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skyloftian-nutcase · 2 years

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Fierce Revelations, Pt1 (Linked Universe story)

I wrote this as a oneshot but it got so long I decided to cut it into two parts. Anyway, my head is filled with Fierce Deity brainrot, so have FD with the Chain.

Summary: When a battle spirals out of control, Warriors finds a familiar mask in Time’s arsenal and decides that desperate times call for desperate measures. Time then has to confront what it’s like to be on the other end of the mask, and the repercussions that come with it.

Part 2 Part 3

It hadn’t been a good day.

They’d barely made it out of town when another portal had appeared. They’d all been hesitant – the rancher was still recovering, and it wasn’t wise to travel somewhere different. However, the portal also implied that the Shadow was still out there and was already causing trouble for innocents in another land. They couldn’t ignore the need to help.

Twilight had insisted he would be fine. Time and Wild had insisted they would watch him. Everyone had promised themselves they would watch him. They’d walked through the portal, disoriented but together.

And then the horde had ambushed them.

The odds had been stacked against them to begin with. Although Twilight was more than willing to pull his own weight, his injury still weighed him down. He had stayed to the periphery with the champion, eliminating enemies at a distance with his bow, but inevitably the monsters had come for the pair. They held off the majority, but a lynel’s charge was not going to be stopped by a dozen arrows, and the two had been forced to relocate. Wild was quick on his feet, but Twilight…

Twilight was not.

Time had immediately gotten to him alongside Sky. But the others were too far away and too preoccupied, leaving the pair to defend Twilight to the best of their ability as the lynel was reinforced by several lizalfos.

Warriors swore as he dodged an attack and rolled to center himself in a group of bokoblins before swinging his blade at the swarm, feeling the weight of their flesh fight against his steel. After the group had fallen to his blow, he threw a concerned glance at the rest of the team.

Legend was at Hyrule’s side, having been hovering worriedly between the traveler and the rancher since they’d left the village – Hyrule had worn himself to exhaustion trying to heal Twilight, and he was still a little fatigued from the effort. With Legend at his side, though, Warriors knew the pair would be safe… for now.

The smithy was pinned at the edge of the clearing, but he was slowly making his way out of it. Wind let out a roar and assisted with a large flourish of his blade, skewering a bokoblin. Wild was desperately trying to make his way back to Time, Twilight, and Sky, but he was also preoccupied by monsters. Twilight was on the ground but quickly trying to get back up as the lynel charged once more. Sky hauled him to his feet and dragged him out of harm’s way, but their leader…

Time was busy. He was defending an attack from a lizalfos, the lynel was coming at him from his blind side—

Sky whirled around as the captain yelled to get his attention. Grabbing his whip, he latched it around the elder’s waist, yanking him out of harm’s way.

But not fast enough.

Although Time missed the full brunt of the blow, the lynel still grazed him, and he landed in a crumpled heap.

Warriors swore. Tried to get to the group. Swore again as a pack of wolfos got in his way.

There were too many.

At least there was no sign of the Shadow. At least they had that going for them.

Warriors swore a third time as one of the wolfos’ eyes burned red, its black fur distinct from the others.

“Can’t even fight man-to-man, eh?” the captain snapped as he kicked the beasts away. He tossed a glance at the group of injured once more and saw Sky desperately trying to defend two very out of commission heroes. Wild was screaming, trying to get to them.

Another yell caught his attention, and he saw Wind hit the dirt with an arrow in his leg. Off in the distance, several bokoblin archers snarled, and then they immediately fell to multiple arrows being fired from the champion.

There were too many.

The Shadow lunged forward, its fangs bared, and Warriors nearly managed to thrust his sword into the monster’s throat before it changed tactics. He managed to take a few large steps towards the fallen, his eyes catching sight of the veteran, smithy, and traveler covering for the sailor. Good. They were safe. Now he just had to make his way to the others.

Arrows landed between him and the Shadow, shooting out sparks, and Warriors jumped, startled. He looked to the left to see Wild, new arrows nocked and ready, his eyes burning.

