Hello everyone!

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Why do you all have weapons/checks last update/ Has it really been two weeks? Time really does fly…/backs away/

SORRY!

Well at least I'm updating now!

A/N: As most of you know, has unjustly banned responding to reviewers. And since I have no desire to be kicked off the site, I will no longer be posting them. But PLEASE KEEP REVIEWING! THEY MAKE ME SO HAPPY!

And also, I will reply to reviews anyway through email.

SO PLEASE REVIEW!

Enough rambling. Here it is, folks!

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Pippin reached the door first and hammered on it.

"Aragorn? Eowyn? Legolas? Gimli? Are you there?" he shouted through the door. He jumped up and down, trying hopelessly to peer into the small window.

"Pippin, is that you? Aye, we're all here. But Aragorn is looking bad. Is Gandalf there?" Gimli replied. Neither Legolas nor Eowyn appeared to have heard Pippin. They were carefully wrapping the rest of Aragorn's wounds. Luckily, Aragorn remained silent, with no spasms or seizures. It seemed that now he was barely hanging on.

"Stand away from the door!" Gandalf spoke quickly. Using Eowyn's technique, he drove Glamdring into the door and cut out the lock. The door swung open. Gandalf, followed by Merry, hurried in. But he stopped abruptly when he saw Aragorn. His face turned colors to match his robes. Merry stepped beside him and gasped.

They had been expecting him in, well, not the best shape, but Aragorn was about thirty times worse. His face was pale from blood loss, while his wet shirt outlined his ragged breathing. Merry choked back a sob. Before, he had been confident that Strider would pull through, but now he was suddenly afraid that he would die.

Legolas looked up for the first time and realized that Gandalf was there.

"Gandalf…Please! Can you help him? He is so cold, and yet burns with fever…" Legolas added, touching Aragorn's still face. Gandalf snapped out of his trance and hurried to kneel next to him. He carefully noted the sluggish beat of Aragorn's heart, and the cuts, which were still bleeding, even through the bandages. He looked up.

"Here, I can do nothing. But if we can get him back to the Houses, he may stand a chance. We can only hope that he is not so far away that he won't respond to the antidote." Legolas nodded and started to shift Aragorn into his arms from his position on the floor. A hand on his arm stopped him as Eowyn spoke softly.

"Legolas, let Gandalf carry him. You just got a mild concussion, at least, and you are weary. Please." Legolas shook his head.

"I will carry him. I must make sure he still breathes." Legolas ignored her, and rose, Aragorn cradled in his arms. Eowyn noted that Aragorn had hardly responded, nothing like when Gandalf had lifted him before. She grabbed Legolas's shoulder, but before she could say a word, she met his eyes. They were filled with unspeakable worry, and pain. She stepped back, amazed. Legolas led the way out of the cell.

They hurried, and more than once Eowyn was thankful that they met no guards. Merry and Pippin had passed out the weapons, and though she was ready to fight, she didn't think Legolas would take too kindly to anyone. The men they did pass averted their eyes and whispered to one another. But finally they reached the Houses.

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Legolas deposited Aragorn carefully on the bed before sinking into Gandalf's chair. Gandalf was immediately active. He shouted down the hall for hot water and cloths. The water-leaf he already had prepared. Before Merry and Pippin were annoying him, they had almost used the entire stock of the leaf to make the paste, both of them sure they would need it.

Eowyn rushed to Aragorn's side and hurriedly began to unwind the bandages. Gimli was watching her, and when she took too long for his liking, he pushed past her and carefully sliced the bandages free. The cuts looked at their all-time worst, being crusted with dried blood and radiating heat. Gandalf quickly pressed the wet cloths onto them, cleaning them and cooling them down at the same time. Throughout this, Aragorn remained still. The only sign he was alive was his irregular breathing.

At last the hobbits came forward with the aseanan. The Warden had put it away, believing the crisis to be over. They carefully dropped lengthy amounts on the cuts. The others watched with bated breath. And they got a reaction. Aragorn groaned slowly, then began shivering and coughing. Eowyn rushed to get blankets.

"The antidote is supposed to help him, not make him worse!" she yelled over her shoulder. "Are you sure this is right?"

"Of course!" Pippin shouted back. He ran after her, bent on helping somehow. Legolas, who had held tightly to the chair for the whole operation, suddenly jumped up and seized Aragorn's hand.

"Estel, can you hear me? Please, come back!" his voice dropped to a whisper. "Please…" To the surprise of the others, Aragorn's eyes flitted in their sockets, and then opened slowly. He smiled softly at Legolas.

"You are…all right." He whispered around coughs. Legolas smiled though the tears in his eyes.

"Yes. And now you will be too." But Aragorn slowly shook his head.

"Legolas…I cannot…not strong enough. I am…falling." Legolas grasped his hand tighter.

"No. You will prevail. You have been in worse spots before. Remember when we met, running from orcs?" Aragorn smiled sadly.

"I remember…our friendship. Legolas…I am…sorry, but…I cannot…hold on. Please forgive…me." Legolas shook his head, tears spilling from his eyes.

"No. You must fight!" he stated sharply through his tears.

Eowyn chose this moment to come back.

"I only found a few blankets, there are many injured being brought in, but-" She stopped in midsentence, gazing at the scene before her.

"Is that…Eowyn? Tell her…I am eternally…grateful. She…taught me…so much. But promise…promise me." Aragorn let out a long and rattly cough. He tried again. "Promise…do not let…the Quest…fail. I am…a small sacrifice…to the war. And Arwen...my family…tell them…I love them." He paused for breath again, a longer one. "But Legolas…do not fade…keep fighting. I will always…be there."

His eyes slid shut.

"NO!" Merry suddenly cried. He leaped onto the bed and plastered his ear to Aragorn's chest, listening for a heartbeat. "No…"

Aragorn's chest heaved suddenly, then slowed to a stop.

He was gone.

TBC…

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And I WILL update on the…12th.

See ya then!

QueenofFlarmphgal