A/N: I own nothing.

***Chapter 36***

**Deirdre's POV**

"What?" Aragorn responded, halting in his exit and staring at me with a confused expression on his face.

"Evenstar pendant. Hand it over." I repeated as though it was the simplest thing in the world.

Aragorn's face contorted into even greater shock and the only sound in the hall was that of breathing because everyone had decided that I must have gone insane and was now staring at me. Don't I feel special?

"Can you just trust me on this one? I'll explain after your little conversation with Sauron." I said before I could be asked to repeat myself.

After another moment of silence, Aragorn shook his head and walked slowly back over to me. His hand faltered slightly as he unfastened the slim chain and lowered the pendant into my outstretched hand. With a brief pause, Aragorn released a sigh and slowly exited the hall, heading to where the palantir was kept. All eyes turned to me as the door to the hall shut with a dull thud.

"I'm only going to explain once, so you all will just have to wait until Aragorn gets back." I announced, attempting to ignore the confused stares of everyone in the hall.

So, instead of looking at them I turned my gaze to the shiny pendant in my hand. It looked so fragile. I was kind of amazed that it hadn't broken being worn by Aragorn into so many battles. But it seemed that it was strong enough to hold on, at least a little longer.

Time in the hall passed slowly as everyone was anxious about Aragorn's return when he would tell us how the challenge went, that and they were still kind of curious about what I could possibly be thinking taking away the Evenstar pendant from Aragorn. Legolas came up behind me after a few minutes of waiting and led the both of us over to a bench where we sat down so that I could lean back against him.

An eternity had seemingly passed when the doors of the hall swung open once more, revealing a slightly dazed Aragorn. His brow was furrowed in troubled thought as he took a seat next to Legolas and me at the bench.

"Sauron will know we are coming now." Aragorn declared, not meeting gazes with anyone else as his mind was still elsewhere. "Deirdre?"

It took a moment for me to catch onto his train of thoughts, but as soon as I did. I held out my hand which still cradled the pendant and passed it into his waiting hand.

"Right, sorry about that. It's just too pretty and shiny to let get broken." I explained.

Somehow that managed to increase the confused stares of everyone in the room. This was really quite impressive, considering that there was a finite number of people in the room. Nevertheless, the intensity of the stares at least increased.

"You're going to have to explain that one, Deirdre." Gandalf informed me, breaking the silence of the hall.

"Alright, so what was originally supposed to go down with Aragorn and the palantir was that he would issue the challenge and Sauron would respond by showing Aragorn the image of Arwen dying. Now, in the depiction that I know, the Evenstar pendant would fall from Aragorn's neck because he was shocked at seeing his love in such a state. And when the pendant falls, it breaks into a million itty bitty pieces of shininess." I explained, rambling slightly.

There was silence for another moment as everyone took in what exactly I was saying. Aragorn was the first to respond and break the silence, something I was beginning to notice he was rather good at.

"So the image of Arwen dying, that was just Sauron attempting to hurt me and not real?" he questioned, the hope behind his words obvious.

"Sorry, Aragorn. But the image that he showed you was real. That is the fate of Arwen, should the ring survive and evil remain in Middle Earth, she will fade." I responded, saying it as bluntly as needed.

I watched his face crumble for a moment in utter despair before a firm resignation took its place, setting his features into a determined grimace.

"However, Sauron is nearly as much a master of deception as I've read that Morgoth was." I told him, earning a confused look for a moment. "Surely I'm not the only one here who knows the story of Hurin and the fall of Gondolin."

My mind backpedaled over the stories that I had read after I became nigh on obsessed with Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's work. How Hurin had to watch his family fall apart and the seeming betrayal of his son's adoptive parents. But it was all the deceit of Morgoth, who wanted to not only torment Hurin with the knowledge of his family's pain. But he also wanted to find out where Gondolin was as Morgoth was sure that Hurin had been there before.

Recognition flared in the eyes of pretty much everyone in the room, well aside from Saffy, it even crossed Gimli's face even though it was an old story of Men and Elves, though Dwarves had their place in it as well.

"Knowledge is not only powerful, but can be extremely dangerous." I concluded, earning a nod and a slight smile to cross Aragorn's face.

"At dawn we ride for Mordor." Aragorn proclaimed, rising from his seat. "Eomer, the choice is yours if you and your people will ride to war with us. But as soon as the sun graces the earth, my men and I will be riding."

And with that, Aragorn walked out of the room, calling for a guard so that he could pass on his message that morning would bring a ride for war and the strong likelihood of death. My eyes wandered over to the new king of Rohan, whose face seemed nearly as determined as Aragorn's had as he left the room.

"Do you and your men ride with us to battle tomorrow, Eomer?" I asked him, feeling Legolas' arms tighten around my waist uncomfortably.

