Tears In Heaven
Chapter Six: Standing Outside The Fire
(Author: Alasia)
Two days passed in quiet silence as Boromir wondered
what they were supposed to do. He knew they could not abandon their people,
their hearts would not let them, but he knew that without the help of those
he came to seek that their fight would be futile. His worry over Reighn
was eased when he felt no pain from her. The Celtic wedding that they'd
had had bound their souls, so that they would feel each others pain. He
sighed and looked down into the courtyard, watching Rhia play with Merry
and Pippin.
"You are troubled my friend?"
He turned to Aragorn, "Yes. I have many reasons to be."
Aragorn moved over to stand next to him, "You have changed much."
Boromir sighed, "I have at that. And I am only still here because Rhia
seems so happy. She is safe here."
"Safe? Would she not be safe in your world?"
"No one is safe in my world Aragorn."
"What do you mean?" It was obvious that the King of Gondor was confused.
"I-"
White hot pain lanced across Boromir's abdomen and he leaned over the
railing by which he stood, clutching it. He gasped as his vision went white
for a moment. He vaugely heard Aragorn call his name, but he was yanked
from his body and back into his own world. He appeared on the Golden Gate
Bridge to see all of the members of the San Francisco team fighting. He
turned and saw Reighn on her knees, hands clutched to her stomach, blood
pouring from the wound. A Shadow charged her and she drew steel for the
first time in four years. Athair was brought up and was used to decapitate
the shadow, Reighn then collapsed as the group's Healer ran toward her.
His vision came back to Rivendell to find all of
the Fellowship standing around him. He quickly noticed that he was on his
knees and he looked up and watched as Rhia tried to push through the adults.
She managed to get past and she ran up to her father, he held out an arm
and enveloped her in his embrace. He kissed the top of her head before
standing slowly, taking her with him. Rhia continued to cling to him, whimpering.
"Hush," he whispered to her, "Everything's going to be okay."
"Where's Mommy?"
Boromir's eyes widened and pain filled them, "Mommy's at home sweetie.
Mommy's going to be just fine."
The little girl nodded before Arwen took her and walked away, Boromir
throwing the elf a grateful look.
"What happened?"
Boromir turned flaming eyes to Gandalf and slammed the wizard against
the wall, "If Reighn dies I swear!"
Gandalf's eyes went wide, "What are you speaking of."
Boromir let the man go and turned away from the group, "I came here
to keep Rhia safe Gandalf, and now it looks as if I will lose my wife in
trade for my daughter's life."
Shocked gasps filled the room and Jairah stepped forward and placed
a hand on his shoulder, "How do you know this."
He turned pained eyes to her, "When we were married our souls were
bound together, making us one. Any great pain that is inflicted on me she
will feel, and vice versa."
"Then that was not normal?"
"No," Boromir said, "I chose not to involve you in this because your
pain is so great..."
"Invole me in what Boromir?"
He sighed and pulled away, looking out over the gardens, "In the War."
"War," Gimli asked, "What War?"
"The war over the fate of my world," Boromir said, turning to the group,
"The war in which good is losing."
They stared at him, but he continued, "When we got back four years
ago the war had worsened. The Celts had lost London and Bejing, and Paris
was about to fall. The casualties were bad, only because we have so few
to fight. We fight in a war that the world does not know about because
Magic no longer exhists to them."
"What are these places?"
"Those cities are as big a casualty as if you lost Lothlorien, Rivendell
and Minas Tirith to Mordor."
"You had better tell us everything," Elrond said.
A scream filled the air and Boromir's head shot
up, "Rhia!"
Mhiras was out and ready as he ran down the corridor swiftly. He turned
the corner to see a Shadow standing over Rhia and Arwen. His eyes narrowed
and he charged, tackling the Shadow and rolling to his feet. The shadow
hissed and its eyes glowed light blue. An Air Shadow. Boromir stood in
front of the two females on the ground protectively as the Shadow spoke,
"Move Human."
Boromir raised an eyebrow, "That doesn't work on me Shadow."
