Just Like Clockwork (a Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity fanfiction)

Chapter 1

Robbie snapped his fingers in front of Purah's face. "Hello? Is my genius partner there or not?"

"What?!" She jumped slightly, snapping back to reality. She looked around wildly to find Impa and Princess Zelda giving her worried looks.

Zelda was the first of the two to speak. "Purah? Are you quite alright?"

She waved a hand. "Of course. Sorry, Princess. Just got lost in thought."

Robbie turned back to Terrako, who was sitting cheerfully on the desk. "You seem to be doing that a lot as of late."

Purah shot him a dirty look before trying to regain her focus. "Anyway...what were you saying?"

Impa sighed, "What the Princess was trying to ask was how much longer do you think it will take to finish the updates on Terrako?"

"Oh. Don't you worry too much about that. If I remember correctly, it should take less than a week. He'll be back at your side before you even realize he's gone."

Zelda nodded slowly and turned to Link. "I believe you had something you wanted to show her as well?"

The knight looked a little surprised at first but stepped forward and held out his hand. On his palm rested a small, oddly shaped object. It looked somewhat like a cluster of gears that had been beaten out of shape. "I found this by Fort Hateno the other day."

Purah carefully took it from him, holding it up in the pale blue light. "Well this is strange. Robbie, look at this."

He instantly stopped what he was doing. "A mis-shaped gear?"

"Possible...strange. I've never seen something like this. We might have an anomaly on our hands," she nodded to Link. "We'll run some tests and see what we can find out about it." 

Link nodded, satisfied, and took his place behind the princess. The two groups exchanged a few more words before the Royals left the research lab.

Purah watched them leave, then turned to find Robbie studying the relic intently. "Okay. So what I was thinking was--"

"Don't tell me you have it figured out already."

He flashed her a cheeky grin. "Of course not. But I have some ideas. Given its design alone, I think it's safe to say it isn't meant for any machine we've uncovered. I mean, look at it."

She could agree with that. On studying it further, it appeared to be many small gears interwoven to form one large one. Whatever function it performed probably operated if all the gears turned at the same time. But when Robbie ran his thumb over the grooves, the gears remained stubbornly still. "Robbie, it looks broken."

"Never could've figured that one out." He replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Hey, you're not allowed to be sarcastic! That's more my job"

Terrako let out a curious chirp and Purah grabbed Robbie's wrist, forcing him to hold up the strange relic. "Any idea what this is?"

The little guardian let out a pleasant hum and spun on its base.

"It could be for Terrako?" Robbie suggested. "It's complex enough."

Purah took it from him and held it next to the guardian. "Possible, but it's much too big to leave any room for any of its other parts."

"So what are we thinking, then?"

"I think...I don't know yet. What I do know," she turned to him with a grin. "Is that we are holding a discovery for the new age."

He grinned. "And with Calamity Ganon sealed away, we can take our time figuring this out. What first?"

"It looks warped. We try to fix that. Perhaps then the gears will function correctly."

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Purah watched Robbie frustratedly drop the tool on the desk. Everyone else  had already gone home, but they were still there plugging away at it. Yet all day they worked on the gear Link fond, but to no avail. The base was still warped; the gears were still jammed.

He held his hands up in surrender. "I give up for today."

Purah glanced at the window, a sliver of moonlight peeking through. "It's really late. We'll simply continue tomorrow."

"Perfect, cause I'm going home," he headed to the door, then paused. "You should too."

"I will in a minute."

"Cherry."

She looked up at him. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that? You've been trying for six years now."

He smirked. "When are you just going to accept that's my nickname for you and learn to like it?" his smile faded. "Seriously. You need sleep."

"I promise I will go home in five minutes," she looked down at her paper, tapping her pencil on the desk. "I have to finish this report for the Princess."

He sighed. "Alright. I'm turned the other lights off though."

She nodded and quickly started writing, the lab growing steadily darker around her one patch of light. She was on the last sentence when "PURAH!"

She jumped. "WHAT?!"

"GOODNIGHT PURAH."

She sighed. "DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT. Goodnight!"

The door creaked open, shut, and she was alone.

Terrako let out a little beep and she smiled at him. "I guess I should go too, huh?"

A short woop and she laughed. "Alright, fine. Watch over the Princess' report for me. I'll see you in the morning, little friend."

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A/N: YAY I'm updating things!