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factorialsfandoms · 2 years

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Whumptober Day 8 - Back from the Dead. Also combining with BthB ‘dying in their arms’ and Hurt/Comfort Bingo ‘explosions’. Another variation on a theme I’ve seen at least one other person do this whumptober, but fuck it. I want all of the cake.

It... may or may not have a follow up where they discuss what the fuck happened, we’ll see how much I actually get written as I’m writing this before the fic (editing this later - I’ll try follow it up another time I’m not much in the mood for dialogue it turns out someone remind me). Given I’m drafting straight into tumblr because I live not quite as dangerously as straight to ao3 but still dangerously.

And... Maybe a few months ago I’d write Legend holding it together better, but after recent bits of Sunset? Ohhhhhh boy

Characters: Legend (PoV), Hyrule, various other chain members.

Warnings: graphic description, serious injury, major (temporary) character death, nobody is fucking okay

A fairy - their last - whizzed around Legend’s thigh. The fight thus far had been grim, and followed straight on the hells on another. A portal that had seemed an escape from an impossible situation only ended up making things worse as they had been thrust, exhausted, into a fight with fresh monsters.

It was that that Legend was blaming for being so careless as to let the axe cut into his leg and severing his femoral artery. Thankfully Wild, with the last of their fairies, had been close enough to throw the bottled creature. She had been indignant about her treatment until seeing the blood spurting rapidly, at which point she quickly got to work.

No longer dying, Legend was still dizzy and faint, the blood loss getting to him. It was /unlikely/ he would pass out, so long as the fight ended soon and he did not take another hit, but he was definitely struggling to defend himself. He had switched to his fire rod, keeping the enemies further from him as he stumbled in the direction of Wild and Hyrule. There were only a few monsters left, but always better to be armed than not. Wild had spotted his efforts - likely still watching him to make sure the fairy had done her job - and was picking off occasional monsters with his bow.

Covering fire for Legend’s retreat.

It would be shameful if he did not know just quite how many resources the Chain had worked through already, and just how many of them had had to regroup to tend injuries or just catch their breath. That Legend had not yet was more impressive than that he had.

His retreat left Legend in the perfect position to see what happened next.

Another monster appeared from the treeline, carrying an already lit bomb - maybe from one of the others, maybe of its own design, Legend frankly did not care. What he did care about was that it was too far away for him to hit, and it was clearly taking aim towards Wild.

Legend screamed for the Champion to watch out; Wild turned, looking for the threat but remained too slow. Seeing he could not escape Wild threw himself to the floor, shielding his head and surely praying the bomb would explode high enough that he only had burns and its casing to worry about, not splintered rock.

The bomb flew through the air, heading towards its mark. Legend raised his arms to protect his face, and continued hurrying forwards.

The sound of the explosion was neither that of a bomb in the air or a bomb on the ground, but one exploding against flesh.

He pulled his arms from his eyes, begging that he was mistaken, that Wild had not been hit, that the monster had forgotten to throw or something instead.

On one of those accounts he was correct, and he desperately wished he was wrong.

Hyrule lay unmoving between the monster and Wild. For a moment Legend hoped he had cast shield first but, no, that was distinctly the sound of burning Hylian flesh in the air.

Legend did not even bother yelling Hyrule’s name, instead screaming for a fairy as he sprinted forward. Wild had made it to his knees before freezing up, surely as not trapped in a memory. With an almost flippant gesture Legend /incinerated/ the monster that had thrown the bomb, ignoring Wild as he dropped at Hyrule’s side.

One frantic eye made contact with Legend’s own, the other hidden beneath blood and burning and splattered gore. Realising that his friend was somehow still conscious, Legend swallowed a gag nothing to do with his own blood loss or the nausea running through him.

How... How could anyone be so injured and still conscious? He must have been in agony, was if the eye was anything to go by.

The entire front-lower portion of Hyrule’s ribs had been blown away, along with a large part of his belly, surely forming the majority of the gore all around. Bits of organ were strewn in with the mix, too fragmented to tell what was what, but there was certainly intestine and liver and lung tissue - Legend did not even know what other organs resided in the damaged area, but he could see how the ruined remains of Hyrule’s lungs - ripped open and to the air - were fruitlessly trying to suck in air. If any of his diaphragm remained to control it seemed unlikely, but the tatters of the muscle were spasming as though to try.

That was the focal point of the injury, almost as though Hyrule had partly wrapped himself /around/ the bomb, though damage radiated out. It was hard - impossible - to tell was was wounds and what was splattered gore.

He shuddered as he leant down, cradling Hyrule’s face as the other teenager struggled to breathe, looking up but not processing anything he saw as he screamed once more for a fairy.

A splash of bright pink caught his eye - Time’s strange mask, the one that attracted the creatures - and a thundering of boots bought Warriors to Hyrule’s other side.

