Title: grief, in the way of Violet Link
Fandom: The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (Akira Himekawa manga)
Rating: PG-13 / Teen
Length: 4,482 words
Content notes: Major character death, and spoilers of the last three chapters of the aformentioned source. Also, Blue Link and Violet Link have potty mouths in some sections. Violet Link/Shadow Link implied.
Author notes: Had to basically put this junk in the editor twice over due to Firefox being a jerk, but otherwise here it is! My take on the prompt with hurt/comfort. I hope tjos is good reading. (Also my silly self posted this to MY journal first instead of here! Argh.)
Summary: Vio grieves Shadow Link's shattering so hard he falls apart, and so the other parts of the Four Sword and Princess Zelda step in to help, in their own ways.

--

For once, the blonde headed teen is at a loss for words. It is as if time has stopped. One second, he was still here, but now..

Shadow Link was..

Vio tries not to break down in front of the others so openly as the group approaches the Sanctuary again, but his heart is extremely heavy. Heavier than the trickery he committed in the time before fighting Vaati and Ganon. He doesn’t dare acknowledge inside what happened, not yet.

I don’t want to part from them or him, he thinks sadly with a tear rolling down his face, hearing Perci, the blue fourth, calming Red down.

“We’re not gonna be apart, we’re just becoming one person again! So quit crying, okay?”

Vio lifts his sword, trying not to break apart. Trying not to think of the Dark Mirror’s sparking, fading shards miles away from the Sanctuary. Vio pleads with Hylia not to let him forget his second best friend.

“..I won’t forget this,” he softly affirms, closing his eyes. “I hope none of us do.”

Green, by his side, nods. “Thanks for everything.. I hope we can meet again.”

Green puts his sword up, as do Red and Perci, but..

Nothing happens.


“Huuuh?” Green tilts his head.

“The hell? Why aren’t we coming back together?” Perci questions, startled and looking around. “Do we need.. like.. more Force Gems? Did our swords break?”

Zelda, who accompanied the four teens herself, kneels down close to the Sanctuary's prayer box, in commemoration of the nearby village's founder. “Hmmm.. Violet, you know a little bit of written Picori language, don’t you? There’s a small script written on the pedestal.”

Vio sheaths his sword part and crouches down with Zelda, blinking to force the tears to stop blurring his sight. The Picori language, scratchy as it is, lines up at last.

“..If one part has unheeded feelings, the four cannot be one..” he translates, his voice still choked up somewhat.

Perci looks equal parts irritated and concerned, sheathing his sword part too. “Oh gods damn it, are you kidding me? So we’re stuck like this?”

“At least until one of you deals with whatever bad feeling you have,” Zelda says, shaking her head and frowning while standing back up. “Maybe you ought to stay at the castle until then.. There’s more.”

Vio sighs and realizes the princess is right. Gingerly he brushes away the last of the rust on the placard, his lips still trembling.

“The four will go back together soon as the emotions are healed. The pedestal will be waiting..”


Red sighs, sheathing his sword, and he sniffles, having cried himself previously.
“I still don’t wanna be together again, I guess.. I’m still sad about what happened earlier.”


Vio turns away from everyone, ready to sleep for a century or to bawl his eyes out for the rest of time.. He can’t decide between either option. All the teenager can think to do in his upset shock is to trudge back to the castle behind everyone else, the adrenaline from the fighting beginning to evaporate.

–

Zelda notices Vio’s behavior first, past the first week. Though the other Link fourths - brothers, Vio calls them collectively - do manage their grief, she sees Vio is having trouble. He withdraws more than Green says is normal, and she notices him looking at a lot of the castle’s reflective surfaces with hope and fear.

Considering her personal experience with Shadow Link, she figures Vio to be hoping he survived the Dark Mirror’s shattering somehow.

He seems, too, to be praying an amount the older Knights of Hyrule mutter to be excessive and concerning. Though, the young Princess doesn’t dare listen in, not wishing to alienate the embodied intelligence of her childhood friend.

