A.N: Once again, a big thank you to my friends especially Rosie. Oh, and I still don't own either Soul Calibur, The Legend of Zelda or Resident Evil. And sorry for the lateness of this chapter

Chapter 10: Victory, Nirvana and Peace?

Siegfried's eyes narrowed as he turned to look at Cervantes again. Grey skin, white beard, red eyes and a pirate outfit. It was him alright.

"Link, I'll follow him and take care of him, you go on and I'll catch you up later, OK?" Siegfried whispered, his voice low and quiet, making him sound almost like a cat purring.

Link nodded his head and watched the German slip out from behind the crates and start to follow the pirate down the corridor. Unfortunately, Siegfried was wearing a full suit of armour and it was practically impossible to move quietly in a full set of armour, especially if your name was Siegfried Schtauffen. The Spanish piratewhipped around at the slight clink of metal, and saw Siegfried standing in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" the dead pirate growled menacingly.

Siegfried didn't answer. Instead he slipped Requiem out of its restraints on the back of his armour, and glared at the ghost in front of him. Cervantes smirked at the knight, this boy obviously had no idea who he was, had no idea that he still held a single shard of Soul Edge, and that it wanted to get back to the rest of its form. That was why he was helping Ganondorf; the Gerudo had said that in return for his deeds, he would help the ghost get Soul Edge back.

However, Cervantes' sword was acting strangely; it was seemingly drawn to the blonde, for some reason, almost as if the boy had a shard of Soul Edge. Cervantes' eyes widened slightly as he realised who was standing before him.

"Nightmare," Cervantes hissed "The great wielder of Soul Edge." He said 'great' sarcastically, as he was aware of what the legends of Soul Edge said:

'At one time the cursed sword was wielded by a master swordsman, then a pirate, and then at one time a pitiful youth'

"The pathetic child who took Soul Edge, in his insanity, to slaughter his father's murderer, only to realise, three short years later, that he was the murderer."

Siegfried's face darkened at Cervantes's taunting words, he knew his own story, and he didn't need to be told by someone else.

"Maybe, but you forget. I am the only person who was strong enough to break free from Soul Edge's grasp. Look at what happened to you when you wielded the sword, you died with it in hand. Your soul was unable to break away, controlled to such an extent that even when you died, you would only stop using it once the flesh rotted from your body. That doesn't say much for you now, does it?"

"Don't play games with me boy, I want Soul Edge and once Ganondorf has destroyed this pitiful world, I will get the sword!"

"That's what you think."

Cervantes seemed not to like Siegfried's answer, for he drew his swords, and settled into an attacking poise. Siegfried responded accordingly, by drawing his own sword, Requiem, and swinging it into position, in the narrow corridor, mindful of the lack of space around them.

"You think that you can defeat me, child?" Cervantes growled out, over emphasising the 'child'. Instead of answering, Siegfried walked calmly up to the dead pirate and looked at him for a moment and then reached behind him, to put his sword back into its clips that held his sword onto the back of his armour. Cervantes glowered at him, insulted by this boy who thought he was too much for him, the great Cervantes, to handle. Enraged, Cervantes raised his swords and darted towards Siegfried, with a furious battle cry. The blonde knight, however, failed to react at all, and instead merely stood calmly with his back to the pirate.

Link watched anxiously as Siegfried turned his back on Cervantes and stood with his eyes closed even when he heard Cervantes's battle cry. Link's eyes widened as Cervantes closed in on the blonde knight.

Siegfried waited patiently for Cervantes to get near to him. At the last second, he yanked Requiem out of its restraints, spun around with the blade almost vertical and then raised it up in the air above his head and swung it forwards. The flat of the massive blade slammed down onto Cervantes's chest and shoulder, as Cervantes began to bring his own blades down, whilst still in mid jump.

The pirate crashed into the floor gasping for breath that wasn't needed, eyes wide at the display of power and strength. Siegfried watched, a slight smirk on his face, as Cervantes struggled to his feet.

"Well, you really are all powerful aren't you, Cervy?" he stated sarcastically, his head cocked to the side.

"You think that that pathetic excuse for an attack will beat me? You fool!" Cervantes spat.

