The Light in the Darkness

Chapter 13: Broken

I AM BACK! DID YOU MISS ME? I MISSED YOU!

Happy holidays! Here's the next chapter! I've been wanting to write this one since I started writing this story and I'm so happy we're finally here!

We have reached the 5,000 view mark! Thank you all for your support!

This chapter was so heartbreaking to write. I don't want our girl to be in pain, but sadly, the course of true love never did run smooth.

Let's return to the great love story of our two favorites, Frodo and Neera.

DISCLAIMER: I sadly do not own any aspect of Lord of the Rings. I only own the story, Lin and Neera who tells the story.

The moment I heard the familiar hideous shrieking of those beasts, I abandoned Strider and went running as fast as I could back to Weathertop. I didn't care if he tried to stop me. I could feel their presence and they were determined this time. We should never have left them alone, to begin with. I should never have listened to him or let myself be pressured by him. Those four were my responsibility. Our responsibility and we left them alone and helpless. I should have never listened to him. Just because he had saved our lives once doesn't mean I'm entitled to listen to him. I should have realized that before when I was forced into going with him. I should never have left Frodo alone. He's not a weak individual by any means. That being said, he wouldn't stand a chance against those beasts. He was not a fighter. He had never lifted a sword or faced combat in his entire life. I had been trained my entire life to be as skilled as I am now. A person like Frodo would be to the Wraiths the equivalent of fighting a wounded animal that couldn't fight back. They could easily take him out.

I just hoped and prayed that I wasn't too late to save him. As he had the Ring, he was the most vulnerable one out of the four of them. At all times, these creatures felt the presence of the Ring. That means that he would be the one that they would all go after. They had orders to find the Ring and kill anyone that got in their way.

The fog and the wind rapidly blowing through my hair didn't bother me. I didn't even feel the frigid air or the mist that had surrounded the entire area. I didn't care about any of it. Compared to what Frodo is feeling, this is absolutely nothing. I could feel it. He was calling out to me, begging me to return to him. I could feel his need to see me. I wished there was a way to tell him that I was coming back.

I could feel slight pain from the Ring, but I ignored that, as well.

I didn't care what the Ring wanted. It had hurt me before, but it won't do that tonight. If Frodo put on the Ring, I would fight through the pain. I had already known the Ring's main tactics. What else could it do to me that it hadn't done before? How could it possibly hurt me more than the last two times?

I could feel Frodo's fear as clear as the moonlight. I didn't blame him. A Hobbit who had never picked up a sword in his life was expected to defend himself against five beings of darkness. Well played, Strider. Clearly, the Wraiths had already made their way up to Weathertop, hence Frodo's emotions.

The thing I didn't comprehend was how I could feel all of these emotions from Frodo. Ever since last night, I could somehow feel his heart and his emotions. But why? We had been together for almost three months and I had never felt that before.

It was like his heart was right next to mine in my chest.

I climbed up the pillars to reach the top where we had left my four companions. I prayed that there was still time left for me to save Frodo and the others. I knew that they would be easily overpowered by these monsters. They were slaves to the darkness and based on the battle I had with one of them, skilled fighters. They would not stand a chance. Damn you Strider for putting them in this dangerous position.

I snatched an arrow from my quiver and entered the scene, ready to strike.

But the moment I entered Weathertop, the scene changed immediately upon my arrival. The world was no longer dark. It felt like we were still in Weathertop, but it felt different somehow. It felt so cold.

Where was I?

The world had transformed into a deathly and pale landscape. It was so much colder here than when I had been fighting one by the docks of the Buckleberry Ferry. It felt like a poisoned and frigid world. Was this the world of the Ring? It felt devoid of any sort of life. When Frodo put on the Ring before, I didn't enter the world of the Ring. I merely could hear its voice and the voice of its master. There was also burning and searing pain because the Ring loved to torture me. It had spent three thousand years doing that to my family and I was no exception. This time was absolutely different. My physical body must still be in the real world. This was just my mind being brought into a different perception of Weathertop.

