Author's Note: Okay, I think ff.net is finally working again, so that might be a good thing. And as always I cannot thank you guys enough for all your kind reviews, I will tell you that it definitely helps speeds the writing process along, so thank you thank you thank you thank you! And no, I am not Tolkien, but I believe we deduced I am the reincarnate of a colleague who tried to steal his work, so that might grant me some liberties. Enjoy!

Chapter 20

Gimli steadied his stance and rooted himself firmly to the ground. He would not rush Bergel, Bergel would have to come to him. And then he would have to contend with Gimli's rock-like state. He was not going to go down easily.

Bergel straightened and peered at Gimli for a few moments, as if trying to come up with the best way to attack. Just when Gimli began to think that maybe Bergel was not entirely willing to move either, Bergel lunged at him.

Again, the dwarf was caught off-guard by the man's swiftness. It was still difficult to shake the memories of a broken yet kind man. Gimli brought his axe up to meet Bergel's knife, Legolas' knife, but he was still too slow. Even though the dwarf was able to glance off the worst of the blow, his cheek was caught and a fresh nick appeared above his beard. Gimli whirled to meet Bergel, his axe still held in front of him. His stance was defiant, Bergel would have to do more than that to phase him.

Gimli smirked as Bergel paused again. "In all your planning you never considered on how to defeat a dwarf?"

Bergel gave a grim smile. "It did not cross my mind that such a thing would prove to be an obstacle. In that regard, you have your accolades."

Gimli grunted and was about to make another remark when Bergel lunged at him again, on the right. Gimli immediately brought his axe down to meet him, but when it should have been impossible for him to do so, Bergel feinted and instead went for the left. Gimli saw the move, but he could not move fast enough to block it. Legolas' knife sank deep into his unprotected side.

Gimli let out a small cry of surprise and went down to one knee. Bergel whirled away and stood for a few moments, watching. Silently, Gimli berated himself. This was another tactic that Legolas often used, and one he should have been prepared for. It was often the style of an elf to attack with lightening speed and then pull out just as quickly. They did not stay close for hand-to-hand combat. Gimli should have been expecting the feint.

"I imagine it will be a new kind of tragedy to find you slain by the weapon of your best friend. This knife has shown up too often for Aragorn to ignore." Bergel seemed pleased with the situation.

"They would never believe that Legolas would kill me," Gimli grunted through his teeth as he tried to get up again.

"That they would not," Bergel agreed, "had they not already witnessed him to shoot you from behind. The elf is going mad, that much is clear to anybody."

"Because of you," Gimli continued to strain to stand, leaning heavily upon his axe for leverage. "Whatever you are doing to him, I will not let it pass."

"There does not seem to be much you can do about the matter," Bergel replied, watching the dwarf's struggles with a dispassionate eye. Gimli finally gained his feet and stood wearily, having to lean upon his axe to remain upright. Bergel cocked his head slightly to one side. "Though I must say your loyalty is admirable. It is an unfortunate thing indeed to have to die for it." Bergel shrugged. "Just shows that you cannot have faith in anything."

With that, Bergel flipped the knife in his hand so that he was now holding the tip of the blade. Gimli recognized his intent in an instant. He was done with blind rushes, he was going to throw the knife and spill what was left of the dwarf's blood.

Gimli took a breath and waited for the throw, he would try to dodge as best as he could.

Gimli never saw the throw come.

The next instant found his face in the ground as something heavy pushed him down. Gimli cried out again, partly in indignation and partly in pain as his wounds objected to the pressure. He immediately tried to get back up only to find the weight still upon him. Gimli finally pulled his face to the side and opened his eyes.

Golden strands hung across his vision.

The weight then lifted itself from him and the golden strands went with it. And then Gimli was being pulled up. The dwarf had to stare for a moment, his mind suddenly slowly moving.

Legolas stood beside him, and he was glaring at Bergel the same way he had when Eomer had threatened Gimli upon their first meeting. And then Legolas was turning and retrieving his own knife from a crudely constructed wooden pillar holding up a store front behind them.

