Chapter 9

"What are you doing here?"

Mandos had come to the door of his Halls, prepared for the younger twin. He had seen everything that had happened to him. He knew they would soon meet.

What he hadn't expected was the older twin who accompanied him.

"What do you mean?" the older one asked. Mandos sighed.

"I did not send for you. I only sent for him. Your time was not through. What are you doing here?"

They both looked him right in the eye. He had watched them from birth to death, and yet their identical gazes still unnerved him. One was filled with emotion: anger. Anger at him for suggesting that they would die separately. The younger one's gaze was quieter, his emotions cleverly guarded. The only thing that was unmasked in his eyes was incredible wisdom, far beyond his years. They balanced each other out perfectly.

"I would never let him come to you alone," the older one said. Mandos's piercing gaze settled fully on him. He looked straight back, shuddering slightly. Mandos turned to look at the younger one. He did not look uncomfortable even being looked at by one of the Valar. He just stared back at him.

"You still have a purpose in the other world. I cannot allow you entrance. Only he may come," Mandos said, pointing at the younger one.

"Never!" they both said in unison. "We both go or we both stay!"

"Do not defy me," Mandos said, his voice dropping dangerously. "The younger one may come, and the older one will go back. That is the way."

"No!" the younger one said. "I have waited for him for far too long for you to separate us now!"

Mandos sighed. If he let them both in, their purpose in the Other world would not be fulfilled, and that was the only requirement to enter his halls. He had thought that one of them could complete their task just fine, but apparently there was no way to do it but to let them both go.

"Fine. Unless you want to be with your mother, young one?"

Elrond was frozen. He barely felt the stinging of pebbles on his knees as they buckled and hit the ground. He reached out with shaking hands, touching Elladan's face with his right hand, and Elrohir's with his left. His touch was feathery light.

A sound between a sob and a scream left his mouth, and he stayed completely unmoving. They had to wake up. They had to!

Glorfindel came around to the side of the twins, his face set like a stone. He felt under their necks, one hand each.

Nothing.

The second that it took Elrohir to think before replying was enough time to make Elladan's heart drop to his stomach.

"No. When we are reunited with her, it will be together."

Elladan let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding.

"Very well. I will send you back. But first, I must talk to the younger one."

The two looked at him. He gave the older one an icy glare.

"Alone."

The older one glared right back at him.

"I know what you're doing. You'll say you're talking with him, but he will never come back!"

"I swear on my honor as one of the Valar that I will return him to you," Mandos said. "I only wish to speak to him."

The older one still looked at him incredulously, but the younger one put a hand on his brother's arm.

"Don't worry, Elladan. I will come back to you, even if I have to fight all the Valar and Maia to do so."

Mandos blinked. He had never heard such a promise before.

The older one sighed and nodded. The younger one followed him wordlessly to a distance far enough away that the older one would not hear.

"You have the gift of healing," Mandos said, deciding to skip any pretense. "I have seen your cause and I have found it worthy. I would give you the energy to heal all the wounds you and your brother have sustained, were it allowed. I can give you the energy you would need to heal some of your wounds, or all of your brother's. I am not allowed to give you more than that. If you choose to heal your brother, you will take his pain, though not the wounds themselves, onto your body."

The younger one did not seem surprised. Mandos wondered what it would take to shake him.

"What do you choose?"

"Elladan. I will heal Elladan, of course."

Mandos nodded, and brought the younger one back to where the older one was standing, looking at him suspiciously. The younger one gave his brother a comforting smile. The two held hands.

The world in front of them spiraled away into nothingness.

Erestor had buried his face in the robe he was wearing, trying to hide any evidence of the tears that were running down his face. Glorfindel hung his head in sadness. Elrond remained staring at the twins, disbelief written all over his face.

At least, that's what's they were doing until Elrohir started to glow.

White light surrounded the younger twin, and Elrond's hand jerked back as if he had been burnt. Glorfindel's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

Elrohir's eyes snapped open. The normally pale gray hues were glowing nearly silver. He reached out one hand, touching the wounds on Elladan's arms. His whole body jerked, and he took a sharp breath.

Erestor gasped as the wounds closed up and healed into flawless skin before his eyes.

When the wounds were fully healed, Elrohir's glow disappeared so fast that it seemed as if it had simply dropped off of him. His eyes shut tightly and he groaned, falling back onto his side with nothing to soften his fall.

Elladan's eyes fluttered open.

"What…how…?" Glorfindel muttered, and Elladan gave him no more than a glance before his attention was taken up solely by his twin.

Elrohir was breathing hard. The pain was washing over him like waves. They pounded against him in a merciless assault, and even as he desperately tried to make his way to the surface for breath he was pulled further under. All the original wounds, the arrow, the feeling like he was bleeding out through his wrists when he knew he wasn't. It was all too much. Too much pain. He whimpered.

"Shhh, shhh, Elrohir, I have you. I have you," Elladan murmured, brushing Elrohir's hair away from his face with one hand. "Shhhhhh…oh El…"

Elladan caught a glimpse of his wrists. He did a double take. There was nothing there.

Suddenly it all made terrible sense.

"Why?" he gasped, looking at Elrohir's face, which was contorted with pain. "Why would you do that, El?"

