Chapter 6

Ariana opened her eyes fluttered weakly, then opened. She was in a darkened room, lit by a single small lamp. Her gaze traveled from the lamp across the room and stopped when they met a pair of azure blue eyes, which stared back at her intently. It immediately dawned on Ariana what had happened to her and she sat up rigidly in the bed. Instantly, she felt faint and fell back against the pillows, her head spinning wildly.

"Try not to move…Aden stole much of your life force…you are very weak," he said, placing a hand on her cheek. Ariana jerked her head away from his hand and looked away from him. Legolas lowered his head dolefully and stood to leave. He had reached the door knob when he heard her voice.

"Legolas….,"

"Yes?"

"How is Aragorn?' she asked. Legolas knew the question had nothing to do with her concern for the ranger. She knew exactly how he was. She was antagonizing him, and for good reason. Had he trusted her none of this might have happened.

"Forgive me,"

"I don't know if I can Legolas…not this time," she replied, too close to tears to say any more.

Her words had cut right into the very heart of him. He let out a rattled sigh, and walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.

The armory was filled with men readying for the battle to come. Aragorn inspected a sword intently, before tossing it down onto a table, scowling. Men and boys filed past him as they were fitted with weapons and armor. Aragorn looked at them all disapprovingly.

"Farmers, farriers, stable boys. These are no soldiers,"

"Most have seen too many winters," said Gimli.

"Or too few," added Legolas, coming up from behind Aragorn and Gimli, a hollow expression etched upon his face. "Look at them. They're frightened. I can see it in their eyes" he continued. At Legolas' words all of the men stopped to listen to the conversation. "Boe a hyn, neled herain dan caer menig(And they should be...Three hundred against ten thousand),"

"Si beriathar hyn, ammaeg na ned Edoras(They have more hope of defending themselves here than at Edoras)," said Aragorn, trying to muster some semblance of positivity.

"Aragorn, nedin dagor hen u-'erir ortheri. Natha daged dhaer!(We are warriors. They cannot win this fight. They are all going to die!),"

"Then I shall die as one of them!" yelled Aragorn before stalking away. Legolas started after him, but was halted by Gimli.

"Let him go, lad. Let him be,"

To Ariana, the room around her was falling away…falling away into darkness. Without the love she had once cherished so dearly she felt as if her very soul had been taken from her. No love…no life…her heart was dying a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves…until nothing remained…no hope…no feeling…only a cold and vast emptiness inside of her, reminding her of the love she had once felt. The room faded away into nothingness, then came the cruel voice of Aden.

"I have won Ariana. Your friends have abandoned you and now they go to battle, and you…you will not be there to defend the people of Rohan, nor any of the other peoples of Middle Earth…the Orcs have been given orders to kill everyone in their path…and tonight….they will hunt down everyone you care about…and they will slaughter them…every last one!"

"No!" screamed Ariana, who was completely enveloped in darkness. A crushing sadness filled her soul, threatening to choke away her life force, an unseen menace whose grip tightened with every strangled breath she took. Tears filled her eyes at the thought of any of the fellowship coming to harm …then her thoughts fell upon Legolas. She saw only quick glimpses…she saw Legolas apologizing to Aragorn for doubting him…Aragorn comforting a scared little boy, clad in heavy armor.

"There is always hope…" he said to the boy. Ariana saw the dawn that would bring Gandalf and the Rohirrim…then she saw Sam and Frodo, amongst the rubble of Osgiliath:

" I can't do this, Sam." said Frodo slowly.

"I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because... how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come…and when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turnin' back, only they didn't. They kept goin', because they were holdin' on to somethin'."

"What are we holding onto, Sam?"

"…That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fightin' for,"

Ariana closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Sam was right, they all were…so what if she and Legolas had 'trust issues'? That didn't stop her from loving him, nor did it stop her from caring about her friends...her friends…who had not given up hope…who were still fighting and would fight until their last breath. Arianna knew how the story was supposed to end, and she would not let her faith falter now, not when her friends needed her the most. In the midst of the darkness there came a light brighter and clearer than the dawn. Ariana sat bolt upright in her bed, looking out of the window. It had been dark for hours. It was raining profusely, and Ariana could hear the twang of bows and clanging of swords in the night air.