Legolas turned back, his gaze never leaving the man standing by himself in the street, his mouth opened slightly in a small sign of surprise. This was something Bergel had not planned on.

"An elf I can easily recognize," Legolas was saying. Gimli had to strain to tune in properly to what was going on. "But not when I least suspect it and am currently preoccupied. For that I give you your due, but you forgot that pure instinct outweighs all doubt."

Gimli glanced back at Bergel, and suddenly he understood why Bergel could move so much like Legolas, so much like an elf. He was an elf.

The momentary surprise passed from Bergel's face and his hard glint came back into his eyes. "I thought you were busy being consumed by guilt and going mad," he commented.

"For a moment there I was," Legolas agreed, "but when a threat becomes so strong in my mind and it is focused on a friend of mine, I tend to forget other things."

Legolas paused and glanced askance at Gimli, quickly assessing his wounds before focusing back on Bergel. "And this time I was not fool enough to rush out on my own."

Two figures came forward from where they had been waiting from behind Bergel and grabbed onto him. Bergel did not look particularly surprised by it and he did not bother to fight it. Gimli looked and saw it was Aragorn and Faramir who now had strong holds on the rogue elf.

"Mr. Bergel," Faramir stated, "you are to be placed under arrest and held in a locking cell until matters are thus sorted out and your trial takes place."

Bergel snorted. "Do what you will, I care not."

"Believe me," Aragorn assured him, "you will care."

"Aragorn," Legolas called out as Aragorn and Faramir began to move Bergel down to the small jail that had once held Legolas. "Gimli's wounds need to be tended to."

Gimli grunted. "Please, these hardly qualify as wounds. Go ahead and take him, I will be waiting in my own chambers." Yet as he turned to walk to the Halls of the Kings he wavered and would have lost his balance had Legolas not reacted instantly and steadied him.

"I will go with Faramir," Legolas said, looking up at Aragorn. "You and Gimli go back to the Houses of Healing. He needs it."

Gimli was about to argue some more but a small look from Legolas stilled his tongue. Gimli recognized that commanding look. His best friend was finally back.

Aragorn nodded and Legolas took over from where he left Bergel as Aragorn made a quick assessment of Gimli's wounds on the spot before guiding him to the Houses of Healing.

"You have had quite an interesting night," Aragorn commented as they walked slowly back.

Gimli sniffed. "But did you see Bergel? He did not exactly leave me unscathed."

Aragorn grinned, the dwarf's spirit and arrogance could never be overcome. "I am sure he will be lamenting the day he ever thought to fight a dwarf."

"Aye," Gimli agreed, "especially after thinking he could frame a friend of mine."

Aragorn held his grin, but a sobering thought entered his mind. The dwarf's unshakeable faith in Legolas was something to truly be admired, and not something that he himself could match. Yet there were still many questions to be answered, and he would have to wait until after patching up Gimli once more that night to learn at least some more of the puzzle.

Legolas and Faramir marched their prisoner silently between the two of them. Legolas had been expecting some sort of struggle, but for the most part Bergel was compliant.

It was not until they reached the door of the jail house did Bergel finally speak up. "They still will not be completely forgiving," he commented, catching Legolas' eye. "You think they will be praising your name after this? First assumptions are often lasting."

Legolas hesitated a slight second, but Faramir shoved Bergel's shoulder and pushed him through the door. "The truth will be enough to satisfy any vengeance sought for," he said.

Bergel chuckled, catching his balance easily and then walking himself the rest of the way to the single cell. "Will it now? I suppose we shall simply have to wait and see."

Faramir followed up on Bergel and closed the door after Bergel stepped into the cell. He locked it with the keys and then placed the keys back on their ring on the wall. "That is more than enough from you," he muttered.

Legolas spoke up from where he lingered in the doorway. "Go see to Aragorn and Gimli, see if they need any help. Then come back here, I will watch over Bergel."

Faramir hesitated for a moment. He did not exactly like the idea, but then he saw the look on Legolas' face. The elf's attention was fixed solely on the one behind the bars, and his eyes were smoldering with barely restrained emotion. Legolas had a lot of answers he wanted himself, and Faramir suspected he wanted them first. And since he had been the one put through the most by this individual, Faramir figured he was owed that much.

