LOTR::Haldir/Legolas::NC-17::Lost Part 8
Title: Lost
Author: dejectedmadness
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Legolas/Haldir
Disclaimer: We do not own these characters, we simply made up stories because we liked them so much.
Summary: Legolas gets sucked into the real world and can't get back so he takes a job as an assassin where he can put his skills with range weapons to good use. After fifty years stranded here he takes a job to assassinate a European figurehead and comes face to face with someone he thought he lost many years ago.
Chapter 7: Another Chance
Hours later I was sitting next to Timmy with a completely straight face. I didn’t want to tell him what happened. I told him that there was a problem when I got there, I was going to get rid of him, the target, but there were complications, and I didn’t end up doing it and lost my weapon in the process. He seemed to know, however, what the complications were. He knew that I never usually let emotions get in the way of my job.
It was only natural that now he knew there was something big and bad that was keeping me from doing my job right. He seemed to understand, but I was too smart for that. When a mob boss acts understanding, he’s put your head on a list in a gunman’s pocket. So I was wary.
“We got the equipment taken care of, there is nothing to trace it back to us here. Your prints are not on file, so there is nothing to worry about there. They will not find you or us, Jack,” he said, trying to reassure me, “so you have nothing to fear. Everyone makes a mistake sometime.” He smiled at me and offered me a cigar again. I refused, like I always did.
“So am I dead? Is my head on a list? Do I have to sleep with one eye open?” Timmy laughed at me; I assumed it was because of my boldness.
“Jack, you have been a part of this team for thirty years! You have helped me with more jobs than I can count. You are the only person here that I can rely on.” He smiled at me and I was a little confused at his sudden confession. He had always tried to remind me before that I could always be replaced.
“But-”
“I know, Jack, I have said some stuff to you before, but the truth is, I am tired of lying to you. I lie to my wife, I lie to my daughter, fuck, I lie to myself, and out of all the people in this world I deal with, you are the only one who has never bullshit me, never betrayed me, and never lied to me.” He leaned forward and looked me in the eye resting his elbows on his knees. “I am not going to lie to you anymore. So why don’t you tell me what this is all about.”
I was awed, which was strange for me. I, with my elven nature and natural intuition, should have sensed some strange turn of events about to happen, but I didn’t. I did not know, for the first time in my life, what to say.
I knew this was somehow wrong; I should not have been speaking openly to someone who was awful enough to want to kill people for business, to improve his own life. I hated people like him. But I found myself starting to talk.
“A long time ago he was a good friend of mine. He was better than a friend. Things were forgotten, I left for reasons… and I was gone so long I thought I would never have to face him again. I thought that everything we had had been forgotten. I assumed that was it.”
I sighed and looked away from him. “I saw him again the other day, and I was just… horrified. Everything came rushing back and suddenly… I just remember him. I remember everything. I know that I have become everything I once hated. I have become everything he hated. I just feel so full of guilt, so ashamed about what I have been doing with my life. I cannot face him. When I faced him the first time I lost myself. When I faced him again… I wept. I cannot control myself around him, there is something, some power, he has over me that keeps me from being myself. It brings up all the pain…”
I laughed at how I knew I must sound. “I’m sorry, Tim. There is just something….” I sighed, “You know me. You know how I value this job and the things I do. They help me, and they hurt me the same. You know I would never hesitate to rid this world of whomever you tell me to. It is just this one thing, this one time, this one man. I cannot do it, Timmy. I cannot do it. I am sorry.”
Tim looked at me solemnly. He understood. I could see it in his expression, written all over his face. He understood. Then he said something I did not expect. “He was your lover, and I told you to kill him, I realize the problem there,” he laughed. “I know you will have trouble killing the man, but if I know anything about you, Jack, you will do what I asked the last time we talked, you will keep him busy for a week, two weeks; it’s looking like this plan of ours is going to take longer than expected….”
He paused and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t care what you do, Jack, I know you cannot kill the man, that is fine. Just keep him busy. Kidnap him, follow his ass around, fuck him, I don’t care. Just keep him away from London, from Europe, until you get a call from us, then I don’t care what you do, if you stay with him forever, leave him, whatever. I just need this one thing. I promise that no harm will come to this man. I promise that we will not try to hurt him. But we need him out of the way, or I will have to find someone else to take your place, do you understand, Jack? I don’t want it to come to that.”
