BIG Thanks to midnight-flurry, Dazzler420, LJP, Caloweil, Scarlett Moonchild, Ertia, DMH1973, kbluesmom, Oracle, Artemis1860, Firera, debra3, Laer4572, moxie, debra3 (again! Heh), snakefeather, Ms. Unknown, Muddie21, AnbuSinobi, Julia, lee, Norie Ape1, toratigergirl11 (well, that's good!), celebrian, Pippinsgal011890, legolasnDcolorblueinterstme, Skyfire4 (glad you made it back!), Imithwennyere, tree topper (Thanks! It's all you guys!), Skyfire4 (Again! Heh. Surprise, it's updated today!)

THANKS GUYS! Whew, this chapter has been getting on my nerves. It's the breaking point for either a happy ending or a sad one. Now, I've already written the ending, so don't try to sway me! (Lol! I am your servant, really)

Some questions are answered in this chapter...One in particular. Wink Enjoy!

Oh, one last thing...I thought you guys were gonna kill me at the last chapter end...Please note the sign: Points to sign Haldir is holding nicely 'Please do not throw any sharp items that may cause bodily harm to the author...Also...No guns. Thanks!' Just in case you guys missed that on the way in. Glances around

Chapter Twenty-Five: Devastating Warrior

Ashk

"Run!" Haldir demanded, pushing me away from him. I staggered before running in the direction he shoved me, fearful of that rage in his eyes.

"Don't you think about it, Ashk!" cried a voice from above - one that made me shudder. Meriel. I glanced back only to see him hold out my son by a dangling arm.

I screamed something in panic. However, the man laughed and drew my sobbing child to him again, cradling the boy unlike the savage he was.

"You run, Ashk, and your boy is going for a swim."

"No!" I screamed, dashing forward as if to do something before Haldir caught me around the waist and forced me to stay where we were.

"Let them go," Haldir commanded. His voice rolled in harmony with the thunder above us. "They've done nothing to you."

Meriel shuddered in the bright flash of a lightning bolt. "And what did my wife and child do to you, March Warden? What did our families do to deserve what you gave them!" he demanded, shifting our son into his hands again. "Were our children any less innocent than yours!" he cried, shaking the child like a doll.

I smothered my voice with my hand as enraged tears sprang into my eyes.

"You will learn your lesson!" Meriel exclaimed, the men around him erupting in a horribly painful cry.

"That was a mistake I cannot amend!" Haldir shouted back. "Had you followed my instructions, they would still be alive!"

"You pass the blame!" cried a man, pointing at Haldir.

"I will not deny what I did and I have paid for it in ways that mean nothing to you - But do not make my family pay for it as well," Haldir replied, his voice a calm tone that only reeked and vibrated in rage.

Silence met him and though I knew the men were looking among each other, I only stared at my son as the rain faded away.

What were they going to do?

"Ashk," Ermone's voice was icy. "Come here."

I paused, a horrible dread weighing in my stomach. However, as I looked at my son once more, I knew I had no choice. They could kill him.

I stepped forward only to have Haldir's grip around me tighten and pull me back to him.

"Haldir," I whispered softly, out of the hearing of the men that shadowed over us. I felt him shudder before he trembled with an unbelievable leash on his rage. "Let me go," I told him. "Let me go."

His eyes, so lit with a horrible fire, stared at me a moment as if I'd just shattered him.

Then, slowly he released me and I walked forward, the last of his touch brushing away against my hand.

Orophin

"We can kill most of them from here," Ferevellon hissed at me as we peered through the distance between us and the men.

"If we cannot certainly kill all of them, it is likely Ashk, Onduras, or even Haldir will end up dead because of our judgement," Celeborn warned.

Ferevellon's eyes darted out past the fifty meters or so and he said nothing.

"We need to surround them," I muttered. "Ferevildir and a dozen others are still south of us by twenty meters, if they can swing around behind Haldir, those men have no where to go but into the gorge."

"It's still a great risk," Kenmar noted.

"If we do nothing, we are bound to lose all of them," I replied, glancing at him. He paused before nodding.

I glanced down the way to Ferevildir. My hand shadowed my mouth, dropping the animal-like call to him. He immediately looked at me and I only had to motion my hand. He nodded and silently ordered his command to follow him.

"We need to make it quick," Celeborn suddenly said, his hand clenching my forearm sharply. I frowned and looked to the camp again. Ashk was nearly among the men she had been called to...but it was not her that Celeborn worried for, I knew.