He stood to his full height and looked down at the blonde, who was a good four inches shorter than himself. He growled, sounding like a feral animal and backed down the corridor into one of the guards bedrooms. Siegfried followed him and motioned behind him for Link, Maxi, Raphael and Sheik to continue.

On Hyrule field, under the night sky, the Hylian army stared up at the Gerudos. Tension was growing in the ranks and they were starting to straggle and become loose, leaving gaps in the mass of soldiers.

"Hold your positions!" Liam barked at the soldiers who were slowly creeping back.

He turned in his saddle to look at the stragglers and glared at them, silently telling them through his glare that if the Gerudos didn't kill them, he would if they betrayed Hyrule. As he turned back to look at the Gerudos, something caught his eye. A messenger was waving a torch towards him from the room that contained the drawbridge controls, he was signalling to the cavalry, then pointing forwards.

Liam looked at where he was pointed, and he suddenly realised what he meant.

The Gerudo horse-women had gathered round the front of the rest of the army and their leader was starting to trot down the hill, the others getting ready to follow her as she picked up speed.

"Mars!" Liam shouted, addressing the leader of the Hylian's cavalry, then motioned towards the women riders with his head "Get your men ready to defend us!"

"Archers!"

As 'Mars' and his men settled into place, the Gerudos reached the bottom of the hill and began to thunder towards them at an alarming pace.

Link, Maxi, Raphael and Sheik had left Siegfried to his fight with Cervantes and had continued to make their way deeper into the fortress, and Link could swear to the goddesses that he occasionally heard Ganondorf's low malicious laughter. Maxi was trying to refrain from complaining that he was bored and that they were wasting their time by 'skulking' around like this. He had voiced this opinion many times since Siegfried had left, and had consequently been hit several times, to which he responded to by merely muttering Japanese profanities under his breath. Sheik was becoming increasingly nervous, and was now fidgeting but stopping himself whenever he saw someone looking at him.

Link, however, had noticed Sheik's odd behaviour, and was becoming increasingly suspicious. Sheik was usually calm, collected, and controlled; he also never showed any emotion in combat situations. Link had come to the conclusion, that this was not the Sheik he knew. He finally decided to ask.

"Sheik?"

"Hmmm?"

"You OK?"

"Uh, fine, why?" he said sounding extremely unconvincing, and Link was sure that he could detect a hint of Zelda in that answer. He shrugged it off; he just wanted to be back with her. She was safe in the castle and nothing could harm her with Leon there.

"Maxi, keep quiet and stop swearing!" Link hissed at Maxi.

Maxi 'hmphd' in response, but stopped his muttering.

Cervantes raised his swords above his head. "Burn to ashes!" he yelled, as the swords rose into the air of his accord, then darted towards Siegfried. Siegfried ducked as the glinting metal flashed and gleamed as they rushed towards him, ready to find a gap in his armour and bury themselves in his flesh. The blades slammed into the wall behind him, inches above his head. The swords stayed there as Cervantes desperately tried to summon them back to him. Meanwhile, the blonde German had started to advance towards the pirate, Requiem flung over his back but still in his grip. He stepped slowly towards Cervantes, the pirate responded by circling around the room, trying to reach the swords.

Then Cervantes made his biggest mistake, for just a few seconds he turned his back on the knight and yanked the two swords out of the wall. At the same time, Siegfried swung the zweihander at the pirate's turned back, with a sharp twist of the wrist and arm, that made him gasp slightly when he realised how hard he had swung the sword. Cervantes turned around just in time, flicking the swords up to his neck to block the giant blade. He did manage to block that attack but as he did the massive sword jarred in the blonde's hands as it struck the two blades, and it slid sideways to hit Cervantes' arm and leave a gaping wound, that sliced cleanly through the rotting flesh and shattered the bone.

Cervantes gasped at the sudden agony that seared up from the broken bone and ripped flesh, as a black inky liquid that acted as blood poured out of his arm, staining the dull grey cloth around the wound. It was strange, he wasn't supposed to feel pain, and he was dead, so therefore he couldn't, or more precisely, shouldn't. He growled in annoyance, this boy was insulting him more than ever, he was making a mockery out of him and he didn't like it.

With renewed fury he raised one blade above his head, his other, Nirvana, lying on the floor, and glared at the blonde youth in front of him.

