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It started while gathering information about Dark Link in Twilight’s Hyrule, they were all seated at a table in Telma’s bar while Twilight asked his compatriots about monster sightings and other happenings. Warriors had a steaming mug heating his chilled hands and Wind tucked firmly against his side with the blue cloth of his scarf covering all but his bright yellow hair. Legend sat between him and Time looking on the precipice of slumber, Time gently easing the mug from his hands before he ended up spilling the hot drink over himself. The tavern was empty otherwise but candles and the lit fireplace kept the darkness at bay, a welcome resting place compared to the snow that currently covered Hyrule Field.
Warriors tuned into Twilight’s conversation when someone had mentioned sightings of dark beings showing up around Lake Hylia and areas of the Twilight Realm showing up as well nearly a year ago. The taller one with glasses, Shad, mentioned that a young girl by the name of Agetha helped a hero with dark hair and a black tunic clear the area of the Twilight and monsters. Warriors nearly choked on his drink when he realized what exactly they were talking about.
Time eyed him, signaling that he also knew what they were referring to. Warriors had only recently discovered that Time had been one of the two heroes that had fought alongside him during the War of Eras, although he considered all the people who fought alongside him to be heroes in their own right. Twilight’s friends made it known that they had simply thought that the hero sighted was Twilight himself, leaving the poor man more confused than he already was.
Warriors shared another look with Time and they both appeared to be thinking the same thing, they would wait to see if this occurred again before outright saying anything. Warriors adventures through time likely could have major consequences if they became well known throughout Hyrule. He mentally sighed
They did visit Agatha, which resulted in an impromptu tea party and a severe diminishing in the amount of bugs that Wild had in his slate. Apparently, Legend had a bee on him during their travels but he absolutely refused to hand it over to Agatha. Although, the shimmering gold color of the bee and the way it burrowed itself into Legend’s hair upon release made him think it would be hard to separate the two of them. Agatha didn’t openly state who she had fought with at the time, causing more confusion for Twilight, but the soft smile she gave him and the fact that she remembered his favorite tea reassured him that she remembered.
Weeks later in Skyloft they were resting at the Knight’s Academy when he heard the next rumor. Sky was laying on his bed with his head in Sky’s lap, Groose practically holding both of them in his lap. Honestly, Warriors wasn’t sure how Sky was even comfortable but he seemed to be enjoying the presence of his friends and in a way he completely understood that. Wind was laying on his stomach on the floor writing a letter to Aryll, with Hyrule watching in slight amusement. Legend decided to ask Groose and Sun about Skyloft specifically why they needed a Knight’s Academy in the first place. Oddly enough Sky from what his memories suggested seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Groose suddenly regaled them with a tale of how a demon that controlled monsters stormed Skyloft and them being held at bay by a man with pale blonde hair and a red scarf. Warriors had still bleached his hair blond at the time and his scarf being red rather than the normal blue was likely due to the fact that the scarf that came with his uniform was not made for the chill of Skyloft. He was a tad surprised when Groose noted that Sky seemed to appear after the battle had ended, which likely implied that Sky was originally from his time but had been displaced from the merging of eras. Thinking on it further he wouldn’t be surprised if such a thing occurred more often. As unfortunate as the idea was, the fact that Sky was happy in Skyloft put some of his guilt at ease.
The next rumor sent them across the Great Sea for information, which wasn’t too surprising considering he’d been on multiple of Wind’s islands. He was slightly surprised that Wind hadn’t connected the dots for himself, but the Hero’s Spirit wasn’t known for its wisdom, although he figured Tetra wouldn’t have sent them on this wild goose chase for no reason. He thinks part of her reasoning is slight anger at Wind’s sudden disappearance, not that the poor boy had much choice in the matter. The information this time seemed to have him slightly confused with Mask, or at least the deity that slumbered within one of his masks.