"You think I would remain behind and leave all the glory to you?" He asked rhetorically with a laugh before continuing. "Besides, I better make sure that you stick around a little longer, it seems that your riding into battle is good for morale."

"Good to hear." I returned with a smile. "Well, I will see you a little later. I believe this one wants to talk." I jerked my head towards Legolas who was still gripping me quite tightly.

I detached his arms and stood from the bench before practically dragging him out of the hall and back towards my room just outside the houses of healing. As soon as the door was closed behind me he started.

"What did you mean 'us'? Did you really think that after what happened last time that I would let you ride into battle once more? Especially when there is little to no hope that we will survive?" Legolas ranted, pacing the length of the room and occasionally throwing a glance at me, a mixture of confusion and anger in his eyes.

"Well, I think that it would be fairly obvious what I meant, unless you no longer speak common." I returned trying to ease the tension in the air between us.

"You aren't coming to Mordor tomorrow and that is final." He announced, his voice coming out angry and terse.

"Legolas Thranduilion, do not think that you can tell me what to do just because of what happened the last time that I went to battle. I am more than capable of handling myself in battle. The only reason that I got hurt was because that dude blew apart, that won't be happening in most any other battle." I scolded returning his anger right back to him.

"Is it so wrong of me not to want you to get hurt again? You almost died. I won't lose you!" He yelled, which my mouth to hang open as any previous words I was going to say died in my throat.

"Love, just because I want to go and fight doesn't mean that you would ever lose me. I will do whatever it takes to stay by your side, no matter the consequences. I'm strong enough to stand by your side and fight there too. I promise you, nothing is going to go wrong. I will be right there next to you when Sauron falls." I said while slowly approaching the furious elf standing in the center of the room.

When I finally reached him, I raised myself up slightly and gently pressed my lips against his, giving him every bit of the comfort that I could. Ensuring that I wasn't going to go anywhere; then I pulled him back towards me and the bed falling back onto it.

Far too early the sun began to peek over the horizon, the reddish rays seeping into the earth and rousing Legolas and I from unconsciousness. I stretched in the bed and snuggled my face against Legolas' bare chest.

"Morning, melethnin." He murmured against my hair, wrapping his arms around my nude figure.

"Morning, love." I responded, pressing my lips gently against his neck. "I don't think I ever want to get out of bed."

"Sorry, but we have to get up. Aragorn and the army are leaving Minas Tirith soon and I intend to go with them." He returned, slowly moving out from underneath me so that he could get out of the bed and prepare for the day.

"Alright, I'm getting up then too. I am still going to come with you, just so you now." I informed him.

I rose from the bed and padded over towards the dress that I had left strewn across the floor. Lifting it and the corset from the ground, I quickly redressed and turned around to face Legolas who had redressed in his traveling attire and was currently refastening all of his weapons about his person.

"I'm still not so certain about you coming to Mordor with us." Legolas stated as his hands danced through the hair at his temples, forming the elven warrior braids that were constantly there.

"Don't worry so much. Nothing is going to happen. I'm going to be by your side the entirety of the battle." I reassured him as I made my way over to him and wrapped my arms about his waist.

"No getting hurt this time?" he questioned in a serious tone, backing away slightly so that he could look me in the eyes.

"Wouldn't dream of it." I replied, reaching up and kissing him softly. "Do you know where I can get my armor? I haven't seen it since the battle."

A small smirk crossed his face as he stared down at me.

"Deirdre, your armor was ruined by the chunks of Witch-King that was pulled out of it, that and your swords did not help so much either."

"Oh, well, where can I get new armor? And where did my swords disappear to?" I asked him, quirking my eyebrow.

"Come on, melethnin." And with that Legolas grabbed my hand and began dragging me out of the door and through the hallways from the houses of healing towards the armory.

So apparently, in Gondor it's almost impossible to find anything to go over the chainmail shirt that doesn't specify that you are from Gondor. Luckily, we managed to rummage through the mess that was the armory, considering that there were so many men who had just been outfitted earlier this morning the mess wasn't that surprising, and found a plain black leather vest. After I had pulled it on and Legolas had gone and grabbed my swords for me, as well as the bow and quiver that I had been using since Rohan, we headed out of the armory ready to ride to war.

In the stables we managed to find my horse Bladen as well as a spare horse for Legolas, for Arod had fled back at the Paths of the Dead. We both saddled our horses before heading out of the stables to find Aragorn, Saffy, Gandalf, Nimiwen, Gimli, Eomer, and the hobbits outside in a mass of men in armor preparing to ride to Mordor. Saffy tossed me a bag, which was filled with rations, as well as a bedroll while Nimiwen did the same to Legolas.

"Figured you would have forgotten to pick them up." Saffron explained as she mounted her horse that had been found in Gondor.

"Thanks, you were right." I responded, mounting Bladen quickly and settling myself into the saddle.