I paused and thought about it. I had to ask, I had not asked in a good five or ten years, but I needed to know what it was that Haldir had done to deserve death according to Timmy. I asked, “Why was he targeted?”
Timmy didn’t say anything for a moment, he sat there silently with no emotion on his face, I could not tell if he was thinking of a lie to tell me or if he was trying to comprehend why I finally asked that question which had been popular for the first years in this business.
Finally he spoke again. “Revolution, Jack. He was planning something that would have ruined all I have helped to gain. I couldn’t let that happen. He didn’t do anything horrible, like kill people or cause a war or anything, but he was going to change the world, he was going to manipulate hundreds of thousands of people into accepting this change that would ultimately destroy everything we have worked so hard to build, freedom, choice, honesty, trust, and happiness. You remember our big mission here, Jack? He was jeopardizing it in the worst way.”
I nodded and didn’t think any more of it. It sounded like something Haldir would do inadvertently, try to change the world for the better and get in the way of someone else’s plans to do the same thing. This was probably the reason that the world was the way it was. Everyone came up with great ideas of how to fix it and make it a better place, but when it finally came down to it, they got in the way of another brilliant plan and then both ideas were fucked.
I did not stay longer than I needed to with my boss. He already knew more than I was comfortable with him knowing, but I ended up giving my word that I would stop Haldir from getting in the way. I did not know how hard this would prove to be.
* * *
He knew he could not ask for the assistance of any of his men, they would ask questions, and when he told them not to, they would run to someone else and tell the story. Haldir knew he had to trace the gun himself.
However that proved most difficult, as he did not know where to begin. He paid a few men who did not know him and had not seen his face to trace it in the end, but what they came up with was no more than Haldir himself could have. There was nothing on this weapon, no make, no model, no serial number, no year. There was nothing. He was very discouraged, but of course he had to have known that his lover would erase all knowledge of his having that gun, all knowledge of that gun at all, to keep himself out of harm’s way.
He probably did it the same way he kept himself out of databases. As far as the world knew he did not exist. Haldir had even run fingerprints only to find there were none that matched anywhere in the world. He looked for the name Jack, but gave up rather quickly seeing as it was a popular name. There seemed to be no way to find or reach Legolas until he wanted to be found or contacted.
Haldir did not spend long thinking on this. He slept very little that last night, and he did not do much the following day. He knew that whomever employed Legolas was not going to be happy with the results, thus making Legolas seek him out again. Haldir wanted to be found, so this was fine with him.
How long had he been here? It was running close to ten years now, not nearly so long as his lover. However, Legolas had not known a way back, or so it seemed. Haldir found out all about the method used to travel between these worlds, and he harnessed it to come here ten years before. He knew how to harness it again to return. But Legolas had not known, the secret died with the creator, and Legolas was trapped.
Haldir sighed. If he had not cared so much about his lover, he would not have noticed that he was gone for more than the few years he promised, after all, time, to an elf, passes like nothing. But Haldir noticed, he noticed and mourned the absence of his lover. He knew he would not be able to find peace until he saw him again. He always kept hope that the elf of Mirkwood would return to him, but as he learned about this strange ability to dimension travel the years passed, Legolas still did not come.
After near thirty years, he began to understand, he started to try to learn the magic needed to attempt this feat, and it took him a long time. When he was finally ready, so many years had passed he knew that there was no chance of his love just showing up one day, either something terrible had happened to him, or he was unaware of this ability, as Haldir had once been, and could not do it himself.
After forty years passed, he did it, he tried to travel, he tried, and he succeeded. He awakened in the world of the Creator… in a mental hospital. He was just laying there in one of the empty rooms. There was nothing on the door to tell the doctors who he was or why he was there. He was wearing a pair of loose trousers and a silver tunic from Lorien. When the doctors came to him he claimed that he was visiting his cousin and one of the patients locked him in the room. They did not believe him at first but upon searching their records found no sign of him, they realized he must have been telling the truth.