Warriors caught Four and Wild compiling notes while they were sailing and on questioning they both began speculating on if these were different heroes or one hero that somehow managed to stop minor catastrophes in every era. Warriors was surprised by how close Four’s theory was to the actual truth but he was too curious on what other strange rumors would surface in other eras. He would also prefer to ask Lana before anything and thankfully Time was on the same page as him, that didn’t stop the occasional teasing though.
Warriors recognised Hyrule’s era by landmarks alone, he wasn’t too surprised that there were no rumors of him in this era though. He had never seen hide, nor hair of any person in this time only monsters. Seeing how sparse and ruined one village easily set into perspective what Hyrule’s era was like, Warriors had known the monsters were plentiful and dangerous but he’d never considered that they practically plagued this land.
He made a mental note to himself to ask Lana if creating a way for Hyrule to visit other eras after this was over would be conceivable. The boy would need a safe place to rest and the villagers seemed fairly keen on getting them to leave almost as soon as they arrived and the wilderness of Hyrule’s era had few safe places to rest. Oddly enough, Hyrule seemed to be friends with a moblin that offered them a generous amount of rupees as the past by. The normally skittish hero seemed to greet the creature like an old friend.
There were a few scattered rumors in Time’s era although they were less reputable due to their age and word of mouth. None had his appearance correct, some mistook him for Mask or Wind, some spoke of the dragon that slumbered in Death Mountain coming down to fight alongside the gorons. They weren’t entirely wrong, Volga had joined their cause after being freed from Cia’s control but they seemed to mistake him for Volvagia who lived in the mountain in this era. It was a little hard for him to make sense of it all since he was sure he had visited this area of Hyrule when Time would have been a young adult but he’d also visited Termina when Time was barely past his knees in height.
On asking Time about it his only answer was time travel, of course the Hero of Time had traveled through time in his own way. He hadn’t thought it had gone beyond the three day timeloop that Mask spoke about while they were in Termina. If the goddesses were so concerned about preserving Hyrule why did they have to make so many timelines in the process. Warriors could tell the Four was on the verge of pulling his own hair out trying to figure out how all these events fit together and Warriors wasn’t entirely sure he could give the small hero a satisfactory answer even if he wanted to. The War of Eras was a confusing mess, questions about what was happening to Hyrule fell to the wayside as people had to fight to defend their homes from the onslaught of monsters.
Warriors wasn’t too surprised to find that there were no rumors in Four’s eras, but he was surprised that it was seemingly the only era unaffected by the war alongside Wild’s. Four’s Hyrule was young, its forests were fresh and untouched, the mountains treacherous but holding the air of adventure. Everyone found themselves relaxing in the homey forge Four called home, the forge in the back room keeping the entire house well heated. The smell of fire and metal that clung to Four’s home was welcomingly mixed with the smell of spiced and fresh bread from Four’s baking and Wild’s cooking.
The two seemed to be conspiring to explain why there were no rumors in this era, Twilight and Hyrule having been dragged into their plotting two Hyrule’s ago. Twilight had added the possibility that this rogue hero could be chasing after Dink as well but was going through different portals than them. Hyrule had been trying to sense any magic signatures that could identify the hero(es) but they were chasing a trail that had long ago run cold. Wind still hadn’t caught on and Warriors couldn’t think of a way to tell him without the whole group finding out, although he figured that Legend already had some suspicions.
Wild’s vast Hyrule had no additions to the tale to add, leaving Wild and Four disappointed, it wasn’t too surprising considering how far flung Wild was in the future. After telling Flora of their findings, however, the princess pulled out an old tapestry depicting an ancient battle that they all knew too well. The only key thing that stood out to them was the fact that the hero on the tapestry had red hair and a fairly Gerudo like appearance for what the style could depict. Warriors found his eyes drawn to the figures that stood near their respective Divine Beast, it was hard to determine what species of beings they were.