Shadowed near the gorge, a figure appeared from the depths we could not enter.

A lightning passed and revealed the figure.

Donavon had caught up to his uncle.

Haldir

My lungs were suffocating me as Ashk walked away.

Let me go she'd said. Let me go.

I couldn't let her go. I had told Orophin that I could, but Gods help me I couldn't.

If I let her go, would I ever hold her again?

I had admitted to loving her...But this desperation was new…and it was vile to me.

When she was within reaching distance of the hideous group she neared, a man reached out, grabbing her arm and pulling her gruffly within their sanction. I fought myself not to step forward - not to barrel at them and on a killing spree. I couldn't.

"You're right, Warden," said the man who had called for Ashk. "What you said you've paid means nothing to us. You will pay by our justice!"

"Kill me!" I suddenly shouted, my arms spreading out as if to offer myself to them.

"No!" It was Ashk who screamed, but I ignored her.

"Torture me, burn me, cut my body apart - Just let them go!" I demanded, no fear in my heart by my ready offer. It seemed as though I did not even exist, that I was nothing compared to Ashk and my young son. "Punish me in that!"

At first there was silence before the man who held my son chuckled and shifted the boy. "You do not understand, Warden...Or perhaps you understand all too well. There are some things worse than death."

My chest caved in. He was right. I knew death by any means would be easier than seeing my wife and child at their mercy.

"Uncle?"

The voice was quiet and I barely heard it. However, the men on the hill above turned and it was only a few moments later that I saw a small figure near. It was Donavon.

"Donavon," his uncle replied, turning to see the boy.

The teenager stared at the man, then to the men around him, and finally to Ashk. I could barely see her amongst the broad and burly bodies, but by the way Donavon was staring, I knew she was silently pleading with him.

"You have come a long way, boy," said the man who held my son.

Donavon looked at the man and the boy shuddered slightly. "I am entitled to my own justice as much as you are," he growled at him, surprising me with the deep voice he carried and the anger that entered it. "Most of these men are rif-raf you have recruited...I see less than a dozen who have the utter revenge of being here."

Apparently, he surprised the men as well as they stared at him in shock. I took the moment too look east and to see the Galadhrim moving silently in the dark, too far and too hidden for the men to see. These men had no idea they were being surrounded...this would be over soon.

"Do I not get to see this..." his eyes landed icily on me, "This...horrible creature suffer?"

"Donavon!" Ashk exclaimed and I jolted when I heard a smart hit crack the air when a man moved and struck her. I bolted forward only five paces before my son was held in front of his captor.

"Stay there, Warden!" the man demanded. "Another move and your son's nothing more than a tiny corpse."

The child wailed and I knew my face drained of any color at all. Abruptly, I could see his tiny, sightless eyes staring into nothing...His little body strewn carelessly on the muddy earth below us.

I shuddered at the thought and held my hands up. The movement some meters behind me had ceased and I knew my Galadhrim were waiting on my signal.

"He'll kill us anyway - Just kill him, Haldir!" Ashk shouted at me, a horrible grief in her voice that laced with resignation.

"Kill him?" Donavon echoed, his voice strange to my ears. He then laughed in a way I'd never heard from someone so young. It was the laugh of a madman, of a killer.

I should have killed him when I had the chance…

"Kill him for threatening a child?" he continued, stalking forward and pulling Onduras away from the man who held him. The man nearly objected, but Donavon's uncle was smiling.

"Would you so readily order him to kill me?" he asked, looking at Ashk who I could no longer see. "Would you!" he demanded, his arm lashing out and dangling my son by his back of his collar.

"Donavon!" I shouted, my voice like fire and the sky suddenly opened again, rain and ice pelting down on us.

Between the thick drops of rain and stinging ice, Donavon turned his head just slightly at me for the smallest of moments, tilting his gaze at me. The world seemed to slow down as his left eye crinkled and slowly winked at me.

"No!" Ermone suddenly bellowed, but my hand flew up, commanding the waiting Galadhrim to fire.

In seconds, arrows pierced through the air. Dozens of them sailed, chorusing a deadly song as they slammed into the large bodies of the men. Most collapsed with more than one arrow embedded within them, others were free and immediately ran for some sort of cover.

Donavon had dropped to his knees, curling into a ball around my son as a battle cry raged from behind me, and it was answered from the men on the hill.

