I'm sorry it took me a little while to upload but there are two reasons for delay (and why I think this is a weak chapter). I will explain them at the end of the chapter.

For now just enjoy the chapter.

Again I borrowed some lines from the movie (Thranduil talking about the nature of evil).

While the sun just rose over the mountain tops, shining into the valley, bathing the Last Homely House in a bright and warm light, Thranduil was sitting with crossed legs on one of the benches in the library from which he could look out into the gardens of Imladris. The library was still empty for it was still early and breakfast was yet to come. He preferred the loneliness and thus had intentionally gone to the library in the early hours of the day. During the day the library was far too crowded by avid Noldorin elves for his taste. He had been alone for too long a time and thus couldn't bear many people at once. It was just too tedious. Instead he enjoyed the time when he had the library to himself.

He just turned another page, when he heard the door to the library being opened and closed again. He sighed and just hoped that the other person would leave him alone. Just as he wanted to continue reading he recognized Elrond out of the corner of his eyes. Relief washed over him, for as much as he despised the presence of other elves while reading, he rather enjoyed the company of the Peredhel. The Peredhel was carrying a pile of books and didn't pay much attention to his surroundings, instead he was walking past the shelves looking for the empty places where the books he had taken belonged. Thranduil watched him for a few moments without making his presence known, but when the Peredhel turned his back on him, Thranduil closed his book forcefully. He saw the Peredhel flinch slightly.

"Garo aur vaer, Peredhel.", he said, amusement evident in his voice.

Only then did Elrond slowly turn to face him. Elrond smirked.

"Garo aur vaer, Elvenking. I see you are up early."

"You know I prefer the loneliness. And the library tends to be terribly full between breakfast and dinner."

Elrond laughed.

"Three people can hardly be called a terribly full library. But I understand what you mean. I too prefer an empty library."

He turned back to the shelf and put back another book.

"You never told me to what conclusion the Council finally came, regarding Dol Guldur."

Elrond stopped and put the pile of books on a table, giving Thranduil his undivided attention.

"Thanks to your performance Saruman relented. We are going to attack Dol Guldur in a few days time."

Thranduil was relieved. At least losing his temper hadn't been pointless and he hadn't put Elrond to shame.

"Thank you, mellon nin."

Thranduil looked away and tried to ignore the mellon nin. What did the Peredhel see in him, that it was worth calling him a friend? He hadn't done anything to deserve it, even though Galadriel obviously thought different about this matter. But she didn't know him. She didn't know what really dwelled in the dark corners of his being. If anything the Peredhel deserved to be called 'friend'. Elrond had helped him even though their relationship had been more than strained after the Last Alliance. Elrond was checking on him every time he felt his despair growing. Elrond was the one watching over him.

"Who is 'we'?", he asked while examining the texture of the cover of the book, he was still holding.

"Mithrandir, Curunir, Galadriel and I."

So the ringbearers and the Istari… Thranduil returned his gaze to Elrond.

"Do the combined forces of Imladris and Lothlorien have enough combat strength to face what resides in Dol Guldur. I don't think that Saruman the White has an army to command or an army he would willingly risk to lose for this... I am certain he would call it… unnecessary adventure."

"There won't be any armies."

Thranduil narrowed his eyes to slits, contemplating what he had just heard.

"No armies… So Celeborn is no ringbearer.", Thranduil mused.

"What makes you think that?", the Peredhel asked and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Obviously he wasn't keen on talking about any of the ringbearers of the three elven rings of power, which didn't stop Thranduil to go on.

"You didn't name him as being part of the attack on Dol Guldur, while Galadriel and you are part of it. I assume that's because she is the bearer of Nenya and you are the bearer of Vilya. Also he is not able to use any magic like the Istari, which is the reason why they are part of the attack. So he being not included means he is not the bearer of Narya. And since there aren't going to be any armies, he, even though being an experienced warrior, would be useless during the attack. This is also why you didn't ask me to join. I have no ring of power and what little magic I can use…"

He pointed to his left cheek.

"… is of no help to you."

Elrond frowned.

"If you are implying that I must think you a weak person, than you are wrong, Elvenking."

