Chapter Text
"GET DOWN!"
Hyrule roars the warning, and without thinking, Legend obediently ducks. A spear of red light shoots over his head as a magic beam the shape of Hyrule's sword arcs over his head and spears the kargaroc flying down towards him. It screeches and clumsily backs off, allowing Legend to focus on the lizalfos in front of him.
"Thanks!" he yells back, weight pitching to counter the ship's swaying as he slashes up and the lizalfos finally goes down with an ugly screech and a splash of black blood. Overall, the fight isn't going well. It's Wind's time- the lot of them had been thrown onto the middle of Tetra's pirate ship not long ago, and then a storm had suddenly rolled in. With it came monsters.
It's far from Legend's ideal situation, but at least he knows how to hold his ground on a ship rocking violently in the waves. Most of the others don't. Twilight and Time are doing alright, Twilight having grounded himself with some heavy looking boots and Time the same, though his emit a golden light and have him hovering for seconds at a time as the ship rolls. Unfortunately, they seem to come with the downside of slipping and sliding like he is standing on ice.
At least he isn't being unceremoniously thrown around like Sky and Warriors are, tumbling about from one side of the deck to the other as they try to fight the black-blooded horde surrounding them. Wild and Hyrule are on opposite sides of the deck, clinging desperately to the rigging as they try to hold their ground using magic and some sort of ice rod respectively.
Wind, thankfully, is holding his own just fine, leaping his way from one end of the ship to the other with assistance of his grappling hook and a terrifying level of efficiency, doing probably the most to protect Tetra's crew from the mess of a fight while they struggle to keep the ship afloat and steady. That leaves Legend to make sure the rest of the Chain makes it out of this alive.
It's not going well.
Hyrule is obviously tiring fast from magic use. Sky and Warriors are taking extra hits from being tossed around as well as from enemies. Sky's right shoulder looks out of commission and blood is pouring down from Warriors' temple. Wild is doing fine until his magic rod shatters, and he curses as he fishes for a new tool and desperately pulls out a second rod sparking with lightning just as a lizalfos lunges for him, claws shredding up pieces of the deck with its speed.
"NO!" Time roars a warning, skidding over as fast as his funky boots will let him. The lizalfos slams into the rod with a speed that smashes into Wild so hard it sends them both tumbling in a mess of screeching, screaming, and arcs of electricity. Time reaches them then, joining the mess of sparks as he pulls the monster off of Wild and hurls it face first into the railing, shuddering from the residual electricity.
It's all Legend has time to observe before he's lost to another round of battle, sword swinging in in a deadly dance at any monsters who have managed to make it over the railing towards the center of the ship. He catches Sky as he tumbles past, helping him grip onto the mast as his other arm swings in a wide arc, his own ice rod freezing two lizalfos mid-lunge and dispatching them quickly as soon as the ship rolls at a good enough angle to let go of the mast.
"Ship portside!" Zuko shouts down from where he's lashed in the crow's nest, eyeglass up, "More pirates! Not friendlies!"
"They'd be damn stupid to try anything in this mess!" Tetra crows back from where she clings to the rigging, "Just make sure we don't ram 'em, Gonzo!"
"You got it, Cap'n!" Gonzo yells from where he's fighting with the wheel.
"Portal!" Wind screeches over the rain, "At the bow!"
Legend snaps his head up and sure enough- a massive portal is forming above the front of the ship, monsters cheering as fresh enemies begin to drop from it, keese and wizzrobes joining the fight. With them… a small figure of- is that a kid? Legend immediately prepares for it to be an unknown enemy- the shadow? But no- the boy is in a four-colored tunic, a vaguely familiar gold-hilted sword in his hands and the portal travel must have hit him hard because the minute he hits the deck, despite lacking visible injuries, he collapses. Monsters screech and pounce.
