Disclaimer: I do not own Batman nor do I own Lord of the Rings. They are the sole property of DC Comics and JRR Tolkien.

Author's Note: Glad that you all enjoyed the battle of Helm's Deep. I did my best to stay true to the battle that took place in book and movie as well as adding Batgirl to the mix. Saving Haldir was planned out since the beginning, since I just could not stand to kill off such a great character. And now for what all of you have been waiting for…

Chapter 27
Reunited Again

"Behold the White Rider," Aragorn whispered, before crying out, "Gandalf is come again!"

Batgirl seated on Nadia's back, brought her sword down upon yet another opponent's cranium, and turned to look at the approaching host. Glowing in the morning sun Gandalf the White atop his noble steed Shadowfax raced down to meet Saruman's Uruk-Hai army. Behind him rode thousands of riders, their weapons held high and their voices clear and strong.

The Uruk-Hai forces stepped forth, raising their spears ready to slay the Army. But Gandalf lifted his staff high into the air and it was as if the morning light answered an unspoken command as it struck down upon the black skinned monsters. They cried out and shielded their eyes in pain, just as the new arrivals came down upon them. Gandalf and his forces fought with such ferocious power and might, that the enemy stood no chance. Feeling renewed hope, Théoden's army seemed to grow more powerful, and their weakness long since forgotten.

"He did it," Batgirl whispered, loud enough for Legolas to hear

The Elf Prince looked over to her, while turning aside the blade of another Uruk with his bow and stabbing them with one of his curved elf daggers. "Was there any doubt? He is the White Wizard, is he not?"

Suddenly the smile faded from the elf's lips as his eyes caught sight of something over Cassandra' shoulder. Fighting back the Uruk was one of the new arrivals, whom he could swear looked horrifyingly familiar. The soldier was small in height, despite his position on his dark red colored horse. His head was covered in semi-long hair as dark as midnight. But what drew Legolas' attention was the way that they moved. The way that he moved, the way that he held the sword…

"It cannot be…" the Elf Prince gasped as the mysterious 'ghost' vanished from his line of sight. His eyes searched frantically for the soldier, but was forced to cast the thoughts out of his mind as the battle waged on.

The Uruk-Hai were now loosing and loosing bad. They could only cower and flee from this new power. Dropping their weapons they had begun to flee from the field of battle with the Rohirrim in close pursuit. But there was sudden gasps of shock as everyone brought their horses to screeching stops, and watched as the Uruk-Hai vanish into a woodland that Batgirl and just about everyone else could swear had not been there before.

The land had changed. Where before the green dale had lain plain and open, there new stood tall and majestic trees, darkness beneath their mighty branches. It was as if all those hundreds of trees had popped up over night! If it weren't for the fact that Batgirl had faced off against the meta-human Poison Ivy on a multitude of occasions she would have thought this completely impossible.

Yet this mysterious this new and unusual development did not to register in the minds of the Uruk-Hai and like a whiff of smoke in a summer breeze, they passed under the foreboding shadows of the newly risen forest.

"Stay out of the forest!" commanded a slightly familiar voice. "Keep away from the trees!"

"But they are getting away!" shouted Gimli. Everyone watched as the final Uruks vanished into the forest just as horrifying groans and cries of pain erupted from the dark wood.

"No," Batgirl said softly. "They won't."

Dismounting their horses, Théoden, Legolas, Aragorn, Haldir and Batgirl stood waiting as Gandalf and a familiar soldier in Rohan armor, his long blood stained blonde hair shown under his helm.

Batgirl mouth was ready to drop open as she recognized the Third Marshal of Riddermark.

"Welcome Éomer, sister-son!" King Théoden cried out, striding forth. "Now that I see you safe, I am glad indeed." Éomer leapt off of his horse and sprinted forth to embrace the older man.

"Hail Lord of the Mark!" responded the Horse marshal. He pulled back and looked into his uncle's eyes, relieved to see a fire and love he long thought extinguished. "Your eyes are clear."

"And my heart is proud, dear nephew." Again the two embraced tightly, just as Gandalf dismounted his Shadowfax and looked to his friends.

"And again you come to us in our hour of need, Mithrandir," Legolas stated.

"Did I not say that I would return and meet you here?" Gandalf asked, raising a fuzzy white eyebrow.

"You did it," Cassandra said. Gandalf smiled under his thick white beard, and turned to look at the young woman. She had pulled off her mask allowing him to look into her bright brown eyes.

