mouth instead.

He quickly tried to wipe it off, only to get it stuck on his hands, smearing it around. He cleared his eyes, at least, and looked to see blobs of chu jelly on his hands. 

A blue-tinted rage rose in him. “What in the hell—“

“Don’t act surprised, you put it in our bags!”

Four looked up to see the entire camp glaring at him, a few having the same slimy mess in their hair, seemingly after putting their hats on. Even Time looked displeased, gauntlets on the ground next to him, suspiciously wet. 

Four was unfortunately still waking up. “What did I do?”

Cries of outrage from around camp woke him the rest of the way. 

“I can appreciate a good prank,” Wind said from where he sat on a log, still emptying his boot, “But it’s too early for this shit.”

No one bothers to correct him for his language. Four was still trying to catch up. 

“Why do you think it was me?”

Legend tossed his bag over, still where he left it the night before. The inside was conspicuously dry, everything just slightly rummaged through. His books were at the top rather than the bottom, and his spare tunic was unfolded. A few of his kinstones were missing, too—does anyone even know what those are?

“I know you won’t believe me,” Four said, still going through his bag. Nothing else seemed out of place. “But this definitely wasn’t me.”

Legend scoffed and kept ringing out his hair, though it wasn’t helping much. His hat was on the ground, the inside full of jelly. Warriors sent him another glare from where he as scrubbing out his scarf, the jelly gone but the stain still there. Chu jelly was the worst.

“I slept all night; whoever was on watch can tell you that. Also, why would I leave my bag dry and then try to convince you it wasn’t me?”

No answers from the group, bringing up purple-tinged exasperation. Wild, who was emptying his small pouch of the goo still, gave a thoughtful look, but didn’t dignify him with an answer. Hyrule was also emptying his boots, while Sky wiped what remained on his sailcloth. Four was lucky the thing was mostly waterproof; he would’ve woken to much worse if he’d managed to ruin it.

Twi might’ve been the worst off of all of them, his furs covered in the stuff and set so it spiked up. The look Twilight sent him would’ve killed him had he been guilty.

But he wasn’t, so he just sighed. He hoped whoever had done it the night before was getting a kick out of it, at least.

...

Shadow had laughed as he imagined the exact look on Link’s face when everyone began blaming him, at the looks on the other Link’s faces when they were covered in slime. Or at least he hoped it went that well, because otherwise it was a lot of risk for little gain, and he definitely didn’t feel like laughing now.

“ . . . Let me get this straight,” Dark said from where he sat at their table, face carefully blank. “You went to their camp, where they were sleeping peacefully, completely unarmed, and instead of attacking, or capturing them, or anything else reasonable, like we planned,” Dark didn’t yell, but it was close. He took a deep breath. “You pranked them.”

Shadow felt icy sweat drip down his back. He hadn’t thought he’d get this far, if he was being honest. He didn’t really know what to do, now that he was here.

“Yes,” he said, the word drawn out. “I know how it sounds—“

“Do you?” Dark asked, sounding calm. Goddesses, Shadow had forgotten Dark could be scary when he wanted to be.

“I know, I know, but—“

“Because to me, it sounds like you’ve been wasting my time.” Dark met his eyes, endless and red, and Shadow shivered. “It sounds like you’ve been toying with me.”

Goddesses. “Dark, listen to me. I wouldn’t, and you know that.” He nearly winced at that. “Let me explain. I was going to attack, like we talked about, but then I was thinking about how the last fight with the General went. Even in ambushes they beat us. I didn’t want to waste a squad on that attack and reveal myself when theres a better way we can get to them.”

“Pranks.” Dark’s voice was so cold it chilled the room.

“Unrest,” Shadow corrected. “Sure, what I did last night was harmless. But I left one of the bags alone, so they would think it was Link. My Link, at least.”

“They’re calling each other silly nicknames,” Dark mumbled hypocritically, seemingly lost in thought.

Shadow sighed, thinking of how the Colors got their names. “Sounds about right. Do you know what my Link is called?”

“Four, after the four sword. They’re just calling mine Time.”

Shadow nearly laughed out loud at that, but managed to strangle most of it. Link must’ve thought he was so funny for that one.

“Nonetheless,” Shadow continued, “Obviously he’ll say he didn’t do it, but they won’t believe him. If I can keep at it, make them keep blaming each other for silly things, keep them on their toes, eventually there’ll be a crack. They won’t trust each other as much as they should. It’ll cause infighting. It’s perfect if I’m trying to lay low.”

Dark is silent for a long while. “Why didn’t you bring it up before you left?”

“I didn’t think about it until after. Also, it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.”

Dark continued staring at him, unamused. 

Here goes. “I also have ideas if you wanna help? I mean, I’m sure you have ideas for pranks. You’re only a few years younger than me.”

Dark stares him down. Shadow gets the distinct feeling he’s said something wrong.

Then Dark gets a little evil smile on his face, one that it so familiar to Shadow he copies it. He probably shouldn’t be so excited to do evil, but it’d been so long since he’d let loose a little. In fact, now that he thought about it, he hadn’t lived long enough to ‘let loose’ at all. 

Sorry, Link. Villainy was a bit too fun to give up completely.

...

