Disclaimer: Disclaimer is not available at the moment, please read the message at the first chapter at the beep. Beep!
Setting: Sometime not to shortly or longly (im so sure that's a word) after the last chapter. More towards the 'longly' side though.
Summary: Aradel is going to see her dear old dad one last time. Will something go terribly terribly wrong? Or will everything go exactly as planned? Find out on this weeks chapter of...The Series.

Final Confrontation

"Are you sure about this? You know he would kill you if you cause to much trouble." Legolas cast a cautious glance beside him to Aradel, two hands on the straps of her backpack.

"If I've told you once I've told you a thousand times, yes." She replied wearily. "It's just for closure, that's all. So I know he hasn't won."

They were walking through the forest in the dead of night, in the silence, in the dark. The moon cast ominous shadows over them as they headed towards the heart of Lorien through the chilled air. Legolas could scarcely see Aradel's silhouette in such dark because of her habitually dark clothing but she could see him almost perfectly because the angle of the light made his pale skin glow like the moon it came from.

"Though he is your father, I doubt he will show any form mercy at your expense. I've seen what he can do to you and you to him. This can result in nothing but pain." He commented, more to himself than her, for she was barely listening.

"Pain is apart of life, Legolas, you must understand that. I'm going to do this without your help or not. All I'm going to do is ask him why he wants me alive. It doesn't make sense since he's tried to kill me so many times." She pondered thoughtfully.

"True but this kind of pain is completely unnecessary. Not only will seeing him bring up all sorts of emotional conflict but knowing him, through your words only of course, he will most likely either put you through terrible torture or death. I'm just worried for your safety." He said nonchalantly.

"I'm very sure you are, and I appreciate the thought but I'm still doing it. And if he kills me than bury my twisted, mangled corpse in Mirkwood. I think it would be best don't you?" she inclined her head pointedly in his direction and grinned when he squinted to see what she was doing through the veil of black night.

He was about reply but didn't and instead turned his gaze to the forest floor in concentrated thought. "I wonder how different you would be if he had been a good father. If he had loved you…like you deserved."

The smile faded from her face and she too turned to look at the ground.

"You don't know how many times I've asked myself that. I would no doubt be very different. He would have sailed across the sea with Gala-Nanneth and I would be queen of Lorien, I suppose. And I wouldn't have met you."

Simultaneously they looked up and locked eyes. Deep brown to bright blue, Mirkwood to Lorien, into each other's souls. "Of course I'd also be ten times more boring than I am."

They laughed as they came into the light of the city and the glory of the largest tree, in the center looking down at them. Legolas was worried and visibly so. His face painted an extravagant picture of anxiety and extreme discomfort.

Aradel's face however was aglow with the excitement of a challenge. And that challenge was making out of Lorien alive and free. "Well let's go then."

She continued walking briskly towards the huge talan she used to call home so many years ago, to confront the man who ended it all. A wind picked up and rustled her chocolate brown hair, now reaching only to her shoulders as she had cut in before they had head out to Lorien.

"I do not think this is a good idea. If you want my opinion-"

"Well it's a good thing I don't want your opinion on this particular matter than isn't it?" she interrupted him before he could finish, knowing what he was going to say.

"Fine." He pouted needlessly melodramatically, seeing as she couldn't see him and if she could she wouldn't be paying attention.

So the trudged to the heart of the city and soon found themselves at the large doors separating the main hall of the Lord's talan from the outside world. Word around town was that he had shut himself away, never came out, never seen, never heard. They only knew he existed by word from his closest servants and maids. No one knew fully why he stayed inside so much, why he kept all the windows closed and barricaded, or why no food other than bread and water were sent to the magnificent house that had become his prison.

Maybe Aradel would find out as she was let in by the guards, recognized by the older soldiers as their princess (not quite beloved) who had run away so many years ago. She nodded politely and flashed them a quick smile as she passed and Legolas raised an apprehensive eyebrow. He was used to her being treated as a drifter, lower than most of the simple farmers that worked the earth for small towns. He chuckled lowly, to himself as they ascended the white stairs.

"What's so funny?" she asked over her shoulder as they reached the top.

"I'm not used to this." A questioning silence pursued him to elaborate. "You being treated like a person of royalty. I could never picture you wearing those long white dresses and tiara with your hands folded neatly in front of you while your parents greet newcomers or someone of like."

She laughed briskly. "I was never like that. I was forced to wear dressed and such but I was never one to act like the perfect little princess. In fact most of my so called friends, who happened to be the only people I ever talked to, said I was to grow up to be a human man."

It was his turn to laugh and he did so with great gusto. "That I can imagine." They turned a corner and he almost ran into her as she had stopped right outside of a large mahogany door. She sent a brief glance his way and shook her head in mock disappointment at his lack of grace as he took a stumbling step back.

"Is this his study?" she nodded and reached for the handle. "Shouldn't you knock first."