"There's a kid!" he yells, abandoning Sky without a second thought. The monsters see that boy as a free meal. They're going to- he's not going to get there in time-
Fire arcs through the sky over his head and lands in the midst of the wizzrobes, causing them to screech and scatter. A bomb arrow lights up in the opening. Wind is suddenly there too, skull hammer swinging as he lands to stand over the boy, who is holding his head and blinking blearily as he reorients.
"We got it!" Twilight reassures, steady with his iron boots and bow out.
Legend is relieved, until he turns to thank Hyrule for the fireball and bounce back to Sky and- well, that Fire spell may have been just one spell too many. Hyrule's hands are shaking, and he struggles to get a firmer grip on the rail. The ship tilts, sending Legend's feet skidding toward him without something to hold on to. Hyrule slips. A wave comes crashing over the side of the boat with bruising force. Their eyes meet.
Hyrule's going to go over the side.
Hyrule can't swim.
Legend leaps. Hyrule braces. They both get swept violently over the railing.
The only thing on Legend's mind is keep him safe. Keep 'Rulie safe. His body slams into the other's just in time, fingers scrabbling for limbs and wet clothes to keep them together. It's a struggle to orient- he has seconds at best- but he manages to angle them just barely so that it's his side that hits the water first, not his brother's.
The water hits like a burning fire despite its freezing temperature, and not just because of the height of the fall. Immediately, salt leeches into all of the scratches on his skin, and it feels like his blood boils at the contact. Something is wrong with the water, terribly wrong, but he barely has time to process it before the transformation hits.
Legend's body flares into a fresh, fiery wave of agony as his legs fuse into his tailbone and scales rip out from his skin. The transformation hurts so much worse in whatever this water is, and he chokes on a scream before his gills have fully formed yet, gagging on the salt as he drowns for a few terrifying moments. Someone has a death grip on his tunic. Is struggling right alongside him. A flailing leg kicks him in the still-forming tail.
Hyrule!
It's a storm. Hyrule still can't swim.
Legend's hands search blindly for the other boy, a little desperate and something shameful inside of him very glad he's not alone this time. His hands scream in discomfort and pings of sharp burning as the webbing now between his fingers remains trapped beneath his rings. Newly-formed claws grasp Hyrule's tunic just as he's finally able to suck in a rough gasp, gills finally filtering the seawater. It burns in his lungs, heavy and thick. Blindly, eyes stinging as his second eyelid still forms, he pushes for the surface with his mostly-fused tail until his head breaks the surface and he's unable to breathe again, but the sudden gasp and coughing in front of him tells him that Hyrule can, and that's so much more important.
Legend's eyes finally clear enough to see.
The storm still rages around them, waves surging them up and down in a threat to swallow Hyrule again, and he realizes with a sinking feeling that they've been buffeted farther from the ship than ideal. Shouts echoing from the ship tells him that the others are still fighting. There's still monsters in this water.
"Leg-" Hyrule coughs as they get splashed by another angry foamy wave cap, "Legend, are you alright? What-"
"I-" He swallows a mouthful of water, darkening vision clearing slightly despite the raw feeling in his throat. His tunic doesn't help either, the heavy fabric hindering the rows of gills across his sides. "Fine," he lies breathlessly, "Hold on!"
Hyrule doesn't ask any more questions- bless him- but gives him a dubious look of worry. However, he immediately reorients his grip to help Legend keep them afloat better. It's much easier without him flailing around, but the storm is still determined to not make it easy. It's all Legend can do to keep Hyrule's head above water as the waves and currents toss them mercilessly, any progress Legend manages to make towards the ship heavily hindered. Each inefficient new breath of seawater has his limbs feeling weaker as the poison sets further in. Still, he continues onward, even as the muted sounds of fighting slowly die down. That's good. The others must be winning. He hopes they're doing alright.
"I see them!" He hears someone distantly shout from the boat, but they're too far away for him to tell who it is. He doesn't have the energy to stop and check. He just has to keep swimming. Keep Hyrule's head above the angry waves-
Something grabs his tail, claws sinking deep into his scales, and rips them both under.