AN: There's the ittyest bittyest little mention here of Thranduil having some power over souls. This has not been pulled from the ether – there's quite a few mentions in the Hobbit of the Elven-King's magical powers. The enchanted stream, for example, is supposed to be his doing. Go read Narcolinde's "Feud" (patiently, it's long, but gripping) and she explains all of these things beautifully. Unfortunately, due to the bastards at fanfic dot net, Narcolinde has been evicted, but you can find her fic on adult fan fic dot net.

AN2: You may be relieved or disappointed to hear that this fic is nearly over. I would really like to hear from you if you're still reading, as it gives me a judge as to whether or not you all hate me for killing off Legolie so quickly. Thanks!

And on with the show…

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Elrohir ran delicate fingers across his brother's brow, the weight in his heart feeling as though it would pull him through the bed and to the floor. He was jealous of his brother, for his ability to sleep through this, to forget the world around him if only for a short time. To be able to dream of him. The world seemed so slow to him, every moment an hour of torture. Elladan woke slowly, his eyes still fluttering open yet already filled with tears. He had dreamt of him again, and woken to find him still gone. What torturous things, dreams.

"I should think…" Elrohir spoke, a soft realisation coming to him and stirring his heart to beat a little faster. "I think it would be nice to see the end of a rainbow."

"Only the middle is visible, Elrohir. All else is out of reach." Elladan replied, voice still groggy with sleep.

"Precisely, the end would be a discovery, always hidden from sight behind hill or woodland. Maybe you have to find the end before you truly see them middle. Maybe once we have found our ends, we will meet again, 'Dan. In the middle of the rainbow."

"You're not making any sense, 'Ro. We go to the same end, together." The slightest hint of panic began to tinge his words.

"Perhaps this time we must seek our own paths." A murmured reply. "In the middle, brother. I will await you there." And Elrohir died, leaving his brother, one half of a twinship, to live on alone.

o

'To decide one fate and leave the other in question… what pitying god would do this? These are twins, their feä's bound with more than blood…' Thranduil's thoughts raged as he held Elladan, the elf screaming as his soul was hewn apart. He could beg no reverie to take him, unconsciousness was out of reach. He could only hold him until the pain began to fade and numb. And when would that be? Could he sit here forever, holding the failing body of the Imladris prince as he screamed his pain to the Valar, and cursed their names?

Gradually Elladan calmed, numbness taking over, and the screams faded as his voice began to break. Thranduil wondered - hoped, secretly, though it was not in his nature - if he might just slip away in that moment and follow his brother home. He begged the gods silently for relief on behalf of this child who he might have called son. They did not answer.

"I have always been the stronger - the more adan." Elladan's voice was rough and broken from the outpouring of emotion, but he continued, the words cleansing. "Emotion had less sway for me than for my brother, and he always heard the voices of the trees while I had to listen very hard to catch their words."

"Elladan…"

"Why did they take him from me? What if I am too much a man to fade from grief? I feel so weary, so very fatigued, and yet he…"

"There is nothing we can do but see what the future holds. If you are to live past this the Valar must have a good reason." Even as he spoke the words he felt their untruth like an unravelling string in his mind. Elladan's life, like an unravelling string…

"How do men live with this feeling? How can they possibly survive…"

"Rest now, Elladan. Sleep." Thranduil urged, taking the little power he held over souls, and giving a little push. "Elrohir waits for you."

Even as Elrond and Glorfindel reached the gates, Elladan shut his eyes and with a deep sigh went peacefully to his end, seeking the rainbow.

o

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Elrond was enraged as he stormed through the halls of Mirkwood, seeking their King. Few words had been spoken when he had arrived, but the sense of grim sadness clung to all that they passed. A maid hurrying out of a room stopped dead as she saw him approach, and mutely pointed to a door behind her, her face white, her eyes filling. Her message delivered, she fled in tears.

It was with a heavy weight in his heart that Elrond moved forwards, his hand reaching out to the door as though pushing through some thick and clinging mist, one that existed only in his mind. He was on his knees even as the door opened, his heart failing at the scene that awaited him there.

"I had no desire to take them from you, or keep you from them. Fate has led us along this most darkened path, and I fear there were too many misunderstandings." Thranduil's voice was hoarse and low as he bent to lay a kiss on Elladan's forehead and laid him upon the bed so that he might greet Elrond.

"What has happened here…?" Elrond's voice failed him, and he got to his feet heavily.

"Grief, for the loss of my son, their love. No good has come from these days, these confrontations. No good at all."

"As it is always, as it was in the days of old. Miscommunication is the most powerful weapon the enemy has against us."

"And it has cost us our sons."

Elrond fought the sob that rose up in his throat. "Perhaps." He choked out. "Or perhaps their fate was already sealed. Perhaps what it cost us was the last days of their lives. The ability to spend it with them."

"Manwë guide you, Elrond of Rivendell." With one swift moment Thranduil caught Elrond in arms, forgetting their enmity, giving, receiving, sharing their grief. "And may Namó protect our sons now, for they are far from our reach."

o

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If only the peace could have lasted as such. But old hatreds are hard to shift, and a new problem arose that brought all that history back into place.

"I just wish to get my sons out of this dark and evil place." Thranduil glared, a sight that would have withered most others, but Elrond stood tall against it, sneering back.

"This wood is my home, Peredhil."

"It turns against you, isolating you in the northern half, hiding your gaze from the dark power within."

"And yet your sons choose to spend so much time here?" Thranduil's smile was not friendly.

"Because you oft refused to allow your son away from his duties. You had him on a tight leash, King, else I think he might have spent equal time in my country."

"You are mistaken. His leash was not tight enough if it would allow this to happen."

"You could not keep him from harm forever."

"Bold words, for a Lord with still one of his children remaining. You have your daughter, Elrond, to continue your rule. I had only Legolas, and can hope for no more now that his mother is passed."

"You are mistaken. My daughter's end will be with a foreign king, in a far land. He will have too many worries to think of Imladris." Elrond said nothing of the fact this King now rested in the Elven-King's halls. Nothing is ever certain, and it is no place of the far-sighted to tell the world which way to turn.

"Then it is a sad pair of Kings we make, knowing our futures rest on naught but our own selves."

"Let me take them home."

"Please, let them rest beside Legolas. They have long fought to be at his side."

"They are my children. I would have them with me when I sail west. They are not Sindar to be buried with ritual and farce."

"They are lovers, to be buried with the one they should have spent their life with." Elrond made a move to object once more, but was pulled back as Glorfindel appeared. A chance at a second life, a tree to worship their last resting place, the arms reaching out to touch as roots intermingled. And why not. Why should they be taken from the lands they loved, the people they loved. Tears fell. Reluctantly, he met Thranduil's eyes.

"Forgive me, and let them rest here. Let the arms of the lovers' trees entwine. Let them be together, for this is the right place for them to be."