I also could see the Wraiths for what they really were. Lost souls to the darkness. They appeared almost like their counterparts in the physical world except these beings appeared to have somewhat retained their human forms. But they were no longer human. All withered away, life completely sucked out of them, humanity completely obliterated, their eyes hollow and twisted, and their expressions hard as if carved by stone. Undead beings to the core, indeed. The only resemblance they hadn't seemed to have lost was the crowns upon their heads. Strider had said once before that they were once men. Great kings of men before Sauron seduced and tricked them into the darkness. Now, look at them. Twisted individuals that no longer felt anything but the power of the one Ring.

Was this what Frodo was seeing?

Had he put on the Ring again? But how was that possible? The last time Frodo put the Ring on, it sent me into a state of intense burning pain and had me seeing the Eye of Sauron close up.

These creatures looked fouler than they ever did in the real world.

I tried to move closer, but something was holding me back. I tried again. Nothing. I tried again, but still, something held me back. I knew I wasn't supposed to be in this world, but even so, if they were moving around, why couldn't I? I couldn't move no matter how much I tried. I tried desperately to get to him, to call out to him, but it was almost like he couldn't even hear me, see me.

All I could hear was its vile and foul voice. It was tempting the Wraiths, making them see it. Frodo's hand beginning to glow as the Ring began to speak. It was taunting Frodo yet again, using its influence to try to get the Wraiths to take the Ring back. I could see the Ring on his finger. I had begged him, made him promise me not to put on the Ring no matter what it took and he had broken his promise.

One of the Wraiths purposefully began to reach down towards Frodo's hand as he struggled against this.

Was the Ring purposefully making me see this?

I realized that too late. The Ring had brought me into this world purposefully. It was holding me in place because it wanted me to see something. Something terrible. Something that it knew would bring me more sorrow than anything before.

I tried fighting back against the Ring to try to stop Frodo from giving them what they wanted.

"DON'T GIVE IT TO THEM FRODO! STOP!" I shouted at him, desperately begging for him to hear me.

Frodo then resisted against the Wraith, pulling his hand back from the creature and trying to fight back.

An action that angered the Wraith clearly.

He raised his blade.

No.

"FRODO!" I screamed as the Wraith raised its blade. "NO!"

Then the Wraith plunged his sword into my friend's chest, so hard that his body was practically crushed into the ground. He began screaming in mortal agony at the feeling of the blade through his body.

I clutched my chest at his screaming. I squeezed my eyes as I felt it. It pierced through my entire body. This pain didn't affect me physically, but I could feel it all around me. It felt like poisoned fire. It felt sharp as ice and scorching as a blade pulled from a fireplace. It felt like it was tearing us apart. His fear, his pain, his wound were all being embedded into me like scars. I felt it as if I was the one being stabbed and not him. I felt the breath being stolen from his lungs as he screamed. That scream was enough to break my entire soul to the point where I couldn't hear anything else.

This pain was unlike anything I had ever felt. Worse than anything the Ring had done to me before. The worst part was that this pain wasn't even intended to physically harm me. Its target this time was not my body or my mind. It was my heart. The wounds done to the heart are far worse than anyone could ever do to a body. The Ring originally used tactics to attack my mind because it could. It attacked my body before because again, it could. Whenever Frodo put on the Ring, it had the same influence over me. But this? This was by far the cruelest thing it had ever done. I could feel the blade in Frodo's heart. I could feel his fear and his pain. I could feel the poison and cold of this world plunge itself into him. His heart felt like it was being torn apart like mine was at seeing this happen to him. It wasn't affecting me physically, but I could feel it. I could feel it as if it was affecting me and it burned my entire body in a new form of pain and sorrow.

It was the pain of seeing a loved one suffering. That is more painful than anything.

Frodo's suffering and pain felt worse than anything the Ring could ever do to me.

I see what this was now. The Ring had brought me into the shadow world in order to make me suffer in a different manner. It knew how important Frodo was to me. What better way to hurt me than by hurting someone I care for?

I had asked before what could the Ring possibly do to me that would be more painful than what it had done to me before?

It had figured it out all too well.

Frodo was more important than anything to me and as a result, he had become something the Ring could use against me to make me suffer. That was its sole existence and mission from its master.