The next few days were quiet for Four, whether it be because of the cold shoulders he was receiving or the fact that they were in TIme’s era, so it was bound to be quiet. Most everyone had forgiven the Chu incident the next day, but some—namely Warriors and Twilight, who were justified—were still pretty pissed. Which he would find funny, in literally any other circumstance.

Since he didn’t pull the prank, though, it was just sort of frustrating. And since the actual culprit wouldn’t come forward, Four was still taking the heat for it. It also meant that, a couple nights later, he was the victim of the next prank. 

It wasn’t very fair, if you asked him; he didn’t do the thing they were blaming him for. Nonetheless, he woke up again with everyone angry for their clothes being messed up, and this time Four had reason to be angry, too. 

Nothing was covered in goo, thank the Goddesses, but instead all of their traveling clothes—all of them—were dyed a peculiar, bright green. The same bright green that nearly all of them had worn on their quests, and the same bright green as the dye Wild had bought the last time he’d been in his Hyrule. 

It took them over an hour to sort out whose clothes were whose, but it took seconds for Wild to find his, since they were damnably blue. 

Wild looked up from his clothes to find all of them staring, waiting. Four could see sweat drip down his jaw.

“I know how this is gonna sound,” He started, sounding nervous, “But I swear I didn’t do this.”

There were groans from around the room, Wind going as far as to fall back into the dirt. Wild bore the various objects flying at him from around camp with more dignity than was deserved. 

It was later in the day, after Wild had been effectively chastised. Near everyone had good reason to be upset, but Wild had somehow managed to dye Twilight’s furs, Wars’ scarf, and Sky’s Sailcloth, which meant he had to sit through a few people interrogating him. Four mourned the loss of his multi-color tunic—Wild promised they could all be dye back to their original color, but even then, who knew when they’d be sent back to his era. 

Wind looked about ready to fight him for dyeing his orange pants and his crab shirt, and only stopped when Wild offered an exact replica from his slate. Legend’s red mail hadn’t been spared, nor his hat, and somehow even Hyrule’s bracers had been dyed. 

When they set off the next day, Malon got one good look at them before doubling over in laughter, all of them dressed in the same garish green. Time might’ve been spared, but when he walked into the living room that morning with a clean white tunic on, he was pushed back out and told that if one of them had to bear it, all of them did. Wild had thankfully found a green outfit, which had dimmed down a bit of the anger from the night before. 

“Oh, Gods,” Malon gasped, wiping a tear from her eye. “You’re all somethin’ else. I’ll pray none of you need to sneak around anywhere anytime soon, you’ll be caught for sure.”

Time softened as she laughed, and came up to kiss her goodbye. The sweet mood immediately soured as Wild came up to Malon and quietly asked her something, a mischievous grin on his face. 

Whatever he said got Malon laughing again. “As long as you bring me a copy, I’ll take as many pictures as you want. How do you work this thing?”

Half of them turned around to leave before they even processed what that meant; the other half started yelling at Wild for lying, and begging Malon to not to. 

Regardless of their attempts, they left LonLon Ranch with Wild dodging legs as they tried to trip him, staring at the image and laughing his ass off. 

Four sighed and resigned himself to his green colored grave. He’d have to ask Wild for his kinstones back, later. 

...

Shadow and Dark came through the portal into their hideout and promptly burst into laughter, holding onto each other to keep from falling. They’d sent the heroes to the one place they didn’t set up watch and nabbed all the clothes on the clothesline they could, which ended up being almost all of their traveling clothes. 

Both of them did their best to keep quiet as they dyed the clothes, laughing and pushing each other around as they hurried to hang it back up before anyone woke up and caught them. 

They’d managed though, and now they were both trying to plot actual fights, but Dark kept thinking of more good pranks, and Shadow kept egging him on. That hadn’t been Shadow’s goal, but he didn’t really know if he had a goal at all, so he considered it a success.

“We should also figure out a way to watch the pranks go down,” Dark continued, a messy journal splayed on top of a detailed map of their current era. Their ‘war room’ was surprisingly well-kept, various maps all rolled up and places on neat shelves, papers and little carved placeholders for both the heroes and their monsters on a separate tray. They were actually really cute; Shadow assumed Dark had carved them himself, and while they weren’t perfect, it was easy to tell which link was his, and which was Darks’. He almost asked about them, before remembering he was in the middle of something.

“How do you want to do that? Neither of us are very good with light,” He answered after a moment. That was a bit of an understatement for Shadow; it had technically killed him two separate times. He wasn’t sure if that would still happen, since things were different this time, but he didn’t want to ask. 

“We should be fine if we don’t stay out too long. Also, if we wait until they’re in a shaded area, or plan it so it happens at night, we can disguise ourselves.”

Shadow thought about it a bit longer, and agreed. “As long as it’s not too bright. What were you thinking of doing? Also, what disguises? It’s not like either of us can slap fake mustaches on and call it a day.”

Another smile from Dark, this time delighted in a way Shadow didn’t remember seeing before. He passed over his planner for Shadow to read through, and as soon as he saw which it was, he laughed.

“You’re right, we will want to see this one.”

They’d landed in Wild’s era a few days ago, and while their fighting had been fairly easy, they were all exhausted from the walk to Hateno. They arrived fairly late in the evening, and Four could feel the collective sigh of relief as Wild’s house came into view. The last few weeks of roughing it seemed ingrained in his bones, weighing down his shoulders, and he groaned with everyone else when Wild insisted they bathe before going into his house.

