YAY! This, my friends, is the replacement fic for those of you who read my old fic Real World. It's a crossover of LotR, PotC, and this world... with some minor Greek mythology thrown into the mixture. :)

A/N: This story begins before the Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean movies came out. So, to the characters herein, these stories are only in book-form. Thank you and enjoy... and R&R!

A/N (6/10/2012): I recently went through all of my fanfiction and deleted quite a large amount of my old stuff... some of it was just bad, and some of it just wasn't consistently good enough. It was a virtual spring-cleaning, of sorts. This fic, and its sequel, were definitely under consideration for deletion. There are tons of problems with it, I know - OOC character issues (Aragorn, I'm lookin' at you here), the occasional bit of unnecessary fluff, and drama-llama moments that could have been toned down a bit, among other things. But in the end, I still find both this story and To Another World entertaining enough to keep online, even in spite of the problems. They still make me laugh, and I hope they'll still manage to at least bring a smile to your face as well. Don't be afraid to laugh at the ridiculousness of it... I do, heartily. :P

Disclaimer: I own neither Lord of the Rings or Pirates of the Caribbean. (sigh)

Chapter One: Divine Intervention

It was a beautiful, cool autumn morning – the kind of morning that makes you want to run out and jump into a pile of red-orange leaves, regardless of the fact that they'd just been raked up. The wind was as fresh and crisp as a peppermint, and the falling autumn leaves made an artist's fingers twitch in longing for a paintbrush or a camera…

…And that was exactly what Robin's fingers were doing as she stared out the window of her bookstore, Lore. Though she loved her job and the books that lined the shelves of the Renaissance-styled shop, she loved her art more. Even the storage room of the small store was half-full of paintings she'd been working on lately, on days like today where the customers were few and far between.

She sighed and turned her emerald green eyes to the clock hanging on the wall. It was just past noon – time for lunch. "Erindi!" she called out.

Another young woman, just about Robin's age, poked her head out from behind one of the bookshelves. She had sun-streaked brown-blonde hair which reached just past her shoulders, honey-brown eyes, and slightly tanned skin. She was her best friend, and Robin couldn't remember a time when they hadn't been there for each other – and couldn't imagine a future without her. "What?"

"It's lunch time, and I need sustenance. I'm gonna go out for subs – watch the shop for me while I'm gone, okay?" As she spoke, Robin pulled her waist-length, strawberry-blonde hair back into a haphazard bun – not very fancy, but at least it kept it out of her way. She rarely left it down. "And don't scare the customers away with your Buckcherry CD," she added as she headed out the door. "This is a medieval-type store, remember? Play Enya or Loreena McKennit or something."

"I know, I know – just go already!" Erindi answered, rolling her eyes. She'd heard the lecture at least fifty times by now.

"And be helpful!" Robin added as the door closed behind her.

Erindi nodded and waved as Robin hopped onto her bike – she preferred them to cars whenever she had the option – and headed off to Subway. Once Robin was gone, Erindi reached over and turned on the CD player sitting on the main desk. She smiled a little as the sounds of sounds of Blackmore's Night filled the room. Grabbing a book from a nearby shelf, she sat down in the soft, rolling-chair behind the desk and started reading.

However, before she even got to Chapter Two, her reading was interrupted by the sound of… well, she wasn't sure what it was, exactly. It had been a thudding sort of noise, like something falling off a shelf. She glanced up, annoyed and expecting to see some idiot customer walking through the store. She frowned – there was no one in sight. Turning the music down a little, she took a quick tour of the shop – still no one.

Then, just as she was sitting back down at the desk, telling herself she was imagining things, she heard a new sound – two male voices, talking. And they sounded like they were in the back room.

Snatching a hardback Webster's dictionary from one of the shelves, Erindi quietly made her way over to the storage room door and placed her hand on the knob. Working up her courage, she took a deep breath and shoved the door open, bracing herself for whatever might happen. "FREEZE!"

When the two intruders turned around, however, they were not at all what she'd been expecting. The two men, who looked only a few years older than Erindi herself, were dressed strangely – one as if he'd just stepped out of a Renaissance faire, and the other as if he'd stolen the clothes off the animatronics at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The former man was the slightly taller of the two, with shoulder-length, stringy brown hair, a short beard, cloudy gray eyes, and skin toughened and weathered by (as she would soon find out) years of traveling in the wild. The other man had the strangest hair Erindi had ever seen – a mass of black dreadlocks, braids and colorful beads, topped off by a faded red bandana and an old tri-corner hat. His skin was more darkly tanned than the first man's, and his eyes were a deep, dark brown which glinted gold in the dim storage room light. Despite the current situation, Erindi couldn't help noticing how good-looking they were, even if they were as deranged as their clothes suggested.

