Hi guys!

In this chapter something strange will happen to Kitty, something that will have great consequences in the future.

Before starting I want to thank Celridel for her immense help.

Waiting for your reviews, guys!

Chapter 23: The Ranger and the Mutant

Legolas had gone ahead, and was moving through the knee-deep grass. Much to shame, his thoughts were not centered on his duty, but on a young mutant.

He did not exactly understand the reason of how could he sense and fully understand Kitty's emotions. He knew it was one of the symptoms, so to speak, that appeared when an Elf was in love ... they could sense when the loved one was in danger and their thoughts and feelings, even if the loved one did not express them. And that, , was happening to him. For a long time that feeling had been upon him and that ability growing more and more. Especially after what Boromir said ... it was as if the nobleman's Gondor words would have been a ray of light that illuminated some doubts that he had.

The voice of one of the guards took him out of his thoughts. "What is it, Captain Hamà?"

Legolas looking up, noticed that the horses were restless, as they stamped and pawed the ground. Looking up, he saw a great beast on a cliff a little ways above them, and before they could move, it leapt on Hama, ripping out his throat. Snarling, it turned its bloodstained maw to the other guard, but Legolas killed it. Yet before he shot the Orc, it yelled out. Turning swiftly, the Elf dashed back towards the King. "It was a scout, my Lord!"

"What is it? What do you see?" asked Théoden, afraid for his people

The answer was given by Aragorn. "Wargs! We are under attack!"

The King swung Snowmane round to Éowyn. "You must lead the people to Helm's Deep and make haste"

"I can fight!" shouted the Princess, her grey eyes defiant.

"No! You must do this… for me!" And he was gone, followed by his men.

Aragorn has turned to Kitty, unsure of what he should do. Should he tell her to stay and fight? After all, she was a mutant, a descendent of an Istari. Or should he tell her to leave with Éowyn? After all, the last time she had fought she had been made prisoner.

The young woman was already readying her horse to follow the King. It was Legolas who spoke first, skidding to a halt. "Kitty, you must go with the people!"

"What?" she said surprised "No way!"

"This is dangerous! Wargs are terrible foes!" said the Elf impatiently, glancing back where the first shouts of the battle were already sounding.

"I'm Shadowcat, I'm an X-Men. And I'm allied with you, I'm going to fight!" answered Kitty firmly.

Legolas looked to Aragorn as if asking help. Aragorn sighed. He truly didn't know exactly what to do. He knew that she was powerful, or so Mithrandir said, but he did not know if it was the wisest thing to let her have her way.

"Kitty, we need you to help Éowyn to take the people in safe to Helm's Deep." he said.

"But…!"

"But nothing Kitty, that's what we need." said the Dúnadan sternly.

And without giving her time for retorting, he left, followed by Legolas who gave her a last glance before he was gone.

Kitty turned her horse to where the people fled under Éowyn's direction. Didn't that Elf know who she was? What she was able to do? And how was she supposed to keep her promise and the fact that as X-Men had allied herself with the Fellowship if they left her behind? No, that was the last straw! Machismo and sexism! As if she could not defend herself! She was going to resign herself from the column of people Éowyn led skillfully, but the screams of the men and the howls of the Wargs showed that there was a bitter fight. No ... Kitty would not be left behind ... No. Shadowcat was not ever left behind. And without further ado, she spurred her horse and headed for the place of battle. But when she arrived, she froze.

This battle was nothing like what she had seen before! Kitty stood still for a moment, gazing in horror at those monsters called Wargs.

But that moment was short. What the hell! She was Shadowcat! She had been trained by Wolverine! She had been fighting by the age of fourteen! Swinging down, she seized a sword from an corpse of the King's guard, and spurred her horse forward.

Legolas and Gimli were mounted on Arod, fighting together. The dwarf, hewing at the Orcs, saw the Elf stiffen, his bow frozen in his hands. "Hey! What is it, lad? "

Legolas did not answer. His keen gaze swept the entire battlefield.

"Lad!" the Dwarf shouted again. "Have you lost your head!"

"Kitty." murmured the Elf.

"What about her?" asked Gimli in surprise.

"She ... I sense her."

Gimli raised a surprised eyebrow. "She went with the people to Helm's Deep, you Elvish idiot!"