Giving a short nod, Faramir yanked on the bars once, and satisfied that it was properly locked, left the room silently.

Legolas stepped forward once Faramir was gone, closing the front door behind him. He was finally alone with his adversary, one that had been right under his nose all along.

Bergel watched Legolas as he came closer, stopping at arm's length from the cell. Bergel's manner was relaxed and he leaned easily on the bars that confined him, his forearms resting so that his hands and wrists hung out of the cell.

Legolas regarded Bergel silently for a few moments, once again taking in all of his scars and his dirty clothing. "That is no mere disguise," he finally said, "those scars are real enough."

"And I imagine you would have recognized me right off if I still had the nicely tapered ears," Bergel answered with a note of bitterness in his voice. "We heal easily enough," he continued, "but I suppose disfigurement lasts a while."

Legolas considered. "How long?"

"A long while," Bergel replied. For the first time, Legolas focused on his eyes. There was a depth to them that spoke of great age and what should have been wisdom, but was instead tainted with sorrow and a lust for vengeance. Legolas regarded Bergel again, but this time with a different light.

He was dirty and wore ill fitting and stained clothing that belied his true frame beneath. His dark hair was greasy and matted, but it was long and thick and would have once been a nice feature. His normally stunted posture was clearly a part of the facade as obviously was his intelligence and speech patterns. He had truly gone to a great extent to pass for a bumbling man scarred by war.

"I did not recognize you," Legolas stated, "but not just because of your disfigurements. You cloaked yourself, were able to hide your true essence and nature. That is not a feat done easily, and often ties into abilities of mind control."

Bergel let out a short laugh, immediately picking up on the slight hint Legolas left. "Do not count yourself out all that easily. It is true I cloaked myself from you and Aragorn, he has enough dealings with elves to sense things, but your own grief was your downfall. I admit freely it was my every intention to frame you and drive you apart from your friends, but your own madness and black-outs were all on your own. Grief and guilt in the minds of elves is a funny thing."

Legolas took a small step forward. "You lie. You had to have something to do with it. You cannot tell me that my own guilt would drive me to pierce an arrow through my best friend."

"We are still caught up on that then?" Bergel replied. He shrugged, "I may have misdirected your judgment momentarily with what you were already feeling, but the rest was all yours." Bergel paused for a moment. "But you were not supposed to overcome it that quickly, how did you do that?"

Legolas caught that Bergel was genuinely curious, and seeing as how he could not use it against him, Legolas decided to tell him. "I could feel the threat coming off from you, I just could not understand it. Only when I went to kill you, to stop the threat, did I instead shoot Gimli and begin to doubt my own instincts. I could have sworn that I was shooting directly where the threat was coming from, but I imagine that was when you chose to 'misdirect' me as you say, and I assume that was the final piece in your plan, to truly make me appear mad and drive me from my friends. So when I went back and was left with Faramir, the threat continued to grow in my mind and I could not ignore it, but I also could not give into it, lest something like that should happen again."

Legolas paused and this time he gave Bergel a grin of his own. "But like I said, there was something that you could not foresee and obviously can also not comprehend, and that is the tie I have to my true friends. Now I felt the threat directed straight at Gimli, and it became so that I could not deny it any longer. Even if it turned out to be false again, I had to do something. Only this time, I would bring Faramir along so that he could stop me from doing anything bad."

Bergel looked unimpressed.

"That is enough about what I did," Legolas said, "now I want to know the reason behind all of this. Why do you hate me so?"

Bergel straightened, holding his head high. For the first time Legolas noticed he was roughly the same height as himself. He had always stooped before. "You still believe it to be all about you, do you not?"

Legolas narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Bergel sighed, as if he was explaining something to a rather stupid child. "This had nothing to do with you, you just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

Before Legolas could question him further, he heard footsteps approaching. He could easily imagine whose they were, Aragorn and Faramir were coming. Legolas settled himself and waited. They would all hear the story together.