A little clarification for those of you who asked:

Buffy & Legolas: Maybe Buffy & not Legolas: Maybe LOTR time frame: Before FOTR. Shameless plug: I recently wrote a story concerning early moments in Legolas' life, including when he met Aragorn. I'm going to sort of stick to that storyline. Buffy time frame: Here's where it gets complicated. I wanted the First in the story, but I didn't want to set it in the current season. I love being a fanfic author. So here's the deal, it's not going to follow canon. The First is here; Spike and Buffy have some sexual tension going on (but he has not been cursed with his soul); Giles is still here; Tara and Willow are together, alive and not crazy; Enya and Xander are still planning a wedding but we have passed the whole Dawn-is-a-Key thing. So we're sort of in season 6. I think. Hope that helps.

Anyhoo, on with the story.

The Rip in Time

There were five groups of four, all containing three archers and one leader. The leader was the Elf deemed to have the most experience and years to his age of the four; he was also the one considered knowledgeable in the area of Elvish magic. There were very few in the woodland realm who could wield the dark arts to such an extent as witnessed by Legolas and Aragorn, not since the dark days of Dol Goldur and the aiding help of Radagast the Brown.

"Were he here with us now." Thranduil murmured under his breath.

"Father?" Legolas questioned. The Prince regarded his King with apprehension. It was not in his father's nature to accompany scouting and hunting parties.

Thranduil waved off his son's concern. After Legolas and Aragorn returned from their 'hunting' trip and announced what they had encountered, Thranduil found his heart stirring with anxiety. His son's tidings troubled him deeply. What new shadow threatened his Kingdom? Although he would not admit it, Thranduil was tiring. The constant bloodshed of defending against Mirkwood's enemies was wearing upon him. And this new threat was perplexing; what sort of evil power goes after its own?

"My lord," prompted a low tenor voice. "We are nearing the point of disturbance." Calenuil was Thranduil's oldest and most trusted advisor. He was also Thranduil's younger sibling and greatest of friend.

Thranduil nodded. His pulse quickened; some undeniable warning was gnawing at his heart.

He gave the signal for three groups to take to the trees should some unwarranted attack by roving Orcs take them by surprise; which in broad daylight was highly doubtful.

The King leaned in slightly to his son and mortal friend. "Are you sure it was here, Legolas?"

"Positive my lord." Whispered Legolas. Aragorn nodded in agreement.

Calenuil was crouching, studying the tracks in the ground. Aragorn joined him and began pointing out certain spots. "This was where we engaged them. The first to fall was taken down by Legolas' arrow; he fell here. We drove them back and they began to scatter. It was over there, that is where the opening occurred." Aragorn pointed in front of him, only a few metres away.

Calenuil shivered. He felt an odd chill that age and experience readily told him was a remnant of some dark spell. "Thranduil…"

"I feel it." Thranduil felt his skin crawl with the telltale warning that dark forces were at hand in this forest.

"We should turn back my lord." Calenuil said in a voice so low that only his King's Elvish ears would hear it.

Thranduil stayed his brother's line of thinking with an upheld hand. "I would know what this evil's purpose is before we fled prematurely from it."

"I do not think it premature my lord. My instincts bade me to turn back. This power, however unknown to us, it is unharnassed. Even Elvish magic cannot control it."

Thranduil turned to his brother with eyes that were stern in their countenance. "How say you that we cannot control it when we do not seek to know it first? And what if it grows, Calenuil? What if it were to reach the Kingdom?" Thranduil searched his counsel's face for agreement, but was met only with Calenuil's foreboding look. Thranduil sighed. "I will not allow that evil to come upon my doorstep. Not while I am King."

"What are you looking at?" Asked Legolas.

Aragorn was staring intently at the bark of an old and weary tree. "It is singed here. See how it still smokes? This burn is old, yet it stays fresh. It is unnatural."

Legolas' face was drawn as he studied the tree. "It will burn it from the inside out. That is a cruel death."

Aragorn faced his friend and was struck by the sadness there. A stranger may have thought it melodramatic that one would be so sympathetic towards a tree. But for the Elves, particularly those in the woodland realm, a tree's pain was their pain, for they heard the life within the tree. It was a gift that no man could ever hope to possess.

