Author: Mirrordance

Title: For Every Evil

Summary: Legolas is a policeman in 2004. His colleagues start to wonder why the 10-yr veteran doesn't age & more trouble ahead after he runs across the Fellowship & some friends in modern incarnations, resurrected along with a new world-threatening peril.

12: Shadows

Los Angeles, Mid-2004

Elladan found her leaning over one of Legolas' balconies, looking up into the night sky. She had an exquisite profile and deep, thoughtful eyes that seemed to be pondering the worlds beneath her and all at once looking to the stars to take her away.

"I am very sorry," he told her quietly, and she faced him slowly, moonlight bathing her face.

"Sorry for what?" Anatalia asked him, quietly teasing, "Sorry for the secrets? Sorry for the events that followed? Sorry that you haven't caught me alone since we got here?"
He smiled a bit, appreciating the levity, but wanting to keep the seriousness of his mood, wanting her to tell him exactly how she felt. "Ana," he said, "You do not need to pretend with me."
"I know, I know," she said with a careless wave of her hand, "All right. I'm very annoyed with you," she smiled suddenly, impishly, "But I'm quickly getting over it."

"Now that you know what I am," said Elladan, "Would you still take a gamble with me?"

"Relationships are hard enough between two people," she said, "without one of them not being from another planet. But then again, all love is a gamble, isn't it?"
"Yes," Elladan grinned, "It is. And we are from this planet."

"It was a hyperbole," she retorted.

"Who uses that word in ordinary conversation?" he asked.

"Me," she told him boldly, "Don't elves stand much shorter and have pointy ears and pointy hats and pointy shoes and wear green things all the time? Do you still help out Santa Clause at Christmas? Is that the job you wouldn't tell my father?"

"Pointy ears, yes," laughed Elladan, "Everything else, no. Misconceptions, my lady, especially since Legolas graduated from the green frocks centuries ago."

"Centuries ago," she breathed, chuckling nervously, "I cannot believe this. I cannot believe I'm believing. But I can't… really dispute Legolas being here and being in 1585. And I cannot argue the old man who sold me Francine Davenport's estate who is a hobo with an English accent. And I cannot deny me Adrian Aaron's discoveries. And I cannot deny that I look in your eyes and believe. You know what they say. That the greatest distance ever is the space between one's mind and one's heart."

"Aye," said Elladan wistfully, "There is that."
"I cannot back away from you, Elladan," she said to him, "Not now, and likely not ever. After I've broken away from my confusion, I know… I know you took a gamble on me too." She smiled, "Besides… I play for keeps."

He grinned at her broadly, and she had the rare vision of him looking like a young boy during his ninth birthday getting a spanking red fire engine for a present. There was a light in his eye that was not so much ageless, not so much timeless but just… exhilaratingly alive, of the moment, and hers.

He pulled her into a bear-hug of an embrace, almost uncharacteristically unguarded. He loves fiercely, and he plays for keeps too.

"I will tell you who we are," he murmured, "And what all of this could mean."

" " "

Elrohir commandeered Detective Greene's laptop, having left his own in Europpe and not expecting to need it. The hour was early, with the sun yet to shine for hours, and he found himself awake and with nothing else to do.

He found his thoughts drifting to Adrian Aarons… a reincarnated Estel, he supposed, more than any of that line who followed the illustrious and much-beloved Aragorn. Adrian was like Estel in much more than face, much more than mannerisms… fate itself was pointing toward that very fact, given that they found Adrian along with a reincarnated Boromir, and now that they had Gandalf in their midst. But there was something strange about it, in that he always thought whomever could be a hero in a time of great worldly distress would emerge from one of the first sons. That was why when the descendants of Aragorn numbered so greatly, he and Elladan decided to simply follow the eldest sons, and their eldest sons and so on.

But Adrian Aarons, to say the least, was an anomaly. He was not a son of a male descendant of Aragorn's… he received that line from his mother, who looked like Arwen. And this was a line that has veered so far away from the line he and Elladan followed that he never even knew about Adrian.

Frowning, Elrohir accessed the files he kept password-blocked and well-secured on-line. He subcontracted the most sophisticated of computer software companies toward protecting his files and at the same time, allowing him to access his information on any computer anywhere in the world.

Here, he looked to the latest eldest-son and 'heir' to the throne of Gondor and Arnor, if it still existed. It was a twenty-four year-old man named Andrew.

I thought you would be the one, Elrohir reflected.

Andrew was actually the third of several Andrew's; his father was a Jr., his grandfather Sr. Sr. had a Phd in Physics and a successful business, Jr. waited in line, and Andrew III was working toward a master's degree in Business Administration to eventually take over the family fortune.