“I’ve got him,” he hissed. “Get to them.”

Warriors hesitated. The last time they’d been in this situation, the champion had gone out of control and disobeyed orders.

But it wasn’t like they had much of a choice at the moment.

Cursing for what felt like the hundredth time, the captain rushed to the Skyloftian knight’s side. Sky was sweating and wheezing, having eliminated more monsters than Warriors could count in defense of his fallen comrades. It would have been impressive if it weren’t for the direness of the situation.

“Get them out of here,” Sky huffed, cutting down the last of the lizalfos.

The rancher grunted, coming back to consciousness after Sky’s abrupt shove from earlier had knocked him out. Warriors immediately grabbed under his arm while also grabbing Time’s undertunic, hoping he could drag them both at least to the tree line.

And then the lynel caught sight of them again.

Sky directed the Master Sword heavenward, and it glowed bright blue with a holy aura. Warriors recognized the maneuver and continued to move the pair he had grasped firmly in his arms. Twilight tried to stand in order to at least be of some help, and he thankfully didn’t fight as Warriors pulled him. In fact, he grabbed one of Time’s hands and let Warriors grab the other so they could drag the old man to safety.

Hitting the dirt with a grunt, Warriors shuffled onto his hands and knees to quickly scan their leader now that they were out of immediate harm’s way. He was badly injured, to be sure, but not anything that looked immediately life threatening.

Grasping Twilight by the shoulder, Warriors ordered, “Watch him and stay here.”

The rancher nodded, his face pale but his eyes stormy and determined. Warriors rose to survey the battle and see where he was needed most, to see what the situation was and what orders were required. Sky had successfully dodged another charge from the lynel, but he was trembling from head to foot. Wind was back on his feet, back-to-back with Four. Half the battlefield was on fire, and it was hard to tell if it was from Hyrule’s magic or Wild’s arrows. Legend had managed to drag Wild away from the Shadow, who was instead pacing back and forth, seeking its next target.

There were still swarms of monsters. With the lynel keeping Sky busy and quickly wearing him out, that was the first priority. But stalfos and moblins had just emerged and were charging at Wind and Four, and the Shadow was stalking towards Legend and Wild.

There were too many!

Gritting his teeth, the captain started to charge back into the fray when he felt his foot smack something searing hot. He glanced down for a second, wondering if a stray fire arrow had made its way over to him, when he saw instead an innocuous but familiar object.

A mask.

Despite the gravity of the situation, the sight made Warriors pause. It looked so eerily familiar. It almost looked like Time.

And then it hit him.

“It’s called the Fierce Deity mask,” the little Link said, holding it up for examination but never letting anyone touch it. “It comes in handy in tough situations.”

Warriors bent down and picked it up, entranced for a moment. The world quieted. This mask… this mask had empowered the young forest hero back in the war to points of almost excess – he could eliminate an army singlehandedly.

It comes in handy in tough situations.

Well, if this wasn’t a tough situation, the captain didn’t know what was. He was surprised Time still had it – he’d seemed almost frightened of the mask, always claiming that it was dangerous and shouldn’t be handled lightly. He’d always looked so drained, so ill after he’d take it off.

That didn’t matter right now. What mattered was saving the others.

Taking a fortifying breath, Warriors pulled the mask to his face, barely registering that his comrades had somehow multiplied (wait, why was Four… there were four… what…?) before the wood touched his skin.

The first thing Warriors felt was pain. The mask clung to him like thousands of tiny claws digging into his face, creating a seal between bone and block, soft flesh and hard flesh. His mind screamed, his body shuddered, and he was suddenly floating, lost, adrift, and cold.

XXX

The first thing Time felt was pain. Even more so than that, though, he felt terror. He heard a scream, an oh-so-familiar scream, the sound of agony and magic entwining in a musical symphony that bore tidings of an oncoming storm. He knew the voice, he knew the sensation, he knew the pitch, he knew what was wrong.

Time ignored the throbbing in his gut, ignored the feeling of sticky warm blood trickling down his side, and he rolled over and immediately started digging through his belongings.