Haldir left that place with a horrible first impression of this world. He knew there was something terribly wrong with it if he was to be locked against his will for simply seeming strange. He eventually, after research and questions, discovered all the ways that this strange world worked. He had no one to show him the ropes, and he struggled, but made it out of his own accord.
He forged his own identity after learning a little bit about how this world proved their existence with such things as birth certificates. He read books and information that high school students would need to graduate and came up with enough information that he felt comfortable altering his records illegally to say he had been a high school student once and had rather high grades in all his courses. In the next few years of his being on this Earth, he studied in various post-secondary establishments to legally obtain his status as a College graduate.
It was not long before he was hired into various government organizations, and with the help of his gifts of charm and the abilities he gained in trying to transfer dimensions, Haldir quickly rose to the top of the political chain. He was now a person everyone looked to for information, support, and good ideas. He was slowly changing the world with mere will and determination, however, manipulation helped.
Now here he was: a big important person on the television and radio all the time. His name was in tabloids and newspapers worldwide; he was the man that everyone wanted to be. But he was a fake.
Years after he got this title and this job and had everything he could want, years after he had gotten here, he despaired. He knew it was improbable that he would ever find his lover on a planet with over six billion people, and he knew he needed to return home.
A few years ago Haldir used his power again to travel back to Middle Earth. He went to Lorien, he asked around about Legolas, but it seemed he had not returned, and Haldir’s mission had indeed failed. He was about to give up hope when the Lady of the Wood came to him.
“Haldir,” she said, “there is more to life than the love of another. There is the love shared by families, and the love of the wood, the environment in which you live. There is the love you have for the people of Middle Earth, and it is for them you must now work.”
“My Lady, I do not understand. Years I have toiled in this other realm, I have sought for the one person who gives me hope and have come up empty-handed. How can I work for and bring hope to the people of this fair world when I have no hope left myself?” He bowed before her.
She laughed, a sad laugh, and tilted his head up with her hand to look at his fair face. “Haldir, it is truly a tragedy that Legolas was stolen from this world and from you, but you must move past that. You have a duty to your people and your own world.”
Haldir read in her eyes that there were dark times ahead. “Milady, what-”
“A long time ago was the War of the Ring, many years we have passed here in peace, but now there is a greater threat to our world, and to another.”
“Earth?”
She nodded. “Do you know all of the stories written by the Creator?” Haldir nodded. “Well there is one you didn’t know.”
She walked from the Mirror toward the trees. “He wrote stories, unfinished tales. He wrote things that could not have a conclusion and thus he sentenced us to worse happenings than the War of the Ring. He wrote of an even greater evil than Sauron the Deceiver. He wrote of one strong enough even to control Sauron, to overtake Middle Earth and destroy us all. Melkor was his name, and he is an unknown evil greater than even I can fathom.”
Haldir listened in silent awe as she outlined some of the terrible things that Melkor did, but Haldir did not need to know more than that Melkor controlled Sauron, therefore he must have been a great evil, more than he could bear to hear about.
“Melkor has been missing these past decades and no one knew this. No one knew that Melkor existed, save one. He tortured one creature for an eternity, to it anyway, and though the creature seemed an evil fiend that died an appropriate death, he knew about Melkor, and Melkor, to keep his existence unknown to Middle Earth, destroyed him. He died in the flames of Mount Doom clutching two things in his scaly little paws: a finger and a ring.”
“Gollum.” Haldir gasped at the thought. He looked Galadriel in the eye. “Gollum knew of Melkor.”
Galadriel nodded again and placidly walked around, weaving her way mysteriously through the trees. “He knew, and unbeknownst to the Lord of Evil, he told the tale of this evil being to one person, one person only, in the dark of night, crying out in his dreams.” She smiled, “Before Frodo left these lands he came to me and told me of this being more evil than Sauron. He apologized for not being able to help with that war, nor knowing anything about it, but he helped us more than we will ever know, for if he had not come to us Melkor’s existence would remain unknown and we would not have the chance we have today.”
“Chance, milady?” She nodded again.
“We sought this beastly evil and found nothing for a very long time. At this point only a few select people knew of this, even you and precious Legolas were simply saying an innocent farewell.” She looked sad suddenly. “We found him the day that your lover was to leave this place. We found him and he was more horrible than you can imagine.
