A/N Omggg please be gentle with my fight scene logistics, it was a time. Also what does it say about Google Docs that it's started figuring out when I misspell words from the series that I've never used before?
Anyway, finishing with Moria here, then onwards to Lothlorien and some...realizations about things...for certain people...two specifically...
But it's not time for confessions just yet, I'm so sorry. It will happen before RotK but I'm not telling you guys when because that'll ruin the surprise.
Also side note, ages ago I began reading an Aragorn/OC story that instrumental in inspiring me in terms of getting a foothold on how I wanted to work this story in the beginning, so if you wanna add a great piece to your reading list, go read Sweet Metamorphosis by WhileISleep, it's here on fanfiction if you're interested.
It felt like they'd been waiting there at the crossroads for hours, though in the dark they could hardly tell the passage of time. The others sat, talked in hushed tones, or smoked. Josephine couldn't sit still. They were too close to the Twenty-First Hall. That restlessness was why she ended up joining Gandalf.
"Have you come to speak with me, or for me to speak with you?" He asked with his hat laying beside him and his staff across his lap.
"I don't know." She sighed, sitting down with him. "I don't feel like I have any wisdom to give so maybe I'm looking for some."
"Then you may speak your mind and I will listen. Perhaps the distraction will help me find the answer." He nodded towards the three passageways and turned to her.
"It feels wrong to just stand by and watch things happen. Boromir was right about that. I made it sound like I believed what I was saying back there but I don't know. Just because that's maybe what has to happen for things to work out doesn't make it right."
"Knowing what is to come, does not mean you are able to control it. At times it may present the opportunity for change, but nothing more. And even you cannot be certain of the outcome." He flicked his eyes back to the steps behind them where the rest of the Fellowship rested. "Nor can you truly predict the actions of others."
Boromir. "It's taking him faster than I thought, it's like it knows I'm watching him." His distraction on the mountain was the first sign, then when he argued with her the day they entered the mines.
"You may have the power to do many things, Josephine, but you cannot contend with the power of the Ring. Boromir will have to find that strength on his own." He frowned and looked back at the passageways. "If he can."
If trying to save him only doomed him sooner, she was endangering more than just him in the process.
Wordlessly she left Gandalf to his decision and picked an empty corner of the pavilion to sink into. She was there to keep things the same, that was why Lord Elrond had asked she go, why Gandalf looked to her to correct their path if needed. They had the hope that there would be victory because of her being there. None of them were under delusions that it meant it would happen without loss except for maybe her. Boromir had his part to play in it and she had to accept that. She had to let him go.
"Ah! It's that way." Gandalf exclaimed some time later.
Josephine was stirred from a restless nap, still in her corner. As he passed, Aragorn offered his hand to help her up and handed her her pack. He waited until she shouldered it to keep moving, staying to his request that she didn't go far from his side.
Pleased to finally be on the move again, Merry rushed up the steps. "He's remembered!"
"No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here. If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose."
They followed him down the stairway, coming to a small landing and then one short set of stairs after. Pillars lay in ruins beside their path but Gandalf stepped forward confidently.
"Let me risk a little more light." With a wave of his hand over the crystal, it grew in power and the hall came into view. "Behold! The great realm and Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf."
"Now there's an eye opener, and no mistake." Sam said in awe.
Behind the others, just in front of Aragorn, Josephine craned her neck, trying to see the ceiling with no success. It was too dark still, but she knew there were cracks. That's where the chittering and the scratching and the scrambling would come from, down the very pillars they all looked at with astonishment.
Where the edges of the hall were she couldn't say, except for the one side that they kept to so they wouldn't lose their way. But when they came to a doorway littered with corpses, Gimli ran.
"Gimli!" Gandalf called, but there was no stopping him.
She could stop them. They could leave right now. She could stop Pippin from going near the well. No cave troll, no goblins, no Balrog. But then there would be no Gandalf the White to save Theoden. Perhaps no Amon Hen, no breaking of the Fellowship. No, she couldn't change it.
Nerves shook her to her core and there was no hiding the shake in her breathing. It was like she was going to explode. She didn't want to let on that something was coming, but she couldn't bear the pressure in her chest. Pressing in next to Aragorn she slipped her hand into his, just for a moment's contact. Just something to ground her. His hand closed around hers and he looked down at her questioningly.
"Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria." He is dead, then. It's as I feared." Gandalf handed his staff and hat to Pippin and took a book from the hands of a dead dwarf. Ori, he'd gone to Moria with Balin, written the book of the account of it all.