"I might not be a weak person but I surely am a weak king, who didn't have the strength to overcome the traumatic events of his past, who rather isolated his realm, because of what had been, than forging an alliance with Imladris and Lothlorien, which might have saved it from destruction by what is to come."

Elrond shook his head.

"Just because you are king doesn't mean you have to be stronger than everybody who ranks below you. That's not what makes a king a good king. You did what you thought was best for your people and what was within your power. We chose different ways to preserve our realms but the results are the same. But now we have to stand together in order to successfully fight the growing shadow."

Thranduil looked out into the gardens, his gaze unfocused.

"Such is the nature of evil. Out there in the vast ignorance of the world it festers and spreads. A shadow that grows in the dark, a sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of night. So it ever was, so will it always be. In time all foul things come forth."

Elrond peered at him.

"Say, what are you reading again?"

Thranduil raised the hand, in which he held the book.

"Tales of Doriath. Even I get melancholic from time to time."

"I'm quite sure there never was something like this written in there."

Thranduil smiled at the Peredhel. Elrond knew his library well, so it seemed.

"Your memory serves you well, Peredhel. There was nothing like that written in this book. That is what the past has written on my body with every further wound I obtained by arrows, maces, knives, swords and dragon fire fighting for the shadow."

He sighed.

"But we are wandering from the subject."

He put the book on a table standing next to the bench.

"Since two of the three ringbearers of the elven rings were present at the meeting, it might be that either the third one couldn't participate for whatever reasons or was indeed present or Narya is already lost. If the first reason was true I am sure the bearer would participate in the attack on Dol Guldur, but you only mentioned those who were also present at the meeting. So I'm ruling this possibility out. I also don't think that Narya has been lost, which leaves us with the last possibility, that the bearer of Narya was indeed present during the meeting. Now there are two options. Either Galadriel is the bearer of two rings or you are. Or one of the Istari is the bearer of Narya."

Elrond had listened carefully and simultaneously tried not to show any emotion in order to not give away the whereabouts of Narya.

"You know I can't tell you. You already know too much. To keep the whereabouts of the three elven rings a secret is of utmost importance."

If Sauron or his henchmen would ever catch you, torture you… he didn't dare to go on thinking about this. Not only because the outcome of this scenario would be catastrophic but also because just thinking of another person he held dear to his heart experiencing the same as Celebrian nauseated him. He never wanted to see light hair, be it silver or golden, stained with red blood ever again. Just then did it occur to him, what he had just thought. Another person dear to his heart… Thranduil had become his friend, his confidant and yet… he felt there was something more, lurking in his heart, where he couldn't quite grasp it. He looked at the Elvenking, a ray of light playing on his golden hair. He was sitting on the bench, relaxed but even in this relaxed state he gave off the pride of a king mixed with a notch of arrogance that came along with being the last Elvenking in Middle-earth and the knowledge of your own radiant beauty. And a beauty he was… Elrond realized where his thoughts were heading and his heart sank. When… when had his feelings taken this turn?

"Peredhel?"

Elrond found his way back to reality upon hearing the Elvenking's demanding voice. Thranduil was watching him closely and Elrond understood that he must have missed something.

"What were you saying?"

"You looked quite shocked. Are you feeling well?"

"I just realized something.", Elrond said with a wave of his hand. Something he had to analyze later, when Thranduil wasn't anywhere near.

"What was it you were saying?"

"I know that it the whereabouts of the elven rings must be kept a secret, but you do realize that building flourishing elven realms isn't very subtle? If Sauron indeed rises again I am sure he already knows where to look for at least two of them. The only well hidden ring is Narya."

"I know. But subtlety has never been one of my qualities.", Elrond joked, trying to lighten the mood and to distract his own mind, but Thranduil didn't take the bait and neither did his own mind.

"Say, Peredhel, what would happen to you if Sauron would successfully regain the One Ring?"

Elrond's gaze dropped to the floor.

"I don't know.", he said quietly.

Then he looked up again and directly into Thranduils eyes.

"Maybe I will fall into darkness, like the Nine."

Thranduil couldn't see any fear in the Peredhel's eyes while talking about falling into the darkness, something Thranduil himself feared the most.

"You aren't afraid of falling into the darkness.", Thranduil stated.

"No I'm not. It is the price I have to pay for wielding Vilya. And I knew it all along."

