Explanations

It was some time before Aragorn stirred. He finally got to his feet and staggered out of the room. He gathered his weapons, and decided to change into his old ranger's clothes. He was going out alone. He needed some answers, badly.

He slipped out of the city with ease, getting over the wall much as Legolas had done on the first night of the siege. He moved like a ghost towards Mordor's armies, but stayed hidden in a small copse of trees nearby. There he waited for the best part of an hour, until an unsuspecting orc walked into said copse. He killed it, stabbing it in the back before it could scream, and stole its armour.

He then walked into Mordor's camp, dressed in the armour of the dead orc. Nobody stopped him, and he kept his face pointed firmly at the ground, lest anyone should realise that he had grey eyes as opposed to bloodshot yellow.

Thankfully nobody cared enough about him to give him a second glance. Now all he had to do was find–

At that exact moment, because he hadn't been looking where he was going, he crashed into an orc that was about his height.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" the orc snapped.

"Sorry," Aragorn muttered, trying to push past.

"Sorry?" the orc replied incredulously. "You think that 'sorry' is going to get me off your case?"

"What else can I say?"

"And I suppose you're the one who's been stealing my rations?" snarled the orc.

"N-No..." Aragorn replied, confused.

"Huh, a likely story."

"No, I haven't, I swear it-"

"Oh, you swear it, do you?" the orc said, drawing its sword. "What do you swear it on? Your own life?"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" screamed a voice. Aragorn wheeled around, to find the one person who he was looking for pushing his way through the crowd. "What on earth is going on?"

"This maggot has been stealing my food!" snarled the orc.

"Has he now?" Legolas asked coolly. He stared long and hard at Aragorn, who looked away.

Legolas took out a lump of bread from his pocket and tossed it to the orc. "There you go. Problem solved."

"What? I can't eat this!"

"You can and you will. It won't kill you, but I might. So you'll eat it, and you'll enjoy it. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good. And you," Legolas pointed to Aragorn. "My tent. Now."

-:-

Somehow Legolas was of a high enough rank to earn a tent of his own. He nodded at the guard, who left quickly, and led Aragorn inside.

The tent was small, but large enough to house a bed and a table, with a jug of wine standing on it. Once inside, Legolas laughed lightly, before turning to face him, leaning on the foot of his bed.

"Nicely done, Aragorn, you nearly started a riot."

Aragorn remained silent, staring at Legolas. How could he have realised it was me?

"Oh don't give me that look, you're about as subtle as an elf in Erebor. Now why don't you take off that ridiculous armour and you can ask me whatever it is you came to ask."

Aragorn glared at him, before pulling off the helmet.

"I have to say, of all the ways I expected you to come, dressed up in a pile of ill-fitting metal was not on the top of my list."

"How did you know I would come?" Aragorn asked warily.

"I held a knife to your throat this evening and sliced open your arm. It was a fair guess that you would want an explanation. How is your arm, by the way?"

Aragorn felt a surge of anger as Legolas' gaze glossed over the bandage roughly tied around his upper arm. "It's fine," he ground out.

"That's good," Legolas smiled. "Now... what was it you came here to ask me?"

"Legolas, we've... we've been friends for almost all of my life, ever since I was-"

"-Seven years old, I know. Now stop beating around the bush and ask me your question."

"I... I think I have a right to know... Why did you do this?"

Legolas pushed himself up, before walking over to the jug of wine. He pulled out two glasses, filled them, and handed one to Aragorn. "Aragorn, do you notice something that could be classed as 'unusual' in this camp?"

Aragorn paused. "You haven't raised the alarm."

Legolas nodded. "Any idea why?"

"You still care about me enough not to hand me over to Sauron? Look, what does this have anything to do with why you turned traitor?"

"All right then, if you don't want to know, suit yourself. Ask another question."

Aragorn paused. "What did you mean when you said 'what greater motive is there than to protect the ones you count as dear as brothers?'"

Legolas sighed, and took a sip of wine. "Sauron and I have a contract."

Aragorn raised his eyebrows.

"This contract has been sealed in blood, and contains more power than anything else that walks this earth. A power far older than Sauron himself."

"What does this contract contain?" Aragorn asked.

"That I work for Sauron. I do what he orders me to do, when he orders me to do it, I aid him, I swear my allegiance to him, in short, that I become another servant of him. And in return... I get protection."

"Protection?" Aragorn asked sceptically.

"Oh, not for myself," Legolas clarified. "But for the Fellowship. Mordor cannot touch them. For as long as I serve Sauron, nothing in Mordor can harm the Fellowship, imprison the Fellowship, kill the Fellowship, etcetera etcetera. Sauron will feel whatever hurt that has been inflicted upon them, but a thousand times worse."

"But you sliced open my arm..."

