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One moment, Sky was in the middle of a battle, Fi in his hands, facing off against the mysterious Shadow that they’d been pursuing.
The next moment, he was talking to Groose.
He stopped mid-word. What had he been saying? What happened? How did he get here?
“Whoa, Zelda,” Groose said, catching him as he stumbled, disoriented. “You okay?”
Hang on. What?
Sun staggered, suddenly mid-lunge when she’d just been standing still. What happened?
Why was Fi in her hand? Where was she?
A monster swung at her, and she skewered it instinctively. She looked around as she pulled Fi from its chest- were those… the other Heroes? Link’s reincarnations?
They all looked about as confused as she felt, but they seemed to be holding their own against the monsters well enough. But where was her Link? Sky?
…Wait.
Sun looked down at her own hands. The ones clutching the Master Sword, which Link always carried. Could it be…?
These were not her hands. Yet she knew them intimately.
The hands she was using- the body she was in- it was Link’s.
Four was starting to think he needed to say something.
He’d suddenly found himself eating dinner with the King of Hyrule. Not the most outlandish situation he’d ever been in- being Dot’s best friend, he had actually eaten dinner with the King quite a few times- but it was made strange by two factors.
One, he had just been in the middle of a fierce battle against some black-blooded monsters. Two, he’d somehow ended up in Dot’s body.
The King evidently hadn’t noticed anything was off yet. From his perspective his daughter must seem merely lost in thought. Four really should say something, shouldn’t he?
He just had no idea how to phrase it. Hi, sorry, but I’m not your daughter and I’m not sure what happened to her seemed like a bad idea.
He sighed, returning to the meal. He’d figure out a better way to explain himself later.
Dot wasn’t sure what was going on.
She’d gone from eating with her father to being in the middle of a battle, and somehow she also seemed to be in Link’s body.
Clumsily, she swung the Four Sword at the nearest monster. It snarled at her, leaping out of the way. She shuddered, backing up, when an arrow flew by, striking the monster and killing it instantly.
She looked briefly at her saviour- the Hero of Warriors(?)- before focusing, tightening her grip on Link’s sword. She hadn’t been trained for swordfighting; she was a mage. But all she had now was Link’s weapons…
Actually, shouldn’t her magic have come with her? It was supposedly part of her soul, after all…
Dot pulled on the Light Force, and found it responsive.
She grinned, sheathing the Four Sword. It seemed this wasn’t going to be as bad as she’d thought.
Time smiled politely as he excused himself from the… meeting? He’d suddenly found himself in.
Luckily, whoever he’d been meeting with had accepted his lie at face value, telling ‘Queen Zelda’ that it wasn’t terribly urgent and they could reschedule without much trouble.
Because he was, apparently, Lullaby.
That meant, in all likelihood, Lullaby was currently him. Which was reassuring; she knew how to handle herself. She’d protect his boys in his stead.
Assuming his boys were there, and not their Zeldas.
He hadn’t seen whatever caused this. It must have been the work of the Shadow, and its lizalfos form had been part of the battle, but it hadn’t looked like it was casting anything. There had been no flash of light, no tingle of magic, just one moment he was in his body and the next he was Lullaby.
There was no indication of if it was targeted, or how wide its range was. Any amount of the others could be in the same situation as him. It was impossible to tell.
He sighed. He should probably tell someone what had happened, in case it wasn’t resolved quickly. Ideally Impa.
Now, if only he remembered how to navigate the castle.
Lullaby cleaved a bokoblin in two, getting a nod of thanks from the Hero of the Skies. If that was the Hero of the Skies. He’d looked pretty surprised by his own hands earlier, so it felt safe to assume he was actually the Zelda of that Era, switched into her Hero’s body by the same force that had taken Lullaby herself.
The Hero of the Four Sword had sheathed his sword and started blasting monsters with Light Magic, so it felt safe to say that was Princess Zelda. What had Link said they nicknamed her…? Dot…?
