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Wars pressed down on the plunger with a sigh, watching as the viscous liquid left the barrel of the syringe and into Four's arm. Four scrambled against him, his chest rising and falling with each panicked breath. Hylia, his eye was bleeding so much. It was a miracle he was still conscious, though with the help of the sedatives he wouldn't be for long.
Time dropped down next to him. He was out of breath, face flushed around the bright deity markings that adorned his cheeks and forehead. "The monsters are taken care of." He paled slightly upon looking at Four's face. The younger hero reached for him plaintively, his movements sluggish and his eyelids drooping more and more as the second passed by. Time grasped Four's hands in his much larger ones, looking more lost than Warriors had ever seen him.
Four's uninjured eye slipped shut, his cheek pillowing onto Warrior's arm. It would almost have been endearing if not for the ruin of his eye. It hadn't closed fully and the iris seemed to be flickering through various colours. Warriors felt dread grip him even tighter. He could swear Four's eyes had always been a soft grey, not this mishmash of wild, too-bright tones.
Time hesitantly let go of the smithy's hand. "The others are coming. Do you think the traveller will be able to help?"
"Maybe." Warriors tried to hide the tremble in his voice. "Time…It took his eye." His sentence trailed off in a whisper.
The old man went still. His fingers hovered over Four's eye, obscuring the bloody half of his face. If Warriors looked at the right angle it was as if nothing had ever happened.
"His eye." Time's jaw trembled. "Maybe Hyrule can help stop the bleeding."
Warriors hummed in agreement. Four was so limp—so small and cold in his arms. Had he dosed him correctly? He was sure he had but the rate the smithy had gone under seemed too quick. Maybe he was only barely holding onto consciousness in the first place.
It was a miracle he'd lasted so long anyway—he'd watched that…thing burrow into his skull, eat away his eye and leave him a convulsing mess on the ground. A wave of nausea had him burying his face in Four's hair for one blessed moment. He snapped his head back up as Legend skidded to his knees beside him, Hyrule in tow.
"Let me see his eye." The veteran demanded.
Warriors felt himself bristle. "We can't cause him even more injury."
"I have experience with these guys. Just let me see." He reached for the fallen hero. "Please. I'll be careful."
Warriors watched as Legend leant over Four, lifting his head with gentle hands and opening his hurt eye—which had finally shut—and examining it.
Depositing Four safely back into the captain's arms he rose to his feet, shouldering past the ever-growing crowd of heroes and storming off.
"Fucking hive!" He hissed, ripping off his hat so he could fist a hand in his hair.
Sky stiffened. "Hive? No way. It couldn't be—" He turned to Warriors. "Right?"
"I don't know any hive." Warriors relaxed his grip on Four enough for Hyrule to shift him so he could use his life spell. "What is it?"
Sky turned away, his eyebrows drawing together. "They're bad news." He looked over, his pale eyes brimming with emotion. "Oh Four…"
Legend shut his eyes briefly and ran a hand down his face. "Maybe we can get rid of it somehow. He'll lose his eye but it's better than the alternative."
Warriors glanced down at the sleeping smithy. His face was all soft curves now, not a single trace of the pain he had been in evident in his expression. The anaesthetic had done its job.
"What's the alternative?" He dared to ask.
Legend's shoulders shook ever-so-slightly. "He'll live. He just might not be…" His voice broke. "He might not be the same."
Wind's gaze flicked to the ground. Warriors' heart squeezed so tight it hurt—he shouldn't be here. Shouldn't be witnessing something like this. Not his Wind. Anyone but his Wind.
An image of the sailor with a mangled eye flashed through his head. He shook it off with a shudder, staring at Wind long enough to burn it from his mind. He shot him a confused look, concern brimming in his large blue eyes.
Goddess, he loved him so much. How had they been away from each other for so long?
"Captain." Hyrule nudged him, shaking him from his daze. "Should we bandage his wound?" Hyrule was good. Hyrule was stable—he could trust him.
Warriors cursed himself. How had he forgotten? Of course they needed to bandage it. What if infection had already settled in? The parasite had skated along the ground for a few moments before getting to Four. What if dirt and bacteria had already burrowed inside of him?
A roll of gauze was nestled into his grip, Hyrule laughing hollowly. "Sorry…I don't really think I should do it. Butterfingers and all."
"Right." Shifting Four—trying to ignore the jolt in his gut as Four's head fell limply over the crook of his arm— he unwound the bandage. His hands shook as he roughly poured water over the wound, washing away the blood so he could get a better view of...everything. He wrapped the bandage tightly, slipping off his headband to allow for the gauze to go under his forehead. Twilight took the headband with care, winding it around his wrist. He tied the bandage tight, his heart thundering as Four made no response.