Clever family…

Elrohir clicked on the names, looking for updates on where they were and what they were doing. He kept the family trees beginning with a year of birth, and then checked in once in awhile to see how they fared, or put in the year of death if the occasion deemed it so. Once in awhile, if he knew of it in time, he even went to a funeral.

He sighed, finding that Andrew Sr. died in a boating accident last year. Sprightly old bugger kept an active lifestyle up until the end. Andrew Jr. died in a car crash not long afterwards.

That must have been a very sad year for them…

He looked up Andrew III, and nearly fell off his seat to find that he too, perished last year, a hit and run.

Oh for the love of the Valar…

Was it all a hideous coincidence?

Estel, he thought achingly, I've failed to protect your family…

The line of the first born sons have been broken and torn asunder. His heart pounded.

Hideous coincidence, hideous coincidence, hideous coincidence…

Then why is my heart pounding madly?

He looked up the line of the second sons, to find that they too have perished and ended in some strange accident or other. Anxiously, he looked up the third sons, finding the same persistent and ugly truth. He went no further. It hurt too much and too deeply, and he did not have the time…

How could I have known, he thought achingly, Estel, I am so sorry. I kept away, I only watched from a distance as they did away with your family…

Adrian Aarons, at the very brink of a worldly disaster, was the resurrected hero because no one else could be. And someone wanted to make sure Aragorn son of Arathorn remained in the grave. Someone was after Adrian Aarons, he knew this now. When they blasted at his lab, they were after the doctor, and not the samples.

He burst from his seat and dialed the doctor's number.

" " "

Elrohir, Elladan and Legolas sneaked into the doctor's apartment in a quiet, lethal rush, fearing the absolute worst. When Elrohir called and caught the machine, he hastily woke up the other elves and they immediately set out toward Adrian Aaron's home (having 'borrowed' the information from one of Legolas' friends at the station).

They froze in the kitchen, having entered from one of its windows, and kept the lights closed and their presence secret as they, used their elven ears and listed for any sound that could indicate life, or disturbance, or some kind of an intruder.

They stood still, and looked at each other with sharp eyes at the sound of shuffling from the bedroom, and the sound of a car parking outside.

The three friends remained into the shadows and crept toward the main door, just as Adrian turned the key, pushed the door forward and stepped inside his house.

Elrohir grabbed the adan and pressed a hand to his lips. The man struggled and muffled a cry, but calmed at the sound of Legolas' lowered voice.

"It is I, Leland," Legolas whispered into his ear, "There is someone inside your house."

When the tension eased from the doctor's body, Elrohir released him and he whispered in a harsh tone, "Yes, there is. You!"

The four men stayed in the shadows and closed the door. The intruder was right to sense something was amiss, and they heard more shuffling from the bedroom.

Taking a deep breath, Legolas, bearing his gun, took the lead and stepped toward the sounds, flanked by Elladan, Adrian and Elrohir. They halted just outside the bedroom door and pressed themselves against the wall, watching and waiting, as a pair of men clad in black, bearing guns lengthened by silencers quietly stepped out of the cabinet.

"There are people coming out of the closet," Adrian whispered, alarmed but trying to keep his tone flat and low.

"It's the new millennium, my friend," Elladan whispered reassuringly, grinning at him, "Some people really do that."

"Stay down," Legolas whispered to his friends, and though they desired to do otherwise, they understood very well the wisdom in following what the cop just said; they were all great fighters, but Legolas was the only one armed with a gun.

Legolas jumped out to the door frame and aimed at them. "Freeze, LAPD!"

Elrohir looked at Elladan with alarm as the shots started raining around them. "Did he just really say that?!"

They pressed down on the floor, and heard Legolas return fire. The intruders scrambled for the windows, at which time Legolas ceased his shooting in fear of endangering the neighborhood; the houses were pressed close together, and there was no telling where evaded bullets flew. The assassins, however, had no qualms against the possibility of killing innocent people, and they rushed off, randomly shooting behind them to discourage Legolas from pursuit.

The stubborn Mirkwood prince rushed to his feet, and made for the windows and jumped out. He was a fast runner, but his foes had a great head start, not to mention a rain of gunfire sending him to the ground every once in awhile. He was still regaining his feet for the nth time when his prey vanished off into the night with a mad screech of tires in an unmarked car.

He muttered a curse in profound irritation, and turned to his three companions breathlessly, saying, "I didn't get anything."

TO BE CONTINUED…

Hey guys! Thanks so much for the reviews!!! I won't be able to reply to each one right now because I've been so busy I thought you guys may just want me to answer and thank you through quick posts. I'm working on chapter 22 right now and well, chapter 22 is the entrance of yet another much-loved character. To answer some of your questions though, the point where I'm writing my story right now already has Eomer in it :) next post will be two chapters… I'm OC and really feel uncomfortable leaving something at number 13. Anyway, expect Brad, Fred and Adrian setting foot in Imladris :) 'til then!!! :)