Thanks for your reviews! PLEASE read the note at the bottom!

Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with Lord of the Rings.

Chapter 26: Gone

Ana wanted to hide away from his gaze but when he looked to Haldir and spoke quietly Ana knew she had an even bigger problem to hide from. However, when Haldir did not turn and glare at her, but simple nodded and led a group of elves away, she frowned. He walked to her then and for some reason, he seemed a lot taller than she remembered. "Ana," he said quietly, "just what are you doing here, disguised as an elf soldier no less?" he asked in Westron. Ana sighed and looked off to where Haldir had gone, and thankfully he was a great distance away from them. She looked back to the man in front of her.

"Aragorn, I can explain, but you must promise me you cannot tell Haldir," she said quickly. Aragorn's frown only deepened.

"Why can I not discuss your being here with Haldir?" he asked slowly. Ana bit her lower lip before she answered.

"Because he does not know." Aragorn sighed and looked the Marchwarden to see him talking with several guards. "The only ones that know I am here are Rumil and Orophin, please do not say anything."

"No one else knows?" he asked.

"Legolas found me when he came to speak to Rumil. Rumil knows my reasoning, Aragorn and the story is too long to tell you right now. Just know that I will be alright." Aragorn looked at Ana with a shake of his head.

"You do not know what we face and you-," Ana silenced him by putting her hand over his mouth and glaring at him.

"I've seen it Aragorn, that is why I am here," she hissed and lowered her hand. "I'm going to fight, and you will see I shall be fine." She turned and walked away form him and then towards Orophin for her instructions. Aragorn watched her go with a heavy heart, but a slight understanding of her actions. She was there to help, but there was something more to her being there. He would entrust Orophin and Rumil to watch over her and he knew they would do all they could to ensure she would not be harmed.

Ana stood on the wall as she watched the slow moving mass make its way towards them. It was a line that seemed to never and the sound of their feet stomping upon the soil sent shivers down her spine but she would not back down. She'd done that too much in her life even before she had come to Lothlorien, and wasn't going to do it anymore. She was going to fight for those she loved.

The rain started to pound down and as her cloak and clothing were soaked she shivered slightly. She did her best to control the trembling of her body. None of the other elves were trembling as she was.

"A Eruchîn, ú-dano i faelas a hyn an uben tanatha le faelas! (Show them no mercy! For you shall receive none!)" Aragorn yelled not far from where she stood. The mass stopped and their cries and shouts reached Ana's ears as if they were standing right next to her. Her heart pounded even harder and she stole a glance at Haldir whose eyes were trained before them. Ana took a deep breath and looked ahead. Suddenly, a Rohan man let go of one his arrows striking one of the creatures in the neck. He falls dead and Ana's eyes widen as complete silence surrounds them. "Dartho! (Hold!)" With a guttural cry for their fallen comrade the creatures begin to charge.

"Here it goes," Ana thought and swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Tangado a chadad! (Prepare to fire!)" Aragorn shouted and the elves and Ana notched their arrows and took aim. She was surprised that her arms were steady and her trembling had ceased. "Leithio i philinn! (Release the arrows!)" Ana fired her arrow hitting her mark as well as all the other elves. As more arrows are fired upon the creatures below Ana's trembling once again started. She fired another arrow. "Ribed bant! (Full volley!)" Aragorn shouted and arrows came from the elves behind and below. Ana fired again but then saw ladders being pulled up towards the wall. "Pendraith! (Ladders!) Swords! Swords!" Ana, like the others quickly tucked away her bow and drew her blade her grip slipping slightly. She strengthened her grip and felt her anger course through and slowly her trembling stopped.

It seemed as thought the masses of black bodies were unstoppable. There were so many of them and she was tiring. Ana turned when she felt on the creatures approach her from behind and she slayed him down. Her cloak and helmet were long gone, her choosing to discard them when they hindered her movements. Her long black braid hung down her back and she moved as quickly as she could. Ana sighed when she saw Haldir holding his own quiet well and turned only to find another creature right before her.

"I know you," he hissed over the sounds of the battle and sneered. "You're the one Saruman has been looking for, and here you are a prize to be taken." Ana glared.

