AN: Thanks to everyone still reading the fic. As per request, I will clarify what the Silmarils were. The Silmarils were jewels created by Feanor, one of the earliest Elves in creation. He took the light of the Trees of Valinor and captured it inside those gems. When the Trees were corrupted after a battle with the Dark Lord Morgoth, the light was forever gone except for the ones in those jewels. Everyone wanted those jewels, even the Valar. The jewels caused the Elves to leave Valinor and return to Middle-earth. The jewels became cursed because they were the indirect cause of the Kinslaying, when Elves killed Elves.

Part 11

Chloe warmed herself in front of the fire of the castle. She had been stunned to see Clark fight off the mercenaries with bare hands. In fact, most of the events that happened today shocked her. It was not enough that her father was buried today. There were so many revelations that would have rendered her speechless had she not undergone an emotional transformation that was beyond a rational person's comprehension.

Today, she woke up Chloe Sullivan, haunted by dreams and nightmares, an orphaned young woman whose only wish was to heal from the wounds of losing a parent. She had planned to attend her father's funeral and then leave, make an effort to live her life elsewhere so that she would not have to remember every day.

And then he came from the shadows and stepped into the light, and somehow deep inside her the dark crevices were no longer as dark. This Legolas, who claimed he was no man, was still a stranger for she did not know most of what he said. Yet if he were a stranger, then she accepted that perhaps there was an intangible past behind every two people who existed in the world. Chloe would look at the tall, blonde creature and know that everything inside her she had given to him; and he had reciprocated. She did not deny this. All that mattered now was finding recollections of exactly when it was that they became possessions of the other's soul.

When Lex Luthor changed, Chloe sensed part of what mystery shrouded Legolas come over Lex. She envied the man. Lex seemed to know everything, unlike Chloe who clutched at vague teasing images in her mind. Beside Legolas Chloe did not seem to care as much about answers. With him, the only need she felt was to hold him, touch him, kiss him. If she were to have any real answers she had to go to one who could give them, to the one in whose presence she could still think.

As hard as it was for her to leave Legolas with Clark, Chloe managed to step beside Lex in front of the fireplace. Legolas was watchful. After this she would sit with him and show him that she was still inexplicably his.

Chloe looked up at Lex Luthor, who was no longer quite himself. "Elboron," she said, as he called himself, "I feel that there's so much I need to know."

"Do you remember the last time we were together?"

She shook her head sadly. "I don't remember anything."

He frowned in disapproval. "Yet you clutched at him as if he were your lifeline," he charged.

"I feel like he is," she told him faintly. Elboron stared at her. He touched her cheek and Chloe saw Legolas rise from his seat. "Tell me, Elboron, in this lifetime that you remember so well. Was I yours?"

He shook his head. "For all the hours we were wed, you were never mine."

With his words she understood the exchange between the two men in the cemetery. She wondered how it was that her reaction to Legolas was immediate while she did not have the same feeling towards this man who was her husband.

"Maybe if Legolas had not been there, I would have loved you."

He smiled grimly at her. "Yet there was." Lex gazed at where Legolas stood watching them. "The most important lesson, Chiara, for a man who struggled in Middle-earth, is that you do not wish for things that can never be." Chloe met Legolas' gaze. "You were fated. Had I known I would not have taken to you to wife."

Chloe walked towards the beloved stranger who she knew would dominate the rest of her life. How she wished that she could remember all of it. From all she could gather, it seemed to be such a fine love, what existed between Chiara and Legolas. Chloe feared she would forever live in the shadows of that sublime.

"He did not love me," she assured Legolas.

Legolas saw the dim light that shrouded Elboron when the prince watched Chloe lay her head on Legolas' chest. The prince turned his back on them and faced the fire again. Elboron's light grew dimmer.

His thoughts were brought out of Elboron's diminishing light and back to the problem at hand when Clark asked, "What do we do about the grimy warriors outside?"

"They are not warriors," Legolas told him. "They are undeserving of the name. They are mercenaries."

"Fine," Clark agreed. "What do we do about them? They're just a bit anachronistic." He flipped on the television set. "And they're violent."