I looked up again from my pain at the Wraith that stabbed my beloved friend, trying to make another pass to try to take the Ring away as Frodo lay there screaming. Something I would never allow. This may be the other world, but their physical body would still feel it. My body was still in the real world as they were. These were their true forms in the other world, but clearly, my physical body was still in the real world as they were. As such, if I attacked them now, they would feel it in the real world. And at that moment, my paralysis was somehow broken and I screamed in anger and despair.

I hope it felt as much pain as Frodo. I screamed, running at it with fury and revenge in my heart, alerting it, causing it to pull the blade out of Frodo. I pulled out my bow again, shooting an arrow of light into its chest. It shrieked in agony as it was distracted, giving me enough time to stab it with my knives, pushing it farther away. The impact of the blast caused blazes of fire to form on the spot. An idea struck me. I placed my arrows into the fire, causing the flames to mix with the arrow and shot them at the next Wraith in front of me. It began shrieking in fear just as the one that stabbed my friend. There was no logic. Just destruction. I wanted all of them to burn. If I couldn't kill them, then I would make them scream. They had hurt the person I cared about more than anything in this world and for that, they deserved to suffer if not just for a moment. Their physical bodies would not understand fire or light and they would leave as soon as they could.

The Elven Princess had taken on the form of bloodthirsty predator.

I then heard the yell of someone else. Another form came into view. Strider's form with his sword drawn and with lit torches of flame. He seemed to understand my idea of burning these creatures until they ran away. I looked away from him. I felt so much hatred and rage at this situation that if I looked at him, I would remember all too well what he had done. We worked together in tandem as if we had discussed prior how to banish these creatures. If I didn't have feelings of such intense hatred in my heart for him at this moment, I might say that he was one of the finest warriors I had ever witnessed. I could easily see how such a man could have fought alongside my father.

In my rage, I had banished three of them, including the one that was responsible for Frodo's state. I shot an extra arrow at the one responsible, causing him to fall off the side of Weathertop, shrieking pitifully all the way done.

Then as soon as we entered the world from beyond, it faded away just as quickly. My conscious had returned the the real Weathertop. The minute the world was gone, Frodo shrieked in absolute agony again. Those screams stabbed through my heart again. I could feel the darkness inside Frodo from the blade. I retreated from my battle and ran to his side. Strider could take care of the Wraiths. He deserved it. Also, there were only two remaining.

"Frodo!" I shouted, running to his side as fast as I could.

He looked up at me in absolute sadness and pain. Yet, there was a relief and happiness in his eyes despite everything. He clutched the place where the Wraith had stabbed him, shaking in agony. I could hear the shrieking of the Wraiths, the shrieking of their fire. They probably were started by the fire and the power of the arrows of light that they didn't know how to fully respond to it. No matter. They deserved every moment of pain and fright that they were experiencing now due to the light and fire.

I kneeled down to his side.

"Frodo," I said softly, taking his hand in mine. The familiar warmth I had grown so accustomed to was fading away. It was like touching a piece of ice.

His eyes looked at me, begging me for help. He was trying so hard not to cry out in pain again but failed miserably.

"Oh, Neera," he said softly, painfully.

I felt tears prick at my eyes as I squeezed his hand tightly. This was all my fault. I had failed him.

How could I have ever left you alone?

The Wraiths continued screaming as Strider continued to fight them with a combined force of his swordsmanship and his flames from the torch. I watched him in combat, temporarily taking my attention off of Frodo. The others had made their way around us, all equally concerned about Frodo's wellbeing.

I looked up at the last Wraith in the background, trying to escape unscathed.

Oh, you pitiful creature.

When did you ever deserve such a courtesy?

I stood up. Picked up three arrows from my quiver, lit them on fire from the flames picking up on the ground, and shot them directly at its robes, setting it on fire. It shrieked in pain and fear and flew away from Weathertop to catch up with its brethren. I wanted to do much worse to it, but it got away.

"Strider!" Sam cried.

I turned around to see that Merry, Pippin, and Sam had all gathered around Frodo. I looked down at my friend whose face was scrunched up in pain, whimpering and wincing each time someone touched him.