Our party set out at the head of the force heading into the east towards the dark clouds that hung over Mordor. Over the four day journey, our party caught up on what everyone had done recently. Apparently even though most of our parts in the tale overlapped there was still a lot that the others didn't know about what we had done. For instance, Merry explained about how he had ridden to war with Eowyn and everything that had happened on his journey, while since I had been separated from Eomer before the battle even began, I wasn't sure what entirely he had been doing.

One the third night that we were on the road to Mordor, our group had crowded around one of the fires and it almost reminded me of back when I was living in my old world, out camping with friends sitting around a campfire and sharing stories.

"Alright, most embarrassing thing that you have ever done." I declared, determined to get a little bit of dirt on the royals all around me.

"Di, why do you want to do this?" Saffy questioned, rolling her eyes as she leaned back into Nimiwen's arms.

"Come on, Saffy. Are you afraid to tell your most embarrassing moment?" I questioned.

"Whatever, I'll only tell mine if you get everyone to agree to tell theirs." She informed me, sparing a quick glance over to the rest of the people gathered around the fire.

However, much to Saffy's loss they all seemed at least somewhat willing to share their own experience, and once affirming that I would share mine as well, we began swapping our worst moments.

"Who wants to go first?" I asked the group, to which I received a pointed stare from everyone present. "Alright, I guess I will."

"One time, I was in art class and was walking back to my seat from the front of the room and I didn't see a bag that someone had placed next to their seat. So I tripped over the bag, stumbled through two stools and fell into one of the tables. Then proceeded to walk away in the most dignified fashion I could manage as the entirety of the class, including the teacher, laughed at me." I admitted recounting one of my many clumsy encounters.

The hobbits both laughed at me, causing a flush to color my cheeks. Legolas placed a kiss to my warm cheek while Eomer attempted to stifle his laughter.

"Did that really only happen once?" Saffy asked laughter in her voice.

"Yes." I answered, hastily looking down. "Your turn, Saffy."

"Alright. I think that my most embarrassing moment was probably the time that I had to flash our old middle school." Saffy explained, causing me to laugh at her reddening face.

"I remember that. But don't worry; you weren't the only one who had to flash that school that night. Remember, they made me do it first." I sniggered, leaning forward to pat Saffy's hand.

"That's right. Why wasn't that your most embarrassing moment then?" she questioned.

"Cause there was nowhere there." I reasoned before turning my gaze on Legolas.

"Is it really my turn?" he asked aloud, receiving a nod from everyone in the circle. "My most embarrassing moment was probably when I was younger I was running through the palace in Mirkwood and the floors had just been cleaned. I ended up slipping on the wet floor and sliding into the dining hall where one of the servants was carrying a bowl of berries. I slid into him and ended up on the floor covered in berry juice."

With a smile on my face, I turned my head into his neck and placed a kiss against the warm skin that was there. The other members of our party laughed, before continuing to share their most embarrassing moments.

Merry and Pippin shared a few, not being able to agree on which was the most embarrassing before finally settling on the time that Merry got Pippin drunk enough that on their way over to find Frodo, he accidently proclaimed his undying love to Proudfoot instead of the pretty hobbit girl who was walking down the road.

Gandalf had to be persuaded into sharing an embarrassing moment, as he was a wizard after all. And because of that was one of the most prestigious in the group. However, he finally admitted to a few events where he had walked into doors and accidently hit his staff into his forehead having turned around too fast.

Aragorn's story was about the time that the twin sons of Elrond had pulled a prank on him as he was getting out of the bath and without thinking he had run after them forgetting to put his clothes on first. He had ended up halfway through Rivendell before he had caught up to them, only to be mocked for being nude.

Gimli was as difficult to persuade as Gandalf had been, but finally he was talked into sharing a time from his youth. This happened to be when he had first begun smoking his pipe and had dropped his match onto his beard, catching it afire.

Eomer told us about when he was young how he had been trying to show off to one of the girls back in Edoras that he had stood up on his horse. However, instead of impressing the girl he instead succeeded in falling off of the horse and landing on his butt in a pile of horse manure.

Nimiwen was the last of the group to share her story. She told us about how the first time that she had gone on guard on the borders of Lothlorien. She had mistaken the sounds coming from one of the other guards with an intruder and had then snuck up on none other than Haldir himself. After she had realized that she had pulled a weapon on her superior, she had tried to apologize and in backing away from the March warden, who had in fact been amused, she had fallen off of the low platform and onto one of the lower branches.

As the last of our stories finished up, we dispersed heading back to our separate bedrolls to get some rest as we would be arriving outside the black gates of Mordor midday tomorrow. I curled up under the stars with Legolas by my side and hoped that the next day would bring death or injury in too many of our company.

