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.
17: Ride With It
Messina, Sicily
Mid-2004
Fred did not tell his brother of his strange experience, nor did he inform the other fellows with whom he worked toward solving this curious, confounded mystery. This, he knew, was something he had to discover on his own, at least for a little while.
His mind was racing apace with his thundering heart that evening, lying in bed and thinking about what it was that was happening all around him, what was happening to himself.
All this, he supposed, began with a bomb and ended with elves and wizards, and then him here, having just met a woman who was beginning to feel like the end of all that he knew and the beginning of something grand and just… drastically different.
Or the same… this silly voice in his head seemed to whisper, because more than a departure, having literally collided into her felt like a missing piece had fallen into place. Eunice was not a departure from everything he knew. She was home.
And he… he was finally and once again who he was meant to be.
Faramir.
Whoever the hell he is.
He'd ask Leland, he decided. Leland would know.
But then there once again grew his doubt. First of all, a man claiming to be an elf was hardly the most reliable source of truth. Secondly, especially if this truth he was seeking had anything to do with apparently silly concepts like reincarnation. But then again… he also could not deny his feelings, these… recollections of evasive memories that are his and all at once not. Maybe he was the reincarnation of someone else. Or maybe he's just going crazy…
Oh for god's sakes, he could imagine his older brother saying, You've just never been in love before, man. All of them are going to feel like the missing blasted piece.
But he remembered her eyes, and her hair and her nervous smile. And he knew he couldn't just let her go.
He fell asleep with the decision. He would claim her as his, he said to himself, or at least, find out what all this was about.
What he did not know, as his eyes drifted shut, was that his destiny would lay claim to him too. And thus did Messina, Italy melt away into dreams, and dreams melded with memory, and the shut eyes of the restless sleeper were at last turned toward their fervently awaiting destiny.
Brad awoke to find his brother embracing him chokingly tight and half-laughing and half-sobbing.
"The hell—" Brad exclaimed, sleep-muddled mind struggling to awaken, "Fred! What's your problem?!"
"Boromir!" Fred exclaimed, pulling away and studying his brother's face intently, "You're alive!"
"Of course I'm alive," Brad snapped, "What's wrong with you?"
"I had a dream," Fred said excitedly, "But then it was true, and I know it so well. I'm me, but then I'm somebody else too. And thank all the gods that you're alive!"
Brad was favoring him with a suspicious sidelong glance. His younger brother was hysterical. What the hell happened during the night? They shared a room, he knew for sure the punk didn't go anywhere. Nervously, he fished for his phone on the nightstand between the two single beds. He speed-dialed Leland Greene's number.
"We have a problem," Brad said quickly.
The two brothers made it to the quieter, humbler inn in good time. It was deep in the little town and not overlooking the sea, but it had its own quaint charm. The group of eight sat on a veranda, regarding the man who was, for all intents and purposes, Captain Faramir, Prince of Ithilien.
"You've recovered your memory," said Legolas slowly, "Upon touch of Eowyn."
"Yes," Faramir replied, "I felt something strange, but had no real recollection until I've seeked it during the night. You know, I am very eager to see her again, I need to know if the same epiphany has come to her. But Boromir was adamant to take me here and said that if I did not go, he'd have me strapped and sacked and slung over his shoulder. Or he'd go away himself, either way he needed answers. It being that I needed them too, and I'm very pleased he's alive, I let him have his way."
Legolas searched his face with a frown. "So which are you? Fred or Faramir? Does one replace the other?"
"I am both," Faramir said simply.
"Then why do you talk funny?" Brad asked, "This is insane, you've lost your mind."
"I've reclaimed it," Faramir corrected, "As, I think, we all should. Especially you, Aragorn."
Adrian's eyes narrowed in irritation, but he held his tongue and said nothing.
"You knew," Legolas said to Mithrandir quietly.
"I… hypothesized," Gandalf replied evenly.
"What does all this mean now?" Elrohir asked.
"I don't know," Gandalf replied, "But I think there's something we need to discover first. We have to know if the same thing has happened to Eowyn. If it has, then we can theorize that contact with those that were once loved or cherished, accompanied by a staunch determination and openness, can yield to the rediscovery of lives long passed."
"And if it can work for the pair of them," said Legolas, "It will likely work on Adrian. And Teodoro. And Emmett too."
"Then let us go see Eowyn!" Faramir said.
"Oh, knock yourself out," Brad told him wearily, waving him away, "I have some pretty solid advice for you though, chum, women do not often fall for psychos."
Emmett Rigare found, to his great and profound dismay, his younger sister looking up at the American stranger with stars in her eyes and a wild flush of color to her cheeks. The—couple, he supposed—were standing by the deck facing the sea, but they only seemed set upon looking at each other.
This morning, his sister came to him sprightly and excited, and speaking about things that sounded, at the very least, profoundly manic. He shot daggers at the American's back, wondering what kind of charm did he hold such that his sister, often very calm and controlled and reserved, burst forth toward him with a blinding smile and love in her eyes. Oh, how badly did he want that fellow to simply keel over and die and never bother them again…
Curiously, he found a man (the only other man aside from himself and his younger sister's beau in the establishment) sitting by the bar and looking loathsomely at the handsome pair as well. Finding a comrade, Emmett strode toward him and asked the bartender for a shot of tequila.
