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.

23: To Wait

Rome, Italy

Mid-2004

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he's been awake for awhile, although nothing seemed to register, nothing seemed to make sense, nothing seemed to be making a lasting impact on him. It was likely how it felt to be swimming in mud, although it was a past time he's never tried before…

He did not feel detached from the world, rather it felt as if he stood at its center and it was the one hovering all around him in strange shapes, strange colors, strange sounds, dancing and dancing all around him. Time did not exist in this strange place where he saw and heard and felt, yet could not… could not quite… participate.

The state was comforting, yes, yet even here, he knew that there were things from the outside that hurt but insistently demanded his attention.

He thought he sighed. He must have, because it was certainly one of those resigning, nothing-I-can-do-but-sigh moments. And then his vision cleared and his senses sharpened, and he found himself in a situation that really was worthy of wanting to escape from.

He was sore. He was grimy. He was bound to a chair that was so hard it surely would have been uncomfortable enough already without the binds on his arms, wrists, legs and ankles done so tightly and so annoyingly well that it could only be described as either obsessive or professional. He could have stopped there and it really would have been all right… he has, after all, been in like situations before. What he did not appreciate was the vicious throbbing of his wounded arm that sent fire through his veins and occupied quite a bit of his concentration. What he appreciated far less, was the rather proud and profoundly unwelcome face of Grima Wormtongue looking at him with a smug smile on his face.

"Legolas of Mirkwood," Grima greeted him slyly, "I know your face, hm? Welcome back."

The elf met the manic gaze coolly. "I suppose," his voice sounded wearier than he desired and he gulped to regain some of its strength, "I suppose I should say the same of you."

Grima's brows rose. "Indeed. Indeed you should. I have at last reclaimed myself."

"Then you do not have much at all, do you?" Legolas pointed out.

Grima was annoyed, yet he disliked to show a lack of control. "Also fair of you to say. Much as it irks me. But as you can see… I am no longer a pawn of someone else's game."

"Saruman?" Legolas inquired.

Grima almost burst with his pride. "Imagine how terrible it was, to suddenly know of a rather embarrassing past and discover the present conditions are similar. Me, once again working for that ungrateful filth. The game is mine now, elf. Armed with my knowledge of exactly who I was, I've turned the tide. Now he works for me." he laughed scornfully, "My old master has turned into my slave. Blackmail is a very, very clever thing, isn't it? Now his company is mostly mine, and Theoden's too. I've set my life along a different course. The game is mine. I have all the armies and the weapons I need to win it. At last, after all these ages and all these lifetimes."

"What game?" Legolas asked.

"You know what game," Grima snapped, "I am here, you are here. Saruman is here. Theoden, Eomer, Eowyn, they are here too. And then that blasted heir of Isildur and your cursed wizard too. If we are all here, then surely something else awaits finding. You know of what I speak."

"The ring of power was destroyed long ago," Legolas retorted, "You know that."

"And we all died long ago too," countered Grima, "You, elf, must know that very well. If we are all back here now, something of the ring or like it is here too. You will tell me where it is."
"I do not know where it is," replied Legolas, "I even doubt that it is here. Did I not just attempt to refute you?"

"But you gather the fellowship again," Grima pointed out, "It is obviously for a purpose. I've been pondering my options for over a year. This is a life anew, a chance to change how the story is told. I know much, and therefore there is much that I can do. I've done away with Isildur's line, for that blasted family is dangerous to me. Eomer was next, and then Theoden too. You and Gandalf would have been in that short list if I found you sooner. Eowyn would have been mine. I'd have ruled the world without contest, for my unwitting foes have been felled long before their purpose of stopping me was revealed to them. Oh, you had to interfere, didn't you? Of course you did, you were born for it. But the ending is changed, this time. I will rule. I will win. I will craft a new future out of knowing my flawed past. I regret that life, but I cannot regret that it has given me knowledge I can use to shape my world now. My game, elf. Mine."

Legolas watched his fervent, hungry face. Grima, though he had scarred his own soul with faulty choices, likely deserved more pity than hate. He was always a pawn, always hungry, always… needy. He was oft lost, and held no true anchor. A cursed fate it was to be thus. Legolas liked believing that it was one of those strange reasons the compassionate Valar had toward the resurrection of a man who probably merited a second chance in life. The same for the wizard Saruman. Here is another life, do with it as you will, he imagined the gods to say, do good. Life can be kinder if you let it. But by incident, Grima Wormtongue rediscovered his old life and reacted like a recalcitrant child, unknowingly bringing himself to the same place, and lending himself to the same brand of evil rather than breaking from it. The only difference is that when once he had been a pawn, now he has turned himself into the master, in a misled effort to change his fate.

"Your game," Legolas echoed, "As you wish it. But there are no pieces to play. There is no ring."

