His face betrayed no emotion. His voice was mocking. His eyes hard. This was not the Eldarion Aragorn knew.

He threw his sword down.

"I will not bear arms against my son." Aragorn said. He looked Eldarion in the eyes, his heart on his chest. "I cannot."

"That's too bad for you then." said Eldarion. "For I will fight my father."

"Return to us." said Aragorn. His voice was a whisper. "Return to us." He knew it was futile. Eldarion shook his head. "That is not an option. I am truly sorry." There could not have been more mockery in his voice.

Orodruin erupted, shaking the earth. Eldarion charged. Aragorn had lied. He grabbed his sword. Theirs was a dance that, if broken, would be deadly. They both knew exactly how the other moved. Eldarion blocked a thrust at his side, and went for Aragorn's neck. Aragorn dodged his son's blow and aimed for Eldarion's arm. He hit, and blood dripped down the prince's arm. This hit Aragorn harder than any blow.

Eldarion, angered, lashed out, aiming for the chest. He scratched his father's low left side. He leaped around his father and ran into the fray. Aragorn found him and pushed him under an oliphaunt's foot. Eldarion rolled away and sprang up, hitting his father's right cheek, close to his eye. Aragorn looked around briefly and saw his friends battling other foes. To think that his son had caused all this...

And he had missed it! His only chance to disarm Eldarion. His son was running again, towards the unguarded inner city. Aragorn saw his son's strategy. Yet he still fell for it.

When he had looked at his friends battling, he had not seen Dawn. Where was she?

He let Eldarion guide him into the inner city. Aragorn stopped running and hid behind a pillar. Eldarion's footfalls abruptly stopped. Then there were none. Everything was silent save the now faint roar of the battle below.

A blinding pain appeared at his neck. A tiny dagger had slashed the side of his neck. Aragorn quickly tore off some of his shirt and pressed it to the gash.

There was still no sigh of his son.

He raced to the castle. "Arwen! He's here! Eldarion is here!" he cried, but stopped short in the throne room, seeing horrors.

Two orcs had knives pressed to the throats of Fifi and Haddy. The two smallest hobbits, gentle, innocent. Eldarion appeared from between these two foul beings. He had no emotion on his face. "So you see, father." he said. "It has all come to this. This is not the doing of my hand, but rather, yours."

That made Aragorn falter. His doing? How?

"If you had truly loved me, dear father." Eldarion said, still emotionless. "I would not have been able to get away. To escape from under your little kingdom. I would still be a soft, little boy. Now, because of your ignorance, I am a man working to create a world where I rule. A new generation."

Aragorn was on his knees. He believed these words to be true. It was his fault. Of course it was. Eldarion would not have been able to escape if he had truly cared, truly watched over his son.

"So you see, dear father, the fault is not mine. I am not responsible for these deaths. You are." Eldarion seemed to fill the room, with his inexplicably red-gold eyes. His pointed ears twitched.

"What do you want?" Aragorn asked. "Why hold knives against these hobbits?"

Eldarion laughed. To anyone but Aragorn, it would appear real. Aragorn knew his son well enough to tell that it was strained. Almost as if it did not come from him. "To think I would tell you my secrets father!" he exclaimed. "As if! Why would I do something as simple-minded as that, especially when you know why."

Aragorn rose and picked up his sword. He hurled it at the orc holding Fifi, and it killed him. Aragorn dove for the sword, tossing the hobbit out of the way and freeing Haddy. "No death today!" he cried. "I will not be the cause of any more pain and suffering!"

He rose and instantly his sword clashed with Eldarion's. They whirled about, blood and sweat mingling. The hobbit girls had managed to grab the daggers off the orcs and were sawing open the throne room doors. "Hurry!" one of them hissed.

Both father and son scored a few more hits. Aragorn stood on his throne, and leaped down at Eldarion. His son dodged, and slashed his father's right leg. Aragorn fell ungracefully onto the floor, totally at the mercy of Eldarion.

His son still showed no emotions or pain. Eldarion's hands were stained with blood. "Like I said before father, you must kneel to your king." Eldarion raised his hand and Aragorn was painfully wrenched into a kneeling position. "Bow to me! I deserve it! Father, hear me! Hear my pain!"

These words, stretched full of sorrow, were what made Aragorn snap.

"Kill me." he said simply. "I cannot live in a world where you are in pain."

Eldarion, emotionless again, raised his sword. Aragorn stared at his son. But the blow never came.

A wild scream pierced the room. Dawn had thrown herself on top of Eldarion and was stabbing at him. He lashed out, but she would not move. "GET AWAY FROM MIDDLE EARTH AND NEVER RETURN!" Dawn screamed, blood running down her face.

Aragorn's vision was turning black. Spots appeared on the edges of his sight. He felt dizzy.

Dawn's shrieks abruptly stopped. Aragorn saw her black hair handing over Eldarion's shoulder, a sword through her stomach.

Then blackness took the king.