Sometimes the portals opened beside the Heroes, inviting them to travel through time and space at their leisure. Other times, they came out of nowhere, sucking them all through before they could even react. This time, unfortunately, it was the later. One moment, the eight of them were travelling through a forest in Twilight's time, the next moment, they were tripping and falling on top of one another in an open field. 

"Din-dang-damnit!" Legend cursed after he had faceplanted right into the mud. His poor luck hadn't quite run out yet though, because in the moment following, a child fell right onto him and almost made his head go right back in the mud again.

"Whoops, sorry!" Wind, chuckled as he quickly got up from the cursing teen. He brushed himself off before offering Legend a hand.

"Whatever." He dismissed, getting up without the help of the other. He tried his best to blindly wipe the mud off of him. (Seriously, out of everyone, why did it have to be him?)

"Everyone alright?" Time asked as he helped up the smallest member of the group, who had also fallen to the ground.

"I'll be alright." Four assured as he rolled his shoulder. He would be sore with that kind of landing, but he had landed much worse before, during the heat of battle no less.

"I landed fine." Twilight assured, thankfully having landed on his feet. "Wars? Sky?" He looked over to the remaining two Heroes, the former of which had found himself tangled in the branches of a tree. The latter was doing what he could to help him out.

"Not the worst landing we've had." Wars only shook his head as he dropped down. Despite his words, he couldn't help but glare at a stray stick that had chosen to stick to his sleeve rather than the tree it had just been attached to. Annoying that they couldn't have just gone through as though they were merely walking, each one ending up on their feet. But what he said was true; this wasn't nearly the worst landing they had.

"Just whose era is this, anyway?" Legend asked, having had finished wiping off the mud mostly off of himself. The first thing he had noticed after dealing with all that yuck was the sight of far away islands in the sky. "Is it yours, Sky?"

"No, I don't think so." Sky shook his head as he stared up at the otherwise clear blue horizon. As the group stared on, a chunk of something from these heavens noticeably began to grow larger.

"Wait— is that thing—??" Four began.

"Everyone run!!" Wind shouted before the group scrambled away from one another, just in time for the giant piece of rock to fall to the surface where they previously had been standing the moment prior.

"Nope, this is definitely not my era." Sky confirmed. "Does anyone have things falling from the sky?" He looked from person to person, but each one shook their head.

"Must be a new era, then." Time summarized. "Or something is very seriously wrong in one of ours."

"Great. Just great. Because eight wasn't enough apparently..." Legend only sighed, his eyes scanning over their unfamiliar surroundings. But as his eyes registered an even more absurd sight behind them all, he nearly froze in place, his eyes widening. "Uh, guys? Is that--?" He swallowed, unable to finish as he pointed at what he saw.

"Hyrule Castle?" Came Roolie's almost whisper. It was a harrowing sight-- most of the building had been completely uprooted from the ground, floating on a sky island. Even from where they stood, they could see how thick, stickly waves of red and black waves of gloom oozed from the uprooted ground. It wafted in the air surrounding it, encasing the castle further. Pieces of the castle were visibly broken off from where they were, miles away, and as they all starred, another piece cracked right off.

"Why is it like that?" Four asked, tilting his head. The light that caught his eyes shone green. A twitch of his fingers, and for a moment, they appeared more red for a brief moment.

"That can't be good, can it?" Wind asked in turn, nervously chuckling.

"How--" Sky swallowed among all of the confused and frantic voices of the others. One look at his face, and Legend could see that he was as pale as a ghost. Not good. He took a step toward him, but Wars was faster, moving the man to sit down.

"Breathe with me," He instructed, taking exaggeratedly loud breaths for the Chosen Hero. "In.... and out.... in... and out..." Without realizing, Legend had found himself joining in on the exercise, and he began to find his own footing back again. The rest of them must have done the same, because the swirling voices of eight heroes slowed into only the Captain's.

"Right... everyone, if I could have your attention." Time spoke up, as soon as it was clear that Sky (or anyone else, for that matter) was not going to faint out of the shock they had been greeted with. "I know you all have questions-- as do I, but we should act quickly. See that settlement below the castle?" Indeed, he pointed at a wooden framework on the plain towards the castle. It was not nearly as eye-catching as a giant, floating castle but if there were buildings there, that would almost certainly they were bound to find someone there. "Let's head that way. Hopefully we can get much needed information and if we're lucky-- restock on supplies." The group all agreed, and so, they headed out North, towards the group of wooden buildings and the floating castle in the sky.