"Or its like!" snapped Grima, "The ring or its like! Where is it? You know, you know! Or the halflings do! They must have it, they had it long ago! Where are the halflings? Where is the ring?"

"It was destroyed long ago—" Legolas was insisting, but Grima cut him off with a raise of his hand.

"I'm tired of this," he said, trying to regain his calm, "I knew from the start you would not speak of it to me. It is no surprise. I expected as much. I wish to beat the answer out of you but I have not the patience. You'll hold your tongue, I know you always have. But times have changed and the fates have offered us newer solutions."

"There is nothing to tell," Legolas told him coolly, not really wishing to discover what those 'newer solutions' meant. He looked about him and only began to realize that he was in a rather sterile-looking room that had the smell, the look, and the air of a hospital.

"We shall see soon enough," Grima promised him, "You'll tell me your darkest secrets, I guarantee. I've just merged some of the greatest competencies of the two companies I am quickly acquiring. Bioengineering and Military. I'll give you a guess what I had my clever scientists come up with."

"Whatever it is," Legolas said boldly, "It won't work."

"Well it was bound for a trial," Grima said with a shrug, "You know, it's in its clinical testing stage-- animals and things to ensure its not lethal in the proper doses. Although the best test is for humans and their like species, undoubtedly. You'll further our research and further my own personal quest, master elf. I wonder… I wonder if you have you ever heard of the proverbial Truth Serum?"

Imldris,

Mid-2004

Adrian stared at the two blips on the hacker's screen. The two bases in Europe of the mercenary group were situated in Greece and the U.K. They were roughly of equal distance from Imladris, and there was lots of places to stop in between and only too many means of traveling from one place to another. Not to mention the fact that they could be bringing Legolas to their 'client' instead, who could literally be anywhere, especially after they've just eliminated the completely knocked-out Saruman as a suspect in Switzerland. The possibilities were endless. They were once again back to Grissom Warrington, who actually presented really very little threat at present, outside of his white collar crimes.

He sighed, really very well-aware of the fact that staring would be of little help. But the answers were surely not elsewhere. His cell phone rang, and he excused himself from the group to say hello to his mother.

"Yes, I'm alive," he winced a reply; she was a bit irked at him for not informing her of his whereabouts and was speaking figuratively when she said she was relieved to find him alive. He decided not to inform her that his reply was literal in contrast.

"I'm sorry, mom," he said, smiling a little at something she said, "I know, I know. I'm old but I'm your responsibility until I get married… umhm… not for lack of trying… I'm in Europe… It's beautiful, it's really amazing… well I have to go, I'm working on that wife you keep telling me to get… Yes… yes… I love you too." He ended the call and pocketed the phone, decided that he missed her. His fingers brushed at the lump of the cell phone in his coat pocket thoughtfully, wondering why the situation seemed so familiar…

A cell phone rang, breaking him from his reverie. Emmett, Eowyn, Anatalia, Adrian and himself scrambled for their mobiles.

"It's mine," Legolas declared, rising from his seat in the library and commandeering a corner. "Greene."

"Leland, I think someone's after you," Montes said without any greeting or introduction.

The Mirkwood elf, unsurprised over a fact he was well-aware of, sighed wearily. "I've been dreading hearing your voice lately, Rafe. Do you never call just because you miss me—"

"Be serious, Greene," his partner barked, "I don't know what's happening, but I'm in the middle of your really trashed apartment right now. A few hours ago, I was standing in your doc's place—and ballistics was there just days ago!—and your two other friends'."

"Was anyone hurt?" Legolas asked urgently. Now this… this he did not expect. Now he was part of a hit-list alongside Aragorn's heir? And someone was ingenious and resourceful enough to have traced him?

"Your door man," Rafe replied, "Some messy business there. Someone tried to beat some answers out of him. He's still alive, though. Lucky, stubborn bastard…"

"Rafe, I'm going to need you to look after a woman," Legolas said immediately, sparing Adrian, who was eyeing him with suspicion, a quick glance, "Rowena Aarons. Someone wants to get to the doctor, Montes, and though they do not involve the women, they might take her just to smoke him out."

"Is this the Mafia?" Montes asked.

"No," Legolas said insistently, "Look in on her, Montes. Please. As soon as you can. Right now if you can. Look out for that family. Go."

"All right, all right," said the other detective, "Hey. Watch your back."

Rafe hung up, and Legolas pocketed his cellphone and looked toward the others in the room who were staring at him expectantly. The Mirkwood elf was just about to open his mouth to inform them of the latest developments when he heard the chimes from the main gate sound. His heart pounded, and his eyes raked the room for Halvor, and, well, a weapon...

Legolas pocketed his cell phone…

Legolas pocketed his cell phone!

Adrian's eyes could have leapt from their sockets. He rushed to the hacker and urgently asked, "Cell phone! If he had it with him, isn't there some kind of tracking, like in GPS? Global positioning? Is there any way…?"

