Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Time was talking too much to the others and he knew it but he couldn't stop it. It seemed that with the de-aging of his body his childhood habits were resurfacing. So he talked and talked and talked.
The others were beginning to get annoyed with it. Time was annoyed too because the others didn't let him fight with them with his younger body even though it was his body after his adventure in Termina.

“You know that I can fight? I mean, I'm not that young and I saved the world twice. One time from Ganon and the other time from a mask. The mask was a magical mask though not just a normal wooden one. Would be really dumb if I had to save the world from a normal mask, wouldn't it? So yeah, I know how to handle myself in a fight and I don't need you to protect me.” Time didn't like his high pitched voice. It just felt so wrong to sound like a child again and his talking wasn't helping either.

Legend stormed angry to him. “Would you shut up for a moment? You talk so much that it's no wonder that Navi left you!”
Time stopped talking immediately. His light blue eyes widened and his ears dropped.
Legend didn't know what he was talking about because he just heard Time mentioning Navi in his sleep and his pleads to her not to leave him.

The small Hero of Time walked a few steps back.
Not talking.
No sound came out of his mouth.
The others watched worried the scene before them.
Time looked at them with a scared expression. He turned around and ran fast. Never looking back. He didn't react to the others screaming his name. He just wanted to disappear. He didn't wanted them to leave him so he had to leave first.

Link's steps on the ground of the forest and his shallow breathing was the only things that could be heard.
He was too loud.
He must be quieter.

He walked slower so he wasn't so loud. The forest was still quieter than him. Animals were nowhere to be seen. Link wished that he wasn't alone. For the first time in his life, the forest scared him.
Tears were running down his cheeks. But he suppressed the sobbing to make no sound. Nobody wanted to hear his voice anyway.

“Hey, I don't want to hear you Mr.-No-Fairy!”

Link suddenly stopped walking because he saw Ganondorf a few metres in front of him. He remembers that they were supposed to meet here before Link became a child again. He ran to the gerudo king as fast as his tiny legs could run.
Ganon looked surprised at the small hero. He didn't expect to see the stoic man as a child again. The redhead wanted to ask him something as he saw the tears in Link's eyes. He knelt down and hugged the crying but silent boy tightly.
“What's wrong, Link?” Ganon asked with a worried tone in his voice.

Don't talk or he will leave, thought Link. Don't talk, be silent, make no sound or he will vanish from your life. He will never come back if you talk.

Time shook his head violently, not answering the question. He hid his face in Ganon's neck, tears were wetting the skin.
Ganondorf stroked gently through the blond's hair. He tried to calm the hero but with no success. “Everything will be alright, okay? Everything will be alright.” Ganon whispered those words gently. “It's alright. You can cry here. You don't have to suppress it, Link”
Link shook his head again.
He couldn't make a noise or his friend would vanish. No sound, nothing.

Then they heard the Links calling Time's name. Link winced. They disturbed the silence of the forest. Their calling was too loud. “TIME! WHERE ARE YOU?”

Link hides behind Ganondorf as the voices came nearer and nearer. He didn't want to see the others because he clearly annoyed them. So why were they searching for him? He grabbed the dark red cape of the taller man.

Then Twilight, Wild and Legend were the ones who came to the place where Ganon and Time were. Because he was hiding behind Ganon, Link couldn't see their shocked gazes.

“Time” said Twi carefully. “Step away from Ganondorf, please” He was slowly walking to the two persons.
Ganon stood protectively in front of Time. “What did you do to him?” He growled those words.

Twilight and Wild stared dumbfounded at him. Legend was angry though. “What did we do? You're the villain!”

“I'M NOT THE REASON HE IS CRYING!”

“He... he is crying?”