And the Sky Princess was…
“Sun, I presume,” Lullaby said, mashing another bokoblin into paste with Link’s ridiculous oversized sword. It wasn’t nearly as fast as her preferred weapons, but she’d make do.
“Yes,” Sun replied, swinging the Master Sword with clear expertise and slicing an aeralfos out of the air. “You must be Lullaby.”
“Lovely to meet you,” Lullaby said, casting a glance towards the strange dark lizalfos currently engaged in battle with the Hero of Twilight. Or, more likely, the Princess. “I don’t suppose you know what’s going on.”
“We seem to have switched bodies with our respective Links,” Sun said, decapitating a bokoblin. “Other than that? Nothing.”
“I’d bet it has something to do with that lizalfos,” Lullaby mused, not bothering to indicate which of the many monsters she was referring to. “Time sent me a letter saying their foe could shapeshift, and one of the forms he named was a lizalfos. That must be it.”
“Oh,” Sun said, an odd glint in her eye. “Why didn’t you start with that? We’re wasting our time on these smaller creatures when we could be going after the real problem.”
“I like the way you think,” Lullaby said, grinning sharply. “But let’s practice on the fodder a little more. We’ll want to be accustomed to these bodies when we go after it.”
“I see your point,” Sun responded, whirling back into combat. “Wouldn’t do to miss our chance, after all.”
“Exactly,” Lullaby agreed. “That thing won’t know what hit it.”
Legend sighed contently, stretching out on the bed he’d found himself on.
It was Fable’s bed, certainly. And this was Fable’s body.
He wasn’t quite sure how that had happened, but he’d take his blessings where he could get them. Being the Princess, Fable had an extravagantly comfortable bed, and a comfortable body too. She’d only been on one quest, as opposed to his seven, and she had far less aches and pains than he did.
He stretched again. Ahh, bliss.
Should he get up and tell someone that the Princess had essentially been stolen from her bedroom, switched with the Hero?
Nah. It’d be fine. Fable could handle herself.
He pried himself from the comforts of the bed, spinning around and enjoying the swirl of Fable’s skirt. Now was the perfect opportunity to do… whatever he wanted, really.
First order of business was sneaking out of the Castle so he could mess with Ravio.
Fable struck down the last moblin standing between her and her goal and threw herself into battle, opening by setting the dark lizalfos on fire.
It didn’t seem to like that. Possibly because it was Din’s Fire, divine in origin, or maybe just because it was fire.
The Hero of Twilight, who was probably the Princess, nodded in acknowledgement of her before ducking under the Shadow’s blade. Dusk, if that was who she was, had been engaged in combat against the creature since Fable- and, presumably, the other Zeldas- had found themselves here. She’d been holding her own quite well, but Fable thought she seemed thankful for the backup.
Armed with Divine Magic and the Tempered Sword, Fable thought she was the ideal backup for this monster. If only her joints would stop aching. Did Link really live like this? They would be having a talk about taking care of himself as soon as they met again.
Hopefully they’d be in the correct bodies when they did so.
“I’m okay, really,” Hyrule promised, though Dawn didn’t look reassured. She must have been worried about Aurora.
The two Zeldas had been walking and talking on the stairs when Hyrule suddenly found himself in Aurora’s body, and in his disorientation he had promptly fallen all the way down the staircase.
His magic had carried over with his soul, so he’d been able to heal the many bruises that had given him, but he’d frightened Dawn terribly. And it hadn’t helped when they’d realized that, if he was here in Aurora’s body, Aurora must be in his.
He’d been mid-combat with a darknut, so that was a little worrying.
Aurora had trained in combat since Hyrule woke her, apparently determined to never be caught off guard again. Hyrule had even lent her his own sword for practice before, so she should be comfortable using it.
But for all her training, she’d never been in a real battle before, and a fight against dozens of black-blooded monsters as well as the Shadow itself was not the best place to start. She didn’t have a life spell to heal her, either.
He hoped his brothers would protect her. Or, if they were in the same situation as he was, he hoped her sisters would in their place.
