Chapter 28: His Choice
Holly pressed her fingers against the wound in her chest in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding. While flakes drifted down from the pale sky. She let them fall on her face, her chest, her rapidly numbing fingers.
The snow next to her head crunched under the weight of a boot, and a familiar face leaned over her. The dozen wounds in his chest were still dripping red, and she could hear each drop hiss as it spattered against the snow.
"Here we are again." Damon knelt down. "And I didn't even have to do anything this time—you've made quite a mess of things on your own."
Her body was weighed down with pain and exhaustion, and she could do nothing more than glare at him. "Well, I didn't drive a knife into my own chest, did I?"
"Didn't you? You can't blame the voices in your head for everything, you know."
Holly drew in a rattling breath, pain gripping her chest like a vice. She was trembling with fear and cold. "Did I get you in the heart?"
Damon looked down at his mangled torso. "No, I don't think so. But I still died. Blood loss tends to do that, you know."
She ignored him. Gritting her teeth against the agony in her body, Holly sat up and pushed herself to her feet. She turned to face him. He was still kneeling, looking up at her with dark eyes that were strangely blank, devoid of their characteristic malice.
Why was she still afraid of a dead man? She'd known it was illogical for years, but now, seeing him here with blood soaking his shirt and spattered on his face, the sheer insanity of it struck her like a blow to the face.
Damon wasn't going to leave her alone. In her grief, her despair, her fear, he was always standing at her shoulder. But she knew the man could bleed, that he could be struck down, and that made her the victor.
Holly stood up straight, releasing her hold on the wound that wasn't really there. "You are dead. And I will keep killing you, over and over again, a hundred times if I have to. I will never stop fighting you." Holly let out a shaky sigh that racked her whole body with shivers. "Because I'm still here. I survived you."
Damon collapsed at her feet, his blood staining the snow.
The chasm walls around her melted, as did the snow, and when her vision finally cleared, Holly was standing back in the tower of Barad-dûr, facing the volcano that was still bleeding fire.
She let out a ragged breath, struggling against the weight of grief that threatened to consume her as she thought once again of what she had lost to the inferno.
A few feet away, Víriel was still lying on the ground. Some of the color had returned to her face, but she still looked exhausted and drawn. Léonere was leaning against the tower wall, his head bowed low. Holly couldn't tell if he was conscious or not.
She staggered her way over to Víriel and knelt beside her. Her pulse was steady, but she didn't react when Holly checked it.
"So you've got imaginary friends, too." Léonere had lifted his head and was looking at her with bloodshot eyes. His face was streaked with sweat and his nose was swollen from the rock she'd dropped onto it.
She sat back on her heels and looked at him, not having the energy to give him a full glare.
"Sauron is...gone," Léonere said. "I don't know how, or why, but I can feel it."
"I know," Holly said with a heavy-eyed glance towards the glowing peak in the distance. She turned back to him. "You can feel it now, but that might change later. The portion of his soul attached to yours might have survived."
He nodded, the surprise in his eyes fading to resignation more quickly than she'd expected.
"In order to destroy that portion, you're going to have to—"
"I know."
Holly lowered her gaze to her sore, bleeding fingers, knowing what she was about to say was nothing more than an excuse but feeling the need to say it anyway. "You remember the night the orcs attacked us. It was dark, and I was terrified out of my mind. I thought he was an orc. By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late."
Léonere was silent. There was nothing for him to say, really.
Holly started at the sensation of cold fingers on her arm, but it was only Víriel. She helped her sit up, watching her blink slowly and look around with unfocused eyes. "How are you feeling?"
"Sick," she rasped. "I-I don't know. It's hard to…" Víriel winced and closed her eyes.
Sauron could have done anything to her. Holly took a deep breath, holding one clenched fist in her lap. She had to stay calm if she was to take care of her friend. "Do you know where you are?"
Víriel kept her eyes closed. "Mordor."
"Do you know who you are?"
"M-My name is Víriel. I am a ranger of Ithilien, and it is my duty to protect the people of Gondor from any threats they may face." As she said this, some of the steadiness returned to her voice.
"And you know who I am?"
"Some bossy mage who expects me to answer all these questions with a pounding headache."