“I’m just as tired as the rest of you,” he said, and he wasn’t lying; trying to wrangle a group of nine insatiable adventurers across a vast Hyrule wasn’t easy. “But I do share a house with my Zelda, and we all kind of smell like bokoblin right now.”

Four couldn’t argue, but he didn’t want to agree either, so he glared at him instead. Wild gave them all a small smile and promised, “I’ll make a big dinner for all of us as soon as we get back.”

That bolstered them to at least make it to the bathhouse, though not without complaint. Four caught Wild sheepishly waving to a few villagers who obviously recognized him, and were giving the familiar ‘there goes Link, the local weirdo’ look. Four had seen it in all their eras, including his. Their shared spirit included a lack of care for decorum, though thankfully most people didn’t seem to mind. Much. 

The inside of the bathhouse was empty, thankfully. They all got in quickly, accepting soaps from Wars and sinking into the warm water. Four nearly forgot to take off his headband, eyes open just enough to make sure he wasn’t pushed over or splashed. 

Everyone stayed in the water after they were finished, enjoying the warmth and nearly asleep from it. He heard more than saw Sky almost fall into the water, coming back up spluttering. 

He was the first to notice the strange color of the water, not only the dirt that was coming off of them—gross—but another, deeper color, unnatural and definitely not supposed to be there.

Four almost closed his eyes and ignored it. Maybe he was wrong; there was no way Wars, most responsible of them, had done anything to the soap. Maybe the shampoo hadn’t smelled strange, and the water was just that color all the time. A particularly violet thought disagreed, while green-tinted resignation forced him to look.

The water was definitely pink, and so was literally everything else. The water, the bubbles, their skin, and their hair, all a bright fuchsia. Four wondered how soap could show up so vividly without magic.

In one corner of the bath, Warriors sat chin-deep in the water, hair clean and damningly blond, his own personal shampoo sitting next to him. Red curiosity wondered if maybe these pranks were more than just pranks, but it was drowned out by blue spit-fire anger.

Very calmly, Four took a few deep breaths.

“Wars,” he called, quietly enough none of the others opened their eyes.

Wars looked up from where he was sitting, eyes drooping with exhaustion. He blinked confusedly at Four for a moment, before processing what he was seeing. Four was sure it was a sight to behold. Wars looked at the others in dawning horror, pulling at his own hair to check it. He seemed relieved to be spared, and then realized exactly what it looked like. 

“Four,” he whispered back, terrified. Not of the mysterious dye, nor how it happened, but of his oncoming doom when someone decided they were done in the water and wanted to eat. “Four, please.”

“I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt,” four answered quietly, still forcibly calm. “But I doubt the others will.”

Wars looked from the others to the door across the room, trying to figure out how to get across without anyone noticing. Four could see him calculating how much time he had, whether he could get away with running out of the house without being drowned, and sighed as he watched Wind stand after almost falling in the water, wiping his eyes. 

In seconds, Wars was under the water with the shampoo bottle—not his, but the one he had handed everyone else—and then popped back up from the water a moment later, rubbing his hands through his hair like he was trying to scrub some of it off. It was no use; even with the shampoo gone, it was a bright, eye-searing pink. 

He washed out his hair in time to hear Wind shriek with laughter as he got a good look at all of them.

The resulting chaos nearly drowned Sky, as he’d been sleeping and fell in, and scared Time so badly he’d shouted back. As everyone realized what had happened, each Link looked at Wild simultaneously, while Wild looked at Wars. Wars managed to look properly shocked, and then offended when Wild immediately asked him what he did to the shampoo. 

As funny as it all was, Four couldn’t ignore the worry worming its way in his mind. Something else was obviously going on, and he wasn’t sure any of them were the cause. 

...

Two cats, both black and spindly and awfully small, watched as a group of nine pink-ish haired strangers trudged through Hateno. They were lucky it was so late in the evening, as only a few people were out to see them. The two cats, sitting atop the general store’s overhang, stretched and followed the line of Links to the very back of the village, chasing each other over the bridge as the Hylians collapsed around the fire.

No one spoke as Wild started on dinner. Hyrule, whose hair was darker than the rest and got away with a deep purple, offered to help, but Wild waved him off, claiming it wouldn’t take long. Wars, with his disappointingly pink hair, brushed it out before going for Wind’s, listening to Legend rant about wasting good lightener on his own naturally pink hair. Twilight, Time, and Warriors started talking quietly away from them all, fussing with their hair as it dried. 

One of the cats, the smaller of the two with a white shock of fur along its chest, nodded over to the group of three and led the other cat over. Both settled into the long grass quietly, hiding behind the large tree by the fire.

“I don’t understand,” Twilight continued, brushing out his fur—still damningly green, since they hadn’t gotten to the dye shop before it closed. “You’re saying you didn’t get pranked, but you didn’t put the dye in?” 

“I swear to you, I didn’t do anything to it. Four tipped me off so I could run, but I figured it’d be easier to explain if I just—played along.” Wars said sheepishly. 

Time chuckled and patted his shoulder. “We appreciate the sacrifice, Captain. Still—which one of them would’ve done this?” 