At least, not until the Links’ father approaches her one day in the third week, in about the same manner he did the day Shadow Link forced the release of Vaati’s soul. His face is just as exhausted, but the irritation is replaced with twice the concern as before.

“I just know he will listen to your words, Princess Zelda..” Sir Mandragora speaks, his eyes looking pleadingly toward her. “Vio has been acting unusually, the other boys are saying. His sleep is all out of whack and he seems to be adamant they not go out to the castle town.”

Zelda’s heart sinks at this, and she puts a hand on her necklace. “I will speak to him, I promise you. But know that it looks as if he is grieving harder than his brothers..”

“I understand. I just.. I wish for him to be well soon.” The knight sighs, the summer wind blowing across the open throne room.

The Hylian princess stands up from the smaller throne her father built for her, clasping her hands across her chest.

“Violet must work out such things at his own pace.. But knowing he has your support may ease the pain and help him process what has happened. Someone he was close to died in the fight against Vaati and Ganon.”

The Knight grimaces, pursing his lips as if thinking of something just as bad. “..Link never has taken grief well.”

“..Right.. You refer to Lady Mandragora,” she recalls sadly, now remembering Link's similar reaction when his mother had passed from illness. “Then.. I promise to do my best to support him. I think he is in the royal shrine at the moment..”

Sir Mandragora goes off, and Zelda walks a few rooms down the hall until she hears the sound of the fountain in the shrine itself. Faintly, she hears Vio again, his mumbles sounding even more exhausted than she remembered earlier - she fears the fellow teenager has been awake for a longer time than is healthy.

Zelda carefully pokes her head into the shrine for a moment, her heart feeling just as shattered as Vio’s must feel when she hears the prayer in a clearer sense.

“Lady Hylia.. I’m sorry I’ve been here so long. It is hard trying not to talk about him. It really is hard. I hope you don’t mind it. I can’t tell the others but.. I don’t want them to die. I don’t want to die either. And I know you couldn’t have let him die.. So where is he?”

Vio’s normally calm hair is ever so slightly split, his personal grooming routine likely interrupted by his current struggle. His face is slightly sunken in somehow, heavy eyebags right under his eyes.

Zelda doesn’t wish to interrupt, but ultimately she decides to, rapping her gloved knuckles on her left hand against the door to Hylia’s shrine. Vio startles, and turns..

“Zelda? I.. I’m sorry, did you need the shrine?”

“Actually..” She frowns. “I was wondering if you wanted something to eat.. I have not had my lunch yet and your brothers are busy. Please?”

“..O.. okay, I can do so.” Vio holds back a yawn visibly, looking ready to drop dead, but he still gets up, clearly being cautious due to dizziness.

“Anything you wish for in particular?”

Vio shakes his head, and he grimaces as if regretting doing so. “As long as it does not have cheese.. Can’t stand cheese..”

Zelda takes him by the arm, feeling even more worried when she notices how thin Vio feels overall, not quite fitting his tunic anymore. The cheese, she strongly recalls, was something he and Shadow Link ate together..

Regardless, Vio actively grips on, like he would if he were Link in his entirety, and Zelda leads him to the royal dining hall with slow steps.

–

Perci gets more annoyed by the second month with Vio’s behavior, after he himself has started to come to terms with Shadow Link’s apparent passing. The usually intelligent, calm teenager has started to act out, an unusual move considering Vio normally has excellent emotional control.

Perci has been yelled at thrice as much as before.. Vio has sent Red crying.. and even Zelda and Green have seen some of the new, unnatural temper. Hence, the irritation Perci has as he gives up on sleep and flips over from having had his pillow over his head.

Right now though, the purple bearing Link is in the training yard at a time that keeps Perci awake, having essentially a guest room right next to said yard.

