Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Link gasps as he presses a hand against his eye. It hurts. It hurts.

He swings, blind, vision a blur of half red and half tears. His sword is met with something, who knows what, but he doesn't stop and continues to defensively swing. He feels like a cornered animal—wounded, surrounded, unable to determine what's happening around it.

Mask. He needs his mask. Link frantically fumbles for his bag in search of it, but finds that his precious mask is gone. It's gone and he's bleeding out in the middle of an active battlefield.

“Ah…” Is he going to die?

An explosion booms near him, and arms scoop him up. It's clumsy, as if the weight of his body was unexpected, and Link whines at the harsh jostle. What sounds like words were being spoken, but Link can't understand a thing through both the cotton and the ringing in his ears. Whatever is carrying him occasionally lets out a high pitched screech, but Link fails to muster the strength to fight against the potential monster. His eye hurts. It hurts.

“...W…an’ g’hom’...” He sobs, clutching at the fabric of the ally-traitor-monster-whatever holding him until he can't feel his own hand anymore. His sob is met with another, combined with some stuttered, garbled words. Link is slowly eased down, but he refuses to let go—he doesn't want to be left behind. A hand runs up and down his back before patting twice, but despite the obvious attempt of soothing him, the only thing that has Link letting go is his own exhaustion. Something glass is pressed to his lips, and thick, disgusting yet familiar liquid coats his tongue. Red Potion.

Link greedily swallows every last drop, ignoring the need for oxygen in lieu of chugging the potion. This results in him choking in the end, and a hand smacks his back repeatedly. The potion wasn't enough for him to open his eye—he has to bite back a scream when he tries anyway—but at least he feels the bleeding slow some, and the pain feels ever so slightly more bearable. Just barely enough to where Link can work on stopping his own sobs. The hand from earlier seems lost what to do, and settles on awkwardly placing itself on his shoulder. Familiar purple is the only thing Link can make out in his still poor vision.

“Rabbit...” Link croaks his realization aloud, earning a laugh that sounds mixed with a sob. Is Ravio crying? Is he also hurt? He always took pain badly, but at least he was getting more courageous lately. But if he was hurt, Link feels bad drinking all that Red Potion. There was never enough of it in this era.

“Th—That's right, I'm the rabbit.” Ravio says, sniffling, “Did you know my hero was a rabbit, too?”

“R… eally..?” Link’s throat feels destroyed, as if he spent a night and a half screaming. He doesn't remember screaming that much. But he doesn't remember much of anything aside from overwhelming pain and fear.

“Y—Yeah.” Ravio stammers, “A cute, fluffy pink rabbit. He—He wanted to—to keep it a secret. It didn't work.” The current delirious state of his mind finds that funnier than it should be, but his laugh is cut off with a whimper when the natural squint of his eye reminds him of his injury. Another bottle is hurriedly pressed into his grasp.

“Don' ha’ rup’...” He tells the merchant. The bottle is pressed more insistently.

“I'll put it on your brother's tab. Don't worry about it.” Ravio urges him, and Link doesn't have the energy to reject him again.

“Mmmmk…” He agrees, but can't find it in himself to actually lift the bottle to his lips. Instead, he feels his head droop, other eye struggling to remain open. He wants a nap. He usually hates naps—nothing good ever comes from naps—but he's just so, so tired. He doesn't want to be awake anymore. Just for a little while… it should be fine…

There's a quiet curse, and Ravio presses the bottle to his lips for him instead. Link whines at his blissful dozing being interrupted.

“C—Come on buddy, you gotta—gotta drink the potion, and then you can take a nap, okay?” Link would rather just nap now and take the potion later, but Ravio sounds to be almost begging, pleading, so Link forces himself to drink it despite the increasing exhaustion telling him to just ignore everything and go to sleep. When there's nothing left to swallow, he slumps against Ravio. The hand that grabs his shoulder is comforting, even as it clumsily fumbles for a proper hold.

“I'll— I'll take you to the captain now. You can sleep, don't worry, I'll—I'll protect you.” Ravio is usually the first one to suggest a retreat whenever things seem bad, but… maybe he can trust him, just this once. Maybe he really will take him to the captain as he naps, and not abandon him to run. Ravio was cowardly, but not trash.

“Mmk.” Link manages to muster, feeling sleep finally take him as Ravio lifts him up once more.

Chapter Text

A cut off scream, another life cut short, and more blood is added to Link’s hands. He breathes—the scent of blood, urine, loose bowels and monster guts filling his nostrils—burning, but alive. While yet another dies.