Aurora called a warning as an aeralfos dove for Artemis. The other Zelda dodged it with ease, bringing up her sword to slice through it in the opening.
“Thanks for the heads up,” she called, turning most of her attention back to the wolfos she’d been facing. “You’re okay?”
“Fine!” Aurora called back, slicing a bokoblin. It wasn’t too different from practice, really. Dodge. Strike. Try not to die.
Thank the Goddesses for Artemis, though. Aurora was settling into the rhythm of combat now, but if not for the other Zelda, she would have been killed by the darknut she’d found herself against when she first arrived here.
Or… Link would have been killed? It was impossible to say. If she was in his body, then he must be in hers, but what would happen to them if she died here?
She shook her head, moving to be back to back with Artemis. There was no use dwelling on it, because they weren’t going to find out.
Wind kind of wished he’d pretended to be Tetra.
Sure, the crew was still listening to him, but the unthinking respect they gave their captain was absent. After so long being the youngest Link, it would’ve been nice to be in charge.
Then again, Tetra would be pissed if she found out he’d impersonated her. So maybe it was for the best.
He wondered what she was doing. Well, she was surely wreaking havoc on the monsters he’d been fighting, but what else? Was she getting along with his brothers? Or were they switched with their Zeldas too, and Tetra was actually with her sisters now?
Would she like them? None of them sounded as cool as her. Not that it was possible to be as cool as Tetra.
Man. He wanted to be there, seeing her kick ass. It was nice to be in his own Era, but without his brothers or Tetra, it was kinda lacking. Especially when he knew there was something cool happening and he was missing it.
Hopefully Tetra would tell him all about it later.
Tetra cackled, turning a moblin into mincemeat with Link’s fancy sword. He never let her borrow it, but now she was getting to try it out!
The other Zelda- Flora, the one in the body of the Hero of the Wild- called out thanks, still dancing around that lynel Tetra had first come over to help with. Every few seconds, it unfroze and attacked, and every time Flora refroze it with that Slate of hers and moved out of the way of its swing.
Tetra would love to hit it while it was defenseless like that, but she was busy getting there. The other monsters seemed to understand that the lynel was their best fighter, and they were doing their best to keep Tetra from taking advantage of Flora’s time-freezing trick.
Flora herself was doing alright- she had a shortsword, and had landed the occasional hit on the lynel- but at the rate she was going, they’d be here for hours.
A blast of light shot past her, absolutely eviscerating the lizalfos it hit, and Tetra turned to see the Hero of the Four Sword, or possibly the Princess, charging forward. Looked like they’d cleared out the section of monsters they’d been up against when they got here.
“Nice to meet you,” they said, blasting another monster to dust. “I’m Dot.”
“I’m Tetra,” she answered, slicing through a chuchu. “That’s a neat trick you’ve got there.”
“Thanks,” Dot said, continuing to carve a path through the horde. “I’m hoping to use it on that shadow lizalfos after this.”
Tetra grinned. “A woman after my own heart.”
Twilight sat alone, head in his hands. Well, in Dusk’s hands.
He’d found himself at Telma’s Bar, apparently disguised so Dusk wouldn’t be recognized. Which had been a stroke of luck, since Telma had recognized both Dusk’s face and Twilight’s accent, and been more than willing to hide him away in a back room before he tripped over his own feet, or something silly like that.
Being in Dusk’s body was… disorienting. More than he’d expected. Adapting to being a wolf had been less trouble!
Maybe it was because wolves were so different from Hylians. He’d had to learn everything from scratch. With Dusk’s body, it was similar enough to his own that he needed to unlearn things instead.
She was taller than him by quite a bit, which was where the tripping over his feet had come from. Her long hair kept falling into his face, which was distracting. And, most jarringly of all, she wasn’t colourblind.
Twilight had been born without the ability to see red. The doctor who’d diagnosed him had called it something fancy- Protanopia, maybe? They’d told him it was the same kind of vision wolves had, as something like a fun fact.
In hindsight he doubted that was a coincidence.
