A/N: Man, I made Zelgadis almost evil in this chapter...Oh, well. I would be angry, too, I guess. Anyway, this is chapter 4 of a double-update. Please R&R!
Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers or the Legend of Zelda.
CAVE OF THE ANCIENTS: CHAPTER 4.
This time, Link offers to take first watch, and by the time Zelda has fallen asleep, Zelgadis has just unbuckled his sword from his belt, moving rather slowly.
"Hey, Zel? Something wrong?" Link asks with a great amount of concern in his voice. Since they met, he has adopted Lina's nickname for Zelgadis, and Zelgadis finds it rather humorous.
The chimera releases another breath. "I don't think I've managed to completely heal myself yet, but I'm not exactly sure where it's coming from...it might just be that my ears are still ringing and it's giving me a headache, but it could be more than that."
Link sighs. "And just when I run out of health potions. They could have done the trick, but now that we can't get out of here, I can't visit the potions shop to buy more."
"It's nothing to worry about right now," he insists. "Goodnight, and be careful."
About halfway through that night, Link looks over at Zelgadis, who, at first glance, looks perfectly calm and rested. But...now that he looks closer, the stones he has as eyebrows are narrowed close to his visible eye, and his eyelashes flicker every few seconds. Occasionally he'll twitch, as though trying to fight against something.
The Hylian's face shows more concern than any words could. Zelgadis is having a nightmare.
The last thing Link expects Zelgadis to do is talk in his sleep.
"...please...Rezo...tell me..." His voice is a pained, near-silent whisper.
After this, Link stares up at the stars and thinks, If Zelgadis has dreams like this, I can't imagine what his life was like...
Finally the green-clad hero sighs and wakes him up, not wanting to let Zelgadis suffer through another second's worth of nightmares, and although he doesn't know that Link knows, Zelgadis gladly accepts the job offering.
"Zelgadis?"
"Yes?"
"Um...who's 'Rezo'?"
He flinches at the name, staring over at Link for a long time before asking, "Was I talking in my sleep?"
Link laughs nervously. "Well, you see, I just happened to look over at you, and then you started muttering things, and you looked..." His face softens from 'caught little kid' to 'worried best friend.' "...you looked like you were having a nightmare, Zel. Seeing you look so afraid...it just...it's not right."
Zelgadis sighs gently, almost daintily. The moonlight glints off of his stony features, softening it to look almost humane. After what feels like hours of silence, he finally responds. "Well, it's normal by now. In fact, it's not as scary anymore as it used to be, back when I first got like this. It's gotten a lot better. I used to wake up screaming. When I partnered with Lina and Gourry, I used to wake them up almost every night."
~Flashback~
"Zelgadis, please tell us what's wrong," Lina whispered one night, which happened to be the night before Shabranigdo was resurrected. After they went to sleep, Lina and Gourry were awakened by what must have been screaming. Zolf and Rodimus still slept in their bedrooms, all the way down the hall, separate from the rest of them.
Zelgadis explained his dream, albeit somewhat hesitantly, to his companions who would become his best friends after the death of his current ones.
Lina's look was unusually gentle. "Zelgadis, I'm so sorry..."
"No, Lina, there's nothing to say about it. Besides, it's a recurring nightmare. Every night, without fail..."
The redhead pulled him into a rare hug, which was made even rarer by the fact that Zelgadis hugged her back. Gourry didn't say a word about it, but his expression told volumes to the chimera.
They became ever closer after that night, which helped greatly in their battle the next day.
~End of flashback~
Link nods slowly. "I can understand that. After my battle against Ganondorf, I had nightmares for years. Maybe your memory is just better."
"Or maybe something worse happened to me than to you," Zelgadis hisses bitterly, clenching his fist and closing his eyes. After a few moments, however, he regains his usual calm. "I still haven't answered your question, have I? Rezo is...no, was...my great-grandfather. He was born blind, his eyes sealed shut. He was obsessed with finding a cure for his eyes, and so he studied white magic, going around the land creating miracles. He cured other people's blindness, but he could never cure his own. He went insane trying to find a cure after studying both black magic and shamanism. Eventually he went to his last resort: the Philosopher's Stone. It was said to be able to resurrect Shabranigdo, the great Demon Lord himself. It was at that time that I worked for Rezo, being in my chimera condition and hating him bitterly but unable to see what his true intention was. He met Lina, who had obtained the Stone, and convinced her that I was his enemy." At this point Zelgadis is starting to get worked up again, shutting his eyes tight as though he could seal the past away. "We ran into each other, however, and after kidnapping her I managed to convince Lina that we were allies."
"Wait, kidnapping her made her trust you?" Link asks, baffled.
Zelgadis chuckles. "Oh, no way. I was the one to kidnap her, yes, but I was also the one to release her."
"How does that work?"
"I'm not quite sure how a woman's mind works. If I was, we men would have long surpassed women, wouldn't we?"