Legolas did not answer. True, they had both told Kitty to go with Éowyn and, in fact, had seen her stay behind, but ... he could not shake the fact that he could sense her presence perfectly. Was she in danger? No ... what he sensed was that Kitty was close, very close. Was she in the middle of the battle?

A growl made Arod rear up, but Gimli smashed the Warg's thick skull with his axe. "She's with the others! Now get to work, or you will be a dead Elf before long!"

Legolas took a deep breath and returned to fighting, but that did not stop feeling Kitty's presence.

Aragorn spun round, gutting an Orc on his blade. Hasufel stumbled then, and the Ranger was fell to the ground. A Warg loomed above him, its yellowed teeth showing. Aragorn rolled away from the fatal bite, seizing the coarse fur and pull himself up, as he knocked away the Orc Rider.

The Warg became wild then, and ran madly, skidding at last to the edge of the cliff. Aragorn struggled to get free, but his hand was caught in the leather halter, and it was impossible.

A cliff loomed in front of them, under which roared a river, but all effort was in vain.

The Warg fell howling into the abyss carrying with it Aragorn. The last thing he remembered was arms surrounding him.

Kitty was fighting, clinging very tightly with one hand to the reins and with the other to her sword, struggling to remain in the phasing state and still not fall off.

Misjudging the momentum, she stabbed at a Warg, only to have her sword wrenched out of her hand and left it shivering in the dying monster. With a curse, she swung her horse round again to pull it out.

Looking up, she saw Aragorn fall from his horse with a gasp, but by the time she had reached where he had lain, the Dúnadan was gone. She saw him leaning over a Warg, apparently riding it. But it was dashing madly towards a cliff. She shook her head. Why the Ranger hadn't left the Warg or killed it? He was stupid! Especially when Kitty realized even before him that the beast was going directly to a cliff. For a moment, Kitty wondered why Aragorn hadn't left the Warg but then, it dawned her: surely, he would be stuck in the reins.

Kitty immediately spurred her horse d towards Aragorn. She could save him using her phasing mutation. Surely the Ranger wouldn't be pleased at all, but that wasn't important.

As she jumped off her horse, she saw Aragorn's grasp on the cliff slip and he fell. Without thinking twice, Kitty jumped after them, putting her body in such way so she could accelerate her falling and try to reach in time to the beast and the Ranger.

The two had hit the River, and in a second Kitty had as well. THe beast was still struggling to swim against the strong flow, but Kitty ignored it. She grabbed Aragorn's hands after a few minutes of desperate fumbling and freed him, entering into phasing state.

Now the problem was how to get to the two of them to the river bank.

The battle little by little ended. Suddenly, at the astonishment of the dwarf, Legolas jumped from Arod, and in his face terror and anguish were portrayed.

"What is it, Elf?" asked Gimli.

"Kitty, Kitty is in danger!" gasped the Princeling.

Gimli looked around him. "Where is Aragorn?"

Legolas didn't answer. His keen gaze was scanning all the area with desperation. Where was Kitty? Oh Válar, where? Suddenly, his eyes fell on the cliff and immediately ran toward there, his Elf heart shouting that over there something bad had happened to Kitty, to his Kitty.

Gimli followed him, as well as King Théoden, who had also realized that Aragorn was nowhere.

"Elf!" shouted Gimli, but Legolas didn't even hear. He was crouching by an Orc, who was lying near a cliff. He was drowning in his own blood and yet he was cackling wildly.

"Tell me what happened?" Legolas snarled, a dangerous light in his blue eyes.

The orc laughed hoarsely. "They… they… they are… they are… they are dead."

Legolas grabbed the rags which the Orc wore. "You lie!" he said with clenched teeth.

The orc just laughed more, and then choked. "Both fell!" Then he fell back, a stiffening corpse.

Legolas left the body of the Orc and peered over the cliff, only to see the river.

"Look!"

Legolas turned back to see that dwarf was handing him a necklace. It was the Evenstar, a gift from the Undómiel to Aragorn. Théoden approached to them. "Leave the dead." he said. "The Wolves of Isengard will return, we must go."

Legolas shook his head. "No. They're not dead!"

"They fell a long ways." said Gimli thickly.

"She can pass through anything." said the Elf.

"So you think she passed through the river?" asked the Dwarf incredulously .