Even Elboron turned back to the conversation as the apparatus showed the destruction that the mercenaries were causing. The town itself was being attacked. They saw the general store windows shattered. The Talon burned in front of their eyes.

"There is one way to stop them. You need to give me the Silmarils."

"No!" was Legolas' vehement reply. "I did not wait ages for you to take her away."

"I will not take her," Elboron said. "But returning the Silmarils to their guardian will balance our universe. All that do not belong here will return to its proper place."

Clark nodded. Both men had opposite ends. "Chloe?"

She shook her head. "No, Clark."

"All right. I'll take care of it."

Clark stalked out of the room, on his way to town to fight the mercenaries who did not belong in Smallville.

Elboron walked towards the wall, where one of Lionel's collections hung. He ripped the black metal sword down and balanced it in his hands. He gripped the handle and faced the lovers. "I will ignore the futility and honor you."

Legolas gently released Chloe. "There's a decision we will have to make."

"Clark will kill them all."

"With every mercenary that we defeat, two more shall spring from the earth until this world is crawling with evil," he told her. "The shadows of Mordor will darken the world until the Silmarils are returned."

He leaned to kiss her tears away.

~~

The Black Lady of Rohan sat upon a white mare that once belonged to the Elven prince of Mirkwood. She ran her fingers slowly down the mare's neck to calm her. She watched the two troops of fighters as they prepared to overwhelm the mercenaries. To the right, Aragorn's soldiers of Gondor yelled their battle cry. To the left, Elboron and the Rohan warriors cried the same. Chiara never thought that she could watch war feeling indifferent. Now, she simply did not care who perished in battle.

A soft hand touched her shoulder. Arwen spoke so calmly that for a moment, Chiara almost forgot that she was not supposed to feel. "Chiara, your heart still beats even if you do not feel it."

Yet what hurt her then was that she could feel her heart. Inside her heart was tremendous pain that close to numbed her.

The battle commenced below them. Mercenaries, Rohan and Gondor melted together in one blood-filled encounter that made widows and orphans of thousands. She watched dispassionately as the sun shone down on the second sons of Eru slaying each other for land and treasures.

There were Elves or Dwarves in battle. There were no Wizards or Hobbits. The fight was now inside the race of Men. The last Elf to join was Legolas. Mirkwood fighters formed a line behind Arwen and Chiara, primed to defend Elrond's daughter.

"We had seen Prince Legolas," a chief warrior had told Arwen, "in the mystic pool of the forest kingdom. He had taken his heart's bride. His death was not we expected to arrive to."

The Black Lady of Rohan retreated deeper inside her black shroud.

A warrior rode out of the fray and raced towards Arwen and Chiara. Elboron took off his helmet and stopped before his bride. He lifted a blood-stained glove and held out the two Silmarils. He looked at the Elves behind the ladies.

"Elboron of Rohan claims guardianship of jewels of Valinor," he told them. The Elves of Mirkwood nodded in acceptance. They had learned their lesson. The Silmarils were too powerful to possess. Elboron handed the gems to Chiara.

She reached for the jewels and held them in her hands. Elboron returned into battle. Arwen and the Mirkwood Elves dropped from her vision as she beheld the beauty of the Silmarils. Lost tales had before told of the Silmarils' beauty being enough to drive Men and Elves alike insane. Chiara heard and saw Legolas in her memory.

Legolas brushed her cheek with his fingers. "Men will always hold their gift of mortality against us, Chiara. Yet a force more powerful has drawn us together. You are the gift of the Silmarils, ever for me. That is my belief."

"Cursed jewels! I have not seen them yet they loom above my head. Their bloodied tales sunder us, and shall sunder us in my lord guardian's mind."

"They shall bring us together, Chiara," he said firmly.

Now the cursed jewels lay sparkling in her hand. If the Silmarils were truly so powerful, then they had one final great deed to perform. They had to bring them together, as Legolas had promised.

With a swift kick to the side of the mare, Chiara rode towards the edge of the cliff. Below, the sea parted Middle-earth from Erresea. She breathed in the salty breeze and looked behind her. Arwen was fast gaining on her, as were the Elves. She clutched the Silmarils to her heart and dismounted. Chiara closed her eyes and let herself fall.

tbc