The Hylian laughs. "Maybe we would, but who could be sure? Women do seem to rule over the world these days, don't they? Zelda has ruled Hyrule alone for years, even without her father."
His companion shrugs. "Whatever the case, after we became allies and rejoined Gourry, we went to Rezo's tower with..." He bites his lip. "With...I-I'm sorry, I seem to be a bit more emotional than usual. It might be because of the late hour, or maybe shadows simply provoke fear in people's hearts." He clears his throat and restarts. "We went to Rezo's tower with my other two acquaintances, and discovered that Shabranigdo was concealed not in the tower Rezo resided in, but sealed in his eyes. Lina defeated him with her most powerful spell, the Giga Slave. Several years later, we discovered that Rezo managed to contain his soul in a special jar he made. We sought to destroy it, and Rezo told us that he no longer wanted the piece of Shabranigdo sealed in his eyes to remain on this planet. He told us that his wish was not to see, but to destroy the Demon Lord once and for all. Lina once again used her Giga Slave to defeat the ghost of Shabranigdo, although it was a risky gamble. Everyone except herself was nearing death at that point, as we had all risked everything to make sure that Lina remained unharmed."
Link looks surprised. "Was Shabranigdo able to harm you?"
Zelgadis actually laughs this time. "Oh, of course. Your land is much safer than mine is. I may not be vulnerable to swords and physical things very much, but when it comes to magical attacks I'm weaker than even you would be, I'm sure. Shabranigdo is a magical being who chooses to occupy the physical plane. I don't know why this is, as he would surely defeat us more easily there, but he's certainly magical, and also has magically amplified strength on his side. He was able to crush most of my ribs quite easily."
"Then how did you—?"
"I got quite a bit of help from Amelia, as well as my own healing spell. It wasn't that hard to heal, although getting the Recovery spell through my damaged stone skin to heal the more vital points proved a bit tricky. We had to heal the outside before being able to heal the inside, you see, and we couldn't use Lina's help for that because she was already so drained, and she didn't know about it, either. Really, it didn't matter much, as long as one piece of Shabranigdo was gone forever. That meant that he was, as a whole, one-seventh weaker."
Link sighs. "Okay, that should be enough explanation." He looks over at the stirring princess and adds, "Zelda's waking up. It appears we spent a bit too long talking, huh?"
Zelgadis gives him an extremely rare, genuine smile that isn't twisted by any dark humor. In the next few days it'll be noted as even more rare, although no one quite knows that yet.
It starts out with an explosion in the distance, which only Zelgadis knows the cause of, as an angry, high-pitched voice screams, "WHERE THE HECK AM I?!"
Zelda immediately jumps awake, terrified at the loud awakening.
And none other than Lina Inverse, in all her boiling, deadly anger, comes marching over the horizon, shriveling up the grass as she walks by, her ruby red hair blazing in the light of the rising sun. Apparently she spots something blue and glinting, shining because of her own light, because she seems to grow even angrier.
"ZELGADIS! I'M SURE YOU HAVE ANSWERS! WHERE THE HECK AM I? TELL ME NOW!" she shrieks, her voice growing more and more high-pitched by the second. When she gets to them, she grabs him by the front of the shirt and yells in his face, "SO HELP ME, YOU BETTER GIVE ME ANSWERS FOR WHY YOU DISAPPEARED AND WORRIED ALL OF US TO DEATH!"
"Lina, if you want me to give you answers, please don't make me deaf first," Zelgadis replies calmly, unflinching in her burning rage, unlike the two Hylians, who are busy backing slowly away. Lina shoots one glare at them and immediately they're sitting obediently in front of her like two extremely terrified students in the professor's room.
Finally Lina sighs, taking a deep breath, and her fury-fueled aura dissipates. She releases Zelgadis and backs off, relaxing into a rather casual pose very much like his own.
"Okay, start explaining."
He obeys, explaining everything major that has happened ever since they came here, how they came here, and a probability of why they came, finishing with a question of how she got here.
"Me?" Lina asks, looking slightly disoriented. "I got here by a much different way than you did. I was over in Seyruun, visiting up on Amelia and looking for you. I heard Amelia scream from her bedroom, where she was resting up from her previous illness, and ran towards her. After I got there, I saw that a giant black portal had opened up in her full-body mirror, and someone had come through it. He looked...just like Link, actually, except he was wearing all black, and...he had the eyes of a killer. Of course, Amelia and her father immediately assumed it was yet another assassination plot, so they wanted to break the mirror, but I wanted to see where he had come from. I leaned over and pressed my hand against it, but then I was sucked in, and when Amelia went back into her room, she must have broken it. I was just lucky that I had gone through already, because it disappeared just after I got through."
Zelda shakily whispers, "Do you mean that...not only did Dark Link appear in another princess' bedroom, but portals started opening in your kingdom, just like they did mine?"
Lina nods just as unsteadily, and suddenly she staggers and falls right into Zelgadis, wincing with the impact.
