The hatred and bloodlust are palpable and Aragorn watches with a mixture of morbid fascination and horror as the creature forms around Kana: bones, muscles, and then, there it is, a warrior made of what looked like flames, although it did not burn or emit warmth.

And in the center, floating in that kind of monster, was Kana – but she also looked different. Unstable.

"We need to get out of here." – He says, scared, because he knows this was a battle between monsters. The mountain trembles as the arm of the creature summoned by Kana holds the fire whip and uses it to throw it against the mountain wall.

"Now! Run!" – He says, urgency in his voice, as he and his companions leave as far away from that battle as possible.

There is nothing remotely resembling humanity when she moves, as one, with her Susano'o. It's all instinct, pure physical will to destroy and shatter that thing in front of her and she doesn't give him time to recover, going towards the creature that was thrown against the wall, to tear him apart with her bare hands in form of Susano'o.

The Balrog stands up, with more agility than she expected for such a heavy creature, and the whip takes the form of a sword, colliding with the Susano'o. A wave of energy forms in the air as Balrog and Susano'o collide and the creature appears almost confused as no damage appears to have been done.

She smiles, her own Susano'o forming a katana, and it pierces the side of the creature that growls in pain and retaliates by throwing a punch that launches it a few meters away.

The structure where their weight collides cracks, the mountain trembles, and the pieces that formed the bridge they were on just now collapse, only the piece of the entrance now separating them from the abyss.

Her form moves quickly towards the Balrog, cutting the creature's back, which in retaliation launches an unbridled and continuous attack against its Susano'o, and it only manages to maintain itself while it desperately tries to break through its defenses. The impact of each blow to her Susano'o, repeatedly, forms a crack in her defense and she waits for the moment when he starts to get tired, reaching out her hands and taking him by the horns, slamming his head against the mountain wall.

Then it was her turn to beat him without pause, not caring how pieces of the mountain fell, how the ground shook, nor how the entrance was being obstructed by the falling pieces of stone. The crack of bones breaking is satisfying and even when the Balrog manages to land a blow and break her Susano'o, causing searing pain throughout her chakra, she doesn't care. Her vision is blurry, blood runs down her tear ducts and she feels her strength diminish, but she needs to finish what she started.
With a raw, angry scream, Susano'o's hands rip off the creature's head, black blood gushing from it, as she launches the appendage in a random direction.

Aragorn knows his decision was correct when they emerge just in time to see the mountain's exit being blocked, pieces of it falling.

"What was that?" – Sam asks, shaken. Nobody answers. He still wasn't sure what happened to Kana, or what was that thing covering her, but he knew that he needed to be strong and that they needed to continue the journey without Gandalf. There is a dull ache when he thinks of Gandalf. And he shakes his head, thinking about the other company he should probably leave behind.

Kana.

If that was still Kana, anyway.

He opened his mouth to say something, to urge them to move, but whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a piece of stone being thrown near them, startling them and leaving them on guard again.

Except, it's not a stone.

"Eru, have mercy..." – Faramir mutters, before vomiting, looking away from the severed head that had been thrown from inside the mountain.

Nobody says anything, assimilating the grotesque shape of that monster, part of the skull crushed.

"Legolas, lift them up." – Aragorn commands the elf, who does not move. – "Legolas!"

The blonde looks at him, stunned, and automatically does what he asks, even though his mind isn't there.

"Kana killed an ancient demon."

No one protests, despite the pain and grief. Everyone wants to be as far away from there as possible at that moment. They are afraid.

They are afraid of Kana.

"What about Kana?"

Legolas forces himself to ask when everyone is on their feet and moving to get out of there, towards Lothlorien. No one answers him, looking away and he is also scared and understands – but it is Kana.

"I don't think Gandalf was the only one we lost, Legolas." – Aragorn says finally.

The elf could not argue, his own heart filled with doubt, because of the way she behaved, the savagery and hatred he felt... They always knew she was dangerous, but never imagined she was... that she was ... The elf moves too, swallowing hard.

"...I will never leave a partner behind."

He stops in his tracks, unable to ignore the sentence she uttered earlier.

"Legolas?" – Faramir questions, seeing that the elf was left behind, and the Society also turns to look at him.

"I... I can't leave her behind."

