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They'd been captured. Or at least, a third of them had.
They had been dropped, separated from the group, into a somewhat familiar era? Legend hadn't really been sure, it felt like his but something was off, it was lighter than his to start with, as if Ganon's influence had finally begun to fade.
A battle came and Sky had taken a pretty nasty hit, a gash in his side. Time ended up carrying him after they bound the injury and Legend was meant to be protection due to Sky being down and Time having his hands full. They trusted him, and he didn't even know what happened. One minute he'd been fine, then pain pricked his neck and he was out cold.
He only just came to, dazed and his head throbbing.
"Link? Veteran?"
He grimaced and shook his head, trying to clear the haze. "Old man? What..."
"You were drugged, it's alright," Time said. "We've been taken captive by unknowns."
A cell came into vision and finally Legend met Time's eyes.
"It'll be fine," Time assured, looking resolute. "The others will find us if we don’t break out ourselves. There is nothing to fear. The Chosen isn't even injured enough to bleed out."
Legend sighed softly, he honestly appreciated the assurances but he didn't appreciate the unrealisticness of it. He shook his head again to finish clear the effects of the drug that apparently knocked him out. "Right. Well, I don’t intend to just sit and wait--"
"Well, well, well," drawled a hauntingly familiar voice. Legend's blood ran cold, any lingering effects were gone as fear sparked clarity. "Seems I've caught myself a little bunny."
No. No, no, no. No no no no--
Legend stared in horror, he could feel the blood drain from his face as Agahnim stood before him.
"No--I-I killed you," he breathed. "I killed you!"
Agahnim chuckled. "Even without Ganon granting me a part of his consciousness and power, I am still the most powerful mage in all of Hyrule. Of course I had failsafes... though they took longer to work than I intended--no matter!"
"You know him, Veteran?" Time interrupted.
"I'll kill you again," Legend declared, completely ignoring Time as he tried to shove the bubbling fear down. "I'm not a child anymore. I'm far stronger and you clearly haven't changed a bit. I'll win again."
Agahnim drew closer and Legend couldn't keep himself from trying to maintain any distance he could, pressing himself as far back into the wall as he could. He wished he had his bracelet so he could merge with it.
Agahnim grabbed his face.
"Leave him be!" Time ordered.
"Silence." Agahnim snapped his hand toward Time and Legend feared the older hero was dead, some spell cast to permanently silence the hero. He glanced and saw Time was only gagged. A bit of relief hit him alongside confusion.
"Let them go," Legend demanded with as much of a steady voice as he could. Agahnim still held his face in his hand, nails digging into his cheeks and jaw. He couldn't even snap at him. "They're nothing. No use to you."
"Oh, but they are." The deceitful mage had a wicked gleam in his eyes. "They can be used against you... likewise, I can use you against them."
Time made some frantic noise.
"Touch them and I'll do so much worse than kill you," Legend threatened, barely keeping his voice from wavering.
"Threats don’t mean much coming from a little bunny," he taunted. His malice-filled eyes landed on Sky. "I have questions for you, Link, questions I know you have the answers to. You'll tell me everything."
"No."
"Ah, it wasn't a question."
Sky, who hadn't yet came back to being lucid from whatever knocked him out, screamed when an electrical blast of magic flew from Agahnim's outstretched hand and hit him.
Legend flinched back, inhaling quickly and letting it out in an instant. Time tried to lunge at Agahnim from where he was chained but didn't get far. Sky trembled and his body spazzed from the electricity. Legend remembered that attack vividly.
Oh goddesses, no. He knew too much, he couldn't let Agahnim find out anything , but Sky was... he was lucid now, heaving and twitching, glaring burning daggers at Agahnim.
"You... Do it again," Sky growled, "I dare you. See what happened to the last guy that electrocuted me."
Agahnim laughed. "Your friend seems to enjoy pain, Link." He looked back at Legend. "Do you enjoy to watch it?"
"Chosen don’t," Legend breathed. "Don’t push him--"
"I can take it," Sky promised and Legend almost wanted to believe him. Sky's slowly clearing eyes flicked between Legend and Agahnim, then to Time, and back between the first two.
"Hmm, we'll see."
Agahnim flicked his hand again and Sky screamed , the blast hitting him again and he writhed, pulling and pushing against his chains. Legend bit back a cry of his own, a demand for him to stop. Time fought hard, but he was still stuck, still gagged, still silenced and restrained from intervening.
"So what will it be, Link?" Agahnim looked down at him. "Tell me where you hid the Triforce... or I electrocute your friends."
Biting his tongue, he shook his head.
Sky panted and Agahnim sent off another blast. But Sky didn't receive it, Time did.
"NO!" Sky snarled, fighting against his bonds, definitely disturbing the wound in his side. Time writhed and borderline screamed in his gag. When the initial effects faded, he still twitched and spasmed.
Legend didn't know what to do. He was panicking. Agahnim was right there, torturing Sky and Time. But he wanted the location of the Triforce and Legend couldn't give him that.
"Stop it! They can't tell you anything!" Legend begged, pulling on his chains, feeling blood slide down his arms from the sharp metal breaking skin.