Flora explained to them that most of the story of the hero and princess from 10,000 years ago had been erased by time, but there was severely less information on the hero compared to the princess. They all found this unsurprising, except Sky, since the Hyrulian royal family remained throughout the history of Hyrule, while heroes could come from any walk of life. Becoming the Hero of Courage was more of a chance than a choice, Warriors himself was decided to be the hero only because he’d barely managed to halt a siege on Hyrule Castle.
Warriors found his thoughts halting when Flora presented them with a crest of Wild’s family that was supposedly passed down by the hero in the tapestry, it was the same crest Valkyrie had given him after the war had ended. Surely after 10,000 years his crest could have been given to someone else or repurposed for another family, surely Wild wasn’t his descendant? Din’s sake Wild already had Time and Twilight calling him “cub.” Sweet unmerciful Hylia, Wild was his descendant and it explained so much about the gremlin. Linkle was definitely gonna tease him about adopting another kid, but hey Time turned into a decent adult so he’s at least a semi-good influence.
Unfortunately for Warriors, everything fell apart in Legend’s era. There were no rumors in this era, but that was expected considering Warriors had fought in Lorule. How did he know that he’d even visited this era then? The simple answer to that was Ravio, the same Ravio who’d jumped up from Legend’s couch to greet him when they entered his house. The same Ravio who shrunk back for a moment at the unexpected company, before recognizing Wind and himself greeting them both cheerfully. This caused Legend to glare at them, mainly Warriors, in suspicion and the other heroes to express their confusion. Which led to Wind animatedly telling the tale of how he’d met Ravio during the War of Eras, before pausing mid-story to give Warriors the most betrayed look he’s ever seen.
What happened next was almost as much chaos as the time that Wild had caught Wolfy attempting to eat chocolate and the scarred hero had tackled the large beast and practically shoved his hand down Wolfy’s throat in an attempt to stop him. Wind started shouting about how he was the dang hero that they’d been hearing about in different eras and the fact that he’d said nothing the entire time while they were chasing themselves in circles. Time was woefully unhelpful, sending him a look that basically said he was on his own. If Time was going to be a little shit about this then he may as well sell him out too, he explained to Wind how he and Mask didn’t feel it was best to say anything in case it could do some damage to the timeline. He made sure to gesture very clearly to Time when he mentioned Mask.
He thought things were bad before. Time looked betrayed, he would definitely have to sleep with one eye open tonight, and Wind was now looking at the older hero in betrayal. Warriors was expecting more yelling from the young hero but the boy only stated, “you were such an asshole as a kid” in the most emotionless voice and Warriors lost it. This prompted the rest of them, namely Twilight and Wild, asking what Time was like as a kid. Time sent him a warning look, but the prospect of revenge was too sweet and Warriors told them exactly what their woods raised hero was like as a kid.
It took a few hours for everything to settle down, Time sitting down with his head hidden in his hands out of embarrassment, and he figured all things were settled overall. Until Four tapped him on the shoulder, his eyes bright blue, and simply told him “I’m gonna soak your scarf in bleach.” Warriors would definitely be sleeping with his eyes open tonight. Thankfully Hyrule decided to draw both their attention by asking more about his adventures and he decided to be honest with the younger hero. He told them about how Cia had merged the timelines, taking monsters of all eras under her command. He tried to refrain from telling them that her reason for doing so was to “gain a hold on his heart” but instead told them that she was manipulated by Ganon, which was only the partial truth. He also told them of how people from other eras came to their aid; Agatha, Ravio, Wind, a very young Time, Fi, and many others.
When he was finally back in his own time Valkyrie scolded him for not being more careful, Lana however didn’t seem too concerned by their situation. The main problem came from crossing paths with Linkle, unfortunately for him the others started whispering to each other about another hero and started to try and remember if any information mentioned “him.” There was the doppelganger thrown around and Warriors finally decided to say something before their theories got too out of hand. “Much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but she’s my twin sister.” Their shocked expressions were worth the lackluster reveal.