Shaking herself from her momentary lapse, she held the dictionary up like a weapon and glared at them. "And just what the hell do you think you're doing back here!" she demanded.

The two men shared a wary glance. "We're not exactly sure at the moment, love," the second one finally said, raising an eyebrow at her. "But if you could be so kind as to tell us where we are…"

Erindi rolled her eyes at them. "As if you don't already know."

"If you could let us explain ourselves…" the first man began, stepping forward.

But as he moved, Erindi suddenly noticed the long scabbard hanging at his side, which led her to notice the very real pistol and cutlass that hung from the second man's belt… which led her to hurl the dictionary at them in a moment of panic and slam the door shut. She heard a muffled yelp and curse as she pulled the extra key Robin had given her and locked the room shut.

Her mind awhirl and her nerves on edge, Erindi paced back and forth beside the front desk, tapping her fingers nervously on the wooden tabletop as she tried to make sense of what was going on. She froze as she heard the sound of the front door opening, and closed her eyes. Heaven only knew what Robin would say when she found out.

Robin glanced at Erindi as she sat the Subway bag down on the desk. "Erindi? What's up?"

Erindi opened her eyes and bit her lip. "Well, you see…" Without meaning to, she glanced at the storage room door.

Robin followed her gaze and frowned. "What's going on?"

"Um…" Erindi winced as the two men on the other side of the door began arguing, their voices loud enough for both Erindi and Robin to hear clearly.

Robin jumped about a foot at the sound. "Who the hell is that!" she cried, racing over to the door.

"Wait! Robin!" Robin turned pale (which meant nearly white, considering she was already naturally very light-skinned) as she realized that the storage room door was locked. "I can explain!"

"Who'd you lock in there?" Robin demanded as she dug through her pockets for her keys. "Don't tell me it's a customer!"

"You idiot. Why would I lock a customer in the storage room? That's dumb!"

Robin shrugged as she pulled out the keys. "So are you. So then who are they?"

Erindi winced as Robin waited for her answer, the key inches from the lock. "I don't know. I heard a noise, and when I looked around, I found them snooping around in the back room."

Robin stared at her. "So you decided to lock them in there? That makes sense."

Erindi rolled her eyes and pulled Robin away from the door, making sure the intruders couldn't hear. "Robin… they have swords… and a gun. And they're dressed funny. I think they're a little crazy."

Robin frowned, and considered her words. "Well," she said at last, heading back over to the door. "We need to get them out of there sometime."

"Robin! Shouldn't we call the police or something first?"

Robin gave her a don't-be-silly look and unlocked the door. Erindi shook her head, annoyed, but went over to stand next to her friend anyway as she opened the door. They looked in to find the man with the hat sitting casually on the floor near the taller man, who was lying unconscious on the floor with a dictionary next to his head.

Erindi smiled a little, and Robin's frown deepened. "What happened here?"

The man with the hat answered before Erindi could. "Your little friend there threw a dictionary at him – knocked him out cold. Good shot, by the way," he added, tipping his hat to Erindi.

Robin, always the one to look on the bright side of things, laughed. "So," she said as the man stood to face them. "What do you think you're doing in my storage room?"

The man raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, as my associate here would've said earlier if he hadn't been attacked by a flying dictionary," – Erindi's grin widened a little – "we didn't know this was your storage room. Quite frankly, we didn't know it was a storage room at all. But I don't suppose you'll be kind enough to tell me where exactly we are?"

Despite the fact that he should've known the answer to his own question, Robin found herself answering anyway. "You're in the back room of my bookstore. And I must say I don't appreciate it at all. Why are you here?"

The stranger made a face. "That part's a bit complicated…" As he spoke, the unconscious man slowly sat up behind him, a hand held to his bruised forehead.

"I guess you didn't kill him after all," Robin commented, glancing at Erindi. Erindi shrugged in reply. Robin turned her attention back to the stringy-haired man. "You all right?"