Holly allowed herself a shaky smile at that and reached up to check her temperature. "Headache. I can work with that. You're most likely dehydrated." Hopefully that was the only ailment from which she was suffering. "And I don't think being here much longer will help. Can you walk?"
Víriel only grunted at that, but she allowed Holly to sling one arm around her shoulders and try to pull her to her feet. She wasn't much of a support structure, being shorter than Víriel and just as exhausted. But in the end, the both of them were standing.
Holly kept one arm around Víriel's waist as she turned to Léonere. "Are you coming?"
He looked up, his eyes widening a fraction. "We won't make it out alive."
She shook her head and turned away. The two of them made for the stairs at a painfully slow pace.
"Are you feeling any better?" Holly asked as they began their descent.
"Better than when you asked me two minutes ago? Not really."
"Right." Before she could stop herself, Holly asked, "Are you angry with me?"
"No. Why would I be?"
Holly frowned at the stone beneath her feet. "I made a mistake. It was because of me that we went to the tower instead of the volcano. You were attacked because I led us right into a trap."
"There's no way you could have known about that."
She shook her head. "It's my fault we wasted time going in the wrong direction. If we'd managed to find Bilbo in time, perhaps he and Thorin would still be—" Her voice cracked.
Víriel stopped and sat down on the stairs, pulling Holly down next to her. Holly put her face in her hands, breathing in the scent of ash and blood. Even when Víriel reached over and pulled her close, she kept her face hidden as sobs racked her exhausted body.
They stayed like that for a while, in the darkness of the stairwell, simply trying to remember how to breathe.
Holly wasn't sure how they made it as far as they did. Although Víriel seemed to regain a bit of life with every step they took across the barren plains of Mordor, they were both almost completely drained to begin with, and had neither the means nor the time to regain their strength.
More portals crackled and disappeared in the distance, and Holly saw strange shapes slip through into their world. Thankfully, none of them drew close enough to put them at risk of being attacked.
The temperature began to rise as they drew closer to the mountain. Once they had scaled a steep slope and gained a clearer view of the land, Holly realized why.
The fiery liquid from the mountain had spread over a large swath of the area. It ran in streams through crevices and valleys of jagged rock, and she knew it would be unwise to try and swim through. Even from here, she could feel the heat on her face, and the air above the streams was hazy and distorted.
"We'll have to go around," Víriel said, and Holly suppressed a groan.
"We could try to find a way through." She pointed. "See that ridge there? It's high enough to keep above the fire, and it might cut all the way through this mess. Could save us a couple hours of travel."
Víriel sighed, her eyes scanning the ridge. She turned back to Holly. "Do you want to risk it?"
"I'm tired of being here." She started walking again. They would have a clear path to the ridge from where they were, though that wouldn't last long—the bright orange streams were slowly but surely encroaching upon that space.
Holly glanced up at her companion. "I know you're exhausted, but are you feeling any other, um, side effects? Nausea, hallucinations, psychotic urges to exterminate the Free Peoples of Middle Earth?"
Víriel gave her a tired smile. "Just the first one. I…" Her smile wavered. "Let's just focus on getting out of here."
They climbed up the ridge without incident and took another short rest. The air had grown almost unbearably hot, and Holly found her head drooping as they continued along in silence. It was all she could do to focus on putting one foot in front of the other, and hope she didn't miss a step and plummet into the liquid death below.
It wasn't for her sake that she watched her step. She needed to make sure Víriel made it home safely—it was the least she could do after all the ranger had given her.
"Oh, Eru. Holly." When she didn't respond, Víriel grabbed her arm. "Holly, look! Do you see that?"
She turned towards where Víriel was pointing. All she could see was a lake of orange heat and dark rocks jutting from the liquid at various intervals. "What am I looking at?"
Víriel bent down so they had the same perspective and pointed again. "There, on that rock. Do you see that?"
Holly shook her head. "The heat's making you delirious. W-We have to go." She turned to walk away, but Víriel kept her hold on her arm.
"I'm not seeing things. Look at the rock next to the two boulders and tell me that doesn't look like a couple of people standing there."