Her head throbs with a dull pain, her ears feel clogged, and she moves and perceives things as if she's behind a mist, ducking out of the water. She walks him, taking him in her arms and half carrying him, half dragging him. Her movements are mechanical as Kana breaks through the barrier of rocks obstructing the mountain, her Susano'o fading as soon as she steps into the outer area, just a thin, orange layer on Gandalf.

Her body lurches forward and becomes unbalanced, eyes blinking rapidly at the sudden light after days of darkness.

He looks so peaceful.

It's unfair.

Why?

For the first time in her life, she knew what it was like to have someone who cared, who scolded her for affection, who cared about her as a person. For the first time in her life she... she thought... she thought she knew what it was like to have a... to have a...

She sobs, hugging him and shaking, and now that the anger is fading, her insides no longer feel like flames about to set the world on fire. The sounds coming out of her throat are low, inarticulate, brimming with pain and grief in a way she's never felt before. She's lost friends before. She lost her clan, but nothing, nothing, compared to this.

"It is cold."

There is nothing left in the world but the motionless, lifeless gray wizard.

"So c-cold."

But there is a presence, and it approaches. He had been calling her by her name for some time, she thinks. She looks at him briefly, wondering if the blonde is a threat, but a part of her brain says he's safe. Friend. Hers.

"Freezing. Why the hell is freezing? It's a fucking blizzard."

The touch of his hands is a shock and she can't help the animalistic growling sound as she bares her teeth at the creature touching her hands. Close to him.

"Hands off, Gandalf is mine. He is mine!"

"Kana." - He says. His voice is like a melody, music, familiar, and it calms her marginally. Friend. He's a friend. It's okay. He is hers too.

Another noise of pain escapes and seems to come from the soul, when she thinks this.

Gandalf was hers.

He was... he was...

He... could have been...

She could...she could have loved him like a...

Her thoughts are lost, not completed, just a sharp pain at what could have been.

Other hand squeezes hers gently and she looks at him again.

"Beautiful. Pure."

His eyes are beautiful. Like winter. Kana squirms once more. It's so, so cold right now. His touch is careful and deliberate, slow.

"He's shaking too. He feels? This terrible cold?"

She doesn't take her eyes off him, and there are several times when she realizes that he's trying to get Gandalf away from her. She shook her head and moved the blonde's hands away, losing count of how many times she pushed him away, but the elf was insistent, saying nonsense things that sounded like music, words that were supposed to be to comfort her and even when she pushes him away, his touch soon returned to her hands, until, in a moment, he was at her side and an entire arm was around her.

"He's warm." – She thinks, the cold lessening at his touch, her teeth chattering with the cold, and her eyes half-closed. Kana moves her body, her mind barely registering anything other than the warmth provided by the gentle creature. She wraps her legs and arms around him, breathes into his torso, and leans her head back.

Warm. Kind. Safe. Reliable. Friend. Mine.

Legolas lets out a relieved sigh as Kana's rhythm on his lap points to her sleeping condition, her chaotic and intense feelings becoming calmer, easier to bear without sending warnings through his mind.

What he did was reckless, impulsive, and risky, but – he looks at the young woman in his arms and realizes he wouldn't have done anything differently.

The moment Kana emerged from the mountain, with Gandalf's body, it was evident to anyone that she was lost in her own head. Her eyes were glassy and her behavior was almost mechanical. Then the noises that came from her throat and the silent crying were heartbreaking as she rocked back and forth with the wizard.

He hesitated to approach, for a variety of reasons. She was unstable. She was dangerous. She's powerful enough to kill a Balrog. And her aura, that intangible, invisible thing that Legolas felt on a subconscious level from every living thing around him, was exuding pain so intense that even from meters away he could feel it. It was a skill inherited from his father, a sensitivity to the emotions of others, but it was never as clear as at that moment.

But time was passing and she didn't seem to come out of her pain. Legolas is almost certain that she would stay there for days if he didn't interfere. Then he took a step, and another, shivering at the cold he felt as he approached her.

If he could guess what it would be like to be in the presence of a ghost, It was like that. Biting cold and something like a constant, ominous sound that seemed to presage the breaking of a barrier. It took all his willpower to ignore his mind's warnings that this was terribly foolish. Slowly, fearing the consequences of his actions, but obstinate in his mission, he placed a hand on hers, shivering once again at the metaphorical ice that ran through his veins, throughout her body.