"You will not defeat me, boy" he growled through pain and frustration, his eyes narrowed.

His right arm hung limply by his side, useless, hanging by the last clumps of muscle, skin and sinew. Siegfried raised an eyebrow at this. "You think you can defeat me with only one arm?"

Instead of answering, ran forwards, bringing his sword down towards the knight's chest, his deadened right arm swinging wildly, uncontrollably. Siegfried blocked the attack with Requiem, swinging the sword in a complete circle to try and get the sword moving again.

Siegfried may have been an expert in wielding zweihanders, taught by his father, but expertise couldn't take away the fact that the sword was immensely heavy and it took quite an effort to handle. The idea of using such a big sword was that, rather obviously, it could give powerful, bone-shattering blows, but it had to be constantly moved in a series of attacks to get the full effect of the weapon. Unfortunately, the way Cervantes was attacking him meant that he couldn't move the sword long enough to get any momentum or even attempt to start a series of attacks. He had been constantly on the defensive, trying to manipulate the massive sword into a position to protect him.

In an effort to give himself a chance, the blonde knight kicked out towards Cervantes, who took the blow hard, into his stomach. He stumbled back and slumped onto the floor, momentarily feeling put out. Flicking the sword up behind him, Siegfried ran for Cervantes, jumping into the air, quickly descending on the pirate, who attempted to roll out the way.

It worked, but not completely. Cervantes had rolled, avoiding his main body being hit, but the sword cut through his right arm again, just above the previous wound, completely separating it from the pirates body. It jumped a little on the floor as ebony coloured blood seeped out from the severed limb.

Cervantes cried out again, unused to the feeling of pain and again glared up at Siegfried, who was raising Requiem above his head, about to bring it crashing down into the stricken pirates body. Without thinking, Cervantes kicked at the young man's legs, catching him off guard so that he stumbled and fell to the floor, looking at the ghost like man, an expression of surprise written across his face. Siegfried edged back slightly, raising himself up onto his knees, and reaching out with his right hand for the sword that lay on the stone ground, and without a hint of warning, Cervantes lunged at him, head first, slamming into the metal breastplate Siegfried wore, hard enough to stun himself but knock the German back. Siegfried toppled onto his back, sprawled across the floor and looked up at the greyish black ceiling. He started to reach for Requiem that was lying to his right, after he heard a slight groan that he guessed, originated from the pirate.

"Fool shouldn't have tried to tackle me, I'm wearing a full suit of armour for God's sake, all he did was make me fall back…although now, I do have to get up."

As his fingers closed around the hilt of his sword, Siegfried heard the shuffling sound of Cervantes getting to his feet, and he started to lean forwards, pull himself and the sword up, when the pale grey, gaunt face of the dead pirate appeared over him. With a sadistic smirk the pirate plunged down with Nirvana, certain that the sword would embed itself in the blonde's chest. Desperate not to lose this fight, Siegfried twisted his shoulder, sending Requiem plunging into Cervantes's stomach.

The pirate gasped as he was impaled on the giant sword, his inky black blood coating it like tar, sliding down from his wound and dripping onto the silver breastplate of Siegfried's armour, as he stared down at the blonde youth he snarled in hatred before his body fell limp.

Siegfried, still holding the sword, threw it across the room and then struggling to climb to his feet.

"Stupid armour! I knew there would be a down side to wearing this."

Once onto his feet, he stumbled over to the corpse of the pirate, before he gingerly lifted the sword, using his foot to push the dead body off of it, and then wiped the ebony blood onto the coat that was fastened around the pirates shoulders. Turning on his heel, Siegfried swung the zweihander back into place to latch onto his armour and began to walk down the cold corridor in an attempt to find Link and the others. As he rounded the corner to exit the room, he thought he heard a slight growl. Shrugging it off as the tense atmosphere in the large, stone fortress and the whisper of the winds outside bombarding the structure with sand, he made his way towards the centre of the fortress.

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A.N: Thank you for the reviews (although they have slowed down considerably) and I am currently trying to get back into writing the next chapters. It's a bit difficult at the moment, with all the holidays and Homework and stuff I haven't had time lately, but I hope to get everything back into order again soon. And, I will, at some point (probably when the story is finished) be re-writing a few of the chapters, mainly 5,but whatever.