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It is the Battle of Ost-in-Edhil. From this clearing Adar and Galadriel can see the city burning in the distance as they talk. They are distant enough that it smells of trees rather than smoke and death. Galadriel is covered in grime from her leading refugees through a tunnel to escape the city. For once, Adar is cleaner.
Adar gives Nenya back to Galadriel. Adar’s pretty Elven face turns back to the appearance of one of the Moriondor. He offers peace between the Uruk and the Elves. He is sincere this time. She accepts his offer. Their agreement feels sacred to both of them. A ring given, and vows exchanged, to bind their hopes and purposes together for always.
A group of Uruks approach Adar with an injured Uruk on a litter. Their moment of connection breaks. Adar turns away from Galadriel to kneel tenderly next to the victim. Galadriel watches with curiosity.
The “injured” Uruk on the litter stabs Adar with a long knife through one of the holes in his armor. Her curiosity turns to horror. Only someone very close to Adar knows exactly where a knife can slide through gaps in both cuirasse and chain mail to reach the flesh below.
An overwhelming urge to protect Adar rises up in her. A wave of power pours through her. Nenya converts her wish to protect him into a surge of white light. Nenya’s light is far too bright for the Uruks to withstand. It penetrates their sun cloaks. Their skin is blistering and burning. They flee screaming. Now the clearing smells of Uruk terror and burnt flesh.
Galadriel runs to Adar. He kneels on the ground bleeding black. His gauntlet presses against his torso. She slides Nenya back onto his bare hand to rapidly heal his wound.
He growls,
“Do not put that Ring back on me…”
She ignores him. He is too weak to push her hands away.
She does this because she knows that rebellious and murderous Uruks would simply rush Adar. This ruse of an “injured” soldier has the fingerprints of Sauron all over it. She needs Adar to get better quickly. She is sure that Sauron will show up any minute.
She is right. She looks up to see Sauron at the edge of the clearing.
He is wearing an Elven face and long blond hair. Is he trying to look like her dead husband Celeborn? Should she laugh?
Celeborn never would have been seen in armor that tasteless, black and gold with snakes all over it.
She dashes to the boulder where Adar had left his sword and Morgoth’s crown. She runs back with them to Adar. She shouts,
“Get up! Sauron is here! We need to fight him.”
Adar clambers to his feet. This time Nenya does not change his appearance. Galadriel guesses that Nenya has its tiny Ring hands full with healing his gut injury. She hands him his sword and the crown. He trades Nenya for them. She puts her Ring on. She turns to face Sauron, clutching her own sword with determination.
Sauron says,
“Galadriel, my love. And Adar, still alive. I thought that I had arranged for Adar to be executed by bewitched Uruks.”
Galadriel smirks.
“I chased them away with light from my Ring of Power.”
Adar and Galadriel are now standing side by side. They both radiate hate for Sauron.
Sauron smirks back,
“Then I will have to kill him myself. What a treat for me! Afterwards, Galadriel, you will give me the Nine Rings for Humans, and your Elven Ring of Power.”
Galadriel snarls,
“Adar is my ally. I will defend him. Nenya is mine. And you may not have the Nine. Celebrimbor entrusted them to me.”
“Celebrimbor is on his way to Mandos. He will not know what you do with them.”
“More reason to kill you then, to avenge my cousin as well as my brother.”
Adar catches her eye. He nods to the left. Galadriel starts circling left. Adar circles right. They move to opposite sides of Sauron. Now Sauron has to split his attention.
Sauron pulls his sword from a sheath at his hip. He pivots between them, engaging first with one of them and then the other. Galadriel swings her sword with desperate strength. Yet Sauron deflects her attacks effortlessly. Perhaps Sauron still has delusions of making her his Queen.
But Adar’s strikes are more effective than hers. His sword is longer. His greater height makes his reach greater than hers. Sauron is swinging at Adar with vigor in response.
Sauron is slowly backing towards rocks at the top of the adjacent hill. He is looking for terrain that will prevent them from attacking him from opposite sides.
Sauron abruptly changes his appearance to Halbrand. Galadriel deliberately drops her sword. She puts a goofy love-struck appearance on her face. She runs to Halbrand and throws her arms around his neck.
“Halbrand, my dearest love!”
she says in a syrupy tone. She hopes that Adar will know what to do. Sauron lowers his sword and looks at her with delight. He embraces her and kisses her passionately. She leans into his kiss while waiting for Adar to strike.
Suddenly Sauron lets go of her with a roar.
“You bitch! Traitors, both of you!”
Adar has taken Morgoth’s Crown and jabbed it deep into Sauron’s armpit, severing his axillary artery. With luck he punctured his lung also.
Sauron now bleeds heavily. His blood is as black as Adar’s. He swings his sword at Galadriel, who is backing away but is still too close. He connects with her side, and she doubles in pain. He spins to face Adar, who deflects his strike.
Galadriel frantically searches for where she dropped her sword. She slides through the dirt to grab it. Sauron and Adar circle each other. Now that Sauron is furious, he is hitting Adar so hard and so rapidly that Adar can barely parry. Sweat is running down Adar's face. Sauron is gasping for breath. Galadriel runs to them and drops to her knees. She swings with all her might at the back of Sauron’s legs. She is hoping that his armor only goes down to mid-thigh, as hers and Adar’s do. Her hope pays off. Sauron stumbles, then falls to his own knees with a scream.
Adar and Galadriel keep swinging at him, over and over. Rarely do their blows get past his defense and through his armor. They persist. Sauron is steadily getting weaker as he tries to parry their strikes. He finally drops his sword and sinks to the ground. Once Sauron is unable to do more than raise his hands to defend himself, Adar goes back for the Crown of Morgoth. He starts stabbing it over and over into Sauron’s face.
Galadriel puts aside her sword, and tries to figure out what she can do with Nenya to make Sauron’s death more permanent. She had somehow added strength to Camnir, when she healed his arrow wound. Can she — subtract strength from Sauron?
She visualizes Nenya pulling strength from Sauron. She imagines his strength seeping from his wounds as she pulls at his spirit. It feels to her like it is working.
Sauron has stopped moving entirely. Adar puts the crown down, and simply decapitates Sauron. There is no blast of light or magic this time, as there had been in Forodwaith. Galadriel hopes that this is because she has drained enough of Sauron’s strength.
Galadriel sees mist rising from his wounds, into a dark cloud in the air. The mist takes the form of a huge nebulous person, hovering over Sauron’s body. A wind springs from the East, sweeping this misty person West. The cloud of mist struggles against the wind. But the wind overbears Sauron’s will. Galadriel watches as the wind takes him. As he disappears into the distance, she sees two of Manwë’s eagles appear to escort Sauron’s spirit to Valinor.
Galadriel and Adar looked open mouthed at each other.
Adar asks with exultation,
“Did we do it? Is he dead?”
Galadriel grins as she replies,
“Very dead. Did you not see his spirit swept to Valinor?”
“No, I did not see that. If you could, it was probably because of your Ring.”
They stare at each other for a moment, stunned, then throw themselves in each other’s arms. They grab each other and jump up and down like children winning a sports competition.
“Sauron is dead! I have avenged my brother!”
“And I have permanent revenge for my children.”
“Let us hope that if his spirit was carried to Valinor, the Valar will prevent him from returning.” Galadriel added, “Go sound the retreat. You need to send your Uruks back to Mordor, as we agreed.”
“Yes. And afterwards, I need to speak to your King. I must explain Sauron’s hold over me, apologize for the destruction of your city while he compelled me, and negotiate a peace treaty.”
“May peace between our peoples last forever.”