Grumbling faintly, Perci exits his very blue bed and slips on his slippers, unsurprised that Green and Red are still dead asleep in their own beds. Slowly, he approaches the open window, past the weird blinds Red hung the other day.. He startles at what he sees, and what the Hylian sees is Vio, facing off with a handmade effigy of Vaati in his bedclothes.

Vio’s new personal sword is drawn, the obsidian-steel sword he made in Shadow Link’s memory with the help of Green, and he raises it above his head.

“Why.. Why did you tie him to that Hylia forsaken mirror, you bastard..!”

The purple wearing Link begins slashing at the fake Vaati, and when this isn’t enough, Vio eventually just pounces on the fake Vaati, opting to punch the thing to exorcise his anger.

“Why did you..!! Why?! I would have died if it meant he could stay! WHY WAS IT HIM THAT HAD TO DIE WITH YOU?!”

Perci backs off from the open window when he sees Vio’s hands begin to be bloody from splintering the wood under the paint and cloth and metal. Shortly after he has backed away to the shared dresser, he hears Vio begin to sob, still angry. The Vaati effigy is likely falling apart from how Vio kicks it as he stands back up.

Oh fuck, Perci remarks internally. ..Maybe I better get him some first aid stuff..

Normally, the wrapping bandages and potions made for healing hand wounds are things Vio reserves for Perci. Perci could admit as such any other time, due to his enjoyment of casual boxing with the younger Knight recruits.

Yet.. Perci has been seeing signs of overwork in Vio too, since he stopped praying to Hylia as much. Recklessness is not normal for his normally uptight brother, to the point of cuts all over his hands or bruises from too many hits from a Moblin, taken from numerous sought battles.

It is almost like part of Vio has regressed to the lonely, serious Link they had started out as, the type to isolate and fester.

He waits until Vio re-enters the shared room, clearing his throat to catch his brother’s attention.


“..Perci. Did I wake you?” Vio asks, still somewhat tense and upset. Perci gestures for Vio to go over to him, and he forces his brother to sit. “Perci?”

“Shaddup, they’re still asleep somehow.” Perci begins to treat Vio’s cut hands swiftly and with care, with Vio growling at him whenever the blue bearing Link encounters a splinter. “Will you stop growling? I’m trying to help.”

Perci finishes up by wrapping and disinfecting, and he crosses his arms, still irritated. “What the fuck was that about?”

“Specify what you’re referring to. You have been irritated with me since day one,” Vio says, growling again, and Perci can see tears shimmer in his eyes.

“This shit!” He stands up and gestures outside to Vio’s broken, stained handiwork. “Staying up all night to beat shit black and blue, and taking on all that work by yourself! That’s not healthy, dumbass!”

Vio glares, and he swings at Perci’s face.. but his left hand shakes, the blow not reaching Perci’s right cheek as intended. It stops just half an inch beforehand, really.

“Violet, come on..” Perci scoots his brother’s hand away from his face. “Why the fuck are you so pissed off?”


Vio sticks his hands in his hair, still very much frustrated.

“It’s because I could not do anything to Vaati to fix it!”

Perci blinks, his stomach lurching at Vio’s tone.. Guilt. The worst type of guilt.

The blue hatted Link remembers sometimes being that guilt, when Red was too sad to be it.

The guilt that comes with grief.

(“Why did Mama have to die, Dad?”)


“..Violet.. That Vaati guy was crafty, we couldn’t have known.”

Vio glares again, putting his hurt hands to his chest. “I did fucking know and I still didn’t stop Shadow!”

He looks incredulously at Vio, both for reasons of being unused to the calmer Link being angry and because of Vio’s blunt honesty.

It was because of Shadow all along, wasn’t it?

The purple bearing Link begins to sob slightly, gripping his own arms so tightly that Perci goes and tries to pry Vio’s fingers apart.

“Perci.. Why was it him? Why did Hylia let this happen?!”

Perci tries again to keep his brother from hurting himself. “Vio, I said to cut it out with the yelling! Shh!”

Vio practically collapses face first into Perci’s comforter, his muffled sobbing mostly silenced.