“I would think Wild, but he wouldn’t fill his bag with jelly,” Twilight said, and then stopped. “Actually, yes he would, but I still don’t think it’s him” 

“It’s his era, though, and it was definitely his dye in our clothes. He would know how to dye hair.”

“So would Legend, though, you heard him griping.”

The three of them stood in silence for a moment. 

“There’s something we’re missing,” Time concluded, looking puzzled. “Maybe it’s not one of us at all, but someone else.”

Wars scoffed. “You think the Shade is following us and pulling pranks? What would the point be?”

Shadow was hanging on to every word, barely breathing, but didn’t catch the next part as two small hands picked him up around the middle and held him tight to their chest. 

Shadow nearly yowled in surprise, but managed to strangle it into a strange squeak. He looked up to see Wind holding him, looking very happy with his prize.

“See! I told you I saw a cat. Look at him! He’s adorable!”

Shadow struggled, loathing being called adorable—even if he wasn’t evil anymore, he had a reputation to uphold! But Wind was just as strong as Shadow was slippery, so he settled after Wind put him in his lap.

From around the tree, he could only see Dark staring at him, smirking. Even as a cat, he could smirk evilly. It only lasted a few seconds before Twilight, seemingly done with his conversation, picked him up too, and carried him over to where Shadow and Wind sat. 

Dark was a little less eager to be held, and started yowling as soon as Twilight picked him up. The two of them only made it so far before Dark slipped out of his hands and tore away, jumping up the side of Wild’s house to sit on the roof. 

“Guess that one doesn’t like people,” Wind commented, as he started running a hand down Shadow’s back. It was uncomfortable, and humiliating, and he could feel Dark laughing at him from where he watched, but anytime he tried to slip away Wind caught him easily. Whenever he started growling, Wind just laughed. “I think he likes me!”

Shadow hated being alive again, actually. Nothing about this could possibly be worth it. 

Link laughed at the both of them from across the fire, and Shadow could only thank any Gods listening that he didn’t know it was him. Shadow couldn’t imagine the kind of teasing he’d be put through if he knew. 

Still, he sat long enough to watch Link talk with the others, closer to him than he’d dared the entire time he’d been alive. Shadow watched as Link spoke animatedly with Wind and Legend about the cats that used to terrorize him around the forge, waving his hands the way Vio would have when he wasn’t paying attention enough to stop himself.

As soon as Wind let go enough Shadow jumped away, climbing up the same way Dark had to glare at all of them from above. Dark was still laughing as he led them to the back of the house, creating a very small portal for them both. 

Dark slipped in first, and Shadow only hesitated a moment before sneaking over to look back at the group. They all sat, relaxed and laughing at each other’s expense. Link had started yelling about something else, much to Shadow’s joy, while the others laughed around him. 

Shadow let the heartache wash over him, and then turned away to follow Dark home. 

Dark was pacing when he got back, journal already open on the table and map for the next era spread out. As soon as Shadow left the portal he began thinking out loud. 

“I’m thinking we do at least one more prank, because it’s funny, but it seems like they’ve figured us out. If this last one doesn’t do what we need it to, then I say we continue with the original plan. What do you say?”

It took Shadow a moment to realize Dark was asking instead of telling him what to do, which felt nice. It also made his chest hurt; here was the Goddess Hero’s reflection, trusting him with making plans. Trusting him enough to ask him questions. He’d been extended that kind of trust very rarely, and it’d been broken just as fast. 

Shadow didn’t know how Vio did it, those few weeks that they’d teamed up. To love your brothers and miss them, to betray them, to find a shared mind in the enemy. It felt like he was splitting in half. 

“I think you’re right,” Shadow said, despite hating the original plan, and wanting this to be over already. “The pranks aren’t going half as well as I’d hoped they would. I wish Wars had been left out, like we’d planned.”

Dark read over their plans, murmuring to himself. Shadow was thinking over all the pranks he’d written down, how excited Dark had been for some of them. If this was going to be his last big hurrah, he wanted to go out with a bang.

Then Dark smiled, bright and mischievous. “What if we did all of them?”

Shadow stared for a moment before they both started laughing. Not evilly, like Dark was wont to do, but genuine excitement at the thought of it. 

“This’ll be a disaster,” Shadow said, breathless. Dark just nodded back in delight. 

Sadly, they couldn’t go all out right away. They had to find exactly the right time and place, and pick up materials for everything. This was a downside for Shadow, because it meant more time with Dark.

As it turns out, he was right about the two of them being similar. Dark explained why he’d been created, how he’d been made in the reflection of the hero and remembered all he’d done up until that point. How he’d been there when the hero woke up after seven years, still mentally a child navigating the ruined world as a teenager. How he’d felt toward the sword, how he felt toward the Goddesses, how he felt like it was all his fault.

The hero defeated those feelings in the water temple. Dark was made of them.

Shadow felt it was unfair, how similar they were. How inevitable it was they would become friends. Dark was quickly becoming another brother to him, and he couldn’t imagine doing anything to ruin that.

But he had to, and he knew it.

It’d only been a few days when they’d gathered all their materials and placed all the heroes back in Time’s era, they waited out the dying sun in the shade, watching the nine of them set up camp, most of them confused as to why they were back in the same era again—especially after not fighting anything in Wild’s era. 