Lightning split the sky and its light cut off the sword I drew from my side, the vibration it held shaking through my hand and humming of death.

Lothlorien

Rumil

I sat silently with the Lady of Light among her great garden. She had returned not all that long ago and I had expected her to be wary from her trip. However, she was not. Instead, she looked only as anxious as I was.

We sat on a stone bench among the fragrance of her blossoms that remained bright during any time of year. She said nothing, nor did I ever since she had asked me to join her here.

Little Ana was moseying around the garden near us. Her curious eyes filtered over the bright colors and she occasionally touched a soft blossom with an innocent smile.

Would her brother ever do the same?

The question came abruptly and I shoved it aside. Twilight had settled now and I vaguely wondered if Haldir was still tracking the men who took Ashk and Onduras or if he'd caught up to them yet.

I sighed and leaned forward in frustration. I knew what battle was like - a calm patience came over a soldier before he waged his struggles in life and death. The battle would be heated and chaotic. And afterward, he may feel grief, but also the satisfaction that he'd lived.

However, this waiting was new to me, and I did not care for it one bit.

"Look," Lady Galadriel said softly to me, her hand brushing my shoulder as she leaned forward. One delicate finger pointed forward and I followed its direction until I looked at Moriana.

A caterpillar had slowly crawled along a flower stem and she plucked him from his place and inspected him. I frowned, fearing she would kill the creature and moved to stand. However, Galadriel's hand on my shoulder remained and she forced me to stay.

"Wait," she murmured softly.

I glanced at her before looking to my niece. The insect was now in the palm of her hand and she collapsed to the ground in a very ungraceful sit. She didn't seem to notice, nor did the creature in grasp.

The tiny animal rose up on his hind quarters and I frowned as Moriana closed her tiny fist around him.

Silence followed and the Lady of Light seemed so interested in what was going on, I doubted she even realized that I was still with her.

"..Go on," she whispered softly, so softly I barely heard her.

Finally, Moriana opened her hand again. I felt myself sit upright abruptly as the caterpillar was no longer in her palm.

Instead, a yellow butterfly slowly tested his wings.

"Valar," I muttered to myself, shock rippling over me as the butterfly took flight and danced along the air.

Galadriel stood then and moved to the child. Her willowy arms lifted the girl from the grasses she sat in and into her grasp. The child smiled and giggled as the Lady of Light smiled at her.

"It is done then," said Galadriel. "The power has passed from her to you," she added. When she looked at me, I could only stare.

The powerful Lady of Lorien smiled at me. "Your niece has a grace another did not, Rumil," she told me, yet I could barely hear her as my ears rang. Galadriel looked at Moriana who rested her head on her slender shoulder. "And it will be well used," she added as if speaking to the child and not to me.

Ashk

"Ashk, stay down!" someone hollered at me.

Bodies littered the earth around me. A dozen men at least, lay motionless in the mud, their eyes reflecting the storm they could no longer see. Those unharmed and those who had been further back and out of sight had fled behind boulders and shrubs nearby.

When I lifted my head from the muddy earth, I saw Donavon slowly doing the same. When he saw me, I pushed off the ground and crawled towards him on my hands and knees.

"Go!" he hissed at me, pushing my son into my arms. "Just run!"

"Ashk!" another voice, this time one I knew well and would recognize anywhere. Haldir had come over the lift of the hill as he shouted at me, his sword in grasp ready to strike.

I barely noticed he was racing straight towards us, his hands nimbly maneuvering his weapon until it held ready to attack.

"Run!" Donavon shouted at me, shoving me and bolting up. Only when he and a man collided and landed on the ground with a splash of mud did I know that I had been just that close to danger.

Staggering to a stand, I saw the other Elves joining their captain on this ridge as I moved ran.

I heard a shout and I couldn't stop myself from turning to look.

The men had ignored Donavon and I felt a sliver of panic quake through me as Haldir was pounced on.

Yet, as though having some un-earthly strength, he bowed under them before flinging the majority away. For the rest, I could only grimace as he showed them no mercy. I could see the fear in the eyes of those men...and the sudden, horrible regret at what devastating warrior they'd awoken.

Finally, the world left that slow draw I watched in. Elves dashed by me and some men collided with the perfect creatures...And some men fled.

However, when I spotted Ermone's gaze on me, I took a step back before turning to flee for myself and my son.