“It hurts, brother.. It hurts! It isn’t fair.. Why did it have to be Shadow?!”

He sighs, slightly wishing Red was actually awake, or even Green, seeing as both of them actually deal with emotions in a healthy manner. Still, he scoots closer to Vio and doesn’t touch Vio again, only sitting more comfortably to try and be an understanding presence.

“Shit’s just unfair sometimes,” Perci whispers, slumping. “Sometimes nobody can do shit about it but be pissed off and sad. You told me that before, when we were gonna put the Four Sword back.”

Vio weeps more sadly than angrily as Perci says that, and Perci groans inwardly, really wishing he had the proper comfort words for the situation.

–

Green can tell Vio has shifted slightly again, his words now more.. Well, the leading Link, with the majority of the courage, gut reasoning and justice, can't really put a proper word to his brother’s mood this time.

There’s a multitude of things Vio mumbles as he does something different, something to fix things, he can only guess.

“If I were to pray in the mirror, could you finally give him back to us?”

“Is he wanting me to spill the blood of mirror creatures? How am I to do so when it is broken?”

“If you do bring him back.. I won’t ever upset Perci again… I’ll do anything for you if you answer me, Hylia.. please..”


Like in the first month, Vio looks exhausted, though he has instead taken to reading books about breaking curses, reviving the dead and converting darkness to light, among other equally worrying topics. So, Green figures the Four Sword still won’t be able to put the quartet back to one Link. It has been at least two months now, and now it seems Vio is overworking himself in a mental way rather than a physical way.

One different day, Green walks into the royal library to try to nudge Vio into spending a day doing something to distract from the grief. Vio is doing something different, but it is something Green is surprised to see.


It is an old punishment Green recalls from school that he absolutely could not focus entirely on, copying a dictionary and handwriting it. Green is surprised Vio has been at it for so long, but what stuns him more is the little asterisks occasionally peppering the long scroll.

“Vio? Can I ask you something?”

Vio’s head turns slightly toward Green’s gaze, with the purple bearing Link giving a questioning expression in response.

“I wanted to go to town today and get some stuff from the bakery there. Do you wanna come with me?”

Vio frowns slightly more, putting his pen down and putting a hand to his neck, as if it were stiff. “..Okay.”

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, but-”

Vio stands, soundly interrupting Green, and he doesn’t take his book or quill with him.

“If it is okay, I’d like to go. I.. I would like some cheesecake.”

Green smiles slightly, relaxing his pose. “Whatever you’d like, Vio. Let’s go!”


Green has to hold Vio’s hand, to keep his brother from getting distracted and running off to the shrine in town. Vio still is wearing darker mourning clothes like his cloak, but he at least does try to make an effort not to run off, holding Green’s hand tightly.

In this sense, Green is relieved, but he is still worried while ordering the bevy of sweets required to feed him and his brothers.

“Hi, Malo, I’m back for the weekly sweets. Princess Zelda gave me a blank check this time.”

The shorter Hylian nods. “What will it be this time?”

Vio is glancing at the glass case full of baked goods, most chiefly the tarts, pies and cheesecakes. Green leans over gently.

“Anything you really, really want just for you?”

“Hm.” Vio looks slightly embarrassed, the first time in a while that Green has seen such a look on his brother’s face. But still, Vio looks thoughtful after a second. “Sorry for being a.. a needy person but.. Could I ask for a custom cheesecake?”

Malo’s face softens, and they smile toward Green.

“How about that cheesecake is on the house. Looks like your brother there needs it.”

“Ehh?!” Green drops the bag of Rupees Zelda gave him, surprised.

“Just let me know the flavors,” Malo cheerfully says, and Vio’s hand, still being held, begins growing slick with nervousness.

“..Are raspberries still in season? I.. want to ask for raspberry chocolate.”

Malo nods, and she puts this down in writing on a notebook. “Still want the crust to be normal crust? Or chocolate?”