“His eyes were black flames and his body made of naught but fear itself. He was terrible, ghastly, and manipulative. If it were not for the power of my Ring of Power, I would also have fallen into his sway. He struck down many, including my lord, though Celeborn’s injuries were not fatal, and before we could do anything, destroy or be destroyed, a great clash of lightning struck. Fire rained down from the heavens only where we stood and chasms opened beneath our feet and seconds later he was gone.”
Haldir paused, blinking, trying to understand. “That sounds like-”
Galadriel nodded. “Like how Legolas left this world to come to the other.”
Haldir gasped and stood straighter on his feet. “We must find him, we must stop him. Before it is too late!”
Galadriel placed her hand on his shoulder and calmed the March Warden. “Unfortunately, for a long time we did not know what had happened to him, it was not until we heard the story of Legolas vanishing from this world that we realized what must have happened and by then you were far gone.
“For years I, myself, tried to harness the power of which you spoke and found myself lacking. I could not breach the dimensions, therefore all hope was lost.” She smiled. “Until now. The moment you returned I knew hope was restored. You have wandered for a very short time here in your home, but I hope you understand the importance of the mission on which you must now embark.” Haldir nodded, knowing exactly what he had to do.”
“He will be hard to find,” she continued, “he will have disguised himself as someone that can be trusted, though that someone will likely still be evil. I must tell you that if he has learned of your lover’s existence in that world he may have already removed Legolas from the physical plain.”
Tears welled in Haldir’s eyes, but he nodded, knowing she spoke the truth. “I will do what I must, milady.”
“Of course, I do not doubt you, my friend, but I have a warning that must be passed on. The reason that the Creator passed through the dimensional barrier between his world and ours was a weakening in the magic. Every so often various elements connect and with their powers they push on this shield making it thin so anyone can pass through with a little luck. If Melkor knows of this, and surely he does, then he knows that the time will come soon that he can return to Middle Earth and end happiness and life as we know it. Five years from this date, the year 2003 by their calendar, when the magic elements are just right, you will feel it, so will he, so will Legolas if he is still there, and Melkor will pass through back into Middle Earth.”
“Why has he not destroyed their world?” Haldir asked.
Galadriel nodded perusing this thought. “One can only assume that his form here cannot exist in the other world. This means he must have taken shape as a Man or a beast.”
“I will end this evil for all time. You have nothing to fear, milady.”
“But fear itself….” She finished.
He nodded and after a few more brief instructions, she bade him farewell and sent him on his way.
Haldir returned to Earth with the purpose of finding Melkor and destroying him before he could hurt others, but it had been years since he came back, and he still did not know where Melkor was. He was running out of time. It was the year 2003, the year Melkor would try to return to Middle Earth and wreak death and destruction upon all, and Haldir did not even know who it was.
He was beginning to despair. “But,” he thought, “perhaps Legolas, if he willingly comes to my side without the intent of murder, will help me find this creature, he might help me bring him to justice.”
Haldir knew that he had never laid eyes on the form that Melkor had taken in this world. He knew that if he saw the evil beast he would know it was he. He would be able to sense the menacing aura from him; he would know him for what he truly was. He knew that if Melkor was in the form of a human, he no longer possessed the supreme powers of an Ultimate Being. He may still possess his powers of persuasion, manipulation, and his lust for destruction and power, but he no longer had amazing strength, dexterity, or magical powers. He would be a human, if not a little enhanced, and that meant he was mortal. Haldir also knew that if he ever saw this man, woman, or child, the one Melkor had possessed, he would not think twice when it came to ending his existence for all time.
Haldir shook his head, trying to push thoughts of death and pain away for the moment, he reached out with his mind and felt the barrier between this world and Middle Earth. It was thinning. It was becoming more and more possible by the day that one could travel from one dimension to the other. It would not be long now. Haldir needed to find the place in this world where the barrier was the weakest. He needed to find it and protect it, wait for Melkor to arrive there to return to his home, and kill him before Melkor suspected anything.
Haldir sighed and closed his eyes, remembering the times he spent with his true love. He let himself slip into a dream where he was with Legolas, though he sat upright in the small hotel room in the middle of the day.
