Same as before, the sections in italics are Eleryna's memory and the regular font is Sauron messing with her mind. Enjoy!
Elrohir kept watch as his sister slept. They were a few days into the Brown Lands and close to Morodr. She had mentioned climbing over the mountains, closer to Barad-dur, rather than trying to get through the destroyed gate or through the path she had taken before, closer to Minas Morgul. She had told him of her weakness, that she had almost walked into the citadel, into the hands of her enemy. Though, it seemed she was still doing the same thing. She was walking into the hands of her enemy by going into Mordor. But it had to end there. He needed to make sure that it ended there. If he couldn't do that, how could he expect to call himself her big brother, her protector?
He began looking through her pack. He had made sure that he had been the one to pack their things to ensure nothing went missing and he had seen something in hers that she had rarely spoken of. He nodded when he found it and pulled it out. It was the phial of starlight that their grandmother had given her on their journey. The Light of Eärendil, the Mariner. It had saved her from Shelob. Maybe it would save her from this.
Elrohir looked at his sister has she moaned in torment. Another nightmare. He kissed her forehead before placing the phial in her hand and he saw her calm.
"Are you going to let us go with you?" He asked.
"It doesn't seem that I have a choice, Mellon." She said. They smiled, him because he had found her safely, her because she had opened the door without actually revealing the password. Aragorn smiled and shook his head. Eleryna turned to face the Company and noticed that they all looked tired. "Come on." Eleryna took the first step into the mines with Gimli at her side.
"That is a neat trick." His voice entered her thoughts. She spun on her heels and saw him, sitting on a nearby rock. He didn't have the crown this time, but his face was still hard to see.
"What are you doing here?" She hissed, looking for her companions. They were gone. She was alone in the entrance of the mines. Not even Gimli was beside her.
"I wanted to see the entrance of the place where my master's servant almost destroyed the Wielder of the Sacred Fire.
"And they call it a mine. A mine!" Eleryna looked around. She was with her companions again and Sauron was nowhere to be seen. Gandalf lit his staff. Gimli's voice had banished the vision this time.
"This is no mine." Boromir said. Eleryna looked at the ground and the skeleton at her feet. "It's a tomb." Gimli cried as he saw a skeleton in the corner.
"Goblins!" Legolas hissed. Eleryna drew her knives, Aragorn and Boromir drew their swords, and Legolas strung his bow.
"We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here." Boromir said.
"I would watch my feet if I were you." Sauron's voice cut above the noise. She looked and saw him on the steps inside the door before she was tugged backwards toward the door.
She cried out in surprise as it pulled her back and she lost hold of her knives. The others turned at her shout and the clatter of metal on stone and saw a tentacle pulling her towards the water. She tried grabbing a dagger she had in her boot. Legolas shot an arrow at the beast. It had no effect. Aragorn jumped into the water and started slashing tentacles. She didn't see Boromir cut the tentacle that was holding her and screamed in surprise as she fell. Boromir caught her and ran to the door.
"Into the mines!" Gandalf shouted. Legolas shot another arrow at the beast, stunning it for a moment. She pulled herself out of Boromir's arms and grabbed her knives as the creature collapsed the door behind him. She breathed heavily. "We now have but one choice." Gandalf said, lighting his staff again. "We must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world." She sighed and made sure she had a majority of her arrows since her bow and quiver had been torn from her back on a rock. Gandalf and Aragorn started walking, Boromir and Gimli walked in the middle with Eleryna and Legolas at the rear, having the best sight.
"Yes, there are worse things in the dark than Orcs and the Watcher." Sauron's voice followed her as she walked. "That beast would have killed you and the Ring would have ben lost forever. At least until the Nine had come to take it."
"What do you want with me?" Eleryna shouted as flames sprang up around her again followed by Sauron's laughter.
"Tell me!" Eleryna shouted, waking her brother and he nearly fell from the branch he had been sleeping on. He jumped out of the tree and pulled his sister close. She was hot again, like she had been in Mirkwood. But this time was different. She wasn't screaming in pain. He forced the phial into her hand and she calmed down. They were close to Mordor now and he was glad. It meant that this was almost over.