"They burn us all from the inside out."

Aragorn was brought out of his thoughts by Legolas' soft comment.

"Why do you say that?"

"How long has it been since we were Greenwood the Great? And how adaptable we must be."

"What do you mean?" Aragorn was growing worried. He could hear the King and his counsel arguing in the background; they made no move to disguise their voices. The Elves in the trees were doing nothing to conceal themselves as their restless movements caused leaves and twigs to fall about them. And now Legolas.

"We are masters at adapting to darkness. When the other Elves of the world bask in their glorious untouched realms, we of Mirkwood face yet another foe. You would not believe it, son of Elrond, but once our Kingdom was as great and beautiful as your own Rivendell. Tell me, how goes life in Rivendell?"

His tone was biting. Aragorn held up two hands in a gesture of calm, but Legolas' eyes had turned stormy. "Legolas…"

"I know. It is wrong of me to seek fault with our kin." He spat his words in Aragorn's direction. "For what could they possibly do? Undoubtedly they would do what they have always done. Absolutely nothing."

The Elves all around them were arguing loudly. Aragorn himself felt a pounding throb in his head, so great was the pain that his vision blurred and his breakfast threatened to make a reappearance. "Legolas," Aragorn said while rubbing his forehead with one hand. "I know it is difficult – "

"You know nothing!" Legolas yelled. Aragorn cringed under the assault, not only from Legolas' voice, but also from the blinding pain at the base of his skull. "You are a human! A mere mortal! What cares could you possibly have with my kind? Ai, how I forget. It was your kind, your own bloodline that helped us here. I have you to thank for my misery!"

"Legolas you are not yourself!" Aragorn shouted and nearly dropped to his knees from the pain that it caused him.

Legolas could feel the rage boiling within him. His fists clenched and unclenched, his entire muscles were shaking with the anticipation of striking at his…friend? Something was not right. As his mind attempted to sort out his current situation, a dull throbbing erupted behind his eyes. He began to rub his temples, mimicking Aragorn's actions.

"Aragorn, what am I doing?" He asked weakly.

Aragorn placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I do not think it is you, my friend. I think there is a spell upon us. We should leave this place."

Legolas nodded wearily; he suddenly felt exhausted. Aragorn stumbled in his walk as though he were wading in mounds of mud. It took every effort and ounce of concentration just to keep one foot in front of the other.

A booming roll of thunder instantly ended all bickering arguments among the wood Elves. Startled and bewildered they all looked to the sky, all except Legolas and Aragorn. Legolas' eyes grew wide as he felt Aragorn clutch his shoulder with one hand. Aragorn closed his eyes and exhaled slowly as silence descended on the forest.

"We should have left sooner."

The fissure opened, exactly in the same spot it had before, only this time it seemed twice as large and twice as powerful. Tendrils of lightening snaked out, scorching the earth and trees wherever they touched. Legolas and Aragorn turned their heads from the onslaught of blinding light but heard several voices cry out from Elves who did not shield their eyes. The gusts of wind felt like an actual hand slamming into them, forcing the air out of their lungs. The trees moaned and swayed violently in the wind, as darkness seemed to swallow the air around them.

Legolas heard Aragorn cry out and reached for his hand only to find that it was no longer there. His heart thumped in his chest as he lunged for Aragorn who was flailing against a force that was sucking him into the chasm. Legolas called his name but found his voice was drowned out by the howling gale of wind. With a giant leap, Legolas threw himself onto the ground and grasped both Aragorn's hands. The only problem was, he had nothing to anchor their weight to. They were both slowly being dragged into the opening.

"Legolas!" Thranduil bellowed. Without thinking the King started forward, panicking for his son's life. Calenuil grabbed his liege from behind and was forced to use all his strength to keep Thranduil from throwing himself in the fissure.

"Thranduil, no!"

Legolas knew he could not fight it, but oddly he felt no fear. If this was to be his death, then so be it. His body jerked with the pang of electrified jolts as he neared the edges, and as he fell in and blackness consumed him, he heard his father crying out his name.

He was suddenly sad, for he had forgot to bid his father a fond farewell.