Author's Note: I own nothing!
40 Madness Breaks
As the orcish war horn sounded Fili grabbed the rope Bella had used to scale down the gate.
"I am going over the gate! Who's coming with me!" He called and the others cheered.
"Stand down!" Thorin called and every dwarf turned to him confusion written on most of their faces. Ori was looking at him like he'd never seen him before and he though he could identify a kind of pity in Balin and Oin's eyes.
"But!" Kili said stepping forward and Thorin shook his head.
"I said stand down!" He snarled and Kili took a step back, looking nearly frightened. Thorin stalked away from the gate as the sound of metal on metal echoed across the valley. The others glanced at each other. Dwalin stepped forward.
"I'll talk to him." He didn't sound hopeful. The others glanced at each other as Dwalin followed Thorin back into the mountain. If Bella's drastic move of giving away the Arkenstone hadn't gotten through to him, what could. He had cast his One out of Erebor and from his side. Ori buried his head in his hands as screams and the clashes of weapons and shields echoed from the valley below.
Thorin paced in from of the throne. He was muttering to himself. He had to keep everything in the mountain safe. No one could be trusted, that was clear now. He hadn't changed. Bella, no the little Shire rat, was wrong. His situation wasn't anything like what the men of the lake were going through. They had nothing, he had all the gold in the mountain. His and only his.
But you didn't always, you had nothing once, just like them. The voice echoed from the back of his mind. He scowled throwing himself down onto the throne trying to silence the voice. Dwalin would have been a welcome distraction, but he looked sad.
"Since when do we abandon our own people!" He called as he stepped up to the throne. "They are dying out there."
"There are halls beneath halls in this mountain places we can fortify, make safe." Thorin wasn't listening to Dwalin. He was barely listening to himself as he muttered about how to make sure the gold within the halls was safe.
"Did you not hear me! Dain is surrounded! Your cousin is out there dying! Your One is out there dying!" Dwalin shouted stepping forward. "They're being slaughtered Thorin!" Dwalin's voice broke.
"Many die in war. Life is cheap." Thorin heard himself say the words but a part of him had pulled back reeling from Dwalin's words. "This treasure cannot be counted in lives lost. It is worth all the blood we can spend." That was his voice speaking wasn't it? Dwalin shook his head.
"You sit there with a crown on your head and yet you are lesser now than you have ever been." Dwalin said, tears spilling from his eyes. Thorin stepped forward menacingly.
"Do not speak to me like that! As if I were still Thorin Oakenshield! That man is dead!" His voice broke as he said it and he did not truly understand why. "Am I not the king!" He shouted, the sound echoing though the empty halls of Erebor
"You were always my king. You used to know that." Dwalin never raised his voice but the tears slipping down his face were something Thorin had never seen before. "You cannot see what you have become." Thorin stared at his oldest friend for a moment before he fled. He could not watch Dwalin weep over his actions. He was a king, he was not accountable to Dwalin or to anyone. Laughter echoed through the halls and Thorin frowned. Who was laughing? He followed the noise and found himself in the Gallery of the Kings, the floor had settled over the last few days or it should have. A figure across the hall moved and Thorin blinked.
"How did you get back in here!" He snarled at Bella who laughed and danced away from him. Thorin stepped out onto the golden floor and stilled as he caught a good sight of her in the light reflecting off the gold. This was not the same Hobbit he had banished. Her hair was gilded in gold, her eyes chips of amber, her skin was marble and he could tell it would be cold to the touch. She laughed and halfway through it morphed into a roar as the golden floor under her shifted and gave way. Thorin lunged to try and catch her but she vanished, the floor rippling. It move and Thorin stilled again as he spotted the spines of the dragon moved through the floor beneath him.
"You have failed Oakenshield." Smaug's voice echoed through the room. It wasn't possible the dragon was dead. This couldn't be real.
"This is madness brother! You cannot go chasing the gold, this is what killed our family! Do not go the way of Father and Grandfather!" His sister's voice echoed through the hall.
"You are changed Thorin." Bella's voice was close to tears as it seemed to mutter in his ear. He whirled searching for her.
"I have not changed! I did this…" Why had he done this? The gold? No, it had never been about the gold. It had been about a stable place for his family. It had been for Fili and Kili and Dis and Bella. Bella. He shook his head. She had betrayed him.
To broker a peace he would not hear of, to save them all. He shuddered. He should never have cast her out. He was wrong, had been wrong this whole time. Blinded by gold and greed just as his grandfather had been. He ripped the crown from his head and threw it as hard as he could. The voices fell silent, Thorin shook and looked down at himself. He was dressed in golden armor and it disgusted him. He tore it away and threw it as hard as he could. It was then that Dwalin's words came back to him. Dain was surrounded, the dwarves of the Iron Hills were being slaughtered. Thorin took a breath and pulled his sword racing out of the Gallery to find the others. The needed to join the fight, and they had little time left to do so.