"Look at that," Brad said absently, "What the hell do they put in the water in this place?"
"What's it to you?" Emmett asked.
"That's my younger brother," Brad replied.
"That's my younger sister,' Emmett informed him, wondering if he should take his ire out on the American's brother.
"I mean she's pretty and all," Brad said, "And I'm sure she's nice. But we just got here. He's usually more… more…"
"Conservative," the two men said at the same time.
Emmett looked at him ironically for a moment, before extending his hand in introduction. "Emmett."
"Brad," said the other, "Nice to meetcha."
Emmett ordered them a round of drinks, and they downed it in a toast. "May they behave," Brad declared.
"May they're affair soon end," Emmett said wryly, "No offense to you, of course."
"Good call," Brad said, downing his drink and ordering them another round, this time, his treat. "Good call."
The group dispersed for lunch; they were in Messina, Elrohir reasoned, they really might as well take a break and have a bit of fun. It was mostly a quiet town, no one will care about the lot of them. Legolas opted to stay in the inn, to gather his thoughts. To his surprise, Adrian Aarons hesitantly decided to stay with him.
At one of the patios of the hostel, the two fellows regarded each other uncertainly.
"We were good friends, once," Legolas told him, "I'd have given my life for you. I still would."
"Don't," Adrian chuckled nervously, "I'm not the same guy."
"Even after what has happened to Fred, you do not believe?" Legolas asked. "It is the way things are."
"Oh, he's always been a nice, quiet guy," Adrian said flippantly, "That's likely his repressed side being unleashed."
Legolas stared at him in consternation.
"You always look at me like that," Adrian pointed out, "Like you don't know what to do with me."
"I don't know what to do with you," Legolas admitted wryly.
"Do we seriously have to remember who we once were?" Adrian asked, "I mean we're all here, aren't we? The rules of the game have changed, because times have changed too. Maybe you need a different brand of guy, this time."
"You're… you're right, I suppose," Legolas said quietly, "It is likely not so necessary. Maybe it's more for me, than for this cause of ours, a cause we do not yet know. It's selfish and silly. But you could hardly blame us. As I said. We were once good friends. And Elladan and Elrohir… they are Aragorn's brothers. We want him restored, almost blindingly so. But if being with us awakens no memory in you, perhaps you really are somebody else. Or perhaps we never meant too much to Aragorn after all, which," he chuckled wearily, "I refuse to believe."
Adrian smiled at him wistfully. So. His being here has questioned not merely the elf's future, but also his past. This face was a blasted menace. But one lived with what one had, he supposed.
"So," Adrian breathed, "Would you want to see Messina with me? We can still catch up with them."
Getting drunk in the afternoon was not a very professional thing to do. It was not a very proper thing to do. It was not a very fun thing to do. But of course one discovers this too late, and Emmett found himself drifting blearily awake to a room that was not his own. To a hotel that wasn't even his own. To faces looking down upon him that belonged perfect strangers.
"I never knew you for drinking, Eomer," Legolas greeted him with a warm smile, although he did not expect to be recognized.
His sister's voice drifted from somewhere in the background. "Oh pipe down, Legolas. He's lost his job, he's lost our uncle's trust… he can have a few."
"They had a lot," Faramir said wryly, "my brother's still passed out on the floor."
"Well he got the job done, didn't he?" Elrohir said cheerfully, "He got the guy all the way here, eh?" He winked at Eomer, "You've just been kidnapped."
"Don't make him mad," Eowyn warned.
"Don't scare him," Anatalia piped in.
The man in question was more the former than the latter. He sat up and glared at the strangers, though he looked at his younger sister searchingly.
"What in the world is happening here?" he demanded to know. His eyes drifted to Anatalia, and they widened slightly. "You! I saw you with Warrington the other night. Is he behind this?"
"Oh calm down," Ana advised him, "Your sister's been photographed with him before, does that mean they're together? It's called a photo-op, you're supposed to know all about this."
"What the hell is going on here?" he asked.
"If you don't want to lose your mind," Adrian Aarons said dryly from a corner of the room, "You don't ask things like that."
He laughed, almost bitterly, and by this time, the elves of the company were neither surprised nor offended. As a matter of fact, if he did not laugh, if he believed instantly, Elladan, Elrohir, Legolas and Gandalf likely would have questioned his sanity.
"I know, I know," Elrohir said wearily, "It's insane, it's impossible, blah, blah, blah. But you lost your job, right? I mean, you're not officially fired, that wouldn't look nice for the family business at all. But for all intents and purposes, you're not going to be doing anything for awhile. So ride with it, eh?"
Emmett turned toward his sister and barked at her in Italian. 'I can't believe you are lending yourself to this.'
"It sounds like fun, though, doesn't it?" she asked him with a laugh, replying in English, the language everyone else could understand. "Come on, Emmett. Let's see where this takes us. And with any luck, they'll help us be rid of Warrington, don't you think?"
"We need you," said Gandalf, "To tell us everything that you know about him."
TO BE CONTINUED…
HEY GUYS!!! Thanks to all who read and all who reviewed. Next chapter will find the gang knowing more about Grissom Warrington and his old boss… 'til then!!! :)