I pushed Frodo's shirt away from the wound. He was writhing and screaming in pain. The wound was black and burnt as if he had been stabbed with a burning rod that had been left in the fire. The skin around the wound had already started turning a poisonous-looking purple in the moonlight. The poison of the blade had already begun to spread. I knew all too well what this meant.

"Help him, Strider!" Sam begged.

Strider picked up the culprit's weapon behind Frodo's wound.

"He's been stabbed by a Morgul blade," he said, looking at the blade in his hand. The blade part of the sword then turned to dust mere moments after Strider had picked it up. He threw it to the ground in disgust.

Once a blade such as this tasted flesh of a living person, it would turn to dust. But a fragment of the blade was running its way through Frodo's body. It would eventually poison his entire body and work its way to Frodo's heart. When that happened, the Frodo that I had known, the one I had bonded with, the one I so deeply cared for would be lost to Middle Earth forever.

He would become one of those soulless and monstrous creatures for the rest of eternity.

"This is beyond my skill to heal," Strider said. "He needs Elvish Medicine."

He moved towards Frodo in an attempt to pick him up into his arms.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I screamed at Strider, pushing him violently away, gathering him up in my arms and holding him protectively against me. As I did so, he screamed out in pain yet again. Each cry of pain pierced my heart like a dagger. Just like the Ring had wanted. It wanted me to watch this person die in front of me.

This was all your fault.

I glared at Strider with hatred in my eyes. This was his fault. His and mine, but he was the one who insisted on leaving them alone on Weathertop. Because he was careless, we are here in this position. Frodo is now in a position where we could lose him forever.

He made a foolish and careless decision and now the person I care about more than anything in this world is dying in my arms.

I pushed his head over my shoulder, stood up and took off away from this horrid place. I wish we had never seen it. If I could, I would burn it all to the ground. This wretched place deserved to be burnt out of existence. No other soul deserved to have this amount of emotional turmoil as a result of being here.

I began walking about quickly, the others following behind me.

"Where are you going, my lady?" Strider shouted at me.

"Anywhere that you're not! Preferably Rivendell!" I shouted back at him. "So I suggest you do what you were doing in the first place! Getting us there! If you come anywhere close to him or me, I will do what I should have done the night I met you!"

I knew this behavior was uncharacteristic of an Elven princess. But when it came to Frodo, there was no rationale. Ever since I met Frodo, the restrained and proper Princess that I had lived my life as had vanished. In her place was an irrational and emotional individual with no self-control. With Frodo in this current state, I felt completely unstable. I felt so weak and vulnerable. It was as if the ground below me would burst open and swallow me whole within it. I had grown so accustomed to Frodo being the one keeping me grounded. Without him, I felt like I might sink into the Earth all too willingly.

Strider knew that I meant my threats this time. I knew that the other Hobbits were more than likely terrified of me now. I was not acting like the person that they had come to know. There was nothing I could do about that. Frodo was fading away and I was not in a position to be trifled with by anyone.

Strider seemed to understand the dire mistake he had made and that he should have listened to me. I would assume that is why he didn't make any attempts to take Frodo from me or even speak directly to me. He knew I meant my threats and was not going to take any chances.

So it seems he is capable of making wise decisions.

He got out in front of me and lead the group through the woods. My three remaining companions followed us close behind. The sounds of the Wraiths crying out in fear and agony echoing throughout the woods with each step we took. As they were startled by the flames and the light from the arrows, it would buy us some time to get a little ahead of them and hopefully, put them off our trail.

But we didn't have enough time. The blade would continue to work its way through Frodo and there was nothing we could do to stop it. We could run away from the Wraiths all we wanted. It wouldn't make any difference. If nothing was done, Frodo would become one of them and would willingly go to them. They would happily wait around for that to happen.

Strider looked all around the area to make sure that they weren't anywhere near us. He was now moving with a sense of urgency that I hadn't previously seen in him before.

"Hurry!" Strider said, looking back at the Hobbits, leading the way with a lit torch through the darkness.

My three other companions were now moving in speed and urgency that was also uncharacteristic to their nature. Even Pippin seemed to finally understand what was truly going on.

