I updated!!! Yay!!!! After reading a guide on how to rate fanfics, I decided that the rating doesn't need to go up after all. Hopefully, chapter 12 will be the last installment of this story. Thank you to all those wonderful people who have read and reviewed my work. This chapter was written fairly late at night so please excuse any grammatical mistakes, or spelling errors. Again, READ and REVIEW people!!! It'll encourage me to finish the story .

Warning this fic contains slash, meaning guy/guy relationship.........don't like it?.........don't read it!!!!!

Disclaimer: Tolkien owns everything and I own nothing

Chapter 9

Aragorn stared at the dwarf standing in front of him, shaking his head in disbelief, unable to comprehend the information that Gimili was imparting. "Our souls are bound?" he asked stupidly. "But how can that be? I have heard of this kind of ritual before, but the binding only works if it is done with pure love........." his voice trailing off, realising what he had just said.

"Yes, I believe so." Gimili replied, looking at Aragorn pointedly.

"But the only way to undo this kind of binding is by........."

"First returning his love freely and willing, and then completing the ritual by consummating your love." Gimili finished for him. "The two of you would then be faithful to one another, for the rest of eternity."

"It can't be done." Aragorn said with finality. "You cannot force me to give my love willingly. It already belongs to another."

"Do you not understand the gravity of this situation!?" Gimili retorted, raising his voice. "Legolas will die if you do not leave Lady Arwen. After all that he has done for you, exchanging his life for yours, you are now just going to stand back and watch him fade?!"

"I did not ask him to save me." Aragorn snarled. "That ridiculous elf brought this on himself. You ask me to pity Legolas, to accept his love, yet who will take pity on Arwen? I did not choose for him to love me."

"Legolas is going to DIE!!!" Gimili bellowed at him.

"And so is Arwen!!" shouted Aragorn, equally as loud. "You worry about Legolas fading away, but have you thought of Arwen? She has already lost her immortality for me. You wish her to watch Legolas and I, together, as she grows old alone, as her beauty is marred by the passing of time? You think that I can abandon the woman who has pledged her life to me, all for the sake of a deranged elf and his perverted love?!"

Disturbed by the argument, Legolas chose this moment to awaken. Sensing the tension in the air, he instinctively tightened the hold on Aragorns' hand, which was still clasping his own. "Aragorn.........?" he asked hesitantly.

"You disgust me." Aragorn sneered, his voice filled with contempt. Shaking his hand free, Aragorn stalked out of the room.

"Gimili?........." Legolas asked, unwilling to believe that his friend had betrayed his secret.

"Oh Elbereth.........what have I done?"

The look in Legolas' eyes as he had flung his hand away haunted him. Flashes of memory raced through his mind, scenes of Legolas, smiling, laughing, weeping. With thoughts running riot in his head, Aragorn sullenly pushed open the door to his own bedroom, hoping to find some semblance of peace in his little sanctuary. Instead, he found a weeping Arwen sprawled across his bed. Slowly, he walked up to her and placed a soothing hand on her back. "What is wrong, my love?"

Arwen turned to face him, her eyes red and swollen. "Adar told me that he is sending me away. He wishes me to join my mother in Valinor. I do not want to leave Éstel! You are all I have now, all that I hold dear. I do not want to spend my remaining years pining for you, dreaming of the kisses that we once shared, yet waking up and finding myself alone." Arwen made a sudden grab at the short dagger Aragorn kept with him by his waist.

Aragorn got to it first, wrapping his hand protectively around its' hilt, but Arwen forced him raise his arm, and held the dagger against her pearly throat. "Kill me Éstel!" she screamed hysterically, "End my misery now so that I won't have to grow old alone!!"

"Arwen!" Aragorn shouted, using his free hand to push her away, as he wrestled his arm away from her grasp. Arwen huddled on the bed, weeping uncontrollably.

Flinging the dagger far from the bed, Aragorn knelt down and gently cupped the elf's face between his calloused hands. "I will not leave you to grow old alone, Evenstar. We made a pact with each other and it is one that I intend to honour. I will not abandon you. I will not let anyone come between us."

Aragorn wrapped his arms around Arwen and drew her onto the bed, where she fell into an exhausted sleep. Pushing guilty thoughts aside, Aragorn closed his eyes and let the rhythmic breathing of Arwen lull him into a restless sleep, filled with nightmare images of a nameless elf, being buried in a shallow grave.

"How is he?" Gimili asked anxiously as Elrond softly closed the bedroom door behind him.

"I gave him a sleeping brew to drink, he is finally resting." Elrond said softly, but a worried frown still clouded his face. "He had regained some of his strength when Aragorn was holding his hand, but sudden severance of their contact has sent his system into shock. He's worse off now than he was before. We are running out of time, if the unbinding is not completed soon........." he let his voice trail off.

"I didn't think........." Gimili said, but before he could finish, the normally placid Gandalf had pinned him to the wall.

"You didn't think did you?!" Gandalf hissed, not wanting to wake the sleeping elf on the other side of the wall. "You betrayed Legolas' trust! He is lying there, fading rapidly as we speak. If you hadn't acted so impulsively we could have at least had more time to work on a solution, but now.........if anything happens to Legolas, I will hold you responsible." giving Gimili one more shove, Gandalf stalked off.

Letting out a weary sigh, Elrond placed one hand on Gimili's shoulder. "I'm sure you meant well, Gimili. " He said, "The way Aragorn acted was a shock to all of us. Do not worry too much now, I'm sure that when Aragorn has had a little time to think things through, he will realise his mistake and make amends. Get some rest now, my friend, Legolas will need you tomorrow." He said, walking away, leaving the devastated dwarf leaning against the stark white wall.

A/N: That wasn't too bad was it? This chapter was really just three little scenes that I decided write and then placed them together. Arwen is portrayed as slightly unstable in this chapter, but my main motive was to try to show Arwens' venerable side, hope I succeeded! Please REVIEW!!! .

Now for a shameless piece of self-advertisement: Just to let everyone know, I've just posted the first chapter of my new NCIS fanfic, "Semper Fi". If anyone is interested, please check it out!!