Time looked shyly at them. His eyes were still glistening with tears and his ears hanged sadly down. But he made no sound.
Legend was having none of it: “You give us Time back. Now. Or else-”
Before he could finish the sentence Time stepped in front of Ganon, his Kokiri sword drawn and ready to fight the three Links. He hissed threateningly at them, which was the first sound he made since the comment of Legend.
Wild pulled Legend fast back while the Hero of Twilight spoke: “Don't go near him! Are you mad?”
Time was acting like an animal, Wild thought, like a threatened animal. How he bared his teeth at them wildly or how his ears are back and flat against his head.
They all looked surprised at the small hero because normally they would expect such wild behavior from Wild and not from the Hero of Time. They also expect Time to explain himself but he said nothing.

Link was not visibly panicking. Oh Hylia, was he to loud? Would Ganon and the others leave him now? He doesn't want to be alone.
More tears were rolling down his chubby cheeks. He wanted to tell them not to leave him but he couldn't. He still didn't move. Link couldn't let them take him from his friend away.
Then he didn't feel Ganon's presence behind him anymore. His big blue eyes widened even more with panic. Where was he? He turned his head fast in the direction where Ganon was.
The gerudo man was slowly walking in front of Time, who grabbed his cape again to show Ganon not to walk further.
Ganon looked down at the quietly sobbing boy. He knelt down to hug the crying boy.
“I'm here. I'm not going to leave you. You understand, Link? You can talk to me.” His quiet voice had a calming effect on Link.
How did he know, questioned Time, how did he know that I'm afraid to talk.
Ganon removed his cape from his shoulders to wrap Time in it protectively. The other three Links watched silently the two interacting with each other. They didn't dare to interrupt them.

Don't speak
Don't make a sound
Don't talk
Be silent

Time still tried to suppress the sobbing but he couldn't do it forever. First they were quiet but then they got louder and louder. He could barely breathe. He was panicking more. He had to be silent! His breathing got quicker and more shallow with his panicking. He was nearly hyperventilating.

Ganon tightened the arms around him to comfort more and it was helping. “Listen to my heartbeat, Link. I'm not going to leave. You can scream or yell at me. You can cry so loud and talk as much you can and I'm not going to leave you.” Link slowly calmed down at his words. He snuggled against the man's chest and Ganon picked him gently up.

The Links looked at the gerudo man warily. “If you hurt him, I'm going to kill you. Mark my words” Twilight growled at him.
Legend looked as if he deeply regretted his words that he'd said to Time.
Wild smiled, on the other hand at the pair. This was such an unlikely friendship that he didn't expect from both of them, that he couldn't be mad.
“Let's get back to the camp, guys. We need to tell the others that we have a new member.” Wild said those words cheerily.

Be silen-

“Ganon?” Link spoke sleepy and quietly for the first time.
Ganondorf smiled softly. “Yes, little one?” He asked the small hero.
“You're cape still looks like a carpet”

You could hear loud laughing in the deep forest.

Chapter Text

Ganondorf didn't know how it came to this. One moment they were laughing and joking around despite the fact that he was the enemy from many of them and in the next moment they were nearly losing in a battle against black Bokoblins and two Lynels . One Golden Lynel, which were the strongest of their kinds, and a silver Lynel.
First the Links and Ganon could stand their ground but after a while they got more and more injured.
Legend lay unconscious on the ground, Wind had a dislocated shoulder and couldn't swing a sword anymore because it was his left, Hyrule's left hand and right arm seemed to be broken, Four had a broken ankle from a previous fight and no one knew in which direction Sky was thrown.
That only left Ganondorf, Wild, Twilight, Warriors and Time to fight, which didn't mean that they were uninjured but they could still fight. All of them had scrapes or other stuff but they couldn't let that get in the way of surviving.
Time had it worse than the others though as he was still in a child's body. But you should not underestimate him. He was fast on his small legs, faster than the monsters and he had his powerful masks.
After they killed the first Lynel it happened.
Twilight got hurt. Badly hurt.
The other Lynel had attacked him with a bunch of arrows and one of them hit his shoulder.

