Fic Rec Fridays 2019 - part 9

Alone in This War (23695 words) by victoriousscarf
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Relationships: Dori/Thorin Oakenshield, Fíli/Ori
Characters: Dori, Nori (Tolkien), Ori (Tolkien), Thorin Oakenshield, Fíli, Kíli, Bombur, Bifur, Bofur, Glóin, Óin, Dwalin, Balin, Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, Thranduil, Bard of Laketown, Tauriel, Legolas Greenleaf
Additional Tags: Groundhog Day, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Execution, Battle of Five Armies, lots of death so much death, pretty much everyone dies at least once

Summary:

He went to sleep that night numb, Ori pressed against his back and Nori behind him, with the smell of death still around him and did not dream.

When he woke up the air was clear, the sky still dark and he was bedded down in armor he had not been wearing. Pushing himself up too abruptly, he rubbed a hand over his eyes and looked around at the guard tower in Erebor where they had bedded down and waited for war to come to them.

Thorin stood, framed against where the dawn was starting to appear, talking quietly to the raven and Dori could not breathe. His fingers were shaking against the cold stone and he could not catch his breath for Thorin stood alive in front of him, hair long and not matted down in blood, flesh and body whole.

(Groundhog Day AU in which Dori relives the Battle of Five Armies until he gets it right)

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So I came to this fic for the Fíli/Ori, and stayed for The Most Horrible Groundhog Day In My Reading History, and one of the best.

This is not an easy story, nor a pretty one. Because this is a fix-it with a price, and that is what makes it feel so compelling - and tangibly, viscerally awful. It’s a hooking story, though; the what-ifs and alternate scenarios are absolutely fascinating, and even darkly amusing at times, but I still wouldn’t recommend reading this in one sitting. There’s, after all, only so much pain you can take in one go without going numb. But buried in all the angst there’s enough hope (and love, of all shades) to keep you wanting reach the end, to keep wishing that maybe, just maybe, it will turn out mostly all right.

(It does. And doesn’t. But it’s enough.)

TL:DNR: one of those things that will break your heart and dance a jig on the pieces, then put it back together again. Sort of. It never feels quite the same again. A strange gem of terrible beauty.