Elsa watched as the every boy and man above the ages of twelve and above were herded and torn from the sanctuary of the caverns and their families to the foreboding and stuffy armory. The woman shook her head; this was the most desperate attempt at survival she had ever seen. Even she would have never dreamt of using children in a battle.

But then again, she had been living in this strange and at times barbaric world for a little less than a year now, and she still had yet to learn all there was to know about it. The history alone was an undertaking that Elsa wasn't sure that she should have pursued. In the three months that they had been holding out at Helms Deep, Théoden's daughter Eowyn, had offered to teach the Snow Queen the history of Middle Earth, the fighting style of Rohan with both sword and bow, and of course Elvish.

That brought up another interesting thought, Elsa thought, Gandalf had said to expect him five days after reaching Helms Deep. The morning of the fifth day had come and gone, but no White Wizard had arrived. This worried Elsa more than she cared to admit, even after months of the old man's departure she was still wondering.

Then again, they had had little to no news of what was transpiring in the outside world, Théoden had ordered the gates shut, with only the exception of a small scouting party who had left three days earlier. There had been only one survivor, a young boy, no older than sixteen had ridden through the gates barely conscious. He had brought news that a black and terrifying sea of orcs and monstrosities was within less than a day's ride from the fortress.

Of course Théoden had ordered the women and children to the safety of the caverns below them and for every boy and man to take arms. The armory was small, cramped, and filled with some of the worse weapons the both Elsa and Legolas had ever seen.

Aragorn picked up one of the short swords and examined it briefly before throwing it down in disgust. "Farmers, ferries, stable boys; these are no soldiers." Gimli nodded in agreement, "Most have seen too many winters."

"Or too few." Legolas commented. "Look at them, they are frightened, you can see it in their eyes." The room became suddenly and awkwardly silent as all eyes fell onto Legolas. The elf and the warrior then shouted something in elvish at each other, Elsa sighed she wished she understood more of this strange world's languages.

Meanwhile, standing on the roof of the tallest tower was a dark and shadowy figure. Looking far into the distance V could see the massive enemy army slowly marching toward them. He would never tell Théoden that he could see the enemy around the same time the scouting party was sent out. While this may have been impossible for regular humans and even vampires and Goddesses of Snow, such a thing was becoming increasingly easy for him.

The longer he stayed in this ancient world the stronger he was becoming which is why he would now have to reveal more than a few things about himself to Elsa. Sliding off the slanted roof, V twirled in the air before landing on his feet hundreds of yards below. It was time to find Elsa...

Mavis absolutely loved Helms Deep, with its extensive caves, dark corners and high towers. It was the first time she had felt at home since leaving the mines, not only that but she got to live with Elsa! The vampire was soaring about the caverns, watching the women and children cry now that the men were gone.

She grinned greedily; perhaps tonight she and Elsa would finally be able to feast! It had been so long since either of them had fed that Mavis complained about it daily. Elsa on the other hand never once complained, but Mavis could tell that it was bothering her mate.

Speaking of her mate, where was she?

"There, that should hold, at least against anything short of a troll." Elsa said exhausted. The Queen had just finished reinforcing the main gate with a thick wall of ice. The towering walls of Helms Deep glimmered with their new thick coating of ice. Long and slender spikes ran along the base and ten hulking Ice Guardians had also been created.

Elsa sighed; she had made her way back to her and Mavis's room, when suddenly out of the shadows stepped V. "Oh! V, you scared me!" she said in surprise. V laughed, "Apologies M'lady. But I've been looking all over for you. There's...something I need to talk to you about."

"Of course V, what is it?" The Queen asked, stepping into her quarters. "Well, actually it would be easier for me to show you. Here take this." He said, offering her a small stone. Elsa looked at the strange stone, it was smooth and was a swirling mass of silver and black.

"It's my most important memories from before we met. I figured that it would be easier for you to understand if you saw it yourself." V said before grabbing Elsa's hand.

Suddenly the world around Elsa shifted into shadow, her vision tunneled and suddenly it all stopped. Shaken Elsa looked at her surroundings, she stood in what looked to be the great hall of some sort of underground fortress.

In front of her was a large throne made of gold and swirling colors, sitting on the throne was a very old man and in front of the man knelt a young boy, probably around the age of 16. "The old man must be a lord or a king perhaps." Elsa thought.