"I had promised you hope, my dear," he replied. "In more ways than one..." Batgirl tilted her head questioningly, but before she could ask what he meant, she was interrupted.

"There ye are!" called Gimli's voice. Everyone turned to see the dwarf racing over the battlefield on foot, his pipe clenched in his teeth with smoke billowing out while in his hand he held his axe bloodied with Uruk blood once again. Apparently he had not stood aside and let the other have all the fun. "Gandalf, it was about time ye got here!" he said with an overly casual tone.

The Wizard smiled down at him. "So I have been told." Upon the Dwarf's arrival, Legolas quickly moved forward, a superior smirk on his lips.

"Final count," Legolas said, fingering his bow with no false modest. "Forty-two."

"Forty-two?" Gimli repeated, pulling the pipe from his teeth. "That's not bad for a pointy-eared Elvish Princeling." Legolas' eyes shot up from his bow, upon realizing that he was being mocked. "I myself am sitting pretty on forty-three. Alas my axe is notched: the forty-third had an iron collar on his neck.

Legolas looked absolutely aghast. To be out done by a dwarf? If his father ever got wind of this… Finally a sinister smile broke on the elf's delicate feature. "But do not celebrate yet master dwarf, for we still have a third member of our contest, if you recall…"

Gimli's bushy eyebrows shot up in realization. The elf was right.

"And what did you get Cassandra?" Legolas asked.

Batgirl thought hard for a moment attempting to make certain she had counted correctly. "Um…Forty-eight." Gimli's mouth dropped open and Legolas' grin grew wider. "Why? What did you get?"

"Well… at least I beat the Elf," Gimli grumbled.

"Good to see something never change," stated a voice from being the Fellowship, cutting off Gimli's response. Legolas body went ridged. Gimli began to chock loudly on his pipe. Aragorn's eyes shot open wide. The four members of the Fellowship turned around slowly and their breath was held in their throats. The same thoughts ran through each other minds. How could it be him? How could he have survived? But there was no mistaking it. It was truly he.

Timothy 'Robin' Drake stood before them. Dressed in Rohirrim armor stained with the blood of slain Uruk's, with his black and cold cape draped over his shoulder, and the opaque lenses eyes shining from behind his green domino mask. In his left hand he carried the elf sword given to him by Thranduil, in his right he led a horse with the color of copper ore.

"Miss me, guys?"

Gimli was the first to recover as he ran up to Robin, wrapping his massive arms tightly around the Boy Wonder. "I can'nae believe-! How did ye-?" Gimli was spouting out random words and phrases completely unable to get a thought completely out.

"It is really you," Legolas whispered, embracing Robin immediately after Gimli had let go. "We thought you had perished!"

Before Robin could respond, Aragorn had raced to the boy and grabbing hold of both of his shoulders and examined him wide-eyed. "How did you survive the fall? The Uruk had thrown you from more than a hundred story drop! It-it can't be possible!"

"Aye, like yer one to talk, laddie" Gimli jibed, before pointing to Robin, Gandalf and Aragorn. "New rule: None of ye are allowed near a cliff or pit or waterfall for the rest of our trip! All this near-death is gone kill the rest of us from stress!"

"You fell off a cliff too?" Robin asked Aragorn, raising an eyebrow. The Ranger smiled and nodded.

"Aye, but when I fell it was into a river. You on the other hand fell from a cliff down to a hard forest covered ground hundreds of feet below."

"Dude, I fall off skyscrapers on a regular basis," Robin smiled. "It was no big deal." Tim closed his eyes for a moment as he remembered the fall from Falls of Rauros. "Well…. no… maybe I shouldn't say that…"

"T-Tim?"

Robin looked up away from the Fellowship and towards Batgirl. She was standing perfectly still, and even where her mask in place Tim could see the fear and disbelief etched on her face. At last, she reached up and pulled back her mask, allowing all to see her face. Her beautiful tilted Asian eyes were brimming with tears, that she did nothing to wipe away.

There were a multitude of gasps from many of Théoden's men who had not realized that it had been really a young girl who had fought by their side. But none of that mattered to any of the Fellowship, as Tim walked past his friends, and slowly towards Cassandra. His mouth curved into a wistful smile, and be halted only a mere foot away from her. For what seemed like an eternity they just stood there, looking at one another.

"Hey Cassie," he said softly.

POW!

Robin head flew back, and his body followed as a powerful punch connected with his face. The sheer momentum of the hit sent him crashing back into Aragorn, who successfully caught the boy. Everyone's heads snapped to look at Cassandra whose fist was still held out, and clenched tightly. On her face was a look of pure fury.