A bitter taste that had nothing to do with ash swelled on her tongue—there was no point in getting her hopes up. But Holly looked anyway, and when she saw a distinct movement that had nothing to do with the distortion from the heat, her eyes widened.
It was as though a cold bucket of water had been thrown on her. "I-It's them. They survived." She made a jagged noise that was not quite a laugh and stood up straighter, scanning the terrain. "We need to get to them."
"Right, but we'll need to make a pla—Holly, wait!"
But she was already on the move, sprinting down the ridge and sliding down the rock face to a piece of land that was only partially submerged. If she climbed up the rock nearby, jumped to a ledge not far from there, and managed to navigate the uneven cluster of rocks next to it, she would be within a stone's throw of her friends.
"Holly, you're going to get yourself killed!" Víriel slid down the ridge after her, but Holly merely beckoned for her to follow and pulled herself up and onto a small shelf jutting out of the rock face.
She pushed herself to go as quickly as she could, exhaustion nearly forgotten in her frantic attempts to reach them.
Víriel was right behind her when she finally pushed herself up onto a group of relatively stable rocks about twenty feet away from the two figures stranded on the rock.
Holly took a deep breath, feeling hot air and hope swirl together in her lungs, and shouted "Bilbo! Thorin!"
They turned around to face her, wearing twin expressions of shock. They appeared to be unharmed, and that revelation almost brought her to her knees.
"We'll get you out of there," Holly called to them, and scanned the area, searching for some piece of land that they could use to get to safety.
"There's nothing there," Víriel said from behind her. "They won't be able to get across."
"We can't just leave them there."
"I know. I'm saying we're going to have to make a path for them." Víriel met her gaze and held it. "One more spell. Can you do it?"
Holly turned back to her stranded friends, the answer already on her tongue. She could do it, because she had no other choice.
She knelt down and focused on the earth beneath her feet, the solid, dry rock. She visualized a bridge extending, filling the gap between them. Her breathing slowed, and she raised one hand.
"Cae perien rammas eria."
A wall of earth rose from the fire, creating a narrow passage from Bilbo and Thorin's rock to the cluster of boulders where Holly and Víriel stood. Holly winced as a sharp pain lanced through her head.
"Careful, it's still hot!" Víriel shouted as Thorin tried to step on the bridge, which was still smoking. She scoffed and lowered her voice. "Like children trying to eat something straight out of the oven." She knelt down and put one hand on Holly's shoulder. "Are you all right?"
"That's it for my magic today." Holly wiped a bit of blood from her nose, blinking against the stabbing pain in her head. "I am definitely going to feel this tomorrow morning."
"Hopefully not as bad as a hangover, huh?"
"Shut up."
Víriel helped her to her feet and they waited in breathless silence until the bridge was deemed safe enough for Bilbo and Thorin to cross. They were both covered in ash and sweat, but they were alive, and close enough for her to touch.
Bilbo looked into her eyes, and the uncertainty in his gaze brought back the memory of their last encounter with a jolt. She had a couple things to say to him about running off into Mordor alone, but at the moment she was simply glad to see him alive.
"Your shoulder…"
"Your feet," Holly said at the same time. She gestured awkwardly at the ground behind him. "Because you don't have shoes, and the ground is hot…"
They both reached out for each other in the same instant, and Holly squeezed her eyes shut as she embraced him. Her family was back together again, and despite the heat and her exhaustion and the death that surrounded them on all sides, she felt her heart lift. She looked up at smiled at Thorin, who returned the gesture.
"The ring," Holly said when the pulled apart. "Did you destroy it?"
Bilbo nodded, a strange weight in his eyes that she would have to ask him about later.
"Then our work here is done." Víriel spread her arms. "And this rock is getting a little crowded with the four of us, so…"
"We've tarried long enough in this foul place," Thorin said in the tone that made them all straighten up and listen. "Let's get out of here."
They traversed the rocks back to the ridge without incident, where they continued on with Thorin in the lead. Holly was just beginning to think that they would make it out without any more problems when Bilbo stopped in front of her, causing her to run into him.
"What is it?"
He pointed down at the swirling lake of fire. "I saw something moving down there."
"Some fish, perhaps?" Víriel said from where she was bringing up the rear.