The King rose from his seat and addressed the boy, "You, Valefar Daedheldir are a accused of being the last surviving Drakon. For centuries we hunted your kind to what we believed to be extinction and yet here you are, alive, and serving as my friend and bodyguard."

The boy was badly beaten but still managed to maintain a wrathful look at the king. "Yes, I am the last of my kind and there are reasons for that..." he whispered, his every word dripping with hatred and rage.

"And just what reasons might those be, dear Valefar?" the king sneered.

"One, I am centuries older than you. Two, I am smarter than you. I managed to manipulate you into believing that I simply discovered your "greatest treasure" while in reality I'd discovered something of much greater value. The crystal."

The king laughed, "That old thing? It shows only dreams and illusions dear boy." He said, rising from the throne, "But none of that matters now, for I, Thearodeous Andreas, King of the Realm of the Eternal Pit, sentence you to death."

The boy smiled and grimaced at the same time, "Then I apologize for what I must do now..." he said sadly. The King scoffed and waved his hand, motioning at the guards to execute him. Two large and formidable guards seized him by his arms...before they and everyone in the hall, with the exception of Thearodeous, burst into a cloud of ash.

"Wha-what is the meaning of this Valefar!?" the King exclaimed, surprised and terrified. Valefar smiled, "Vengeance..." he whispered.

Suddenly Elsa's world shifted back to normal, before was a nervous and shaken V, "So your name is Valefar?" she asked.

V looked up in surprise, "Yes...so after all that you simply ask what my name is? You're not at all concerned about what I just showed you?"

The Queen shook her head, "Of course not, we both have powers that we will never fully understand or control. Besides you may be useful in the battle to night."

"That's the issue Elsa. If I let go of my powers tonight I can't guarantee that I won't kill innocent people or our own soldiers." the drakon said sadly. "But I'll do whatever it takes to keep you and Mavis safe, if that requires me to use my powers then so be it."

In the distance the pair heard a horn blow. "They are here." V said gravely, "Come, we must hurry and join Théoden." As quickly as darkness falls, V and Elsa ran to the battlements of the fortress. Joining them was an army of elves.

"Now where the hell did they come from?" Elsa thought. But her thoughts were soon interrupted by the massive army that now stood outside the walls. As far as she could see, even with her now enhanced vision, orcs covered the ground. Armed to the teeth quite literally, the army stood there, as if waiting for a signal. Then as if on cue they began chanting and beating their spears on the ground.

Every archer across the battlements notched an arrow and aimed. Elsa formed an elegant bow of ice in her hands, an arrow intently materialized as the queen drew back the drawstring. Down the line of bowmen, she noticed a particularly old man struggling to keep his arrow from leaving his grasp.

Finally the strain grew too great for him to hold on any longer, his arrow zoomed from the battlements and buried itself in the neck of one very unfortunate orc. For a moment there was silence, the calm before the storm. Then the charge.

The orc army surged forward and where met with thousands of arrows. Volley after volley was shot but did nothing to the seemingly endless army. The most eager of the orcs quickly impaled themselves upon Elsa's ice spikes at the fortresses base. The sea of orcs continued forward, Elsa let loose an arrow, which split into dozens of smaller arrows before they found their marks. But no matter how many arrows she shot the orcs just kept coming.

"Leave any for me, love?" Mavis asked, suddenly appearing beside Elsa.

"Only a few..." Elsa said. Dozens ladders were now being raised, swarms of orcs poured over them and onto the battlements which then erupted into chaos. Mavis sighed, "Suppose it's time to shift over to a bloodlust form." As soon as the vampire uttered the words great and black bat wings shot out from her back, blood filled her eyes, her teeth elongated into dozens of razor sharp needles, and her fingernails grew into long and spear-like claws.

"Stay alive my dear!" She cackled as she soared off into the sky, leaving Elsa alone amidst hundreds of foul and murderous monsters. All around her, Elves, men and orcs met their death at the end of a sword.

Hours later the battler still raged on and the rain was not helping one bit. Elsa leaned against the wall for a moment to catch her breath, it was going to be a very very long night indeed. Across the battlefield the Queen noticed a battalion of orcs marching across the causeway to the front gates. Aragon had noticed as well, "Elsa! The causeway! Kill them!"