Still, Link continues. Because he is the hero, the captain of his squad—even if he had just slain nearly half of it when their blades turned against him. Link marches forward, sword in hand and gaze resolutely up. Never does it trail to what lies just below his very feet.

The keep remains standing for now. How much more of his current men will turn against him, Link does not know. Monsters still threaten to swarm them, but even so, Link will not fall.

“M—Mr. Captain Hero, sir!!” The breathless, yet almost shrill voice of Ravio shouldn't be as much of a comfort as it were to hear for Link, but it was. Despite never showing his face and being a self-proclaimed coward, the merchant wore his heart on his sleeve and has yet to do anything to hint of a betrayal. But all relief is punched out of Link’s lungs when he turns around to catch sight of a bloodied boy in the arms of Ravio.

The youngest hero, Keaton.

“Report.” Link snaps, voice cold and curt with both panic and rage. The rage isn't directed at the merchant—it didn't feel as if he were responsible for the kid's state—but Ravio startles with a loud “Eep!!” nonetheless. He'll have to apologize later when he's not about to grab and violently shake the answer out of him.

“I—I found Mr. Little Hero surrounded a while ago, he—he was clearly injured and I didn't sense his mask on him—I—I think he dropped it, somewhere.” Despite his frantic, rushed explanation, Ravio's voice is still a ragged wheeze. It's then that Link realizes that Ravio is just about ready to collapse, barely managing to hold the youngest one up with terribly shaky arms. Link relieves him of his duty by gently scooping up Keaton as carefully yet quickly as he can, and Ravio lets out a grateful puff of air at the removed weight.

Meanwhile, Link observes the youngest one’s current state, running Ravio's previous explanation over in his mind repeatedly until his ability to think somewhat clearly finally returns. It was definitely a severe injury, something that was undoubtedly excruciatingly painful even after the obvious healing done for it.

“I gave him my last two potions—do we have any more?” Ravio asks, and Link’s carefully maintained mask of calmness nearly crumbles right there.

“We do not.” He responds. Ravio makes no comment on the way his voice croaks. Still, Link clears his throat and shakes his head to regain the control of his emotions. Even if the bloody boy currently unconscious in his arms was his youngest brother, he couldn't afford to fall apart here.

“The keep was just under attack by a large group of traitors before you arrived. Currently, I'm still working on weeding out any possible remaining ones. But before the ambush, they destroyed our supplies.” As Link explains the situation, he sees how Ravio's mask tilts down to the bodies at his feet, before quickly snapping back up to face him. Again, Ravio makes no comment. Although he can see how Ravio nervously gnaws on his lower lip.

“Do we at least have anything for first-aid?” Just like how Ravio made no comment on the state of his voice, Link makes no comment on the state of Ravio's.

“I'll have to check. Stay here while I wrap up the situation. Watch over him in the meantime.” Link moves to pass Keaton over to Ravio, because he's not placing his injured, unconscious little brother on the ground beside several dead bodies and puddles of blood. But instead of taking him, Ravio visibly cringes slightly behind his mask.

“A—Actually, Mr. Captain Hero, sir…” At Ravio's stuttered response, Link scowls darkly, a growl bubbling and ready to spill over. Rejection of a direct order isn't exactly boding well for Link after the recent betrayal. While he didn't think Ravio was a traitor before, he also didn't think the men who had just tried to end his life were either.

It was also suspiciously out of character for Ravio to reject this type of order—an order to stay here, where he could be easily protected by him? Where monsters have yet to properly take over? Sure, he's now aware of the recent traitor situation, but where else would he go? Back into the active battlefield to be surrounded by monsters instead? Ravio is no fool, he should know what's the smartest choice between the two. The merchant cowers under his rapidly darkening glower, but hurriedly continues before Link could demand an explanation.

“I need to find his mask, l—like I said, I didn't sense his mask on him when I found him...” Ravio's voice then lowers to a barely audible whisper Link has to strain to hear, “... I don't know if monsters can use it, but I know Hylians can. If—If the turncoats were to find it…” He doesn't finish the sentence, but he doesn't have to. Link’s jaw tightens.

Ravio was right, but to send him off alone with everything going as downhill as it was? The monster situation was bad enough to take out the youngest hero, and half his men needed to be slain by his own hands—and perhaps even more will need to be today alone. He could send some soldiers to join Ravio, but that group could very well be the one to try to stab the merchant in the back. He couldn't go with him either, not with Keaton in the current state he was in. It wouldn't be Ravio’s first solo mission, but he didn't go on them often, and with nobody wholly trustworthy available for backup..?