But it was weird, seeing through Dusk’s eyes. Everything looked… well, different.
Which was why he was freaking out in a back room of a bar.
There was also the small problem that Dusk was, in all likelihood, now facing off against the Shadow in his body. Not that he doubted her abilities, but it had proven dangerous to nine heroes at once, and had already nearly killed him. If something happened to Dusk-
Nothing would happen to Dusk. The others, whether they be Links or Zeldas, would protect her. Wasn’t one of them literally Hylia reborn? Dusk would be fine. He was probably worse off than she was.
He missed his crystal. While turning Dusk’s body into a wolf without her agreement would probably be rude, at least it would make him feel normal.
Dusk sliced at her foe, grinning victoriously as black blood painted her blade. This thing had been sorely mistaken.
When she’d found herself here, in Link’s body, the creature had mocked her, saying that a bunch of Princesses couldn’t hope to stand up to its might when even the Heroes hadn’t managed to defeat it.
It had seemed quite surprised when she actually knew how to fight. Even more when she continued to hold her ground against it.
And nothing seemed to shock it more than the continued survival of the others, as the numbers of monsters in the area thinned.
Off to one side, the dying roar of a lynel echoed out, and Dusk’s grin grew more vicious. That had been the most dangerous monster on the battlefield, besides the one she was fighting.
Admittedly, it hadn’t been the easiest battle of her life. Her chest ached from a stressed wound, she could feel bruises forming, and she was fairly sure her right arm was broken; luckily Link was left-handed. Overall, really, she’d been in worse situations.
Then Fable had joined her, and that had seemed to take the monster off-balance, especially as she wielded divine fire and an orange sword that Dusk suspected was actually the Master Sword. It was definitely a holy weapon, and it burned through the Shadow like nothing else.
And with the arrival of Sun and Lullaby, the tides were really turning.
Where it had once been confident, the Shadow was clearly on its back foot, struggling to face them all at once. Arrows occasionally flew at it, courtesy of Artemis, who was still engaged clearing the remaining monsters. At some point a hinox had shown up, and she doubted they’d be getting more backup until that was dealt with.
They didn’t need more, though. Four Zeldas, two of which wielded divine power, were more than enough. Dusk suspected the monster would flee soon, if it was smart.
But then, if the current situation was any clue, it wasn’t.
Warriors was pacing.
It was annoying, and he knew it was annoying, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care. Artemis was out facing the Shadow, in his own body, and he could do nothing to help!
“Link,” Lana said, “Please, sit down.”
Warriors paced harder.
Artemis had apparently been having lunch with Lana, which was nice for them. He hadn’t touched any of the food since arriving here, and he didn’t intend to. Not when there were… not things to do, necessarily, but things to worry about.
“Link,” Lana sighed. “Zelda can handle this.”
“I know,” he snapped. She’d handled the war, hadn’t she? Better than he had, even.
But what about the others? Sun was a knight, Tetra was a pirate, Lullaby had Sheikah training… what about the rest? Did Dot have any combat experience? Or Dawn or Aurora, whichever had switched with Hyrule? Did Fable? Flora?
Twilight had said Dusk could fight, but how well? She’d be against the Shadow itself. Could she hold her own?
Could she protect the Rancher?
Artemis would be fine, and Lana had assured him the spell affecting them was steadily fading. It would wear off soon, she said. Soon, Warriors would be back with his brothers.
How many of them would be hurt? Would any be dead? An untrained Princess thrown into a battle against black-blooded monsters… there was no good outcome.
Warriors kept pacing.
“Got it!” Artemis exclaimed, triumphant, as the hinox fell.
She turned to Aurora, seeing the other Zelda cleaning up the scattered monsters remaining. At some point those who weren’t fighting the Shadow had come over, and they were making quick work of the monsters.
Artemis took the moment to catch her breath. It was clear they’d won the battle; the question was if they could win the war. If they could circle around the Shadow, cut it off, they might be able to destroy it, ending Link’s quest.