"My Lady…" Haldir said, being the first one to find their voice. But he was able to finish his thought as Batgirl spun and stormed off, leaving everyone included Gandalf confounded.

"Okay… Oww…" Robin murmured, rubbing the side of his face tenderly. Already the appearance of a bruise was beginning to appear. "Was it something I said?"

Cassandra stormed past all over the bodies of slain men and orcs and through the crowds of soldiers making towards the Helm's Deep. Anyone who saw her could tell to stay out of her way. Too many emotions had hit all at once upon seeing Robin alive again. Relief, joy, sadness, anger, and brew over her emotion.

As she raced through the remains of Helm's Deep, Cassandra practically ran into Éowyn who had been leading her people out of the caves upon learning the battle was over. "Cassandra! You are alive! It is over!" Éowyn cried wrapping her arms around Batgirl with joy and relief at seeing her friend alive, but the smile vanished as soon as she Cassandra's tears stained faced. "Cassandra?"

"He's alive," Batgirl said barely over a whisper.

The Shield Maiden felt confusion creep over her face. "Who?"

"R-Robin," Batgirl chocked out before pushing past Éowyn and vanishing around the corner.

"What?"

Further into the fortress Cassandra raced, blindly lost in her own tears and pain. At last she stopped and leaned up against a stonewall, allowing her tears to flow freely.

"You realize that you have hurt Robin."

Batgirl screeched to a halt and it took all her self-control to not turn around and belt the speaker. "You knew," she growled. "You knew he was alive."

Gandalf the White leaned on his staff, and looked down at the girl before him. "Yes."

With the speed of someone who had spent 17 years of the life in mortal combat, Batgirl turned on the Wizard with pure hatred in her eyes. "And you didn't tell me?!"

Gandalf didn't even wince. "No. I could not."

"Bullshit!" she spat at him. "I… I thought he… dead! And you knew he wasn't! We find you… and you didn't tell me!"

"Yes."

Batgirl's glare bore into Gandalf like a diamond tip drill press. How could just one word enrage her so goddamn much? He knew that Tim had never died and he had the gall to look at her like he had done nothing wrong? "How long?"

"Since I was returned," Gandalf said softly. "Galadriel helped me confirm it when I arrived in Lothlórien. Her mirror is quiet an amazing tool."

Batgirl's tear-filled glare didn't waver once. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I did not want to give you false hope. I knew that Robin was well at the moment, but I cannot foresee the future. If something were to happen to him, before we met again…"

"You… should have told me," Batgirl interrupted. Gandalf closed his eyes for a moment, and leaned a bit more on his staff.

"Perhaps I should have," he said after a moment. "Aragorn knew that I was hiding something from you, and thought I should have told you. But I did not want to cause you more pain. I am sorry. I had hoped that I had not done wrong by you. I now truly see that I was wrong."

"You should have… listened," Batgirl said softly, finally breaking her gaze with the wizard. "Stupid Gandalf."

Gandalf smiled sadly. Batgirl stood before him, her shoulder dropped and she sat down against one of the few benches that had survived the battle. "Is Robin… mad at me?" she said in a small voice.

"I believe he is more hurt than anything more," the elderly wizard replied. "Both physically and emotionally. And I do not doubt for an instant that is he currently troubled and greatly confused by your actions. Why did you-?"

"I-I don't know," she said. "I saw him… couldn't… believe it. I just felt… so angry and sad and… It was… ins… inst…"

"Instinct," Gandalf offered in that Alfred-ish tone.

Batgirl nodded. "Yeah."

A comfortable silence fell over them, before the Wizard held out his hand to her. "Come my dear. We still have much to do…"

"And little time to do it in," Batgirl finished. She then took Gandalf's hand and stood up. "I know."

Robin sat propped up against a wall, with a large chuck of what he could only consider was horsemeat over his face. Aragorn, Éomer, Théoden and Haldir stood not far away talking in worried tones, while Legolas and Gimli sat nearby telling Robin of all that had happened since they were separated. They spoke about Boromir's makeshift funeral, their search for Merry and Pippin, locating Gandalf once again and joining with Théoden's forces.

But unfortunately the Teen Wonder wasn't really listening. His thoughts were too preoccupied with Batgirl. Over a week had passed since they the battle at Rauros, and all that time, his mind had been consumed with her face. And when he imagined their reunion, there had been a large assortment of scenarios.

A punch in the face had NOT been one of them.