"Lina, are you okay?" he asks softly. There's a slight tone of worry in his voice, which is masked by major embarrassment and awkwardness.
"I-I think that portal may have...I...just a second..."
She slumps against him, falling unconscious, arms limp at her sides. Zelgadis catches her just before she slips onto the ground with a pink tinge to his blue cheeks.
After exchanging a glance with him, Link decides now is not the time to tease Zelgadis (and besides, he would probably freak out it if it were him).
The chimera remains calm and quiet as he says, "We can't afford to waste any more time. We have to start moving."
"What are we going to do about her, though?" Zelda asks.
Zelgadis glances down at the redhead, and an emotion Link can't quite put to name flashes in his eyes. "I'll carry her until she wakes up, but that means that you two will have to deal with the monsters. Sorry."
Zelda purses her lips. She lets out a breath of exasperation and holds out a hand to him.
Zelgadis tilts his head slightly in confusion.
"I'm not only good with a bow, you know. Let me borrow your sword," she orders.
He looks much more hesitant than he did when Link asked to look at it, and almost protective. "Princess, as much as I respect you and wish to help you out in this, my sword is a...a very special gift from someone I knew. I wouldn't trust it in the hands of a stranger. I apologize."
Zelda flares in anger. "I can't defend myself at long-range forever, Zelgadis. I need a different weapon."
"Um, Zelda? If I remember correctly, you used to keep your rapier under your dress. Do you still do that?" Link asks.
And suddenly the princess' face is completely red, and she fumes. "How did you know that when even I forgot?"
"Well, it's just that whenever we fought monsters together you always pulled it out from under your skirt." Link is equally as red, and he rubs the back of his neck nervously.
She hisses, "Turn away, then, Hero of Perverts. You too, sword lover."
Both men turn away, and when they turn back she's holding an elegant red sword with a pure gold hilt. It looks more decorative than efficient, but Zelgadis is sure that if she wanted to she could gouge Link's heart out.
"Well, then," she snarls. "Let's be on our way. I'll walk in the back, Link will take the front. You stay with her in-between us, got it?"
Zelgadis' eyes glint with anger. "You know, I get the feeling that you don't like the idea of another girl drawing the attention away from you. I take it we've got a snobby princess here, don't we?"
"You get kind of impatient when an evil king captures you more than once," she replies hotly.
He hisses, "Has anyone ever attacked you though, Princess? Have you ever been harmed when Ganondorf captured you? Or even past that, have you ever been killed by a Mazoku Lord? It hurts, in case you didn't know. It hurts a lot. It's not just a release of all pain, like most people believe. It still hurts after you're dead, too."
"Zel!" Link exclaims. "Cut it out!"
"I should have figured you'd take your princess' side," Zelgadis snaps. "I don't know what anyone sees in her, especially you."
"Zelgadis, listen to me! I get that you're mad, but if we're going to live here, we have to stick together!" the Hylian yells.
Zelgadis turns his glare over to the green-clad hero, who flinches at the heat in it. "No, Link, I think you've got it wrong. I may be angry, but I don't need your help to live here. It's you who needs me. Do you remember who put up the protective barriers last night, and kept both of you from harm?" He turns his gaze back to Zelda. "And do you remember who kept those Moblins from getting at you while you were shooting arrows? You two apparently think that—that I haven't been hurting myself the whole time, in order to protect you." His voice breaks for a split second before his anger returns. "Whatever hits that barrier reflects back on me. Those monsters that you saw last night, Link—if I'm correct, there were two Moblins, three Bokoblins, and seventeen Chu-Chus." Link's eyes widen, which tells him that he's right. "Guess who felt it whenever they slammed against that barrier? Not only that, but I even told you, when we fought Veran, that casting certain white magic spells harmed me. Those barriers are in that category!"
Link and Zelda's eyes are wide in horror and fear. Zelgadis, the calm and collected one of the group, is yelling at them for what they didn't know. Well...for what the princess didn't know. Link should have remembered...
"Z-Zelgadis..." Link whispers. "I'm sorry; I should have remembered. Please stop it."
The glare he gets for that one comment chills him to the bone.
Eventually Zelda, with tears streaming down her face, chokes out, "I'm sorry, Zelgadis, I never realized how special she is to you, and I shouldn't have acted so snotty. Just...please, we really do need you, and I didn't know that whatever happened to those barriers reflected on you. I...I don't like it when you're angry. It's...terrifying..."
Zelgadis' temper is far from calmed, but apparently the urge to move on pulls his thoughtful self back.
His eyes soften just a little, and he looks down at Lina again. Suddenly tears begin to trickle down his face. He tries to hide it by turning away, but Link can see his shoulders shaking violently. With a shaky voice, Zelgadis whispers, "Levitation."
The redhead floats out of his hands and into the air, remaining suspended there as, without a single word, they begin to travel down the path.