Honestly, even if it got away, she was going with Link the next time he came by their Era. These black-blooded monsters were weak to divine power, and the Zeldas had far more of that than the Links did. This problem would be solved faster with her help. And ideally some of the others, too.
As the last monster fell, the group collectively turned their attention to where Dusk, Fable, Sun and Lullaby were facing the Shadow. It was backing up, like it was going to flee.
They couldn’t have that.
“All right,” she said, summoning the Bow of Light, “Let’s do this.”
Wild hummed, carefully applying frosting to his fruitcake.
He’d found himself in his own home, in Flora’s body, and had immediately set about the most productive thing he could think of- making her a nice treat for when she got back.
He was tempted to try it himself, to see if it tasted better with her mouth, but decided against it. It was for her, after all, not him, no matter whose body he was currently occupying.
Deeming it perfect, he plated the fruitcake, and grabbed some paper to write a note along with it. He’d sent her a letter recently, but there was no harm in writing some more.
He signed his name, folded the note, and set it beside the cake. He wondered what she’d been up to while he was busy cooking.
Fighting, probably. He hoped it was going well.
Flora desperately wanted Dot to teach her that move.
As the Shadow had turned, summoning a portal and racing towards it, Dot had thrust a hand out, glowing with familiar power, and sent a blast of light that had pierced straight through the monster, leaving a smoking hole in its wake.
Flora could only seal with her power, not whatever Dot had just done, but oh did she want to learn.
Despite the hole in its chest, the Shadow had kept moving, even as Artemis struck it with Light Arrows, Fable sent divine fire licking at its heels, and Sun swung the Master Sword, sending a beam towards it, which struck it in the back as it neared its escape.
Its form was collapsing, looking less like a real lizalfos and more like a watery mirage of one. She was sure they’d be able to defeat it, with just a little more time-
But it dove through the portal, and the gate closed behind it.
“Damn it,” Artemis muttered. “So close.”
“We’ll get it next time,” Sun said. “Or the Links will, anyway. Say, when do you think we’ll-”
Flora’s vision blurred.
Sun blinked, suddenly herself again.
“Hey,” Groose said, just where she’d left him. “You back?”
“Say,” her father said, “You’ve been awfully quiet all meal. Is something bothering you, Zelda?”
Dot wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that.
“Ah, there you are,” Impa said, as Lullaby looked around. “Your afternoon meeting was cancelled, by the way.”
“When do you think Zelda will be back?” Ravio asked her.
“Right now, I think,” she answered, laughing as his eyes widened.
“Oh,” Aurora said. “Dawn? Why am I so dizzy?”
“You’re back!” Dawn said, clearly relieved. “Link fell down the stairs while he was you.”
“Huh?!”
“Alright,” Tetra said, glancing at her crew. “Link do anything stupid while I was gone?”
Dusk found herself in the back room of Telma’s Bar. She exited quietly, getting only a nod of acknowledgment from Telma on the way out.
“Zelda!” Lana said, voice bright.
Artemis frowned. “How could you tell it was me so fast?”
“You stopped pacing,” she explained.
“Oh,” Flora said, finding herself sitting at the table with a fruitcake in front of her. There was a note beside it. She smiled, picking it up. How sweet of him.
Sky startled, looking around as he was suddenly somewhere new. No, not new. Where he was before.
The others were looking around, too. They’d all returned at the same moment, then, Four deduced.
“So,” Time said. “I see our Zeldas took care of our issues for us.”
“Looks like it,” Legend agreed. “Even sent the Shadow running.”
“The air tastes Divine,” Hyrule offered. “We know it’s weak to holy magic. The Zeldas have more of that than we do.”
“In that case,” Wind said, laughing, “I bet they beat the shit out of it.”
Twilight studied the copious black blood trailing along the ground, abruptly stopping where a portal must have been. “I think you may be right.”
“They dealt with that horde faster than we would have,” Warriors mused. “We should consider bringing a Zelda or two with us in the future.”
“You know,” Wild said, looking at a picture of the Shadow on fire, “That sounds like a great idea.”