The Bright Lord had returned to Nurn with four warchiefs in tow; Skun the Sniper, Olrok the Arbiter, Thrak Venom-Spear and Dugz the Decaying. Talion and Celebrimbor were unable to find a formidable enough defender to add to their ranks. They made the decision to overtake the entire stronghold of Executioner's Watch in the southwest as Jason was busy slaughtering the remaining orcs at the fishery. With all the warchiefs and their soldiers decimating Sauron's forces, Talion calmly strode through the fort and made a mental note that it was still raining. The weather had still not let up and the ranger wondered what might've brought this meteorological phenomenon. Sure, it rained in Nurn, but not nearly for this long.
"YOU!" A deep shout echoed off the walls of the base. Shocked, the Ranger's head snapped towards a bulky, heavily armored uruk wearing a skull mask, bearing a metal shield and flaming pike standing by the dwindling campfire in the middle of the outpost.
"Celebrimbor?" He inquired.
The Elven smith was already using the wraith world to learn the orc's name. "Tuka the Destroyer, part of the machine tribe and has mastered the ability to tame and ride caragors. Certainly a valuable asset." He advised. Talion silently agreed and drew his sword as chaos emerged all around them.
"Well, I already killed one pink skin today, another certainly won't hurt… me!" Tuka let out a malicious chuckle.
'One pink skin'? Talion thought. But Lithariel left Nurn…perhaps he means one of the tribesman? He had no time to dwell further on the thought as Tuka rushed forward with his shield raised, colliding with the ranger and knocking him to the ground. While Talion fought, Celebrimbor scanned their enemy's weaknesses and after five minutes of fighting that didn't go in the Ranger's favor, the Bright Lord's loyal captains decided to lend a hand.
Skun fired a bolt into Tuka's armored leg, the tip of the missile entering his flesh while Olrok rolled over his head and stabbed him in the back. Much to the observing warrior's surprise however, Tuka then elbowed the assassin in the head with his shield arm before kicking him away, the poison having no effect whatsoever. They fought for what seemed like ages, every orc under Talion and Celebrimbor's command desperately trying to bring down this monster of an uruk and making very little progress. During the fighting, Talion made the decision to disappear into the large tower that overlooked the entire compound and ordered his captains to fall back for now.
Tuka plunged his burning pike through the stomach of one orc, turned to face the one throwing spears at him and marched forth with his shield raised. Once he got close enough, he swiftly put stowed his shield and pike on his back and rushed forth to tackle the hunter to the ground. With metal clad hands, Tuka relentlessly beat the grunt's face in before igniting a bomb, shoving it down the other's mouth and keeping his boot on his face before diving away to avoid the mess of blood, bone and sinew that followed. Panting, Tuka looked around for the leader of his lord's forces, finding nothing.
From atop the tower, Celebrimbor gazed on in admiration. "An impressive display of might if nothing else." Talion gave a grunt of acknowledgment and waited until Tuka was directly underneath them, then jumped. The Destroyer's head slammed against the hard stone of the ground but before he could rise, Talion branded him and peered into his mind, unbelieving at what he was seeing.
Tuka had met Jason in one-on-one combat, using his many bombs to set the revenant aflame before plunging his pike into Jason's throat, then used his brute strength to drag Jason to a kneeling stance then lit three explosives, all of which went into the hole in his neck and obliterated his skull, leaving a smoking torso that fell back lifeless.
"Tell me who to gut, boss." Tuka declared as Talion removed his hand.
"Stand." Tuka obeyed. "Do you know who it was that you killed?"
"Another man, one who didn't quite possess the same combat abilities that you do, my lord."
"Hmph." Talion grunted out. "Everyone to the square!" The other four captains reconvened with their master in the middle of the outpost and received orders to gather all the troops they could, save for Tuka who remained by Talion's side as he interrogated his newest addition and explaining just who Jason was.
"But boss, if he's like you and can't be killed, how are we supposed to get rid of him?" The orc inquired as lightning struck the ground far away.
Talion heaved a frustrated sigh. "We'll have to capture and restrain him, then toss him into a pit so deep even Sauron won't be able to find him."
"A task much easier spoken than preformed." Celebrimbor added, to which Talion gave a grunt of agreement.
"How many soldiers follow your leadership?" He asked Tuka.
The giant orc chuckled. "They follow me out of fear, not my leadership, boss. But to answer your question, around two score."