Link takes in a breath, “Can you do it, soldier?” He asks instead of voicing all his what-ifs and doubts. Barely visible under his hood, Ravio gives him a shaky and clearly nervous—but determined—grin.

“I'll try my best, Mr. Captain Hero, sir.” He says, saluting horribly. Link doesn't correct him on his form, and nods, feeling slightly more relieved despite the grim situation.

“Come back alive, that's an order.”

“Yes, sir!” No promises were made, but promises that couldn't be kept shouldn't be made in the first place, Link supposes. He watches as Ravio's back grows smaller, and looks away only when he feels a tiny fist clutching at his tunic. His little brother lets out a weak, pained sound that finally cracks his carefully crafted mask. Link cradles him closer, careful of his injuries.

“It’s okay,” He whispers despite the strain it puts on his throat, “you're safe now.” He'd make it so even if it costs his final breath.

Chapter Text

Ravio pants for breath, each intake of oxygen tearing at throat but unable to fight the need for it. His heartbeat thunders in his chest and ears, frantically beating from strain and anxiety. Still, Ravio forces his burning and shaky arms to swing his hammer at charging monsters, and his dizzying head to focus on sensing the mask. He senses it nearby even though he's nowhere near where he had saved the youngest hero, meaning the boy had to have lost it well before he got injured. It made sense, because sure, the mask makes him practically invincible on the battlefield, but even without it, the kid was a terrifying fighter in his own right.

His bone-deep exhaustion makes it difficult for him to pinpoint the exact location of the mask, but Ravio tries nonetheless. None of the other magic users specialized in sensing magic items were here. This was something only he could do. Just once he wants to do something worthwhile. Just once, he wants to do something other than run away.

Ravio screams and falls to the ground as an arrowhead digs into his ankle. Immediately, all thoughts of being useful or brave are replaced with sheer horror as monsters approach.

“No—” Ravio fumbles for his ice rod, “stay back—!” He strains his already drained magic reserves to drop several large ice boulders on the closest enemies. His head spins, but he's alive, and that's all that matters to him. He scrambles up, whines at the sting of his ankle, but runs. He wants to run around and back to camp, to tell the captain that he couldn't do it and there were too many monsters. But instead he runs in the vague direction he feels the mask in, hoping for the best.

He finds it, but it's not for the best. When he's finally close enough to pinpoint its exact location, he realizes it's in the center of a keep.

A keep overtaken by monsters.

He did his job, he found the mask, he didn't say he'd obtain it—the captain didn't tell him to, either. He just needs to go back and report its location and let the captain deal with it from there. The captain wouldn't be disappointed in him if he told him it was inside a monster keep. He'd understand. If anything he might commend him for not recklessly charging in there alone, especially with their situation with manpower being as dire as it is now. He'd be stupid to go in there in this injured, exhausted state.

The magic of the mask remains, taunting him with faint pulses. But Ravio can easily ignore taunts, he's done so all his life.

And yet, he finds himself bending down, breaking the shaft of the arrow still inside him, and charging towards the entrance like an idiot.

It wasn't some stupid sense of challenge that fueled him. It wasn't even the fact that he was standing so close to the keep that “it'd be a waste to turn around and leave now”. It was the youngest hero’s weak sobbing and the captain's crumbling mask that fueled him. For whatever reason, the mask means a lot to the kid. If he were to wake up without it, he'd be heartbroken. And the kid meant everything to the captain, who would be equally destroyed to see his little brother not only severely injured, but sad.

Ravio is not a hero. But if nothing else, he is a proud citizen of Lorule. And Lorule was once a land of thieves.

Ravio skids to a stop at the entrance, “Special delivery!” He shouts, nocking three bomb arrows on his bowstring and drawing it back with a shaky arm. He aims up and releases it into the swarm of monsters that finally notice him. He wasn't aiming anywhere in particular, but out of three bomb arrows, at least one is bound to hit a monster or two. Luckily, more than just two monsters are blown away by this, and Ravio uses the opportunity to scan the ground for the mask and—there!

Ravio pulls out his Gale Boomerang, and sends it flying in the direction of the fallen mask. Monsters that were once charging at him fly up in the gust created, but so does the mask. A tired but pleased grin curves Ravio's lips upward, and the second the boomerang returns to him, he swaps it out for the clawshot. He aims at the swirling mask, prays, and holds his breath as he fires. He nearly cheers when it clamps around the mask, up until said cheer is cut off by a yelp when he has to dodge out of the way of a swing from a monster behind him. Thankfully the sudden jerk doesn't cause the mask to slip out of the clawshot’s grasp, and the mask is still brought over to him when he activates the retract setting.