Oops. 

When it was late enough, and watch was set, the two of them descended. It was surprisingly easy to get everyone asleep, Dark doing something with his magic—Shadow doesn’t know exactly what, but really wants to learn from him. The portals would be useful, too.

They’d split the work as evenly as possible, then got to it. It wasn’t a very detailed plan—they’d just needed enough time to get all nine of them at once. Shadow made sure he was the one to get his Link, and Shadow was all to happy to give it to him as long as he got Time. 

It took a few hours, and by dawn they were both hiding in the shadows, giggling to themselves. Dread had taken root in Shadow’s gut, making the whole thing a lot less funny than it should have been, but he tried to ignore it. Hopefully, everything else would go to plan.

...

Four woke up and immediately know something was wrong. The sun had risen and their entire group was still asleep, leaving no one on watch. Everything was still where it was supposed to be at his first, blurry glance. He rubbed his eyes and stood to stretch—and then rubbed his eyes again, just to make sure.

For a moment, there was so much clamoring in his brain he could barely process what he was seeing. A mess of colors swirled in his head, taking everything in. Every face he could see had been graffitied, every bag dumped on the ground in a pile, every scrap of cloth dyed back to the same shade of green, every weapon stuck into the ground around them in a makeshift circle. 

(Shadow will admit, they went a little overboard. It was in their nature.)

As Four looked on in horror, the other eight began to stir, just as groggy as he had been. Time was the first to really look around, and instead of reacting he just closed his eyes again, as if he could hide from their unfortunate fate. Warriors took one look at his scarf—once again a despairingly bright green—and put his pink-haired head into his hands. Wild scrambled for his slate, which was thrown into the middle of camp, and looked confused as he swiped through it. 

Sky, who was still struggling to wake up, took one look at Wind and started laughing at him, who started laughing back. Hyrule joined in as soon as he could see properly, which set the first two off again. Everyone had badly drawn mustaches on their face, as well as a few crude drawings. Four dreaded to see his own.

Twilight stared at his furs, face blank. It was somehow a much brighter green than before, so vibrant Four was sure that it was enchanted.

Legend dug through their pile of stuff, searching for anything stolen, and seemed to become more desperate the more green clothes he pulled out. At a closer look, Four realized that their clothes hadn’t been dyed, but replaced with a familiar green tunic and pants. Legend gave up halfway through the pile, grabbing his own green pillow and screaming into it. 

They all sat in silence for a few minutes, coming to terms with their reality and going through the five stages of grief. Finally, Time opened his eye—a monocle drawn over it, which nearly sent Wind over the edge again—and said, “We all know this wasn’t any of us, right?”

There was a resounding yes from around camp, most muffled from hands or pillows. 

(Shit.)

“Does anyone have any idea who it could be? A particularly invisible enemy with a penchant for pranks?”

A few of them shook their heads, though Four thought about it a bit. He did, technically, but he was dead and also about five hundred years in the past. It was surprisingly hard to find villains that were alive and also able to cross timelines.

Time nodded as if expecting it, and seemed lost in thought. Four watched the large mustache on Wind’s face crinkle strangely as he tried not to laugh.

“I know this might sound strange,” Time said slowly, “But does anyone think it might be the Shadow doing this?”

(SHIT.)

Every time someone called the Dark Link Shadow Four was reminded of his own odd reflection. It usually wouldn’t bother him, but today it did. 

There were thoughtful hums around camp, but Four didn’t know whether he believed it. Up until a few weeks ago, they were chasing and being chased by the Shadow lizard, and its groups of black-blooded monsters. The attacks had dropped off for no reason they could see, but they decided to be reasonably cautious about it and relaxed while they could. The eras they’d been in had been plentiful, and were repeatedly near towns they could buy potions and medical supplies from, which was incredibly lucky on their part.

As the rest of them talked about the likelihood of their biggest enemy pranking them in the night without killing them all in their sleep, Four tried to figure out what piece he was missing. He started gathering his things up, books in first—until something fell out of his personal journal.

He hadn’t checked it the first time his bag had been rummaged through, nor the second; they all seemed to share the understanding that privacy was important, especially between a group of nine that were all keeping secrets. When he opens it up to the last page he’d written on, though, he found someone else’s handwriting. 

In a dark pen and scratchy writing: Hey, losers.

The handwriting was unfamiliar, but the picture it drew was not. He looked at the note in his hand and saw the same writing, quickly scrawled and crumpled, like it’d been shoved into his journal.

Don’t do anything stupid. I have a plan. Wait for me.

“What the fuck,” Four muttered out loud, feeling dizzy. There was a small S at the bottom, along with a shitty drawing of Shadow giving a thumbs up. He was blindsided with anger, and relief, and a hundred other things that melted together into old grief. He looked up into the bushes, as if he might see someone there—but the shadows were all normal ones.

Four put the note and his journal away and prayed he was doing the right thing.

...

Dark immediately started ordering troops to be gathered when they got back from the camp. Shadow could tell he was frustrated with their lack of anger, or any reaction at all. In their war room, he swept all their old plans aside and put a new map on, of Hyrule’s era, and put the little carvings he’d made of the troops down in on of the barren plains. 