Elrohir did not seem to hear him. Hot tears were sneaking from the corners of his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. Any anger that Elladan might have had disappeared in an instant.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is all my fault," Elladan said, and he took his brother's hand. "Shhh, just rest. I am here, and I am well. I will look after you."

He kissed Elrohir's brow tenderly. Elrohir took a long, shuddering breath, before his eyes rolled back in his head and closed as he fell unconscious from the pain.

There was silence for a moment in the clearing. All of them stared at Elladan, who had eyes only for his twin.

Elrond practically pounced on Elladan, throwing his arms around him in a desperate embrace.

"You're alive," Elrond breathed. "Oh Valar, you're alive. I thought I had lost the two of you."

Elladan returned the embrace, breathing in the scent of his father's robes.

"And you've come back," Elladan whispered, and he felt tears prickling his eyes. He had needed this. He had needed his father's love and support all this time, with his brother lost.

"Oh Valar, Elladan, I'm so sorry," Elrond said into Elladan's hair. "I'm so sorry. I should've been there. I got so caught up in my own grief that I didn't even think about how all of this would be affecting you. And it's been much harder on you than it ever was on me."

Elladan did not argue, and Elrond pulled away. He looked down at Elrohir's face.

"And you. My dearest, dearest Elrohir. You had us worried sick, did you know that? It is so good to have you back," he whispered, as if the younger twin could hear him. He stroked his short hair gently.

Glorfindel put his hand on Elladan's shoulder. Elladan turned to him. It had been a long time since he had really talked to Glorfindel.

"Well done," Glorfindel said, and Elladan's eyes, which would've normally been filled with pride at a compliment from his role model and friend, were filled with incurable worry. He gave Glorfindel a smile and glanced at Erestor, who merely nodded at him before going over to Elrond's side and fussing over Elrohir.

"Will he be alright?" Erestor asked Elrond worriedly, reaching out to touch Elrohir but thinking better of it at the last minute and drawing his hand back.

"We need to get him home," Elrond said, not answering the question. Erestor's brows knitted in worry at the vague answer, but he did not say anything.

Glorfindel whistled, and the horses that he, Elrond, and Erestor had ridden soon galloped into the clearing. Elladan went over to Narea, who nuzzled him in relief.

"Do you have any healing supplies with you?" Elladan asked his father, looking up at him as he stroked Narea's muzzle.

"Yes," Elrond said. "I saw he was in pain earlier, but I did not think it would be bad enough to hinder us on the way home. Do you want me to check him over now?"

Elladan nodded wordlessly, and Elrond's heart jumped in fear. If Elladan thought it was that bad…

He kneeled by Elrohir and pulled a knife from his boot, cutting off the tunic easily. He laid the dagger on the ground.

Elladan swooped in and grabbed it.

The word 'no!' was halfway up Elrond's throat, the image of Elladan lying on the ground, dead from self-inflicted wounds still fresh in his mind, when Elladan grasped the ends of his own hair and, in one precise movement, chopped it off so it was the same length as Elrohir's. Elrond breathed out slowly as Elladan dropped the unwanted raven locks to the forest floor.

Elladan placed the knife back on the ground wordlessly. Elrond turned back to the task at hand. His hands wavered above the tunic, afraid of what he might see.

Elladan noticed his father's hesitation, and he pulled the pieces of the tunic away himself. Then he carefully peeled the bandages away from Elrohir's skin one by one, trying to ignore the way the creases of worry on his father's face were deepening drastically each time.

Once all the bandages were off, Elrond simply stared at his youngest son's mutilated body with a look of sheer horror. He traced the line of Elrohir's jaw, where a long cut ran that Elladan had not even noticed before. There were so many wounds, he barely noticed the smaller ones. Now that he looked, there were purple bruises where the orc's hands had been around his neck. A dark bruise was on his forehead, above his left eye. Countless tiny cuts.

Too much pain.

"Wake him up," Elladan said suddenly, and Elrond started.

"What?"

"Use some herbs. Just wake him up, please…Please just wake him up."

Elladan looked more tired than he had in many, many centuries. Elrond got his pack from his horse and took out an herb without another word. He kneeled by Elrohir's side and placed them under his nose. The scent would hopefully help to wake his son.

Elrohir stirred with a moan. Elrond looked to Elladan, his resolve wavering at the sound.

"Are you sure?" Elrond said. "He will be in a lot of pain."

"I know," Elladan said. His eyes were grieved but determined. "But I must do this…it is important."

Elrohir groaned loudly, and Elladan went to his side, putting a hand on his brother's face.

"Hey, El. I'm sorry to wake you…" Elladan said. Elrohir swatted lightly at his brother's arm before letting it drop, wincing and regretting moving at all.

"You should be," Elrohir gasped.

"...but I…we need to…I need to be able to give you more strength, gwador, and I wish to feel you in my mind as I did before."

Elrohir looked up at him, his eyes slightly glazed. He stared into Elladan's eyes intently before, seeming to approve, putting his palms facing Elladan.

Elladan took a deep breath, and they put their palms together.

A/N: A longer chapter this time! Couldn't figure out how to end it.

So, now that we've established that the twins are alive, I have a question. I was thinking about doing a second part to this story about Elrohir's mental recovery, since we know him getting home won't fix everything...(*evil laugh*). Would you all like that?

Please review!