"Then why did you wield it, to begin with. Couldn't you have kept Imladris without it?"

Elrond shrugged his shoulders.

"Maybe… I don't know. But keeping Imladris wasn't the only thing I wanted and did use Vilya for. With Vilya I was able to help so many people, people I couldn't have saved without it, people like you, who were closer to darkness than to light. And for this I'm willing to pay the price. There is only one thing that bothers me. I don't have a fallback strategy if I should indeed fall into darkness."

"What kind of fallback strategy?"

"Celeborn once confided in me that he and Galadriel have an agreement. Should she ever succumb to darkness, either by Sauron regaining the One Ring or by her getting her hands on the One Ring first, Celeborn is going to kill her."

Ah, love that ran so deep you would even kill the one you love in order to avoid that your beloved had to face a fate much worse than death. He knew it from hearsay for he himself had never had such a relationship with his wife. After showing her his face and after her display of utter disgust he never talked to her about his fear of losing himself to the darkness within him and his fear of losing control. He would have never asked her to kill him if that happened, because he had then known her limited loyalty towards him. She would have run as soon as she had had the possibility, too afraid of facing his dark side, too afraid to even look at him at all. And Legolas? He could have never asked Legolas to kill him. He had hoped, Legolas would be able to do so on his own account, if he himself had succumbed to the darkness within him. That had been the reason why he had driven Legolas away. His fallback strategy had failed. But he perfectly understood Elrond's line of thought. Like him, he was sure that Elrond would never ask such a favor from any of his children, but neither from friends or anyone at all. Elrond was too concerned for the wellbeing of others. He would never ask anyone to bear the blame of killing. And yet he also knew how scaring it could be when you knew there would be no one who would stop you if one day the dark side of you took over. He had been there and he still was.

"I will kill you."

There he had said it, without giving it another thought for there was no need to do so. Elrond looked at him angrily.

"Stop talking such nonsense, Thranduil. I don't want you to kill me."

Even though it sounded alluring, Elu knew the Elvenking had already a big load to carry on his shoulders.

"You don't have to think you owe me, because you don't."

"I might owe you but that is not why I offer you my help. I know the feeling of hurting the ones I care for. I fought against it and I won. And I know how to kill. Let me put this knowledge to good use, at least for once in my life."

Thranduil looked him dead in the eyes and Elrond realized something else… He saw something in the eyes of the Elvenking… something he was sure not many had ever witnessed when faced by the King of the Woodland Realm… sympathy and understanding.

"You care that much about me?"

"I care that much about you, mellon nin."

Garo aur vaer – Good morning/day

The idea of Celeborn killing Galadriel if she succumbs to the darkness is not mine. A few years ago I read a fanfiction where Celeborn was hiding in a tree or bush while Galadriel showed Frodo her mirror. Celeborn is ready to kill her if she would take the One Ring. The short story is "He'd rather die" by Larian Elensar. You can find it here on this web page. I liked the idea very much, so I decided to include it here.

As for the two reasons for the delay:
So first university started again last week (christmas holiday is over T.T) and the courses don't leave any time for fanfiction writing. I have to do it in my breaks.^^

Second I found out that someone, who read my story wrote his/her own story taking the basic ideas of my first chapter. Actually that itself is not the problem but this person didn't give any credit, which really made me angry and sad. Perhaps, I'm being oversensitive... But just saying: "well, I read this story xyz and it was so crappy that I had to write my own version" or "I liked that story xzy but I had another idea" would have been fine. Anyway it kind of ruined my week and I stopped writing for a few days. Thus I lost track of what I actually wanted to write. But I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer so I decided to upload it today.

So basically the story is finished for all the non-shippers here. In this last chapter I just wanted to show that Thranduil opens up to Elrond.

For the shippers there is going to be an epilogue (might be two parts), althought I already know there will be no intercourse or something like that. If you are looking for that you might go to another section of this web page *cough*. This is not because I don't like such stories but just because I think they both need more time to get there. It might happen soooooooooooomewhere in the future but that is just soooooooo much ahead, because I generally think elves are more looking for intellectual relationships. So the physical part is not the dominant part in their relationships.

Just my opinion.^^

And please give me some time... university and stuff... you know...^^