“Obviously this didn’t work, but we can still use it. Their guards are lowered from the past few weeks’ break, so it’ll be easy to catch them. There’s nearly no reliable resources in this era, so even if they get away it won’t last long. We also know the monsters in this era are very good at sniffing out their hero, so we’ll be able to hunt them down.”

Shadow watched as Dark planned everything out, still talking to himself. There was a vice around his chest as he considered his next step, how it was almost guaranteed to fail. He gathered whatever courage the colors had rubbed off on him and cleared his throat, getting Dark’s attention.

“What if we didn’t?” he asked, faux casual. 

“What, didn’t bring the Hinox? I guess we don’t need to, but they could help out a lot—“

“No, I mean—what if we just didn’t ambush them at all.”

Dark looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “And what, sent them an invitation? What would be the point then?”

Shadow took a deep breath. “What if we didn’t go after them at all? If we just . . . Stopped.”

Dark rolled his eyes and turned back to the map. “We’re already behind after the last few weeks, I don’t see why—“

“I mean stop forever, Link,” Shadow interrupted, determined now. “There’s no Ganondorf pushing us to fight our lighter half. We don’t have to do anything.”

Dark had gone completely stiff, bent over the table. Shadow didn’t breathe for fear of breaking the sudden tension.

“You’ve played me,” Dark whispered quietly.

“Never,” Shadow replied, completely genuine. “But we don’t need to listen to a dead man’s orders anymore.”

“I am not following orders,” Dark bellows, whipping around. His eyes are glowing red, white hot pupils staring into Shadow’s being. “I am doing what I was created for. What we were created for!”

“We don’t have to be that, Dark. We can do whatever we want. We can live. Zelda told me—“

“Zelda.” Darkness rose from the ground to form a perfect replica of the master sword, gripped tightly in Dark’s hand. “I should have known. You’ve been in league with them the whole time.”

“No, I—“

Dark swung his blade blindly, and Shadow dodged a dark crackling wave of magic. 

“You tricked me! You lied to me! I BELIEVED you!”

Dark swiped at him frantically as he spoke, catching him a few times but never quite hitting home. Shadow dodged as best he could to avoid his blind wrath.

“I was only trying to help,” he gritted out, jumping to the side at the last minute as Dark raised his sword and swung down. The sword hit the table, slicing their map and getting stuck. “I know we both can be more than this.”

“YOU LIED!” Dark yelled back, voice high pitched. He looked all for the world like a child trying not to cry, pulling at the sword to get it unstuck.

Shadow took the moment to breathe, blood pounding in his ears. “I never meant to hurt you, I—“

Dark gave up on his sword and grabbed Shadow’s collar before he could finish, quicker than he could escape. Shadow choked as he was raised up and slammed onto their table, head smacking against the wood so hard he saw stars. When his vision cleared, they were nose to nose, and this close Shadow could see the tears in his eyes, white pupils swimming in a sea of red.

“You’re a Link, too,” Shadow said, only slightly slurred, echoing the words Zelda told him years ago. “Just like them. Just like me.”

Dark held the collar of his shirt so tight his hands shook. Shadow watched the fight in his eyes, the hurt, a mirror of himself doing his best to survive the only way he knew how. Shadow watched the pain they’d both inherited win. 

“Fine. If you love the light so much, go and join them. But don’t come crying to me when they remember what exactly we are.”

Dark let go of Shadow and let him fall into a dark portal.

...

Four spent hours wondering what Shadow could possibly be planning. As soon as they all finally got everything together (all their missing clothes were still missing, which meant whoever had stolen them still had them. Which meant all nine of them were wearing matching green outfits and bright pink hair) they set out again, hopefully for answers.

They all weren’t expecting answers to show up in the form of a portal under their feet, but thats what they got. There were a few strangled shouts before they were swallowed in the dark. It was longer than their usual portals, and about halfway through something large and person-shaped slammed into Four’s back, shoving him out of the portal and onto the hard ground.

Four groaned, and so did the person on top of him, in nearly the same tone and voice. This would’ve been more startling if he hadn’t been traveling with circus mirror versions of himself for a few months, and if he was anyone but the hero of the four sword.

Still, he did notice when the person on top of him scrambled off of him and started panicking. Four took a moment to get himself together before sitting up himself.

“Shit, oh shit, I really didn’t think this through,” someone who sounded an awful lot like him said. The pieces finally clicked in his brain, and Four’s head shot up. 

Standing in front of him, desperately trying to cover his eyes in the sun, was Shadow, alive and well. Four hardly realized he was moving before he tackled Shadow to the ground in a hug.

Shadow let out a muffled oof, but stopped struggling as soon as he saw who it was.

“You asshole!” Four squeezed him hard, burying his head into Shadow’s shoulder. “That note you left fucking sucked!”

Shadow laughed breathlessly. Yeah, I realized after I probably should’ve been more thorough. Could you get off me please? I can’t breathe.”

Four scrambled up, then helped shadow off the ground just to pull him in another hug. Shadow laughed again, and hugged back properly.

“I’ve wanted to do this since I woke up,” he said softly, almost like he didn’t mean to speak out loud.

“As soon as I’m done being relieved you’re alive, it’s over for you. I know at least four individuals who need to talk to you.”