Forty, so if our other warchiefs can get at least twenty to follow them, our army should be large enough to take down Jason. Talion thought.
"Or they may only be lambs to the slaughter." The Ring-smith interjected.
Although the statement may have been a bit pessimistic, Talion had to admit that maybe Celebrimbor was right and that Jason would wipe them out without so much as a scratch.
No, he couldn't think like that. The Bright Lord had enough problems with Sauron and they shouldn't be worrying about another man who simply refused to die. Tuka was then ordered to round up his soldiers and meet his master across the bridge at the entrance to the outpost along with the other warchiefs they had brought down from Udun.
Standing between two sections of a broken wall on a rotting wooden board, Talion and Celebrimbor addressed their army of orcs over one hundred strong with Tuka at their side. Entering the wraith world for a moment, they could see Jason slowly walking towards their position from the Nurn fishery when he had just annihilated yet another garrison.
"Make it swift." Talion advised as Celebrimbor took partial control of Talion's body and addressed the crowd as the Bright Lord.
"Sauron is not the only threat to our campaign now. There is now a man bent on seeking vengeance for his family." Some of the orcs looked at each other, confused. "This man is determined to rid Middle-Earth of all life; Sauron, ourselves and you as well as your blood-brothers. So what will you do this day? Fight alongside those around you for survival or run and hide like cowards until your heads are removed from your bodies?"
Dead silence followed until Tuka began slowly tapping his pike on the wooden boards and more uruk defenders did the same while the others pounded on their chest plates with armored gauntlets, roaring savagely.
"LET THOSE WHO DARE TO STAND AGAINST US KNOW THAT YOU DID NOT FLEE THIS DAY! LET SAURON AND HIS SERVANTS KNOW THAT THEY ARE NOT THE ONES MEANT TO RULE THIS WORLD! Celebrimbor shouted over the battle cries of his uruks.
Jason was now close to his destination, striding along the path paved by the uruks. Upon seeing him, Celebrimbor drew his sword, pointed it at Jason and gave the order. "DAG I UAN!" A phrase Talion recognized as 'slay the monster.' And his uruks did just that.
Jason broke into a slow run as the two forces clashed with Jason effortlessly swinging his blade through the necks of five uruks in a single sweep and a hunter threw a spear into his shoulder that Jason removed and threw back, impaling its sender and the two uruks behind him.
One of the uruks with a cursed weapon managed to stab Jason in the gut with his sword and thinking he had killed the man, grinned. What he did not know was that since Jason was already bound to undeath by another curse, this one only served to strengthen him. Jason seized the uruk's throat and head butted him with such force that the uruk's skull shattered on impact.
But the uruks were still in their battle fury and were not about to cease their attack anytime soon. Defenders surrounded Jason with their shields as the marksmen fired from over their comrade's shoulders, making Jason look like a human pincushion. The bolts did nothing to faze him and as one defender attempted to stab him in the chest, Jason grabbed the blade of the pike and pulled which made the uruk stumble forth before being cleaved in half with a single effortless slash. He then went through the opening to avoid being surrounded again and massacred his way through the Bright Lord's forces.
Talion and Celebrimbor could hardly believed what they were witnessing. Within the span of twenty seconds, Jason had killed just as many of their soldiers and showed no signs of stopping. At this rate, everyone would be dead within two minutes so they unanimously decided to provide fire support from their position.
As the first arrow struck Jason in the back of the head, it sent him stumbling forth. When he looked back, his enemy was lining up another shot. A warrior attempted a downward slash at the revenant and with his free arm, wrapped it around the uruk's neck and faced Talion before he realized what Jason was doing. He loosed the arrow and it instantly killed his own soldier. Jason let the body drop and he began hacking his way through the bodies to their master.
Talion fired arrow after arrow but for some reason, his focus ability did not affect Jason as he moved at a normal speed, allowing Jason plenty of time to use an uruk for a shield.
They continued like this for another minute, close to a hundred of Talion's soldiers lying on the ground as Jason continued his relentless assault, most of his outfit completely black from the blood of his foes as he showed no signs of stopping. The soulless eyes that lie behind the mask contained no mercy however and the only thing on Jason's mind was the death of all those who would kill or let young children like himself die.
