~ Chapter Six: The Mirrorling
(Aragorn POV)

I snuck inside the tower like a thief, my boots not making any noise on the floor.

I was wrong, there was activity. I looked inside the main chamber and saw Saruman stood over Legolas who was knelt on the floor. His hands were over the elf's eyes and he was murmuring:

"Take back what is his, Return what is borrowed, Repay what was lent."

It was some kind of spell that my dear friend, drained of energy, was powerless against.

With a roar, I sprinted into the room, realizing along the way that I was unarmed, but still I leapt at Saruman. Knocking him to the floor. The staff that normally was at his side was on the floor and grabbing it, I raised it.

The ice-blue eyes narrowed and he murmured something in dwarven. There was the soft patter of elvish feet behind me and I looked ahead as Legolas walked towards me.

He looked better. His pale face was not marred by the cuts he had previously had. It must be his elven healing, I dismissed. His blond hair was tied up, back in its braids. But he was wearing different clothes. A white shirt that was rimmed with silver thread was tucked into the waistband of a pair of black, silk leggings that flowed over his nimble legs like water. They moved silently with his leg. And finally he had a pair of black slippers.

Hanging from a belt were two knives. But they were not the white hilted ones that I had seen used so adroitly during battle. They had black handles inscribed with magical runes.

Deep blue eyes merging into violet stared at me intently and the corner of his mouth quirked up into a smile that showed wicked and not warm intentions.

"Kill the mortal," Saruman ordered from underneath me.

Legolas uncovered his knives and twirled them about his fingers and advanced on me.

"Legolas?" I whispered, getting off the ground and backing away from the Wizard.

"Yes?" asked a timid voice. But it did not come Legolas' mouth. It had come from a different part of the room. Looking past the elf's shoulder, I saw...

Another Legolas.

But this was the one I knew. He stared blindly about as he crouched in the doorway, shaking slightly.

"Legolas!" I cried trying to run past the fake-Legolas, but a knife barred my way. "Let me through," I hissed, meeting his eyes.

I met nothing; coldness and emptiness stared back at me. This was not my friend, this was someone else.

"What trick are you playing on me Saruman?" I asked, still edging away from the fake. "This is an illusion isn't it?" I reached forward and touched the elf.

I met skin.

"Creature, what are you?" I asked.

It smiled, that same derisive smile. It knew that it had the advantage.

"You are too inquisssitive," a voice that was Legolas, but wasn't drawled.

I saw a glimpse of a forked tongue past those shiny teeth and I stopped in my tracks. "Fiend be gone," I said.

Looking briefly downwards to see if had scaly feet, I realized that I still held the staff in my hand.

"This," Saruman said, standing up. "Is my creation. I did not just breed Uruk-hai in the caverns of Isengard, but this. My beautiful creation."

That use of 'creation' seemed to mock the very word. When you say creation, you think of something wonderful, like birth. Not the breeding of this fake monster with such a pretty face. "Tis not a creation," I cried. "Creation is good, that is damnable."

"No.... it is a wonder of science. Such a creature has never been seen in the daylight before. But now it will come out of the shadows. Legolas"-

"Do not call it that!" I shouted.

Saruman smirked. "Legolas is my key to the Ringbearer. With his supreme athleticism and trust, he will find the hobbit who bears the Ring and then take it from him."

And so Saruman's mad intentions were revealed.

"My Mirrorling, my dopplegänger," he said fondly. "But first, he needs something to sate his appetite, he has had no flesh for a while and is starving. Kill both of them my beauty!" he cackled.

The Mirrorling approached, forked tongue snaking past it's teeth and licking it's lips.

"Take off the mask fiend!" I roared pushing it away with the staff.

I swung the staff, and brought it up the side of his face. Skin ripped off as the pointed, glass end of Saruman's staff tore through.

The dopplegänger snarled and tore the skin off, revealing half of it's real face.

It was a horrible blue colour, like a dead body, left in the snow to rot. Large, almond shaped yellow eyes stared at me, bright as the sun. There was no nose, but two small holes in the space where there should be.

When it leered again, half the mouth was filled with marble teeth, but the other half were yellow fangs that looked as if they would rip skin off.

I hit it again and again, but still the dopplegänger continued towards me. "Wood will not harm my Mirrorling!" Saruman cried triumphantly.

And with a supple action, I ducked past the Mirrorling and headed towards Saruman, still brandishing his staff. I brought it down hard on his head and the Wizard crumpled, falling to the floor unconscious. "Legolas, get away!" I cried.

The elf did not move though. "Move!" I screamed at him.

"I cannot see, Aragorn!" he shouted back.

I moved to the side as blades whistled past me. Then scrabbling on the floor at Saruman's waist, I unbuckled his small dagger and clutching that in my fist, stood up.

I dodged around, but the dopplegänger mirrored my movements with the fluidity that graced Legolas. I would have to do something drastic. There was no way I would be able to land a blow on such a creature without it landing one on me.

So I stood a second to long and as I moved again, it's blade caught my arm, the metal sinking in. I took that brief time to plunge the dagger into it's heart.

It choked and reeling back, fell on the floor next to it's master. Black blood started to pour out of it's mouth, and dribble onto the floor.

It started moving spasmodically in it's death throes, before it did not move again. The Mirrorling that Saruman had worked so hard to 'create' was dead.

I pulled the knife out of it's chest, grimacing as the warm, sticky blood coated my hands. Then kneeling next to Saruman I said out loud: "Never will you play god with anymore creatures. Back to your maker!"

I stabbed the knife downwards when I heard a scream.

"NOOO!" Legolas shouted.

I stopped. "What?"

"You would not be able to harm him," the prince said in a hoarse voice. "Magic surrounds him, the blade would just bounce off."

"Let me try." Stubbornly, I plunged the knife down, true to his words, the blade bounced off his body. Legolas started laughing. "You will never be able to harm him when his guard is up."

"I cannot leave him here...." I protested. "He has done so many wicked deeds that he must repent for: In death."

Legolas carried on laughing manically. "He is the only one who may yet heal me. Come son of Arathorn, let us return to battle." He stood up on wobbly legs and swiftly fell down again with another giggle. "The spell- the spell- he is the only one who can complete it!" Legolas cried urgently.

"There is no more spells," I said in the most comforting voice I could. E He must be delirious from whatever Saruman had been doing to him. Legolas, what ails you? I am taking you back to Rivendell, and I will leave Saruman." I said firmly, collecting him in my arms. "But it is only to please you, and to stop wasting time."

He continued chuckling as I led him out of Orthanc and together we stumbled towards the place where I had left Brego.

I constantly asked him what was so funny.

But all he would say was: "You don't know what you did."

~

Thanks to all my reviewers yet again! Love you all.