"You can let go of me now." She said and he looked down. Her breathing was even now and she was turning the phial over in her hand. She was awake.
"I'm never letting go of you. Not until this is over." He said and rested his chin on her head. He could feel her shaking slightly. "What do you keep seeing?"
"I'm reliving the war, Elrohir. Each night is a different piece of it. Sometimes I dream of the happy times, before the war. Before Bilbo found the Ring. When I was a small child. Do you remember, when I first met the Dwarves? I was told that I would be their salvation. It wasn't something I hadn't put much stock in then. But when I was healing after the war, after I woke up, it made sense. But I ended up being the salvation of all, including the Elves and no one had been able to see it. If they had seen it, do you think it would have happened?"
"I don't know. But that is not all that you are seeing." He felt her sigh.
"He's been showing up in my dreams. Not all of them. Only some. Mainly the ones where the Ring has had the greatest part to play in them. Tonight, it was when we entered Moria. Tomorrow, who knows. I could be standing in Mount Doom, facing him once again."
Elrohir said nothing, instead choosing to hold her close. She didn't fight him and the two watched the sun rise.
She waited for thirty minutes before pulling off her boot and examining her ankle again. It was red again from the twist it had just endured. She touched it gently and bit her lip to keep back the hiss of pain that wanted to escape her.
"That looks like it hurts." Sauron said. She didn't look at him and focused on healing her ankle. She breathed and then placed both hands gently on her ankle and began chanting softly. The pain began to go away first, quickly followed by the redness and the swelling. Finally, she muttered the spell that would begin to strengthen the ankle so she wouldn't risk falling in the middle of a battle.
"I will not fear you, Sauron." She said, looking at him and standing next to Gandalf. She stood and faced him. "I destroyed you. I will do it again." The crunch of small stones had her knife swinging through the air. She stopped it a moment before it reached Gandalf's neck. She glared at him.
"Couldn't sleep." He said. "I'll watch."
"I said I would."
"And you also said you were fine after the Watcher grabbed you. But I've noticed you checking your ankle from time to time. What happened an hour ago was because of your ankle."
"I was trying to avoid bumping into Boromir."
"Ah, the faithful Boromir." Sauron's voice cut into the conversation. She turned on her heel and saw the Dark Lord looking at the man. "Weak of mind this one. Tried to control him. But his heart proved stronger."
"And so you took his body." Eleryna spat. "When he could not fight you."
"Well it was hard to meet the one who held my salvation in her hand while being just a spirit. Which you soon will be. The more you speak with me. The more you hold me within you, the stronger I become and the weaker you are."
"I hold nothing within me. Least of all any of you."
Sauron laughed and she drew her other long knife. "Foolish child. You carried my Ring for months. You carried my soul around your neck for months." She said nothing and they listened to the conversation she had had with Gandalf that night.
"I see. And now that you've healed it, you need to rest to get your strength back." Eleryna put her knife away.
"Gandalf, the Watcher grabbed me first among all of you. I was deeper in the doorway than Boromir and yet it grabbed me first."
"I know. And I have a suspicion as to why."
"And I have several." Eleryna answered. "You shouldn't have come. You all should have stayed in Rivendell or gone elsewhere. Moria is much darker than I remember." With that, she walked over to the wall, giving the hole a wide berth, and went to sleep. Gandalf was right about one thing.
"His suspicion was only partially true. But you knew that. You have been hunted your entire life." Sauron said as the guardroom fell away around them to be replaced with fire. "You knew that I would try to control you. I hunted you to use you for myself, to have my own army of Dark Elves that could stand against your kin. Orcs and trolls can only do so much. One of the Nine almost had you when you tried to warn everyone about me. If it had grabbed you then, the war would have been over before it began. I would have had all the time I needed with you. Instead I had to wait and I am tired of waiting. Give in to me."
Fire circled her wrists and she screamed before she could try to contain it. She tried to fight through the pain, to make it go away, knowing it was in her mind, but she couldn't. This was real.
Thinking this is close to ending. I'm getting to the ends of my plans, but first, I want to know what you think. Thanks for reading and please review.