When Gandalf had arrived during the battle between the Riders of Rohan and the Uruk-Hai, Robin had never been more relieved in his life. Not only was the Wizard alive after his apparent death, but he had also come with word about the Fellowship. Of course there had been the short period of complete and total disbelief at seeing Gandalf, who had fallen into a bottomless cavern followed by a demon of fire. But as Robin liked to remind himself, if people like Superman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Green Arrow, and just about ever other member of the JLA, JSA, Titans and Outsiders could return from the dead, why couldn't the same be said for people in Middle-Earth?

'Real life is stranger than fiction…' Robin had thought to himself.

But the feeling of relief had quickly altered to concern and worry, when Gandalf informed him and Éomer about the current situation back in Edoras and Helms Deep. Of course, the Riders of Rohan quickly wrapped up their own situation and took off in order to add their aid their friends and family.

"Tim?" said Legolas, interrupting Tim's thoughts.

"Huh? What?"

Gimli gave good-natured groan. "See, I told ye he wasn't listening."

"Oh jeeze, sorry guys," Robin apologized. "My mind was elsewhere."

Both the elf and dwarf nodded, not needing an explanation. They had hoped their chatter would distract Tim from thinking about the… incident that occurred not long ago, despite how unlikely that would prove.

"Don't worry lad," Gimli said. "We'll tell ye our tale again when you're more attentive."

"Yes, I am certain that Gimli is surely looking for any excuse to tell how he beat my count of slain Uruk-Hai again," Legolas added dryly. A proud glint appeared in Gimli's eyes and Tim allowed himself a smile, only to wince at the pain of moving the muscle in his cheek.

"I really missed you guys."

"Gandalf! There you are!" cried Théoden's voice, interrupting everyone's conversations. They all turned to see the White Wizard with Batgirl in tow. "Where did you-?" The King stopped in mid-sentence as he saw Cassandra appear from behind Gandalf. A look from the Wizard told everyone to not worry.

Robin looked up at Batgirl who was obviously doing her best not to look at him. Her body was hidden completely by her cape, and her long black hair hid her face from his worried glance.

'Yeah, defiantly not the reunion I was expecting…' Tim thought to himself sarcastically. The Boy Wonder wished nothing more than to speak with Cassie, but unfortunately that would need to wait until later.

"Gandalf, how ever did you create such a forest around the Deep in such time?" Aragorn asked, finally breaking the silence.

Gandalf laughed long and merrily. "That is no deed of mine. It is a thing beyond the counsel of the wise. Better than my design, and better even than my hope the even has proven

"Then if it is not yours, whose is the Wizardry?" Théoden asked, for he also thought the Forest of Gandalf's doing. "Not Saruman's, that is plain. Is there some mightier age of whom we have not yet to learn?"

"It is not wizardry, but a power far older," replied Gandalf, 'A power that walked the earth, ere elf sang or hammer rang.'

'Ere iron was found or tree was hewn
When young was mountain under moon;
Ere ring was made, or wrought was woe,
It walked the Forrest long ago.'

Robin, Gimli and Legolas walked over to join the group. "And what's that supposed to mean?" the Boy Wonder asked, finally breaking his concerned gaze from Batgirl.

"If you would learn that, you should come with me to Isengard," answered the Wizard cryptically.

"To Isengard?" everyone said in unison.

"Yes," Gandalf said looking amused by everyone's reaction. "I shall return to Isengard, and those who ill may come with me. There we may see strange things."

"But there are not men enough in the Mark, not if they were all gathered together and healed of wounds and weariness, to assault the stronghold of Saruman, Théoden persisted, and from the looks on Éomer, Aragorn, Robin and the rest, they were in agreement with the King.

"I wish to speak with Saruman, as soon as may be now," replied Gandalf, "and since he has done you great injury, it would be fitting if you were there. But how soon and how swiftly will you ride?"

"My men are weary with battle," Théoden replied; "and I am weary also. For I have ridden far and slept little. Alas, my old age is not feigned nor due only to the whispering of Wormtongue. It is an ill that no leech can wholly cure, not even Gandalf."

The Wizard nodded. He was anxious to travel to Isengard, but the King spoke true and it would be unfair to force Théoden's men and his own friends into danger when they were so spent. "Then let all who are to ride with me rest now. We will journey under the shadow of evening. It is as well; for my counsel that all our comings and goings should be as secret as may be, henceforth. But do not command many men to go with you, Théoden. We go to a parley not a fight."

TO BE CONTINUED…