"It matters not." broke in the King. "Master Elf, we cannot find them in the water. If this woman is as powerful as you say, she can find her way back. And I hope that Aragorn does not belie the hardiness of his race. We cannot risk all the people of Edoras for the,."
Legolas turned to him, his jaw set dangerously, but Gimli stopped him. "The King s right. Let us hope they both survived."

With a huge effort, Legolas followed the King, anguish in his heart. What kind of protector and friend was he?

"Come on Aragorn! Wake up, wake up! " I'm not going to give you mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, so you better wake up! "

Aragorn slowly opened his eyes and saw Kitty leaning over him. Both were on the bank of a river.

"Kitty?" He asked as he sat up slowly. His head throbbed and his body ached.

"Yep." she replied, sitting down a couple of steps away from her.

The Ranger studied her. She was as disheveled and damp as he was. It must have been her then…. "Why did you save me?" he asked in surprise.

"It was certainly not because I liked you." she replied snappishly.

Aragorn raised an eyebrow. "Thank you."

In response, Kitty just shrugged. It was obvious she did not like being with him.

Aragorn rose with some difficulty. "We should get to Helm's Deep. They will need us."

Kitty stood up. "Do you know how to get there?"

Aragorn nodded. "It will take at least a day, but I think we can do it."

Kitty looked at him, opening her mouth to answer, when suddenly she seized her head and collapsed.

Aragorn knelt down beside her. "Kitty, what's wrong?"

But all he received as a response was a cry of pain.

The agony was unbearable. She felt as if her mind were being ripped from her body, as if they were trying to force her apart. She felt that her whole soul, mind and body were being torn away. Her eyes were tightly closed, but when she opened them, she only saw darkness, but voices were all around her.

"Did you find her?" Asked a female voice she recognized as Ororo's.

"Yes, but it's a long way off." another woman answered.

Kitty frowned despite the pain. That voice, that voice ... was not one of the X-Men! It seemed more like ... Emma Frost!

"But can you bring her back?" asked an impatient male voice. Logan's without a doubt.

"I'm not sure, she's far away. My power may not come to that much." Emma Frost.

"At least try!"

"No, I can kill her if I continue right now. I'll try again later. This will take time"

Kitty heard again the male voice that seemed to curse under his breath and at that moment ... the pain began to disappear and the sounds of the river returned little by little.

When Kitty opened her eyes, she saw that she was kneeling near the bank of the river bank, but there was something different and scary. A Warg's corpse a couple of feet from her, a slender Elvish blade nailed in the jugular. Next to the beast was Aragorn, his clothes stained with blood, but he seemed uninjured, pulled out the knife and wiped it on the damp sands.

"Are you well now?" He asked.

Kitty blinked a couple of times before answering "No ... no ... I'm not sure." murmured "What happened?"

"This Warg was going to attack us." he replied, sheathing it.

Kitty realized that while she was in the middle of that strange experience, the Ranger had saved her life. She had judged him wrong, maybe it had been worth jumping in after him.

The Dúnadan turned to Kitty and offered her his hand to help her to her feet. However, all of a sudden, he stiffened, and his voice was low and urgent. "Can you hide it?" he asked, pointing to the corpse of the Warg.

"But…" she said without understanding.

"Can you?" he snapped.

Kitty nodded and climbed on the back of the beast, entering the phasing state so that carcass was gone, leaving no traces except blood. No sooner had she done so than Aragorn pulled her into a tangled briar thicket.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"Someone comes running." he replied quietly.

A couple of minutes passed in which Kitty ended up thinking that the Ranger might have been wrong, but before long she heard quick footsteps. Suddenly they stopped very close to them, where they had been a few moments ago.

Aragorn and Kitty peered around the twisted thorn-branches, and the two were stunned. It was Marrow.

Marrow had been running endlessly for several days. Since leaving Gollum commissioned with the task of stealing the One Ring and killing the two hobbits, she had headed back to Isengard. She hoped to find the other two hobbits and Shadowcat. She hoped the latter would have agreed to join them. But, above all, she expected to receive answers from Saruman. So, making use of her incredible stamina that she had thanks to her mutation, she had not stopped for rest.

Marrow would have continued if she had not noticed the blood. She stopped and stooped over it. It seemed there had been a fight, most likely between a man and a large wild beast. But that man was not the only one who had been there. There were other tracks that seemed to be either a woman's or youth's, but it did not appear that this person had taken part in the fight.

