A/N: In case anyone is wondering what the six directions are, they are North, South, East, West, towards the sky (up) and towards the earth (down).

A/N: There are some who might question what Anayah does to Saruman in this chapter by saying, "How can she do that to him? He's a white wizard." Since Tolkien based parts of his works on Norse legends, I will explain how Anayah did this by using a Norse Legend as well. My girl did what she did because of something called Berserker Rage. According to Norse Legends, at certain times, Odin was said to give to his warriors the gift of beserker rage, which enabled the warrior, although weaponless and naked, to perform great feats of strength and valor.

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To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.
Captain Ahab – Moby Dick

Chapter 42

Confrontation

It had been exactly two hours since Anayah, together with Amrûn, had left Imladris and the four Thurin Tirith Guards were leaving their quarters and preparing to begin their journey. They had requested that their horses be made ready and so expected the animals to be waiting for them in the courtyards just beyond the front door. Their horses were indeed waiting for them, but the animals were not alone.

After the four elves stepped through the door, they stopped and stared, and for a moment found themselves speechless. There were few times that the Guards could ever be found at a loss for words, but this was one of those times for instead of there being just their horses waiting for them, there was a sea of beings, all mounted and ready to make the trip with them.

Elrond, Glorfindel, Elladan, Elrohir, Aragorn, Legolas, Elenath, Míriel and even Elurin were there among many, many others. The Stable Master, the Gardner, Findor, his father, housekeepers, laundresses were all ready to go. Even Mithrellas, the elf who had lain in a coma since being brought to Imladris by Ninniach and Amrûn and had recently awakened was present. Elrond looked at the big Captain and smiled.

"Love is light and light gives strength to drive away the darkness. If it is within our power, we will show her that she is not alone for today she has gone to save us all."

The Captain nodded to those that had assembled.

"Then let us get this thing done!"

The group of family and friends then left the courtyards of Imladris at a gallop.

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The first thing Anayah noticed as she approached the outskirts of Osp, was the horrible and cloying odor of rotting flesh and it was only through a great effort on her part that she was able to keep from gagging and emptying her stomach of it previous meal. Beside her, Amrûn seemed unaffected, but when she encountered the first corpse, bloated with the gasses of death, Anayah really thought she was going to lose it - right then and there.

"They are not real. They are not real." She kept saying the words to herself as if the words were a mantra to overcome a really ugly feeling that was blossoming in her stomach.

She sensed the white wizard long before she saw him and quickly deposited Amrûn in the darkened shadow of a building, telling the young girl to stay hidden, no matter what she saw or heard. Saruman's white robes were a giveaway as she saw him moving quickly behind the buildings across from her. She was angry with the wizard and knew that she must deal with him first before the other half of her mission stood any chance of being a success for the demon had to be rid of any support he might expect from Saruman.

Anayah was totally focused on getting to the wizard and was somewhat inattentive to her surroundings, and that error almost proved fatal. As the young she-elf stepped away from the shadows of a building that had been providing her with cover while observing the movements of the white wizard, she did not detect the presence of something else that had been watching the wizard also. Stepping out from her cover, she suddenly found herself face to face with the demon.

She was no more than two feet away from the thing but no sooner had her mind registered his presence than both she and the demon turn and ran off in opposite directions. They had both been surprised at the other's unlooked for appearance and had decided at the same moment that a confrontation, unprepared for, would benefit neither of them.

When Anayah had again reached the safety of the shadows of a nearby building, she stopped, breathing heavily, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. She was disturbed by what she had just seen for it had presented a new development and as a result, her plan to catch the demon would have to be carefully rethought and readjusted to fit the new circumstances.

"He is in a corporeal form. Now what am I going to do?" At that moment she really, really wanted to hurt the white wizard, that egotistical old bag of stinky wind!

Then she remembered that on the night the creature had come to Imladris and had attacked Amrûn, it had been in a semi-corporeal form, but before its destructive exit from the Hall of Fire, it had fled that form and returned to its ethereal state. She realized that somehow, she had to make it do the same thing here. Her father had made it angry by attacking it with Vilya, therefore anger was probably the key. It would be difficult for her to hurt the creature for it was indeed the twin brother of Amrûn and hurting the creature would be like hurting the girl she had come to care about.

Throwing her elvish senses forward and around her and not sensing the demon, she once more began her search for Saruman. As she carefully looked around the corner of the stables, she saw him standing at the opposite side of the building, peering secretively towards the opposite side of the Town Square. Stepping from her hiding place, Anayah almost found it amusing when he jumped guiltily after she spoke.

"Well, well, well, look who has come to Osp."

She moved towards the Istar slowly, almost like a wolf that was stalking its prey.

"And what, pray tell are you doing here Master Saruman?"

She had not unsheathed her sword but did walk to where she could get a good look at the wizard and also be within striking distance.

"Well, if it isn't that nice young she-elf from Imladris. How are you doing, young one?"

Saruman took two steps to his left and Anayah mirrored his move, muscles loose, ready for whatever the wizard might try to do.

"Cut the crap, Saruman, because I know what you are here for. You may think that you are going to get what you want but it is just not going to happen."

Saruman took two more steps and lowered his staff slightly. Anayah mirrored his moves, part of her vision never leaving his wizard's staff.

"I won't keep you, my dear, for I am sure that you are very eager to leave for home, especially with all these rotting corpses laying around. There might be a disease here. One just never knows so it would probably be safer to leave."

Saruman saw the she-elf pause and for a brief moment he thought he had succeeded in using the power of his voice to get her to leave. He was, however, quite mistaken.

She smiled grimly at the old wizard.

"Do not try to use the power of your voice on me, old man because it will not work."