"Give me the girrrrrl..."
Boromir's stance was immediately defensive, "You'll have to kill me
first."
"Have it yourrr way."
The Shadow charged, claws ready and Boromir stood ready. He blocked
the attack with his own, leather-clad arm and aimed at the creature's mid-section.
It moved at the last moment and aimed a blow at his head. He ducked and
performed a roundhouse to its head, forcing it back by ten feet. The Fellowship
watched, gape-mouthed as they fought, unable to comprehend how much better
Boromir's skills had become. The Man threw a magically charged fist into
the creature's stomach and brached himself as he was thrown across the
courtyard and into a wall. He sprang back up and drew on the power that
he now shared with Reighn before throwing bolts of lightning at the Shadow.
He ran forward, bringing Mhiras up and bringing it around in an arc. It
came across the Shadow's stomach as it moved at the last momet and the
thing hissed in pain.
Boromir jumped backwards about ten feet and the
two combatants stood staring at each other. Boromir glanced down at his
shoulder and saw that his half healed shoulder had been re-opened. He groaned
inwardly, realizing that he wasn't going to have any help magically this
time and parried a blow from the Shadow's claws. He performed an uppercut
to the creature's jaw and quickly decapitated it. He collapsed to one knee,
leaning his forehead against the cold metal of the sword. His breathing
was ragged and his eyes closed.
"Daddy!!"
He spun and dropped the sword in the dirt and opened his arms to his
daughter. She ran into them, crying, "It's okay baby. The bad thing is
gone."
Rhia hiccupped and buried her head in his non-wounded shoulder. He
picked her up, and bent, retrieving the sword and sheathing it at his side.
He walked foreward, exhaustion shown in every movement and walked toward
Rhia's room. By the time he got there, the little girl had cried herself
to sleep, and he tucked her in before exiting the room and closing the
door softly. He ran a hand over his face and looked up at the Fellowship,
"I never stopped fighting."
The statement was plain and he walked toward the healing hall, followed
closely by the others. When he got there he stripped off his ring mail
shirt and under tunic and sat, and elf almost immediately there, working
on cleaning the wound on his shoulder.
"You act as if being wounded like this is normal."
Boromir grimaced and looked up at Elrond, "In my life, it is to be
expected. We only have one Healer, so this would was only half healed before
that Shadow reopened it."
Jairah sat down across from Boromir, "How did it get here."
"That's easy to answer."
"David. What the hell are you doing here," Boromir said as the Celt
entered the room.
"You Lady wife sent me," David said as he stopped in front of Boromir,
"It seems as if your visitor three weeks ago left a hole in the gateways."
Boromir's eyes narrowed, "How bad?"
"Bad enough for the Shadows to get through. Reighn sent me to help
you close the gap before the Shadows chose to attack this world as well,"
David looked around at the group around them and spoke again, "And it looks
as though I've arrived just on time."
Boromir let out an ironic laugh, "Yeah, well, an Air Shadow thought
it would be fun to go after Rhia."
David's eyebrows shot up, "Where is the Munchkin?"
"Sleeping," Boromir replied, "David, I'd like you to meet some friends.
These are Aragorn, Arwen, Legolas, Jairah, Frodo, Sam, Elrond, Pippin and
Merry, and Gandalf. Everyone, this is David O'Rourke, a member of the San
Francisco team. Gandalf's our culprit. But he left in a hurry, so blame
me, I blew up on him."
David raised an eyebrow and nodded to the group, "You blew up? I can't
see you doing that Boromir."
"Blew up," Merry asked, "Boromir's right there, he can't have blown
up."
David and Boromir laughed and the red headed Scot mussed Merry's hair,
"It's an expression."
"Uncle Davy!!!!"
The kilted man turned in time to swing Rhia up into his arms, "Hey
Munchkin!"
Rhia hugged him and tugged on a lock of his hair. David chuckled and
turned back to the group, "You explain."
"I was working on it when the attack came," Boromir replied, standing
and pulling on his armor, "We'll continue later after Rhia goes to bed."