“I’m terrified,” Shadow laughed.

“You should be, Four replied, still squeezing the daylights out of him.

Speaking of—

“Boy, it really is bright out here huh,” Shadow said, frantically looking around for shade. They were in Hyrule’s era, one large vast plain. Shit.

That’s also when Shadow noticed eight other Links, staring at the two of them befuddled. Shadow laughed nervously and waved; only Twilight waved back.

Four spun around to face the rest of the group, stepping in front of Shadow as if to hide him behind his back.

“What do you have there, Smithy?” Time asked, somewhere between resigned and amused.

“Uh.” Four thought for a frantic moment, panic from all four of him making it hard to think. “My long lost, completely normal Hylian brother? Whom I missed very much?”

...

Shadow put his face in his hands. So much for resurrection; he had a feeling getting killed by eight iterations of the heroes spirit would stick, this time.

“Uhuh,” Legend said sarcastically. “Would your brother happen to be the one thats been following us around and pranking us?”

Oh, Goddesses. Four spun around, affronted. “You!”

“There’s a completely good explanation for this," Shadow said, completely serious.

“Really? What’s that?” Four asked, attempting to sound pleasant. Shadow once more felt very close to death.

“ . . . I was having fun?”

Four lunged at him, and Shadow began fighting for his life for the second time in a day. Which wasn’t his record, but it was getting close.

It only took a few moments before Twilight stopped Four from killing him. Another one grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and lifted him off the ground, which made him start wiggling to get out of it.

“You two can squabble later. Four, I assume you know this Dark Link enough to not kill him on sight. Do we need to be worried?”

“He’s not a Dark, and no, he wouldn’t hurt a fly anymore. Probably.” Four looked infuriatingly unbothered by being held up, simply dusting himself off. The hero of Time was the one holding him up still.

Shadow crossed his arms. “I resent that.”

“You’re not helping your case here,” Legend said from the sidelines. Shadow rolled his eyes.

“I’ve been helping you guys the past few weeks and this is how I’m repaid? With suspicion? Threats? Being held like a wet cat?”

Time finally put him down, and Twilight did the same to Four, though he kept a hand on his shoulder.

“Explain how you’ve been helping us by coming into camp in the night, when we’re unaware, at our most vulnerable, and fucking with us for fun,” Legend drawled. 

Shadow paused. “Well, when you put it like that it sounds awful.”

Legend threw up his hands and walked away to sit on a log, far enough away he couldn’t hear them anymore. 

“I feel like you’re actively working against yourself at this point,” Twilight said, looking confused.

“Listen, it was either I convinced Dark that pranking you was a good plan, or we constantly ambush you with monster hordes and supposed-to-be-dead-friends. I didn’t even get a big dramatic reveal like I wanted, I just got kicked out.”

“You got kicked out of being a villain?” Twilight asked.

“Again?” Four said, delighted.

The rest of the group began walking closer, the sound of Shadow’s pride dying bringing them like swarming flies.

“Stop discrediting my perfectly good villain story! I left willingly both times, it doesn’t count!”

“Being shoved through a portal with us doesn’t exactly scream ‘willing’. You’re also bleeding in a few places.”

Shadow ignored Four’s frantic what? As he started to search him over. Wind raised his hand slightly to ask, “Doesn’t that mean you weren’t really a villain in the first place?”

“It means I decided to be slightly less evil in order to pursue my own goals,” he said through gritted teeth. He was about to beg Dark to take him back; the heroes were already unbearable.

“Your own goals,” Four snorted, before Shadow sat on him to shut him up. 

Actually, it was more of a fall than anything on purpose. Wow, he was dizzy.

“Oh, shit,” Four gasped from under him. “Are you actually bleeding?”

Shadow laughed, a bit hysterical. “Villains never take well to being betrayed, do they?”

Shadow regretted this as soon as it came out of his mouth, watching Four’s face go from concerned to crushed with guilt. Shadow tried to backtrack, but Four cut him off quickly as he looked him over in earnest.

“I don’t think he was aiming for anything important,” Shadow said seriously, showing him a few cuts on his arms when he hadn’t dodged fast enough. “He did swing pretty hard, though.” Shadow carefully took his hat off, because his head was really starting to hurt.

Four cursed again, checking the back of his head and calling out about his wound to the rest, who hesitated before coming forward.

Shadow waved them off, scooting away from four before he could force him to take something. “Listen, we’re in Hyrule’s era, which leaves us with very little supplies, and I’ve never actually had a potion so I don’t know if it’d even work.”

Hyrule was still trying to get a feel for where they were (props to Dark for sending them to one of the hundreds of Large Dead Fields in his time), while Wild started taking inventory of his slate.

“We’ve actually got quite a lot of supplies,” Wild said distractedly, swiping through whatever he was looking at. “The last few worlds we’ve been in I’ve stocked up for exactly this, and we haven’t had any big fights recently, so we’re good for a long while.”

Shadow winced again, this time knowing that their preparedness was definitely his fault. “Well, you’ve me to thank for that as well, so. You’re welcome.”

Four was looking at him completely spaced out—Shadow imagined there was a fight going on about who got to yell at him first.

He jumped when there was a potion handed to him, Time crouching right next to him. 

“I know you don’t know if it’ll work, but it’s worth a try. Let us thank you.” 

