Wheee!

And we're back! YAY!

Sorry it took so long to update, but my dad decided to reinstall the entire computer over the weekend, and then it took me another six days to get my word processor back up…stupid computer. And then, to top it all off, when I tried to post on the 21st, I couldn't get to my stories to update. GRRRRRR….But I'm here now! And oh yeah…I left with a cliff…should probably finish that. As usual, answers to reviews are at the bottom.

Anyway, here we have a lot more Gandalf&Friends, and a lot more problems!

Enjoy!

The soldier froze as soon as he felt Glamdring's cold bite on his neck. He inwardly cursed. Harnad had said nothing about the wizard being there!

"Now. Let us talk." Came the voice behind him. The soldier swallowed. Harnad would kill him for sure if he betrayed any of the Faithful's secrets.

"I know nothing." He stated waveringly. Gandalf laughed.

"Nothing? If you knew nothing, I doubt you would be in service to Gondor. With the exception of Pippin over there." The soldier's eyes flickered to the angry hobbit he had fought. He was peering out of window, looking for more men.

"Soldier, I advise you to say something. I am not known to be merciful to those who oppose me, and your words are the only thing saving your life." The soldier choked out a laugh.

"Saving my life? If I tell you anything Harnad will kill me." Suddenly he realized he had said too much. The blade on his throat came closer.

"So you are in league with Harnad and the Faithful. Are you the one who hurt Aragorn so? If you are, I advise you to keep talking. Or I can put it this way. If you talk, I won't kill you, and perhaps you can flee. But if you do not, I will kill you right here and you will never see your home or family again." The voice behind him grew more menacing, as the blade cut into the soft flesh of his neck.

"Wait!" the soldier gasped. The sword stopped. "I will…talk. Please don't kill me. I can lead you to them."

"Them?" This time the hobbit on the bed answered. "Have our friends been recaptured?" He drew his sword as the soldier shakily answered.

"Yes. They were a-ambushed. A number of us left our shifts. I was sent here, while the others were to recapture the intruders. They knew they would succeed."

"How did they know?" Gandalf replied. "Did they know they were fighting some of the most skilled warriors in the West?"

"They knew that one was an elf, one was an unarmed dwarf, one was probably a woman, and one was the filthy traitor that was dying." The soldier snarled.

"Watch your tongue. Now I think you will take us there. Get up." Gandalf commanded harshly while bringing his arm up. The soldier rose obediently. "I am going to remove this blade. But know that if you run, you will die slowly and painfully."

"I know." The soldier stated dully.

"Now." Said Pippin cheerfully. "Let's go." He tossed Gandalf his staff and followed the soldier out of the House, Merry close behind him.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"My lady," A voice startled Eowyn out of her melancholy thoughts. Gimli had his hand on her shoulder. "We should tend to them. Aragorn does not look good." Eowyn nodded quickly and scooted over to his side, reprimanding herself for not doing so faster.

He was still alive, but his unnatural fever had returned. As Eowyn gently probed the dagger wound, she realized that it too had an inflamed border. The poison should not have spread…

"Gimli, see if you can awaken Legolas. He was with Aragorn for a while. Perhaps there was a change I missed."

Gimli hastily make his way to him. He took Legolas in his lap and called softly.

"Legolas, Legolas, awaken! Aragorn needs you!" He didn't need to say anymore. As soon as Aragorn's name came out, Legolas stirred slowly. Suddenly his eyes snapped open.

"Where is he? The one I was fighting! I will kill him!" Legolas started angrily. He tried to get up, but Gimi held him down.

"Legolas…you were knocked out. We have been recaptured." Legolas blinked slowly.

"We? You mean you and-"his eyes traveled around the cell and came to rest on Aragorn's motionless form. "No! He is not-

"No, he is not, Legolas." Said Eowyn gently. "But tell me. Was the dagger poisoned?" Legolas nodded sadly. He came to Aragorn side and bowed his head.

"Why did you sacrifice yourself for me? You have so often, but this time it was a mistake! I could have taken it!"

"No, you couldn't have, Legolas." He looked at her, his eyes burning. Eowyn hastily added, "The poison is Naicelenar. As you probably know, it is instantly deadly to elves. He saved your life." She added quietly. Legolas's eyes stung with tears. This was to be the hope of Middle-Earth's demise? Destroying himself for a friend? The Valar could be so cruel.

"No." he whispered. "He will survive." He looked back at Eowyn painfully. "How can I help?"

"Well, we can get this useless armor off of him. It's terribly faulty. One strong blow went straight through it, not to mention a dagger." Together, they gently removed the chest plate and the rest of it. Eowyn gasped. Aragorn's shirt was entirely soaked with blood, as was the top half of his pants. But that wasn't the worst. Without the heavy armor, it was easy to tell that Aragorn was having terrible trouble breathing. His breath came in short, unsteady gasps. It literally sounded like he was drowning in blood. Which, Eowyn noted, he was.

She dug around in her pocket, searching. At last she found what she had stuffed in earlier- a roll of bandages. As she began to unwind it, she cursed herself for not bringing more of the aseanan. Looking around the cell, she sought anything useful.

Suddenly she saw a ragged coat in the corner, along with several severed cords. With a sinking feeling she realized that they had been placed in Aragorn's original cell. A part of her hoped that Aragorn would not wake. Seeing the place where he was so tormented would do nothing to help him. She ripped of a segment of the bandage and handed it to Legolas. She would not let him die where Harnad had meant him to.