Dawn broke. I had become used to sleeping on the ground once more, even though my body still yearned for the soft mattresses of Minas Tirith. But as realization of what the day would bring, the final battle between our forces and those of Mordor would come today. And before the day was done, Frodo and Sam would be back with us.

By the time that the sun would have been at its highest but was hidden beneath the dark clouds that hung in the sky, we had reached the fields outside of the black gates. Our company forming ranks with our group at the forefront of the army. We stood waiting outside of the gates in awkward silence, waiting for something to happen.

"Where are they?" Pippin asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over our group and crossing over the worried murmurs from the army at our backs.

Aragorn took a glance at Pippin as he sat behind Gandalf, before he turned and rode towards the black gates.

"Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth." Aragorn called to the gates. "Let justice be done upon him."

Ever so slowly the massive metal edifice creaked open and a single figure rode out, mounted on a black steed. The majority of the figure's face was covered in a black helmet that looked quite similar to the tower of Barad-dur. However, the part of the beings face that was revealed was a huge mouth, the lips bruised and bloodied from housing the gargantuan, sharp, yellow teeth within. A shudder passed over me as I imagined what it had to be like having those teeth within my own mouth. One word: Ouch.

"My master Sauron the Great bids thee welcome." The mouth stated, stretching his purple lips into a twisted smile. "Is there any in this rout with the authority to treat with me?"

"We do not come to treat with Sauron, faithless and accursed. Tell your master this. The armies of Mordor must disband. He is to depart these lands, never to return." Gandalf spat as he looked with disgust upon the horrific figure before us.

I couldn't help but question where the hell Gandalf was thinking that Sauron would go. I mean he couldn't really go anywhere, considering that he was an eye. And furthermore, where was he supposed to go even if he could leave. I don't think that he could manage to get to Valinor and he definitely couldn't get to wherever his old boss went. Where was he supposed to leave to?

"Aha! Old Greybeard." The mouth of Sauron snarled, snapping me out of my contemplation. "I have a token I was bidden to show thee."

He pulled out the mithril shirt that Frodo had worn that had protected him from being impaled by the cave troll. Having pulled out the shirt, there were gasps coming from the two hobbits that both looked aghast that Frodo was probably dead.

"Frodo!" Pippin shouted in grief before he could hold his tongue. The shirt was then thrown at Gandalf so that it crumpled into his lap as he stared at in somewhat shocked. "Frodo!"

"Silence!" Gandalf reprimanded him, widening the smirk on the mouth's face.

"No!" Merry picked up the cries from where Pippin left off from his place behind Eomer.

"Silence!" Gandalf commanded once more, trying to calm the reactions of the hobbits.

"The Halfling was dear to thee I see. Know that he suffered greatly at the hands of his host. Who would've thought that one so small could endure so much pain? And he did Gandalf, he did." The Mouth sneered at the wizard.

"And we're supposed to believe that just because you have a shiny little shirt that once belonged to a hobbit that we knew means that you killed him?" I questioned in a harsh tone, causing the Mouth to turn his head towards me. "What supposed proof you have offered is pathetic. But you just don't want to admit that you lost the Halfling when he had been captured. Well, more that you not only lost him but most of the guards that were at Cirith Ungol."

The corners of his great mouth pulled down in a frown as I gave a harsh bark of a laugh. I felt as though I was returned back to my time in Isenguard with the way that I was acting in response to negotiations with the harsh attitude I had resumed.

"So you are the disgraced Mistress of Isenguard. The weakling." He said with disdain, the supposed title laced with disgust.

"In the flesh." I returned, pulling one corner of my mouth up into a smirk. "Why would I ever want to work with Sauron when your guards are so incompetent that they can't even keep track of one bound hobbit?"

"It's shocking that your so called friends would be willing to ride to battle with a liar such as you at their sides." He commented before turning his gaze to Aragorn who was riding towards him. "And who is this? Isildur's heir? It takes more to make a king than an Elvish blade."

Aragorn rode ever closer before fiercely drawing his sword and separating the mouth's head from his body. It rolled to the ground with a sickening thud and his body fell to the ground on the other side of the horse. Aragorn came back from the retreating horse.

"Well, I guess that concludes negotiations." Gimli grumbled from behind Legolas.

"I do not believe it. I will not." Aragorn stated.

My mind however was more focused on the fallen corpse of the Mouth of Sauron which lay on both sides of where the horse had previously stood.

"It takes more to make a negotiator than a mouth." I commented with a slight smile. "It takes a brain."

**End Chapter 36**

So I successfully managed to get the chapter done by Saturday. Hopefully, I will be able to get the next chapter done soon. However I haven't even gotten a start on the next chapter, so I should be able to get it up by next Saturday but I can't guarantee it. But it will have the battle in it. Tell me what you all thought of the 'most embarrassing moments' part, I kinda wanted to get a little more in depth with the characters.

Read and Review please.