"…We should head back." Sky finally said.
Warriors nodded, reluctantly letting him take the small hero from his arms. The elder wrapped him in his sailcloth, his face immeasurably fond. Four's finger twitched, but he made no further movement.
They headed for the ship, Warriors trying his hardest to press down the world-ending dread thrashing in his stomach.
Waking up was a struggle.
His eyes—though technically their eyes, now—felt as though they were weighed down by concrete. His limbs were leaden and unfamiliar, too little and too many appendages tingling as he got used to the sensation of being one again. It had been a long time since he'd woken up alone.
He turned their head to the side and the body followed, nearly falling off of the bed with how light it was. Green scrambled for the covers—huh, they had opposable thumbs now, that was nice—clenching his fists in the bedsheets. He lay on his side for a moment and felt the host's narrow chest rise and fall. This was certainty better than the gleeok, even if they only had one head to share now. He placed on hand over his abdomen, feeling the pointy ribs jutting out from his sides and pressing down on the knotted muscles of his stomach. They were softened by a barely-there layer of fat. Too little fat, Violet provided. Ribs weren't meant to stick out—at least not in humanoids. They ought to fix that.
His vision was weirdly obstructed, and upon raising his hand to his face—so so small! So elegant and detailed, he hardly knew something so tiny could function—felt something rough covering his left eye.
Green longed for a mirror. It would be nice to see what they looked like. He'd only gotten a brief glimpse of their host before latching onto him. All he'd been able to register was sleek hair and too many colours before they were one.
"Oh, you're up."
Green looked over. A boy, no, a man, was standing in the doorway. Downy blone hair fell over his brow, almost covering the mark of the goddess engraved in his forehead. Fear sparked in Red's chest and he shrunk back. It was too late to pretend to be asleep, not that he even knew how to do that. Hylians couldn't sleep so differently to a gleeok, right?
"How are you feeling? Cap gave you some pretty heavy sedatives." His gaze softened and he moved closer to him. Oh, he was big. They hadn't met someone bigger than them in ages. "Do you have any numbness? Tingling?"
"No." This language felt heavy and inelegant on his tongue. He missed the Heart so badly it hurt. Was he meant to know who this guy was? There was a tug in his gut, a surge of recognition that he couldn't place.
"Now," he seemed to loom above him, blocking out the harsh lights of the room he was in. His expression was kind, though, and the gentle curve of his lips set Red at ease. "Do you know who I am?"
"You're…" Red's mouth hung ajar, waiting for the muscle memory to kick in. It never did and he was left staring dumbly.
The man shut his eyes briefly, exhaling through his nose. "Okay." When he opened them again they were colder. "You're not Four."
"Four?" Vio would have found some irony in that name, but Red was too busy trying to keep his heart from falling out of his mouth.
"Your host." He spat the word out. Red was suddenly very aware of the sword strapped to his back. "Don't think I know what you are. What you do."
"Are you going to tell me who you are?" Blue tested, cringing as the (older? He thinks? Short-lived creatures always tripped him up.) man's gaze sharpened.
"What, so you can relay that information to your master? No way." He sat down heavily, still keeping his hand hovering over the hilt of his sword. "Listen," his voice was a little less harsh now. Not kind so much as diplomatic. "I'm sure you just want some place to stay. We did kill your original host, after all." Irritation twinged in Blue's—Four's Vio's Red's—chest. Was this guy trying to bargain with him? They held all the cards here. This dude couldn't kill them without killing…Four.
The older man continued. "I'm just asking you to let us check in on him a bit. We'll be quick. We just want to talk to him. Make sure he's alright."
Blue prodded in the back of his mind. Dull grey stirred, confused and scared and shivering with a pain the rest of them hadn't registered.
There was a wash of violent. A warning. You were never meant to let the host get back in control. It was a one way ticket to getting shot out of the airlock.
Vio shook his head. Sky winced at the movement. Something soft and sad that none of them could place buzzed in their chest. "We can't let you do that. He might just end up hurting himself." That was a sort of lie, one Vaati wouldn't appreciate, but this far from the Heart planet he couldn't bring himself to care.
Where were they, anyway? If the pitch black outside meant anything they were most likely in space. That was bad. Nowhere to run.
The dissapointment in the man's face was quickly replaced with quiet anger. His brows pinched together, his jaw tightening. "Fine. But at least let us do a physical examination. We need to make sure you haven't messed him up too bad." His teeth clacked together with every grit out word. Click clack.
Vio nodded, even as Red squirmed at the prospect. The older boy got up without another word and left, his cape swishing in time with his steps.