"Yes, I did. There is one way that Sauron can harm the Fellowship – if I do it for him. Sauron insisted that that was put into the contract, and I thought that I would never wish to do it, so I put it in. That's why I haven't raised the alarm. Because it wouldn't make any difference. If I wanted you dead..." Legolas took another sip of wine, "...I'd have done it myself."

"Did you tell him about Frodo and Sam?" Aragorn asked.

"Of course I did," Legolas smiled from behind his glass. "Isn't that the whole point of switching sides? So that you help your new side win?"

"But you just-"

"Aragorn, Sauron already knew what their plan was. He had guards stationed outside the Mountain of Fire, morning, noon, and night. The only thing I told him that was new to him was that the Ring was being carried by two hobbits. At least this way I could save their lives."

"And condemn us all to death in the process," hissed Aragorn.

"Aragorn, haven't you been listening?" Legolas snapped. "The Ring was going to be found anyway! All I have done is hasten the process along a little bit, and spared your lives in the process. For as long as I continue to serve Sauron, you, and all the rest of the Fellowship, can walk free."

"So that's why that orc saved Merry's life?"

Legolas nodded. "If he hadn't, then Sauron would have died with Merry. And then Mordor would be finished."

"And while we're on the subject of last night," Aragorn said, anger flaring up inside him again. "Do you know how many people died because of your actions?"

"Again, the gate was close to breaking. All I did was hasten it along a little bit."

"Six thousand people lost their lives last night!" Aragorn snarled. "Six thousand innocent lives were extinguished."

"Innocent?" Legolas laughed derisively. "And how many lives do you think we lost?"

"They're orcs, they-"

"And orcs are somehow worse than men? What have they done that's so much worse?"

"I can't believe I'm hearing this... You're defending orcs?"

"I pity them," Legolas said bluntly. "They're starving. They're slaves to Sauron. You've seen how bad their lot is. You almost started a riot because you crashed into the wrong orc."

"That's because-"

"-They have a terrible life. Do you honestly think that their anger was sparked from nowhere? Sauron treats them terribly. It's a dog-eat-dog world for them, and they'll do anything just to live another day. My orcs are as innocent as your men."

"My men were just following orders!" Aragorn snapped.

"And so were mine!"

Aragorn paused. "Two thousand of those deaths were civilians. You're not going to tell me that they deserved to die."

"Tell me," Legolas asked. "If your men came across an orc camp, but there was no evidence that these orcs had ever seen battle, do you honestly think that your men wouldn't kill them?"

Aragorn paused. "This doesn't excuse your actions!"

"No, it doesn't," Legolas admitted. "But as I said before, the gate would have broken anyway, I merely hastened it along a bit." He paused. "You do realise that, given as how we both survived, the siege is going to contine?"

"I hate you," hissed Aragorn. "I really, really hate you."

"No you don't," Legolas said. "If you did, I'd be dead. I hate me. I hate what I've done. But I can't kill myself. If I did, you'd lose whatever protection you had."

"What, so this contract can be broken?"

"Yes. It can be broken by either one of us. All he has to say to me is that he releases me from his service, or else I tell him that I wish to leave. The contract ends, and you lose what protection you have."

"Then why don't you?" Aragorn begged him. "I'm guessing you did it to save Merry and Pippin, but they're safe now. So why don't you come back to help us?"

"Because Frodo and Sam are still out there. They will be found. And when they are, the Ring will go back to Sauron, and unless I'm here with him, then the entire Fellowship will die. I'm not risking your deaths for the sake of my liberty."

Aragorn looked at him, tears forming in his eyes.

"Now you had better put that helmet back on and leave here before Sauron comes in and finds me talking to you. Because if he does, he'll probably break the contract and kill us both."

"What? Sauron's here?"

"Yes, he is," replied Legolas. "Just because he's not stupid enough to lead the charge does not mean to say that he's not coordinating every move."

Legolas walked Aragorn to the edge of the camp, ensuring that no orc came anywhere near him. When they arrived at the copse of trees, Legolas threw him down onto his face, before turning and walking away without another word.

Aragorn pulled off the armour, before heading back to the city. Truth be told, his meeting with Legolas had raised far more questions than it had answered. For example, who really was the bad side?

Aragorn slipped into the city unnoticed, although he couldn't remember how. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he was barely conscious of where he was putting his feet, and it was a miracle that he made it back to the top level.

"So?" came a voice, snapping him out of his reverie. "Did he tell you why he did it?"

Aragorn turned around to see Gandalf walking across the courtyard to him.

"How did you know where I had gone?"

"You had mysteriously vanished after you had found out that your best friend had turned traitor. It was a logical assumption that you had gone to find an explanation."

Aragorn nodded.

"Well? Did he give you a reason as to why he abandoned us?"

Aragorn nodded again. "He... He did it to save us all..."