Author: dejectedmadness
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Legolas/Haldir
Disclaimer: We do not own these characters, we simply made up stories because we liked them so much.
Summary: Legolas gets sucked into the real world and can't get back so he takes a job as an assassin where he can put his skills with range weapons to good use. After fifty years stranded here he takes a job to assassinate a European figurehead and comes face to face with someone he thought he lost many years ago.
Chapter 7: Another Chance
Hours later I was sitting next to Timmy with a completely straight face. I didn’t want to tell him what happened. I told him that there was a problem when I got there, I was going to get rid of him, the target, but there were complications, and I didn’t end up doing it and lost my weapon in the process. He seemed to know, however, what the complications were. He knew that I never usually let emotions get in the way of my job.
It was only natural that now he knew there was something big and bad that was keeping me from doing my job right. He seemed to understand, but I was too smart for that. When a mob boss acts understanding, he’s put your head on a list in a gunman’s pocket. So I was wary.
“We got the equipment taken care of, there is nothing to trace it back to us here. Your prints are not on file, so there is nothing to worry about there. They will not find you or us, Jack,” he said, trying to reassure me, “so you have nothing to fear. Everyone makes a mistake sometime.” He smiled at me and offered me a cigar again. I refused, like I always did.
“So am I dead? Is my head on a list? Do I have to sleep with one eye open?” Timmy laughed at me; I assumed it was because of my boldness.
“Jack, you have been a part of this team for thirty years! You have helped me with more jobs than I can count. You are the only person here that I can rely on.” He smiled at me and I was a little confused at his sudden confession. He had always tried to remind me before that I could always be replaced.
“But-”
“I know, Jack, I have said some stuff to you before, but the truth is, I am tired of lying to you. I lie to my wife, I lie to my daughter, fuck, I lie to myself, and out of all the people in this world I deal with, you are the only one who has never bullshit me, never betrayed me, and never lied to me.” He leaned forward and looked me in the eye resting his elbows on his knees. “I am not going to lie to you anymore. So why don’t you tell me what this is all about.”
I was awed, which was strange for me. I, with my elven nature and natural intuition, should have sensed some strange turn of events about to happen, but I didn’t. I did not know, for the first time in my life, what to say.
I knew this was somehow wrong; I should not have been speaking openly to someone who was awful enough to want to kill people for business, to improve his own life. I hated people like him. But I found myself starting to talk.
“A long time ago he was a good friend of mine. He was better than a friend. Things were forgotten, I left for reasons… and I was gone so long I thought I would never have to face him again. I thought that everything we had had been forgotten. I assumed that was it.”
I sighed and looked away from him. “I saw him again the other day, and I was just… horrified. Everything came rushing back and suddenly… I just remember him. I remember everything. I know that I have become everything I once hated. I have become everything he hated. I just feel so full of guilt, so ashamed about what I have been doing with my life. I cannot face him. When I faced him the first time I lost myself. When I faced him again… I wept. I cannot control myself around him, there is something, some power, he has over me that keeps me from being myself. It brings up all the pain…”
I laughed at how I knew I must sound. “I’m sorry, Tim. There is just something….” I sighed, “You know me. You know how I value this job and the things I do. They help me, and they hurt me the same. You know I would never hesitate to rid this world of whomever you tell me to. It is just this one thing, this one time, this one man. I cannot do it, Timmy. I cannot do it. I am sorry.”
Tim looked at me solemnly. He understood. I could see it in his expression, written all over his face. He understood. Then he said something I did not expect. “He was your lover, and I told you to kill him, I realize the problem there,” he laughed. “I know you will have trouble killing the man, but if I know anything about you, Jack, you will do what I asked the last time we talked, you will keep him busy for a week, two weeks; it’s looking like this plan of ours is going to take longer than expected….”
He paused and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t care what you do, Jack, I know you cannot kill the man, that is fine. Just keep him busy. Kidnap him, follow his ass around, fuck him, I don’t care. Just keep him away from London, from Europe, until you get a call from us, then I don’t care what you do, if you stay with him forever, leave him, whatever. I just need this one thing. I promise that no harm will come to this man. I promise that we will not try to hurt him. But we need him out of the way, or I will have to find someone else to take your place, do you understand, Jack? I don’t want it to come to that.”