"We must move on, we cannot linger!" Legolas warned Aragorn.
"They have taken the bridge, and the second hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums, drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A Shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out…They are coming."
Suddenly it happened, the quiet squeak of metal on metal, then a building whine as the armored skeleton slid into the well dragging the bucket with it. They all froze as it clattered and clanged down. Seconds passed and it kept ringing out, growing fainter and fainter until they were left back in silence.
Gandalf snapped the book closed with a thump. "Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!" He grabbed his hat and staff from Pippin, leaving him standing in front of the well looking guilty and full of remorse.
And then the drum beat came.
It was soft, but it was enough that it made her jump.
It was time.
She dropped Aragorn's hand and drew her sword, there was no need to hide what was coming now. They all heard the yipping and drums rushing towards the room.
"Orcs!" Legolas called.
"Get back!" Aragorn told the Hobbits, waving them towards the back of the room. "Stay close to Gandalf!" He pushed her towards them too. "Go with them. Now!"
He took off to the doors to brace them with Boromir who was barely missed by two arrows that sank into the soft rotting wood.
"They have a cave troll."
"Aarghhh! Let them come! There is one dwarf yet in Moria that still draws breath!" Gimli roared, brandishing his axe as he leapt on top of Balin's tomb.
The Hobbits huddled behind her and Gandalf, if there was ever a time for her to live up all the training she'd done in Rivendell, it was now.
They waited as the doors shook, splintered, and broke apart finally pushing open to a flood of orcs. There were so many of them and any thoughts of holding the Hobbits back went out the window as they charged into the fray.
"For the Shire!"
Josephine didn't have time to be afraid of anything anymore as she slid her sword through the first orc that came near her. An upward slice for another, then a slash across a neck.
The doorway cracked and crumbled under the cave troll's mace as it burst in, nearly taking Sam out in the process. They all scattered to the side and Aragorn and Boromir grabbed at the chain hanging from its neck as it turned to follow him.
Wrenching it back it swung back around, its club flying in a dangerous arc. Boromir, still holding the chain, was flung to the other side of the room, hitting the wall and rolling to the ground. An orc approached while he was stunned and she sank her blade into its back, wrenching it out using her foot as leverage. With no time for thanks she gave Boromir a hand up and it was back to the fight.
Legolas' arrows kept the troll agitated and roaming, it hit as many orcs as it did pillars and half the trouble was dodging debris while trying not to get stabbed. Frodo had slipped away from most of the fighting, flanked by Merry and Pippin who tried to keep him hidden. But it was only a matter of time before the troll caught sight of him.
"Aragorn!" He yelled as the troll got him by the legs. "Aragorn!"
Aragorn leapt between Frodo and the troll, shoving a spear into its chest. It swiped with him with its hand and Aragorn flew back into the wall, landing unconscious on the ground. Panic seized her and she was several steps into running to him when it occurred to her that he would be fine, that was supposed to happen.
The troll, taking up the spear, roared and thrust it at Frodo. The Fellowship froze, except for a few of them who were still up against orcs. Josephine knew that was to plan as well, just like Aragorn. But there wasn't any worry that he'd be okay, so why had Aragorn's injury done that to her?
Now feeling the pull of revenge and thinking Frodo was dead, the others flew at the troll. Merry and Pippin jumped onto its shoulders stabbing at its head. She and Gandalf made quick work of the last few orcs and they turned their attention to the troll, coming at it from all sides until Legolas fired the last arrow into its mouth. She rushed up to where they were laying, helping Aragorn up as he crawled over to Frodo's prone form.
"He's alive!" Sam gasped in relief as Aragorn turned Frodo over.
"I'm alright. I'm not hurt." Frodo assured them.
"You should be dead! That spear would have skewered a wild boar."
Gandalf smirked. "I think there's more to this hobbit than meets the eye.
"Mithril!" Gimli gasped. "You are full of surprises Master Baggins."
Their moment was quickly over as more screams and yips echoed up from the halls. Through the passageway they could see the shadows of more orcs coming up from the deep.
"To the bridge of Khazad-Dûm!"
They bolted out the door into the hall, a mass of orcs flooding in behind them. There was no music, no call of the orchestra playing the Fellowship's theme to make it sound like a victory that they'd survived the Chamber of Mazarbul. No, all Josephine could hear was their heavy breathing and the skittering, yipping, scrambling of the orcs.
