A/N: I'm sorry for not updating. My Internet was down and the few times it came back up I was obsessed with looking at silly pictures online and re-watching the first season of Pokemon (naturally, I used my Internet to do so...) Um...yeah.

Anyway, please R&R!

Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda or Slayers.

CAVE OF THE ANCIENTS: CHAPTER 07.

-Two weeks previously...-

Lina and Zelda have already traveled for a days on end, heading towards the castle. Somehow, Ganondorf got there a week in advance, even with two unconscious men to cart along with him.

"How are we going to save them?" Zelda whispers hoarsely. Lina is surprised. The princess hasn't spoken at all ever since Link and Zelgadis were captured. At first Lina was a little worried, because whenever she tried speaking to Zelda, she didn't reply. Eventually, however, she got used to it and they just traveled silently.

Now, they are ever closer to the castle, but it's like the geography is against them. Whenever they go to sleep and put barriers up, it seems that the hill beside them moved to another place and the castle moved even farther away.

Nevertheless, the two girls continued onward, and now they're so close that they can practically see the spiders crawling up on the walls.

The problem?

Getting in.

-Two weeks later...-

As the sounds of night take over, Lina yawns. It's her night to keep watch, and Zelda is already asleep. As her watch is coming to a close, Lina begins to prepare for bed, removing her cloak with tired fingers and starting to pull off her gloves.

She shrieks at what she sees, and Zelda, who has been groggily getting up, jolts awake and asks, "What's wrong?!"

"Z-Zelda...look."

Zelda takes Lina's hand and looks at it before she has the same reaction.

Because on the back of Lina's hand is a triangle, with the lower right corner shaded in.

Lina calls, "Zelda! Come look! I found what looks like the throne room!"

The redhead is currently flying far above ground. She lifted Zelda up to one of the towers and went off on her own search higher up.

The princess of Hyrule replies, "Well, let me see!"

Lina hurries down and takes Zelda's hand, pulling her up. In the time it takes them to get situated, they realize that the room has gained four people.

One is Ganondorf, looking far calmer than he did on the night he invaded their camp.

And one of the people isn't really a person. It's a Bokoblin, who is prodding two men with a spear.

Lina and Zelda, ever the strange pair, both gasp when they realize that these two men are Link and Zelgadis. Link is barely standing, and Zelgadis is bleeding from his side, down to one knee and trying to get back up.

"That's it," Lina growls. "No one hurts my friends, even new ones, without answering to me first."

"You go, girl," Zelda responds, charging up a spell.

Lina kicks the window, and it shatters upon impact. The redhead lands inside and rolls away just as Zelda releases her attack on...Link and Zelgadis?

When Lina looks at the princess funny, Zelda gestures to the men, who are both looking over in surprise. But from Zelgadis' relieved expression and Link's smile, Lina guesses that it was a healing spell.

Ganondorf only laughs. "Well, of course I couldn't kill them until the Triforce of Courage arrived, you fools. Your two princes would have been guaranteed safe until you arrived. Well, aside from maybe starving to death, but still."

Lina gives him a lopsided smile and tosses two apples to Link without losing eye contact with the Gerudo King. "You're a fool, G-man. Maybe this is why you only ended up with the Triforce of Power."

"Ah, I see Wisdom has educated you, Little Red." Lina scowls at this nickname, and Ganondorf smiles cruelly. "Really, I never thought that someone from another land would end up with a piece of the Triforce. Who has the last, Little Red?"

"First off, Ginger-Beard," Lina responds, shaking her finger in his face accusingly. "I'm no kid, like Link was when you attacked him by the bridge. You're a coward," she spits, "that's what it is. Those goddesses, no matter how foolish they were by leaving something so powerful here, are not stupid enough to give you all of it. That's why they separated it. Second, if I knew who had the last part of the Triforce, would I tell you?"

"Ah, so you don't know."

"I didn't say that, Ginger-Beard."

Ganondorf draws his enormous sword and fingers the edge of the blade. "I know that, Little Red, but if you did know, would you not have glanced his way?" The Gerudo King's own eyes glance off to the side, where the Bokoblin lays dead and the two men over there flinch away from his gaze, both wincing.

Lina raises an eyebrow. "'His' way? Are you saying that one of those men has the Triforce of Wisdom? I mean, Zel, there, couldn't even beat a seventeen-year-old at a chess match, and Link isn't exactly...smart."

Both of them look offended at her comment, but Ganondorf speaks before they can.

"I may not have been blessed with Wisdom, my dear little redhead, but I'm no idiot."

"No, you're not an idiot. You're just stupid," Lina replies. "There's a difference."

The man shakes his head with a smirk. "Listen, Little Red. Can you not hear the harp, singing its sweet melody all throughout the kingdom? If I can hear it, then you can, too. Wisdom is playing for its other two pieces."

Ganondorf's golden eyes narrow directly on Zelgadis' gaze, and the chimera keeps his emotionless gaze on the Gerudo's, without flinching.

"Only humans? Wouldn't that mean that I couldn't possibly have the Triforce? There are only four actual humans in this room," Zelgadis states, rolling his eyes. "I'm sure we all know that."

"I'm no idiot, like I said before. I've changed. Now, princess, I'm sure you can tell Zelly-poo the rules behind the blessing of the Triforce. Your unimportant Hero may not live much longer otherwise."

Zelda bites her lip, then glances at Link and confesses, "W-well...Ganondorf is right. You don't have to be fully human. After all, we Hylians are part elf."

An evil grin crosses Ganondorf's features, and before anyone can do anything his sword is crossing the room in Link's direction.

"I didn't say his life was guaranteed."

But then a metallic ring fills the air, followed by the clang of a sword falling to the ground and a heavy thump. Ganondorf, Lina, and Zelda look over to where the sword should have sliced clean through Link's chest.

Instead they find it and Zelgadis, laying on the ground.

Link cries, "Zel...! Why did you...?"

Judging by the ringing that is still echoing in their ears, the wound isn't as deep as it would have been had Zelgadis not stepped over.

Still, the only thing the four conscious people notice is the blood pouring out of his chest, leaking onto the ground under him, and Zelgadis' face.

Completely emotionless.

"No..." Lina whispers. "No...Zelgadis!"

In a flash, she's by his side, pulling her gloves off and tossing them to the wind, which also reveals the mark on the back of her hand.

"Zelgadis! Come on! Listen to me!" she wails. "Mono Volt!"

Blue electricity shoots through her fingertips.

"That's one way to do CPR," Ganondorf observes cheerfully.

Zelda watches Lina's frantic attempts to get Zelgadis' heart pumping again.

Lina doesn't even look up to see what's going on, but after multiple tries with Mono Volt, she figures she's doing more harm than good. Finally the Triforce-blessed redhead does mouth-to-mouth. She pulls away and watches him for a full minute.

With tears beginning to stream down her cheeks, Lina lets out a heartbreaking sob and places her hand on Zelgadis' cheek.

"Zelgadis..."

"Aw, how touching," Ganondorf grumbles. "But can we finally get to that epic duel that usually occurs when Power and Courage are in the same room?"

"Money in the jar!" Zelda shrieks, pointing to a jar in the corner that says, 'Epic Jar.'

Although he grumbles about it, he places five-hundred Rupees in the jar and says, "Fine, after that epic duel-"

"MONEY IN THE JAR!"

Placing more money in the jar, he finishes, "Fine! Little Red, if you win, you get the money and possibly the entire Triforce, and if I win, I get a refund, the entire Triforce, and all of Hyrule. Better?"

Money signs and blazing fire in her eyes, Lina replies, "It's on, Ginger-Beard."