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What they had hoped to be a small town or village was, in fact, not. It was nothing more than a large husk, a fort in the center of what should have been a bustling Castle Town. Instead, the overgrown grass covered the remnants of buildings that used to be there. The sight set an even worse sinking feeling in each one of their chests, but they kept on, telling themselves that they would have answers soon.

Walking around the structure, they found a large gate that was left open. In front of it was a single man, wearing everyday clothing with a rusted helmet and -- was that a rake in his hand he was holding as if it were a weapon? As the eight Heros walked up, he straightened up. "Welcome to Lookout Landing. Say, that's some fine gear you all have... where did you manage to get all that? In such high quality, too..." His eyes narrowed, almost suspiciously.

"I'm a blacksmith." Four volunteered, raisin his hand. Still, the man didn't seem so convinced for some reason. Thankfully, he seemed to have shrugged it off.

"Well, however you managed to, I'm glad for it. It's hard to come by such good weapons after the Upheaval." he gestured to his rake, giving it a shake with a chuckle.

"The... Upheaval?" Legend asked as he tilted his head.

"That's what everyone's calling this now. You know-- the floating castle, islands in the sky, geoglyphs, gloom, the Depths; all the weird stuff that's been happening this last month."

The Chain all exchanged glances, trying but failing to mask their surprise from the man. After a bit of an awkward pause, Time cleared his throat. "Well in any case, we came here to look for a man named Link."

The man grinned. "Perfect! Here, I'll lead you to the task force." And before they could question it, the group found themselves walking in through the gates.

The area was a wide open courtyard, hastily built buildings within the inner walls. It looked more like a temporary place rather than a settlement that had been around for some time. "You can call me Burwar. I'm going to introduce you to Purah — she's the head of this operation." The man greeted, not looking back as he walked along the edges of the area. He led them all to a set of stairs.

"Er— what operation, exactly?" Sky asked from the back of the group. He was the last to go up the steps, frowning as they creaked under his weight. This too had been rather hastily built. He hesitated before going up the rest, hoping that it could hold all nine of them at the same time. Thankfully, despite the bending and creaking, it did. They all reached the landing at the top, which acted as a deck for a building with a hatch roof that seemed much more put together than the rest of the area.

Along the railing, a Sheikah woman with white hair gazed up at the castle to the North.

"Purah." Burwar hummed, causing the woman to turn. "I've got some new recruits."

The woman's red eyes lit up as she smiled. "Perfect! We could use all the help we can get." She took a few moments to study the newcomers. "Tell me— how well do you fight against monsters? You might just be what the Monster Control Crew needs."

It was Time who took the lead for the group. "We are pretty good at standing our ground, and we're happy to help, but... we're actually looking for a man named Link. Do you know where he might be?"

Something about his words made Purah furl her brows. "Looking for Link...?" She muttered under her breath in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"We're his long lost cousins!" Wind exclaimed before anyone could stop him, jumping up and raising his hand to gain attention. "We came for a family reunion!"

Purah tilted her head as she hummed. "Is that so..." she shook her head as she turned towards the building. "Then come with me."

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Inside, the building wasn't all that large, just big enough for the eight heroes and Purah to move around without tripping over each other. She sat them at a table before serving them some tea. Once she had poured some for everyone, she two sat down and served herself. "So you're Link's cousins?" She asked.

"Yeah!" Wind nodded excitedly.

"And when was the last time you saw him?" Purah asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

Sky found himself flushing as he spoke up. "Well gosh, it's been... what? A decade maybe?" It was a safe answer— it wouldn't be far fetched for someone to not speak of someone who rarely visited. If this Hero was a teen or early twenties like most of them, they may have even forgotten about them.  A plausible story.

But Purah's face said otherwise as she theatrically put down her cup a bit too roughly, causing it to make a loud sound. "Tell me, who are you, really." It wasn't a question, it was a command. "Because Link has no family, and he certainly had no visitors ten years ago. Not to mention, most if not all of the kingdom has surely heard that he is nowhere to be found. Plus with such..." She studied Time's armor and sword with careful consideration. She cleared her throat as she closed her eyes. "metal in such prime condition, you certainly are hiding something."

