Soooo... Chapter 19... I prefer to warn you : this chapter will be darker than the previous ones and... I've written something bad, but I had planned this since I began the story so... Don't kill me now, please...Again, thanks to all of you who are reading, following, favouring and reviewing this story, and a huge thanks to the wonderful Chiara Meldis for every single one of her very kind and encouraging reviews she always takes time to drop !Hope you'll enjoy !

Legolas brought a hand to his mouth to hide another yawn. By Eru ! This council had begun at least an hour ago ! Ents were not mean or unfriendly at all (unlike some tales used to depict them), but... Well, they took their time...

The Elf had first found the Ent named Treebeard (or maybe Treebeard had found him, who knows) almost by accident. Legolas had been following an invisible path the trees had been showing him when he had suddenly found himself face to face with the Ent. This had left him quite confused and speechless, for it was the first time Legolas saw one of these old creatures other than in a book.

"Burárum... So you are the 'friend' the Trees were telling me about ? An Elfling..." the Ent had spoke, leaning forward to take a closer look at the visitor.

Legolas had not spoke a word, lost in the contemplation of the overly tall being. He seemed so old, yet so strong... A great wisdom could easily be read in his deep green eyes.

"Well ? Have you lost your tongue, Elfling ?"

"I... No, my apologies Hír Onod. I am Legolas Thranduilion, from the Woodland Realm. I speak here in the name of every free-people of Middle Earth and of every tree living on the Eastern border of Fangorn : we need your help. We need the Ents' help." the Elf had eventually answered, regaining his voice back.

Legolas yawned once more and soon, his mind drifted away from reality. Sellenya... He wished they would have had more time in Lothlórien... It had been the first time they had been able to meet in her homeland, and it seemed like they wouldn't meet again for a long time... He missed her. Why was love so painful ? First, he had lost his dear Tauriel to a dwarf, and now... Now Legolas feared that he might not see his beloved again in a place other than the Halls of Mandos...

The Elf pressed his lips into a thin line and closed his eyes.

'Ilúvatar, Len iallon, nathal sen... Nathal syn...' [Ilúvatar, I beg You, spare her... Spare them...].

He opened his eyes once more. The Ents did not seem to have ended their discussion yet.

"Fangorn," Legolas called the great Ent, "How are the discussions going ?"

"Hroom, hm. I have told your name to the Entmoot, and we have agreed you could be trusted."

The Elf's eyes opened wide and a nervous laugh escaped him. That was it ? No no no, it was enough ! He would not wait any longer ! Saruman needed to be defeated, and quickly !

"Follow me, I will show you what Saruman is doing to your lands !" he declared, stepping in the middle of the circle of Ents.

"But, burárum, Saruman is friend of the Ents-..."

"Come with me."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I could not warn you, I'm so sorry..."

"It is alright Faramir. You did everything you could." Aragorn told the shaking man while gently rubbing his shoulder. Most of the Rohirrim were giving them questioning glances, but hopefully, Gimli dismissed it quite rapidly :

"It was just another nightmare, don't worry about him."

Aragorn did not like having to lie to those loyal and faithful soldiers, but if they knew what was happening in Faramir's mind, they would've surely refused to even come near him.

"Wh-Why did he say that name ?" the dark haired ranger heard Éomer ask in a very low and afraid voice. Aragorn bit his lip. He had hoped the young Lord wouldn't have heard this. Should he tell him the truth ? No, no, surely not. The fair headed man already enough issues to deal with at the current time.

"I am afraid he's had a dream of him." he lied. Faramir gave him a confused look, but Aragorn nodded slightly, in a way of telling the younger Ranger to trust him.

"Oh..." answered Éomer, the look of fear quickly turning into one of deep compassion, "I am very sorry," said he, bowing slightly before the Steward's son.

"Aragorn ?" Gimli interrupted, "May I have a word with you ?"

The man nodded and got up to follow the dwarf a few steps away from the camp.

"Do you think it'll be wise for him to come with us ? If He knows he's in Isengard..." the dwarf told him, sounding concerned.

"I am aware of that, my friend. But what choice do we have ? He cannot stay behind by himself, and we will need every soldier we can get... I hope there was another way, but alas..." Aragorn replied. Gimli lowered his head in defeat. Unfortunately, he knew Aragorn was right...