The hands of their most knowledgeable medic shook, taking one of Hyrule’s gory - and ruined, now it was being moved - hands, turning back over his shoulder to yell something to Time.

Legend heard neither the yell nor response, too focused on Hyrule’s face in his hands.

He tried to reassure him, but how could he do it? They all knew that they had no fairies left, and even Time was clearly struggling to find one. This was nothing that a potion or medicine could fix, and... And...

“Hyrule,” he begged between sobs he did not have the strength to fight. “Rulie? Heal yourself - please, please, heal yourself. You can do it, I know you can, please, please Rulie, I can’t lose you, not as well.”

Between the sobs flickered up images of his uncle, also dying bloodied and beneath his hands - and somehow infinitely more kindly than this. Of friends and colleagues lost, of Marin but a dream consumed by the sea. He couldn’t lose anyone else; call him weak, call him damned, Legend did not care, he could not lose anyone else.

Hyrule tried, he tried to cast - Legend could tell. There was a vague flicker of magic before it died, falling as limp as the fingers it had been glowing around.

Hyrule’s lips moved, as though he were trying to speak. Beneath the blood and the viscera, dizzy and panicked both, Legend could read none of them.

“Okay,” Legend ran a thumb under Hyrule’s eye. “Just hang on, then. Time... Time will find a fairy, he always does - please, please just hang on? For me? Just a little longer?”

Even if he wanted to, it was impossible. That Hyrule had lasted these few, long seconds was testament to everything he was; he could not breathe, not with the lower parts of his lungs blown away, and he simply did not have enough blood left to survive, even accounting for all of that.

His only hope had been a fairy, a fairy like the one used to save Legend after his stupid mistake, and there were none left now.

Hyrule had already been limp, but a few moments later it was clear that his eyes glazed over, too. Legend looked desperately to Warriors, for anything he could do, begging him to save Hyrule.

Warriors was still for a long moment, before he shook his head, and folded Hyrule’s arm over his desecrated chest.

The arm on which the Captain had been measuring the Traveller’s pulse, even as the boy died in their arms.

Legend’s gore-coated hands raised to his face, dragging through his hair was he screamed. Screamed at the monsters, at the goddesses, at the mere unfairness of the world. He shrieked and he screamed and sobbed, tears pouring down his face. Someone took his hands, trying to move him away from Hyrule’s cor- from Hyrule. Despite his own weakness Legend threw them off, only for someone else - someone stronger - to repeat the same. He could feel his arms being wrapped around someone’s neck, and a supporting hand both against his back and beneath his butt. He did not hear any of the conversation around him, could hear nothing over the thunder of his screams and the lightning of his agony.

Hyrule was dead, Hyrule was dead, Hyrule was dead.

And if Legend had just been a little more careful, Wild would have still had a fairy to save him.

At some point there was a sensation of movement, causing Legend’s stomach to turn and him to throw up on the someone’s shoulder. He could not care as his face was nudged to rest against the other, his mind only consumed by the horror he had witnessed. The only thing he noticed was the place where Hyrule had lain go up in smoke, torched as they left it behind.

He stared at the smoke and the fire as his screams faded into just sobs, and his sobs too faded out. Still he shook both with horror and the cold, the arms he was in clutching him somehow tighter. In a daze he was aware of little as they walked, but for Time’s hysterical laughter as some fairies were finally found - far, far, far too late.

There was nothing but the steps trying to lull him to sleep - sleep he refused to take while Hyrule’s gore-covered form haunted his mind.

There... There was still Hyrule’s blood on his hands.

There was still bits of Hyrule’s /organs/ on his hands.

But Legend was too far gone to panic further, only to sob at the realisation.

A face pressed into his hair, and the hands clutched him tighter. Who or what Legend neither knew or cared, oblivious to all but his grief and the memory.

He remained in that haze until something ran up his spine - a thunderous /crack/ of magic imperceptible to most - perceptible only to /him/ now that Hyrule was dead. It was, however, accompanied by a sudden yelp.

Terrified, Legend snapped his head around, already looking for the threat. Everything else was forced from his mind as he checked everyone over, trying to find it - the Champion blank in the Rancher’s arms, the Captain bloody but upright and pushing the Sailor and Smithy onwards from the front, Skyloft’s Knight making a confused squeak as Legend shifted in his arms, the Old Man staring in horror at the Traveller on the floor.

The traveller on his hands and knees, body heaving as he vomited blood and chunks of raw flesh onto the floor.

W-What the fuck?

Ignoring anyone’s shouts, any warning that it had to be a ghost or a possession, Legend tore himself from Sky’s arms. He made the few unsteady steps to Hyrule’s side, dropping to his knees - his feet splayed outwards - hard enough to bruise as he ducked, trying to get a look at the Traveller.

His clothing was still utterly and completely ruined, but his skin?

