Unlikely Rescue

Chapter 21 - Dead or Alive

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Elrond knelt over the body of his son. Hot tears streamed down his face and dripped unceremoniously onto the face of his Estel. His beloved, beloved Estel.

Whoever had done this, he would kill them. He would hunt them down and destroy them.

Scooping his child into his arms, he hurried to the main building of Rivendell and ran flat-out to the healing wing.

It was a red-eyed, panting and breathless Elrond that arrived, gasping for breath with the corpse of his son held tenderly in his arms, at the nearest available bed of the healing ward. The moment the Lord entered, the room quieted for a moment before erupting into a chaos of orders and shocked voices. "It's Estel!" "He's..." "Somebody fetch Elladan and Elrohir!"

A moment later, Elrond's sons rushed into the room, taking in the scene they found. Elrohir took in everything in a sad, silent seriousness, but Elladan had always been the more... forthright of the two.

"ADA! Who did this? How dare they? When I find them, I'm going to make them wish they'd never been born, make them curse this Valar-forsaken world for-"

"Elladan!" Elrond interrupted. "Shut up and help me! If we're going to save him, we have to do it now! Save your revenge for afterwards!" Elrond was already preparing himself and Estel for what was coming.

To tell the truth, he had never done this before. He had heard of it done... but that was on elves. Aragorn was human.

Doubt gnawed at him as he settled the human in his back, and mentally prepared to enter not only his mind, but his soul. But if Estel's soul was too far gone... he may be sucked down with it into the empty chasm of the death faced by all mortals. But Estel was his son, as much as Elladan and Elrohir were. He had to try.

"Elladan! Get over here! Elrohir, you go around the other side; we have to form a circle!"

Once the two elves were in position, their father silenced them with a glare each. "Now, you know what to do. You know the risks. Are you prepared to do this?"

"Yes, Ada." It was Elladan who answered. Elrohir gave a small nod, but that was enough.

"Ok. Good luck, ion-níns. May Ilúvitar watch over us all."

With that simple prayer, they joined hands upon Aragorn's heart and slipped out of their reality, and into his.

It was but a small feat to enter the human's mind. They each shared their own connection with him, carried their own memories and cares. Each had a bond with the human so strong it was like a physical line drawing them in. All they had to do was to follow it.

Later, Elladan and Elrohir could not describe how it was that they had found themselves inside the empty darkness of their brother's mind. But for Elrond, the experience was quite different.

Being the strongest of the three, and having the strongest connection to the human's soul, he had guided his sons with him into the void of the Aragorn's now non-existent consciousness, and, though they did not know it, had helped them to reach it unharmed.