As Holly scanned the glowing orange liquid, a movement near one of the rocks caught her eye. A jagged, metallic tail flashed above the surface for a moment before disappearing once more. "I saw it that time." She turned to Víriel, who furrowed her brow upon sensing the anxiety in her voice. "One of the creatures that came from the portal below the tower."
"Hold on, portal?" Bilbo frowned up at her. "You mean those flashing things?"
"If they're dangerous, then we should keep moving." Thorin gestured for them to start walking again. "The sooner we leave Mordor, the better."
"We met an old friend at the tower ruins not far from here," Víriel said. While they walked, she explained their encounter with Léonere and Sauron, and Holly filled in some of the more complicated magical details.
"The portal is still open," Holly said once they had finished their explanation. "I don't know if it will stay that way, but if it does, nothing good will come from it. Different worlds aren't meant to collide."
As if to punctuate her point, a shrieking noise sounded from behind them. They turned to see a portal flash into existence, and before it closed a split second later, one of the strange metallic creatures slipped through.
It was almost feline in form, save for its jagged tail and featureless head that tapered into a sharp point. Despite its lack of eyes, nose, or ears, it seemed to be aware of their presence, and pointed its head directly at them.
"Run!"
They sprinted along the ridge, but they only had two legs where the creature had four. Just as it was about to overtake them, Víriel cried, "Duck!" and pushed Holly down. Bilbo followed suit, and the creature leapt over them. Thorin spun around and sliced into the creature's neck with his sword. The blade left a sizable dent in its body, and the impact knocked it to the side and into the fire below.
"Keep moving, come on!" Thorin pulled Bilbo to his feet and they hurried onwards.
The ridge widened into a plateau-like area. They stood in the center and stopped to catch their breath. Holly put her hands on her knees and tried to keep her legs from shaking too much. Running even that short distance had reminded her that she had already come close to her limit several times that day.
Before they could fully gather themselves, another shrieking noise sounded and a different creature drifted through the portal. This one seemed to be made of shadows, similar to Sauron's form, but attached to the shadows was a bleached white form that rather resembled a skull, with two glowing red lights in the eye sockets.
"Holly." Thorin nodded to her. "Can you use your magic?"
"No," she said, cursing herself even as the words left her mouth. "I-I don't have the energy for another spell. I'm sorry." Just by looking at the creature, she knew swords would do no harm to it. She was the only one who could defend the group, and she had doomed them all with her weakness.
Bilbo snatched up a rock from the ground and hurled it at the ghost-like creature. The rock struck the center of its skull, leaving a sizeable crack. The ghost paused in its advances and let out a noise akin to a sigh.
Before they even begin to formulate a plan, another shrieking noise sounded from the opposite end of the plateau. More creatures appeared from other portals or crawled up the sides of the rock face—a bird-like creature with huge red eyes, a pile of slime that made the rock beneath it steam and hiss, a giant insect with more stingers on its body than she could count.
The four of them formed a tight circle as the creatures converged on them. Bilbo and Thorin drew their swords, Víriel picked up another loose rock, and Holly clenched her fists and tried not to panic.
"This is usually the part where the giant eagles come and save us," Bilbo said.
"The ones in the Misty Mountains?" Víriel asked.
"They saved us all twice a couple years ago."
"I think you're taking them for granted. They almost never fly this far south. Sorry."
The monster nearest to them—a large reptile with a glowing tail and head—lunged at Víriel. She raised the stone in her fist, but before she could let it fly a streak of lightning sliced through its side, severing the beast in half.
Léonere stood at the edge of the plateau, one hand still outstretched.
Thorin and Bilbo leapt into action, cutting down the tangible creatures that came too close to their group. Léonere finished off the ones that could not be touched by steel. Víriel grabbed Holly's shoulder and pulled her down as the slime creature launched a steaming portion of its body at their heads.
The fight was over in minutes, with the creatures either dead or knocked into the burning liquid below. The dust had barely settled before Léonere approached their group.
"I know how to close the portals," he said. "And I need to do it quickly. Sauron explained it to me—those portals lead to the Void. The creatures here must be manifestations of the malice that has festered there for ages. And one being is trying to make its way into this world—an evil far greater than Sauron."