"I am no one's prize," she bit back, instantly thinking of Haldir. "I am my own." The creature before her just laughed and raised its crude sword only to jerk and fall to the ground. An arrow stuck out from the back of its head and Ana looked ahead to see Rumil lowering his bow and re-drawing his sword. Ana nodded her head and smiled before she turned only to have to brace herself as a fierce explosion rocked the wall. "Since when does Middle Earth have explosives?" she yelled, and almost missed the creature coming for her, but quickly countered its blow and took it down.

Ana looked down and saw Aragorn lead the elves into the group of dark creatures that began to make their way through the hole the explosion created. She saw Orophin was in the group and said a silent prayer for him before turning her attention back to the battles around her.

The fighting seemed to last forever and Ana was weakening and the wound to her leg wasn't helping matters anyway. Then, she heard the words she had been waiting the entire battle to hear.

"Nan Barad! Nan Barad! Haldir, nan Barad! (To the Keep! Pull back to the Keep! Haldir, to the Keep!)" Aragorn shouted. Ana turned around and saw that Haldir was only a few feet away from her.

"Nan Barad! (To the Keep!)" Haldir called to his men and she watched as he was stabbed in the arm. She cried out.

"Haldir!" she screamed and he looked up in shock and disbelief.

"Ana?" he asked and she pushed him out of the way just in time. With a gasp, she raised her sword and slayed the creature. She gasped again and her sword fell from her hand clanging onto the ground at her feet. She stumbled back and Haldir was instantly there. "Ana!" he screamed and she looked up at him. Haldir looked down her torso and shook his head at the deep bleeding gash that went from her left shoulder, in between her breasts, and down her torso to her right hip. "No!" he screamed and felt tears come to his eyes. He took her into his arms and threw her over his shoulder. He winced at the gasping sounds she made and quickly fought his way down the steps and into the keep.

Aragorn and the others had yet to go into the keep and laid her down in on the floor. "Ana, what . . . how . . .do not dare leave me," he said as he removed his cloak and pressed it to her wound to stop the bleeding. She gasped in pain and closed her eyes. Haldir noticed her face had paled considerably and worry filled him.

"I had to come," she said as she slowly opened her eyes. "I could not let you die." The tears were falling freely from her eyes as she looked up at him. "I saw you die, in my dreams for so long, I could not let it happen." Haldir sniffed and shook his head.

"So you take my place?" he shouted causing the elves of his guard to watch him with shock, fear, concern, and deep sadness on their faces.

"I did not mean to," she gave him a small smile and he shook his head.

"You cannot leave me, I shall die without you," he whispered. She raised a trembling and weak hand to his wrists.

"No . . . you will go on, promise me you will." Haldir did not know the emotions that roared through him. They were strange and new and he hated them.

"I cannot promise that," he whispered once more.

"You will . . . if you love me . . . you will." Haldir leaned down and kissed her cooling lips and sighed as he pulled away. She looked up at him and he could see the life slipping away from her by her eyes. "I love you," were the last breathless words to escape her lips before the light left her eyes.

"No!" he shouted and shook his head as he picked up her lifeless body and held it to him. He held her to him and felt as if his heart was ripped from his chest. He sobbed openly in front of those that he held power over, those he had trained, and those he had disciplined over many, many years, but none thought anything of it and turned to give their Marchwarden time to grieve for a life that had barely begun.

It seemed like ages that he held her, but it was only minutes when Aragorn, Theoden, Legolas, and Gimli along with many other Rohan guards and elves. Aragorn spotted them first and before he went to the king. "Haldir?" he asked in a whisper and the broken elf looked up at him before he lowered Ana's shell to the ground. The elf stood and Aragorn saw an anger burn deeply inside him.

"We are not going to sit idle and let them slaughter more innocents," he hissed. "You cannot let it, and I will not let it," Haldir finished and Aragorn nodded as he glanced down at Ana and then the blood that covered Haldir's armor, blood that was not his nor any enemy they fought that night. Aragorn put his hand on Haldir's shoulder.

"We will not," Aragorn said a sadness pulling at his own heart. "That I promise you." He turned to the king then and swallowed the lump in his throat. The dawn would bring anew and they would avenge not only Ana's life but those of the fallen soldier's that lay outside the walls that now protected them.

A/N: PLEASE don't hate me for this chapter! I promise you all, I'm not done! I'll do my best to update for you all as soon as humanly possible!