A wave of emotions, one stronger and more turbulent than the other, crashed against him. With a deep breath and intense concentration, he stared at the young woman the entire time her skin was in contact.

She looked like a wounded animal. There was an animalistic sound, almost a low growl, coming from her, and perfect, pearly teeth were on display as if she would bite him if he made the wrong move. A predator, yes, but it was difficult to be afraid of the threat she could be when he felt her emotions so raw and dense on his own skin.

"Hands off, Gandalf is mine. He is mine!" – He almost heard her shouting at him through her thoughts, but he was more occupied with the amount of feelings that coursed through him. It wasn't something he could even describe in words, as there were so many emotions at once, stretching and pulling him in all directions. It was chaotic: love, sadness, hate, pain, and a deep sense of failure and desperate longing wracked him. He never thought love could be this painful.

He took a few deep breaths, blinking rapidly, trying not to give in to the need to get away from this creature so full of feelings he wasn't even sure how she could breathe properly. He never thought that someone could feel so much, he certainly didn't imagine that the mysterious woman who seemed so apathetic and neutral could overflow so many turbulent emotions. Under the surface, she always seemed so calm, and composed, so knowing the extent of her true feelings was almost terrifying.

"Kana." - He says. His voice is like a melody, music, familiar, and it calms her marginally. The hostility subsides, but soon her sadness emerges, a desolate noise that seems to come from the depths of her soul escaping through those lips. He can't exactly hear her thoughts, but he can feel it and that's almost the same thing at that moment since Kana wasn't really thinking rationally. That's why he can't stop his own tears at the flow of her emotions. Gandalf. Hers. He was... he was... He... could have been... She could... she could have loved him as a...

Father.

She loved him as a father, Legolas noticed, pitied and tormented by the fact that even now, even during a crisis and the obviousness of her feelings, she could not realize that she already loved Gandalf as flesh and blood.

"What kind of life did she lead that she wouldn't admit that even to herself?"

His hand squeezes gently and she looks at him again. He captures something as beautiful and Winter resolutely doesn't think about it, not while she's shivering from the cold her own emotions cause. His touch is careful and deliberate, slow.

She doesn't take her eyes off him, and he tries several times to take her away from Gandalf, as they need to get out of there. The prince murmurs softly, consoling her, constantly and patiently dissuading her from clinging to Gandalf's body.

He hugs her, not knowing what else to do to get her out of that distressing state. It shouldn't surprise him – but it surprises him anyway – that Kana turns completely towards him, actually wrapping her arms and legs around his waist, sitting on his lap, and inhaling deeply before laying the head on him.

Warm. Kind. Safe. Reliable. Friend. Mine.

Legolas blinked rapidly, alarmed at the discovery of what she felt about him and a little guilty because it seemed like an invasion of her privacy to find out like that. A part of him was elated. She considered him a friend. Another part was very focused on that last part and what it actually meant to be friends – to one of "hers" of Kana.

She was not a person who freely gave her trust or her friendship. She did this to Gandalf. She thought Gandalf was hers and the consequences when she lost him...

"If every time she loses someone it breaks her like this, I can understand why she's so reluctant to connect with others. And yet, she considers me...hers..."

His heart beats fast. Of fear, yes, but also with a very inappropriate touch of triumph, he admits. Because when Kana considered someone hers it was like that. Feeling like an Uchiha would certainly be one of the things Legolas would never forget in the many years to come. It was quite an experience.

He frowns, his hands playing with a black lock of her hair, an intrusive thought passing through his mind for a moment.

"I wonder what it's like to have your heart."

The blonde shakes his head, alarmed by his own thoughts. Kana moves, moving closer – something he hardly believed possible – and he swallows hard, suddenly very aware of every soft curve of hers touching his own body and what until a moment ago had been mere harmless comfort, suddenly It became more. It just felt wrong and inappropriate to be like this and with a hint of guilt, he felt like he was taking advantage, somehow.

Looking away, he sees Gandalf's body and his momentary alarm falls by the wayside, giving way to the unforgiving reality they are dealing with.

His lips open, singing a lament carried by the breezes that pass through them in the twilight.