Where is it WHERE IS IT—

“Stay still.”

Time blanched, whirling around. The voice was familiar but distant, cold, and it made his skin crawl. It sounded like the captain, but—

Time felt his blood run cold.

Warriors, or what should have been Warriors, knelt over him, eyes white blank orbs, markings tearing across his face like scars. His perfectly arranged hair was white as the moon, his scarf was pale blue and silver, his usual green tunic replaced with too familiar armor.

“What have you done?” Time whispered, horrified.

The monster blinked, cocking its head to the side. “Eliminated the army. You’re welcome. The Shadow ran off like a coward while I was handling the lynel.”

Time looked around wildly and saw that the world around him was still. A few bokoblins were crying out in the distance and he could make out the smith—split into the four colorful versions of himself that he’d shown to the elder a few weeks ago—finishing off the last of them while Hyrule hovered around Wind. Legend and Wild were in a different corner alongside Twilight and Sky.

Wait, Twilight, when had he—

Time winced, his gut screaming in protest as he tried to sit up. A firm hand shoved him back to the ground.

“You need to stay down.”

Time glared at the monster. “Give me back the captain.”

Glowing orbs squinted for a moment, and the monster exhaled slowly through his nose. The look was almost threatening, and despite his best attempts to remain calm, Time felt himself trembling.

“The captain,” it repeated. “The captain…”

Time gritted his teeth. “Don’t you dare hurt him.”

“Hurt him?” the monster tilted Warriors’ head to the side, and then it furrowed his brow, collapsing onto his backside in an irritated huff. “Honestly, what do you think of me? I’m not going to hurt your friends.”

Time blinked, the fight draining out of him. He’d… what?

It was at this point that the eldest Link realized that he’d never actually had a conversation with the Fierce Deity. All their interactions had been out of necessity, a hero donning a powerful enchanted mask to win the day, being lost in a haze of bloodshed and nonexistence, and then returning feeling drained, disoriented, and terrified. The power of the mask was immense, and he’d used it so extensively and so desperately that it had left a lasting mark on him, almost as if it were claiming him. After that he’d sworn never to use it again, afraid of what might happen, afraid he might not be able to doff it one last time.

But… they’d never talked. He didn’t even know the mask could talk.

Then again… he swore there were times he could hear whispers in his mind. Times when he swore he could feel something from the mask.

“The captain…” the Fierce Deity said again before gasping. “Ah! That captain! My, my it’s been a while.”

Time’s eyes widened. “You… you remember him?”

The deity clicked Warriors’ tongue as if it were offended. “Of course I do, you looked at him as a big brother. He was an excellent warrior. How did you get older than him? Were you always older? You weren’t that short.”

Wound forgotten, Time found himself suddenly annoyed. “No, I wasn’t always older.”

“Well, you clearly are now.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You honestly look as old as me!”

Time couldn’t believe this. He was arguing with a cursed mask, with a cursed spirit.

“Wait.” The monster hushed, holding his hands out as if to stop Time even though the hero hadn’t moved. “He… he looks up to you. They… they all do? They? Who are…?”

Time realized what was happening, realized the monster was reading the captain’s mind, and he reached desperately for Warriors’ face, trying to tear the mask off with his own fingers. The monster pulled back and snatched Time’s wrist.

“You. Have. Babies.”

Time’s left arm, bearing the brunt of his weight as he had lunged at the monster, abruptly gave out. He hit the ground with a grunt, his mind whirling. “What?”

The Fierce Deity was glaring at him now. It was unnerving – Time had always looked at the mask and seen unfeeling eyes, seen unchanging wood. Now that the face was on someone else, it was disturbing, as if watching a doll come to life and knowing it could kill him and permanently possess its host in an instant.

“Stop fighting me,” the monster said in a low tone, and it caught Time off guard—it sounded like him. It sounded like the tone of voice he’d just been using with Twilight immediately before the fight.

It wasn’t threatening. It was scolding.

“You’re injured,” the monster continued. “You need to drink a potion.”

