XXI. The Fellowship Returns
Aang knew that he and his friends could not defend themselves in their current condition. The battle with the Balrog drained so much of their strength. Even though they had triumphed over such a nightmarish beast, the land of Mordor still held vast numbers of enemies, and the Dark Lord still ranked as an all-powerful ruler. It was clear that they had no chance on their own. Aang finally deemed the time to be right.
Aang pulled himself up from the dirt, walked a few feet away from Katara, and gazed up at the Dark Lord. "Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor, you have taken everything that was ever precious to not only me, but all the peoples of this world. Our homes, our friends, our loved ones, our freedom. It is the Avatar's duty to ensure that the world remains in balance. But you have desecrated it with your darkness. Given the circumstance I know that I can't do this alone. That is why with the help of my new allies, you will fall!"
He began reciting the words of the ancient tongue of the Valar. In the common language the words are, "In the face of darkness and ultimate defeat, light still remains to cleanse the world. I, the Avatar, am a servant of the world and as a servant I abide to its safety and peace. On this day, in order to ensure that peace and prosperity can be achieved once again, I call upon the Fellowship of the Ring for aid! Hear ME, King of Gondor, Elven Prince of Mirkwood, Dwarf warrior of Erebor, Hobbits of the Shire, and White Wizard of Valinor! Hear ME and stand by my side to confront this evil, ONE LAST TIME!"
Only Sauron knew the words that Aang announced. Deep within his spiked, gargantuan helm, his hellish eyes widened out of a sense of dismay.
"Avatar..." The Dark Lord demanded. "What have you done?!"
Then, the ash clouds began to separate, a hole in the dark sky formed and glowed with light. The light blinded the eyes of the servants of Sauron but Aang's friends were over taken with as sense of purity. What followed next, was a powerful bright beam that was filled with magic shining upon the black soil. A white mist formed along the ground and within the light shadows of eight figures stood. The servants of Sauron and Aang's comrades gaped up at the forms in awe. The Witch King and the other commanders were baffled. As for the Dark Lord himself, bewilderment consumed his mind. The light began to fade and revealed the forms to be none other than the heroes who caused Sauron's downfall: Aragorn, King of Gondor, Legolas, Elven Prince of the Woodland Realm, Gimli, Dwarf warrior of Erebor, Gandalf, the White Wizard, and the four hobbits of the Shire, Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck, and Pippin Took. The Fellowship of the Ring stood upon the earth once again.
The enemies were overwhelmed at the sight of them. Sokka walked up to Aang in shock. "Aang? What did you do?"
Aang smiled, "Guys, I gladly introduce you to the Fellowship of the Ring." Katara, Sokka, Toph, Suki, and Mai were overcome with surprise and admiration. They remembered the group from the time when Zuko educated them on the history of Middle Earth. With such great heroes standing with them, the comrades of the Avatar felt great reassurance.
The fiery eyes of the Dark Lord were fixed upon Aragorn.
"You!" Sauron stated, pointing his finger.
Aragorn stepped forward, "Dark Lord of Mordor," he replied. "We stand in each other's gaze once again!"
Sauron's memory traveled back to the time where both his eye and Aragorn's met at the Black Gate. His eyes flared with rage from within his helm.
"Sauron!" Gandalf asserted. "It is maddening to accept the thought of dealing with you once again. I had believed, that your evil had been vanquished from this world long ago. Yet through all your cunning and deception, you have brought the need for our strength to turn the tide within your darkness. When this battle is over, your accursed spirit shall never again walk this earth for all the ages to come!"
Sauron's anger shook the very ground of Mordor.
"Never again will I fall to the likes of you!" Sauron fiercely rebounded, causing the air to churn and the ground to quake. "I am the supreme ruler of this world. All life on this earth kneels underneath my dominion. My darkness shall be eternal. All who dare to contest with my will, shall be extinguished by my wrath! Just like YOU!"