The next thing Ganondorf knew is that there was suddenly a dark magic aura behind him. Ganon knew dark magic but he never felt something powerful as this. The aura made him feel sick.
He searched for the origin of the aura and found it fast.
It was Time. Time but he was different. Before he was a small child but now he's a terrifying 10ft. tall warrior. He looked like Time when he's an adult but he had white hair, pure white eyes and the markings were on both sides of his face. He looked like a god of war.
A battle cry of rage broke through the silence, which had been caused by Twilight's injury.
Wild ran to Twilight to protect his injured friend and he was searching in his belt for healing elixirs he had left.
Time had told Ganon about the Fierce Deity Mask before. Told him how terrifying the experience was to have the powers of a god and how overwhelmed he had been. And now he used it because his protege and his friends were in danger.
The Links and Ganon were keeping their distance from the fight. They didn't want to get hurt by their possessed friend.

Wild found an elixir in his sheikah slate. Probably his last one but the protege of Time needed it.
The red liquid ran down Twilight's throat and he had to cough immediately. Ganon was worried but he knew that the Hero of Twilight would get better and would survive.
Time being possessed that was what worried Ganondorf more.

Time with the mask of the Fierce Deity was powerful without a doubt. Even more powerful than Ganon with the triforce of power probably.
Ganon with the triforce had the powers of a god but Fierce Deity was a god.
And he fought like one too.
Monsters were slain. The Bokoblins had no chance to change their fate. In seconds they were struck down by the double helix sword.
The screams of the monsters were drowned out by the battle cry of the mighty warrior.
Blood was everywhere on the ground but the deity didn't care.
Ganon then noticed that the Fierce Deity didn't speak a single word. He had just heard battle cries or the scream when Time put on the mask. The Fierce Deity's voice was slightly deeper than Time's when he is an adult.

“It's a terrifying sight, isn't it?” The Hero of Warriors asked Ganon. He stood right beside him.
“You have seen it before”
“Yes, on my adventure. Several of the Links came into my world because of a version of you, and Time was one of them. He was a kid there too and he used that mask once in a while. It was terrifying to see him fighting with this powers for the first time. He can put if off again, you know? No need to worry, Ganpa.”

Suddenly they were pushed out of the way by the deity. Then they were flames where Ganon and Warriors stood just seconds ago. The deity had saved them.
The Fierce Deity bared his teeth in a protective manner.
“He's protecting us.” said Four with a wondering tone in his voice.
“He is still our friend underneath the mask. Of course he's protecting us!” Twilight answered while he was trying to sit up.
“Lay down again. Otherwise you hurt yourself more, child.” Ganondorf scolded the Hero of Twilight.

“I'm nearly healed with Wild's elixir. I can at least sit up and most the others have worse injuries than me now.”

A loud scream full of pain interrupted their conversation on the battlefield.
“LINK!!!” or “TIME!” were their reactions for what they saw.
The Fierce Deity got hit by one of the fiery blasts from the Lynel. He hadn't been fast enough to dodge the attack. The deity was holding his burned side but he was still standing. Still wielding a weapon to protect them. His shallow breaths sounded like tiny gasps.

He is in so much pain, thought Ganondorf, don't let him die Hylia. Not yet. He's still too young to die. Link deserves a happy ending and not dying in a battlefield.

“I have to help him. Stay here.” said the child of the wild and ran to the battlefield.
“WILD! NO!” Warriors and the others screamed.
Before Wild could attack the golden Lynel though, the Fierce Deity had already carried out his next attack with his giant sword.
The deity swung his sword with mighty hands and Ganondorf could feel the terrifying aura of dark magic again.
The magic cut down trees behind the two fighters. The gruesome energy made the now mortally wounded monster cry out.

“I still can not believe it's Time there. Fighting alone for us and being so...”
“Terrifying?” Warriors suggested Wind.
“Yeah”

The golden Lynel turned into a dark substance and then faded into thin air.
The Fierce Deity won.
The dangerous aura of dark magic still surrounded him but it was weaker than before.

Ganondorf had an idea.
“Get back, child. I'm trying to do something”
As Wild walked back to them, Twilight hissed: “Like I said when you joined, if you hurt him you're going to wish you're dead.”
“Calm down, pup. You think I'm going to hurt my friend?”
Shocked glances from all of them.
“What?”
“You called Twilight pup” Wind whispered.
“Can we discuss nicknames later? There's still a situation we want to solve.”