I paused and thought about it. I had to ask, I had not asked in a good five or ten years, but I needed to know what it was that Haldir had done to deserve death according to Timmy. I asked, “Why was he targeted?”
Timmy didn’t say anything for a moment, he sat there silently with no emotion on his face, I could not tell if he was thinking of a lie to tell me or if he was trying to comprehend why I finally asked that question which had been popular for the first years in this business.
Finally he spoke again. “Revolution, Jack. He was planning something that would have ruined all I have helped to gain. I couldn’t let that happen. He didn’t do anything horrible, like kill people or cause a war or anything, but he was going to change the world, he was going to manipulate hundreds of thousands of people into accepting this change that would ultimately destroy everything we have worked so hard to build, freedom, choice, honesty, trust, and happiness. You remember our big mission here, Jack? He was jeopardizing it in the worst way.”
I nodded and didn’t think any more of it. It sounded like something Haldir would do inadvertently, try to change the world for the better and get in the way of someone else’s plans to do the same thing. This was probably the reason that the world was the way it was. Everyone came up with great ideas of how to fix it and make it a better place, but when it finally came down to it, they got in the way of another brilliant plan and then both ideas were fucked.
I did not stay longer than I needed to with my boss. He already knew more than I was comfortable with him knowing, but I ended up giving my word that I would stop Haldir from getting in the way. I did not know how hard this would prove to be.
* * *
He knew he could not ask for the assistance of any of his men, they would ask questions, and when he told them not to, they would run to someone else and tell the story. Haldir knew he had to trace the gun himself.
However that proved most difficult, as he did not know where to begin. He paid a few men who did not know him and had not seen his face to trace it in the end, but what they came up with was no more than Haldir himself could have. There was nothing on this weapon, no make, no model, no serial number, no year. There was nothing. He was very discouraged, but of course he had to have known that his lover would erase all knowledge of his having that gun, all knowledge of that gun at all, to keep himself out of harm’s way.
He probably did it the same way he kept himself out of databases. As far as the world knew he did not exist. Haldir had even run fingerprints only to find there were none that matched anywhere in the world. He looked for the name Jack, but gave up rather quickly seeing as it was a popular name. There seemed to be no way to find or reach Legolas until he wanted to be found or contacted.
Haldir did not spend long thinking on this. He slept very little that last night, and he did not do much the following day. He knew that whomever employed Legolas was not going to be happy with the results, thus making Legolas seek him out again. Haldir wanted to be found, so this was fine with him.
How long had he been here? It was running close to ten years now, not nearly so long as his lover. However, Legolas had not known a way back, or so it seemed. Haldir found out all about the method used to travel between these worlds, and he harnessed it to come here ten years before. He knew how to harness it again to return. But Legolas had not known, the secret died with the creator, and Legolas was trapped.
Haldir sighed. If he had not cared so much about his lover, he would not have noticed that he was gone for more than the few years he promised, after all, time, to an elf, passes like nothing. But Haldir noticed, he noticed and mourned the absence of his lover. He knew he would not be able to find peace until he saw him again. He always kept hope that the elf of Mirkwood would return to him, but as he learned about this strange ability to dimension travel the years passed, Legolas still did not come.
After near thirty years, he began to understand, he started to try to learn the magic needed to attempt this feat, and it took him a long time. When he was finally ready, so many years had passed he knew that there was no chance of his love just showing up one day, either something terrible had happened to him, or he was unaware of this ability, as Haldir had once been, and could not do it himself.
After forty years passed, he did it, he tried to travel, he tried, and he succeeded. He awakened in the world of the Creator… in a mental hospital. He was just laying there in one of the empty rooms. There was nothing on the door to tell the doctors who he was or why he was there. He was wearing a pair of loose trousers and a silver tunic from Lorien. When the doctors came to him he claimed that he was visiting his cousin and one of the patients locked him in the room. They did not believe him at first but upon searching their records found no sign of him, they realized he must have been telling the truth.