"Can you bandage his arm? Without the herb, I fear the only thing we can do is prevent him from bleeding to death." Legolas instantly began strapping the bandage around Aragorn's wound. But none of them were prepared for his reaction. Aragorn jerked to the side, muttering words that none of them could catch. He continued jerking around, further injuring his burning limbs.

"Hold him!" Legolas directed as he pushed Aragorn down firmly while still avoiding the cuts. "

"I don't understand!" Eowyn said frustratingly as she seized Aragorn's arm and pressed it to the ground. "Gandalf said nothing about seizures!"

"I'm not surprised." Legolas said dryly. "Estel has a way of never doing anything halfway."

After about a minute the seizure stopped. They released their hold on him, panting from the effort. Even in his weakened state Aragorn was strong, and it took a great deal of strength to hold him down. Eowyn noted sadly that his breathing seemed even worse. She turned to Legolas.

"He is losing the battle that rages in his body." she said softly. Legolas shook his head.

"No," he said simply. "He will win. Estel will never lose hope.

"Shhh," Came a sudden voice. Gimli was flat against the door, listening. They turned to him and heard people running. But the most distinctive pattern was a soft pitter-patter of unshod feet.

Hobbit feet.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"Faster!" Pippin growled at the soldier. He was walking at a leisurely pace, occasionally waving at nearby soldiers. Pippin jerked his blade into the back of the soldier's armor. He got the message and hurried along. At last they reached the throne room. Gandalf spoke to the guards at the door, saying he had an errand for the Lord Aragorn. They let him in without a question.

Upon entering, the soldier looked around nervously before heading for the wall in the back. He briefly scanned the rocks before selecting one and pushing. The door slid open. To the surprise of all of them, there was no posted guard. It was exactly as Eowyn and Aragorn had seen it- empty.

As Gandalf pushed his way in, the soldier halted.

"This is as far as I dare go. I do not know exactly where your friends are, but they are in a cell, to the left." He backed away nervously, then turned and left. To the surprise of the hobbits, Gandalf let him go.

"Gandalf! Stop him! He'll raise the alarm!" Merry hissed. Gandalf shook his head.

"He will not. He is in our debt. We did not kill him as he meant to kill us. I do not trust him entirely, but he will leave us. Most likely, he will pretend he never saw us or say that his job was done." With that Gandalf entered.

"Wait…" said Pippin. He ran to the door to the right and opened it. As before, there was nothing. But there was also a rather large pile of weapons. "Look! Here is Gimli's axe, and Legolas's knives, and Aragorn's sword. But there is another…" He held up the Gondorian sword that Eowyn had 'borrowed'.

"Merry, take them. There will probably be guards farther in, and they will need their weapons in case of a fight." Gandalf directed, while worriedly peering down the corridor. He had a feeling that they had to hurry. He started down the passage. But they already heard voices.

"…will never lose hope."

"Shh!"

The three exchanged glances, and without a further though, rushed toward a cell.

TBC…

Please review! And sorry again for the wait!

Answers to reviewers:

lindahoyland: Whee! Thank you so much! (blushes). And how could I not leave kind comments? Your stories are SO GOOD and SO ANGSTY, in pretty much every way possible. That totally sucks about all of your reviews though. And I totally LOVED that chapter of BOG, especially the fact that Aragorn gets hurt, even though it's kinda minor. Throw in a sword….that would be nice. And if your new story is The White Tree, can't wait to see some angst! Thanks for reviewing!

Petra: (turns more red) thank you! I did wonder what happened to you, but it is no insult if you forget to review. I still do that all the time. And yes, my parody will go up as soon as possible. And Natalie Portman- what did she do the whole movie? Hmmm, that would be going from pregnant to not pregnant, thinking that Anakin had died, and crying. She should have been cut out. Ewan is my favorite part of Star Wars. He's so cool, and so sad at the end. But such a LOUSY story, I agree. But the droid humor ticked me off. It's STAR WARS. Not a kid's movie. Thanks for reviewing!

Ainu Laire: Scene: A dark room. Aragorn and Legolas are bound to chairs, and gagged. They hear footsteps and roll their eyes.

Queen: (runs in with printed review) Look! A nice REVIEW!

Aragorn/Legolas: MMMPH!

Queen: (reads paper) Things don't look so good…hmm. Guess I better make it worse for you guys!

Aragorn/Legolas: MMMPH!

Queen: Well, bring in the weapons! (runs away cackling while various bad guys enter with assorted weapons)

Thanks for reviewing!

FlamesofthemoOn: Yes, Aragorn&Co. are rather unlucky. Oh well. More fun for us! But now Gandalf is coming to save the day! YAY! Hope he's not too late! Thanx for reviewing!

viggomaniac: Yes, we are evil, aren't we? Finding pleasure in other's pain? LOL! YAY! And I doubt Aragorn will ever be safe while in the hands of these crazy fanfic writers. Not if I have a say in it…but he is so self-sacrificial! What's his problem? I might have to kill him for that! JK. You know, Aragorn could be our favorite just because Viggo is SO HOT! You know, he has a book out. It's called Horse Is Good, I think. It's a book of pictures that he must have taken during Hidalgo. I realize this because most pics are in the desert, and also because Hidalgo is in several scenes. Very perceptive, I know. Thanks for reviewing!

Thank you so much everyone! I look forward to hearing from you again!

QueenofFlarmphgal