"Orophin!" I screamed as I heard blades collide behind me. The Elf dashed to me within an instant only to push me aside, his sword rising and colliding with that of another man's. It was the man I had cut with the roses back in Celebruim; the wounds were still shadowed in the night.

I staggered with his forceful shove, but a pair of strong hands grabbed me. I gasped, ready to escape before I was spun around to see who it was.

Donavon had managed to catch up with me again.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Orophin and the man he fought with suddenly collided with us, slamming us all to the ground. I barely managed to avoid crushing my child before I rolled to see Orophin on the lesser end of his battle as another man joined his comrade.

Orophin's sword glittered among the mud and before I even knew what I was doing I pushed Onduras into Donavon's arms and dove for the weapon.

The hilt was slick in my grasp and I didn't give myself time to wonder if it was blood or if it was the wet earth that sopped it. I didn't care as I lunged forward while the smaller of the two men raised his sword over my brother-in-law.

The Lord of the Wood himself crashed into the larger man, stabbing him with a glinting blade.

I nearly lost grip my blade as I raised it in time to block the blow from Orophin.

The man was surprised at first and spun away, the tip of his blade sliding off mine.

"If they slide their blade against yours, they will always come back at you. You must be ready."

I hadn't practiced swordsmanship in some time, but my husband's words came back to me with an ancient wisdom.

And he was right. The man swung his sword past his own shoulder and struck out. I held my blade to block it, and it did so...but the sword went pitching away from my stinging hands.

The man didn't even get to feel his victory before Orophin had sprung on him and his small dagger was deep into the man's collar. I looked away in disgust.

My eyes darted for Donavon and my son, yet I saw them no where.

I felt panic want to explode before I spotted the boy running with all his might away from the battle. Along the ridge of the gorge, he sped along. I saw where he was headed. The bridge we'd crossed swayed in the wind and on the other side, a horse remarkably like Black reared high.

I glanced behind me as battle sank deeper. I couldn't escape the way Haldir had sent me; east. Black and Donavon were my only chance.

When I ran, I sprinted.

Haldir

I had underestimated this man. I thought only a few attacks to send him into the dead earth where he belonged.

Instead, I had been fighting with him for some time. He was growing winded now though. He would grow tired much sooner than I would and he would fall just like his comrades before him - the ones that tried to intervene including the man with the scar; Ermone, Donavon's uncle.

He struck at me but I batted his attack away, turning with the motion and my foot crashed into his knee, sending him to the ground with a howl of pain.

"Meriel!" a man nearby shouted, barely diving before the fallen human in time to block what I had expected to be my last strike on the heartless man.

I growled as I cut the younger man down with a curse; my sword drawing a slash of red from his right shoulder to his left hip before impaling his chest.

However, when I turned to finish Meriel, he was gone.

I froze a moment in shock before a hand grabbed my shoulder and a swift kick to the back of my knees sent me slamming into the ground under me.

Donavon's uncle loomed over me, wounded, only a moment before he was tackled aside by Ferevildir.

"Haldir!" Orophin's voice shattered my ears as I scrambled to a stand, grabbing up my sword once again.

I spotted him some ways away. He was frantically pointing toward the gorge. My eyes followed before I saw Meriel barreling his way towards Donavon, my son buried in the boy's arms. Meriel's limp was distinct, but he still moved quickly.

My boots slid in the mud as I dashed into a sprint after the man.

His hand had just clenched on Donavon's shoulder, the boy's surprised look screaming of his youth, when I lunged.

Crashing into Meriel, we rolled to the ground, my sword skittering through the mud.

"I will kill him!" Meriel shouted. "I will kill that child like you killed mine!" he shrieked, diving for the frozen Donavon again. However, I flung myself at him, my arms wrapping around his legs and stopping him.

He rolled, his left foot wrenching from my grasp and his heel slamming into my jaw.

"Run, Donavon!" a female's voice cried.

Ashk.

The voice brought me out of my daze only to see Meriel leaping at me from all fours like some sort of animal.

We rolled over each other before we collided with a boulder, my back to the ground and the enraged man's fists clenched over me. He landed two solid blows, one to the mouth, the other to my jaw before a figure flew atop him, throwing him off of me.

I heard Meriel shout as his breath was knocked out of him as I tried to clear my clouded mind. The sound of the battle raged with shrieking swords scraping against each other, mingling among the painful cries of the fallen.

However, as a distinctly female cry echoed, my sight darkened for a moment before clearing. I shoved myself up to find where the sound had come from.