“Chocolate, please..” Vio stares at his shoes uncharacteristically, as if ashamed of even daring to ask. Green squeezes Vio’s hand, and continues with his order.

“Er, aside from that, Malo, I’m gonna have the orange cupcakes again, about.. six for me. Perci wants the chocolate Danishes and Red is asking again if you have any tea loaves this time.” Green takes a small breath, after talking so much at once.

Malo jots everything down once more, before clicking her pen at Vio. “Still want your usual cinnamon rolls?”

Vio shakes his head quickly, his eyes having a dizzied look again, and Green counts out the needed Rupees for everything else. Malo takes the money and claps their hands.

“I’ve got it! I’ll box up the rest of your order real fast, and then I can bake you that custom cheesecake. And.. Vio, I do hope you feel better soon.”

He nods a little, and Green takes Vio over to one of the tables to sit, also sitting down. “Oof.. Malo still has to fix these darn chairs.”

Vio puts his head lower, almost slouching over on the table, doing weird origami with some of the napkins. Green recognizes a Pico Bloom shape, a sword shaped like the Dark Four Sword Replica that Vio made, and some smaller, less complicated fruit shapes.

“Chocolate and raspberry, huh? Sounds kinda sour..”

“Shadow loved sour things,” Vio replies, not smiling but not looking like he is about to cry, either. “Cheesecake was one of the first things we ate together..”

Green’s own smile lowers slightly, and he sighs. “Vio.. I’m really sorry I haven’t talked about him as much. It’s been an awfully complicated two months.”

“I still feel so much.. guilt over what happened at the Tower of Winds.” Vio shuts his eyes, in the midst of making an origami shape that looks sort of like a slimmer Shadow Link, down to the curly hat. “No matter how many times anyone says so, I still feel responsible for his decision that day. I just wish things were different.”

“I know, Vio.. I know.” Green holds out a hand to Green over the table. “It hurts, doesn’t it? But you aren’t responsible, brother. And we already dealt with the main person who is.”

Vio sheds a few tears, suddenly, and he grips Green’s hand mournfully, nodding slowly.

“If only my heart would catch up..”

“Hey now, don’t say that.” Green takes his other hand and pats Vio’s hand. “You can’t rush grief. Say it with me.”

Vio looks embarrassed again, his gaze snapping up to look at the window instead.

“Say it, Vio. Say it..”

“Green, you are being ridiculous.” Vio stares at his hand. “...I cannot rush grief.”

Green nods, and lets go of Vio just in time for Malo to arrive with the boxed up sweets, placing them on the table carefully.

“Okay, I’ll be back with the cheesecake. It’s still baking, Link.”

“Thanks, Malo!” Green turns back to Vio, who has a weak smile now. Green grins back, and he decides to dig in early, taking out an orange cupcake happily. “Hey, Vio, do you wanna eat one of the cupcakes while we wait?”

“No, I just want to eat my cheesecake.. The orange cupcakes are too sweet for me anyway.”

Green laughs, and bites into his cupcake while Vio laughs slightly too.

–

At the start of Vio’s grief, Red had put down a memorial in Shadow Link’s name outside Kakariko Village, Link's childhood home. That was five months before now, and not much had changed all that much with the memorial or the whole Four Sword situation. Red came and checked it every now and then as Vio worked through things, but one morning is a surprise to him..

It had been the very, very start of April when they came together.. And at the end of April once their journey had initially ended. Now, it is the end of September, and the summer temperatures in Central Hyrule are cooled when Vio approaches him.

“Red, I have a.. request of sorts..” Vio unhooks the scabbard of his sword replica from his side nervously, his personality offset by the previous depressive state he’d had in the summer. His eyes are seemingly just the same as ever now - sharp, intelligent, thoughtful. “Do you have a moment?”

Red’s currently in the middle of magic training, but he stops to listen, hanging his Fire Rod up.