"Ah but that bleeding heart of yours will," Agahnim said. "I'll give you one last chance to tell me willingly."
"Don’t you say a thing, veteran," Sky snarled, glaring burning daggers at Agahnim. Time made some similar noise, raising his twitching head to send his own glare at Agahnim.
Legend shut his mouth.
Agahnim had a glint in his eyes, far too excited of a glint. Another magic orb formed in his hand and threw it at Legend.
He flinched back, but no pain came, just a rush of magic filling his head with cotton.
"What is your name?" Agahnim drawled, his voice echoing in Legend's head.
Legend felt words bubble up his throat and tried to catch them. Despite it, they fell out. "Link."
"Your full name."
He held back any words, beginning to panic as he realized that he didn't want to tell him anything . The cotton in his mind pulled out answers and placed them on his tongue to be spoken, but unlike before, he didn't spill them.
Agahnim hummed. "So it requires an interrogative, how interesting."
"What did you do?" Sky growled.
"What is your full name?" Agahnim asked, beady gold eyes meeting Legend's own amethyst ones.
"Link Hyrule." The answer was forced off his tongue that time and Legend properly panicked. He couldn't draw any other words from his mouth, that cotton in his head blocked it off. He wanted to scream, to tell Sky he couldn't stop it. He had to do something . He couldn't tell Agahnim the location of the Triforce, he wouldn't risk the world like that.
"Hyrule?" Agahnim sounded surprised. "Oh--so you're the prince that escaped. That witch did say that bloodline would be my downfall."
Legend bit his tongue as he looked frantically at Sky and Time, both looked more than just a little livid. Were they upset with him? That he never revealed his ancestry? It was dangerous information but they were a team and they wouldn't be the first who got upset that he kept secrets from them.
"LET HIM GO YOU BASTARD!" Sky roared, electricity crackled off him as he fought his chains to no avail. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
Agahnim just laughed, a sound that haunted Legend's earliest nightmares. He flinched, biting down on his tongue and tasting blood.
An idea struck him.
"Tell me, little prince," Agahnim drawled slowly. He drew out his words, taunting Legend and the older two heroes with them.
Sky was still snarling, he acted like a rapid beast filled with righteous anger. Electrical currents crackled off him, charring the chains that bound him.
Legend was too aware he wouldn't be fast enough. Time's chains banged loudly and his gagged noises were drowned out by Sky's yells.
Agahnim paid them little attention, grabbing Legend's hair and dragging him up. He could see the grin in his eyes, the excitement and bloodlust. Honestly, the bloodlust in Sky's eyes was far stronger than the bloodlust in Agahnim's, but Agahnim was the one with mobility and freedom.
His chains weren't so tight as to keep him from moving his hands, they were short enough he couldn't quite lunge at Agahnim even in close vicinity, it would just push him away. But they were long enough he could grab the hand in his hair, he could reach his head.
Agahnim began to ask that dreaded question with a sickening glee.
"Where is--" as he spoke, before the question could fully be given and force Legend to provide an answer, Legend took a slightly drastic measure.
Transformative magics were hard to limit, especially ones driven into one's blood and soul. As such, most transformative magics required certain mediums, complicated spells, the only exception was illusion-based 'transformations'. Either way, mediums didn't need to be magic, just a requirement that could be fulfilled, then dependent on the source of the transformation, it could still work with magic nulling chains as long as the area itself wasn't magic nulling.
Legend had no illusion-based transformation, but he did have a transformation that was written into his very bones that only required him to be in contact with water to activate, it was a curse originally that he managed to rewrite just enough that the slightest bit of water wouldn't force it. As proven by Agahnim, the area was not sealed of magic. Magic seals didn't limit by person, not those kinds of seals.
He didn't need the full transformation anyway, just the claws.
With gills forming on the side of his ribs, fins replacing his ears, and scales tracing his cheekbones and upper jaw, Legend's nails became sharp claws. Where one latched into Agahnim's arm, the other reached for his throat before the transformation finished over his legs.
Agahnim screamed in pain and pulled back, easily getting out of reach.
"YOU--"
"Six other adventures, Agahnim," Legend rasped, voice dry and painful to use with gills. Standing with a tail was nearly impossible, but using one arm to hold his body somewhat up thanks to the chains to provide his other hand some looseness was possible. "I got more tricks up my sleeves than you have spells."
"It doesn't matter," Agahnim scoffed. "I don’t need to be near you to ask a question."
Legend grinned. "Ah, but I need vocal cords to answer."
Three sets of eyes widened in horror, Time yelled behind his gag, Sky begged Legend to stop, while Agahnim finally threw that question out.
"Where is--"
Legend tore out his own throat, claws sinking deeply just below his Adam's apple and sliced it open.
"--the Triforce?!--NO!"
Agahnim roared, but Legend was choking on blood. Something grabbed his hand and ripped it away, his body giving out and his head hitting the wall harshly. A bright light filled his vision and ozone muffled the scent of iron.