"It's six days to Rivendell!" Sam said in a panic. "He'll never make it!"

The warmth I had felt when I held him the night before was long gone. I could feel his warmth fading rapidly. It is the cold of their world. When he put on the Ring, we both entered the world of the Wraiths. The world of those no longer alive. He began talking deliriously and I could barely make out half of the things he was muttering. I knew what was happening. I knew why they had done this to him. They wanted him to become one of them. Once he became one of them, he would willingly turn the Ring over to them. The person I cared for would be lost forever. Sauron wanted to erase the heart and soul of this man for the sake of returning the Ring back into his hands.

That monster. I would never forgive him.

"Neera," he said very weakly. "Gandalf..."

I began sobbing as I held him close, still moving as quickly as I could. I couldn't even look Strider in the eye right now. I would probably try to kill him if I stopped for a single second. I would scream if I stopped to think about what was happening. Frodo was dying. He was dying in my arms. Sam was right. We would never make it to Rivendell to save him in time. I felt weak. Lin was always the healer where I was the warrior and the strategist. What good is it being one of the greatest warriors in the Woodland Realm if it means that I can't save this man? My heart felt like it was shattering each step I took. I carried both of our pain with each step. I felt the pain of the poison slowly moving throughout his body, the pain of his heart, the pain of my own heart breaking. I couldn't take it. None of this was fair.

I couldn't bear to lose him.

"Neera," he said barely beyond a whisper, weakly attempting to cling to me.

"Please don't leave me, Frodo," I begged him, tears streaming down my face, my heart in perpetual agony. "Please. Please don't leave me."

"GANDALF!" he screamed.

I could feel the pain in his heart, the dropping temperature of his skin, and his body shaking from the coldness as I held him in my arms.

This was all my fault. I had failed him.

Why couldn't it have been me? I'm the one with the family curse. I'm the one who is damned for all eternity. I'm the one you want, Sauron. I'm the one descended from the woman who you cursed. The woman who helped her lover kill you. You should be making me suffer. You've had your ring do it countless times before without a care in the world. I would gladly suffer through the Ring's torture a thousand times if it meant this not happening. Not him. Not this man. Why does he have to be punished for this? Why does it have to be him? He's never done anything wrong in his life! He was never supposed to be in this situation! He's nothing but kind and gentle and good and warmhearted. He's never hurt anyone or anything. Why are you punishing him? How could you punish him? He's nothing but the light in a world of darkness. He's everything. He's the entire world. There is no world worth living without him in it. There is no life without him in it. Without him, my world will be covered in a cloud of darkness with no hope of ending.

There would be no point in living if I didn't have him by my side.

These feelings I have for him...

It's never been friendship, has it?

Was I the only one who couldn't see it?

Why am I realizing this now?

What is the point of realizing all these things now as I'm on the verge of losing him forever?

I looked up at the sky through my tears and my anger, targetting both of them towards the woman responsible for our pain and suffering.

Tell me this, Shasta.

You loved someone so desperately that you were willing to risk your life to protect him. You loved him so much that you damned all of your descendants to a path of death, misery, pain, and despair. You loved him so much that you drove yourself mad with grief and anger at his betrayal. You loved him so much that the light of your love has been passed down to every descendant through the arrows of light. That love has brought all of them and me to this point.

So tell me this, Shasta.

What good is your continuing love, your anger, your despair, your care or your power? What good is any of it if it can't save this man?

What good am I to continue living this miserable life if the person who is my light isn't in it?

More importantly, what right have I to even ask him to stay with me after what I have done? After what I have allowed happening here?

I clutched him closer to me as I followed behind Strider, feeling the person I cared so deeply for begin to fade away from me. And there was nothing I could do to stop it. All of this was my fault. I was the one who swore to protect him and I had failed him.

I would never be able to forgive myself for this.

Nor would I ever deserve it.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed it!

Poor Neera and Frodo.

It's sadly the beginning of a long and painful road for their relationship. But they will make it through. Real love means you don't give up and that's what they have. Neera is now beginning to realize that.

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Until next time!

Kagomehater4ever