Before Time could argue, a bottle was shoved into his face, and he shakily took it. He wasn’t going to argue about this – drinking the potion would give him the energy to wrestle the mask off the captain and save them all.

“I can’t believe it,” the Fierce Deity muttered as Time downed the bitter drink. “You have babies.”

Time choked on the potion. “What—no I don’t.”

Warriors’ painted face was practically glowing. “Yes, you do! You know it, he knows it – ah, this is—what a day!”

Time stared at him, potion half forgotten. What… was happening? Was he… was he excited?

This didn’t bode well.

The Fierce Deity’s features softened, and he gently pushed the potion back towards Time’s face. “Drink it.”

“What do you want?” Time asked, ignoring the potion for the moment.

The Fierce Deity sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I want you to stop being a brat and drink the potion, Link.”

“A—a brat—?!” Time spluttered.

“Yes, a brat. You tend to be that way. Honestly, how any of these people think you’re a responsible adult is a mystery to me.”

“What—”

“Potion, Link. Drink it.”

Time choked down the last of the concoction, his mind whirling, and immediately tried to speak again as his wounds knitted themselves back to baseline.

The Fierce Deity held up a finger, and Time felt his mouth snap shut at the silent command. Then he felt ridiculous at his reaction and almost protested again.

“Link,” the creature said, Warriors’ baritone voice softening. “Please, just… let me say something.”

“Old Man?”

Both warriors jumped, turning to see Sky standing in the clearing, staring at them uncertainly.

“I… wanted to make sure you were okay,” the knight said, shifting his gaze between the two. “Rancher is with Champion, they’re fine, so I just wanted to check… and Captain… are you okay too? What happened to your face and your clothes?”

“Sky…” Time warned nervously. “You need to get back to the others. I’m fine. Potion fixed me up.”

But Sky wasn’t listening. Instead, he was watching Warriors warily, body rigid. He could sense that something was off, he could tell that Warriors’ transformation wasn’t a harmless one.

The Fierce Deity rose to Warriors’ full height, and Time tried to scramble to his feet as well. He felt a hand press on the top of his head, shoving him back to the ground with more strength than the captain was capable of.

“You’ve killed a god, haven’t you?” the monster asked Sky.

Time froze. What?

Sky stiffened even more, but his wariness eased into fear. “How…?”

The Fierce Deity smiled, taking a step towards him. “I can sense it. There are consequences to such actions, you know.”

Time shot to his feet, drawing his blade. “Get away from him.”

Sky took a step back, startled. “Old Man, I—what—Captain—”

“Relax!” the Fierce Deity suddenly said in a booming voice, holding his hands up to show he was unarmed. “I’m not here to hurt them, I already told you that.”

“Then what do you want?” Time hissed, stepping between him and his young knight.

Warriors’ brow, furrowed from frustration, suddenly curled upward, face tilting down in what almost looked like defeat and sadness. “I just… wanted to make sure you were okay, Link. I’ll go now.”

“Wait—why are you—Captain, what’s going on?” Sky interjected, growing worried.

“It’s not the captain,” Time explained, not budging an inch. He couldn’t just expect the Fierce Deity to be harmless, not with the carnage and destructive power he wielded. Whatever act he was playing—

“No, I’m not,” the monster agreed. “I’m known as the Fierce Deity… but you can call me Link’s father.”

Time felt his mouth drop open. “What? You’re not my—”

Suddenly, Warriors’ arm was around his shoulders, and their cheeks were shoved together. The Fierce Deity pointed to Time’s face. “See those markings? He took them. Silly boy lost an eye, so I had to step in, and he took my markings with my eye!”

“I didn’t—”

“Okay, well technically I gave you the eye, but it wasn’t my intention to give the tattoos as well, I like those thank you very much! It does look rather fetching on you, though.”

Sky laughed.

“Oh, are all your names Link? Surely you have to differentiate – ah, ah, nicknames okay. You go by Sky?”

The Skyloftian knight’s laughter faded into wonder and mild unease. “Yes. But… you said you were a deity?”

