At the End of All Things [LotR / Legolas] Book 3

XII

To PerrieSnugglesOwO - for wanting to kick some Darkling ass.

Legolas flinched as the knife nicked his throat, but then the pressure on his neck and the arm she had wrapped around him disappeared. Stumbling forwards he looked up into the wide eyes of his friends, their mouths gaping and their expressions distressed as they gazed behind him.

A soft gasp sounded behind him and he whirled around, eyes settling on Arya's face. The blackness of her eyes was slowly ebbing away, and his eyebrows furrowed as his eyes flickered down to the expanding red stain on the front of her shirt. Behind her, Zariel was standing with a long blade in his hand, his whole form shivering as his eyes flashed from their normal light grey color to the black of the Darkling.

"I'm sorry, my prince," his voice rasped out; "she was about to kill you."

His voice drowned out in the rushing inside of Legolas ears as he closed the gap between himself and Arya, not caring the slightest if she was the one in control or not. Just as he reached her she keeled over, and with his hands firmly clasping her shoulders she fell to her knees, one of her hands raising to press against the wound on her chest.

Legolas tried to stop the bleeding with his hands in vain, his eyes moving over her as he felt tears pressing at the corners of his eyes, "Arya," he whispered, his bloody fingers lifting to grasp her face and angle it so that her eyes would meet his.

Gandalf was suddenly at their side, his hand reaching for her forehead. Gently, he placed the palm of his hand there, his eyes already closing.

"She's weak."

"Arya?" Legolas took his eyes off of her face to glance over at Gandalf for a brief second, seeing the grim but hopeful look on his face.

"Both of them."

"Can you save her?" He almost did not want to hear to answer to his question, knowing before he finished asking it that he would not like the reply.

"I can do many things, Legolas Thranduílion, saving Arya is one of the things I hold no power over."

Legolas closed his eyes for a moment before looking up at Zariel who was swaying slightly on his feet, his eyes still rapidly changing colors - his expression changing from total misery and pain to evil and calculating.

Part of him wanted to kill him for harming Arya, a part of him urged him to get up from his knees, unsheathe his blades and decapitate him where he stood. The other part of him knew that Zariel, even in the haze of the Darkling's grasp, had only tried to protect the only heir to the throne of Mirkwood. The grief was already building up in his heart, threatening to bring him under.

Arya suddenly flinched backwards, a scream tearing through her throat as she threw her head back. Her eyes were wide, but she seemed to be gazing blindly at the sky, her eyes silver and shining brightly despite her obvious pain.

Legolas looked at her in worry before his eyes flashed up to Zaríel again; except Zaríels eyes was no longer flashing from color to color but overpowered by the bottomless black. His arm was stretched out towards her, and it looked like he was pulling something out of her very core.

Getting to his feet he moved to get in between them, but found himself pinned to the ground by some invisible force. Moving his head to the side he was able to look up at her, her by now silver eyes holding his as one of her hands reached out for him.

Stay down, prince. I cannot be fighting you and the Darkling at once.

Just as her voice left his mind the pressure on his body ended and her eyes were once again looking blindly to the sky, sentences that made no sense; in a language not known to him tumbling from her lips almost like a prayer.