She rose slowly from her bed and closed her eyes. It was as if she was seeing every step of her journey fast forwarded. And then a surge of righteous anger filled every part of her. Aden was the cause of all of the miseries that had fallen upon the fellowship and her, and now he planned to slaughter everyone she cared about. For the innocent people of Rohan who did not know what tonight would cost them, for The people of Middle Earth who would be left defenseless if she did not take a stand, and for Legolas, the man she knew would be her destiny, she would fight…and she would win. Ariana opened her eyes to an inferno. White hot Flames engulfed her body, and as she walked towards the door, the flames scorched everything in her path…she had finally mastered all four elements.

"Is this it? Is this all you can conjure, Saruman?" asked Theoden mockingly as he monitored the battle from the second level. At that very moment, as if by some morbid cosmic joke, four Uruks appeared, pushing their way through the throng of their battling comrades, carrying two large bombs, courtesy of Saruman. The Uruks placed the bombs in a culvert of the Deeping wall. Another, rather large Uruk, appeared from the same throng of retches, carrying a lit torch, running towards the culvert at full speed. Aragorn was the first to spot the giant Uruk.

"Togo hon dad, Legolas! (Bring him down , Legolas!)" He yelled franticly to Legolas, who immediately began firing arrows to bring down the large creature. Legolas' arrow hit the Uruk high in his right chest, but the brute's size made him almost impenetrable. "Dago han! Dago han! (Kill him! Kill him!)" yelled Aragorn, watching in horror from further down the wall. Legolas fired another arrow that caused the Uruk to falter, but somehow, he managed to stumble forward and throw himself into the culvert, setting off the bombs. A deafening explosion erupted from the wall, as debris boulders, Elves, men, and Orcs flew in all directions. Aragorn was thrown to the ground unconscious and Gimli lay on top of the wall, unconscious as well. Theoden looked on, aghast from atop the fortress wall. Uruks began to charge through the culvert, but were hit with a rush of released water. The shielded Uruks reached the fortress gate, revealing a battering ram as they began to assault the gate.

On Théoden's orders, the soldiers inside the gate threw their bodies against the door to withstand the battering ram, which was barreling into the gate. Those manning the walls above the gate began throwing rocks and spears at the Uruks on the causeway. The water rushing through the wall abated, allowing the Uruks on the ground to rush the culvert. Gimli awoke to find Aragorn, still lying unconscious where he fell.

"Aragorn!" Gimli yelled as he leapt from the wall to the ground, attacking nearby Uruks with his ax, disappearing beneath the waters of the culvert. Aragorn, stirred by his comrade's calls, stood in front of the Elven warriors on the ground behind the wall.

" Hado i phillin! (hurl the arrows!)" yelled Aragorn. The Elves swiftly fired arrows at the Uruks coming through the breach in the wall. Aragorn and the Elves charged the Uruks with drawn swords. Legolas who was on top of the wall, picked up an Uruk shield and used it to slide down the culvert stairs, shooting arrows as he went, joining the battle at the breech in the Deeping Wall. At the bottom, he directed the shield into an encroaching Uruk's chest, before attacking more Uruk's using his elven blades. Aragorn found Gimli underwater and drug him to his feet as the Uruks and Elves began a pitched battle at the breach. Suddenly, the throng of orcs evading the culvert parted.

Out of the darkened hole left in the wall, sickeningly thin shadows appeared, giving way to a sight that made even the elves falter. Uruks, the likes of which had never been seen before streamed past the others and into the fortress. The closest thing that they could be compared to would have been elves, or at least Uruk counterparts. They were sickeningly slim, adorned in blackened and battered elven armor, rusted metal bows on their back, and jagged twin blades in hand. The leader of this band of Uruks held menacingly in front of his inferiors. His gaze fell to Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn, who remained in fighting positions.