The Fierce Deity huffed out a laugh, clapping Sky on the shoulder. “Oh, don’t worry, I don’t want to fight you. Though I am curious how well you’d hold up. I just want to meet all of you! I didn’t realize Link had babies!”

“Will you stop saying—”

“And so strong, too! I’m so proud.”

“For Farore’s sake—”

“Don’t bring Farore into this, Link.”

“Will you stop—”

“But wait,” Sky suddenly interrupted, despite his expression clearly indicating he was enjoying the exchange. “What happened to the captain?”

“Ah, you see, I’m sealed into an enchanted mask,” the Fierce Deity explained quickly, finally letting Time go. “Whoever dons it allows me to possess them temporarily.”

“Yes, and that possession is painful,” Time interjected. “If you really do care, then you’ll take the mask off – you’re hurting him.”

“What? No, I’m not, I’d never hurt—” the Fierce Deity attempted to argue when he abruptly quieted, staring at Time. His eyebrows crinkled together in distress. “Wait… is that why… I didn’t realize…”

The three stood in silence as Time felt a cold realization settle in his gut.

Goddesses. He was telling the truth.

“Is that why you’re afraid of me?” the Fierce Deity asked quietly.

Time felt sick. Too much was happening today. He bit his tongue for a moment, centering himself and keeping his expression calm. “Take the mask off and give us our captain back.”

The Fierce Deity’s expression also grew neutral, and he sighed and nodded. Wordlessly, he reached up and pinched under Warriors’ chin, and a bright light made Time look away for a moment before hurriedly glancing back to see the captain’s knees buckle.

Reaching out immediately, Time caught the young man and settled him gently to the ground. Sky knelt beside him, his hand on Warriors’ shoulder, his gaze shifting between his face and the mask that laid innocently on the ground beside him.

Time hastily snatched the cursed mask and shoved it into his pouch. Sky didn’t comment.

Warriors groaned, bringing both heroes’ attention back to the captain. He looked pale, and his body trembled as his eyes opened. Time gave him a small smile.

“Welcome back,” he said softly.

“B-back…?” Warriors muttered before groaning again, squeezing his eyes shut.

Time brushed some of the captain’s now disheveled and sweat drenched hair out of his face. “You shouldn’t have put that mask on. You know how dangerous it is.”

Warriors barked a weak laugh. “Always nagging, Old Man… honestly…”

Sky smiled gently, patting the captain’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“IS HE OKAY??”

The three nearly jumped out of their skin at Wind’s high-pitched voice as the boy ran towards them. Apparently they’d lingered too long, and now the entire group seemed terrified that something was wrong.

Time smiled at the group as they approached, and then looked back at Warriors. They were safe now… whether he liked to admit it or not, the captain’s quick thinking was the reason for that.

And the Fierce Deity.

Time’s fingers continued to gently brush hair out of the captain’s face, but his mind wandered away from the battlefield, his thoughts and heart whirling. He had a lot to sort out.

#mea culpa for typos it's 4am and I can no longer be bothered to proofread #anyway I wanted Soft Dad vibes #from both FD and from Time #this goes along with my HC but also with LU canon since Jojo makes Time wary of the mask #so it's a healthy blend of silly Fierce Dadity and possible danger #be sure to check out part 2 when I publish it later!#linkeduniverse #linked universe #all the chain is in this but the focus is on #lu time #lu warriors #fierce deity #Warriors is freaking out and doesn't give Four time to Split and reveal that they might actually be ok with the resources they have #but it's all good because Time got to finally actually meet FD and FD is thrilled #but also sad #because angst #I swear I will write something silly for FD soon #fierce dadity #writing

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scienceoftheidiot · 2 years

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Royai

The noise of the gunshot rang loudly in the cold air of the night, and a silhouette collapsed on the sand of the desert.

...

No.

No, no, no, no.

Riza froze behind her sight, for a split second, then she started frantically searching through her lens for the black form on the ground, the one she was supposed to have protected from this. But she had seen nothing, even if the moon was on her side, her full face drenching the scene in an eerily cold but surprisingly bright light, and pitch black shadows.

