Summary: Elrond tries to persuade Arwen to return to Rivendell. Rated K+ by Caitie

March 7-8, 3019

(Text written in bold type is spoken in Elvish)

Cool night wind blew into Arwen's tent, waking her from her uneasy slumber. As always, her dreams were haunted by Legolas' memory and drenched in his blood. She heard soft footsteps on the ground inside her tent, she could hear the rustling of someone cloak as they came closer to her. The stranger sat on the edge of her small bed, the old wood frame creaking with their weight. "Arwen," they whispered, suddenly they he was no longer a stranger to her. That voice she had known for over two thousand years. Her father's hand came to rest on her arm.

Arwen rolled onto her back and sat up, looking her father in his grey-blue eyes. She expected to see them cold and unwavering as they always were but instead they sad, as sad as she had ever seen them. In that moment she felt tears well up in her eyes, and all the emotions she hadn't let herself feel for the past few days flooded out of her.

Elrond's arms came around his Arwen's body, pulling her into his chest. It had been years since the last time he saw his daughter cry and it had been nothing like this. The memory was fresh in mind, it was when they said goodbye to his wife, Celebrian. Arwen's tears had been few but the pain had been no less real. Celebrian had not died, she simply had to leave this land, but it had still hurt Arwen like nothing before. But seeing her this way was different.

Elrond's hand rubbed circles on her back as she leaned against him, comforting his daughter. "It is time you come home," he said quietly. Arwen leaned back, rubbing the tears from her eyes and shaking her head. "Arwen, you have been gone long enough. Come home with me, to your brother's and your children. Alida and Leonid need you, they miss you, Arwen."

Arwen continued to shake her head, leaning further away from her father. "I cannot go, not now," she stated.

Elrond sighed. "Arwen, there is going to be a war and if you stay you will be caught in the middle of it, with nowhere go but through it. Now stop this foolishness and come home with me."

"You sent the fellowship on this quest. You sent your nephew, my husband, and helpless Hobbits to this war. You knew what could happen and still you sent them. Why should I leave them now, when they need my help the most?"

Elrond rubbed his temples. "You are my daughter, Arwen, I did not send you to this war..."

"But you did, you sent me Helms Deep, did you not know that I would stay with them to the end?"

"Your husband is dead, Arwen, do you really want to take a chance that might leave your children orphans." His words hit Arwen like a stone wall. "Your mother never would have taken a chance like that."

"I am not mother," Arwen shook her head, furious tears spilling down her face. "I am you, haven't you realized that yet? I am your mirror image, mother always said so. And if you cannot see that, then you don't know your own daughter."

Arwen and Elrond sat in silence for a moment, their mirrored eyes looking deep into the others. "I don't want to lose my daughter," he finally said. His lifted a hand to brush the tears away from her face.

"I cannot promise you that," she said quietly. "But can you not see that I must stay?"

Slowly, Elrond nodded, his eyes falling to the bed. "I should have known at least one of them children would grow to be as stubborn as myself." He stood up from the bed and walked across Arwen's tent. When he turned back to Arwen he held a sword wrapped in leather.

Arwen already knew what it was, her eyes wide. "The blade that was broken, you did this?" Elrond nodded, handing Arwen the blade. She looked with wonder at the blade, unable to tell where it had broken. "Aragorn will be king."

"Yes." Elrond watched Arwen sheath the blade. "And to do that he must go into the mountain." Arwen's eyes narrowed at the prospect of those who lived in mountains, everyone knew the legend, but not everyone knew the legend was true. "You know as well as I do that this war will not be won with the numbers you have. He needs them, and he needs you."

..::..

It was early morning, so early that the sun had still not chosen to show its pale winter face. Thick clouds blotted out any moonlight but Elrond could still see clearly. A ways before him was a couple, Eowyn and Aragorn, even from this distance he could hear their argument but he didn't move. He was waiting for someone. Arwen's horse walked up to them and Elrond watched her dismount, her voice just low enough that he couldn't hear her very well.

The clouds broke overhead and the moon shone down on Arwen's fair skin, even from here she resembled her mother. In so many ways she was like Celebrian, but in just as many she was also like her father. The thought made Elrond sad. Before the War of the Last Alliance Celebrian had begged Elrond not to go. He could still remember her face and her tears as she pleaded with him, but Elrond promised he would return to her. And he did. But would Arwen return to Rivendell? That he did not know.

Arwen had lost so much already, if Aragorn or Eowyn were to fall she wouldn't be the same. She had to remember her children, Legolas would live on in them. But he wasn't sure if she would remember them in the heat of battle. Everything is different when your adrenaline is pumping through your veins, you're not thinking clearly. But she had to, she had to keep them in her mind or she would not come back to them.

Elrond was snapped from his thoughts when he heard a horse whinny. Arwen had mounted her horse once more, a dappled grey mare he had given her when she returned to Rivendell with Legolas and their children. Her back was to him, she did not know he was watching her. She started forward, following Aragorn and Gimli. Just before they turned down a row of tents she turned, somehow sensing his presence. She raised a hand to him, bidding him goodbye. A tear trailed down his cheek as he watched his daughter ride off to war. He raised a hand back to her. "Goodbye, my daughter, may I see you again. Ilúvatar, watch over my daughter, keep her safe from all if it is your will."