They came from all sides and down from above. Soon the Fellowship was surrounded, staring at the faces of hungry looking orcs with large eyes. Aragorn's arm crossed in front of her and moved her back behind him as if that would stop them if they attacked before…
A light came up from one of the far stairs, and a deep rumble that sent the orcs scattering back to their holes.
"What is this new devilry?" Boromir asked Gandalf. Even Aragorn didn't seem to know.
"A Balrog." He finally answered. "A demon of the ancient world."
For the first time Josephine saw fear in Legolas. He of all people there would know the power of what was coming.
"This foe is beyond any of you. Run!" He cried.
They sprinted out of the hall, barely stopping in time to keep from falling off the edge of a broken stair. Gandalf slumped against the wall, out of breath.
"Lead them on Aragorn. The bridge is near." At his hesitance Gandalf shoved him forward. "Do as I say! Swords are no more use here."
She could see the gap in the stairs below and had no intentions of being one of the last ones over. The timing was too sensitive for her to get ferried over like the rest of them.
Legolas jumped the gap easily and, confident she had enough momentum going she didn't stop on her way down. She counted down the steps and on the last one she pushed off, praying to whichever Valar was listening that she'd judged the distance correctly. She landed hard but she landed, caught and steadied by Legolas.
Orcs lined the corridors around the chasm, firing arrows that only missed because they were so far away. Josephine fired back blindly, hoping something might hit. She couldn't see in the dark shadows of the overhangs where the orcs hid but maybe it at least kept them ducking back.
The stairs broke apart more and more as the Fellowship jumped, until Aragorn and Frodo were left with a gap too large to cross. The red glow was getting brighter and the growls shook the room and broke the stonework. A large boulder broke the two's portion of stairs off from the main structure and it crumbled, falling towards them. At the last second Frodo and Aragorn jumped and they were off again, running down the levels.
Heat billowed around them as flames bit up from the lower levels but the bridge was ahead. Behind them the heat was almost scorching and the ground shook under their feet. She didn't dare turn to look, she knew it was there.
Aragorn led them over the bridge and waved them up the stairs. Only when she was halfway up them did she turn and look. This was Morgoth's creation, a Maia twisted and buried in the earth for ages. Gandalf was a match for it, but only just.
"You cannot pass!" Gandalf yelled from the middle of the span.
"Gandalf!" Frodo cried.
"I am a servant of the secret fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor! Dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun!"
She was glad when he was done there would be one less of these things in the world. At least she'd never have to be this close to one ever again.
"You shall not pass!" Gandalf cried, bracing his sword and staff together to pound them down onto the bridge.
The Balrog stepped forward and the stone broke, sending it into the dark chasm below. Gandalf sighed, breathing heavily. Everyone around her took a breath thinking it was over. Then the wip snapped and Gandalf hung over the edge.
"No! No!"
"Gandalf!"
Boromir and Frodo's voices called from behind her.
"Fly you fools!"
Gandalf let go of the bridge and fell, disappearing into the darkness.
Frodo screamed and Aragorn froze, staring at the pit in disbelief. But with the Balrog gone, the orcs rushed out of hiding, firing arrows from the other side.
Josephine ran down the stairs and grabbed. "Aragorn, come on!" They couldn't linger, and until they turned the corner at the next landing they wouldn't be safe from the orc's arrows.
The Fellowship rushed out into the sunlight, collapsing onto the rocks. Josephine's only consolation as they wept around her was his return. With a moment to breathe, she looked up at Aragorn, afraid of what she'd find. But she didn't find any anger or betrayal, just painful realization. It was up to him now, and he felt woefully unprepared. She came up to him, cleaning her sword and sliding it back into its sheath.
"I'm sorry." Everything in her wanted to give him the comfort of knowing it wouldn't last. But she couldn't have him waiting as a placeholder until he returned. "It wasn't in vain. I promise." She handed him the rag and his fingers brushed hers lightly as he took it.
"Then I must believe it." He wiped his sword and sheathed it, setting aside his grief in an instant. "Legolas, get them up."
"Give them a moment for pity's sake!" Boromir asked.
"By nightfall these hills will be swarming with orcs. We must reach the woods of Lothlorien. Josephine, Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, get them up."
She stepped across the rocks and grasped Sam around the arms. "Come on Sam, on your feet."
He blinked, eyes red with tears but standing firm, watching as Aragorn followed Frodo. "Why did it have to happen, Miss Josephine?" He asked. "What good could him dyin' have?"
"If I'm around for the end of this, Sam, I promise I'll tell you."