Talion nodded at his five warchiefs, a signal to begin their own attack. Olrok was first to strike by sliding on the muddy ground behind Jason followed up by a stab in the back with his poisoned blade, a tactic that would've worked if Jason had blood instead of unparalleled fury flowing through his veins. The man retaliated by turning around with the blade still in his back and delivered a devastating blow to the side of Olrok's skull before removing the sword from his spine and wielding it in his left hand. Dugz the Decaying, a berserker who wielded a pair of cursed axes was the next to assault as he tried a simple diagonal slash which should've been simple but was countered when Jason used his machete to hold the blades in place at chest height and slammed Olrok's poisoned blade into the other warchief's skull. The uruk's eyes rolled back in his head and the corpse was kicked away with tremendous force at Tuka, who blocked the odd projectile and advanced slowly.
While Skun, Thrak and Tuka held him off, Talion reached for another arrow but found none left. Even as he looked around, the ranger found that there was no possible way he could assist from his current position. He made to draw Urfael and assist his few remaining soldiers but Celebrimbor stopped him.
"No." The Ring-smith ordered.
Angered, Ranger turned on the Wraith. "If we don't help our troops, Jason will kill us!"
Celebrimbor nodded. "Then we return and kill him, he will return and return the favor which will be returned yet again by us."
Talion's anger quickly faded as Jason rapidly slashed five large gashes in Thrak's chest before turning his attention to the last two orcs. "What do you propose then? We can't reason with him to call a truce!"
"Maybe you can't reason with him and I don't think I can either." The Elf admitted. "But I can reason with his mother, the one who controls him."
The former captain sighed resignedly. "So the future of middle-earth rests on your ability to communicate with another undead spirit?" A statement that received a quick nod from the Bright Master. "Very well." Talion then clenched his left fist as it glowed blue.
Tuka was lusting for battle. "It's not everyday I get to kill the same piece of man-filth twice. This should be fun." He declared with a maniacal laugh. Just before he could begin his attack however, his head began to shake uncontrollably which caused severe pain to the uruk. Tuka clenched his skull and let out a blood-curdling cry of pain before the skull exploded into blood and bone fragments onto Jason's clothes.
The thing that attacked Jason suddenly fell forward and behind him, the man who let his son die leapt to ground level. Jason sent a glare his way and turned his head towards Pamela, his dearly departed mother. "Do it Jason, kill him for mother." The man obeyed and strode towards his target before the other one who let his daughter die suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Jason, you know you can't kill us just as we know we can't kill you. I would like to speak to your mother if that's alright with you." The ghost-thing declared. Jason's reply was to swing his deadly machete at the spectre, hitting nothing but air.
"Jason sweety, just wait." Slightly frustrated, the massive man reluctantly obeyed and relaxed.
Talion made his way in front of Jason while Celebrimbor conversed with the other revenant's mother. This was the first time they had stood in front of each other without the intent to murder one another and although Talion had considered himself tall for the average man, Jason was easily a full head taller than him. His clothes were stained with the blood of over one hundred orcs, giving off a very pungent aroma that was sure to inspire fear in the most stalwart of orcs. Talion just hoped Celebrimbor's plan worked otherwise they would have no time dealing with Sauron.
After what seemed like an hour of conversation, Celebrimbor nodded and gave Talion the gist of their agreement. The other revenant would help them in their quest to destroy Sauron on the condition that if they ran into anyone who through action or inaction, let a child die, Jason would be the one to tear their skull from their bodies. Considering how that could've applied to just about any soldier in the Gondorian army, Talion was hesitant but saw no other option as he agreed. Celebrimbor relayed the information onto Pamela who then told Jason, the large man giving the ranger a nod before extending his hand in friendship. Talion took it and the pact was made.
Jason would stand by Talion's side as his permanent bodyguard as Ranger and Wraith crafted a new ring, amassed an army of uruks and conquered the fortresses of Mordor.
It was also explained that the reason it rained in Jason's presence was it was the waters of the lake he originally drowned it that now helped to heal him after a battle. The waters themselves however were corrupted with Jason's curse and would not nourish the plant or animal life. Over time, the Ranger actually grew to form a bond with the other man and Jason also had to admit that he didn't hate Talion as much as he used to.
When the time came that Celebrimbor would betray Talion and leave his body, Jason stood upon the bridge to Barad-Dur while the Ranger gasped for breath, reaching for Isildur's ring. It was Jason who kicked it to him and they continued to fight together as undead spirits hell bent on vengeance.
The two of them truly were kindred spirits.