Haldir left that place with a horrible first impression of this world. He knew there was something terribly wrong with it if he was to be locked against his will for simply seeming strange. He eventually, after research and questions, discovered all the ways that this strange world worked. He had no one to show him the ropes, and he struggled, but made it out of his own accord.
He forged his own identity after learning a little bit about how this world proved their existence with such things as birth certificates. He read books and information that high school students would need to graduate and came up with enough information that he felt comfortable altering his records illegally to say he had been a high school student once and had rather high grades in all his courses. In the next few years of his being on this Earth, he studied in various post-secondary establishments to legally obtain his status as a College graduate.
It was not long before he was hired into various government organizations, and with the help of his gifts of charm and the abilities he gained in trying to transfer dimensions, Haldir quickly rose to the top of the political chain. He was now a person everyone looked to for information, support, and good ideas. He was slowly changing the world with mere will and determination, however, manipulation helped.
Now here he was: a big important person on the television and radio all the time. His name was in tabloids and newspapers worldwide; he was the man that everyone wanted to be. But he was a fake.
Years after he got this title and this job and had everything he could want, years after he had gotten here, he despaired. He knew it was improbable that he would ever find his lover on a planet with over six billion people, and he knew he needed to return home.
A few years ago Haldir used his power again to travel back to Middle Earth. He went to Lorien, he asked around about Legolas, but it seemed he had not returned, and Haldir’s mission had indeed failed. He was about to give up hope when the Lady of the Wood came to him.
“Haldir,” she said, “there is more to life than the love of another. There is the love shared by families, and the love of the wood, the environment in which you live. There is the love you have for the people of Middle Earth, and it is for them you must now work.”
“My Lady, I do not understand. Years I have toiled in this other realm, I have sought for the one person who gives me hope and have come up empty-handed. How can I work for and bring hope to the people of this fair world when I have no hope left myself?” He bowed before her.
She laughed, a sad laugh, and tilted his head up with her hand to look at his fair face. “Haldir, it is truly a tragedy that Legolas was stolen from this world and from you, but you must move past that. You have a duty to your people and your own world.”
Haldir read in her eyes that there were dark times ahead. “Milady, what-”
“A long time ago was the War of the Ring, many years we have passed here in peace, but now there is a greater threat to our world, and to another.”
“Earth?”
She nodded. “Do you know all of the stories written by the Creator?” Haldir nodded. “Well there is one you didn’t know.”
She walked from the Mirror toward the trees. “He wrote stories, unfinished tales. He wrote things that could not have a conclusion and thus he sentenced us to worse happenings than the War of the Ring. He wrote of an even greater evil than Sauron the Deceiver. He wrote of one strong enough even to control Sauron, to overtake Middle Earth and destroy us all. Melkor was his name, and he is an unknown evil greater than even I can fathom.”
Haldir listened in silent awe as she outlined some of the terrible things that Melkor did, but Haldir did not need to know more than that Melkor controlled Sauron, therefore he must have been a great evil, more than he could bear to hear about.
“Melkor has been missing these past decades and no one knew this. No one knew that Melkor existed, save one. He tortured one creature for an eternity, to it anyway, and though the creature seemed an evil fiend that died an appropriate death, he knew about Melkor, and Melkor, to keep his existence unknown to Middle Earth, destroyed him. He died in the flames of Mount Doom clutching two things in his scaly little paws: a finger and a ring.”
“Gollum.” Haldir gasped at the thought. He looked Galadriel in the eye. “Gollum knew of Melkor.”
Galadriel nodded again and placidly walked around, weaving her way mysteriously through the trees. “He knew, and unbeknownst to the Lord of Evil, he told the tale of this evil being to one person, one person only, in the dark of night, crying out in his dreams.” She smiled, “Before Frodo left these lands he came to me and told me of this being more evil than Sauron. He apologized for not being able to help with that war, nor knowing anything about it, but he helped us more than we will ever know, for if he had not come to us Melkor’s existence would remain unknown and we would not have the chance we have today.”
“Chance, milady?” She nodded again.
“We sought this beastly evil and found nothing for a very long time. At this point only a few select people knew of this, even you and precious Legolas were simply saying an innocent farewell.” She looked sad suddenly. “We found him the day that your lover was to leave this place. We found him and he was more horrible than you can imagine.
