Broken (sequel to Caught)

Live

Thranduil took Legolas's hand in his left and Glorfindel's in his right. Glorfindel took Sam's, who took Merry's, who took Pippin's. Pippin took Elladan's, who took Elrohir's, who took Galadriel's, who took Celeborn's. Celeborn took Haldir's, who took Aragorn's, who took Darean's, who took Allenda's, who took Elrond's. Elrond put his hand on Thranduil's shoulder, completing the circle.

Thranduil delved out of his mind and used the touching of Elrond's hand on his shoulder as a way to access his mind. From there he went to Allenda's, and continued until he had gone through everyone's minds and emerged back into his own. Now that everyone recognized his mind "fingerprint", they all followed the path he had left and came into his mind.

He had never had this many people in his mind at the same time, and they were all looking around curiously. Some of them had never been within another's mind before.

'Do you see that?' he asked, pointing in the direction of his bond with Legolas. They all nodded. 'Follow me.'

They went to the bond and Thranduil summoned the bridge to help them cross into Legolas's mind. He went smoothly across, but the others came slowly and fearfully. To fall from the bridge meant that the soul would be lost between the two minds.

When everyone had made it across, Thranduil finally took a moment to look around his son's mind. It was terrifyingly quiet. Even when asleep, a person's emotions and feelings still moved around and demanded to be felt, though more slowly than when they were awake. Now there was nothing happening. Absolutely nothing. The emotions sat quietly, as did the memories, and the main space where everything was meant to be happening was deserted.

'It's so quiet...' he said to Elrond, who had come beside him. 'Why is it so quiet?'

'His mind is completely shut down,' Elrond said. 'The sphere breaking would kill any normal person, but he is too strong to die like that. So it just took almost all of his strength from him. Now he barely has enough to keep doing the things he needs to, like breathing, and there is none left over to keep his mind going.'

Thranduil looked around sadly, and then turned back to Elrond.

'What are we supposed to do?' he asked.

'We need to...jump start it somehow. Perhaps if we give his emotions a little nudge it will make everything begin to function again. We will also need to give him strength so he can wake up.'

'Okay,' said Thranduil, and he got the attention of the others. 'We need to give Legolas our combined strength.'

They all nodded, and he motioned to them. They all put their hands on his back and arms, so that he had contact with all of them.

As Thranduil began to take energy from all of them at once, his aura flared brightly, absorbing their power and taking it. When he held up his hand as an instruction for them to stop, they stepped back, looking at Thranduil.

The Elvenking's eyes were glowing a brighter blue than they ever had been, and he felt the power pounding in his ears as he breathed slowly, trying to hold it in. Everyone stared at him, suddenly seeing why he was held in such high standards and how powerful he was, even without the assistance of a ring of power.

He put his hand back on the wall of Legolas's mind, continuing to control his breathing. Slowly, he began to let the energy out, letting it leech out of him like water from a sponge. Legolas's mind took it greedily, grabbing onto it and letting it fill its stores. The mind around them began to hum with life, the emotions and feeling stirring with the return of life.

"Come on!" Thranduil yelled as he felt the barely noticeable vibrations beneath his fingers that showed Legolas was waking up. "Come on!"

He had given away all of the energy that the others had given him, but it wasn't enough. More! More! He needed more!

He dove into his own reserves, pulling up as much energy as he could muster, sending it into Legolas's mind. Eventually the emotions, before so still, burst out of their confinement in the corner of Legolas's mind and began to swirl around. Elrond beamed, having expected that this would eventually happen.

However, they did not expect the bone-chilling scream that echoed off all corners of Legolas's mind. Elrond immediately looked to Thranduil, but he looked as bewildered as himself. A horrifying revelation came to him. Legolas was screaming.

"Oh Valar, Thranduil, stop!" Elrond cried, putting his hands over his ears as the screaming grew louder. "You're hurting him!"

Everyone else had also covered their ears against the violent noise, and Thranduil immediately drew away from the wall, shock written on his features. He immediately shoved all of them in the direction of his own mind.

"Go! Go! Legolas can handle it, but we don't want to get caught up in it!"

The order and calmness in his mind was startlingly obvious when they came in, and they all left him silently and went back to their own minds.

Opening his eyes, Thranduil immediately looked to Legolas, who had grown, if possible, even stiller and paler.

"Legolas!" Thranduil cried, and he grabbed his son's shoulders. "Oh Valar, Legolas! Wake up!"

A tiny sound, a whimper of sorts, left Legolas's lips, and Thranduil almost fainted from relief. Legolas's eyes opened a slit, and he glanced around the room, seeing Galadriel, Celeborn, Haldir, Elladan, Elrond, Elrohir, Aragorn, Sam, Pippin, Merry, Glorfindel, Darean, Allenda, and his Ada standing around him, smiling. Everyone he cared about was in this room.

"None...leave," he whispered, his breath short and his body feeling incredibly weak. "All...stay..."

Thranduil smiled, and he placed a kiss on his son's forehead as tears prickled at the back of his eyes.

"None of us are going anywhere, tithen las-nin. Go to sleep. We'll be here when you wake up."

Legolas obeyed, closing his eyes and falling asleep almost instantaneously.

Thranduil could not help the wide smile that spread across his face. Legolas would live