"Kill the fellowship! Kill the Elves!" screamed the Uruk archers leader. The line of Uruk archers moved together as one, attacking the fellowship and the elven archers, with almost surgical-like precision. The elves were falling, one by one, at the hands of this new evil, and soon Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas were overwhelmed. Gimli was knocked down and pinned to the ground by the Uruks. Aragorn and Legolas continued the fight as the creatures closed in around them. Legolas let out a painful yell. One of the Uruks had sliced a large gash into his left leg. He stumbled backwards onto the stairs, gripping his injured leg. Aragorn rushed to his side and dispatched an Uruk, attempting to land a finishing blow to his friend. They were hopelessly outnumbered and with Legolas injured, the outcome of this battle seemed sealed. Legolas blocked the advance of the Uruk leader with his knife, locking into a battle of strength. The Uruks blade was inches from his neck when the Uruk was thrown backwards and held in the air by some invisible force.

Aragorn, Legolas, and every Uruk in the culvert watched as the Uruk leader writhed in mid air screaming as if he were being ripped apart. Without warning, the Uruk leader ignited into white hot flames, his screaming became intense…then faded as the flames engulfed his body. The flames subsided and his chard remains fell to the ground. The other Uruks looked around, all attempting to figure out who had done this to one of their generals, but Aragorn and Legolas knew exactly who the culprit had been and looked towards the inner wall and the infirmary. There, atop the wall, wings unfurled as if poised for flight, stood Ariana. She surveyed the fortress for only a moment before closing her eyes. She raised her hand into the air, then pointed at the hole in the Deeping wall. The ground beneath the Uruks began to shake violently and the hoards of Uruks near the breach in the wall fled, attempting to scramble back the way they had come.

"Ye had better run yeh coward!" yelled Gimli as the Uruk that had pinned him down released him and fled. Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, and every man, elf and Uruk gawked in utter disbelief as the earth and rock beneath the hole in the Deeping wall thrust upwards, trapping the Uruks that had made it through the breach in the culvert. Ariana flew into the air, landing between the fellowship and the Uruks, She stared the Uruks down, as if daring one of them to attack her. The Uruk archers were the first to make a move. Running at Ariana at full speed, rusted twin blades drawn. Ariana knelt in the shallow waters of the culvert, touching the water with her finger. The Uruks in the knee deep culvert waters froze solid. Ariana stood and turned back to the fellowship.

"Ariana…Legolas has been badly wounded" said Aragorn. Ariana looked from Aragorn to Legolas, her gaze falling onto his slashed leg. She knelt down beside him and held her hand over his leg, closing her eyes, the stone in her circlet glowed, as did Legolas' wound. A moment later the wound had disappeared. Legolas looked at where his wound had been in astonishment. "I didn't know you could heal wounds," he said, looking to Ariana.

"Neither did I," she said with a weak smile.

" Lle anta amin tu? (Do you need help?)" came a satisfyingly familiar voice from the top of the inner wall stairs? Ariana, Aragorn and Legolas turned to find Haldir making his way skillfully over dead uruk corpses. Ariana smiled brightly at him, through everything that had happened, she had completely forgotten that she had wanted to save Haldir from meeting an untimely end atop the outer wall, but her happiness needed to be reserved until after the battle…there was still work to be done.

Ariana spread her wings and took fight above the fortress. She looked out over the masses of regrouping uruks, attempting to attack the wall once more. The rains had subsided, and in the distance, the cool blues of the night sky were being chased away by a red dawn. Ariana closed her eyes, feeling the power of the elements welling up within her. A white light suddenly engulfed her body, lighting up the early morning sky.