Ganon slowly stepped forward, holding his hands out. He was closing his golden eyes to concentrate better. Ganon heard the battle cry of the Fierce Deity anew. He knew that the deity was running at him for a attack.
He whispered words that were too quiet to understand but they still had the effect he wanted. The dark aura was gone.
Ganon opened his eyes calmly. The blade of the bicolor sword was right at his throat. Just about to puncture her.
The deity's white eyes looked at him first peacefully then the whole situation changed.

The Fierce Deity looked confused and scared, like a small child who lost their parents and tried to find them. He looked around frantically, searching for something familiar. But there was nothing.
Ganon slowly tried to come nearer the god but as the Fierce Deity saw him he stepped away from Ganondorf.
His completely white eyes widened out of fear.
“Who are you and where am I?” His deep voice shook with fear. He didn't know what was happening.

Then Wild slowly went to him. He hold his hands up. “It's ok-” He said with a smile full of worry.”- we're friends of the body you're currently possessing. We're not going to hurt you.”
The Deity stepped a few steps more back but he winced.

“You're still wounded. Let us help you.”
“I don't know any of you”
“You have to trust us. Just this once.”
“So in the end I'm locked away in the mask again?” His voice shook as he posed the question.

Nobody dared to look him in the face. That was exactly what their plan had been. Let the Fierce Deity become a mask again so they have their friend back.
The deity whined with disagreement.
“No!-” He begged. “-I... I don't... want to go! I don't want to go, please!” Tears clouded his vision.

Ganon and the others were taken aback by his tears. They'd never expected to see a god named Fierce Deity crying.

Wild was smiling kindly then.
“We're not locking you up, but you can't possess the body of our friend forever. Do you want that he has the same fate that you had?”
“No, I... I don't.”
“See, we will persuade Time to wear the mask once in a while so you can be free for some time, too”
The deity nodded unsurely. “All right” He uttered.

A big grin graced Wild's face. “That's good. Can I hug you?”
The Fierce Deity was dumbfounded by the question.
“You want to hug me?” He tilted his head. “Why?
“Because you need to be comforted, don't you? So I ask again: Do you want to be hugged by me? It's okay when you don't want to.”

The Fierce Deity thought about it for a few seconds and then nodded softly.
A gentle smile was now on Wild's face.
He then hugged the deity. It was a ridiculous sight, how Wild just reached with his head the breastplate of the armor from the Fierce Deity. But it was also cute.
The Fierce Deity let out a relieved breath. He looked almost happy.

The white haired god was surprisingly the person who ended the hug.
Ganon then stepped nearer the deity again.
“Are you ready?” Ganon was uncertain if the Fierce Deity would really let go of the control over Time's body.
The deity stared at Ganon with a look in his white eyes, that meant that he was ready. He nodded.

Then there was a blinding white light, and where the Fierce Deity once stood, was now Time as a child again. Time immediately fainted but Ganon was fast enough to catch the young Hero of Time.

“We should search for Sky and then set up a camp.” Right after Warriors said that, Sky was on the other side, waving.
“HEY! I FOUND THE PERFECT PLACE FOR OUR CAMP!”
“Well, we found him fast-” Wild laughed as he helped his injured mentor up. “but that's good that means that we can take care of our wounds faster.”

As Ganon carried Time carefully he searched for the burn he received with the Fierce Deity in control. He found it after a few seconds. It wasn't that serious but it would scar.
“I hope you will be alright, little one.” Ganon whispered softly to Time.

When Time woke up, it was late in the evening and the sun was setting in the moment. He noticed the bandages around his torso right away. He was placed in a tent and he wondered why Ganon wasn't here. Why he was alone.

“Don't worry, you are not alone. There are two of us now.”

Time screeched as he heard the unknown but yet familiar voice.
The small Hero of Time immediately searched for a mirror to see his face and then when he saw himself he sobbed out loud.
Half of his face was covered in red and blue markings.