The Hero of Time looked over at Four very seriously and oh, shit, he’s seen Dark make that exact face before. “We’re trusting you with this one, Link. Both of you.”

Shadow nodded and took the offered hand to help him up, still staring at the older, inverted version of his friend’s face. What had happened to the Hero of Time—and in turn, Dark—that had made them the way they were? Dark talked about dying, about being banished to the Dark World—how long had it been for time? How long had Dark been stuck there?

I have made such a huge mess of everything, Shadow thought, and then startled when Four laughed about it. Shadow was holding Time’s hand, so he backed up, nearly tripping over Four.

“Alright, enough of that. Drink that before we make you.” Four gestured to the bottle, and Shadow downed it without complaining. 

“Um, so.” Goddesses, strike me down. How long had it been since he’d talked to more than four people at a time? Everyone sat around the fire, waiting for answers, more patient than he assumed they could be. 

“I’m not sure how much Four has told you, so I won’t get into it, but I died at the end of a big fight with Ganon. It was all very tragic, so I’m sure he’s mentioned it—“

“He’s never mentioned you,” Hyrule told him politely. “Not once.”

“Or not. Regardless, I died, the day was saved, et cetera. Next thing I know is I’m spat back out of another Dark Mirror, a few hundred years in the future from the last time I was alive, and there was a goth teenager in front of me.”

“So the Rancher was there?” Legend asked, resting his chin on his fist. Twilight swatted the back of his head, and both of them started whacking each other.

“Actually, uh.” Both of them turned to look at him in tandem, scarily intense, hands still in the air mid-slap. “It wasn’t Twilight! It was a young dark reflection of Time, who’d resurrected me to help deal with you all. According to him I was the first in the timeline? I’m honestly surprised they tried again after me. I wasn’t exactly successful.”

The group was silent, attentive. Time’s face was drawn, staring into the flames.

“Anyway, he wanted me to help, and I agreed. Not because I wanted to hurt you all, or be a part of his crazy plan, but because—well, first of all, Link was in the group and if I didn’t agree I was afraid I wouldn’t get to see him again.” Sky made a cooing sound at that, which he wanted to snap at until Four wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

“What was the other reason?” Wind asked, sitting in the dirt.

Shadow shrugged awkwardly. “He looks older than he is, I think.” He didn’t say anything else, but he was looking at Time, begging him to understand. Time was pale in the firelight, but nodded back to him. 

There were a hundred things Shadow could say about dark; that he recognized himself in him, the kid that just wanted to be seen. That he was kind, and went through all the trouble of bringing Shadow back because he was lonely. That he knew Dark could be better, because he got better.

But Shadow knew that was not a conversation for a group of eight strangers, and instead made a note to talk to the Colors about it later. 

It was silent until Four sniffed; Shadow looked over to see his eyes watering, irises strangely red in the firelight. As soon as Shadow turned Four was latched on to him, crushing his ribs again. Not that Shadow was going to complain.

Of course, they only got a few moment of silence. 

“That’s really sweet, but it still doesn’t explain the pranks,” Wars rudely interrupted. 

Shadow laughed a little. “Okay, I can admit I was having a little too much fun with that. Once I’d convinced Dark it was a good idea, he started having fun with it too, and it got a bit out of hand.”

Four snorted from where his face was shoved in Shadow’s shoulder, and mumbled something like sounds about right.

“You’re sort of making it sound like you. . . Friendshipped your way into Dark liking you. Via pranks,” Wild said slowly.

Shadow groaned. “If you say it like that, of course it sounds stupid.”

“That’s what I did,” Four said, sniffing. “I think it worked pretty well.”

“You’re taking a lot of credit from Zelda. She said exactly what I needed.” Shadow paused. “Also, our ‘pranks’ included pretending to kill someone.”

“Every Zelda seems pretty good at that,” Sky chipped in. And then, “Well. The first part, not the second.”

“Thank god we all have a Zelda with a braincell,” he sighed, which got a few laughs. Four elbowed him, most likely offended on Vio’s behalf, and Shadow gave him a look. 

“Well, I guess there’s nothing else to it,” Time sighed, clapping his hands together. “Welcome, Shadow Link, I’m sure you already know what’s going on.”

Shadow did a double take. “Wh—what, just like that?” 

Legend huffed. “Buddy, if you want people to believe your batshit crazy stories, you can’t be surprised when they believe you. That’s like, rule number one.”

“Well, yeah.” He was evil for a majority of his life, of course he knew about rule number one. “That’s not the point.”

“Listen, it’s easy. We trust Four, we definitely trust his Zelda, and if you are evil, you’re not very good at it.”

Shadow opened his mouth to protest, but stopped at the looks he was given. 

“So are we waiting for Dark to show up? Or expecting an ambush?” Hyrule asked, looking skeptical. 

“Hope for the first, expect the second, I think,” Warriors said, standing to stretch. “I’m not going to hold my breath, but I do hope you’re right.” He smiled at Shadow, which was weird. He looked away. 

Four nodded absently beside him, mind far away. Shadow squeezed him, bringing a smile to his face. 

“With any luck, he’ll see how well this went and we won’t have to fight at all.” 

Someone snorted, but Shadow let them be. He could afford to be hopeful, just then.