"A cell phone!" the hacker exclaimed, as if it was so obvious and simple, "No one told me he had a cell phone with him."

"Get to it," Adrian told him quickly, "Get to it."

There was a breathless anxiety about the room as the hacker's deft fingers danced over the keyboards, the only sound in the thick, expectant silence.

Goran drummed his fingers against the table as he impatiently awaited for his skills to break through the security software. He grinned to himself as the page loaded, and he began typing again. Codes and numbers and strange words covered the screen and scrolled up and down; no one else in the room could quite understand what they were for, but the hacker seemed vastly pleased by his handiwork.

"Number?" Goran murmured, and Adrian already had his mobile ready and read over Leland Greene's.

Taking a deep, dramatic breath, Goran lifted up his hands from the keyboard with a flourish, just as the screen dimmed to a map with a blinking dot upon it.

"There he is," Goran declared. He clicked on the dot and the map zoomed in on the outskirts of Rome, Italy.

"Is it stationary?" Gandalf asked.

Goran clicked on the dot again and the map moved even closer. "It's stationary. Either that's where Leland Greene is being kept, or somebody had the brains to take that thing from him at last and tossed it, or… or it's a body dump."

"What's in that area?" Adrian asked.

Goran zoomed in again. "Some buildings, but the phone's in some empty construction zone. Body dump?"

"They tossed it," Adrian said determinedly, "They must have found it on him before they turned him over to their client and got rid of it."

I cannot believe what you suggest…

Emmett pressed closer to the screen. "I know where that is. Warrington is definitely behind everything now, I know it."
"What place is that?" Gandalf asked, as Elladan and Elrohir scurried away to ready their weapons and things for a quick move and retrieval effort.

"Fortress has three main holdings in Rome," Emmett replied, "One is the administrative building, and two are R&D facilities. That construction site is right near one of them. That facility is in the middle of a lockdown. There was a strike some weeks ago. It's supposed to be empty. If he wants to do something illegal, that's where he'll have the space and privacy."

"Can this thing get any closer?" Adrian asked of the zoom, "Like, building schematics?"

"You ask for much," Goran replied, shaking his head, "It's not going to happen."

"I know that place like the back of my hand," Emmett said, "I will take you."

"Wait," Brad asked, "We're all just going to break into this place, manned by people armed to the teeth? Why don't we just set the cops on their tails? I mean, we got Interpol right here!"

Harding shook his head. "That's going to be a big breakout. Interpol is more stealthy until it's sure and that is hardly what you are. And the cops can't help you at all. They're tied up in red tape, so to speak. To invade that place just based on what you say, they need probable cause and search warrants and seizure warrants and warrants of arrest. If they don't have these, likely the crooks will walk because what the police did was illegal."

"That's just crazy," Brad muttered.

"If you were falsely accused," Hardwick pointed out, "You'd appreciate it."

"So basically we're on our own," breathed Brad, "Great."

TO BE CONTINUED…

Hey guys!!! Sorry I'm just in such a rush lately, I'm like working on fifty million things and am just fervently trying to keep my posts regular. I've finished chapter 26 at last, and am beginning with 27. I just want to say a quick big THANK YOU to all who read and all who review. I'm really trying to keep up the posts and the quality so that I won't waste your valuable time :) You guys are great and thank you so much for sharing your time with my little offering :)

Anyway, some quick answers to your questions so that you'd still have a worthwhile reading experience… I know it gets very confusing :)

ON HALDIR. I know I went off the whole elvish thing with this one, and though it may sound like a cop-out, I always figured that the gods will place you when and where you're needed, so he makes a comeback here in this way :)

ON HOBBITS. I'm trying to make a curious twist on the story here and stuff like these (my big-arc plans) are usually written at the end of my stories, those Notes I love writing. But since everyone's looking for hobbits, I'll say this much at this time: the big events of LOTR began with them, and then things just kind of coalesced around them. This story is going to be… the reverse. I'll expound on this idea later, and in my Notes you'll know why I did this. Anyway, expect our foursome in later chapters :)

ON INTERPOL. International Police… captures the imagination, doesn't it, like real 007 stuff :) Very cool :) I thought if Haldir could belong to some new modern force, it has to be the super elite one, haha.

ON GIMLI. I wanted to throw the elves a curveball by making him tall. I read that the actor who played Gimli is actually taller than Orlando Bloom, haha, is this true? Anyway, the elves know everything in this scenario I figured they could use a handy surprise (aside from the fact that the dwarf's been right under their noses this whole time).

Anyway, Chapter 24 is coming up and it's the longest chapter of all… also my favorite although I hope it comes out all right because it's very complicated (almost as complicated as me, haha).

THANKS AGAIN AND 'TIL THEN!!!