Víriel shook her head. "You can't be serious."
Holly suppressed a shiver. Morgoth's legacy of darkness lived on in the bloodthirsty creatures that terrorized Middle Earth, orcs being on the kinder end of that group. Obviously he'd been working on some new creations during his exile in the Void.
Thorin shook some blood from his sword and stepped forward. "What do you need from us?"
Léonere looked around. They were alone for now, but that could change in an instant. "Cover me while I take control of the portal. I can't fight off creatures and work on it at the same time."
Thorin and Bilbo went to stand by Léonere as he closed his eyes and held out both palms. Holly studied him with a furrowed brow. He hadn't been able to close it magically before, and she wasn't sure how he was going to do it this time.
"Do you know what he's going to do?" Víriel asked her.
Holly shook her head.
With a great crack and a flash of light, a large portal appeared before Léonere's outstretched hands, hovering over the fire below. More of the metallic creatures from before crawled over the edges of the plateau, and Bilbo and Thorin fought them off.
Holly shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "I can't just stand here and do nothing. I-I don't like what he's doing."
Víriel's head turned sharply. "Do you think he means to betray us?"
"I don't know." Holly took a few steps forward, watching the lines of tension in Léonere's back grow. Before she could get very far, though, a wave of cold and dread stopped her in her tracks.
Someone was looking back at them from inside the portal. His eyes were deep black, so dark they blended in with the inky backdrop, but Holly could still sense him staring out at her. Bilbo and Thorin froze as well, their weapons faltering. Léonere was shaking, his breath coming in heaves as he poured all of his energy into the portal.
After a moment, he dropped his arms, shoulders sagging. The dark presence disappeared from the portal, but it remained open.
"Léonere." Holly walked over and grabbed his arm. "What happened? Can you not close it?"
He was still breathing heavily, his eyes focused on a random point in the distance. "I'll close it. I've bought us some time. I-I just need a minute." With that, he walked off the plateau and onto the ridge, carrying himself with an odd sort of calmness.
Thorin paused in checking Bilbo for injuries. "Where is he going?"
"Stay here," Holly told her group, and made to follow him. She had seen that posture before.
Léonere had stopped a about thirty feet away, and was staring into the fire below with a disconcerting intensity.
"Are you sure this is the only way?" Holly asked.
Léonere looked up at her. "The portal won't close because there's nothing corporeal to close. If it has a physical anchor, though, and that anchor is destroyed, then..." After a moment, he added, "We don't have time to look for another way."
"You're right." Holly stared at the ground, a list of phrases running through her head—apologies, assurances, questions with answers that didn't really matter. "And I was wrong. You do understand me. And I think I might understand a small fraction of you." She lifted her eyes. "What you're about to do."
"The fear." His voice was ragged.
"Inevitable."
"All right." Léonere turned back to the glowing death waiting below and swallowed hard.
"I hope...I hope you see him again, wherever you end up after this."
The clouds overhead were dark, but a small glow of light appeared on his face. He stared downwards, and the faintest of grins passed over his lips.
Holly watched him fall, then turned and walked back to rejoin her friends.
I felt like Holly needed some sort of closure when it came to Damon. I wanted to make it clear, though, that PTSD is an ongoing battle, not something that can be "cured," so I hope that was clear.
Also, as a continuation of my lava comment last chapter...turns out Tolkien never uses the world "volcano" to describe Mount Doom, which means I have to come up with another way to refer to it (without saying Mount Doom because that's dumb). I hate myself.
And yay the gang is back together once again! It's crazy how it's been six chapters since they were all together. I didn't realize I'd kept them apart for so long, but chronologically it's only been two or three days.
The weird creatures mentioned in this chapter are all based off of Pokemon. If you can guess which ones, I'll give you a virtual high five.
And finally...poor Leonere :( I wasn't really sure what to do with his character at the end, but I think this was the best route in terms of character development, plot, all that good stuff. Not really sure about the pacing surrounding that last part, but it might just be me.
Thanks for reading! If you have something you want to say about this chapter, feel free to leave a comment. I'd really appreciate it.