“His eyes were black flames and his body made of naught but fear itself. He was terrible, ghastly, and manipulative. If it were not for the power of my Ring of Power, I would also have fallen into his sway. He struck down many, including my lord, though Celeborn’s injuries were not fatal, and before we could do anything, destroy or be destroyed, a great clash of lightning struck. Fire rained down from the heavens only where we stood and chasms opened beneath our feet and seconds later he was gone.”
Haldir paused, blinking, trying to understand. “That sounds like-”
Galadriel nodded. “Like how Legolas left this world to come to the other.”
Haldir gasped and stood straighter on his feet. “We must find him, we must stop him. Before it is too late!”
Galadriel placed her hand on his shoulder and calmed the March Warden. “Unfortunately, for a long time we did not know what had happened to him, it was not until we heard the story of Legolas vanishing from this world that we realized what must have happened and by then you were far gone.
“For years I, myself, tried to harness the power of which you spoke and found myself lacking. I could not breach the dimensions, therefore all hope was lost.” She smiled. “Until now. The moment you returned I knew hope was restored. You have wandered for a very short time here in your home, but I hope you understand the importance of the mission on which you must now embark.” Haldir nodded, knowing exactly what he had to do.”
“He will be hard to find,” she continued, “he will have disguised himself as someone that can be trusted, though that someone will likely still be evil. I must tell you that if he has learned of your lover’s existence in that world he may have already removed Legolas from the physical plain.”
Tears welled in Haldir’s eyes, but he nodded, knowing she spoke the truth. “I will do what I must, milady.”
“Of course, I do not doubt you, my friend, but I have a warning that must be passed on. The reason that the Creator passed through the dimensional barrier between his world and ours was a weakening in the magic. Every so often various elements connect and with their powers they push on this shield making it thin so anyone can pass through with a little luck. If Melkor knows of this, and surely he does, then he knows that the time will come soon that he can return to Middle Earth and end happiness and life as we know it. Five years from this date, the year 2003 by their calendar, when the magic elements are just right, you will feel it, so will he, so will Legolas if he is still there, and Melkor will pass through back into Middle Earth.”
“Why has he not destroyed their world?” Haldir asked.
Galadriel nodded perusing this thought. “One can only assume that his form here cannot exist in the other world. This means he must have taken shape as a Man or a beast.”
“I will end this evil for all time. You have nothing to fear, milady.”
“But fear itself….” She finished.
He nodded and after a few more brief instructions, she bade him farewell and sent him on his way.
Haldir returned to Earth with the purpose of finding Melkor and destroying him before he could hurt others, but it had been years since he came back, and he still did not know where Melkor was. He was running out of time. It was the year 2003, the year Melkor would try to return to Middle Earth and wreak death and destruction upon all, and Haldir did not even know who it was.
He was beginning to despair. “But,” he thought, “perhaps Legolas, if he willingly comes to my side without the intent of murder, will help me find this creature, he might help me bring him to justice.”
Haldir knew that he had never laid eyes on the form that Melkor had taken in this world. He knew that if he saw the evil beast he would know it was he. He would be able to sense the menacing aura from him; he would know him for what he truly was. He knew that if Melkor was in the form of a human, he no longer possessed the supreme powers of an Ultimate Being. He may still possess his powers of persuasion, manipulation, and his lust for destruction and power, but he no longer had amazing strength, dexterity, or magical powers. He would be a human, if not a little enhanced, and that meant he was mortal. Haldir also knew that if he ever saw this man, woman, or child, the one Melkor had possessed, he would not think twice when it came to ending his existence for all time.
Haldir shook his head, trying to push thoughts of death and pain away for the moment, he reached out with his mind and felt the barrier between this world and Middle Earth. It was thinning. It was becoming more and more possible by the day that one could travel from one dimension to the other. It would not be long now. Haldir needed to find the place in this world where the barrier was the weakest. He needed to find it and protect it, wait for Melkor to arrive there to return to his home, and kill him before Melkor suspected anything.
Haldir sighed and closed his eyes, remembering the times he spent with his true love. He let himself slip into a dream where he was with Legolas, though he sat upright in the small hotel room in the middle of the day.