“Sure.. What’s up, Vio?”  he asks in his soft voice, being the deceptively softer Link fourth, and definitely the most emotionally available. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong - not.. not specifically wrong at the moment. The royal doctor has been working with me to.. work through things.. No, I have a favor to ask.” Vio holds the obsidian-steel blade carefully, like it is glass. “Perci says you prepared Shadow a grave.. I want to put this sword there.. I think.. I am prepared to face that shadow now.”

“You sure? I.. know the grief is still hurting you..” Red says sadly, frowning and putting a hand on Vio’s shoulder.

“I don’t think I can forget it, but.. I think the worst feelings are over. I.. need to turn and face it, right?”

Vio looks directly at Red, ignoring the mirror in the corner, and the red and pink bearing Link feels Vio’s acceptance is close. He goes out to the hallway, having Vio follow him.

“Okay.. I’ll tell Dad and we can go.”


Vio stands silently at the edge of the hill overlooking Kakariko, still holding the sword. Red stands behind, trying to give Vio some privacy.

The memorial itself is built with flowers. There are at least three different types, placed each for a message to communicate Shadow’s positive qualities.. His courage, his resilience, and his love.

Vio places down one more bundle, a Mandragora plant, and he speaks quietly, like he were merely in the library or trying to hide with someone.

“Shadow.. It has been some time since I prayed to your spirit directly, hm?” The purple wearing Link kneels, trying not to let his actual sword part slip off his back scabbard and removing his purple hat. “I must be honest.. I miss you, and some days, I resent you. But I still care about you too. I.. I realize now that I have had a part in it, but.. I didn’t have a part in your active choice.”

With care, Vio removes the Four Sword replica from its scabbard, and he stabs the business end into the soft earth. The tone of voice makes Red realize Vio’s real feelings, and he tears up slightly watching Vio’s mini funeral.

“I made this for you.. For your memory, I mean. You may have been my shadow, but now I face this memory like you faced me that day. I can’t stop the grief.. It will not leave me. Yet..” Gently, Vio kisses the gemstone on the hilt of the sword. “I will do my best to have the will to live on. Vio or not, I must at least try to have the courage to keep moving forward.”

The true Four Sword begins glowing faintly, both Red’s part and Vio’s part, and Red can hear Green and Perci running up the hill to join him and Vio, even while Vio finishes up his prayer..

“Well.. It looks like that is enough,” Vio softly says, standing back up on his own two feet. “Goodbye, Shadow. Perhaps one day we’ll meet in another era.”

–

The four siblings hug together when Green and Perci get up to the memorial. Despite Vio’s expectations, the Four Sword does not put them back into one Link, and it surprises Vio so much he starts laughing slightly.

“You OK, Vio?” Perci asks mid-hug, squished between Red and Green.

“I am unsure..” Vio admits, slightly teary-eyed, and he takes a breath to compensate for three other Links squeezing him. “Maybe the reunification needs to happen at the Sanctuary..?”

“Screw that,” Green huffs, crying slightly as well. “Zelda just said we can stay separated like this if we want.. And I want to!”

“You too?” asks Red softly, sounding just as surprised as Vio feels. Perci hums in agreement, nodding.

“I’d suppose I am.. not quite ready to be one again, no. I’d miss all of you too much,” Vio says, trying to keep the hug together. His voice gets slightly squeaky as more tears run down his face. “After all.. After all, I like having a family. You helped me stay with me throughout this. It would be rude for you to go NOW..”

“Ughhh, you’re being cheesy, Violet,” Perci groans, detaching from the hug.

Green starts laughing again, and the laughter becomes instantly infectious. So much so, that Red and Perci begin to lose it, holding their stomachs.

Vio wipes his tears away, grinning, and his heart feels lifted back up, even with the loss. Quietly, he turns back to the memorial, reading the words on the wooden sign Red placed.

(Shadow Link - Courageous Hero, Who Turned to Face the Light to Vanquish the Darkness
We miss you dearly. May you rest well in the Sacred Realm.)

He shakes his head of blonde hair slightly, and follows his brothers back down the hill.