His skin was healed over.

And not even the scar from being stabbed by his double was still there.

“Rulie?” Legend whispered, dizzy from the exertion and confusion and the flickering spark of potential relief. “R-Rulie? Is that you?”

Hyrule turned his head slightly - the same eye as before making contact with Legend’s. He knew that eye so well now, so perfectly, even with the pain that was in it. Hyrule gave a bloody smile, shakily raising one hand to give an even less stable thumbs up, before slamming back to his previous position as he began heaving once again.

Not just vomiting - choking too. Both mixed into one. And, looking at what was coming from his mouth?

It was an exact match for the gore on Legend’s hands.

The shaky movement seemed to have startled most of the others out of their respective trances. Time and Warriors were both appearing at Hyrule’s sides, Warriors even kneeling in the bloody viscera puddle to do so. Some of the fairies Time had found too late fluttered down from his shoulders, swirling around Hyrule. With their magic they somehow stopped the vomiting, only for the teen to immediately pitch over. Legend grabbed him, pulling him into his lap and hurriedly checking pulse and breathing.

Both pained and a little slow, but... But present. Not fluttering or indicating anything worse than pain and exhaustion and sleep.

As Warriors hurriedly did the same, Legend lent over Hyrule, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him close. The Traveller’s head flopped against Legend’s, and so he nudged it gently to rest against his neck, holding him tight and protecting him from more harm.

“He’s okay,” one of the fairies hovered near Legend’s face, reaching out to brush his tears - somehow more tears - away. “We don’t understand it either, but he’s him. And the throwing up was just... It looked like new organs formed around where the old ones were, trapping it inside? But we magicked all of that away, so he should be okay now. And we healed the damage from getting dropped.”

Her voice chimed softly, most more softly than the one chewing Time out - perhaps giving him a report, but she seemed very hung up on the getting dropped thing - being ever so gentle with Legend.

Somehow, that gentleness only made him cry harder.

Behind him, Sky shuffled closer, leaning down to wrap his arms around Legend. He shivered at the touch, the dizziness and headache and weakness returning with vengeance. Still he clung to Hyrule, unwilling to lose the feel of his breath on his neck, unable to let him go.

Letting him go... Letting him go felt far too much like losing him again.

“Link, can you let go for me?” Sky whispered, and how bad did he have to look that the default was to call him Link? “Please?”

No matter what the words, Legend could not agreed - he shook his head, nearly blacking out at the motion, and clung tighter still.

Nearby the other five chain members had gathered around, clearly discussing what had just happened; Warriors’ hands moved from Hyrule’s wrists to Legend’s.

“Did you do this?” the question was not accusation, but it was sharp.

Legend rapidly shook his head, this time slumping slightly as his head swooned. Sky held on tighter.

“Then, what the fuck?” he asked. The last three words were echoed by a screeching Wind in the other group, causing Hyrule to even flinch while unconscious.

Legend shook his head, more gently this time, trying desperately to express his equal confusion. He slumped further. Sky held him tighter.

“Veteran, what’s wrong?” Sky’s voice held clearly swallowed panic.

What wasn’t wrong? Still... “Headache.”

“You called for a fairy before Hyrule... needed one,” Warriors spoke much more calmly, even as his hands checked Legend over. “Are you still hurt.”

“Wild had one then,” he said, frowning as his words felt wrong for no apparent reason. “... Bled a lot.”

“Blood loss,” Sky breathed out, even as Warriors fished out his water bottle.

“Drink.”

The order did not require letting Hyrule go, and so Legend did as he was told. He drank until Warriors seemed satisfied, before curling back over Hyrule, protecting him with his body. There... There probably were not any threats, but he could not risk it. Could never risk it, but especially not now.

Not when he’s lost him, and nobody understood how they hadn’t - not even /Time/.

Just as Legend grasped tighter to Hyrule, Sky held him tighter too.

Meaning that, when Legend also passed out moments later, someone was already there to catch him.

#whumptober2022 #no.8 #back from the dead #fanfic #linked universe #death tw #gore tw #blood tw #injury (major) tw #vomit tw #lu legend #lu hyrule #lu everyone else #its the dolls the dolls are casting the magic #another one has been used up #but that's for a later conversation i'm not in the mood to write #it took the doll a while to kick in because however long until the right bit of his brain starved from lack of oxygen #or something idk #its a safety measure so he doesn't have violent re-enlivening reactions near still violent monsters #like this one!#he'd still have had to have gotten rid of the gore in his lungs and such #but he'd have managed just /ow/#the passing out isn't normal #that's because time dropped him and he hit his head badly #the fairies healed it up so its not dangerous but he's still got a head injury #they were more focused on making him not choke #after a nap that'll have cleared up fine #legend reacts badly because *gestures at recent bits of sunset*#and wild is absolutely having horrific memories from the war return rn #blood loss

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