She could see Mustang squirming on the ground, and it made her nauseous, but she couldn’t really tell what he was doing. Squirming in pain? Trying to stop the blood flow from his injury?

He was alive.

He was still alive.

For now.

She didn’t dwell on it, as her eye caught a couple of other silhouettes walking towards him. Wielding guns.

She breathed out.

Pulled the trigger.

One.

Two down.

She saw a gun fall. Was it the one that had fired? She needed to be sure of this.

She scanned the area, for long, too long, her gut wrenching, her fingers tingling on the trigger and her legs trembling, ready to jump into action, to run down this stretch of desert and pull her superior back to safety.

What fools they'd been for thinking they could come back there. This place would never forgive them for burning it to the ground, no matter what they tried to do to amend for their crimes. And they deserved nothing else.

When nothing moved except for Mustang on the ground for excruciatingly long minutes, she ran, rifle on her shoulder, gun in hand, just in case. As she got closer, she could see the pale dots of his hands and face move as he tried to get up. His hands clutched his thigh. As he heard her approach, he raised his hand, ready to snap. Why had he not done that earlier was a mystery. But he seemed to recognize her - her hair, probably, but she couldn’t strike also his ability at recognizing anything from her, be it her pace, her breath or her stance - and he lowered his arm. She noticed his hand was steady.

As she finally kneeled beside him, she was welcomed with a winded bark that he tried to keep low. Tried was the key word. “What the fuck are you doing, Hawkeye? Running through an open field?” Riza breathed a little better. He was showing teeth, frowning. If he was that angry at her, it meant he would be okay. She pushed him back without a word, roughly, to check his injury. It bled slowly, and in a continuous flow. Good sign. Riza kept tilting her head left and right, checking their surroundings.

“Doing my job, sir.” “Kinda botched it this time, didn’t you?” Riza didn’t reply and pulled bandages from her belt pouches, compressing the wound as she could. She jumped when a pebble fell from a nearby rock, but breathed as she saw the lizard fleeing under it.

Still checking around, Riza pondered asking him to get up or pulling him somewhere safer. She chose the latter. It would be quicker. Crouching, she went to place her hands under his arms, walking backwards towards her hiding place. They fell face to face, and she took the opportunity to check him. He was pale in the moonlight, but he was always pale. She noticed his jaw clenching, but his eyes weren’t glassy, returning her gaze with an intensity she found hard to stand. She looked away, with the excuse of being on the lookout for movement. Mustang caught her arms, pushing with his good leg, to help them get there faster.

When her eyes returned to his face, he was sweating, but also smirking.

They finally reached the relative safety of her hide - nothing much more than a boulder she crouched behind - and Riza left Mustang to send a radio call for medics. She glared at him as he tried to pull himself up on his elbows.

“I could cauterize -” “No.” “Did it once, you know.” “I remember, sir.” “You’re no fun, Hawkeye.” Riza put the radio away in her backpack, and came to sit next to where Mustang was laying, her rifle on her thighs.

“They’ll be here soon.” “Good.”

Silence fell. Riza kept her eyes on their surroundings. She pulled her rifle up, leaning the barrel against her shoulder, ready to shoulder it and aim, should it be needed.

“Don’t berate yourself. I’m sorry. It wasn’t your fault.” “No, you said it. I botched the job.” “I didn’t want you getting shot, too.” Riza looked down as Mustang grunted. He was pulling himself closer to her. She didn’t move as he plumped himself against her thigh, his head resting on it. His eyes looked more tired, but he nevertheless smiled at her when she frowned at him.

“Have a little kindness for the wounded, Captain.” She looked away.

Her hand found his forehead, taking all information on his health she could get - his skin was clammy, but not too cold to be frightening, for now.

He hummed under her touch.

Riza kept her vigil, her hand gently playing in his hair.

#I GOT CARRIED AWAY #because angst #thanks for sending this it has occupied my morning lol #i guess it's hurt/comfort though #royai #riza hawkeye #roy mustang #ask game #musing-and-music #fanfiction

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