Aragorn went looking for Merry and Pippin, Gimli and Legolas tried to find Frodo and Sam's trail, and I wandered back to Boromir. My hope that they might actually find them flickered out, I knew Merry and Pippin must have been captured and that Frodo and Sam were well on their way to Mordor by now. All of my plans to change the already-altered plot of the story were failing. Now I knew that some things just had to happen, and whether it was for storytelling purposes or to teach us a life lesson no longer mattered. I had little faith in the idea that Boromir might survive. Smashing some plant, athelas or not, on his wound and leaving him in the woods wasn't exactly a survival plan.

That's when I remembered what was in these woods. We had no way of knowing if we had killed all of the Uruks, and they could still be out there.

I shivered and continued on. The woods were getting dark, even though I thought it was still some time around noon. After a few minutes I heard the crunch of leaves behind me and froze. My hand slowly reached for my blades, before I turned around quickly and saw that it was Losseiriel.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned. She had left not even an hour ago, had she not? At first I thought she was going back to playing some sort of game with me. After all, some sort of spell had been cast upon her by the Lady of Lorien. I couldn't see her eyes from here.

That's when I saw Boromir, his shoulder visible from behind a tree, slowly getting up as if to run somewhere. I could get to him after she left. My gaze flicked back to Losseiriel, who I found returning it, with a strange ferocity gleaming in what I could now tell were blue eyes.

"What are you-" my repeated question was cut off abruptly when she took off in a sprint for Boromir. It must be the corrupted Losseiriel, the girl I knew wouldn't act like this, not so brashly, not with such bad intent.

I raced towards where Boromir was staggering up from. He whipped his head around to look back at us in desperate attempts to watch his back and get away. I couldn't let her get to him. After all I had gone through to save the Fellowship from falling apart, after already thinking I had failed, I couldn't let her throw it away - throw the possible fate of Middle-earth away. In the moment, it didn't matter if she was someone I trusted- or once trusted. In all honesty the thought didn't even surface until I was throwing my hands forcefully at her back, throwing her off enough to make her stagger and begin to fall.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" This time it was Losseiriel spitting the question back at me, as if I was somehow the shiny new culprit guilty of every wrong she managed to not right. How quickly she seemed to make the tables turn.

"Why are YOU out to get Boromir? He's dying for Eru's sake give him a rest!" She'd managed to trip me over while breaking her fall, now gripping the front of my tunic and holding me up with suspiciously strong arms. It was a threatening position to say the least.

"I'm trying to help him!" She cocked her head and for a second I could have sworn her eyes gleamed- her blue eyes gleamed.

"Wh- wha-" I struggled against her grip and tried to gain footing to somehow fight back, or at least not be hanging here like a deadweight.

"I'm going to heal him!" She was too enthusiastic about this. "Do you not trust me? After everything we've been through? Even the Elven Prince you can't stop pining over seems to trust me and from what I've seen he seems to have pretty high standards..."

I was reminded of him clinging to a pillar because he was startled, him paying his respects to Narwa when he fell off the cliff, and an assortment of other little events that proved that Elf Boy here seemed to be significantly far from a Noble with high standards.

Suddenly it was like the fog of idiocy which my brain seemed to be submerged in was lifted, or burnt off- most likely that'd be the doing of Sauron so I decided to not use that metaphor- and I remembered that I Faith and Fury were on my back and my arms were completely free. I reached for them and used the momentum to spring up and back. Losseiriel stumbled backwards and I unsheathed my swords and began walking towards her. No- walking past her, walking to Boromir.

She seemed either scared out of her mind or stunned, and I took the chance to get a move on. I could use an advantageous position between her and Boromir in the least.

I got to Boromir with her storming angrily after me. When I turned back from looking him in the face with the best what are you thinking why did you stand up you're bleeding out face I could muster in the time given, there was a new rage alight in her eyes that I was somewhat glad I hadn't witnessed before. I would have been somewhat more glad if I had witnessed it with the rest of the Fellowship there. Preferably all armed.

"You're not going to hurt him." I stood taller, positioned with my swords as if in a dare to attack. "I know what you're doing, I know what Galadriel is doing, rauco [demon]" I spat, "And no matter how much I hated her being categorized as this heartless witch in fanfic when she was actually a deeply compassionate character who overcame the temptation of tyranny, I can't ignore what sick, cliche twist on character is going on now! Because for all that matters, this is real. This is what's going to make a difference!"

That's what broke Losseiriel.

Nay, that's what broke Tierra, and what let the creature Galadriel was shaping into Losseiriel free. Finally, unfortunately.

---

Faith. I had faith in my friends, right? The ones I made here I mean. Anoron may have lied but he shaped up to be much more than I personally had anticipated. I had faith in the Fellowship, however dysfunctional it may be. I had faith in Aragorn because I understood that he had some pretty reasonable reasons for absolutely detesting me and for some reason he still defended me on occasion. I had faith in Legolas even if, yeah, maybe I was pining over him and in way over my head caught in a love triangle I didn't want.

Fury. Oh boy, did I have some pent up rage right about now. Even if I hadn't done much, I felt like I had worked so hard to get where I was- to get the Fellowship where it was- and we didn't get very far but the point was that we tried. I was filled with rage because the universe I had dreamed of pulling together was still managing to fall apart, and it wasn't even my own for Eru's sake! I was filled with fury because I realized this wasn't just a story, and not in the "ooh ahh fandom is more than a story" way. It was more than a story now because I realized how real these people were, and the abominations that sought to destroy them, to destroy their world, seemed so vibrantly real that it hurt more than I expected it to. I was filled with fury.

This is the part where I swing my swords and save the day and yadda yadda yadda everyone lives.

But honestly, is my luck good enough for that?

Nope!

A/N: Waddup I haven't updated this story in two years lmao

I honestly have no idea if anyone is still reading it, tbh I had to go back and reread myself just to get acquainted with whatever the heck I had going on back then wowie

I'm going to finish this story (hopefully lmao I've got like 10 dif AP assignments rip) over the summer, and yeah, I'll go all the way through like I planned and I'll finish through the whole series. I've rethought a ton of it and wish I could rework what I wrote back then and I'm starting to understand why those fic writers used to delete and rewrite their stuff- kudos to you for actually doing it tho (unlike me). I'm probs not going to develop or publish the sequel I started because 1: it's really lame, and 2: ....?? I don't really know it's just probs not going to happen

I'm posting the next chapter soon! (once I write it) so within the next couple of days/next week

Follow me on tumblr at redincarnate because I'm active on there and you can learn more about my loser life and interests