Forgotten Allies: part iii
by: McJen

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"We don't know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don't understand our name at all; we don't know its history, and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity. We merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it, as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration."
Milan Kundera. Immortality

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Elrond sat in a stunned silence as Kate disappeared up the stairs. They heard the bedroom door close behind her, and still Elrond sat in silence. Finally, his gaze turned towards Gandalf, who sat contentedly eating his Danish, as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Legolas watched the two in a battle of wills, amused. When Elrond could take it no longer, he broke the silence,

"You should have told me." Elrond said. "She is a direct descendent then?"

Gandalf nodded. "One of your great grand children. Though the greats are far too numerous to count." He sipped his tea.

"Why? Why keep it from me?" he said.

"For fear that it would have caused unforeseen problems." Gandalf said.

"It would have only steeled my resolve to join this conflict." Elrond said.

"Exactly, and when I had come to you, I had not yet asked the Valar for permission. But it all turned out for the best." Gandalf said.

The conversation lapsed into silence, which was not at all uncommon for Elves. Being immortal granted you certain quirks, and pondering questions long before speaking was one of them.

"You have kept watch on them all these years?" Elrond asked, finally.

"It was not hard. I have followed father's and first born sons through many a generation." Gandalf said. "I have had the patience and the time."

"Why?" Legolas asked. In all his years, he still found that one question was always the most puzzling of all and usually the hardest one to answer.

"It is not uncommon for those in his line to change the world. Isildur did, for the worse. Aragorn did, for the better. Though years have past, that burden must fall to his descendants." Gandalf said.

"The many generations you have watched." Elrond said, quietly, almost to himself. His eyes rose to meet Gandalf's, "So Elladan and Elrohir are with Colin, the first born son?"

"No, and that troubles me. This is the first generation that did not have a son as eldest child." Gandalf said. "Though perhaps I was wrong in believing that only the sons were of importance."

"Kate?" Elrond asked, looking up towards the stairs that she had ascended. "She is first born, and the rightful heir?"

Gandalf laughed. "If there was a throne for her to inherit and Gondor still stood. Yes. But those days are long since gone."

"That is true. But not the power of the first born child. Perhaps that is why the mission failed." Elrond said.

"I fear you may be right. In my error I foolishly allowed Colin to go. But the true quest may be yet to be uncovered. There are things greater than sighting the evil." Gandalf said.

"You should have insisted that she go." Elrond said.

"Insisted?" Gandalf said, with a grin. "And how did you feel when I insisted you send Arwen to ride out and look for Frodo with the Ring Wraiths on the prowl?"

Elrond smiled. "Point taken."

"Exactly. And Arwen was trained in battle at that. Kate is not a warrior." Gandalf said.

"I think you are wrong." Legolas said.

Elrond and Gandalf turned to Legolas, as if noticing him for the first time.

"She is a warrior. Perhaps not one for hand-to-hand combat, but there is a strength in her. You cannot deny that, for even I felt it." Legolas said.

Gandalf nodded. "She has always been strong willed. But before this is over, more than strong wills are needed to defeat this evil."

"What more did Frodo have, than the will?" Legolas asked.

"What did I tell you Legolas? Wisdom. You have it already and do not realize it." Gandalf said.

Legolas smiled. "It is not wisdom, I speak, but of common fact."

"That is the best kind of wisdom." Gandalf said.

And so they spent the day in quiet reflection, waiting for Kate to awake. Elrond's thoughts of the past combined with the face to face meeting of the future, and he felt the weight of the years on his shoulders. He walked through the house, looking at photographs that hung from the walls. Colin was tall, his eyes were strong, his shoulders broad. Kate was his opposite, though she too had the same dark hair, she was not tall, nor did she look strong. Elrond lifted a family photo from the mantel and gazed at it a long time.

Legolas came up beside him.

"These. . . photographs." Legolas said the word as if his tongue were not used to pronouncing it. "They deceive the eyes. For you do not feel their spirits."