"Cover your eyes," Ariana' voice filled the heads of every man and elf in the fortress, who immediately hit the ground, shielding their eyes. The was a momentary silence throughout the whole of Helms Deep as everyone braced themselves, for what they did not know. "I am light," Ariana whispered. With a sonic boom, the light Ariana was emitting, jetted out across the fortress and the battle field beyond. Screams of agony erupted throughout from the Uruks whose eyes had not been shielded. More than half of the army had been blinded, and chaos was now breaking the ranks. Uncovering their eyes, the men in the fortress seized on the opportunity and began beating back their blinded foes. Ariana lowered back to the ground as Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli rushed to her side.

"Didn't know you could pull that off lass," said Gimli, laughing heartily as he patted her on the back. Ariana swayed dangerously, but was caught by Legolas, who was looking at her with immense admiration.

"You look a little tired," said Aragorn.

"It's a lot harder than it looks,

"Well it looked pretty hard," Aragorn replied with a deep laugh.

"We've made it through the night!" shouted a soldier running past them. They all looked towards the west. There sat Gandalf, atop shadow fax, flanked by the Rohirrim, half hidden by the dawn. Ariana looked back at Legolas smiling as he leaned in to kiss her. A small "pop" caused Legolas to open his eyes mid-kiss. Ariana' eyes were black and expressionless. Her body went limp, revealing a blackened dart sticking out of her shoulder. Legolas only had time to remove the dart and throw it to the ground when the sound of heavy wings made all three men take defensive stance, searching for the source of the dart. Legolas was knocked into Aragorn and Gimli, causing all three of them to hit the ground. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli looked on in shock as a large Uruk, clad in onyx plated armor, picked up Ariana' limp form, unfurled a pair of massive, black bat-like wings, and took flight; taking Ariana, and with her, the fate of middle earth.

Eomer, Theoden, Gandalf, Legolas and Aragorn rode to the crest of a hill followed by Gamling. They looked East, gazing at lighting and the glow of fire over Mordor.

"Sauron's wrath will be terrible, his retribution swift. The Dark One's minion has captured our only hope to win this fight. She must be rescued if we are to have any chance at victory. The battle for Helm's Deep is over. The battle for Middle-earth is about to begin. All our hopes now lie with two little hobbits, and Ariana, who is somewhere deep within the walls of Mordor," said Gandalf. Eomer, Theoden, Gandalf, and Gamling turned there horses around and headed back down the hill. Aragorn and Gimli moved to follow but halted their horses, looking to Legolas who had not moved from the spot. He sat atop his horse, glaring at the borders of Mordor.

"I have to get her back" he said.

"We will come with you my friend," said Aragorn hastily.

"No Aragorn, this is something I have to do on my own…and besides, the people of Gondor need your guidance and protection, and I can't risk either of you getting hurt," Legolas replied, trotting his horse next to Aragorn.

"My friend, you cannot go into Mordor alone, it is suicide," Said Aragorn.

"Aragorn, you are needed here, and I will not be alone. Ariana will be with me," said Legolas, removing something from his saddle pouch and producing it to Aragorn. It was Ariana' circlet, which had fallen from her head when she was taken. The Sillmaril glinted regally in it's center. Without warning the circlet glowed a blinding white, as it seemed to melt into a different form. The light faded to reveal a large silver ring, the Anglesite jewel nestled in it's center. Legolas examined the ring quietly before slipping into one of his long and slender fingers. He Looked from the ring to the distance. "I must go alone…be safe my friends. Tenna' ento lye omenta(until next we meet)," he said quickly. Legolas pulled forcefully on his horses reigns and with a loud whine the horse raised and galloped down the hill, towards the sinister peaks of Mordor.

I loooooove this chapter. It's not my favorite, but it's defiantly up there in the top three. I had a very vivid image of this chapter in my mind and I think it translated well. There are some who say this chapter is way over done…listen…like it or not, GIRLS RULE! Ariana came, saw, and kicked butt…if that is your idea of overdone then you are reading the WRONG story…but remember…she hasn't faced Aden on equal footing yet. A battle is brewing between the two…who will win? Who will die? He he he he he. I know but I'm not telling! Review if you feel froggy!