Who would have won? The beast or the man? Of being the man ... where was the corpse of the beast? And if the beast had on, he had not left. It seemed that it had just ... disappeared.

Marrow frowned. That was weird. She headed for the copse. When she saw this, Kitty took Aragorn's hand tightly, and they lay down silently amongst the undergrowth. Marrow passed them by, never imaging how close they were.

After a few minutes that seemed an eternity to both, Marrow returned to the shore, whispering to herself. "I can resolve this later. I need to keep on to Isengard. The damn Saruman needs to give me the answers that both Avalanche and I deserve."

And she dashed off.

Aragorn grabbed Kitty's shoulders, seeing her ready to rush after Marrow. "Let me go, Aragorn!" She said menacingly.

"Listen, Kitty," he said, his grasp firm. "I know you wish to avenge Boromir, but it does not good now. You heard her, she goes to Isengard. She probably will lead us into a trap. We need to Helm's Deep. Think of Gimli, think of Legolas."

Kitty stared him in the eyes, and then with a sigh, nodded. Aragorn released her shoulders. "Follow me."

They had made a brief stop. Aragorn had found the tracks of a horse which indicated that there would surely be a human presence not far away.

When he had told Kitty, she nodded absently. She had Marrow's words in his mind.

Why had she called the traitor wizard "damn" if she helped him? And what answers were those she wanted and owed to her and Avalanche? And the worst ... she had just learned that there was another mutant here: Avalanche.

Kitty sighed without realizing it. She remembered Avalanche and how the mutant wanted to win her heart. Avalanche was not evil at the time, he was just a young man who was not well received or understood. At first Kitty had treated him well and that had caused him to have a very big crush for her, to the point of abject infatuation. Kitty herself had liked him, but seeing that Avalanche was very short-tempered and capricious and not exactly kind, Kitty had moved away from him which brought unpleasant consequences. Thanks to the Professor and Jean, there was no major problems at the moment.

Aragorn's voice pulled her out of her reverie. "Who is 'Avalanche', Kitty?"

The girl took a few moments to respond. "It's another mutant." she replied.

Aragorn frowned at this. Apparently Middle-Earth was being invaded by those beings as dangerous as powerful.

"His ability is to control the earth, he can create earthquakes." added Kitty

Aragorn paled. Control the earth? They were lost if he appeared in Helm's Deep or any battle they had.

"Do not worry, Aragorn." Kitty said when she saw his face. "Avalanche is not invincible, I've already fought him."

"Do you know him well?" He asked, frowning.

"Yes, there is a ... 'little' story behind it and I do not want to talk about it. The point is that I know him well and I can fight against him." Kitty was thoughtful. "But I don't think he fights against us, at least for the moment. However, there is something that Marrow has learned, that Saruman has tried to keep a secret from them Considering the temper of the two, neither of them will help Saruman until he has answered all their questions." Kitty was thoughtful again. " The question is: what questions do they have? "

Aragorn did not reply, though he could already imagine the answer to Kitty's question. Probably, Marrow and Avalanche had learned that the mutants were not who they thought they were. So, surely, he had hidden the truth about the mutants. Yet how had these two learned that the mutants were not who they thought they were? That was a question.

A whinny made them turn to see a tall grey horse. Aragorn grinned and approached it. The stallion sniffed and snorted, and then bent his head to his caresses.

"It seems you already know each other." Kitty said.

"Yes, we do." said Aragorn, stroking the horse's muzzle. "His name is Hasufel."

"And why is he here?" asked Kitty incredulously.

"Horses are faithful companions, Kitty. Even friends. He followed me, it seems.

Kitty made a gesture of disbelief, but she nodded anyway. Aragorn mounted swiftly and held out his hand. Kitty raised a surprised eyebrow. She had certainly misjudged the Ranger.

"Who would have told me I would be riding with you?" she murmured, wrapping his arms around him.

"I could say the same thing." he replied with a slight smile.

He spurred Hasufel quickly on the way to Helm's Deep.

Seems that the guys who were in bad terms turned out to become if not friends but accept to each other.

And what that experience meant? This time Kitty heard the voices of her friends but... her friends are dead! What exactly is happening?

Waiting for your reviews, guys! They're the food of this story!