She sighed and turned to him. "First of all even when I was on good terms with him Valar knows how long ago I scarcely knocked. Second of all; do you really think he wants to see anyone if he's locked himself in here for years and me of all people? Come on Legolas, use your head." She lightly tapped him on his pretty blonde head.

"Fine. Good luck. If you die I'm taking your archery stuff." He said before she opened the doors and gingerly stepped in.

It was pitch black, there were no windows in the room and not a candle was lit. She stood a moment, at the door to let her eyes adjust so she could see a faint outline of the various furniture. Relying on that and previous knowledge from times as a child in here looking for her Ada she made her way to the large desk at the end of the room.

Aradel stubbed her tow on the way but resisted the urge to curse very loudly as to not disturb anyone in the room. At the desk was a figure, slumped over raising and lowering in a gentle rhythm that told her that whoever it was, and she had a pretty good idea, was asleep.

"No way did I come this far only to see you sleeping. Wake up." She whispered forcefully as she gently prodded him in the cheek. He didn't react so she poked a little harder.

He jerked violently to his feet, knocking the chair sideways out of vision into the darkness. His eyes slowly adjusting he saw her outline.

"Galadriel?" he whispered softly reaching out hand to touch her face. A small, sharp intake of breath and slight recoil was her immediate reaction. To many times he had touched her face and gotten away with it for her not to react in such a way.

She took a step back and he tried to approach her again but stumbled over a chair. He would have fallen to the floor had not a hand been grasped around his arm to keep him from doing so. "I am not your wife Celeborn." She said.

"Who are you then, I do not recognize your voice nor your silhouette.

"Maybe you should think a little harder. Daddy." She added a scornful emphasis on the last word. It felt foreign and wrong in her mouth.

"You." He growled and aggressively pulled his arm away from her clasp.

"Calm yourself. You have not the strength nor the will to fight me." She assured. "Of course I come here with intentions to speak with you not with intentions of physical violence. Psychological on the other hand…"

"What could you possibly want to speak with me about?"

"Why do you not wish me dead. The way you treat me no one doubts that you want me dead and yet you stopped the knife."

"You stopped that knife on your will."

"Only upon your wish would I have stopped it and I knew you would, but not why."

"To tell the truth I don't know." She watched as he sat down on the chair by his desk with a sigh. "Instinct."

"Excuse me?"

"Your Nanneth always used to tell me that the only reason I didn't kill you was because of my 'maternal instinct' I used to tell her my daughter was dead, I have no maternal instinct. I was wrong."

She sat down opposite him, feeling her way down into the soft padded chair. "Come now Celeborn don't tell me we are now repenting for our wrong deeds. Surely a lord such as yourself mustn't show weakness in front of lowly peasant such as myself. Now if you'll excuse me I am going to try and leave with minimal amounts of maiming and minimum amounts of dying."

"Why must you continue to insult me with your dry sarcasm, Aradel. We are not children any more."

"You hate me, Celeborn, do you not?" she leant over so her face was inches away from his.

"I do." He said with a small nod. "Why did you come here?"

"That's just another thing to add to the list then. I came here for an answer as to why I am still alive. I got that answer. I need nothing more from you." She stood and started to feel her way back to the door. Behind her the chair scraped as the Lord stood.

"You do not want to know what would have happened if Celebrian hadn't died? You don't want to ask me if keep this up because I still hate your or because I am keeping up appearances for my reputation? You cannot tell me you don't want to know if I still have the things from your room that I took before I locked you in."

She stopped in her tracks at the door. Did he really or was it just a cruel joke designed to make her beg? "If I cannot tell you so than I can tell you this. None of it matters anymore Celeborn. All that matters is what you did, not why, not how. The fact that you did it tells me more than enough."

With that she opened the door sending a small ray of light over the gray room and was taken just as quickly with a sharp slam. Outside Legolas was waiting patiently. "How was it? Are we running for our lives?"

"I should think not. He'll be in his room with no contact to the outside world for a long, long time." She replied walking briskly down the stairs and out the front doors.

"Just how long will the people of Lorien have to live without a Lord? I'm sure you know or could approximate."

"He's been in there for about a year now so another ninety nine years should do it. Then he can die in peace." She replied.

"Why must he spend one hundred years locked in his study to die in peace? This makes no sense."

"Let's just say I know what he's going through. A hundred years in a blank white room is hell for me but for everyone else their fear is a hundred years in a room consumed by darkness. He'll be fine when he gets out though."

"How do you know?"

"I'm fine aren't I?" she grinned back at him as they walked out into the forest.

The End

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated for ever but i've been so busy trying to keep up at school and trying to keep up with my friends and not have them thinking im some sort of computer geek hermit crap. This is the result of lack of ideas, i'm sorry for any plot holes or inaccuracies but ... well i dont have an excuse so just yell at me and get it over with. As for reviewer responses, here they are! Nehoo, bye-bye!:D

kougayurizoku: Hi again! Glad you liked it! :D