"Now, what took you so long, Princeling ? Do not tell me the Woodelf got lost in the woods !" Gimli teased when he caught sight of the swift figure of the Elf walking to him. Even though he would never admit it in front of his friend, he did feel relieved to finally see the Elf coming back after such a long time.

Said Elf simply smiled at his Dwarven friend and an instant later, a huge crack was heard in the forest and six... No, seven tree-like, extremely tall beings appeared behind him. Gimli's mouth hung open in surprise. They... They were... Ents... Real ones... They were so much bigger than what the dwarf had been expecting...

"Oh by the stars, Torfrith, pinch me, I must be dreaming." Gimli heard the voice of a Rohirrim behind him. Oh, by Aulë, he understood him. This was so surreal...

"I found valuable allies." Legolas said, a wide smile on his face.

Éomer took a deep breath. The Black Tower of Orthanc was standing tall right in front of them, they could see all the Orcs pacing or fighting around. And what were the Ents and Rohirrim doing ? Running right into them of course. Oh, by the Valar, they were so dead.

The Ents had broken through the wall. They were in. There was no way back, they had to fight. All of them, for even though the Ents were of great help, the tree-like beings simply could not handle all the Orcs of Isengard on their own.

Faramir was fighting in the middle of his friends. Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli and even Éomer. By seeing the way they defeated the awful creatures around them, one could have thought they were mind-speaking to each other, for they looked perfectly synchronised. While one of them blocked a blow, another pierced with his blade the chest of their opponent.

Faramir truly wished this could have last until the end of the battle, until Saruman was defeated. Mayhap it would have, if only Aragorn's leg had been fully healed, if Legolas had had the time to truly get some rest, if Gimli hadn't suffered such a high number of wounds and bruises at Parth Galen and if every fighter hadn't had so much on their mind... So many 'if'...

"Aragorn !" cried Faramir as he saw the dark blade slicing through the air and aiming at the older man's head. The older Ranger hadn't seen it... Faster than he could have imagined, Faramir grabbed his friend's neck with one hand and quite roughly pulled him down. The scimitar nearly cut off some of of Aragorn's hair, but nothing more.

Unfortunately, said scimitar belonged to an Uruk-Hai. And Uruks were much taller and stronger than Orcs. Before he could realise what was happening, Faramir felt a strong arm colliding with his chest and sending him to fly away from his companions.

'Oh please, not again...'

The breath was knocked out of his lungs as his back eventually met the hard ground. He painfully lifted his head, realising with horror that his sword had been knocked out of his hand. Yet the Orcs and Uruks had suffered a great deal of losses, so the young man only had to extend his arm to grab the handle of a heavy and hastily crafted scimitar lying on the ground before rapidly getting back on his feet. But apparently, Faramir had not been quick enough, for he found himself completely surrounded by dozens and dozens of opponents. Perfect.

Feeling tears coming to his eyes, the man yelled in despair and literally threw himself on his adversaries. Why...? Why always him ? Why him, a son rejected out of love by his selfish father. Him, a soldier that hated war and only knew the very basis in swordfight ? Why him when the people surrounding him were a Lord of the Mark, the heir of the Woodland Realm and, most of all, the heir of Isildur. Why ? Only because of this 'gift', this 'curse' or whatever it was...

Oh, he perfectly knew why it felt like if the entire Isengard had decided to gather around him... But they would not get him alive without a fight ! This had to stop ! And if they did get him... He would leave them only a dead body to deal with.

"Faramir !" the man heard his friends' desperate cry as they tried to reach him, to help him. But it was completely useless. The enemies were too numerous.

"Get an Ent over here !"

"They already have a fight to handle on their own !"

Faramir was fighting fiercely, the heavy blade that was not his, tearing mercilessly apart the Orcs' bodies, almost like his brother would. He wasn't even aware of his surroundings anymore, he felt as if he were in a trance. He wasn't aware of the pile of dead bodies around him, wasn't aware of the blood staining his face and clothes, he wasn't aware that much of the blood was his.

But he was suddenly got out of this kind of second state by a harrowing shriek that rang through the air. He and every other fighter dropped their weapons and fell on their knees as an inevitable fear and pain took hold on their heart and mind. Even the Orcs and Uruks were forced to shake. Some of the Rohirrim screamed, some of them began to cry, some of the Ents involuntarily took a step back, but everyone, absolutely everyone was staring at the dark dot that appeared in the sky.

