Through Fire And Water

Red Christmas

*This was supposed to come out December 25th. I'm only four months late 😅*

Imagine watching a space battle happening too far up to follow, while an army of Elves and Dwarves and men fought some sort of demonic-spawned Hell race, Orcs and Uruk-Hai, while your best friends were nowhere to be seen, while you were stuck defending yourself in a wedding dress without so much as a pair of sandals to protect you from the freezing cold snow and ice below your feet.

Hard, isn't it? Good.

It took me longer than I'd hoped to get used to using two very different blades. I had to learn how to defend with the dagger and attack with the saber and never, under any circumstances, let them near each other. It's so much harder than it looks.

I had a stinging cut on my arm that itched slightly, annoying me to no end. I decapitated an orc and itched at my wound, quickly moving on to the next enemy. Something felt wrong in the air, but I couldn't quite place what it was as I moved ever forward. A path cleared and I raced for it but stopped suddenly, freezing where I was.

I couldn't get the element of surprise while being seen.

My Elvin cape fell across my shoulders. I smiled at the comfort it brought me. My feet disappeared from under me and I ascended just above the crowd, following the path laid out for me with caution. If I was even scratched by a blade my position would be made known and I'd be dragged to the snowy ground before I could have the chance to so much as inhale to shout for help. Too high, though, and there was the chance that I could get shot by an arrow. Again.

That would be unfortunate. Obviously.

I weaved carefully around raised weapons, making my way through the mobs below me and slowly advancing towards Rey.

But Lady Luck was very quickly growing tired of me. As I advanced, I got smacked to the ground by a halberd hitting me square in the face. In the five years that had passed since my time in Middle Earth, I had forgotten the keen nose of the Uruk-Hai. I was visible as soon as my back hit the snow, which was now more ice than flake beneath me. I landed on one arm, nearly speaking my wrist. I grunted it pain, struggling to rise, but the halberd was coming at me again and I narrowly had time to throw up my little dagger to stop it before it hit me again, this time hard enough to cause serious damage. I struggled, pushing with all my might as the blade grew ever closer to my face. My other arm was still stuck under my body, and no matter how hard I pulled the pressure against my upper body made it impossible for me to get it out from underneath me. My wrist was about to snap; I had to act quickly.

Just as the blade of the halberd touched my forehead, I kicked up and got the enemy in the face. The halberd blade slipped and opened a deep gash on my forehead, but I hardly felt it. I ignited my saber and slashed its body in half, continuing my advance towards Rey on foot. If I couldn't sneak up, I would go in guns blazing. Fear was in the furthest reaches of my mind and was overtaken by sheer willpower.

I was not going to let anything hurt my family again. Not a single member would be hurt by this psychotic stalker while I breathed.

But it was getting hard to. Keeping everyone standing was taking its toll. My joints were beginning to cramp up, but of course I forced myself to ignore it. I would give my life to protect those I cared about in a heartbeat. I couldn't stop, not yet. I had to finish what Rey had started.

I cut through enemy after enemy and gained three more scratches before I finally made it to where Rey sat on his throne upon the incline of snow. Vader, the Apprentice, Mother and Sauron stepped up to meet me, weapons raised, but my friends stepped up beside me as well. We waited, watching with clenched weapons until Sauron finally came at Lord Thranduil, pushing everyone else forward. I stepped past them all and made my way up the incline to Rey as he stood to meet me.

I dropped my dagger and sheathed my saber, holding out a hand to him. "If you stop this now, I'll let you go on the condition that you never interfere with these worlds ever again. Please," I begged. "Rey, you've always been a dear friend to me. I understand that you're angry. I would be too, in a way. But you don't have to do this. You don't have to kill them."

"You don't understand, Mira," he said impatiently. "A sand castle doesn't get to negotiate with the child who makes it. When the child is tired of it or wants to make a new one, it destroys it without hesitation."

"An entire universe is much different than a sand castle," I argued calmly, still holding my hand out to him. "The beings you created were made with two things you could never hope to destroy: willpower and hope. No situation is ever truly without at least one. The sand castle you've built is full of life which cannot simply be erased." I smiled at him, something that had always shown him my sincerity for as long as we'd known each other. "We're so much more than mud and sand now, Rey. We're just as alive as the ocean that carries the sands from beach to beach."

Rey stared at me for a long moment, and for that moment I thought that he was actually considering my words. Then his expression morphed into one of disgust, scaring the smile off of my face in an instant.

"You speak as if I care about the lives you've described."

His statement was like a bucket of cold water in my face, freezing me to the core. My fingers started shaking and my hand fell back down to my side. My love for him was now gone for good.

"You always taught me that life is a precious thing," I said quietly, tears welling up in my eyes. "That all life is a gift. You taught me how to love people when I couldn't even love myself. You were... everything to me, Rey. You were my friend. Almost a brother. I felt safe with you..." I said as I began to cry. "Why are you doing this to them? To me?"

"Because I loved you," he snapped, seething in anger. "I loved all of you. Everything I had created. But none of you ever loved me the same way." He shook his head. "You'd never understand what that feels like."

"Don't you get it?" I yelled at him, my tears still flowing. "I know exactly how it feels! I know what it feels like to be betrayed and forgotten and left alone with my pain. I know exactly how it feels to watch those who are most precious to you hurt you in ways you can never forget. But I still forgave them. Somehow, I still found it within myself to forgive them."

He suddenly grinned in a crazed way that made me grip my saber. "So that's why you denied me at the very last moment," he said quietly, beginning to shake with withheld laughter. "Ah, it all makes sense now. That's why my plan failed. I should have seen that coming. Of course I overlooked that one simple outcome to this." He began laughing like a true maniac. Then he cursed. "I should've made them fall harder for each other. I didn't think their feelings for you would be this strong, or at this point vise-versa. Too bad."

My heartbeat thundered in my ears. "What...?" I whispered. "You did that to them? Just to mess with me?" My anger started to grow. "Just to lure me into your trap?" I yelled, then took a deep breath and steadied my heart rate. My anger turned to pity. "Okay, Rey. You want to destroy us, right?" I brandished my saber igniting it. It hummed beside me with the excitement of a long-overdue battle of Fates. "Well, you know what you have to do first."

He pulled out a sword from thin air. It reminded me of the one Frodo had been stabbed with five years before, but it was broader, sharper and pitch black, as if the weapon itself were made of absolute nothingness. My blood screamed in my veins that I needed to keep away from it at absolutely all costs.

I gulped hard. That sword was just... wrong. I couldn't put my finger on why, but at the same time, I really didn't want to. We stood for a tense moment, waiting, before Rey lunged.

*Special announcement! There's only three chapters left.*