Looking a bit bewildered and pained but otherwise all right, the man nodded, and slowly stood up. "I've had worse than this." He looked at Erindi, who was unnerved by how piercing his gaze was – like he could see right through her if he wanted to. "I'm sorry I frightened you. I didn't mean to."

Both Erindi and Robin looked taken aback. What kind of burglars apologized for frightening people after getting dictionaries chucked at them? "It's… er… all right?"

"Who are you?" Robin broke in, her curiosity getting the better of her.

The man with the black hair stepped forward. "The man you used for target practice is named Aragorn… and I am Captain Jack Sparrow." He smiled at them crookedly as he took Robin's hand and kissed it. He would've done the same for Erindi, but she stepped away from him before he could. Straightening once more, he noticed that both women were all but gaping at him, and his smile widened. "So you've heard of me, then?"

Robin and Erindi shared a glance. "You're a bloody liar," Robin finally said when she regained her ability to speak. "What're your real names?"

Jack and Aragorn frowned at each other. "Those are our real names," Aragorn replied slowly, trying to figure out why they didn't believe him and Jack.

"He's right," said a high-pitched voice from above, startling all four of them. They raised their heads, and their eyes lit what upon what – or who – was possibly the strangest sight of the day. Sitting on the top of the highest shelf of books, high above their heads, was what appeared to be a petite young woman… but this was no ordinary person. She had coffee-and-cream colored skin, purple-mountain's-majesty eyes, and lime-green hair. She wore a bright violet shirt and pants, and a green belt and boots. But the strangest part of all were the pale, shimmering pink wings that spread out behind her, each twice her arm's length. She smiled at them all cheerily, and waved a spring-green wand at them in greeting.

Erindi frowned. "Who the hell are you?"

The girl… fairy… thing… laughed a perky little laugh and alighted on the ground next to Erindi, smacking her over the head with her hand as she did so. "Eris, of course!"

Erindi glared at her as she rubbed the sore place on her head. "You mean like, the Greek goddess person?"

Eris nodded as she thwacked Erindi a second time. "Yep! I'm the goddess of chaos and discord!"

"Do you have to keep hitting me!" Erindi exclaimed, annoyed… which earned her another thwack.

"Wait… what did you say when you got here?" Robin asked, deciding for now to ignore the fact that she should be considering if she was going crazy.

"I said… he's right." She nodded towards Aragorn. "His name's Aragorn, and the other cutie is Jack." Jack looked a little irked at being called a "cutie", but said nothing. He'd met Eris once before, and he'd learned his lesson about talking to her.

Erindi and Robin looked at each other, then back up at Eris. "You mean… they're really… Aragorn Elessar… and Jack Sparrow?"

"Captain," Jack muttered, earning a thwack from Eris.

Eris smiled down at Robin. "Yep!"

Robin blinked. "But… why are they here?"

"I brought them here!" Eris explained.

Jack raised an eyebrow at Aragorn. "Sorry," Aragorn said to him. Robin and Erindi glanced at them, puzzled. Aragorn sighed. "About three years ago, Eris brought Jack here to Middle-Earth… but I didn't meet her till now… and I never really believed him when he said he was from another world." He looked at Jack again. "So, like I said… sorry."

Jack shrugged. "Didn't really make much of a difference anyway," was his only reply.

Erindi blinked. "Robin… I think we've lost it," she whispered to her friend.

Robin paused, and thought about it for all of two seconds. "Nah. My hallucinations are weirder than this any day of the week." Erindi stared at her but said nothing. "This is real."

"So just where are we then?" Jack cut in, annoyed with the whole thing. "This doesn't look like Middle-Earth to me."

"That's because it's not," Robin answered. "This is just Earth… your Earth… and it's the year 2000."

Jack blanched. "Well, guess they were wrong about the world ending after all, huh?"

Eris chuckled. "I guess so! Well, now that that's settled, it's time for me to be going now… bye!"

"WAIT!" Robin cried out. Eris looked down at her in surprise. "Why did you bring them here? And for how long?"

"They're here to cause chaos – and they stay as long as I feel like it!" Eris replied, thwacking Robin once more before vanishing in a puff of violet smoke.

For a few moments, no one spoke. At length, Robin broke the silence. "So… I guess you'll be staying with us then, since you're not from here."

"If it's not too much trouble," Aragorn agreed.

Robin shrugged. "No trouble at all. By the way, my name's Robin… and this is our world."