Thousands of icy shards imbedded themselves into the orc's bodies, a few more volleys later and the battalion was no more. "Well, this is easier than expected, is really all this Saruman wizard can throw at us?" Elsa wondered as she sunk her sword into yet another enemy.

Suddenly without warning came the single loudest sound Elsa had ever heard in her life, followed by an explosion so big that the Ice Queen was sent flying back into a courtyard of the castle. Rubble was still raining down as Elsa struggled to stand. A hand firmly grasped her, hoisting her to her feet.

"Go to the inner sanctum M'lady. You will not want to stay to see this." Said a voice beside ber.

"V?" she asked shaking her head in an attempt to clear her eyesight.

"Farwell." Was the only answer given before V charged the army of orcs pouring through the gaping hole in the wall. Elsa watched in awe as her previously human looking companion's features changed. V's once large red eyes shrunk until they were only a tiny speck of red, dark black liquid began to leak out of his eye sockets and run down his face. His once only slightly pointed ears grew, once normal teeth became razor sharp fangs, great black feathery wings burst from his back. The shadows that always surrounded him stretched and enveloped the charging army.

The orcs were taken off guard, none of them had been told they would be going up against the nightmare that nightmares have. Out of nowhere two long and slender black swords appeared in V's hands. Soaring into the air, he paused for a second before plummeting down and hitting the ground. An immense explosion ripped through the enemy ranks and before any of them could even recover V was slicing his way through their ranks.

Hours later, despite V's best efforts and the slightly thinned enemy army, the fortress had been overrun. All survivors had been forced to take refuge in the inner sanctum which Elsa had sealed with a think wall of ice.

But now after hours of beating against it the orcs were finally about to break through. "It is over, the fortress is taken." Théoden said in defeat.

"You said this castle would never fall while your men defend it." Aragorn yelled, "They still defend it, they have died defending it. Is there no other way for the women and children to get out of the caves?"

"I noticed a mountain pass when I was exploring." Mavis offered. The Vampire had not fared well in the battle; she was bruised, cut, and broken. Elsa tended to her lovers needs as best she could.

"Send word for the women and children to make for the mountain pass." Aragorn ordered a nearby soldier. The soldier nodded and ran off deeper into the fortress.

"So much death," Théoden muttered, "What can men do against such reckless hate?!"

The crack grew larger and large flakes of ice began to fall off of Elsa's ice barricade, it would not hold for more than a minute longer. "Ride out with me" Aragorn asked, "Ride out and meet them. After all we have an Ice Goddess, a Demon, and a vampire to help us."

"For death and glory." Théoden said.

"For Rohan, for your people."

"The sun is rising early." Gimli said. Elsa and the rest of the Fellowship rushed to the window. Aragorn chuckled, "No Gimli that is no early sunrise. Gandalf has returned!"

"Let us ride, Elsa we could use some horses." The King ordered, "Fell deeds awake, now for wrath, now for ruin, and a red dawn!" he cried as the ice barrier finally broke. Orcs poured into the room only to be reduced to ash by V. A dozen horses burst forth from the room, tearing into the orc army. All around them orcs exploded into a cloud of dust, blood, and ice.

Twelve horsemen and women rode across the causeway and into the army of orcs and from over the hill Gandalf rode down to meet them. V hissed as the Wizard lit up his staff sending out a blinding white light. It was not long before the remains of the once great army of Isenguard was destroyed.

"That was quite the battle, eh Lady Elsa?" Gimli remarked a few hours later, "What do you suppose they'll call it."

"Oh I don't know..." Elsa thought for a moment, "I suppose they'll call it The Defense of Helms Deep."

Authors Note:

Holy shit, I can't believe I managed to finish this chapter and I'm so sorry it took so long. I know its been almost two months since I updated and I promise it won't happen again. I was going to try to update on Christmas but I go too busy, then I was going to update on New Years Eve, but I got busy again. So here we are, two months later with another update. To answer someone's question, yes that is Elsa, V, and Mavis on the newish cover. And no I will not be abandoning this story. Just know unless you leave reviews and message me to update I'll probably get really busy and forget to make time to update. Anyways thanks for sticking with my story and I know you'll enjoy the next chapter.

Cheers!

V