The Dark Lord's creatures bared their teeth and weapons, unleashing hateful cries that echoed over miles. Aragorn unsheathed his great sword Anduril, Flame of the West. The rest of the Fellowship soon joined him, unsheathing weapons and taking their stances.
"Destroy them!" Barked the Mouth of Sauron. "Slay them all in the name of Lord Sauron!"
The servants of Mordor broke into a stampede, rampaging along the ground like blood driven beasts.
Raising his double bladed axe high Gimli burst, "I'm going to enjoy this! Onward, my friends, to battle!"
They split up and descended into the heat of battle.
Aragorn raised his great glowing blade, Anduril, Flame of the West, and began to cut down countless enemies. He slashed at them, cut their heads off, and impaled them with his sword. While he was killing countless enemies, one orc attacked in front and another snuck up from behind. But that didn't make a difference, he first made an uppercut slash at the brute in front and jabbed his blade behind him into the orc's diaphragm, without even looking. Next, he dashed forward, with Anduril held high in his hands, into a large party of easterlings and before his enemies knew it, a bright yellow flame flickered on the his blade. Aragorn charged through them with his flame sword and cut them all down with amazing speed leaving a trail of fire behind. Then he spun in a tornado frenzy with his flame sword against many haradrim warriors and each went soaring up in the air, quickly being incinerated with each blow. Once he stopped twirling, two heavily armored trolls came charging toward him, roaring and swinging their massive clubs. When they reached him, Aragorn evaded their swings and cast his curved Elven dagger from its sheath at one troll's throat. The troll ceased breathing and came tumbling down to the ground headfirst. With the first troll down, Aragorn came up against the second. He bypassed the troll's swing and with his flame sword in hand, he made a large upper cut and lower cut within the brute's flesh. The beast fell backward on the ground, with its cuts burning with flame.
Gandalf brought down many dark warriors with his sword Glamdring, the Foe Hammer in his left hand and his white staff in his right. When trolls came for him, the White Wizard released lightning from his palm. The trolls were electrocuted on the spot by the white lightning blast. Then Gandalf found himself surrounded by about a hundred orcs and easterlings. As they lunged for the kill, he rose his staff up high, harnessed magic, and stabbed it into the ground. The stab unleashed a massive bright and powerful shockwave that sent all the enemies flying high in the air. Although he had sent a hundred enemies to their deaths more came. Fifteen corsairs were closing in on him. First he swiped a few with his blade then sent a blue ball of fire from his staff and burned them all. Next, a pack of warg riders strode upon the ground in his direction. Before they reached him, Gandalf pulled his hand back and fired lightning from his hand. The lightning bolts spread throughout the riders, electrocuting all the wargs and their riders.
Legolas' archery skills were amazingly quick, accurate, and lethal. He shot countless arrows with his elven bow at a vast number of orcs. Then, twenty heavily armored uruk-hai charged with their blades and pikes raised. Within a quick motion of his hand, Legolas pulled out an arrow that glowed red and loosed it from the bow. The flaming red arrow soared into the uruks and exploded into flames. The uruks squealed in their burning agony until death had claimed them. Next, Legolas shot a sickly, glowing, green arrow at a small band and upon impact green smoke emerged and consumed them. It was poison; the orcs coughed their black blood out and slowed their movements until they collapsed dead. At last the elf pulled five normal arrows out of his quiver and released them at the same time at five he came upon the urge to fight hand to hand. Legolas whipped out his Elven daggers and struck five orcs. Then the daggers began to twirl in his hands, glowing, and with the speed of light the Elf cut down twelve green skinned orcs.
Amidst striking down enemies as fast as he could count, the Elf caught sight of three mumakil coming their way. With his swift feet he ran out to meet them. As he ran, a warg rider lunged at him. He quickly dodged, shot the rider, and hopped on the warg. While on top of the beast, Legolas drove it toward the mumakil's feet. Once he got close enough, the Elf leaped onto the foot, used his daggers to climb up the beast's leg all the way to the straps that held the war towers, containing haradrim archers and warriors, and cut the straps. The tower rolled off the beast's back and plummeted onto the ground. Then, taking hold of the reigns of the mumakil, Legolas made it crash into the other two. The beasts tumbled upon one another. Before the enormous beasts had a chance to get up, Legolas leaped from head to head sending arrows through their skulls, into their small brains.