The wizard continued to slowly circle.

"And what makes you think I would try such a thing?"

She laughed then, though she did not take her eyes off Saruman as they slowly circled each other like two hounds would do just before one attacked the other.

"You would try using your voice power on me to get me to leave because you screwed up and you are embarrassed because I caught you at it."

She pointed a finger at the wizard as the two of them continued to circle, eyes and nerves locked to that of the other.

"You screwed up, old man and made the biggest boo-boo of your whole, sorry existence. And the funny thing is that you do not even see it! You are nothing but one big, cosmic joke!"

There was no longer a smile on the white wizard's face.

"Well, if you know so much, then why don't you enlighten me? How did I, as you put it, screw up?"

Anayah did not fail to notice that the wizard had switched his staff from his left hand to his right.

"You gave him corporeal form, Saruman, something he could not achieve on his own. But you let your own arrogance blind you to the fact that when you helped him gain this form that it was no longer possible to control or influence him – he is mortal and now possesses free will. The creature – and by the way, his name is Minuial – now has power over YOU!"

The wizard stopped his circular movements and straightened, thinking about her words. He seemed to have come to a conclusion but rather than admit that he had erred, Saruman attempted to use his arrogance to prove his point and prove himself master of the moment once more.

"The Maiar were sent here to Middle Earth to rule these lower life forms. I have done nothing wrong for they deserve no more than what they got."

She was stunned by the arrogance and self-absorption in the words Saruman spoke, and after hearing his words and remembering those who had lost their lives and considering everything she had gone through as well, the she-elf was finally pushed to the breaking point, passed the barrier of anger and right on to the field of rage. Anayah lost it, and screamed in anger and grief, the scream echoing from building to building, its sound gut wrenching and primal.

It was a scream that remembered her brother's bloody and broken body and the time she spent, sitting at his bedside, holding his hand and praying to the Valar to let him wake – to let him live.

It was a scream that remembered a Noldor Lord, a healer, who was almost forced to end a life through the violent use of his healer's hands something that had almost broken his heart.

It was a scream that remembered an old woman, precious to many, stabbed through the heart by the claws of his creation.

It was a scream that remembered an elf, just recently awakened, who had lain in the deepest of sleeps for months just because he had gone to the aid of a gentle blacksmith in a little town that wasn't even his home.

The scream was but the prelude to her fury, born of these remembrances. Powered by that fury, a bolt of pure, white light left her hands and flew toward the arrogant white wizard, hitting him in the chest, lifting his body into the air and flinging it violently backwards into the dust. Over and over he rolled until he finally came to a stop, many feet from where, just moments ago, he had been standing.

Dazedly he raised his dusty and bleeding head and looked at the elf who was walking toward him, wondering and fearful of the power she wielded.

Anayah walked towards Saruman, to where the dazed wizard was laying in the dirt staring at her. She bent over him, then sat on her heels so the wizard would be well able to hear her next words which were harshly spoken, guttural and emotional.

"Old man, I could kill you where you lay, or I could expose you for the arrogant, rotting piece of filth that you are, or for the traitor you have become. But I will do neither, for even you, such as you are, has a place in Ilúvatar's song, in the events that are yet to come. You see, old prune face," she patted him gently on the head, "there are still some of us who respect Eru's song and do not try to rewrite it just to fit our own needs. You are the one who started all this – now end it Saruman! And I do mean, end it now!"

The white wizard rose shakily to his feet and began to back off, with Anayah closely following him.

"I am a generous man, so I will give you a gift." Slowly he raised his staff though he did not point it at her. "I give this whole mess to you!"

There was a flash of light and a peal of thunder and when Anayah could again see, the white wizard had vanished. She let her head drop to her chest as she spoke.

"WHY is it NEVER easy?"

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Drawing her sword from where it rested in the sheath on her hip, she went back into battle mode and once more began her search for the demon. She was extremely careful before passing from building to building, looking in all six directions before stepping to the next building. Under her tunic the pendant was warm where it lay against her skin, so she knew he was close, very close.

She had just passed her third building when she heard the whispered voice in her mind and though she listened carefully, she did not relax her vigilance for a moment.

"You are seeking me, elfling. Why is this?"

"Because you need to go back to your twin. It is the natural order of things, Minuial and you know this."

"But what if I do not wish to go back?"

"Then I will force you to, and you know that I can."

There was a pause before the creature spoke again.

"Yes, elfling, I suppose that you can. But know this – you will not find the path that you now walk to be a smooth one."

"I know that Minuial. Nevertheless, it must be done."

"Then, elfling, if you are so adamant about walking this path, then do what you know you must – if you can."

Suddenly the sky overhead opened up and rain poured down on the dusty streets of Osp, creating puddles and making walking treacherous and battle difficult. Still, Anayah pressed on in the direction she sensed Minuial had gone.

Then the wind began to rise and howl, turning the rain into projectiles that stung when they hit bare skin.

"Minuial, you are a coward."

A deathly stillness suddenly fell over every piece of Middle Earth that had previously been under attack from the creature's phenomenon. No rain fell and no wind howled. There was just silence. Then, across from where she stood, beyond what had once been the Town Square of a little town called Osp, a figure stepped out from the shadows.

TBC

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COMING NEXT: High Noon: The eyes of the dark twin widened and became dark with disappointment then with fury as he looked at the she-elf he had been fighting and not only saw her standing, but holding the completed pendant as well. The process to merge the two twins had begun.

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Soccer-Bitch: Sorry to hear about your cold. Take care of yourself and feel better soon – you know the routine... plenty of liquids and rest. Thanks for the review and hope you enjoy this chapter.