The spell remained strong and Legend let the words fall from his lips, but with it fell blood and without any vocal cords nor really air, not a sound escaped with them.
Agahnim would never know where the Triforce of Power and Wisdom were kept. Legend was the only person alive who knew where it was, and it only had a place in Hyrule at all and not the Sacred Realm because he had the Triforce of Courage and couldn't return it until he died, thus was the duty of a hero who wielded it.
He felt dizzy, the cotton grew thicker, maybe a syrup mixed with it in his mind. He knew blood loss was a danger here, he tried to avoid his veins but claws were not that precise. At least it wasn't suffocation, his gills--though made for underwater--did well enough to keep his lungs filled as he forced the blood out his mouth and injury.
Something exploded, he was dimly aware.
He raised his head and could see Sky, chains melted but the shackles still on his wrists, standing over the burnt corpse of Agahnim. Time was trying to reach Legend, but he didn't have the apparent inhuman strength that Sky did. How did he burn Agahnim? How did he melt steel chains?
"Vet, hey," Sky appeared in front of him and he blinked hazily when he realized he did. How did he move so fast? Was he that out of it? "Look at me. How are you even alive ?"
Legend grinned, teeth stained by blood that he promptly coughed up. He needed a potion, something to stave off the bleeding. The blood was filling his lungs but thankfully oxygen was in blood and the main entry of oxygen was from his gills. The blood loss to his brain would be bad very quickly though.
"Whoa, stay with me. I'm going to break the Old Man free and we're going to get you out of here."
He supposed he managed to avoid at least one of his veins, since his brain was still working. He was still breathing, thanks to his gills and wow , he accidentally thought this through a lot better than he originally thought. He hadn't taken into account of his gills preserving his ability to breathe. Then again, he also didn't expect Sky to escape.
He expected to bleed out until Agahnim tried to save him so he could get the information he wanted. It might've worked, might have not, but it would've kept the Triforce safe and with him dead it would've been put back in the Sacred Realm where it belonged. Without Courage to make them accessible, no one would be able to steal Power, Zelda wouldn't need to retrieve Wisdom, it would be safe until Ganon somehow came back in Hyrule's era.
A twinkling sound reached his cotton filled ears and then water surrounded him.
He could feel his gills flutter, inhaling the water quickly; diluting and filtering out the blood from his lungs. He blinked slowly, feeling the telling magic of a fairy fade.
His eyes adjusted and he was in some fairly deep pool of some kind, rocky and likely an underwater pool or spring. He didn't move for a long moment, his boys exhausted from the blood loss, but eventually he mustered the energy to move.
He swam back to the surface and popped his head out, ear fins flicking as the cotton cleared from his ears but not yet his mind. The spell was still in effect, probably a time limit rather than concentration based.
"You’re okay!" Sky sat back, clearly relieved and not as covered with electrical burns as Legend would've expected.
He tried to hum, see if it vibrated, anything, made a noise, but nothing came.
"What the hell?" Time demanded, and the fact that he cursed so blatantly was extremely telling of how freaked out he was. "Why did you do that?!"
Time's question echoed in Legend's mind like a reverberating gong. He felt the explanation hit his tongue and fall out soundlessly when he opened his mouth. Then he shrugged. He pulled himself out of the water and let the transformation deactivate.
He signed a willing explanation. " Had to keep it safe. "
Time looked stricken and yet again his voice echoed painfully through Legend's mind. "You can't speak?"
" Magic is not good at exact healing like that, it can, but fairies usually don't care to be that precise and focus on saving the life and not much else. Potions would have done better, but not an option here. "
It was too late anyways, he wouldn't have been able to drink a potion and since the magic already set in, he wouldn't be able to drink one now to fix it. Potions follow the body's natural healing but can take it far beyond natural capabilities, magical healing was, at minimum, more of a mending but a shattered jar couldn't be mended back to how it once was.
"I'm sorry," Sky said. "I should've been faster. I was too slow--"
Legend snapped his fingers and it startled both older heroes. He gave them a smile.
" Don’t care. I did it myself. I chose it and I don't mind. "
He had been selectively mute throughout his first four adventures, it was Ravio, being more of an adult, and being taken seriously that were the reasons he stepped into willing speech, but ultimately he spent the better part of his life in silence.
" As it was, it was either this or giving him the location of the Triforce. " Time scowled but Sky made an understanding expression. " It's my job to protect it. "
"I get it... I'm still sorry I didn't act faster."
"Chosen you melted chains with some lightning magic none of us knew you had," Time said in a slightly harsh, slightly deadpan tone.
Sky winced. "I didn't know either... Actually, Vet, he called you prince?"
" Z is my older sister ," he signed. " Not a prince though, raised on a ranch and still live rural. "
"But doesn't that... doesn't that make you my descendant?"
And Time's, Legend mentally added, his father's side being the Lon's after all. He didn't mention that, just nodding before he stood up.
" We should go find our stuff. "
If Agahnim survived this... Legend was going to retrieve the Triforce himself just to kill the guy permanently.
He also really wanted the stupid truth spell to wear off, it was annoying trying to speak even when he knew full well that not a word would be heard.