"Ashk!" Donavon cried, and my eyes darted to him. He had stopped and turned as if to go back.

"Get away, Donavon! Take him away!" Ashk's panicked voice shredded the air and my eyes cut towards the voice. Dimly, I could hear others nearing, the battle nearby was already fading away into victory.

But my own victory suddenly seemed vague.

It had been Ashk to tackle Meriel away. She was just now scrambling to get up, to run from the man who was obviously dazed. But, he rolled over as she moved and his hand clamped around her ankle, stopping her short.

Only when I stood and ran at them did I realize just how close they were to the ledge.

"Shoot him!" I heard Orophin shout to someone as Meriel pulled Ashk over the mud to him. All too soon, the shot became impossible without piercing my wife as well.

The short distance between myself and Ashk seemed as though I was crossing a sea. Even in the sparse moments it occurred, it seemed like I watched in eternity pass as Ashk threw her knee into Meriel's gut and he rolled. He took her with him, one hand clenched in the shirt of her dress, the other in her hair.

He pulled her over him, rolling again, his hand moving from her hair to his belt and in a flash of silent lightning I saw the glint of a blade reveal itself in the night.

Some sort of cry left me. Perhaps it was a word in any of the languages I knew, or perhaps it was just a meaningless cry of utter rage - utter fear laced with desperation.

I dove at the man, watching as he raised the weapon before I crashed into him and shoving him off Ashk and closer to the edge.

I felt as a painful burn blared into my shoulder as we landed. Meriel rolled, shoving me away from him even as he skidded in the mud with me. I felt the earth below me before feet hit nothing at all, seeming to drag me over the edge of the gorge.

"Haldir!" It was more than one voice that shouted my name as my hands clawed at the earth to stop myself as my feet and legs slid over the side of the gorge. I heard Meriel cry out and was vaguely aware that he too toppled over the side.

We both clung to the ledge, my shoulder burning in pain. We were only a sparse foot from each other yet neither tried to propel the other downwards. All our strength went into hanging on the edge of the land above the eighty foot drop to the waters below.

I knew my Galadhrim were coming, but as the mud slid under my hands in those few moments, I knew they could be too late.

I closed my eyes as I let out a cry of effort as I tried to pull myself up, but the pain in my shoulder burned back to life and refused my escape.

There was a grunt before I felt hands clench my arms and the clefts of my armor. I opened my eyes only to see that it was Ashk who had grabbed me.

"Hold on," she hissed, her breath straining as she tried to pull me up in the slant of the land while mud and water slid by her as though trying to slide her off the ledge with me.

"Orophin!" she cried.

His voice replied not all that distant and I knew he would reach us in time. I had faith in him.

A cry suddenly reminded me that Meriel was near as his hand lashed out and grabbed Ashk's arm. He clenched tight on her and some of her ground was lost as she skidded forward a few dangerous inches.

"Kill him!" it was Celeborn who demanded this now, but even as the echo of his voice lifted into the night sky, Meriel released his hold on the ledge and put all his weight on Ashk. Between the two of us and the mud under her, she slid forward and pitched over the ledge with us.

I could have held on…But I didn't.

For a brief moment I held onto the earth as I saw Orophin leap forward, his hands reaching for me. I felt his desperate grasp brush my hand for a split moment before I tumbled backwards into the weightless air that roared by.

I reached out blindly and my hand clasped a familiar feeling. Clenching Ashk's hand in mine, I pulled myself to her as we tumbled through the air. For one moment time paused enough and I felt her cling to me, her body trembling in terror.

Then the water of the river below shattered like ice around us and she ripped from my arms in sheer force of the collision. The current swept by, dragging us downstream.

- - -

Holy crud, folks, chapter twenty-six was finished earlier this week...And it is SO long. I thought about breaking it up, but I just can't. It would ruin the flow of things if I made you guys wait days in-between. So, I had mercy. Heh. The epilogue is also included in it...So, this is your warning. Before you sit to read the last chapter, makes sure you have time to read 10-20 pages or so. Grin

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING! It's so sad that this fic is ending! But, all these little small-fic ideas keep popping up in my head too along with The Mage ( I'm kinda excited about this one).

As always, comments and thoughts welcome!

Next, and Last, Update: January 19th.

Pippinsgal, I can't update on the 18th - too many classes that day. However, I will sing you happy birthday!