One Last Wish

II

"Dead?!"

Twilight's voice was strained, raw. "There's no way, 'Roolie's too strong to die! He'd never leave us." Warriors gave him a grim look. "It's true. I found him this morning, knife in his back. You've already dealt with the scene, cornered it off and the likes. If it's anything like I think it is... Well, that kind of end is better avoided." Twi nodded. "I'll help. But, oh Hylia, how are we gonna tell Lege? And Sky? they'll be broken..."

~<0>~

"What?!" Legend looked completely devastated, his unnaturally pale face the picture of a small child who'd just been told his precious dog was hit by a car, except somehow worse. "Dead? 'Rule's dead?! He can't be dead, he just... He can't be! Tell me this is some kind of joke, this HAS to be a joke..."

Warriors shook his head; as much as Legend grated on his nerves, they were, and always had been very close. He hated seeing his best friend like this. He knew the Veteran been very fond of Hyrule, they all had. "I'm sorry Lege, I'm not joking. And I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news but... I don't think this was an accident."

Legend very nearly fainted, voice thin and strangled, like he was being throttled. "N-not an accident?!"

Warriors' arms itched to hug him, but he knew full well if he so much as tried, Legend would break his jaw. It made the Captain's war hardened heart hurt to see such a confident, prickly young adult so lost, reduced to stuttered tears. But he couldn't imagine Time, who seemed to lack emotions, would be very gentle about delivering the horrific, life-changing news, so he guessed it was better that he'd done it.

Twi, who'd leaning in the corner watching like a hawk, gave him a look that quite plainly said 'I'm not gonna intervene. He'd break me if I tried', and Wars returned it with a grateful look.

"Hyrule was murdered" Wars  said, placing a hand on Legend's shoulder, consequences be damned.

Legend collapsed to his knees, shaking. "M-mur-rdered?! MURDERED?! Who could EVER?! Who would DARE TO-"

"Hush." Twi cut in, deep scratchy voice strangely soothing. "We don' know yet, so don' go blindly accusin' people of somethin' they didn' do. That'd be bad. Anyway, Wars found him a couple hours ago, so we're still workin' out what to do."

"You... You found him?" The Veteran looked like a trauma patient, face pale, mismatched eyes wide with shock.

Wars winced at the emotionlessness in Lege's voice. "Ah, well... Yeah, I did. His door was ajar this morning, which is unlike him." 

"I already got to his home, closed it off, all the stuff. Ain't nobody bustin' in there now. Not even if ya wanted to" Twilight said, mouth a thin, severe line.

Warriors very nearly smacked him. Who in their right mind would just get up and decide to wander into a crime scene willingly?! Then he realised that stupid, brain-dead fools like Wild were walking around, and hastily revised that thought.

"How'd they get him?" Legend's voice was raspy from all his screaming, but somehow still sounded soft and sad. "How'd they... end... him?"

Wars looked at Twi, Twi looked at Wars. Both of them winced.

"Ah. Well, it was bound to come up at some point." Wars grimaced, perfect teeth imperfectly bright in the darkness of the moment. "He looks to have been stabbed in the ribs until he died of a collapsed lung"

Twi gave him That Look™. "You could've been a little more gentle there. Lege literally jus' lost his best friend"

Legend said nothing, silently trying his best not to cry. Judging by the small sniffles, it wasn't working very well.