Gimli swung his great axe as hard as his arms could swing. The excitement of battle brought about a vast urge for axing as many orcs possible. He body slammed two uruk-hai to the ground and axed them in the gut. Then he got knocked over by another uruk-hai.
"An angry Dwarf is a deadly foe!" Gimli growled while facing up at the ash skinned brute.
The Dwarf sprung up, rammed his head into the brute, forced him to the ground, and brought his axe down into his gut. After he was finished with the scum, he threw smaller axes that hung on his belt at incoming orcs. Then a troll came for him, the troll swung its club but missed him. Gimli rolled behind it, climbed up its back to the top of its head, and split the beast's skull with his double bladed axe. The troll collapsed and the battle, drunk Dwarf hurled himself into a band of orcs. He got to his feet in the middle of the band, raised his axe high, which began to burn with great heat, and brought it down hard to the ground. A roaring fire burst from the impact and incinerated the entire band of orcs. Once he was finished, he charged into more enemies and continued to fight with all his strength.
The four hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin jabbed, cut, and threw poison daggers at the enemies. The hobbits' blades glowed green with poison and took four orcs down with each swing. Then they split up. Frodo attacked easterlings, with his glowing blade Sting. Merry and Pippin fought together against haradrim warriors. Sam stabbed and slashed at orcs. Then four trolls appeared and drove them toward a cliff, except for Sam. He climbed the small cliff, which had rocks piled on top of it. Once he reached the top, the large hobbit shoved his weight up against the rock pile and caused a rockslide. Frodo, Merry, and Pippin took cover, while the trolls were crushed. When they met up with one another they continued to journey forward.
They were magnificent. Aang, Sokka, Katara, Toph, Suki, and Mai's mouths gaped wide open at this astounding battle. They had no doubt that the Fellowship of the Ring was strong, but they never thought they could fight as well as this.
"They're incredible!" Sokka expressed.
"All eight of them are capable of taking down so many enemies in just a small amount of time!" Suki admired.
"Yeah. If we didn't have their help we would have been killed!" Mai exclaimed.
The valor, courage, and teamwork, shown by Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin filled the young fighters with inspiration. The great warriors were cutting down the enemy ranks with ease. Countless corpses of orcs, easterlings, haradrim, corsairs, wargs, and trolls laid about the black soil. For the first in a long time, Aang's heart was beating with the promise of hope. He believed that victory could be achieved.
Though many enemies had been cut down, more legions soon arrived, entrapping the Fellowship of the Ring. Back to back the great heroes stood guard against the massive hordes of Mordor.
Then Aragorn raised Anduril high to the sky and chanted, "Spirits of the fallen warriors, hear me now, come back to the world of the living and avenge yourselves! Fight against the dark forces of Sauron one last time!"
Suddenly, the wind began to churn, blowing in all directions. Then a green fog enveloped hundreds of orcs surrounding the Fellowship. The orcs lay dead once the mist cleared and what stood above them made Aang and his friends' hearts skip a beat. In the glow of phantoms, Zuko, Iroh, Piandao, Pakku, Jeong Jeong, Bumi, and all warriors who had perished at the Black Gate stood ready for battle.
Aang's eyes widened in bewilderment. "Impossible."
Mai soon caught sight of Zuko. She tearfully spoke, "It... it can't be."
Aragorn commanded, "Fight my brothers in arms! Fight for honor! Fight for your loved ones! Fight for your world!"
The spirit army harrowed at Aragorn's speech and charged. Spreading out in all directions, the spirits glided through all ranks of the Enemy, cutting them down. The spirits quickly cleared the battlefield and pressed onward through Mordor, leaving the Dark Lord and his commanders to face the heroes alone.