Weakly, shakingly, reluctantly Faramir turned his head to meet the deathly glare of the dark beast behind him. He could not get up, could not move away, he was completely frozen in his feet by both incredible and uncontrollable fear. The Nazgûl was getting closer to him rapidly, too rapidly and he didn't have the means to escape it.

Faramir closed his eyes.

This was the end.

"N-No..." was the only word that could get past Legolas' lips at the sight. The Witch-King of Angmar. But that was not the worst. The worst was what its dark beast was now grasping in its claws and taking away. Faramir.

The Elf desperately wanted to grab his bow, lying right next to him, but he couldn't. He wanted to stop the beast, to kill it, to kill its rider, but the only thing he could do was to take a step back in fear. He did not want to be afraid, Elves shouldn't be so easily impressed. Yet, his entire body was shaking and he could not help it. He was afraid, like he had never been in his entire long life. He was trying to get control back over it, but no matter how hard he tried to master his fear, he couldn't. This was the first time he experienced something like this, the first time he found himself face to face with the Witch-King. The Elf had known that Nazgûls had the power to bring a great fear in the heart of their enemies, but he hadn't expected this to be that strong. He was completely frozen. Everyone was. Rohirrim, Ents, even Aragorn and Gimli. They desperately wanted to do something to help, to shoot the beast down, to free their friend from the deadly grip. But their body wasn't responding anymore. Fear had overtook them

They could only stare shakingly as the dark beast took the young man away from them.

As soon as the terrible shriek was out of ear reach, every soldier and Ent got back to their senses, all fear leaving their heart. When their mind eventually realised what had just happened, an inqualifiable rage filled their minds and they resumed the fight like enraged beasts. It was the Orcs' fault. Everything was their fault. It was their fault the Nazgûl had captured their companion. They had to pay. Oh Saruman was going to suffer !

Their rage and desire for revenge was so great and blinding that they didn't even try to block the blows anymore. All they wanted to do now was to kill, and kill, and kill, no matter how many wounds they received.

The Ents were particularly virulent. So virulent that the Orcs and Uruks were actually running away from them.

Less than an hour later, the fight was over and Aragorn fell to his knees, tears of guilt and despair running down his face. He felt so responsible for what had happened... No victory shall be celebrated this night. They had lost too much...

The man felt two hands grabbing his shoulders at the same time. He lifted his face to meet the crying faces of Legolas and Gimli. Very rare were the occasions when the Ranger had seen his elven friend to cry like this, freely. They did not say anything. No words were needed to express how they all felt.

"Fools ! You have all lost !" Aragorn eventually lifted his head at the sound of Saruman's deep voice. The White Wizard was standing tall on top on the Black Tower, a satisfied grin on his face, holding proudly a dark Palantír in front of him. A small, dark dressed man was hiding behind him.

'Gríma...'

"Did you truly think you had fought all of Isengard's army ?," the old man continued, "As we speak, the other half of my Orcs and Uruk-Hai are marching on Rohan ! All of this was part of Sauron's plan ! You have lost."

By the time he was finished, Aragorn had put his head on his fists in despair while Éomer let out a heart-tearing cry.

An instant later, Saruman was falling from the tower, an elven arrow buried deep in his heart.

A Lament for Lothlórien

Sellenya watched with a determined look on her face the four dark beasts that were flying over the trees. Their final destination was not hard to guess. This was to be expected. Lady Galadriel was hurt, mayhap even dying, and the greatest part of Lórien's soldiers and inhabitants were already on their way to the Grey Havens. No doubt The Enemy had found out about this.

Sellenya knew there was no other choice than to fight, even though she had never carried a sword in her entire life. But what choice did she have ? If her destiny was to die indeed, she would die fighting, not on her knees.

'Díheno nin, meleth-nîn.' [Forgive me, my love.]

Translation :

Hír Onod : Lord Ent

Well, most of you had asked for a dark story, so... here we are (please, don't kill me right now) ! I hope you still liked it !Now, about next chapter, would you like me to write about Frodo's group or keep writing about this one ?

I hope you are all staying well !