The second he touches the mask though, the mask gives him a feeling that Ravio became very familiar with in his time of handling magic items. Rejection.

“Please please please don't curse me, I'm trying to return you to your master.” He begs, trying to tuck the mask into his pockets while running away from monsters. The mask gives out a stronger magic pulse, and Ravio is starting to see why none of the monsters touched it sooner. A whine escapes him as the pulse causes a dizzying headache, and as a stupid afterthought adds in—“Free of charge!” The magic settles into not acceptance, but tolerance. Ravio can only let out a breath of relief.

The thought of the kid handling a possibly cursed item that seems to have a worrying amount of sentience is something Ravio doesn't have the energy to entertain right now, so he doesn't. Instead he focuses entirely on simply running away. He ignores the pain in his ankle as he does so, he's ran with worse injuries before. So he runs and runs and runs, and for once, doesn't feel like a coward. Before he knows it, he's falling to his knees just outside the entrance of the keep where the kid and captain is staying in, shouts from various sources sounding in the distance. Ravio hopes the arms pulling him up to support him aren't the arms of a traitor.

“Breathe, Ravio. Did you find out anything about the mask?” The captain's familiar voice asks beside him.

“I—” Ravio chokes on a mix of a sigh of relief and a needed gulp of air. He tries again after he gets over a coughing fit, “I got it—pocket.”

“Good job. You did well, rest.” Warmth fills Ravio at the praise, and he nearly slips into blessed unconsciousness from just that alone, but another worry nags his mind too much.

“K—Kid..?” He croaks, trying and failing to lift his head to face the captain.

“Alive and stable, thanks to the potions you gave him. Thank you, Ravio. Truly.” All energy immediately leaves him, like a string of nerves that was snapped in a mere instant. He goes boneless in the captain's crutch hold, and the arm supporting his waist barely manages to prevent him from falling down. The captain says something, but the haze in his head blocked out whatever it was. It then vaguely feels as if he's lifted up off the ground entirely, although Ravio can do little but slump against the chest he found himself next to. He breathes in and out, catching his breath and slowing his too-fast heart, and tries to match the timing of the one he feels. Right. The captain. It was probably the captain's. That made sense.

He barely processes the fact that he's later lowered to the ground. Something tough finds itself being pressed inside his mouth, and after an experimental lick, Ravio recognizes it to be leather. Oh… that wasn't good, was it? Ravio suddenly finds himself slightly more awake.

“Bite down on three.” He hears and—he lets out a mix of a loud whine and muffled scream. Ravio bites down on the leather until his jaw aches as his ankle suddenly flares up in mind-numbing agony. A blade is digging into his open wound.

“Stay still, Ravio. It'll be over quicker if you stay still, I promise.” The captain's calm voice tells him. Whimpering, Ravio desperately clutches at the fabric of his robe through it all and tries his best not to kick at the captain to escape. Quick, efficient hands work on him through it all, and Ravio soon—yet not soon enough—finds himself somehow both more awake and more exhausted than before, all while missing a shoe. He doesn't exactly remember when the shoe was removed, but that was the least of his concerns. At least he's bandaged now… but it still hurts. A lot.

“It's been removed, it's over. Good work, Ravio.” The captain pulls the leather out of his mouth, and Ravio finally just sobs. A calloused thumb wipes away the tears flowing down his cheek, careful not to lift up the hood he always wore.

“Do you want to lie with Keaton?” The captain asks, still gingerly wiping away tears that refuse to stop.

“Please.” Ravio no longer has the energy to care about how pathetic or weak he sounds. He was just desperate for any form of comfort. Arms carefully pick him up again and Ravio grimaces as his ankle is moved in the process, another whimper escaping him. The captain murmurs a quiet apology in response as he carries him a short distance before placing him back down beside the smallest hero. Ravio tiredly examines him.

“He doesn't really have any injuries aside from his eye, I think the potions healed them. So don't worry about hurting him just by getting too close.” Says the captain, and Ravio can only muster little more than a hum. He weakly shuffles closer to the boy, and wishes that he had removed his hood beforehand so that he could press up against him too. He's too tired to do that now though, even if it wasn't for the fact that he's still too nervous about showing his face to others.

He finds solace in being beside the boy that he saved, the boy who lives thanks to him. Ravio may be no hero, but for once, he saved someone other than himself. He thinks that understands a bit better how all these Links kept running into such scary battles for the sake of others… but it's still a bit too scary for him. For now… he'll rest. He trusts the captain to keep them both safe.