"True. But how I would love to have one of Arwen, I would not need to feel her spirit for it resides within my own." Elrond said.

"It was brilliant, like the star-filled sky." Legolas said, softly.

"It was." Elrond said.

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The sun was high overhead, when Kate woke and rose from her bed. Her sleep had been restful and she felt refreshed. Better than she had in the days since the air raids had begun. She stretched and was debating what to do for lunch when the events of the morning came back to her. Gandalf, two strangers, something about Colin. In her half- asleep state she had assumed they were figments of her imagination. Something her exhausted mind had invented as she drifted off to sleep. As she headed down the stairs and heard voices, she realized it was real.

They stopped talking when she walked into the living room. Again, she noticed the intense stares from Elrond and Legolas. Gandalf smiled at her and motioned for her to join them. But having a good nights sleep and feeling like herself for the first time in weeks, she was in no mood for his patronizing mannerisms.

She walked towards them but did not sit down. They waited for her to speak.

"What is going on Gandalf?" she asked. "Where is Colin?"

"I don't know where he is." Gandalf said.

"But you know something about it. My mother said the letter was from you. But I couldn't read it." Kate said.

Gandalf nodded. "The note was from me. I will admit that. But you will not like what I have to say."

"Where is he?" Kate asked.

"He has gone to look into the face of evil." Gandalf said. "To see Hitler."

"And my sons are with him." Elrond said.

"Hitler?" Kate said. "Great joke. Where is he really?"

Kate glanced from face to face, but neither Elrond or Legolas made a move to contradict Gandalf.

"He went with Elrond's sons, to see Hitler. But it is not as you think. He was not to speak with him. Indeed, all he needed do was be in view of him. Perhaps in an audience, I hear that Hitler is often seen speaking to thousands." Gandalf said.

Kate tried to make sense of what Gandalf was saying, but she could not. "Hitler? He's gone to see Hitler?" she repeated the words to herself as if saying it aloud would make it seem real to her. Make it make some sort of sense. But it didn't. Before she could reach any rational conclusions, the phone rang. She answered it. It was her mother, asking her to bring some of her father's things to the hospital. She hung up and started up the stairs.

"Wait." Gandalf said. "We are not finished here."

"Oh, we're finished here." Kate said, her voice dripping with contempt. She was gone only a few moments and came back with a small bag filled with her father's belongings.

"Kate. Please, let's sit down and talk about this." Gandalf said.

"Sit down?? You want me to sit down and talk about this?" Kate asked, incredulously, anger rising in her voice. "There is nothing to talk about. You are all obviously out of your minds. You've sent my brother off with two crazy people to see Hitler!!!"

"You will not speak to Gandalf in this fashion! Sit down!" Elrond spoke loudly, his voice echoed throughout the house. She jumped, obviously startled at his commanding voice and glared at him. To Legolas and Gandalf's surprise, Kate held Elrond's gaze and did not waver.

"You come into my house as guests. Tell me that my brother has gone off on some fool's errand to Germany to see Hitler, for reasons I can't possibly fathom and don't care to. And you have the nerve to yell at me in my own house!"

"You have no idea who we are, or why we came here. You should not be so swift in doling out judgements until you have heard the whole story." Elrond said.

"You are absolutely right. I don't know who you are. And frankly, I don't care. My mother is waiting for me," she said. And with those words, she picked up the bag and walked out the door, slamming it behind her.

Elrond sighed. "That could have been handled better."

"Indeed. But her thoughts are consumed with desire to protect her loved ones. She does not realize the part she and her brother play may be more important than all the decisions of the great generals of her time." Gandalf said.

Only Legolas did not seem overly concerned by the events of the day. If anything, a small grin of amusement spread across his face, for it was not every day, a young girl, a mortal at that, bested Elrond in a battle of wills. And win. He looked out the window and watched Kate walk up the sidewalk until she disappeared from sight.

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