Time found himself glancing at everyone else. He knew that they didn't usually open up about who they were, if for no other reason that it was simply an unbelievable story. If it were someone who seemed to reincarnate with them, like Impa, then maybe. Otherwise, they only revealed themselves if the resident Link decided to, or they found themselves needing to. He glanced over at Wars in particular, who gave a small nod.

"You're right... we did lie." Time admitted, looking back at Purah's annoyed face. "It is a bit of an unbelievable story, but... the truth is, my name is Link. I'm not your Link, though; and neither are they." He hesitated, watching as the woman's expression turned into one of distrusting confusion. At the same time though, she did not try to call them liars just yet. That was okay; they could work with that. Most people who heard them didn't believe them at first; not unless it was one of their close friends. 

Wars picked up where he had left off. "You see, we are all Heroes. We -- Link-- have been reincarnated over and over, along with Princess Zelda and Ganondorf. In every era, we work together with the Princess to prevent evil from consuming Hyrule. But now, there is a new threat. One that has somehow entered all of eras at once, strengthening monsters and causing all kinds of chaos. As a result, we were summoned from all different points throughout time and space and gathered together. The Goddess opens portals for us to change eras and help prevent monsters from getting out of hand. We... are still lacking a lot details ourselves, but we believe we were sent here to recruit another Link-- your Link-- to our Chain." He summarized. 

Purah frowned as she reflected on all of this, silently staring down at the table as she dwelled on this new information. 

"I know it's a lot to take in." Sky assured, holding his hands out in front of him in reassurance. "And-- it's okay if you don't believe us, either. I can still hardly believe it myself. But it's the honest truth." He chuckled almost nervously. 

Purah's red eyes rose to peer into the Chosen Hero's blue pupils. Her frown deepened as she pointed her fan at him. "Tell me," She began. "What is that cape you're wearing? Where do you come from, Mister.... er, Link?" 

Sky looked back at his sailcloth, almost as if to make sure that was what she was talking about. It seemed rather random to bring up at this exact moment, but he didn't comment on it. "We go by our Hero titles. Mine is the Chosen Hero, the Hero of the Sky. So call me Sky." He grinned as he looked back at her. "My 'cape' is actually something called a sailcloth. You see, I'm from a place called Skyloft -- a giant island in the sky kind of like the ones that are above your own clouds. We have these birds called loftwings, which allow us to go from island to island, and the sailcloth lets me fall from high places while breaking my fall." He summarized, having to explain this several times already. 

"And how do you get one of these... sailcloths?" Purah asked in turn, to which Sky grinned.

"When you're training to become a knight, you partake in something called a Wing Ceremony. It's a competition and the winner is given one from a maiden that has taken the role of the goddess. The goddess bestowed one to her Hero before me; it's a tradition." Sky replied, feeling as his turned slightly pink at the memory. In that moment, Sun really had looked beautiful. His heart ached at the realization of how much time had passed since he had last seen her. He took a breath, trying to put aside those feelings for later, as he looked back at Purah. 

The woman hummed, covering part of her mouth with her fan. "If that's the case... then I believe you all." she nodded to herself. Immediately, the tension eased out of the room. 

Wind stood up from his seat in excitement. "Wait, really?!" He exclaimed, smiling wide. Purah nodded in assurance.

"The  Zonai Survey Team -- that is, a group of researchers, uncovered some information about lofts in the sky as well as sail cloths bestowed by the goddess. The information doesn't quite match up, but that could easily be excused as messy accounts and mistranslations." Purah excused with a dismissive wave of her fan. "In any case, a lot of odd things have been happening around here anyway -- absurd things I hadn't thought possible. I struggle to say that this is the farthest stretch of them all."

"You mean the floating castle and the falling rocks?" Legend guessed. "One almost crushed us on the way here." 

Purah nodded. "That is certainly part of it, yes... But I'm afraid there's something much more sinister going on here. You see, it all started when all these islands came down from the sky. After which, we began uncovering ancient Zonai ruins. The ground had begun splitting, and... Princess Zelda insisted that she look into the cracks that were forming under the castle herself. She took Link and... well, soon after they left, that's when things really got weird."

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(AN:) Do I know where I'm going with this? The answer of course, is no. I never know these things. And this is my first time taking on so many characters at once. However, it was a plot bunny I just couldn't resist. I felt like this chapter has a lot of exposition, but hopefully things will settle down into some comfy storytelling soon. In any case, thanks for giving it a chance! <3